Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!! 

I love you guys! You are all great! Your Savior loves you! Man do I have some gospel for you guys. This week has been great and super Easter-licious. We successfully did some contacting and have two new potential investigators to go teach. Also, cool story! Mark is getting baptized! It is actually a funny story. Elder Robinson has been trying to reach out to an investigator they have been teaching Mark Hamlin, and he was always busy and avoiding them and they were going to drop him. So, one day they decided to call him and when they did he was super excited and wanted to learn more and take the lessons. Which of course came as a surprise to Elder Robinson and his comp Elder Bateman. (Lol, I know Bat(e)man and Robin(son)) Anyway they meet at the member's home they invited him too and here comes Mark Hamlin. But, he did not look like the Mark they were reaching out too. So they taught him as they were a bit unprepared because they had no idea who this guy was and why he claimed to be Mark Hamlin. Anyway they find out that the other Mark Hamlin is actually a Mark Prescott and they just assumed he was Mark Hamlin. Haha, so we taught the real Mark Hamlin the first lesson and he was super solid and I asked if he wanted to you know... be baptized, and he said yes. He is super faithful and loves what we have to teach and he wants to get over his coffee and smoking problems. It is great! Also, that means I successfully invited my first investigator to be baptized! And that is saying a lot because our areas covers maybe 600 people total, and 80% of those are LDS, and the other 19% have had past experiences with missionaries. Haha it sounds tough but, it is great. You get to know everyone in the town real quick and as soon as someone moves in we are ready to serve them with in a heart beat. So, yeah that is my mission story. Easter has been great! I love easter and all the emotional Jesus Christ videos out there. We have been sharing Easter messages all weekend. My Easter was perfect. We went to the Taylor 3rd ward and they had an Easter program. They sang songs about Jesus Christ and his Atonement and it his me so hard I was almost crying. Especially the primary song about Gethsemane. "Gethsemane, Jesus loves me, so he went willingly, to Gethsemane" I love my redeemer, Jesus Christ SO MUCH and this week has been so spiritual for me as I cry to peoples hearts my testimony of the atonement and the suffering in Gethsemane. It brings me to such an emotional/spiritual state every time I think about how much pain He went through, how much love that took and it honestly makes me want to love my bothers and sister so much. I hurts me to see people feel that spirit of what we teach and what God wants them to hear, then to deny those feelings and not partake of that love and joy that brings so much happiness. Anyway this is a little long. I just love Easter so much and what Jesus Christ means to me. This is my favorite time of year and I am so thankful to be helping God's Children find Him as well. Loves all around!

Love you and my Savior 

Elder Hamson

SNOWFLAKE the Cool Mountains

Hi You Lovelies,

The last week in the MTC was interesting, it was weird being the veterans of the place and surreal that we were leaving. It was good though, I had the opportunity to go to the Provo City Center Temple Dedication!  That was an interesting day because we went to the dedication, sacrament meeting, a departing devotional, a sunday devotional, and a Bednar talk on video. Crazy end to a great over all experience. I am going to miss my district. So, I made it to Scottsdale Arizona! You know that one place in Arizona where I am supposed to be serving my mission.  Well, I have been sent up the mountains to serve in the Snowflake area.  It's super up here we cover a couple wards in Snowflake and one in Taylor. Oh, I learned there is a town somewhere down here that is named Linden. There are a lot of copied Utah town names down here. Anyway my new companion is Elder Robinson! He is great, he is from Rexburg Idaho and has only been her for 3 1/2 months. He is super hard working though it is great! We get along and he is just all around great guy. The first night in snowflake we got to talk to an investigator named Johnny and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he agreed to meet with us this after noon. So, that is fun and great. We haven't even done any hard core missionary work yet but it feels like I'm experienced at this and it's not scary really. I already know I am going to like this area. It's super nice the locals love the missionaries and everyone is spaced out, out here. It reminds me of some towns in Idaho actually. Elder Robinson actually has a baptism lined up for April 9th! How cool is that. We get to share Baptism dates and my Birthday! His name is Angel and he is a foster kid with a Mormon host family. That is exciting, this work is exciting and I hope you all are enjoying life. You are all great, stay strong!

I love you all! Like a lot and tons!

Elder Hamson

Pics: The cactus at the bottom of the mountains, the view from the top, and Elder Robinson and I.

Week 2

Hello MY FRIENDS!

It felt like I just did this yesterday. This week went by so fast and now I am 5 days away form being out in the field! Just a little intense. haha This week has been good though! We have what are called TRC visits. It is a visit with an investigator basically! Like they mean business here, we jump right into teaching. The investigator that we teach has a 10% chance of being an actually investigator. So, it's super nice because you never know and have to treat each visit seriously. The investigators we have are Jessica and Chad. Jessica is super chill and kind of quiet. We managed to get her to commit to go to church last week and we have been learning about baptism with her. Chad on the other hand won't stop talking. haha But, he has strong faith in Jesus Christ and God so, he is golden. We invited him to be baptised yesterday and we helped him understand what makes us stand out.  He said he would consider it but, he is super interested in the Book of Mormon. So, that was great we had a little Book of Mormon nerd out because we were so excited he wanted to learn what The BoM teaches about Jesus Christ.

Sooo yeah! I am so excited! If the mission is going to anything like what the MTC has been like I think I am set and know that it's something I want to do. I'm not the greatest teacher but, I can bear my testimony for dayzz. Which has been working so far, that's been nice, to have a little look into how it feels to be a successful missionary. Plan, study, teach, and repeat. Seems kind of boring but I haven't gotten bored of reading PMG and The BoM so I hope that continues.

The Food here has been wrecking me BTW. It seems like every other meal my body gives up and dies inside as my digestive system tries to get revenge on me. But, anyway it tastes good like the other day was Chik fil' a day at the MTC and that night there was seriously a line for the bathroom because everyone got rekt. haha I'll stop. All you need to know is that I am successfully growing toward being the best missionary I can be and having fun doing it. Don't forget to send me those DearElder's!!!! I will be here until the 21st of March. Send them quick! Or just send a physical letter in the mail, what ever floats your goat.

Pic: Some newb wanted to try my jacket. (Kind of funny I guess if you like making fun of peoples differences in elevation. haha jk ;)

I love you! Yes, YOU!

Elder Hamson

Hi Everyone!

Hey everyone!

Tim here! The MTC is pretty great! It started a little slow but, as soon as I got to Sunday it sped up a bit. My first companion is Elder Guthrie! He is pretty chill and kind of quiet but, he likes green and plays drums. So, we have some things in common. They really throw you into things here with a 16 hour schedule where you are doing stuff and overwhelmed with spiritual highs and sometimes emotional lows.  The stress is real here and I can't wait for things to calm down and get out to the field. Days feel like weeks here and this week makes me feel like I have been doing this for months. You just learn so much here and feel the spirit every time you remember to pray and focus. You get an hour everyday to exercise and it's great! Half the time I work out with Elder Mcintosh and other times I play some basketball. All good fun! My cousin Seth moved into my building like the second day here. He is chill and I enjoy relaxing with him at the end of the day. It can feel like prison here sometimes, but it isn't because the gate is always open and the schedule is up to your obedience. It is just so weird when we go on temple walks and can actually see the sky and the mountains. haha But, it's good you learn so much here in a short period of time that it feels like a ton. I'm kinda lazy but, I'm dedicated enough to put in the work. It's silly but I'm figuring it out. So, probably the most spiritual experience here is when the sisters of our district asked for a blessing.  I got so excited to do that because I love blessings.  So, to make sure everyone got a good experience from it. I took the Elders out in the hall and asked the sisters to Pray. I talked to the Elders about the seriousness and to prepare to feel crazy amounts of spirit and use tons of faith. Thankfully they knew what they were doing and have done it before except Elder Guthrie. We did the blessings and I gave the sisters an opportunity to bear their testimony and I can neither confirm nor deny that I balled my eyes out. It was beautiful and I love hearing from them. I love my district. We are all bros and I love the sisters. (Not in a flirty way :P Get over yourselves) I love you all too! haha Love all around!

Love all you beautiful people so much!

Really feeling the love here!

God loves you as well!

Elder Tim Hamson

Pics: My district and then my full branch

He is off!

Well, he is off.  Tim went into the MTC on March 2nd.  Despite having done it before, that last hug that has to last for two years is hard.

We gathered with some extended family and enjoyed lunch together before dropping Tim off.  As we arrived at the MTC, we were on the look out for Tim's cousin Seth who entered the MTC two weeks ahead of Tim.  As cars arrive at the MTC to drop off missionaries, there is a traffic controller who sends cars to the right or to the left, depending on where there is room.  As we neared the front of the line, we spotted Seth off to our right.  The two cars ahead of us were sent to the right, so I headed the van in that direction.  Unfortunately, the traffic guy wanted us to go left.  The chorus in the van was loudly demanding "go right."  But I had no good answer for the suspicious traffic guy's query of "why?"  So left we went.

Tim will be in the MTC for about 3 weeks.  Don't send anything that will arrive after March 18th.  His address for these next weeks is:

Elder Timothy Hamson
MAR21 AZ-SCDL
2005 N 900 E Unit  35
Provo UT 84602

This blog will be updated weekly with Tim's weekly report.

Here we go!