Well, this week was one of the more interesting and eventful weeks of my mission. It all started about Tuesday... E. Foust and I were at a dinner appointment, which is also where we do our laundry. After the appointment, we were duscussing what was going to happen because we knew that the new cambodian Elders were coming in on Wednesday, and we assumed that one would come to Lynn, and one would go to Lowell. Well, we came to the conclusion that we would be in a threesome until transfers in 2 weeks, like what always happens when the new ones get here. Well, about 8:30 Tuesday night, we got a call from the AP's. I was assuming it was to let us know that we would be getting a new Elder, and let me know I'd be a trainer. That didn't happen. They called and asked to talk to E. Foust, so I was confused. They told him to pack his bags and that they'd be here to pick him up Wednesday morning. Yeah. We were both really confused about what was happening. They said that the new Elders would be here around 6 so I'd be in a threesome with the ZL's until then. The really weird thing is that E. Foust got transferred into a threesome. Why we didn't just stay together for 2 more weeks, I don't know, but whatever. It made things interesting. So, I was with the ZL's for a day until my son got here.
His name is E. Greer. He's currently from Minnesota, but his family moves around a lot, so he's from lots of other places. He is a really nice guy, and he has very little "greenie-ness". As soon as he got here, we had a dinner appointment, so we talked a little bit there, and right after that, we had an appointment with an investigator. I was thinking that I would be teaching most of the lesson, but he helped out a lot more than I was expecting. It was cool. His Cambodian is alright... He has lots of room to improve, but that's obvious. We set some good goals to help each other out, and to work more with the Cambodian people, because we haven't done that very much with my previous companions. We've also been talking to each other in Cambodian a lot more than with previous companions as well. So it's going really great. I am enjoying it a lot. I had heard from other missionaries that training is hard, but I honestly think it's way easier than having a comp who's been out for awhile already. Mostly because trainers are the ones who get to help the new missionaries learn what to do, establish work habits, and set the tone for the rest of their mission. I love it.
So that's the big news for the week. Jessica is still having some troubles. She's still trying to quit smoking, and it is very stressful for her. She didn't come to church yesterday, so that's super lame. We met with her lastnight and had a really good lesson with her about what she needs to do in order to get baptized. She knows it is right, and she wants to be part of the church, she just has to change a few things first. We set a new baptismal date with her for April 24. I know she'll be ready by then, she just has to realize that herself. But things are going better with her, so that's good.
We also had 3 less actives at church yesterday. One of them I've been working with since I got here last April! He was finally there, and he loved it. I am really hoping he will come back every week now. The other 2 we've only been working with for about a month, but they had a good time too. It was really good to see those less actives there. Hard work pays off.
Ok then, I think that's about it. No, I haven't gotten any letters from the ward yet. Maybe they'll come today. Oh yeah, and I am totally stoked out of my mind for Conference this weekend!! Wahoo! I can't wait for it. It's going to be so good.
Well, I hope, like I do every week, to hear from more of you. Have a great week. Pday's on Wed. next week, by the way, so yeah. Ok bye. Love you all!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S I heard BYU lost to Florida in overtime again... that's lame. I don't like Florida.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Happy Spring!
Well, hello. This week was one of those that I wish hadn't really happened. Not a lot of good news for this week, so it will probably be pretty short. We'll start with Jessica. Actually, since we aren't teaching anyone else right now, that's all I'll talk about. Let's just say that after last week, I was sure she was going to get baptized this weekend like she was scheduled. Well, that's not happening. We met with her Saturday night, and she told us that she thinks we are pushing her too hard towards her baptismal date (that she chose, not us) and that she just isn't ready and wants to take it a lot slower. Definitely one of the more disappointing appointments I've had on my mission thus far. I was so sad and frustrated. She was doing so good, I don't know what it is that she feels we are pushing her too hard to do. She quit smoking, she is living the law of chastity, she's reading the Book of Mormon, she was coming to church (she didn't yesterday...) I just don't know what we can do for her. But, I am hoping that it is just stress from going from 3 packs of cigarettes a day to none and that's why she's acting the way she is. If it's not that, then I have no idea what it is. So I have been and will continue to do some hardcore praying and hopefully we'll be able to figure something out with her.
So that's about it. We did a bit of tracting and handed out a lot of Books of Mormon, so we have a bunch of potentials, we just need to get in with them, and then things will start to take off and be better. And just for the record, I'm not discouraged, just frustrated. I haven't found anything so far that can get me discouraged, but there are plenty of frustrations. haha. Well, I hope you all have a good week. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you next week, I guess since the only email I got today was from Becca, but I'm not complaining about that :) Ok Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hammer
So that's about it. We did a bit of tracting and handed out a lot of Books of Mormon, so we have a bunch of potentials, we just need to get in with them, and then things will start to take off and be better. And just for the record, I'm not discouraged, just frustrated. I haven't found anything so far that can get me discouraged, but there are plenty of frustrations. haha. Well, I hope you all have a good week. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you next week, I guess since the only email I got today was from Becca, but I'm not complaining about that :) Ok Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Alright Week
So guess what? Jessica came to church again yesterday, and she said that she's sticking to her baptismal date of the 26th. We had to move it back a week so she would feel more comfortable. But, she's doing great. She is really trying to follow the things that we are teaching her. She's told us that it is really hard, but she's trying and we are helping her know that things will be better as she continues along. This week, we taught her the Plan of Salvation, the Law of Chastity, and the Word of Wisdom, and she is following both of those very well. She quit smoking and drinking and those were really her only 2 problems with that. So it's going good. I can definitely see the change that is happening in her. She is so sincere about everything and is just a great person in general. Now we need to help her understand how the Atonement can completely lift those guilty, "this is hard" feelings she has inside. Oh yeah, and she has a 4 year old son who is the bomb too. His name is Felix, and yesterday at church, he said the closing prayer in primary! He's so cool.
And for the second week in a row, I don't really have much else to say. We have been doing a lot of finding, since Jessica is the only one we are currently teaching consistently, but not much is happening from that yet. Ok, here's a story for you. On Saturday, we were tracting, and we were finishing up a street before going to eat lunch. At the last house on the street, this old lady came to the door and after looking at us for approximately .8 seconds, she said "I'm Catholic" and shut the door. But, as she was shutting the door, I said "That's great!" She opened the door and said "what?" Then I said "That's great" again and couldn't really think of anything else to say, but apparently that was enough for her, cause she opened the door, and proceeded to tell us her life story. It took about 47 minutes, and it was actually pretty interesting. haha. She said she wants to write a book about herself. So yeah, that was cool. She also took a copy of the Book of Mormon, and Plan of Salvation pamphlet, a Restoration pamphlet, and a passalong card with our number on it, but told us she's not interested. haha. We'll see..
Okey dokey then. I don't have anything else to say other than I haven't heard much about the MWC or NCAA tourney so that would be nice to hear. Ok, well have a great week, all of you. Love ya!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
And for the second week in a row, I don't really have much else to say. We have been doing a lot of finding, since Jessica is the only one we are currently teaching consistently, but not much is happening from that yet. Ok, here's a story for you. On Saturday, we were tracting, and we were finishing up a street before going to eat lunch. At the last house on the street, this old lady came to the door and after looking at us for approximately .8 seconds, she said "I'm Catholic" and shut the door. But, as she was shutting the door, I said "That's great!" She opened the door and said "what?" Then I said "That's great" again and couldn't really think of anything else to say, but apparently that was enough for her, cause she opened the door, and proceeded to tell us her life story. It took about 47 minutes, and it was actually pretty interesting. haha. She said she wants to write a book about herself. So yeah, that was cool. She also took a copy of the Book of Mormon, and Plan of Salvation pamphlet, a Restoration pamphlet, and a passalong card with our number on it, but told us she's not interested. haha. We'll see..
Okey dokey then. I don't have anything else to say other than I haven't heard much about the MWC or NCAA tourney so that would be nice to hear. Ok, well have a great week, all of you. Love ya!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Thursday, March 10, 2011
I Think Spring is Coming...
Well, hello again. This week was pretty good. We FINALLY got one of our investigators to come to church this week. I almost didn't know what to do, it had been such a long time since we had someone there. But, it was great. That's basically the highlight of the week, so sorry if I don't mention too much else. So, We met with her a few times this week, with members from our ward, so that she would have some friends when she got to church. We had planned on meeting with her Saturday night, but she had to cancel, so I was worried that she would wimp out on church again too, but she called and said that she still wanted a ride and that she would be ready when they came to pick her up. So, I was really excited when we got to church. When she walked in, I was even more excited. She was talking to a lot of people so that's always good. She brought her 4 year old son too, and he had a blast too. But, it seemed that EVERY single person that bore their testimony said something that was exactly what she needed to hear. It was incredible. She has a big issue with Joseph Smith and the whole polygamy thing, and it is really the only thing holding her back right now, but we challenged her to pray specifically about him, and I hope she recognized all of the answers that came yesterday. Not only during sacrament meeting, but sunday school was perfect too. We talked about the scriptures, and she brought up her questions about that, and it was all really awesome. And then after church, one of the Sister missionaries in our ward told me that the lesson in Relief Society was on how to gain your own testimony, and they talked a lot about Joseph Smith there too. So all 3 hours of church were just perfect for her. It really strengthened my testimony of fasting too, cause I was fasting for her to have a good experience, and I would say she definitely did. It was awesome.
So like I said earlier, that was the highlight of the week, so I don't really have much else to say. I could give youan update on my companion. He's cool. We have had a few talks and it was basically that the missionaries in his other areas were not very obedient, so that rubbed off on him, but he wants to be obedient, so we set some goals and are working together to help each other out. It's going pretty well. So that's cool.
Ummm well, I guess I'll wrap up. Good luck with surgery tomorrow, Dad. Kadin, sorry for neglecting you last week. I don't care if you start a level on Zelda. And, it sounds like there is lots of interesting news that's been happening. Some good, some not. And thanks to Marky-mark for the great letter. Good to hear from you, man. (he is a friend from when I worked at VLCM, by the way) Oh yeah, and the weather has been awesome the last couple of days. up around 60 with a slight breeze, and mostly cloudy. It's nice. I am so excited for spring to get here. Well, that's it so I'll go now. Have a great week. Hope to hear from you ALL again sometime soon. Love ya! peace
Love,
Elder Hammer
So like I said earlier, that was the highlight of the week, so I don't really have much else to say. I could give youan update on my companion. He's cool. We have had a few talks and it was basically that the missionaries in his other areas were not very obedient, so that rubbed off on him, but he wants to be obedient, so we set some goals and are working together to help each other out. It's going pretty well. So that's cool.
Ummm well, I guess I'll wrap up. Good luck with surgery tomorrow, Dad. Kadin, sorry for neglecting you last week. I don't care if you start a level on Zelda. And, it sounds like there is lots of interesting news that's been happening. Some good, some not. And thanks to Marky-mark for the great letter. Good to hear from you, man. (he is a friend from when I worked at VLCM, by the way) Oh yeah, and the weather has been awesome the last couple of days. up around 60 with a slight breeze, and mostly cloudy. It's nice. I am so excited for spring to get here. Well, that's it so I'll go now. Have a great week. Hope to hear from you ALL again sometime soon. Love ya! peace
Love,
Elder Hammer
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
A Little Taste of General Conference
'Sup? This week was pretty awesome. There isn't really a whole lot to tell about our investigators- we taught most of them really great lessons, and none of them came to church. Lame, frustrating, disappointing. yeah. But, as frustrating as it can be, people have their agency and there's not much I can do about it. So that's it with our investigators. Hopefully there will be more to report on next week.
So, I also have a new companion. Exciting, huh? His name is E. Foust, he's from Wyoming. He's been out 6 months. He's interesting. I don't think he likes me very much, but I'm not sure just yet. He doesn't talk a lot, when we are at home, or when we are teaching. We'll have to work on that. But from what I can tell so far, he will be the toughest companion I've had so far. I've already had to discuss with him some of the things he shouldn't be doing. Well, I guess it wasn't much of a discussion, cause he really doesn't talk a lot, so he didn't say anything. But, rather than letting it be my "I had this one companion that I just couldn't get along with" experience, I'm going to make it my "I had this one companion who allowed me to learn patience and charity, and now we're friends" experience. If he doesn't like me, that's up to him, but I'm going to do everything I can to grow to love him. There's a good chance he will only be here with me for 1 transfer too, cause currently there are only 4 cambodian Elders in the mission, and we have 2 new ones coming out in about a month, so I will be training one of them, and E. Foust will get moved. I'm almost positive that's what will happen cause that's what President told me would happen. But you never know for sure.
Well, I bet you are wondering about my subject line this week. You probably assume it's because I told you last week that we were going to be visited by Elder Christofferson. Well, yes, that is part of it... Not only was it Elder Christofferson, it was also... Elder Eyring. Not President Eyring, but Elder Eyring, who is the area 70 out here. He's President Eyring's son. But wait! there's more... Elder Claudio R. M. Costa from the Presidency of the 70.....AND.....Bishop H. David Burton, the Presiding Bishop of the Church!!! 4 General Authorities! It was incredible. President Evans told us that it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to have that grouping of general authorities come to visit us. And then Elder Christofferson told us the same thing. He said that they get paired up every once in a while, but it is very rare that it is that kind of grouping. Needless to say, it was amazing.
Elder Eyring spoke first, and it was really good. He told a few stories of himself and applied them to us. Then it was Bishop Burton. He is such a funny man. He told us some neat facts about himself. He served his mission in Australia, and was the last missionary that traveled to that mission by ship. It took 27 days. But he talked to us about some scriptures from D & C and some other stuff too.
Then was Elder Costa. He told us about his conversion story. His parents both joined the Church, but he wanted nothing to do with it. The missionaries were at his house a lot cause his dad was the ward mission leader. One day, they had a lesson with one of their investigators at his house, and Elder Costa left the room. He was in his room, with the door cracked open just a little bit. He left to hang out with some of his friends, but the stuff he had heard the missionaries teach was ringing in his head, so he decided not to go with them. He went home, and decided that he needed to find out if it was true. He told us that he read Joseph Smith History, and after every paragraph, he prayed to know if it was true. It took him 14 hours, but when he finished, he knew it was true. He went to the missionaries' house and waited for them to come home, and told them he needed to be baptized that day. After some counseling with the leaders of the mission, and within 3 days, he was taught everything, interviewed, and baptized. He had never even been to church. Ever! So that was a cool experience.
After Elder Costa was Elder Christofferson. Rather than giving us a talk, he just opened it up for questions. It was awesome. All of the questions were really good, and he would give the other general authorities opportunities to answer the questions too. I can't really describe how awesome it was. It was incredible. I really look up to those men so much. Elder Christofferson didn't give a talk cause the questions took the whole time, but he did give us an Apostolic Blessing that was very special. I felt the Spirit stronger during that meeting than I have in a long time. Then after the meeting, we did a mission picture with the whole mission and all 4 of the general authorities joined us for the picture. That is going to be a cool thing to have. I don't know if they will give us all copies or if they will email it to you, or what, but I'm excited to see it. So yeah, I learned a ton of stuff that is going to help me out a lot. It was great.
So that's about it for this week, I think. Mom, in your letter, you mentioned something about the Judd's going to Africa? I hadn't heard that yet. That's pretty exciting though. I also got David's letter. Recife, Brazil, huh? That's tight! Tell him I'm excited for him.
Oh yeah, it snowed again this week. about 5 more inches, but it's been raining for like 2 days now, so it's gone. cool stuff. Ok, well I hope you all have a great week. Wish I could hear from more of you consistently than just Mom....But I still love you. Bye!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. Happy Birthday Mom! I didn't forget, I just wanted to put it down here. Don't remember how old you are... sorry. haha. Love you!
So, I also have a new companion. Exciting, huh? His name is E. Foust, he's from Wyoming. He's been out 6 months. He's interesting. I don't think he likes me very much, but I'm not sure just yet. He doesn't talk a lot, when we are at home, or when we are teaching. We'll have to work on that. But from what I can tell so far, he will be the toughest companion I've had so far. I've already had to discuss with him some of the things he shouldn't be doing. Well, I guess it wasn't much of a discussion, cause he really doesn't talk a lot, so he didn't say anything. But, rather than letting it be my "I had this one companion that I just couldn't get along with" experience, I'm going to make it my "I had this one companion who allowed me to learn patience and charity, and now we're friends" experience. If he doesn't like me, that's up to him, but I'm going to do everything I can to grow to love him. There's a good chance he will only be here with me for 1 transfer too, cause currently there are only 4 cambodian Elders in the mission, and we have 2 new ones coming out in about a month, so I will be training one of them, and E. Foust will get moved. I'm almost positive that's what will happen cause that's what President told me would happen. But you never know for sure.
Well, I bet you are wondering about my subject line this week. You probably assume it's because I told you last week that we were going to be visited by Elder Christofferson. Well, yes, that is part of it... Not only was it Elder Christofferson, it was also... Elder Eyring. Not President Eyring, but Elder Eyring, who is the area 70 out here. He's President Eyring's son. But wait! there's more... Elder Claudio R. M. Costa from the Presidency of the 70.....AND.....Bishop H. David Burton, the Presiding Bishop of the Church!!! 4 General Authorities! It was incredible. President Evans told us that it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to have that grouping of general authorities come to visit us. And then Elder Christofferson told us the same thing. He said that they get paired up every once in a while, but it is very rare that it is that kind of grouping. Needless to say, it was amazing.
Elder Eyring spoke first, and it was really good. He told a few stories of himself and applied them to us. Then it was Bishop Burton. He is such a funny man. He told us some neat facts about himself. He served his mission in Australia, and was the last missionary that traveled to that mission by ship. It took 27 days. But he talked to us about some scriptures from D & C and some other stuff too.
Then was Elder Costa. He told us about his conversion story. His parents both joined the Church, but he wanted nothing to do with it. The missionaries were at his house a lot cause his dad was the ward mission leader. One day, they had a lesson with one of their investigators at his house, and Elder Costa left the room. He was in his room, with the door cracked open just a little bit. He left to hang out with some of his friends, but the stuff he had heard the missionaries teach was ringing in his head, so he decided not to go with them. He went home, and decided that he needed to find out if it was true. He told us that he read Joseph Smith History, and after every paragraph, he prayed to know if it was true. It took him 14 hours, but when he finished, he knew it was true. He went to the missionaries' house and waited for them to come home, and told them he needed to be baptized that day. After some counseling with the leaders of the mission, and within 3 days, he was taught everything, interviewed, and baptized. He had never even been to church. Ever! So that was a cool experience.
After Elder Costa was Elder Christofferson. Rather than giving us a talk, he just opened it up for questions. It was awesome. All of the questions were really good, and he would give the other general authorities opportunities to answer the questions too. I can't really describe how awesome it was. It was incredible. I really look up to those men so much. Elder Christofferson didn't give a talk cause the questions took the whole time, but he did give us an Apostolic Blessing that was very special. I felt the Spirit stronger during that meeting than I have in a long time. Then after the meeting, we did a mission picture with the whole mission and all 4 of the general authorities joined us for the picture. That is going to be a cool thing to have. I don't know if they will give us all copies or if they will email it to you, or what, but I'm excited to see it. So yeah, I learned a ton of stuff that is going to help me out a lot. It was great.
So that's about it for this week, I think. Mom, in your letter, you mentioned something about the Judd's going to Africa? I hadn't heard that yet. That's pretty exciting though. I also got David's letter. Recife, Brazil, huh? That's tight! Tell him I'm excited for him.
Oh yeah, it snowed again this week. about 5 more inches, but it's been raining for like 2 days now, so it's gone. cool stuff. Ok, well I hope you all have a great week. Wish I could hear from more of you consistently than just Mom....But I still love you. Bye!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. Happy Birthday Mom! I didn't forget, I just wanted to put it down here. Don't remember how old you are... sorry. haha. Love you!
Jimmermania!
Well hello again. It's been awhile. This week has been quite the awesome one. Lots of stuff happened, and for the most part, it was really good stuff. Our investigator pool has potential to blast off this upcoming week, due to the finding we did this week. We have 2 potential families of 6 and 8 people, plus a group of 4 guys we met who are with each other all the time, and the usual single person here and there. Needless to say, this week was great, and next week shouldn't be too bad either. The first family is from Nigeria, and came as a referral from the Zone Leaders we live with. We went by with one of our members who we've been taking out a ton lately, cause he's old, unemployed, does nothing else all day, and likes to come out with us. He was with us 6 of 7 days last week. haha. But, it was our first visit, and they let us in, which is always a good sign. Like I said, they are from Nigeria, and apparently are interested in the Church. They accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we taught them about half of the 1st lesson. We were running out of time before our next appointment, so we ended the lesson by extending a baptismal date. Unfortunately, the phone rang 2 times while we were extending it so they weren't as focused as we would have liked, and they ended up not accepting it right away. We tried to set up a return appointment, but they are going out of town all this week so we have to call them later. But, they were all super nice, and seemed very interested, so I'm excited.
The next family came from good old tracting. We first knocked on their door, and the father said to come back on a different day. Well, we went back on the day that he said, and he let us in. He didn't know we wanted to teach his whole family, so we only taught him, but he said that next time we go over, he'll have the whole family there, which is awesome! We ended up teaching him all of lesson 1 and extended a date to him as well, but he said he had to talk to his wife and let us know from there. We didn't set a return appointment with him either, cause his wife is going out of town, so he didn't know when the whole family would be available. His family is from Libera (?) in Africa, and they are super nice too. One thing I've learned on my mission is that it seems that everyone is really nice to us, except Americans. haha. Just a random thought I had.
The group of 4 guys came as a referral on our phone requesting a Bible. We went over to the address, and they let us in too! It was a week of us getting in houses, that's for sure. But we got talking to these guys (they are all 17 years old, and are in high school, but are really good friends, so they are with each other a lot.) they are seventh day adventists, which is usually a big road block for us, but they were way friendly and open to hear our message. We had that same member with us who I talked about earlier so that was good. We started teaching the first lesson, and their uncle (2 of the boys are brothers, and it was their uncle) came and joined us as well, which we thought would be a good thing. We got to the part where we talk about prophets, and the uncle asked us a question. He said "how can you know if there is a true prophet today?" Under normal circumstances, that would be a very good question. However, we have some suspicions that this uncle might be a preacher, mostly because he went off on us about how the prophet has to follow the will of God (which we agreed upon) but somehow he shifted from that to why the Sabbath Day is Saturday. At this point, I tuned him out, and our member proceded to Bible Bash with him. It was getting pretty intense - the uncle was literally yelling at us, when our member stood up, put on his jacket, closed his Bible, and said "Good luck in the Last Days". hahaha. It was pretty funny. He stopped yelling at us and went back to his room, so we spoke briefly about the Book of Mormon to the boys, and left. That was quite the experience. But, we have a return appointment with the boys tomorrow and I think that they are ready to hear the gospel. I'm excited for them.
In addition to all those exciting events, there were more, but that's all I'll tell for this week. Remember a couple weeks ago when I said that it was the best week numbers wise that I'd had so far on my mission? Well, this week beat that. We taught a total of 23 lessons, which is pretty cool. I have never taught that many before, but I hope to continue to improve that number and improve all other areas of work too.
One of the other cool things we did this week was candlepin bowling. We went with our Elder's Quorum. It's pretty awesome, if I say so myself. It's much different than normal bowling. The balls are about the size of a grapefruit, and don't weigh anywhere near a normal bowling ball. The lanes are the same size, but the pins are more like rods - they are just cylinders, there is no bottle shape, and they stay on the lane instead of getting cleared off after each throw. You get 3 balls per frame, and the scoring is the same as normal bowling. If you didn't understand all of that, too bad. But it's way fun. It's only here in Boston, apparently, but I think it would be a huge hit if someone opened an alley in Utah. Maybe I'll look into that after my mission... haha. It is really fun though.
Well, as my subject line suggests, yes, I have heard of Jimmermania. Mostly because half the ward is from Utah, but whatever. I haven't heard a lot, just that he's the nations leading scorer and that he's dropped 40 points 3 times this year. Sounds exciting. Can't wait to hear that they win the tournament this year :) We were also doing a little shopping today, and I heard that Deron Williams got traded!? What's up with that?
Ok, there's my worldly blurb of the week. Oh yeah, I guess this week is transfers so I should tell you about that. haha. E. Winslow is getting transferred...home. Weird. He's been packing today, so that's why the email's a bit late. I'm not getting transferred, which means it's on to transfer #8 in Lynn. Bring it on! I hope I never leave here. I love it! haha. I'll find out who my comp is tomorrow. I know it's not a Cambodian speaker, cause 2 of them are leaving, 1 is a ZL, and the other 2 didn't get transferred either, so I'll probably be with an English Elder until the new Elder gets here this transfer (and my sources say that he is coming this transfer) so that'll be cool.
One last thing...Elder Cristofferson is coming to speak to us this Saturday! I'm way excited for that! I'll let you know how it goes next week. Well, I think that's enough for this week. Pretty long email, eh? Ok, well have a great week! Love you all. Hope to hear from you next Pday, seeing as how I only got emails from Mom and Dad this week. Ok bye!
The next family came from good old tracting. We first knocked on their door, and the father said to come back on a different day. Well, we went back on the day that he said, and he let us in. He didn't know we wanted to teach his whole family, so we only taught him, but he said that next time we go over, he'll have the whole family there, which is awesome! We ended up teaching him all of lesson 1 and extended a date to him as well, but he said he had to talk to his wife and let us know from there. We didn't set a return appointment with him either, cause his wife is going out of town, so he didn't know when the whole family would be available. His family is from Libera (?) in Africa, and they are super nice too. One thing I've learned on my mission is that it seems that everyone is really nice to us, except Americans. haha. Just a random thought I had.
The group of 4 guys came as a referral on our phone requesting a Bible. We went over to the address, and they let us in too! It was a week of us getting in houses, that's for sure. But we got talking to these guys (they are all 17 years old, and are in high school, but are really good friends, so they are with each other a lot.) they are seventh day adventists, which is usually a big road block for us, but they were way friendly and open to hear our message. We had that same member with us who I talked about earlier so that was good. We started teaching the first lesson, and their uncle (2 of the boys are brothers, and it was their uncle) came and joined us as well, which we thought would be a good thing. We got to the part where we talk about prophets, and the uncle asked us a question. He said "how can you know if there is a true prophet today?" Under normal circumstances, that would be a very good question. However, we have some suspicions that this uncle might be a preacher, mostly because he went off on us about how the prophet has to follow the will of God (which we agreed upon) but somehow he shifted from that to why the Sabbath Day is Saturday. At this point, I tuned him out, and our member proceded to Bible Bash with him. It was getting pretty intense - the uncle was literally yelling at us, when our member stood up, put on his jacket, closed his Bible, and said "Good luck in the Last Days". hahaha. It was pretty funny. He stopped yelling at us and went back to his room, so we spoke briefly about the Book of Mormon to the boys, and left. That was quite the experience. But, we have a return appointment with the boys tomorrow and I think that they are ready to hear the gospel. I'm excited for them.
In addition to all those exciting events, there were more, but that's all I'll tell for this week. Remember a couple weeks ago when I said that it was the best week numbers wise that I'd had so far on my mission? Well, this week beat that. We taught a total of 23 lessons, which is pretty cool. I have never taught that many before, but I hope to continue to improve that number and improve all other areas of work too.
One of the other cool things we did this week was candlepin bowling. We went with our Elder's Quorum. It's pretty awesome, if I say so myself. It's much different than normal bowling. The balls are about the size of a grapefruit, and don't weigh anywhere near a normal bowling ball. The lanes are the same size, but the pins are more like rods - they are just cylinders, there is no bottle shape, and they stay on the lane instead of getting cleared off after each throw. You get 3 balls per frame, and the scoring is the same as normal bowling. If you didn't understand all of that, too bad. But it's way fun. It's only here in Boston, apparently, but I think it would be a huge hit if someone opened an alley in Utah. Maybe I'll look into that after my mission... haha. It is really fun though.
Well, as my subject line suggests, yes, I have heard of Jimmermania. Mostly because half the ward is from Utah, but whatever. I haven't heard a lot, just that he's the nations leading scorer and that he's dropped 40 points 3 times this year. Sounds exciting. Can't wait to hear that they win the tournament this year :) We were also doing a little shopping today, and I heard that Deron Williams got traded!? What's up with that?
Ok, there's my worldly blurb of the week. Oh yeah, I guess this week is transfers so I should tell you about that. haha. E. Winslow is getting transferred...home. Weird. He's been packing today, so that's why the email's a bit late. I'm not getting transferred, which means it's on to transfer #8 in Lynn. Bring it on! I hope I never leave here. I love it! haha. I'll find out who my comp is tomorrow. I know it's not a Cambodian speaker, cause 2 of them are leaving, 1 is a ZL, and the other 2 didn't get transferred either, so I'll probably be with an English Elder until the new Elder gets here this transfer (and my sources say that he is coming this transfer) so that'll be cool.
One last thing...Elder Cristofferson is coming to speak to us this Saturday! I'm way excited for that! I'll let you know how it goes next week. Well, I think that's enough for this week. Pretty long email, eh? Ok, well have a great week! Love you all. Hope to hear from you next Pday, seeing as how I only got emails from Mom and Dad this week. Ok bye!
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