Email 5/19/14

Family! How are ya'll doing? This past week was crazy! We started the
week off with zone conference, which is always amazing! (You fellow
missionaries can attest to that.) We had a Sister that had recently
returned from her mission from the Philippines. She came home after
suffering from PTSD from when the typhoon hit, she happened to be
serving right in the city where the eye of the storm hit. She told of
intense life and death situations that her and her the missionaries
she was with were put in. After all that all 204 missionaries were
safe! Kinda made you think of your current trials and put them back
into perspective. Not more than a day after that I read through Alma
14, so I think that God was really trying to out my trials back into
perspective:)

Then after a week of Stake Reports (which are always my favorite;) I
went on the craziest exchange that I have yet to have on my mission.
After we had exchanged on Friday night we got a text from one of their
investigators that said that she couldn't stand to live in her current
situation and didn't know who else to turn to. She was living with a
LA who was using the church for money and using Craig's List to find
sketchy guys to come and rent rooms from her so she didn't have to pay
rent. That night there was served an eviction notice before the end of
the month. Their investigator had had just about enough of the LA and
wanted to get out ASAP. The next morning the Elders I was with called
the RSP and asked for help. Within twenty minutes she had found a
place with an older lady in the ward who needed help around the house.
We tried calling their investigator back but she had class until 12
and then had to take several buses for a few hours before she got
home. In the meantime we had to get back in contact wit he RSP and let
her know so we could get everything of their investigator's out before
the LA got home from work. We call the RSP and no answer. We biked to
her house just to find her not home. We waited for a few minutes, and
with the time running low, we decided to pray for her to be able to
get in contact with us. We looked both ways down the road and seeing
no cars, we bowed our heads and set off a prayer. As soon as we said
"Amen" we heard the gravel to the driveway crunch! I believe in prayer
now. Anyway, after a long caraway day, we got their investigator and
her dead truck out of the LA, but not without MUCH drama!! Needless to
say, some things got heated and the RSP called the LA lady nuts and
got a few colorful words thrown right back at her. Very interesting
day to say the least, and I wish I could right down all the details of
the day, but this email would be way too long!

What did impress me most about that day was the love the missionaries
had for that investigator. They went to great lengths to help her in
her great time of need. She is just about the coolest person that has
had the HARDEST of time, and to see what they were willing to do was a
true lesson to me! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Hamblin

Email 5/05/14

Hello y'all! How all y'all doing? I don't know how long this is going
to be because I think that I don't have a lot to say...;) so here we
go!

This week was transfers! After 7 months in Portland, got shipped to
they suburb of Portland called Troutdale. We have a small chunk of
Troutdale but have a huge area full of mountains and trees, so I feel
like I am at home;) I love it here! All the people that we have talked
to are extremely kind and love to talk, not too many are interested in
the gospel, but we give them something to think about. The people here
remind me a lot of the people in my first few areas: kind, humble,
hard working, and diligent in what they believe. My new companion is a
stalwart of a missionary and a very good friend of mine, Elder
Solomon. He served near me the whole time I was in Longview, and came
over to Portland with me for three transfers. I am thoroughly enjoying
my time with him thus far and we will see how the rest of the transfer
goes!

Recently Pres. Taylor has invited us to re-read the Book of Mormon, no
matter where we were currently at. That was a little bit of a bummer,
considering that I was in Mormon, but as I have been reading through
this time, I have seen miracles. I have been focusing on faith and the
power that it brings into our lives. I had many questions about what
faith really is and why it is so important. On Friday we were at a
meeting with Pres. Taylor and he told us that the reason that he had
us start the Book of Mormon over is to increase the over all faith of
the mission. He then went on to answer almost every question that had
been accumulating in my mind over the recent weeks. I know that the
Book of Mormon is the most correct book that God has thus far caused
to be written.

I love you all and will talk to you Sunday!

Love,
Elder Hamblin

Email 4/28/14

Hello there ones and all! This week we received our transfer
letters...and I will be leaving my beloved Portlandia:(. Not too
excited for that, but I will be going to a companion that I have known
for quite sometime. I am headed over to Gresham, just on the outskirts
of Portland, so I won't be too far away. Transfers are on Wednesday,
so I am going to live it up while I am here in Portland for the last
two days and try to talk to almost everyone that we see!

The rest of this week was another big growing experience for me. It
seems that when we try our hardest, Satan comes in the most
interesting of ways and really tries to hit us where it really counts.
Some of the people that we have been seeing have seem to have just
stalled and don't want to progress; they want us to come over, but
they didn't want to do anything. I have a bad habit of becoming upset
when things like this happen, but then I realized something that Elder
Holland said when he was here: "We are God's investigators." When this
thought came to me I realized what I had been missing this whole time!
I was getting content with the work that I had been doing and the
results that we have been seeing. I saw in myself a spiritual plateau,
which as we all know in the gospel is always a sign of regressing.
What a spiritual slap in the face that was! Now the challenge to
continually change for the better is the task that I am in, and I know
that as I start to change again, others will also. Funny how that
works huh?

Anyway, everyone here is doing great! The one guy, Erick, that we took
on the temple trip is super excited to be baptized! His fiancé won't
be here until the beginning of June, so I won't be here for his
baptism. But we have a set of Sisters in our ward who had a baptism
this past week and the man that they had baptized asked Erick to give
the closing prayer. He was a little nervous, but handled better than I
have seen any of our other investigators pray before. It is a true
miracle to see how prepared everyone is!

I love you all and had to Skype you all soon!

Love,

Email 4/21/14

Dear Family,

This week has been a wild one! Whew! Blessing and miracles are
definitely results of the trials of your faith, and I have this past
week to prove it. Not more needs to be said about it. We just have
seen so many miracles The Lord has truly blessed, especially on this
Easter weekend.

This last week we had a focus on getting members to lessons and along
with everything else that we have been trying to do to find people to
teach. We were doing good as a zone at teaching, but when we were
following up with everyone, they said that their finding hasn't been
as productive. Elder Aragon and I saw the same problem in our area, we
were able to teach many people, but weren't able to find new
investigators to teach. Everyone in the zone seemed to be discouraged.
(As a side note--our mission has been putting a huge emphasis on
finding these past few months, so when we weren't able to find,
everyone's hopes just got shattered.) All the missionaries were doing
their part to go out and find, but everyone got the same response,
"Thanks for the message, but I am not interested," or "I'm an
atheist." We were all a little worried.

When Saturday rolled around we got a text from one of our District
Leaders saying that he had an idea. He told us that anyone that found
more new investigators than him, he would wash their car and buy them
lunch. I don't think it was the challenge, but much more the
enthusiasm that he extended it with that caught everyone's attention.
From that moment until last night, we were able to witness miracle
after miracle!! How grateful I am that the are people who are so
willing to help and so willing to do whatever is asked of them to help
inspire others. The enthusiasm was all that we needed to go and be
happy while we talked to as many people as possible.

Thank you all for the prayers and the help that you have sent up here
to the great NW. There are many people that need it, and I am grateful
that you have sacrificed your time to send some up here. I love you
all!!

Love,
Elder Hamblin

> On Apr 21, 2014, at 6:47 AM, Mindy Hamblin <mindyjohamblin@gmail.com> wrote:it

Email 4/14/14

There are never a shortage of miracles here in the great NW, and even
more especially here in Portland! We were able to see the work really
hasten and pick-up throughout these last few weeks. At the beginning
of the transfer we got together with the District Leaders in our zone
and set very specific goals for each week of the transfer. Every week
thus far we have been super close to all of our goals as we have seen
the areas that are most needed to be worked on improve. That has been
the miracle of these last few weeks. Months ago, Elder Ballard
presided over a mission presidents seminar with Pres. Taylor in
attendance. Elder Ballard had mentioned that if we were to talk to 10
people every day, we would see the number of baptisms in our area
double. We have been trying and have been very diligent in doing so,
but there hasn't been a myriad of new investigators or many people
accepting the invite to baptism. What I have seen, though, was the
boldness and the love that has been shaping in each missionary as they
seek to be obedient. The willingness to testify wherever they find
themselves has been astounding to me. The miracle here is the becoming
sharper and wiser tools in The Lord's hand. That has been what has
really been the miracle as we have been focusing on our goals.

Yesterday we went to go and contact a referral our area book. We had
previously attempted to contact him, but we had just caught him in his
underwear and he had just woke up. We tried him again yesterday and he
said that he had only 30 minutes or so to talk. As we went in, he
tried to tell us that the world would be better without God. He
reminded me of the apostate Nephites and Zoramites in the Book of
Mormon who make things way too complicated by trying to ignore the
small and simple things. It was very interesting because earlier at
church we had been talking about how God is our loving Father in
Heaven. Just goes to show that when we are edified by the good word of
God, Satan will always be there to attempt to tear us down. I know
that May not have been the experience that you were looking for Mom,
but it had a great impact on me and my teaching pattern. Small.
Simple.

I love you all!!

Elder Hamblin

Email 4/07/14

What a wonderful weekend this has been! I don't think that I have ever
as spiritually uplifted as I was during this conference. Every talk
was spot on to many of the world challenges today, and for many
problems in personal lives. Many of our investigators were able to
catch at least one session of this inspired conference, and each
reported to feel a greater sense of peace and direction in their
lives. What a miracle it is to have modern day prophets and apostles
to guide us in these latter days! Personally I loved Elder Bednar's
talk, not only did it deliver an inspiring message of the loads that
we carry in our lives, but it also reminded me of the hard work that I
was taught in a small mountain town in Arizona. What wonderful
memories have been made at that time and throughout a few years until
the present day.

The Sunday sessions were particularly special because we had a few of
our investigators come to our church building to watch conference. We
have 4 sets of missionaries in or ward, a set of English Sisters, two
sets of Spanish Elders, and us. We all gathered tiger with our
investigators and others that we have been working with and watched
the morning session followed by a lunch at the church. After the
afternoon session we were able to go to the Portland Temples's
Visitors Center. What a wonderful experience that was!! As the Sister
missionaries at the Visitors Center took us on a tour of the Temple,
they stopped at some doors and explained that they were linked to the
sealing room. After talking to us about the eternal natures of
families, one of our investigators looked at the sealing room doors
and said, "In a year from when I am baptized I will be walking out of
those doors." That was the highlight of my conference weekend. As much
as I love the words from our church leaders, the words from those that
we know best are always that most comforting! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Hamblin

Email 3/31/14

Life is good here in the great PDX! I love it here! I thought it was
going to be a little harder focusing on a smaller area, but The Lord
has truly blessed us. We have been working with some pretty amazing
people as of late, and they all seem to be progressing very well.
Before this last week we were thinking about dropping many of them,
but they have all made significant progress and we are doing our best
to help them out anyway that we can.

We have been working with a part member family where the husband is
not yet a member. He has had many questions about the church and
religion in general. We have met with them a few times and each time
things seem to go from bad to worse. There was one week when we were
on exchanges and I had left the area. Elder Ehrenzeller and the
missionary he was with went to their house for the lesson. That whole
day Elder EZ had a headache, and at dinner our members had given him
some medicine for the headache. Well they turned out to be high doses
of sleeping pills and Elder EZ fell asleep! Poor guy, he always tried
so hard to present himself in a way that is acceptable! Anyway, this
family was beginning to wonder if we really knew what we're doing.
Yesterday was the husband's birthday and so Elder Aragon had suggested
that we "build him a cake or something." So we baked him a cake and
took it over to him. He was more than a little shocked when we showed
up to his door with cake and sang him Happy Birthday. His wife was not
home, but he let us in anyway. We started talking about the church and
what made it different from the other religions. Up to this point he
was not too interested about the church and really didn't care, so we
told him of the Book of Mormon and why it was so important. After some
time had passed he became faceted to every word that we were saying.
We invited him to pray and he turned us down. I told him that I would
pray simply first and he could just follow my pray. When I finished
praying he tried to skirt the situation and change the subject.
Finally he agreed to say the prayer. There is nothing more powerful
than hearing a child of our Heavenly Father pray for the first time.
The peace and comfort that filled my soul could only be a fraction of
what our Heavenly Father feels for us. Afterwards he didn't want us to
leave and followed us all the way put to our car. I love this place!

Sorry I haven't written in forever!! I am the worst missionary in the
world! I will try and do better! I love you all!! You are the best!

Elder Hamblin