7/20/15. Last email.

Hello family and friends!

  At every beginning to a new transfer my wonderful mission mom would
greet us all by saying, "Today is the first day of the rest of your
mission!" She would encourage us to arise and be great, to stand tall,
to step into the light with confidence and to make this transfer the
best transfer ever. Today as I send my last email as a missionary and
try to write out my emotions and feelings I want to take the advice
from Sister Alba and be the best that I can be today, tomorrow and for
the rest of my life. I know that if Sister Alba could give me any kind
of advice today she would hug me tight and tell me, Hermana Hamblin,
today is the first day of the rest of your life.

 I am so grateful for my mission. I am grateful to my Uncle Scott who
strongly encouraged me to serve. For my sister Mandy and my brother
Rex and their examples of missionary service and their letters home
that were full of positive, spiritual uplifting experiences. I am
grateful for my wonderful mission parents, the Alba's. I love them so
much and am so grateful for the way that they pushed me and followed
promptings as they sat through transfer doctrine week praying for me
and my new areas and new companions. I am grateful for the interview
sessions that I had with them and for their patience, encouragement
and love. I love them and I will always have respect for them and look
up to them. I am so grateful for my mom and dad. For their faithful
prayers on my behalf. I have felt their love and faith in me as they
have written me week after week emails, letters and all. I am grateful
for my sweet trainer, Hermana Thompson. She is a saint. She paved the
path for me and for my new life as a missionary.

 My mission has been a stepping stone for me to better access the
Atonement. I have placed my life into the hands of my Heavenly Father
and he has shaped me, refined me and molded me. It has been hard and I
know that he isn't done with me yet, but now I am ready to take with
me the things that I have learned and apply that to life outside of
the CASRM. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father allows his imperfect
children to do this wonderful work. He lives! I have been blessed to
shout that message to the world for 18 full months of my life :)

3 Nephi 5:13

I love you all.Thank you for everything!

Hermana Hamblin




Sent from my iPad

7/13/15

Dear Family,

 I don't even know what to say. I want to say that my mission has been the best year and a half of my life but that doesn't even scratch the surface. Emotions can't be put into words. The experiences that I have had on my mission can't be put in a weekly email home. To be simple, I can't sleep at night. I toss and turn and finally give up and I lie awake, just marveling at the journey my mission has taken me on. From greenie day one to the final week of my mission. It's hard and sad to be at the end for different reasons. We all hear that missions are the hardest thing that we will do, so why did I go? Why did I decide to serve? Last night as I was saying my prayers right before bed my heart was bursting with the undying love that I have for my father in heaven. The relationship that I have with him now is precious. I have grown so close to Him as I have prayed and prayed and prayed. It is just as dad said, as I have grown close to these people in California I have been apart of their life, and them mine when really we have all grown closer to Heavenly Father. Learning and growing and progressing together.  I am so thankful for everything that I have learned and everything that I can take home with me. I am excited to go home and to hug my family. I am ready for the next chapter in my life. I am ready to go back to school and to learn and grow and to keep pressing forward with my life. I know that a lot is in store for me and I can't wait to get started!

 I love President Wright. Oh my goodness. I felt so comfortable with him in my interview. He is so warm and friendly and he loves us so much. We got along really well :) he gave me good advice and counsel. 

 As for my talk yesterday, oh my goodness. It was so cool. I had been praying all week for the spirit to guide me in my talk and I jotted down some points that I thought would be good to use. I thought about it all week and we were lucky enough to teach the restoration twice this week ( my topic was the restoration). I didn't have a written out talk, I didn't even know how much time I would be taking up, but I prayed for the spirit to guide me and it did. My companion did a great job as well. We were followed by a member, Bro. Cox who gave a great talk on family history. Uh. It was such a good meeting! I have come to love this Ward. It was rough at the beginning, but uh. They love us. And we love them. 

 I love you all. Pray that I will be able to stay strong and focused, especially this last week. I will continue praying for you all as well. Have a great week!   Love, Hermana Hamblin

7/06/15

7/06/15

Hi family!

 Happy 4th of July!! Best holiday of the year no matter where you are!
Thank you Mandy for the pictures. I loved them :) We had a great
Fourth of July! Earlier this week we had lunch with our bishop and he
said that Larkspur always has a good 4th of July parade and that we
need to go check it out, so my companion and I went. It was so fun!
They go all out for their parades! It was like a little farmers
market, people were out selling different foods, different jewelry,
different handbags...it was so cute! We had a blitz right afterwards
and I was able to work with Hermana Deneke. She is so cute! We had fun
together :) Then we had a BBQ with some Ward members. And yes we did
see some fireworks. San Rafael had the fair in town his week, so we
have been watching fireworks for the past four or five days! It's been
pretty fun :)
 We got to meet our new mission president! They are so cute! We had a
meet and greet on Wednesday and we got to meet their two kids that
came with them. It's been fun to see the parenting side of our mission
president, it makes the "mission dad" a little more real for us! But I
am very impressed with Max and Amy. I was talking with them during the
meet and greet and they were both happy to be here. Max is a senior in
high school! Can you imagine!? But he has such a good attitude about
all of this. I am so impressed with him. Amy is going to the JC in
Santa Rosa. She is cute! I didn't really get a chance to talk much to
her, but I am so glad that they are both here! It is so fun!
 We had MLC on Friday! It was more of just a discussion about what's
been going on in the mission and what the Wrights have in mind to
shape up this mission. When we broke for lunch, President and Sister
Wright came and sat by us and so I was able to talk a little one on
one with Sister Wright about exchanges and what not. It was a blessing
in disguise because I had some concerns and questions about some
things and she talked with me and gave me some really good counsel. Oh
my gosh..I am seriously just blessed. Heavenly Father answers our
prayers through other people! I was supposed to meet the Alba's and
the Wrights. I am so grateful for them both.
 Anyways this week is pretty normal. We are going to Stinson Beach
today! I have my last zone conference on Tuesday, my last exchange
this week, I have my departing interview with President Wright on
Friday, and Sister Eyden and I are talking in church this Sunday.
 We don't have any investigators, but we do have less actives that we
are working with and we are really working with a recent convert who
has been struggling a lot lately. We have seen some improvement with
her though. The spirit has been so strong in her lessons lately. It's
all starting to look up!
 I love you all! Good luck at girls camp mom! I love you!
Love, Hermana Hamblin