Elder Jared Hammer: Service

Pictures of when we went to the church in our area :)

Hello!

So it's funny you should mention how you're surprised that our mission doesn't focus more on service, because just this week we had a big mission change. Now, we won't be reporting OYMs (Open your mouth), and we were asked to take a more concentrated effort on service. We had a large two hour meeting for our zone where some missionaries were told to share their experiences of opening new cities ( 2 new cities have been opened in our mission recently and the missionaries who entered them were asked to not report any numbers, and just focus on doing as much service as they can and make friends with those they meet.) We have also changed our schedule a little bit. Now instead of doing studies right in the morning, we leave the apartment at 7:00 until 8:30, and we do studies from 10:00-1:00. It's pretty neat. We're enjoying it.

Anyways, we've found lots of service opportunities this week. We found these two guys building a hair salon for themselves, so we were able to come back the next day and help them build the roof. We laid rebar and placed wooden framework for the concrete. It was pretty fun :)

Also this week, we were just walking down the street when this one guy stopped us. He said, "Hey you guys help out people right?" We were hesitant at first, because usually people just ask for $100, which we obviously don't have. But then he said, "Like physical work, if someone needs help right?" And we said yes. Then he said, "It's good you guys came, I'm really worn out and I need help." Then he had us wax his car :p So we took off our ties and waxed it. We thought he was just exploiting our willingness to help, but then once we were done he said, "It's really interesting how God knows what each one of us needs and he put you in my path so you could help me." So I thought that was a really neat experience.

There are always grandmas everywhere who always carry more bags than they can manage, so it hasn't been hard to find service opportunities.

Anyways, there was a big 6 point earthquake in Iran on Saturday, but it was only 3-4 point by the time it got here. We didn't even feel it because we were outside on the sidewalk, but while we were walking all of a sudden crowds of people just started spilling out of the buildings.

So yesterday was Elder Bott's birthday. :) It was pretty cool. I bought a little kinder egg for him while he wasn't looking and wrapped it up the night before, right before bed. Then in the morning I made pancakes for us, and then after church I made something called quesadilla casserole, which is a really good recipe I got from Elder Lush. So that was fun :)

Anyways, that was my week. I'm still super jealous that you got to go to the family reunion and have Taco Salad :p but I'm glad you guys had a good time :)

Love you all!

Elder Hammer