Calgary Temple Trip

February 17,2015

So this week was pretty crazy but amazing!! 

We were able to go to the Calgary Temple on Saturday to help clean (the temple has been closed for a couple weeks) and it was the most amazing temple trip I have ever had!! Not only was it great to help clean but before we started we were able to have personal study in the celestial room! Amazing!! Then after cleaning we were able to get a private tour of the temple and let's just say we were able to see places that you wouldn't normally get to see on an everyday trip to the temple. It was cool! Plus I learned more than I have ever learned on that trip. I always knew the temple was important but I was really able to see the greatness of it after Saturday and how truly important it really is to our salvation. When we were all sitting in the sealing room (our whole district went) the temple worker guy said this is why your here, to get people to this room! Baptism is not our goal, eternity is and when families are sealed together that is the greatest step for eternity!! It was great! And one of the Elders was so funny and kept going back to the sealing room. I think he wants to get married pretty badly:)

So yesterday for Pday we all wanted to go to Drumheller (an hour drive from Airdrie) as a Zone because it was Family Day and there is a dinosaur museum there that would have been free on Family Day but President said no. So we were all really bummed and just ended up all going to the mall instead... I didn't buy anything though. It is so true I am really picky and it takes a lot for me to buy something:) Every time we go Sister Kolkova buys so much stuff and I never get anything haha:) But it was still a fun day and apparently Canada's national food is french fries with a gravy sauce and cheese on it so I will have to try that one day:) Sounds kind of gross so we'll see...

Speaking of food though, last night I had lobster for the first time! It was a lot of work for a little amount of meat but now I can say I've had lobster! Our members are so great!! 

So transfers are next week!!! Which is sad and happy... Sad because Sister Kolkova will most likely leave:( but happy because change is good and refreshing! We were told that Airdrie 2nd ward is being purged so Airdrie 1st ward (which is me!) will now be covering both wards! Crazy!! They are slowly purging the wards in Airdrie just because there isn't a lot of work here. Me and Sister Kolkova have already practically tracted our whole area and no one is interested! It is very frustrating and depressing at times but we have been doing great things with the members and I think because we do have one investigator they didn't shut down our area. It's kind of sad because we all know we have been working very hard here it's just not the right time for the people I guess. But next week will be some crazy changes and we have Pday on Tuesday so I won't be emailing until Tuesday again.

I actually did get some Valentine's. One from one of our members, her name is Nancy Allen and she is from Scotland. We love her so much!!! She always has things for us. When she went to Scotland for Christmas she brought us back both some Nessie stuffed animals. They are so cute!!! And then I also got a random note in my pocket from someone named Kelsey who I don't know that was just encouraging and said thank you for all you do in preaching the gospel you are loved. It was sweet but I don't know who it was that wrote it. 

Our investigator Roy Topley wasn't able to meet with us this week so we will see what is going on with him more this week I guess... But overall this week has been good and uplifting! I love hearing from you guys! Oh and what is the name of your new ward and stake because I need to update President with your new address and stuff:) I love you all so much!!! Have a great week and stay fabulous!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

Sister Hatch at the Calgary Temple

With her district

Lobster dinner

Miracle

February 9, 2015

Hey!!! 

I was starting to think Marlee was the only one who loved me because I hadn't gotten any emails from any of you but that's ok:) I know you all love me!! 

So I am feeling better finally!!! Sister Kolkova got sick right when I was feeling better so the beginning of the week was slow again but she got well fast and we were able to get back out to work!! Sounds like you guys are having fun and that's so cool that you are in Cub Scouts again! That will be fun!! I still have about half a bottle each of my medicine so I will be fine for a while. I was also wondering if you could send some printed pics of you because I only have my one framed picture of you and Sister Kolkova wants to see more pictures and I want to decorate my planners with you guys:) 

So this week a lot of appointments cancelled on us which was very depressing... Our goal as a district has been to get 20 lessons a week for each companionship and we would have met that goal but so many appointments cancelled on us that we weren't able to reach it:( But at least we tried our best and we will just try harder next week! Airdrie is a really slow area but we have been working so hard to try and find anyone who is interested. Patience is a very hard thing right now!! 

We did end up having an appointment with the Topley's (Sister Porter changed her records to Sister Topley so now it's less confusing but we are still trying to get used to it) yesterday and it was great! We still don't have a baptismal date set but we were able to talk more about Brother Topley's feeling towards baptism. He has been baptized into the Community of Christ Church (RLDS) and already believes a lot of the same things that we believe. But I guess that church doesn't use the Book of Mormon as much as they do the Bible so he hasn't read the BOM in a long time. He has started to read it again and he told us if he is able to feel the same way as he feels about the Bible as he reads the BOM then he will get baptized. So when he finds his answer he will be ready. All we can do now is pray and have patience in letting him read and feel the spirit. We have done our part and now the Spirit will do the rest:) 

Stake Conference was also this weekend and it was amazing!! The speakers talked all about member missionary work and temples. They were great meetings and really touched me in ways that I needed this week. I had been really down because of our slow weeks but it helped me to have that positive attitude again and see that we are trying our best and that is all we can do!! And the temple is closed for cleaning this week so as a district we are going to go help clean the temple!! I am so excited to see the Calgary temple and help clean it. It will be a new experience and a fun one!

Yesterday I had lost our house key:( I always kept it in my coat pocket but after getting home from the Senior center I realized it wasn't there anymore. We always lock our door when we leave as well so we were locked out. Luckily we did have the car keys (we had been walking) so we drove back to the Senior center to see if they had found it anywhere but nothing. And since we had walked there it could've fallen out anywhere along the path and we had walked quite a ways. So we prayed and then went back to our house and started walking the way we had gone earlier, retracing our steps and not to far from the house I started to slow down and think "This is insane it could be anywhere" and I looked down and there it was!!! It was an amazing miracle! Prayer always works!!!

A new lady moved into the Senior home we visit every Sunday in Betty's place. Her name is Lily and she is so sweet! So now we have two ladies to visit again:) We love the old ladies!! Most of them are almost 100 and they are still mobile it's crazy!

So it has been a good week overall!! I am glad to hear from you guys and I miss you tons but its fun!! I haven't been taking too many pictures lately so I don't have any to send but hopefully next week! Oh and next Monday is Family Day here so the library will be closed so we will have to email on Tuesday next week just to give you a heads up. It's crazy here the schools get a week off for Family Week and they get a spring break as well!! They are lucky!! Anyways I love you all so much!! Have a great Valentine's Day this Saturday!

Love,

Sister Hatch  

A little under the weather

February 2,2015

Well this week ended up being pretty rough because I got really sick and I still am sick:( It started last Monday with a sore throat and runny nose and now I have a cough as well. I haven't been too tired but we cancelled a lot of our appointments with little kids because I didn't want to get them sick. I tried so many things like hot lemon water, NyQuil, Tylenol, ginger but nothing has really made a difference. Sister Kolkova keeps giving me all these things to try which are really disgusting but nothing has worked. Last night I got a priesthood blessing from some of our Elders and I do feel more alert and lively today which is good! I just hope my cough and runny nose start to go away soon because we have a lot of really important appointments this week that I don't want to have to cancel!! 

We also didn't get to meet with Brother Topley this week:( Sister Porter got sick so they cancelled on us but I guess it was ok because I haven't been feeling my best as well. But next week for sure!!! I really just want to see how he feels about baptism and get to that next step. So keep on praying!! We need all the help we can get!

We also had Zone Conference this week which was great but very long!! We talked a lot about the gathering of Israel because that is the focus of our BOM reading this month. I definitely need to try harder in focusing on this topic when I study but I learned a lot. Mostly that the gathering is not only the physical gathering of everyone to the gospel but our own spiritual gathering. We need to focus always on strengthening ourselves because how are we supposed to gather others if we aren't gathered ourselves first.

We also went out tracting again this week and guess what?? We found another potential!!! Her name is Brittany and she is a young mother. We are going back to talk with her more this week! It is so exciting when tracting is successful!! And we were also able to finally get a return appointment with Andrea (the first investigator I had here). We have only taught her the first lesson but we are going back this week to teach the second and we will see where it goes! I am so excited where this week will take us!

So we have an Elder in our district, Elder Sorensen, who is straight up redneck. And he constantly talks about hunting and everything... anyway we would always joke that if they killed a rabbit we would cook it for them. So this week they actually killed a rabbit!!!! And we cooked it!! They said they just scared it to death but we didn't believe them, they just wouldn't tell us how they killed it. Anyway we got this cooking lesson from one of our members (the ones who always make the fancy food that I send pics of) how to cook rabbit and we did it and it wasn't that bad. So now I can officially say I have had rabbit! It was a little chewy though haha:)

Our ward's indexing activity was so fun!! You should really try indexing it is super easy and doesn't take that long to do a batch. The Sister Training Leaders were also there because we went on these short splits just for the afternoon. Anyway it was good!

I am so glad you found someone so easily to rent the house! I'll have to tell J.T. about that... yes we have been emailing a little bit. Anyway it sounds like everything is going well there! I love to get your emails!! You guys are the best!! I love you!!

Love,

Sister Hatch