Monday, March 25, 2013

Why I'm in Armenia

Giant statue of a duduk (I looked up and found out that a duduk is a double reed woodwind instrument.  Apparently a duduk was used in the movie The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe when Mr. Tumnus plays a lullaby. Things you learn!)
Hello!

That's so weird that the ward building is all remodeled. It'll be crazy to come back and see it.


Well, the last transfer happened this week. Right now, I'm companions with Elder Wood. He's fresh out of his training in Vanadzor, and we were pretty good friends before the transfer, so we're both pretty excited. My companion Elder Harrington got transferred to Gyumri and he's a senior companion now. My Zone Leader companion (the zone leaders were all split last transfer) went back home to Kansas.


So yeah, right now, they decided to just keep me a normal Elder without leadership, which makes Monday mornings a whole lot less stressful. I think that'll be nice. Though I will miss the opportunity to work with a larger field of missionaries. I really enjoyed being a Zone Leader. I really loved my zone a whole lot. I am still the group leader for Alaverdi, so I'll continue doing the sacrament and stuff up there.

The new group is pretty big. Five elders and four sister, with only two elders leaving and one sister. So they had to open up a few more areas, including Nork!!! My old and longest area! :))) It made me super happy. But yeah, the Elders were all at least 19, but we had one 19 year old sister. It was really weird to see her picture, because she looks like she's just out of high school, if that. I hope she does fine. I'm sure she will. We have tough sisters in this mission.

Right now we're working with this one young man in our area named Tigran. He's a less-active guy about 21 years old. He'd always had a dream of going on a mission since he was baptized, but a lot of stuff happened that took him off track and got him distracted with other things. We met with him last night and it was incredible to see the change in him from beginning to the end of our meeting. He started off kind of wishy-washy saying he didn't know if he still wanted to go on a mission (even though we could still tell there was an inner desire). He said that he was one year away from finishing up theater school and if he left, he wasn't sure if he'd get his spot back. Then we shared the story of Lehi and Nephi and how the left a lot of things behind, and made a lot of sacrifices, but they trusted the Lord and were led to an even greater land. We said that's sometimes how it is in life. The Lord commands us to do things sometimes, and it might require a sacrifice, but in the end, it will always turn out better than what you had in mind for yourself. We then asked him "what can we do to help you to go on a mission?" That's when his eyes lit up. He asked us to call him several times a night and remind him to read his scriptures, and he also asked us to come over sometimes and practice the missionary lessons with him from Preach My Gospel. He then mentioned that he would give up his theater school and say goodbye to them all if he needed. It was amazing. He is one of our biggest focuses right now, and we're both super excited to help him prepare.This Sunday was the first time he came to church in about 6 months or so. He said he's going to make it weekly now.  This week I found out why I'm in Armenia.

Well, that was the majority of my week. :) I love you all. Stay healthy!

Love,
Elder Hammer

My new companion :p
Sister Nelson took an old cigarette box and rolled up pieces of paper with scriptures on them to help her investigator stop smoking :)

1 comment:

  1. Hi Elder Hammer:

    So proud of your missionary efforts in Armenia. What a blessing this experience is to you, your family, and those you serve. Our hearts are changed forever when we help bring others to Christ. Your work is of great value!

    With all best wishes --

    Nedra Merrick Luke (your great aunt, though we've never met)

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