June 1, 2014

Good Morning!

HHHHAAAAPPPPYYYYY BBBBIIIIRRRRTTTTHHHHHDDDDAAAAAYYYYYY MMMMMOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

juk leih saang yaht faailohk!!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYA!

You are the best momma in the entire world! I hope you have an incredible day :) what would you like me to bring you home from hong kong? haha

Tell me more about Hunter. What happened? Is he ok? 

It is great to hear about Mandy :) I love her so much! She was one person who really helped me through the first few months of my mission. I just kind of turned to her and she told me exactly what i needed to get me though the tough times! I love her! I just know she was an amazing missionary. I also email Rex every week and i have never heard of a better missionary than elder Rex Hamblin! I love this family!!!!!!! 

So this week was a good one. We went on exchanges and we were able to see miracles. We see miracles everyday. It just reminds me of how mindful Heavenly Father is of His Chinese children. We were able to teach more lessons. It seems like all the people we are finding li paaih are for other wards in the stake. They all live in the areas right next door to us! So we will start finding more ABERDEEN people :). 

This week we went finding in South Horizons and we were talking to  this wonderful Chinese mom when a really tall british woman came up to us and started yelling at us right in front of this chinese mom. Well she said bad things about us and the church for probably about 30 seconds and then stomped off. We didn't know what to say, or if we should even say anything. I felt like the missionary in Elder Holland's conference talk. But i just felt like letting her walk away was right. Then she left and we looked into the chinese moms face and she didn't understand a thing that the british lady said!!! It was a complete miracle :) we just pretended that we knew what was going on and continued to talk to the mom. It was really a miracle. We have had a LOT of anti in Hong Kong. We will meet an amazing potential investigator and then they will text us and say they have heard very bad things about our church and then never talk to us again. I just pray that we will find some way to lessen the anti and help the people around the world to understand the truth. I just think about how many people said bad things about Jesus. Anti has been around since Adam and Eve. I just think we should start thinking of more ways to fight the anti!

So i have a funny story. My companion and i ride the same bus every day to go to our area. Well there is this man that i am pretty sure is in the Mafia. I don't know if i am allowed to even say this haha but it goes with the story. So we call him mafia man. I am pretty sure he runs all of Hong Kong. Well we see him every morning. We were on exchanges and we were almost late to the bus when the sisters called us that live with us and said that we forgot to give them the keys! We looked in our bags and sure enough we had both sets  of keys. But we couldn't be late to our lesson so we had a brilliant idea. Why not give the keys to mafia man and then have him give them to the other sisterS? we didn't have a better idea so we just asked him to give them to the next american girls who came along. He looked at us like we were crazy, grabbed the keys, put them in his fanny pack, waved us off like (get out of my store!), ran to a big blue truck hopped in, and drove off! This all happened in like 5 seconds. Well we were panicking because mafia man just stole our keys! So that was a lesson i learned. Don't give your keys to mafia man :)

We will be going to see sister yeuhng (light deaf sister) this week to teach her about commandments! Wish us luck and pray that she will understand what we are signing! :)

thank you mom for sending the book! I would like some chocolate covered nuts or raisins or fruit or something! Something chocolate covered :) haha i found some at a store the other day and i got them! But i can't get to the store now so that is what i am craving right now :) 

I love you all and i hope you all have a fantastic week. The work is great. The ward is great. The mission president is happy. and the missionary is loving life!

(oh and ps i heard from Olivia! she is great :) she is not dating but i told her she can't until i get home so she is keeping the promise haha. and sydney is also doing well!) have you heard from kaeli wilt banks mom? I haven't heard from Kaeli lately! can you find out a little for me? thanks :)

oh and today is DRAGON BOAT FESTICAL SO ILL TAKE SOME ICTURES!

this is what i splurged on this past week! (don't tell dad)

May 26, 2014

HELLOOOOO!

This past week was really good. Well let me just tell you that President and Sister Hawks are the best people in the world! I just love them so so so so much. In our interviews, president hawks talked to me about me. He is just so good at asking questions and really seeing how we are doing. He just focuses on us and how he can help and how we are growing and how we are learning. I made it a goal that i wouldn't cry in this interview :) i have become such a baby since i have been a missionary. Well i didn't cry! But i also didn't want to tell him how i really was because i knew i would shed a few tears because it has been a little tougher lately. Well i thought i got out of it and i was safe. Well a few days later i was at the mission office just getting mail and such when he came out of his office and asked me if he could talk to me. he said "I just had a thought to come outside my office and see if sister Hamblin was here. and if she was to talk to her". well i had another interview with President Hawks and he gave me a new Project! We named it Project 21 together haha. It is just 21 days of change. Well i have been in the same area for almost 8 months now and it is really small. And i go to the same places everyday to find and we do the same things everyday. It takes a tole on you. Well he gave us ways to change where we find and change studies so that we can talk to different people and different times. We have been doing this plan and it has been really good. We have seen many miracles! Still no investigators for Aberdeen but we will keep going!

We do have one investigator right now though. But she goes to a different ward. We are allowed to teach her because the other ward only has elders and she doesn't feel comfortable with elders. She is the deaf one :) we got to go to Mong Kok and teach her at her home this past week. She has a very sad life but it is changing! It is amazing to see. We were teaching her and i asked her who Jesus was. She paused for a moment (she has NO religious background). she just looked at me and did the sign for LIGHT. it was a really special experience. I agree with her. Christ is Light :)

So one part of the project 21 is going to different places! So we went to an island this past week. It is pretty expensive to go and takes some time but we got there and i forgot my BUG SPRAY! I came home with about 100 bug bites haha but it was ok because we were let into 3 homes! (it is a place where we can knock on doors). They were not every interested but it is ok. We will find the prepared person soon. We knocked on another door and to my surprise a white man came to open the door! Well he was a Dutch, Atheist, Lawyer......yeah you can imagine how that went! (don't tell Lieke) haha. well he just ripped us up! He had so many questions and every single one we had the answer to! But he wouldn't let us talk. It was so weird to speak to someone in perfect english. (mine was NOT the perfect english) But it just made me more strong in my testimony :)

I heard a quote this week

"Live to fall in His arms and feel His embrace"

It was a great one!

Oh and i can get bug spray here. I have got a lot! thanks mom :)

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

-sister humbling 

pictures

the first one is people making JUNG! this is sticky rice and meat wrapped in bamboo leaves and stuff. it is a June tradition in Hong Kong :) Then they give it out and we steam it up!

the next pictures is...uhh oh salmon! It is a cultural difference here haha. Members give us fish after sacrament haha. Well they give us food a lot. Like avocado peanutbiutter sandwiches and fish and bread. What do missionaries get in America?

May 12, 2014

HI MOM and DAD

I know i just talked to you last night but i get to email again so i want to say it again....

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! 

And we even have a new mom in the family! congratulations Jessy! :) 

I'm glad i still have a lot of years before i am a mom. 

Mom i want to let you know that you are amazing. You have always been there for me and you have sacrificed everything for your daughters. You are the greatest example of Christlike love and service. I haven't deserved even half of the kindness you have shown to me. Thank you thank you thank you for really shaping me into someone God wants me to be. You have taught me to really and trust in my Heavenly Father and for that i am truly grateful. You have taught me to love and to sacrifice and to take what comes in life. You have taught me to walk by faith. I just think of the stripling warriors and their mothers. I know that i lived on your faith growing up and that i didn't doubt because my mother didn't doubt. You are my hero mom :) 

So i didn't tell you last night but the DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL IS KICKING OFF! I don't really know what the dragon boat festival is but i know one thing...it is AWESOME! Yesterday we were finding finding finding and finding and then we heard drums pounding and cymbals clanging in the distance. We looked over the pier and into the ocean to see this big boat rolling in with huge Chinese flags and a DRAGON dancing on the front of the boat! It came into the dock and about a hundred chinese people dressed in white came off the boat with dragons and lions dancing with ancestor shrines. It was so cool! Then they started flooding into the streets of Aberdeen. Then we heard more drums and even more boats came in with more dragons! We asked someone what it was and they said it was the welcoming of the Dragon Boat Festival! I love China.

I also got an email from Ashley Fung. The one who was baptized in Kwun Tong. She is at BYU right now and her sister just got married in the temple and ashley was there! It was such a treat to get :) It made everything happy. Ill send you the picture. Ashleys sister is the one in the wedding dress and shely is the first one to the right of the bride. This picture just made everything worth it. It is so happy to look back at people like Ashley and Kasey and Serina. They are all doing well. Ashley is at BYU. Kasey is active and doing missionary work like a boss. Serina is inviting her friends to learn about the gospel and told last week that a temple marriage was her biggest goal in life. So even if every single person for the rest of my mission rejects me, i know it was worth it for these precious girls that i was able to teach the gospel to. 

I hope you have a fantastic week! oh and tell Jess that i was getting her emails today but i can't write back because president Hawks doesn't want us to do that. BUT I LOVE YOU ALL!  

oh and i think ill be coming home on the 23rd. Sorry it will be a little bit of trouble with school and such but i would like to stay as long as i can! Just let me know what you need me to do. And i will also talk to Sydney about everything! O.k. love yous! 

BYE BYE LA> NGOH NHOI LEIH DEIH> LEIHDEIH HAI JEUI HOU GE FUHMOUH, GATIHNG, TUHGNMAAIH PAHNGYAUH. 

Pihnggnon

-Huhgn Muih Muih

:) hehe

May 8, 2014

HI

HELLO! i can call you. I just need to buy a card... so the time that i will call you is 7:45 p.m. sunday night for me and 4:45 a.m. sunday morning for you! sorry that is super inconvenient! But i wanted to call early so daddy dear can talk and not have to go to a meeting too! I also get the ensign in english so no need! and yeah president Hawks said i can do school stuff on p day if i need. The 5th of December would be the exact year and a half date for me in hong kong so we will see what happens. I really just don't know what i have to do for school. I would just like you to tell me what would be the best for you because i won't be really able to help you that much over here. So let me know  and i will tell President Hawks. 

This week was good. the best part was..

dunnn

dunnnnn

dunnnnnnn

I GOT TO GO VISIT KWUN TONG! (my first area)

I have never been more excited to go anywhere. It is the miracle place. It is heaven. I got off the mini bus and almost kissed the ground. I love Kwun Tong! Then we went to eat some congee and i met a lovely deaf woman and so we talked and i got her number and we may meet with her this next week. So good! I love sign language. We also gave our deaf investigator sister Yeuhng a baptismal date. She is a very slow learner but she is progressing and said she would be baptized in august. WOW. But back to Kwun Tong. I love it. 

This week was full of crazy things too. I just know that the times we go finding are the times the interesting people come out to find us instead. I think we met a witch. She was very nice at first and then her voice started getting higher and higher and then she just started laughing and it was really scary. so we got out of there only to have an older man run up to us and start speaking english. He goes in to give my companion a hug and she backed away and then he tried to hold my hand...so we got out of there too. Finally we looked around and we thought we were safe...then another lady came to sit by us and she looked me in the eyes and said "i want your eyes" then i just saw her 3 long skinny fingers with looooong yellow nails coming toward my eyes! So i ducked my head and said no no no. And then she just started going off on how she wants to pick my eyes out, put them in milk.. (not a lot of milk, only a little) and then throw them on the ground and make a girl out of them. That was the theme of this week. 

We were able to find 2 new amazing people this week but then they didn't show up to the lesson and stopped answering their phones. It has been rough lately with very little investigators. 

But we did also have miracles. I feel like people just stopping to talk to you or smile at you is a miracle. Anyone who will give you their number or an email is a miracle. Someone who will listen to your testimony is a miracle. This week we had a pretty special miracle happen. We were walking to our bus after a long day of finding when this lady working at a restaurant waved at us. She asked if we remembered her and we said yes because that is what you say. Then she was just so happy that we stopped. She said that she had seen us many times walking to the bus but we never saw her. Well she was working so we decided that we would maybe see her the next day and figure out who she was on the bus. Then right before we got onto the bus, my companion and i looked at each other and said "we have to go back and eat there". so we followed a prompting and when we showed up she was so excited that she started to hug us! and chinese people do not hug other people. She was so happy and she took us by the hands and led us into the restaurant. She told everyone that we were her friends and se was so happy. Then we ate some Kung Pao Chicken and talked to her and realized that we had met her a couple weeks earlier on the promenade. We had called her a couple times but she didn't have any interest. But i know that we helped her that day. It was a cool experience with following the spirit. 

Well ill leave it at that because we will be talking in a couple days. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM! i love you so much :) love you all. I hope you have a good week.  talk to you sunday morning

this is KWUN TONG and the yummy fresh meat markets....and me so excited to be in Kwun Tong

April 13, 2014

GOOD MORNING!

YEAH SISTER WARNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow that is the miracle i needed today :) I think that we should just let her know that if she knows one thing in this goespel is true, it is all true. If Joseph Smith was a prophet then he HAD to have had the priesthood. Wow i am so happy :) I will pray for her! We need her help in building the kingdom. 

Have you been inviting people to hear the gospel?

We were able to teach Mr. Wong this week and it was AMAZING. He is so good. He doesn't have religious background so we are still teaching very simply which is what we should always do. We haven't met his family yet. They were not able to make it to conference :( but we will schedule him tonight to see him this week. We will be inviting him to be baptized. Charmaine....well that lesson was...it was a rough one. We taught one with Kasey and it was great! She didn't want to be baptized though so we planned the next lesson all about baptism and scriptures and general conference. Well we worked with a new fellowshipper to help her know more people in the ward. Well our fellowshipper did not help our cause very much and charmaine told us she didn't really want to learn more. But we will work with her this next week. i really learned the importance of having a GOOD member to help teach. I hope we will never play down the importance of the basics of the Gospel. We must ALWAYS pray, read our scriptures and go to church. They are such important parts in our path to eternal life. 

I LOVED CONFERENCE! One of my favorites was elder Holland of course but i LOVED the one about the olympics. We are all on our 4 minute run. Every second counts. We only have a short time to fix our mistakes and really do what is right. Do what heavenly Father wants us to do.  Then we will have eternity to look back on what we did in those 4 minutes. I don't want to regret anything! So i think i need to look at my life and see what i need to change so that i can have that "perfect run". I also liked the quote that Jess gave me about the gospel. The Gospel gives us wings.

I was able to see a lot of the Kwun Tong members at conference and i love them so much :) one of the members brought me some chicken wings and a bagel haha. That is how Chinese people show their love. With food. I guess that is the same all around the world. 

I caught a few themes from conference too that i thought were pretty cool.

-LOVE

-LIFT

-HANDS

tis is all about us. WE have to love. WE have to lift. Life is full of lifting. and we need to use OUR hands to help those in need.

I've had to use my sign language a lot lately aha. We went to a fireside last night and the person who was supposed to translate didn't show up and so i was the only one who knew a little bit. Well let me tell you that it was ROUGH! I definitely need to work on the gift of hands. 

It is getting hot in Hong Kong again but i don't think it is as hot as Kwun Tong...maybe because it is not summer yet :) but ill take it for now! I hope you are having a fantastic week and inviting people to learn about the gospel!

I love you all so much and thank you for always supporting me in everything i do. I love reading your letters and feeling your prayers. 

-sister HAmblin

March 30, 2014

Hello! 

Our week was full of FINDING! yep and it was good. We were able to find 4 new investigators! Ok some are pretty young but all have potential. I love being a missionary. 

It is good to hear about old elder Davis. Ill keep him in my prayers. I think a mission is the best time to have a family member pass away because your testimony of the gospel is the strongest. 

Natalie emailed me this week :) she said she was so nervous haha. I would never ever redo the first few months of a mission. It was the hardest thing i have ever done but now it is the BEST! still hard but so so worth it. I just didn't know it would be the first few months. I am so excited to hear that Riann is putting her papers in! What about Dustin and Hailey?

Well this week was a really good one! We FINISHED LANGUAGE PASS OFFS!!!!! so now we can learn a little sign language is language study and in the furute i can start learning chinese characters. We are told to focus on the speaking skills before the characters. So ill probably wait a few months to start that part. 

We were able to teach our deaf investigator again this week :) she is so cute. I still can't understand everything in sign language but i can teach simple lessons in sign language. I feel like i have a deaf person radar now. We were on a boat to ap leih jau and i saw this deaf family in front of us. I couldn't let them go without trying to share the gospel! so we ran to talk to them when the boat stopped and the dad was not too interested until he could see that we were trying to speak sign language. then we got their number and now our recent convert who is also deaf is texting her and setting up a time to meet with them. What a miracle! 

My area has about 5 islands. But we only go to 3 because the others are too small and no one really lives there. and they are far away. it only takes 5 minutes to get to ap leaih jau and about 30 to get to lama island. And then we live on Hong Kong Island. It is so pretty here. I love it so much.

And now i know what they mean when they say spring rains. Last night we had what they call a black rain storm. We had just gotten into our apartment when the who sky went dark. Then sheets of rain were pouring down. We turned off all the lights and the lightning was so big that it lit up the house. The thunder what so loud and it was just amazing looking out the window of the 23rd floor of our apartment. And it hasn't stopped raining yet. It is not black rain anymore but I'm pretty sure the swimming pool next to our apartment is full :) 

So this week we went finding a lot a lot a lot a lot. We decided to walk from our house to our area (instead of taking the mini bus) well we didn't know it would take 2 hours. Finally we found a place called pok fu lam. THERE WERE HOUSES! Yep little tin houses but we could knock on the doors and it was legal. I felt like a real missionary knocking on doors haha. but then we were just knocking and walking when i heard an angelic angels voice. Yes mom. it was ELVIS! It was blasting from someones garden. so mom just for you we went to go see who it was! well his name was mr chan and he was about 60 years old. He invited us into his house (a fence with a tin roof and a garden) and decided to show us around. Well he talked to us about all his plants and that just reminded me of dad haha. anyway we tried to share the gospel and he interrupts us and tells us that the green plants in the very back are drugs. so we decided to get out of there! but we wrote down his number and said we would send the elders to teach him about the word of wisdom. he was so funny though! But that was a day of finding for over 7 hours. I think your prayers are working mom. We are finding. maybe you should pray for us to TEACH :) 

Oh and we do get to watch conference a week after you all. We will look for you in the front row! :) oh and also how are the kennibecks? (spl) I've been thinking about them. 

Kasey is doing great. She has been coming to church and has a calling as a ward missionary. she actually showed me her mission papers yesterday :) she is amazing. I just hope she will find a way to go on a mission! she wants to go so bad.  but i love you all so much :) thanks for the prayers. I can really feel them. I just love to think about my eternal family! Maybe not everybody will listen to me but i know that if all is said and done and no one listens to me i still have the gospel in my life and i have been converted in the process. 

LOVE YA'LL!    -Sister Hambreen

March 26, 2014

HELLO EVERYBODY!

It is sad to hear about grandpa sherwood. But you know what is cool? I knew it happened. I remember looking at my watch at that time, having a feeling that he had passed away, and then i prayed for elder Davis. What a cool experience it was because i just know he is happy and he is well. 

MIRACLES! well Kasey is back :) back back back. She has met with us a couple times this week and it is just so good and she is happy. She has been coming to chuch and all. Just pray for her!

So we went on 24's this past week. I went to causeway bay again. We were outside of the beautiful chapel trying to give people tours when ELDER GONG pops up out of know where. Well he is in the first quorum of the 70. He came to me, shook my hand, and pretended to be some random person on the street. He looked me in the eyes and said "sister, what is your message about"? and i said "Jesus Christ". Then he said do you think it is true? and i said "without a doubt" then he looked at me and said "good work sister, see you later". I WAS so scared! haha it was quite a shock because i have only seen him in pictures and i was just shaking in my sandals. But it was so cool to bear my testimony to him :)

We have a few more deaf investigators! Sister Chan is on a roll. We have been teaching a loot of her friends. Some accept but most don't really understand the message because they have never seen someone sign it before. So it is very hard to teach simply in sign language. but we are trying to work harder to learn it! I love sign language but i like speaking cantonese better....because i am better at speaking haha but signing is so fun! but we had one super potential deaf lady but let me tell you that it was the WORST lesson i have ever been in haha. So we have our recent convert sister chan. she is deaf. she has two sons one 6 one 7. well they are very crazy because their mom can't hear them and so they can do whatever they want. well they came to this lesson. And we were trying to teach this lovely deaf sister yuk when her sons just start screaming and throwing thing at us. Well then were reading scriptures so they didn't see anything. so we started yelling at the boys in chinese to get them so stop and so they ran out with with a gallon of water and came back with an empty jug. now where did the water go? we don't know because we were still trying to teach so then one of them runs up to me and starts poking me in the face. and we are supposed to be missionaries here so i couldn't just tell him to stop like i wanted to. so  we just try to push him away when the other one runs in with water guns and starts squirting us all in the face. Well their mom felt this one and got a little mad and kicked them out of the room. then we try to get back on topic when sister cheung and i look out the little window of the door and we see her sons squirting water all over the huge bicture of Jesus being baptized. so we booker it out of the room, tackled these little kids to the ground, took the guns and ran back in the room to finish the lesson. well the investigator caught on that something was wrong haha. and she was a little frustrated with the kids. so she left :( not a good ending but i wish i could replay that lesson for you all haha. it was the WORST lesson ever. 

Well dad, THE ASIAN SPRING IS BEAUTIFUL! especially on the island :) the trees are so bright and beautiful! and it smells good disregarding all the pollution :) it is beautiful! we were walking to general conference when just the greatest feeling of happiness filled me up :) i just couldn't stop from smiling and i looked at the chapel and the sun was shooting its rays right on the steeple of the chapel! it was gorgeous! ill try to send a pictue of it!

Well we have been finding a lot lately. we found on Lamma Island. and ap lei jau island and on our little island. We have been really trying to find new investigators because our zone has a goal this month for 101 new investigators....we usually get 30 but we are already at 78!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A MIRACLE! the work is going forward :) but anyway we have been changing and sacrificing to find more time to find. so we decided that every time we get on our mini bus to go to aberdeen from our home in west point, we will sit by someone else. Well this has been amazing! We have 30 minutes to get to know someone and tell them how the gospel will help them! well some people do not want anything to do with us but they are stuck with sitting with us :) it is so amazing to get to know them and their families and why they are there and then introducing the gospel! Last night we were on the bus coming home and a person got on the bus. well he was a man and he wasn't chinese so i just prayed in my heart that he wouldn't sit by me...well he did. So i kind of chickened out and just sat there. Then i just couldn't stop but look at him because he wasn't chinese haha (not in a weird way, he was old) but then he took his headphones out and just said "hi" IN ENGLSIH! so i just stuttered and said "umm.....hi" haha well then i asked him why he was here and it turns out he is from peru and he works making video games! we talked for a while and then i talked to him about the church. he was just in awe that a 20 year old would give money to go tell people about a church and then have to learn cantonese haha. then he asked me if we had a card and if he could come to church!!!!! WOOHOOO! it was so good :) we talked to him for about 45 minutes and it was just ngonpaai. 

Well i have never been happier in my life. This gospel is happiness. I know that we will have happiness now and in eternity as long as we have this knowledge. I really challenge you all to invite friends to meet the missionaries. Don't be scared. just do it. The only way they will have this happiness and live with God again is through this gospel. not another gospel or another way but THIS way, And we all know this. SO SHARE THE GOSPEL! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week sharing the gospel. and ill be asking how it went next week! so don't forget to invite someone to come to church or something this week :) ok love you all!!!!