Week 28 (Nov. 28, 2016)

So we have a hurricane here. Hurricane Otto. It absolutely destroyed part of my area. Luckily my area is gigantic, it stretches from the north coast to the south coast, So really it has just raining a lot and also been extremely hot in between storms. The clouds are trapping in all the heat so thank goodness for the rain. 

This week we had divisions on Wednesday, I went with Elder Irias. He is from Honduras and is super cool. We went to a bunch of investigators and then we found a bunch more. We went to one of our progressing investigators and she was all prepared for her baptism and then Friday we get a text that she wants to wait and she isn't ready right now. And now she wont answer our calls or her door when we go to her house. 

We found another group of people to teach out in Anton. the problem with Anton is it is about an hour from the church and costs 1.30 to get to the church from there. And apparently there are many better things that spending a dollar and thirty cents than to go to church. The president of our branch promised us if we get 5 worthy men baptized who live in Anton then we will have a church down there. So as of right now we are working for that. we currently have 0 worthy men who are even investigating the church. We did find a family of girls and one boy who live there and are really interested. We teach them twice a week and they read their book of Mormons every time we ask them to, they just wont go to church. 

Also changes are coming up this next Sunday. My comp wants to stay in the area here, I don't think he will but he wants to. He wrote a huge long email to the president asking to stay here for one more change. I don't know if he will or not tho. I think that he will be sent to somewhere in the city and I will get another new companion to train. Or I will get a really old missionary who is close to going home and then the next change I will train. That is what the district leader told me. I'm not 100% sure he knows what he is talking about tho. 

Also happy thanksgiving and black Friday. We had some pretty huge sales here for black Friday. One store actually stayed opened past 7!!! It was insane! I don't think anyone went shopping there but it was still open! 

Everybody here is getting ready for Christmas. It is really weird because it is so hot here it still just feels like summer. I don't know why but Christmas cant be hot. It just isn't right! So good luck to everyone dealing with the snow. I am slightly jealous of you but not really. 

Also I have really bad luck with bathrooms here. In my first area our toilet didn't have water hooked up to it. Then we moved and our shower didn't work. Then I got changed to Penonome and our shower didn't work all the time and our toilet was really hard to flush. (like worse than grandma Margarets!!) Then we moved to this new house and we have hot water, but my comp always uses it all in his shower and I'm not left with much. And the drain in the shower doesn't work very well so there is water below us in the hallway and the owners make us use another shower. So we now have to shower in a different apartment room. Luckily of the 8 apartments in our building only 4 are occupied and we are the only ones on our floor. So party in our place!!! 

Also last night when we were walking home from our last lesson we walked past the local gym and there was this huge basketball game going on. So we went over to look through one of the windows and a guy came up to us and gave us free tickets!! So we went in and watched the last 10 minutes of the game. It was fun to watch, they weren't very good, especially for being the all star teams of Panama. The city versus the outskirts. I don't even know who won. I think the city did. All I know is that before my mission I was definitely good enough to play with those guys. 

And yeah that about sums it up. Lots of rain, and lots of food. And sorry no photos this week. my camera didn't even leave the house. 

Anyways miss you all! have fun in the snow!

Elder Hamblin 

Week 27 (Nov. 21, 2016)

So i have no idea when thanksgiving is I just know that it is soon. So happy thanksgiving to you all!! 

This week we had a bit of success. We got a reference who wanted a book of Mormon in Spanish and then told us he would call us if he wanted to learn more. My comp told me he will call before tomorrow. 

We have a sweet family out in Anton which is the area we want to put a new ward in. There are 2 members in the family. 17 year old Bilma and 15 year old Rodrigo.  Then they have like 6 other siblings and their parents who are investigators. The parents have no interest but are fine with their kids listening, the family is super cool! Today in the morning we went on a hike up this huge hill in the rain. It was so sweet!! Pictures will be attached! 

Also we have a lady with a baptismal date for this coming Saturday! She finally was able to find someone to take care of her mom for a few hours and make it to church. She is super excited to be a member. She tells us she isn't ready but then we just tell her she was prepared before we talked to her and that part of enduring to the end is learning more about the church. After we told her that she was ready to go through with whatever. 

At the mission conference I was able to pick up my quadruple in Spanish. It is sweet! I love having all of the scriptures with me at all times as well as having it so compact. If I wanted that before it took up so much space. It is so much easier now. Pictures attached. 

And yeah that's my week. Pretty simple. 

Next week will just be a bunch of meetings. 

Love you all!! Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 26 (Nov. 14, 2016)

Okay so this week was pretty crazy. On Tuesday we had divisions with our district leader and rather than dividing for divisions we all stayed together for the entire day. Then rather than teaching we just did whatever the district leader wanted. It was really a wasted day. After a while, I had had enough of them and told my comp we were going home because we were wasting so much time there. I am still mad we lost that entire day of teaching. 

Wednesday we had zone meeting in Chitre so that kind of killed our whole day too. It takes so long to get to Chitre. 

Thursday we did service in the morning. We helped a less active lady paint the outside of her house. It took forever because we had to use steel wool to scratch the paint that was already there off the wall, then repaint it. After service there was an activity at the church and we got to eat lots of Panamanian food and we got to watch some of their traditional dances. The activity was super boring but the good thing is that we had lots of less actives show up. Like a ton of them. 

Friday we went to Anton. Its a part in our area that is like 30 minutes away and we have zero members there. So we took members of our ward and went on divisions to teach. My comp this time was a 15 year old kid, the son of the branch president, he made sure that we talked to everyone and that every door that was open we went and talked to. There was one time we were walking past a guy on the street and he told me to talk to him, I told him, "its your turn I have talked to everyone" but he just looked at me and said no. Then he said he was scared! so I contacted the guy and showed him how to do it. I made him contact people after that and lets just say this kid will make a great missionary! I don't think when I was 15 I would have ever made divisions with missionaries!! 

Saturday I was sick, something wrong with my stomach. We didn't leave the house for anything. 

Sunday I was doing better and we went up to Chitre for District Conference. Its like stake conference but we aren't a stake yet. We talked about all of the steps we need to take to become a stake here in Chitre. They pretty much called everyone to repentance and said that they need to pay tithing and invite their neighbor to church because our attendance is at like 20 percent. So hopefully we can get that up and become a stake soon. We have lots of members, just nobody goes to church. 

And that is my week. We have a baptismal date for the next Saturday but if she doesn't go to church we wont have her baptized. This Wednesday we have another mission conference in the city, that means some good insight about how to be a better missionary and a whole day without teaching. Makes

it hard to teach a lot when we are so busy learning how to teach.

Anyway love you all!!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 25 (November 07, 2016)

Wow what a week we had. We got a lot done this week. We moved to a new apartment, it is awesome!! I took my first hot shower in the mission field!! We actually have hot water here in this area!! Hopefully I will be here for a few more changes!! 

On Friday we went to a little town in our area called Anton. They don't have a church down there so they are technically in our area, even if it is an hour away. We went with 6 members. Me and my comp split up with two older guys, and the sisters split up with their wives. My temporary comp was this super old dude with Parkinson's. He walked so slow! And we could only walk for 2 hours and then we had to stop teaching. But we were able to get in 3 solid lessons in that time. I had to teach the whole time which was fine though, my Spanish is doing great. We should be going back there this Friday as well. 

On Saturday morning we got a call from our baptismal candidate that he was sick. I told my comp that he wasn't and that we still needed to show up and have him interviewed. So we did. He wasn't sick and passed his interview, turns out he is afraid of water. It was fine tho, the branch president talked to him in private right before his baptism and all went well. Sunday he was confirmed and in one year he will be able to go to the temple with his wife and son who were baptized like 2 months ago. It is good to see a family being put together through the gospel. 

I have pictures of all of this but my camera is being stupid right now and wont work. I don't know, I'll try to figure it out. 

And yeah. that was our week. Love you all!!! Miss you all!! Finally have 6 months in the mission!!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 24 (October 31, 2016)

Happy Halloween!!!

Today we had p-day jin chitre, which is super far from where we live! But we got to play soccer for like 4 hours today! 

This week we did like no teaching! But it was still a great week. 

On Tuesday we went and taught for a while in the rain. 

On Wednesday we had lunch with the president of the branch who lives like way far away so we went the hour and a half drive to eat, and talk about the branch, then we had to wait forever for a bus, then we got back really late, and we had a meeting in the church for something. 

On Thursday  we had a zone meeting in chitre. so that took up our whole day to get there, have the meeting, and return. So nothing got done that day. 

On Friday we went to the city and listened to the Apostle Dallin H Oaks. That was sweet! I got to shake his hand! then he gave a talk in English, and then left. Pictures attached at the temple. He talked about how to be a better missionary. 

On Saturday our baptism fell through, but the sisters did have one. We should have one next week tho!! Pictures also attached. 

And yeah that is the week. Pretty packed! Very busy!! And not a whole lot of lessons!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 23 (Oct. 24, 2016)

Changes were yesterday and just as I thought me and my comp are still together which is just fine with me. We get along pretty great and I don't know the area yet. This week we did a ton of teaching, we had 16 lessons with a member present and hopefully can keep it up this week. Me and my comp talked with some members and we are going to make divisions every Sunday after church with some members to go out separate and reach more people. 

Yesterday we had a rescate, this means that most of the missionaries in our zone come and we go out with members to visit all of the less active people. We had 15 missionaries there. We taught something like 55 lessons between all of us. It was super sweet! I went out with the president of our branch and we met with 3 less active families as well as a family of 7 investigators. We invited them to pray and to attend church the next week, as well as to the church activity this Thursday. It should be super sweet if all of them show up! 

This week also we changed a baptismal date from November 5th to October 30th. So we should have that baptism this Saturday! Also the sister missionaries here will have one as well and their baptismal candidate wants me to do the ordinance. She is a 10 year old girl who I have never even met. I don't know why she picked me but it is super cool!! I'm excited to do it! Baptizing is way cool! And it is so much easier than confirming in Spanish!!!  

Anyway that was about my whole week!! I didn't take any pictures this week but I'm hoping to remember to take some this coming week!! Anyway love and miss you all!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 22 (Oct. 17, 2016)

This week went pretty great. We got a call on Tuesday that we need to move, I'm not too mad about that, the only problem is that the owner of our little room we live in is a 75 year old lady that loves having the missionaries and she has done nothing but cry this whole week, its super hard because she lives totally alone. We should be moving sometime this week however. We already have a couple options for houses that are much better than the little room we live in now. 

As for the mission work we have lots of progressing investigators. We have a few baptismal dates coming up that we should baptize soon. We found a new investigator this week named Hna. Digna. She is super cool. shes like 40 years old and we went to dominoes the other day and got pizza. This was before we had even taught her. Then we taught her the restoration and gave her 3 book of Mormons. One in English because she wants to learn in. And two in Spanish because she can give one to her mom. She was raised Catholic but she doesn't believe it because the Catholics worship idols like the Virgin Mary and so she doesn't want to be a part of it. She seemed super open to the gospel of Jesus Christ and hopefully we should put a baptismal date with her sometime this week.

This week we also had a huge service project. The whole branch got together along with all the missionaries in the zone and we went out and just picked up garbage. It was super cool. The members picked up the garbage and the missionaries just talked to all the people who were staring and looking at us. Just me and my companion talked and gave a card to 70 different people. Hopefully some of them will call us or come to church or something sometime too. As for the city it is already a mess again. The people here are so dirty its disgusting. There is garbage everywhere!! 

This week in church I had to give a talk on missionary work and how the members can help us. It was like 10 minutes long, and I was asked to give it the day before. Its all in Spanish so I will try to translate it. 

Good morning brothers and sisters. I am Elder Hamblin, I am from the United States and I am a gringo. I have 3 months here in Panama. Before my mission my dad told me that I need to start every talk with a joke or a lie, so brothers and sisters I am grateful for this opportunity to address you.  Well President Pinzon asked me to talk about the mission work and and the need for member missionary work. I want to share a couple scripture with you the first being D&C 4, verses 3 and 4.  

3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo,he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul; This Scripture says, if you want to serve, you are called, and you will receive blessings for your service. The second scripture is in the bible in the book of mark. Chapter 16 verse 15 says  15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  This verse is very simple. it says we need to preach. I am here in the mission. I am working. I am preaching. What are you doing? Now this is kinda harsh. I am a full time missionary, this is my calling. But all of you have a calling to teach as well. Your calling is a bit different though. 

I then told the story of how Alma had to find Amulek to teach and that the members need to be like Amulek, help the missionaries in their work. Together with missionaries to visit less actives and new members and give references to the missionaries. It was super cool! There were also a bunch of jokes in it but they aren't as funny in English. We got 2 references that same day. It was sweet!! the story of Alma is Alma chapter 8. 

  

Okay as for the photos. I officially have 5 months in the mission so my comp bought me a candle to put on my dinner. Also I got your letter like 2 weeks ago and I totally forgot to let you know. but I have it and I loved it!! And yeah that was my week. pretty good if you ask me, and this next week should be even better!! I'm excited for what this area has to bring! Love and miss you all! 

Elder Hamblin