June 30, 2014

hi fam!

a few q´s to answer, my comp has 15 months. i live with 2 other americans. one of them is my comp from the mtc. kind of cool! we have a few fans in our house so that is GREAT. the 2 hermanas are from idaho. meridan and boise. just for you mom!!!

this week was interesting!

we didnt leave the house much becasue my comp was sick. i also had a weird thing happen. i woke up tuesday morning with a horrible wretched pain in my neck and head. i couldnt move from off of my bed! for 2 days!! ha...very painful. i guess i just slept on it wrong___...who knows. it took me hours to get up the courage to go to the bathroom and endure the paralyzing pain. it sounds like i am exagerrating, but im not!! haha 

the elders came over and gave my comp and i a priesthood blessing. that was a perfect perfect thing to do. the lord not only heals spiritually but physically. in my prayer he told me i would be healed according to my faith. i stood up and immediatly there was a lift of the pressure from my neck. i couldnt go out to teach for the rest of the day, but the folowing day i was healed!!! 

because we stayed in four days this week, i dont have very many teaching updated or experiences. all i can say is that i missed going out to work and share my testimony and help the people here. when we finally left, i felt so free! i love teaching and sharing the gospel. i havent been able to get to know many people here so far, buti love  the people i have taught and just desire so much for them to keep their committments and to come to christ, and  to feel the liberating joy of knowing the lord and his gospel. that is a huge blessing we have as active members. i love you all so much! have a grat week!

sorry there are no pics, i let one of the hermanas that i am living with use my picture stick. hopefully next week we have good connection with the internet!

love you much! 

June 23, 2014

hi fam!

so ...i WAS finally transferred!! I actually really love and miss San Geronimo. but....i am in VINCENTE NOBLE now. That is as far south west as Hermanas serve. It´s also as campo as it gets! there are more donkeys here and well, this lttle town reminds me of eagar, but more ghost town. i kept asking myslef over and over again where are the people!!!!! there is a little branch here. they have some pretty good, active emembers, but it is nothing like where i came from so we will have to teach them lots how to work with us. my comp is hna gutierrez, she is from guatemala and doesnt speak english. she is very nice and so far, speaking spanish with her is good. i live with 2 other americans, so i can imagine how different it is for my comp to cope with all of us. there is a mango tree right outside of our window. whenever the mangos drop onto our steps, i get up and run to go get them before the chickens go peck at them.

there are abnout 70 people mas or menos that attend our branch, but techinally more than 700 less actives!! how sad. sooo we have lots of reactivating to do here! me and my comp are in charge of helping the young women here. we attened the yw class yesterday and there were 3. one was an investigator, one was almost 19 and hates relief society, and the other was just a regualr yw member. haha oh sweet nelly. its different!

some things ive noticed wince i was sent to vincente noble....

old people just dont have teeth

they pack their mules to sell coal in the mornings.

a lot more naked children

everyone is less active

i forgot pigs and horses existed!

well, i will keep you updated, i love you all lots!

love hermana hamblin

June 16, 2014

a pic of gladys and her family. they will be baptized on the 28 of june!

the second pic is of hermana mieses. she is absolutely one of my most favorite missionaries. shes dominican

June 8, 2014

June 8, 2014

hi fam!
i´m glad you got my birthday email for you!

it´s so weird that miranda had a baby! i bet she´s a cute lil thing.

today we had a fun sport activity with three zones and president nuckols and his wife came to hang out with us and play. It was a lots of fun. we also saw where they have the dedicatory plaque. it was really neat.
this week was good. we are finding more people to teach. we receive references and we just have so many people to visit and teach! honestly. it is quite dificil to visit everyone because we just don't have enough time! one thing my companion and will have to do is figure out how to manage our time more wisely in order to fit everyone in! we are also having a baptism this sat. his name is wilker. he is 12 yrs old and just the most precious thing in the world! every Sunday morning he gets up and is out the door with his white shirt and dress pants, ready for church. no one in his family goes, but he is so faithful in going. i really have learned a lot from him. he´s been to church every Sunday for 6 months, by himself. he has lots of good friends and family friends in the ward so it should be great. it will be this sat at 1 pm. hopefully everyone isn't eating instead of at his baptism!

we also have put dates for baptism with a few other people, but they are all part families. i just know that the full family would be the best thing. we are trying to teach all of these families as families but it is some hard work. hard work but great work! i love you all and hope you have a great week!

love hermana hamblin

sorry i don't have pics. we got home from the activity and went straight to email without grabbing anything to pull pics. next week i will send some!

May 26, 2014

hi fam!

this week was a good one! we got a new domincan that is living with us this transfer. her name is sister guzman. she will be serving a mini mission for 4 weeks. she is from the d.r. out in the boonies. she is sucha  sweet girl. we have had ltos of fun cokking together this week. hna safeer and i are trying to learn how to cook rice the dominican way. they jsut have a skill at cooking rice to a perfection! they have lots of technique including puting a plastic bag over it and melting it to the pot. very interesting..but in the end, it always tastes delish!

we were also all having a splits contest. the dominicans werent so flezxible...but they can sure cook! 

this week was mothers day here in the d.r. they had a big celecration at the church. there was lots of dancing and eating and music. apparently they had a dancing competition and our bishop and his wife won. i heard it turned out real well. we had an investigator attend and so we were very excited. its very hard to get our investigators attend the church for any reason, so when someone comes its a success! our investigator that attended is names grisleda. she is the wife of a family that we just started teaching. they are a more wealthy family but seem to have interest, especially the father. its rare to find wealthier people that are really interested. anyway, we have taught this family a few times and there have been a few times where the father has kissed us on the cheek to greet us. (that's how they greet each other) i don't think i ever told you that. but as missionaries here, you make sure to avoid awkward situations like that. well....mr. Marcus, the husband of  Griselda, has done that twice. let me tell you, its the most awkward thing as missionaries. we go in for the handshake but it doesn't end like that!!! ha...we need to break it to him next.
sorry, a little bit of topic that was, but anyway, we are excited to see the progress with this family. 

also, this week we did a fast for our companionship and for our investigators. we haven't seen much progress at all with any of our investigators. we have put baptism dates with families and individuals but have not seen the progress or desire from our investigators. really, its been super tough, but we have decided that we will fast every Wednesday for our investigators because we really need the lord to help us this transfer. 

well we are already on week numero 2! i love you all and hope that you have a great week!

mucho amor, hermana Hamblin

May 19, 2014

Hi fam!!

We got transfer calls last  night, and Im staying! And I am staying with Hermana Safeer. i am really glad and excited to have 4 more weeks here. It will be a shorter transfer but lots of work is needed her in good ole san geronimo! We found a few families this week. It was a miracle. One young man had been asking his mom ( a member) for a long time when he could take the lessons. the other day she saw us and gave us the reference of her son. We showed up to his door and he got super excited. HE told us, that he had been waiting a really long time for this. it was a little shocking but in such a great way!
Also, my birthday was AMAZING!!

MOM.....THANK YOU. the clothes were the best gift that you could have given to me. really. i was just thinking the other day about how i was in need of new clothes. a lot of mine have bleach spots becasue we bleach everything (water, fruits, veggies) so it tends to get on all clothes. As i continued to pull out skirts and dresses and shirts i just couldnt help but say woooowww. woooow woooow wow wwow it was perfect! 

to celebrate my birthday me and hna safeer bought brautworst and a cheesecake danish dessert. we waited almost to weeks to eat it. the brauts were delish! the cheesecake...it was american, but as the domincan hermanas started to eat it their eyes got really big and they kept asking if there was mayonaise in it...lets just say it wasnt the freshest cheesecake

also, titi, reina,. and pablo all had planned a surprise birthday party. it was the cutest thing. we showed up that night and they were all waiting for us. they had balloon decorations,food, presents,games planned, and even a cake that said felizcumpleanos rachel!! ( yes, rachel) it was a little weird and awkward as they sang to me and used rachel instead of sister hamblin...haha but reina had printeed out a photo card of me and her and hna safeer and also gave me a nice necklace. there are two parts of the neckalace (one for me and one for my future boyfriend) how thoughtful.

we had a great night with all of them celebrating and everything. they are all so sweet!

we also had our stake split. elder anderson the quorum of the seventy came to talk. it was good. lots of people were there and there was so much excitement. there was also a random american family there with their 6 little kids. all the people kind of jsut watched them with a fascination of this white fam. i have to admit that i was one of those people!! it was so different to see and observe this strange white american family. haha i cant imagine how it will be when i get back! 

also, we are teaching a 12 year old boy named wilkur . he is the cutest little guy. a few weeks ago he found us in the street and jsut said, i want to be baptized. ive talked to my parents and theyve given me permission. now i jsut need the lessons from you hermanas. he suer is a smart little guy. hes already read til alma 2 . hes going to progress super fast.

anway, i want to give you all my love and hope you have a wonderful wonderful week! 

lots of love, hermana hamblin

May 12, 2014

hello all!

it was so great to hear all of your voices and talk! wow, i just want to say thank you thank you thank you for all being such  great examples to me and for being strong in the church. there really aren't that many families that get to experience the joy that we have in ours. 

it was so great to talk about just everything with you! and little hud´s voice and laugh was soo dang cute!!

well, i have been renewed by talking to you and will get to talk to you again in 7 months!!! we have an fhe planned tonight with a member and an investigator and her daughter, we want to watch the joseph smith movie so we are excited to show it to her. 

well i will get to see if i get transferred or not in a week and i will let you know!

hermana safeer and i are doing great and just finding finding finding and teaching! we are working with a lot of less actives right now and trying to help them reactivate. The lords work is everywhere and so wonderful! i love you all and hope that you have a great week!

love hermana hamblin