AUGUST 8TH

HALF-WAY!!!

Elder Hatch has been out for one whole year! Keep up the GREAT WORK!

Letter #49- I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY

August 5th, 2013

Dear Everyone,

I'm heading out of town a lot lately. I'm now working with several other missionaries called the "Big Lift Team." We travel around going on exchanges with the whole mission and then we report back to President how everyone is doing. It's been soooooo much fun, but exhausting.

 

Lately I have been making use of my time in my own area by doing a lot of finding. We have been discerning as quickly as we can to tell if someone is going to follow through with commitments. And we have a goal of extending baptism dates in every lesson we teach. This has really helped weed out people that we might have spent more time on. Elder Noyes and I are doing a purification now. And I have really felt as of lately that God is going to keep all of His promises to me. As I have gone about knocking doors when I didn't feel like it and knocking 5 more houses instead of going to visit members or less actives, I have really felt my confidence boost. I know that my confidence is really waxing strong as it says it will in the scriptures because I know that my Heavenly Father will bless me for exercising my diligence. I thought that it might be the other way around, but the spirit that I have felt with me as of lately has trumped all means of possible discouragement. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

Love you,

Elder Hatch

Letter #48- "To each their own"

July 29th, 2013

Dear Everyone,

This has been a fun start to a transfer. I am now companions with Elder Clayton Noyes. He is a really good guy. A bit excentric, but a really good guy who wants the best for everyone that we work with. He is my new companion for Traveling Spanish. And he thankfully can play the piano extremely well. He is also a ballroom dancer from Boise, Idaho. He is 20 years old. The baby of two kids by about 2 years. And he knows the gospel is true! Woo hoo! We have spent  this last week doing a lot of finding and service. Sergio Carreto and his family are about to finish their house that we've been working on with them, the final inspection is today and we're going out there to translate for him.

 

We have had a lot more rolling out of the branch! Things were kind of still in the organization realm within the branch, but since they have called a relief society presidency, as well as set up when we will have PEC and Ward Council! STOKED! Things are sliding together quite nicely. Lately I've really been focusing on making sure that I'm teaching with the spirit.

 

The other day we met a lady named Anai. And she was very very hesitant to listen to us, we had to dig very hard to get a return appointment set when we contacted her. But a sweet tender mercy is that she was willing to, grudgingly, listen when we went to her place for the return appointment. We started talking to her about her and her family trying to break down some barriers that she seemed to have. Then came that moment when you are talking to somebody and you have nothing else to say and they still haven't opened up. And I knew that we needed to ask or say something profound. So I waited for about 9 seconds of silence and finally said, "How has God helped you to love others?" She then started to talk a little about her family, but not much, we were still pretty well shut out. I then went on to share how God had helped me love others. How I was very self centered looking for a way out of it, kept changing places to see if that would work. Changing groups of friends and how that had some effect, but then it wasn't until I realized that what I really was lacking was a good relationship with the very members of my family, who had raised me and loved me, regardless of how I had felt about myself.

 

She then turns towards us and said something that completely caught me off guard. She said, "I've been through more than you...You didn't even have it that bad." She then went in to describe why she has grown strong and how she didn't need other people. I shrugged off the upset feelings that were trying to surface from her slightly rude comment, because I was extatic that she was starting to talk! We then got to teach her about how the family is central to God's plan for each of us and that we have responsibilities to safe guard our families and bring them up in righteousness (She has two kids). She then waited for a second, had a puzzled look and said, "where is your church?" We smiled at her and gave her the run down and the address of the church. And we'll see what happens.

 

But I loved seeing the spirit melt away at her heart as we sat there. "To each their own," as the phrase goes. And I know that to be true. Each person has need of what our Heavenly Father can give us. And I testify that if you wait upon the Lord, you will be given the very things that you should say and do. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

 

Love you,

Elder Hatch

Letter #47- Tender Mercies

July 15th, 2013

Hello Everyone,

 

This has been a good week. Working hard I've been spending a lot of time in meetings and with senior couples preping for this next transfer. We went and set up a couple apartments for incoming missionaries. I recieved a few little personal miracles this week. The first is that I had recieved a prompting to start singing in the mornings every day. So I would start out my day with a hymn. Well Sunday rolled around and I had been asked to play the piano for the branch, but I haven't played piano since I was 10 years old. I was a bit nervous because I didn't get anytime to practice either. I sat and attempted to play the piano during the first hymn. I messed up a little, but I wasn't too worried about it. But because I was playing I couldn't concentrate on singing. After sweating through the first Hymn, and just before the sacrament hymn I realized that I had absolutely no idea how to play the up coming song. So, I played the first note and started singing. And my voice came out clear and strong at 9 o'clock in the morning (tender mercy), which is unusual to have a clear voice in the mornings. But the Lord through inspiration had been preparing me for what was to come. And I have been recieving a lot of personal revelation lately that has been helping me with the work here in the Spanish branch. I love being a missionary. I love the fact that the Lord uses me to fulfill even as small a task as singing the music in sacrament meeting to help people keep on tune (because Hispanics for the most part can not sing). He is aware of each of us and I ask that each of you, if you don't already, keep track of your life with a journal and make sure you are noting those tender mercies the Lord gives us. I found myself feeling stuck in a coast because I had stopped recognizing those tender mercies and miracles. I know that as you do search for and recognize those small daily miracles you will feel a closeness to the Lord and always continue growing. I love you all.

 

Elder Hatch