Pinetop Zone

Dou-tae!

Okay, well this week was pretty epic! We started off with a birthday
party for one of the investigators that is getting baptized and we
tried to give a blessing to this lady later. But, she decided she was
okay.
Tuesday was Zone Training Meeting. We had some good trainings. They
were all about working with members and the wards and branches we are
in. It is also interesting to know that I am now apart of the very
first Pinetop Zone. We used to be the Apache Zone (much cooler) but,
our boundaries just changed and now our name changed. There were also
a bunch of other changes that were made too but, that's boring.
We picked up five new investigators this week! It was super awesome!
And now we already have set a goal with two of those five for baptism.
We had an opportunity to paint someone's house too. That was a bunch
of fun.
This week was just full of a bunch of uplifting and spiritually
edifying lessons. Sometimes you really get the purpose of it all and
how much people can gain from the knowledge of Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is so rewarding when you can feel the spirit  testifying to them.
Today we had a meeting with the branch seminary leader and talked
about how to teach Seminary. We will be teaching the seminary class
down here in the Fort Apache branch. I learned a lot in that little
meeting. It's kinda nuts! So much is happening and I am excited for
this week.
I went on exchanges with Elder Kapisi and that is always entertaining.
He always picks up any change on the ground. So, I joined this time.
It makes for an entertaining competition. We pray for a lot of people
that day. Usually people know us as ministers around here and ask us
to pray for them to get over their addictions. We ran into these two
ladies and they called us over and they wanted us to pray for them.
And after the prayer this one lady tried to hug Elder Kapisi because
apparently they thought he was cute. Haha it get interesting out here.
I hope you all had a great week! Some day I will figure out how to do
these weekly emails more effectively.

I love you!
Elder Hamson

Let's Stay Positive

Okay! Hello!

Alright this week was pretty good! We went to the temple on Saturday
because Kenneth was going through for the first time. Which is huge
progress from where he has been. Whelp, that's it, thank you for
tuning in!

😅 Haha just kidding! This week was interesting and we barely had any
lessons.... But! Let's stay positive! My companion is great! My
District is great! The people are great, and the area is great! So,
there really is so many things to be grateful for! We really did talk
to a bunch of people though. A lot of new and interesting people! I
like it! It was just hard to have a formal lesson with people and all
the people that said they would be home, weren't. This one guys
though, he is a pastor over his local church. He is super old and we
gave him a Book of Mormon. He said "Oh, thank you!" and we tried to
explain to him that it is was comparable to The Bible but, a different
record. I don't think he understood because he continued to show us
his collection of bibles. So, I guess we added to his strange
collection of scripture. Then, this one guy. I don't think he spoke
any english because he just talked to us in his native language and
after a while we just had to say goodbye. It was super awkward but,
that is how it goes!
Next week will be cooler, I promise!
Goodnight!
I Love you, my family!

Elder Hamson

A wet week

Sic-nae! What uppp!

Elder Bay (Bayder) is no more... :(

But, that is okay because Elder Youngstrom is amazing! He is a full on
gymnast and can do back flips and everything! It is super cool. We go
to the gym in the morning and I am benching my humble 70 Lbs. He is
over in the corner doing a full on cross fit workout. Doing handstand
push-ups and crazy yoga move ab exercises or something. I don't know,
he does his thing and I do mine. He is from Idaho and his dad owns a
company that makes huge log homes so you know he is pulling in some
serious $$. Anyway! We have been doing super well here on the
reservation with the Apache people. So good! Apparently it is monsoon
season because there has been a bunch of rain and cloud cover. Which
is great! Because, it helps with the heat and free car washes! I love
the rain! It makes me so happy, that is probably why we did so well
this week! Thank you rain!

I picked him up on Tuesday and that was a crazy weird day because we
had to go shopping because he just came into the area. And Thursday I
conducted my first meeting as a District leader. Kind of a funky week
but, I am getting use to it.

We had a bunch of good lessons this week and had an opportunity to
teach a couple new people! Leroy is my favorite less active, he is
doing super good and reads the Book of Mormon. But, we really need to
get him to church. We met this new guy named Mando, he seemed super
interested in what we had to say and he said he will read before we
come back. So, we are hoping for the best! We also taught this guy who
was talking to us about all the times he broke the law and is was
weird but, we showed him a quick vid about the book of mormon and he
said he was gonna read it as well! So that is great! Marcella is
totally getting baptized next week so stay tuned for that!

I love ya'll! (<------ What? I never use that word) Keep being Happy
because why not!


Elder Hamson

The Authority!

Ah, yes! Hello!

Elder Hamson here with another report about the rez life! This week has been a struggle because if you remember my iPad has got incognito and is no more. But, that is okay! I will be receiving one tomorrow, an everything will be back to normal. Or will it?

PLOT TWIST

Transfers is actually tomorrow! I will be staying on the reservation but, I will be picking up District Leader Responsibility and Training a new Elder! So, a lot of changes this transfer! It will be fun! Tomorrow I will go up to the Trainer Training Meeting and meet my new companion, Elder Youngstrom. Hopefully it will all go well but, I will keep ya'll informed! 

Anyway! This week was weird not having my usual iPad. It was hard to know what was going on and keep track of everything when your companion is the only one with an iPad. But, we seemed to manage fine, so that was good. The weather out here has been acting funny. It is monsoon season which means there is all of a sudden pouring rain out of nowhere in the middle of a hot day. Seriously every once and a while it is scorching hot going into a lesson and then pouring coming out of a lesson, times where it's hot and sunny all while pouring rain. It was awesome but, humid. Yesterday there was a crazy hail storm. It started as Thunder and lightning, then turned into this crazy storm that flooded the whole Reservation. There were quarter size hail chunks, no joke! Oh, c'mon. Why do you have a hard time believing this? But, seriously the hail was huge and I almost died but, I'm okay! 

As far as missionary work it was hard to meet with people because there was a lot of activities at the chapel this week. This branch is so small it doesn't have too many priesthood holders. So, as of church policy there needs to be to priesthood holders in the building if an activity is going on. Therefore, the missionaries end up needed to be involved in activities in order for them to happen. Anyway, that is just the struggle of reservation work. We had super good lessons with our less actives this week. I love the less actives in this branch. They are starting to come back to church too! So awesome!

Marcella as still doing super well and will be getting baptized on August 6th! I am excited that I will be here for that. On the same day one of our less actives is going through the temple! August is going to be sweet! This area has a bunch of potential and I feel like this next transfer is going to be so amazing. I will work harder this time cuz I got to be a good missionary to train my young friend (ah? ah? young?) Elder Youngstrom and District Leaderness. It is going to be legit so, pray for me. I'm praying for you so... It works out!

Love your guts! All of your guts!

--

Elder Hamson

iPad Thief

Welp, some one stole my iPad this week so, that is awkward. Pray for me!

Other than the fact that I am technology-less I had a pretty great week! We got to meet the new mission president! President Robinson! He is super awesome, I am super excited! We all got to introduce ourselves to him (all 20 or so of us form the Snowflake and Apache Zones) and he had a little video introducing him. He taught a couple good training and gave us a blessing! It was super cool! He promised us blessings if we are obedient and ever since then the work in our area has been going so well! He said a bunch of other things but, all you need to know is the spirit has been so strong in our work lately it is nuts! I am so excited for the future of this branch. Also, on top of this all it is transfers again! This week! That went by so fast! 

Anyway, we ran by this one guys house that the previous missionaries visited once upon a time and he is super excited for us to come visit and he accepted our invitation to be baptized. Also, our investigator family came to church! The Bonitos! That was super cool! I hope they all stop being lazy and read The Book of Mormon. We have a less active named Joe and he just managed to buy a car so now he can come to church so, what a miracle! He is so cool I love him!

There is this one investigator that we haven't been able to contact in forever! Then, just the other day she calls us and is like "we need to start having lessons again," we then had three lessons with her that week. 

 I seriously can't remember anything else that happened this week. Those were the highlights. This iPad thing is throwing me off. I will keep you updated next week!

Love you all!

Rez Pasta

Sic'nae!

Well I can't remember what happened this week...
Haha just kidding I know a little...
We had a lot more member dinners than we usually do this week. Which
is good because food is always good. Lots of beans, fry bread, and
Spaghetti. It has been nice to experience the culture a little bit.
But, why so much spaghetti? 😲
Last started off weird because it was the Fourth of July and everyone
we tried to talk to was drunk. But we did manage to find one of our
less actives home. He is a super great guy and we have been trying to
get them to get sealed. Well we met with him and some things happened
and his wife said she is divorcing him. Yeah, that escalated quickly.
But, we were reading a talk with him to help him through what he is
going through and after the lesson he said he didn't want to talk with
us anymore. So, a weird start but, Tuesday was awesome! Tuesday, we
had a super cool lesson with a Catholic family. They are super good
and I think they have potential. We had a super good lesson with John
this less active guy, I love him, he is doing super good and we went
by three times this week and read the Book of Mormon with him. Then we
taught this new guy for the first time and he said he wanted to pray
about baptism. So, hopefully that goes good. We are trying to get
brother perry to understand that he can't let his traditions keep him
from church. So, we brought a member over and had a lesson with him.
So good!  The sisters gave us a call to give a blessing to one of
there investigators but, it's hard to explain. That blessing fell
through. But, then we ran into some people from Cebique, that Elder
Bay knew so we talked to them for a bit, and I bore a strong testimony
about prayer. It was super spiritual and stood out to me this week.
So, there you go, that was Tuesday.
We did a bunch of service this week. Which was good for a change
because we haven't done service in a while here. We helped Ervin clean
up his yard, and helped this lady cut some carpet. We helped Felicita
weed her garden and we're going to help Merlinda weed whack her weeds
but, she wasn't home when she said to come over.
Tomorrow our new mission president, President Robinson, is coming up
and we get to meet him so that is cool. That happens to tomorrow and I
am super excited!
Keep it cool and carry on strong my friends!
I will leave you with this quote that helped me through this week by
Elder M Russell Ballard:

"We all need time to ask ourselves questions or to have a regular
personal interview with ourselves. We are often so busy and the world
is so loud that it is difficult to hear the heavenly words 'be still,
and know that I am God.'"

Love ya'll
Elder Hamson

Rain yay!

My dear friends!

It rained so yay!
There seems like so much happened this week. I don't know how to
describe most of what happened. But, I will do my best to describe the
blur of the week I had.
At the beginning of the week we had some good lessons with our
investigators, Eddie, The Bonitos, and The Williams. Ervin and his
family we didn't see all week. And we tried multiple times a day to
try and catch him home. He just wasn't there this week. So, that was
unfortunate. We found out our investigator Sean broke up with his girl
friend so, that is good but, he moved out and hitch hiked down to the
valley. So, he just fell off the face of the planet.
Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Kapisi. It was super fun to
experience a new area. We had a bunch of Book of Mormon lessons with
less actives and that is honestly the best thing to help someone
re-learn to appreciate the Book of Mormon. It was super rainy that day
and it made the day that much better. It has been so hot lately and
the rain felt and smelt so good. At the end of that day we made a
visit to the hospital to give a couple blessings to some of our less
actives.
Man less actives for dayz this week. We had like twelve lessons with
less active members this week.
It continued to rain til Saturday that week and it was annoying how
muddy everything was getting.  But, that's okay, it is much better
than the heat.
This week has been a really good productive week. This might not make
since but, we visited ten of our potential investigators and
successfully cleaned out and organized our whole teaching pool. Now, I
officially know all the investigators and most of the less actives we
are teaching in our area. That is super helpful for me. You don't
understand, the potential investigators and new investigators were a
mess when I came into the area, and since I have been here we cleaned
up the whole area book and I know the branch and the people in our
area so much more. *sigh* what a relief!
So, that is what we have been doing all week and it is just so
satisfying to get work done! We even ran around and gave a bunch of
blessings, like five, that's a lot. We even had a record high of 142
persons attended church this week. So, yeah I'm doing pretty good! I
love this reservation! The people are just not rude, haha no offense
to the rest of the people of the world. Sorry if this was everywhere
it is hard to explain missionary work on the reservation.
Well, as some guy always said "Pictures speak louder than words," so enjoy!

Love you people!
Elder Hamson