Happy Thanksgiving!

November 23, 2015

Well hello! 

Brace yourselves, because this email is going to be pretty long. 

The last 2 weeks have been crazy! So let me start with where we left off last time I sent out a big email. That Monday Elder Bielamowicz called us up and told us to pack our things because we would be moving on Wednesday. So we got all packed up and cleaned up. Then either Monday night or Tuesday morning (I forget which) Elder B called to tell us that we would still be moving to accommodate the new senior couple, but he wasn't sure where we would be moving to or when, but soon.  So we smile and say "okay!" And go about our merry little way. 

We had an AMAZING lesson with Emily at president Weidman's home that Tuesday night. She brought up some concerns about her family not being able to go to the temple and not having their complete support, and President and Sister Weidman were able to help her out with those. She also basically taught us the law of chastity and word of wisdom, and said she knew that lesson was coming, so she stopped coffee all by herself. #miraclesandtendermerciesmuch! So that lesson was great and afterwards we enjoyed some little cookies and a beautiful view of the back of the LA temple from the mission president's back porch. It was so great. 

Wednesday of that week was rather uneventful. . . . But it was misleading because the rest of the week was ridiculous. That night, Elder B called and said they would be there to pick up our stuff at 7am, since we would be going to the temple at 7:30 Thursday morning. So the next day we went to the temple and it was great! The endowment session was really good. We finish the session and grab lunch before heading to district meeting (there is a cafeteria in the temple -- did you know that?). Sister B had called and told us to stop at the mission office before going to our meeting. She told us we are not moving yet since the repairs to the apartment we were moving to had not been completed yet. So we're in limbo for a while until we are able to talk to Elder B and get things all figured out. That night we moved back up into the patron apts. temporarily, and they told us we would be out of there first thing Saturday morning. So we do weekly planning on the hide-a-bed and only have some of our things since we would be leaving in 24 hours. 

Saturday morning comes and we get our stuff packed up, again, and head out. We get to our new place in Hollywood, not Beverly Hills and it is a pig sty. They didn't have as much time for the repairs and installation of new floors and painting before we needed to be in there, so they did not do a great job cleaning or anything. We kind of get things set up, but the stove doesn't work, there is paint on everything and we have some not-so-great live-ins known as roaches. :( We also didn't have an operational shower since they painted the bath tub. Needless to say, we spent as little time there as possible that day. We came back for the night, but then got up and left first thing Sunday morning to go back to the patron apts. to shower and get ready for Sunday. We didn't go back 'til that night. 

We spent 5 hours on Monday cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. We didn't even leave until 3pm, just to go back to the patron apt. to shower and do our laundry, etc. The maintenance guy came to fix the showers supposedly, but we ended up showering with a big bowl because the faucet worked but not the shower head. Lame, but whatever. We did get the shower working though, and our apartment is looking pretty Celestial now :) It took some serious elbow grease!

We had a great lesson with Erin on Wednesday, who is set to be baptized on Dec 5. She asked us how to repent, and mentioned that it is something she wants to do to prep for her baptism! It was so cool. Our next lesson with her was on repentance. 🏻

Also on Wednesday, Emily had her baptismal interview and it went well, despite the possible postponing of her date. President interviewed her and all was well! 

Thursday we had district meeting and zone training meeting to learn about the new Christmas initiative #ASaviorisBorn and practice for our meeting with Elder Clark of the 70 tomorrow. It went well and we then proceeded to freak out about plans for Emily's baptism. One building didn't work out, and the guy wasn't so nice about it and I was a little irritated. Then the next building worked but needed to be a bit later, and it was going to be tricky (or so we thought). 

Saturday comes and we get everything set for the baptism. It was pretty small because a lot of people are gone for Turkey Day. But the miracle was that Emily got baptized!!!!!!!! Everything came together perfectly and we had a great baptism. It seriously was nothing short of a miracle. She got confirmed yesterday and it was great!!!! 

Me, Emily, Sis Abon

Emily's friend Stacy, me, Emily, Audrey from the ward, Sis Abon 

David (bottom) baptized and confirmed Emily, and Logan (top) was

baptized 1 year ago on the 21st, so he and Emily share a baptism

anniversary.

I probably left out several details, but time is short, and I'll cover more next week. 

I love you all very much and am so thankful to have you as my family. Have a great week and eat some turkey for me!

Love, Sister Hatch 

Beginning November 29, 2015, visit https://www.mormon.org/christmas/teaser for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' new Christmas Initiative.

Moving

November 9, 2015

Happy Monday!

As the subject line suggests, we are moving to a member's home in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, so I won't be here at the patron apartments anymore. I am glad we are leaving. It is all too easy to justify laziness - which I have been fighting since I got here. We will only be like a mile away or so though. Now the vacation feeling will hopefully go away. If I haven't mentioned that previously, it feels almost like I am on vacation from missionary work here. But no more! The lady is great according to Elder Bielamowicz, so I guess we'll find out. Needless to say that most of our day will be spent moving to and fro. Thankfully Elder B said he would take our suitcases in his truck, so that saves us a few trips too.

Anyways, on to the rest of the week! It rained on Monday and was super cold, but throughout the rest of the week it warmed back up again. Right now it is sunny, but very windy and it is a cold wind. I was starting to think that word didn't exist anymore. But I broke out some of my warmer clothes and such.

On Wednesday we had interviews with President Weidman, and that was also my official 9 month mark! Crazy! I celebrated by wearing the same outfit I wore to the MTC that day.  I thought it was kinda funny. Before interviews we had a lesson with our golden investigator Emily. Her story goes something like this: she walked into the visitors' center a few weeks ago and tells whoever she talked to that she wants to be baptized. Now we are teaching her and she is preparing to be baptized on November 21. We are planning to have a lesson with her at the Weidman's home tomorrow, which is both exciting and more than a little bit intimidating. It should be good though. I was able to address some concerns with president and that helped a lot. I am just so thankful to be able to serve with him and sister Weidman.

On Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting and then went straight to 3 lessons at the Santa Monica College Institute. They were pretty good. You asked about driving, yes I am the driver, and sure we'll say that it is fun. Parking is a BEAST and after our lessons it took us about an hour to get home for dinner. Basically, we have to be really careful about planning and where we go at what time of day. Thank you so much for letting me get a GPS by the way, it helps a lot.

On Friday, we had exchanges with our sister training leaders. I went to the Spanish area with Sister Moli, and my companion, Sister Abon stayed here with Sister Vincent. While on exchanges we had a few neat lessons in Spanish, and I was able to follow the conversation and contribute. With one struggling mother I shared Mosiah 4:9 and talked about how my mom shared that with me when I was struggling. She's been having problems with her kids, and they are less active. So that was cool, because I understood what she was saying in Spanish and then read the scripture (in really rough Spanish) and Sister Moli translated what I was saying. We sang a couple songs in Spanish that night too. It was cool to be able to contribute, even though I was a white girl that didn't understand a ton of Spanish. The Spirit is a real thing folks! I still struggle with it, but it is slowly but surely getting a little better.

My companion, Sister Abon, is a cute little Marshallese girl who has been out the same amount of time as me. She is so laid back and sweet that it makes perfect sense that she is from the islands. She is pretty tiny too. We took pictures, but the mission office, visitors' center, etc. are closed today for carpet cleaning so I can't send them this week. She's fun - she was sister Scott's companion after she left Harbor City. She and her family are converts, and she is going to teach me how to do the poly dances -- it's been a good couple of weeks so far.

I think that's all this week. We've got lots of good things happening and we are staying busy! Thank you for your love and prayers and being a wonderful family. I love you a lot and am so glad to be able to email you- have a great week!

Sister Hatch 

Transfer

November 2, 2015

Hello!!!!!

This last week has been completely different than any other week of my mission. I don't even know where to start. Things here in the LAYoung Single Adult area are going to take some getting used to . . . I was told that this ward is full of "hipsters" and "aspiring actors", and quite honestly I was not sure what to expect. I was thinking that this ward would be a bunch of snobs who are trying to make it in the world from LA. But much to my surprise and delight that is not what I found. 

Yesterday was one of my favorite Sundays of my whole mission. (That's not a whole lot of Sundays, but definitely enough to make a difference). We had a great fast and testimony meeting, and there were plenty of people who got up to bear their testimonies. The theme of the day seemed to be that God loves us and the church is true. We then talked about that with regards to faith in our gospel principles class (that was bigger than I expected it to be) after sacrament meeting, and that was great too! Then to finish off our church meetings we had a great lesson in Relief Society about Leadership. It also helps that we had an awesome break-the-fast afterwards too! I think my favorite thing was that we had 5 non-members (4 investigators, 1 soon to be) at church. We had Emily (baptismal date of 11/21), Erin (baptismal date of 12/5), Taylor (baptismal date of 11/14-we'll have to move it though) and Drew (I didn't meet him, but apparently he is an investigator). The 5th person was a friend of Lindsey Stirling named Afsheen (SP?). He said he loved church and he was glad that he came!!!

****Side Note*****

Yes, the cute little red headed violinist Lindsey Stirling is in my ward. She is one of our ward missionaries, and she is so cute! And TINY! She got up and bore her testimony yesterday and it was really neat to hear. She has a great testimony and I thought is was super cool that she brought a friend. Another of our ward missionaries mentioned to me, "Sister Hatch, I am not intimidated by many people, but I am intimidated by Lindsey Stirling". I thought it was pretty funny. I can see how he would be, but she is really nice and quite personable. I gave her a hug and told her that I enjoyed her testimony and she welcomed me to the ward and all that. So I have officially met a famous person ;) I have the potential to meet more, because anything cool that there is to do here is in my area, so we'll see. Hopefully we'll be able to hike to the Hollywood sign soon. Adventures!!!! :D

So yeah, that was a bit of a slap to the face about casting unrighteous judgements and what not. But I already love this ward. It  is full of missionary opportunities and member power to back it up. I think that is my favorite tender mercy this week. I really am so thankful that I have the opportunity to serve with all these young adults who have walked their own paths and still take the time on a Sunday afternoon to attend church. It is a testimony to me that this church really is true and it is for EVERYONE. No one is exempt from the blessings of this gospel and the joy it can bring to our lives. It takes some work and effort on our part, but it is so worth it! All week we went out and found people that were willing to learn more about this message, and judging how the last 9 months of my mission have gone, I was not expecting that to happen. But that's Heavenly Father's way of reminding me yet again that this is HIS work, not mine (as much as I sometimes feel or think that it would be better that way). I am looking forward to this transfer and being able to serve here in the heart of this city. 

With all that being said, I do really miss my last ward. There were so many amazing people there too, who are/were working through different personal struggles. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to serve there with them, and look forward to many life long friendships there. Three of our ward missionaries there are preparing to serve missions - it is the best! And they were so willing and ready to help us out with anything and everything we needed. 

It sort of feels like a vacation to be up here so close to all the mission stuff. But it is better than I thought. Super weird though. I could easily lose my hard work ethic if I don't watch out. But it is great to be around all the senior missionaries from the Visitors' Center and office - they always get so excited to see us and give us big hugs. 

Lastly, I do feel like I am doing a lot better now, and finally getting the hang of all this being a missionary stuff. It feels good and I think I am seeing things differently (it is still a work in progress, but it is progress!). I am enjoying this and am okay with everything that happens. That's not to say that everything is easy all of a sudden, but I have been learning and growing. So that's good to know that you see it too, and it isn't just me being a little prideful :)

Besides that, I don't have much to report. I am going to buy a GPS when we leave here so as to help us maneuver the ridiculousness of LA a little easier - if that's even possible. It should be great!! I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Sister Hatch :)

And don't you forget it!!! :)

Birthday Report

October 26, 2015

Hi Family,

I got to experience celebrating my first big holiday as a missionary this last week - my birthday!! It was my "golden" birthday, and it truly was golden!!!! We went out and worked hard and got 20 conversations and had a great day. A couple YSA members even threw a little "party" for me (meaning pizza, cake, balloons, a sign and candles that re-lit themselves: Janay's dad went to buy candles and those are the ones he bought. It was HILARIOUS). It was such a good day. I was a little apprehensive at first about whether or not things would go well, but as the day went on things fell right into place and I was so very thankful. I didn't receive any physical gifts since my box came late, and that was good. I think if I had gotten it on time it would have been a distraction. Instead of focusing on that, I went out with my companion and tried the best I could to forget about myself and get to work. It seemed to turn out well.

The yummy breakfast my companion made me for my birthday.

At dinner/my birthday celebration with Janay, Me (not sure who is between us), Sister Wehrhahn and Nia.

"Happy Birthday to you . . . . "

She blows them out. . . .

Or. . . so I thought. . . (Sister Wehrhahn's face says it all ;) )

And then they're finally out!

***Side note: at Zone Conference this transfer, we committed to pause 3 times a day and point out our tender mercies, then share them with President Weidman on Mondays. So that's what the tender mercies are each week***

My favorite tender mercy for this last week happened on Saturday. We were in part of our area looking for some potentials for Torrance ward, when we came across a man who was struggling to carry his groceries. So naturally we asked if we could carry them for him. Usually people don't let us help them (LAME!), but this man was so very thankful for us coming and offering our help! He introduced himself as Ash, and said it was a miracle that we came. He had parked his car in the street while trying to take the groceries, and was worried that something would happen to his car. He was also really weak from cancer treatments, if I recall correctly. We took his groceries up to his apartment after talking with him for a minute, and introduced ourselves to his mom (or tried at least; his mom is from India and we don't think she understands any English). We walked in and she was standing at the stove stirring some food and dancing while she was at it. We got a good laugh out of it. It was not a coincidence that we were there just in time to help that man. He was so genuinely thankful for our help, and kept repeating over and over how God is so good to us. I couldn't help but agree with him!

Transfers are tomorrow and I am going to be moving to the LA YSA and will be staying at the patron apartments behind the temple, according to the zone leaders. It will be cool to be so close to the temple and everything else.  If I remember correctly, the patron apartments have AC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is definitely a tender mercy. 

I got my birthday box on Friday and it was great! Don't worry about it not getting to me on time. As you read above, it worked out better that way, I think. I was going to ask for it while we were at the mission office last Monday, but I just decided to leave it for Friday. Thank you for putting all that work into it. I really appreciate it! 

I think that's about all for this week. Have a Happy Halloween and keep doing all the good things. I love you all and miss you too!

Sister Hatch :)

We stopped at the ice cream truck.

#1dollaricecreamonhotdaysisthebest!!!!!!!!! 

#itwasonly1$!!!