Dec. 8, 2014

Hello Family! thanks for writing me every week :)

so first things first...we made it to the Ritz...and they said that there is no andrew rogers that works there....it was super cham and it was so awkward because we were all sweaty and in our worn out missionary clothes walking into the ritz. well they looked at us like they just felt so bad for us and they thought we were crazy for thinking we had a friend there haha. It was an adventure. so there is no Andrew Rogers at the Ritz. sorry, WE TRIED!

#2 I havent gotten the CTR rings yet! uh oh. Hope they come in time for the baptism! if not we can give it to her later :) but sister chan is doing GREAT! SHE JUST HAD HER BAPTISM INTERVIEW AND PASSED! with flying colors i might add. Our district leader Elder Smith told us that she was the most prepared person he had ever met. Thank Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to meet her and teach her! I love sister Chan! <3 she is amazing and will be getting baptized this coming Sunday. I am so excited!

#3 no mom i haven't really started packing yet. I have been organizing things. I really like to organize and clean stuff now. But I have not started to pack. I do not want to be over weight. I don't think i will be. I don't really have that much stuff. I think bringing the letters that i have received home will probably be the heaviest thing so i am not really worrying. But i won't know anything about flight plans until next monday when i have my exit interview with president Hawks. So i am not sure how much anything can weigh...no problem ill worry about it later!

#4 the Zone is doing great!!! we had zone training meeting this past friday all about the Savior. well it always is but we got to talk about christmas this time! it was great :) the Zone members are doing well. They are so faithful and such hard workers. They just find find find and teach teach teach. I love them all so much. When we were walking around observing the zone members while discussing what changes we wanted in the zone, i just felt such a deep love for each and every one of them. I am going to miss them so much! it is soon busy being a sister training leader. But i just love love love being busy. we plan a lot and really put in the effort to help the missionaries. I hope that they will take in what we try to help them learn. I have definitely learned to trust and rely on my leaders on this mission of mine. 

Anywho, this week was a good one. We were able to go to sister chan s house and teach them how to make cookies while we talked about baptism interview questions. then we just prayed and prayed all week for her. She is so ready and so cute :) love her.

what else happened? hmmm we found and taught some more. all my days and weeks are morphing together i don't really remember what happened this week. I went on some exchanges and OH i went to MLC with president and sister hawks :) it is the leadership training meeting. and guess what... sister hawks made enchiladas!!!!!! REALLY SHE DID! i almost cried :) and then president Hawks talked to us about something that i thought was really cool. He was talking about missionaries going home and about how people always tell them, "awe don't worry about it la. You will do well with adjusting back into the world. Out of the missionary life and back into the real life." then president hawks said, "why draw back?". this is the best time of your life. the most righteous you have ever been. The best at keeping commandments and listening to the spirit! WHY DRAW BACK!? why would you ever just go back to what and who you were? why would you want to? isn't your mission supposed to CHANGE you? well i love that so much! i am not going to just come back and fall back into the world. I want to stay where I am an keep on progressing. Yeah, things will change. I can listen to music and watch movies again and that kind of stuff, but I am not drawing back. ever.

Dad, i hope you can think back on your mission and really think about where and how far you have come. You are such an amazing example to me and I know that your mission changed you. 

and mom, just listening to your testimony growing up and reading your testimony now has strengthened mine so much. 

please mom and dad, don't draw back! keep moving forward and keep progressing to the celestial kingdom. I will do my best and think about the eternal family that we will have later on. 

I love you all so much. keep it up. Don't quit. Remember the reason for the season, and keep on keeping on. 

LOVE YA!

-Sister Hamblin

#my beautiful city

Nov. 20, 2014

so first things first....we tried calling mr rogers and HIS PHONE DOESNT WORK! can you send me the number again? and how do i call it? is it a chinese phone or american? We really want to contact him and i already got is cleared with the mission president :) #2 thank you for Joanna ge email! i have been thinking about her a lot.

and yes i know sister olsen. I lived with her for over 9 months haha. I love her!!!!!! and i hear she is getting married in jan or feb. Ai ya! 

HELLO FAMILY!

this week was good. We did a lot of stuff. one of my favorite parts was the thanksgiving party for our ward! they tried to celebrate thanksgiving haha. No one knew what it was. So they asked us to put on a little skit. It was terrible haha but so fun. Then our investigator Joey invited her parents! THEY CAME! and so we scheduled to see them this coming sunday. Pray for the family! 

We have also been continuing to visit our lovely sister chan. I love her so so so much. We see her almost every day. She loves the book of mormon and calls us when miracles happen to her! She will forget to eat breakfast, pray, and then someone will call her and say that they bought breakfast for her. Or she will lose something and pray and then find it right away. She loves the gospel and is so ready to be baptized on the 14th. She could be baptized tomorrow though she is so good. It is just the best when you don't have to force the gospel into someone. I love when they just want it. 

We have been trying to talk to tsing yi. she is still having a hard time. So i asked bishop if he would have an interview with her. well she totally changed and wants to eat dinner with us and a member this sunday! thank the spirit for telling me to talk to bishop. Our bishop is so great.

We have been doing a lot of finding lately but i love finding. i love getting to know people. We have been trying to do more singing finding and cats cradle finding! it is funny but people really like it. We are just doing a lot of new things to change things up.

This week my companion was having a realllllllllly hard time. So we went and talked to president hawks. He gave us a challenge. And let me just tell you that it has changed us completely. We have a better relationship and everything is running a lot smoother. I have a testimony that president hawks is called of God. he is here for us. And he knows exactly what to do and say. WOOHOO! the gospel is good,

Presidend Hawks also told us a story about himself. One time he was swimming for a race in a lake. That day in the lake there was a ton of green mossy stuff. He said that when he hit the middle of the lake, he couldn't move anymore. He said no matter how hard he paddled and kicked, the end still seemed the same distance away. Far. Well then he said all of a sudden he was at the finish line! and boom it was over. I feel like that is like a mission haha. It is so hard and you just work and work and kick and sometimes it feels like you are not making any success, but then boom. It is over. I still have almost a month and i am going to keep doing my best, but i am so grateful that i have tried my best the whole way through so i don't have to feel like i have to make up time right now. Thank you for teaching me to work hard! 

My exchange with sister Brown was amazing :) she is so good! such a hard worker! I have not seen a new missionary as amazing as her. I love her :) she is stellar. 

This week i also got sick for like the first time! I lost my voice for 3 days. It is the first time i have lost my voice in my whole life. It was so hard not to talk but it helped my companion to grow and it helped me to be more aware of my surroundings. It was a blessing to get sick!

Well, life is good. The gospel is true. Jesus loves me, and I have never been happier. I love you all and i love Hong Kong!!!!!!!

-Sister Hamblin

#1 sister brown and I

#2 our thanksgiving food for our ward and indian costume... :) haha it is so chinese!

November 9, 2014

JOU SAHN FUHMOUH

Answers first. There are 30 missionaries in our zone. and 150 missionaries in our mission. Our zone is the biggest. And yes the elders and sisters meet together. Oh and you know sister Brown from Saint Johns Arizona? Well she is in my zone now and she is in my first area KWUN TONG. and guess what, i get to go on exchanges to help her out tomorrow. What a small world. She is an amazing missionary.

on the sad note.....Tsing Yi did not get baptized. She told us the night before that she believes in GyunYam. It is part of Buddhism. You can look her up. Anyway....it was really sad. Our ward was so prepared and excited for her. So were we. It was a really hard week. Then she didn't come to church yesterday. I don't know what happened. Just will continue to pray for her and try to teach her and build her faith in the true God. 

On a happier note, we had zone conference this week with president Hawks. Our 40 minute presentation went well! We prepared a lot a lot for it. It turned out nice. And it was so fun to see the talent of the 2 zones. That is about 60 missionaries. It was so much fun. I don't know if I have ever said this before, but i love president and sister Hawks. They are amazing. They talked a lot about giving thanks and cleaning your house. I have become a lot cleaner on my mission :) then they talked about how out accomplishments and failures are all part of the process of becoming. Our whole lives are turning us into who we need to become. I know the things that have happened to me on this mission have really defined me and shaped me into someone new. And it has all been possible through the atonement. The Atonement is not just something we can read about and learn about in the scriptures. We need to do that but we have to experience it to understand it. We have to use the atonement to change us and help us grow. Just reading about the Savior and what He did is not going to cut it. We have GOT to learn how to use the atonement as the saving grace in our lives. 

on another happy note, our beloved sister chan is still rolling! she is great. Loves church and is so excited to be baptized on December the 14th. She is our miracle. 

Thank Kara again for signing me up for classes! She is amazing. I hope that i'll be able to study. 

YAY Kaeli came to our house! how is she? I can't believe it. 

oh and i have a question...I was thinking a lot about the man at the ritz carlton....i don't know if it is because the spirit tells me to introduce him to the church or because he works at the ritz carlton. either way, can i have his name again....and who he knows? and can someone contact him and tell him that we are coming to visit him? :) 

it is good to hear that the family is doing well. I just got a picture of hudson and he is so cute. He can call me sister Hamblin. that sounds comfortable to me. 

Sorry. not much to report on this week. Just finding and stuff! ga yauh.

Love ya

xoxoxo

-sister Hamblin

November 2, 2014

Hi hi HI hI!

This week was an awesome one! To start it off we planned for our zone training meeting. It is 2.5 hours of us teaching the zone. It was so much fun. We planned so long and so hard for it and just as you would expect...nothing went as planned. it was even better. We had RMs from Hong Kong and potential missionaries from our wards come and bear testimony and give the missionaries some tips. It really created that Hallow Ground. I love to start things off with the spirit. it sets the mood for everything else. Then we did zone training meeting a little different. We talked all about getting the gospel deep within the missionaries. so cool that that was stake conference as well. We did a lot of activities and plans and actions for this. It was a very spiritual meeting. I love when the Spirit takes over. 

Then we found out that we will be giving a 40 minute training for a few zones this coming wednesday. So we are trying to find new ways of finding....so we have tried singing, painting, and juggling on the streets to get people to stop. Not much success yet but with routine comes power!

We also got to meet with President Hawks for the leadership training meeting and it was amazing as well. I don't know how to explain it. 

So this week guess what.....AU YEUHNG TSING YI PASSED HER BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW!!!!!! she will be getting baptized this coming sunday. Our ward members are so good. They have all been praying for her. The choir has also been practicing a song for her baptism. I am so excited. 

Sister Chan is also doing well! She is excited for baptism in december. We also have a new investigator...she is mandarin. Now this is really when the gift of tongues comes in. I can totally understand what she says in lessons! and she understands cantonese :) it is so cool! but I know that it is all from Heavenly Father. We also have been seeing Lisa and Sky. Lisa is great but wants to learn more before accepting a bap date. Sky doesn't believe in God so we will be moving a different way with her. But they are all great! 

another miracle this week. We were finding and we tried really hard to do that consecrated finding. We don't think of anything else and we don't talk about anything else. Just finding those prepared people. Sometimes it is hard. Well we found for a few hours and nothing. We were able to talk to a lot of people but they didn't have interest in the gospel. Just us speaking chinese. Then when we were about to head home we were almost to the ding ding when i had a hip pull moment. Do you know what that is? Like sometimes you are prompted through thoughts and sometimes another way. But for me the strongest way is the hip pull. You are just walking and all of a sudden you are just pulled back around. It doesn't happen to me very often but when it does i know i need to do something. So back to the story. I was walking and BOOM the hip pull. I turned around and just talked to the first person i saw (you have to do that because there are always hundreds of people around you). and I saw this girl running. So I ran up to her to stop her from running. She thought i was weird haha but oh well. She told us she was busy but i asked for her number anyway. and she gave it to us! so cool. we called her last night and we will see her on Friday. YAY! miracles happen.

oh and remember that one night when i had a dream of tacos? well we got a text this week from the lam family. It said "come to our home at 7"

"we want to serve you some taco"

WHAT?!!!?!?!?!!??!!? there are no taco in China! well they went to america for a month and came back with taco stuff to feed us. I love the members here. And that is my taco miracle.

So that is the week all wrapped up in a kinda hard to read email! I hope you understand!

ps. I CANT BELIEVE KAELI IS BACK HOME! please tell her to email me. She hasn't yet. ai ya

pss. thank kara for signing up for me! SHE is an angel.

psss. i don't like the sugar that much now. But when hot tamales and recess come...i come running

pssss. I know that dad did amazing at stake conference! keep it up dad! :) and I want to invite you to keep on playing the piano! :) and also try out my guitar!

psssss. thats all.

LOVE YOU

Oct. 26, 2014

This week was so good! :) 

but let me tell you my 2 favorite people went home. Sister Lee my trainer and Sister Johnson my mission changer! I love them so much and I just was so sad to see them go. But then sister lee came to my church and bought me a birthday cake and so I got to see her! She just want to be a missionary again. They are both so amazing. And i can't believe sister Wiltbank will be back this week! I don't like the thought of that! haha i just have a lot lot lot of mixed emotions right now! Well....hmmmm what happened this week? oh yeah before that! I would love to take mandarin classes. I have no clue how to write characters...but ill definitely need to learn them so yes. SIGN ME UP! :) the cantonese on the other hand....I don't know if ill be able to get credits because i don't know characters haha. We don't learn them here. We just do what we do and get along without characters. and yes just sign me up for a lot of credits and ill take care of it when the time comes! And thank you for the freedom of using money! :) we have this awesome mall that i am planning to go to next week so I'm ready!!! :) is there anything you all need from China? :)

Ok so this week! We were able to see sister Chan and she is amazing. She just told us that she want to change and she wants to keep the commandments and use the atonement. She doesn't even ask us questions anymore because she knows that she can and does find them in the book of mormon. She is a miracle. She loves church and can't wait to be baptized on the 14th of December. Please pray for her that she will stay strong and love the gospel forever!

Then we have Tsing Yi. She is also doing well. She has been a little moody lately haha. She just doesn't know what she wants. She wants to be baptized but thinks that we are her training wheels...she said that she doesn't need us anymore. She just wants to ride by herself...but she can't do that because she will just fall over! We have to meet wit her before and after she is baptized. We just need to have her heart softened. But she still is excited to be baptized!

and we have 2 other GREAT miracles this week. We met this girl named sky last week. Then she didn't answer her phone for a long time...but then yesterday she just showed up for church and stayed the whole time! Then she asked us when we could see her. She is the girl that was crying on the street. She is 17 and just amazing

Then our member friend Lisa asked if she could come to church and learn about the gospel. that just proves that members examples play a big role in others lives! So Lisa came to church and loved it as well. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday! that never happens. Our ward is going to explode :) I love the miracles that are happening right now! And i hope that it continues forever.

My birthday was also great! I woke up to balloons all over my desk and some stickers and sticky notes! then i opened the package you sent! THANK YOU SO MUCH! it is all amazing and i got sick off of reeses and all the missionaries love them! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! and i love the shirt and the hair oil and my hair is not falling out as much anymore because of the iron.  Thank you so much mom and dad! and dad...oh dad that card made me laugh so hard! thank you for helping me to remember what you looked like! i had almost forgotten :)

Then I got some cakes and some RM chinese people came and gave me cake and i saw the deaf investigators and my summer missionary came to me and gave me blueberry cheesecake! It was so good. But the best part was yesterday when our investigators came to church. The ward was so amazing at welcoming them and all. oh and another miracle. I was walking through the MTR when i saw a MRS FIELDS COOKIES! i don't know if america has those but wow did it smell good...i just said out loud to myself, " THAT SMELLS SO GOOD". then all of a sudden i hear this voice in english say, "SISTER MISSIONARIE". it was a member from Utah that just moved to Hong Kong. Well he was buying some cookies and saw us and maybe heard my cry for sugar and BOOM he bought us some yummmmy cookies! it was so good. so long no taste. 

I have also been loving all the emails from and about Janice! I just can't get over it. I love her so much and I love her testimony of the Savior. She has always been amazing but I can just tell a huge difference in her. I LOVE HER AND I LOVE YOU AND I LOVE LIFE AND I JUST LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING!

Oh, and PS. I am also the sister training leader so pray for me and my ability to lead! :) 

love you all!

here are some pictures.

-SISTER HAMBREEEn

Oct. 19, 2014

HELLO!!!!

I CANT BELIEVE JANICE IS SO AMAZING!!!! well we always knew but now i am just so happy. I knew it was going to happen. It is just so amazing to me. I have been feeling a special love for Germans lately to I think because I am in china with her, i have a special connection :) WOW! I am so happy. I am just crying with excitement. I can't believe it! She has to move to America and go to BYU with me :) HELP HER DO THAT! 

This week was amazing. Well....we lost our golden investigator Tsing Ti...BUT THEN SHE CAME BACK TO US! It was one on the saddest moments on my mission. She just said that the commandments were weighing her down and that she didn't know if this was all true...then she gave us a bunch of food (typical when someone drops you) and told us not to call anymore. :( she was supposed to get baptized yesterday. But then we tried to call her one more time about 6 days later and she said that she would MAYBE come to church. We waitied and waited for her and no show. Then 20 minutes before church ended, she popped in!!! She looked tired and a little confused. We talked to her after church and she had a total change! She said that she woke up 4 hours ago and was just wrestling with the spirit. She felt like she needed to go to church but Satan was telling her not to. She finally took the courage to travel 40 minutes to church. She said when she walked in. she had the most amazing feeling of comfort and happiness. We explained that that is the spirit and that this is what she should be doing! She completely changed and is excited about her new baptismal date! It was a huge miracle! 

We also had another miracle with our beautiful investigator sister Chan. We went to her home this past week. She has seen missionaries for 5 years on and off. I just had a prompting to ask her if she felt anything different from now and 5 years ago. She told me that she didn't feel stressed to be baptized, she just felt ready. She said that it was a miraculous change and that she loves us :) IT was so amazing to hear those words from her mouth. She is amazing. She is excited to be baptized on the 14th of December and she even changed her job to do so. What great faith exemplified from sister Chan. I love them. 

We were also walking yesterday and BOOM a lady popped out of no where and she invited us to come to her home this thursday to teach her about the gospel :) This area is just exploding! 

Then we were doing pull backs at the church in Wan Chai and I saw this girl that looked pretty sad. So i just went up to her to see how she was doing. she looked at me and just started to cry. She just did really bad on her english test that would determine if she would go to a university in england. She was so sad. We just talked and she said that she wanted to feel peace inside the church. We gave her a tour and she loved it. She told us that she had seen a lot of missionaries before and was just rude to them. She said that she just felt something different this time. Now we will see her again this week :)

I just love hearing from reachel as well. WOW 9 FAMILIES IN THEIR COMPANIONSHIP IN ONE WEEK!!!!! that is more than my whole zone in a whole month! Rachel is amazing. It is so good to hear about her :) 

So what happened this week?... hmmm oh we went to teach one of our thai members. We got to her house and I sAW That she had a parrot. So i decided to talk to him. He was mad and wouldn't talk to me. I tried so hard to get him to talk. But no success. Then we finally started the lesson. THE PARROT WOULD NOT STOP TALKING! I was about to throw him out the window in his cage haha. He just kept saying JOUH SAHN! That means good morning haha. He did it for 20 minutes. So this picture is me trying to talk to him. I don't like birds very much. 

Last night we also had a convert fireside. All the recent converts bear their testimonies and share it with investigators. HELEN from Aberdeen bore her testimony and it was amazing. I am so blessed to have taught her. She is another miracles. 

Anyway, sorry this email is random and everything probably doesn't make sense.....but I do know that this gospel has brought me so much happiness this week. And my whole life. I have a very strong testimony of it. I am so grateful for amazing family to teach me and you two amazing parents to help guide me. I know without a doubt that heavenlt father exists. I know it because i have felt His love. And I have seen Him work miracles in so many peoples lives. I am SO BLESSED to have this opportunity to serve the Lord. It is like the mission call says."more happiness than you have yet experienced awaits you as you serve the Lord and His people with love". I have never ever been happier. Ever. I just love everything about our life on earth. Yes, bad things happen, but those bad things are not eternal. It all depends on how we deal with the bad things actually. Just remember, we ALL chose the Heavenly Fathers plan in the pre-earth life. That is why we are here now. Now what we need to do is follow it! Please please please keep sharing the gospel! It doesn't matter if they except it right away or 4 years later like janice or 5 years later like sister Chan. But let us give the people we love an opportunity to feel the happiness we all have experienced!

I love you all so much. 

-sister Hamblin

#1 me and Helen

#2 a random panda i found on a wall in the ghetto :)

Oct. 12, 2014

JOUH SAHN DAAIHGA!

well, mom, the Autumn Fever is just like a cold....but I think it comes from the Hong Kong Behng. (that is the little crazy that all the Hong Kong people have because of stress and small places and pollution) :) haha. So once you have been here for a while it just sets in and you go a little crazy and get sick! But it is not all that bad :) being Chinese is fun. People ask me if my mom is chinese. I guess my eyes have changed and everything!

Anywho, this week we watched GENERAL CONFERENCE! I loved it. Especially the mission presiende from the ukraine. He was awesome. I loved how he talked about health and how we need to be the master of our own houses! So i am going to be more healthy :) the Chinese have taught me a lot about health, so now to put it into play. But Elder Wongs talk was also amazing! But i was actually able to hear his voice and understand the cantonese! I loved it. and I was able to see all my wards that i have served it! THE BEST FAMILY REUNION EVER! I can't explain how much i love them all. We also had 4 people at church!!! Isn't that a miracle? That has not happend since Kwun Tong. I love it here. Chai Wan is great. oh and i found out that my bishop, bishop Ngh, was actually a counselor to elder wong when he served here as a mission president! That is why he is so amazing!!!

I was also able to see my beloved Bishop Chan from the Aberdeen/Pok Fu Lam ward! He told me something very special too! I don't know why, but he always thinks he can receive revelation for me. On saturday he told me that he had something very special for me but couldn't tell me until i went home in december or it would distract me for 2 months. I finally got him to tell me! this is what he said.

 "when i went to America last month, I met a man. He was tall and handsome. and quess what!?! HE WAS FROM PHOENIX ARIZONA! So i talked to him because I know that YOU are also from Arizona. Then I told him that I had a girl for him that was in China at the moment. So he gave me his email to give to you. So I have it now but i cannot give it to you until you are ready to go home. You are going to go to the phoenix arizona temple together." 

Wow. Thanks again Bishop Chan. hahahah he is so funny! I feel like he is one of those awkward dads that do that kind of stuff. He met this man in the Seattle Airport and took his number and email to give to me. I am not going to talk to this crazy person from Phoenix arizona but thank you bishop chan! all the missionaries around me were just giggling. Anywho, mom, dad, don't worry. Locked my heart!

This week Au Yeuhng also had her baptismal interview. The night before i was praying and I just knew that she was not ready. But I didn't have revelation to change the interview so we kept it the same. Then she failed the interview. Then we talked to her afterward. It was a really nice talk about faith and the Atonement. We will be giving her a new date this week and hope to help her out. Keep her in your prayers.

Also i was able to see Kasey. She and Bishop Chan are working on a ........

M I S S I O N!!!!!!! Kasey really wants to serve a mission :) I am so excited for her! she left home again because of more violence from her parents for joining the church. Now she is moving around from one members house to another. I love the family and love within the wards of the church. She is going to be just fine.

We were also able to do 24's with the Zone and many miracles followed. 

Thank you so much for the package that is coming! I don't have it yet, but i am excited to get it! Life is good and I am so happy. Thank you mom and dad for everything you do! Also thanks for emailing me every week :) it seems like the longer you are out, the more people who forget about you.

LOVE YOU!