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