The End

Well, I guess this is it, huh? Pretty weird. This transfer went by WAY too fast. And with all the changes that will be happening from transfers, I wish I was staying one more so I could be part of the awesomeness. haha. So this week was Sophan's confirmation. I got to do it. It was awesome. I had all these things in my head of what I could say to her in the blessing (even though we aren't supposed to do that) but then when I gave the blessing, I didn't say anything from what I had thought of before. It was a pretty cool experience. It was really spiritual too. She is so solid. We have been over twice this week, once to meet with the Relief Society President to talk about visiting teaching, and then once just so I could say bye. She feeds us every time we go over, and it is always greatly delicious. This last time was no exception, except it was probably the weirdest thing I've eaten on my mission. She brought out a big bowl of rice, like always, along with some weirdish looking soup stuff with small noodles and green onions in it. It smelled awesome, so I was excited. Then she went back into the kitchen and brought out a plate of "meat" with various hot sauces and powders to go with it. Well, the meat turned out to be cow stomach and pig intestine. I've had stomach before, and it wasn't amazing because it was cold. This time it was cooked and warm, and it was actually really good, apart from it being really chewy. Pig intestine was new for me. haha. It was really good too. It had an interesting flavor, but it had a hint of ham/bacon, and it just kinda melted in my mouth. It was good. Then in the soup/noodle stuff, there were little chunks of something, so I asked what they were. She said it was pig skin. So I ate the same thing a football is made out of. hahahaha. It was all really yummy though. I liked it. It was weird, but after I got over the fact that I was putting that stuff into my own stomach, it was easier to eat. haha. Kurtis requested in his letter that I make something for dinner when I get home. Well, I think I'll have to go with that one. :)

Speaking of food, I made it to the Haven Bros. Diner on monday night. I accomplished all 3 of the places Dad told me to try out, and they were all amazing. I got the triple murder burger, with an egg on top, as seen on Man v Food. It was well worth the $10. Mostly because the Elder I was on exchanges with bought it for me, but I would pay ten bucks to eat it again. haha.

Also very good news is that the other lady, Cynthia, that we are teaching that has a baptismal date is still the most solid investigator I've ever had. Her and her husband (a returning LA member) read the BoM every morning, and when we go over to teach them, we start out by letting them ask us questions or share what they learned from their study. Yesterday when we taught them, they taught us. haha. It was awesome. She is super excited to get baptized. She will be baptized the same day I give my talk. I'm gonna miss them. But it's not time for the mushy part of my email yet, so I'll hold off on all that stuff. haha

Oh yeah, it snowed again. about 5 inches this time, so I'll officially say it snowed now. haha. But, it's been up in the high 50's low 60's yesterday and today, so it's all gone now. I don't understand the weather this year. hahaha. It's great though, I'm not complaining.

As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of exciting things happening because of the transfers. The biggest, most exciting part of it all is that the other Elders that are in our ward are both being transferred, so our area is taking over all of the work that they were doing. I don't really know why they are doing it that way, but it's cool for this area. They're going to be ridiculously busy now, which is cool. They are inheriting 1 investigator that will be baptized the same day as Cynthia, and they have a bunch of other people that they'll be working with. That's why I want to stay for one more transfer, because there are 3 really solid people that will be baptized next transfer. It's going to be awesome. I'm jealous. haha.

My birthday was cool too. On my birthday, we ate at one of the members from the Single's Branch. She's really cool. It was us, her, and 2 other people from the Branch. Then the next day, we had a big party for me and another Elder at one of the family ward members' houses, along with 3 other families from the ward, and Desmond & Cynthia, who we're teaching. It was really fun to be with all of them. The family that hosted the "party" is the Edwards, who have gone up about a million points in my "cool people list". They feed us frequently, they were some of the very few that attended Sophan's baptism, they are fellowshipping Desmond and Cynthia, she made an awesome homemade carrot cake for me, and she is flying to utah today, and took a box full of stuff for me, so she'll either be in contact with you, or I'll have to meet up with her when I get there so I can get it from her. So anyway, yeah the Edwards are sweet. And yes, I got all your letters. I liked Kurtis' where it said "Our family is cheap, we make our own cards" haha. It made me laugh. Thanks for those.

Well, I can't think of anything else from this week to mention, so I guess its that time. I can't believe my mission is over. Today's Pday, so I'm going to say bye to all the cool people, then tomorrow we have our transfer meeting, after which I will get to go to the temple with President and Sister Evans, and all the other departing missionaries. After that, we go to the mission home to eat dinner and have our departing interview with President. Then Friday morning I fly out and get home around 4. I know I sound like all the other RM's that say that it flew by, but it really did. I look back on when I first went in the MTC, and it feels not too long ago. I've had so many wonderful experiences, I can't even count them all. I've been more frustrated and more happy then I've ever been in my life as I've served the Lord. I have made some amazing friends out here that I hope will continue forever. I'll probably cry tonight when I have to say goodbye to Don. I have grown more than I ever thought I would in my knowledge of the gospel, my testimony, and ultimately who I am. I don't want to be the same person I was before my mission, and I hope that is evident when I get back. I've seen the gospel change peoples' lives, and I know that it has changed mine too. I know that Jesus Christ is everything. Without Him, there is no hope, no light, no life, nothing. His atonement helps us be relieved and forgiven, and I can't think of a better gift to have in this life. I love Him. I'm going to miss my mission a lot. I will look back on it and learn from all of the examples I've had, both good and bad. I love seeing people accept and apply the gospel into their lives. It is real. The Book of Mormon is true. I love that book. Joseph Smith is a real prophet, who was chosen by God to restore the true Church of Jesus Christ. Following the prophet brings us happiness and peace. I love the gospel. I love all of you who have supported me over the last two years, and hopefully I'll be able to thank you enough. Thanks. Seeya on Friday.

Love,
Elder Hammer

Snow!

Happy My Birthday Eve! haha. This week was sweet. Really sweet. Probably one of the most memorable of my mission, actually. there wasn't really anything too exciting that happened during the week, other than on sunday, but it was a great week anyway. Sunday started off great with us having Ward conference, where the Bishop and the Stake President laid the smackdown on the ward for certain things that needed to be said. It was pretty sweet. I enjoyed it. One of the things our Stake President told us to do is to make sure we express our gratitude to our mothers sometime this week, so I'll just say thanks to mom for everything she's done for me my whole life. You're the best, and I can't believe I'll see you again next week! Then you can fix the terrible haircut I gave myself yesterday. hahaha. So then, the rest of church was good. We announced the baptism, and we were expecting a bunch of people to be there, because they had a stake leadership meeting that morning, where they all said they'd be there. Well, as our ward has a record of doing, noone showed up. There were about 7 people there, including none of the bishopric. I was running around the church trying to find a bishopric member, and finally found the Bishop, who was just getting done with an interview, and had asked the first counselor to go to the baptism, but he didn't show up, so the Bishop came. Our Bishop is a great guy. I like him. So once he was there, we started the service. As it started, a few more people came in, totaling our attendance at maybe 15. Too bad for the rest of the ward, cause the service was AWESOME. Me and Elder Winegar each gave talks (both of them being our first ones in cambodian) and then Elder WInegar baptized her. After her baptism, two of the cambodian members bore their testimonies for Sophan, and the Spirit was extremely strong. It was incredible. Easily one of the best baptismal programs I've been to, and not just because it was for us ;) The few members that were at the service all talked to Sophan and congratulated her as well. It was pretty much just all of the coolest members in our ward, minus Tabatha, cause she couldn't make it, but had a good excuse. haha. Next week, I will confirm her, which will be about the best thing I could ask for my last sunday in the mission. It'll be interesting, because I haven't ever given a blessing in Cambodian, but I'm not worried about it. It'll be good. So that's the news on the baptism. We have another one scheduled for February 12, and she is probably the most solid investigator I've ever had, so it'll stink not to see that happen, but it's alright.

Guess what? It finally snowed! we got about an inch lastnight, but its all gone now, cause its like 45 degrees outside. haha. It was exciting to see it snowing though. I enjoyed it while it lasted. Guess what else? We went to Bob and Timmy's pizza yesterday. It was so good. They had a poster on the wall showing off their #5 ranking for best pizza in america. I got the mushroom and spinach one that dad said he was drooling over. It was really good, even though it didn't really fill me up cause it was pretty much a salad on pizza crust. But it really was delicious. The best part, though, was that when we got there, there were some members from our ward there too. They were some of the cool ones that actually came to the baptism, and they are feeding us this week too. But we were talking to them for awhile, and eventually they left. When we were ready to leave, the waitress told us that the guy sitting behind us (the dad in the member family) had paid for our bill! That was so cool. They definitely went up about a million points in the cool member book. haha. Another cool thing about that place is that not only is it the 5th best pizza in america, but the most expensive pizza is only $14. That's pretty cool. We are planning on going to the N.Y. System weiner place tonight for dinner, and apparently that's way cheap too, and then we'll probably go to the burger place sometime this week. Good stuff.

As far as other good stuff that happened this week, we helped Tabatha move to a new place, and I smashed my finger between her chincilla cage and her table while I was putting it in the back of her vehicle, so that hurts. I got my package. Thanks for that. The banana zucchini bread is awesome. All the candy was good too. I took it to District Meeting to share with everyone else. They liked it. haha. And I think that's about it. Guess I'll talk to you next week. In person. Weird. hahaha. Love ya!

Love,
Elder Hammer

Pretty Great Week

So, this week was awesome. Lots of really awesome things happened, most of which are adding to the feeling I have that I don't want to leave... Providence as an area, and our zone, has changed so much since I got to this area, and I want to be here to continue seeing the growth and progression. Which is why I asked President if I could extend... haha just kidding. Gotcha! But seriously, I love this place. So much good has happened in the short time that I've been here. Sophan is getting baptized next week, we have 3 other investigators that will be getting baptized, but I won't be here to see those. Sad, but awesome at the same time. We had interviews with President this week, and after talking about the zone and how everything is going, he looked at me and just said, "I'm going to miss you, Elder Hammer." He also told me that he has a lot more to tell me in my departing interview. It was one of those things that just made me not want to leave. I have grown to love President Evans so much. He is such and amazing man, and has influenced me a lot. We also had our Zone Leader Council which was one of the best meetings I've been to on my mission. Most of the time in those meetings, we talk about the needs of the mission, how we can help, and such, but every once in a while, President or Sister Evans will give us some advice that is just for us and our personal growth. That's exactly what happened this time, and it was awesome. President told us that he was going to give us some advice, as "his sons", that he had only given to his 3 sons. It was cool. I won't tell you what it was, but it was really awesome.

Another way awesome thing that happened was meeting with Desmond, our returning less active, and his wife, Cynthia. It was the first time we had met with her, and we had heard that she had a ton of questions so we invited President to come with us in case she had some hard questions that he could help with. It turned out to be a great discussion, where we answered her questions, taught her the first lesson, and she committed to be baptized! It was such a great meeting. It was cool to see how President responded to some of her questions. He's so smart. haha.

Yeah. My mission is sweet. I love it. I don't really have much else to say, cause I don't wanna ruin all my stories before I come home, that way I still have some to tell ;) I hope you all have a most wonderfully brilliant week. (pretend like I said that in an English accent. haha) Love ya!!

Love,
Elder Hammer

Happy NNew YYYEAR

Wow, it totally doesn't feel like it's 2012. So I don't have a lot of time right now, so my email will probably be shorter than normal this week. sorry. Some of the highlights of our week were A) going to a Cambodian funeral for the niece of our investigator. That was interesting for sure. Lots of Monks chanting and people crying and such. Made me super glad that we know the plan of salvation. Pretty cool stuff. After the funeral, we went to the Cambodian Temple and had a bunch of food. That was fun. The food was really good. I liked it a lot. We had another way cool experience as well. I don't remember if I told you about it or not, but we got a referral from mormon.org, and he just wanted to meet with us. Turns out he's a member who's been inactive since the '90's and he wants to come back to church. He said that he requested us on mormon.org, and also called a bunch of other churches for people to come visit him, and he prayed and told God that if he didn't get an answer that night, he was giving up. Well, we just happened to show up that night. He said that none of the other churches contacted him at all, so he's sticking with us. He's been to church both of the last 2 weeks too. He's awesome. So those are some of the highlights of this week. Sorry for the short email. I haven't gotten my tux sizes yet, but I will try to get them today. Anyway, love you all. have a great week!!!

Love,
Elder Hammer

Christmas Card

Here's an electronic version of the Christmas card I never made. I didn't want to spend money on cards this year, but you can enjoy the picture I would've used. hahahaha, notice our earrings! haha put it on the blog! loveya!

It's not looking anything like Christmas

I think that was pretty similar to my subject line last Christmas. haha. But it's true. We haven't had any snow, and it's not in the forecast. I think Christmas is supposed to be like 55 and sunny. haha. Crazy. Well, this week has been interesting. Not a whole lot to say since I emailed last, but things are going great here. My new companion is really cool. He was called Cambodian speaking, but he has also picked up portuguese and spanish, which comes in handy around these parts. On our first day together, actually about 5 hours into our companionship, we were out tracting. We knocked on this door and this guy just kinda looked at us for a little while before yelling to someone inside. He walked away, then this really big lady came around the corner and opened the door for us. We told her who we were, and she let us in. We talked about our church, the Restoration and what we do as missionaries. She was really interested. She said that she had heard lots of stuff about Mormons, but had never learned about them, but that she liked what we were talking about. She said that she wouldn't be at church this sunday (yesterday) but she would be there for sure next Sunday. The cool part about it is that we didn't say a single thing about church. We didn't invite her to church. She just wanted to go. So that was pretty awesome. Later in that tracting session, it was dark, and we were talking to these two people digging in the trash can. They weren't very interested, but while we were attempting conversation with them, this super drunk Cambodian lady came up to us out of the shadows of a really creepy looking house and started bawling and asking for our forgiveness. It was really quite odd. She just kept saying she was sorry, and she was crying. That happened for like 5 minutes, until another 2 Cambodians came out of nowhere (actually they came from the same shadows of the same really creepy looking house, but it seemed like nowhere). They were not drunk, but the drunk lady started screaming at one of them, and said she didn't want to talk to him. Anyway, we were just kindof ignoring her at this point and started talking to the other two that had appeared. They were pretty interested, and gave us their names, number, and address, because even though they came out of the creepy shadowy house, they don't live there. And as we were talking to them, another Cambodian came out of the same creepy shadows of the creepy house. hahaha. It was really weird. But we talked to all of them. As Elder Winegar (my companion) was talking to the sober ones, I was still trying to talk to the drunk one, and she was acting very drunk. She stopped crying and decided she wanted me to be her husband. (she was like 50, so no, I was not interested haha). She started telling me that she loved me and wanted me to go with her. She tried grabbing my hands, but I had them in my pockets cause it was really cold (oh yeah, it's been really cold the last couple days. like in the teens) But then she just hugged me instead. I was a bit caught off guard so I had no time to block it and she just clamped herself to me. I was saying "ok, that's enough...ok" but she wasn't having any of it. So I just gave up after a few attempts to push her away. She held me for a good 2 or 3 minutes before letting go and running back into the creepy shadows of the creepy house. I'm not exaggerating the number of times the creepy shadows were used either. The house was completely dark, too. After she disappeared, we talked a bit more to the sober ones and then continued tracting. It was great. hahaha. And then a couple of days later, we were tracting again, and this cat followed us for a good 30 - 45 minutes. We named him Follow. Actually Don named him Follow. (Don was tracting with us) hahaha. It was funny. He walked right by my legs along the sidewalk, and then up to the door, where he would lay down until we went to the next house. What a cool cat. haha. So I think that is all my stories for this week. Now I have nothing to say to you when I Skype on Christmas, so if you want me to talk, you should have questions for me. hahaha. Nah, I've got lots of stories to tell you, but I probably won't. They're secret. Anyways, this is one huge paragraph. Mr. Downs would probably be disgusted at it. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I'll be getting the rest of the presents I didn't get last week today, so hopefully it gets home before Christmas, but I doubt it. haha. You'll still like them though. I was pretty tempted to keep the ones I got for Justin, Kurtis and Kadin... Love you all!!! Merry Christmas to anyone that reads this that I won't get to talk to on Sunday!! Go Colts!! (HAHA)

Love,
Elder Hammer

P.S Could I request a copy of my Super Band CD? I want to give it to Don. He likes Jazz music.

Scooby Doo!

Hallo. How's everyone's life going? Mine's alright. No, check that. Mine's great cause I'm a missionary. hahahaha. So there was a lot of stuff that happened this week that made it very good. We had our Zone Christmas temple trip last Thursday. That was awesome. We went to the temple, and it was so great to go there. I had to get my temple recommend renewed, which is weird to think about. It doesn't seem like I've already had that for 2 years. My new one expires in May. I guess they do that with missionaries to make sure they stay on track when they get home. That's good. So yeah, the temple was awesome. After our session, we (us and 2 other Elders) sat in the Celestial Room and just talked about different insights and such that we had. It was so cool. After that, we went and had an amazing lunch down in the cafeteria. Temple food is so good. Then we went to the chapel that is right next to the temple and had a zone testimony meeting. It was one of the more powerful ones I've been in. The Spirit was definitely present. When we were done there, we went to Lynn, since it's only about 20 minutes from the temple so Elder Dawe and I could visit some of the people we wanted to say goodbye to before he goes home this week, and I come home. It was SO good to go back there. It felt so weird to be back. I was driving around, and I missed it so much. But we went and saw 5 of the families in Lynn, and they all gave me some sort of present. It was all a bunch of junk food. haha. We also visited Bro. Buckley down in Revere on our way home. He's the Elder's Quorum President that's only been a member for 3 years. He is so great. I can't really describe how cool it was to see them all again. It made me really want to get transferred back to Lynn for my final transfer, but for reasons I won't explain, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I'll probably ask President if I can go back once more before I go home. That'll be cool. Oh yeah, and I got Mom's present. I didn't see anywhere that said I couldn't open it before Christmas, so I opened it. haha. That is a sweet tie! Thanks. I'm not expecting any presents from anyone to be sent to me. If you have presents for me, just save them til I get home. And if you don't have presents for me, get some and save them til I get home. hahahaha. just kidding.

There have been little things here and there that have hinted to me that my mission is actually going to be over someday. I don't mean that in a bad way, I love my mission, but it just doesn't feel like it's going to end. But every once in awhile, something happens that reminds me that it will end. A few of those things have happened lately. One of the big ones is that Elder Dawe is going home this week. It's going to be so weird without him here in the mission because I've known him basically my whole mission. It's always weird when one of my good mission friends goes home. So that's one of the things that happened that makes me realize it's almost done. He's been such a great missionary too. He's one of the ones that actually makes things change in the mission when they need to change. He has a reputation of being super mean to other missionaries, but it's only because he is one of the few missionaries that does not put up with disobedience and all the disobedient missionaries talk bad about him for that. I wish there were more missionaries like Elder Dawe. I've learned so much from him, and it will be hard to see him go. Good thing it's only 6 weeks before I'll see him again. haha.

Another thing that happened that made me realize that it's going to end is that I got my "Book of Gold" in the mail the other day. It's this 10 page thing that President and Sister Evans have all the departing missionaries do that is their record of their mission. We give our life history, our testimony, our companions, areas, investigators, memories, advice for new missionaries, and a bunch of other stuff. I've seen so many other missionaries get theirs, but now its finally my turn to fill it out. Along with that came.... my flight plans... That was a shocker to see. I leave January 27 at 9 in the morning from Boston. I fly to Atlanta, GA, have a 2 hour layover, and then from there, fly to SLC. My arrival time is approximately 4:07 pm, your time. I can't believe it's that close. It does not seem like it has been that long already. I have experienced a lot since I've been out. My testimony has grown a lot. Hopefully you'll notice a change in me when I get home. I want it to be very clear that my testimony is solid, and that I know that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't want it to sound like I am trunky - that's not what I'm going for here. It's just been more on my mind because of the events of this last week. I'll probably mention it more in my future emails too, but don't worry about me getting trunky. If there's anything I've learned over the time I've been here in Providence, it's that obedience pays off, and that I do NOT want to end my mission knowing that I could've worked harder. I've made it a goal that I work every day as hard as possible so I have no regrets about the end of my mission, like I know so many others do.

I guess I should tell you that I'm not going to be with Elder Pierson anymore either. He's getting transferred to Billerica, MA, which is up by Lowell. He's excited for that. I'm going to be with Elder Winegar, who is one of the other Cambodian Elders. I never thought I would serve with him, cause he's been out for about 16 months ( I think) and we haven't yet served with each other so we just assumed we wouldn't. But now, he'll be the one to kill me. haha. I'm excited for it. He knows the language better than I do too, so that'll be good for me to learn it better before I'm done. Especially since I haven't spoken to my companion in cambodian for about 3 months. That will be nice to do again.

Alright well, I am about out of time so I need to close up. This was a pretty epic email though, I'd say. Nice and long. haha. I hope you all have a wonderfantabulous week. I'll probably buy a bunch of presents for y'all today and send them home sometime before Christmas. I probably won't wrap any of them either, so don't open the box until Christmas. hahaha. Have a good one. Love ya!!!

Much love,
Elder Hammer