Quick Picture Message

July 11, 2016

This is Bishop Mead from Harbor 1st and his family, plus Nicole and Linda who are recent converts :D

This is some of the Pruitt family and Funaki family. The little girl next to me in the blue shirt was crying because her mom and dad left to go to the gym, so we sang I am a child of God and took a picture :)

This is how my 4th of July went. I was looking out the window/trying

to balance the Kleenex box on my head. It didn't work out too well.

This is Brother and Sister Peraza, less-actives who we are working with to help them prepare to go to the temple!!!!!!

This is me and Sister Syu at Sister Su's house, who is from Sister Syu's home ward. They didn't know each other, but Sister Su remembers seeing Sister Syu's dad. This is the king of the fruit - Durian!!

Fourth of July

July 4, 2016

Hello everyone!!

We are emailing earlier than usual today, since we don't have access to the libraries and what not and other missionaries need the church building.

I got an email for this new thing called My Plan that departing missionaries do the last six weeks of their missions to help them transition back into "normal" and keep the momentum from their mission going. I'm going to start working on it next transfer. I'll let you know how it goes.

This week President Haynie and his wife arrived in the mission!! They said the Weidman's were only here for about 3 1/2 hours with them and they were out! I miss them, but the Haynie's seem to be great too. They are from Seattle WA and from what I have gathered, President Haynie was a banker in his early days, then a businessman. So they are here and that's that. There are some things that are a bit different, and a lot of unknowns, but it's all good for now.

Our exchanges this week were with the Hermosa Liahona Sisters. A neat thing she shared with me was her goal for this "charity transfer". (What we decided as an MLC to do to help us and our mission stay focused during the mission president transition). Sometimes it is overwhelming to have a goal to have more charity as a missionary. So she tweaked it and thought up a plan for herself that I LOVED!! She chooses one thing she wants to work on throughout the day that would help her increase her charity. She tells Heavenly Father about it and then commits to it. During the day she works on it and then at the end of the day, she reports to Heavenly Father how it went. I thought it was such a good idea! I tend to get frustrated with myself when I feel like I am not progressing or growing, so I am going to work on doing this same thing. That way I can at least be more accountable to Heavenly Father and have more manageable goals.

This coming week we will have exchanges with the 2 companionships of Chinese sisters. Then on top of that we have Miaaion Leadership Council and Zone Training Meeting. It should be a great and rather busy week. Thank goodness this is the end of the transfer, because I am so worn out! Next transfer hopefully isn't this busy!

Love you all and hope you have a Happy 4th of July!!!! I will finish p-day and be in my apartment by 6pm. :/ But that's okay. We got to go to the pancake breakfast this morning :D

Sister Hatch

Mission Pictures

June 27, 2016

Hi family!! 

Glad to hear you are doing well! I don't have much to say this week, and I also don't have much time, but here's a tidbit:

Thankfully I had mostly good days with a few bad moments thrown in during the week. Overall things are moving forward, the work continues on and we are working hard. We had our bishop come out with us to see a less-active brother in our ward and it was really powerful. I went on exchanges with Sister Abon to Redondo Beach on BIKES! And it was fun!!! 

The temple was really great. I feel like I learned some new things and I just enjoyed being there. I didn't feel like I needed to stay in the Celestial Room for a long time, and when we left, I felt pretty good about things. We had a handful of things to do while we were at the temple, which included getting our gate opener back from the loaner car (we've driven 4 different cars this week, not because of accidents though - more on that next time), getting a new car key made and going to the Distribution Center. It was a nice trip. Traffic even cooperated!!! THAT was a miracle for sure!

President Haynie arrives this week, so stay tuned for more details about that next week. 

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!! ❤

Sister Hatch :D

Editor's Note: The Institute director at UCLA sent this picture to Sister Hatch's stake president (President Palmer) who then sent it to her parents. :) 

Us and our super cute and sweet Brother Reiter- he is from Poland :)

Recent Convert Linda and us

Another Recent Convert, Cristian 

These are the BEST people in the whole wide world- Grandma and Grandpa Hinkson. They adopt every missionary who comes to their Ward as their grandkids, and I love them so much!!

Part-Member Family - little Rick, Victoria and Sophia Betton

Last Zone Conference

June 20, 2016

Hey!!!

Good to hear about all the fun stuff you've been up to lately! I've decided that I probably won't recognize the house when I come home, but that's okay. That and Courtney confirmed that I am going to need some new clothes when I get back. That should be fun. 

ANYWAYS - We had exchanges with the USC sisters this last week, and it was fun! I went there. We had a lesson that was part Chinese and part English. I kinda just sat there and waited for someone to say something that I actually understood. Unfortunately the guy we were teaching had been accessing a lot of anti-Mormon material on the internet, so he doesn't have a baptismal date anymore. It was pretty sad. But we still had a great exchange and that's what matters most!

I thoroughly enjoyed Zone Conference this last week. I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to be taught by the Spirit and by our awesome leaders. I had anticipated bearing my testimony, and was thankful that I was one of the first ones to go, because I would have been a little less put together by the end of it all. (All the missionaries who will be departing before the next zone conference share their testimonies. Zone conference is every other transfer; when we don't have zone conference, we have interviews with the Mission President). I really tried to give a strong testimony, not a "thankful-mony". That was something I remember hearing about recently that really hit me. I prayed beforehand to know what it was that Heavenly Father wanted me to say that would help the missionaries there. Hopefully something I said touched or helped someone. I just really enjoyed listening to those elders and sisters share what they know to be true. It is awesome to serve in this mission with such awesome people! I can't believe that was already my last zone conference. I think I definitely left things on a good note. I felt so empowered and could very much relate to the talk from Elder Holland during April General Conference. It was hard to go back to doing the things we normally do. I just wanted to feel good forever! But we don't learn unless we leave these experiences. 

President Weidman made a comment that I was very thankful for. He said that he and Sister Weidman are 100% committed to the Lord and His work, and there is no quit and no give up in them. That helped me solidify the person that I want to be. I am working every single day to do whatever it is that Heavenly Father wants me to do, and be who He wants me to be. I am striving to be who He wants me to be. I know you all are too, and it makes me so thankful for the greatness that I am surrounded with. ;)

The rest of our week was rather uneventful. It sure warmed up the last few days of the week. I struggle with the heat. In AZ we have air conditioning, so it's not so bad. Here you just have to deal with it unless you are in the car. These coming weeks are going to be a big test for me. It is the last two months of my mission, and it is going to be HOT. But I am committed to going out to work and I am working on not complaining. That isn't too easy though, when you feel like you're melting. Tis a work in progress. 

Last night was kinda rough. We had a special Mission Leadership Council conference call about some things that President feels we need to work on in our mission. We have been working really hard to find people to teach, have conversations, make everything productive, attend to our Sister Training Leader responsibilities, etc. Yesterday one of our appointments with a referral fell through and we didn't make up for any of the convos we missed during the week, so I was pretty frustrated. Then hearing about the mission projecting less than our goal and the MLC being down, all I heard was me or us or our area. It was frustrating to say the least. During the call I broke down and started to cry. All I could think was "what else can I do?" After the call I just cried some more and then talked a little bit with Sister Syu. I have just been struggling with not feeling like we are doing something wrong. We haven't had anyone come to church in several weeks, we haven't had anyone with a baptismal date, even though we have been trying to invite people in lessons and on the street. (We haven't followed up with Visitors' Center guy yet, so I'll keep you posted. As for everyone else, we have been struggling to contact people).

So yeah I guess that's my trial for now. Pushing through the frustration and continuing to be a consecrated missionary despite the setbacks or lack of progress that I feel is happening. I know there are prepared people in this area somewhere, and I am going to work as hard as I can to find them! And when I do, I'll go out and find some more! Last night was just a rather weak moment for me. 

I am looking forward to going to the temple this week. I hear it is going to be closed for the duration of my last transfer, so it looks like this will be the last time I get to go as a missionary. It will be a nice way to recharge and prepare myself. I am so thankful for the temple in our mission!

I love you all very much and appreciate your prayers of love and support in my behalf. You are the best!!!

Sister Hatch 

My Week

June 13, 2016

Hiya!!!

We had a pretty busy week this week. It started with Mission Leadership Council on Tuesday (Yes, Sister Syu is an Sister Training Leader). It was really good and I have been working on a few specific things throughout the week as a result. We were able to have exchanges with the Redondo sisters after MLC and it was fun. Sister K came with me and I just love her so much! I'll show you a picture another time though. 

We were able to have a member out with us on Tuesday evening, and it was really great. She is so awesome, and loves to come out with us whenever she can. Her husband is a convert - she says it's a miracle, and we shouldn't try it. LOL. They are both musicians and help out with baptisms for the ward. She is also the ward choir director, and her husband is the accompanist :D I really enjoy having her come out with us because she knows what we do and just goes with it. We had some really great conversations, and have a few people to follow up with this week - one of whom wants to go to the Visitors' Center!! Isn't that awesome? We are going to give him a call on Wednesday and follow up with that. 

After we exchanged back with our normal companions on Wednesday, we had the opportunity to go and help a widow who moved in just before I came to this area. She has five kids, all one year apart! Her living situation is not very well kept, and she has several problems with her neighbors, two of whom are members of the church on either side. So we weren't sure how this was going to work out. We have talked with her kids before, and they are the sweetest. She had us help get their room cleaned out and we got rid of a handful of garbage bags of clothes that weren't in good condition anymore. As we were working together she talked about how hard it was when her husband died and the struggles she and they have had since then. I was impressed with how well she was doing, given the circumstances, although it wasn't all that great anyway. She is working really hard and trying to get back on her feet, and we really want to teach her. Unfortunately though, one of the members who lives next door to her is the executive secretary or something like that, and he doesn't have such nice things to say about her. I can't say I blame him, but still the gospel is for everyone. We'll carefully consider that situation and handle it delicately.

After doing service we went straight to Inglewood for Sister Syu's dentist appointment. We decided the night before to go to this one part of our area that we don't go to very often. We haven't had too much success, but we are still working hard there. We met one of the investigators from a few transfers ago who the sisters hadn't been able to see since before I got here. It was pretty late by the time we got there, but we had a nice little chat about her experience with the church and sang a primary song for her and her son and niece who were there also. 

Our weekly planning took longer than usual on Thursday because we needed to get our training for Zone Training Meeting figured out and had exchanges the next day. It turned out to be a good thing because I got a killer headache at a recent convert lesson right before going home for the night, and I went home and went to bed right after planning. Then the next morning we needed to be at the church earlier than I thought, so we ended up having very little time for studies that day. 

Our exchanges on Friday were with the Hermosa Liahona sisters. I stayed in our area with Sister Christiansen and we only had two conversations that day. We had appointments after our exchange, and they each went late and we had to travel to a couple of them, so talking to people was kinda down the drain. BUT we did have a cool miracle! We have an investigator who's girlfriend was a less active member of the church. She died of cancer recently and he has been meeting with the missionaries for a bit. The problem is though that we are only able to meet with him every three weeks or so because of his work schedule. We went to see him on Friday evening, and had planned to talk about baptism with how to begin teaching. The conversation went in an entirely different direction though. He asked what we had been up to, and we talked a little bit about our trainings from ZTM. It was perfect!! We mentioned what we had learned about the four specific promised blessings of baptism (I'll have to explain those another time), and how cool it was to talk more about them. We definitely piqued his interest, because he asked for the scriptures we had mentioned and wanted to study it more on his own. WE WERE SO EXCITED!! He told us that he is pretty sure he has never been baptized, but we haven't a clue as to what his concern is. So we are looking forward to following up with him. It's going to be great!!

We had 0 appointments on Saturday, so we were able to go out and contact referrals and talk to everyone we saw. We made up for a lot of the lost convos, but not quite all of them. I feel good about it though. That evening after dinner we used the new families and temples pamphlet that we received at MLC to teach one of our recent(ish) converts about the temple and the priesthood. He is a little older, and Bishop wants to make sure he understands and is able to do what he needs to. (also tell you next time).

We had a pretty average Sunday. We were asked to give the RS lesson about True Greatness from the Howard W. Hunter manual. We were so busy during the week that we totally forgot about it until we saw the Relief Society president show up for ward council. That was rough. But it went well, despite the fact that it felt like 100+ degrees outside and the doors to the room were shut. But it was good. We had some really great talks in sacrament meeting about the priesthood and trials. I don't remember many of the details at present, but I remember that they were good! 

I am looking forward to my last zone conference this week. It's sure to be a good one. Time has gone so fast lately. I am working really hard to apply the trainings I have received and the commitments I have made so that I can become whatever Heavenly Father needs me to become by the end of my mission. It's coming on quick! We will also have exchanges with the Chinese sisters this week, so that should be good!

Sister Hatch :)