Lauren's Mission in Los Angeles: 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!