Hallelujah ~ 14 March 2016

I know that my Redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives. 

The Lord showed us so many miracles this week and Sister Earl and I were able to feel His love in every which way. HE LIVES. 

The Lord has shown me miracles every single day of my mission, so I try to share those every week, but it is no secret there are hard days and often hard weeks. The last week, as full of miracles as it was, was really hard. We had nobody to teach. No one in our teaching pool was progressing - we had to exercise our faith and stop teaching all of them. For the last couple of weeks we have spent the majority of our time just searching high and low for those we knew the Lord had been preparing but we just couldn't find them. 

With no one on date we set a goal to have one person enter into the waters of baptism this month. The Spirit came to me as if the Savior was speaking to me and said, "Sister Hatch, I can do ANYTHING; what are you willing to do?" It really motivated us to work even harder and find that one soul before I go home. 

We were pretty saddened with our members as well. We don't have any ward missionaries and it has been really hard to work with our leaders. Sister Earl and I have been praying for what we could do to get everyone excited about missionary work and to really unify our wards. We decided to do a 40-day missionary fast in each of our wards. Don't get too excited, its not what you think. No one is being hospitalized as a result of our project, but it is a period of 40 days where families in the ward sign up for a day and take turns fasting for missionary work. When one family is ending their fast, they join in prayer with the next family to begin their fast, so it is like the whole ward is joining hands to keep the fast going for 40 days and bring miracles. 

Well, let me tell you all that God can do anything and the power of fasting is real.

This last week we went from teaching 8 lessons to teaching 20, we found 5 new people to teach, the members have been giving us referrals upon referrals EVERYDAY. We finally made contact with this excommunicated member of the Church that we heard about months ago and she has just committed to be baptized again! Christy, from my last area was just BAPTIZED!! One of my most favorite less active families, the Reeds, ALL came to church, including their mom who hasn't been for months! My pal Kimberly from my first area came to hear me speak in church! She hasn't been to church since I was a missionary in her area about a year ago. The miracles go on and on and on, but I think the biggest was Joe Toller. Joe has decided he wants to be baptized next Saturday, March 19th. 

It was so amazing! Through out his life he has had bad things happen on good days so he wanted his baptism to be on a day where something hard in his life happened but make it good with his baptism. Last week, even though he told us not to talk about a date, we told him we had prayed about the 19th and knew he would be ready by then. He said no way, too soon. But he committed to pray about it. Well we were down in Salt Lake a lot last week so we were texting him and encouraging him and seeing if he was able to receive an answer to his prayers. He said he still needed to pray and read about it. Then at about 10:00 pm on Thursday night, while we are in Salt Lake City, he says, "Sisters, I would like to be baptized on the 19th!" Turns out that was the day his grandfather is having his services and his grandfathers passing was the reason Joe started coming to church. I know that was not a coincidence. God knows us perfectly and He loves us perfectly.  

We also had a spiritually uplifting week by being able to attend the Salt Lake temple, and go to zone conference. I received such good revelation there and was also able to give my first zone training with another Sister Training Leader, Sister Uelese! I was so nervous, but the Spirit really helped us out and I think it turned out pretty good. Our training was about being bold, optimistic, and happy. It’s a good way to live (: President Eberhardt taught us about the Atonement and how we can apply it both in our lives and in our missionary work. We talked about setting goals and helping others to come unto Christ with real intent. Sister Eberhardt talked about obedience and the power we have as missionaries when we not only follow Christ, but represent Him in every way. 

We got to end our spiritual feast by a super filled Sunday. We had the opportunity to sing, speak, give a lesson, and bear our testimonies in church in different wards. After church we had a full day of teaching the gospel. The spirit was hugging my heart tight and didn't let go the whole day.

God can do anything. Hallelujah. 

https://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_SU_3-13-2016_dMIS_fSPC_xLIDyL1-A_

Sister Hatch's Weekly challenge: Invite someone you know to meet with the missionaries. "Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together. That which is of God is light, and he that receiveth light, and contiueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day." D&C 50:22,24