oh yeah, I forgot to mention we are moving this week. Our moving day is Thursday, so it would be best to either send mail to the mission office, or just wait until I can get you the exact address next week. Would you mind posting that on the blog too so if people want to mail something to me I can get it and it doesn't go to the old apartment? thanks!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Water Fest!
Helllo. This week was great. In certain ways. There were some good things that happened this week, but the underlying problem of not having anyone to teach has not been solved yet. To start out, thanks for the package! That banana zucchini bread is awesome. The GPS works great. It's so nice to have one of those again. Thanks for the cds too. That Josh Wright one is awesome. I really like it. And the other one I had heard before from one of the Elders I lived with in Lynn and it is really good too. I know you just sent a package, but I was thinking the other day about some stuff. It is August 22nd today, which means Christmas is 4 months away. I don't want anything for Christmas (or my birthday for that matter) sent to me, cause it can wait until I get home. However, there is this cd on lds.org that is called Christmas collection by motab and I really want it. haha. So that is all I want, and it doesn't need to come from my family so if there's anyone that reads this and wants to get it for me, that's cool too. :) I could always use some of Grandma's jerky too...
Alrighty so we had zone conference this week. It was really good. They are always really good. This one was a lot different than they usually are, though. Instead of talking about things that we can do to improve and roleplaying and all that stuff that we always do, this one was all focused on the Atonement. It was great. There were no roleplays, but all of the Zone leaders, the APs and President and Sister Evans all talked about different parts of the Atonement. I enjoyed it a lot. It really strengthened my testimony and helped me understand the Atonement a little bit more.
Ok, so then we had the Water Festival. Wahoo! I still can't believe it happened already. That was a fast year. So friday, we started helping set stuff up - all the tents for the vendor booths and such. Until it started raining and windy-ing (?) then we had to take them all down. haha. There was some wicked cool lightning and thunder too. It lasted about 30 minutes and then it was gone. Weird. That's how it goes in Mass, though. Kinda like Utah. But then we set everything up and the festival got started. There were some traditional Lao, Thai, and Cambodian performances, and at the end of the Friday night thing, the monks gave a blessing. That was cool. I got a video of it. Don't know if I was supposed to, but whatever. haha. Then on Saturday, we got there and set up our booth. We had our tent with our big cambodian banner, the giant Bible and Book of Mormon, and we had tons of pamphlets and supplies to give out, plus these wicked cool pens that President made for us that say "families can be together forever - mormon.org" on them. I kept some. And we had typed up some questions of the soul that we put up on our booth as well. I'll attach a picture of it so you can see what I'm talking about since I still haven't sent home the pictures of last years festival. haha. So yeah, it looked really cool. We had a TV too, that was playing some of the stuff the church has about the work in Cambodia. It was sweet. We got to talk to lots of people about our church and overall, it went really well. We had a few interesting people come to our booth. One of them was this 15 year old Korean kid. This is how the conversation started:
kid: I'm a Christian
me: So are we
kid: But I believe in Jesus
me: So do we
kid: But I don't belong to a cult
me: Neither do we
Haha! I couldn't believe it. I thought it was really funny though. He talked to us for a good 20 minutes and we were trying to tell him what we believe but he was just denying everything we said and it was just really funny. We got some people that were actually interested though, so that is good. There were about 15 people between us and Lynn that wanted to know more so hopefully they will progress and get baptized! I got some cool souvenirs too. Some more cds, a dvd, a sweet cambodian flag belt, a painting, and a cambodian hammock. I'm pretty excited about all of it. And the funny thing is I was able to talk the price down on everything I bought, so I didn't even spend as much as I thought I would. Cool, eh? haha. but yeah, I enjoyed it a lot, it went really well, and we got to preach the gospel too! Some of the people that are in charge of the Festival asked me if I was coming back next year. I told them I wouldn't be there as a missionary, but maybe I can come visit. That would be sweet.
Ok, well I think that is about it for this week. I would tell you all about the members in our wards and the wonderful missionaries they are, but the white handbook says that we shouldn't say anything negative about the areas I serve in so I'll keep that to myself this time. haha. Well, I hope you have a wonderful week again. Hope to hear from you next week. Kurtis, you should tell me about your new coach. Maybe I'll stop sending you my emails... Love y'all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Alrighty so we had zone conference this week. It was really good. They are always really good. This one was a lot different than they usually are, though. Instead of talking about things that we can do to improve and roleplaying and all that stuff that we always do, this one was all focused on the Atonement. It was great. There were no roleplays, but all of the Zone leaders, the APs and President and Sister Evans all talked about different parts of the Atonement. I enjoyed it a lot. It really strengthened my testimony and helped me understand the Atonement a little bit more.
Ok, so then we had the Water Festival. Wahoo! I still can't believe it happened already. That was a fast year. So friday, we started helping set stuff up - all the tents for the vendor booths and such. Until it started raining and windy-ing (?) then we had to take them all down. haha. There was some wicked cool lightning and thunder too. It lasted about 30 minutes and then it was gone. Weird. That's how it goes in Mass, though. Kinda like Utah. But then we set everything up and the festival got started. There were some traditional Lao, Thai, and Cambodian performances, and at the end of the Friday night thing, the monks gave a blessing. That was cool. I got a video of it. Don't know if I was supposed to, but whatever. haha. Then on Saturday, we got there and set up our booth. We had our tent with our big cambodian banner, the giant Bible and Book of Mormon, and we had tons of pamphlets and supplies to give out, plus these wicked cool pens that President made for us that say "families can be together forever - mormon.org" on them. I kept some. And we had typed up some questions of the soul that we put up on our booth as well. I'll attach a picture of it so you can see what I'm talking about since I still haven't sent home the pictures of last years festival. haha. So yeah, it looked really cool. We had a TV too, that was playing some of the stuff the church has about the work in Cambodia. It was sweet. We got to talk to lots of people about our church and overall, it went really well. We had a few interesting people come to our booth. One of them was this 15 year old Korean kid. This is how the conversation started:
kid: I'm a Christian
me: So are we
kid: But I believe in Jesus
me: So do we
kid: But I don't belong to a cult
me: Neither do we
Haha! I couldn't believe it. I thought it was really funny though. He talked to us for a good 20 minutes and we were trying to tell him what we believe but he was just denying everything we said and it was just really funny. We got some people that were actually interested though, so that is good. There were about 15 people between us and Lynn that wanted to know more so hopefully they will progress and get baptized! I got some cool souvenirs too. Some more cds, a dvd, a sweet cambodian flag belt, a painting, and a cambodian hammock. I'm pretty excited about all of it. And the funny thing is I was able to talk the price down on everything I bought, so I didn't even spend as much as I thought I would. Cool, eh? haha. but yeah, I enjoyed it a lot, it went really well, and we got to preach the gospel too! Some of the people that are in charge of the Festival asked me if I was coming back next year. I told them I wouldn't be there as a missionary, but maybe I can come visit. That would be sweet.
Ok, well I think that is about it for this week. I would tell you all about the members in our wards and the wonderful missionaries they are, but the white handbook says that we shouldn't say anything negative about the areas I serve in so I'll keep that to myself this time. haha. Well, I hope you have a wonderful week again. Hope to hear from you next week. Kurtis, you should tell me about your new coach. Maybe I'll stop sending you my emails... Love y'all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Monday, August 15, 2011
Livin' The Dream
Hey guess what? I'm a missionary! I just wanted to remind all of you how cool that is. Pretty much the coolest thing ever. So yeah. This week was pretty normal. Didn't teach a whole lot of people, we only have one investigator and she's not progressing cause she won't come to church (plus the fact that she's not all there in the head), couldn't find any new investigators either. But that's ok cause I'm a missionary. That happens sometimes. But yeah, there isn't a whole lot to talk about this week. We are in final preparations for the Water Festival this week. So excited for that. I'll probably be taking out like 50 bucks by the way. Gotta get some cool cambodian souvenirs and such, you know? It's going to be sweet. I really think that our booth is going to look good this year, and hopefully that will attract a lot of people that will be interested in the church. I honestly can't believe that it's already here. Crazy!
So last week I don't remember if I told you about the activity we had for the single's ward we serve in. We were in charge of a missionary activity for the ward, and we came up with a BBQ/movie/sports activity. Well, we announced it a lot in church and were pretty excited for it. And we ended up having a really good turnout. Unfortunately, however, the members must have forgot that it was a MISSIONARY activity, and so everyone that was there were members. Lame! We were hoping that it would produce some people that would want to learn more, but nope. Just another one of those things that strengthens my resolve to be a good member missionary when I get home.
I'm trying to think if there is anything cool I can talk about but I'm having some trouble. I haven't seen Dax yet, and I don't think I will anytime soon cause he got put down in Hartford, CT. We have zone conferences this week, but our zones aren't together this time. So that means I have no idea when I'll see him. OH! I thought of something funny. So last week, remember how I told you that we were in charge of our district pday activity? Yeah, so we had a BBQ at our church with the other Elders in our district. It was a really cool activity, and one of the things that made it so cool was when the smoke alarm for the church went off. haha. We had the BBQ outside the kitchen and the door to the kitchen was open, and the smoke from the BBQ went inside and set off the alarm. So within minutes, we heard sirens (which I've heard every day since I've been in Lowell, but this was the first time they were for me! :) ) and then the firetruck showed up. We had called 911 to let them know it wasn't a real fire and they said that was ok. But the firetruck came and shut off the alarm and then left. then the PR guy from the church came over and told us that he was super worried cause he thought the building was on fire, but it was all good. We gave him a hot dog to cheer him up and he was ok after that. haha. So that was exciting.
We still have lots of potential investigators that are not doing too much other than being hard to contact. That's always frustrating. but whatever.
I have a request of you as well. I am in need of some new music. I was wondering if you could send me a copy of that Christmas album that I bought mom before I left? That would be cool. And any other Christmas music that falls under the category of Classical, Hymns or Motab. I'm in a Christmas music mood. I'm also still waiting for that Josh Wright CD that Kasey said she was going to get me....
Well, I hope that you all have a wonderfastic week. That's pretty weird to think that Justin's moving out. And it's weird to think that school is starting up again. The kids here don't go back for another month! haha. cool beans! Well I love you all and hope to hear from more of you next week!
Love,
Elder Hammer
So last week I don't remember if I told you about the activity we had for the single's ward we serve in. We were in charge of a missionary activity for the ward, and we came up with a BBQ/movie/sports activity. Well, we announced it a lot in church and were pretty excited for it. And we ended up having a really good turnout. Unfortunately, however, the members must have forgot that it was a MISSIONARY activity, and so everyone that was there were members. Lame! We were hoping that it would produce some people that would want to learn more, but nope. Just another one of those things that strengthens my resolve to be a good member missionary when I get home.
I'm trying to think if there is anything cool I can talk about but I'm having some trouble. I haven't seen Dax yet, and I don't think I will anytime soon cause he got put down in Hartford, CT. We have zone conferences this week, but our zones aren't together this time. So that means I have no idea when I'll see him. OH! I thought of something funny. So last week, remember how I told you that we were in charge of our district pday activity? Yeah, so we had a BBQ at our church with the other Elders in our district. It was a really cool activity, and one of the things that made it so cool was when the smoke alarm for the church went off. haha. We had the BBQ outside the kitchen and the door to the kitchen was open, and the smoke from the BBQ went inside and set off the alarm. So within minutes, we heard sirens (which I've heard every day since I've been in Lowell, but this was the first time they were for me! :) ) and then the firetruck showed up. We had called 911 to let them know it wasn't a real fire and they said that was ok. But the firetruck came and shut off the alarm and then left. then the PR guy from the church came over and told us that he was super worried cause he thought the building was on fire, but it was all good. We gave him a hot dog to cheer him up and he was ok after that. haha. So that was exciting.
We still have lots of potential investigators that are not doing too much other than being hard to contact. That's always frustrating. but whatever.
I have a request of you as well. I am in need of some new music. I was wondering if you could send me a copy of that Christmas album that I bought mom before I left? That would be cool. And any other Christmas music that falls under the category of Classical, Hymns or Motab. I'm in a Christmas music mood. I'm also still waiting for that Josh Wright CD that Kasey said she was going to get me....
Well, I hope that you all have a wonderfastic week. That's pretty weird to think that Justin's moving out. And it's weird to think that school is starting up again. The kids here don't go back for another month! haha. cool beans! Well I love you all and hope to hear from more of you next week!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Lots of Stuffs
Ok so I don't have a lot of time to email today because we are in charge of our district pday and we need to go get things ready for it. We're having a BBQ. So I will just run over everything that I have written down in my planner that happened this week and if I feel the need, I will elaborate. First, this week we taught a lot in Khmer. Probably the most of my mission. Things are finally starting to make sense when people are talking to me, although there are still lots of people I don't understand. Just the regional differences in the language. Some I understand perfectly, others I don't. haha. But it's going well. We have 2 cambodian investigators right now, and a few more potentials. It is always a good day when we get to talk a lot of Khmer, so this week was good cause we did that a lot. We extended a baptismal date to one of those investigators but she didn't accept. Bummer. She said she wants to get baptized, just not on the date we extended. But I think she's a little crazy. She's not all there in the head, so I'm trying to figure out if we should even be teaching her. Oh well. haha.
Sunday I got to do my first confirmation. It was for the daughter of one of the cambodian members in our ward. That was pretty cool. The baptism was pretty funny. Elder Ang baptized her, and when he was doing it, he had his left arm raised instead of his right. I wasn't one of the witnesses, but neither of them caught it so I went up and told them and he had to do it again. That was good. I was like the only one that realized it was the wrong hand though. haha.
We have transfers this week too, if you haven't guessed from the late email. None of us are being transferred. There was only one transfer in my district, so that was kinda weird. haha. I've come to realize that my mission has lots of weird things in it. Such as being in one area for 13 months or being in a threesome for more than 1 transfer. That's going to be fun... threesomes are a lot different than normal companionships. But, we get along alright and things are going better than they were, so it's all good. With it being transfers, there are like 13 missionaries going home. And one of them is one of my good friends that I've made on the mission. I lived with him as my ZL in lynn for 8 months so we are pretty good friends. It's weird that he's going home. I've known him since the beginning of my mission too, so that's cool. He's going to BYU so I'm sure I'll see him there but it's still weird that he's leaving. But, that also means that Dax gets here too! He arrives today, but unfortunately I don't get to go to the transfer meeting so I won't be able to see him for now. But we have Zone Conference next week, so depending on what zone he gets put in, I might see him then. That'd be cool. Speaking of Hawks, I should thank Bro. Hawks for the couple letters he's sent me. It's always great hearing from people back home. And they were really encouraging too, so thanks!
So here's a cool short story- I was on tours (exchanges) with one of the elders in my district last week. We went to try and visit this potential investigator that they have, and as we were driving there, it started raining like I've never seen it rain before. It was incredible. So we got to the place we were going and realized we had to go out in the rain to get to the door of the person. haha. We got DRENCHED! It was awesome. We were outside for maybe 1 minute (the person wasn't home) and we were completely soaked. It was fun. I enjoyed it.
Oh yeah, and a few days ago we were out tracting and we ran into this Jehovah's Witness lady. I didn't know she was JW until she gave me their newest edition of The Watchtower. I asked her if we could trade, so I gave her a Restoration pamphlet. She talked to us about some stuff that was kinda weird and non-relevant to anything, but she thought it was interesting and wanted to share it with us. It was actually pretty funny. Good news is that it didn't turn into a bash or argument, although we definitely could have turned it into such. We kept our cool. But then later that same day as we were continuing our tracting adventure, there were a couple of houses we tracted that had different copies of the Watchtower on the front steps, so I politely took them and replaced them with the truth. haha. So now I have a watchtower collection. Interesting...
So I think that's it. We got the go to move houses. We should be moving within the next two weeks, but I'm not sure yet. That should be exciting though. We got to go apartment shopping and choose the one we liked, so it's pretty nice. And it's on the second floor, so no worries about someone shoving our AC through the window and browsing around our apartment. haha.
I was also wondering about that GPS and when I could get it. That would be mighty helpful. FYI. ;)
And I was also wondering if there's any update on my application for BYU. I think I need to write some essays or something. I want to apply to Snow College too, I decided. Just in case...
So yeah, I think that's it. Just kidding. Mom, Water Festival is next Saturday, the 20th. I'm super stoked. It's gonna be fun. Our booth is going to rock.
Ok well, That is all. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. I guess that wasn't all. I hit 18 month last week. That's weird. I can't believe BYU football starts in less than a month. And I don't know if Elder Gluch gets my emails, but if he does, I just want him to know that I loved his comment about how he thinks he has worms. Made me laugh a lot. haha. Cool beans!
Sunday I got to do my first confirmation. It was for the daughter of one of the cambodian members in our ward. That was pretty cool. The baptism was pretty funny. Elder Ang baptized her, and when he was doing it, he had his left arm raised instead of his right. I wasn't one of the witnesses, but neither of them caught it so I went up and told them and he had to do it again. That was good. I was like the only one that realized it was the wrong hand though. haha.
We have transfers this week too, if you haven't guessed from the late email. None of us are being transferred. There was only one transfer in my district, so that was kinda weird. haha. I've come to realize that my mission has lots of weird things in it. Such as being in one area for 13 months or being in a threesome for more than 1 transfer. That's going to be fun... threesomes are a lot different than normal companionships. But, we get along alright and things are going better than they were, so it's all good. With it being transfers, there are like 13 missionaries going home. And one of them is one of my good friends that I've made on the mission. I lived with him as my ZL in lynn for 8 months so we are pretty good friends. It's weird that he's going home. I've known him since the beginning of my mission too, so that's cool. He's going to BYU so I'm sure I'll see him there but it's still weird that he's leaving. But, that also means that Dax gets here too! He arrives today, but unfortunately I don't get to go to the transfer meeting so I won't be able to see him for now. But we have Zone Conference next week, so depending on what zone he gets put in, I might see him then. That'd be cool. Speaking of Hawks, I should thank Bro. Hawks for the couple letters he's sent me. It's always great hearing from people back home. And they were really encouraging too, so thanks!
So here's a cool short story- I was on tours (exchanges) with one of the elders in my district last week. We went to try and visit this potential investigator that they have, and as we were driving there, it started raining like I've never seen it rain before. It was incredible. So we got to the place we were going and realized we had to go out in the rain to get to the door of the person. haha. We got DRENCHED! It was awesome. We were outside for maybe 1 minute (the person wasn't home) and we were completely soaked. It was fun. I enjoyed it.
Oh yeah, and a few days ago we were out tracting and we ran into this Jehovah's Witness lady. I didn't know she was JW until she gave me their newest edition of The Watchtower. I asked her if we could trade, so I gave her a Restoration pamphlet. She talked to us about some stuff that was kinda weird and non-relevant to anything, but she thought it was interesting and wanted to share it with us. It was actually pretty funny. Good news is that it didn't turn into a bash or argument, although we definitely could have turned it into such. We kept our cool. But then later that same day as we were continuing our tracting adventure, there were a couple of houses we tracted that had different copies of the Watchtower on the front steps, so I politely took them and replaced them with the truth. haha. So now I have a watchtower collection. Interesting...
So I think that's it. We got the go to move houses. We should be moving within the next two weeks, but I'm not sure yet. That should be exciting though. We got to go apartment shopping and choose the one we liked, so it's pretty nice. And it's on the second floor, so no worries about someone shoving our AC through the window and browsing around our apartment. haha.
I was also wondering about that GPS and when I could get it. That would be mighty helpful. FYI. ;)
And I was also wondering if there's any update on my application for BYU. I think I need to write some essays or something. I want to apply to Snow College too, I decided. Just in case...
So yeah, I think that's it. Just kidding. Mom, Water Festival is next Saturday, the 20th. I'm super stoked. It's gonna be fun. Our booth is going to rock.
Ok well, That is all. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. I guess that wasn't all. I hit 18 month last week. That's weird. I can't believe BYU football starts in less than a month. And I don't know if Elder Gluch gets my emails, but if he does, I just want him to know that I loved his comment about how he thinks he has worms. Made me laugh a lot. haha. Cool beans!
YAY!
Wahoo! We have people to teach now! haha. This week was a lot better than the last couple of months have been. Actually, I guess it was just Saturday that was a lot better, but that made the whole week better. So since not a whole lot happened until Saturday, I'll just talk about that. Saturday morning, I did my first baptismal interview. Finally! It was a great experience. The woman that I interviewed has a strong testimony and is super cool. The Elders that taught her did a really great job, cause she was definitely ready to be baptized. And she was baptized yesterday. So that started off Saturday on a good step. Then we did our studies which were pretty good. Then after that, we went to visit some potentials that we had. None of them were home, but as we were walking around, we got to talk to a lot of people. This week there was a huge festival in downtown Lowell, so on saturday there were about a bazillion people for us to talk to. We were going to go to the festival and contact people there, but we ended up just talking to lots of people on our way to the festival and ended up running out of time so we didn't even get to the festival. haha. But we found 12 new potential investigators on saturday. It was a good day. We were able to talk to a lot of people, and it was just a great day. I know that it's been rough for the last little while here, but now we have some people to work with that are a lot more promising than the few people we've had before. So that was basically it, actually. It feels like we did a lot more than that, but I guess it was just a good enough day that it makes me feel like we have like 20 investigators. haha. I'm a lot happier than I was last week too, if you can't tell. So yeah, I guess that's about all. Oh just kidding. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. That was cool. It was only the second talk I've given on my mission, and it was the same topic as last time in Lynn! haha. That was cool. The topic was service. That's an easy topic to talk about, by the way. :) Well, we are meeting with all the cambodian elders to talk about water festival in about an hour and a half, and it's about a 40 minute drive to where we are meeting and we still have to go grocery shopping so I need to get going. Yes, I still need a gps. That would be very much appreciated. Tell Bro. Karr thanks a TON. I hate trying to find my way around the city here with all of it's ridiculous one way's and "do not enter unless it's this time of day" and all of everything else that is only in New England with just a map. haha. I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Hammer
Elder Hammer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
