Week 67 (August 28, 2017)

So it has been raining a lot this week, I'm still trying to drain out my shoes, I've got enough water to fill up a pool, and yet it is raining right now. And yeah we use umbrellas but I still have to put 2 grocery bags around my scriptures with this wind. and then we just run from appointment to appointment! soaking wet yet still ready to find and to teach. The rain isn't that bad except i feel bad when a person lets us in and i soak everything in their house. 

This week we did some good finding. We went on divisions twice. That was freaking great! We also did invasions, we got to invade Elder McCoy and Elder Vasquez. Elder McCoy is my favorite person in this mission. I love this dude! and he works hard and motivates his district as a leader and it probably helps that we were in the MTC together but I still love him! So anytime I get to see him is a great time! 

This week our 3 baptisms fell through at the last second but we should be able to bounce back this week and have more. Also we had 11 investigators attend church this week!! That's a new personal record! We had a family of 8 Kunas come!! Two mothers and they had 5 kids, with 3 of them ready to be baptized next week!! Its so great to have people in sacrament meeting!! Even better we had a member of the 70 come to our sacrament meeting with Tad Callister, the general Sunday School president of the church. 

On Saturday I was able to go to the hospital finally. My companion was tired of me always having to use the bathroom (we are talking like 8 times a day, pretty much after every lesson I ask the investigator if I can destroy their bathroom) . I have had diarrhea for 3 weeks and so we went to get that checked. So I got medicine for that and I already feel so much better!! 

Also this week I found a good place to buy some Ramen noodles. I got one of every flavor that I hadn't tried. There were a ton!! I feel like this is great prep for college!! Always being hungry and not having enough money to do anything about it!! Haha!! 

Anyway I think thats it for the week! Love and miss you!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 66 (August 21, 2017)

SHORT AND SWEET

So this week has been a lot of learning. Learning of humility, patience, love, and I guess I will put obedience in here for my companions sake. But its been a long one. When I first met my comp we were in the same zone together when we both had 12 weeks in the mission. Now we are both at over 12 months and have learned and changed a lot.  

We had a baptism last week as well. Went great!! She is an awesome convert!! 

Week 65 (August 14, 2017)

So this week was pretty tough, I don't think that we found a single new person this week, but we did teach the majority of the 20 we found last week and most of them went decent. 

We had a way awesome ward activity that we planned as missionaries and it was so awesome. It was a ward talent show and we had so many people participate and it was just great! I was the host, and I was dressed up like a typical Panamanian and just messed around a bunch, also the judges were way hilarious as well. We probably had like 150 people at the activity and 10 investigators. I will send pictures next week if you remind me. 

Also this week were changes. I am currently with Elder P., my companion was sent with another elder to be the assistant to the president. Elder P. is pretty cool, he's from El Salvador and his favorite sport is Basketball. He loves to be obedient, which is good as a zone leader. Anyway that's it for the week, I was sick for most of it but I should be getting better. 

Love you all!! Miss you!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 64 (August 07, 2017)

This week we found 20 new investigators, and invited all of them to be baptized and all of them said yes. Hopefully they keep it up and progress and overcome their difficulties with our help and can be baptized. I just wish to quickly talk about one of the people that we found. 

So we were out doing cosechas, (knocking doors as guided by the spirit and offer a blessing of peace) when we were led to the house of an inactive sister. It just so happened that her mom was in the house at the time and we offered the blessing and put an appointment to talk to her later. So when we got to her house we met her husband. We taught them the restoration of the gospel and asked them to read the Book of Mormon. He immediately accepted and said he would read as much as he could, he then explained to us why the Mormon church is the true church, he basically re-taught us the lesson we taught him but talked about the parts that other churches were missing. (prophets, apostles, priesthood, revelation) It was great. He was convinced by pure logic, and I am very excited to see what happens when he receives an answer to his prayer and feels the spirit testify to him that it is true! He is so great!! He understood so well that my companion and I are actually concerned if he is already a member. This man is going to be baptized!! After he quits drinking coffee and tea and smoking and drinking. But he will do it I have no doubt!! 

So after a very awesome lesson we went to another house and taught the first principles of the gospel. When we invited her to be baptized she said yes, but then she asked if she could celebrate her birthday after her baptism. We were very confused. She asked us "you are Jehovah Witnesses right?" She accepted all of our message without even knowing what church, then we explained that we are the Mormon

church and she was so much more receptive! It was a weird lesson but it ended well and we have an appointment to go back.

So the picture that I have is from my comp. we have to walk through this jungle to get out to part of our area, its just a little shortcut but it cuts off like 45 minutes of walking and we have tons of investigators in that area so we take this shortcut a lot. So last night my comp took a picture while we were out there. 

Love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 63 (July 31, 2017)

This week was a great one. We had a lot of progress with some families and are moving towards baptism, the only problem now, and always, is getting them to church. Nobody wants to come to church. But that's alright, we are here to baptize the elect and chosen of God and those who fall into that category will not harden their hearts, but will do the will of God, which is come to church. 

I really want to talk about the P-day we had today. So we have a member here in our ward, that is a member of the stake presidency, and is one of my favorite people in all of Panama. He lives on a mountain called Cerro Azul, or Blue Hill. So today he took us up to the top, and to see a bunch of other great things around there. ​​​​​​So there were tons of waterfalls and ponds and in the ponds we saw ducks, and turtles. There were like 10 different waterfalls, people go swimming in them all the time. Wish we could have. There were some sweet bugs out there, i saw a blue ant. An eagle, there's a nest of a bird on there that is way cool looking. But the best part was the top. We could see everything in panama from there. Both the Pacific and Atlantic ocean at the same time. It was so awesome! We were above everything! We took a few pics and that was about it, but it was so awesome! The pictures definitely don't do it justice but it was absolutely beautiful!! The hike took like 3 hours but we drove in his car from time to time to find different spots to walk. We went to the local country club, they have a pool!! It was great there!! Just look at the pics. 

Anyway love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin 

                         

Week 62 (July 24, 2017)

This week was a long one. We had all of the same problems as last week and more. It was a tough one. But we did have some positive moments. On Thursday we had a ward activity, put on by the missionaries. It was so great! We had a cooking contest because food is always so great to bring people together. We invited everyone! In the end we had about 8 investigators who came to the activity. 2 of them even helped us judge the food for the competition. My companion and I made some Kraft mac and cheese to represent my heritage of gringolandia. We were the only ones that didn't win an award... but it was fine because we still got to get the members to come out and participate and it was just a huge success. 

On Saturday we spent the day in the hospital. My companion and I are both sick, along with the rest of the mission. They decided that we are working too hard and are malnourished. We have to eat more protein and vitamins here. That's really hard in Panama. But since then we have been focusing on that and seem to be feeling a little better. 

On Sunday we had a zone reunion to talk about the challenges that we are having in the zone. The major one was finding new investigators, but we have a set of sisters assigned to take care of that. So they came and talked to us. That helped. Then when they finished it was my turn to talk. I shared 5 scriptures with them. They are as follows: 

Doctrine and Covenants 10:43- Which says that no matter what the adversary does the work of God can not be stopped. 

Doctrine and Covenants 121:7- That the pains and struggles would be just a brief moment. 

Doctrine and Covenants 122:7- That everything that is happening right now will be for our good, and help us with having experience. 

So I shared those 3 and then asked what were the things that the people in the zone has learned from their trials in the mission. They shared some good things then I took a minute and shared what I learned, which is... 

In Moses 1:39 it says "Now behold this is MY work and MY glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." As a missionary I have always thought that I shared that work with the Lord. To help people receive that immortality and eternal life. But i learned not long ago that that is not my purpose. My purpose is found in Doctrine and Covenants 11:20 "Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind, and strength." In the mission we always talk about mission rules as commandments. Anything that comes from president must also be obeyed with exactness. So that is our purpose. And when we fulfill and complete and strive to do all of that, then the lord will bless us with the success that we want. Then the lords purpose will be fulfilled, and we will simply be the instruments in his hands. That's what the mission has taught me. That when I do my part the lord will bless me. 

I love and miss all of you!! Have a great 24 of July!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 61 (July 17, 2017)

This week has been really tough. Not just in our area, or even our zone but in the entire mission. Everybody is sick, even the mission president. We all worked so hard in June for those 367 baptisms, but now the adversary is working to make sure we don't do it again. That's why I love the scripture in Joseph Smith history 1:15-17. "I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction- not to an imaginary ruin but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such a marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being- just at this moment of great alarm, I was a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound." This to me is clear evidence that the power of God is much more powerful that the adversary, and more than that that God will deliver us from our doom and from the devil. The mission has been under attack from Satan, but I know that is we put our trust in the same God that appeared to Joseph Smith, then we will be delivered from our enemy. The devil can fight us all he wants, but the will of the lord will go forth. 

As for me and my companion we are both sick. I'm just exhausted all the time and can't do much, and he has a fever and is just dying, but we still worked our butts of this week. We had a fast in our zone last Wednesday, and it seems to be working. The difficulties that we had are gone, but now we have others. Its been a tough time working out here, but we still seem to find good people to teach. the miracles come when we are out in the streets, not in our house. Just this week we have seen them. 

One came from looking for people to teach. We prayed and asked the lord to guide us to the house of a guy who was aged 18 to 26, lived alone, and would listen to us and eventually be baptized. We finished the prayer, followed the spirit and went right to the house. Neither of us had been there before but the guy we found was everything we were looking for. He has a baptismal date in 2 weeks. 

Later that night we had did it again. In the mission conference Elder Johhny Ruiz of the area presidency was talking about his time as a mission president and how he had a girl find a family of 11 people. So my companion and I asked the Lord for a family of 5. But both of us had the idea of 11 in our heads. We asked that we could find the family by just walking around and waiting for someone to talk to us. So we did. first street lady said hello. We talked and she was all alone with one kid. So we said a prayer and kept going, still looking for the family. On the second street we passed a man who also said hello while passing us by. He was just getting home from work and passed us right in front of his house, so we obviously we had to talk to him. He let us in and we invited the family to come and listen to our prayer for the familiy. After everyone came into the kitchen we had 11 people. It was perfect. It was all in the lords timing for the first lady to talk to us so he could position the other guy perfectly in front of his house so we could find the family of 11. If we would have been 20 second earlier or later it wouldnt have happened, but by following the spirit we were led the right place at the right time worthy to do the thing we needed to do. Couldnt have been any more perfect. 

I think thats it for the week. Love and miss you all! 

Elder Hamblin