Flight Plans and Fire Alarms

This week was a great week. We got our flight plans on Friday. We fly from salt lake to Dallas, Dallas to London, London to Johannesburg, Johannesburg to Madagascar. We have 33 hours of total flight time and just about 60 hours of total travel time. We have a 9 hour layover in London. That is the longest one. The longest flight is from Dallas to London, 15 hours! I am not looking forward to it, but I have set a goal to reread the book of Mormon during the travel time. I am just about done with the book of Mormon already. I restarted when I got here and I am in 3rd Nephi. It has been great.

We still have not heard from an apostle. I am not too disappointed due to the fact that the devotionals have been amazing. We have one left before we leave on Monday. We fly out at 1:30 pm, but we leave the MTC at 8:30 am. I may be calling home from the airport. I am not positive so be home if you can around 12:00.

Now for the fun part of the week. You may have wondered what was with the subject line when I said fire alarms. Don't worry nothing bad happened. We were playing basketball in the gym. Elder Koplin air balled a three and I went to save it from going out of bounds. In the process I ran into the padded wall and just happened to elbow the fire alarm. I looked at the alarm and there was a light that turned on. I instantly started praying that I did not set it off. Sure enough a few seconds later the intercom came on and said that there was a fire and that we needed to evacuate the building. As we were walking out I explained what had happened to one of the MTC workers and they said that it would be alright. At this point we were out side when I felt something running down my arm. I reached over to see what it was and my hand came back covered in blood. I was so full of adrenaline that I had not realized the big gash on my elbow. We got back into the gym a few minutes later, and I got my elbow cleaned up. One of the workers said that there was a big piece of skin left on the fire alarm, and that there was blood on the floor. It had been dripping off my fingers without me realizing. Don't worry about me, I haven't even noticed anything wrong with my arm other than it hurts to lean on it. That was my big moment this week in the MTC.

Another really cool thing was that last night Elder Reich and I got to be in charge of a meeting with all the new zone members. We had 31 new members come in this week. We were the only district for a day due to all the other districts leaving on Monday. That meeting was a blast and we got to know all of the new Members. We got 8 Sisters and 23 Elders. It has been a lot of fun being the Zone leaders. We have gotten to know the other districts really well.

We said goodbye to one of our teachers yesterday. That was really weird. He is going to be gone until after we leave. We still have our other 2 teachers though. Again the week has been about the same other than the fire alarm incident. Next time I email I will be in Madagascar. Don't forget to be home around 12 in the afternoon on Monday. I love you.

Elder Hammer

Surprise!

Brother Glazier was at the missionary devotional last week. He called and said he had sent a surprise email...Kurtis saw him from a distance, came running and gave him a huge bear hug. As Brother Glazier said, "He is doing great, just great!"

Almost Done!!!

I have 11 more days before I leave! I can not wait. I had a pretty rough day last Thursday. I ended up staying in the laundry room for 3 hours due to the soap not dissolving and coming out all clumpy on my clothes. That was alright though. I have been doing great.

We had our first TRC lesson last Thursday. It was awesome. We taught a guy named Mitchell. He is a marine and is gigantic. He was shorter than me, but his biceps were the size of my head. I was terrified when I first saw him. The thing that calmed me down was when my companion pulled out his dog tags to tell him that he is in the army and to our surprise Mitchell pulled his out to. It definitely helped us stay relaxed while we taught him.

Before I forget, thank you Beatty family for the Oreo Truffles. They are delicious. I hope that Boyd starts doing well. Nothing amazing has happened this week. We have just been teaching lessons and learning more Malagasy. We still haven't had an apostle come, but the devotionals have been amazing. Tell Kadin that I am proud of him for trying football out for another year. He wont regret it. We will get our flight itinerary tomorrow, not today. I am a little bummed out about that. Yesterday I got to host the new missionaries. It was a blast. We are doing it again next week.

I don't know if I should tell mom this, but our teachers told us to expect skin fungus's. Yes that is plural. One of our teachers lost count of how many he got. they told us that diarrhea is also very common. I don't remember if I told you last week, but they also have open sewage systems so when it floods... It goes everywhere. Yay!! In other words we get to walk through it. I am sure that I will have plenty of those stories to tell while I am out there. Oh another thing, Elder Reich and I are the zone leaders. We were called on Sunday. It has been a blast getting to know all of the elders and sisters in our zone. Sadly they all leave on Monday. We will be the only district for a day. We get new people on Wednesday. I don't think that there is anything else that has happened. I did see the Glaziers as you know, I also saw Brother Melville. I am praying for you. Tiako anao!

Elder Hammer