Week 41 (Feb. 26, 2017)

So this week has been incredibly boring.

Monday was p-day, we went and played basketball after emailing and it was a mess. My shot is long gone. I played a total of two games and scored 0 points. Sounds a lot like high school!! 

Tuesday we got out and taught a few lessons and hopefully can have one of them baptized in march. 

Wednesday we had to go to the city for migrations so we spent the whole day traveling and being very bored and tired. 

Thursday was a zone conference, we spent that whole day traveling and being tired, and also I got to conduct a baptismal interview. Those are always fun and kind of scary. Also on Thursday the big party in panama started. We have to be in our house at 4 in the afternoon to be safe from everything. Its crazy! The party lasts until Tuesday and it is at all hours of the day and night. Hard to sleep with all of the music playing. 

Friday I got to do 2 more baptismal interviews, and then we were right back in the house, pretty boring. 

Saturday we got to teach a little, had a lesson with a lady named Katherine. She is super positive and said she is going to think about baptism this week. We have another appointment with her this Thursday, should be great! 

Sunday was great too. We went to church, then after church we worked with the youth on a song to sing in church next week. The young women sang great, the young men have a lot of work to do. Its scary because the mission president will be in sacrament meeting this coming week so we have to do everything perfect for that. 

And that was the whole week. Lots of time in the house as well as baptismal interviews. Pretty boring. I got to take lots of naps. 

Also changes were this week. But nothing happened. I just get to finish training my comp for 6 more weeks which is just fine. We get along great and i like the area so it will be fine to be here. 

Yeah that's it. I can still hear the music from the party, it never stops. We see drunks in the street, people throwing up, and people falling down all the time. Its so weird to be a missionary in this environment. But its fun to see all of the repentance that I can bring to the people here. 

Also I did get my package, thanks for the socks!!! Pictures attached! I'm wearing a pair of them right now!!

Thanks for everything! Love you all!!! 

Elder Hamblin

Week 40 (Feb. 20, 2017)

(Happy 20th Birthday Jayden, Feb 18th)

So this week had a really slow start, but then just took of on Friday. It all started with a lesson.

We were teaching the lesson of the Restoration to an investigator and her 3 cousins. Then slowly more and more people showed up from the family and even a neighbor came over, but only poked her head in the door. So me and my comp both thinking that the neighbor was interested tried to include her and asked her a question, she then went off on us and said that the book of Mormon was a lie and that prophets wee a lie and that we were the church of the devil because we didn't believe the bible and just tons of weird stuff. So we started to explain everything to her. She kept talking about baptism by the spirit (which we believe in) but never baptism by water (which the bible actually teaches but whatever) So we explained all of the doctrine of the church but she kept saying it was a lie and tried to deny the truth. (we gave up even using the book of Mormon and went with things right out of the bible to counter her every word.) There was only one question that she asked that we didn't have an answer to and even that was a pretty pointless question. (Her question was "who baptized john the baptist") But at the end the family asked us to come back and the lady we were fighting with would even shake my hand when we left. I felt like a champion when we left that house ha ha!! 

Then Saturday was my birthday and it was one to remember. We started the day off a bit early, I also enjoyed a pot of captain crunch (we don't have any bowls big enough)  and left our house at 8:30 to go to a lesson with a person we found while knocking doors. So we went and taught her the restoration and it was a crazy good lesson and then at the end she told us that we have to come back and teach her more. So that was great! After the lesson we went to find another investigator who is progressing but she wasn't home but it just so happened that the ward was doing a service project just across the street. So me and my comp thought we could help out for like 30 minutes and actually ended up staying there for like 4 hours. But it was pretty fun to just hang out with the members, and they sang happy birthday to me. Then after service we changed showered and went back out to teach. We were walking through a neighborhood when we came across a ton of gringos just walking down the street. (this is a pretty hidden neighborhood so I had no idea why they were there) so we stopped and talked for a second and they said they were there to help the local community and to show a movie in the park. They were all from Arkansas and didn't speak any Spanish. So we told them we would try to come to the movie if we had time then left and taught a lesson and then we did have time so we went to the movie. It was the JESUS MOVIE! They were a bunch of people form the Church of Nazareth, whatever church that is, and one was a baptist pastor. We talked to them for like 2 hours about everything and basically taught the restoration of the church, and the pastor told us he would read the Book of Mormon if we read the bible. No bid deal, I read the bible all the time. Also it turns out that my comp can speak quite a bit of English! He did really good talking to a bunch of gringos for 2 hours, and actually was able to help me teach! So much fun teaching the gospel in English, although it was extremely hard because I kept saying words in Spanish, and quoting scriptures in Spanish but I loved every minute of it!! Then later that night my comp and I called one of our investigators to invite him to church. He said that he couldn't come because he was on a work trip, but he wanted to know if there was a church in the area he could attend. Sadly there wasn't. But it was funny when he asked because he referred to the church as "our church" not the church of the missionaries. So it sounds to me like he is pretty converted! Now we just need to work with his wife and they will be baptized and sealed in no time!!!! I then ended the night with some ice cream. 

Also I bought a new hat with my birthday money! It is sweet! Me and my comp both have one because the sun is super strong right now in the summer. The hat is a traditional panama hat and is made out of paper, its pretty cool. All the members love it! We used to have black hats but we looked like The Jehovah Witness so we had to change. But we look good now. The people on the street always do the typical panama yell when we walk by, but I just yell it back and they laugh and understand that I am from panama. Because I talk and look like i'm from panama. Its pretty fun!! 

And yeah that was my week!! Pretty fun! Long!! Lots of sun!! But really great!! I will remember this birthday forever! The pictures should explain themselves, but in some of them we were offered a ride in the back of a truck by a guy and he had corn. so we took a pic. and then we stole oranges from an abandoned house. they were gross tho.​

Week 39 (Feb. 13th 2017)

Wow what another week. We didn't teach much in our area, but we had exchanges with the zone leaders and that pretty much just killed my comp. He was super down this week, its been really hard to work with him because he just has emotional breakdowns. He told me this morning after studies that he wanted to go home and I just told him,"no" and then took a nice P-day nap. I love p-day naps. 

The work for the week was really slow. We for reals spent the entire week outside of the area. It was a struggle to report our numbers for the week because we reported straight zeros. Hopefully this week we can have time to work in our area and prepare some of our progressing investigators for baptism. 

Thats really it for the week. No crazy stories, no cool adventures or anything. Just a week of work out of the area. 

Also I still haven't got that birthday package yet. I am hoping this week sometime. 

And finally, Happy Birthday Dad!! I don't even remember how old you are now, so I will just go with old. 

Sorry for the short email, next week will be better. 

Elder Hamblin 

*our ceiling fell on us the other day. They fixed it today tho. 

*photos- i drew this while waiting for my laundry

Week 38 (Feb. 6, 2017)

So this week was probably the hardest week physically of my entire mission but I absolutely loved it!! I should start with Tuesday. We had to wake up at 1 in the morning to leave for the city for migrations. I tried to sleep on the bus but it didn't go so well. We got to the city had our migrations, then got lost trying to get home, but eventually we found a bus and got home at 10:00 am. So we still had the entire day to work. We went out, fighting sleep the whole time and taught 4 lessons. Pretty decent day!! 

Then on Wednesday we woke up early and went out to the mountains to do some service. We cut the grass of this super old guy in our ward for like 4 hours. Cutting grass here means hacking at it with a machete. So we did that for 4 hours and I have more mosquito bite than I have skin on my legs, but the service was super awesome and it felt good out in the mountains. 

Then Thursday me and my comp had a way awesome experience. We were doing cosechas, which is where we pray and then follow the guide of the spirit to know which door to knock on and then talk and ask if you can bless their house and their family. So the spirit guided us to a house, but I knew that if we asked the guy in that moment he would say no. So I told my comp we had to wait 10 minutes. So we kept walking down the street and we found nothing. So we went back to the house and two guys were standing at the front gate. One inside and one who looked like he was just saying goodbye. So I told my comp we needed to pray again. So my comp starts praying that we can get in this house (we are just standing out in the street) when the guy who was inside the gate comes out and yells to us that we need to come in and offer our prayer inside of his house and not out in the street!! It was great!! That was what we wanted to do anyway. So we go in his house and we start to talk and we explain that the spirit led us to his house and then he tells us that he felt like he had to talk to us. Then he told us that he has also read the Book of Mormon!!! This dude was so prepared!! He had so many great questions for us, and he told us he would have a questionnaire the next time we showed up so we could help him more. We also taught him the restoration and he seemed really intrigued by how we have the priesthood restored. It was just a crazy awesome experience all by the power of the holy ghost. 

Then Friday night I had to interview 2 baptismal candidates for the sister missionaries so we went and took care of that. The first one went great we had no problems, but the second one had a drinking problem. He went 7 months without drinking, but then had a relapse on Monday. The missionaries worked with him and cleaned him up and he is doing so much better so I let him pass his baptismal interview. It was a good interview, but he only passed for the 7 months dry, and his strong desire to be baptized and to have the holy ghost. So after the interview we left and got a call not even 10 minutes later. He was on the phone crying because his family wasn't supporting him in his baptism. (this guy is 40 years old, can't read, can't write, and doesn't have a job or girlfriend) so we went back to give him a blessing. I got to offer it and I said words in the blessing that I didn't even know, then we had a killer lesson about how he will be an example to his family and the ward will support him and it was just super awesome!! Then the next day I had the opportunity to get in the font and do the baptismal ordinance for him. This man had smiled maybe once in the 2 days I had talked to him, but his smile was so huge after his baptism!! It was so great!! 

Then Sunday when both me and my comp were dead from the week, and fasting, we told each other that we had to go get at least 3 lessons for the day. So we did. We fasted for 24 hours and got the lessons and I am praying that 2 of the people from those lessons will be baptized in the next 3 weeks. 

Also I put a picture of our apartment building in there

Such a great week!! Sorry for the super long email!! I love you all!!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 37 (Jan. 30, 2017)

So this week was pretty great. Me and my comp, who is from mexico, are working hard and really getting the job done out here.

This week we had the worldwide mission conference, They announced a change in the schedule of the missionaries worldwide. They did it so we can get more sleep, which I absolutely love and we now only report 4 of the 9 key indicators which will hopefully focus our efforts on those 4, which are baptisms and confirmations, investigators in sacrament, New investigators, and Baptismal Dates that we have. Our mission had already changed to do that before the conference, which just shows that our mission president is receiving revelation here in Panama. 

This week we also taught a bunch of lessons and found 9 new people to teach, and my goal is to baptize at least two of them in the next 2 weeks. One of them is an old lady, all of her kids are members and we are just working with her to change her deep catholic roots. 

The other one is a kid who lives with two members with his parents. He is so anxious to hear the gospel that when we didn't have a Book of Mormon to give him during our first visit with him he just said that he would read the bible until he got a Book of Mormon. It was crazy sweet!! 

Also this week we saw what I think is an incredible thing in our ward. So the last 2 baptisms that we had live very far away from the church and don't have enough money to pay to get there. So a few members in the ward have offered to donate money each week to pay for the bus that they have to take to get here. It is awesome!!! Such an experience to be a part of. 

As for my comp, he is doing a lot better. I told him he is only allowed to cry 3 times last week, he cried 3 times. So this week we will move forward and he will only cry twice. We are setting goals and really moving forward. 

Also my rash is finally gone. I'm so glad!! But now I am getting sick. I think the branch president got me sick. It sucks, I just cough and I'm super thirsty all the time. Terrible. 

Anyway that's it for my week. Lessons and heat and baptisms in a couple weeks. My Spanish is getting a lot better. People always think that I have like a year and a half in my mission so it is fun to tell them that I am actually just getting started!! We had one guy tell us when we met him at the store that he knew I was the senior comp and that my comp was new. He could just see it in the way we walked up and talked to him. So that was pretty cool. Although my comp does act pretty new. Yesterday he completed one month in the mission. It was a big accomplishment for him. I'm at the point where I have enough time that I don't really keep track. 

Anyways love you all!!  

Elder Hamblin