It's Rainin Investigators

Oh my gosh this week has been insanely amazing!!! 

We picked up three new investigators!! Three!!!! Miracles happen guys!! And these investigators are solid investigators!! So interested and ready to follow God!

So the first investigator was who I told you about last week, Sarah, who grew up in a cult. We taught her tithing and fasting and invited her to fast for a Sunday she could come to church because she works on Sunday and she had already come up with a day!!! Her boss had told her that she had a few vacation days that she needed to take off and so she was going to take it off for church!! And now she just had an interview for a job that doesn't work weekends and so we are just praying she will get the job!! She is so awesome!!!

Second investigator came from one of the members we tracted into that wasn't in our records. His girlfriend is super interested!! They have been reading church books together and so we also gave the a Book of Mormon that they can read together as well:) She doesn't exactly live in our area which is a bummer so we don't know how long we will be able to teach her but she really wants to learn!!!

And the last investigator was a lady that we had met on the street this week. She had just fallen down so her knee was all bloody so we stopped and asked if she needed any help or even a ride anywhere but ended up talking about Jesus Christ and her belief in Him. She then said she has met with Sisters before and that she was supposed to go to church with them but no one ever picked her up to go... So we go home and looked in our area book for former investigators and low and behold there she was!! But there was no address with her teaching record so there would have been no way we could have found her! Coincidence?? I think not! There was really no reason that she was dropped before and she already wants to come to church and she prays everyday and she has already started reading the Book of Mormon!! I mean how much more golden can you get?? God is so real!!! And I am so excited for this next transfer!!! We are going to get baptisms baby!!!

But this week is transfer week so Sister Anthian is leaving... But the new sister will be happy to come into our awesome area!!! I am so excited!! I love change! But I will miss Sister Anthian.

Our ward is also starting a mission month where everyone in the ward is supposed to pick a person they can focus on to work with and pretty much every activity will be focused on missionary work. Then at the end of the month the ward will have a fast all together and apparently they've had success with this in the past. It should be good! 

We also had exchanges again this week!!! The Sister Training  Leaders are so amazing!! I love them!! We did a service as a zone for the stake Food drive and got 93,000 pounds of food!!! It was pretty awesome but exhausting!! I was sore from lifting bags of food for three hours straight but it was worth it!! And we had this crazy lesson with these people from Romania and they pretty much were trying to convert us to Orthodoxy but now I know everything there is to know about the Orthodox religion:) 

We are going to the temple on Saturday as well because some of our members are going through for the first time and they are getting sealed!!!! It will be my first sealing!! I am so excited!!! 

Anyway, I love you guys so much!! This week has been so amazing!!! God is so amazing!!! And this gospel is so true!!! Oh and I found a store here that is like Downeast Basics so even if you just want to send money for my birthday and Christmas instead of sending things that would be cool as well:) And yeah you should probably send medicine soon:) Thank you so much!!!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

 "And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt 

escape the judgment of God?

 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" (Romans 2:3-4)

Cooking dinner for some of the members.

September 14, 2015

SO, this week was amazing because one of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Martino, came to speak to our mission!! He focused on member missionary work and gave us so many suggestions on how to improve our teaching skills and work with members. And it wasn't like it was anything super new and crazy but I don't think I would have been able to think of it on my own. He rebuked us hardcore but it was so good for me, it was exactly what I needed. I have to admit I had been slacking in waking up on time and Elder Martino laid down the law and said if you aren't even able to wake up on time how can you expect your investigators to change their whole lives. And it was just like MIND BLOWN!!! I know it sounds so simple and obvious but apparently I was being dumb so I am happy to say I have woken up on time everyday since then:) Anyways, I have a new motivation and we have been working our tooshies off with the members lately and let me tell you, we have been having great success!!! Valory came to a relief society activity this week and we weren't even able to make it but the members are so good at including her. Plus we are getting a new investigator today!!! The other sisters in our zone have been teaching this lady for a while now but they just figured out she actually lives in our area so they have to pass her off to us and we are having a lesson with her tonight!! Her name is Sarah and she is SO solid!!! She starting living the word of wisdom before they even taught her that! She grew up in a cult so she has trust issues with religion but she seems pretty committed. We also have lessons set up with every one of our investigators this week even one that I have never met yet so we will see how those go!! I am so pumped for this week!!

I love you guys so much!!! And miss you so much!!!!

Today is God's gift to you - SHINE!!!!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

"And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free."

(Helaman 14:30)

Sister Hatch and Sister Anthian

Winter is Here!!

September 7, 2015

This week has been cold!!!! But I love it!!! It has been raining all weekend and it even got down to 3 degrees (C)! I guess at one point it was pretty much snowing but it didn't stick. I can't believe the winter is already here! What happened to fall? 

This week we had miracles on exchanges!!! So I was with Sister Calder, one of our Sister Training Leaders) and let me just tell you how amazing she is!! Every time I am with her, I just feel so pumped and motivated to go out and talk to everyone I see. (I know I should feel that way all the time, but I am just being honest) I was just so afraid that we were going to have nothing to do on exchanges because nothing was planned for the day but oh how I was wrong. We decided to go tracting a little bit in Parkland area because we have no investigators in Parkland ward and we found 3 potentials and 2 members that aren't even in our records, part member families as well!!! It was so amazing!!! So we will be going back to those people this week and see how that goes. Plus we had some amazing lessons with some of our less actives. Let me just tell you that inspiration does come during morning study hours! In my personal study I studied fear (fear of God vs. fear of Man)

 and Sister Calder studied faith. And I kid you not, without even mentioning faith vs. fear to less active we were going to speak to about this she brought it up on her own!!! That I know for a fact was inspired!!! I just hope she was able to get something out of it because she can be stubborn sometimes. Oh I love how the Lord works!! Little miracles bring about so much joy! I know for a fact that we can receive inspiration for those we teach!! 

We also had the Corn Bust this week which is pretty much a corn party! But the best corn of course, Taber Corn. It is the best corn on the cob you will ever taste and every ward in Canada has a corn bust around this time of year to celebrate because they are only in season for so long. But it was fun and a lot of less actives showed up so that was good!!!! 

I really do believe that the more willing we are to work the more we see miracles and are blessed for our diligence. I am striving to have as much diligence as Sister Calder has because miracles always happen!! 

I love you guys!!

Sister Hatch

" And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.

  He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you." (Helaman 14:30-31)

August 31,2015

It has been an amazing week!!! Our investigator Valory came to church yesterday!!!!! It was so awesome and the talks were all absolutely perfect for her! They all talked about the importance of scripture study so hopefully she was able to see how important it is and will start reading soon! Baby steps! 

This week was the last week of walk and talk August which I am sad and happy about because it was a great opportunity to be out talking to more people but my body is exhausted! Yesterday my body was definitely telling me I needed to slow down. Hopefully I will have more energy this next month. 

The weather is starting to get cooler too!! Yay!! It has been really smoky here as well from all the fires in Washington I guess. I heard the air quality here was worse than those places where they have to wear face masks and stuff. (Like in Bejing I think?) That was kind of scary though because we were out biking in it... But we survived!! The smoke is pretty much gone now though.

Well I don't have much more to say... This week was good! It sounds like you guys are doing great! Sorry this is so short. I love you guys!! 

Love, 

Sister Hatch

Sis Hatch and her companion doing some yard work

An 8 year old boy in their ward that just got baptized.  They got to teach him all the lessons.

And the Rains Came Tumbling Down...

August 11, 2015

I did buy some glasses and with the cost of the lenses added in, it ended up being A LOT more than I planned so hopefully I love them when I see them again haha:) I don't have them yet but hopefully they will be done today so I can go and pick them up today!! I probably should have gotten two pairs of regular glasses, you're right, but oh well...

So this week was pretty eventful!!! Starting on Tuesday we had the craziest rain/hail storm EVER!!!! We were on exchanges at this time so I didn't go through half of what my companion did but I just have to tell the story because it was hilarious!! So Sister Anthian and one of my STL's Sister Dente were walking to dinner  (because it's walk and talk August right?) and it was a beautiful day, a little cloudy but nothing out of the norm. And then it starts raining it a little bit so they pull out their umbrella and it gets a little windy. But then it starts hailing and so they go under a tree for cover but then it starts pouring!!!! And when I say pouring I mean I have never seen it rain so hard in my life!!!!! It was intense!! So they go over to someones porch and hide while they can call their dinner to come pick them up:) So they are waiting for their dinner to pick them up and they see a car pull up so they assume it's their dinner (remember it's intensely pouring so you can't see anything) and they get into the car and a man is in the drivers seat smoking a cigarette and says " "Where can I take you?" They had gotten into some random guys car hahaha!!!! I am so mad I wasn't there for this!!! SO they get out and wait for their ride, the ride comes but by this time the roads are flooded so her car gets stuck in the floods... haha:) It was just the craziest situation and they were all soaked and freezing cold and walking through the floods and believe it or not it had only rained for about 10 minutes really intensely so to make as much damage as it did in those 10 minutes was insane!!! Meanwhile me and Sister Calder (our other STL) were sitting in a library safely teaching the first lesson:) It was just so funny!! 

But on exchanges we had some pretty awesome lessons with their investigators and we talked to tons of people on the street!! 

I am just loving walk and talk August though!! It is so good to get out of our car and talk to everyone!! You get some pretty cool conversations and of course also some not so good conversations.... but that is how it works. 

We had a really good church tour last night and one of our investigators came!!! We were expecting a lot more but it was still a success!! So many people had said they were coming to church as well and didn't show but I feel good things are coming our way!! We just have to keep talking to everyone we see!!! And we are going to be doing the church tour every month now so they will have more opportunities to come!

Our members are also SO amazing and help us out so much!! Our bikes malfunctioned a couple times this week and they have helped us fix them right away both times!! I don't know what we would do without the members! 

I am just loving life and am so excited about what is to come this transfer!! Walking has been pretty tough but hopefully my body will start getting used to it soon! Oh and I got the package!! Thanks guys!!! I love the earrings!!!:)

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

Church tour with the grandparents of some people from our ward back home.

Lessons Learned

August 3, 2015

So this week I learned two important lessons: 1) love is the most important thing in missionary work and 2) the Bible has answers to all gospel questions you just have to dig a little deeper to find them sometimes.

So last Monday night we had a lesson (or more like a discussion) with Dawn our investigator and she really had me think about myself as a missionary. Sometimes I feel really pressured to put people on date and she has been taught for the past year by missionaries so we are trying to push her along a little bit to even start going to church and stuff. But then she told us after we had asked a few questions that she didn't feel that we loved her and that was like a dagger to my heart. To be told by your investigator that they don't really feel loved devastated me! I felt like a complete failure as a missionary because that is all I have ever tried to do as a missionary. In the scriptures it says if you don't have charity you are nothing and I felt like nothing in that moment. It was the absolute worst feeling in the world!! But I just had to realize that I am not going to be perfect. I am just going to try harder in spreading the love to all I come in contact with!! All I do is try harder because when the investigators don't feel loved they won't want to progress. There is no exceptions for anyone because everyone is a child of God and deserves the love of God:)

This week it also seemed like everyone was focused on the Bible and getting answers from there. So I did a ton of studying in the Bible this week and truly have come to love the the Bible!! I have never really been a scholar in the Bible and I still am not but now I can say I have become more familiar with the Bible and you can find answers for everything in the Bible. 

I am so grateful for the experiences I have had this week although it has been rough. I have truly learned a lot about myself and how I can improve as a missionary because we are always learning and growing. Just because I am a missionary doesn't mean I am perfect in any aspect so I was just able to have my eyes opened that I need to constantly be trying to see my imperfections and what I need to work on. But the important thing is that we don't let Satan get to us when we recognize all our imperfections:) 

I love the Lord and I love this mission and how much I have learned about myself and the world!! Don't give up!!! The Lord will always love you!!!

Love,

Sister Hatch

P.S. I have heard a rumor that we will be off of Facebook for a while:( Just to let you know!

Scripture of the week:

"And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage." (Mosiah 24:16)

  

Gotta love that tan line

Sister Hatch and her companion Sister Anthian

July 27, 2015

I am glad to hear you got all of my stuff!!! And that you are enjoying it! 

This week we had some pretty crazy weather!! On Wednesday we had hail the size of golf balls and there was a tornado warning!! Scary right? We could see funnel clouds but they never actually touched ground. I should have taken pictures but I wasn't thinking straight haha:) The rest of the week it has been crazy windy and rainy!! Yesterday we walked to church (which is like 30 minutes) and it was beautifully sunny and then after church it started pouring!! And we had to walk to our dinner and we had no umbrella or jackets so it was pretty cold! We made it though and it actually stopped raining just long enough for us to walk to our next destination and the members were kind enough to give us rides:)

The youth in our stake had this really cool event called the Joseph Smith Encampment this weekend where they went out into the wilderness and camped and did reenactments of Joseph Smith's life. It was pretty cool and the last of it was last night at the church. They did a reenactment of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and it was pretty intense!! It was pretty cool!!

Other than that we officially got another new investigator!!! Her name is Valory King and she was a former investigator who took all the discussions, pretty much, but couldn't be baptized because she was living with her boyfriend. We think things will be good this time around although her boyfriend still doesn't want to get married but I think we can change that!! She really isn't happy with her church and she wants to get married so maybe she will be able to persuade him to get married:) 

Some of our other investigators we need to really talk with them about why they think we are coming over and let them know our purpose. If they don't have any intentions of being baptized we might need to drop them because we have to focus on those people who are ready.. It's hard but maybe it's just not the right time for them. 

We are just continuing to look for new people to teach and we are really close to teaching a lot of people!!! The work is great!! I love it!!! I hope you guys have fun with Marlee this week!!! 

Love,

Sister Hatch

Scripture of the Week:

"Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good"

D&C 90:24

Sis Hatch and her companion Sis Anthian