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 :)

Picture Day!

 Behold the great California Los Angeles Mission from the southernmost sisters area. Awesome!

Cool quote thing we found while contacting one day

"Ugly is as ugly does and beauty, like groove, is in the heart."

Dad sent a news thing a few weeks ago about people selling raccoons in the market somewhere in Cali, so I braved going by the dumpster to take a picture of one. Sister Scott didn't like me for it :) She was a wee bit afraid.

Not the best picture, but proof that I wear my scarves and I am missing my Hawaii ;)

MAIL IS GREAT! AND SO ARE ST.PATRICK'S DAY LUCKY CHARMS :)

This is the Yaklyvich family at dinner last night. Sorry for the bad quality. Anton's birthday was on Saturday and he is the one with a thumbs up :) Left to right: Melissa, Anton, AJ, Steve (Anton's brother), Steve's girlfriend (don't know her name), Demitri, and you can't see Victoria, their foster daughter.

Me and Demitri doing crazy faces. Obviously not my forte HA!

This is Victoria. She is awesome! :)

Mini Missionary

March 23, 2015

Hi Ma!  As far as the new stake presidency goes, I figured Uncle Charlie would be in there somewhere. I found out from Joseph actually, because he emailed me and told me about Palmer being the new president. That will be cool to report to him at the end of my mission. It is too bad that Uncle Charlie won't be able to be the mission prep teacher anymore though. I enjoyed being there with him for a few weeks before the real thing happened. 

What a neat day for the Larsen families for those kids to be baptized! I'm sure it was a really good day for them all. That is a good reason to have the family all together for the day.

Congratulations on finishing the Book of Mormon again! I set the goal to read it 3 times by the end of my mission, but have not had much time to devote to that. :/ Hopefully I will be able to make time during the day so that I can accomplish that goal. If you put your mind to it, you should be able to figure out a plan for the non-school days for prayers and scriptures. Unfortunately I don't have any suggestions for you at the moment.

Transfers are next week. I really have no clue how long people stay with each other. It all depends on what Heavenly Father tells President Weidman. I love the people here though. If I got a new companion every transfer, I will have had 12 companions by the end of my mission. President Towsey (MTC branch president) said that most missionaries average 10 companions, so we will see.

We set a baptismal date with one of our investigators named Jon. I have only met him a few times, which is why I have not mentioned him before. Hopefully it works out though. He didn't come to church yesterday, and we have not been able to get a hold of him since Saturday. I guess we'll see. We did have 3 other people at church though! And I guess now would be a good time to mention that I spoke in church yesterday too! Probably the first of many talks while I'm on my mission. They ran out of time, so Sister Scott didn't have to give hers. We sang in the choir yesterday too. It was good. I used to really enjoy Sundays, before coming on my mission. It was a day to just hang out. I could take a nap, write in my journal, and watch a movie with our family if I wanted to. Obviously I cannot do those things anymore, and Sunday as a missionary is busy. But Sundays are still good days, and it gives me something to look forward to in the future.

We had a "mini missionary" this weekend! We picked her up on Friday evening, and dropped her off yesterday. She is a convert as of November, and she wants to go on a mission. So she came to be a mini missionary. It was fun to have her for the weekend. Her name was Sister Richardson and it was cool to have her share her experiences as a convert. I look forward to having other mini missionaries in the future.

Well, I have reached the point in typing my email where I think I have told you everything I wanted to. Thank you for taking the time to email me each week and also write me letters too. I love you all a bunch and hope you continue to do well. I appreciate being kept in the loop and feel more connected through your emails. Tell everyone to write me or email me when they can! 

I love you!

Sister Lauren Hatch :)

Humility

March 23, 2015

Dear Dad,

I commend you for reading the Old Testament.  I think I tried for Seminary when we studied it, but I don't think I finished it.  The story of Hezekiah is neat and I admire the lesson you pointed out.

Here as a missionary I am constantly being reminded about humility and asking for God's help.  I have had many experiences and will certainly have plenty more on my mission that demonstrate the perfectness of God's knowledge.  He really does know just what we need.

I hope that I am able to get better at being a missionary/on a mission as time goes on.  It is easy to get discouraged and frustrated with myself and in general.  I want to be able to make Heavenly Father, and my family, and my mission president proud because I have served honorably and with everything I have.  Listening to your stories and experiences is motivation for me to work harder and do my best.  I thank you again for your example.

I am looking forward to General Conference in a couple weeks.  I am thankful for your letters and your testimony.  

Sister Lauren Hatch

Learning

March 16, 2015

Dear Dad,

This week was better.  We had our Sisters Training, my 2nd New Missionary Orientation, and we got to go to the temple.  It has been very hot this week too.  I am getting tan lines on my feet from my different shoes.  Instead of a "track tan", I now have a "Sister Missionary tan" which is equally as humorous if I do say so myself.

I am quickly learning that my statement about President Weidman before my mission is in fact very accurate:  "He doesn't mess around!"  He is so awesome, and I really love him and Sister Weidman too.  I am so glad that I get to serve (almost, depending on transfers and school) my whole mission with them.  They, like you, are wonderful examples of dedication and hard work.  I hope that I can also be hard-working and dedicated, like you and them.  I am still learning, but things get better little by little every day.

It has been neat to see how Heavenly Father is working in my life every single day.  I have always known that He is mindful of me, but sometimes I think my brain knows it and my heart tends to forget during my hard days.  I am thankful for the "Endure to the End" part of my missionary purpose, the 4th Article of Faith, the Gospel and Doctrine of Christ and I think there is one more but I can't remember it at the  moment.  They are all the same.

We have the opportunity to continue to learn and re-learn things for the rest of our lives.  That means that we can continue to grow in the gospel too.  When our hearts forget things that our brains know, we have the opportunity to approach our Heavenly Father and have Him teach us again, but this time specific to our current trials and challenges.  There is definitely inspiration behind this whole thing called life.

I hope that everything is going well for you as far as work, church, being a dad, and all that.  I sure do love you!  Can't wait to hear from you! :)

Sister Lauren Hatch