Week 18 Oakland Temple and Lauren's Baptism

November 9, 2015 Family, Well it hasn't been long since my last email, only since last Wednesday. Not much has happened here really, just the same old same old missionary work. Some conferences and stuff like that. Still trying to get the area going and figuring out where thugs are and stuff like that. The best news from the weekend is that Lauren got baptized! I am sooooooooo excited for her! I wish so badly that I could have been there but it's ok I know it was awesome anyways and that it was a really good moment for her. But anyways it has been a fairly good week. What is weird is that yesterday was my 4 month mark! Some other cool news I heard about was that Emily Taggart got her mission call to Malaga Spain! There is a kid we went to high school with named Sam Hirst that is in that mission right now so they know each other and will see each other there no doubt! I want someone from Cottonwood to come to this mission. That would be so cool. Anyways, last Wednesday was the temple trip as you know. Super cool, the Oakland temple is awesome. It was an awesome view from the temple balcony thing of pretty much the whole Bay Area. Super cool. You could see almost all of San Fran and Oakland and stuff. Thursday we had a lesson with an investigator that has been taught a lot and dropped a lot by missionaries. We decided to go and try again because we don't have any other real investigators so we are going to see if this time, with us he accepts it. We will see. Friday we went down to Petaluma and had a zone conference with both Santa Rosa zones and both San Rafael Zones. All in all there was probably 60 or so missionaries there. It was really fun and there was some really good training done there. Saturday not much happened, just planning and whatnot. Yesterday was pretty good, we impromptu sang in the ward choir which was funny. Then we did sharing time in primary which was also awesome. And until the. I have never really known what people talk about when they say they go in primary and love it because the spirit is so strong, but I understand now. Before it was our turn, we snuck in the back and they sang the "Army of Helaman" song and the spirit there was incredible. We sang it with them from the back just kind of joining in, and it made me think back to the first night in the MTC. We sang that song there and usually it's "we will be the lords missionaries to bring the world..." But in the MTC it's " we are now the Lords missionaries to bring..." So from then on I sing it like that and it brings the spirit very strongly. The primary kids really do have a special way about them. There was like 8-9 kids in the whole primary but they sang it with so much enthusiasm that almost made me emotional. It was a super awesome moment. I understand now what people mean when they talk about primary that way. It's also funny, I love telling people that me and my companion are both 18 year olds that just graduated high school. Lots of people seem surprised but also I just love the reactions from people. They can't believe it. Also that we have less than 6 months of experience between us. But Sunday night we had dinner with the Carnations, and Mom I think they sent you some pictures. Their son got back from his mission less than 2 weeks ago and she said she loved getting those pictures do now she does it all the time. She is a crazy lady. But at their house they have this massive fountain in the front yard and an insane homemade swimming pool in the back. That's what the husband does, is make swimming poo,s and fountains and stuff so he just made this insane one in his back yard. I think just the fountain in the driveway is bigger than our whole apartment no joke. It was a cool place, but unfortunately they aren't finished yet so there isn't any water in them yet. But they look super cool. Anyways thanks for everything everyone. I love you all so much and appreciate families so much more now on the mission. I hope you all are having an amazing time with whatever it is that you do. I pray for all of you daily. Love, Elder Hatch