7/20/15. Last email.

Hello family and friends!

  At every beginning to a new transfer my wonderful mission mom would
greet us all by saying, "Today is the first day of the rest of your
mission!" She would encourage us to arise and be great, to stand tall,
to step into the light with confidence and to make this transfer the
best transfer ever. Today as I send my last email as a missionary and
try to write out my emotions and feelings I want to take the advice
from Sister Alba and be the best that I can be today, tomorrow and for
the rest of my life. I know that if Sister Alba could give me any kind
of advice today she would hug me tight and tell me, Hermana Hamblin,
today is the first day of the rest of your life.

 I am so grateful for my mission. I am grateful to my Uncle Scott who
strongly encouraged me to serve. For my sister Mandy and my brother
Rex and their examples of missionary service and their letters home
that were full of positive, spiritual uplifting experiences. I am
grateful for my wonderful mission parents, the Alba's. I love them so
much and am so grateful for the way that they pushed me and followed
promptings as they sat through transfer doctrine week praying for me
and my new areas and new companions. I am grateful for the interview
sessions that I had with them and for their patience, encouragement
and love. I love them and I will always have respect for them and look
up to them. I am so grateful for my mom and dad. For their faithful
prayers on my behalf. I have felt their love and faith in me as they
have written me week after week emails, letters and all. I am grateful
for my sweet trainer, Hermana Thompson. She is a saint. She paved the
path for me and for my new life as a missionary.

 My mission has been a stepping stone for me to better access the
Atonement. I have placed my life into the hands of my Heavenly Father
and he has shaped me, refined me and molded me. It has been hard and I
know that he isn't done with me yet, but now I am ready to take with
me the things that I have learned and apply that to life outside of
the CASRM. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father allows his imperfect
children to do this wonderful work. He lives! I have been blessed to
shout that message to the world for 18 full months of my life :)

3 Nephi 5:13

I love you all.Thank you for everything!

Hermana Hamblin




Sent from my iPad

7/13/15

Dear Family,

 I don't even know what to say. I want to say that my mission has been the best year and a half of my life but that doesn't even scratch the surface. Emotions can't be put into words. The experiences that I have had on my mission can't be put in a weekly email home. To be simple, I can't sleep at night. I toss and turn and finally give up and I lie awake, just marveling at the journey my mission has taken me on. From greenie day one to the final week of my mission. It's hard and sad to be at the end for different reasons. We all hear that missions are the hardest thing that we will do, so why did I go? Why did I decide to serve? Last night as I was saying my prayers right before bed my heart was bursting with the undying love that I have for my father in heaven. The relationship that I have with him now is precious. I have grown so close to Him as I have prayed and prayed and prayed. It is just as dad said, as I have grown close to these people in California I have been apart of their life, and them mine when really we have all grown closer to Heavenly Father. Learning and growing and progressing together.  I am so thankful for everything that I have learned and everything that I can take home with me. I am excited to go home and to hug my family. I am ready for the next chapter in my life. I am ready to go back to school and to learn and grow and to keep pressing forward with my life. I know that a lot is in store for me and I can't wait to get started!

 I love President Wright. Oh my goodness. I felt so comfortable with him in my interview. He is so warm and friendly and he loves us so much. We got along really well :) he gave me good advice and counsel. 

 As for my talk yesterday, oh my goodness. It was so cool. I had been praying all week for the spirit to guide me in my talk and I jotted down some points that I thought would be good to use. I thought about it all week and we were lucky enough to teach the restoration twice this week ( my topic was the restoration). I didn't have a written out talk, I didn't even know how much time I would be taking up, but I prayed for the spirit to guide me and it did. My companion did a great job as well. We were followed by a member, Bro. Cox who gave a great talk on family history. Uh. It was such a good meeting! I have come to love this Ward. It was rough at the beginning, but uh. They love us. And we love them. 

 I love you all. Pray that I will be able to stay strong and focused, especially this last week. I will continue praying for you all as well. Have a great week!   Love, Hermana Hamblin

7/06/15

7/06/15

Hi family!

 Happy 4th of July!! Best holiday of the year no matter where you are!
Thank you Mandy for the pictures. I loved them :) We had a great
Fourth of July! Earlier this week we had lunch with our bishop and he
said that Larkspur always has a good 4th of July parade and that we
need to go check it out, so my companion and I went. It was so fun!
They go all out for their parades! It was like a little farmers
market, people were out selling different foods, different jewelry,
different handbags...it was so cute! We had a blitz right afterwards
and I was able to work with Hermana Deneke. She is so cute! We had fun
together :) Then we had a BBQ with some Ward members. And yes we did
see some fireworks. San Rafael had the fair in town his week, so we
have been watching fireworks for the past four or five days! It's been
pretty fun :)
 We got to meet our new mission president! They are so cute! We had a
meet and greet on Wednesday and we got to meet their two kids that
came with them. It's been fun to see the parenting side of our mission
president, it makes the "mission dad" a little more real for us! But I
am very impressed with Max and Amy. I was talking with them during the
meet and greet and they were both happy to be here. Max is a senior in
high school! Can you imagine!? But he has such a good attitude about
all of this. I am so impressed with him. Amy is going to the JC in
Santa Rosa. She is cute! I didn't really get a chance to talk much to
her, but I am so glad that they are both here! It is so fun!
 We had MLC on Friday! It was more of just a discussion about what's
been going on in the mission and what the Wrights have in mind to
shape up this mission. When we broke for lunch, President and Sister
Wright came and sat by us and so I was able to talk a little one on
one with Sister Wright about exchanges and what not. It was a blessing
in disguise because I had some concerns and questions about some
things and she talked with me and gave me some really good counsel. Oh
my gosh..I am seriously just blessed. Heavenly Father answers our
prayers through other people! I was supposed to meet the Alba's and
the Wrights. I am so grateful for them both.
 Anyways this week is pretty normal. We are going to Stinson Beach
today! I have my last zone conference on Tuesday, my last exchange
this week, I have my departing interview with President Wright on
Friday, and Sister Eyden and I are talking in church this Sunday.
 We don't have any investigators, but we do have less actives that we
are working with and we are really working with a recent convert who
has been struggling a lot lately. We have seen some improvement with
her though. The spirit has been so strong in her lessons lately. It's
all starting to look up!
 I love you all! Good luck at girls camp mom! I love you!
Love, Hermana Hamblin

6/22/15

Hola Familia!

  Thanks for all of the support and prayers. I love you all so much. I
just ranted last week and I'm sorry about that. I was frustrated with
a couple of things and I have a lot of questions, but I am going to
forget about the negative and focus solely on my purpose as a
missionary and the good things about this area. For example: We
dropped all of our "investigators" this week but hey, at least we are
cleaning out our teaching pool and starting fresh. No members feed us
BUT we have a less active who wants to feed us like every night (our
only fan). Sis. Robinson and I were making jokes one day as we were
tracting: Do you wanna hear something funny? We got an investigator in
Marin County! Haha or wanna hear another thing that's pretty funny?
People are nice to you in Marin County! Haha anyways we try and make
it fun :) we have jokes for days!! Another thing that is cool about
this area is I will never ever ever get tired of the view! It is
gorgeous. We contact people by the bay, I see the GGB like almost
everyday. I really shouldn't complain. It is a beautiful area! We will
never be bored in his area, that's for sure! My companion and I both
work hard everyday. I am so grateful for a hard working companion. We
both work so hard to get our 20.3.1 everyday.
  We went on exchanges this last week and I was back in my old area in
Novato and I got to speak Spanish! It was so fun to use it and to
actually hear it again. I was surprised and blessed to realize how
much I actually remembered! I love Novato!
  Last night the STLs had a conference call with Sis. Alba and she did
a little question and answering session with us. It was so cool to
hear her thoughts and her counsel. I love the Alba's so so much. They
are so loving, but very strict and expect nothing but the high
expectations for us as missionaries. I am so grateful that they love
us enough to cut us down so that we can grow. They truly have made
this mission the best mission in the world. She closed with her
testimony of Jesus Christ and had us all in tears. This week is their
last full week in the field. I am excited because on Wednesday we are
having an all mission conference with them and there are going to be a
lot of people there! I might be able to see some of my old companions!
It will probably be the last time that we see them in the field :/ but
I am so g ate fulminate they were my mission parents.
  Ok so I got my flight info. It is kind of annoying because I go from
Oakland to Phoenix, then from Phoenix to Albuquerque. So PLEASE be at
the Albuquerque International Sunport airport on July 21st at around
2:30 pm. My flight gets in at 2:40ish. You probably know all of this,
but I just want to double check.
  Other than that I think that's it. I hope you all are enjoying
summer. Sounds like it's been a busy summer! I am so jealous you got
to see grandpa Bill and grandma Melinda! Ryan is so big! They all look
so good :) thanks for the pictures. Enjoy this week! And by the
way...did anyone do the BOM Challenge?? Go and do it! Not for me, but
for you!
Love, Hermana Hamblin


Oh my goodness! I forgot to tell you my highlight of the week! So
yesterday being Father's Day, I got a Father's Day card in the mail
from my son Hermana Hancock! And then yesterday morning Sis. Robinson
made me a Father's Day breakfast. It was the cutest thing ever. I'll
have to show you a picture of the card that she made me later, it had
a tie on it with a skirt at the bottom (missionaries are SO weird) but
it was the cutest thing ever. Best Father's Day ever! :)
Also thank you so much for the package! Sis. Robinson and I treated
ourselves to Subway the other night in honor of you all :) we were
very grateful. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

June 15, 2015

Hello Family!

  Oh my goodness. This has been a crazy week. So I get to my new area
only to find out that it is an English area. I am serving in an
English ward. I kind of knew that it was an English area once I heard
transfer doctrine but people just said that President Alba wants it to
be a zebra area, but that makes no sense because any time I get to
speak in Spanish that's called poaching in another area so I have to
hand them off as referrals right away. They have Spanish missionaries
here in San Rafael, so it is all just so confusing to me. I don't get
it.
 Yesterday at church I saw all of the people who go to the Spanish
branch and they kept asking me if I came back to serve in Novato, but
I had to tell them I am now in the English ward, so it's been a little
rough :( and my Spanish is so bad now. Uh. Oh well. We had interviews
with President Alba and I asked him if I still need to do language
study, because as of right now I don't even want to bother with the
language, I would just rather be outside working instead of studying
for the language that I don't use. He said that I need to keep up with
it because even though I haven't used it for the last half of my
mission I need to learn how to speak Spanish and that I was called as
a Spanish missionary not just for my mission.
 This area is crazy. We have zero progressing investigators, more than
half the ward is less active and we have to work with a new convert
(whose baptism I went to six months ago with Hermana Hancock) who was
baptized less active :( Yesterday one of the members said, "Welcome to
the hardest area in your mission." I was like haha...thanks? I am
actually so so so grateful that President Alba sent me to an area that
needs a lot of work done. I would rather come into an area that needs
all of the energy that we have plus more, than to walk into an area
with 5 baptisms coming up. It keeps us focused and it gives us a job
to do. Plus it is in the hard areas that we learn the most. This area
is pretty rough though. Last transfer they never had a member present.
And yesterday we had no investigators at church! Zero! And the only
two investigators that we do have have been investigators for over a
year. It's ridiculous.
 It is so funny to see the difference between my Spanish mission and
my English mission. In the beginning of my mission I was in trailer
parks eating rice and beans every night. Now I am in the richest
county in the country (they remind me every day) going into homes that
are bigger than I have ever seen. It is so sad though because it just
confirms to me that money doesn't buy you happiness. You can't buy
happiness. These people just reject us at every opportunity they can
get. We are lucky if we get "We are servants of Jesus Christ" out, and
that's only the first one of the 5 Key Phrases! Haha oh my goodness.
It's interesting to say the least. So pray for us. And please feed the
missionaries and just love them and support them. I know it's a lot
different in AZ, but all the love they can get is much appreciated :)
 It will be fun. I will have A LOT of stories to tell that's for sure
:) anyways I love you all! Have a great week!
Love, Hermana (or sister. It's whatever) Hamblin

Sent from my iPad

June 8,2015

Hello family!

Wow! This week has been our most semi normal week of this whole transfer! Haha ok so I on Tuesday we get a text from the APs asking if we have time to do a language study with two guys from SLC so we told them that we had time. The guys were super nice, but oh my goodness. I have learned how to just embrace the awkward. They literally sat in front of us and watched us study and they had their lap tops and were taking notes on everything that we did..it was so weird! They got into Willits a little bit early and so they asked if they could watch us do 12 week as well. It was crazy! They were actually in our mission for a reason though..not just to watch us study :) They came because they are "testing" out a new pamphlet. It is going to be a follow up pamphlet for our less actives, investigators and recent converts. They had a little meeting with my ZLs, DL and me and my comp to hear our feedback about the new pamphlet like what they could improve on? What we liked about the pamphlets, etc. I am horrible with feedback! I just kinda sat there and listened to the conversation. It was really cool though to be a part of that meeting! I think they said that those new pamphlets are coming out in like December maybe? Super cool though!

 Okay....we totally got harassed by this one lady this week. We were out tracting and this kid about 13 yrs old pokes his head out from the door neighboring from where we are at and I happened to see him so I said hi to him. We asked if we could give him a card, he was super cute! Then we hear this lady's voice coming from behind the door and she was like, "whose talking to my boy that is under the age of 18 without my permission?" the little boy told her that we were Jehovah Witnesses and I was like "No we are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" the mom started yelling stuff like "We aren't interested! Get out of here!" but then her husband came to the door and was like "I love Jesus, what do you have to say?" Oh my goodness. It was crazy. Her husband got all mad when he heard that we actually went to church and he was like " Ms. Do you want to know why I dont like your church!?" I was like "No I dont" and then we left. Well once the lady heard we were leaving she came and stood on her porch and was screaming at us and telling us to leave her town and that we were strangers to her town. This continued for like ten minutes. We kept going door to door and everytime a person wasnt home she would laugh at us. Well the worst part was we had to turn around and go back to our car, which was on the other side of her apartment. So she follows us for a good five minutes. I was a little scared! We were in a sketchy place of town too, so everyone else we were around were on something (if you know what I mean). But we made it out alive! It was crazy! Some people!

  Friday we finally received transfer doctrine! I am leaving Willits!!!! :( I am so sad, but I was expecting it. I am going to San Rafael!! I am so excited! The golden gate bridge is in my area! The only thing is that I am in another zebra. So..we will see how that goes. I am so excited! I get to do exchanges in Novato! I get to be in my old area again!! I am going from Willits to San Rafael...HUGE difference! Haha but it will be good! So that is weird mom that you will be in Oakland. I will be like 30 minutes away! So weird. We will be neighbors for a couple of days :) 

  Anyways sounds like a lot is going on for you guys! That will be fun to have the Sorensons over for two weeks...they are family anyways :) but I am really sad about their house :( I dont want them to move!! They will still be in Eagar, right?

  Ok you all have a great week! I love you! Thanks for your love and support!

Love, Hermana Hamblin

Pictures:

April&Pepper Love them!!

David Bureson!! Our new Golden investigator!

Rob Copeland! Another great investigator!

Mama PJ --she is crazy but I love her :)