June 1, 2015

June 1, 2015

Hi mom!

 This week was crazy busy! We had PDay, District meeting, baptism interviews, exchanges, MLC, baptism(!), talk in sacrament meeting/confirmations for April&Pepper :) I am exhausted!! But you know me, I love being busy :) So this was a great week!

 I felt bad for April&Pepper because we had to kind of cram L5 in on Monday last week and then on Tuesday we went over the baptism questions and Wednesday they had their interviews. They are so funny! I love them so much! We also picked up another investigator..I can't remember if I told you about him, but he is so prepared to receive the gospel. He has attended sacrament meeting every Sunday since we have picked him up as an investigator. He is actually in the ward choir now. He is great! He has a date for June 27th. We are so excited for him! 

 The baptism was really good! Amanda (our recent convert) gave the talk on baptism and oh my goodness. She did SO good! I almost cried! We love her. April and Pepper are so funny! They wore their swim suits underneath the baptism suit! Haha I was waiting to see if bishop would say anything about it but he said that it really doesn't matter what they wear as long as they are baptized by priesthood authority and immersed completely in the water. I love Willits :)

  MLC was so good! It was the Alba's last one with us. Sister Alba had each zone prepare a two minute skit to present what Pres. Alba has taught us about leadership. So the Zl's and I decided to sing "Love One Another" because at every zone conference or MLC we all sing "Love One Another" to those who have prepared our lunch. So I had everyone stand up except for the Alba's and we sang that song. Both of them were crying. I was almost crying! It is hard seeing them getting ready to leave :(  Both of their testimonies were so solid. I wish that I could tell you all that they said, but there isnt enough space here! :) President closed the meeting with a prayer and he had us all kneel. He prayed for us and prayed for our success. I have the best mission parents in the world! I love my mission so so much.

Oh! And PS Pres. Alba is requiring me to take the drivers test so that means that I will probably get to drive again next transfer!! Yay!

  This week we get transfer doctrine. I am begging President to let me stay. I still have work here to do and six months wasn't long enough for me to do it all. Pray that I will stay here for one more! That is all I am asking :)

 I love you all! Sounds like you had such a fun week seeing every one and Rad getting to go to Disneyland!? Jealous :) I love you all! Have fun 

and be safe!      Love, Hermana Hamblin

Pictures: 

1st: The Footes and I haha So random!

2nd: Exchanges :) I was with Sis. Naqia (the one right next to me)

3rd: April&Pepper! Love them!

May 24, 2015

Dear family,

  I am so sorry to hear about the shooting. That is so sad. I am happy to hear that everyone is ok. I will keep little Round Valley in my prayers. 

  This has easily been the best week of my mission! I guess Willits is the place to be :) So lets start with last Monday! Last Monday we were having dinner with mama PJ so we ordered a pizza from Papa Murphy's and we walked to Safeway to pick up some drinks. As we are walking into Safeway, I see Elder Wright (one our AP's), then I see his other two companions and then I see President Alba! In the little Safeway here in Willits! Haha I was like.."What!?" So I walked over to them and I asked them what they were doing in Willits and Elder Morley was like "What are you doing here!?" I told him I was in my proselyting area haha doing what I was supposed to be doing! Turns out that they were on their way to Eureka to do some exchanges up there. It was SO random! We never see other missionaries here in little Willits so that was awesome! And to see President! haha is was great!

   Well, so then on Thursday we had our temple trip. My companion and I walk into the chapel and as we are going to sit down I see President and Sister Alba and all three of the AP's sitting in the back row! Being that we are the only sisters in our zone, I got to sit right next to Sister Alba throughout the session. That was the best/spiritual experience. I am telling you, Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Being with Sister Alba we were able to talk a little bit and I told her how special this temple trip was for me because this was my very last temple trip as a missionary and I got to spend it with the Albas. She explained that she and President Alba don't just go to the temple all the time with the missionaries, they just happened to have time to go with the Ukiah Zone. She was also telling me that she and President Alba were sealed in the Oakland temple :) how cool is that! I love them. I was able to see Sister Alba's testimony of temple work shine as we were together in the session. She kept saying to me that she was so happy to be there with us :) When we were sitting in the celestial room President Alba shook every missionaries hand. When he got to me and Hermana Burton, he smiled and said, "It has been a pleasure seeing you twice in one week" and added, "separate occasions of course". They are awesome.

   But it doesn't stop there! As you know, yesterday was the craziest day of my mission thus far :) haha oh my goodness! I walk into the chapel and we are talking to our investigator and I just look up and guess who randomly walks into the chapel! President Foote! Haha I was like, "What!?!" He saw me and just started laughing :) He was like no way! Haha he had thought that I had already gone home from my mission and so that was a complete surprise to him! He said that they were in Ukiah for the night and Sister Foote said that she didn't want to go to the 11 church (in Ukiah) and that they should go check out the church in Willits and so they did! I sat by Sister Foote in Relief Society and all. It was SO funny! I guess they are on their way to Eureka as well :) That was so fun to see and HUG a person from home :) They are so great!

  Anyways this is going to be another great week for us! We have the baptism of April and Pepper this week :) Yay!! We are so excited! We found a new investigator last week and we set a date for him too! Willits is on fire! I love it here!

  I hope you all have a great week and travel safe! And BTW who did my challenge from last week!? It was to hand out a BOM. If you didn't do it, which I am assuming you didnt because no one replied to that then do it this week! Seriously!

  Love you all! Love, Hermana Hamblin

Even though I don't look the best, this is one of my favorite
pictures. Best day ever.

May 18, 2015

Hi mom!

  Wow! Sounds like May :) it is always so busy! And who knew that Rad could sing?? I had no idea that he was into that! Is there anyone that I know that is graduating this year? I can't believe the school year is over. Where has the time gone??

  We are pretty busy here! Everything is coming to a close. Elder&Sister Seely (Our mission grandparents :) ) are getting ready to end their mission in two weeks, President&Sister Alba are getting things ready for President&Sister Wright to come and then they will leave (they have about six weeks left on their mission). I am excited to meet President&Sister Wright though. We have been praying for them. They have a son who is still in high school that will be coming with them. I can't imagine leaving high school. I love how faithful members of the church are. When they are called, they leave everything behind and come to work. It is amazing.

  This last week has been a good one! We had exchanges and I was with Sister Peterson. She is great. She has great ideas for making missionary work fun. I always love going on exchanges with her :) We are also planning a Mini MTC for our ward! Out theme: Come Unto Me and I Will Make You Fishers of Men. I am so excited for it! We are going to have gold fish and Swedish fish involved. Hopefully this ward participates. We made mini flyers to hand out yesterday and we also made four big flyers to hang around in the church. It will be on June 6th! So we are pretty much booked for the rest of the transfer! It will be good :) This Thursday we also get to go to the temple! I am looking forward to that. I love the temple.

  Yesterday in Relief Society, Sis. McFadden gave the lesson and it was on the power of the Book of Mormon. She said that we need to read and reread the Book of Mormon so that we can be committed, centered and consumed in Him. She said, "Yesterdays meal is not going to fill you for today and tomorrow. We need to be on going, feed yourself everyday everyday everyday." She had us go up and role play giving a Book of Mormon to a friend and we talked about ideas that are simple and non threatening and not scary. These ideas included writing your testimony in the cover page of the book of mormon, when a friend asks you how your weekend went and what you did, talk about church! Use a funny example that someone shared in a talk, or talk about the enlightenment your received. Share a pass a long card with a neighbor. The list goes on and on and guess what! It continues to go on and on. Its all about the ACTION part. Once you do it, it will become easier and easier. This is what the prophet and his apostles are asking us to do as members. Be a part of the missionary work. Share a Book of Mormon with a friend and get over your selfish fear of talking about your religion. Be the light. Live your religion and in this you will find great joy. When you bring one soul into the kingdom of God how great shall be your joy, right? I invite you all to hand out a Book of Mormon THIS WEEK and tell me about it next Monday. I promise that if you have a prayer in your heart to find one who is looking for truth but does not know where to find it, Heavenly Father will put someone in your path. 

  I love you all! Happy summer&enjoy the week!       Love, Hermana Hamblin    

May 11, 2015

Familia!

 I just love you all! It was so fun to skype and talk/see you all. Mandy and Rex, thanks for joining :) I wasn't expecting that so it was really cool to hear from you both :) Rad, I didn't get to talk to you a whole lot, but it was good to hear your DEEP voice. Oh my goodness. You are just growing up still!! Riann, so excited to live with you girl :) Just like old times, right!? It is going to be fun haha. And mom and dad!! You two are precious!! Thank you for everything!! (BTW--just a little side note haha, we were in a lesson once with Charlene and Garland and I told them that they are precious and Charlene said she didn't like that word, so I called them cute and she said that didn't fit her age, so now I am only allowed to say that they are awesome haha..so if the word cute or precious offends you, I am sorry :) --for dad I will just stick with the word tiny ) 

 Oh man! So yes. I love the mission. I am so sorry, I really did have a lot of good stories and a lot of things to say but then it actually happened and my mind went blank. I just get so excited to see and talk to you that that one hour is enough to look at you all and just smile :) I am grateful for each one of you. You each have helped refine me and my testimony through your individual experiences and the people you are now. I am so grateful for the love and support you give me. I love you so much and I am sorry that I was an emotional wreck towards the end, it is just amazing at how much the Atonement has changed who I am. I am so grateful to be on a mission, I will never be able to repay Heavenly Father for this experience that I am having. It is a blessing.

 Have a wonderful week! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY RIANN!! Make it the best one yet! Love you girl :)

    Love, Hermana Hamblin

Pictures!!

1: I have told you about the place that is like 45 min. North of Willits called Round Valley, right!?

2:Beach Day with Amanda :) 

 

3: It is beautiful here!!!

4:Overboard!!! Except in the movie the bridge is green :)

5: The Albas. Love them! Our last zone conference with them :(

6: Arizona picture! the third one from the left is the one from St. Johns! Small world :)

May 4, 2015

Dear Family!

 Yay for Sunday! Can we skype at 6:30ish? I am excited to see you too :)

About Ron..he is on my prayer list already. Reading that makes me so happy just to see and hear what You all do about those same situations that I am in daily! it is so fun for me to hear that you are all in on Rons little quest in finding the Gospel. 

 Yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, Sis. McFadden got up and was talking about how this is an all aged church. The Lord has prepared organizations for every walk of life. Once we give our ALL to him, that is when we are giving Him a gift. He has already given us our clothes, money, house, family, cars..everything. Give Him your all. Consume our will with God's and THEN we will have complete satisfaction. Get on the boat. The time is now. The work HAS BEEN hastened. Get on and stay on and thank Him EVERYDAY that we are members of this gospel. It isn't easy but it sure is worth it and we need to be grateful to our father in heaven. Mom, she is a power house! Seriously. I have learned SO much from her! She is fearless in sharing the Gospel. I am so grateful for their family and just this ward. I feel at home here. I love it.

 Anyways this last week was so stressful! We had transfers and meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday we had MLC and so we were out of our area for two whole days! We rolled back into town Wednesday night and the only time we had left to do is to go shopping and to meet Bishop. But things are starting to be normal again (missionary wise) and we are so excited to start this week! My new comp is Hermana Burton and she has been out for about six weeks! So I am follow up training again! It is so fun. My new little greenies teach me far more than I will ever teach them. I am so grateful that I get to work with her. We are going to get work done here.

 Other than that I think thats it! I love you all and hope you have the best week ever!  Love, Hermana Hamblin

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

4/27/15

Dear Family!

  Oh my goodness what a day it has been! We are already running super late because guess who woke up to a flat tire today!? But we were glad it was today instead of tomorrow because we drive to Santa Rosa tomorrow! And everything all worked out just fine. But we are supposed to go to the beach with Kevin and Amanda today so this will be really quick!

 So yesterday in Relief Society we were discussing Elder Hollands talk, "Aren't We All Beggars?" and Sis. Pollock asked us all if we ever had a time where we were on our knees asking forgiveness from the Lord. The discussion kind of turned to how we as women feel like we are inadequate for the job, and how bad this world is becoming. It then clicked. All of it! It made sense to me. I FINALLY found out the real reason why I came on a mission! 15 months later! I was answering the question by telling the relief society that before my mission (and even sometimes now) I would always complain about how horrible this world is. Good is bad and bad is good, right!? Like all over the earth. People are accepting sin and judging others when they do good. I didn't really have a good reason for coming on a mission, it just kind of happened. I had good examples like Mandy and Rex and all of my cousins, but I really didn't know why. 

 So as I am thinking about this question that Sis Pollock asked and how we all feel inadequate I automatically thought of the every day life of a missionary. We sometimes slip up and we dont talk to every person that we see. Sometimes we are selfish and we dont follow through on the promptings that we have. Sometimes we don't know all of the answers to our investigators questions, sometimes we aren't being exactly obedient..you know and the list goes on and on and on. People tell us all of the time that we are inadequate for the job and that we are only 19 and 23 yrs old, we don't know what we are talking about. We are not perfect. Haha! But we all have weaknesses. Weakness does not equal sin. God gives us weaknesses to become more like him, to strengthen ourselves and to build our confidence. We are here to grow and to progress and to make mistakes but to learn from them as well. But it is important to realize when we do wrong and to repent and beg for forgiveness. So everyday we are on our knees right?

 I came on a mission not to be dragged down by every person that I meet telling me that I cant do the job, or that I am too young to understand. I came on a mission to make a difference in this world. I am literally doing the best that I can to show this world that there is good. I kept thinking of Michael Jacksons song "Man in the Mirror" (I repented dont worry :) ) but it is true. Instead of talking about how much I hate this world I will DO what I can to stand up for what I believe is true. I LOVED Elder Hales talk about Religious Freedom. His was my favorite. If we ALL do OUR OWN part we can make a difference. God is good and in Him we will find joy peace and happiness.

 Hope that all made sense! It all just clicked yesterday haha. Anyways I love you all! have a great week!!      Love, Hermana Hamblin

PS I am six month-ing it here in Willits!