An Unfortunate Dislocation

We went for a hike on Saturday the 8th. It was a pretty good hike. We hiked for a little over a mile and came to this over looking bluff. So of course we had to climb it to see the valley we just hiked from. Now climbing down was a little tricky and I went a different way from where we all came up. My hand holds weren't the best and I lost my grip. As I started to fall backwards I turned around in an effort to land safely. I landed on my own two feet and everything was okay. But, then I looked at my feet. It turns out my right foot was a little out of order. I fractured my Talius and my ankle was dislocated from were it was supposed to be. Pretty nasty! Unfortunately I will have to return home for at least 10 weeks. It might be more than that. But, I know God has a plan for me and my Mission President said I would be able to return and finish my mission.

I am grateful for all of you.

Elder Hamson

Faces

Transfers were last week! My new companion is Elder Taylor. Funny enough, my old companion Elder Boyce was trained by Elder Taylor. 

Also, the two other Elders we live with are Gone! They got moved out so it is just us.

It was a good week but, I am really tired. Next week will be better. 

The fourth of july was good we had a booth and we talked to a lot of children because my companion can do balloon animals.

I really am sorry, it's one of thoses things where so much happened that I can't mentally recall what happened because I am fatigued.  

Love you alls faces!

Elder Hamson

Christine

It was a long week. 

We had a fantastic start to our week. We had an opportunity to go to the temple! It was awesome and beautiful! Not too hot so, that is good. I got to talk to my son! Shout out to you my boy! It is always magical to catch up with old friends. 

Wednesday was probably the highlight of the week. After coming off Mount Sinai, so to speak, and we put our potential investigator on date for baptism. She is a cool lady. Her name is Christine. We met her after trying to have dinner with one of our members. She came over to tell us they weren't home and we talked for a bit about her. About how she used to live in Salt Lake City and she used to work for Deseret Industries! She even said she would walk past the Salt Lake Temple everyday and would wish she could go inside!

She is pretty awesome. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it is available to us in modern times. She said she would read the Book of Mormon and said she wanted to be baptized so we gave her a date to work towards. So, we'll see. Hopefully she is serious and committed. We'll see, hope she reads.

My companion was sick the rest of the week. Some kind of stomach flu.

Have an awesome possum week!

Elder Hamson

This was supposed to be 6-5-17

Fam fam bam!

This was a cool week! Super stressful but, that is okay! As you know we have been planning and preparing for this dutch oven cook-off thing. Well this is happening this week and that is super exciting because everyone will be there. We have been doing a bunch of miscellaneous things for that like, we just made a deal with safeway they are giving us watermelons half off. 

Anyway, at the beginning of this week we had Zone Conference, it was super good. This one was a little different beacuse we had an opportunity to sit down and meet as a Zone. So, to explain this we are combined with another zone and because we have been doing zone conference so often we stopped having training meetings as a zone. It was cool we split off ans had a mini zone training meeting where we talked about sacrifice and how we view it as a sacrafice but, really it is an investment. Because we get more by following christ's example than we do give up. We also had a good opportunity to role play and learn about repentance.

The week went by so fast because we went from there straight over to Young and spent a day in Young. Thursday, the zone leaders came up and they went out with us. We had another district meeting this week. We have been having those a lot more often too, I kinda like it and also, it just means that there is a lot more for me to do. We had a good meeting though, we talked about goals and our plans. It was very productive and I think we have an awesome group of missionaries here in Payson.

Now the weekend... Holy! The weekend was crazy. There was an event that they called the "monster mudda" it was a giant mud run. We helped out with that. We didn't run the course but, we helped pass out water and be more of guides/judges becasue money was on the line for this race. We had to make sure they did all the obstacles right, haha. It was a good event. I could go without the heat though. It wasn't that bad, it is just more deserty here than in Utah. Also, let the record show that once in my life I didn't get sun burned. I surprise myself sometimes.

Well anyway, that's what I have been up to. Something cool I can leave with you that helps me with those negative thoughts that always find a way to attack. 

There is a scripture in 3 Nephi 9:20 that talks about when the lamanites were converted and baptized, they were cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost. Just as Nephi explained in 2 Nephi 31:17, after repentance and baptism, we are cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost. Now, in 3 Nephi Christ explained that those converted lamanites KNEW IT NOT. I have always thought that that cleansing moment of the Holy Ghost would overwhelmingly reassuring but, they lamanites didn't know that is what happened. What I do know is that thought of helplessness and hopelessness don't come for God. And that sometimes we may think that we don't deserve to be forgiven for what we have done and miss that fact that God forgives us and as long as we keep his commandments and have a broken heart and contrite spirit he will help us change. Now that hard part is believing that and what the scriptures say and not those voices of negativity.

Love y'all!

Elder Hamson

Luv u

Forward, pressing forward

The climax of this week was the dutch oven cook off. It was good, we had the place prepared for about 300 people and about 60 or 70 people came. Oops... haha, it was a good time though! There was a contest for the Dutch Oven cooking and for those that brought desserts. The most entertaining part was the watermelon eating contest. Haha, watermelon is harder to eat fast than you would think. Well at least for me. All us missionaries competed in the watermelon one. Well, all of us except for the one that is allergic and would die if she ate it. Just kidding, not that serious but, she was allergic! Anyway my companion tooking all. I don't know how he did it. I was thoroughly impressed that he didn't through up. Elder Stone got like two thirds of the way through it and he threw up, I got video of it. Crappy video but, I got it none the less. 

Anyway, push comes to shove and my companion was sick all day yeaterday. Maybe he is alllergic too. We ought to get that checked. Haha. 

Something that I have been studying about recently is change. Well, repentance but, specifically the pattern  of change. How to do it. What works, what the scriptures have to say about it. From what I have so far and what God has led me to understand for me is that, change always starts with desire. Really everything starts with desire, this is a pattern of living too. And for that desire to lead to any sort of action or accomplishment we have got to be committed. We must have goals and plans that we are committed to so that they actually happen and result with change and blessings we are searching for. For me it is getting from desire to committment. That is the hard part. I know that I when I have something I want to do and it doesn't happen I look back and it's I was lying to myself. I told my self that I

Elder Hamson

Busy

This was a long week.

I started off with an exchange with Elder Hale. Which means I went with Elder Hale instead of my companion Elder Boyce. It was a good day. We spent the most of the day visiting members that aren't at church often and offered help and it was good to meet them, well at least the ones that were home. 

From there this week has been stressful because ee have been planning a couple of events. One with the members where we can talk about their family mission plans, we are calling it a member missionary workshop and the other event is a Dutchoven cook off thing were we are expecting 300 people to come!! So, it is stressful figuring out all those logistics. But, I am happy to report that stress plus work adds up to great success. We are getting very close to being totally ready for this event. It will be totally wicked!

The mission had a meeting in Payson for all the leaders and basically we have to set it up for them. We set up a bunch of tables and chairs, get a white board in there and get the projector ready for them. That is pretty much it and we go to pizza hut and pick up a bunch of pizzas. But, that's okay because we get to eat one ourselves. Anyway, that happened this week on Friday and usually when this happens we have interviews with our mission President he had to reschedule for some reason. 

This week is going to be just as busy that is what is crazy! We have Zone Conference down in Scottsdale tomorrow. Right after that we are going to Young. Once we get back home from Young we are spending a day with the zone leaders. Friday is the member missionary workshop I talked about. And, Saturday we are volunteering at two community events, a mud run, and something called the gladiator Challenge.

So, pray for me this is going to be nuts! :)

Have a great week! Love ya'll

Elder Hamson

All my friends

Hello my friends! You are my family! This week was good. A lot of people we talk to and contact are usually are people we are helping service wise in some way. For example this one lady, we have helped her with her garden and she is in transition between homes so we helped her with her heavy stuff. 

Our awesome investigator Billy is doing great! We have been helping him with his self-reliance. He wants to get on his feet and get his own place because right now he lives with his mom. So, we are helping him do that meanwhile he has been reading the book of mormon a lot and he likes learning.

Other than Billy we have been doing a lot of finding and share a couple of experiences we have some good potentials we have met. This one lady we met while were coming over to meet with a less active. We had planned coming by to help out a lady that is less active when before we could get to the door her neighbor flagged us down and came and talked to her. She warned us about some interesting things she thought our less active friend was doing then,  we got to talking about her and she said she use to work for Deseret Industries in Salt Lake so, she knew a lot of members of our church. She said we need to come over on wednesday so, we agreed, of course! :)

We also were talking to our bishop about the chapel tours we were going to do and also a couple of people he asked us to go see and he said that some of the missionaries have been meeting with his friend. The only weird part is that we checked with all the missionaries in payson and none of them have heard of this guy. But, anyway we are going to go over and meet with this guy and see what we could help him with. So, it's all good fun!

I don't have much else to say, I am still alive so that is good!

Love you all my friends!

Elder Hamson

Brigham just got set apart again and he is assigned to Miami Florida. I'm gonna miss that guy! See picture of us in his back yard.

Flake

This week was pretty good! We went off to Young in the beginning of the week and did a bunch if service. It was super rainy day so, it was kinda nuts! We brought Brigham Flake with us, if you were at house in Utah yesterday Brigham was the guys room I was Skyping in. It was a Good day, we helped a lady with her trees and dug trenches and stuff. We helped this lady named Cindy with her work shop we re-arranged shelves, moved a freezer, and helped sweep and clean it all up. She was a really nice lady and she gave us some cutting boards to give to our moms. The other thing we did that day was that we helped the Dixsons with the drywall in the new house they are building. 

My companion was sick on and off this week. He has had really bad allergies and went to the doctors and got a shot that takes away his allergy symptoms. Which is good but, now he is really sustainable to sickness. 

We did get out one day where we were tracting. We were tracting for service opportunities in the neighborhood. We stopped by this one house where this family was outside on there way to their car and we talked to them. The mom was nice and we offered to help but, they were on there way to a softball game. They said we could come back later. She was cool because she didn't know much about missionaries and she had a bunch of good questions.

Whelp until next time!

Love ya!

Elder Hamson

Snake Skin

I am going have to be quick today because, I got a call from President and we have to go transfer an Elder down to Scottsdale. 

Not much happened this week my companion has been really sick. We managed to get out to mow this lady's lawn. That was fun. I live the smell of grass. And rain. Today it rained! Anyway! 

The fun story of the week was when we were in Young. That good old cowboy town. I love that place! We had some apple cider with a member an set up an activity for next week. Anyway, on our way out we found a bull snake. So we ran back into tell brother Varker about it. That was his name. Within seconds he came out with a revolver and shot the snake in the head. It was sweet! We skinned it and my companion is going to turn it into a knife sheath. So there is that. 

The cool thing that happened this week investigators wise was at a ward fundraiser. The scouts of the Ponderosa ward had a silent auction. It was super cool. There were a good amount of people to talk to. We met this family that moved here from Arkansas. They didn't know who missionaries are and they don't know much about God. They are way nice and cool with us coming by. I think is was a blessing that we met them. If only they knew what kind of life is available through the Gospel. 

Love you all! Stay sweet!

Elder Hamson

Red Neck

This has been a long week. It was good though. I feel like I am always starting like this. Haha...

Okay so first off I got sun burnt because we were outside all week helping at events and miscellaneous service projects. I don't know why that is first off but, I will roll with it. I went on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders, which means that he came into our area and there were three of us. It was good. We had our District Meeting that day, FINALLY! I have been the district leader here in payson for four weeks and that was our first District meeting of the Transfer. I don't know if this makes any sense but, we only have one meeting a week. So, we had Zone Conference the second week, ZTM the third week, and District Meeting this last week. Man, I'll stop talking about meetings. 

Elder Bebee was the Zone Leader's name and we had a pretty fun day with him. We had a lesson with Chuck. His is a cool guy! He is looking for a religion to join because he just recently wanted to get to know God because his girlfriend died. He is really sincere and honest about everything it is awesome. He has been going to this other church on Sundays and he always comes back with some kind of controversial question about mormons. It is a little annoying but, he is willing so study it out so, he will be fine. He said he is finishing Genesis soon and then he said we could read the book of mormon with him. Brilliant! I love him. Sad news is that we found out that day that our investigator Don moved away.

The next day I went on an exchange with the other Elders in our district. I went with Elder Hale and my companion, Elder Boyce, went with Elder Hale's companion. Also, something cool about this day, Wednesday, was that we brought Brigham with us. Brigham is a guy from our ward that is temporarily home from his mission in Guadamala because of injury. He asked us if he could come out with us so, he spent the whole day with us. That's what you get I guess. It was awesome though. We stopped by this one less active lady and she remembers cleaning Brigham's teeth as a kid. It was a good break the ice conversation and she invited us back to meet her family. That was an excellent day. We had another lesson with Billy. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ the day before with Elder bebee and now here we were teaching him again about prayer and he prayed that night. He was like "Dear Heavenly Father, It's good to see you again..."  Haha, it was awesome! It was so powerful, you could tell it ment so much to him.

Thursday was kind of a weird day. Most of the day we were helping out at this farm for community service. There were a bunch activities for the kids and we helped run the little mini games. It was all good fun but, I did get sun burnt. So sad... Friday was a long day. We had to set up a bunch of tables for this meeting our mission president had. We had to go do a ton of other errands to get luch and things. All well do our big planning session for the week. That was a long day but, worth it because we are ready to takle another week. Haha

Saturday was interesting we went to a shooting competition and I got 12th overall. So, not that bad for only having shot a hand gun like once or twice in my life. There were like thirty or fourty shooters there. You get what you get I guess.

Haha Just Kidding! We just helped out at the shooting competition. It was a scout fundraiser and they didn't have enough scouts so, we helped with the food and handed out water and stuff for the shooters. It was fun! The majority of the people were non members. It was a great opportunity but, I was a little jealous of the shooters. It looked way fun!

Well until next time. You just have to deal with this splotchy email. Yesterday we had church in Young. It was a packed house because a ward visited from Heber and they brought their 60 something youth down. Man, I didn't know there could be that many youth in a ward. It was a blast for Young, they are used to having 20 people at church, and they are all over 65. No joke!

Elder Hamson

Billy

This was a long week. But, we did a lot and got a lot done. A little sad but, this week we had Zone Training Meeting. It was the last Zone Training Meeting ever. We have Zone conferences every transfer now which means that they now are cutting out ZTM. I don't know if that makes any sense but, basically instead of just meeting as a zone every 6 weeks now we meet as a zone with the mission president every 6 weeks.

One of the coolest experiences this week was this last sunday. We had an investigator come to church named Billy. We talked about the self-reliance program going on and he got super excited. After the meeting we talked about what he liked. He said God has been answering his prayers because the self-reliance program was what he needed. So, that night we went to the devotional that night and got him in a group.

Also, we went bowling for P-day and I still got it! Haha just kidding.

Elder Hamson 

Easter Love

This week started off great! We had Zone Conference with our mission president. It was a really good Conference. It was focused on Sacrifice and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Our president wants us to email him what we are sacrificing so that we can be more effective instruments in God's hands. 

Another cool thing that happened this week was that we went down to the valley for an Easter Pagent. We had a couple investigator families that were going to come but, one of them canceled last minute and the other didn't answer their phone. So, we were there just with a member from the ward. We later found out that Adrian, that's his name, he lost his phone and didn't end up coming because he was afraid e couldn't find us in the crowd without phone communication. It was a bummer but, whatever it was a pretty cool performance. 

We have done a bit more service for jenanda. She is a nice old lady that got kicked out of her house so, now she is renting from a friend. It has been good helping her out. 

I think the biggest highlight of my week was yesterday. EASTER!!

Easter was pretty good! We had a good meeting at church. A speaker helped rekindle my feelings and thoughts toward my savior. Mostly Easter reminded me of how I felt a year ago on Easter. That was an emotional time for me beginning a two year mission. So, being here a year later, I am so grateful for the grace of God. The enabling power that Christ has mercifully giving me. I have changed so much. 

I am so grateful for who I am and who love me! THAT'S YOU!!

Love you!

Elder Hamson

Oh yeah, also this guy was 7' 4" and he was in payson to ride dirt bikes. So, there is hope for me and my future as a motocross champion.

Fry Breads!!

This week was transfers week and I didn't get transferred. I am still in Payson and get to be a cowboy! Haha, I'm just kidding. I would be a terrible cowboy. I don't even have boots. So, anyway on Monday somehow someone filed our key or it got worn down. We couldn't get into our car! We had to ditch it at the church and go home with the other Elders. That just made Tuesday that much harde because, it was transfer day and we were planning on drive down to Young. It was annoying but, we got a lot of cleaning done at home and after a bit we were able to fix the problem. We drove down to Young and spent the night.

The next day we helped Sister Dixon with planting some trees and Brother Dixon carry some heavy beams around. They are building a house and it has been cool to watch their progress. That day we also taught a lady that has studied religion her whole life ans has found where she is comfortable in life. Which is cool. She is happy and is living a lot of the principles of the gospel. It is hard to see someone so close tell us they don't want to learn anymore. But, the coolest part is that we went over to JP's house and had FRY BREAD AND BEANS!!! It is super cool he is from Whiteriver and he brought a friend that lives there. It was super cool catching up with how everyone is doing in whiteriver. Because, if you live in Whiteriver, you know everyone in Whiteriver. Ugh, i miss that place. Also that food wrecked me! Okay, moving on!

Thursday was a busy work day and we won't talk about that day. But, we did get everything down. And because of it our lives our a lot easier.

So, Friday a member invited us to help out and set up a business showcase at the casino. It wasn't in the casino so, it wasn't weird. It was way cool they had a zipline and this HUGE slide that was four stories high. It took like all day though and it hurt my back and we got sunburnt. Haha, good times. 

Saturday we sat down and planned for next week. Nuff said.

Also, if you didn't know Sunday was my birthday. I made myself a cake and it was delicious. Also, my family loves me so don't worry. I had a FANTASTIC birthday! 

Love you all take care!

ELDER HAMSON 

Love, Cast Out Fear!

What a crazy week. I don't know where to start and what to say but, here we go! 

So, Tuesday we did a service for one of our investigators and helped her out with her garden. It was all good fun, we moved around heavy things, we dug up nasty trees, rotatilled it up and boom, it is a garden!

Wednesday we headed down to young and were doing MORE service work for this old german guy. He is super sweet and there was a lot we could help him with. The interesting thing is that he promised his mom that he would be baptized into the LDS church. But, he was a super funny and it was a good time. We also went out with a member of the branch that is a branch missionary. We went and visited six non-members with him. It was great, and it booked us up for this week when we go visit Young again because, we got so many return appointments. Dinner was good too. I like beans so I thought hot dogs and beans is super good but, I am sure you all have your own opinion. Haha

Thursday, we had a temple trip. THIS WEEK WAS SO CRAZY! I feel like it has been forever since I have been in the temple but, it has only been three months. Man, I miss the days when I would be in the temple every week. The temple is great my friend. Be worthy and go!

That night we had a good visit with a new investigator and he said he would come and watch General Conference, and he totally showed up! What a miracle! 

Friday, we had interviews with President. It was good to ask some questions that I have had and to see President again. I used to see him all the time when I was in the valley I saw him all the time so it was lit to see him again. We also stopped by our investigator family, the Christensens! They are new investigators too. We invited them to conference too and they got super excited to come and they actually came! The only problem is that all the members watch it at home. So, there was no one at the church. It was totally awkward but, the investigators that came were pretty chill about it. 

As for General Conference. It was lit! There is too much to say but, if I were to share my brief feeling on the conference I would say:

Charity never faileth for perfect love casteth out all fear.

That applies to ever portion of our lives, every trial, every challenge, and every person.

Love you all! I wish I could be more detailed but, this stresses me out. Sorry..

Elder Hamson

Unda da Sea

Hi! Hello!

This week was actually pretty legit, like too legit! Not like way legit but, pretty legit. So, it was kind of a slow start to a week but that's okay because the weekend was crazy!

Anyway, the Sisters in our district signed us up to sing at a senior home so, we had to go. It was alright, I'm sure they enjoy it but, it was kinda weird. I don't know how to explain it but, that was a weird day.

We had another district meeting. It is weird going to those and not being a district leader but, it was a very good meeting. We talked about the character of Christ and the attributes we should gain in this life. It was funny because he tried to use an analogy from Nemo with the East Australian Current. Kinda like if there were three different kinds of missionaries. Bottom feeders, top swimmers, and EAC flowers. The bottom feeders just sit at the bottom, they don't really want to be in the ocean. The EAC Flowers just go with the flow. They find some where comfortable where they don't have to put in too much effort but still do the most they can with as little effort as they can. Then the top swimmers are just as they sound, they have control of what direction they are going and are the over achievers. Anyway!

We had a lesson with this guy named Dylan this week. He has already read the first couple chapters of the book of Mormon and asks us to send him chapters on the daily. He is super solid. He is one of those people that ask you if they can be baptized. I am excited for him. He is such a good guy and just sick of the negativity around him. 

On Saturday we drove down to Young. We helped this guy move some turds around for his garden. It was fun it reminded me of working in our garden back home. But, I did smell like poop for the rest of the day. We also set up lessons with two of our investigators. It was lots of fun and actually that is pretty successful for young. 

Well that's all the excitement I wanted to share with you today! Goodnight!

Elder Hamson

Not too much sorry...

Nothing too much happened this week but, it went by super fast. The only event I can think of is what happened this Saturday. This Saturday an Elder I am living got in a car accident and it is a huge mess and now he has to go to court. It is super messed and I feel so bad for him.

But, anyway in other news! We have found three new people this week that have agreed to let us come teach them about the gospel. Also, we had four investigator at church. It was super fun! We haven't had a person come to church in three weeks so it was cool to show them around and to help them be more familiar with the way we worship. They all loved it! What wonderful people we have an opportunity to work with. 

I'm sorry I didn't spend the time to email you all this week! I still love you all, and again I will try to make up by giving you some sweet pics.

Elder Hamson

1-Proof of a ten foot reach.

2-We tried to chop this tree down and ended up dropping it on a fence... oops!

3-The embarrassing photo of me any my companion. (The only ones without suits)

Professional Gardner

This week was pretty legit, let me tell ya!

Well first, Hello! It is a pleasure to be talking with you all! It always feels like this week was long when I look back at Tuesday but, it also feels like last P-day wasn't that long ago. I am grateful for the great diversely and fun that this week was filled with.

Last P-day was crazy I think I already said we were down in Young making things with a member in his wood shop. It was loads of fun. I am still in the process of making drum sticks but, I finished this sweet red stand for my iPad. It has turned into a great desk ornament. 

Tuesday we spent with President Robinson in another zone conference. That was really cool because I received an answer to something I have been praying for and searching for for three months now. I am grateful for that our mission president truly does love serving us and he is a beloved man and friend for us all. The blessings of God are far greater than anything I could obtain on this earth. I am still trying to accept that, I rode in a Tesla Model S the other week. ooof... That is a fast ride, very tempting but, also costs as much as two houses!! Goodness!

Wednesday was an interesting day. We spend most of the day helping this lady with her garden. I love the amounts of service we have an opportunity to be a part of here in Payson. I can't think of anytime we had such an opportunity in the valley. but, anyway that was a great day, we came home got dress ate dinner and had two wonderful lessons with the two families we are working with that have desire to be baptized. We are getting real close and they have grown so much! I love it!

Friday is also another day to note. I don't mean to skip Thursday but, listen Friday was pretty cool. Right after we spent most of the morning doing our planning for the week, we got a call for this old man that lives on "wildlife preserve," well sort of. It is a huge garden that he has been growing for FORTY YEARS! He said that it used to be certified as a wildlife preserve for some kind of organization trying to protect some endangered plants or to see if certain plants could survive the environment. Anyway all we did was haul some logs around from a tree he cut down, (he was kind of sad about it). He just could do the lifting him self so it was good we were able to help him. Oh, then his wife came out and juiced us some fresh peach juice. Man, I lived in Utah my whole life and have had some great peaches but, she definitely put something in that juice because it was inhuman. Either that or I was dead thirst because Arizona is just hot. That's it's middle name Arizona Hot I'm Going To Move Back To Utah. Now you know.

We spent the weekend back in Young. And like I said earlier it is straight out of the movies. Middle of know where, there is like one store, a saloon, and miles and miles of dirt and weeds. Fun town! we spent all of Saturday running around like cowboys serving the community. We are hoping to be down there more so that we can build a presence that hopefully someone will get curious and we can at least answer there questions. Sunday, we gave talks about the forty day fast. So, each member is taking turns fasting each day for fourty days. It is a really cool idea. It was cool. And I felt the spirit so strongly. Some many members complemented us for our talks. I don't mean to be prideful but, it was nice to hear. There podium was tiny so they gave me a hand microphone and it was weird. It felt like I was doing stand up comedy of giving a Ted talk. Anyway my companion needs me to play soccer with him. sorry that there are no pictures.

Have a great week!

Love, love, love, you all!

Elder Hamson

Young

Hey!

This week was a good week! It was awesome because we did a bunch of
service. That is what is so cool about the mountains and serving their
again is that there is a lot of things you can do to help people. In
the valley no one let us do service for them, it just didn't happen
very often.
Last Monday we spent a good portion of the day making ties. I made a
blue tie with red flowers on it. It is pretty cool, I wish I had a
picture but, I don't.

There is this one lady that we have been helping mainly this week. She
is getting kicked out of  her house and we are helping her move and
put things in her storage. It was all good fun but, I feel bad for
her. It is a weird situation.

We had a Zone Training meeting this week and the most embarrassing
thing happened. So, go a head and laugh. So, on Monday we were being
smart and we're going to dry clean our suits before the Zone Training
Meeting right? Only we didn't know that Payson doesn't have a dry
cleaner so, the "dry cleaner" we went to doesn't clean at their
location. They take them down to the valley to clean. Anyway, it takes
a full week so we got stuck without suits and we were the only ones
not wear them...

I am going to skip to today, well, last night. Last we drove out to
Young which is this small hick town out in the middle of no where. It
is super cool. We slept over at a members home because Young is so far
away. In the morning we helped chopped wood and moved a piano while we
were going about in Young doing service that morning. But, since today
is P-day we had to do something fun so, we went to a member and worked
in his shop and make things out of wood. I made some drum sticks and a
stand for my iPad. It was awesome and I thought you would like to know
about it. The only problem is that I don't have any pictures for you.
I have been having too much fun!

Good luck have fun!

Love,

Elder Hamson

Mountain town!

Howdy!

It has been a fun week here in Payson! I have an awesome companion and
I am bunking with two other Elders so, there are four of us total. It
is a load of fun! It is a bit chilly, no snow but, it has been raining
a little.  The area I cover is over three units. The Ponderosa Ward,
Christopher Creek Branch, and Young Branch. Young is a small country
town that is an hour and a half from where we live. So the area is
HUGE! It's in the middle of nowhere but, it's in the mountains. That
is all that matters. I love traveling and I has been fun experiencing
so many different and new people. Change keeps the mission exciting!

The first couple days I was here we met and taught our investigators
that have a day planned to be baptized. We have met a bunch of members
and it is weird being back in the mountains again. This area is a lot
like Pinetop back when I was a Zone Leader. Right now, I'm not even a
District Leader! It's awesome! I get to spend 24/7 with the people.
Well... Almost...

I got an email from the Mission President on Thursday and he invited
Elder Vargas and I to a special MLC the next day. So, I took the hour
and forty minute drive back down to the valley for the MLC. (Mission
Leadership Council) It was super good! Two of the brothers from the
missionary department came and spent the day with us. It was a 7 HOUR
meeting! It was nuts! Super helpful though! We literally spent the
whole time and went in depth on Planning! I am bad at planning so, it
was good to get some good pointers from them. I didn't feel to good
that day so, half way through the meeting I took some exhederin. I
have you know I did survive seven hours and the drive home, I was the
designated driver.

So, some back story, on Thursday my companion and I were chopping wood
for service in the morning. While we were driving home my companion
thought it would be cool to drift on the dirt road. Basically we
crashed into a ditch. I had a headache for three days straight and my
neck and back ached. I fell much better now but, that is why I hurt at
that meeting.

Today has been weird, we spent a good amount of our time trying to sew
some ties. It was fun but, exhausting. So, up here people go to bed
really early and when it gets late in the evening they get really
protective of their property. On Monday's we do what is called a
reverse P-day. Basically our P-day is in the evening instead of the
morning. It has been fun.

Anyway, I hope your week was adventurous. Love ya'll!

Elder Hamson