Week 21 (Oct. 10, 2016)

Okay so I got a call Monday while I was emailing that i was being transferred to a different zone. Something happened in their zone and a missionary had to be taken out of there and they decided to put me in. So I went to the office on Tuesday and talked with the secretaries and assistants and the president and all was good. Then I sat in the office for 3 days just waiting to be told to go to my new area. I had to take a bus for 4 hours all by myself, that was pretty fun. I got to see the canal, sort of, it was really dark and there were no boats or anything but I saw some water. After my 4 hour travel I met my new comp. He is super cool, his name is Elder Franco and he is from El Salvador and has only 2 months in the mission. He speaks basically no English but he wants to work on it and get better. So every day we have been practicing out of his little English textbook. Its pretty fun to see him progress and see what he knows. He knows a lot of English but is really shy to say any of it. 

So as for my area I am in Zona Chitre in the area of Penonome 1. We split a branch with the sisters out here. The branch is huge! We have like 120 people at church every week and at first i didnt believe it but then yesterday at church it was true! There are so many people there we dont even all fit in the chapel!! 

The sisters that we split the ward with are super cool! Both of them are from Utah (. One of them has 10 months in the mission and speaks really good Spanish and the other one has 2 months in the mission and speaks practically no Spanish. As for me we were having dinner with a member last night and the member told me "wow your Spanish is really good! Are you fluent?" I was so surprised. I never realized how good my Spanish actually was. But i guess it is really good because me and my comp can communicate without any problems. 

I also really love the people here and I think they already like me. So while i was in the office for 3 days me and the secretaries learned a bunch of stupid little magic tricks. So i showed all the people in our little branch and they were freaking out about it!! all of the little kids love it!! When one of the ladies in the ward found out how I made the coin disappear she called me a liar and kept telling me I lied and it was so funny! Also in  the ward someone came to the conclusion that I look like Ken Barbie so they call me Ken now. It is not amusing!! 

As for the mission work here it should be progressing a lot soon. We had 2 investigators attend church yesterday as well as we have been visiting some less actives. We just need a couple of investigators to get married and then we can baptize them. they come to church a lot and have testimonies, just need to be married. I think that should happen sometime in the next month! Anyways I'm super excited for my future time in this area as well as in this branch. We will hopefully become a stake and then we can be a full on ward soon!!! Everyone in the branch is working hard to get everyone to come to church so that we can get the numbers for it all to happen!! Im super excited!! 

Anyway thats my very exciting week!! Finally had some stuff happen!! 

Love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin