Hair Down Below His Knees

Another day in paradise here in Camarillo. Alyssa got baptized on Saturday and it was a great baptism. She and her mom showed up nice and early, so we could relax when we picked out a suit for her and set up all of the chairs. Everything was going perfectly, the young women were all there early to practice their song, the font was full, Alyssa brought a towel it was great. A lot more people came than we initially thought which was great, and 3:00 rolled around and we realized that bishop Smith from where Alyssa used to live wasn't there. He was the one performing the baptism, so all of our relaxed feelings went right out the window. We waited patiently and after a few phone calls and guidance Bishop Smith found his way to the baptism. It was a great baptism and the young women did a really good job at the end when they sang I am a child of God. It was great for Alyssa to see all of the support from her peers. The confirmation on Sunday was great, and since it was fast Sunday it was a testimony meeting. Now I have been in a lot of Testimony meetings and that was probably one of the best. A lot of the testimonies were about missionary work and Jennifer (Alyssa's mom) basically told all of the members that they need to be doing missionary work, because there are other families like hers waiting to be blessed by the restored gospel. It was a very powerful and spiritually exhausting two days.
As far as the rest of the work we found a new investigator this week and his name is J.B. He is black and has Dreadlocks (can't spell) down to his ankles. A word that describes him as a whole is "chill". He speaks nice and slow and he loves music. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and how Jesus Christ has restored his church again today. He was interested at the idea, but was leaving for out of town for a couple weeks. We will see him again on Oct 15 and hopefully he will have read for himself and prayed. I love being in the same apartment as Elder McKinley and Elder Watts being in a 4 man is always a blast. And I get to play some sports with my district today since we are all Elders now. So everything is going great here. Thank you all for your support

Elder Hamson

The Ministry Machine

Good news Elder Hull and I are both staying. Although my whole district is leaving me. All four sisters are getting transfered and 4 Elders are coming in. I will definitely miss the sisters, but am excited at the new opportunity to serve other missionaries.This week has been a great week. We are preparing for Alyssa (13) to get baptized this Saturday and that is all going really well. We taught her the word of wisdom this week and she had no idea about coffee and tea. Fortunately she is already living it, and hasn't had either for 2 months. So that won't be hard for her to give up. She is moving right along and it's cool to see her little budding testimony grow as she keeps the committments we leave with her. Marcia is doing great we had a lesson with her on Wednesday of this last week and it was all about missionary work and why it's so important. Marcia is going to/already has been a great missionary. Investigators and Recent cnverts can be a gold mine, because they have a lot of friends outside of the church. It is great to see the whole ward get more excited about missionary work, because of Marcia's example. On Thursday there was a big long meeting with Elder Malm of the seventy and that was simply incredible. I absolutley loved it and learned so much. I am still swallowing everything he said. He gave me a new perspective on all of the people we talk to. He said they are all "yes" sayers, and that is really the only option. We have a standing "no" from them, and when they reject us they are just confirming that "no" that we already had. They all said "yes" they would come here to this life and so everyone we meet are all "yes" sayers. Then we met with Terri on Friday and we had a great lesson about baptism and concerns she has and we set her with a baptismal date for November 29. Terri has been investigating for a year, and this is a really big step for her to set a goal for baptism. She has a few things to overcome and she wanted her daughter to be there so that is the soonest she felt confortable doing it. This week has just been a fantastic week full of miracles. I am glad to have another transfer here and I olny expect more miracles to come. Thank you all and have a fantastic day.

Elder Hamson

A Baptism

This was a fantastic week I have to say. It started off with us doing Marcia's baptismal interview Monday night at the church. Elder McKinley did the interview, and Elder Watts and I practiced singing for the musical number we will be a part of when Elder Malm of the seventy visits. There are about 8 of us singing and I will sing the bass part with Elder Robinson. The interview went great and Marcia was more than ready to be baptized in the words of Elder McKinley. We then walked outside with Marcia to say goodbye. After she left we walked back to the building to get out things and I realized that I left the keys inside the building. I am the only one with keys to that building. Ya. . . seems like something I would do. We needed to be back to our apartment soon, so we were all stressing out as I called the ward mission leader. He didn't answer, but right then Elder McKinley blurted "The Window!" He had opened the window during the interview to let a breeze in. So we ran around the building to see if we could climb in. On the way we saw a Possom climbing up the tree, but thats besides the point. The window is probably 8 feet off the ground from the outside and less than that on the inside. It was plenty big for someone to climb through so I boosted Elder McKinley up to climb through the window and luckily he had left the table close enough to the window, so he didn't have to fall he just stepped on the table. We managed to get back to our stuff and I made sure I had my keys with me as we left. It was a very memorable baptismal interview. Inbetween we taught a few lessons to our investigators and set up even more appointments for next week. The ones I am most excited about I would say is Alyssa who has a baptismal date for Sept. 27 and Terri who has come to church the last 2 sundays and is actively reading through the Book of Mormon. It is always a struggle getting an appointment with Terri, but of course as soon as one of the members tried so set one up she gladly made time. I think we will recruit Sister Northrup more often to set up appointments. The work is going great and is at full speed here in Camarillo. On Saturday was the baptism.
It went well and there were a lot of people who attended. Marcia is a very outgoing person and had a lot of friends and family who came. We were able to meet her husband at the baptism for the first time. He has been very cold in general when it comes to the church. It was difficult for Marcia to get permission from her husband to get baptized. He seemed to be a lot more comfortable at the end of the baptism and we were able to talk with him for a little bit and officially introduce ourselves. All of the talks and music were in the chapel because of the amount of people who came. Then they all crammed into the room with the baptismal font to watch as I performed the baptism. There were a lot of different of emotions that I was feeling all at the same time, but after the baptism an overwhelming sense of peace came. Unforgettable. Overall a great baptism. She was confirmed the next day and she will be officially a member once we get her records sent in. The spirit was so strong at the baptism and I have no doubt that everyone there could feel it. I can only hope that they recognize that feeling as coming from the Holy Ghost. It is great to be able to see the blessings that come from the restored gospel. I talk and meet with a lot of people, and it is night and day. You can't find the joy and peace that comes from Jesus Christ and His restored gospel anywhere else. I am grateful that I get to be a part of sharing those blessings.
This next week is transfers so we wil see if I get transferred or not, at this point it's anyones guess. Elder Hull and I get along fine, we are very different so it takes work but I have learned to love him and I am learning probably just as much as he is. I love you all and thank you for all of the support and prayers.
Elder Hamson

The Ocean

Everything is going great here in Camarillo. This week has been a crazy week. On Tuesday we moved apartments and this new one is right smack dab in the middle of our area which is awesome. They are spoiling us with a very nice apartment. We have two showers now between the 4 of us and a washer and dryer. We only just finished unpacking this morning. Elder Hull and I didn't end up moving hardly any of the stuff, because we were teaching Marcia and Alyssa that night. Marcia is still doing great and I will be baptizing her this Saturday which is crazy! Alyssa we set with a baptismal date for September 27 and She is a lot younger, so she is learning slower than Marcia, but then again Marcia is just a special case of hyperspeed learning. Then on Friday I got to go to a mission leadership training in Santa Barbara. That was such a beautiful drive, and I got to see the ocean for the first time in a year. The meeting was like a waterfall of knowledge I couldn't possibly soak in all at once. It's a good thing I took copious notes and I'll soak it all in over time. I got to see Elder Atkin there and we talked the whole time at lunch. If you remember from Thousand Oaks the old lady investigator, Sandy, we would read with every week. I found out that she is getting baptized this Saturday as well! I wish I could go, but it just great to hear the she finally made it to baptism. Its better late than never. Then on Saturday I went on my 4th exchange with Elder Watts. We had a great time, and we mostly compiled information and added up numbers for the stake report the whole time (zone leader stuff), but overall a good exchange. Anyways it was a great week and I am really excited for what the future holds. Thank you all for being awesome especially you Timothy.

Elder Hamson

Labor Day

Today is a little more interesting than most because it is Labor day and we can't go to the local library. We are in the family history center though, and it has been interesting coordinating everything so all the missionaries can come and email. Earlier in the week on Tuesday night we got to teach Marcia in the eveining and that went well. We taught about obedience, prayer and scripture study.She is still on track for her baptism on Sept. 13. It was a good lesson, and Elder Hull and I are teaching better together. He is coming along and has improved a lot. Now that I have gotten to know him better I feel like I can help him a lot more. I have really enjoye that part about training, that fact that it has been difficult for both of us, and we both are growing a lot. We are also moving this week the owners of the house we live in moved so we are getting a new appartment. This one is right in the middle of our area and isn't at the top of a big hill. I am going to miss riding up that hill everyday, so I guess I'll just have to pray for a different mountain to climb. On Wednesday we found a new investigator and that was great! We were going through a nieghborhood and talking to people along the way, and we decided to knock on one last door before moving to the next place. And by we I mean I convinced my companion to knock on the door. A young man answered who is in highschool, and we talked with him for a little bit. While we were talking his mom yelled from the backround "Is that the missionaries?" She sounded excited to see us. Now from past experience this usually means that they are excited to tell us that all of our beliefs are wrong and we should go home. She, however, was curious about what we do because she always sees missionaries around. Her name is Laila and we taught her the Restoration and she had a bunch of great questions like: "can I come to one of your church meetings?" That is the point where I just about fell out of my chair in suprise. We told her all about it and she plans on coming out to next week, beause she is out of town for labor day weekend. Anyways she is a very open person, who has some great potential. We will see her again on Wednesday. We also had a zone conference on Friday. We went to the building we thought it was at, and it turns out that our zone leader (Elder Watts) lead us to the wrong building. So our whole zone was late to zone conference, which consists of 3 zones. We gave Elder Watts a hard time about that, but only because he is one of my good friends in the mission. Anyways zone conference was great, I learned a bunch of great things and it is always good to see other missionaries. I also get to go up to Santa Barbara this week on Friday, they invited me to come to a mission leadership meeting. There are a lot of great things coming up so I am really excited. I love you all, thank you all for the support and be sure to keep your priorities straight.

Elder Hamson

Progression

Hello again. I'm still alive here in Camarillo so that's good. Elder Hull and I are getting along just fine and he is going to be a great missionary.  Marcia is still progressing towards her baptismal date and is living the word of wisdom which was the only thing that has been a little bit hard for her. I keep thinking September is so far away, but it is sneaking up on me real quick. We are working out the baptismal program with her, and she asked me to perform the baptism. I was surprised, but also excited at the opportunity. We met Marcia at the park and our lesson was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We also gave her a preach my gospel, because she loves books and is hungry for more to study. And trust me on this one you can study that thing all day everyday and still learn something everytime, as long as you humble yourself. A lot of things are like that in the gospel, if you ever feel like you have learned it all, I hate to break it to you but you haven't. Anyways it was a great lesson, and Elder Hull and I are working better together. The next day we had lunch with Jennifer the recent convert, and we just found out the other day that now that she has full custody of her daughter Alyssa, Alyssa can now get baptised. Which is super exciting, because apparently she wasn't very happy when she found out she couldn't get baptized unless she got permission from her dad. They were practicing face painting while we were there, Jennifer does makeup for her job and was teaching Alyssa. We taught the Restoration, and I also managed to get out of getting my face painted. Then later that day we went to the ward BBQ at the park. It was good and there were a couple less actives that we talked to for a while. It was a pretty good party. We taught a bunch of other lessons through out the week to different people, and it was a busy week. I have really enjoyed living in the same apartment as Elder McKinley he is great. Anyways I hope everything is going well for all of you and I wish you luck for all of you who are going to school. Thank you for being awesome.
Elder Hamson

The Long and the Short of It.

Hello everyone this week has been a great week. On Tuesday I got to meet my new companion Elder Hull. He is from Tennessee and is about 5'4". I am pretty sure he is the shortest I've had so far. He is fresh out of the MTC and I keep having flash back from when I first came out. He is very different from me and has an accent. He also says yall a lot, which if I'm not careful might rub off on me. It has been interesting being a trainer, but a lot of fun at the same time. He has a lot to learn, but that is to be expected. He is willing to jump in and try though, so I am grateful for that. We had a good first week though. Later in the afternoon on Tuesday we had a lesson with Marcia, who has a baptismal date for September 13. Elder Hull fell asleep in the middle of the lesson, I guess he woke really Early on Monday to fly here and after his flight got cancelled he managed to arrive in the mission 12:00pm and go to bed at 2:00am Tuesday morning. Needless to say I was flying solo in that lesson and had to kick him a couple times to keep him awake. We saw a lot of other miracles this week one of which was unexpected. We were talking with a recent convert, Jennifer and she recently got full custody of her daughter which is great, so if we get permission she will get baptized. Her father is the only thing stopping her, but she really wants to be baptized. The unexpected part came when we taught her friend who was staying the night. He has gotten himself into trouble a few times I guess, but needless to say when we were there he came and talked with us for a little bit. We talked to him about a lot of things including overcoming challenges/addictions. It's like there is a void that needs to be filled and when you try to fill it with things from the world it doesn't help. Only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ can we be completely healed. It was a really good conversation and he took a copy of the Book of Mormon and said he would read it. We told him to contact the missionaries wherever he ends up and they can help. She is kicking him out, so we won't teach him I just hope he takes the opportunity to turn his life around. Then on Sunday evening Elder Hull redeemed himself and we taught Marcia again. It was a great lesson on the Word of Wisdom and although she didn't completely understand why coffee and tea is in there she has committed to live the Word of Wisdom which is great, she is right on track for baptism and eventually the Temple. I am having a great time here I couldn't have asked for a better place to serve. Thank you all and I for all of you who start/have started school soon I wish you good luck. Also (sorry I'm late) Happy Birthday Heather!
Elder Hamson