Oct. 6, 2014

HI MOM and DAD!!!

<3 <3

can i just tell you that this week was amazing? COmpletly amazing! AU YEUHNG TSING YI has changed so much in this shoer time. We haven't even known her for a month, but she is a miracle. She has so many trials and hardships but she is willing to give it all up for the One who gave everything for her! she just understands and has felt the spirit witness to her. We fasted with her yesterday to see if the 19th was what God wanted for her. She told us it was :) she just got so excited! She told us this week that her mom is actually a less active member of the church! that is why she is getting such negative feels from her family. Her mom doesn't want her to end up like her mom! Well it is amazing how God prepares people. Au Yeuhng Tsing Yi is amazing and i can't wait to help her to come closer to her Savior. What a rewarding work it is to work as a missionary for my King. 

We also had an opportunity to meet Sister Chan! She is our new investigator. She is a members mom. This members name is Dennis. He is 15 years old. He was baptized at 10!!! Then he went to church by himself for 5 years. His mom has never been baptized. Well we got to meet her this week and teach her and she wants to get baptized on the 14th of December. She she is a miracle as well. We will be teaching her with our bishop and his wife tonight about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can't wait. Her and Au Yeuhng both came to church this week.

THEN our member Kiki wanted to introduce us to her friend. Well we met her friend and her friend brought her sister to meet us too! Their first interest was english class...but then we got to talking and laughing and we asked them if they had any interest in learning about the church. They were so willing so we will see them this saturday as well :) 

I don't know why all these miracles are happening to us. But thank Heavenly Father! We are still finding a lot a lot but these people make it all worth it :) I kinda like finding with the 3904758% humidity. It is nice and comfortable. I love love love Hong Kong.

hmmmm what else happened this week? Oh i have the Autumn fever. The chinese say that when the Autumn wind changes, all the Hong Kong people get sick...it didn't happen last year but it did this year!!! I AM A HONG KONG PERSON! :) I love it! Sometimes i don't even realize i am white...until people go crazy because we speak chinese. When i see white people it scares me. Are people really that tall? Do they really not understand chinese? THEN WHY ARE THEY HERE? i mean if you live in hong kong you aught to learn the language. They are just missing out on so much of the love they can have for the people and the city. 

MOM thank you for the shirts and i am excited for the package :) hehe(if there are anymore hair tricks that you could send that would be awesome! my hair is still falling out in the loads)

DAD thank you for the football updates. Although i am not happy to hear about BYU! maybe next time you could leave that out.

I also love the pictures of the neighbors!

oh and mom....you need to love dad more. You don't know the toll it is taking on him. Maybe it will be a good thing for Hudson to move to Atlanta ;) hehe

But i can't wait to meet him either! Just don't let jes and andy move until at least next hyear! they can't do that. 

About classes....I want to take CHINESE!! :) :) and uhhh maybe like more chinese. GE classes...i have no idea which ones there are. I need to take like a D&C class right? I'd rather have classes in the morning and maybe closer together because ill have to get a job and stuff.....Ai Ya!! I have no idea what i am doing....:( this is going to make my hair fall out more than anything!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! next week ill let you know of my conference feelings and ill also let you know about Au Yeuhng! Pray that we will find more people that are ready to endure to the end! Kasey, Serina, Ashley, and Helen are doing great! Keep them in your prayers as well! 

love you all!

-Sister Hamblin

this is my chinese ferris wheel.

and the next is the view from out my window. isn't it beautiful!?!?!

Sept. 28, 2014

Good morning mom and dad. 

hmmm BIRTHDAY PACKAGE REQUESTS!.....

i don't need anything. just some iron pills for the hair! and maybe a reeces or two :) but i really don't need anything. Just send family love! oh and maybe some information about registering for classes. Because i don't know when or how or which classes. Please help me.

the ward fast is going good! we were having such great miracles and then.....in one day all of our people except for Au Yeuhng dropped us :( sad. but its ok. we will just start over again. I've done it many a times so it is not that difficult anymore. But at least we still have Au Yeuhng! We actually had such an amazing lesson with her last night. We all met at the church. Our bishops wife helped us teach. Before the lesson our member Sister Ng gave Au Yeuhng a brand new skirt and a math workbook and an abacus! Au Yeuhng was so excited :) you should have seen her face. It is so nice to know that the members care about our investigators. Well Au Yeuhng has been very worried about her faith. She didn't think she had any. So we took out a picture of Christ and Perter walking on the water. It was amazing. The Spirit led a discussion about this and then our investigator just felt the Spirit so strongly. We were able to help her to overcome a lot of doubts and weaknesses with our members and the Spirit! Oh how important it is to have people who care. At the end, we invited Au Yeuhng to pray. She was a little reluctant to do so but then she did. When she started, the spirit hit us all like a brick wall. Her prayer was so heartfelt, and it had such soul. She prayed for the gift of faith and strength to keep commandments. After she was done, we asked her how she felt about her baptism date. she said that she felt a feeling of expectation from Heavenly Father that October 19th was the day. I don't know how we are going to get her ready for the 19th but we will!!! pray for a miracle. Not just that she will be baptized but that she will endure to the celestial kingdom. It is like President Hinckley said something like...there is not point in doing missionary work if we do not hold onto the fruits of our labors! So pray that she will endure to the end! Along with Kasey, Serina, Ashley, and Helen! 

This week we were also able to see a huge miracle. We met a man named Peter on the MTR. He lives in Tseung Kwan O (my last area). So we scheduled him to turn him over to the TKO elders. Well then we got a referral from there that we were also going to turn over. We went a llll the way to TKO and then BOTH of them fonged ngohdeih ge feigei! (flew our airplane) we were so sad that they didn't show. (oh and at this time we were on exchanges. I was with sister Cheung again! :) :) :)) but anyway we were so sad that we had traveled all that way to have these 2 people not show up. Then we had an idea. We all ran outside and did a 10 minute miracle find! We wanted to get someone to come to the church so that we could give them a tour and invite them to church and give these elders a new person to bring unto Christ. So we found and found like maniacs haha we were running to talk to everyone. No one would stop. But we knew we were not leaving until we saw a miracle. So we found hard for about 30 minutes. Then the elders came to us to just say "hey its ok we've got it from here" and then BOOM! We turned around and there was a mom. We talked to her and she was willing to walk 20 minutes with us to show her the church in the middle of a jungle! She then told us she wanted to go to church. and she went to church yesterday :) MIRACLES HAPPEN!

We also had interviews with President Hawks this week. He is amazing. He taught me more about setting goals and patience and love. I LOVE president Hawks!!!!

hmmmm oh i also learned how to make Thai food this week. IT IS DELISH!

Sept. 22, 2014

Ngoh chan ngoi ge gatihng, Jouh Sahn!

gamgo sinkeih janhaih hou hou! Ngohdeih yeuh houdo keihjik! Ngohdeigge jiwuih janhaih hou saileih!

So let me answer your questions first. 

1. the sports they play here are not the same. But the sports day was just a lot of running. They are so healthy and amazing here. You ALL better be healthy! (i have no room to talk i am a chub haha)

2. The sports day was a church activity. It was all the wards in Hong Kong!

3. That taco dream was amazing. so i tried to make tacos...then i got sick....so i dont think ill be wanting tacos any time soon! what i do want is Creme Brule and Cold Stone...so if you could send that for my birthday that would be great! hahah

4. Elder Wong is speaking....be ready. And i will understand him so well! BE READY FOR THE BEST GENERAL CONFERENCE THE CHURCH HAS SEEN!

5. Yeah, it would be better for me to just leave. but lets not talk about it anymore. 

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..............................................................................

These couple days have been great! I dont know if I have told you before but our bishop is amazing. He is so into the missionary work. This week he announced a ward 40 day fast for missionary work! And since they have started fasting, we have seen so many miracles. We were able to meet a members non member wife. Her name is emma chan. Pray for her! We also have been finding a lot and people are listening. I am so grateful for our ward. Our bishop is so inspired. All of our ward members are just so amazing and so helpful. 

There is a woman named Ida. She got baptized 3 months ago. I was even able to teach her on exchanges. Well she was baptized and has already had 3 more friends get baptized in the 3 months she has been a member. SHe is an amazing missionary. She is also inviting 5 friends to an activity we are having this coming saturday. They all worship gyunyam but that is ok. We will help them out! But she is a miracle. And her husband is starting to investigate this week with the elders in our ward!!!! WOOHOO!

On the other hand we have TSING YI! SHe is still doing well. :) she is getting baptized on the 19th of October! Right after General Conference. Our conference is on the 11th and 12th. Anyway, she is amazing and so open to tell us her feelings and she is progressing well. She is having some commandment problems, but she has faith. Keep her in your prayers as well! 

As for my companion and i, we are doing well. She is opening up a little more. She was able to talk to president hawks and it changed her. Rex told me something that i will definitely share with her

"you are who you think you are. Heavenly Father thinks you are amazing. So dont think you know more that Heavenly Father".

Thanks Rex :) He is the best! Take care of him!

oh and sorry...please tell me when i have to think about classes for BYU. I dont want to have to wory about it and take my mind off the work. If i had a date or like a time then i could just get it done :)

than k yoU!

this is just one thing that i love about Hong Kong. all the flowers and nature is amazing! (even though i have only served in the city, it still  has some nature)

Sept. 18, 2014

GOOD MORNING MUMSIE AND POPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

these couple weeks have been so hard but so good. I have never had so many people yell at me but i also have had so many miracles and little angels here to build me up! And you are 2 of them. Thank you :) We have been finding a lot...like 7 hours a day in the rain and typhoon! I have come to really like finding. But there is a better way. THROUGH REFERRALS! So mom and dad, please give the missionaries some referrals :) love your friends enough to give them the gospel. We have a recent convert over here who loves introducing her friends to the gospel. She is bringing two of them to church this coming sunday! pray that they will come and have interest in the gospel.

We are still teaching the girl named Au Yeuhng. Kelly dropped us :( but we still have Au Yeuhgn and she is amazing! She reads her scriptures and says her prayers and comes to church. She is a miracle. We will see her again this Saturday. What a great girl.

So let me start from last week. We had a China Hong Kong sports day!!! All the wards and friends in Hong Kong came and it was an all day celebration and members brought some friends. It was great. We got so meet new people and get to know all the members. Especially my Hong Kong island stake. I love them so much. 

I have also been having dreams...really vivid dreams. The most vivid this week was about finding and 2 foot long tacos. I can just tell you that hong kong just needs one thing. mexican food. well in my dream i was finding and finding and then i just got so hungry. I found this little chinese stand that usually sells little egg puffs and waffles. I asked them out of desperation, "do you have any tacos?!!??!?!!?!?!" then they whipped out this 2 foot long taco! It was amazing. And then i just walked around with it for a long time :) I love tacos.

We also had elder Rasband talk to us and he was also amazing. He and elder wong are amazing. And i am not supposed to let the cat out of the bag but GENERAL CONFERENCE IS GOING TO BE AMAZING IN OCTOBER!!!!! JUST WAIT! it is going to be so good. Watch the saturday morning session intently. (don't  worry there is nothing about me haha but it is going to be so good) GET READY!

Do you remember the deaf sister chan that got baptized in feb? well her son got baptized this past sunday in aberdeen! So that is the picture i sent :) 

I read a quote that i loved this week.

"Strong proactive obedience is anything but weak and passive. It is the means by which we declare our faith in God and qualify for the powers of heaven".

I love that. It is so true. We have to work hard for obedience and our faith but the outcome is amazing. THE POWERS OF HEAVEN. I have whitnessed that a lot on my mission. The powers of heaven are so real. Heavenly Father loves me so much. And He shows it. And faith is not just a made up felling of power. It is real. It is POWER. Not just to change our thoughts but to change US and the ability to help change others.  

I love you all so much and i hope you have a fantastic week. 

Until Monday :)

-sister A-Hung

Sept. 7, 2014

Hi there. 

This week was a great one but first things first we are going to the temple next week so i won't be able to email you until next thursday. Just a heads up!

#2.....my hair is falling out..i feel like i am going to look like dad before i get home (no offense daddy you look better with less hair). I don't know what to do! Everyday i look down and there is HUGE things of my hair just all over the place :( I need help! Please help me mom! Help me find a hair remedy!!!

So now to the amazing week i had! We have been finding finding finding (thanks mom for wanting us to find...but pray for us to teach more than find please :) ) and it has been pretty warm outside...and quite wet....but we have had SOOOOO MANY MIRACLES!!!!!!!!! 

Kelly: she is amazing! We thought we had lost her this week. She didn't answer the phone all week and we thought she got antied....and then BOOM one night we got a text from her! She said she was so sorry that her phone wasn't working correctly but she would see us at church on Sunday.... Well people say that a lot and then they don't show up. But my companion and I decided that we were going to pray HARD for Kelly. I remember in my prayer just being so specific and sincere. I just felt an assuring answer from Heavenly Father that I didn't need to worry...but I kept on praying anyway. Then we were at church waiting for her and it was almost time for church to start and no Kelly :(...and then SHE WALKED IN THE DOOR OF THE BEAUTIFUL CHAPEL OF WAN CHAI GLOWING WITH THE LIGHT OF CHRIST! she was there and ready to learn and go to church!!!! IT WAS SUCH A MIRACLE! Then we taught her after and she said that she is pretty sure it is true (not to mention in the talks everyone talked about the word of wisdom and tithing and a lot of commandments that a lot of people have trouble with) and Kelly didn't even fall asleep in church. It was amazing! She is so cute. Pray that she can be baptized on October 26th!

Au Yeuhng: We got to see her this week for the first time! She is also just as amazing. She also came to church (this is the first time i have had 2 investigators at church in a very long time!!!) well she went to church and loved it and they have both been reading and praying! Wow. Miracles happen and Heavenly Father loves ME! Au Yeuhng will be baptized on October 19th so pray for her too!!!!!!

Next is Li (high falling tone) A-Sim! *that is her name. She is a member referral all the way in Mainland China! i can't talk a lot about it here but let me tell you that she is so prepared! She just has to travel here every weekend to meet us and come to church. (mainland is so prepared!)

next we have A Mung (high falling tone) 

She was another miracle member referral from a recent convert in our ward! She came to church and just wanted to learn more about the gospel.  I don't know what happened these past 2 weeks but Chai Wan is exploding :) And i am so happy.

One of my favorite things that happen this week was STAKE CONFERENCE!

I walked into the church and all of a sudden i felt a surge of power! I looked around to see what this mysterious power was....it was ELDER WONG of the 70. He came to me and we talked for a second and then another bunch of power hit me. Elder wong looks at me and says :sister Hamblin, Have you met Elder Rasband?" Then elder Rasband took the elevator up with us to the top of the church. When he got out i just melted into the elevator door haha. It was just amazing. I love the priesthood power and just how you can really tell when someone is righteous and good! So elder Rasband and Wong talked at stake conference. That is probably why our investigators were feeling the spirit so strongly. Although it can happen in lessons as well, it is nice to have them see general authorities. 

Then at stake conference i got to see ALL the wards i have served in. (because i have served in the same stake my whole mission but just have serve in almost every ward in the stake! I saw KWUN TONG, NGAU TAU KOK, ABERDEEN, POK FU LAM, TSEUNG KWAN O, and CHAI WAN! I love the members so much. I have never felt more at home than at stake conference :) They are all my family. I got to see all the deaf member and investigators and Kasey and Helen! it was so so so good. This week was pretty amazing. 

My companion is having a really hard time though and so i am going to need some prayers and strength and help from heaven. Keep her in your prayers. I love you all so much :) 

la la love sister Hamblin

Aug. 31, 2014

August 31, 2014

HELLO!!

(wait so Rach is coming home early? What? YAY! so we will both be home for christmas?)

This week was a week. We had a lot lot lot of miracles. Like 2 really good miracles! We were able to meet a girl named Kelly on the street next to the promenade in Sai Wan Ho. Well we sat down and started to talk to her (me with my bad chinese and my companion with her......chinese haha) and she was just so sweet. She is 18 years old and just finished her BIG Hong Kong DSE test. Well we asked her what she has been doing and she said praying. She didn't do well on her test and so she was a mess. (if you don't do well on this test you have no hope in being anything other that working with food your whole life. Only one out of 7 teenagers who do well on this test get to go to a university. so it is a big deal.) well she was so sad and discouraged until one of her friends told her to try and say a prayer. She didn't believe in God or Jesus Christ but she thought, hey, why not. Well she prayed and she has had a huge change of heart. It was so great to hear her testimony of prayer. Then we testified of prayer and told her about the restored gospel. She then agreed to meet at out church to have a tour and listen to more. She came and we invited her to be baptized on October 26th. She accepted! It was amazing. The spirit was so strong. My companion did an amazing job at teaching and it was just miraculous. So Kelly is our miracle. 

Then like i said last week our bishop has been inviting us to pray for people to come to us. So we have been praying really hard for this. Well just as we were dropped by some investigators last night we got a call from the Tung Chung elders. They said that a member brought a family member to church today and this girl was so interested and then she lived in our area!!!!! so we called her and scheduled her and will see her this coming Saturday. Her name is Au Yeuhng. I am so excited to teach her and get to know her and help her to come unto Christ!!!! So please pray for Kelly and Au Yeuhng. 

We were also called by other elders to introduce a less active to us named Joey. She has probably the most sad life i have ever heard other than Job. Everyhting bad has happened to her! She is 19 years old and her grandparents mom and dad have died in 3 months. Well she is also an amazing girl and we are working on helping her gain a testimony of the church and the Atonement. 

Chai Wan is a great area and my companion is also amazing. She is so strong and willing to learn and try new things. Sometimes it is really hard to get her to talk to people but hey i understand. I really remember how i felt. But now i don't know how it is to not understand how it feels to not understand Chinese. I feel like everyone should know it! haha so i need more patience and love. 

We were able to go finding with some members today. I want to invite you all to go finding with the missionaries this week!!! You will change. I know it. try to take some time not only to have the missionaries over for dinner, but to actually go out with them! do the work with them!

So now some updates from ABERDEEN! remember when i was having a really hard time in Aberdeen and we didn't have any investigators for 4 months and then we found Helen?!?!!? well she got baptized yesterday :) Miracles happen. 

This morning during my study time i really put myself into the scriptures and a song came into my head. 

It talks about seeing the Savior

It talks about what we will do when we see Jesus. Will we sing praises to His name or will we fall at His feet. 

I can't wait until I see the Savior. I have never been more ready in my life. I love being a missionary. It is hard....really hard, but it is a lllll worth it. Every single rejection and drop of sweat. It is all worth it for Kasey Serina Ashley Kelly Au Yeuhgn and every single other person we have talked to and not yet talked to. I love these people so much. I love the member and the people who anti our church. I love the old ladies picking up wet boxes on the street and the busy rich business man going to work. 

Hong Kong is amazing and i can't imagine myself anywhere else at this time in my life. Thank you so much for encouraging me and supporting me and praying for me. You are my strength. You all and the Savior. Keep Him in your thoughts always and start to love all the people around you. Heavenlt Father is preparing the people of Arizona, Utah and Idaho. Germany, Holland, the D.R. and everyone all over the world! Be the light that they can look to to find their way to the Savior. I love you all so much

-sister Hamblin

pic: my beautiful city

August 24, 2014

Hello Family.

Sounds like everyone is doing great! Well my trainee came fresh from Utah America this week! Let me tell you that she doesnt know one BIT of Chinese.....I remember how it was a year ago when i first got here. IT WAS SO HARD! now i can look back and see all the miracles that happened because of faith, hard work, and prayer. Now i can speak decent chinese and i can get around! What a miracle it is to notice the change. Well she is from spanishfork utah and is 19 and white! and she is a giant compared to me and all the chineseees. I am just hoping and praying that she will get the language so that i can have someone to talk with me. My english isnt good and i just speak chinese all the time. I feel bad for her. Pray for sister Anderson (my companion).

Oh mom before i forget...can you please send some hair oil? it is called esquisite oil from matrix. I bought it at walmart in the salon place. If that wouldnt be too much of a hastle would you send me some of that? :) if not then that is ok too!.(and if you send that might as well put some reeses in there too :))

hmmm oh we had some great miracles this week!!!!!!! and the chai wan ward is amazing. We meet in the beautiful wan chai chapel. Bishop Ngh is also amazing. He called me and sister Anderson in his office yesterday and talked to us about his family and then told us of all the miracles that we will see with training and sister missionaries! he is a wonderful bishop. He gave us a whole bunch of cards with his signature and they are called invitation cards. He told us to give them to people on the street to invite them to come to church! So we will see how that goes! Then he told us that he and the ward have been praying to have people come to them to hear about the gospel and they have been having a lot of success with that too! But right now we dont have investiagtors :) so we will be doing a lot of finding again. But last night we did find a girl named joyce that is super nice and has interest so maybe she will be the one who will be baptized soon! :):) pray for miracles please. We need them. 

This week was kind of a up and down week. My cute little sompanion sister warner was transferred because i am training and she is so far away. It was so hard for me to say goodbye. It was rough. This picture is of us. and this other picture is my new companion. 

I love you tons.

-Sister Huhng