Week 20 (Oct 03, 2016)

What a week. Or at least what a weekend. I loved conference. I was able to listen to most of it in English actually. I absolutely loved it. The whole thing was an answer to my prayers. We as missionaries all went to the stake center here and watched all 5 sessions. I loved the Sunday sessions the  most though. We did have an investigator come to conference on Sunday with us. She has a baptismal date for next Saturday.

Friday I went to the doctor for my ear again. She said that everything looks good and I shouldn't have to go back.

Actually I do have a pretty good story that happened this week. We were in our house and it was raining. So we thought we would wait out the rain. We waited an hour and then just figured it was light enough rain to use umbrellas. We got tho the bus station and it was a downpour. We got on the bus and then when we got to our stop it was absolutely pouring. So we put our umbrellas down and just sprinted for the house. When we got to the road to turn the road had about 3 inches of running water coming down it. It was crazy! It was also the only way to get to their house. So my comp went running through it first, then i went. When i was about halfway up our cell phone fell out of my shirt pocket and into the river/road. Luckily my comp saw and it we ran back and grabbed it. It was soaked. Then when we got to our lunch appointment they weren't even home!! So we went to our back up lunch and had to eat on the porch because we were both absolutely soaking wet!! It was actually pretty fun!! 

Other than that it was a pretty boring week. Our family home evening fell through. Not surprised by that though, she didn't want to come to conference with us either.

And yeah. that's it. Really boring. And I don't have my camera with me so no pictures. Lo siento.

Elder Hamblin 

Week 19 (Sept. 26, 2016)

Esta semana era muy duro, pero muy chevere también. Martes nosotros no hicimos nada. (This week was very hard, but so cool too. Tuesday we did nothing)

Miércoles fue conferencia de zona con presidente Current. El nos dijo que él nos amó. Yo creo que nos ama. Nuestro presidente es un hombre muy increíble y poderoso! El es como un machete! El Miércoles nos dieron el permiso para mudar. (Wednesday was zone conference with President Current. He told us he loved us. I think he loves us. Our president is a very amazing and powerful man! He is like a machete! On Wednesday they gave us permission to move.)....When asked why he is like a Machete Jayden said it was because he is cutting down all the disobedient elders and sending them home.

Jueves nos mudamos. La actividad se llevó todo la día. Pero nuestro nuevo casa es mucho mas mejor! Fotos seguirá. (Thursday we moved. The activity took all the day. But our new house is much better! Photos will follow.)

Viernes. Yo tenia una infección en mi oreja. Entonces nos fuimos a la ciudad por la doctora. Yo recibí mi medicina y regresamos la casa. Una mal día. (Friday. I had an infection in my ear. Then we went to the city by the doctor. I received my medicine and returned home. A bad day.)

Sábado nos quedó en nuestro casa por toda la día. (Saturday left us in our house throughout the day.)

Domingo teníamos que trabajar duro porque no tuvimos lecciones por la semana. Nosotros enseñábamos un montón de lecciones el domingo. Lo mismo de ambos de los otro elderes tenían por todo de la semana. Muy increíble. Nosotros también hicimos una cita para noche de familia por esta semana. Estoy animado por eso! )Sunday we had to work hard because we had lessons per week. We taught a lot of lessons on Sunday. The same for both of the other elders had all week. Very incredible. We also made an appointment for family night for this week. I am encouraged by it!)

In English I will also add a story. We went and visited an investigator who we hadn't seen in 2 weeks. When we entered her house she began to cry. She missed the spirit that we brought to her house and she missed hearing about the gospel. We told her we would come back more often. Then we set up the family night for her to attend this Thursday. I want her to attend church and start to love the members in our ward. Then she can have that special spirit with her all the time. 

So overall it was a really bad teaching week so we made it up Sunday. This coming week should be incredible! 

Elder Hamblin

Week 18 (Sept. 12, 2016)

Sorry for the delay in posting by a week, I was out of town on business and it took a bit to catch up (Gary)

So we got a call on Sunday instead of on Monday this week. Changes happened today instead of on Wednesday. My comp is currently in Tocumen, a different zone that had major problems with obedience and 5 elders got sent home. Crazy.... My new companion is Elder P. He is from the island of Tonga! He speaks English, Spanish, and Tongan. He is super cool! I've been told that he works super hard which is exactly what I want for a companion. Also they closed down an area next to ours so we might go live in their house from now on. It is a little bit better than our little dump of a house! 

More exciting news! We had 3 baptisms in our last week of the change. Pictures attached. It was a great baptismal service. I had the opportunity to conduct the meeting. The girl is 10 and was baptized by her mom´s boyfriend. The taller boy is the mom´s brother, he is 14 and the other boy is 12.  Both the boys were baptized by my companion, then I had the opportunity to confirm one of them. It was super hard to do in Spanish because it is a lot of words to say as well as giving a blessing in Spanish is much different than just simply talking. It was a good experience though. 

The coming weeks should be fun. We have a few progressing investigators that should be baptized here in a couple weeks. As well as lots of recent converts to teach. Should be a great 6 weeks. I am excited to see what we have in store! I look forward to working hard and being able to talk in English a little to better my Spanish!! Love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin!! 

Week 19 (Sept. 19, 2016)

Esta semana fue muy divertido! Mi nuevo compañero es muy genial. El y yo nos divertimos y trabajamos muy duro! Tendremos un servicio bautismal esta Sábado. Tenemos mucho investigadores con quien nosotros necesitamos trabajar, y también nosotros tenemos mucho meno activos en nuestro barrio. Está mucha obra pero es la obra de al señor. Mi español esta mucho mejor y puedo entender mucho mas. El miércoles pasado yo enseñó una lección en todo con solo un poco ayuda de mi compañero. Fue muy difícil pero muy genial también. 

Yo no tengo fotos esta semana, lo siento. Tal vez mañana podré tomar. Lo siento por esta correo todo en español pero yo quiero trabajar en mi español. Esto es solo una manera que yo puedo mejor me español. Ustedes pueden traducir con Google. jajaja! 

Pues les amo!! Tengan una buena semana!! 

Elder Hamblin 

This week was great fun! My new partner is very great. He and I had fun and work hard! We will have a baptismal service this Sunday. We have a lot of investigators with whom we need to work, and we have a lot more active in our neighborhood. Is a lot of work but it is the work of the Lord. My Spanish is much better and I can understand more. Last Wednesday I taught a lesson in all with just a little help from my partner. It was very difficult but very cool too.

I have no photos this week, sorry. Maybe tomorrow I can take. Sorry for this mail all in Spanish but I want to work on my Spanish. This is just a way that I can better my Spanish. You can translate it with Google. Hahaha!

Well, I love you !! Have a great week !!


Elder Hamblin

Week 17 (Sept. 05, 2016)

Hola familia! it was a good week out here in the ghetto. We taught a record high number of lessons between me and my comp. We didn't have any baptisms this week, but we worked hard and will have 4 next week!! Me and my comp call the area "the mine" because there are so many investigators who live on the top of the mountain. Its pretty great. The other night one of them, a 10 year old non member told me that she wants to serve a mission when she gets older. SHE HASN'T EVEN BEEN BAPTIZED YET!!!! It is incredible how the lord will prepare people to be taught! 

Overall this week was pretty boring in terms of crazy things. We for reals just taught a lot of lessons!

I need recipes please. Fudge, meatloaf, poop cookies, German pancakes. thanks!! we can cook at a family that has an oven, its pretty easy and one of them asked for meatloaf.

Love you all!! Talk to you next week!! 

Jayden

Week 16 (August 29,2016)

Okay so last Tuesday we hiked up the mountain in our area to teach a lesson to the investigator who we think will be baptized lately. We talked to her and she believes the church and wants to baptized and all is well. So Wednesday we went back to teach her another lesson and we changed her baptismal date to August 27th. Yes, that means that on Saturday she was baptized. I got to do the baptism, totally in Spanish, and one of her friends husband did the confirmation. It was crazy sweet to do!! She really was truly prepared by God to receive the lessons. It was way awesome!! I have pictures attached, it was such a cool service and experience. 

We also have another baptism lined up for the 10th of September with another girl from the mountain. My comp refers to it as the gold mine now because we have so many investigators who live up there. I hate climbing it but it is totally worth it to teach all of our lessons. We climb it once a day at least, even if we just teach one lesson on top. Its worth the sacrifice. Our next baptism will be with the daughter friend of the girl we just baptized. She is also the primary presidents daughter, she couldn't get permission from her father for the baptism but now she doesn't live with him anymore so we can baptize her, should be a super easy baptism. When we teach her the lessons she knows all the answers to the questions, she is only 10 and has basically been a member without being baptized her whole life. 

The last thing that happened this week was we had dinner with a family or more like a feast. They just had an assortment of things to eat and it all tasted so good. I don't even know what most of it was, I pretty much just put it on my plate and ate it. pictures attached as well. The short Elder is our district leader, my comp is the chunky one, the one in the glasses is Elder P, he loves to play basketball and he speaks English with me to try to get better. he is pretty cool. 

And yeah. that is it, overall an incredible week. BTW, the ear is all better.

Love you all!! bye!! Jayden

Week 15 (August 22, 2016)

Okay, went to the doctor on Saturday. That was an event. I was expecting to pay a lot of money for a checkup, turns out the doctor lady only charges one dollar for every checkup and didn't even make me pay because I was a missionary and taught her things in English, as well as shared things about our church. So that was pretty cool. But what she told me is that in my ear I have a fungal infection. Which in English doesn't sound very cool but in Spanish the only way to say it is "tengo ongos en mi oreja" which translated directly means,"I have mushrooms in my ear" so that's pretty cool! I called the mission nurse and told her the news and she told me what medicine to buy at the pharmacy so I bought that too and hopefully the infection goes away within a week. The overall cost was 5 dollars. Not to bad ha ha!!! 

Other news this week. We have an investigator who needs to go to church one more time and receive a couple lessons and she should be baptized, hopefully her little brother will follow her example too. He receives the lessons but won't attend church with her. We also have a lot of good potentials to work with lately.  We get lots of potentials and new investigators but we never teach them more than once or twice.  

Me and my comp have been getting along quite well lately. My Spanish is really improving and he really likes that. We can actually communicate quite well. He teaches me things not to say and I try to remember everything that he says. Its an okay trade off. Last night we cleaned our little house. it looks so good!! probably the cleanest it has ever been. We mopped everything, no more moldy shower or bathroom floor as well as no more mud in our other room. Not a whole lot to clean in our single little room but at least it is clean now. 

Today we played basketball and four square, I haven't played soccer in 3 weeks. kinda sad about that actually. we ate lunch with another set of elders. he made food from El Salvador, super good!! It was like tortilla pancakes with cheese and meat in them. pretty great. 

So the only thing I don't eat is the tomatoes in our cabbage salad. We eat a ton of cabbage and my comp doesn't like pork and beans which I feel is very specific to not like but other than that we both eat everything. Like this week we ate a soup that had a whole fish in it, like head, tail, skin and bones. Not a small fish either. like the size of a trout when we go fishing. It was actually a really decent soup, the bones in the fish suck but it was decent tasting. 

For laundry we just drop our clothes off to the members that do everything for us. They are super cool, they do our laundry and feed us whenever we need food and they live like a half mile away. Pretty close in our area!  We supply the soap and Clorox, and we serve them in their home all the time so it's a nice trade off.  So they are parents who are like 55-ish, they have 4 kids, their kids have kids. Overall like 10 people are there like all the time. Its like grandma Margarets house, tons of people there all the time but only the parents live there. 

And yeah that was our week. pretty loaded with lessons and finding new people to teach. overall pretty fun as well!!

Love you!! 

Jayden