You live where? Pictures

So it seems the boy has a little more time to write emails than he did when he was at the MTC.  He starts off with a quick letter to me for my 40th b'day and then continues on with a letter to Carl.  (We told Jared early on just to write one big letter to Carl because we share!)  Apparently he had more time and wrote a couple more quick emails and includes pictures.

Hey mom!

This will be my last email before your birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! You're the best mom a missionary could have.

I don't know the address. They don't really have them here for the most part. It's just a whole bunch of buildings smushed together. But Malatsia-Sebastia is the right area. If you find the big Armenian chapel between two streets and go directly north, that's my area. I'm to the east of a couple of schools. I think the buildings look square like. (Okay, I know he's trying his best to give good directions, and possibly these ARE the best directions.  But telling us that he lives near a chapel in Armenia is like telling someone in this area that they live near the beach, near the life guard tower! Help us out, Jared!)

I'll be in Malatsia for 12 weeks because I'm training, but normally transfers are every 6 weeks. 

Anyways, I'll say more in the letter to dad, but I LOVE YOU!!! And just know things are going well here! :)

BYE!!!

Yeretz Hammer

Now his main letter:

HI!

Another week :)

So in response:

They've actually discontinued the English classes, but someone on the street stopped us and told us she had gone to those classes and she was sad they stopped doing them. (Missionaries used to help teach English classes to the people in the area.)

As  for talking with people, I'm not really shy. Since they all speak in a different language, If they end up insulting me, I won't know what they're saying! So I don't really care :)

But yeah, an amazing thing happened on Sunday. They took the two Districts in Armenia and combined them into one preparatory district which functions the same way as a stake. They said if they tried hard, they could get a Stake in about a year. This is a huge step forward in getting a temple in Armenia. 

We visited one of our investigators who lives south of us a little. He was way nice and brought out borshe for us which is this soup like thing with potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, and a meat like thing. He also brought out bread. When we finished, they brought out cucumbers and tomatoes, then they brought out some apricots, then watermelon, then a sausage like things, then more tomatoes. Finally we just had to say. we're good!! Thank you so much! Way tooooo much food that day (we had already had dinner). It was funny listening to him though, because he said that he was so thankful for all the food he had, and the beautiful family he had that he could spend time with outside on this beautiful day. Here I was complaining that it was way too hot here, the water was dirty, and our apartment looked like it would crumble any day, and this man comes along and thanks God for every blessing he has in his life. It definitely put things in perspective. 

Anyways, also this week, I made some french toast in the morning. We both sat down to eat it and I was enjoying my plate when all of a sudden I hear this scuffle from Elder Lush's side of the table. I look over and he's just sitting there with syrup all the way down his white shirt, tie, and pants, with a little bit of toast on his lap. It took me a while to regain my composure. 

We found quite a few people on the street this week. Our schedule will be loaded up for this next week with potential investigators. That should be quite interesting. We've had to restart this area because the last companionship left the area pretty barren. But that should be quite an experience getting this place going again.

We had a really good feeling about mahn galling (wandering around) this one part of our area. When we got there, we wandered around until we got to this one place in the road. We stood there for a second and looked at each other. We both told each other that we had no idea where to go next. We both weren't getting good feelings about going in any direction. We decided to turn back, but we again got the impression that it was wrong. So we stood there for a few minutes, and then this one old man came up to us and asked us all about who we were. Then he invited us to come over and sit were a whole bunch of his friends were sitting. We got quite a few potential investigators out of that. 

So anyways, have a good week and I'll see you soon. I would have sent pictures but there was an error on my computer and the entire computer is in Russian. I can read it for the most part, but I don't know what I'm saying. So I'll try another computer next week.

Anyways, Love you all!!!! BYE!

Elder Hammer

P.S. Get better, Dad. And remember, concrete doesn't taste as good as it looks... :p (Carl flipped over the handle bars while bike riding this week.  He....ate concrete!  He's much better now.  Jared's comment made me laugh!)

So that was my week.

This message was sent a little while later with his extra computer time.

Also, one more cool thing we saw. As we were walking, we saw a huge gathering with people cheering. An Armenian band with all these cool instruments were playing. In the crowd, there were people waving these gift baskets over their head while dancing. In the center were a man dressed in a tux and a lady dressed in a wedding gown. Apparently it was an Armenian wedding, which is probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Anyways, Love you, bye!

Still had a little more time, and thank goodness because he included pictures!!!  His notes on the pictures follow.

Okay, these are my pictures, figured it out at the last minute.

1. Me :) There was an ironing board there, but it looks cool cause you cant see it (MTC). 2.Our district right before we left. 3. A cool missile at Meire Haiastan. 4. We had a lot of groceries, so we "borrowed" the shopping cart. We asked first don't worry :) (and they said it was okay) 5. These are what the coins look like. 6. We found this in the fields on the way to Hoket emberian. Apparently it's owned by the Chinese and run by the French. 7. Hayk wanted his picture taken with this. They apparently really like their pictures taken(A completely foreign concept for Jared). 8. This is me catching Elder Lush during one of his calls :p Hayk tried to jump in at the last moment. :) Anyways, ta-da :) It may or may not work.

Love, Jared

Thanks for sharing the next couple of pictures, Monica. We love any pictures we can get of the boy!

Jared at home (I think!)

The church across the street from the ward building. They sing and make music all throughout Sundays.

Jared in the cookie-cutter concrete suburbs!

Here is a link to a picture and article about the marshutnis that Jared mentioned in his letter last week. You know, the Armenian taxis that are designed for 10 and shove 20 in? Click HERE!