Working Hard

January 11, 2016

Hi there everyone!!

This week was pretty good! We are still struggling with investigators and this week was tough with conversations, but we are definitely working hard and working together to get things done, especially since Sister Baek is leaving next week. 

We did some tracting this week (there were fewer people out and about than usual), and met a really cool person who let us in because it was raining and cold. She had the CUTEST little baby boy and we had a really great conversation with her. That day was one of the rainy days, as I mentioned, and I was NOT very excited about tracting. But then we met her and I realized that I need to do whatever Heavenly Father asks of me to be obedient, because if we hadn't knocked on her door, we wouldn't have met her or had such a good lesson with her. That was a neat tender mercy. 

We were able to have 2 members come out with us on Tuesday, but to less-active lessons. They were so good!!! For one of them I was on exchanges with Sister Moli (Sister Training Leader) and it was so great. It was a guy who has been less-active for a long time, but still has a solid testimony of the gospel. He just has some issues with authority I think. ANYWAY the member that came for that one invited him to come to church and he did! It was so awesome to walk into church yesterday and see him sitting there. Then later that evening we had a certain red-headed violinist from our ward come out with us to see another less-active member. Also AMAZING!! She (the aforementioned red-headed violinist) served a mission several years ago in New York, so she was perfect to come and fellowship this young lady. It was so neat to see her make the time to come out with us amid her busy schedule. 

This was one of our awesome member presents from this week :)

Sister Baek, Lindsey Stirling, and Sister Hatch

That brings me to the point that I am so impressed with the dedication of the members of this ward. They are Young Single Adults in the heart of Los Angeles, of all places, and they take the time on a Sunday afternoon to come to church. I have gained a lot of respect for these people. They are all working towards some fairly lofty goals and dreams, but the impressive thing to me is that they are working! They do what they need to do and that's that. 

I LOVED zone conference this week! It was so good and I am really looking forward to using the things I learned and committed to do to help me and help this area. I was reflecting back to my very first zone conference. I recall not having such a great experience. I was frustrated, disappointed in myself and stressed out about all of the things that we were asked to do. But this time, instead of feeling overwhelmed, I felt so much better about things! It was empowering to learn a little more about the Savior and about taking His yoke upon us and working with Him to do His work. It was really good. 

Los Angeles 1 Zone

I am so thankful that we are allowed to wear boots - it has saved me this week!! It is so helpful to have the ones I got for Christmas. My feet didn't get wet or cold, and I was very thankful during the rain. 

A few weeks ago we got a referral from a member in our ward for some guy named Hamed. So we called him up and found out he had been meeting with the Farsi elders because he is Persian. We were a little bummed, but glad that they were able to teach him in a language he understands. Fast forward to yesterday at church. The Farsi elders stop us on our way into the chapel and tell us that Hamed wants to go to the Young Single Adult ward now. So he came to our sacrament meeting! It was neat to have him there and be able to meet him in person.  

Things are going well, we're working hard, and we are working on teaching repentance and baptizing converts. (That is the theme of a World-Wide Missionary Broadcast happening next week with the missionary department). 

I am SO thankful for the boots I got for Christmas! They have been great this week in the rain. We didn't get as much as people made it sound like we would, but It did rain for about 2 days straight on Tuesday and Wednesday. Apparently there is still much more to come! I guess we'll find out. 

For the last couple of weeks I have been looking for a longer plain black skirt, because the one I brought with me seems to be getting shorter. So I have been looking and looking and then FINALLY today I found one that is #1 long enough - the struggle is SERIOUSLY real - and #2 it fit, #3 IT WAS ON SALE!!!!!!!!! That was really a tender mercy this week. It was cool because the tag said $24 something, but then when I checked out, the machine said $14 and I was like YEEEEEAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that was my favorite tender mercy of the day ;) I also bought a cute shirt from Ross that has a little California thing on the pocket.  So overall it was a good shopping day, which we all know from experience isn't always the case. Some of my favorite Babylon songs came on in the store, and I was DYING! Whew. But I survived :)

I think that's about all I wanted to talk about this week. . . Finally. . . . funny pictures next week to come!!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!! :)

Sister Hatch :)

Tender Mercies

January 4, 2016

Heyo!

This week was good. We didn't have too much happen, aside from zone training meeting and church. We have been able to go out and talk to lots and lots of people and try to find new investigators. Our new year was pretty quiet: we had to be in by 6pm and plan, so that's what we did. We also worked a lot on putting teaching records into the iPad for the transition stuff. We have made some good progress. 

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I needed to work on improving my personal study. I realized that it had been pretty self-centered, and not really on things that would help me be a better missionary; mostly just things that I have been struggling with and how I can get over them. Shortly after that we had a great training at the Christmas Devotional about having meaningful/powerful/effective/etc. personal studies. And now we have the fundamentals study in preparation for the World Wide Broadcast in a couple of weeks. Well, I decided to put all of these things together and I have had much better studies in the mornings. I am trying to work on different things from Preach My Gospel and apply them during the day. It has been a little tough as far as the apply part goes, because our teaching pool is pretty empty. However, when we find some people, I will definitely work on the things I am learning. 

On Saturday we had the opportunity to go down to Palos Verdes for a baptism. One of Sister Baek's investigators was baptized, and it was so good to be back down there again! It was a great baptism, and I got to see Sister Ruiz too! The girl was the girlfriend of a kid whose family were returned less-actives, so I thought that was cool. Her name is Allison, and her dad and younger sister came to the baptism too, which I also thought was cool. That ward is great, and they will take good care of her, I'm sure. 

Church yesterday was really good. In our efforts to find people to teach we have also been going through the former investigators, and we found a guy named George. We decided to give him a try and we succeeded in getting into his apartment building!! (Tender Mercy #1) We had an apartment number and were able to find the apartment. (Tender Mercy #2) George answered the door and we had a mini-lesson with him in the doorway. (Tender Mercy #3) He told us he would come to church on Sunday - yesterday - and he actually came!!!!! It was so great to look back and see him sitting there! (Tender Mercy #4) We had a great testimony meeting, and there were some really good testimonies, including one from Anna, an investigator who has a few slight mental challenges. (Tender Mercy #5) We were able to send around a schedule for the members to write their schedule down so we could have them out, but it got stuffed in one of the binders, so only 1 sister signed up. BUT during break the fast, Lindsey Stirling came up to us and said that she didn't see the paper that was supposed to go around, but that she was available during the evenings this week before she leaves on Friday (probably for a tour or something) and if we texted her, she would try to come out with us!!!! (TENDER MERCY #6) It was so great!!! And then of course break-the-fast after church was delicious too. (Tender Mercy #7) Those were all from just one day! We have been privileged to see many others throughout the rest of the week too. Heavenly Father sure does a good job making sure we don't forget about Him :)

Funny story: The power went out this morning while I was in the shower. That was fun. Our bathroom is dark even with the lights on, so then the lights went out and it was really dark! Thankfully it was light enough that I could see though.

I don't have much else to report this week. . . The El Ni~no rains have come upon us, and with them I might buy a rain coat and some spray for my boots to water proof them. With the predicted forecast for the next several days and even weeks, I just might melt! Wish me luck!

I love you and hope you have a good back to school day and week after break! 

Sister Lauren Hatch :)