So Good!

Hello!

Well this week was transfers, so a little bit about transfer news I am staying down in Ft. Apache! But, my second half left me. Elder Whitehouse got transferred down to the valley and I have a new junior companion Elder Burt which means that the zone leaders are now split. So, I, as a Zone Leader, am in Ft. Apache and the other Zone Leader is in Pinetop. This is confusing unless you see a map so, I will draw a picture. BOOOM!!

So, there is a bunch of nothing between Whiteriver and Pinetop. In that way our zone is split into two districts one in Whiteriver and the other in Pinetop. So anyway, I am in Whiteriver and the other Zone Leader, Elder Jorden, is in Pinetop. It makes it interesting to work together but, we are managing. Hopefully it will work out well, it is just a little stressful. 

It has been interesting taking over the area. I haven't driven in like two months, and we may or may not have gotten lost a couple times this week. I miss the comfort of Elder Whitehouse knowing where to go and where everything is. Haha, he has been in the north area for six months and I got here a month ago. Okay, maybe a little longer than that but, I am less experienced none the less. Haha, it's been good though. I am enjoying it, it is fun to see the branch grow. 

We have been teaching a super good family the Ethelbahs. They are less active members that we re-activated and now that are coming to church. Now, the parents are the re-activated members and the children are not members. So, we have been working with them and helping their family be more united. I am excited for them, they are such great people and you can really see the change that is happening in there lives. I just hope they realize the joy that has come from keeping the commandments. Man, this sunday made me so happy! We had the Ethelbah, the Thomas and the Hernandez families at church and all of them are people I have been teaching for the past couple months. SO GOOD! 

Other than that not much has been happening down here, we found a good sincere lady that we had a pleasure to talk to. She was super nice and open to know about what her savior wants her to do. and honestly wanted to follow Jesus Christ so, hopefully she keeps the commitments we left with her to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if it is true. It's awesomely simple how happy we can be just by keeping the commandments of God. Because the commandments are how we distinguish the difference between good and evil. If you do good you feel good. So, there you go. Make sure you do good this week so you feel good. :)

Elder Hamson

I Love to See The Temple!

Hello!

Welp, the day of transfers has come and I am going nowhere so that is fun! I get to stay with my friends amongst the native people. I am getting a new companion Elder Burt and it should be a pretty good transfer. 

At the beginning of this week we had ZTM and it was a really great experience. We had some really good trainings about the atonement of Jesus Christ and about love, the pure love of Christ. All you need is a love for God and for everyone else. I think the biggest thing it did for our zone is that we are more unified as a zone. That was a great day.

Then, to add on that we had a temple trip on Wednesday. It was nice it was just our zone and President Robinson. Which is different because last time we went with three zones combined it was super crowded. It is always super good to go to the temple and it added to the spirit felt from the ZTM the day before.

We had a baptism on Saturday, the other Elders did but, it was my old area so, it was one of the investigators I taught. That was a super great service. We had like twenty to thirty people come out for it and it was a really cool baptism. That is kinda ridiculous for the reservation. That was just really cool for me because I taught her. Then, she walked up to me and asked me to do the confirmation at church the next day. So, that was super cool! So much good stuff! 

Right now I just said goodbye to my old companion and I ate some pie to get over it. Haha, i actually did eat some pie. You don't get that on the reservation. Well my update is finished but, let me know if you have questions for me because I love you too! 

I love you so I will give you pictures of my face.

Elder Hamson

Elder Zeballos

Dago tay, sic nae?

I started off this beautiful week with my old companion Elder Youngstrom, we went on exchanges with him to see how he is doing as a district leader. He is doing pretty awesome for being fresh out. I am so proud if him, my son! It was fun and refreshing to back in my old area for a day. I got to see some old friends and help Elder Youngstrom out. What a swell guy, wow! I also had an opportunity to go on exchanges with an Elder up the hill in Pinetop. This is kind of a new zone so, we wanted to get a good look into what happens up the hill. Anyways, I went on an exchange up there and it was good. It was weird not teaching Native Americans but, that's okay it was still missionary work. Man, I didn't spend any time in my own area. I was out and about all week.

Because, on Thursday we had another Zone Conference with Elder Zeballos of the seventy. He is a super cool guy and he had a lot to say.  He likes graphs and charts so that is cool. I love math and calculus so, it was fun looking at all the graphs. The coolest thing he mapped out is the correspondence between teaching repentance and baptism. For some reason it was beautiful how simple he made our calling look. I don't know how to explain it. But, then we had a MLC with him the next day. That was tedious because, we had to drive all the way to the valley for it and back. So, that took four hours there two hour MLC and four hours back but, we managed to use that time effectively and we planned out what we were going to train our zone on. And that Zone training meeting is tomorrow! XD Seriously so excited for that.

Then, as for how our investigators are doing. We had to drop a few because they didn't want to come to church but, we had some super good lessons yesterday with our progressing investigators. I think one of the biggest highlights of the week was went we came in contact with this lady on the street and taught her a little bit about the Book of Mormon because she asked us why we believe in it. We opened up to 3 Nephi where Christ comes to visit the Nephites. She really liked that and was excited to read it. It is complicated to explain the joy that filled her face when we gave her a copy and said she could read it. Christ is joy and the Book of Mormon contains the words of Christ so, go read the Book of Mormon today. Love you!

Elder Hamson

Pic: I show up down in the valley and I got attacked and caught with a whatever that is on.

Conference and Council Week

Hello! Hello!

Okay, let's see here... I had a bunch of meetings and conferences this week we barley did any teaching. To start off the week we had a Zone Conference with the Zone and President Robinson on Tuesday. It was a super good Zone Conference! It was focused on teaching the doctrine of repentance and I gave a training on using the pamphlet in teaching repentance. It went well, it always feels good to train fellow missionaries by the spirit. Probably the biggest thing that happened during that conference that I am excited about is that we are doing a mission wide Book of Mormon read focused on the doctrine of Christ. Which is the whole point of The Book of Mormon! So, that is exciting! I am already ten chapters in. :) 

Wednesday was one of our few proselyting days. No one was really home but, we managed to teach a couple people before our stake missionary meeting that night. It is actually a Ward Mission Leader Council meeting so, missionaries and ward mission leaders. It was good though, it went smoothly and we figured out somethings for our branch. Then, we had to pick up one of the assistants to the president missionaries for an exchange. So, he was with us on Thursday to see how we are doing. On Thursday, you guessed it, another meeting! We had a unity meeting this time for the missionaries that serve in our branch so we could work together. Thursday was fun, Elder Flake, the assistant, offered to let us drive his car to help us save on miles. Because, we only get a certain amount of miles we can drive each month. Anyway, since he doesn't know our area, I got to drive his fancy car and it was super fun! I felt bad though because, that there was a crazy monsoon and I got it all muddy. Oops! But, than we had to plan for our week half that day because we just didn't have time to plan any day else, too many meetings! 

So all day Friday we had a Mission Leadership Council with the mission President. It was good but, it is annoying because we just had one two weeks ago and another one this week. They want us to make sure to carry down the news and trainings to all of our zones so, stressful. But, that's okay they are super good trainings! I am just so high on spiritual knowledge from this week. 

Saturday and Sunday as many of you know was General Conference. President Uchtdorf had a perfect opening talk about the beautiful plan for our happiness. Then, President Nelson with his talk about the Joy of Christ! Ah! So good! Must reads! For sure!

Alright now go do something exciting!

Love y'alls!

Elder Hamson

This week?

Hi!

Well this week was good.

Sorry, this will be short but, I will give you beautiful pictures! So, don't worry! Everything is all right! 

We got a lot done but, I will only mention Wednesday. On Wednesday I went on an exchange with Elder Bailey from another district. He is a pretty cool guy and I enjoy spending the day with him but, it was a bit stressful because I have only been in this area two weeks. We had an opportunity to talk to a drunk man telling us an interesting story about a horse. He hugged us a few times and told us that he loved us. :) That's comforting. Anyway, the highlight of that exchange was this lesson with a recently converted family, the Thomas family. They are a great family and we managed to get our Branch president over there and we taught a great lesson about obedience. Now, this lesson had significance. Mormon 9, is particularly dear to my heart and I have had immensely powerful and spiritual experiences with teaching this lesson in he past. I can't really depict what exactly happened during that lesson. All I know is that I helped that family realize their divine potential. I promised blessings that I know can happen in their lives and I have seen happen in my life. Too much good can come form getting to know God. God is real. And to deny that fact, the devil has blinded your eyes. There is good and there is evil. In all things you should try to determine what is good and what is bad. God is good. He will help you and guide you. Goodness will have lasting rewards and blessings. God loves us, He loves you. Because of this he has his one true church on the earth. Is there no confusion needed. If you don't know God, get down on your knees and ask in he is there. Ask if he loves you, ask if there really is more to this life than Entertainment. I can promise you that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ church. Which means that there is a Prophet that is guided by Him. Consider the reality that this is true. Because, this means living forever in pure joy and happiness. This means that you can be sealed to your family and live with God as a family. We must choose good to be eternally happy. In order to choose good we have to know the truth of what is good.  So, have faith, ask for truth, and choose the right. It's been the secret to life from the beginning. I love you all, that is why I leave you these things in the very name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Elder Hamson

Luau

Heyoh!

This week started off nice and chilly and their was some good hope for
fall. Unfortunately it has gotten hot again but, hopefully that won't
stay long. Come to think of it I don't know if I packed any warm
clothes. I am serving in the mountains where their will be snow so, I
am excited! (assuming they don't transfer me) We found seven new
investigators this week and each one has so much potential. I just
hope they recognize the spirit that was felt and act on the message.
All we ask people to do is to pray and ask God to answer the questions
they have. Then we teach them how to pray, and how to study the
scriptures. One of those investigators' names is chatty. We taught
Chatty about Prophets and how God's priesthood authority works. She
had a couple questions but, for the most part understood what we were
claiming. I shared my testimony about what blessings come and how
these restored truths with unite her family forever. It made me think
about my family and how much I love them. It made me think about my
life and how happy and secure my home is. It reassured me how much
these people need this gospel. Anyone really that feels alone or is
lost or can't seem to find peace in their life deserve a chance for
eternal peace and eternal happiness. We are out here to offer that
chance to those who will be humble enough to receive it.

We had an MLC this week, which means Mission Leadership Council. We
found out we are having another MLC next week, plus Zone Conference.
To make it even crazier the week after that we have another MLC
because a general authority is coming to our mission. October a temple
trip and December a Zone Conference and temple trip. So much meetings.
(<--- I know, excuse my grammer it is just something my old companion
used to do)

We had a branch activity this week that we had planned for for like a
month. It was a Hawaiian Luau. It went super well. We had a bunch of
people show up and it ran smoothly. It is kind of stress full with the
chaos of childs everywhere. It was cool I played drums on a plastic
bucket while Elder Kuewa did his cultural dance thing. I also won at
this balloon race game thing. (<--- oops I lied just then)

So, I have been doing good. Thanks for asking! ;) All is well, just
getting excited for General conference next week! How about you!?

We'll talk later my lovely people!
Elder Hamson