So this week was pretty uneventful, which is never a good thing. Right after I sent my email home last week telling you about how we still had one investigator, we saw him here at the library and he dropped us. And since then, we haven't found anyone that is super promising. Cool, huh? So yeah, we have no investigators so with that said, we are doing finding and that's about it. We are trying to use different finding techniques such as formers, less actives, going through our 1400 member ward list, tracting, and street contacting. So far none of those have really yielded any fruits. We came to the conclusion that we don't have anyone right now because we are supposed to plan for a big activity that will attract lots of people that will be interested. We are having a movie night/bbq on August 6th for the singles ward we live in and we are making sure that the membvers know that they should invite their friends. So that should be pretty big. And we are also planning on having a big activity like that with the Lowell ward sometime in September. We watched the PMG DVDs on how to find through the members and we came up with this idea that we would hold a cultural night with a performance or something from each of the ethnicities in our ward. Don't have any specifics yet, but that's our idea. I'm hoping that we'll be able to find some new people through those activities. We are also preparing for the Water Festival which is coming up right quick. I'm so excited for that. It's gonna be sweet.
I guess I can share about one person we met this week. We were just walking around, I think it was on Tuesday, and there was this big yellow lab that started barking at us. As we were walking past the house with the dog, this cambodian lady came out so we started talking to her. We talked to her for about 20 minutes about her family, who we are, and how the gospel can bless her life. She started crying and told us that she is divorced and that she really wants to find happiness for her family, and she can see in us that we are happy. So we set up a return appointment and gave her a Book of Mormon and a copy of the Family proclamation. But again, she is another potential that didn't keep her return appointment so we are just trying to recontact her. That seems to happen way too often. And, in all honesty, that is about the coolest thing that happened this week. We've been trying to get the members in our ward excited about missionary work, but that's not really working right now either. We've shared the set a date challenge with about 6 families in our ward and all of them but 1 have forgotten about it. I follow up with them at church every week and they just say, "Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me, I must've forgotten about that. Follow up again next week." And that's about how it goes. It's really really really frustrating. I wish more people would just realize that it is their duty to share the gospel with their neighbors and actually do something about it. I like combining D&C 100: 4 and Alma 13:24 and then sharing the set a date challenge. I still haven't heard back from any of you about how that's going. I'll let you look up thos scriptures too. Cool beans.
So my subject line of "ugh" can be used for how the work is going right now, but I was intending it to be for the weather. It's been awful. We've been up in the 90's every day this week, and Thursday, and Friday were the worst days ever. haha. Thursday was 103, which isn't really that bad, but the humidity had to be close to 100. It was AWFUL. It was really like the worst weather ever. I hate the humidity. And Friday wasn't any better. It got up to 107 with high humidity too. It wasn't as humid as Thursday, but it was still terrible. We went to visit this one former investigator, and literally within the 10 seconds it took to walk from the car to the door, I was dripping sweat. haha. It was really bad. Luckily, today is down around 80, so that feels great.
Oh yeah, Happy Pioneer Day! I didn't realize how much I like pioneer day until I came out here and have heard nothing but how the members out here couldn't care less about it because they aren't in Utah. I really hate when people talk crap on Utah (unless it's the utes, of course). There are so many people that have told me that they don't want to live in Utah or go to BYU cause "there are too many Mormons". I don't really understand that. How are they going to feel when they get to the Celestial Kingdom? haha. But anyway, I'm glad I'm from Utah and I am proud to say it every time someone asks. Sorry for that little rant, but it really does bother me when people talk down on Utah for being better than everywhere else :)
Alrighty then I gotta get going so we can go play some sports. Cool beans. Have a good week. Love you all!!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. Thanks for the picture, Mason. I'm glad you are loving my gameboy. haha
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Yohoho
Sok sabbay. This week was a continuation of the slowness that has plagued us for the last little while. I'm really not enjoying it very much. We have talked and talked about what we can do to find more investigators and they just aren't coming. I don't know what's wrong with our area right now, but it just hasn't been very productve for us. We have found a bunch of potentials but it is so hard to get back in contact with them so they end up just getting dropped because they never respond back to us. We currently have 1 investigator. That's Samuel Jackson. I am hoping so much that he will recognize the answers that he's receiving so that he will want to be baptized, but as of right now, he is just confused about which of the 2 churches he has gone to is true. He reads from the Book of Mormon, and he prays, but he is worried about what the people at his other church are going to think of him if he leaves them to get baptized, and I think that is holding him back from true conversion right now. We just have to help him understand that it doesnt't matter what other people think, as long as we are doing what God wants us to be doing. So unfortunately again this week there is not much to talk about.
There is a cool story that happened this week, but it was with one of those potentials that we haven't had much progress with. I'll tell you about her anyway. Tuesday, we were walking around street contacting people near our church building. We saw this girl walking down the street, so we caught up with her and walked with her. She had been having a really bad day, so we talked about that for a few minutes before she asked us why we were dressed up all fancy and why we were walking around when it was 96 degrees out. We told her who we are, and as we walked with her, we taught her the first lesson. She was walking to walmart to get a ride from one of her friends, so that's where we walked her to. When we got there, we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said that she'd read it. We also asked her to pray about it and she said that she really did want to find out if it was true or not. So that's where we left her. On Thursday, we called her to see if she'd been reading and praying. She said that she had been, and so far she liked it. We tried to set up a return appointment but she said she was too busy. So we asked if she'd like to go to church and she said she would if we could get her a ride. We ended up getting her a ride, and gave her the person's info and they started texting back and forth to set up the ride for her to church. Well, it turns out that 5 minutes before the ride got there, she texted them and said she couldn't go anymore, so she ended up not coming to church which was a big bummer. So it was a pretty cool story, and hopefully it will turn up well this week.
We also had a leadership training meeting this week. It was a pretty good meeting. One set of Elders that gave a training really stood out from all the other trainings that day though. I don't know if I've told you about Elder Dawe before, but I lived with him in Lynn for 2 transfers, and he is ridiculously awesome. We go home together, and he's from Pleasant Grove, so you'll get to meet him at the airport when we come home. He's probably going to be on BYU's football team and he said he'll get me tickets to the games. But anyway, him and his companion gave this training at our meeting. It was incredible. He started his training by bearing his testimony, and it really invited the Spirit. I can't really describe how cool it was, other than by saying that the Spirit in the room was comparible to that of the Spirit that's in the temple. It was awesome. I learned a lot from that training.
So that's about it for this week. There honestly isn't a lot happening so there isn't a lot to talk about. We are meeting this week with all the Cambodian Elders to talk about what our booth is going to look like for the Water Festival next month. I can't believe that's almost here already. I'm the only one out of the Cambodians that was here for last year's festival. Wow. So that'll be fun.
Well, I guess that's it. What did you think of my description of Lowell last week? Sounds pretty awesome, eh? (I have to say "eh" now cause one of my comp's is from Canada) Oh yeah, I guess I should let you know that even though we aren't having much success right now, I'm not discouraged. I haven't found anything so far on my mission that gets me discouraged. I'm really frustrated, just not discouraged. haha. Ok, well I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. Thanks to Rob & Wendi and family for the package. Those rice krispies were great. :)
There is a cool story that happened this week, but it was with one of those potentials that we haven't had much progress with. I'll tell you about her anyway. Tuesday, we were walking around street contacting people near our church building. We saw this girl walking down the street, so we caught up with her and walked with her. She had been having a really bad day, so we talked about that for a few minutes before she asked us why we were dressed up all fancy and why we were walking around when it was 96 degrees out. We told her who we are, and as we walked with her, we taught her the first lesson. She was walking to walmart to get a ride from one of her friends, so that's where we walked her to. When we got there, we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said that she'd read it. We also asked her to pray about it and she said that she really did want to find out if it was true or not. So that's where we left her. On Thursday, we called her to see if she'd been reading and praying. She said that she had been, and so far she liked it. We tried to set up a return appointment but she said she was too busy. So we asked if she'd like to go to church and she said she would if we could get her a ride. We ended up getting her a ride, and gave her the person's info and they started texting back and forth to set up the ride for her to church. Well, it turns out that 5 minutes before the ride got there, she texted them and said she couldn't go anymore, so she ended up not coming to church which was a big bummer. So it was a pretty cool story, and hopefully it will turn up well this week.
We also had a leadership training meeting this week. It was a pretty good meeting. One set of Elders that gave a training really stood out from all the other trainings that day though. I don't know if I've told you about Elder Dawe before, but I lived with him in Lynn for 2 transfers, and he is ridiculously awesome. We go home together, and he's from Pleasant Grove, so you'll get to meet him at the airport when we come home. He's probably going to be on BYU's football team and he said he'll get me tickets to the games. But anyway, him and his companion gave this training at our meeting. It was incredible. He started his training by bearing his testimony, and it really invited the Spirit. I can't really describe how cool it was, other than by saying that the Spirit in the room was comparible to that of the Spirit that's in the temple. It was awesome. I learned a lot from that training.
So that's about it for this week. There honestly isn't a lot happening so there isn't a lot to talk about. We are meeting this week with all the Cambodian Elders to talk about what our booth is going to look like for the Water Festival next month. I can't believe that's almost here already. I'm the only one out of the Cambodians that was here for last year's festival. Wow. So that'll be fun.
Well, I guess that's it. What did you think of my description of Lowell last week? Sounds pretty awesome, eh? (I have to say "eh" now cause one of my comp's is from Canada) Oh yeah, I guess I should let you know that even though we aren't having much success right now, I'm not discouraged. I haven't found anything so far on my mission that gets me discouraged. I'm really frustrated, just not discouraged. haha. Ok, well I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. Thanks to Rob & Wendi and family for the package. Those rice krispies were great. :)
Slow Week
So, this might not be a very big email cause there just isn't a whole lot to talk about today. This week was extremely slow. We only taught 1 lesson to investigators. ouch. I guess that is a cool thing, now that I think of it. He is a member referral from one of the guys in our ward. We met with him and were able to talk about part of the first lesson. He seems pretty interested because he wants to know why his friend, who is the member that referred him to us, is always happy. Oh yeah, remember how we were teaching Will Smith? Well, we aren't anymore, but this guy's name is Samuel Jackson. haha. And he's pretty cool. We are meeting with him again today. He came to church yesterday and I think he liked it. I didn't get to talk to him though, cause I was translating for sacrament meeting and relief society. Hopefully he'll accept a baptismal date this time, cause last time we met with him, he said he'd have to think about it. So that's about it for him.
Before I forget, how's the family doing with the challenge I extended a few weeks ago to pray about a date to have someone taught in your home? Hopefully you've talked about it and are trying to do it...
So Mom wants to know about Lowell. Lowell is pretty awesome. There hasn't been a day since I've been here that I haven't heard police sirens. haha. If that's the kind of stuff you want to know about ;) Basically Lowell is just a city that used to be very industrial but over the years that has since faded and now it's just a bunch of ghetto apartments and ghetto people, but for the most part, they are cool ghetto people. If that makes sense. haha. There are roughly 150,000 people in Lowell. I don't know what I'm basing that off of, I just guessed. :) There are lost of old factories and mills that have either been turned into apartments or just abandoned. It's a pretty dirty city, with garbage lying all over the streets. Like everywhere. That's one thing I won't be used to when I come home - not seeing garbage all over the place. haha. The apartments are all really close to each other, and there are usually upwards of 10-25 people living in one house. Usually there are anywhere between 3 and 8 apartments in one building. It is actually a lot like Lynn. It's a bit bigger than Lynn area wise, but Lynn is more condensed. Lowell, however, has more Cambodians and they are more condensed than in Lynn. I still like Lynn more than Lowell, but it is nice to actually use my language. haha. There are lots of asian supermarkets, which are cool to go in and look at stuff, but I don't buy stuff there often because they are usually really dirty, and on occasion even have pigeons and other birds flying around in them. haha. The surrounding towns are NOTHING like Lowell. There are about 5 towns surrounding Lowell, and they are all rich people that only live in Mass. during the summer, and have other houses around the world that they stay at during other times of the year. Those places are really pretty. I like them a lot. Overall, Lowell is a pretty cool place. UMASS Lowell (University of Massachusetts) is kinda taking over the city, which is a good thing. They are building new things all over the city trying to expand their enrollment. I think by 2015, they will be able to accomodate 35,000 students. Oh yeah, and no we aren't near the ocean, which stinks. I miss seeing that every day. But we are right next to the Merrimack River, which is a pretty big river. Big enough to drive boats and skidoos and stuff around in. That's where they do the Cambodian Water Festival (which is coming up in about a month) along the River. Our apartment is just one of the normal ones in Lowell. We live on the first floor of what looks like a normal house, but it has 3 floors and other people live on those. That's how all the apartments are in Lynn and Lowell. They just look like normal houses, but are divided into different floors. They are a lot longer though. Pretty bad description, but whatever.
Ok well I think that's about it this week. I printed off some more pictures today, but my binder isn't quite full so it'll probably be about a month or so before I send it home. I hear there's a Captain America movie coming out. How does that look? How many more superhero movies does marvel have to do until they are ready for the Avengers movie? Just curious. Well, I hope you all have a fantabulous week. Hope to hear from some of you this week. Love ya! Peace
Love
Elder Hammer
Before I forget, how's the family doing with the challenge I extended a few weeks ago to pray about a date to have someone taught in your home? Hopefully you've talked about it and are trying to do it...
So Mom wants to know about Lowell. Lowell is pretty awesome. There hasn't been a day since I've been here that I haven't heard police sirens. haha. If that's the kind of stuff you want to know about ;) Basically Lowell is just a city that used to be very industrial but over the years that has since faded and now it's just a bunch of ghetto apartments and ghetto people, but for the most part, they are cool ghetto people. If that makes sense. haha. There are roughly 150,000 people in Lowell. I don't know what I'm basing that off of, I just guessed. :) There are lost of old factories and mills that have either been turned into apartments or just abandoned. It's a pretty dirty city, with garbage lying all over the streets. Like everywhere. That's one thing I won't be used to when I come home - not seeing garbage all over the place. haha. The apartments are all really close to each other, and there are usually upwards of 10-25 people living in one house. Usually there are anywhere between 3 and 8 apartments in one building. It is actually a lot like Lynn. It's a bit bigger than Lynn area wise, but Lynn is more condensed. Lowell, however, has more Cambodians and they are more condensed than in Lynn. I still like Lynn more than Lowell, but it is nice to actually use my language. haha. There are lots of asian supermarkets, which are cool to go in and look at stuff, but I don't buy stuff there often because they are usually really dirty, and on occasion even have pigeons and other birds flying around in them. haha. The surrounding towns are NOTHING like Lowell. There are about 5 towns surrounding Lowell, and they are all rich people that only live in Mass. during the summer, and have other houses around the world that they stay at during other times of the year. Those places are really pretty. I like them a lot. Overall, Lowell is a pretty cool place. UMASS Lowell (University of Massachusetts) is kinda taking over the city, which is a good thing. They are building new things all over the city trying to expand their enrollment. I think by 2015, they will be able to accomodate 35,000 students. Oh yeah, and no we aren't near the ocean, which stinks. I miss seeing that every day. But we are right next to the Merrimack River, which is a pretty big river. Big enough to drive boats and skidoos and stuff around in. That's where they do the Cambodian Water Festival (which is coming up in about a month) along the River. Our apartment is just one of the normal ones in Lowell. We live on the first floor of what looks like a normal house, but it has 3 floors and other people live on those. That's how all the apartments are in Lynn and Lowell. They just look like normal houses, but are divided into different floors. They are a lot longer though. Pretty bad description, but whatever.
Ok well I think that's about it this week. I printed off some more pictures today, but my binder isn't quite full so it'll probably be about a month or so before I send it home. I hear there's a Captain America movie coming out. How does that look? How many more superhero movies does marvel have to do until they are ready for the Avengers movie? Just curious. Well, I hope you all have a fantabulous week. Hope to hear from some of you this week. Love ya! Peace
Love
Elder Hammer
Stuff
Wow this week has had a lot of stuff happen. First and foremost, our mission is now about twice as big as it was before thanks to the consolidation with the Connecticut Hartford Mission. We all met in the Boston Stake Center to hear from President and Sister Evans and to get to know each other a little bit. It is so cool seeing that many missionaries and knowing that they are all part of our mission now. Plus we were all wearing purple ties (or purple shirts for the sisters) to show our unity. That looked pretty awesome. I know I expressed this a bit in last week's email, but I am still so excited for this wonderful opportunity. Already, there is just a good feeling of positive energy in the mission and it just adds to my excitement. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Since I am training again, I got to go to the new missionary/trainer meeting too. They are introducing a new training curriculum for new missionaries that is super intense, and I get to be a part of it. It isn't set to come out for real until August, but President Evans said he saw no reason to wait until then so he implemented it. I got a packet that is about 40 pages long talking about how training a new missionary is a sacred trust from the Lord and how it needs to be a good experience for both missionaries. As part of the new program, we were issued portable DVD players and copies of the Preach My Gospel DVDs so we can watch them during our companionship study, which is now 2 hours long which also means that with language study, we are studying for 4 hours every day. Yeah, it's intense. We can also use our DVD players for proselyting purposes. It's pretty nice to have one, I'm not gonna lie. There is a 12 week program of what we are supposed to cover during companion study, and what I'm supposed to help him learn. the purpose of the new program is to prepare new missionaries to be ready to train other new missionaries after 12 weeks. Crazy! But after reading through my packet, I am so stoked to do it cause I know it's going to help me alot to become a better missionary. So that's pretty cool. the copy I have is in draft form, so it's all just stapled together, but I think it is going to be another pamphlet/booklet similarly formatted like PMG.
One of the other coolest things that happened this week was that we went to the store to buy food. cool, huh? haha. After we had all the stuff we needed and were heading to the checkout line, I had the impression come to me that I needed some snacking foods since we don't have any at our apartment. So I went to the chips aisle, and lo and behold, there was a familiar green bag that caught my eye. Salsa Verde Doritos! None of the stores I've been to in my mission have had that flavor, so I was so happy when I saw them. I almost cried. haha. Just kidding. But seriously, When I got home, I opened it up and ate about half the bag. I've missed those chips so it was good to find them again. Good story, eh?
We were going to try and visit Johny this one night this last week, and as we were walking to his house, we saw a man standing on his front steps, so we sarted talking to him. We definitely had the Spirit with us as we talked to this guy, and he was definitely feeling it. We talked to him (his name is Joaquin) for about 35 minutes and taught him basically the first lesson. He was loving it, and he committed to be baptized on July 31st! He said that he would definitely be at church the next day so we were very excited. He didn't come to church, but that doesn't mean that he isn't still interested. We have an appointment with him on Thursday so hopefully things will go well when we meet with him again. But it was a way cool experience despite the fact that he didn't come to church. And there's no update on Johny cause he was drunk again when we met with him and we were just bold and told him that he needs to stop drinking and smoking and he got all offended and told us not to come back but then like 5 minutes later after we didn't leave he said he was sorry and said we could still come back, but nothing much is happening with him so that stinks.
And finally, the last coolest thing that happened this week was obviously yesterday. The 4th of July in Boston was one of the coolest things ever! President Evans gave us permission to go watch the fireworks so that was super exciting. We were just in downtown Boston with some other missionaries throughout the day looking at different things until about 6 when we went to secure ourselves a spot to watch the fireworks along the Charles River. We stood in the same place from 6pm to 11pm. My legs were hurting really bad by the end of the night. The fireworks didn't even start until 10:30. But it was amazing once they did. I don't know if you watched it on tv, but you should have if you didn't. It was so cool. They had some that blew up in cube shapes! And they had these other ones that burned for a really long time and just kinda hovered in the air and were like firecrackers (really bad explanation) But yeah, it was awesome. Martina Mcbride was there too. She was the "special guest" with the Boston Pops. So that was neat. I enjoyed it a lot. And I recorded almost the whole show on my camera. The finale looks funny when you watch it on my camera cause there were so many fireworks going off that it's just a huge white light on the screen. haha. But it was really really awesome. How was your 4th? Did you go to the Stadium of Fire? I don't remember how cool the Stadium of Fire is, but I can compare this one to that one when I see it next year. haha. Oh yeah, and they had a pretty sweet flyover before the show started too. Apparently like 5 years ago they had a stealth bomber fly over so that's what I was hoping for, but it was just 3 F-16's ( I think- I'm not sure what they were now that I think of it) But it was cool.
So yeah, that was this week. Pretty awesome. Very memorable in lots of different ways. Cool beans. Well we gotta get going to do some stuff now so I hope to hear from you all soon. Have a good week. By the way, happy birthday last week, Dad, and happy birthday Kurtis this week. I was also wondering if you could send me a conference ensign sometime cause I still don't have one. That'd be nice. Ok well I love you all. Have a great week. Bye.
Love,
Elder Hammer
Since I am training again, I got to go to the new missionary/trainer meeting too. They are introducing a new training curriculum for new missionaries that is super intense, and I get to be a part of it. It isn't set to come out for real until August, but President Evans said he saw no reason to wait until then so he implemented it. I got a packet that is about 40 pages long talking about how training a new missionary is a sacred trust from the Lord and how it needs to be a good experience for both missionaries. As part of the new program, we were issued portable DVD players and copies of the Preach My Gospel DVDs so we can watch them during our companionship study, which is now 2 hours long which also means that with language study, we are studying for 4 hours every day. Yeah, it's intense. We can also use our DVD players for proselyting purposes. It's pretty nice to have one, I'm not gonna lie. There is a 12 week program of what we are supposed to cover during companion study, and what I'm supposed to help him learn. the purpose of the new program is to prepare new missionaries to be ready to train other new missionaries after 12 weeks. Crazy! But after reading through my packet, I am so stoked to do it cause I know it's going to help me alot to become a better missionary. So that's pretty cool. the copy I have is in draft form, so it's all just stapled together, but I think it is going to be another pamphlet/booklet similarly formatted like PMG.
One of the other coolest things that happened this week was that we went to the store to buy food. cool, huh? haha. After we had all the stuff we needed and were heading to the checkout line, I had the impression come to me that I needed some snacking foods since we don't have any at our apartment. So I went to the chips aisle, and lo and behold, there was a familiar green bag that caught my eye. Salsa Verde Doritos! None of the stores I've been to in my mission have had that flavor, so I was so happy when I saw them. I almost cried. haha. Just kidding. But seriously, When I got home, I opened it up and ate about half the bag. I've missed those chips so it was good to find them again. Good story, eh?
We were going to try and visit Johny this one night this last week, and as we were walking to his house, we saw a man standing on his front steps, so we sarted talking to him. We definitely had the Spirit with us as we talked to this guy, and he was definitely feeling it. We talked to him (his name is Joaquin) for about 35 minutes and taught him basically the first lesson. He was loving it, and he committed to be baptized on July 31st! He said that he would definitely be at church the next day so we were very excited. He didn't come to church, but that doesn't mean that he isn't still interested. We have an appointment with him on Thursday so hopefully things will go well when we meet with him again. But it was a way cool experience despite the fact that he didn't come to church. And there's no update on Johny cause he was drunk again when we met with him and we were just bold and told him that he needs to stop drinking and smoking and he got all offended and told us not to come back but then like 5 minutes later after we didn't leave he said he was sorry and said we could still come back, but nothing much is happening with him so that stinks.
And finally, the last coolest thing that happened this week was obviously yesterday. The 4th of July in Boston was one of the coolest things ever! President Evans gave us permission to go watch the fireworks so that was super exciting. We were just in downtown Boston with some other missionaries throughout the day looking at different things until about 6 when we went to secure ourselves a spot to watch the fireworks along the Charles River. We stood in the same place from 6pm to 11pm. My legs were hurting really bad by the end of the night. The fireworks didn't even start until 10:30. But it was amazing once they did. I don't know if you watched it on tv, but you should have if you didn't. It was so cool. They had some that blew up in cube shapes! And they had these other ones that burned for a really long time and just kinda hovered in the air and were like firecrackers (really bad explanation) But yeah, it was awesome. Martina Mcbride was there too. She was the "special guest" with the Boston Pops. So that was neat. I enjoyed it a lot. And I recorded almost the whole show on my camera. The finale looks funny when you watch it on my camera cause there were so many fireworks going off that it's just a huge white light on the screen. haha. But it was really really awesome. How was your 4th? Did you go to the Stadium of Fire? I don't remember how cool the Stadium of Fire is, but I can compare this one to that one when I see it next year. haha. Oh yeah, and they had a pretty sweet flyover before the show started too. Apparently like 5 years ago they had a stealth bomber fly over so that's what I was hoping for, but it was just 3 F-16's ( I think- I'm not sure what they were now that I think of it) But it was cool.
So yeah, that was this week. Pretty awesome. Very memorable in lots of different ways. Cool beans. Well we gotta get going to do some stuff now so I hope to hear from you all soon. Have a good week. By the way, happy birthday last week, Dad, and happy birthday Kurtis this week. I was also wondering if you could send me a conference ensign sometime cause I still don't have one. That'd be nice. Ok well I love you all. Have a great week. Bye.
Love,
Elder Hammer
Hallo
So I gots to be quick today cause we're going to go hang out in Boston and I want to leave to get there as soon as possible. ;)
This week was pretty cool. We were able to find 4 new investigators, 3 of which were found Sunday night. That's pretty awesome. We extended baptismal dates to all of them, but only one of them accepted. 2 of them are a cambodian family that we found. There is a mom, and her two sons, but one of them has mental disabilities so he doesn't need to learn. He sits in with us though. But anyway, yeah, we're teaching in cambodian. I can't tell you how excited that makes me. Especially now that my language skills are better than they used to be so I can actually understand almost all of what she talks about. The mom doesn't speak english so we teach her in Khmer but her son doesnt' speak khmer so we teach him in english. It's pretty awesome. So I extended my first baptismal date in Khmer to her. that was pretty awesome. She said she would have to think about it first, but I think she'll do it. Her son said he'd get baptized but didn't accept a solid date yet. But yes, that is some very exciting news.
Johny isn't doing too well. He was in the hospital so we haven't been able to see him for awhile. That stinks.
Big news - Connecticut joins our mission tomorrow! I'm so excited! We now have about 200 missionaries. We have a mission conference tomorrow and it's going to be awesome. We got our texts on saturday telling us who was leaving and where they'll be going and it was nuts. My companionship was one of like 8 in the whole mission that wasn't split up. Crazy! But I think it is going to be great. We are all going to wear purple ties to the mission conference tomorrow to show President Evans that we are all unified, cause that's something that he's worried about, but all the missionaries know about this purple tie thing, and it's going to be cool. I'm way excited for it. I can't believe it's already here though. We found out about it back in like January, and now it's already here. Wow. It's exciting. I've said that alot, but it is REALLY exciting.
I think that's all for this week. Sorry for the way lame email, but I wanna get to Boston! haha. I might use some money from my card to buy a Championship Bruins hat or something, just to let you know. I haven't decided yet. Happy 4th of July next week. Won't be able to email until tuesday, so I hope that you all have a good holiday. I'm sure it'll be cool for us, since it's on pday this year. Well, have a good week and I will hear from you next week! Love y'all!
Love
Elder Hammer
This week was pretty cool. We were able to find 4 new investigators, 3 of which were found Sunday night. That's pretty awesome. We extended baptismal dates to all of them, but only one of them accepted. 2 of them are a cambodian family that we found. There is a mom, and her two sons, but one of them has mental disabilities so he doesn't need to learn. He sits in with us though. But anyway, yeah, we're teaching in cambodian. I can't tell you how excited that makes me. Especially now that my language skills are better than they used to be so I can actually understand almost all of what she talks about. The mom doesn't speak english so we teach her in Khmer but her son doesnt' speak khmer so we teach him in english. It's pretty awesome. So I extended my first baptismal date in Khmer to her. that was pretty awesome. She said she would have to think about it first, but I think she'll do it. Her son said he'd get baptized but didn't accept a solid date yet. But yes, that is some very exciting news.
Johny isn't doing too well. He was in the hospital so we haven't been able to see him for awhile. That stinks.
Big news - Connecticut joins our mission tomorrow! I'm so excited! We now have about 200 missionaries. We have a mission conference tomorrow and it's going to be awesome. We got our texts on saturday telling us who was leaving and where they'll be going and it was nuts. My companionship was one of like 8 in the whole mission that wasn't split up. Crazy! But I think it is going to be great. We are all going to wear purple ties to the mission conference tomorrow to show President Evans that we are all unified, cause that's something that he's worried about, but all the missionaries know about this purple tie thing, and it's going to be cool. I'm way excited for it. I can't believe it's already here though. We found out about it back in like January, and now it's already here. Wow. It's exciting. I've said that alot, but it is REALLY exciting.
I think that's all for this week. Sorry for the way lame email, but I wanna get to Boston! haha. I might use some money from my card to buy a Championship Bruins hat or something, just to let you know. I haven't decided yet. Happy 4th of July next week. Won't be able to email until tuesday, so I hope that you all have a good holiday. I'm sure it'll be cool for us, since it's on pday this year. Well, have a good week and I will hear from you next week! Love y'all!
Love
Elder Hammer
Championships + robberies = what a week!
Okey dokey. Well, this week was pretty unforgettable. In lots of ways. We'll start out by mentioning that the Boston Bruins took the Stanley Cup on wednesday night! It's about time one of the pro sports teams won something out here. haha. There was a huge parade in Boston on Saturday. 1 and a half million people were there. That's ridiculous! Too bad it wasn't Pday. So yeah, that was cool. Apparently the Red Sox are in first place right now too, so I'm looking forward to seeing them win the World Series too.
I am having a hard time deciding which of all the exciting events that took place are the coolest, but whatever. I'll just go in order of when they happened. Bruins were first, but on the same night, my second son, Elder Wayne, arrived from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. He's pretty awesome. I don't know what they're doing in the MTC these days, but the new missionaries are way more prepared than they were even a year ago! It's incredible. He is a very good missionary so far, he speaks khmer all the time, which is awesome, and he is just cool. In the 5 days that I've kow him, I have learned a lot already. So that's pretty exciting.
Next up is the robbery.... On Thursday, we decided we wanted to play a little prank on our newest companion... Just kidding. On thursday, we were doing our weekly planning that we do every thursday. We finished planning and had to go to our service activity so we got ready to go to that. As we were getting ready, I asked myself if I needed to take my gps or not. I decided not to, since I knew how to get there and we would be coming back after service so I could get it then if I needed. So, we left for service. We had a good time there, helping people and talking to them. Then we went home to change and when I walked into our bedroom, something seemed a little odd. There was this random sheet on my bed that hadn't been there before, and then upon looking at the window, I noticed that our air conditioning unit was sitting on E. Wayne's bed. I was super confused for a few moments before I realized what happened. I walked back out to our front room to see if anything had been taken, and sure enough, my gps was not there. I asked E. Ang and E. Wayne if they had anything missing, and they couldn't find anything of theirs that was gone, except for $30 out of E. Ang's wallet. We then realized that the house was a mess. Things had been moved around and not cleaned up. Upon inspection, I found that I was missing my gps, my usb cables for my camera and my gps, and a watch that another Elder had given me before. All of our suitcases had been looked through as well, but luckily, missionaries don't have a whole lot of valuable things so they didn't take anything else. I thought that they had taken my USB drive that has ALL of my mission pictures on it and I was about to cry really bad cause that would stink. But then, I realized that as we were weekly planning earlier in the day, I had placed a copy of the family proclamation on my desk. Without knowing it, I had put it right on top of my USB drive and for some reason, the thieves didn't get it. I am SO grateful for that.
They also didn't get my stash of money I've been saving for the Water Festival this year so that's good. So that's our robbery story. E. Wayne's first day in the mission. haha. They also went upstairs to our landlord and took his 46 inch tv, xbox and wii, so we didn't get it as bad as that. He told me that he'll see if his homeowner's insurance will cover my gps, but if not, our ward mission leader told me he'd get me a new one. So that is why you don't need to worry about it mom :)
We'll probably be moving apartments sometime because President is worried cause about 2 months ago, the previous Elders' car was broken into and their gps stolen as well. So we'll probably have to move somewhere else. That'll be exciting. I thought that it was a great "welcome to Lowell" experience for E. Wayne. haha.
Ok well, the last thing I have for this week is an update on Johny. He came to church yesterday! First investigator I've had at church since I got to Lowell. Unfortunately, he was drunk, but he's always drunk, so I'm not sure what to think of it. He loved it and he wants to be baptized, but he has A LOT of work to do before then. We set a goal for the 24th of July for his baptism so we will be working alot with him to get him ready. He is such a cool guy, I love him a lot. His life is so poor right now and I really want to help him out. I hope that things keep going up for him, cause he told us that meeting us was the best thing that's ever happened to him. He also told me some other stuff that I won't repeat because it's not relevant right now, other than to reinforce that he needs help.
Oh yeah, and E. Thompson, or Jordan rather, who is my grandpa, came out to visit with his wife this week. He went home last August. He was at church and then they were at the family's house that we ate at lastnight too so that was weird but really cool seeing him again. He might come play ball with us today but I don't know.
So, pretty cool week, eh? I think so. It was fun. haha. I'm still waiting for that Josh Wright CD, Kasey. I've heard from some other missionaries that it is really good... :) alrighty then I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderfully grand week!
Love
Elder Hammer
I am having a hard time deciding which of all the exciting events that took place are the coolest, but whatever. I'll just go in order of when they happened. Bruins were first, but on the same night, my second son, Elder Wayne, arrived from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. He's pretty awesome. I don't know what they're doing in the MTC these days, but the new missionaries are way more prepared than they were even a year ago! It's incredible. He is a very good missionary so far, he speaks khmer all the time, which is awesome, and he is just cool. In the 5 days that I've kow him, I have learned a lot already. So that's pretty exciting.
Next up is the robbery.... On Thursday, we decided we wanted to play a little prank on our newest companion... Just kidding. On thursday, we were doing our weekly planning that we do every thursday. We finished planning and had to go to our service activity so we got ready to go to that. As we were getting ready, I asked myself if I needed to take my gps or not. I decided not to, since I knew how to get there and we would be coming back after service so I could get it then if I needed. So, we left for service. We had a good time there, helping people and talking to them. Then we went home to change and when I walked into our bedroom, something seemed a little odd. There was this random sheet on my bed that hadn't been there before, and then upon looking at the window, I noticed that our air conditioning unit was sitting on E. Wayne's bed. I was super confused for a few moments before I realized what happened. I walked back out to our front room to see if anything had been taken, and sure enough, my gps was not there. I asked E. Ang and E. Wayne if they had anything missing, and they couldn't find anything of theirs that was gone, except for $30 out of E. Ang's wallet. We then realized that the house was a mess. Things had been moved around and not cleaned up. Upon inspection, I found that I was missing my gps, my usb cables for my camera and my gps, and a watch that another Elder had given me before. All of our suitcases had been looked through as well, but luckily, missionaries don't have a whole lot of valuable things so they didn't take anything else. I thought that they had taken my USB drive that has ALL of my mission pictures on it and I was about to cry really bad cause that would stink. But then, I realized that as we were weekly planning earlier in the day, I had placed a copy of the family proclamation on my desk. Without knowing it, I had put it right on top of my USB drive and for some reason, the thieves didn't get it. I am SO grateful for that.
They also didn't get my stash of money I've been saving for the Water Festival this year so that's good. So that's our robbery story. E. Wayne's first day in the mission. haha. They also went upstairs to our landlord and took his 46 inch tv, xbox and wii, so we didn't get it as bad as that. He told me that he'll see if his homeowner's insurance will cover my gps, but if not, our ward mission leader told me he'd get me a new one. So that is why you don't need to worry about it mom :)
We'll probably be moving apartments sometime because President is worried cause about 2 months ago, the previous Elders' car was broken into and their gps stolen as well. So we'll probably have to move somewhere else. That'll be exciting. I thought that it was a great "welcome to Lowell" experience for E. Wayne. haha.
Ok well, the last thing I have for this week is an update on Johny. He came to church yesterday! First investigator I've had at church since I got to Lowell. Unfortunately, he was drunk, but he's always drunk, so I'm not sure what to think of it. He loved it and he wants to be baptized, but he has A LOT of work to do before then. We set a goal for the 24th of July for his baptism so we will be working alot with him to get him ready. He is such a cool guy, I love him a lot. His life is so poor right now and I really want to help him out. I hope that things keep going up for him, cause he told us that meeting us was the best thing that's ever happened to him. He also told me some other stuff that I won't repeat because it's not relevant right now, other than to reinforce that he needs help.
Oh yeah, and E. Thompson, or Jordan rather, who is my grandpa, came out to visit with his wife this week. He went home last August. He was at church and then they were at the family's house that we ate at lastnight too so that was weird but really cool seeing him again. He might come play ball with us today but I don't know.
So, pretty cool week, eh? I think so. It was fun. haha. I'm still waiting for that Josh Wright CD, Kasey. I've heard from some other missionaries that it is really good... :) alrighty then I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderfully grand week!
Love
Elder Hammer
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