Cow Tongue

June 1, 2015

Howdy family, 

This week was still hard, what with knowing what in the world we are supposed to do here to help people. I shook hands with a man who had been digging through a dumpster when we walked up. We aren't really supposed to teach homeless people, per something that President said at some point. (In other words, I was just told not to). I was lathering the germ x after that encounter. It is sometimes hard to find the people who are humble and willing to accept the gospel, that's for sure. We have plenty of less active people in our ward, but we just need an updated ward list. I think this place is a lot like Winslow, in that people come for school and then leave, just like teachers come for a while and then they're out. But we did find a less active named Ken, who was a referral from the elders (Don't ask how that happened. We aren't sure either!). We have met with him a couple of times, and Brother Millett came with us one time too. He didn't make it to church yesterday for some reason, but we have a lesson with him tomorrow that will hopefully go well. Lots of work to be done, just figuring out how to do it!

Our iPad training went very well. It was neat to have Elder Schwitzer (of the seventy) and Brother Gonzales (missionary dept) here to train us. It was good even without the devices part. We do not have them yet. We have to do some online trainings before we can get them. I think it will be towards the end of June and maybe even July before we get them. 

THIS WEEK I TRIED COW TONGUE. Like that huge thing that they pick their noses with. I think it would have been okay, except that I walked out of the bathroom and looked at it sitting there on the counter. EEEEWWW! But I tried it and it was alright. Definitely not something I would want to eat regularly though.... So I have been doing good at not being picky about foods, as you may have noticed with the picture of me eating shrimp from last week. I'm pretty proud of myself. 

This week we were contacting, and a kid came up and asked us if we were the missionaries. He had met the Spanish missionaries, and they hadn't sent the referral to us yet. He is pretty cool. Since he is 14, we had to have his mom sign a paper giving us permission to teach him, which thankfully went well. Hopefully we can get him baptized! Cole is his name, and he seems to be genuinely interested. 

ALSO!!!! I emailed my Hawaii friends last Monday, and found out today that Cara is waiting for her mission call, and Amy got hers!!!! SHE IS GOING TO TONGA AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT. It also makes me super excited to find out where Cara is going to go! I sure do love and miss my friends. We are taking over the world with badges and all :) 

I think that's all for this week. Hopefully everything goes well with the guys at the Grand Canyon. That will be fun. We'll have to explore AZ together someday, because there is a lot we haven't done and we live there! But that's for another time :)

I love you and hope you all are enjoying your first week of summer!!!!!

Sister Lauren Hatch :)

Memorial Day

May 25, 2015

Hello Family!

I am glad to hear that you are all enjoying your Memorial Day. It is interesting to see everyone have a day off and not be having one myself. But it does help that today is Preparation day at least. Sister Wehrhahn and I went to Jamba Juice and got smoothies. :)

Congratulations on the garden, it looks good! I hope that it works out for you. Maybe you'll get it figured out in time for me to be able to eat some of it next year :) Here it is very apparent who waters and takes care of their gardens and who does not. What with all the drought stuff going on, the houses with nice yards stick out, even if its just grass. It is funny to me how Arizona is in a drought and so is California, but here there is so much more going on about it, at least that's how it seems. There are water usage reductions and I have heard about them adding a fee to the water bill and who knows what else (Dad probably does :P hahaha). So yeah that is an interesting thing to be in. Props to you for persevering even though its been an ongoing struggle. #thestruggle ;)

As far as our area goes, not much has changed. I am glad to have a fresh start to try and do new things and change things too. I got pretty frustrated last night about how things are going. Dad talks about how he is glad that I came here where there are millions of people who need the gospel. All I could think about was how yeah that's true, but none of the people here want to listen. It is frustrating. I am trying to be patient and just keep working hard, but I feel like things are staying the same or getting worse. And we are getting a new bishop soon, so we just have our hands tied. :/ I am struggling with knowing what God would have us do.  So if you wouldn't mind, keep praying. It is much appreciated. 

Some positives to lighten the not so great area situation: We have been working with the Mejia family. There is Byron (the dad), then Josh, Tyler and Kaylee (we've never met the wife). They are super nice and we have a good time when we visit them. We always invite them to attend church, but it just hasn't happened yet. Yesterday we had a singing Sacrament meeting and they came!!!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome to look over after Walfred was recognized for getting the priesthood and seeing Byron and Kaylee! It was a great meeting and they enjoyed it a lot. We usually read the Book of Mormon with them when we go to visit, and a couple weeks ago, Byron teared up as he was bearing his testimony to his kids about the power of reading it. He had been reading on his own and it was awesome! Hopefully they are all able to come to church eventually. They really are an awesome family. 

The Mejia family Left to right- Josh, Tyler, Byron, Kaylee and us

We have our "Disciples in the Digital Age" training tomorrow in preparation for us getting our iPads. We won't get them for a few weeks though. It should be good. It will be so nice to have access to that technology, and hopefully it works well for us as a mission.  

I hope you all are doing well, this should be the last week of school right?? That is weird. You'll have to think of some awesome things to do this summer, but not too fun because then I have to miss out and feel bad for not being there. Here's an idea - do some missionary work! I'm sure the elders would appreciate it! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Lauren Hatch :)

P.S. Brace yourselves for pictures!

OH MY LANTA!!! :)

Sisters Wehrhahn, Scott, and Hatch

This is us with Viola, an older sister from Germany- during the war!

As close to the water as we can get! I like the beach in Hawaii WAY better :)

I TRIED SHRIMP!!!! I wasn't so adventurous for the octopus though.....

Brother and Sister Estrella and me

The day it rained for a few hours!!!!! I loved it :)

Lunch with Sister Kelly Flanegan- RM

Brother and Sister Clement