Letter #88- "I'm trying to be like Jesus"

June 16, 2014

Dear everyone,

I'm sorry I don't have much to say today! I have felt super duper blessed this last week! I started to read a lot about virtue this week and really study up on it! As I have done so, I have noticed my desires to share the gospel just amplify amazingly! It was one of the best feelings I've had. I know that as we focus on living the gospel the best that we can, and we strive to be like the Savior, the Lord will provide for us a means by which our temporal as well as our spiritual desires will be increased. I know that this is Christ church and he directs it today! And from the words of a primary hymn, "I'm trying to be like Jesus...." I say that if I were to rewrite that song, I would put the word "striving" in the place fo the word trying. The mission has ruined me of that word. But striving is more of an exerted effort on ones part to accomplish something, so to you all I say "I'm [striving] to be like Jesus." I am grateful for my Savior I love him and I love my Heavenly Father.

Love ya,

Elder Hatch

Letter #87- Priesthood

June 9, 2014

Dear everyone,

 

I have had a fantastic week! There are more then enough people here in Greenville to be able to teach. And the Lord is just hitting us with tender mercies every day! I prayed this week for the ability to see some things that I could improve on and be better at. Caution, do not do this light heartedly, he will certainly answer your prayers. The Lord has blessed me immensely with an ability to work hard, regardless of how I feel. This last week towards the end of the week as my prayers got more sincere in searching for things to better and to change, all the sudden my desires to work hard were dwindling! I didn't know what to do! I felt so ashamed, I kept going about the Lords work doing the best I could do, teaching, serving, but I couldn't feel any power in the work that I was doing....I was so frustrated!!!!

 

On Saturday, I sat down for Language study, I opened the Liahona to study and read the talk from President Utchdorf on, "The Why of Priesthood Service". I finished reading it and looking over the talk again thought, "That was a great conference talk!" and I went along with the rest of my day. As I got back home that night, I knelt down and then began to pray to finish my night. The spirit nailed me, "I am a priesthood holder!" As I have meditated this thought, my whole soul swells with extreme gratitude to my Heavenly Father that He trusts me enough to give me this authority. "[The] power of priesthood leadership that awakens thespirit and inspires action." President Utchdorf.

 

I love the fact that I hold the Priesthood Authority of God! I love that my Father is a worthy priesthood and we have priesthood leaders who sacrifice so much to magnify and fulfill their callings. I can account to you all countless and endless stories where priesthood leaders have reached out to me. And even though I did not always except their help and support, I remember them and respect them today for their ability to act as Christ would, for taking the time to act as Christ would. I am grateful for the atonement, and the priesthood authority that allows us to access it. I testify of my Savior Jesus Christ, that he lives, He REALLY LIVES! I know it! I will ALWAYS testify of Him. I love Him and know he guides his church and his chosen servants today! THIS VERY DAY! He lifts those of us who are weak and helps us to be strong! His power is real! And I will WASTE AND WEAR OUT MY LIFE IN HIS SERVICE! In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Letter #86- "He is a master planner!"

June 2, 2014

We have had an amazing week! Full of more miracles! I am really loving seeing everything that is going on here. We had a special fast for the Spanish branch and that was exactly what we needed. The Lord pulled another miracle out! I don't think that I have ever born my testimony as powerfully before in my life, the spirit hit me so hard this sacrament meeting and the members were feeling the same thing! IT WAS AMAZING!

After that we went and were visiting a less active member that has been offended by a specific member a few times and this is part of the reason why she is less active. The sister who had offended her, showed up while we were there at the house! We left immediately and let them repair the things that they needed to! It was fantastic! The Lord has his hand in all of this! My desires to share the gospel have never been stronger in my mission! I love being a missionary!

 I feel super strong in my testimony right now. I've been super blessed to be able to see peoples lives change and more than anything I've just been amazed at how perfectly Heavenly Father coordinates everything! He is a master planner! I love being able to see him carry out miracles on a daily basis!

Love ya,

Elder Hatch

Letter #85- "I have felt the spirit literally carry me..."

May 27, 2014

Dear Everyone,

It has been an amazing week here in South Carolina! Some outstanding miracles have been happening here in Greenville. I have felt the spirit literally carry me as we went throughout the week, from door to door. And this Sunday the Lord blessed us with an inexplicable miracle. There is a family that we have been seeing and we have been teaching them on a semi regular basis. The wife, Mayra, is just a very bubbly and fun person to talk to and the husband, is super shy doesn't hardly talk. Elder Rangel and I had some very powerful lessons with them the last 3 weeks that we have known them. When we went by on Friday evening we read with her in the Book of Mormon because she hadn't been reading. As we finished up, her husband, Francisco, and two policeman turned the corner. We went up and started to translate for them; turned out he had been driving drunk and had nearly hit someone. Francisco tried to close the door on us, but she yelled at him and said, "I AM TALKING WITH THEM! GO TO YOUR BED!" (She sounds abusive, but she loves this man a ton and they make a fantastic couple) After Francisco left we said a prayer with Mayra and left. We came back two days later and she throws the door open and asks, "Did you talk to the police at all before my husband came with them?" I hadn't, and told her so, she then said, "The Lord sent an angel then." She related us a story about how, when he had arrived at the apartment complex, Francisco, had said that I had walked up, dressed in missionary attire, and told the police that I knew him, and where he lived, and asked them not to take him to jail. They said ok and then took him to his house instead (I know I'm super persuasive like that[Just a reminder that wasn't me]). While this was happening Elder Rangel and I were with Mayra, reading the Book of Mormon. He was drunk, but he promises that he wasn't drunk enough to not remember a face, he promised us that it was me...... But that means I would have been by myself, which didn't happen, and in two spots at the same time, which also didn't happen. Why the police didn't take him to jail? It really is a miracle and a witness of the true gospel. They then said a prayer with us and asked for understanding of the Book of Mormon and if they needed to be baptized! (We had already invited them twice in our visits with them). It was just amazing to see that the Lord knows how to help each of his children and give them the promptings to help them act.

We are also seeing another man named Temo! Who is amazing! He has come to church and he has been asking us to come over and visit him whenever we have spare time, he's been reading in the scriptures and he is way excited about being baptized here pretty soon!

Gotta run!

Love ya,

Elder Hatch

Letter #84- Barriers being broken down!

May 19,2014

Hey Everyone,

This has been an amazing week! We had some investigators come to church. Members calling us like crazy trying to help us find new people to teach. Talking with everyone, investigators starting to act on their own! I'm just overly excited right now with the missionary work!

 

We are being outstandingly blessed right now! There are families that are breaking down there own barriers and calling us to come and talk to them and acting on their own. Just yesterday Elder Rangel and I knocked on the door of a family that we have been teaching off and on. They didn't answer after we knocked three times, so we moved on to see the rest of the people we had planned in the area. We got towards the back of the trailer park, and we hadn't knocked any other doors at this point, and our minds blanked and we couldn't think of anyone else to go see except a sister that was up in the front of the trailer park. So we started back to the front. As we walked by the families trailer, that we had knocked on previously, the young man that lives there ran out and said, "Hey, come back my dad wants to talk to you!" We went back and had a very powerful lesson with them about our personal testimonies and the restoration! The spirit was so strong! We had invited them to be baptized twice already and so we asked them this time to pray about it as a family. They still are feeling unsure, but they are so much closer to being baptized! I am loving every second of my mission! It's the best!

 

Love you all,

Elder Hatch