Winter Wonderland

How's it going? Sorry for the way late email. It was transfer week so we weren't able to email until Wednesday, but then we had another huge snowstorm so everything shut down yesterday so we couldn't email. It was such a cool storm! We heard about a week ago that it was supposed to be about 2 inches, but over the course of the week, the predictions started growing and growing. The final forecast we heard from a member was that it was supposed to start around midnight, and we were going to get about 2 inches then, and then in the morning, it was supposed to be about a foot more. Well, I guess it must have started around midnight, but it didn't quite go as forecasted. We woke up to about 8 inches. We got out and shoveled it all, while it was still dumping. A few hours later, we shoveled about 8 more inches! It was snowing literally ALL day long. It was awesome. Except for the fact that when it snows a ton, we can't go anywhere, so I felt completely worthless yesterday. Luckily it was already Pday, so we didn't have any plans for anything. We ended up just playing games with our neighbor kids for a long time. Around 6 pm, we did one last shovel of about 4 more inches. It was a pretty big storm! I must say, I enjoyed it alot. I wasn't sick this time either so I could actually go help shovel and throw a few snowballs. haha. I don't know when the next storm is coming, but I hope it's soon and I hope it's big. I love the snow. By the way, those inch amounts are not official, that's just what I'm saying it is. haha.

Well, as I said earlier, it was transfer week. I received a call from President asking if I would be willing to serve as a Zone Leader in the Cape Cod area. Well, I guess if that's what he wants, I'll do it. I'm pretty bummed to be leaving this area though. We were doing so well, and I was loving it so much. I guess it'll be fun to be a ZL though....JUST KIDDING!! (Hope you catch the joke this time..haha) I'm still in Lynn, I'm still with E. Winslow, and I'm stoked. I love this area a lot. The 2 other Elders we live with are staying too, so that makes 3 transfers with us 4. That doesn't happen very often. But, I'm excited to see what will happen this upcoming transfer. It's weird to think that this will be transfer # 6 with E. Winslow. That's a long time to be with someone. But, he's cool so it's all good. Next transfer I have a guaranteed new companion though cause this is E. Winslow's last one. Crazy. He was at 14 months when I got here. wow.

So as for the rest of the week, it was another good one. Suman, our Buddhist monk friend, came to church on Sunday. He was wearing a brown trenchcoat over his bright orange robes, so he didn't stick out as much as I thought he would. He really enjoyed his time at church too. We have started over the Gospel Principles book, so the lesson was on Our Heavenly Family. He said that he thought it was very interesting and that he wants to learn more. We've extended a dated for his baptism about 4 times, but he won't commit to a date. He says that he just wants to learn more before he commits. We still aren't sure if he understands that if he gets baptized, he will have to give up Buddhism, but I'm sure we'll talk about that soon. He is in New Jersey for a week or two, so it'll be awhile before he comes to church again or we are able to meet with him. He's our only solid investigator right now too. We have so many potentials, it's just so hard to get back in contact with them. But we are still finding success, as little as it is.

We found some of that success with a man named Artur Lilejko. He was another referral we received on our phone (which, by the way, we lost this week. ugh. Missionary work is hard without a phone. I don't know how they used to do it.) He lives in East Boston, and we were in the neighborhood, so we tried visiting him. Turns out that he doesn't speak English. Or Cambodian. His friend referred him because he thought that we could teach him english. He is from Belarus, and speaks Russian, Belrussian, and Polish, with a tiny bit of english. We've met with him a couple of times and we are going to try to teach him, but it's definitely not easy. haha. We have to speak really slow and articulate very well. It's fun though, and we are teaching him the gospel at the same time. We are taking a "How did our MTC teachers teach us?" approach. I like it. haha. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Another guy we met is named Junior. We tracted into him awhile ago and it took us awhile to get back in touch with him. But we did and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. He had a bunch of random misconceptions about it and about our church in general, one of which was that we believe that when we die and go to heaven, we receive x amount of virgins based on our good works. I think he might have been a bit confused. haha. After we cleared some stuff up, he was pretty interested. We extended a baptismal date but he said he had college. ? I didn't quite understand what he meant, but he didn't accept the date. But he's another one we are teaching at the moment. Other that that, we don't really have anyone currently.

Well, I guess it's that time for just random stuff that pops into my head while I type. I thought of another thing you could get me for my birthday. It's a game called Munchkin, but it's the Steeds expansion pack. I already have the game, I just want the expansion. I'm not sure where you could get it, but if you find it and it's not too expensive, that would be cool. Definitely not essential though, so you don't need to worry about it too much. Or you could just send me money and I could decide what I want to spend it on. A couple cool announcements we received last week: If we don't abuse our phones this month, we could possibly get texting on our phones starting next month. That would make things so much easier. I don't know if losing your phone is considered abuse though. I guess we'll find out. haha. Another announcement is that on Feb. 26, we are being visited by a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. We don't know who yet, but that's exciting. Umm, what else can I say. Good job getting phones. That's cool. What kind did you all get? And for Justin - That's SO awesome that you made Synthesis! Congrats for that, big time! Ok, well I'm all out of stuff for now. I'll be emailing again in like 4 days, so hopefully I'll have some good stuff for that. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week. Love you all!

Love,
Elder Hammer