January 20, 2014

  

our first night together and her teaching me the ways of yoghurt and cookies<1 mmmm mmmmmm

we have a talking parrot that lives on the second floor. i know you love animals so i took this for you!!

   Firstoff!....OH MY GOOOODDDNNNEESSS GRACIOUS! I so,the night that hermana peck and i were getting transferred we had a little goodbye party with the rama, branch. i had expected that they were making a nice cake or something. i had absolutely no idea what to expect. during the day i get a call from my district leader telling me that the office needed my home phone number in the U.S.???? what? well, i didnt ask any questions and gave it o him. then we went to the party that night. we all sit down and they start off with a testimony meeting kind of thing. then presidnet gets up and starts talking about how very grateful he was to have had hermanas finally come in and open up la venta. he then told us we have been inmortalized in their heart. kind of strong words,but he´s said it several times. and has also referenced to us as angels. the people here are so sweet. the way they speak, so open really is a part of their culture. so he sits down and then they pull out a projector. slide show! it had lots of great pics of us hermanas with joseph our mission leader. it was so sweet. then pres. gets back up and asks,who likes surprises, and continues pulling something up on his computer. then a title slides across the screen and i see,eagar stake trek.......WHAT? at this point i was absolutely confused. i couldnt even put together that it was talking about THE eagar stake trek. the screen turns black and i suddenly hear,do what the fox says and i died. dad came on the screen and i just freaked. i was completely frozen. i couldnt move i couldnt talk i couldnt do anything! i just began crying out of pure joy staring confusingly at the screen. usually i am not easily surprised, but i have to honestly admiit i have NEVER....EVER been that surprised any time before in my life. i didnt understand what was happpening,why i was watching my dad fool around,doing his goofy lipsinging/dancing WHILe ALL of lavente in la republica dominicana was watching...and not a single personunderstanding anything in english. it stioll blows my mind. pres and the whole rama were busting up and they couldnt quit taking photos of me and my reaction. it was absoluetly priceless. THANK YOU>11 it was honestly an answered prayerof yours! and then your sweet video of you two and your advice and love. i jsut love you alll!! thank everyone at the office, and marks for her contribution. :) was sis. davis videoing? anyway,im sure i will never again be so shocked in my life. its too bad i dont have photos, b ut im sure sometime i can get them from him.

     2nd......I TRANSFERRRREEDDD as you can tell. i am in San Geronimo, La Yucca. its about 15 mins from La Venta, so not too far at all! i dont know if you´ll be able to find it under those names because those could just be boundaries within the church,but you can try under Los Rios or Herrera. those are pretty close places that are more popular. I am now serving with the amazing hermana stewart. get this,she is from new mexico, newmexico! specfically from silver city and knows the quinlans. how cool is that??? shes been out on her mission for 11 months and is so good with the people here and her spanish. this is her 5th transfer here and so she knows everyone and everything! its been super fun with her. i now live with 2 latinas. one is from guatemala and the other is from the domincan republic. its so different living with latinas haha but fun. and very interesting. i have been praying and hoping to improve my spanish and this is my opportunity!!!! we´ve had a crazy week. we had to give talks this sunday. i decided to write down a few points and just talk from that. it was a bold move considering that ive never done that before and that i did it in spanish! it went okay i think. i talked for 10 mins though. i guess im starting to get a little long winded haha. all you do is pick a scripture and talk and talk. then....we had maggot problems. not once, but twice this week! eww so gross. one morning hermana moronta found some crawling in the kitchen all over our walls and what not. we boiled a bunch off water and killed them. then we found tons of them in our trash can and all over. alllll over!!! hermana perez says their good cooked. i doubt that. we cleaned all of our house. dominicans clean so differently. first off, carpet doesnt exist here. so what they do is you just dump bleach and cleaner all of the floor and then you turn on the house and flood the house. it was pretty fun. in this house the electricity is worse. and somehow the water is connected to the electricity. so when there is no light, no water. so...a head lamp would be perfect if you could send one :) 

also, one day hermana stewart was introducing me to an hermana and said se queda which means this sister is going to stay. for some reason this woman thought that my name was se queda. it was pretty funny. 

     a little but about this area. we live right across from the church. this area is pretttyyy big. i am part of a ward now so thats cool. its different meeting in a more normal church buidling. we have like 2 progressing investigatores, so thats a little different. we had about 15 people that we were working with in la venta so we´re going to need lots of referencias and contactos. we tried contacting yesterday and lets just say they werent interested haha. sometimes contacting can be so awkward but that is all the reason more i love the mission. im doing well and just adjusting to new people and everything and so far im learning lots and enjoying it! hermana stewart and i made no bake cookies and boy was it good! also, she makes a mean choclate oatmeal. it sounds gross but its sooo very good. also we had cookies in yogurt. i know you thought i ate weird stuff before the mission, but i am going to come back mixing all kind of things. dominicans use anything and everything. they reuse and are so creative. it teaches me to be a bit more frugal. anyway, it great!!! i love you alll!!!

thes are all my converts the night i told them i was leaving. lurden the one in the green and blue shirt was crying so hard. she gave me this pic of wesley, the boy, a mini cup of the virgin mary, and her only 1 dollar american bill. that was sooo very sweet. cristina cried lots too and they all made a pledge to visit me in my next area. i dont know if they ever will , but i absolutely love these people with all my heart!

January 13, 2014

we decided to make some delicious funnel cakes to celebrate transfer call night. sheesh, i burned myslef from the water vapor stuff! OUCH! haha.

okay, i have transfers this week. ready for it?......................................IM LEAVING. ahhhhhhhhh so crazy. i am so sad to leave the members here and my recent converts but incredibly excited and scared to go to a new area where i know no one, including my companion. they havent told me where or who im with i will find that out tonight. but ill pack tonight. 

that is sooo sad about tell. please give th udall family my love and let them know they are in my prayers. they are an incredibly strong, faithful family. so it will be alright. 

man, well i am sure excited for the trek to come! when will it be? this summer or next? this week was good. we had the baptism of kika! and we had a temple teip with lurden and wesley. it was such a great day. tonight i think my ward mission leader and branch presidnet are throwing me and hermana peck a goodbye party type of thing. how sweet! i am going to stop by all fo the members homes tonight to say goodbye and pack my bags. oh mom! this is going to be such a good growing opportunity to grow in my spanish, faith, teaching skillls, and a chance to meet more wonderful people that i will come to absolutely love. i am so sad to leave hna jay, but it will be good for me to stand on my own two feet. :) oh! and i got the packahe from granny carol! how sweet! i wrote her a letter and sent it. i also got a package from granny sylvi. she sent me 4 hankie. 2 from granny butler and 2 that were papas. it made me cry. (out of joy and just how precious that was to me) im basically the hanky missionera. haha and i love it! well i dont have more time but i love you all! and make sure to say your prayers and show gratittude for all you have! -rachie

shoot! you cant see her crazy hair. this is kika. we stopped by her house today at 6:30 am to pick her up for seminary. she got to the front door and told us she needed to bathe. her hair was like a standing fan fro! as you can see she has her little bathing bucket. she is so cute! by the time she finished we showed up to seminary with 5 mintues left.

December 30, 2013

December 29, 2013

hi mamma!!

it was soo very good to see you all and talk to the fam! i cant believe you didnt cry! nice job!!!!! i almost held out. haha but, wow it was the best christmas present ever!!! thank you for sending me blakes emails. i absoltely love them! she is so stinkin funny! im glad you enjoyed christmas with the fam. i had a perfect christmas here. we had a little christmas tree with lights, and my cactus of course! all of the hermanas were laughing. they all thought it was cute. yes, i was at josef's house and he is a native. he doesnt really speak ANY english. i should have talked more spanish to you, but dont worry, you can hear it on mother's day! its still progressig and understand more. whenever any elder from the office calls i never understand haha i always have to pass the phone to another hermana. this week the elders brought fans to install in the house. i am sooo excited! our outlets dont work so some fresh air will surely fill good. its still quite warm here. 

so we had the opportunity to kind of open up a new area here. tierra llana. we contacted 600 doors several times to invite them to a christmas concert that the church put up in their gacebo they have there. we found many poeople that were open! very nice. we took their info down and starred them if we felt like they were open. also, if they offerred us water, we surely starred them! haha it was good. we had the christmas program last night and it was magnificient. they had the stake chior there, increrdible christmas jazz players from the stake, and showed lds christmas messages on a huge projector. sadly, not many people came...sad sad sad. we expected 300 plus people but like 50 came. oh well! it was marvellous. after we had a hot cider. it was ginger and so strong my tongue was numb. !!!! i got to talk in church this sunday too! josep called me sat night at 10 pm. that guy. haha i gave it on the love that god has for us. i think it went good, but i dont know spanish perfectly anyway, so whatever i say i think im saying it right! haha wesley and lurden are doing great! she is so sweet. we havent really taugght investigatores for a few weeks because we had been power contacting in tierra llana. im excited to get back to the normal swing of things and just teach teach teach!!!!! we have another little family that i have much faith in. she is native but her husband is from france. he doesnt have a lot of knowledge about god but glenny, the wife, has told us that she feels something so strongly with us.she feels its true and says she'll get baptized. now she just needs to come to church! awhhh this area has so much potential and i only have 2 more weeks until transfers! so much work to do!

oh and MIRANDA IS PREGNANT????? wow, im so excited for her! anyone else? how is she? how is julie davis and race??? and nat is almost done with her papers? im so glad! maggs and soph wrote me letters whish was so exciting! theyre doing well. soph plans on getting marries this spring. well, i just want you all to know i have a testimony of this gospel. that is why i am here in the D.R. i am so gratfeul for the lord. he is absolutely perfect and loves us all perfectly and equally. i have felt that as i have been here. my faith has strengthened in having confidence in speaking and in being a missionary in general. i love the lord and you with all my heart. have a wonderful day! xoxoxoxoxox

love, hermana hamblin

December 30, 2013

this my lovely fam, is what they call sweet beans. they cook them, blend them, sweeten them, and put cooked sweet potatoes and soggy wheat bisquits. not to bad i have to admit! only for like 2 days though. christina made them for us! and practically forced us to take more home. i how i love her!

mashing potatoes for our christmas lunch! and my christmas cactus!

also, not so flattering, but! our  sinks were badly clogged and so we couldnt do our dishes. we had a grand idea to do them in the back where we do laundry with our head lamp. great stuff!

you all now my health history. well, so does hermana jorgenson! this is what i received from hermana jay for my christmas present. and pb! how thoughtful! ..i wont lie. i was super excited when i got them because now i dont have to get them this week hallelujah!

December 8, 2013

hi mamma!

sorry we had our christmas concert yesterday and we didnt get home in time to email. it was a very good christmas concert. AND GUESS WHAT??? i GOT YOUR PACKAGE!!!! thank you so much . i listen to my amy grant cds every night and me and hma jay are in love with our little fall/thanksgiving hankies. thank you for everything!!! tell the aunts and uncles thank you for the lettters and laura! how sweet of them! i have saved some of the letters to read so save some excitement :) also for christmas we have been told we can call on the 24th or 25 probably in the afternoon. we havent heard if we can skype or not, i sure hope though! so what day will work best for you guys? it'll be crazy calling with blake but just let me know. we only have like 2 more weeks! but it is cooling off here. im not drenched in sweat like normal so thats good. sorry we only have 30 mins to email so it'll be short, but thatnk you for sharing your thoughts about sacrament. i absolutey loved what was said about the difference about rebellion and weakness. very interesting and so very true. how grateful i am for mercy. 

it sounds like you have your hands full of kids, but MK is a good one to have :) and i am glad you are taking some time to just have fun with donna. she is so wonderful! tell her hello for me! also, you and dad should definitely send me our christmas letter and a pic! a pic of everyone at christmas with hudson and andy and jess. i love you mucho!

love rachie

mario helping us with the mouse. he doesnt look too happy eh?? ahha

December 1, 2013

hola my sweet family!!

this week was an eventful one! first off, we had THANKSGIVING!!! we went to a chinease, dominican buffet. haha BUT...we decided that we were going to make some of the thanksgiving to bring with us. we made mashed potsatoes, gravy, and green beans. when hma peck was making the homemade gravy we went to taste it and oh dear......we sat and tried t think of what we could do. hma erickson walks by and mentions she had beef jerky. why not use that?? we didnt have much time but decided we'd try to use it. so....we got the jerky out..not any jerky but teryaki beef jerky. we put a few large pieces in boiling water to soften it up and stuck it in the microwave. then we stuck so powered milk and put it in the blender. i blended and blended til it was a pink paste....yeah then we stuck it in the gravy. then we stuck all of this delicious food into a ice cream bucket and walked to pic a pollo (the chinease buffet) haha we met the elders there and went around the table mentioning things that we were all grateful for. we couldnt repeat so of course we were mentioning things like electricity, running water, raid, bleach and so forth. then we fininshed our meal off with dulce de leche and oreo truffles! yum yyum!

next thing that happened was "mice" we have lots of mice in our kitchen. we have tried to use poison but nothing has worked yet. one morning during personal study one of the hermanas saw the mouse running around. we had all had it with this lil guys. it may be lilttle and cute, but i was ready for it to be out of the house. so we chased it onto our counter. there we stood with our brooms and flip flops in hand ready to take on the challenge. one of the hermanas scared it and it began running behind our counter. i threw my shoe at it hard and smacked it! we were all stunned. and luckly one of the hermanas thought quicka nd got out plastic container and we trapped it. we wedged a piece of paper under the bottom and then brought it down to mario. he lives below us and is one of our investigators. hes kind of a dad, even though hes fairly young haha. we brought it over and he wasnt sure what to do. we told him to kill it. he took the container, not wanting to have anything to do with it, and walked across the street to the men washing the cars. he handed him the contained and then the man places it on the ground and wacked it with a stick until it was dead. brutal! dont worry, i have pics! then the very next day we trapped another one and mario killed it for us. SUCCESS. we still have another, but we're jsut waiting for it to come out. it knows we are on a mouse killing roll! then just last night hma jay and i went out tracting. it began raining and so we found shelter in some members home. we sat there for 25 mins and decided we really wanted to go to see lurden and cristina because it was possibly our last time to see them because it was the night before translados. we ran in the ran to lurdens and found out that cristinas house was flooding. we quickly scurried to the cajone and found a river! it was about to our knees, but there was a river rushing quickly down an opening to the cajones. cristina lives just below a major freeway and all the heavy rain broke the wall that lined the freeway.  cristinas little grandson was sitting on the bed in her house when all of a sudden watter poured in through her holes she has in her wall as a window. it swept him completely off the bed! when we showed up there were so many there helping her. there was lots of water and filth and we were moving everything out of the water. people were crying and shouting. it was all of a sudden! as all this chaos was happening cristina was just shouting things like i have faith in god! when we arrved she just said god has sent you here!! and then she was going off on her faith in christ and that everything was okay because christ is good. at one point her daighter started crying out of fear and cristina looks over to her and shouts defiantly,---if your crying you dont believe in god!!! cristina can be a little intense sometimes haha but boy do i love her. everything is okay i think. we had t leave and go to the ward members and they went to help, but we had to g in for the night. hopefully we get to go see her tomoroow. 

BUT...I HAVE 4 MONTHS in the mission field! 4 months! thats almost half a year! wow . we had translados and im staying in la venta. im super happy. it was a little werid because all four of us hermanas are staying. that hardly EVER happenes so its hard to believe, but i'll get to spend christmas here! by the way, no i havent received either package...but hopefully next week it will be here. for recipes i typed the ones i wanted to jess when you were at their house so maybe you can find them there. i jsut dont have any more time left! i love you all so much and hope you have a good week!!!

love rachie

November 18, 2013

THIS, my dear family, is my TURKEY FLAKE!!!! yes, pretty great huh? at 10 pm the other night me and the other hermanas decided to have a turkey cutting snowflake contest. we had like 3 mintutes so i decided to cut a "hand turkey" in it and a t for turkey. then i unfolded it and it looks like  a crab and a fence. 

mamma mia!!

so as i got to the copmuter to check to see if my lil hudson was here, .......I FORGOT MY PASSWORD. i typed and typed and sat to wait for almost 9 WHOLE MINUTES!!! i thought i wasnt getting on this week, but thankfully i remembered!! awwww I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED AND HAPPY THAT HE IS FINALLY HERE AND THAT EVERYTHING IS GOOD!. the first thing i saw on the pictures was a blown up pic of hudson. and only a portion loaded, of his one crusty eye that was a quarter the size of my entire computer screen. as we waited (hma j y i) were were so darn excited and then that popped up! im not going to lie it was a bit scary! and i still cant see that complete pic so im glad youre sending it to me, but you look so cute with hudson@! i can only imagine the love and excitement in the house!! please, tell me more and just catch me up on everything! 

as for here....lets see. we had 4 menos activos come to church and 8 investigators! it was awesome becuase one of the boys that is an investigator, wesley, broke his food pretty bad and still made it to church! he lives in a cajone and his house is on the 2/3 story and there is only a steep, narrow , spiral staircase that leads up to his house. im pretty sure people from the ward went to carry him down. what a champ! we also has an...interesting lesson on sunday. there is a lady visiting here. here mom is sick and so she came to take care of here. she is from puerto rico but is studying at byu and just finished a semester. we had a lesson at her house with her neighbor that isnt a member. she basically taught the lesson for over an hour and didnt really let us say anything. but....she first opened up the lesson by stating she hated answering questions and that she was really personal and that she doesnt know how to react when someone asks her a question and then she went on to tell a little but about herself. what she said was that she was an engineer and that she loved money. she loves finances and the numbers that go with it. money is super important and that wherever she can make the most amount of money she calls home. EVEN IF IT IS IN AFRICA. that would be her home.....talk about STRANGE AND CREEPY. it made it more creepy because her moms things werent moved in all the way. the house was pretty empty and it was a very nice home. the nicest we had been in. and there was no light. she spent time with her flashlight and her old english bible proving to her catholic neighbor that that was the most correct bible translation. we have another apt this week with them...we'll see how that goes!!!

so, i have not received the package yet, but we usually get mail tomorrow so i hope its here! our next transfer is on the 3rd or so of december so i am not sure if i will be here in la venta with hermana j or not. im a little noervous because it could be a possibility that i will train! its not high because i dont think a lot of new hermana are coming in, but we'll see! well i should go, but have fun and enjoy time with lil huson and everyone! give him a smooch for me!

rachie