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Well, this is the first week in a long time that we didn't get any more snow. I think now that it has been awhile since it snowed, I am ready for it to be spring. I love the snow, and if it comes again, I won't complain, but it would be nice to warm up a bit and move on with the seasons. The forecast for this upcoming week looks awesome. We had to get our car fixed this morning, and they had the news on in the waiting room, so I saw the forecast. haha. It is supposed to be up near 50 all week, with close to 60 on friday. I'm excited. It'll be nice to not freeze while we are tracting.

So this week wasn't amazing. There is not a lot that happened so yeah. We had a Zone Conference on Wednesday which was really good. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and the role that it plays in making a lasting conversion to the gospel. It got me thinking of what I can do to improve my mission. It was good. I also got to meet the Elder that is from Cambodia. He's been out here for just under 5 weeks, and he is hilarious. He's a small guy - -about 5 feet tall, and has a classic Cambodian personality. He laughs at everything. It's way funny. His name is Elder Ang. He obviously speaks Cambodian, and his English is pretty good too. I'm excited to get to know him. He also knows all of the Elder's that were in my MTC district, so that's cool. He said that there is another Elder coming out from Cambodia soon too. I talked to one of the APs and he confirmed that, so sometime within the next 3 months, we will have 2 native Cambodian Elders, which is awesome.

So besides the Zone Conference, the only other notable thing I can think of to mention is one of our investigators named Jessica. We have taught her a few times, and each time we have talked about the Book of Mormon and how she can gain a testimony of it. When we first met her, she didn't accept a baptismal date, but after the second time we met with her and talked more about it, she accepted one for March 20th. She said that it is something she needs to really study and think and pray about, which makes it very frustrating when we go over and she hasn't read. We read the chapter with her that she didn't read, and then talked about it - she is very sincere when we are over at her house, but I think she gets busy when we're gone and doesn't think about it much. And she didn't come to church, even though we had a ride set up for her. That was disappointing. for the 3rd week in a row, we haven't had anyone at church, which is SO frustrating. It makes me so upset. But on the other hand, Aaron Kelly received the Priesthood and was ordained a Deacon, so that kinda cancelled out the sadness I was feeling. That was awesome. I love Aaron. He's the man. Have I mentioned how ridiculously good he is at basketball? Cause he's ridiculously good at basketball.

Well, that's it for this week, I think. Mom, I've never heard of that person in Taiwan, so I'm assuming that they know E. Gluch, and just wanted to add me, so it's cool if you allow that. And also, next week is transfer week, so I'll be emailing on Wednesday. this is my last full week with E. Winslow! He goes home next Friday. That's weird. He was only at 14 months when I got here.. weird. So yeah, I'll have a new comp in a couple weeks. ok, well I hope you all have a great week. Happy Valentines Day! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Hammer

Another Snowy Week!

Ah, well I'm glad my email from last week finally made it to you. Since then, we've gotten another storm. You probably heard about this one on the news, cause apparently it affected something like 29 states and 100,000,000 people. That's a lot. Yeah, we got roughly another foot of snow (which brings the grand total so far this winter up to about 6 1/2 feet! - the snowiest winter since the 60's, or so we're told), and then it rained all day the day after it snowed, so it was a mess! We were stuck inside for 2 days, because the driving conditions were so bad. Good news is that it's supposed to snow again tomorrow and thursday, and it will be a "significant" storm, whatever that means. haha. But thanks to that, we didn't have such a great week as last. Our numbers were way lower, and we still didn't have anyone at church. I never thought I could get as disappointed as I do when I don't see any of our investigators at church. It makes me so sad, because I know that it is one of the biggest helps with their conversion.

So in looking at the notes I have here for what I wanted to say this week, it looks like I've covered everything already. haha. Not a lot happened this week. Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of my first Sunday in the MTC, which also means that it was Super Bowl Sunday. Congrats to the Packers, although I would've rather had the Steelers, but whatever. I really don't care. Oh yeah, I've been anticipating receiving a letter from Dax all week and it hasn't come yet, but thanks to Kurtis' email, I am not guessing where he's going anymore...But that's ok, I still want to hear it from Dax. I'm so excited to see him out here! :)

So I had an idea for getting that dictionary. I thought that Justin could see if Scott Monson could get it somehow, since he works in the MTC. Just an idea, don't know if it will work. The price tag from the MTC on my comp's copy is like 17 bucks, so I don't know how pricey they are on Amazon, but in the MTC, it's probably cheaper.

I only have 3 more random things for this week. 1- Happy Birthday tomorrow, Kadin. Your present from me is a letter from you. haha. 2- My debit card expires next month, and 3- Every sub at Subway is $5 the whole month of February! We've already eaten there like 4 times. haha. Chicken bacon ranch is a great choice, by the way. ;)

Ok well, I hope you all have a great week. Tell David that I better find out where he's going soon, or I'll be angry at him. Love you all!


Love,
Elder Hammer

Great Week!

Okey dokey. How is everyone? I'm doing wonderful. No complaints this week. haha. So I thought it was funny last week how I said that I didn't expect mail from anyone because I got Grandma's package, mom's letter, and a letter from Nate so that was funny. Also ironic from last week when I said we weren't teaching as much as I'd like- this week was the best week as far as teaching goes that I've had so far in the mission. Maybe I should complain more often in my emails. haha. just kidding. But yes, this week was a good one. We taught a lot and extended a lot of baptismal dates. Not all of them were accepted, but one was so that's good. I don't think there are any amazing stories from lessons we had this week, just the overall good week is a good enough story, I think. There were some cool things that happened this week, however. The first one being that it snowed again. This time it was about 13 inches, I think. haha. I don't know if every winter snows this much, but it feels like we just keep getting pounded and pounded, and I love it. It makes for really awful parking situations, though. The broken mirror on our car would be evidence of that. Someone must have nailed our mirror as they drove by, and luckily the mirror is still good, but the back shell came off and was broken in pieces. We have to get that fixed. But the snow piles are about 5 to 6 feet tall on average, and there is really nowhere else to put it so the roads just keep getting narrower and narrower. And, we've heard that it's supposed to snow again this week, but we've heard like 4 different forecasts for when it's coming so I'm not sure when it'll hit or how much it will bring. But, I'm all for it to keep coming. I think it's awesome!

Another cool thing that happened this week was the blood drive we helped out with. It was easily one of the most tiring days of my mission so far, partly because we had to wake up at 5 to get to the TD Garden (which is where the Celtics and Bruins ((the hockey team)) play) by 7:00. The Red Cross does blood drives all the time, but every year, the 3 biggest ones are at Fenway Park(Red Sox), Gillette Stadium (Patriots), and TD Garden, and the missionaries help out with all 3 of those. Well, we got to the arena and got our assignments for what we would be helping with. I was in charge of getting empty packs to the nurses, taking the full packs to the storage area, and walking the donors to the snack room. It was pretty fun. A pack is the thing that the blood goes into, so I got to carry around a bunch of peoples' blood. haha. We volunteered for about 3 hours, and then we got to go upstairs to where they had a bunch of cool activities and stuff set up. We got a tour of the Celtics' and Bruins ' locker rooms. That was tight. I saw jerseys from Garnett, Rondo, Allen, Pierce, Shaq, and all those other guys on the team! Then, we got to go to the courtside club seats and we got a bunch of candy and stuff. One of the players from the Celtics was giving autographs too...Betcha can't guess which one. No, really, you've probably never heard of him. haha. His name is Dana Barros. ? But, whatever. He has a championship ring, so that's cool. I got a picture with him and the championship trophy. Nice. We also got these way cool volunteer t shirts. So overall, it was a really good time. I also got an autograph from some dude who used to play for the Bruins, I think. He might be a coach or former player, but I don't know. And after we got home, we had just enough time to eat lunch before going to 5 appointments, so by the end of the day, I was ridiculously tired. I was so happy to go to bed that night. haha.

One last cool bit of info for you, that we actually just found out about an hour ago. As of July 1, 2011, the Massachusetts Boston Mission and the Connecticut Hartford Mission are combining! Crazy! We were all so surprised when we got the announcement. It will still be the Massachusetts Boston Mission, so that's good, but we will have a way bigger mission, and way more missionaries, and it will be completely different. I'm excited for it to happen though, that will be way cool.

I was so stoked to hear that BYU beat SDSU too! too bad they had to lose their next game though. What is BYU ranked, by the way? Great to hear that Jimmer is still going crazy. that's great.

Also, congrats to Dax on the mission call. I am hoping that from dad's hints that he's coming here, but I guess I'll have to wait to hear from him. I'd go crazy if he comes here. That would be so tight! Then David can come here too, and it will just be awesome. haha. Tell David he'd better write me when he gets his call. That's one thing I am expecting. Any news on Jared Bodine's call? Or anyone else I might know?

Ok, well, I'm all out of stuff to say for this week. I told you all I'd follow up with you on the challenge from last week, and I haven't heard back from anyone about that, so I am hoping that you're all just still working on it and will let me know when something cool happens.
Alrighty then, I hope you all have a marvelous week. Love you all!

Love,
Elder Hammer

PS Oh yeah, and as of January 27th, I officially have less than a year left... Where does the time go?