August 29, 2018 Update:
Familia,
How'dy y'all! It's been a good 'ole week. I was asked to perform a baptism this past Friday! That's not too shabby. There will be another baptism this Saturday for our one Spanish person being taught, Rosie. We actually had David Archuleta come to a lesson with her this week. David lives just North of Nashville and Elder Murdock knows him pretty well so Elder Murdock invited him to a lesson with us. He's pretty cool. He likes Studio Ghibli so David and I kinda geeked out over that for a bit. Oh! And I met some members of the Church that run a goat yoga thing! It's where you do yoga and these little goats play with you, jump on you and stand on you. And there is a ton of people and come out a do it! Mostly for the crazy experience and for pictures and social media, but they have a lot of people that come out and do it. Celebrities and work business retreats of bus loads of people. Crazy stuff but they say it's a fill time job and they love it. Well, sure do love y'all!
Elder Hamblin
How'dy y'all! It's been a good 'ole week. I was asked to perform a baptism this past Friday! That's not too shabby. There will be another baptism this Saturday for our one Spanish person being taught, Rosie. We actually had David Archuleta come to a lesson with her this week. David lives just North of Nashville and Elder Murdock knows him pretty well so Elder Murdock invited him to a lesson with us. He's pretty cool. He likes Studio Ghibli so David and I kinda geeked out over that for a bit. Oh! And I met some members of the Church that run a goat yoga thing! It's where you do yoga and these little goats play with you, jump on you and stand on you. And there is a ton of people and come out a do it! Mostly for the crazy experience and for pictures and social media, but they have a lot of people that come out and do it. Celebrities and work business retreats of bus loads of people. Crazy stuff but they say it's a fill time job and they love it. Well, sure do love y'all!
Elder Hamblin
August 22, 2018 Update:
Familia,
Another week flies by here in Dickson. It's been quite a hoot trying to teach spanish with Elder Doman and Elder Murdock! It's seems like all I can remember is "puedo ir al bano?" Haha. I understand pretty well but when it comes to joining the conversation, I can't seem to untie my tongue. It seriously gives me a heart attack every time someone just makes eye contact during a lesson because I have to rack my brain for a possible response I can construct with the like 13 words I know. And there are not a lot of possible outcomes with only 13 words haha. We did just start teaching our spanish investigator Rosie how to speak English and it's pretty dang funny. Y's become j's. And she just can't make that th sound and the beginning of the. She's a sweetheart though and we've had a lot of fun. Sometimes my brain is fried and I just play with her grandson Dylan.
We went to the temple (for baptisms for the dead) on Friday with a recent convert for her first time. And they had a little extra space so we got to participate. And Elder Murdock and Elder Doman got to perform baptisms in Spanish. That was rad.
We have this awesome investigator, Victor. He's 20 something and married to a member. They are super cool and feed us wings occansionaly. Victor is practically a member but just hasn't got wet yet. They drove us down to the temple on Friday and Victor got to go into the temple visitor room and check that out for a bit and loved it. And on Sunday, Rosie (only speaks spanish) needed a translator in our Sunday school class so we asked Victor to do it and he was so excited! He came up after and said he was going to study the next lesson in Spanish and English so he would be better prepared. It's cool giving someone opportunities to serve can help them grow and strengthen their testimony.
Sure do love y'all,
Elder Hamblin
Another week flies by here in Dickson. It's been quite a hoot trying to teach spanish with Elder Doman and Elder Murdock! It's seems like all I can remember is "puedo ir al bano?" Haha. I understand pretty well but when it comes to joining the conversation, I can't seem to untie my tongue. It seriously gives me a heart attack every time someone just makes eye contact during a lesson because I have to rack my brain for a possible response I can construct with the like 13 words I know. And there are not a lot of possible outcomes with only 13 words haha. We did just start teaching our spanish investigator Rosie how to speak English and it's pretty dang funny. Y's become j's. And she just can't make that th sound and the beginning of the. She's a sweetheart though and we've had a lot of fun. Sometimes my brain is fried and I just play with her grandson Dylan.
We went to the temple (for baptisms for the dead) on Friday with a recent convert for her first time. And they had a little extra space so we got to participate. And Elder Murdock and Elder Doman got to perform baptisms in Spanish. That was rad.
We have this awesome investigator, Victor. He's 20 something and married to a member. They are super cool and feed us wings occansionaly. Victor is practically a member but just hasn't got wet yet. They drove us down to the temple on Friday and Victor got to go into the temple visitor room and check that out for a bit and loved it. And on Sunday, Rosie (only speaks spanish) needed a translator in our Sunday school class so we asked Victor to do it and he was so excited! He came up after and said he was going to study the next lesson in Spanish and English so he would be better prepared. It's cool giving someone opportunities to serve can help them grow and strengthen their testimony.
Sure do love y'all,
Elder Hamblin
August 15, 2018 Update:
Familia,
There goes another week here in Dickson! The work here has been busy busy busy. I've never taught so much my entire mission. I love it! President Stone wants to put another set of missionaries here and that would be great for Dickson, but I kind of like teaching all these people and I don't really want to share haha. Oh well, we will see what happens in a couple of weeks.
My mission president has asked me to stay out an additional 2 days, something to do with flights or something, so I will be flying into Oakland on the 14th of December! (sorry mom, I know you just got the 12th off)
I think it was Thursday or Friday night last week when we got a knock on our door in the middle of the night. Well, it wasn't really the middle of the night, but it felt like it. It was 10pm, but we go to bed at like 9:30pm so it practically was the middle of the night. Elder Doman was already in bed, Elder Murdock was in the shower, so I answer the door. Standing there is a lower 20s guy holding a pizza box. I think "heck yeah, one of our moms ordered pizza!". I ask him if the pizza was ours, he said yes. I'm just getting more and more pumped for late night pizza. I ask is it payed for, he says yes. I am just so excited now! And then he says "by me."... All these thoughts go through my head like Well huh? What? That doesnt make sense. Who the heck are you? What kind of pizza is in there? I finally ask "who are you?". He says he is formally Elder Jorgensen. That name rings a bell. We have a poster that all the missionaries sign when they leave the area and I remember reading an elder Jorgensen on the poster. So I go oh I remember reading your name and I go to read the poster on the other side of the kitchen. When I find is name, I point at it and look back and now this formerly elder Jorgensen is standing in our kitchen just holding the pizza box. I freak out a little because missionary apartments are like sacred places. You do not go into a missionary apartment. That's major taboo. So I plant myself in front of the door way to the rest of the house so this formerly elder Jorgensen doesn't bum rush in and try to steal my companion or something weird. Formerly Elder Jorgensen and I awkwardly chat for a bit and he tells me he is here for a wedding and that he will pick us up for breakfast tomorrow at 7am. He then drops the pizza and leaves. Elder Murdock peaks his head out of the bathroom and asked who the heck that was. I related the story to him and while I cracked open the pizza box and to find that half the pizza was gone hahaha. Elder Murdock and I just sit down and laugh at what happened and ate that other half (it was the pull off crust pieces that were dippable, way good). And then formerly Elder Jorgensen took us to a Shoneys breakfast buffet the next morning.
Sure do love y'all,
Elder Hamblin
There goes another week here in Dickson! The work here has been busy busy busy. I've never taught so much my entire mission. I love it! President Stone wants to put another set of missionaries here and that would be great for Dickson, but I kind of like teaching all these people and I don't really want to share haha. Oh well, we will see what happens in a couple of weeks.
My mission president has asked me to stay out an additional 2 days, something to do with flights or something, so I will be flying into Oakland on the 14th of December! (sorry mom, I know you just got the 12th off)
I think it was Thursday or Friday night last week when we got a knock on our door in the middle of the night. Well, it wasn't really the middle of the night, but it felt like it. It was 10pm, but we go to bed at like 9:30pm so it practically was the middle of the night. Elder Doman was already in bed, Elder Murdock was in the shower, so I answer the door. Standing there is a lower 20s guy holding a pizza box. I think "heck yeah, one of our moms ordered pizza!". I ask him if the pizza was ours, he said yes. I'm just getting more and more pumped for late night pizza. I ask is it payed for, he says yes. I am just so excited now! And then he says "by me."... All these thoughts go through my head like Well huh? What? That doesnt make sense. Who the heck are you? What kind of pizza is in there? I finally ask "who are you?". He says he is formally Elder Jorgensen. That name rings a bell. We have a poster that all the missionaries sign when they leave the area and I remember reading an elder Jorgensen on the poster. So I go oh I remember reading your name and I go to read the poster on the other side of the kitchen. When I find is name, I point at it and look back and now this formerly elder Jorgensen is standing in our kitchen just holding the pizza box. I freak out a little because missionary apartments are like sacred places. You do not go into a missionary apartment. That's major taboo. So I plant myself in front of the door way to the rest of the house so this formerly elder Jorgensen doesn't bum rush in and try to steal my companion or something weird. Formerly Elder Jorgensen and I awkwardly chat for a bit and he tells me he is here for a wedding and that he will pick us up for breakfast tomorrow at 7am. He then drops the pizza and leaves. Elder Murdock peaks his head out of the bathroom and asked who the heck that was. I related the story to him and while I cracked open the pizza box and to find that half the pizza was gone hahaha. Elder Murdock and I just sit down and laugh at what happened and ate that other half (it was the pull off crust pieces that were dippable, way good). And then formerly Elder Jorgensen took us to a Shoneys breakfast buffet the next morning.
Sure do love y'all,
Elder Hamblin
August 8, 2018 Update:
Hola Familia,
Just another week in paradise (Dickson). We have been having a heck of a time here in Dickson. Elder Murdock (blue tie in picture) and Elder Doman (green tie in picture) have come into Dickson with a fire! We had a baptism on Saturday and we had 10 people at church (roughly a fourth of the entire mission, 10/46). We are teaching people in Cumberland Furnace (30 minutes north), Kingston Springs (30 minutes east), Hickman County (30 minutes south), and Erin (45 minutes north east). We drive a lot and we teach a lot. And a lot is going on. President Stone has talked about bringing in another set of missionaries. Selfishly I'd like to keep all the work to myself, but if there is work to do, why not get the extra help.
We have been doing some good Spanish work. I've been slowly dusting off the cobwebs and things are coming back to me. I can follow along with lessons and conversations but things move so fast that I can't formulate a sentence with my limited vocabulary to join in with the teaching. I do enjoy reading when we crack open that El Libro de Mormon though.
Love,
Elder Hamblin
August 1, 2018 Update:
Howdy howdy!
It is the end of the transfer and Elder Carlson will be leaving the area. He's going to travel around a little before going home and train some missionaries. It's been fun and we got a lot done! But this next transfer is going to be a little different. Here's some quick background info. July and August are ususally when big groups of new missionaries come into the mission field (usually kids that just come out of high school). It is also when big groups of missionaries go home. That creates kind of a vacuum of missionary leadership and trainers (the experienced are leaving and their is an influx of brand new). This transfer, President Stone had 3 new Spanish speaking missionaries that he didn't know what to do with. The Spanish missionaries that are already serving are either already training, or aren't responsible enough to train a new missionary. We then get a text from President Stones assistants asking us to figure out who's had the most Spanish education. I put my name in the running, bragging about my 5 years in middle school and high school (my last Spanish class was 7ish years ago haha, but I didn't tell them that!). I get a call from President Stone yesterday saying I'll be training one of the new Spanish missionaries! I'll actually be trio training the new missionary with another Spanish speaking missionary. I'm not officially a Spanish speaking missionary, but gosh dang it I'll do my best to speak like one! Our bishop and ward Mission leader are both very excited. The ward Mission leader was the Bishop of the one Spanish ward in our mission and him and bishop want to start a Spanish group here. We've also been trying our best to teach some Spanish speaking people (we've had some church tours and such), but it will be so nice to have some missionaries that actually know how to speak Spanish! President Stone anticipates that the Dickson ward will be the highest baptizing unit in the mission by the end of the year. And we've had a slow start so far, so we better get moving!
Sure do love y'all!
Elder Hamblin
