Week 8 A True Missionary Experience

August 31, 2015 Well it was another successful week here in Crescent City. It is so awesome up here. We are pretty isolated but I like it, the distractions are taken away I feel like. It is weird to facetime into certain meetings though, but it’s all good. I just never thought that I would facetime zone leaders on the mission. But I do have some bad news... My companion got transferred down to Vacaville, and he is going to be training again! Kinda sucks for him, he has to be the district leader, a trainer, and he is whitewashing an area. It will be hard but he is a very good missionary and I know he can handle it. I'm sad to see him go, we got along well and we had some good times. I was blessed to have such a good trainer, and district leader Elder Judd and his companion Elder Waites in my first area. Elder Judd is going down to be a District Leader in Dixon, which is in Davis. He is also training again, and is whitewashing too. Luckily Elder Waites is staying up here with me. And my new companion is going to be Elder Smith, and because there are so many Elder Smith's in the mission, each one gets a prefix to their name, and this one is "Elder Awkward Smith". So I actually haven't met him yet so I will have to see. I have heard that he isn't super awkward just quiet. So maybe being with him will help me get out of my shell more and talk to him and others more, since apparently he doesn't talk much. I think we will have a good transfer. I have heard that he is a good missionary so I think that we will get work done. He is also the district leader so I will have a lot of time to sit and read scriptures or something while he is in his district meetings. Anyways Monday we went Frolfing on a course right in front of our house, it was super fun. I haven’t done that in a while. While we were frolfing a guy started talking to us and he was talking about the "white salamander incident" where apparently Joseph Smith licked a salamander and got high or whatever and that’s how he saw the first vision. It is all a bunch of bull crap but it was funny to hear someone actually say that and believe it. On Tuesday, we had exchanges, and towards the end of the day Elder Waites and I didn't have much to do, because we had already had our lessons for the day, so we went tracting. While we were tracting, we knocked on a guy’s door that told us "You are in the clutches of a cult and you don't even realize it" and "I hope you wake up one day" it was funny. When he started saying that I was just like alright have a good night sir, and he said "I will, better than you that’s for sure" It was so funny, this guy was so mean about it and actually thinks we are a cult. People like that obviously have not had any actual interaction with the church. I think people like that are super funny. I was glad that I finally had an experience like that. I feel like a real missionary now. Wednesday was normal, but Thursday the other ward up here was going to have a baptism, but like 3 hours before the lady got cold feet, and it was cancelled. They are still going to teach her and probably set another date but it was still disappointing. Later that night we met a one armed man named Richard Richards, who has had a beard for 40 years, because he says that it reminds him of Jesus. But he isn't Christian, which is interesting. But he knew a lot from the New Testament and talked with us about religion and he really liked us. He actually came out of his house to talk to us. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read the passage that we gave him, which was 3 Nephi 11-20. He was a cool guy, really nice. He also told us that in about a month, he was heading out to the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, because that’s what Jesus did. He won't be fasting but it is still kinda cool. That night was kinda crazy too. We had like 4 more lessons and dinner with these awesome people in our ward, who we actually have dinner with again tonight. She is making me a cheesecake because that’s my favorite dessert. It is a blackberry cheesecake but I am super excited. I don't think it will be as good as your cheesecake though, pops. Friday we went up to Smith River, and while we were there we went to the Oregon border. Later that night we met some kids on the street and later gave out a Book of Mormon to a guy on the street that approached us. He was talking about some weird stuff like the constellation Pleiades, but he seemed interested in the church. Unfortunately he was only in town for that one night, and then he was leaving. He was in town for a disc golf tournament. So cool. Yesterday at church we saw one of our investigators, Velva Allen, crying. She is a woman that took her name off of the church several years ago, but has since come back and wants to be baptized again. We have been teaching her since I got here, and the missionaries have been teaching her for a while now. But at church when we saw her crying she had just been in her interview with the bishop, and had passed and was just so happy. Later that night we got a call from the ward mission leader, Brother Tinsley, who said that she is going to be baptized very soon, possibly even this weekend. But we aren't sure, so I will keep y'all posted. It was weird being with Elder Searle as he said goodbye to everyone since he is leaving. We saw Ervin on Sunday night as well and Elder Searle got some departing pictures with him. It was cool, they are pretty close now. Ervin is such a cool guy. He bought a white shirt to wear to church and surprised us with it when we came over. Anyways it was a good week this week. I look forward to every day. I'll leave you all with a scripture I found in my personal study. It is Luke 22:32. It is Christ speaking, and I love the message that he shares in it. Very simple, but still awesome. Just like Nephi, I glory in plainness. It is the best way to share the gospel Love you all, Elder Hatch