Email 11/18/13

Well hello there everyone! Portland is good, Portland is great, and Portland is the best! I just thought that everyone should know that, just in case anyone was wondering. This last week we had transfers, after I sent Elder Olsen home. That is a sad day to watch a missionary "die" but I think he will adjust well in the world again. He is too great of a man not to. Anyway I received my new companion Elder Barrett, and he is the man. I have been with many companions, and I don't think that I have had one yet who is as enthusiastic about the work as he is! He loves to knock on doors and there is not a single person whom we have passed by who has not been spoken to by Elder Barrett. This is going to be a short transfer (5 weeks because of Christmas) so I hope that we will be able to stay together for the next transfer too! We have seen many miracles, especially throughout the zone. Transfer weeks are always hard on finding new investigators and we expected that. Transfers are on Wednesday and Elder Barrett and I met with the District Leaders on Thursday. Up to this point in the week, we as a zone had found 2 new investigators. We talked with our DL's and discussed what we could do to help. We decided Friday we would find 5 new investigators, Saturday we would find 10, and Sunday we would find 5. We knew that this was a lofty goal, so we left it in the hands of our DL's to spread through the rest of their districts. I will let you know now that we have the BEST DL's in the whole church right here in our zone. Our phone from Friday to Sunday was flooded with texts from around the zone as the missionaries here in Portland put their trust in the Lord and almost exceeded our goals! Our DL's have the unique ability to really get the missionaries working and I am so grateful that they are so willing to work. Last night Elder Barrett and I were also able to contribute to our zone's goals. We were out tracting all day and had a little success. We just had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators with major heart problems. We talked with him about the Priesthood and asked if he would like a Priesthood blessing. He accepted and we were able to give him a powerful blessing. It was just after 8 when we got out of the lesson and we decided to go and try some former investigators. We had a big book full of them and decided that we would get started with some of them. Anyway, we were looking for 2 who were close together and missed their home. We kept driving and I realized that we were close to another's home. We parked the car and went up to his door and gave it a knock. When he opened the door, he asked if anyone had sent us. We told him no, and he said that a classmate of his was going to send us over! We just happened to be in the neighborhood! He let us right in and told us that he really wanted to know if there was a God or not. He asked us how we knew there was a God, and we were more than happy to share our testimonies of how we came to know God. It was an amazing experience to see the Hand of God in every detail of our lives! I love you all and hope you have a good week! Love, Elder Hamblin P.S. GO ELKS!! Don't worry, I still let everyone know where my hometown pride lies!