Week 85 (January 1st, 2018)

So this week was pretty great. Besides the parties and all of the hype for new years, which to me is not that great anyway, we had 3 baptisms! It was really great to be able to watch this family change in such a short amount of time. From the day we first found them to the day they were baptized was just 8 short days. And they attended church twice in those 8 days. It worked out perfect. they were some doubts along the way especially when they said that it was too fast and they weren't prepared, but we challenged them to ask the lord if it was time to be baptized and they said their prayers, received their answer and were baptized. The lord answers prayers when we ask. 

Apart from the baptism we struggled a bit in the work. We only found 30 new people to teach and we had to drop a lot of our investigators. The goal this week is to get back out and find and teach so we can baptize more people. We are planning on having 2 more baptisms this week, and hopefully putting 10 more baptismal dates with new investigators during the week. Should be solid. 

This week I got pink eye. That was great. But with medicine it went away. And so far my companion hasn't got it from me. 

This week I´ve also been focusing a lot in what I want out of the mission in this new year. I only have 4 months left and I intend to put everything that I have learned up to this point to work. I haven't exactly finished my list but so far it is solid and I know I can keep and meet every goal I have made so far. 

I think that is it for the week. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a great new years!!

Elder Hamblin 

Week 84 (Dec. 25th, 2017)

Alright so this week was incredible! Its our first week in the area and it is going so much better than all of the other first weeks in any other area. We have been working like crazy every day just trying to find and teach and invite to baptism. This week we found 48 new people to teach and I´m sure we invited at least 40 of them to attend church and be baptized. Its been so great that we have been working hard and are really seeing the results of the work. 

On Saturday night we had 23 people who said they were going to come to church. It was great that they all wanted to come and feel the spirit of the gospel. We had a special Sunday this week with a Christmas party and then we had lunch after the meeting. We had a lot of members there, although it was our first week all of the members tell us that we have a ton of members attending right now and that all is going well. 

Also with Christmas it was super hard to sleep. The tradition here is that they stay up until midnight waiting for Christmas and get super drunk and listen to a lot of loud music. The neighbors that live right in front of us were listening to music until about 5 in the morning. My companion and I stayed awake talking until something like 2 in the morning because there was just no way to sleep with all of the music. Definitely a Navidad I will never forget. 

I attached some pictures, mostly just us preparing for Christmas. 

Any way love you all!! Merry Christmas!!!!  

Week 83 (December 18, 2017)

Alright so this week was incredible!! To start off we had 2 baptisms this week! They were solid!! Both were just mango bajitos waiting to get baptized so it was great to help them take that huge step. Their families were able to attend, one of them has non members and the other has less active family. 

Also this week we had our branch activity. Not a whole lot of people showed up so there was lots of food for us to eat. We played a little soccer with some little kids and I shot a basketball for few minutes, I spent most of the time just cleaning the baptismal font and getting things ready for the baptism. In the activity we did have a lot of less actives though. And not a whole lot of active members. It was weird to see so many people that I didn't know showing up to a church event. 

And finally we did have changes and I am out of colon and back in San Miguelito. I got put back in the same house where I lived before, but with a different area. My companion is Elder V., he is from Peru, I was his zone leader when he got here and we went on divisions once, although we never left the house because we were both sick haha. 

The house we live in was super dirty when we got here, but my comp and I spent 2 hours deep cleaning and it looks good now. The pics I will send are from over year ago though because I didn't take any today. It looks the same though. 

The little girl is Valeri, she is just a little ball of energy, and makes is super hard to teach lessons but I wanted to include a picture of her.It was her cousin that got baptized. 

Ill send pictures! I'm super excited for Christmas, even if there's no snow here. Actually I feel like it is getting hotter and hotter every day haha! I think that's it for the week. Hope all is well! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 82 (Dec. 11, 2017)

This week was a bit better. We finally got some people to show up to sacrament as well as we had some less actives there. We will have 2 baptisms this week, the mango bajito and another mango bajito. We finally got permission from the girls mother to have her baptized so we will go though with that on Saturday or Sunday. Other than those 2 the area has been pretty dull. Not a whole lot moving. We are hoping to get something moving this week with the members as well as we have a large ward activity on the 16th in the church so hopefully we get a good turnout and can have some investigators there. 

This week we also had interviews with the mission president. Due to a miscommunication we showed up way early and I was the first one to be interviewed in the zone. President called me in to the office, I sat down, president looked at me and said,"Elder Hamblin you looked really stressed right now, why are you so stressed?" So apparently the stress I am under is able to be seen in how I look. So that's fun haha. I told him that I was stressed because we have just been struggling and that I knew we could be doing better, he told me to not worry and that things would get better as we continued working. Then my companion had his interview and the mission president asked him if it would be okay if I left the area this change. So as far as I know it looks like I will be leaving this change. Which is at the end of the week. 

Also this week I was cutting my hair and all was going well, then I went to take a little more of part of my left temple and instead of taking off a little I took of all of it. so I'm rocking a small bald spot on the side of my head, but the rest of it looks great! This is the 5th time I've cut my hair and the first time I've messed up so that makes me 4 for 5 which is a pretty solid batting average.

As far as it goes thats about it for the week. Pretty lame. But this one should be a lot better! 

Also the picture I took this week is of me at the house of the mango bajito.  They have 3 little puppies so I took a picture of me with the puppies. This photo does not include the bald spot. 

Love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 81 (Dec. 04, 2017)

This week we started to really figure things out. We met our goals for the week of finding and teaching, we are now just missing the part where we have baptisms. The good news is we found what we call a mango bajito. Its when a kid isn't baptized but his whole family is already members. We found him and are helping to reactivate his family and baptize him. That was a good find. 

Also this week we had a few less actives and some recent converts come to church, it feels good when some hard work pays of and people are showing up. And although we did get some less actives and recent converts, we didn't get any investigators to show up, which makes it impossible to progress. 

We do however have plans in place to have what we call a Week of Excellence. Its a way to find, teach, and prepare people for baptism really quickly. We are hoping to have a lot of success this week and find over 50 new people to teach in just one week! Should be solid. 

Also today we had a zone P day. We played soccer, but I don't have tennis shoes, so I ended up just playing bare foot. It hurt, I got stepped on, but I did score a few goals haha! Also i was able to take my plastic baseball glove and a ball and take grounders off of the wall for a few minutes. It felt good to run and throw. It rained the entire time, absolutely pouring!! It was really refreshing though. Hopefully we don't get sick. 

Also sorry I didn't take any pictures this week, it was raining a lot and I didn't want my camera to get wet so I didn't bring it with. So once again no pictures. But I did find a plastic bag to put my camera in so hopefully I will be able to bring it with me during the week!

Anyways, love you all!! Hope all is well!

Elder Hamblin

Week 80 (Nov. 27, 2017)

Alright so this week I was able to go on divisions in an area called Barriada Kuna. Barriada means neighborhood and Kuna is the people that I love to talk to, so you can see why this is a huge deal. So I went with another elder who is from California, we were able to speak somewhat in English with each other but sometimes its hard because we are naturally just thinking in Spanish. But we were able to visit a ton of people in his area and I was able to speak with a bunch of Kunas in their language. I really enjoyed it. Also while we were in the area we were able to go to a lunch appointment with some of the people there and they gave us a thanksgiving feast. We both got one small price of turkey, a small scoop of instant potatoes, and a bunch of white rice with coconut. It was the best meal I have had in a long time. I was talking with the member that lived there and told her how in my area we don't have any people that are kuna, and so we don't get to learn the language and we don't get to see their culture, even if i know it. But something she said made me laugh is she said that we she was poor, and her people were poor, and that's why they always share. It made me wonder and ponder that poor people are willing to share if they have less, and I came to realize that they understand the blessings of giving. They give a little and can see the good they are doing. They cant do a lot and give a lot but sharing just one plate of food is do able for them so they offer it when they can. I really enjoy and miss being among the poor of my past areas. 

Also this week we did a bit of teaching, but we don't have a ton of investigators progressing. I think we are at like 5. We have been trying different areas but nothing seems to be going our way. When we finally do get someone positive they don't ever seem to be available to teach or when we put an appointment to teach they aren't home. Its been pretty frustrating and I've been doing a lot of prayer and just turning to the lord to find an answer to our problems here. Its tough. But I know the lord has plans for us to progress in this area and there are people here to baptize. 

I hope everything at home is going great. I invite everyone to watch the Light the World video from the church and they try and participate in all of the activities. I've tried to adapt a few to do here in the mission and hopefully all goes well. I didn't take any pictures this week, I didn't take my camera with me to very many places, but this week I'll be better. Love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 79 (Nov. 20th 2017)

Alright, another week down, and it was an alright week. My companion and I are slowly learning the area and we aren't liking it all that much. There's a lot of walking and we live in the back of a huge rich neighborhood so we have to walk out of that every day. We have been trying to find the poor parts of our area but we only have one small neighborhood that is poor, which is a huge change compared to my last area where everybody was poor. I actually really miss the poorer people. They are so much more loving and humble, and even though they don't have much they were always willing to share. 

In my last area there were basically only people who came from the islands and spoke Dulegaya and were just good people. So now that I'm in this richer area it has been super hard to find people to teach because I'm so accustomed to just talking to the natives and I usually tried to do it in their language. So in the last week my comp and I were able to really search out the area and find 4 families of Kunas. And the good thing about these people is that there are always like 30 that live in one little house. So we found a few and have been teaching them and I love it.

Also I attached a video of our house. And a picture of my hammock. I told my comp i would find a place to put it and he said there was nowhere but never the less I did find a place haha, its strung from the hinges of the door to where we hand our clothes. I've been sleeping really well in it though haha!! 

Also a little about my comp, he's from Peru, his names Elder Castillo, he speaks no English, or dule, but at this point my Spanish is as good as his so we can communicate just fine. Its actually nice to be back with a Latino companion again. Makes it easier to learn, and focus on our purpose here. In English we always joke around but when I speak Spanish I usually use more gospel language, although here in colon they use a lot of Ghetto words which I picked up in my first area so I still fit in well here haha. 

Anyway hope all is well!! Happy thanksgiving i guess, we don't have that holiday here but I did write it down in my agenda so that has to count for something!! 

LOve you ALL!

Elder Hamblin 

Video may not work but this is the new apartment