Well, guess where I am? Lowell. Wahoo. This week was one of the hardest of my mission. I was so sad when I found out I was being transferred, but I never thought it would affect me like it did. So the transfer meeting was good. I am with Elder Ang, who is from Cambodia so that is AWESOME. He is the funniest person I've ever met. But the transfer itself was pretty rough. I couldn't stop thinking about how much I missed Lynn and the people there and how I wanted to go back, and it was really hard for me. I cried a lot too. :) But, I decided, like I said last week, that it was a good opportunity for me to follow 1 Nephi 3:7. I have been praying hard for Heavenly Father to help me focus on the work and not worry about myself and how I want to go back to Lynn. I know that this is where He wants me to be, and that's all that matters. It was a hard week, but I have learned a few things that have really helped me to feel the love of God. But, with all that aside, there were some good things that happened this week too. One of those cool things being that my companion speaks completely fluent Cambodian (duh) so that's really awesome. As a result of that, we get to talk to a lot more cambodian people. We actually have Khmer investigators here too! pretty cool. I realized, however, that I don't know the language as well as I thought I did. haha. But, I think it will improve a lot while I'm here so I'm excited for that. Another cool thing that happened is that we got 3 member referrals! Woot! I love member referrals. They're the best! 2 of the 3 are super solid investigators now, and 1 of them has a baptismal date! So yes, my testimony of member referrals has been strengthened once again. And finally the last cool thing that happened was our Regional Stake Conference. The adult session on Saturday night was up in New Hampshire, so that was cool. New Hampshire is a pretty place. tons of trees and cool buildings and such. Oh yeah, the reason it was up there is because Lowell is in the Nashua, NH stake. We are only like 20 minutes from the border of NH. so the adult session was there, and then the general session on sunday was at our building here in Lowell. It was such a good conference. It was broadcast to something like 34 stakes all over New England. the speakers were : Sister Dibb, Elder Zwick, Elder Russell M. Nelson, and Pres. Eyring. yeah. It was awesome. All 4 of them have really strong ties to this area. Pretty cool. I think Elder Zwick is my new favorite non-apostle. He is incredible.
So, that was our week. pretty good even though it was really hard. But, I am excited to see what will happen this upcoming transfer. We have tons of potential right now so we'll see how it goes. Oh yeah, and Mom, I know how you feel when you say it feels like you are living in Seattle. It has rained for like 9 days in a row. Pretty crazy. We aren't really doing anything exciting for pday today either, so I will probably get some letters written to some people since I haven't done that in a really long time. haha. Oh yeah, I wanted to share a scripture that I read this week with you. Alma 58:37. It really hit me that nothing matters if we trust in God and know that He will deliver us from our weakness. I really love that verse. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Dun dun dun
So how's it going? Cool. We had a pretty darn good week. It's been awhile since I emailed last week, so sorry about that. I think I forgot to tell you that this week was transfers so pday is today instead of Monday. Well, we had some good things happen this week that I am happy and excited about. We were able to meet with Rose and her family a few times this week and help them continue to prepare for their baptism. We had to push it to the 29th due to Stake Conference this week. But they are doing well with everything we've been teaching. They stopped drinking coffee, and not only did they stop, they don't even want to drink it anymore. They say that it doesn't even sound good to them. Sweet! I love how that works sometimes. All 4 of them came to church on sunday and had a good experience there too. I am so excited for them to be baptized!
Another good thing that happened this week was at church. There was this guy there who I didn't recognize. E. Greer sat next to him, and found out that one of our members brought him to church with them. AWESOME! Go Member Referrals! Well, it was Ward Conference so the Stake Presidency minus the Stake President were there. The bishop gave a good talk, then the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency, then the first counselor. This man who came with some of our members was not so into it during the bishop or 2nd counselor. And I don't blame him. They were kinda boring. But then, President Haite, the first counselor gave his talk. It was amazing. I love that man. If he's not a General Authority sometime in the future, I will be thoroughly surprised. He got up and just bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. The member referral, whose name is Elton, by the way, asked E. Greer for a copy of the BoM after his talk. We gave him one, and he said that he wanted to learn more about it, and that he'd like to join our church! Wow. Go President Haite! It was awesome. So we set up a time to meet with him in the members' home. He loved the rest of church too. It was such a cool experience. I definitely saw the power of member referrals with that one. That guy is prepared. So he'll probably have a baptismal date after we meet with him.
Oh yeah, and we met with Jessica again. That was cool. She told me that she reads my weekly emails on mom's blog. Weird. haha. She said that she hasn't read anything about herself for awhile so I feel it appropriate to give her a shoutout. Here ya go: Jessica, you need to be baptized. You know you need to be baptized. And I know you want to be baptized. We will help you get there. You have had experiences that have helped you feel God's love for you and you can rely on those experiences to get you through the hard things you are going through. We're here for you and like we've said so many times, God is there for you. Well, hope that was good enough. haha.
And unfortunately, I will not be able to hear her response to that shoutout. Because I'm being transferred.... We found out lastnight who was leaving and I was so sad to see my name on the list. I've been here for so long that I have really come to know and love this area. It's definitely going to be hard to leave, but I know the Lord needs me somewhere else now. I have learned a ton from the people in this area that will be applied throughout the rest of my life. And, like my plaque says, I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded me...I'm excited to see how real that scripture can be for me now. I am almost positive that I'm going to Lowell, but you never know until the meeting tomorrow. There was a 3some in Lowell, but 2 of them got transferred, so that means I will go with the one who's there and we are assuming the other 2 will come to Lynn. I'll find out tomorrow though. So yeah, I'm pretty bummed out, but excited at the same time. I know it's what God wants, so that's good enough for me.
Ummm I think that's about it for this week. Mom, the only tip I have is physical therapy. haha. They will fix it. The ankle I had therapy on is way better than the one I didn't. But other than that, no I have no tips. Keep using the stretchy band. It helps a ton too.
It feels like there was something else I was going to tell you but I can't remember it so oh well. If you send me anything this week, send it to the office address otherwise it'll go to Lynn and I'll probably never see it. haha. Well, have a great week. I'm off to say some goodbye's in the ward. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. By the way, I read in the church newspaper the other day at a member's house that the CD I told you I want is #1 on the Billboard Classical Chart. I believe Kasey said she'd buy it for me, right? :)
Another good thing that happened this week was at church. There was this guy there who I didn't recognize. E. Greer sat next to him, and found out that one of our members brought him to church with them. AWESOME! Go Member Referrals! Well, it was Ward Conference so the Stake Presidency minus the Stake President were there. The bishop gave a good talk, then the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency, then the first counselor. This man who came with some of our members was not so into it during the bishop or 2nd counselor. And I don't blame him. They were kinda boring. But then, President Haite, the first counselor gave his talk. It was amazing. I love that man. If he's not a General Authority sometime in the future, I will be thoroughly surprised. He got up and just bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. The member referral, whose name is Elton, by the way, asked E. Greer for a copy of the BoM after his talk. We gave him one, and he said that he wanted to learn more about it, and that he'd like to join our church! Wow. Go President Haite! It was awesome. So we set up a time to meet with him in the members' home. He loved the rest of church too. It was such a cool experience. I definitely saw the power of member referrals with that one. That guy is prepared. So he'll probably have a baptismal date after we meet with him.
Oh yeah, and we met with Jessica again. That was cool. She told me that she reads my weekly emails on mom's blog. Weird. haha. She said that she hasn't read anything about herself for awhile so I feel it appropriate to give her a shoutout. Here ya go: Jessica, you need to be baptized. You know you need to be baptized. And I know you want to be baptized. We will help you get there. You have had experiences that have helped you feel God's love for you and you can rely on those experiences to get you through the hard things you are going through. We're here for you and like we've said so many times, God is there for you. Well, hope that was good enough. haha.
And unfortunately, I will not be able to hear her response to that shoutout. Because I'm being transferred.... We found out lastnight who was leaving and I was so sad to see my name on the list. I've been here for so long that I have really come to know and love this area. It's definitely going to be hard to leave, but I know the Lord needs me somewhere else now. I have learned a ton from the people in this area that will be applied throughout the rest of my life. And, like my plaque says, I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded me...I'm excited to see how real that scripture can be for me now. I am almost positive that I'm going to Lowell, but you never know until the meeting tomorrow. There was a 3some in Lowell, but 2 of them got transferred, so that means I will go with the one who's there and we are assuming the other 2 will come to Lynn. I'll find out tomorrow though. So yeah, I'm pretty bummed out, but excited at the same time. I know it's what God wants, so that's good enough for me.
Ummm I think that's about it for this week. Mom, the only tip I have is physical therapy. haha. They will fix it. The ankle I had therapy on is way better than the one I didn't. But other than that, no I have no tips. Keep using the stretchy band. It helps a ton too.
It feels like there was something else I was going to tell you but I can't remember it so oh well. If you send me anything this week, send it to the office address otherwise it'll go to Lynn and I'll probably never see it. haha. Well, have a great week. I'm off to say some goodbye's in the ward. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. By the way, I read in the church newspaper the other day at a member's house that the CD I told you I want is #1 on the Billboard Classical Chart. I believe Kasey said she'd buy it for me, right? :)
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