Bullies

It looks like it was another challenging week in the mission field.  He mentions that he got sick this week. He could really use our prayers.  But he's still there and doing the work! This week it will be one year since Jared received his mission call and we began to know and love a little country on the other side of the world.  Time flies! Here's the news from Armenia.

Hello!

Thanks for the advice you send every week. I really appreciate the insight and the creative ways of connecting things to missionary work :)

So this week I got sick. It wasn't fun at all, but I'm getting through it. Yesterday I had to take the evening off to rest, but the good thing is that it looks like it's working. :)

Anyways, lots of crazy stuff happened this week. Some of the stories will just have to wait until I get home :p But know that your prayers are heard and answered out here :) It's really interesting seeing the hand of the Lord when it comes to certain things.

We met one old man this week named Lova Papik, which means Lova gramps. We met with him the day after we found him on the street and he was way nice. He wanted to feed us so we went into his kitchen and tried to help him out. He gave us a can to open and we both tried opening it but couldn't to save our lives (and I've been doing my push ups every day). So Papik gives a little "aghh, give it to me" and he places it on the table, then goes on to smash the lid with his elbow several times (he's 82 by the way). He then picks up the jar and lightly removes the lid :p

 Anyways, he told a story about how in 3rd grade there was a bully who would always take his books at school and told him that if he said anything he would cut him with a knife, that he brandished every time. So eventually he got kicked out of school because he just wasn't learning and couldn't tell anyone why. He still remembers that kid and said that he curses him still.

So sad story, but even more sad, at the end of our meeting we were about to walk out the door when his grandson comes in and asks what we were doing here. We said we were here because of our faith. And then he told us to never come back. We said that we were invited by him and he said that it didn't matter. Papik then asked what he was doing and the grandson said he'd tell him later. Because we didn't really want a conflict, we just left. I couldn't help but compare his Grandson to his bully. Both kept him forcefully from learning things that would change his life.

Well, you win some and you lose some.

We also met an Iraqi-Armenian this week. His accent was crazy and it was almost impossible to understand what he was saying. He wasn't quite interested in the gospel, but he was Christian and said we were doing good stuff here (that's something that doesn't usually happen here).

Fun fact: We live right next to the (one and only) air force base here in Yerevan, so quite often I get distracted by MiGs flying around doing routine practices every day :)

Anyways, that's my week. Sorry it's a bit short :)

Love you all :)

 

Elder Hammer

A picture of us and Violet and Sister Reading :) (Elder Reading is taking the picture)

We're cleaning out the left over jello from New-years....It's better that I'm not showing the picture of the close up...

Found this in the basement of the Mission Office :p

Stepping in His Footsteps

Parts from Jared's letter to me:

Hello!!! :)

So I think I'm pretty lucky when it comes to crashes and everything here. Two sets of sisters have gotten in marshutine crashes since I've been here. One was a head on and almost resulted in a roll-over but thankfully the spirit of the Lord resides with missionaries and everyone was fine in both situations. :p

...So out here I try to do 15 minutes of Book Mormon as well. I would do more but I only get an hour for personal study. Plus in the evenings I like reading the children's Book of Mormon in Armenian :p It's fun because I understand all the words :p Plus we also read about 15 minutes in the actual one during language study as a companionship. 

...So about Violet, she's kind of dropped us again. Not completely, but she doesn't want people coming to her house because she's ashamed of how small it is and we can't just come by ourselves because she's a woman. Soooo....merrrr....but we're still working with her and hopefully it will work out.

Anyways, don't let the clouds of life get you down :) Always remember to play in the puddles when it rains.

Letter to Dad:

Hello!

Thanks for the pictures by the way :) (Carl sent pictures of his time as a missionary in Denmark) It's proof that in fact, these stories actually did happen, and that my dad actually was that age once upon a time :p  Before long, you'll be watching Jeopardy at night and be in bed by 8:30 :) Jusssttt kidding :P

So I hope Maddie gets better :) (Maddie has the cough/cold stuff going on) You know, I actually haven't gotten as sick out here as I thought I would. That being said, I did actually go to the hospital this week because I've been feeling fluid in my ears most mornings and it hasn't been to fun. I went though and they said they couldn't find anything wrong. So 20,000 dram later I add something else to the list of stuff that needs to be checked by American doctors :p

Thanks for your stories from your mission though. It's always a nice reminder to see that the number of baptisms don't mean anything, especially considering how great of a person you turned out to be. I guess I wasn't frustrated that my potential baptism was taken away from me, I was frustrated that Yeran was taken from us. We really liked that kid and it was exciting to see how he accepted the gospel so well and how he saw the blessings starting to work in his life. It was also quite frustrating because our last few investigators have either moved to Russia, gotten offended by the 'male present' rule, ended up living in another area (about three or four so far. They live on the other half of Center), threaten to get our Visas taken away, etc. It just kind of brightens the week when you have work to do. But anyways, we're doing fine. We find ways to make the day worthwhile and fun. It just takes a little more work.

This week I met another man on the street who happened to be a taxi driver in LA. He knew Santa Monica and all the streets etc. So that was fun. And it always is a way to break the ice on the street. Literally.

Speaking of breaking the ice though. Things are kind of warming up here, and as we were walking to church we heard a loud crack and looked just in time to see about 100 pounds of snow and ice fall from a tall roof straight onto a brand new BMW :p I'm sure that will be a surprise when the owner finds out. I'm just glad we weren't underneath that.

So the church has been around for about 20 years or so here, but we still have to teach some pretty basic doctrines. For instance, in Gospel Principles, our teacher started talking about how Jesus' name isn't Jehovah (a common dispute in this country) and then we had to correct that. Then they said we were wrong and didn't know what we were talking about. Sighhhhhh.....So we had to pull out the scriptures and testify and quote modern day prophets before they stopped calling us liars. :p Fun Sunday.

It turns out that a lot of stuff from America reaches here. For example, someone asked me about Davis from BYU. I decided not to get into that subject. A lot of people on the street though have been saying "Hey isn't Obama that Mormon thing?" and we have to clarify that it's actually the candidate for president.

We actually had a fun experience this week walking along the side of a freeway because there was no other way to get to one of our investigator's houses. Crossing off-ramps and dodging speeding traffic was a great way to get the heart pumping. Along the side though was a massive amount of snow that only had one set of footprints in it, so we quite often got knee deep in snow. I thought to myself though "What kind of spiritual message can I pull from this?" and this is what came to mind. The whole time we were walking, we always tried stepping in the one set of footsteps because it meant we didn't get a ton of snow inside of our socks and it tended to be a lot easier to walk. Some other ways looked easier at times but it always ended up taking more energy and resulted in wet, frozen toes. I guess in comparison, there's one Man who took the pain of walking through all the snow in our lives, and all we have to do is follow in His footsteps. It's the easiest way and the most comfortable way and in the end will save us a lot of energy and grief. :)

Anyways, that was my week :)

Love you!

Elder Hammer

So You Say You're From France?

Satik Tatik, me, our investigator Davit, Elder Peterson

Hello!

So Valentines Day doesn't really have the same foothold here, though the candy stores are trying hard to change that. The church here however likes to take the American holidays and make activities out of them, such as Halloween and those kind of things. So there is going to be a youth activity for Valentines day. We'll see how that goes though :p

As for tortillas there are none here, but they have something close called lavash. It's like a giant flour tortilla about two feet wide and four feet long and they make all sorts of things out of it. They do have one Mexican restaurant here which is actually not too bad. It is way expensive though, so we only go there for birthdays and stuff. :)

Anyways this week had it's up and downs, but things have seemed to get into a routine, so the work is pressing forward. With this mission though, who knows if things will change in the next week, day, (hour even?)

But one piece of news, we had to give up our one investigator who we taught the first three lessons to, to the Assistants because he was just barely out of our area and we didn't even know because we were meeting him at the church. So we were way sad about that. Violet has her baptismal date though! For the 13th of March. It happens to be her birthday as well :) She said she wanted me to do the ordinance too :) So hopefully I'll be getting my first baptism soon :) assuming I don't get transferred.

We went on exchanges this week and I got to serve with the new missionary Elder Rackham. He's a way good missionary, and really motivated. We had an awesome 2 or 3 days together. It was kind of interesting though being the older companion for the first time, if only for a few days.

While we were on exchanges we were walking around the square by the Opera and all of a sudden the streets went empty which was really weird. Then we heard sirens and then the Presidential Armada came rolling down the street with all sorts of official looking cars, so that was way neat.

I was getting ready to go out the door when all of a sudden a heard Elder Peterson scream pretty much like a little girl. So I run in thinking he got shot or something and I see him run into the bathroom. I asked what was wrong and he said he had put his hand in his backpack and felt something squish and lifeless, like a dead rat. Something that was not supposed to be there. So I put on some gloves while he's boiling his hands and open the backpack a tiny bit. I look inside and see a banana, rotten and brown. After laughing for a bit, I went and told Elder Peterson what his culprit was.

We were visiting this one potential investigator who had come to church and we found this one ollllllddddd lady at his house. We said hello to her and she was probably the liveliest one there. Her hearing was awful though :p We were saying, where we were from and she was like "Whattt? They're from France?" We said, "No, from America." She said, "You live in America, but you're from France??" We said "No, just American." She said, "Well, then where did France come from??" Then we explained none of us had said anything about France :p Then someone asked where we were staying and we said Shengavit. Then she said "Why are you staying in the hospital? What's wrong?" Then we explained again where we were staying :p She was super nice and funny. We asked to take a picture and when we said to stand in front of the camera, she stood with her nose practically on the lens :p It was way too funny. Her name was Satik, so we all called her Satik Tatik, which means Satik grandma. :)

Anyways, that's my week. Not too much going on :)

Love you all! :)

Elder Hammer

2 feet of snow fell this week.

Elder Frosty:p We made this while doing service for a member.

Money here

Slip Sliding Away

Hello!

So, yes. It is more than cold here. It snowed again which dropped the temperature below comfortable. Since I don't read metric temperature very well, I just figure if a plus is next to the C, it means 'comfortable', if there's a negative, it means 'not comfortable'. Plus it didn't help that our water heater broke this week, so it's just as cold inside as outside. I almost cried last night. It's a good thing I have a giant marshmallow blanket. (It's big and white, and really warm.....to a point). And so, that also meant no warm showers...merr...

Speaking of the cold and "no broken backs". Funny story, (well it was funny for Elder Peterson). The second day after snow comes is the worse because it kind of melts during the day, but then freezes again at night, creating ice...everywhere, because no ones scrapes snow off of anything here.  So we had to walk up a hill and turns out the whole hill was ice, so we both got about halfway up when I realized that instead of going up I was going the other direction. So I resigned myself and slid all the way back down. Elder Peterson followed and we found a patch on the side of the hill next to a building that had some snow left which provided traction. When we got to the top,we saw an Armenian just take off from the top of the hill and slide all the way down. We were kind of jealous.  

On our way back, we had to go back down the hill, so Elder Peterson took the snowy side while I, being impatient, tried to follow the example of the Armenian. So as you can expect, my pride brought me pretty low. I didn't even make it to the slope before I smacked down and Elder Peterson watched as I slid right by him on my rear, sprawled on the ice. There happened to be a car back up at the top of the hill waiting for someone, and it honked, the driver inside laughing....The best part is that when I got up, I made it about four more steps before I wiped out again.

Later on that day we were walking around Shengavit when I tried stepping up on a curb and wiped out again, making number 3. That time I just kind of laid there for a minute, sprawled out again, not really feeling like facing the two teenage girls who watched the whole thing and were, also, laughing.

Yesterday we were trying to get to Violet's house, and yes, I wiped out again, except this time on stairs. That was a little less fun. So my back hasn't really been too happy with me lately and my entire left side of my body is sore :p

So earlier on this week we had an experience that really showed we must be doing the right thing here. We were together with Elder Hatch and Elder Peterson (the tall) and we were going to our church so they could meet their landlord who lived in Center. As we were walking across the street, this one boy in front of us, about 17 years old, turned around and spat at us. He missed for the most part, but managed to get Elder Peterson (the small) on the jacket a little. We kind of assumed maybe it was just an accident...maybe and kept on walking. As we got closer to our church though, the boy kept on looking back. Finally he just stopped and said "Stand right here! Don't walk this way any more" we explained we had to get to our church, and then he went off saying something about a crazy house and saying he'd do cuss words to our religion. Finally he just kind of stopped and we said, that we could walk in front of him if he'd like. Then he said something about killing and whatnot then right before he left he spat a huge wad of spit in Elder Peterson's (the tall) face at point blank, some of which bounced off into my face. So that was fun :p He's been known for punching Elders though, so we considered ourselves lucky. 

So a cold, less than encouraging week, but the good news is that Violet is our silver lining. She's way excited for baptism and shows up for everything the church has to offer, Sacrament meeting, Institute, all sorts of stuff. And she calls us her grandchildren (and treats us like it too). This Sunday she was in church and signaled for me to come over, so I came and she looked like she was about to say something and then just shoved a whole bag full of candy into my jacket pocket and said "share with your friend" :p She is honestly our favorite person right now. :)

Anyways, that was my week :) I love you! :))

Elder Hammer

Me and Khachik, a new member

Us and Zaven, a really good member

Khachik wearing my backpack :p His idea.

Letter to Santa Monica 2nd Ward

What a pleasant surprise it was when I stumbled on a letter that Jared had written to the entire Santa Monica 2nd Ward, our friends and fellow church members here in Santa Monica.  I was reading the ward newsletter and at the very end of it, there was a letter from Jared!  I thought I would share it with everyone else.   It's neat to see the growth Jared has made while on his mission.  I'm a lucky mom!

Hello!

Well things are going great out here. We just got a new group out here and it's been really interesting to see these missionaries and it has given me an opportunity to look back and reflect on the progress I've made on my mission.

For the most part it was kind of hard to see that I had been making any progress at all. Armenians are quite blunt about things which is both a blessing and a curse. But they have taken the liberty of telling me (quite frequently) that I don't speak the language well. Understandable seeing as I've been in country about 5 months now, but slightly discouraging none the less. So for the last little while, I've been focusing on where I need to go. I've been looking up the cliff side and realizing there's still a long ways to go. I think there was a conference talk about this but I can't remember. 

The new group coming in kind of gave me an opportunity to stop and reflect, and look down the cliff side and see how far up I've come. I thought about my first few weeks in this country and how I barely even spoke in lessons and didn't understand anything going on in Sacrament meeting. I look at things now and I'm working almost 50/50 with my companion during lessons and I'm even starting to translate in Sacrament meetings. 

Besides the language though, I've made some serious spiritual progress. I think the thing I've gained a testimony about the most is the Book of Mormon. I had a pretty interesting experience at the beginning of my mission. I decided that I wanted to read the Bible during my personal studies because I wanted to say I've read the whole thing if I'm out there saying we believe that both the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together and are the word of God as one. I neglected my Book of Mormon reading though and I noticed things were just hard. Things weren't working out the way I wanted and I felt like I was working on my own. I took one Sunday though to start the Book of Mormon and my day just brightened up. I felt happy and at ease, as if there was something behind me, supporting me throughout my work the whole day. My companion and I didn't have any contention between each other (not that we had much of that anyways) and everything was better in general. 

Since then I haven't missed a day of reading and things have gotten much better with my work. It's not a big change, maybe just 15-20 minutes a day of serious study, but it makes all the difference. I've been through the Book of Mormon twice now and I'm working on my third, and I can honestly say I find

something new every time. 

Anyways, I can't express enough all the appreciation I have for this ward that has supported me so much. I wish I had thanked each and every one of you before I had left. But I truly am grateful. It's hard to know where I would be without all of you. Thank you, and may the Lord bless your lives.

Elder Hammer

How to Clean Your Clothes in Armenia and Other Fun Pictures

Hello all!  So after I posted Jared's letter, my hubby started asking where the pictures were.  What pictures?  I obviously had missed something.  When I checked again, there were 8 pictures that I had not seen.  So here they are along with some comments Jared made.  Enjoy! 

 

The pictures  are of me and Elder Peterson at the memorial today, one of a screw stuck in Elder Peterson's shoe. We couldn't pull it out, so we screwed it out. And one of a popular laundry detergent brand here....I don't think the makers know English...I might have included one of our planning board, but I can't remember :p

At the Memorial

Elder Peterson and Jared at the Memorial

 

At the Memorial



Elder Peterson and Jared



Elder Peterson's Shoe



Jared fixing the shoe



Really?  This is supposed to CLEAN the clothes????



The Planning Board











Properly Placed Strokes

Hello!

This week was more successful I'm happy to say. Elder Peterson set a mission-long record for him self with 8 new investigators this week. I had a good week in Malatia, but if it weren't for that week, I would have set a record with new investigators too. Unfortunately, the trick is keeping the investigators you find. By the end of the week, all of them had dropped out except for our good investigator Violet and a 16 year old we picked up this week. We had actually seen him at church for the last few months, so everyone thought he was a member, but then we said something to the effect of "When were you baptized?" and he was like, "What?" So we picked him up and he agreed to a baptism date at the end of February. So if all works out, we should be having two baptisms at the end of this month :D My first two of my mission.

Anyways, a transfer happened this week but I'm not moving :) for once. Elder Seegmiller moved out of our district to Nork :( but now Elder Fairclough is training the new missionary, Elder Rackham! So that's a really cool experience for him. And it's kind of fun to have a new kid in our group and see how I once was. :p But yeah, that's way cool.

So we found out that the great new investigators that dropped us, that I was talking about last week, the ones who went to Russia, turns out they never went to Russia. We ran into her brother again and he said that they were still here. We called them and found out the truth. Apparently, their landlord says if they talk to us again, he'll kick them out, so that was a bummer to find out about.

So I learned a pretty cool life moral this week by chopping wood for one of our members. He's about 70 years old and has rheumatism and blood problems and all sorts of crazy other problems. I was out there chopping the wood, bringing down the axe way hard and feeling all manly about my self. I would cut through the wood in about two strikes, sometimes even after one it would go right through. Then our member said "Wait, hold on, hold on. Tsavd tanem (not really a direct translation to that, but it kind of meant, "goodness") You're hitting too hard." He then took the axe, and a fresh stump (you have to realize these stumps are huge) then brought the axe down and destroyed this stump straight down the center. Then went on to pulverize the entire thing. His strokes weren't even that powerful. At points he made it look like he was just cutting through butter, sometimes with only one hand. He then looked at us, then looked at the pile, then back at us, and said, "With the properly placed strokes, you use maybe half the energy." So it made me think what kind of stuff I was doing in life that could be considered improperly placed strokes. Stuff that gets the job done, but if done a different way would make things easier and more efficient. It was kind of funny though to see a man, who is a few times my age, show us both up.

This week we were standing on the street, talking to a 60 year old lady who was fond of pushing me in the chest every time she wanted to make a point, when I heard some sirens which sounded kind of weird to me. I looked and there were 2 military police cars escorting about 7 trucks full of troops going into the city. Needless to say I got distracted. I was brought back into reality by a shove from an impatient woman who wasn't happy that I wasn't listening to her... :p

On Sunday, our branch took the third hour talking about sacrament meeting and what they didn't like about what went on (it was kind of irreverent). They then went on to say how the translating by the missionaries was awful (we had to translate for a talk the senior missionaries were giving) and it was putting them to sleep. (Part of the irreverence was caused by an old lady in the front yelling "What are you saying?? I can't understand you!") Then they took the whole time talking about how much we were terrible at the language and should try focusing on the language of the spirit instead. I was translating that 3rd hour for a couple guys who were there from a business based in Utah, so I kind of watered it down for them saying "Well, they're kind of making fun of us right now..." :p Oh well, you do what you can, right?

I met a guy yesterday actually, who used to live in Santa Monica for 6 years! I was really excited. He was impressed because of my language because I had only been learning for a few months. He said he had been in America for 6 years and had only learned two words in English. :p I thought he should meet some of our members. I kind of got distracted talking about Santa Monica for a few minutes. We got his number though :) Hopefully going to pick him up as an investigator.

Fun fact, we may live in little America, but there are a couple things that remind you that Little America is still inside of just as Little Armenia. For example, if I want hot water for my shower, I have to turn on the sink to get the water pressure up high enough. :p But we're lucky though, because not all missionary apartments have hot water, so we're still blessed :)

So that's my week :) Love you!!

Elder Hammer

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