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 :)

Planning

 In Alaverdi

Hello!

So transfers will be coming up soon this week, so keep a heads up for next week. :)

This week was interesting. I left my journal at home, so I'll have to do my best by memory.

 Well, yesterday we took a visit up to Alaverdi again and brought the sacrament to them. It was really quite fun. I always love going up there, especially when we get to give the sacrament to those humble members up there.

 We did a lot of planning this week, Elder Hall and I because we had to change the boarders for the areas in Vanadzor. That took a while because we had to make a map and then place markers where all the active and near-active and less-active potential active members live, and then break up the areas evenly. I think it all worked out in the end though.

This week the Haglunds were putting on a training meeting for all the branch missionaries. They took it seriously and set everything up beforehand, including writing the schedule up on the board and providing the refreshments. We told them it might be easier if we told everyone to show up a half hour earlier than it started so they actually showed up on time, but we decided it would be better to teach people to show up on time. Well, 4:00 came around and no one out of the seven people supposed to show up were there. Sister Haglund kept on changing the start time on the board from 4:00 to 4:01, to 4:05, etc :p I think we got started somewhere around 4:15.

The sisters in our district had a baptism this week. It was a sweet lady named Mariam. She's super nice and way humble. So that was fun getting to see that.

 Well, besides that, not much else happened. We had a little going away lunch as a district today for Elder Hall, who will be heading back this Thursday (technically Friday at dark:00 a.m.)
Love you all!

Elder Hammer

Me...tired

More Alaverdi pictures (I think this is Elder Harrington with Jared)

Vardan(member), Lyova (nonmember), and me (member)

Women's Day

Me and a couple kids in our branch (Don't you just love their eyes? Especially the kid on the right! Okay, the "kid" on the left as well!)

Hello!

This week, we had a zone meeting over in Gyumri. I think it went pretty well. Everyone thought it was great. I just wish that people would put into action what we actually tell them to do. Some missionaries complain about the same results, without having made any changes in that week. Something tells me this story won't really change, even after my mission.

 Well, we had a Family Home Evening last Monday and for the game at the end we played Pictionary. I don't know it means I'm really good or really bad, but it seems like I couldn't really draw anything before they guessed what it was. For example, I was only able to draw a circle and someone guessed "Car!"

 It seems like investigators are few and far between right now. But I absolutely love the one's we get. Like just yesterday we picked up a man who was a friend of an investigator of ours. We met him as he was playing chess with him. His name is Lyova and he was such a funny old man. He was making a whole bunch of jokes the whole time and kept on trying to cheat by pretending the king was a queen. As we were talking, he would always keep on slipping into Russian, despite our member continually yelling "Armenian!!" So after our member made several jokes about him not knowing Armenian, Lyova picked up our Book of Mormon and started reading the title page like a baptist preacher. Then afterwards he was like "hey, that's a neat book you have. Could I get a copy of it?" :P Our response was enthusiastic.

 Lots of good stories this week. They'll all have to wait until I get back though :p Remind me.

This March 8th was an Armenian holiday called Women's day. It's essentially just a day to celebrate women. So we had Elder Haglund go and get three flowers for us and give them to the sisters (including Sister Haglund), on behalf of the district (because we can't really...you know....straight up give flowers to sisters as Elders...)

So that's my week :) Love you all! Sorry this is short, but we have to bounce down to Yerevan for Elder Harrington to get his mouth fixed.

 Love you all!

 Elder Hammer

The kids again

In Gyumri :p No it's not real.

Relief Society activity on March 8th. Women's day

Relief Society

Teaching Sister Haglund how to dance Armenian style

Me and Elder Wood :)

Our Zone

Armenian Soccer....and Sunday School

Our member's dog :p

Hello!

It's kind of funny how you said honking was never really a good sign on your mission. Over here, horns are usually pretty nice. It's either a taxi driver who's seen us before or random people just wanting to give us a wave.

It's the people on the street you have to be careful about :p Especially if they're ages 15-23. They usually don't have anything appropriate to talk about, and they usually don't like us. :p

Well, my food skills are a lot better, it's just I don't really have any time to make elaborate meals. We usually get along fine. But I'll be happy to have more than 60 minutes to make food and swallow it whole, get dressed and get out the door. 

You know you're in Armenia when someone gets called out for adultery in the middle of Sunday school...

This week, we had to go down to Yerevan 1) for Zone Leader counsel and 2) because Elder Harrington chipped his tooth (actually, he kind of broke it off). So after the meeting, we went in for him and we have to come back in next Monday to get it capped. I'm getting a little tired of medical issues. There must be something about me that just radiates injury. 
While we were waiting for one appointment to go to the next, we went out street contacting and we met a Pentecostal who was determined to prove to us that we were from the devil. Yay. :p

This week we also went to Alaverdi. It was good as usual :) I'll send some pictures

Tuesday was Elder Harrington's birthday. So at 5:45 in the morning, I got up and made some German Pancakes for us :) I think he liked it. 

Last Monday, we decided to go play soccer as a district. As we were playing, an Armenian kid showed up, so we invited him to come play with us. One by one, more kids started showing up, so eventually they suggested we do America vs. Armenia. Yeahhh, we got kicked pretty hard. :p

Well, I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Hammer

Us that went to Alaverdi

Narine and Milena :)) Our member's granddaughter and grandniece

This is how they sand the roads here

This is how traditional bread is made. They just smack it against the stone oven

Turkish toilet :p They have these here too. You just....squat.

No, they don't have stuffed animals in these here. Yes those are cigarettes. Yes, these things are common.

Big dog at the gas station on the way to Yerevan

All of us at Seran's baptism (the other Elder's baptism)

Word of Wisdom

Hello!

Well if I didn't have a testimony about the Word of Wisdom before, I certainly do now, after being on a mission here. It's kind of funny though, because they just don't seem to get it here. More than once, this conversation has taken place:

Me: "You shouldn't smoke, it's bad for your health"
Guy: "No it's not, there's nothing wrong about it"
Me: "What does that say on the box?"
Guy: "Smoking is bad for your health"
Me "..."
Guy: "Well they just put that on there because the law says they have to"
Me: "You don't see the law saying anything about stuff like Kit-kats do you?"

It's just sad, because it's just not socially frowned upon here. In fact, it's almost encouraged. You can't step onto a marshutni without getting hit with a puff of smoke coming from the driver. It doesn't help that the government doesn't have the strength yet to enforce those kind of health laws.

One of our members just passed the 10 year mark of his wife's death. The night before he asked if we could come with him to her grave. So we got a "family friend" taxi that the missionaries always use and headed up to the graveyard. When we got up there (it was hidden in the ridges of the mountains) we saw these huge elaborate grave sites with huge grave stones. The further we went on, the smaller and smaller the grave sites got until finally we got to his wife's, which was no more than a patch of dirt with weeds and a singe rock on it. He had no money for anything else. It was probably the saddest thing I've ever seen.

We had brought some flowers with us, so we left that which we could, and then we moved on. We went over to his parents site as well as his wife's parent's site, and he wrote down the dates of birth and death. He's preparing to go to the temple soon and he's going to get his families work done for him :) After we finished, he turned to us and said, smiling, "This is a great church we've got here, huh Elders?"

It just kind of made me realize, that this gospel isn't a dead gospel. It's got living principles and living applications to people.

Well, we left that peaceful hill and went back down into the city, back into the real world, sighhh...

When we got back, there was a demonstration happening right in front of our church and right by our apartment because the president that got put into office is thought by some here to have not been the person the people elected. So that's always fun to deal with. We had to steer clear of the church that day.
Well, that's my week. :) Love you all!

Elder Hammer

 ***********************************************************************
Part of Jared's letter to me:

It's kind of weird because Elder Hall has less than a month left and he's the group right in front of me. I feel like there's so much to do, and just not enough time to do it all. I'm going to miss these people so much. 
************************************************************************

Vardan (member) with his guinea pigs :p

Vardan with his turtles :)

The graveyard

View from the graveyard onto the city

Us along the train tracks. To get from one part of our area to the next (unless we take a 2-3 mile detour), we have to follow a path that takes us across them. Don't worry, we're super safe :) I'll point out details to these pictures when I get home :p

Us with the senior couples, at Lena's family's house. They're all members. All 9 of them :)

Happy Drundez!

Me, Elder Harrington, Serge, and Shushan, a member

Hello!

I'm always the last to know about things around here. Because the zone leaders are split, and Elder Hall is the senior zone leader, often times the assistants will call him without telling him to let me know, so I usually don't know about things until they happen. :p


And as a missionary, world news doesn't get to me very often at all. And if it does, it may not be the most reliable... I think I heard something about the pope stepping down because of health issues. That may be true, but there are a ton of rumors that go along with that that I doubt.

Anyways, today is elections day here. So we'll see how things turn out. People don't really seemed interested about it this year around. I don't really think there are too many competitors for the guy already in office.

So the new Senior couples came this week. That was pretty cool. They're the Haglunds. They seem to be really cool. Elder Haglund was in the Air Force ( :D ) which I found to be pretty cool. And he actually lived in LA for a little bit so he knew a little about Santa Monica and even knew my High School :)

On the 13th of February, Armenia had a little holiday called Drundez. It's kind of like Valentines day, except more....paganistic. :p So during the holiday, at night they light a fire at the church and let it go down to coals, and then couples jump over the fire. When you jump over the fire it's supposed to help both of you have....fertility that year :p So that's the tradition. And then after there's a big party and you invite all your family over.
On valentines day, I made a bunch of hearts and handed it out to a whole bunch of people :) That was fun.

Anyways, that was my week. I filled my one journal and now I'm on my next one :)

Well, I love you all!

Elder Hammer 

Our way to the baptism in Gyumri. Sister Nelson and Elder Wood

She lives out in this little village called Jrashen

Gonna Miss the Bread ALMOST as Much as the People

Me, stopped on the way back.

Hello!

Highlight of this week: We went up to Alaverdi this week to give the sacrament to the members up there. It was the first Sacrament meeting I've conducted, so that was kind of nerve wracking. It was fun though. I love the members up there. It's amazing that the few members up there stay so strong, so far detached from the rest of Armenia.

Well, we went there with Serge, the 1st counselor in the presidency, and Vardan, one of our good members. On our way back, we stopped by a river and had a little lunch of Yershik (sausage thing?) and cheese sandwiches. It was amazing. I'm going to miss this bread, almost as much as I'll miss these people :p Okay, maybe not that much. I love these people too much.

It was kind of interesting though because I was calling all the members up there to let them know, and I called one member and she said "I wasn't feeling too good and I was praying real hard that the Elders would come up tomorrow and do sacrament. After I prayed, the phone rang, and I knew who it was going to be." So that was pretty neat :)

We had a pretty successful Elders Quorum activity this week. We had a lot of members and investigators show up. Even ours! Unfortunately, his phone has been turned off since and we haven't been able to get a hold of him.

Everyone here seems to be getting a bug that's going around. It's a bad upset stomach and then a terrible headache afterwards. Thankfully I've been spared so far.

On Monday, we celebrated Elder Woods birthday which was last Sunday. We went over to the church and played ping pong and had a little bit of food delivered to us :) It was pretty fun. We have a really cool district.

Anyways, love you all!

Elder Hammer

Vardan, Me, Sago, and Mishik

Our branch prez

The Elders quorum

Elder Hall and Wood at the Elders quorum activity

The nicest supermarket here, where we go most of the time.

Ofelia :)

The Alaverdi group

Public buses in Vanadzor

This was walking the streets of Alaverdi.... It's a little rural.

Me and Serge

Our socket burned out this week, so we replaced it :) I feel like a man!

The Gyumri district

TRAIN!
I'm still a kid!