Job in Beijing

FAM BAM,

They said I would receive blessings from coming on a mission, but I never expected this one: I got a job in Beijing. Here's the story. My companion and I were walking the neighborhoods, as we normally do, when we spotted a man. Like the persistent and diligent missionaries we can be, we pounced. He turns to greet us and after a couple of seconds he invites us in from the rain. After some small talk where we learned that he recently moved in, even though it was somewhat apparent when all he had was a chair with a rice cooker on top of it. We ask some basic questions to get to know him and he recently moved here from Beijing to work at a nearby university to help research fuel cells or something. He starts asking us questions like who are you and why are you dressed funny. Unlike his neighbors with heavily influenced Baptist backgrounds, he has no idea who Mormons are and very little knowledge about Jesus Christ. This is completely new because the vast majority of people we teach are active in a church of their own. When we come back for our return appointment, he is baffled by our timing, not uncommon with missionaries. As we walk in, I see he has a small TV set up with a show he had paused. In the corner it says the name of the TV show in English with all other subtitles in simplified Chinese. I comment on the show asking if it was "White Deer" or the only English words I can see. He exclaims "You watch White Deer?! It is incredible!" He continues on for a bit leaving no room for me to explain I don't watch White Deer, and all I could do is politely nod to his obvious joy. I still haven't told him, but we will see. Anyway, he is very impressed by me and says I must know a lot about Chinese history, yet again leaving no time for me to deny. He remembers me saying I studied engineering before my mission and says I have to come work for him and his family in Beijing as an engineer when I graduate. So now I have a job and a new friend haha. 

In all seriousness, I am extremely happy serving here in Nashville TN. I have begun to forget that I am dressed funny and that what I do is not the most common thing and can make people fairly uncomfortable. I have been enveloped by this work and this cause and have seen so many blessings for not only me, but also for the people who need and accept it. Keeping praying for me, cause I need it! I love all of you so much! Go VOLS!

Love,

Elder Hamblin  

Mid-June Update

To Dad

Fajo,

So the assignment of district leader for the McMinnville district has allowed me to stay in the Tullahoma area. The district includes McMinnville, Manchester, Tullahoma, and Winchester and a few of the surrounding small cities. Like Lynchburg with the Jack Daniel's distillery which is ironically a dry county. So I'm still in Tullahoma and now it's just me and Elder Wadsworth. I'm really thankful he stayed. He is a good missionary that I trust and know I can rely on.

Life as a missionary has been a little bit tough the last two weeks. We had a baptism canceled which led me to be a little bit sad and unfocused. That has transitioned into more frustration and anger. And I think it has shown a little bit with how I've treated our investigators and random people on the street. The discussions have been more about showing them the logical fallacies with their faith as opposed to teaching with the Spirit and lifting them up higher than where they are. My companion and I had a good chat about it and I plan to refocus on loving those I teach and allowing space for the Spirit to teach and testify to them.

I am still with a full time car thank goodness! Tell her to drive safe and be wary of the random storms. We have random storms like that about every other week. Heat bakes the humidity. It evaporates rapidly which leads to rapid collection of the liquid which leads to rapid dispersion of said liquid. And then it starts again. 

I don't know if I've lost any weight recently, but I have been eating a lot healthier and have a ton more energy. People here don't all like people from California, they are still considered Yanks, so I have been telling people I'm from Oregon and they like me a lot more now haha.


Thanks for all the love and support and prayers. I need it.

Love 
Elder Hamblin

New Assignment as District Leader

Dear Elder Hamblin, 

Thank you for accepting the new assignment to serve as a district leader in the McMinnville district. Heavenly Father has great trust in you. As a leader in the mission, please continue to earn His trust each day. 

District leaders have a huge impact on the success of our mission. You will have more direct contact with the missionaries than any other leader in the mission, besides their trainers. You will train the missionaries in your district, through exchanges with the elders and through district meetings. As our district leaders go, so goes the mission. 

Remember that President Monson has taught “whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.” He has also taught that “when you are on the Lord’s errand, you are entitled to the Lord’s help.” Seek the Lord’s guidance, as you serve the missionaries in your district. He knows the missionaries, and He will help you to know what to do.

Being a successful district leader is far more about what you do than about what you say. Please lead by example. Find constantly, teach repentance from the Book of Mormon, and baptize converts. Be a Preach My Gospel missionary and a Missionary Handbook missionary, by striving to be exactly obedient. If you do these things, and if you teach others how to do that, then you will be a successful district leader. Remember that you are a keeper of the TNM Christ-centered culture of high expectations and charity.

I love you. Lift, build and inspire the best efforts of the missionaries in your district. Missionary work can be challenging. Always seek to encourage missionaries in their faith and joy. Let charity be your guiding motivation in all that you do as a district leader. I believe in you, and I know that with the Lord’s help you will be successful. You will be in my prayers daily.

Love,

Jared W. Stone
President, Tennessee Nashville Mission

Tattoos and Misc. Pics

Amish Yo-Yos and Bug Catching

Familia! 

Elder Wadsworth keeps talking about requesting more missionaries for the Manchester area. I haven't been in enough areas to justify taking missionaries out of another area to put them here, but I do know that we are constantly working. The work is moving forward here and after this last ward conference with President Crawford speaking about missionary work, I think the members will be even more excited to share the gospel. I think having a trio here is really helpful. When we are so busy that we have to do splits, we only need one member to pick up one of us and the other two can go there way. We have only had to do that once or twice, but it helps a lot. Diana Shuster is currently on date for the June 10th and she has already expressed concerns for after baptism. She has solid fellowshippers that drive her 50 minutes to church every week. She has been keeping her commitments and loves the gospel principles teachers. We drive an hour out to see her twice a week and have had very spiritual lessons with her. She gave me an Amish yo-yo and some strawberry jam last visit. We recently tracted into a young man with a young son. He expressed his concerns for where his life was. He worked all the time, he never got to spend time with his son, he has a drinking problem and just overall wasn't happy. On our return visit with him, he decided to quit drinking and hasn't touched it since. We asked him what we could do to help and suggested we text a scripture verse a day. During the week we texted him every morning with a scripture verse, with no reply. Yesterday, he called us and politely said he was busy that afternoon and wouldn't be able to meet but he wants to meet again. Then, during the same phone call, started asking us about the priesthood authority and how it seemed like the priesthood made men more powerful when we were supposed to be equal. We told him that priesthood authority was for the sole purpose of serving those around you and that it made the priesthood holder more of a servant. He loved that. We have high hopes for him.

Elder Wadsworth, Elder Anders, and I have been doing really well. They are incredible at lifting me up by helping me with my goals, pushing me to try new ways to teach and find, and reinforcing the things I do right. They are great missionaries and are great examples. I am happy and well! I have my parents and friend back home working on getting my patriarchal blessing. That should be it for this report.

Much love,

Elder Hamblin

Update and First Skype Call

Familia,

This week has been filled with success and we are having blessings showered on us. I had the really cool experience this past week to fast for a quality member referral. I have received referrals before this point, but they had been thought up on the spot and hadn't led to much success. The very Sunday I fasted, two new members in the ward brought their neighbor to church. These new members and the investigator they brought live 50 minutes from the church. She has read up to Jacob and all of third Nephi in the Book of Mormon. We have high hopes for her. We also have two young adults with baptismal dates. One is part of a part member family and is fourteen. She has a huge desire to be baptized, but not to read the Book of Mormon or go to church. It is difficult for her to attend sacrament meeting because she lives about 45 minutes from and her siblings and dad are always working on Sunday. we recently discovered her aunt is an active member in the ward and we are in the works of getting her to pick up the young investigator. Our second individual with a baptismal date is a young man who was interested in the church when we were meeting with a less active member. The less active member had recently started selling his banana pudding recipe to grocery stores and we called 5 minutes after some big event in the selling process. He considered it a huge sign and was telling all his family and his family's family that they needed to go back to church and be baptized. The young man with a baptismal date is the nephew of the less active. Here in Tullahoma we are constantly busy and working hard. The area has been prepared before us and as we listen to the Spirit, we are led to those who are prepared. We have recently begun shortening our lessons because we see that is more spiritually enticing to have short lessons and because we have so many people to talk with, we have to shorten our meetings.

The companionship is incredible. Elder Wadsworth continues to be an incredible example of a missionary who is spiritually based and focused wholly on bringing people to Christ and listening to the Spirit as we teach. He does not clutter the minds of investigators with pointless info. He does everything he can to invite the Spirit to testify ad confirm the message. Elder Anders after Zone Conference has perked up and has taken huge initiatives to be leading conversations and be actively involved in lessons. He listens well and always brings the conversation back to focus on our unique message.

There is not much to say on my current well being. Spiritually, I am currently trying to build my testimony upon the Book of Mormon. I have taken to much pray, personal study, and pondering in my heart. Temporally, I am focused on scripture mastery, in particular verses from the Book of Mormon. I am blessed to see progress. One thing of note would be that I think Mothers Day has been the most difficult day in the mission so far. The beginning of the mission was difficult because I was learning how to work hard and building my foundation of missionary skills. After the Skype call, it kind of hit me that I was a missionary again. The yoke of the mission call was again rested upon my shoulders and I had to readjust to that again. Just a different mindset being a missionary and being with family and friends. But I am working back into the swing of things. Anywho, that's it! Sure do love y'all!!

Tally-Ho,

Elder Hamblin

Mission President Update

President Stone, 

The work here in Tullahoma is busy. We spent this past Saturday helping our Elders Quorum President, Relief Society President, and First Counselor in the bishopric helping someone move out at last minute. The individual being moved out was a less active who unfortunately was being evicted. She was given 1 day, or that was what was told to the bishopric, to move out. The ward needed help so we stepped in. However, instead of canceling our 5 appointments for the day, we decided to help move then get dressed in white shirts, teach the lesson, get changed again, and then start helping again until our next lesson. We did this four or five times throughout the day. By the time we finished moving two members and teaching our four lessons, we were spent. Just exhausted. We were debating driving back to town and finishing up the day with maybe companion study, but we decided to visit one more family. This family is hard to contact especially the dad because everyone works odd hours as a firefighter, but we caught them when they were all home. We sat down and within 5-10 minutes had set a baptismal date with their daughter. The Lord clearly was extending an obvious blessing. This experience has shown me that the mission always presents an opportunity to take that next step, to go a little bit farther. When we make that extra effort, the Lord without fail will bless us. Now because of this last Saturday, the bishopric, Relief Society, and Elders Quorum all sang praises of us at church and the members love us. So many blessings!! 

The companionship is incredible. I feel sometimes teaching in a companionship of 3 can be difficult because we have 3 different thought processes going on and you have to balance 3 different people in the lesson in terms of speaking. This companionship, however, has been able to balance the lessons and has been able to maintain unity while teaching very well.

I'm great. Nothing major to report. I'm happy and getting much better at setting goals and making plans to achieve those goals. Let me know if I can do anything! 

Ooo I got a new aloe plant, so any tips to keep it alive would be awesome! 

Con Amor, 

Elder Hamblin