Hey family!
I love you all this* much too!!
*Hug shown is smaller than actual hug :)
I feel like we were just here emailing you, but low and behold it has been a whole week! This week was really good! We had our Sisters Training and New Missionary Orientation #2, District Meeting, weekly planning and exchanges, and then a special Stake Conference Broadcast. There was almost always something going on and it certainly kept us on our toes.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Sisters Training that we had. It was such a good meeting, and so great to spend time with all of the Sisters, as well as President and Sister Weidman. We sure have a great mission here, with fabulous sister missionaries. I love each of our sisters, even the ones that I don't really know. We are all focused on serving the Lord, and I think that really brings a sense of unity amongst ourselves. We don't really interact with each other all the time, but when we do I just feel like we really could conquer the world. It's cheesy, I know. BUT IT'S TRUE! I also think Sister Franks' statement about being "fearless and beautiful" was also quite appropriate. (She was one of my Sister Training Leaders and texted that to President the night before). The trainings and things that we discussed were just right for me at this time - I could tell that it was carefully planned and I thought it was executed very well. I can tell that I have grown and changed and I can tell that these things really are meant to help us become better. I'll talk more about that later.
On Tuesday we had the New Missionary Orientation #2 and we got there really early - like at 8:30 and I wasn't supposed to be there until 9am to play prelude music. We sat in the Krispy Kreme Doughnut parking lot and then texted President for permission to get some food before our meeting. I knew President would probably say "OK", and eventually he did, but I thought it was a test of our obedience - Heavenly Father was testing how deeply obedient we were. We carpooled with the Spanish sisters in our zone, and I think that it was a good experience for our 2 new missionaries. The sign saying "Hot Doughnuts Now!" was quite taunting, and I will have to stop at Krispy Kreme another time, but I am glad that we were obedient. It was so inconsequential, but it helped me.
Thursday was rather uneventful aside from district meeting. We were supposed to have a lesson at Santa Monica College, but it cancelled, so we went up to the far reaches of Hollywood instead. Not my brightest idea, since it was around 3pm and it was rush hour, but we still made it and got our 20 conversations and had a good night.
Then on Friday was when the fun began. We had weekly planning, and then had exchanges immediately afterwards. I stayed in our area with Sister Moli and Sister Green went with Sister Abreu to their area (SIDE NOTE: I LOVE that Sister Abreu is one of our Sister Training Leaders - she is so great and I love her to death!). I really enjoyed being able to work with Sister Moli for a while, and I always do. She is so great and I feel like we have become really good friends as well as missionaries. It is awesome to serve with her. We ate at this fun old school place near their apartment and it is 50's themed. (Cafe 50's). The food was really good! Then we were able to have a new member lesson with one of our recent converts and that was that. We talked a lot during the exchange and it was definitely needed for me to have exchanges for a while. I'll also get to that later.
Exchanges: Sister Green, Sister Moli, Sister Abreu, and Sister Hatch
One thing that I really enjoyed from the Stake Conference Broadcast was something that Elder Renlund talked about. He told a few stories about people asking them different questions that are not quite where you want to start a gospel conversation. Things like deep doctrine. Each time his wife would talk about the restoration, and then turn the tough subject over to him. I loved his stories. He said that it is so important to establish the concept of revelation in order to understand different things that we do, such as obey the word of wisdom or law of chastity, etc. It made perfect sense to me! Of course we need to help people understand modern revelation if we expect them to grasp the things that we have been taught through modern revelation. It was a good thing for me to learn. I am definitely going to work on applying that in my teaching.
After the broadcast we headed home. Thankfully we didn't have any issues with LA marathon traffic like I thought we would. We spent some time on 12 week and ABP after eating lunch, and then headed out the door at about 3pm. Well, as I turned to walk down the steps after locking the front door, I noticed that the front planter at Sister Olson's house was almost flooded. We went back inside and asked if she had turned the sprinklers on, to which she replied "No, why?" That's when we knew that something was wrong. We went around the back and tried to turn off the water, and I even put some normal clothes on to try and figure out what he problem was. We called Elder B, and then he called the plumber, who then called us and told us that he was on his way and would be there in 30 minutes or so. We were finally able to get the water turned off, and then we waited and waited for the plumber guy to come.
I made the executive decision to stay and wait with Sister Olson, since she was concerned about what was going on. We sat on the front porch and tried to figure out what had happened, and then just talked. Finally Brother Lamson came and looked at everything, including a much smaller problem we had encountered in the bathroom earlier in the week. We stayed with Sister Olson and sang as she played the piano. I knew we needed to go out, but I could just tell that Sister Olson was flustered and worried about the issue. That and we didn't have any water in the house, so I couldn't get cleaned up. I wasn't really that dirty though, so then we finally headed out for real, and had a good night. We had a dinner appointment to go to last night too, so that was nice. Those have been pretty rare lately. Needless to say, I was very thankful for running water and plumbers to save our house from floating away down the street!!!
A few weeks ago or so, I mentioned about improving my studies. Well, that has also translated into improving other things - contacting, planning, STEPP talks, etc. The things we worked on in preparation for the Sisters Training really got me thinking about humility and how we show humility. I especially loved a point that Sister Weidman made about humility being more than being humble. It means submitting our will to the Father's will. That has really stuck with me throughout the week, and I have also pondered and thought a lot about all the things in the "Beware of Pride" and "Empowerment of Humility" talks that we studied too. There have been moments when something happens either out on the street or in our home and something that I read/studied pops into my mind and gets me thinking. I have tried to recognize the prideful tendencies that I have, and also try equally as hard (if not harder) to correct them and not do them anymore. It has definitely been a humbling experience and I am so thankful to be learning more about myself and how I can improve. I feel like I have been learning so much on my mission, and I just keep learning every single day.
Welp I think that's it. We received a really cool referral while we have been emailing, and we called and set a return appointment, so that was cool! I'll have to let you know last week how it goes! Love you all!!!
Sister Hatch :)
A few of our wonderful Senior missionaries: Elder and Sister Bielamowicz, Sister Hatch, Sister Ellis, Sister Green, Elder and Sister Hunsaker :)
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