Week 87 (January 15, 2018)

So this week was pretty solid. Last week after we finished writing we went to play soccer with some youth, but we got bored of playing with them so we went to another field that is run by the police station. They have a huge complex with like 4 soccer fields and a baseball field and its 100 percent turf. So we went and sat down to change our shoes and I notice that a few people and a coach were taking an infield on the baseball field so I yelled to the first baseman who had an extra glove if I could use it and play. So I started taking grounders at 3rd, then moved to 2nd. They didn't think that I could play until I started making backhanded plays and I even dove for a ball and made the ball. Probably the best P-day I have had in the mission! 

As for teaching we had a pretty tough week. We only found 15 new people but we are looking to have some 8 baptisms in 2 weeks from the people we are finding. Everything so far is looking up. We were able to go on visits with the ex bishop of the ward and he took us to a family of less actives who have like 6 people who still haven't been baptized. So as my comp and I always say "ellos se van al agua" 

I finally finished and updated my goals for my last 2 changes and was able to share them with the mission president during interviews with him this week. They are as follows:

 1. Fast every Sunday

2. Find 70 new people every week.

3. Have more that 18 baptisms.

4. Wake up every day at 6.

5. Leave the house at 9:30 a.m. 

6. Start and finish the Book of Mormon in Spanish. 

7. Write in my journal every day. 

8. Take every meal to go. 

9. Do 2 hours of "Cosechas" every day. 

10. Not drink any soda. Excluding Malta. 

The mission president seemed pretty happy with my goals and I know if I focus on them that I can accomplish everything that I've listed. 

As for the week I think that's about it. I hope everyone at home is doing good! Love and miss you all!!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 86 (January 8th, 2018)

So this week was a bit more of a struggle. We found a lot of people last week, but we have dropped every single one because they don't want to commit to do anything. So we continue moving forward and finding new people to teach. 

As for my new years goals I am still revising them to be perfect, as well as many of them are personal goals so maybe I'll share a few next week. 

This week I had the opportunity to teach the Gospel Principles class at church. We only had 1 investigator there so we taught him, his girlfriend, and another member. I taught the class and used the normal manual. Week one, chapter one. Our loving Heavenly Father. I learned a lot from teaching the chapter. I probably learned more teaching the lesson than if I had been present for someone else to teach the lesson. One of the things that really stuck out to me was one: the commandment to love god with all of our heart. And the fact that we cant love someone that we don't know. So we must get to know god and who he is and what he expects of us. And if we love god we will keep his commandments. Knowing who god is will help us to become more like him. And that is the goal and purpose for us here. By connecting many scriptures, like "and this is life eternal, that they may know the the true and living God" And the words of Jesus when he says, " If he have seen me ye have seen the father." So what I learned in short is that as we study the life of Jesus Christ, and try to become more like him, we are also trying to become more like our Heavenly Father who is perfect. Now I know that it is hard to be perfect and only one person has ever done it, but as Elder Jefferey R. Holland says, We may become perfect... Eventually. Also while I was teaching the lesson the spirit taught me a powerful lesson. All it did was put a few words in my head and I have been trying to find out more about it. I found it and just want to share the words. 

"As man now is, God once was"
"As God now is, Man may become"

The words came to me in English while I was teaching and I didn't know where it was found. I asked my comp and the member and they had no idea. So just now I was able to search on lds.org and found that its from the teachings of Lorenzo Snow. A book that I have never read, but might have heard quoted maybe once or twice. But the scripture is true that the spirit can bring all things to remembrance.

I hope all of that made sense and that it didn't get lost in me trying to translate it in my head. That seems to happen a lot now. 

I hope all is well at home and all of you are enjoying the cold. Its hot here, rains occasionally. 

Love you all! 

Elder Hamblin 

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