Dear Everybody, 02-15-2014
Wow! Another transfer come and gone! This week was really
awesome and I'm going to keep it very short because It's transfer week so we
have basically no time! We are working with a lady named Susan and her son Max!
The other day she texted us and said that she loved the Book of Mormon! She
read from 3 Nephi 11 to the end of the book of 3 Nephi! Then just two nights later
we had a giant snow storm for about 2 days! And she stayed in and read from
Alma 32 all the way to the middle of Moroni! She is so funny! Possibly one of
my favorite people!
I am getting a new companion his name is Elder Muir! He is
amazing! He's from Idaho and we're going to be working in the same assignment
I've been in. Luckily we have an area this transfer and some amazing people to
work with.
We have another man named Julio Martinez. The other day we
taught him the word of wisdom. He told us after we left that he had laughed and
said they don't know what they are missing. He then ended up in the hospital
with Kidney stones and the doctors told him he had to stay away from tea and
coffey! He and his wife will be getting baptized her pretty soon! The Lord is
blessing us so much! I love being a missionary!
Love you,
Elder Hatch
Dear Everyone, 02-10-2014
I have had an outstanding week filled with miracles. I'll just
tell you two stories and then I'll send some photos!
So I went on an exchange with Elder Judd (my MTC companion) and
Elder Manwaring (from Mesa, AZ) and it was in West Columbia (my old area). We
went to see a less active sister that I was fairly close with. The last time
that the missionaries had visited her, she told them not to come back. So as we
knocked on her door she swung the door open and told us with a HUGE grin on her
face to come in. All I said was one thing, "So I hear that you got a new
boyfriend..." She then starts pooring out her heart saying that hte
boyfriend had said that the missionaries couldn't come over and that he then
had cheated on her and she kicked him out and was going to get some council
from a priest at the church she attended at the time. After about 8 minutes of
her speaking without talking. I said just one question, "Do you still
believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and evidence of Christ's
church on the earth?" She stopped and said nothing, for 4 minutes it was
dead silent as she tossed things back and forth in her mind. She finally just
started staring at me and I asked "Do you believe Joseph Smith is a
prophet of God?" Another 3 minutes of silence. And she responded with
"Do you still have the same phone number? I want to come back to church."
Oh it was the sweetest miracle! Tears were shed and the spirit was
overwhelmingly powerful!
Later that night we had a referral to contact, a lady named
Maria that had talked to some of the sisters and then asked that we come by.
She opened the door and she said she had to go, but I refused to leave because
she wasn't making sense, so I just started talking with her. She eventually
allowed us to come in and we started getting to know her better she told us of
her daughter who was depressed and tried to kill herself just the week before.
She said she was in the back room and didn't want to come out. (In very rare
cases is this ok to do, you must discern with the spirit.) So I asked if we
missionaries could go knock on her door and talk to her. The mother (who we
found out is a less active sister) smiled and said, "of course,
Elder!" We went to the door knocked and started talking to her, she then
eventually came and as we talked more and more she started to smile! We then
left with a prayer and the mother asked what the warm rushing feeling she felt
during the prayer was. So we then explained the Holy Ghost! It was just a very
rewarding and powerful day! I love the Gospel! IT IS TRUE! If you don't know it
study it out, and ask God about it! I would not be anywhere productive in life
if it weren't for the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Love you,
Elder Hatch
Dear Everyone, 02/03/2014
I want you to know that I love being a missionary. I can not be
ungrateful at all this week. My companions and I have been traveling a lot and
have only been able to work in our own area for very limited time. But this
last weekend the Lord blessed us with 3 investigators at church and a returning
less active! It was AMAZING! I loved it! Church was good! We have a brother who
is from the Philippines, named brother Angeles, and he is a fellowshipping fireball! I loved seeing him talk to all these people and invite them to
classes! It was just a fantastic week!
We have a lot coming up here in the near future, but
something that I would like to talk about briefly is missionary work. Each of
these individuals has progressed farther and faster as we have helped them receive fellowship earlier on. They all are in love with the people that we
have at church. We as missionaries are weird guys in suits with name tags and
are significantly less effective than a walking talking real live member that
has a job, kids, school, whatever it may be. I know this is true! I have seen
it! Just get to be their friends and invite them! And let them know that you'll
never stop inviting them! They need this gospel.
Our ward mission leader has now set up a system with his
ward missionaries to go around house to house and invite them to pray and seek
for people to make their friends so that these people can realized that we are
humans as well. Someone said yesterday during church that THE LORD HAS ALREADY
HASTENED HIS WORK! NOW IT'S TIME TO ACT! I loved that! And so now that is what
the Irmo ward is doing and it is showing! I love it! We had a whole family come
and help us out with a church tour, another family just swarm one of our
investigators when they came to church! Time to work everyone! I love you!
Elder Hatch
Dear Everyone I know or don't know that reads my blog thing,
01/27/2014
I have felt extremely on fire and blessed this entire last week.
I have been on exchanges since Tuesday last week, we got back Saturday evening,
went to a fireside, Sunday went to church, baptized a few soldiers (tell you
about that in a second), and met with President for about 3 hours went to a
member dinner, came back and planned out the upcoming events for the mission. I
literally had NO time whatsoever to myself or to rest or to think about myself.
You would think that I would be exhausted, but you are dead wrong! I have never
felt more energized, full of the spirit, and happy ever on my mission, and I
know that that is only possible through the grace of Christ. I love his perfect
example he set for all of us when he came to this earth. You need to know that
I am nothing without him, he has made me who I am. If I were to boast of
my successes and talents I would only accredit it all to him as my Redeemer.
Ok, quick stories, because I am down to 20 minutes....
This Saturday we had the most amazing Stake conference that I have ever been
to. President Shurtliff the Stake president here is fantastic! He had a
question and answer type thing and invited youth to stand up and talk about how
they had helped people by inviting them into the gospel. There were about 8
youth who stood up overall, and the spirit that was there was so overwhelmingly
powerful! If you are a youth, you have more influence on this world than any
adult, I can testify of that, times ten. Make sure you use it well. And parents
live up to your childrens potential, help them see the important things in
life, Faith, Family (Huge gap) Finance, and fitness. The 4 F's. A little
something I learned from President Holm!
Also the service on Sunday at Fort Jackson were amazing!
We had an amazing miracle. I had interviewed a soldier and two other
soldiers were being interviewed at the same time. We had been expecting 5
to be baptized this week, but only 3 showed up to services. We had got done
with the interviews and we were all changed into whites to go do the
baptisms. As I waited in the hallway for the services, I had a sister come up
to me and say, "Elder Hatch, Brother Ludvick needs to be interviewed for
his baptism!" This soldier had missed his bus that morning and walked
hastely the 3 miles to church. So I sat down with him and in my baptismal
clothing interviewed him for his baptism! One of the sisters snapped a photo of
it, I'll have to ask her to send it to me so I can forward it to ya'll. But I
have loved being a missionary. The church is true. I know it, that soldier that
walked to church knows it, and only through Christ's perfect restored church
can we be cleansed and purified to enter into the kingdom of God. In the name
of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Love you, Elder
Hatch
Some brags on our missionary!
1/26/14 We got a really nice short letter this week
from Sister Holm, (Kendon’s mission president’s wife). She said, "We love and appreciate Elder Hatch.
He is a great missionary. He is a wonderful example, and has the
love and respect of his entire mission. Thank you for raising an incredible
young man." Some very nice words from his mission mom.
1/28/2014 Brother
Montgomery from our ward forwarded this letter from his grandson who is in
Kendon’s mission:
"I went on
exchanges with an Elder Hatch who is from Surprise, Arizona, and it was the
best day I have had since I've been here! He taught me that you can talk to
anyone... but to make a long story short, I have changed and since then I have
been talking to everyone and have seen the awesome people that I could have
passed up in the street. Almost all of the people I talked to with Elder Hatch
have been taking the lessons now regularly :)
I have found that you have got to love everyone and not just a certain group of people, because God loves everyone, and he would share it just as Christ also would share it with everyone. So that's how I intend to work, and I hope all of my good friends and family back home do so as well. Have a great week and stay safe!
I have found that you have got to love everyone and not just a certain group of people, because God loves everyone, and he would share it just as Christ also would share it with everyone. So that's how I intend to work, and I hope all of my good friends and family back home do so as well. Have a great week and stay safe!
Love, Elder
Montgomery"
And Brother Montgomery from our ward said:
"Thank you for
your son's wisdom, energy, and example to help our grandson.
Brother
Montgomery"
Dear Everyone, 01/20/2014
In all my life I never thought that I would appreciate my weaknesses as much as I do now. I love them! The Lord has helped me turn a lot of my weaknesses into strengths, and I know it's because I have learned to surrender! Surrender all of my desires! At times I am tempted to not give those things up, but I always get a reassuring calming feeling, aka the spirit, that jets all over me when I finally decide to obey. It's amazing! Inadequacy is exactly how we grow!
A quick story about
inadequacy. I got a call not to long ago from some Elders saying that one of
the people I baptized had just baptized someone else and is preparing to enter
the temple in March. Sounds like a pretty amazing story right. It's one of the
best feelings I have ever had! But that story didn't start out like that. I had
only been on my mission for about 4 months when I received a prompting to go
against what my Senior companion was suggesting we do, as well as the prompting
took me back to a lead who wanted nothing to do with us. After arriving there
and trying to talk to a few people and feeling a little foolish for having gone
there, Jorge stepped outside and asked us to come in and pray. That man is
responsible for the spiritual welfare of many people in Charleston, SC. All
because I was willing to overcome, what I thought were inadequacies.
I also quickly wanted to
testify of the Book of Mormon. I have told about 3 people in the last week to
read the Book of Mormon daily, and they have all come back to me saying they
are ready and willing to be baptized. It is God's tool for gathering Israel.
The Church is true!
Love ya!
Elder
Hatch
Dear everybody, 01/13/2014
I have loved this transfer. I have so much to do, and so little
time to do it! We got placed in a trio, Elder Stadel and I are still
companions, this is our 3rd transfer together and we have along with us Elder
Hutchinson. We are doing what is called a big lift. Basically we go around the
whole mission and do exchanges with every companionship in the mission. There
are 3 of us and 3 sisters (we don't travel in the same car, that would be
wierd). It's actually been great, I've been able to put myself in the frame of
mind to where women have cooties again! I feel like I'm five!
This last week we got to go to Myrtle Beach and Sumter, South
Carolina. It was AMAZING! We put people on baptismal date left and right and
taught a ton of people. Saw some amazing miracles and all with the Lord's help
of course! I love seeing his hand in the work. I wanted to leave you all with
my testimony today. Ramsay had emailed me and asked me to give her my
testimony, so I chose to testify of the Book of Mormon, and Christ church.
Though only two things they are the staple of missionary life and lively hood
as well as the staple of the Salvation of God's children. So, here it goes:
I love the gospel and being part of the church! I know that the
Book of Mormon along with the bible is the word of God established by Him in
the last days before the second coming of Christ. I know that by reading them,
especially the Book of Mormon, peoples hearts are changed, softened, the spirit
is invited, and they can feel more fully the love of God in their lives. I know
that the Book of Mormon, along with being the word of God, is the evidence of
Christ true restored church and gospel here on the earth. I know that the
authority of God was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. And that Joseph
in his sincere desires for an answer from God, prayed to know the truth, and he
did see God, and Jesus Christ before him. I know that we through our intent,
desires, and actions, can recieve an answer that provides just as much sure
knowledge and determination as did Joseph's experience for him. The church of
Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is our Heavenly Father's true church on the
earth today, the one and the only, and there is no other church or organization
established by any other individual that can lead to the salvation of mortal
men and women today. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is Gods
establishment of zion, the Book of Mormon is the tool for gathering zion, and I
testify and stand beside them both confirming the truth of them. In the name of
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Kendon Bly Hatch
Love you, Elder Hatch
01/06/2014
Love you all! Transfer week, so I have no life! Love you tons!
Talk to you next week! The church is true!
Love,
This puppy followed Elder Zurita and I for a
long time when I went on exchanges with him! Love you!
(Elder Zurita is Kendon’s
first companion and trainer from Ecuador)
Dear Family and Friends, 12/30/2013
I have had a spectacular
weekend! Talking to my family was wonderful! I love having another Sister on
the mission! Please give her all the support in the world! I wanted to talk a
little bit more about my week this time. I had a very good week! I went on two
exchanges and we had some planning meeting and we worked in our area quite a
bit. But Elder Stadel and I have been working with a small family, Pam and
Aaron, Eva, and Carter. And they are amazing! This family has been prepared by
the Lord to have the gospel in their lives right now! The parents are very down
to earth, and Pam the mother is loving the gospel. They live right next door to
an amazing family in our ward and they have been helping a lot! They have
invited them to Family home evenings and they have encouraged them to have
family scripture study and they are just a bold family! It's so fantastic to
see families supporting other families!
Elder Stadel and I have
been working closely with the ward members lately and it is paying off. The
Bishop has always backed us up and this last week he showed "hastening the
work" videos off of,hasteningthework.lds.org during
the 3rd block this last week. So Elder Stadel and I went to a families house
yesterday (Sunday) evening and we spent about 15 minutes with them, left
inviting them to pray for someone to invite to church. After we got out we
hopped in the car and drove about a mile to the main road. Elder Stadel said we
should go back and knock around that members house. I waited and felt that that
was a great idea so as we went back. We knocked on 2 houses. The first house a
wonderful family that we were able to set a return appointment with and then a
great young man named Noah who is now working towards his baptism. I know these
promptings wouldn't have come if we were not willing to act on them! I would
like to invite each of you to always act on whatever feeling that leads you to
do some things good. The only way to know if it is the spirit is if you do act
on it! Then through time you will begin to notice more the promptings vs. the
ideas. The spirit has been one of the best blessings in my life! And I want to
always live worthy of it.
Keeping it short today,
sorry!
Love you,
Elder Hatch
