Week 74 (October 16, 2017)

Alright so this week was really quite slow. Everything fell through. A baptism, people coming to church, progressing investigators, and even our P-day. So I think this is a great time to humble ourselves and go to the lord to help us in our work, which is what I intend to do. To be honest this week I feel like I lacked a little but of diligence, but I plan on refocusing everything and maybe changing up the routine a little bit to be more efficient. 

Also today has been especially difficult to speak English and I have no idea why, I am struggling so hard just to type this email... 

As for positive things from the week, we found a new investigator that will be baptized with his sister, who had her baptism fall through last week.

We had a good P-day, we planned on hiking the mountain again but people bailed on us so we ended up just cooking pancakes at the church and playing volleyball. Not a ton of people in panama really know how to cook so when I do it here I feel like a master chef, even just cooking simple things in the house with my comp like fish and any dish that is Latino. I feel like I am slowly just becoming more and more Latino. Well I take that back, more like the Kunas that live here that anything, I love eating their food and talking to them The Kunas are the natives in panama, and we have lots of them in our area. 

Also this week I have started to notice a great improvement in the Spanish of my companion, he acts like he doesn't know anything but he is so much better than I was when I had his amount of time in the mission. He is really learning and picking up on things so fast, its fun to watch! 

I think that's it for the week. Hope all is well!! 

Week 73 (October 10, 2017)

Alright what a week we had. Found some nuevos, taught some people we already had, dropped a whole lot of people that weren't willing to progress (always sad but has to be done to make room for the people who will progress) Had a confirmation and had 2 baptisms. 

This week I made banana pancakes. They sounded good and went great, all the way until I flipped them over and back and turns out all of the bananas just stick to the pan. SO then i changed ideas and made some banana juice called maddun. Basically I just boiled some bananas for a few minutes on a stove I made and drank it. It was bomb!!! 

Also this week it was raining one day really hard. We were walking to an appointment and the roads had basically become rivers and so rather than walking in the road I went for the sidewalk and well turns out the sidewalk was just a 4 foot ditch. After i fell in rather than getting out I told my comp to take a picture and although its a little blurry its better than nothing. I hand washed the pants, shirt and shoes that night, and wore all 3 of them the very next day. No harm no foul ehh? 

Lately I have really been treating my companion to the panama life, and more than that the life of Verecruz. We eat lots of fish, I cooked a shark on Friday, we sleep in hammocks, we drink weird panama drinks, or sometimes things the natives make. I love training so much. My comp is such a great missionary he always reminds me how I can be more Christlike and i always look at him and wonder if I was ever that young and innocent, I hope I was and at the same time I hope I wasn't haha. 

Anyway i think that's it for the week!! Hopefully i have more to write about next week as well as some more pictures. Love and miss you all!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 72 (October 2, 2017)

Alright so like I mentioned last week I am training. He's a gringo, fresh out of gringolandia and doesn't speak a whole lot of Spanish but is learning quickly. We do lots of language study and I really try to push him to speak in lessons, its pretty fun to just look over and wait for him to talk, he is so wide eyed to the whole thing I really enjoy it. 

So we had conference, I watched the entire thing in Spanish, English wasn't an option this time, which was a struggle watching my comp sit through it. He didn't understand a thing. So we are going to watch it in English and then I will send all of my thoughts home on it. As for the priesthood session we bought a 3 gallon bucket of ice cream to share. Pics to follow. 

As for adventures this week we kind of kept it low key. Nothing crazy really. I've kind of just been teaching my comp what the panama life is all about between eating fish, getting a little sun burnt, putting baptismal dates, we had 2 for the week but they both fell. We ate liver, drank some weird panama drinks, and I taught him all of the weird panama words we didn't get taught in the MTC.

Other than that I think that's it. Hope all is well!! 

Elder Hamblin  

*That's my comp when he fell asleep during personal study, I worked him hard the day before. 

Week 71 (September 25, 2017)

So this week was a solid week.  President gave us the challenge as a mission to find 1000 new investigators in one day. That breaks down to just 12 per companionship. My comp and I took it super personal and really wanted to push ourselves. We set a goal with the other 2 elders in our area to get 50 investigators each. We went so hard!! Elder Green and I ended up with 60 and the other companionship found 65!!! We made a bet that whoever found more had to buy breakfast on Friday for our weekly planning. We found as a mission 1,942. The most I have heard of for companionship's is just 28. We killed it!!!!! 

Alright so also this week because elder Green goes home is we did something we have always wanted to do but never had the time, so we made a little time and took care of it. On Thursday we went out to a little lake in a poorer part of our area that has a little lake in it. Normally we would go there after a visit and spend 5 minutes throwing rocks at the turtles and crocodiles, but that day we came very prepared. We brought a hook and hot dogs and 100 pound fishing line and went to work. it took us about an hour but we ended up catching a freaking CROC!! It took us like 20 minutes to pull it in and put a rope around its mouth and kill it by smashing it over the head with a huge rock but we caught it and we killed it. Then we did something that comes natural, we took it home and skinned it and pulled all of the meat off of it an ate it for our breakfast on Friday. It was so delicious!!! Tasted like chicken put it was way better!!! I don't really now how to explain it. Just super dense meat, almost fish like, but without any bones. We just fried it up with salt and pepper, we wanted to get a good croc taste. 

Also we had a baptism this week. Her names is Bella, shes 10, she has been coming to church alone for 2 months and she finally got permission from her mom to be baptized. She was baptized after church on Sunday. We are also looking forward to having 2 more baptisms this week. 

Also today we had changes. My companion will be headed home to California and I will be receiving another new missionary. My 4th time training. I love training though so this will be great!! Also my comp got permission to stay in the area for an extra 2 days and wait for my comp to get here on Wednesday. Should be more fun working hard with him out here!! Can't wait to see what this new change brings!!! 

Love and miss you all!! 

Elder Hamblin

Week 70 (September 18, 2017)

Alright this week was killer. We just put in work. We didnt have a baptism this week but are planning 3 for the coming week. 

The Elders that we share the branch with had a baptism this week and to help them out we went and filled the font, but it was taking forever so we left it on and left, only to some back and find the chapel flooded. It wasn't a ton of water and we were able to clean it up pretty fast but it was a hassle to have to clean all of it up haha. 

This week we had interviews with president, he told me that this change with my companion going home that he is going to close the other part of the area and leave it with me and another comp, I don't know all the details all I know is that my small area is about to get a lot larger. 

Also today being P-day we had to do something big. So we woke up at 3am and went and hiked this huge mountain in our area. It was crazy!! Pitch black!! We went with the other elders in the branch and some recent converts and a returned missionary. It was so much fun! Rained most of the way up, but we eventually got above the clouds and were out of the rain. To get all the way to the top we had to chop at this 10 foot tall grass and just push our way through. It was exhausting but so much fun. we reached the summit around 9am and then got back down around 1pm. I'm completely dead and in need of a nap but we already have visits waiting for us today. Its been a great week and I'm sure the coming week is only going to be better!!!

Hope all is well at home!! 

Elder Hamblin

 

Week 69 (September 11, 2017)

Well this week was very adventurous to say the least. I will explain it through the pictures that I took throughout the week. I apologize that they aren't in order. 

So one day we were walking and we came across this river that had been dammed to make a little pond and some kids were swimming in it. We watched as they climbed in an old fridge and floated on the pond, or they flipped it over and either climbed on top or hung out underneath. We ended up teaching every one of those kids on a latter occasion. Also on another occasion my comp got in the fridge and floated on the water like a boat, but it was super unstable and he fell in!!! It wasn't deep and he didn't get too wet but it was at least waist deep!! He was wet the entire day. 

We went to the house of some members after helping bring their groceries up the hill to their house and we sat down for a second and they handed me their baby and said I had to adopt her and teach her English, obviously joking but it was fun to mess with them about it. 

On Saturday we had a baptism, I didn't really know her super well but she was cool, just someone from a part member family. The ward mission leader baptized her. 

So this morning we woke up super early to go out and take advantage of our P-Day. We woke up at 3:30 and went out to some rocks on the ocean to make a fire and watch the sunrise over the ocean. That was legit! So much fun hiking in the rocks. Then we went to the city and I bought some new shoes. I got sick of all my shoes breaking on me and so I wanted something higher quality. So I found some really nice Timberland boots for 160. We looked in every store for a lower price but only found higher ones. So I took the money I had and looked for an off brand of the same shoe, but the quality was terrible. So I looked and found a decent pair for 75 but they didn't have my size and they brought out some others but didn't have the color I wanted they brought some out and I just looked and said, "these are ugly" and the owner of the shop looks at the salesman and just says, " I have one more that size that we can't sell, its the only one left, give it to him for 100." So I bought the shoes for 100 dollars, it was sweet!!! I like them, even if I know that the gringos don't usually wear timberland's, I don't really feel gringo anymore. 

Also some members own a turtle so I took a picture of it. Its huge!!! 

Other than that all is going great!!! We are super excited to work and just go hard!! On Thursday we had 17 new investigators!!! Its so great!! I love this area!!! 

Nuegambi -Elder Hamblin

Week 68 (September 4, 2017) Labor Day

Well this week was definitely one to remember. First things first, the one girl in the picture is a baptism we had 2 weeks ago where I forgot my camera and a member sent me the picture, but she got confirmed on Sunday. 

Then this week we were able to baptize 5 more! It was so great! We had some good member support in the baptism and then the 5 were able to be confirmed the next day along with the other girl making it a total of 6 in one sacrament meeting!! It took forever but it was so great to sit there and be apart of that. I could definitely see the lords hand helping us to baptize them! 

Also on Saturday morning I got a call from the assistant that I would be receiving changes. I got put with Elder Green in an area called Veracruz, its near the canal and the beach. We eat a ton of fish in this area because most of the local merchants make their money fishing so its really cheap to buy it. Just today we had a zone activity and we bought 12 dollars worth of fish and it was enough to feed the entire zone. All 10 elders that we have. It was great! I'm looking forward to my time with Elder Green, even if he does go home this change, which ends in 3 weeks. Should be pretty fun learning a new area and having a comp that is cool. Its funny that I am his companion now because we have both had the same companions earlier in the mission and now me and him are together for just 3 weeks. It should be a great learning experience.

Hope all is going great out there!!! 

Elder Hamblin