Week 9 New Companion on transfer number 2

September 7, 2015 Well, to start, it has been a little bit different with a new companion and another new guy in the apartment with us. Just as you get used to one companion and roommates, you get new ones. I do miss Elder Searle, he was a good missionary. Lately I feel like I have been more stressed, because I am now leading out the area and I have to come up with things for us to do now. I feel like a lot of the time I can't remember what we would do when Elder Searle was leading out the area. But besides that it was a good week because we had a baptism! More on that later but it was just a different week than I have had so far on the mission. So on Monday night Elder Searle and Elder Judd left to go to their new areas, and on Tuesday Elder Waites and I were alone in both of our areas. Our companions got here at about 11:30 at night so we were waiting up for them most of the night. My companion, Elder Smith, is a good guy. He has been out about 21 months and this is his second to last transfer. So the chances are that he will die here and that I will be leaving here at the end of this transfer. I am sad about that but have realized that it is basically inevitable. I really do love it up here though. I love the people in my ward, and I am really comfortable around them now. But anyways my companion is from the San Antonio area, a little place called Poth, Texas. He is 21 years old and graduated in 2012. Pretty weird, I never thought that I would be companions with somebody that age. But apparently there are some pretty old elders in the mission. The other new missionary in the other ward is Elder Sherman, who has only been out one transfer longer than me and Elder Waites. He is a good guy, and he is from somewhere in Texas too. Wednesday was our first full day of missionary work together, and we had a lesson with Velva Allen, the woman who was baptized this Saturday. We also were doing some service for people, putting on a metal roof on this little house thing they were building in their trailer park, when a guy from the state pulls up and tells them they have to have a permit for it. They got into a big argument while we were there and we were just there trying to help some people out. After a while we left, but the one family ended up getting stuck like 800 bucks for the roof and a deck fine because they didn’t have permits. Too bad. On Thursday, it was kind of a rough day. I got kind of stressed, because we didn’t have any lessons that day so we were just out doing a lot of finding and I was trying to find things for us to do and people to go see, like some inactives or things like that. I was struggling to find things to do so it was pretty stressful. I didn’t have Elder Searle to lean on to figure that stuff out. Also I hate tracting. I wish there was more street contacting to do, because I haven’t seen much success from door knocking so far. Hopefully we will though. Luckily later that night we were able to have 2 lessons so that cheered me up a bit. On Friday we had like 2-3 lessons fall through, so that was frustrating. Not only was it frustrating because we missed our appointments, but then we didn’t really have much else to do. I was again left to try and figure out stuff to do. Hopefully we will have more lessons this week. On Saturday, it was a good day for the most part. The baptism was AWESOME. It was a very very spiritual experience, as she was formerly a member that removed her name from the records. She has had a very long road back but seemed so so so so so happy to finally be a member of the church again. Her son-in-law baptized her, and apparently it was him that encouraged her to take the missionary discussions again in the first place. He got choked up as he was saying the baptismal prayer and it was just very spiritual overall. The speakers were two of her good friends in the ward and afterwards they had her daughter, son-in-law, and best friend bear their testimonies and that only added to the spirit. She had a visiting teacher that visited her every week for like 8 years or something like that, and when she moved, she basically threatened the relief society with death if they didn’t keep visiting Velva. And they did keep visiting her and look what happened! She is such a good lady. Unfortunately, Saturday night we also had set up an appointment with some potential investigators that we met on the street that said they were looking for a church (this was over a month ago) and we set up the appointment on Thursday night for Saturday at 7, but when we showed up Saturday at 7 there was nobody there! I was way sad/mad/disappointed. But they had a baby like a month ago and he works a lot so it is understandable. I was just really looking forward to this lesson, and then they weren’t there. But it is in the Lords way and the Lords time so I hope that it all works out. On Sunday, Velva was confirmed and she finally got to take the sacrament. She bore her testimony at the end of the meeting and it was very special. She has been wanting to take the sacrament for a very long time and finally was able to. She was also emotional during and after the confirmation. That was one thing that she was looking forward to a lot as well as taking the sacrament, was having the spirit with her all the time. I am so happy for her and her decision to be rebaptized. So it was a good week up here in Crescent City. I am always just striving to be the best missionary I can be. One thing that I like that one of my mission prep teachers said (President Gibson) was that "You don't have to be the best one, just the right one". I really like that. Not every missionary is going to be the same, and you can't compare yourself to others, just be the best missionary you can be and be prepared when the Lord puts you in a situation that he has prepared for you, and you specifically. Not only do I think that this applies in missionary work, but in regular life as well. The Lord has set up the church so that it is a missionary church, so that every member can actively participate in the Lords one true mission- bringing salvation to his children. To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I hope each of you are always looking for missionary opportunities and if you can, going out to appointments and lessons with the missionaries. Full time missionaries are temporary, but the members are full time missionaries. Anyways I'll leave yall with a scripture. 3 Nephi 18:32. A great message about the worth of souls and missionary work all in one. Anyways thanks for everything that you guys do! Love ya Love, Elder Hatch