Armenian Hospitals, Elevators, and Drivers--Pictures

The letters are a little late in getting posted because we were waiting for Jared to write a second day.  He'll explain.  In one of my letters to Jared, I asked him how to say a few things in Armenian and he tells me how they're said.  He explains in Carl's letters some of the health issues he's going through right now. We pray for Jared daily and know that he's being watched out for. 

Letters to Mom:::

Monday

HI! I'll write you a longer letter tomorrow, but today we have to do only the essentials because we're switching P-day from today to tomorrow because we're going to the genocide memorial tomorrow. But I love you!! And I'll talk to you tomorrow :)

-Jared

Tuesday

Hey!! Day 2.

So Hello in Armenian is "Barev Dzez" How are you is "Vonce Ehk?"

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is "Heesoos Christosee Verchine OrereeSurperee Yekeyetze"

About my health, things should be alright I guess. I just lost my college pounds. I told my Mission President, so he knows. Don't worry :) Things should be fine.

But anyways, I love you MOM!!! And I can't believe you're 40!!!!! So weird. But hey, we have to get older sometime :p. 
I hope you're doing great back in Los Angeles. You have to tell me soon about how your new devils are. (At least you get little devils to work with right?)

(Jared is asking about my new little kids that I teach.  I AM excited to have a job!) 

Anyways, I love you lots and I'll talk more next week!!

:)

Love Elder Bear

Letter to Dad:::

Hello! 

I have to make this quick this week because we're switching P-day from today to tomorrow so we can visit the genocide memorial tomorrow. So today is just the essentials.

Anyways, about my street I don't really know the cross streets because there aren't really. Just a whole bunch of alley ways and paths with concrete buildings smushed together. I'm sending a picture of a map though so you can get the general idea. 

Anyways, this week was quite interesting.  I've been a bit sick lately with a stomach thing. I guess just getting used to the bacteria in this country and whatnot. But it's interesting, since I've been here, I've lost almost 10 pounds. So I'm back to where I was before college :p But everything for the most part is alright. It hasn't been hindering my work. 

I've been making a habit of waking Elder Lush up when he starts drifting asleep. I'll go up to him and just make some kind of loud noise. The first time I did it, I didn't know he was defensive when he got scared, so he nearly took my head off because he swung his arms out and started kicking. Every time after that, I made an effort of keeping back a little bit. 

The ice cream they make here is absolute heaven. There was a bit of vanilla left over from the last companionship staying here and it was so good. Normally I couldn't eat vanilla plain, but this stuff was so good it didn't need anything. 

We went to the hospital on Thursday to get a physical because the law requires it for someone to get a residency card. So, it was kinda weird how they did things there. The hospital was alright, it was at the nicest hospital in Armenia, but all of their technology was about 20 or 30 years behind. They used an ultrasound to check out my organs (no idea why) and their EKG was really weird. They attached metal clamps to my arms and legs and suction cups to my chest, and then they attached these jumper cables to the clamps and ran a low current through it. It was quite strange. 

They also had to take a blood sample, but I made a point of asking "makoor eh, ice meckuh?" which means is this thing clean? It was :)

People at the hospital always mistook my name for "Hummer". For some reason they really like them here. 

We were walking down our alley one day when we heard a honk. A car was pulling out of a garage with a kid guiding it out. Behind the wheel was someone no older than about 9 or 10, waving mischievously and enthusiastically at us. It kinda made my day.

So, I've discovered elevators hate me. We got stuck in another one today and then the lights went out. So Elder Lush and I stood there for a while in the dark until finally we got the buttons to work.

Anyways, we're teaching this one guy named Sooren. He's the one that his daughter brought us to after asking us to carry a crib. He is so excited about the church. We brought him to a baptism and after, he grabbed some Liahonas and said he wanted to show his grand kids. After he went to church this Sunday he said "I have to bring my grandchildren!" He is so amazing. He's like 80 years old and 4 foot 1 and he's hiking up these hills with us, sometimes going faster in front of us, because he's so excited. 

So the pictures: 

(He gives us all the descriptions you see below the pictures)

Anyways, I gotta go now, but I love you all! See you next week! :)

-Elder Hammer

Pictures from  Monday a.m.

This is a picture of Hyke, his dad, and us at his house.

This is my dish of German Pancakes that I made. Darn good.

This is the inside of a Marshutinee.

That is a marshutinee

Jared's District

We had to stamp our number on and air out all of these pamphlets. It took so long. Bleagh!

This is a map of our area (some of it). The orange dot is our home. The red dot is our church building.

Pictures from Tuesday a.m.

The sports arena in front of the memorial

Mt. Ararat from the memorial

The memorial

These crosses lined the walls in the museum for the memorial

Me in front of the memorial

Me and Elder Lush....He's short.

The pillar represents the Armenian people constantly striving to reach to God in the heavens. It's split in two to represent the Armenians in Turkey and those in Armenia, separated by force. Both still reach to heaven though.

There are twelve of these pillars (tribes of Israel) surrounding an eternal flame in the center.

I thought this was a good photo.

They put flowers all around the flame.