"Let us all press on in the work of the Lord!" ~ February 16, 2015

Things here are going great! Our week was a little slow because poor Sister Coleman was sick, but she is doing much better now and our week was still very eventful. 

Wednesday I had my first Exchange OUT of my area. It was a challenge. I felt so useless because I didn't know anyone and I was so sad to miss all of the lessons with the people I love in MY area.  But it was great to be with Sister Dodd, Sister Britton’s new companion. She has been in my zone for the past few transfers and I love her. I learned a lot from being with her. She is so service oriented and always wanting to help people. (even me, she made me raspberry pancakes and vanilla honey tea in the morning (:) She has a very powerful testimony and the best laugh! So exchanges are definitely inspired but I am grateful to be in the Big Cottonwood stake with Sister Coleman. 

On Thursday President and Sister Eberhartd asked Sisters Coleman, Britton, Dodd, and I to serve dinner to the departing Senior missionaries at the mission office and also sing for them! We had a lot of fun. We sang an a capella version of our mission song, Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy, and we were excited that we made Sister Eberhartd cry ;)  Sister Britton’s trainer, Sister Bowman was also there visiting the mission so I got to meet my mission  "grandma" (because she trained my trainer).

Valentines Day was fun. Sister Coleman was resting in the morning to feel better so I made valentines for people in our area and then we delivered them in the evening. We shared scriptures with the valentines, 1 Nephi 11:22 and Moroni 7:47.

Sunday we got to sing in one of the elder’s wards. I love singing with Sister Coleman! And we also had the best meetings!

We went to Sunday School in the 2nd Ward with Kenneth and it was on the role of the Holy Ghost. We were reading scriptures and sharing what truth the spirit can bear witness of in correlation with the Spirit. Kenneth read the promise in the end of the Book of Mormon -  Moroni 10:5 >> "and by the power of the spirit you may know the truth of all things." And then he bore his testimony to the class about how he did what Sister Coleman and I invited him to do and pray to know if this was the true church and if he should be baptized and he said he felt the best feeling of peace and serenity and he knew everything he has been learning is true. He said he has prayed other times to God and asked him questions before in his life and has never felt before what he just described. It was so special for me  to hear that he received that witness because of an invitation we had given him. The spirit is so powerful, but I, as the lords servant get to help deliver that spirit and this true message.

We went to the 14th Ward Sacrament meeting with Ron and a new young couple, the Hansens, spoke. Sister Hansen’s talk was on faith and it was literally exactly what Ron needed to hear. It was so powerful and simple and I could not have been more grateful. Brother Hansen’s talk was on prayer and it was exactly what I needed to hear. I lovvvvve going to church! 

Ron is so amazing, we are meeting with him tonight and rescheduling his baptism for the 28th. We just have a lot left to teach him. He and his wife Judy are also just having a hard time right now because their son Brook is not doing well. He is not making good choices and he has just lost all hope. Judy is worried he may not make it. Please keep him in your prayers. I know everything will work out though. I have so much love in my heart for Ron. He is an incredible person and I feel very connected to him. I know the Lord is watching out for him and his family, and I am praying that he can just recognize it. 

We had to drop Martha :( We haven't been able to meet with her and she is just showing less and less interest. One day she will piece everything together and remember the power of the light over the darkness, but she just isn't there yet.

We are headed into the last couple weeks of the transfer and working towards reaching our goals. Missions have lots of rough patches and lots of joyous ones. "Let us all press on in the work of the Lord!"

Tell Idalia I love and miss my Mexican grandma. ;) SOO excited to hear about my girl Saretta! Tell her congrats and send my love. I am so glad to hear about all the missionary efforts in happy Holbrook! Oh how I love my home town, (by the way I wore all of my turquoise and silver on Valentines day because it was also Arizona’s birthday! I love the Utah mountains but I’m missing the sunsets <3 Sister Coleman was showing me pictures of the Georgia green. I love all the beauties of the earth around the world

Love love love you!

-Sister Hatch

The 24-hour Challenge - February 9, 2015

Hey and Hi!

This week was really good! We are reaching more of our goals, and Sister Coleman and I are really seeing the stake grow and having lots of fun doing it! She is my best friend! I love teaching people about the gospel and feeling my spiritual knowledge and testimony grow! 

We started this month as a mission to study charity. Charity literally is everything. It pops up everywhere in my studies. Without putting my whole heart into my mission and without love, my mission would mean nothing! I might convert people, because the gospel is true no matter WHAT, but the PURE love of Christ is why the gospel matters to me. There is nothing better than feeling Christ’s love and that is really what I want to share. I am grateful for the opportunity I have this month to understand it more! I would invite everyone to study charity more this month! I promise you feel the spirit more in your life. 

Our zone has been doing the “24-hour” challenge. It is super hard. The scripture for it is Ephesians 4:29 and it’s this:

1. Go for 24 hours without criticizing anyone for any reason (including yourself)

2. When you make a mistake, and you will, you must start the 24 hours over

3. If you think a critical thought & control it within 30 seconds you don't have to restart

4. You have until the millennium to complete this challenge (:

We have started over a bunch, the criticizing yourself has been the hardest in the morning because it's when we are getting ready! :/ But, it really help to train your mind to think of everyone as Christ would.

Ron has been super sick so we haven't taught him much this week but he came to church and we stopped by to drop off a card for him and we chatted and shared a scripture. We are really trying to help him understand just how prepared by the Lord he has been. He has more faith than he understands and we feel so strongly about him being baptized on the 21st. We are praying so hard that he feels for himself that his testimony is strong enough. He is such a caring and genuine man, I know he just wants to give everything he can and feel really sincerely that he should know and feel enough to be baptized . 

Kenneth is probably the most fun lesson of the week. We just laugh and laugh! He is so solid though. He came to church and is excited to be baptized on the 26th! We taught the commandments yesterday. When we were talking about the Word of Wisdom, we got to “no tea” and  he goes, "OHH, I CANNOT do tea! That stuff is just NASTY. Its got this freaky wine-y taste and when I drink it i feel like something is ga-rowing on my tongue!" haha

Martha still hasn't met with us :( She is going to church with her friend in a different stake still but she has been really busy.

I am so sorry to hear everyone is so sick! :( Something has definitely been going around. Lots of the missionaries here got sick at Christmas time, so I was living off essential oils and vitamins and made it though, but its coming around again, I just got a cold but I am feeling better. I hope you all do soon!

It's pretty cool that Lily will be blessed the weekend of February 28th, because that is the Sunday that Kenneth gets confirmed! A baptism and blessing weekend (:  Those are always the best Sundays, so the 28th will be extra special. <3

It's so nice that you had Elder Chipman in Holbrook for such a long time, 5 months! Can you believe that’s how long I have been out?! I can't!  I still feel like a brand new missionary, it kind of scares me thinking about how quickly this experience goes by, sometimes I wish I could be a missionary forever! But anyways its nice to be in an area for so long. I love my area and I hope I get to stay until Sister Coleman goes home in May. or at least just before that. I love everyone here and I love having time to build relationships with all of them.

Gram told me about the Hatch’s move to Houston. I’m so happy for their family but will miss having everyone in Az! but Tay and I can have fun at the Y, I hope she gets in! Man, I have grown to truly love the mountains, but I was talking with a member here who used to live in Az and we just went on and on about the sunsets, I miss those, especially with Arizona’s birthday coming up!

Tell Stratton i am so proud of him for being excited for Disneyland-  eat a churro for me and try and make it on the peter pan ride(:

Tell aunt vicki I love her!

The new boots are fantastic!  And so adorable (: Crazy though, its been in the 60's and yesterday it was in the 70's! So I haven't touched my boots for a week! I guess Sis. Coleman and I brought the Az and Georgia sunshine with us.

I love the different stories about how people are brought in to the church. Music is so powerful! I am so grateful that I have been able to use music so much on my mission, it truly opens doors and I love singing now more than I ever have before in my life.

MwaH! Love, Sister Hatch

Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength - February 2, 2015

I love you all and am doing so well! I have learned so much about trusting in the Lord and being changed for the better, yet I still feel so much like me! The Lord does amazing things for us as we give him our heart, might, mind, and strength. I am working on doing that. I want to give him EVERYTHING. I am trying to learn how I can do that. 

Everything is going so great here! I am kind of holding my breath because this has been the best transfer ever! I love my area and my companion and my district, and all the people! It seems too good and I am just nervous it might change! I am just trying to show the Lord that even though I feel so comfortable here I can still work hard everyday. But, I know He knows what is best and I will enjoy it while it lasts! 

We do have district meetings every week and they are wonderful! That’s what I love best about my district, we are all like best friends and we have lots of fun together on p-day but they are also the most spiritual group of kids and I am so edified each week from Elder Tidd’s trainings. Zone meeting is once a month so that will be this Friday. Our senior couple in the stake is the Hunts. I think I have mentioned them before - they are the BEST. Truly our secret weapon. They finish their mission the end of February, which I am heart broken about, but they are serving in their home stake so when they are done they will still be here and we will DEFINITELY utilize them! 

We have had tons of miracles from dropping investigators this past week! Martha went to church and we are hopefully meeting with her this week. She is still a little sad I think but I feel so much that she is ready to take this step of faith and be baptized.

Also Ron. Man, his lessons are my FAVORITE. I really connect with him. He is preparing to be baptized on February 21st but isn't very sure he can get all his answers by them. Please pray for him. Sister Coleman and I feel sooo strongly that February 21st is when he is supposed to be baptized. 

Sister Coleman  and I prayed about a goal for people to be baptized this transfer and we both felt strongly we could get three. I know it will happen as we press forward with faith and LOVE, WORSHIP, and SERVE the Lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30, 2 Nephi 25:29, D&C 4:2)

We found a NEW investigator this week who is SOLID! His name is Kenneth. He was at the home of a family where we were teaching a lesson to some kids. It was the lesson on the plan of salvation. He loved it and had lots of questions and contacted us so we could answer his questions. We did and he said , "Perfect! That makes sense. Ok, I am ready for another lesson." It was amazing!!! We taught him about the restoration and when we told the story of Joseph Smith, the first thing he said, before we even asked anything, was "Oh ya, I believe that! There is no other way!" AH, soo, we invited him to be baptized and he said yes. We are praying to know if we should put him on date this week for the end of February. Sis. Coleman and I feel like we are really here for him. We connected really fast. 

Our stake is lacking a little in missionary work. They have a desire but no direction. That is one of our goals this transfer: to get the stake excited and to correlate with them more fully. There is so much potential here and I feel that is key for helping us reach our goal of 3 baptisms. Sister Coleman came from a really strong stake in her last area; she is just what this area needs. I love hearing about the work going on in our stake at home. 

Oh, I am heart broken also about Bishop Miller leaving, :( I was so looking forward to being a part of the ward under his direction for a little bit when I got home since I never really got a chance. He is such a wonderful man and a wonderful family. They are going to bless the whole church, which I am sure is why he is being asked to move around. He is going to touch so many people’s lives. I am glad I got the chance to be touched by him in seminary for 3 years. 

Well, I love you so much! I love all of you who are taking the time to read my emails. I truly appreciate the love, support, and prayers. Thanks for all the fun news! Karson is so stinkin’ adorable and I promise I will write her soon! It’s kind of hard to find time to write on p-days… I can't believe how quickly they go by! But. if anyone is sad I haven’t written them back, tell them I haven’t forgotten about them and I am grateful for their letters. I am soooo excited about Lily's blessing!

God is good.

Love, Sister Hatch

Transfer week miracles - 26 January 2015

HEY and Hi!

So news for this week. I LOVE MY NEW COMPANION, SISTER COLEMAN. I couldn't ask for anyone better. Oh my goodness, we are the saaaame person. We are already like best friends. We get along so well, and have both been through the same kind of trials. Our mission stories of how we came out and getting our call is the same. Both of us always wanted to serve a mission and instead of the announcement of the age change being exciting for us (like it was for every other girl on the planet who was planning on serving already) we both were just like, "whoa, that’s way to young." But, we both ended up coming at age 19 because that was God s plan for us. She also was the same as me about the specific mission call. We both prayed that we would not be disappointed in our calls and to just feel excited wherever it was and we both felt this mission was EXACTLY where we were supposed to be as soon as we opened our letters.

She is a fasionista like me, we both love singing and modern dance, our voices are so similar, we both play ukulele, we have the same sense of humor, we both love Mexican food - I could go on and on. It reminds me of rooming with Mariah and when people would ask about ourselves we would just give one answer for both of us. It’s so much fun. 

She has been out for 14 months and so she is just exactly who I need to help me with what I go though because literally she has just been through the same things but conquered them already. We are having lots of fun together and I KNOW she is exactly what this area needs to move forward and progress. Heavenly Father is too good! She just has 4 months left so I hope she will be with me until the end of her mission. I was SO AFRAID for transfers, but someday I will learn that Heavenly Father really just gives you EXACTLY what you need and we never need to be worried as long as we are obedient. 

What an amazing week this has been -we had so many miracles this week! We call them transfer miracles. Good things always happen at the beginning of a transfer and we plan on having them keep going strong! Our investigators are awesome! Sister Coleman is just what we need. We are realizing that many are not progressing so we need to drop lots so we can find more people who are truly prepared to hear about the restored gospel. Our zone leaders compared it to the great apostasy: Heavenly Father had the faith to drop the whole world in order for it to be built back up, so that is what we are trying to do, and we have already seen miracles. I’ll share a few of the miracles with you:

So, one is the Reeds - a family I have never heard about but bishop told us to stop by. They are a part-member family. The husband is the member the wife is not. We knocked on their door and the wife swings the door open smiling and says "SISTERS!! FINALLY!" Neither of us had any idea what was going on but apparently she has been wanting to take the lessons but has been so busy and didn't know how to get in contact with us!! Turns out Sister Britton and her last companion knocked on her door everyday for 4 months and no one was ever there! She is going to call us when she doesn't have work. We are so excited!

Also we ran into this lady my first month, who was less active her and we gave her our number but never got in contact with her again. Well, she called us this week and has a friend living with her who has had a rough life and her and her little 2-year-old daughter want to get back in the church so we were able to talk with her and take her to church this week!

Martha told us a couple of weeks ago that she wasn't going to baptized but her father just passed away and we were able to bring her some comfort. Well she called us from Michigan on Thursday (where the funeral is at) and told us she had an "epiphany". She told us how her family was fighting and she was sitting in a room and couldn’t think of anything except about Sister Britton and me and her best friend, who is a member. She said, “I feel light when I am with you and dark when I make bad choices and I just think I want to do it." I said, “do what, Martha?” She said, "I think I want to get baptized!" AHHHHHHHHHHHHH :') So, I can't wait for her to be back it town.

Ron Radcliffe, who has been out of town since Christmas has come to church for the past 2 weeks and we have an appointment on Tuesday! 

The miracles are already flooding in! I am so ready and excited for this transfer. I know it will be full of miracles and wonderful memories.

Sister Britton is just one stake over (in the Little Cottonwood stake) so she is still my Sister Training Leader (because she is assigned to the whole zone) and I get to see her all the time! It’s funny, after being here for 8 months she gets to come back to do exchanges(: 

Half of our district got switched around but it is still the best district in the mission ;) Elder Tidd is still my district leader, he is the BEST. And, his companion is Elder Miller who is from Layton, Utah and is serving a trial mission right now, so he will just be here for a couple months - which I am really sad about because he is AMAZING! He has the most pure, strong testimony and I have already learned so much from him. Elder York is still here and his companion is Elder Fanfa from Brazil, who I already knew and love! He is going to Julliard for guitar, he just played for us in a sacrament meeting and he is hilarious. Our district has lots of fun together as well as we all get so spiritually edified from one another, I love district meetings, we have a great group of missionaries

Thanks for all the fun news! I will pray for Ashley and her baby. SOO glad Gramma Shirl gets to be by more family, wow- that was a long time coming. What a blessing! Crazy, all the changes in the ward but so cool! Mamacita will be AMAZING! Soooooo, so, soo happy for her and all the girls that will be blessed by her leadership!

And, KENZIE!! Ahhhhh, she is going to be sooo good! There is a return sister missionary here, Jennifer Cook, who just got home from New Zealand - she loved it! And, she is fantastic. I went on splits with her once.

I am so excited about Lily’s baby blessing on Grandma Beverly’s birthday! How special(: -send lots of pictures! What a miracle this little girl will be.

I was a little jealous to see you are going to Disneyland, but it went away when I saw Jess and Stratt are going. FINALLY! Jess deserves that trip. ;) That will be so fun, I want lots of pictures of that too! Tell my choir family I love them and said hello - both my swing thing choir and my sweet select kids <3

Also, iPads? That’s the first I have heard! We have heard nothing about iPads. haha! I just asked the zone leaders and they haven't heard anything either! haha I am excited though, we have heard for months that we would be getting them! I hope its true. lol.

I love you so much and I am so grateful for your love and support and examples! Thanks for blessing my life.

Love, Sister Hatch (:

Transfers! Busy! More coming next week! 19 January 2015

Things are crazy here! I didn't have time to read email letters this morning, but i am printing them and will write more next week! Sorry, it has been crazy, but wonderful. We got to go to the temple this morning at the Jordan River temple - so great! So, not lots of time but transfer news is:

I am staying in the same area this transfer and Sister Britton is leaving - she has been here for 8 months! (We have lots of good-byes to get in during these next 24-hours!) Our district leader, Elder Tidd, is staying and Elder Conn, who was with me in the MTC, is leaving. Elder York is staying and Elder Bentley is leaving and being made a district leader! So exciting, anxious to find out who my companion is but sooooooo happy I am staying!

The Booth family (that sent the photo of me and Sister Britton) are so cute. I told them that you would write back that you love them, so he said, "perfect, I know just what to say!" [He texted: I know you are going to say you love us because we are sending this photo.]

I loved my brithday stuff!! You are the best! Everything was perfect!

I love you and am doing well!

Birthday week miracles! January 12, 2015

Hi!

The answer is: NO, I cannot believe I am turning 20! My teen years are over and I feel old! but we had lots of huge miracles this week for my birthday! It has been so fun! I know the lord is making this the best birthday ever for me. On Thursday Sister Britton said to me, "you have less than a week of being 19, better make it count." I said, "what do I do?" She said, "you find three people to baptize, two people to reactivate, and you buy a head band on Monday."

So…

Day 1: We found Laura. She is a single divorced mom, return sister missionary, and less-active. She has gone through HARD times and is just figuring things out. She has the strongest testimony and the sweetest spirit. One person to reactivate!

Day 2: We find Greg. A young man we met at the apartments. We asked if he had a relationship with Christ and he said, "good question, please come back so we can talk about it when I'm not sick." One person we can baptize.

Day 3: We get a referral from temple square for a man named Richard. His wife is Christian and their family is going through a really hard time. Both of their parents are sick and taking care of their only daughter in China, while they are busy with their restaurant here in America. His wife said, “the only thing that will save our marriage is if you learn about God.” He likes our religion because of its focus on family. Second person we can baptize.

Day 4: Three people in the same family came up to us at church and told us about their little 8- year-old nephew/grandson whose dad is less-active and the 8-year-old said he wants to be baptized. They asked us to go teach him and we just went through the first lesson. Third person we can baptize and second person we can reactivate.

Today I am going to find a headband at Wal-Mart.

And also at one of our dinner appointments we got enchiladas and chocolate cheesecake with berry sauce....

HEAVENLY FATHER HAS BEEN CELEBRATING MY BIRTHDAY ALL WEEK LONG!! :D

I love how much the Lord cares about each of us and answers our prayers. What a week of miracles. (:

We had interviews with President Eberhardt this week, which I always look forward to. He is so kind and such a Christlike person. He fills me with the Spirit every time we talk and he is so filled with love and encouragement, even when I tell him about some of my struggles. He makes me feel like I can conquer anything and helps me know that I am doing the right thing and he is proud of me, Just like I know Heavenly Father is. I have the best mission president!

It is easy for me to imagine just how happy we will be when we return to our Heavenly Father because I can simply imagine how happy I will be when I get to see everyone at home again. But, I am grateful to get close to my Father now through praying and serving Him and I am grateful I get to be close to you through email and all our good memories. (:

We have a lesson tonight with Jayden and hopefully her mom will come. We think we might have to push her baptism date back but we keep praying for her. Jayden was at church though and she is doing great! Martha is visiting her brother in Florida and enjoying the sunshine - I’m sure haha so we will see what happens when she gets back. Margarita is being taught by the Hermanas and we haven’t heard from them saying they need help with her so hopefully that’s a good sign! We took our recent convert, Pippa, with us to Carolyn’s lesson and they really connected and were able to have some really good conversations with her about some of the things she doesn't understand about the Church. 

Sister Britton and all of our district are all well. We have a week until transfers, so I can only imagine we will see lots of changes - considering how long we have all been together, but transfers are always a surprise. I always just pray that the Lord will prepare me for whatever the hardest situation for me would be. 

Sounds like everything at home is fun and great! I can't believe two of my nursery kiddos are in primary! :0 I miss them so much! Amy Nilsson is so sweet, I really look forward to her amazing letters. She is AWESOME. Thank you for all the wonderful updates. I love you! Thank you for your prayers, keeping you in mine too MWAH!

p.s. If you have time could you put some chile-lime salt in my package? … They don't have it here :( and maybe mention to Braden to hook me up with some Mexican candy? ;)

2015: My FULL year as a missionary!!!!! ~ January 5, 2015

Mom and Dad, 

Thank you for the fun pictures of your New Year get together and the BEAUTIFUL Grand Canyon and THAT AMAZING WHALE :O and for all your fun updates, I love you both so so much. 

So it has been pretty crazy thinking that 2015 will an entire year full of missionary work and nothing else. exciting and crazy, but I am so ready. Each day brings another challenge, some new and some old, but I am excited to see what the Lord can mold me into and see the lives I get to touch. 

This week was pretty wonderful. Our NEW investigator Jayden is on date to be baptized on February 7th!! It was a huge miracle. She is 14-years-old and is friends with our ward mission leader’s daughter, Sadie. We heard a little about her from Sadie, who said she was asking lots of questions about the Church. Sadie answered a few and said, "you know if you have more questions, I could get you an appointment with the sister missionaries - they know lots more that I do." Heck, yes, champion member missionary! So, she went to church last Sunday with the Durham family and Brother Durham called us on Wednesday and said "Jayden will be here for the night and she wants a lesson, this should be pretty simple because she wants to be baptized." THE LORD IS SO GOOD! We taught her about the restoration on Wednesday, the plan of salvation on Saturday, and we are teaching her again tonight. She is so excited and is just soaking everything in - what a doll. The only concern she has in her mom. Her mom is a less active member and isn't super thrilled with her decision. She wants her to wait at least a year. We are going to ask Jayden tonight to ask her mom to sit in on the lessons with her and hopefully that will help. I so appreciate you praying for all the people I teach. Adding Jayden to your prayers will be such a help and also please pray that her mom’s heart will be softened. 

Martha needs lots of prayers, also. She said she has made the decision to not be baptized but didn't want to tell us because she doesn’t want us to disappear. We told her of course we wouldn't disappear because we love her no matter what she decides! She is constantly swinging back and forth, but I have so much faith in sweet Martha.

Another fun story from this week is we got to teach Steve on the street. Steve is legendary here in Cottonwood. He is probably is in his late 60's or early 70's, he dresses like a hip teenager in bright clothes and is always found wandering the streets with headphones in his ears, dancing like no one is watching. He is actually really talented! But whenever we see him we are driving in our car. On Saturday, he was in our area as we were walking and I was on exchanges with Sister Dodd. I freaked out, I was so excited to talk to him! We told him we liked his outfit he responded "yah, some days I look good.. . other days I look great.” :'D  Anyway, he said he just does what makes him happy and doesn't care who sees him. What a good way to live! We shared a scripture with him and told him that Jesus Christ is what makes us happy and we invited him to church, so we'll see what happens! 

Also on Sunday our investigator Carolyn (the one who gave me Risgrynsgröt and took us to see Music and the Spoken Word at the Conference Center! It was so fun to be there at a time other than conference because we could just sit wherever we wanted - so we got super close! 

I'm glad you received my Christmas card, I’m sorry it was taped up crazy. I have envelopes but not any that were big enough for the card - haha. But stamps would actually be great. (: And, thanks for asking about my birthday, I would love some long sleeve/warmer shirts and some more warm socks and tights (brrr, it is getting so cold), just warm things in general would be fun. I knew I would get sick of my clothes fast but not this fast. lol. But, I am doing so well. So, hopefully that’s not too much to ask for. 

I love you so much familia! 

xoxox, Sister Hatch 

Oh, also pray for Margarita. She knows the church is true but is super scared to be baptized. The Hermanas are teaching her but we see her often. Thanks for all you do!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!