Tomorrow

Hi everyone!

We received an email from Jared this morning that said this week he is switching his P-Day to Tuesday.  So if he hasn't written to you, wait a day.

Take care!

The Lord Giveth, and the Lord Taketh Away

Hello!!!

So this week was definitely one to write home about...so to speak :)

If I were to title this, I would call it, The Lord Giveth, and the Lord Taketh Away

Now to explain:

Elder Peterson and I were pretty down after not having any investigators for a really long time. Our one that we had, Violet, promptly dropped us once Elder Peterson got here because, 'she had no time'.

After struggling for a while, we resigned ourselves to walking on the streets until we got investigators, either from walking, or from the members we were meeting with. One night, we were walking along and I decided to take the attitude of not worrying about the numbers. I changed my mindset and honestly just wanted to bring these people to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The results were pretty amazing. We left all our pamphlets with people (6) and gave both of our Book of Mormons away. It was getting late and I was anxious to get inside after a long day's hard work, when one kid, Vahe, about 19, stopped us on the street. He started asking the typical questions, and then went on to ask us if we had girls over at our place (he asked more than that but we'll keep this PG). Eventually we wiggled our way out of that one and left the last piece of church material we had with us with him, one Articles of Faith card with our names and number on it.

That night we got a call about 10:45. We let it go because it was late. The next morning, though, we called back and it was a man named Gor. He said he got our number from the streets, but neither of us remembered a Gor. But he said he wanted to meet, so we got his address and set up an appointment. When we went over to his house, both he and his wife listened intently. Then, Gor suddenly got up and said he wanted his relatives to hear what we had to say. So he left and brought back two men. One was his wife's sister's husband, and the other was Vahe! Apparently Vahe had given the card to his sister (Gor's wife) and she had given it to him. We extended baptismal invitations to all of them and they were way excited and said they'd be ready by the date we set. They even said next meeting they would bring over 3 or 4 other members of their family who wanted to listen. That night, Gor's brother called us and said he wanted to meet with us (separate from the 3 or 4 others who were going to come)

So we set appointments for all of them on one day, in the evening and morning. We called the day of to confirm the appointments and Gor said he had been wanting to call us. He then said he was moving to Russia for work...that day.

So we lost all of them. We tried calling back later to see if we could meet one more time, but he busied us every time. We then called his brother to see if he could meet. The conversation goes as such:

us: Hello
him: Hey
Us: This is the Elders, we wanted to know if you could still meet
Him: Who is this?
us: The Elders
Him: You dialed the wrong number
us: Oh, we called this number yesterday and it was Artur (his name)
Him: Ummm, wrong number
us: You aren't Artur?
Him: No
us: Who is this?
Him: (silence).....uhh.......Aiden.....

So that was not quite fun. Something must have scared them all away. But we can't do much about it now.  We then also found out that day that someone we were hoping to meet with ended up going Apostolic church and didn't want to speak to us again.

Oh well :)

On Sunday, though, Violet called us back after her having come to church. She said she wanted to meet with us again. She believed everything we said, and she wanted to do whatever she needed to do to be baptized. :) So maybe we just needed a test first. :)

Anyways, the rest of this week was neat. I found out during personal study that our ancestors are written about in Our Heritage :) I was just reading and I saw a story I thought was familiar about the John Hammer family. I matched it with the one in the family history written by great grandpa about the one blind horse, and it matched up! :) Fun fact.

There's a portion of the metro which goes outside. So I was sitting back watching the snow fall outside when I realized, the snow was falling inside the Metro as well. I looked up and there was snow flying in from little cracks all over :p These metros need to be replaced.

Our working with less-actives seems to be paying off. We got quite a few to come to church, including one, we figured out, who was having Word of Wisdom issues. :) So I don't feel too useless anymore. I think the results though are all coming from a desire to just help, instead of a desire to please the mission president with numbers. I guess it shows where the blessings come from :)

Anyways, I love you all!!!

Elder Hammer 

Numbers Aren't Everything

Hello!

I remember playing Chinese checkers with you back at Aunt Ruth's house :) I lost every time, even though I'm pretty sure you let me cheat a couple times. I think once or twice I may have won actual checkers though :)

 I really am trying to do heartfelt work though. Lately, we've been doing more re-activation than anything else. It doesn't show anything for our numbers really, but it helps the branch out a lot. Plus, we're hoping that some of our re-activated members start helping us find new investigators and coming with us to member present meetings. It's also a companionship goal of ours to meet everyone in the branch and try to form friendships with them.

The reason we have so many less-actives though, is because there was a period of time (known as the candy-giving time) where missionaries would promise financial aid if they joined the church. Some missionaries would baptize over 50 members, and then only one would continue to be active. So we're here trying to clean up that mess. We would meet with some and realize some didn't even own a copy of the Book of Mormon. One of them didn't even know what it was.

I guess it's just hard in a culture where everyone shuns us because we're not from the Apostolic church. They cling to it way too much, understandably. It's been the only thing keeping this country and race together over the years, but it really is a stumbling block for everyone. No one wants to look at us, let alone listen to us :/

But anyways, this week was alright. In terms of numbers it was our worst week yet, but hopefully that will change with the season.

This week I got a package from Grandma and Grandpa Merrick :D I finished it off by the next day :p That made my Tuesday :)

One of our members in Arabkir just got his mission call....to Armenia :p So we'll be having a native Armenian speaker within our circle of missionaries. We're all excited, yet a little apprehensive to have someone who will know Armenian better than English serving with us.

So we were getting on the subway this week when I heard the doors close and a little squeak come from Elder Peterson. I didn't realize what it was at first so I just kind of looked forward. Then Elder Peterson tapped me and said, "my bag is stuck." I looked, and sure enough, part of his bag was sticking out the doors of the Metro. So he had to patiently wait until the next stop (which happened to be the longest stretch of track on the whole system) to let himself loose. :p

Something I've realized out here is that sometimes, you just have to be a nice person. We got in a taxi and I made several comments asking what his name was, how was his work going, how was his family. When we arrived, I made a motion for my wallet and he just said "it's not necessary" and smiled. I asked if he was sure and he said he was. I could tell I had made the end of his night for him. A lot of people here don't really make casual talk and sometimes it's just nice to see how people are doing :)

Anyways, love you all :)

Elder Hammer

I Am Like A Star!

Hello!!

...Speaking of Senior Missionaries, we just got a new couple this week. I'll tell more about them later. But I do agree, Senior missionaries are very helpful and provide a different atmosphere, but with a mission this new, none of them know the language at all :p

All 4 of us at our Iranian members' house :) Possibly their last time with us in Armenia.

So the temperature here is actually going to be going up from what I've heard. I guess it doesn't get too cold here, but who knows, maybe we'll get a cold streak soon. There hasn't been snow on the ground for about a week now though.

So this week:

The Taj Majal!

We officially moved into Little America :D It took the whole day to do it though, because we were closing down the old apartment. We had to clean everything, then clean everything out, then bring a ton of stuff to the main office, then we had to move all of our stuff over plus the area materials, then unpack everything. And then we had to plan for the week. But we're in and it is amazing!! We learned that it was a sisters house before us, then a seniors house before them, so naturally it smells amazing and is cleaner than a hospital. Pictures are included. It may not seem like much for any normal American looking at it, but to us, it was like moving into the Taj Mahal.

Interesting: So we were walking along looking for people to talk to when this one guy stopped us and politely asked us (in English) where we were from. We told him we were from America and he said he had learned English on the East Coast or something. We moved into Armenian then because it was easier for him. He went on to ask us why we had come to Armenia etc. He seemed really nice and very polite. He was about to leave when we told him that the Book of Mormon was another testament of Jesus like the Bible (assuming he was a Christian like everyone else here). He then stopped us and said "Oh, I'm actually a Satanist". We didn't know how to respond to that, so we just stood there open mouthed as he turned and walked away. :p I had always read about Satanists on the propaganda posters they put up here against Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses but I didn't think they were an actual group. Guess we found out :p

I guess we tend to attract weird people, because also this week, we (with the other elders) ran into one guy who came up to us, said, "Do you speak Armenian" we said yes, and then he went off for about 20 minutes how everyone has life energy inside of them and as you live, the energy goes to your own personal star. Once you have no energy left, that's when you die. Then he just turned around and walked away. Afterwards Elder Seegmiller looked up and said, "Hey guys, look! (pointing to the moon). That's my star!" :p

The baptism :)

We went to a baptism this week for an old investigator of Elder Peterson's. It was really cool because it was all in English. The person being baptized was from Northern India, so he didn't really know Armenian.

So the new senior missionaries, Elder and Sister Readings are now in our branch, so we got to go to their apartment (ours is better :p ) and help them get situated a bit with the area and the language.

But anyways, on Sunday, we were planning on having a nice dinner at our place with the other Elders. As we were walking towards the Metro though, I realized that my keys were missing from my jacket, along with about 900 dram in coins. Apparently while we were at church, someone went through peoples jackets and took a whole bunch of stuff. So we had to wait and call a whole bunch of people while the locks were changed on the church and at our house. Thankfully the Readings had just called and invited us over for dinner, even though they had no idea about our situation. :p So that was quite a bit of stress that ended up costing us 9,000 dram. :/  Guess I know not to leave my jacket on the rack anymore. Dinner was great though :) Sister Readings made chicken soup and banana bread for all of us.

So that's all :) Love you all!!!

Elder Hammer

A few notes from the letter Jared sent me:

...So yeah, the Sisters ended up moving out early so that we could move in, so we did :) We didn't get to stay in the mission home, but we did get to stay in little America, which I think is better anyways. :p  Honestly I think that our apartment here is bigger than the one we have in Santa Monica, almost. If it weren't for the fact that we have two full size bedrooms in the US, then the one here would be bigger :p I love it.

But yeah, New Years is over here officially now. :) It's kind of a bummer because now we don't have a topic of conversation to bring up as a starter, but now people have time to meet with us, so that will be really cool :)

We get the church magazines out here, but they come a little late because they have to go through the mail and everything. :/ but they do come :) I'll have to read this upcoming edition.

...But I love you!!! And I miss you :)

Elder Hammer

It's a New Year!

Happy New Year!  This is a day late but this time it's not my fault!  :)  Jared will explain.   He didn't add captions to his pictures so I added a few.  Have a wonderful New Year!  Here's our missionary.

 Hello!


So sorry I couldn't get to email yesterday. There were two reasons for that. The first is that we decided to switch our Pday so that we could make gingerbread houses as a district and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with Elder Peterson (my new companion. I'll explain more later), because he hadn't had the chance to see it before the transfer (again.). The second reason is that this ENTIRE country shuts down for a week for New Years. Every restaurant, government buildings, internet places, transportation, etc. It was a miracle that we found this one place that decided to open for January 3rd.

Elder Hammer and Elder Peterson

Anyways, transfers happened on Thursday and I am now with Elder Jeff Peterson, the small (there are two Elder Petersons in this mission. One is about 6'6'' and the other, my companion, is about 5'7'' :p ) So anyways, I am now working Center with him and everything is going great :) Elder Peterson is a great guy, full of life and enthusiasm. He's from Utah, and lives next to Hill Air Force Base. He's been here for a little over a year now, so that's pretty exciting.

Elder Peterson and his 12 Layer Jello.....for 2012?

1

The apartment that got hit by fireworks!

All the missionaries were told to spend January 1st together as a district and watch the Christmas devotional, which was amazing. The new senior missionaries who just arrived invited us all over to their place and they made us chicken with potatoes and carrots. But in preparation, Elder Peterson wanted to make a 12 layer jello for the party of sorts. So, that evening on the 31st (we had to be in by 7) he decided to make that jello while I made dinner. The jello, ended up taking quite a while. He started in 2011 and ended in 2012 (we made it an excuse to stay up to the New Year :p) Let me tell you, it was quite an amazing experience, beyond any other I've ever had for the new year. 5 minutes until midnight we go out on the porch and wait for the fireworks to start. We had a pretty good view of Republic Square from our apartment. We were expecting a few good fireworks to come from there and for it to be over in about 5-10 minutes or so. Well, a couple minutes until the New Year, a few people got a little too excited and a couple fireworks went off, but then there was a gradual rumbling sound in the background and a gradual glow. Then all of a sudden, when the New Year hit, everything lit on fire in the entire city. There was not a part of the sky that was not filled with fireworks. Hundreds came from Republic Square and then everyone in the city, it seemed, started firing fireworks out their window. Not the little fizzle sticks that people light, but actual 4th of July style fireworks. Elder Peterson and I trying talking to each other but the explosions were so loud we couldn't hear each other. The apartment above us was firing off quite a few and someone to our left accidentally fired a green firework into the building right across from us, which exploded into a cloud of green sparks. Thankfully the buildings are all made of concrete :p It left a mark, though. The heavy amount of fireworks went off for about 15-20 minutes, but fireworks were shot off in the distance  long past the time I went to bed. They take new years seriously here :)

The Troops

Anyways, the next day we went to the Loveridge's place for New Years. Church was only an hour, so we spent the rest of the day over there. We made cookies and had dinner and watched the Devotional. It was kind of neat because their apartment overlooks a military base. It looked like the troops didn't get New Years Day off.

This week on Thursday, we went and delivered bags of provisions to the poorer members of our branch which we had bought earlier on that week. It was fun going to different houses and knocking on the doors and running away :) One of our members had such an amazing look of shock on his face when he saw three bags full of food on his doorstep. I'd say it was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done for the Christmas season. I want to do it when I return to the US.

 So, we don't really trust the doctors around here, for several reasons. But in any case, we try to practice preventative medicine rather than having to send anyone to the hospitals.  This week though, my distrust for the hospitals here went up quite a bit. Our golden investigator has to go to the hospital for a few weeks. When he came back, he said he couldn't listen to us anymore because his doctor said 'don't join the Mormons. The Mormons are bad for your health. Don't even be around them'. So apparently, one of the most highly qualified doctors in Armenia is telling people Mormons are bad for your health. Regardless of the fact that we teach about the word of wisdom etc. :p  One of our members even said that his doctor told him to smoke for his health. Sighhh. I cannot get sick here or else I'm in trouble.

Anyways, that was my week. The work here is pretty hard because no one wants to meet during the week of New Years and anyone outside is either drunk or going to a party. :/ We did meet one guy outside though who came up to us completely drunk, practically in tears. He said he wanted to learn about our church because he can't stop getting drunk. So we gave him some pamphlets and took his number :) Potential investigator.

So I love you all, I tried sending lots of pictures this week :)

Happy New Year!
Love always,
Elder Hammer

And here are some parts from the letter he sent me:

HIIIIII MAMAAA

Elder Hammer and Elder Peterson

So to start off, yes we did have transfers, but I'm staying here in Center. Armenian timing is about three times of whatever they say, so their original two weeks that they told is actually going to turn into about 6 weeks. We will be moving in to the new apartment on the 10th, most likely for sure this time. Unfortunately we told our landlord we would be out in 30 days, about 28 days ago :p So we will be moving into the mission home on the 5th for about 5 days. It is both a curse and a blessing. We will have a nice kitchen, a nice home, a nice bed, a nice everything, but it also means we have quite a bit of commute time. We are excited though to be around the Carters for a little while at least :) But I'm companions with Elder Peterson now. I am still the Junior companion, but that's okay. It doesn't really matter out here for the most part. We really work together pretty well and we share the work load pretty evenly. But hopefully we'll be moving into little America on time :p This apartment we're in right now is not quite up to standards :p

Making Gingerbread houses

This must be a serious thing!

The Winner?

...But yeah, nothing can really beat making sugar treats with my family around Christmas, but our Gingerbread houses will have to do for this year :) Personally, I thought Elder Peterson's and my gingerbread house was the best :p but I'll let you be the judge. We joked between the Elders that whomever made the best house would get the design contract for the Armenia temple. I think it would look like a pretty cool temple ;p

So this Christmas was anything but ordinary. I really liked it though. It is definitely a season to remember. I think service will really stick with me, more than anything else I could have every done. I really think more people should do this around the season.

So as for New Years Eve and whatnot. Don't worry about us staying up past 10:30 :p All the missionaries in the mission stayed up until the new year, because it sort of became an unspoken exception for the one night. We were expected to be inside by 7 though. That was something the President did not budge on. Things got quite crazy outside after that time.

Anyways, I LOVE YOU! And I'll see ya next week :))))

Elder Bear

Turkey on the Bus

Even though we talked to Jared yesterday, he still wrote us a letter!  Here it is!

Me and Elder Seegmiller

Hello!!!

It was great Skyping to you guys and all the family :) It's so good to see all of you. It really does seem like these 7 months have passed by really quickly, so it won't be too long until Mother's Day :) It was cool seeing all of Madeline's Christmas gifts, which she proudly displayed :p I think the penguin blanket was my favorite. 
 

Nice pictures though :) I definitely miss making Christmas cookies a ton. I loved making my weird cookies, but it looks like Madeleine has carried on the tradition just fine :p

So do I seem too different? I was wondering if you were going to ask me to say anything in Armenian :) I wanted to show off my skills, but that's okay :p I'll probably be better by Mother's Day anyways.

Anyways, I told you about the Christmas party with our District, but we also had a mission wide one as well. We did a white elephant game and then we had food, which was shishkabobs (dunno how to spell it in English) and way too many desserts. After that we had a pretty fun talent show in which everyone was involved in some way or another. Since I didn't have my trombone, I just helped out with some skits :p

We went out to a small village again this week and one of our members down there (age 12) and his friend saw us walking by, so we got in a huge snowball fight :p Which ended with me in the snow and Elder Strader trying to save my life.

On the bus ride back we were just sitting down when these three teenagers got on the bus and sat down. We saw that one of them had a bag in his hand. When we looked closer, we saw a turkey sticking out of it, alive, in the middle of the city :p Only in Armenia.

Last Monday we went to the big golden wheat statue, which is apparently a tribute to all the prisoners of war ever taken in battle. It was way neat to see that part of their culture.

Well, I told you most of everything in the videos, but I'm sending some good quality pictures ;) (We told Jared that we loved pictures, at least the ones that did not include burning objects!)

Anyways, love you lots! There will probably be transfers happening real soon, so keep a heads up for that.

Elder Hammer

One of our Senior missionaries teaching the APs how to hula.

Golden Wheat.

The party

Me and ol' Elder Maughan who came down all the way from Vanadzor.

All the Senior missionaries (including the prez) trying to get a cracker from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands. :p

Merry Christmas to US! Jared's First Skype Call

Merry Christmas!  This is one of two times a year we are able to speak with our missionary.  The next time we get to talk to him is on Mother's Day!  Most families just call their missionary.  We are some of the lucky parents who actually get to Skype (video chat) with our missionary.  We were supposed to get a Skype visit at 9:00 p.m. Christmas night.  But 9:00 came and went and there was no word from Jared. We waited over a half hour (that's ages for an excited mama!) and there was still no word.  We were trying to figure out how much it would cost to call the Armenian Mission Office when finally the call came through!  Here's some notes from our conversation with the boy.  We had made a list of questions to ask him and here's how it went!

 We gave Jared a nice lecture about wearing gloves and not letting his knuckles get purple.  He says his knuckles are fine and everyone gets knuckles like this.  RIGHT! 

Dumb question we ask next:  What’s the weather like?  Obvious answer:  Cold!  We encouraged the boy to go buy a warmer coat.  He proceeds to let us know that because people go out of town around this time, the ATM machines are empty—literally.  The banks—out of money.  So he can’t go get one.  There’s got to be a way for him to get a better coat!

We were glad to hear he got the birthday package we sent. He seemed very excited that he had got a package at all.  He hadn’t expected one.

On Christmas, he went to church, gave someone a blessing, had a huge dinner prepared by the sisters in his district (Jared quote:  “Thank goodness for the sisters in the district!”),  watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” and had dessert. 

They have a couple of investigators who all seem to be accepting the gospel.  Violet has been to church every week and Hakov (Jacob)—who is in the hospital.

While he was talking about the investigators, he really looked and sounded like a motivational missionary.  It was neat for me to see!

Carl asked him if he was able to understand people.  He says he can for the most part.  He also says most people can understand him as well, especially if he slows down and has a chance to get the grammar right.  He says he speaks in a simple way and they can understand him. 

He said that the supermarkets in the outlying towns aren’t stocked well, but near Yerevan, it’s much better in the supermarkets.

Madeleine wanted to give Jared a bear hug, like she used to do when we Skyped with Jared while he was at college.  She would hug the computer screen and so would Jared.  It’s actually very sweet. 

Three Kings Day (Armenia’s Christmas) lasts about a week over there, December 31-Jan 6.  It’s a party all week.  The missionaries have to be in by 7 every night, which is longer than what it used to be.  People are drunk. 

Jared and the other elders went and spent some of their own money to buy food and other items for some of the poor people in their ward. For New Years, they’re going to go deliver it and do some service.

The McDaniels (friends of ours) had asked us to ask him what decorations they had in their apartment.  They had 2 strings of lights, 3 yards long, including a string that is around a plant that Elder Strader had. 

Elder Seegmiller walked in at this point.  He said that Jared was a great missionary and speaks the language very well. He says that Jared spoke the language the best out of their MTC group.  (I guess all the sleeping during classes at the MTC didn’t affect him too poorly!  Learning by osmosis I suppose!)

He describes his typical meals.  They sounded pretty American when they cooked for themselves.  Oatmeal, etc.  for breakfast.   (It was funny how he couldn’t come up with the word for Oatmeal—he only knew it in Russian—lots of things are still in Russian apparently.)  Lunch-Spaghetti, noodle-y things, Pot Pies, cheese quesadillas.  They use Lavash—kind of like tortillas.  Now they only have sausage sandwiches in this companionship. 

We threw Jared for a little loop when we joked with Jared that they were extending missions to 3 years.  Kind of funny to see his reaction.  It was like, “Really??  You must be kidding” kind of look.  He sure hoped we were kidding.

For birthdays over there, the Mission President gives the elders one of his ties.  The sisters get a scarf that the mission president’s wife makes for them.

They typically get 1-2 appointments with investigators every day and the rest of the time is walking around, looking for people to talk to.  It sounds like it’s harder right now to meet with people when it’s cold because they’re either inside or they’re trying to get somewhere quickly because it’s so cold outside. It’s not bad in the summers because people are hanging around outside.

They found the YumYum donuts in Yerevan.  They are just like American donuts.

His back is not good.  He only takes Ibuprofen when it gets bad.  Otherwise, he just deals with it.  He says that surprisingly he is doing very well, health-wise, besides the back.  He had one ear infection, sore throat thing.  Everyone else typically has bad stomach issues, at least once a month.  He says he has stayed very healthy.

One of his resolutions for the New Year is to open up more to people he meets.  They’re always adjusting their goals. 

He says that there aren’t typical Church services at the Armenian Church (Really?  Hmmmm…).  He did say that they stumbled upon an Armenian Church baptism once.  They tried to blend in as well as they could.  He described the service.

He says he has been waking up on time.

He said there has been a significant drop off in the number of people in their branch this winter because they weren’t getting money for the winter.  They’re working on reactivating people. They only have 20 people in their branch at the moment.  They have a piano player in the branch so Jared doesn’t play any more.

Jared used to buzz on his trombone mouthpiece everyday at the MTC.  But then he had a feeling that he shouldn’t be doing that everyday and that everything would be okay.  We then asked Jared about the talent show they had, and Carl joked with Jared, “Did you buzz?”  He didn’t know he had told us about the talent show.  It wasn’t a typical talent show, more of a joking around kind of thing.  He was in some skits. No trombone or piano playing.  :(

He said he didn’t need anything.  They just got peanut butter in Armenia.  He said it is ridiculously expensive.  He joked and said that, maybe they’ll buy peanut butter and nothing else and live on peanut butter and water all week. Carl asked about the bread and he says it’s fabulous.  It’s made fresh daily and if they get to the market early enough, it may be warm still.  It’s not pre-sliced.  It’s the best bread he’s ever tasted. Carl said, “So you have something to put the peanut butter on!” 

Maddie shared her Christmas presents with Jared, including an incredible penguin quilt that Grandma Chloe made.  He loved it.  Both Maddie and Jared love penguins.

Grandma and Grandpa Hammer talked for a few minutes.  We fiddled around making sure everyone could be seen.  Jared asked how they were doing.  He asked about their Christmas.

President Carter walked in at that moment.  He wished us a Merry Christmas.  He said that he loved our missionary and that they are trying to take care of him over there.  He wrapped his arm around Jared’s shoulder.  He said thank you for raising a wonderful son. After the president left, Jared said he’s a wonderful mission president. 

Jared has talked to the new mission secretary, who is a cousin of someone in our ward.  She said to say hi back to Brother Johnson. 

He’s jealous of our 70 degrees weather.  He says it’s just freezing over there.  It’s in the negative Celsius weather.  He just went on splits up to Charantsavan, where he had been for a week, and he said it was way cold.  There was frost on the ground in the mornings. Grandpa told him it was going to get colder. Jared asked him if New York was really cold when he was on his mission.  Yeah, it was! 

They haven’t moved into the ‘Little America’ apartment.  He says his apartment is really small, like the size of our apartment living room here in Santa Monica.  He then said that he now knows why I cried when I walked into our very first apartment 21 years ago.  (CRaZy Tiny!) He sleeps in the same room as the kitchen.  The apartment is just one room.

He was pleasantly surprised to learn that his grandma is sending a box of ties that he can either wear or share. He described a typical haircut there.  They do a bowl cut, leave the bangs long and shave the back. He has to adjust his haircut!

Jared took some toy planes with him on his mission.  He brings them out when little kids are around.  He also pulls out this yo-yo that he found.  He described a time last week that he did this.  The kids were totally shocked to see the toys!  (You should have seen Jared imitating these kids.  It was precious!)  Apparently they don’t have yo-yo’s usually.  He said he tried to show them how to use it and they were shocked.  He tried helping them but the 30 times they would try, they would let it drop to the ground each time. When he showed them the plane, the kids used some word he hadn’t heard before.  So he wrote it down.  “Self Fly” is the interpretation of what they call the airplane (The toy?  The actual airplane?  I don’t remember!).  He says it’s interesting how they put words together.

The one time he used his French over there it didn’t turn out well because he mixed it with Armenian.  The more Armenian he learns, the less French he remembers. 

He was really good about keeping the time he talks to us within the time limits.  He then waved goodbye to us. 

We’re glad this worked out!!!  Now, only 5 months to wait until we see him again!

Impressive Armenians

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope this Christmas season finds you and your families healthy and happy!  On Christmas, Jared will have been out for 7 months!  Can you believe it?  The time is flying by! We're looking forward to Skyping with Jared on Christmas.  We'll let you know how that goes.  If there is anyone who wants to send a message to Jared, let me know through Facebook or leave a message here on the blog as well.  I'll try to pass it on to him when we talk to him. Have a wonderful holiday season!!!

Here are some parts from Jared's letter to me:

The birthday package hasn't arrived yet (we sent him a package at the beginning of December), as far as I know, but it should come soon I'm guessing. Monica sent a small package and it got here in about 3 weeks. I don't know if I told this story, it's actually kind of funny. A sister in my district has received a few packages throughout her mission from her mom. Her mom realized though, that if she put stickers of the cross and the virgin Mary on the package, it would arrive, invarriably, a few months sooner than expected :p

As far as Christmas celebrations among the missionaries goes, the mission will be putting on a mission-wide talent show at the office the day before Christmas. Christmas day we will be caroling to our branch presidencies and then having a small dinner party within our district. So that should be way fun :) We're watching some Christmas movie from the black and white era, but everyone says it's good, so we'll see how that goes :) 

Parts of Carl's Letter:

 This week:

On planning day, a cat happened to get stuck on top of a 7 story building and it kept on meowing and looking over the edge. This continued on for about 2 days. I have to admit, we got a bit distracted watching this cat leap all over the roof looking for a way down. We're not sure what happened to it, but we hope it found a way down. :p

We visited one family this week who's actually from Gyumri. They have a pretty sad story which they related to us. Their father was killed in Gyumri after the earthquake happened, so they all moved to Russia to try to find work. While they were in Russia, the missionaries found them and baptized all three of them: the mother and the brother and sister. After a few months being members in Russia, the Mission Presidency up there asked them to move down here to strengthen the church here. So the church paid for them to come down here to Shengavit and is paying for their apartment until they can find substantial work. They are a really good family and way involved in the church. The brother is preparing to go on a mission and their whole family is waiting a few more months until they can all be sealed in the temple and do the work for their father. Because the teacher for the Gospel Principles class is pretty flakey, we always end up having to teach it. It's been really good though because this family always comes to our class every week and helps us teach it by taking turns.

So we were about to head in when the sisters in Shengavit called us at about 8:30 and told us to come over quickly because Sister Kholer needed a blessing. We jumped on the metro and flew over to Shengavit after calling some people for permission. When we got to their apartment, all the lights were turned off except for a few small ones and Sister Kholer was just lying on the ground, in obvious pain. We never were told about all the details other than she has chronic migranes, but we gave her a blessing and made sure they were alright. The next day we called back to check up on them and Sister Kholer was doing fine. It was good knowing that we can be trusted as Priesthood leaders to be called on such a late notice like that. It was also kind of cool seeing the apartment that we'll be moving into real soon! :D It really is like a mini-America. I'm way excited.

 This week we picked up a family of new investigators who were a referral from the branch president. We made brownies and brought stuff to make pizza (branch president's idea) and then watched the Joseph Smith movie. They were way nice people and seemed totally ready to learn the gospel. The mother is really hospitable and the three sisters seems to look to her for example. Their father is mentally handicapped now, we don't know how, and their brother is in the Army for two years, but they don't let any of that get to them. There is such a love in that house that would be hard to find anywhere else.

So that was my week :)

I love you all! Stay safe :)

Elder Hammer

Did Jared get in a fight?  No.  He's just freezing cold!  Guess who's getting gloves mighty soon???

Slip Sliding Away and Loving It

Hello!!!!

Things were a bit different this week because I went on exchanges and a lot of things will be changing soon. 

The Shengavit sisters moved out a while ago because two of our sisters are heading home and they just opened a new area in Artashat. They're going to have to close one more area soon, unless they get a mini missionary until the new sister arrives. But anyways, we were told that we now have Shengavit in addition to Center. We were also told that we'll be moving out of the apartment in Center and moving into the sister's apartment in Shengavit. We're way excited, because their apartment is nicknamed the 'mini-America' so no complaining from us :p It's also right next to a metro stop so we can quickly get back and forth from Center. 

I went on exchanges this week and during exchanges, we actually helped one of our members in Erebuni move his belongings from one house to another. We had to go down to a village called Kharbert which was interesting because it's higher in elevation than Yerevan. It actually ended up snowing right when we left, so it was crazy cold and it snowed a whole ton. When we got up there though, we found some kids sliding along the ice in the road, so we joined in. All five of us slid along the road together, all bumping into each other. :p I think the kids were aiming for us though :p

We heard a pretty spiritual story from one of our member families this week. They told us they were so poor at one point that there was no food or water. They went to church though and said they prayed and had faith, the sacrament bread and water would fill them. They went on this way (all four of them) for several weeks. It's amazing seeing what kind of miracles happen out here based on faith. 

So we're used to the gangsters on the street laughing and trying to mess with us, but now, with the coming of Winter, they are armed with snowballs. So naturally by the time we get home, we're covered in snow from head to foot. :p I do love Winter, though. People here complain about it, but I, growing up as a California beach bum, love waking up in the morning and seeing everything turned to white :)

Anyways, that was my week :) Love you all!

 

Elder Hammer

And a snippet from my letter:

I'm so excited for this Christmas season, you have no idea. It's going to be so weird because December 25th will pass like no big deal here, but then everyone will go nuts on January 6th. New Years is actually going to be a bigger deal here. It was actually part of the Soviet's plan to destroy religion. They made New Years a week long party from December 31st to January 7th so that Christmas would be covered up. They succeeded in a sense. People here don't focus on Christmas as much because they're too busy partying New Years. But we'll change that :)

Bapple Products

So they were skating on thin ice last week, literally.  Now they're skate boarding.  Hello!  Enjoy his letter, especially the part about the Bapple Products!

So after email last week, Elder Strader wanted to go skateboarding. So we went down to the Opera and he actually found a couple locals to skate with. It was way interesting to see their faces when these white boys could speak Armenian. They were even more surprised when they realized that normal boys like them were missionaries and that we knew Jesus was the Christ and were spreading the news that his church was again restored on earth. :P Then it was interesting to see their faces as Elder Strader whipped out moves that had not yet reached this country, still new to the sport of skateboarding.

So an experience you only have in Armenia: We were standing in the street just waiting for a Marshutine to come, when four trucks full of completely armed and armored troops drove by. As they passed, pedestrians waved and cheered. One of the troops even gave me a wave. :p Then just as quickly as they had arrived, they passed and everything returned to normal.
I love Armenia :p

Funny story I remembered. Back when I was with Elder Frye, on one P-day he was looking at a couple phones, one of which was an advertised iPhone. The man behind the counter said "It's a true iPhone, not a fake!" to which Elder Frye said "No, it's definitely a fake." The guy argued and asked why he thought that. Elder Frye then said "First, the screen is way too small and out of proportion. Second, the home button sticks and is about to fall off. Third, it says 'Made in China', and fourth, under the logo it says 'bapple', not 'apple'" :P I thought that was pretty funny. After that, we referred to knock-offs as "bapple" products.

I had to translate for President Carter during Priesthood this Sunday. That was a mess :p I still have much to learn.

We picked up a new investigator this week. He's a Muslim from Iran and it's way interesting working with him. In scattered English he asks us questions and we try to answer them as simply as we can. It's really interesting for me, though. He doesn't know exactly who Jesus Christ is and we're explaining that he was more than just one of the 5 great prophets. He was, and is, the Redeemer and Savior of our souls. I found myself wanting to explain this great news to him that Christ died and lives for us and takes all of our pains and sins. I had a real big testimony builder this week about Christ and his sacrifice and it made me so happy just to share this news with him. 

Despite all of the people jeering at us, a lady yelling at us on the bus that we knew nothing and that we weren't Christian, and the man telling us that all the Mormons are trash, I'm held up by the knowledge that Jesus knows me and my pains, and nothing after that ever seems so bad. :)


Love you all!

Elder Hammer

Elder Strader skateboarding

They're putting up the Christmas tree in Republic Square :)

One of the trucks full of troops followed by a cop car.

Elder Hammer & Elder Seegmiller

Hey everybody, this is Monica Painter!
I think its neat to hear what Elders say about each other (because then its probably the truth!) and last night Elder Seegmiller sent me a message about Jared, and Jared sent me a message about Seegmiller! Apparently Jared is a role model and is a lot more humble than we thought! Enjoy!
(And also, Jared sent a photo of him in front of Khor Virap, as he says. It's attached below!)
Take care Hammers & Friends!

People in the mission tend to know each other's first names, but it's really weird. Sometimes we do have to tell investigators our first names though because our last names are just way too hard for them. :p Elder Seegmiller and I are pretty close. We've always stuck real near each other in the field and he's just such a great guy (speaking of which, he just walked into our internet place). He's a really cool person too and knows how to mess around.
Elder Hammer

I just got done with a split with Elder Hammer, he is such a stud (as you already know)! It was so good we tore it up! We talked to 57 people in the 3 days we had together which is insane! The standard of excellence for an entire week of talking to people is 60! He is so good at the language and I learned a lot from him on that split! We talked to a lot of good people and hopefully got some good contacts he and Elder Strader can call later. Anyways I gotta bounce, Elder Hammer and I are hopefully going to be playing to basketball today!
Take care,
Elder Seegmiller

A familiar photo of Jared & Ben Seegmiller from last week

OH yeah. Me in front of khor virap :) You can see Turkey from this picture :)