Sunny Days!

January 26, 2015

I am so happy you were all able to get moved into the condo! It looks just like our house just a mini version haha!! I like how you painted the wall red again:) Hopefully the showing goes well tonight!! I will be praying for you! It sounds like the new ward is great as well and that you are fitting in perfectly! 

This week was amazing!!!!! We were so busy we barely had time to eat meals which is a first! We haven't been this busy the whole time I've been out so far! It's exhausting but I'm not complaining because I love it! 

So earlier this week we stopped by Sister Porter's and Brother Topley's to see how they were doing. Their cat, Twizzler, had been sick and they had to put him down because he wasn't doing well at all and that was really hard for them because their animals are like their children. So we stopped by and got to talk to Sister Porter about her feelings of us coming over and teaching. She has been waiting for Brother Topley to take the lessons for so long and had always been against meeting with the missionaries. She said he has never been so receptive to any missionaries than he has been to us and she was just so grateful that we were here. We are so happy to hear that he loves having us over and she said he constantly talks about our next visits, he just can't get enough. We know he is so ready for baptism but we are scared to push him away if we ask but it is definitely the time. Next week we are going to ask him to be baptized and hopefully set a date!!! I am so nervous but I know he is ready and he probably won't take that next step if we don't ask. So just pray for us this week to be able to set a date for him to be baptized and that he will be open to our invitation.

Then on Friday we found out that Betty, one of the old ladies we visit and sing to each week passed away Tuesday. It was so sudden for everyone because she had seemed to be doing really well and then one day she just never woke up from her sleep. They think she might have had some internal bleeding but at least she passed away peacefully. Alberta, the other lady we visit who was also her roommate, is having a hard time with it. But we just keep visiting and praying for her as well. 

Thursday was awesome!!! In the morning we got to learn how to make quilts with the relief society. They make quilts to keep in church storage so if there is ever a natural disaster of any sort they are able to have quilts to pass out. It flooded a few years back and people didn't have a lot of things but they were able to hand out these quilts to keep people warm. So we helped with that and now I know how to make a quilt and we are both going to make one for ourselves this week! I just don't know how I will transport it around because I have zero room in my luggage and I keep accumulating more things!!

We also helped decorate for a wedding reception Thursday for a good chunk of the day. But it was so fun because it reminded me of you, mom, and always decorating for parties. It got me so excited about all the weddings we are going to have in our family!!

We also learned how to do indexing which is really fun!!! Our ward is having a huge indexing party this Saturday and I can't wait!! I love it and want to do more of it!!

My glasses broke a couple days ago:( Good thing I had my backup pair!! The screw just came out of one of the side part so it can be fixed but I can't find the screw... So I will try and take to some glasses shop and see what they can do. My back up glasses are my old perscription though so it has been making me kind of dizzy. Hopefully I can get my glasses fixed soon!

It has been so warm this week also! Especially yesterday! It got up to 12 degrees! We didn't even need our jackets or boots or tights!! It felt like summer haha! But the weather here is so bipolar. One week it will be freezing and the next super sunny. They call them shanooks when there is a warm spell and a lot of people get headaches from them. But it is nice to have a break from the freezing cold at least for a while. I am also getting sick:( My throat has been hurting and my body is achy but nothing too bad. I am starting to lose my voice but hopefully it won't last long! I need my voice to share the gospel:) 

Last night we went to the mission prep class and helped them with their role plays. It was fun to remember that I was in that position not to long ago:) And it helped me to see how far I have come since then. I feel like teaching is natural to me and I don't have to think about it too much now. Practice really does make perfect!!!

Anyway it has been a great week!!! I am so happy to be here and am loving every moment of sharing the gospel. I just want you guys to know that the members play a huge role in missionary work! So I hope you try to do your best to get in contact with the missionaries in your ward and help them find people to teach. The members and missionaries should be working together and bringing people unto Christ. So I challenge you all to find those people you could bring to the missionaries and don't be afraid. Be confident in what you believe and don't hide it from others! There are so many people out there who are searching for what you have!! I love all and miss you so much!!:)

Love,

Sister Hatch

Scripture of the week:

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."

John 15:13-15 

These are the cows behind their house.

Enjoying the sun and the warmer weather

Sun sets and sunrises.  She is in love with the view.

One Big Huge Awkward Moment

January 19,2015

Hey-oh Family-oh!!!

This week has been kind of a bummer because mostly all our appointments with our investigators and potentials cancelled:( But we were able to meet a lot with our members which is always good and do a lot of tracting!! Tracting is always fun because you meet so many interesting people who are usually only half dressed haha!! One guy we tracted into was only wearing a blanket. We were pretty sure he wasn't wearing anything else under it haha!! But yeah that is just the mission life. One big huge awkward moment! It keeps the days interesting though:) We tracted into one guy who just wanted to bible bash us so if we ever go back we need to be prepared. I've never been in a bible bash before so that will be interesting. but even our weekly Sunday night meeting got cancelled with Sister Porter and Brother Topley because they got sick. They still came to church though so that was a plus! 

This week was pretty boring so I don't have much more to say. Our new missionaries in our zone and district are pretty cool! I haven't got to meet them too much yet but I will at P-day today. I cut Sister Kolkova's hair this morning which was pretty insane. And it doesn't look that bad!! She is so crazy and was like "Sister Hatch I chopped off my hair I need your help!" and I was like " I can't cut hair!" But she made me do it anyway and so I cut her hair. We have a lady in the ward that cuts missionaries hair for free so she will probably just go to her to fix it because I don't think it's very even haha!! Sister Kolkova always keeps things entertaining:)

Sorry this is so short... But I am glad to hear you guys are getting all settled in to your new place. Hopefully internet comes soon!! Oh yeah and they are bringing facebook to our mission. We aren't getting ipads and right now only the zone leaders and sister training leaders can only go on facebook but they are going to have a special training for us soon and then we will all be able to go on. I don't know if I am excited or not. We'll see how I like it... 

Have fun unpacking and I will hopefully have more to say next week:) I love you and miss you all!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

Scripture of the week: 

"Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore when we write we behold our weaknesses, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words.

And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying, Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness."

Ether 12:25-26

The Mission is For Me

January 13, 2105

Familia!!

I am so sorry to hear about all the sickness but I am glad to hear you are all doing better!! I am also very sorry I forgot to tell you that we have transfers this week so our P-day was moved to Tuesday. I did not forget about you lovely people and I did not die so worry no longer! And Sister Kolkova and I are not being transferred which was what we figured because she is still training me.

This week has been amazing!! I have learned so much and grown so much as a missionary. This week I was really opened up to the importance of being a missionary and the full potential I have. So we went on exchanges again this week and I always seem to learn so much on exchanges. I love them!!! Anyways this time I was with Sister Jones and she is so amazing and taught me so much. We had gone to see a less active in their ward that had problems with drugs and alcohol and he wanted to make a change in his life and come back to God. We went through the Atonement in depth and just helped him to see there was hope for him and that God did love him even though he had made so many wrong choices. It was a really great lesson but afterward Sister Jones and I were talking and she said I feel like you had more to say but you just didn't say anything. I really thought about that and I realized yeah I guess I did have more to say but I always feel scared to share everything I think and feel. And she helped me to realize that I am called of God and because of that I have the power and authority from God to speak for Him and those thoughts and feelings do come from God so I should never hesitate to say them. And since then I feel like I have been freed. I realized that I don't need to hold back but just trust myself and trust God and then I can speak from the heart. I have been so much better in lessons because I haven't been scared to say what is on my mind and the spirit is felt so much more. I am so grateful I have been able to see this so early on in my mission as well because it will be a huge blessing for the rest of my mission!

I also realized that everyone should go on a mission because you learn so much about yourself and you see the world in a totally different way. I see what is truly important and I have already found so many things that I want to implement into my own family when I have kids of my own. I would have never thought of these things if I hadn't gone on a mission. I finally understood this week why people always say the mission changed my life because just in this one month I have been changed. I think back on some of the things I was doing before my mission and think why was I doing that? I could have been doing something so much more productive and worth my time. I just hope I implement these things into my life when I do get home. One of those things just being kind to people and not being afraid to talk to others. Everyone needs that goodness and hope and some people don't have that. We take for granted a lot of things we have in the church and we need to be that light for others and not just talk about it but do it. There are so many people out there that will open up to us if we just open up to them first. There is so much more I want to say about this but I don't quite know how to convey it fully. It is kind of a thing you just have to experience yourself and that is why everyone should go on a mission. Because most of all you are able to change yourself.

We were able to meet with one of our potentials we tracted into this week. His name is Rob and he is a middle school teacher. He had heard a lot from other teachers saying oh that student is from a mormon family and that made him very curious. He wanted to know what made those students so different that teachers would say that about them and when we showed up on his doorstep he had the opportunity to learn more. So we hope that he continues to want to meet with us and it goes somewhere. But right now he just wants to learn which is a great start! Our other investigator Andrea that we met with the first day I got here is starting to fall. We were supposed to meet with hertomorrow but she cancelled again and rescheduled for the end of the month. All we can do is just keep praying that she will want to keep meeting with us because she wants more in her life and we know she can see the goodness in the gospel. 

So that was my week!! I am so happy to have this new perspective on missionary work! It has helped me to truly understand my purpose and I am loving the mission so much more because of it!!:) I love you and miss you all!! Have fun moving into the condo!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

P.S. I have pics!! 

Oh and I forgot the scripture of the week so here goes:

"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if ye are not of little faith.

Therefore take no thought , saying, what shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

3 Nephi 12:30-33

They are getting fed pretty well

Gourmet food! Looks like something from a fancy restaurant.

Missionaries in her district.

Happy New Year!!

January 5, 2015

Hello Family and Friends!

Wow you all have been up to so many fun things!! I'm sad I missed it all but love to see all the pictures. I'm glad Amanda could go to the Nutcracker with you:) 

This week has been pretty low key because the weather has been horrible and News Years. We did end up hanging out with some members New Years Eve. It was with three older couples but it was actually really fun! We played games and ate food and chatted. We still had to be home by 9:30 and went to bed at 10:30 but it was nice to just relax. We had some pretty fun adventures as well...

So Tuesday was close to the end of the month and we had a lot of kilometers to use up for the month so we decided to go visit one of our previous members who now lives out of our boundaries. (I know we are really bad missionaries) But she lives literally right on the edge of our boundaries so it wasn't too bad. We have this area in our ward called Madden and it's way North past Crossfield even and no missionaries really go out there because there are no members there and it is a super small town with only like five houses so it's really not worth it to go all the way out there to tract. But anyways since we had enough kilometers we wanted to go out there and tract and visit our previous member. She had told us the directions to her house and everything but it is literally the middle of nowhere and just tons of land and she didn't know the address so she just gave us instructions based on landmarks. Of course we got lost and it took forever to find it but we eventually did. But the first house we ended up at a huge dog came out and was barking at us and chasing our car so that was kind of scary but it was good times:) 

So that was one adventure, the next one was Monday night (I think). We had been out tracting and it was super cold by the way. Our toes were freezing  but one man was out smoking on his porch so we just stopped to talk to him. He said he believed in Jesus Christ and everything and we had a good 15 minute conversation with him. But anyway after we were done talking to him we moved on and by then we were so cold and we said we would only do one more house when a car just flies into the front yard of this persons house we had just been standing at. It was insane!! We think the car lost control turning the corner and ended up in the front yard but it was crazy because we had just been standing there a few minutes earlier... The Lord was protecting us!!! And after that we just decided to go home haha!! 

So that was my crazy week and we were able to teach to less actives this week. One had a friend over that wasn't a member so we mostly taught the nonmember friend. The other is a couple who one is a member and the other is not but he is a member of Community of Christ church which is a break off from the LDS church also known as RLDS. So he already believes a lot of what we believe. We go there every Sunday night and have great spiritual discussions with them about the lessons and they have both been coming to church each sunday so thats good! They are the ones I told you were vegetarian and loved animals and that feed us all this vegan stuff. The wife has Lupus too (I don't think I told you that) so that is why she changed her diet. But her Lupus was in her kidneys and they told her she only had 5 years to live but she changed her diet and shes doing really well! But we don't want to pressure the husband into baptism. We hope he will decide on his own as we go through all the lessons with him. So we'll see!!! 

Oh another crazy event was a baptism that happened this week. It was one girl in our ward who turned eight and we went to support the family because we love them so much!! So they have six kids and one on the way and they forgot the oldest (who is like 14) at home!!! We had to wait until she arrived to do the actual baptism and once she got there the mom and aunts were in the kitchen and totally missed seeing the baptism haha!!! It was the craziest baptism I've been to but it will definitely always be remembered!

So this week has been good! Full of lots of memories! I hope you all have a great week and have fun back at school! I love you and miss you all!:)

Love,

Sister Hatch

Scripture of the week (I have been studying charity):

"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."

1 Cor 13:2-3 

Snow! and Moldy Bread?

 December 29, 2014

IT FINALLY SNOWED!!!!! We had a white Christmas and it's been snowing everyday since! Today it is -15 celcius!!! It's getting colder and guess what?? Sister Kolkova and I decided to go running this morning in the snow! Yeah I know we are SUPER  crazy!! I actually was riding a bike while she ran but it was hard and the little snowflakes were getting in my eyes. It was probably not the best decision but it really woke me up haha!!:) I don't know if we will be doing much more running in the mornings now since it's getting colder but who knows maybe Sister Kolkova will convince me to go...

This week was kind of slower because no one really wanted to meet with us around the holidays but we were able to spend a lot of time with the members. Tuesday we have district meeting and our district decided to draw names for a gift exchange and guess what I got from Elder Williams?? Moldy bread!!!! He thought he was so funny but it was ok because he also got me some chocolates and other things. And I also had Elder Williams in the gift exchange so I got him some Hob Knobs (a cookie from England because he's from England) and some Mad Lib books because he's just a really serious guy and I thought he needed a laugh:) Anyhoo, so that was fun!!! Then that night we went caroling as a zone. It probably looked really weird to see a huge group of missionaries come up to your house but people were ok with it when we started to sing. Most people enjoyed it so that was good. 

Christmas day we went to the Barfuss' house for breakfast as you already saw in the pictures and they got us so many presents!! They are so sweet to us!! And they are our neighbors by the way:) So now I have a Canada shirt and mittens I was super excited because I really wanted to get a Canada shirt! We also got two stockings from other members so I had three stockings in all and TONS of chocolate!! I think I have enough chocolate to last for the rest of my mission!!! Then we went and saw the two old ladies and they were so happy!! And then we went to another members house for dinner that night! So tons of fun!! And we have been working really hard on our 1000 piece puzzle. We are getting really close to finishing!

The day after Christmas here is called Boxing Day and it is pretty much like Black Friday so everyone is shopping that day. It's not as crazy as our Black Friday but pretty close:)

Saturday we did some contacting, just trying to set up appointments with potential investigators and we got 4 return appointments so that was successful!! But all of the appointments are for next week so we don't really know what we are going to do this week but we will try and stay busy:) It has been a really good week! I did get a little homesick on Christmas but I think I'm doing good now. I saw the pictures you sent to the Barfuss'! Super fun!! It sounds like you all are having a blast this week! Have fun moving into the new house and painting! I'm glad my gift finally got to you and that you tried the Tim Tam Slam! Wasn't it good?? I'm going to send pics this week! I loved all the presents! Thank you so much!! Have a Happy New Years!!!:) I love you all TONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

The mission hasn't taken too much of her time because she is still able to do something she loves, bake/cook.

One of the elders gave her moldy bread for Christmas...how thoughtful.

It snowed! And Kirsten was super excited, but I think she will soon be wishing it was gone.