YSA all the Way

March 21, 2016

This was a slower week but not a bad week.

We got Leah on date for baptism for May 6th!! Sister VanSchouwenburg is a little upset that is after transfers but she might stay!! You never know these days:)  We taught the Word of Wisdom to Leah and she agreed with no problem. I have never had such an easy time teaching the Word of Wisdom my whole mission!! It helps that she is a health freak so she doesn't believe in drinking caffeine already. She was just born to be a member!! She is so awesome!

We haven't been able to meet with Mckenzie (the guy who read the whole BOM) this week because he has been busy and then left for Mexico... But he will not get away! Haha!

We also talked to President this week about our situation with both our wards meeting at the same time on Sundays and he agreed that it would be best if the Heritage Elders take 1st ward because they meet in the same building. So now we only have YSA!!! But I love it and we stay so busy!!

They have so many activities! We had a chili cook off the other night and we were the judges. It was so fun! 

I am starting to see the YSA drama though which I don't like as much... Oh well... And our ward mission leader just got engaged! They are so cute! (side tangent)

Anyways, we got lost so much this week! This was our week to not have the car so we have been trying to figure out the buses and it hasn't worked so far... On Friday we walked a good 5 extra miles than we needed to because we were so lost and we never did end up getting to our appointment. But we met some awesome people along the way so that was a plus! I really do know how to read maps guys.

And we also had Zone Conference! Which I thought was going to be my last one but we will be having another one in May which I am so pumped for!! And we are also going to be visited ny Elder Christofferson in April!! Exciting things are coming!! But back to Zone Conference, it was amazing!! Let's just say the Atonement is real!

Oh and a lady in YSA served her mission in Tempe!! She served in Shalimar ward and is going down to visit the Cleggs this week!! Isn't that crazy?? She is the Relief Society President in YSA!! I love her so much!!! Such a small world!

And we have a less active in our ward that I skyped in the MTC! Haha!! It's so funny how the Lord works to put people in our lives:)

Life is good and the gospel is true!! I love you guys!! 

Love,

Sister Hatch

Leah and Beverly.  Leah is on the left and getting baptized May 6th! 

Chili cook off

Lunch with the Sisters

Having fun on the merry go round

Zone Conference

We are Baptizing Nations

March 14, 2016

YSA wards rock!!! So many awesome things happened this week!

So first, we met with our investigator Leah, who has only had two other lessons before this week and from everything I was told about her she sounded golden. And guess what? She was! We met with her and decided to put her on date for baptism and we did!! Well kind of... Her boyfriend is in Utah going to BYU right now and she really wants him to baptize her so we just have to figure out a time that he can come up!! But he said he would be willing to come up anytime! So we are going to have a baptism soon! She is so awesome!! And she came to church! She has no concerns whatsoever! AHH!!

Second investigator is Mckenzie (male). We met with him the first day I got into this area and he seemed kind of distracted... We didn't know if he had real intent and he ended up cancelling our appointment this week because he had to work so we just didn't think much would happen there. But then we get a text from him saying that he read the WHOLE BOOK OF MORMON!!! THE WHOLE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!! No one reads the whole Book of Mormon!!! literally tears came to my eyes I was so shocked!! AND THEN he came to church!!! And he said he loved it and he felt so welcome and happy!! Miracles!!!

Then we also just got an investigator passed off to us from the other Elders because he is YSA age that has a baptismal date for April 17th! And he came to church too!!! And we have another potential that we are going to start teaching this week that came to church as well!!! What is happening?? I have never had so many people progressing in my whole mission!!!!! I am so beyond stoked!! 

The only sad thing was we were on splits for church yesterday and I went to Calgary 1st ward so I didn't even get to see all of these people at church:( But that's ok! I just feel bad that we aren't able to spend that much time on 1st ward but we have so many people to teach in YSA!!! I love it!!! Miracles are happening!! And we are baptizing nations!! I take back every thing I said about YSA before!! It is absolutely amazing!

I love you guys! The gospel is true!

Love,

Sister Hatch 

"But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever." (2 Nephi 9:18)

Dillon and Emily a couple in the YSA ward.

Calgary for Life

March 7, 2016

No shocker here!! I am still in Calgary, central Calgary so pretty much Downtown!!! It is kind of sad that I won't get to go down South at all on my mission but I am stoked to stay in Calgary!! And wait for it... I am also in YSA!!!! AHHH!!! I know crazy right? I never thought I would be put in a YSA ward and I was actually really scared to go to one because I feel like I can't talk to normal people my age anymore. I can talk to other missionaries but they aren't normal haha:) And we are also covering a family ward as well so that is fun! The only dilema is that they both start at the same time in different buildings so we can't go to both wards on Sunday or if we do we would have to be on splits with members. But we won't do that for the first couple weeks so I can get used to the wards with Sister V. OH and I just realized I forgot to tell you that my new companions name is Sister VanShouwenburg!!! I know it's a long one right? She is from Utah but spent most of her life in California so not a full Utahian:) She is awesome!! She is just done being trained and her mission mom just went home so she was sad to get another companion that she would probably have to send home but she is doing awesome!! It is really hard after training when you realize you have all the responsibility now but she is such a great missionary! She is super obedient and a great street contacter so she is helping me to stay in line. She LOVES to talk!!

We also get to share a car again but this time with the Elders!! Fun stuff!! But the Elders are super sweet and let us take the car all the time even when it is there turn to have it:) We cover the whole stake though so we need it more to get places. There is also a Korean branch within 1st ward and that covers the whole city of Calgary so we could potentially drive anywhere in Calgary to meet these people! It is sweet! We had a dinner the other night with one of the Korean members and I got to drive through my last area. It was fun!! So maybe I will learn some Korean...

We also have so many investigators in YSA so I am excited!! Some of them are so solid so I can feel that we are going to get a baptism this transfer! I haven't met any of them yet really but I have heard really good things!! YSA is the place for baptisms baby!!

Funny Story: So we were contacting the other day and a guy answered the door with no pants or underwear on!!! Hahaha!! It was so awkward! I didn't see anything because luckily he was wearing a shirt to cover a little bit but I just didn't look down. He was just like oh I was just getting in the shower.... Then WHY did you answer the door?!?! Oh my goodness! Some people... And he was in his 60's...

Anyway life is good here!! The weather has been beautiful and change has been good! I do miss my trio really bad but this area has so much potential and we are going to baptize nations!! And what better place to do it than downtown Calgary!! I love it! I love the gospel!! The church is true and the book is blue!

Love,

Sister Hatch

Sister Hatch's new companion Sister VanShouwenburg.

Transfer Week

February 29,2016

So it looks like I am getting transferred again!!! I did not think I would but Sister Allard and Jensen are both training and Sister Allard will be staying in the area so I am out of here. I am kind of sad to go because I really don't feel like I got the opportunity to get to know the people really well yet but I guess the Lord needs me somewhere else! And I am excited for a little change. I am getting to the end and it is getting harder and harder to stay focused so I think change will help me a little bit with that! I am going to miss the trio A LOT though!!! These have been some of the best transfers on my mission! We have just been having a blast together! But they are both going to be awesome trainers!!! 

Going off of sugar didn't really work out all that great because we still got fed dessert at dinners and how can you tell the members no especially when they go out of their way to make a banana cream pie... And Laurie hasn't officially quite smoking, it has been really hard for her. But she hasn't been following the program exactly and I don't think she has enough faith in herself. she really does want to quit but she doesn't believe she can actually do it and that's half the battle! 

Other than transfer news this week has been pretty low key. We did however get  a new investigator!! Woot!! Woot!!! (Another reason I am sad to leave...) Her name is Sharon and she was a former, came to church a couple times but then the sisters just lost contact with her. She was the one that didn't know if she was baptized or not so we found out the she wasn't and we were waiting on her to decide of she wanted to start taking the lessons again. And she said YES!!! She said she felt so much peace when she was taking the lessons before an she wanted that peace back in her life! Sister Allard's baby is going to be so spoiled with so much work in this area!! 

Other than that the rest of our appointments cancelled for the week:( But we were able to have some good laughs and even start a conversation all about McDonalds on the bus the other day. Everyone on the bs was talking about McDonalds because we were trying to convince Sister Allard that she needed to eat there (she has never eaten there before can you believe it?!) If only we could get the whole bus talking about the gospel...

I have lots of pictures to send this week because we said all our good byes yesterday at church!! I love you guys!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

She sure loves the snow!

Gospel Principles class

Jeremy Elliot a less active member.  Came to church because it was their last Sunday there. 

February 22, 2016

This week was great!! And it looks like you guys had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Anniversary Party! I was looking at the pictures and just thinking Wow! Everyone looks so different I feel I don't know you guys anymore!! It is going to be SO incredibly weird going home!! Hopefully I'm not to different and weird for you guys as well!

Anyways, that's not for a while still so I am going to focus now. This week I got to go to Banff again but this time for exchanges!! The Lord knows me too well not to send me to Banff full time because it is pretty much like a constant vacation out in the mountains. The whole time I had a strong desire to go camping and shopping! There are a ton of little shops up there. It will definitely be a place I need to go back and have a real vacation at though:) We also had what is called a Beaver Tail, so delicious!! It is pretty much indian fry bread with nutella on it or any other toppings you want on it but a hundred times better!! The only problem with Banff is it is really expensive and there isn't a lot of missionary work stuff to do haha:) They do a lot of tracting and boy can I tell you how much I do not miss tracting! I am so grateful for our endless supply of people to teach and visit in this area that we don't even have time to tract!! Working with members is the way to go! There are always good stories from tracting though haha. We met a guy that talked to us on exhanges for half an hour and he had some dead animal on his head:) Funny stuff...

Saturday we went to go visit a girl in the hospital because the hospital is in our area and her mom thought she would like some company. They are members so we stopped by and figured out that the girl had been in a crazy car accident in January and broke both of her femurs and had half of her body paralyzed. It was a miracle story that she was even alive!! Crazy stuff!! But she was super sweet, only 18 years old. it was sad though because she was planning on playing basketball in college but that probably won't happen anymore... 

And Sunday was the best!!! We had stake conference this week so we didn't have to stay at church all day and we got a lot done!! We taught a lady the stop smoking program which is supposed to help you quit in 7 days so we are praying really hard that it will work!!! And because she is doing this we thought we would give something up for 7 days as well so we gave up sugar!! Do you know how hard that is on the mission?? Everyone feeds you sugar on the mission!! But we know quitting smoking will be a lot harder so we can sacrifice this for her:) And she has tons of support from her friends and family so I know she can do it!! And after she is done with the program we are going to start teaching her!! New investigator!!

We also stopped by at one of our potentials houses yesterday and she let us in. We played with the kids and Sister Allard was able to share a little message with her and set up a time next week to see her again!! Another new investigator!! THe white handbook is really right when it says Saturdays and Sundays are the best proselyting days but we have just never been able to proselyte on Sunday because we are in church all day. Who knew??

Life is good!! I am loving the work and it just seems to keep on picking up more and more the longer I am here!! I am not complaining!! Oh and I found another good talk you should read. It is called "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox also on speeches.byu.edu. It changed my life!!!

I love you guys!! Stay beautiful and don't forget to smile!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

 "Have you been changed by grace?"- His Grace is Sufficient

Some sisters in the ward

The Blumel's

Doing some baking!

Happy Family Day

February 15,2016

It's Family Day today!!! A Canadian holiday all about spending time with your family!! How great is that?? We should really have a holiday like that in the States!!

Anyways because it is Family Day, the temple was open!!! So we went and did a session in the temple this morning!! And the best part is I took my own name with me that I found doing family history work!!! So cool!!! I am all about family history work now that I know how to do it! It was a great way to spend family day! 

We also got to go and clean the temple last Thursday so I have gotten a lot of temple in this week which I love!! It is just so peaceful and every time I go I just feel so completely clean! Best feeling in  the world!! And this time when we cleaned we got to clean the big chandelier in the Celestial Room!!! It was so absolutely amazing!! I can't wait when I get home so I can go to the temple however many times I would like! 

Other than the temple this week has been pretty slow... Just like any other week that we don't have the car:) But we had some pretty good laughs!! Sister Jensen is pretty hilarious!! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time!!!

One thing that I have learned a lot about lately, though, is how pride is the ultimate sin! We all have bits of pride and we are working on the Christlike attribute of humility this transfer as a zone. I have learned so much!! Pretty much any bad trait is rooted back to pride, like disobedience and contention, etc... So we can all try to humble ourselves a little more and think of others. If you are looking for a good read or something to make you think a little harder you should read the talk "Love Is Blind" by Bruce C. Hafen on speeches.byu.edu. It is such an amazing talk!!!

Well I hope your Valentine's Day was amazing just like you!!! I love you all and miss you tons!! Remember God loves you infinitely!!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

"And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did,vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands." (Alma 24:18)