Revenge

Hello!!!

It's funny you should mention that one piece 'breath on me' because the word for 'inspire' in Armenian literally means 'soul breathe' so I thought that was kind of interesting.  (Here's what Carl had written to Jared:   I drafted Madeleine to play a violin piece - which she played nicely. I found it a few weeks ago while browsing music online - it's called Breathe on Me. Which is a poetic way of praying for inspiration - or "inspire me.")

 But anyways, about the whole Middle - of - nowhere period for me, it's kinda weird, but I haven't really hit that because I haven't let myself. (In Carl's letter he talks about the'middle of nowhere" time, a time in a musician's life when they are past the "oooohh cool new instrument!" phase and before the "I'm really enjoying music now that I can finally play something other than etudes all day!"  phase where many musicians feel like dropping out.  It can happen to missionaries, church members, etc.)Sometimes I just like to slow down, and realize where I am. I'll be walking around during a finding hour and just pause and look at the towering Soviet buildings around me, or the towering Mt. Ararat in the background, or all the people on the street and I just fall in love with this country all over again. Or I'll be in language study, pause for a second, look at how the individual characters curve and come together to make sounds and words, and then realize I can read it. It's really just amazing for me. I just love this language so much and this people, this country. I know some other missionaries that kind of get used to being able to read Armenian and it's kind of lost the charm for them, but I continue to be amazed and the uniqueness of everything here :)

Anyways, this week was slow again. We lost a few more investigators. Our really good investigator family told us they couldn't meet with us until the end of June, so that was really depressing. But hopefully one of our old investigators should be coming back to Nork real soon :) 

So I have a new companion now, his name is Elder Smith. We just transferred this  morning, so I won't be able to tell you much about him until next week :)

On one day, we knew the transfer call was coming, so I decided to mess with Elder Hatch :P While he was in the bathroom, I clicked on President Carter's ring tone on the phone and pretended to pick up and start talking. I heard this huge scramble in the bathroom as I continued to fake a transfer call. As soon as I said "okay, thank you President, I'll let him know" and hung up, Elder Hatch bursts out of the bathroom with his pants still undone and looks at me all expectantly. Then I couldn't hold it in any longer and spilled the truth :p

Yesterday Violet came to church :) and she told me they're actually moving to the United States for good in just a little while. So I gave her my home email address and told her to tell me where she's going. :))) I really hope everything works out for her :)

We had a pretty neat experience this week. As we were walking home, we here this voice from the dark side of the alley where all the garages are, calling us over. So we went over this guy asked a little about us (still couldn't see his face) and we told him who we were. He then asked "I've had a revenge in my heart for 20 years. How do I get rid of it?" It's funny because I had just looked up the word for revenge a few weeks ago and hadn't learned it, but the word came straight to my memory. I then told him anything is possible through Jesus Christ and that we had a message that could bring him closer to Him. He then asked for our number and stuff and I gave him a pamphlet with our names and numbers. I never really got to see his face clearly, but it was a really neat experience just to bear pure testimony about the atoning sacrifice of Christ. 

Anyways, that was my week. I hope you like the pictures. I'm not sure how often I can send then because of viruses, but these are all the ones I have so far :) 

Love you all!!

Elder Hammer

Stix, Elder Hatch, and Elder Hammer

Large Armenian church in the middle of Center

Armenian Sheep near a member's home

Elder Hatch with a member's glasses

Statue of Hyke. The tradition is that Hayk (sounds like Hike) shot an arrow across the Hrazdan river and killed the Turkish king on the other side. :) The name Hyke is aparently why the people are called the Hay (sounds like Hi)  people. And the language is called Hayeren and the country Hayastan.

Me and Rubo (Sambareko!)