Email 10/21/13

Dear Family,

What a week it's been. First off, sorry about not writing yesterday, we had interviews with President Calderwood so he asked us to change our preparation day to today instead of yesterday. Again, sorry about not warning you last week about it. 

This past week has been crazy from the get-go. We had lots of appointments, lots of activities and lots of exchanges. We also had our transfers deep clean and birthdays from members of the ward. A haunted house tour and a zombie apocalypse might have occurred as well :). Only in New York do these crazy things happen to me :)

We had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders (Sisters Bradfield and Sister Hales) and the sisters who are serving in Bushwick, Brooklyn (Sister Sumsion and Sister Shumway) this week. Sister Shumway is related to the Charles Shumway who was the body gaurd for Joseph Smith. She is from Blanding Utah and I was wondering if we are related. She actually looks a lot like a mix of the Shumways and the Hunts... I know weird but thats what I got out of it. Anyway she is super awesome and is actually waiting for her visa to get here. She was called to a mission in Brazil but just needs her visa in order to go, just like my companion Sister Casperson! We are so blessed to have these amazing missionaries come to our mission before going to their assigned missions. They are such great sports about it all. 

We also had a primary trunk or treat activity at the church! Our ward has the second biggest primary in the Brooklyn stake (which we are apart of) and there were so many cute monsters and princesses running around! The primary president did an excellent job with set up, food, and activities. There are even a few photographers in our ward so they had a photo station set up so the kids could have their pictures taken! It was so fun and the ward did so great at inviting non-members and less-actives to come. A woman who hasn't been to church in years was there and came to church the next day! Oh the power of activities!

I don't really have a lot of time to write about anything else but I just want to let you all know how much I love you! I feel so belssed every day to be part of such an awesome family and community. Round Valley is still my favorite place in the world and I love it so much! However New York is coming in at a close second! The people here are not angry all the time like every one says, they are the kindest people and just need extra love from those around them. What an awesome job I have here. I get to show them that love  they are seeking. I get to help them see that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." I am so blessed!

Oh I guess I should also let you know about facebook. I am aloud to talk to anyone as long as I am fulfilling my missionary purpose which is "To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ, and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the End." I think that as long as all of your testimonies are strong and going good I will just keep talking to you on Monday's. If you feel like you are going astray, talk to me on Mondays and I'll see what I can do but really, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the only ones that can fix that. You are aloud to comment on my posts I just won't be responding to you... I hope that makes sense and is not offencive... if it doesn't make sense or if you have more questions let me know.

I love you all so much!

Love Sister Hamblin