In Need of an Attitude Change

Hello,

It's an interesting thing that there's such a debate about whether or not we're Christian. The argument that we add scripture is completely ridiculous because if that were the case, Catholics would have to say Protestants aren't Christian and Vice-Verse because either the Catholics added the 14 books of the Apocrypha or the Protestants took away 14 books (I think that number is right). The Armenian church has added several books to their Bible as well including some from the Apocrypha and the 3rd epistle to the Corinthians. So that argument is invalid. The truth is though, there doesn't have to be this argument. It all comes down to asking God. Nothing else matters if you receive that answer from God himself through the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true and that Christ's church has once again been restored on earth. It's interesting because we keep telling people, we're not here to convince you. You don't have to take our word for it. We simply are offering you the opportunity to find out for yourself.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on the matter.

As for what Armenians need here. It's true the situation is bad here. There aren't many jobs and money is low. These people need most of the necessities of life, but what they need most is the right attitude. It's something the Soviets took away when they ruled this land and it's something very hard to get back. The Soviets always gave food to the people and always gave work. The people never had to work for food by their own hands. This attitude, more than anything else would help these people. People tell us there's no work, but then we bring in an offer to church for work given to us from someone. Once we brought in a search for two people who were needed to wash cars, but people said it was too cold and not their kind of work. There are plenty of jobs, but people think it's either below them or too difficult. It's sad, because we're starting to see this attitude creeping into America. America is founded on the idea that if you want to make something of yourself, go out and do it. But people see some jobs as below themselves or too much work. Work is work and it was meant to be work.

Anyways, I guess that was a pretty random paragraph. I'll just move on to my week:

We were able to do some service for our branch president this week. He needed a trench dug for a water line he's putting in and wood chopped up. His house isn't finished yet and we're trying to help him our before winter sets in.

A city got opened up for the sisters this transfer. The city of Artashat. It used to be open for Elders but they closed it a little before I got there. It's being reopened now which is way exciting. We had to go down there a couple times so that we could help the sisters get situated.

I'm in Center now and I'm way happy to be here. I love this city and I'm excited to serve all the people here. There are some major renovations going on in Yerevan which is really great to see this city changing. There are plenty of people here to teach, so I'm excited to get started!

So my week was pretty short, and I have to go soon, but I'll tell more next week about my area.

Love you all!

Elder Hammer

Hi mom!

So about the transfer, it was just a really big transfer that required a whole bunch of changes. Our entire zone plus half the other zone got switched up which was pretty weird. But yeah, I'm in Center now. I'm pretty excited because there's so much in Center. There are so many people which makes me really excited to get out and teach.

There are three new missionaries. Two elders and a sister. The sister is an Armenian from America, which is really cool. They're all up north though so I haven't been able to meet them or see them.
 

Well, our Halloween get together kinda failed. The zone leaders ended up being busy the whole day, so we were stuck eating this cake we bought with our extra money by ourselves. We didn't have much food, so we ended up just eating hot dogs with ketchup (no buns. They don't exist here) But yeah, that was that day.

Anyways, I'm doing alright here. But, I love you! And I'll talk to you next week :)

Elder Hammer