East Side Certified

Hey everybody! I can't believe that it's already october 24th. That is NUTS! It definitely doesn't feel like it's that late in october because the weather is still beautiful. It's like 70 right now. It feels so good.

So this week was pretty awesome. Lots of really good stuff happened that has me pretty excited. The girl I told you about last week that we found and scheduled a baptismal date is still doing good. We weren't able to meet with her this week cause she had something come up when we had our appointment, and she didn't come to church yesterday, but we were able to talk to her on the phone and she is doing good. She is still excited to meet with us again and she was really bummed that she wasn't home when we stopped by. So no big updates with her.

We've been doing a lot of tracting lately, due to not having enough people to teach. It's been fun. Tracting in Providence is a really great experience. I wish you all could try it out sometime. Its such a ghetto place and the people are so weird, it makes for a fun time. We tracted a lot on Saturday especially. We were tracting one street at approximately 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Not the typical time for people to be drunk already, but EVERYBODY we talked to on that street was very drunk. haha. Mix that with all the crazy people we already talk to every day, and what do you have? The most interesting tracting experience of my mission. It was great. As we were walking down the street, this Hispanic guy called us to come over and talk to him. We walked over and he was holding a beer in his hand, with about 7 empty ones on the ground around him. He was smiling and looked as if he was going to fall over at any moment. He started talking to us, but we couldn't understand him at all. He just kept saying "Sorry" in this really high pitched voice. It was kinda weird. We gave him a pass along card and left. Then the next door we knocked on, I could hear a bunch of Cambodian dudes gambling inside. We knocked, and this guy came out. His name is Phal, and he's awesome. I'll tell you about him later. As we were talking to Phal, these 2 kids came and told us that "the guy on the porch down there wants to talk to you". So after we finished talking to Phal, we went down to this other guy. He was nuts. For some reason, I thought it would be a good talk, so as we were walking toward him, I started recording on my camera and left it in my pocket. haha. It was a great talk, but he said lots of bad words so I deleted the video. Anyway, we got to him, and he started talking to us. He invited us "inside" which was onto his porch. He had a 2 liter of coke next to him, with a bottle of vodka next to that. He was pretty drunk too. He started talking to us, and told us that "they" had taught us all wrong things as we've been growing up because "they" know how powerful we are. He kept saying "they" as he was talking, so I eventually asked him who "they" were, and he just stopped talking. He thought about it for a minute and started laughing and told me that if I smoked weed with him, I would know who "they" were. haha. I declined. But he kept talking about how he is the "protector of children" for the neighborhood, and he invited us to join his army that he's getting together to overthrow "them". haha. It was such a great experience. Elder Pierson took out his camera and was filming him and he was pretending that he was on tv. He was loving it. haha. We never got his name though. He told us we could come back anytime, but I don't think we'll be doing that anytime soon. haha.

So that's it for the crazies. Now back to Phal. Phal came outside, and yes, he was very drunk too. The smell was very strong. He was talking in Cambodian, which was surprising cause they usually don't start talking Cambodian until I say something first. But he started talking, and came outside and talked to us for awhile. He told me about his family, and how long he's been in the US. He told me about the stuff he went through when he was in Cambodia, trying to get away from the wars. I told him about the Book of Mormon and how it can help his life, and he didn't believe me when I told him that I read Cambodian, so I read a little bit to him and he went off for like 10 minutes about how he's Cambodian and he can't even read it that well. It was funny. But then he opened up to us (as much as a drunk guy can) about how he wants to change his life so he can feel better about himself. He said that he wanted to go to church with us, which was WAY cool cause he's never been to church before, other than the cambodian temples. We invited him to church the next day, and he said that if we could get him a ride, he'd go. So we made some calls, and the next morning, we went to pick him up with one of our cambodian members. He opened his door, and I wish you could have seen his face when he saw us. haha. It was awesome. He said "Oh man, I just woke up. I gotta shower first" But we told him that church started in 15 minutes, so we had to go. He said ok, and quickly changed his clothes and came to church! It was so cool. He was totally feeling the Spirit during Sacrament Meeting too. He had to go after the first meeting, cause he was supposed to be with his grandson, but he said he's definitely coming back next week, and he wants to meet with us! Wahoo! I'm so happy about that. Especially since he kept his word, even though he was drunk when he said he'd come. So yeah, I'm pretty excited about that. It's one of those experiences that strengthen my testimony of how true the gospel is. He was drunk, but he recognized that we can help change his life, and from there, the Spirit was able to take over. Definitely an awesome testimony that the Spirit is real, and that it can touch the hearts of anyone.

Last person I want to talk about is Greg. I may have mentioned him in one of my emails already, but I just wanted to tell you all how awesome he is. He is a member in our ward that used to be in a Cambodian Blood gang. He grew out of it, and now he's the man. He had us over lastnight, and he told us a bunch of crazy gang stories. It was cool. He told us that the streets we've been tracting lately are where the bloods and the crips hang out, which we already knew because they spraypaint their names all over the place. He also told us how the gospel changed his life. His mom is a member, and he was baptized when he was 8, but his dad was an alcoholic, and he eventually just left his family. Greg kinda did his own thing, and that's how he joined the gang, but after awhile, he wizened up and came back to the church and now he's awesome. He's also the one that gave me the idea for the subject line. East Side Certified! haha. It's a gang thing. :) His wife is cambodian and so are his mom in law, and brothers in law, so I talk to them when we go over. They are all way cool people. Another fine example of how the gospel of Jesus Christ can change peoples' lives.

So that's our week. Pretty awesome. It feels good to have things start picking up with the work. Both English and Cambodian. I love being on a mission. I get to see so many crazy things, but no matter how many crazy, or disappointing things I see, I know that what I'm doing is right and true. It feels so good to know that I am one of the Lord's servants. I love it! Booya! Well, I hope you all have a great week. Love ya!

Love,
Elder Hammer