Week 95 (March 12th, 2018)

This week was absolutely great. 

It started out great because last Monday my comp and I went and played basketball with a member and some guys that play every Monday. They actually play decent but its fun to mess around. My comp plays surprisingly well. 

On Friday we had a way awesome experience. We had a mission conference with Elder Quentin L. Cook of the quorum of the 12 apostles. The spirit was absolutely palpable. He spoke with such power and authority. I will never forget the words he said while bearing his testimony. He said that "he knows the voice of the lord, and knows his face as well." He also stated that he had many other spiritual experiences that were too sacred to share, but he told us that so I imagine he has had some pretty awesome stuff happen. 

Also this week we were teaching the lady who lives in the pink house. Her name is Itza. We taught her the restoration of the gospel and she cried the entire lesson. She told us that she was born and raised catholic but every time that we come over we make her have so many questions that she feels like young Joseph Smith. We told her that she needed to do the same thing that Joseph did and pray to know the truth. So so did and she said that she felt a lot better after praying, but that she didn't think it was a full answer. We told her to keep praying and that she would know. So she promised to keep praying. 

Also yesterday we had changes. My comp left this morning for David, its a zone 10 hours away from here. He was pretty sad to leave but he will enjoy his new area. I've been assigned to be with another new elder. Well he has 6 weeks but he is still being trained. His name is Elder Martinez from Honduras. He's 18. He likes soccer.  This is my last change, so i know that I'm going to die here in my favorite area. I was actually really afraid of being taken out of the area but its a relief to know that I get to stay and finish my time here. Should be an excellent final 6 weeks. We have a lot planned to finish strong. Baptize, Baptize, Baptize!!! 

Anyways that's it. I didn't take any pictures this week. Or when someone else took one with me in it  they haven't sent it to me yet. Maybe next week. Hope all is well!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 94 (March 05, 2018)

This week was another solid week. We started out pretty well finding some sweet new families to teach on Tuesday, but then they went on vacation so we couldn't teach them the rest of the week. But one of them was way awesome! We were walking around trying to find new people to teach and weren't finding anything. So we decided to say a prayer and ask for guidance. So we prayed and after the prayer we thought about what door to know on. My comp said something and I just looked at him and said, "we need to knock on this pink house in front of us." So we knocked and a lady came out and let us in and we blessed the family and the woman cried and the spirit was strong and we put return appointment. When we went back we talked for a minute and the lady mentioned to us that she talked to her son about the visit we had. (side note, her son is very catholic, they have an entire wall in their tiny house dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus AKA divino niño.) So the lady said that her son asked why she let us in. The lady said she is receptive to all religions even the Jehovah Witness, but every time someone comes in she talks to them outside on the street. Nobody ever gets let in the house. But she let us in. And then she felt the spirit and she knew that we weren't just any church, we were something special. She also accepted a baptismal date in the first lesson. But then they went out of town so we lost contact for the week. But they get home tomorrow so we will see. 

On Saturday we had a baptism. We finally baptized the head of the house of the kids. The grandpa got baptized!! It was crazy awesome! He has been reading his Book of Mormon and learning all about the plan of salvation, I think he has read the pamphlet like 7 times. So he was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Now there are 9 in the family that are members and still a few to work with. This family is awesome!!!! Just this morning my comp and I woke up at 5 am to go help 2 of the youth in the family get to seminary. We showed up at 5:30 and they both were awake, showered, dressed, and ready to leave. They are way more dedicated than I ever was!!! Its been great to see them progress and learn an change. 

Also this week we had a zone conference. As a mission we have been baptizing a lot of people. Now the mission president says we need to slow down on the baptizing of people, and focus on the baptizing of complete families. So we have really put a focus on in the area of how we can find families that have non members, and how we can find, teach, and baptizing parents with their children. Its a drastic change but it needed to happen if we want to grow the church here in panama. 

Anyway I think that is it for the week. Hope all is well back home, its been cold here lately as well. And by cold its still hot I'm just accustomed to the heat. Love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 93 (Feb. 27, 2018)

So this week was a solid week. We were able to focus on the same family that was baptized last week as we were preparing them to be confirmed on Sunday (yesterday). We talked about the holy ghost with them all week and they seemed to learn a lot. We are also currently working with the grandpa to take the step and be baptized. He is reading the book of Mormon a lot, but he has been baptized twice in other churches and we just cant get him to pray to receive an answer or to understand the restoration of the priesthood. But he does come to church and support all of his grand kids. 

Also this week we were able to baptize on of the sisters of the family on Saturday. She was going to be baptized last week but was sick so we waited a little longer. The whole family, all 8 of them were confirmed yesterday at church. It took up basically all of the time of the sacrament meeting. Which i felt bad because it was the homecoming of a return missionary, as well as they planned on having 2 other speakers. They all spoke like 3 minutes each. It was great though, the members got super excited and really want to work with the missionaries to keep the work progressing. Although they talk a lot more than they actually work. 

Also on Sunday we had another baptismal service. We were able to baptize the sister of a kid we baptized a few weeks ago. Her father is less active but is coming back around. One of the programs of the mission is baptize the children of less active members and reactivate the entire family. This is one of those. The family is now members, and active. Now we are just working on the mom, which is a little harder because they aren't married... 

I think that's it for the week. Just working and teaching. Not much more to say. Hope everyone is enjoying the cold. I enjoy the heat everyday! Love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 92 (Feb. 19, 2018)

NOTE:  Jayden's travel plans to come home were received this week.  He will be returning April 26th at 7pm.

This week was solid. 

Carnival ended. we had some fun last Monday with that. We filled up a ton of water balloons and waged war with the neighbor kids and their parents for a couple of hours. We got pretty wet haha! 

On Tuesday we did a service project with the bishop. We dug a 6 foot deep hole for a septic tank. The scars are still there from the blisters, but it was a good time talking to the bishop and the ward members. They also gave us breakfast and lunch. 

On Friday we had divisions. I got to stay in my area and teach. We taught a few lessons but the day overall was pretty boring. We did get fed really well though. 2 investigators gave us food, as well as 2 members gave us food. We finished the day as full as possible. I think they are trying to get me fat here. 

On Sunday we had an area conference. I started the day off eating a solid breakfast. A huge bowl of cereal and milk. Just like last year. Then we went to the conference. It was every stake in central america watching a broadcast from Salt Lake. We heard from the area 70, Elder Craig Christensen of the presidency of the 70, as well as Elder Cook of the Quorum of the 12. Elder Christensen speaks incredibly well in Spanish, but Elder Cook had to use a translator. It was a solid conference. They all talked about how we could be better leaders in the church and how we need to fulfill our callings in the way that we have been asked to. Which is a huge problem here in panama. 

After the conference we had a baptismal service. We were able to baptize 7 people yesterday. It was great. We have been teaching this family for a month now and they were very prepared to be baptized. We are now hoping to continue talking to this family and have even more who live there be baptized. They are a great family! 

After the baptism we went to some recent converts who bought a cake for my birthday. This family is legit!! So we celebrated that and that was our day! 7 baptisms and a birthday! Couldn't have asked for anything better!!! 

Anyway that's it for the week!! Love and miss you all!! Thanks for the birthday wishes!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 91 (Feb. 12th 2018)

So this week Carnival started. It just a huge party in the entire country. Last year my area was in a more party oriented part and we had to stay inside the entire time. This year I'm closer to the city so they let us go out and work. And wow is it difficult. Nobody is home, or they are home and its just a party in their house. In the entire week we only found 14 new investigators. We put a goal of 60! So this week we are going to work extra hard to make up for it and find lots of positive people to teach. 

As for the investigators that we already had the majority of them just got put on hold because they all went traveling. We talked to the few less active members that we know and tried to get references from everyone. Didn't go to well but it was worth a shot. 

As for the week I think that's it. It was a really long and boring week just waiting for all of our investigators to come home. Also I didn't take any pictures. 

Hope all is well at home!! Happy Valentines Day!!! 

Elder Hamblin 

Week 90 (Feb. 06, 2018)

This week was a solid week. Full of learning and teaching and working hard. We were able to have a baptism on Friday of the boy who was going to get baptized last week but things came up and they couldn't get to the baptism. So my comp was able to baptize him. My comp got here on Tuesday and was able to have his first baptism just 4 days later. It was an awesome experience to have someone prepared to be baptized to help set a new missionary on track for a mission full of baptizing people. 

Also a little about my comp. His name is Elder G, he is from Bolivia, he's 18 years old and he likes to play basketball. 

This week we also had a miracle while out finding people. We had said a prayer asking for the spirit to guide us to a family who lived in a blue or yellow house and had 3 people who were home. But I remember after asking for that in the prayer that it didn't feel right. So we started walking and feeling and we tried a house and it didn't go so well. So we kept walking just kind of lost not really finding what we wanted and then I felt the spirit indicate a house to me that was not at all what we had asked for in the prayer. But being obedient to the spirit we went to the house and presented ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and asked if we could leave a blessing with the family. After the prayer the woman looked at us and asked how we knew that she had been praying to have messengers from God to come to her house, and that she had just finished praying for that 5 minutes earlier. We testified that we were guided to the house by the spirit and that we had a message to give to her family. They accepted and hopefully we can go back and teach them this week.  

Also this week we found a way awesome family of like 17 people. They live in 3 different houses all connected, We taught them twice this week and invited them to church. We then asked a member to help us go pick them up in his van. So on Sunday morning we pulled up to the house and there was the grandpa with his grand-kids all ready to attend church. 11 attended from the family and 7 are over the age of 8. Hopefully we can put a baptismal date with them this week and they can be baptized within the next 2 weeks. 

As for the week I think that is it. The coming week im sure will be even greater with more miracles, more finding, and hopefully a baptism. 

Anyways love you all!! 

Elder Hamblin

Week 89 (January 29, 2018)

So this week was a solid week. We really got out there and worked hard and saw a lot of miracles. While out finding people we were able to find people who have attended church before, or people who are receptive to our message of the restoration and are looking for the true church. 

This week my companion and I had to give talks in church. 15 minutes each. He talked about the need to open our mouths as members and talk about the church. He shared a story of how he found the church on his own after searching for a long time, but it turns out his best friend was a member his entire life and never said he attended a church. After he finished I talked about being friendly to the new members and the importance of members helping to retain converts. I planned on using a lot of notes and reading a lot of stories, but while I was talking I was directed to the scriptures and didn't end up reading anything that I had previously prepared. Both my companion and I ended up changing our talks at the last minute. It was good to know the spirit was there to help up. 

After church we had our baptismal service. 3 kids got baptized. The two sons of the bishop, who are 8 and don't count for the mission, as well as their cousin who we found a few weeks ago and have been working with. The bishop baptized the 3 and we confirmed them after the service. I directed the baptism, and let me just say it was the most support that we have had in a baptism ever! We had a lot of members there and the primary even sang a special musical number. It was great. 

Then last night we received word on our changes. Even though Elder Vasquez and I have only been together for one change we have changes. Elder Vasquez got changed to another area in the same zone, and I will be training again. Probably for the last time. I don't know if he is Gringo or Latino, I should find out tomorrow. This will be my 5th time training. I love training though so it works out. 

As for that I think that's it. We should have another baptism this week, and hopefully another one the week after. If everything works out perfect that is, I know the lord will help us. 

Pics: My comp and I, and the bishop