10/08/12

Dear Family,
How was General Conference?  Wasn't it just amazing!  I thought that it was one of the best overall conferences that i have seen in quite sometime.  (Granted, it really helps being out on a mission!)  I just want to say, CONGRATS to Shippa!  You looked simply beautiful in the pictures mom sent.  i haven't received your letter (except for Ship's) before writing this, so I don't really know what to write about.

Milton-Freewater has been good this week.  The work here is really slowing down, but Elder Olsen & I are really working to find some new people.  We are going to try and work closer with the ward and Bishop Wells.  We are staying optimistic as we look and try some new finding ideas and ask people in the ward for people we can teach.  Things look like they are picking up, so hopefully they do!

The other day Elder Olsen & I were asked by the ward to deliver some newsletters to some hostile less-actives and part-member families.  It was...actually not that bad.  No one pulled a gun on us, so I think everything went well.  We have a car and VERY limited miles, and we are looking for some good bikes, so if we can walk in town, we do it.  On the day we decided to deliver the newsletters, we decided to walk.  The path we decided to take, however was not exactly what we had planned. 

Milton-Freewater is composed of "out-of-town" Milton-Freewater and "in-town" Milton-Freewater.  "In-town" is most of the houses and businesses, and "out-of-town" is all orchards with houses few and far between.  So, Elder Olsen & I planned to deliver all the "in-town" letters moving towards the "out-of-town".  We had 6 letters, and delivered 4 in 30 minutes, and expected to finish the other ones in about 2 hours.  What we didn't realize was that they were RIGHT ON the Washington-Oregon border (about 8 miles from "in-town" Milton-Freewater).  So we started tracting and talking with people along the way and realized we were never going to make it before dinner (which was on the OTHER side of "out-of-town"!)  We tried to book it and ended up calling a member to pick us up.  We got them delivered, but that's about all we did that day!  So now we are more carefully planning our trips. 

Another day (at night, before we went back to the apartment) we decided to try a former investigator's home.  The records said she had progressed really far & did really well, but then fell off the map.  So Elder Olsen & I decided to go talk to her.

Lately I have been re-memorizing the Scripture Masteries, starting with the Old Testament.  The one I was looking over that day was Ezk. 37:15-16.  She said her biggest problem was The Book of Mormon, and we were able to use that to bring her to tears.  It was AWESOME!  Having faith and diligence pays off even when we can't see the end.  "Let the lower lights be burning..."

Love, Elder Hamblin