Dear Everyone,
Ok, I am so backed up on responses to letters. Sorry everyone I'm trying to get responses back! They may be lame and short, but please keep the letters coming, I love getting them! So Elder Bahoravitch had to go home for a shoulder surgery, so now we have Elder Adair in our companionship and we are now a trio. I guess he did need to go home. I have been continuing studying about meekness, and get this....Moses was said to be the most meek man on the earth. Crazy right! it's in Numbers. So I've been studying Moses and how God works through him so I could be a more meek person. DO YOUR ASSIGNMENTS PEOPLE! YOU READ THIS, YOU DO THOSE ASSIGNMENTS, NO OPTIONS! JK. But really.... Um.....So meekness, I've been getting much better at it. I've got so little free time now because I'm using more of my time to study. Which is good, I've been needing it. I usually don't get back to my residence until about 10:10ish and quiet time is 10:15 so I have to ready myself for bed like a mad man and then write in my journal. It seems I never had enough time to write in my journal earlier this week so I started carrying my journal with me constantly. Which by the way I completed my first Journal and as part of my study time I've been reading my past entries and seeing what things I have improved on what I could still improve on and what things I wrote down to study but never did. My next challenge to you all! READY? Carry something with you at all times to write things down on. It has done wonders for me. When I get back to the residency I feel so much more liberated from my worries that I carry throughout the day, because I can write things down as I think of them and not worry about remembering them later.
In class we have been talking a lot about conversion and being truly converted. Oh my goodness, it's been amazing! I've realized something, like none of the people I personally know are TRULY 100% converted. Sorry folks, you just aren't. If we were, we would do everything how like and when the spirit directs and no one I know does that, including myself. I've been reading so much about it and finding different examples in the scriptures. So ask yourselves am I truly converted? and if not, how can I become that way...given none of us will ever get to it right after studying it, it takes character building. Which brings me to my next topic.
Richard G. Scott gave a talk I forget what it's called, but look it up and listen to it several times. Study it. It's called something like "building faith and character." Not a hundred percent positive though. One of my favorite lines is "If you have determined to live righteously don't become discouraged....you are making better progress than you realize. Your struggles are defining character, discipline, and confidence in your Father in Heaven & Savior." He's so amazing. He talks about how people will perform miracles, but they would not stay converted to the gospel because they did not develop character. Study this and how we can build character, then ask the Lord to help you to build character. After I asked Him to help me build character, I had my first nightmare in years, literally about 7 or 8 years. In my dream satan appeared to me and tried to get me to commit sin, I ran away and he kept popping up in front of me trying to get me to commit terrible acts that were vile and completely horrible. I work up afraid and scared that he was going to appear before me in reality, so I prayed for forever until all my feelings of fear were gone. It was beyond intense, I know that my Heavenly Father answers my prayers regularly though.
Lastly....I think I had a super profound experience the other night. I had been asked to be an investigator for someone so I went and watched a short clip of who my character was. It was a lady(in this case they changed my name to Miller and had me be a man) who's name was Milna. She had three children. Her husband had just one day up and left taking all of her inheritance money and leaving her and the kids homeless. She then got addicted to drugs for 24 years before getting arrested and put in jail for 3 years more. She lost her kids, had no idea where they were and was lost and confused. She had just got out and was looking for a way to find more purpose in her life. But she had major depression problems and had lost the will to live. I had to be this person for the good of the missionaries teaching me I thought. So I put myself in her shoes and said a short prayer asking for help from my Heavenly Father. As this companionship was teaching me, one of the Elders was spewing information at me, Jesus did this, Jesus did that...was all I heard. I was feeling like he was ramming the religion down my throat. I didn't like it when he spoke. Then the other Elder said something that was sooooooooooo awesome and an answer to one of my many prayers. He said, "Jesus Christ is YOUR mediator to God." It hit me like a garbage truck on the highway! The difference between the two was one Elder was trying to teach a lesson, the other Elder was trying to teach me. That experience will forever change the way I coach wrestling, the way I talke to people about anything, or do anything. We are all individuals, that have needs! If we listen to the spirit, we can help other find their needs as well as have ours fulfilled.
Oh, and read the Book of Mormon daily. Not even joking. This above all other things I tell you is most important. DO IT!
Love you all,
Elder Hatch
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