Email 2/24/14

Sorry, but I really don't have time this week to e-mail a whole bunch! We had to move apartments recently, and have been doing that for most of the day.

First things first. There is a Sister in my zone here by the name of Sister Parrish. Her parents and a few siblings passed away last night from carbon monoxide poisoning, so please keep her and the rest of her family in your prayers! They can use all the help that they can get.

Anyway, last week was full of meetings and moving, but we still had a fantastic week. The missionaries here have been working with one of the investigators here for the past 10 months, and he has shown little signs of progress. He reads occasionally, but that is about it. He has also been through many personal and family struggles that we have had the opportunity to help him through. He has a great heart, and really wants to change, but had to get through many personal struggles first. Yesterday he FINALLY came to church! We went to visit him later that night and he stated that he loved church so much that he could not see himself ever missing another day of church again! He is wonderful and really wants to be baptized now! This really is the Lord's works and it is on His time!

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hamblin

Email 2/17/14

Hey ya'll, it sounds like everything is going well where you are, and I love to hear it! It makes me slightly sad when we meet people on the street who have no idea what is going on in their families' lives, and all they have to do to figure out is just call them up on the phone or drop them a text or shoot them an e-mail or chat on Facebook or even hop in their car and drive 5 minutes home to see who is living in their home. Just to be able to hear from you all at least once a week is pretty darn amazing! I have the best family in the world, and everyone in NE Portland knows it! (Well except for Hermana Hamblin...;)

This week seemed to fly by! By Tuesday all the rain had melted the snow and we are now back to Portland as we all know and love it!  Bytheway, sorry this e-mail is late because of President's Day, that one kinda snuck-up on me. But, like I was saying, this last week flew by. We had many people to get in contact with after the snow storm and many things to do, I just don't know what happened with the week! I can't even think of where to start.... On Saturday I went on exchanges with an Elder who is in a biking area. It was raining all day and we were soaked to the bone. No one that we had planned on seeing was home, but that didn't matter. We are in Portland and there is never a lack of people to talk to! So we spent the day tracting and street contacting and were able to meet the many interesting people of SE Portland. I thought that Portland was already weird before I went down there. Now I know it for sure. Anyway, the whole point of the story is that I had way too much fun in the rain. It wasn't too cold, so I was happy; I really love the rain!

Well I have hit a wall and we have to get rolling, so I will talk to you all later! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hamblin

Email 2/10/14

Well the snow keeps falling here in Portland, and so does everything else. Literally. These people have never seen snow before, and they FREAK out! It has been quite hysterical for a people watcher like myself to see the people around here go nuts over a few flakes of snow! Yesterday almost all the churches (including both wards that we cover) in Portland and Vancouver did not have services yesterday. All the bus systems were running way late and the MAX (the local light rail) completely shut down. The city never sees snow so they only have 5 snow trucks for the whole city. The good thing is that limited everyone to walking around or staying inside. People here in Portland are funny, though. Many people were fearful af walking in the snow and didn't want to fall, so they either strapped on their cross country skis or their snow shoes (I mean the ones that look like tennis rackets) and went cruising around town. The weather was perfect for missionaries! We are very blessed in our area to have many of the main roads and many, many businesses so there were more than plenty of people to talk to. We would leave in the morning and walk all day in the snow and just talk to people. Our area is quite large and so we weren't able to see many of the people we have been seeing, but we were able make up for that by just talking to the people we saw. I wish it would snow like that more, because it was WAY too much fun. Elder Ehrenzeller and I had walked and walked and walked all day everyday during the storm, but mostly because Pres. Taylor asked us to keep the cars parked. That may seem like a bad thing, but we got a work-out and a fun time all in one! There was one night when it started to "freeze rain" and we were coated in ice. My hair was a solid sheet of ice! It was awesome!

But in all seriousness this was an amazing time for all of us. I never realized how much that I was missing just talking to the regular people on the street. We have been making it a point to talk to as many people as we can a day, but not being in a car for four days straight has been more than a blessing. Many of the people that we would have normally passed by in a car we stopped and talked with. There were many people who just wanted someone to talk to. We even met Jesus (long story, someone that thought he was):) But walking around yesterday on the Sabbath made me realize just how much I love the gospel. We have met many, many, many people and they all have something that they love. I am grateful for the past few days because it has brought me back to focus. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Hamblin 

Email 02/03/14

Well greetings from Portlandia, land of the weird and the social. Portland was hopping from the game last night, which I thought was a little funny. In the Alameda ward boundaries we have really two classes of people, very middle-class rich and poverty. Not too much in-between. All the people within the poverty side of the area are always watching sports, so that was no surprise. What was more interesting was that the richer side of the area never watches sports and complains how everyone is too caught up into sports and those sorts of things when there is so much more out there (like sports...don't ask...it still doesn't make sense). Anyway, everyone was watching the game last night, so there wasn't too many people to talk to on the streets and all of our investigators were at someone else's home watching the game. That is when it FINALLY hit me, as much as I love to watch the Superbowl (and sports in general), sports are one of Satan's greatest twists in this life. Innocent and simple, we get too caught up in the trivial things of this world and replace the hierarchy of God's gifts for the simple yet complex "releases" of the mind. Sorry it sounds like I am blowing up on this, but we have had a few too many people not willing to give up what they want at the moment for what they want most. It can be a little frustrating, but in the end when they DO realize what the kingdom of God has to offer them, it is completely and totally worth all the frustration and disappointment that we express while in the conversion process. For those who stick it out to the end, rewards far greater than Superbowl glory, musical immortality, and yes even monetary wealth, will be honorably bestowed upon our heads for each true blessing we can count.

Yes it can be said that it is much easier to stew on only one conceivable imperfection in our own imperfect mortal plan, than it is to simply count the bounteous blessings contained in the pure and perfect Plan of Happiness created by one who loves us much more than we can love ourselves. We seem to follow the example of Laman and Lemual much more than that of Nephi or Sam. As we look Heaven-ward and seek out those blessings which only God can bestow, freedom of choice is granted to our moral agency. The opposite can be said of our other choices. Freedom is clearly taken away as we think only of our immediate reward. Anyway...

I am staying here in the Alameda ward for at least one more transfer, and the best part is that Elder Ehrenzeller will be staying with me! This will be the first time that I will have had a companion for this long since I had Elder Olsen the first time! So there are blessings in counting blessings and that is for sure! Sorry there isn't more to this letter, but I have been having a blast. Sometimes when I e-mail, life just makes so much more sense.

I love you all and pray for you always!

Love,

Elder Rex Hamblin