Remember Buddah

Here's the latest and greatest from our favorite Elder!

Barev dzez! from the MTC! 

Thanks for the spritual thoughts Dad :) I really enjoy them.

Everytime I feel like I'm starting to get into the swing of things here, there seems to be something new that pushes me even harder. The language is particularly difficult and complex. We know that we will get it eventually though. As usuall, the days go by slowly and the weeks go by quickly. I can't beleive I've already been here 4 weeks. Only less than 7 to go. :D

One thing I learned about the culture this week. Unemployment is about 70-80% in Armenia, which means that everyone there has nothing to do during the day. The people are in extreme poverty but the people will be very willing to sit down all day and listen to us. They have nothing else to do :p

A few funny things happened this week:

There's a monkey in our classroom, (I think you saw the picture) whos name is "Boris" He's the largest one. Boris was Brother Stutz' first "investigator". We asked him if Boris ever got baptized. He said no. When we asked why not, he said it was because Boris doesn't have a heart. So this week we made a heart out of paper and put it in a hole in Boris' chest. (He's pretty worn down).

New Zone leaders were called this week. Elder Dicus and Elder Seegmiller. The old Zone leaders passed on the famed "Zone leader crutches" along with a My Little Pony, with its hair braded and wrapped around a toy soldier on its back (signed by every past zone leader in our zone), along with a green monkey toy that claps its hand when you press a button and a zone leader penny collection to feed the hungry (the zone leaders).

Our teacher told us of a story about a missionary in the far east who sat on the belly of a Buddah statue for a picture of himself. He was arrested and subsequentially received criminal charges, and was sent home. So everytime one of us is about to do something stupid, we say "Remember Buddah!"

I joined the choir for devotional this Tuesday. We sang "come thou fount". I really enjoyed it and our director was really funny. Our choir is invited to sing for a "Special devotional" on Tuesday where we will have a "Special Guest". All of us hope it's one of the "Big 15" (1st presidency or the 12)

As for the tie trade, I don't really feel like wearing someone else's sweaty tie, so I've kept to my own ties. Besides, I like my ties a lot. I don't have that many anyways. Only 6-7 which is about half, on average, of what everyone else has.

Our favorite part of the day is gym. We go outside every day now, just so we can get outside these gates. Our group has grown quite fond of beach volleyball.

Spiritual thought of the week:

A member of the 70s came to talk with us and told us of his time in the Army way back when. He said he was offered a decision one day. He could either choose to be commissioned by the President as an officer, or choose to be commissioned by Jesus Christ as a missionary. He chose to be a missionary. 

I liked this comparison. Officers in the millitary are among the brightest, best, and most trusted soldiers. They need to be in order to lead their comrades into battle. We as missionaries are some of the brightest, best, and most trusted. We need to be in order to lead our brothers and sisters to Christ. We are in the Lord's army now and soon after we finish our boot camp here at the MTC, we will be dropped into one of the hardest battlefields in the world today. After 12 weeks I may not be able to speak the language well or know the gospel perfectly, but Christ is our commander and we will follow him into battle in the war against evil.

Anyways, I love you all and I will see you again in a week!

Love always,

Yeretz Hammer. 

There's a huge conference going on right now to train all the new mission presidents. We're all pretty excited and we're hoping to catch a glance of an Apostle or someone like that.