Tender Mercies

August 17, 2015

Hi family,

On Tuesday we got to go to House of Yaweh for service.  We had a really good Zone Training Meeting, and afterwards we were surprised and delighted that President Weidman drove down to come visit with us. That day was a really great day, and Saturday was too (even though it was 90 degrees outside and we were roasting)! Those last few days of the week were especially good because I feel like my days haven't been so great lately. It was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father letting me know that everything will be okay.

I got home from an appointment and they had Sister Abreu all packed up for a mid cycle. We went to Santa Monica at 9 o'clock that night for the transfer. Thankfully it only took 20 or so minutes here and back. It's been good to be back to just 2 people. I do miss sister Abreu though. She was fun. Hopefully she does well in Crestridge.

Sisters Wehrhahn, Hatch, and Abreu the night we dropped 

off Sister Abreu for the mid cycle at the mission office.

I really enjoyed going to House of Yaweh to do service. It was such a good environment-all of the people were happy and appreciative of our service. It is a cool thing that they do, and we had a really great time helping them. This week we helped them prepare boxes of donated food for families that are struggling in the community. There was a ton of food and I'm sure those people are so thankful for it.

On Friday after our visit with President - and lunch of course - we went out to contact and try to find some potentials from our area book. We met a guy that said he wasn't quite atheist, but he was very skeptical about believing in God and religion and all that. We kept talking to

him and asked if he would be interested in the Book of Mormon. We got his information (turns out he lives in Long Beach :( ) and said a prayer with him, and told him that we would send the missionaries with a Book of Mormon to visit him. The cool thing about all this was that as we talked, he seemed to "warm up" to the idea that there is a God. At first he was not really talking, but as we kept being bold (and loving) we were able to talk to him a little more, and testify of what we know to be true about God, our loving Heavenly Father. That was a good experience for me and we both felt good afterwards.

The next cool thing was on Saturday. We decided to head to San Pedro (part of my last area) because there are lots of Young Single Adult potentials and less actives that supposedly live there, and we knew it would be fairly easy to get our 20 conversations. It was unusually hot that day too. So off we went in the 90 some odd degree afternoon down to San Pedro to find potential investigators. It was super hot, and we probably looked pretty rough, but it was so good. 

We were walking by a little hotel thing, and saw a man sitting on the porch. Naturally we

walked up to talk to him. He motioned to us that he was deaf, so we wouldn't waste our time trying to communicate with him. I was excited at that point because I took ASL, and learned different gospel signs. So I did the best I could to communicate with him and tell him about

our message. We found out that his name was Mike, and that he was a Jehovah's Witness. I didn't understand much besides that, and I'm not sure what he understood from us, but at the end I asked him if it would be okay to pray with him (I warned him too that I have forgotten a lot of my ASL, but could still try) and he said yes. So we prayed with Mike in sign language. It was a really simple prayer, but I was so happy that I was able to use what little ASL I remember to communicate with Mike. It made me feel good and I hope he felt good

too.

(A funny side note to that story is that there is an ASL RM who moved in with a family from my last area, and he showed up to the YSA ward on Sunday, so I got to talk to him briefly as well. It is neat that I get to use that means of communication. I love ASL and am glad I have

had a few opportunities to use that here on my mission).

We were really bummed, because our baptismal date John didn't come to church yesterday. :( All throughout sacrament meeting I would look and see if he maybe just came late, but he wasn't there. We are super sad. He said he will be there this Sunday though, and we are planning the baptism for after church that evening. I just hope he understands just what all this means. We have gone over it several times, but sometimes I wonder what all he has grasped or paid attention to. We have worked so hard with and for him, I would hate to see it not end with him being baptized. It has definitely been a test of deep faith and high expectations, no doubt about it.

So that's our week. Things are going alright. Sort of starting to

maybe look up more permanently. We have exchanges this week, so

hopefully that goes well. I am working on looking at the positive

things and not worrying about things that are not in my control.

Sister Hatch :)