Transfers

May 18, 2015

Hello again!

Thankfully this week we have a lot more time to email, which I am very thankful for.

Transfers are tomorrow. Sister Scott is moving to Redondo 2, and Sister Wehrhahn and I will be staying here in Harbor City. I am glad to be staying, but also a little wary. I feel like this area has been struggling a bit, so we'll have to get creative to get things moving. I try to think of different things to try that don't always seem to work. I guess I'll just keep working hard and go for it. It will also be weird going back to just having 1 other person around. That should be interesting!

P-day is stressful because everyone wants to have plenty of time to email, so then there is like a rushed tension to hurry up and get everything done - clean the apartment, wash/vacuum the car, go shopping, laundry, etc. Last week was stressful because we went on a tour of San Pedro, which was cool, but took A LOT longer than we expected. We didn't get to clean the car, and we ended up with only about 30 minutes left to email right before 6pm. I just don't like being rushed everywhere. I like to have enough time to take care of things and not rush. Today was much better though.

I am glad to hear that the play went well! I'm sure Reed did a great job playing Gaston. That would have been HILARIOUS, if I do say so myself. Congrats to him on being recognized for it too. That's great.

We are getting iPads. President's email says "mobile devices", but that's what it is. I am excited simply for the fact that I can have access to the full gospel library on the iPad. That is going to be awesome. And hopefully also have access to the ward lists that are more up to date faster. It should just be good all around.  We have a training next Tuesday that is 4 and 1/2 hours long, so that will be fun (SAID NO ONE EVER BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT PROVIDING LUNCH!). ;)

I hope you all have a great week this week! I can't believe we are already halfway through MAY! Crazy. Do what's right, and don't forget to pray!

Love, Sister Lauren Hatch :)

Mother's Day

May 11, 2015

Hi Mom,

I really enjoyed seeing all of you yesterday too. This email is going to be really short because today was super stressful, but its better than nothing I guess. 

I would have loved to give all of you a great big hug through the iPad, but like Dad, I too look forward to when I really can give you all a great big hug.

Keep doing the things Heavenly Father wants you to do, because those things are the BEST things. I love you and hope you have a good week this week.

Sister Lauren Hatch

With Mother's day flowers after church- so excited to call my family!!

After dinner and before going to Facetime, holding the Yaklyvich's pet snake Bucca! :) She even posed for the picture.

Us with the Yaklyvich family, AJ and Dimitri being themselves of course.

May the 4th Be With You!

May 4, 2015

Hello family,

May the 4th be with you too! Hahahaha! That's pretty funny. I am glad that at least you all got some rain. I don't know if they do things about the drought in AZ that they do here. It is kinda ridiculous. And so I am especially aware when my companions leave the water running when the brush their teeth, wash their face, etc. It is a serious problem here though, and plenty of people are complaining about the government and all that jazz too. I've never heard all that before have I??

Today is May 4th, 3 months since I went to the MTC. I think about how it still feels like I got here yesterday sometimes, and how it also feels like I have been here for a long time. 3 months are gone, and with it means I finish my 12 week training! YAY! I am so thankful for the blessings I have received so far as a missionary, and hope to continue serving well so that I can receive all the other blessings Heavenly Father has waiting for me.

Our investigators are doing alright. None of them except Thomas are really keeping commitments. He is still waiting on Victoria to take care of her divorce papers so that he can be baptized. We started teaching Richard and Regina, I don't know if I've mentioned them or not. We taught them the first 3 lessons, and then something happened and we haven't been able to go back. They are going through some sort of something right now and we have the solution, but they don't recognize that, and that makes it hard. We had our first lesson with a referral named Dimitri yesterday and committed him to be baptized at the end of May, so hopefully that works out. It was our first lesson and it went well. He is wanting more Jesus in his life, and looking for a better relationship with him and God too. He claims to be very open to what we have to share which is a good thing. We have another lesson with him on Wednesday. 

It has been hard lately for our area. We are supposed to fight for our investigators and all that, but they aren't doing those things that we know will help them. Sometimes their past history/actions make it hard to have deep faith and high expectations, but I am working on it. Josephine has expressed an interest in going to Santa Monica for a lesson like the one she cancelled, but it makes me hesitate because she won't say for sure that she will go. SOOO we are just trying to fight for the investigators we do have and also find new ones. That has also been a bit of a challenge lately, but we have some different things to try and hopefully they work out.

I do love the ward members here though. The Jessops have a son who comes home from his mission to Paraguay on Friday, and that's neat. Another missionary came hope a couple of weeks ago. She was only here for like 48 hours before she left for school at BYU-H. That would be crazy. I am excited to come back and see these people after my mission and hopefully bring you to meet them all. They take great care of me and I love them. It is a ward that has its share of struggles (like getting a new bishop in a couple of weeks, after this one has been bishop for 6 months or so) but it is full of good people.

I think that's all for now. I am thankful for you fasting for me yesterday, I fasted for my family too. I love you all very much and hope you are doing well. I look forward to seeing you all via FaceTime on Sunday, and hope you are excited too! Things for Sister Hatch are looking up, for which I have to thank my sweet parents and family. You are wonderful and I hope you do what you know is right, because it really is what helps!

Love, Sister Lauren Hatch :) 

Picture

 This is Ana Diego and her youngest daughter Hannah. 

And Sisters Scott, Wehrhahn, and Hatch

Howdy

April 13, 2015

Well Howdy!

This week flew by! Time is moving quick, which I am thankful for.

We have my New Missionary Orientation tomorrow and Zone Conference on Wednesday and speaking of Zone Conference, I think this will be my last "first" as a missionary. I am excited, but also a wee bit stressed out about writing two talks for N.M.O. and ZC. But it will be good. I like the missionaries in my zone and we have a good time. We have conference with a few other zones though, in my understanding. That will be cool to meet other missionaries that I have never met or seen before.

                                            APRIL 15 at TORRANCE STAKE CENTER

                                                              Palos Verdes Zone

I am glad President Hancock has the opportunity to be the mission prep teacher again. I really enjoyed the few weeks when he taught us. It will be good for Reed and whoever else goes. My advice to the girls is just to GET R DONE! It was hard, but man it felt good to have it over with.  And you can learn some good things too.

Josephine is having some challenges. She doesn't read the Book of Mormon because she has a hard time understanding, and she didn't come to church yesterday. We are getting her a BoM in Tagalog which is her native language from the Philippines. Hopefully that helps. We'll see. We have 2 investigators, Richard and Regina who also committed to be baptized, but they don't have dates yet because of work schedules. They lost a child, so the Plan of Salvation was a good one for them. We will hopefully get that worked out. We do get to attend Walford's (sp?) baptism on Saturday - the investigator the Spanish elders taught.  He is getting baptized in our ward, so we'll go. We work with quite a few part member families (Anton for example).  Maybe someday.

I hope things are good with you at home, and that you are doing well in your various activities. 

Have a good week and don't forget to be happy with right now!

Love, Sister Lauren Hatch :)

P.S. Sometimes Preparation days are the most stressful. But its okay. They won't last forever. Thank goodness!

Happy Easter

April 6, 2015

Hello again!

General Conference was so great! I loved it! It was a bit frustrating because the stake center is out of our area so we had to drive there (using miles). Usually the missionaries stay there because the cute Mexican ladies from the Spanish branch make lunch, but this time President Weidman asked each of us to return to our areas to work in between sessions (use more miles). So that was hard to maneuver, especially when we walked by the kitchen and there was a TON of food. But we just took some to eat at home and it worked out okay. We will be doing a lot of walking in the coming weeks. I thought it interesting about President Monson not speaking and also the opposing shouts too. I laughed when President Uchtdorf started speaking in German. That was pretty funny. Sister Scott is SO EXCITED for the temple in Haiti. She cried. That gives her something to look forward to when she goes back in the future.

As far as mail is concerned, I have accepted that mail is going to be a toss up.  I appreciate that you and Dad both write me, and hope that will continue until the end of my mission. It sure is sweet to have hand written things to look at for comfort and strength and support throughout the week. I have not gotten any of the articles you send me, so it might be better to send them with your letters. 

Which brings me to SURPRISE! I am in a trio now. We got a call on Tuesday morning that we needed to get to the Artesia building ASAP because we were getting another sister and we didn't know it. It has been a crazy but fun week, and I enjoy having Sister Wehrhahn and her bAgs and tAgs around.( ;D ) She is from Wisconsin, and knew Haley Hancock too. She's fun.

I know I have said this before, but I will say it again. I really love President and Sister Weidman. I hope that you and Dad are able to meet them someday. They are such wonderful people and really take great care of their missionaries. It makes me very thankful to be serving with them. So just brace yourselves, because I will probably talk about them throughout my mission, especially at the end if I don't end up coming home early for school. They are wonderful.

We set a baptismal date with Josephine, the Filipino lady. Her date is April 25th and we hope she will stay committed. We worry about her getting baptized because of her attachment to Sister Scott and Sister Roy, who was the sister here before me. Hopefully it will work out. She was supposed to come to Conference yesterday, but got up early to answer the phone when it was still dark and she fell and broke her nose. :/ Satan will probably keep working pretty hard on her. 

We are in the other district in our zone now, so we also get to use miles to go to the stake center for District Meeting each Friday.  The Spanish elders are teaching a guy who is getting baptized in our ward, so we have to have permission to contact them.  He will be baptized on April 18, the day before Heather's birthday, so that is cool.

I want to ask our family to do something for me while I am gone. Would you keep a list or record of some sort of all the blessings that have come from my missionary service? I still have my red notebook from Hawaii where I wrote the positive things that happened and the things I am thankful for. Maybe something like that would work? I just think it would be cool to see how my being a missionary blesses our family, if its not too much of a hassle.

I LOVED my Easter box!  And the letters too :) I enjoyed opening them and reading them. Thank you for helping me to have a nice Easter, even without treats from Patti and Karen for General Conference and being away from home. We ate dinner with Brother and Sister Millett and their family. They have a couple of RM's staying with them and they are deaf! 2 have cochlear implants, but it was cool to use a wee bit of my sign language with them. It makes me sad how much I have already forgotten. I think I will continue to pursue that in the future because I love it! Its fun. 

I think that's all I have to share for this week.... No pictures this time, but that's okay. No raccoons this week :) I am glad to hear that you are all doing well and that things with sports and school are going well too. Keep me updated and have a wonderful week this week. Remember to find something from Conference to work and improve on! That's how we eventually become who God wants us to be. I love you all so much and am so very thankful for your love and support!

Love, Sister Lauren Hatch :)