A Busy Week

Well this last week has been great. We started off with zone conference on Tuesday, which was interesting. I conducted the meeting which was stressful seeing as I have no idea what I am doing. We had put together a musical number with a bunch of the missionaries in the zone including myself, and afterwards I got up to continue with the meeting and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to thank myself for singing or what. It was a good learning experience and it's weird to be sitting on the stand at zone conference which really is two zones combined (about 50 missionaries). We learned a lot and I love President Felix more and more. Then through out the week we taught Helen a couple of times. She is set to be baptized on December 6th and is more than ready. She is really fun to teach, because she has been investigating for a while and knows a lot so she wants us to go more in depth about things which is like a missionaries dream come true. It is a lot harder to take the gospel and all that that consists of and teach it simple enough for someone with no background in the church to understand. There are also a couple other recent converts we are teaching the new member lessons to. Bella who was baptized November 1st and Jesse who she was baptized in September. They are both doing great and have callings in the church. There is also a guy named Gabriel who we had an appointment with, but he didn't show up. He did, however, go to SLO 1st ward on Sunday and stayed for all three hours. He is YSA age, but doesn't have a phone so we can't really contact him. I am not sure what to think of him yet, but hopefully we can contact him and find out more about him. I also did my first stake report which was fun, we gathered all the information from our zone for the month and presented it to the stake presidency. I really like the stake presidency, and it was a good meeting. I am feeling more and more comfortable with the area and with all of our responsibilities, it has been quite the learning and testimony building experience up here in SLO. I have a huge testimony in Proverbs 3:5-6 that when we trust in the Lord and in His plan and not in our own limited understanding, He really does direct our paths and we are simply happier that way. Thank you all for all of the love and support, it means a lot more than I think you realize. You are all in my prayers as well.

Elder Hamson

A Long Day

Everything is going great here in SLO. This last week has been a little crazy and I still don't know what I am doing most of the time. On Tuesday we had a lesson with Helen who is preparing for her baptismal date on December 6. She is doing great and is working on strengthening her testimony of the priesthood and Joseph Smith. She is great and we are excited about her. On Wednesday we drove up to Paso Robles and picked up one of the district leaders there then pick up the other two on the way back, then after we gathered everyone we set off on our little road trip to Mission Leadership Conference (MLC) in Ventura. This one was more like a mission leader ship training, because the district leaders were invited. Anyways we drove down the day before and stay the night with President and Sister Felix in the mission home. It was a fun time and we went to our meeting at 9:00am the next day. Some people from the MTC came and did a training and I learned a whole lot. The meeting ended around 4:00pm and we gathered all of our supplies and headed back to SLO. It was a long drive and after we dropped off all the district leaders we finally made it back at 10:23pm. It was a long day, and I felt disobedient but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. The next morning we had a zone meeting where we presented everything we had learned. Talk about going by the spirit, we had very little time to prepare that meeting. Everything turned out great and that night I went on an exchange with Elder Walker who is a district leader up in Paso Robles. That was a great day of learning and it was great to work with Elder Walker. On Sunday we spent most of our time at church in meeting, and preparing for zone conference on Tuesday and a report to the stake presidency about our zone on Wednesday. Needless to say there is a lot to do and I am still as happy and excited as ever. Thank you all for everything you are in my prayers. Also Happy birthday dad, I love you very much and you are all in my prayers.
Elder Hamson

A Red Truck

Hello everyone, I am doing great here in San Luis Obispo. I wish I could be there with you today, but I am sending my love and prayers. 

My first day last week was crazy. We went to transfer meeting and that was great. After that we had to make sure all the missionaries found their companion and that all of the luggage and bikes make it all the way up to their areas. We took a lot of the bikes and some luggage in our red truck (2012 Nissan Frontier). It was a long beautiful drive up there and we managed to get everyone their luggage and bikes and get home only to find out that I left my crate in Ventura. At least we remembered everyone else's stuff. Then later on I met one of our investigators Helen who is set to get baptized on December 6th. She is so awesome and ready, infact she already has a calling which I wasn't sure was possible, but I guess so. She will make for a great member. I am making a lot of adjustment with being a zone leader, serving in a YSA ward, driving a truck etc. but so far it has been a blast so I am really excited to be here. Thank you all for your prayers and support. You are all the best. 

Elder Hamson

The first one is Alan with his new companion, Elder Jack.  The other is with Elder McKinley.

Zone Leader

Well I am getting trasfered to San luis Obisbo. I'll be serving in the YSA ward and I guess that means I am a zone leader. I have never been up to the north end of the mission before, so everything will be very new, but that's what makes it exciting. Elder Hull and I had a good last week together and it is always a bitter sweet at transfers. I don't know the address to my new apartment yet, so if you send any mail send it to the mission office.

 I found out about uncle Karl and I find myself not knowing what to think sometimes, but I just want everyone to know that the things that I am teaching out here are very real. Life sucks, it's not fair, it's full of sadness, pain and grief. This is part of God's plan for all of us. He knows us and has given us the opportunity to have peace and comfort through the gospel. There is hope when we submit our will to his and accept his timing. I can't describe my feelings very well other than I have a deep sadness and my prayers go out to all of Karl's family. My testimony of the Plan of Salvation, Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the enabling power of His Atonement is helping me through. We can all make it through this together. I wish I could be there, but I am in the right place. Thank you all.

Elder Hamson

Editor's Note:

(David Hamson) My brother Karl passed away last Friday night.  Although he had been ill for a long time, his death was not expected.  I talked to President Felix, Alan's mission president on Saturday so that he could inform Alan of Karl's passing.  We had a good talk and President Felix told me of Alan's call to be a Zone  Leader and told me that Alan is doing a great job as a missionary and as an example to other missionaries.

A Solid Week.

Greetings from Elder Hamson, 

This week has been a solid week full of miracles. First off on Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder McKinley who came out the same time I did. It was great to work with him and learn from him. It was cool to talk about how our missions have gone and how we can make the most of what time we have left. We worked in the YSA ward, so their area is huge. They also don't get very many dinners, so naturally the one time I come into their ward they have a dinner. It was with one of their recent converts and we had a lesson afterward that went well. Overall I learned a lot. Then on Wednesday we took Robbie out with us to teach Leila. Robbie is going to the mexico city chalco mission in a week so he likes to work with us. Leila is doing great, she is interested and likes what we teach and she is reading from the Book of Mormon regularly and she prays to know if it's true. She hasn't gotten an answer yet, but we spent a good portion of the lesson talking about how the spirit works and it's role. Elder Hull as a part of the training program was supposed to lead out in all of the lessons and planning situations this last week. He did a great job and it was a challenge for both of us. Then on Thursday we met with Karen who is now a new investigator. a few weeks ago she was talking with her Mormon friends and they told her to check out LDS.org and Mormon.org she did and it was in the middle of general conference so she ended up watching a good portion of it. Fast forward two weeks we had an appointment with her and she has pretty much decided this is the church for her. We brought to members to our lesson and they connected really well. So now she has a couple of friends in the ward, but it was more chit chat than I would have liked. It was a good lesson, and she came to last two hours of church on Sunday. It was just a really cool miracle and she just found her way over here by herself. This week we are having the lesson at her neighbors house and they are a more timid family, so that will be nice. On Saturday we had the Fall Festival in our ward and Dylan who we have been working with came with his fiance Lisa. It was great to see them there, we had invited them but I didn't actually expect them both to come. ( I know I need to have more faith) They got to know the ward better and I think that will open opportunities in the future to teach Lisa even though she isn't interested now. We got to see Marcia this week as well at the Fall Festival and she is doing great, we have an actual lesson with her next week and that should be great. Jennifer and Alyssa are caught up in the storms of life and have asked us to take a step back for a week or so until things settle down. It is an insanely tough situation, and we wish we could help more. I am confident that they will both come out stronger. Overall though it has been a great week and transfers are coming up so we will see what happens, but I guess you will just have to wait until next Monday. Thank you all, and have a happy Halloween!

Everything is Great

Hello everyone this week was a great week. There are a couple different people who were investigators in other wards who moved here and we are still working to get an appointment and see where they are. Then there was a lady, Karen, who referred herself on Mormon.org who we talked to a couple of weeks ago, she said she would be back in town this week. I think those will all be great opportunities once their life settles down a little bit. We are still working with our recent converts Alyssa, her mother Jennifer and Marcia. They have all been busy on the weekends and haven't attended our ward, which worries me, but they tell us they go to church where ever they are. Then we just found out that Dylan who is a returning Less-Active (21) is planning on getting married to hi s girlfriend in a couple of weeks. She isn't a member, but we have been teaching him every week and helping him get back on track and they decided to get married. Fantastic. Lisa his future wife has been listening in on our lessons and asks a question every once in a while. She is getting more and more comfortable with us and Dylan told us they are starting to read the scriptures together. So there are a lot of great things going on here, and were are working hard to find new investigators as well. I went on an exchange with Elder Slaugh on Saturday. It's really cool to get to know all of the missionaries better and their investigator who I have been hearing about over the phone in reports for the last 3 months. It was nice to officially meet a couple of them. One of them Jonathan will be baptized this Saturday. Which is great for Elder Slaugh and Elder Bartholomew. Everything is going great here in Camarillo, thank you for the support and prayers. Transfers are in 2 weeks so any letters to the apartment need to be sent this week. :) Or just any letters need to get sent.
Elder Hamson

Trying out each others bikes:

Soaking It In

Another week gone by, and we are already half way through this transfer. On Wednesday Elder Hull and I went tracting in an area that we don't spend very much time in and it went really well. People were generally nice to us and we were getting close to the end of the street and Elder Hull wanted to just be done and eat lunch. I managed to convince him to do just a couple more houses. The next two people were very receptive to our message and we gave them both a copy of the Book of Mormon. The first one's name was Carol and she doesn't have a church she goes to, but believes in God. We taught her a simple lesson going over the restoration and we have an appointment for next week. The next house was Celeste and after we taught her for a little while she said "sure you can come back, just whenever you are in the area next" I told her we would be back next week, so we have two back to back appointments with the last two houses this week. Then later on in the day we helped Jennifer and her daughter Alyssa move some furniture in their house. They are both doing well, and still learning a lot as they are both very new to the gospel. Marcia is doing great too, she was out of town so our next appointment is tomorrow. We talked with her on the phone and she and her husband are gaining a better relationship. That was great news, because her husband is an atheist, but it sounds like he doesn't hate us which is good. We met with Dylan who is a returning LA member. We brought Brother Skelton with us who hit it off with Dylan and we had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation. Dylan is 21, but doesn't want to go to the singles ward, because he is planning on getting married soon. So we are teaching him and he lives in the same apartment complex as us which makes things easier. He came to church on Sunday and he going to meet with the bishop to get to know him soon, so it's really cool to see him coming back. The last lesson we had his girlfriend Lisa sat in on the lesson too, she didn't say anything, but she sat on the couch with Dylan and simply listened. She is slowly opening up more and more, and I think she will eventually give the Book of Mormon a chance and try it out. We had a zone meeting on Thursday instead of a district meeting so I haven't planned a district meeting for a couple of weeks now, so I am excited for this week because I have got a killer meeting planned. The zone meeting was great there were a couple of changes to the mission policy, we are now allowed to go to any baptism in the zone, if we have a recent convert, less active or investigator there. It used to have to be in our district and we could only come with an investigator. I like the idea of being able to go and see more baptisms. On Saturday we went and blitzed Elder Slaugh and Elder Bartholomew's area for an hour. It was good to get to work with Elder Bartholomew and we were able to talk to quite a few people. I am having a blast being a district leader, mostly because my districts have been awesome so far. Anyways everything is going well here I am living the dream, so I have to soak it in while I still can. Thank you all for being great and you will hear from me next week.
Elder Hamson