Email 12/29/14

Hello Family!!

 I am so grateful for all of you. Really! You have each strengthened my personal testimony of the gospel by the way each of you have been living your lives. There is a quote by Pres. Ucthdorf, "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words" That is one of my favorite quotes because that is the reason why our church is different from the others. As Latter-Day Saints we truly and are always looking for ways to love and serve the people who are all around us. And that is what the gospel is. Love. If there is anything thing that has been made more clearer to me while being on my mission: I have realized, learned and have felt the love of the members, the love of my family, the love of our prophet, leaders, President and Sis. Alba, other missionaries....everyone involved in the Gospel of Jesus Christ giving or showing the true love of Christ. That is what it is all about. One of my favorite quotes from the Joseph Smith movie is when Joseph Smith is helping a non-member neighbor and she stops him and says, "I don't agree with your religion, but I do appreciate the help" and Joseph replies, "Ma'am that is our religion" . 

 During the Christmas season it wasn't about me, Hermana Hamblin, what I wanted this year or what I needed to get done this year or any of that ME stuff. It was literally all about the people here in Northern California, in Novato and in Willits. I was able to, for the first time, give my heart and my testimony to the people who needed it the most. On Christmas day, I was able to give the love that I had, the love of Christ, to the people who have really never understood the meaning of the word love, or who have never felt supported from loved ones. The best part is, is that Christmas isnt over for missionaries. This is what we do throughout our whole mission serving with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. "How great is your calling" (Mandy and Rex will get that :) ) #quotingthewhitehandbook

 I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the opportunity I have to repent everyday and to let the grace of Jesus Christ CHANGE me and my heart and the way that I live my everyday life. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to wear my name tag everyday and to represent Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the love and the support that I have felt during my whole mission. How wonderful it is to be in Northern California and still feel like I am at home. I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for His Atonement. Without the Atonement we are nothing, I am nothing. I know that Jesus is the Christ and I know that He lives. 

 I love you all and am so glad that you had a good Christmas! I hope that you have a happy happy happy new year :) 

   Love, Hermana Hamblin 

Email 12/22/14

Hi Family!

 Sounds like you all are ready for a crazy week ahead! I can't believe its Christmas week!? I feel like it was just Black Friday. Time is going way to fast!

 This week has been so fun. We had our all mission Christmas party and I realized that I actually know a lot of people in the mission now! I remember when I first came out I had no idea who anyone was and there were so many missionaries I thought to myself that I would never get to know all of these missionaries. Now I know about half of them :) and I just love them all. There were too many people that I wanted to talk to that we just didnt have enough time to get around to everyone. But I did get to see some of my old companions :) I walked into the chapel and Hermana Fernandez was playing the piano for everyone and I just ran up on stage and we just hugged each other :) We were companions for three whole transfers! And we let everyone know how proud we are that we survived! Haha :) I got to talk to other missionaries about my old areas and we got an updated picture on one of our recent converts baby. I found out that Jonathan (one of our recent converts about 14 yrs old) passed the sacrament for the first time a couple of Sundays ago :) How cool is that!? It was so fun. I love this mission so much. It really is the greatest mission in the world!

 Willits is a small town. Reminds me of home. We are the only 2 missionaries in this area! Our zone is so spread out! Its actually nice though because I can refocus and all of my attention can be on the people of Willits and there wont be any missionary drama or distractions. Since I have been here I have taught 1 lesson in spanish and the rest of them have been in english. Its crazy to think that we can all be in the same mission, have the same rules, same mission President..same everything, yet we each have completely different experiences! We go from rice, beans and tortillas every night for dinner to salads, rolls and soup, tiny trailers to actual houses, English to Spanish! Its just so different but I love it. the people are just so different and I am actually grateful for the opportunity I have to experience life as an english missionary. Its kind of a weird adjustment, but its good. I am happy to be here. The people we are teaching are awesome! We actually had a baptism on Saturday :) His name is David Wells. I felt so bad for hermana Novarro. She got transferred to Napa, but she was able to skype in for the baptism. 

 Anyways I think thats about it :) We are excited to work, serve and love the people here in Willits. 

I hope that you all have a good week and a very merry Christmas!! Love you!!

 Love, Hermana Hambllin      

Email 12/15/14

Hi family!

  Oh my goodness! Well we received transfer doctrine and I am headed to Willits! I have a "one and done" transfer here in Novato :( I am so sad! It is so hard to leave! I just barely gained the trust of the members and we just got our system down of how to work this area out. I was so not expecting to leave and so when the zone leaders sent out the voice mail Hermana Hancock and I were sitting in our living room waiting anxiously for the news and they had just said that Hermana Hancock was going to be senior companion and then they said "and Hermana Hamblin..." and the phone went silent and we just sat there for a whole minute listening to silence! It turns out that the voice mail cut out right as they were giving us our info!! And that caught me off guard when they said that hermana Hancock was senior companion because that meant that I was out! So I was having a mini freak out session and we called the ZLs and it took us like 5 minutes for us to get the info out of them!! Finally they said that I was heading to Willits and I am in a zebra!! Which means that my companion speaks english only. We are also the only sisters in our zone and so for my area I am over the spanish people in Willits. Only me, because my companion doesnt speak spanish! But the good news is that I love my new companion! She is so cute :) We served around each other in Woodland! But ya, my heart is breaking! I LOVE Novato! This has been one of my favorite places to serve. It is so not fair that I only got one transfer here :(

 On Wednesday we have transfers and our all mission Christmas party. This will be the first time that I have been with the whole mission in Santa Rosa! And we have a huge mission so it will be fun! This week is going to be hectic! I am packing up today and tomorrow we are hopefully going Christmas caroling at the hospital. I am excited! Yesterday we had our Christmas program in our little branch and it was so fun!! Haha I LOVE the members here in this branch. The branch president is young and he acts like he is a teenager! He is so great! All of the missionaries had to sing because they didnt have enough members who wanted to sing :) It was so great! After church I got pictures with all of the members and we had lunch at Hermano Aguilas house. This guy is so rich! And he is hilarious! He is an old mexican who loves to talk AND sing and so we had a lot of fun with him yesterday :) 

 Anyways I think thats about it! My brain isnt working today! There is so much going on I cant think straight, but know that I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week!!   Love, Hermana Hamblin

December 8,2014

Hi Family!!

  Ok so this week was so fun! Guess what we did!!! We went to the Golden Gate Bridge :) The sisters asked if we could help them blitz the bridge. We were like, fine if we have to ;) Oh my goodness! We were taking videos and pictures...hopefully President Alba never gets ahold of the videos or pics that we took. We totally looked like tourists. We really couldnt help it though. It was so cool! We sang the Full House song over and over again :) Haha. It was beautiful!! I cannot wait to come back and drive across the bridge! We decided that when we come back we are going to get a red convertible and drive across the bridge just like they do in Full House! We also went into the other mission on accident. Right in the middle of the bridge the mission splits so if you go past the middle you are in the other mission... But we really didnt know! We got distracted! Anyways we are so excited. We get to back Friday night :) #soexcited

  Last night was one of the scariest nights on my mission! So we have this investigator, his name is Chato. He is just kinda sketchy. We made a promise that every time we teach him we would bring a member with us. Well last night we were on our way to the lesson and the member texted us and said that she wasnt going to be able to make it. We decided that we should just go ahead and do the lesson anyways because we were already there. So we park and go to his apartment. Well this apartment complex is super sketchy and it was like 8:30 at night and my companion is contacting this random guy and I start talking to Chato because I saw him..haha anyways so Chato had a friend and his friend was a little drunk..anyways to make the story short we ended up in this laundry room and the guy that was freaking us out was like blocking the door and so I got him to move and we finally got out of there because the spirit was like yelling at us to get out of there!! We didnt even teach the lesson but I was so scared! I was shaking and we were both just freaking out. It was so scary, but family! The spirit works and never ignore a prompting! Like ever. the spirit is there to guide and direct you and keep you safe! Uh! We were a little bit shaken up last night but we are good. Nothing bad happened, it just got super sketchy! We both learned the importance of the spirit though.

 On a brighter note we taught a super powerful lesson on Saturday night! We taught one of our investigators, Marta about the priesthood and the spirit was super strong, but she still denied our invitation to be baptized. She gets offended when we explain that she wasn't baptized by the proper authority. Its super sad :( Oh well we will just keep praying for her! 

 We also picked up a new investigator. She was a missionary referral who wanted a spanish BOM and so we went over to her house and she just started bashing. Her granddaughter (who is 21 years old) was listening the whole time. We just testified of the BOM and we shared Moroni 10:3-5 with her and by the end of the lesson she agreed for us to come back! The crazy part is at the very end of the lesson her granddaughter who was quiet the whole time said that she was an active member in OUR spanish branch!! #embarrassing #becausewedidntrecognizeher The reason why we didnt recognize her is because she is always in nursery. Anyways we are hoping that she can keep interest in the lessons and that hopefully we can one day baptize her!!! 

  Ok another awkward moment...haha ok so we were in a lesson with our 13 yr. old investigator whose name is Nick. We are just trying to bond with the kid, so we start the lesson off with a joke! At the punch line he just looks like at us with a straight face and guess what. He didnt laugh. Like at all. Oh my goodness. It was so embarrassing! Haha we were just laughing and he was just sitting there. Haha oh my goodness! We were like Nick! Wasnt that funny!? that was funnny!!! His aunt gave us a pity laugh so that made the situation a little bit better :) Oh family. Pray for us! Haha

 OK! Well I think that is it! I hope that you have a great week :) I love you all!    Love, Hermana Hamblin 

December 1, 2014

Hello family!!

  Thanksgiving was so fun! Okayy we had like two dinners, one traditional (sooo yummy!!) and one mexican! it was perfect! We had a huge soccer tournament with our branch on Thanksgiving. It was so funny to watch all of the missionaries play against mexicans. We totally lost! Haha they started putting in all the little kids and we were finally able to make a goal or two. Oh my goodness. Funniest thing ever! haha! Anyways we really enjoyed the day! I was thinking of you on Friday! Why the heck didnt you go!? Its our tradition! I better have people coming with me next year (Mom!! Because you are super funny on Black Friday :) and we started the tradition!!) Anyways it is now officially Christmas time! Have you all seen the He is the Gift video yet? Our mission is trying to show that video to as many people as possible! It is so cool. A lot of people are letting us in and the spirit is so strong. I love this time of year. It is so special. 

  This week has been pretty hectic! We had interviews with President and Sister Alba. They both helped me so much this go around. I have been so stressed out this transfer with white washing and everything. When I walked into my interview with Sister Alba she just told me to tell her everything, so i did! At the end she just took my hands and she looked at me and said, "I am taking all of your stress. Give it all to me" I just started crying! It was such a good interview! She told me that if I ever feel stressed again to just give her a call and that she will take my stress away again. She is so sweet. President Alba also offered me some good advice as well. He reminded me to only enjoy the work especially around this time of year :). Ever since interviews I have laughed a lot more and I have really just enjoyed the people I serve and the other missionaries that we work with here in Novato. 

  On Thursday and Friday our mission is going on a "fast" from driving because there has been too many accidents lately and missionaries have gone way over on their miles. I have a lot to do with that. I was the latest to get into a car wreck and we were over on miles for November. Haha..ya. My companion became designated driver now haha and she is..a good driver.. haha. Hopefully we dont get our car taken away from us! #pleaseprayforus. #seriously. 

  Today we want to go see a lighthouse! I am super excited for that. Wednesday we get to blitz the golden gate bridge!! I cannot wait for that!

  I am glad you had a good Thanksgiving! It was a special day for sure. I need to just run for the rest of my life to get back into shape! :) I love you all and I hope you know how much I am grateful for each of you! You all are the best! Thank you for all of your love and support!! :) Love, Hermana Hamblin