So another week, another run-in with the police. These letters are making me appreciate our legal system here a whole lot more than I used to. Here's Jared!
Hello!
Last week I was trying to write Maddie, but the internet was lost in the middle, I didn't get to half my letters. Apparently lightning struck a cable in northern Armenia and the internet for the whole country was lost.....sighh.....This country needs to catch up a bit.
I'll work on those pictures, but I have to be discrete because I'm cautioned about public pictures here.
Speaking about being careful with the law: We were just about to leave this morning when I heard talking in the hallway. I looked out and it was a police officer looking for our apartment. He came into our apartment w/o permission and asked for our visas and passports. Good thing we always carry them. He was nice though, but I doubt he would have been nice if we didn't have our papers. It was just kind of nerve wracking because he could have done anything he wanted and we couldn't say anything about it. The cops here have free reign from the government, as long as they get whatever the government needs done, done. He knew the previous missionaries though and liked them so we were good. We even got to tell him a bit about temples because he asked about our pictures on the walls.
This week we went to visit an investigator who lived a ways away and a flash storm came out of nowhere. We were both super soaked in our short sleeve shirts and were soon without feeling in our hands. It was kind of interesting though because the electrical wires here are rarely maintained so there were sparks and explosions everywhere which dropped balls of electricity into the streets from frays in the wires and stuff. We got to the persons house though, and it was quite humbling because he lived in a house that was about 3/4 the size of my room with a sink taking up half the space and a bed taking up most of the rest. It was just amazing because even though he lived in these poor conditions he was a way happy and excited man who "absolutely" wants to be baptized. He's even talking about how he wants to serve a mission. :) So good.
We pass by this one dog everyday who lives on the roofs of the garages and always barks at us one time before going back to his little corner. We decided to call him "Raf" short for Raffael (sounds like roof and ruff). :p we thought we were creative.
So this week we were caught under gunfire. Some kids thought it would be real funny to take their airsoft guns and open fire on the "Americans". Good things they're bad aims. Elder Lush just got hit once in the backpack. :p (Is there anyone else who doesn't know what an air soft gun is? Nope, it's not like a Nerf gun like I was hoping it would be. It shoots plastic pellets from realistic looking weapons. Sounds painful but not deadly.)
We went to a members house for someone who was really sick this week. Elder Lush gave her the choice and she asked if I would give the blessing. I was so nervous, the blessing was in scattered Armenian, but it was really interesting, because I was able to find words that I had hardly used and I was able to scrape out a decent blessing.
I was walking by a carnival here in Armenia and I saw one of those games with a claw where you move a joystick and try to pick up a stuffed animal. Except instead of animals, there were cigarettes and ladies pantyhose.....sighhhhh. These people need the gospel.
Well, we put in an extra effort this week to stay focused and the Lord blessed us for it. We were able to find 12 new investigators just this week, which is about twice the standard our mission president gave us. We're way excited to work with all of them.
Anyways, I love you all! Be excited you have running water and electricity :D They both give out here way often.
See ya next week!
Elder Hammer
Last week I was trying to write Maddie, but the internet was lost in the middle, I didn't get to half my letters. Apparently lightning struck a cable in northern Armenia and the internet for the whole country was lost.....sighh.....This country needs to catch up a bit.
I'll work on those pictures, but I have to be discrete because I'm cautioned about public pictures here.
Speaking about being careful with the law: We were just about to leave this morning when I heard talking in the hallway. I looked out and it was a police officer looking for our apartment. He came into our apartment w/o permission and asked for our visas and passports. Good thing we always carry them. He was nice though, but I doubt he would have been nice if we didn't have our papers. It was just kind of nerve wracking because he could have done anything he wanted and we couldn't say anything about it. The cops here have free reign from the government, as long as they get whatever the government needs done, done. He knew the previous missionaries though and liked them so we were good. We even got to tell him a bit about temples because he asked about our pictures on the walls.
This week we went to visit an investigator who lived a ways away and a flash storm came out of nowhere. We were both super soaked in our short sleeve shirts and were soon without feeling in our hands. It was kind of interesting though because the electrical wires here are rarely maintained so there were sparks and explosions everywhere which dropped balls of electricity into the streets from frays in the wires and stuff. We got to the persons house though, and it was quite humbling because he lived in a house that was about 3/4 the size of my room with a sink taking up half the space and a bed taking up most of the rest. It was just amazing because even though he lived in these poor conditions he was a way happy and excited man who "absolutely" wants to be baptized. He's even talking about how he wants to serve a mission. :) So good.
We pass by this one dog everyday who lives on the roofs of the garages and always barks at us one time before going back to his little corner. We decided to call him "Raf" short for Raffael (sounds like roof and ruff). :p we thought we were creative.
So this week we were caught under gunfire. Some kids thought it would be real funny to take their airsoft guns and open fire on the "Americans". Good things they're bad aims. Elder Lush just got hit once in the backpack. :p (Is there anyone else who doesn't know what an air soft gun is? Nope, it's not like a Nerf gun like I was hoping it would be. It shoots plastic pellets from realistic looking weapons. Sounds painful but not deadly.)
We went to a members house for someone who was really sick this week. Elder Lush gave her the choice and she asked if I would give the blessing. I was so nervous, the blessing was in scattered Armenian, but it was really interesting, because I was able to find words that I had hardly used and I was able to scrape out a decent blessing.
I was walking by a carnival here in Armenia and I saw one of those games with a claw where you move a joystick and try to pick up a stuffed animal. Except instead of animals, there were cigarettes and ladies pantyhose.....sighhhhh. These people need the gospel.
Well, we put in an extra effort this week to stay focused and the Lord blessed us for it. We were able to find 12 new investigators just this week, which is about twice the standard our mission president gave us. We're way excited to work with all of them.
Anyways, I love you all! Be excited you have running water and electricity :D They both give out here way often.
See ya next week!
Elder Hammer
So about your school job, I just want to say something small. Sussana was having trouble coming to church because her job had her work on Sundays. We told her to pray and fast to find a new job (which is almost asking too much in this country) but surprisingly she found one! So just trust in the Lord and everything will always work out fine :)
Alah we've has trouble getting to church because there was another riot in downtown on Sunday and all the transportation was shut down. So we're working on that :p
As for the branch presidents daughter, I guess we could try. I'm not so good at Armenian yet and mail takes a long time to transfer between here and America. Plus I may not be here much longer. I could leave in as little as 4 weeks. (We had thought it would be fun for Maddie to write to the Branch President's daughter. Maybe later!).
As for the lengths of the letters, they're just fine. I love hearing from my mama every week. :) Don't worry about that. Mothers here are really respected. Everyone gets up for women here on the marshutinees, especially if they have a child. I wish more people in America could adopt the respect for women that they have here. We always stress the importance of families and I can't help but put in my little bit about mothers :)
Love you MOM!!!
Elder Bear
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