Week 38 Happy Easter From Woodland

March 28, 2016 Family, Well Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday and go to relax a little bit. I love holidays but hate them on the mission, because nobody is home and wants visits. But it is a good time to calm down and focus on the Savior, which is what we all need in our life. This week was a pretty good week. It went by a little slow but it is nearing the end of the transfer so that is to be expected. On a normal transfer cycle we would be done tomorrow but with the 7 weeks we still have another one left. It went pretty well though. Monday was a pretty good day. We saw our investigator and her husband that night, and had a good lesson with them. They have been struggling lately but hopefully they will do better. Tuesday was a pretty slow day. We had a lot of finding and everything we had fell through, so that was pretty disappointing. Wednesday was kind of crazy. We had a lesson with an investigator that morning and he told us some pretty crazy stuff. I can’t say what, but it sufficeth me to say that we ended up calling President and asking for advice on what to do. Luckily it worked itself out though, and our investigator told us a few days later that he had fasted about the situation on his own, without us even asking him to or anything. So that was cool. Later on Wednesday we had service in Davis called "Graffiti Abatement" where we walk around downtown Davis, which is a really weird place. I will send a picture that will just describe Davis worth a thousand words. It’s so strange, full of Asians and people on bikes. For some reason Asians love going to UC Davis. I can’t figure it out, but they are everywhere there. That night pretty much all of our appointments cancelled as well, so that was great too. Thursday we helped a member move some of his stuff out of his apartment, because he is moving later this month, we then found out the 12 year old girl we were teaching moved back to Sacramento. She hasn’t come to church the past few weeks anyways cause her other grandma found out she was coming and liking it so she stopped letting her go. We think that is why she moved as well. So that was great. Pretty disappointing. That night we saw a recent convert and did a new member lesson with her. Friday we saw our investigator that we saw on Wednesday and he told us how he fasted and things have been getting better. Things are really looking good for him. We did our weekly planning that day then had a lesson with the sisters with a family that we are both teaching. We hadn't seen them in forever either so it was great to see how they are progressing. Saturday was a good day. We had a ward Easter picnic that morning and one member had an egg launcher and I helped hold it for people to launch them. They went around 100 yards probably. It was so funny. That afternoon the sisters had a blitz for their area, which happens to be the same area as ours, just Spanish. So me and Elder Angulo, one of my favorite Elders that lives with me, were able to have an amazing street lesson with this guy. We don’t think it will go anywhere but we were able to teach him a lot of stuff and gave him a Book of Mormon and gave him the challenge and told him about general conference, which he seemed pretty interested in. It was really cool. That night we had two awesome lessons. Back to back, with 2 part member families. One in which the wife is super close to baptism. I think if me and Elder Taylor stay she will get baptized, but who knows. The other was one where the husband is super open and he told us that everything makes sense doctrinally so far, and that once he reads the Book of Mormon and knows it’s true he said he would be baptized. And he is pretty sincere so we know that as soon as he reads it he is going to love it and want to be baptized. So that was a really awesome night. Saturday was an awesome day. Sunday was good too. Although none of our investigators came to church except one, it was Easter so it was kind of expected. But it was good services and the likes. We had a good dinner that night. And yes mom, they have funeral potatoes here too, just without the corn flakes or whatever so it’s like cheesy potatoes too. But we were all wondering at the dinner whether funeral potatoes were just a Utah thing or a Mormon thing too. I guess a Mormon thing. That night we had another good lesson with the family we are teaching with the sisters. It was a good week. We went out to Knights landing on Sunday and talked to this black preacher guy about Easter and Jesus. It was so sweet. Pastor James haha. I am really excited for GC!!! It is such a good time of year and especially for missionaries. A little weird that it’s my second one on the mission already and that my 9 months is rapidly approaching... so strange! But, I know that I need to really cherish the time I have left, because I know it’s not much. Thanks for everything and Happy Easter! Love, Elder Hatch

New Little Ones

Well it took me all day but I am finally caught up with the emails. He is doing great and loves serving in California. Thanks to all who follow him and ask about his experiences. Time is really going by so fast. He is going to be an uncle to two new little ones when he gets home. So exciting. He will get to see both of them when he calls in December. So excited for our family to celebrate new life.

Week 37 Happy St. Patrick's Day

March 21, 2016 Hello Family, Well it was a pretty good week here. One thing, somebody sent me a potato in the mail in a package. Some website called Anonymous Potato or something and on the potato was written "Here comes the meat wagon, wee-oo wee-oo" so that was pretty weird. It was hilarious though. All of us in the apartment thought it was funny. Also I don't know if I said this or not, but thanks for all the birthday wishes! I appreciate it, and it’s weird to be 19 now. It’s weird that I’ll be 20 when I go home. That’s so strange. Anyways, this week wasn’t too bad. Monday we had our usual lesson with our investigator cancel, and so that sucks. She is struggling with her parents still and her husband (a less active) isn’t doing too hot either. We are pretty worried about them, we haven't seen them in over a week and they didn’t come to church. But hopefully we will go there tonight though. Tuesday we had our district meeting which went well. We had a lesson with Sean and he is doing pretty well. He told us that he is probably getting another place and so is his girlfriend, so that will be good for him to be keeping the Law of Chastity now. We are excited about that. That night we had splits as usual and those went pretty well. There is a member of the ward I go on splits with a lot so we get along good and get good work done. Wednesday we had interviews with President Wright, and that was great. I always love to see him. He and Sister Wright are seriously just the best. I love them so much. I am so grateful to have them as my mission president and wife. I can’t imagine someone better fit for the job. They are great. Their son just got his mission call so that is cool too. We then started exchanges and I went with Elder Tripp, from Draper. He went to the same school as Zach Scott for high school and is dating a girl that goes to Cottonwood so we have some good connections back home. So that is pretty cool. We had a good lesson with DeShayla, although she still can’t be baptized. But we challenged her to have more faith as she asks her mom if she can be baptized again. We aren’t sure if she totally gets it though. We also saw a less active that night and hopefully we will be teaching his nephew soon. We went on splits with the Ward Mission Leader, Brother Chandler and that was great. He is an awesome guy too. Thursday we did some finding in the morning, then went and did service at a hoarder house in Davis again. That place is sooooo nasty. It’s just packed to the brim with stuff, and this guy wants us to like "organize" his garbage. We end up just throwing most of it out. We then exchanged back and had a new member lesson with a RC at Brother Chandler’s house. Friday we had another lesson with Sean, and that went well. We then had our weekly planning session, which is getting better and better as the transfer goes on. That night it sucked, we had like 2 lessons cancel. But, we had a really cool experience with prayer. So, both of those lessons cancelled, so pretty much we had no idea what to do with the last hour and a half or so of the night. So we decided to say a prayer, because we had no idea where we needed to be, but we figured it was somewhere important because both lessons we had planned for that night were really solid and important. So we say a prayer and it comes to our mind that there was a lady that Elder Taylor and Brother Dennis found on splits that is a less active member that said she wants us to teach her husband. So, we remembered that, and we decided to go over at like 8:20, which we never just drop by unannounced at that hour. So we decided to go over, and they were there! And available! They said that that day was perfect, any other Friday and they wouldn’t have been available, because he is in the police academy and is super busy always except weekends. So that’s perfect that they can have lessons and come to church on the weekends. So we knew that we had been led there that night, and that we were supposed to go over there. We taught about the Book of Mormon and he is super willing to learn. It’s awesome. That really strengthened my testimony on the power of prayer. It was amazing to see the hand of the Lord making that happen that night, and while we were disappointed about our other lessons cancelling, we knew that that home was where we were supposed to be. We knew that it was the lord that made the other lessons cancel, because we never would have gotten there if it weren’t for that. Oh, that night we also found this awesome free public parking lot that nobody knows about, so we were pumped about that. We even took a picture because we were so happy. Also that night I think was the High Priests St. Patrick ’s Day party. And Brother Dennis is the HPGL so he went all out since he went on his mission to Ireland. I think Sister Dennis is sending some pictures to you guys from that night. Saturday we did a big service thing in winters as a zone. That lasted most of the morning and was pretty fun. That day, we did some finding and a lot of our stuff cancel as well. We ended up doing more finding that night and that’s pretty much what we did all day. Sunday was a good day. Unfortunately we only had one of our investigators at church, so that sucked, but we had 2 lessons and they were both really good. We had one with a former member, and another with the part member family that we found on Friday. We taught the restoration and it made sense to him and he just soaked everything up. That was a good night. Otherwise, that is pretty much it. I am pretty bummed about the Utes losing, but oh well I guess. I still love them. I’m just worried about next year without Poeltl. Thanks for everything everyone. As far as spiritual thoughts I found a talk this week called "When Thou Art Converted" by President S. Dilworth Young. It is really good and cool to see how he uses the story of Peter in the talk. I love Peter too so that made it even better. Also watch the new Easter video!FollowHim.mormon.org Love, Elder Hatch

Week 36 Stake Conference and a New Stake Presdency

March 14, 2015 Mi Familia, I thought I would start out in Spanish today, no idea why. Actually probably because I forgot to tell yall that I try to contact people in Spanish sometimes. Haha I suck at it but it’s pretty fun. My Spanish isn't too bad from what it was at the beginning of my mission. Living with a bunch of Spanish elders probably helps out a little. Anyways, this week was pretty good. It was a pretty average week with some cool stuff, and some pretty bad disappointments. So Monday we had a co-lesson with the Hermanas in Woodland. It was really cool, they are teaching this Hispanic family(they all speak fluent English) and the Hermanas cover our same area, just Spanish, so they have been teaching this family every night for like 3 weeks, and they finally asked us to come over and help, cause they can’t go every night. So we are going over like 2-3 times a week to help them teach, and Monday night was the first time. So this family knows like nothing, so the Hermanas have done good work already, but we co-taught them Faith and Repentance, and they loved it! This family is so into the Book of Mormon and they really just want to change, and it was such a spiritual lesson. Super cool. We then had a lesson with our Vietnamese investigator and she is still having problems with her parents letting her be baptized. Even though she is married and old enough, it’s still a huge part of that culture, so she is struggling with that. Tuesday was a pretty good day. District meeting went well, and I’m just glad I don’t have to conduct/teach them. That night we had dinner with a really cool/funny family and we had productive splits. No lessons but we found a bunch of people on a list that bishop gave us. Wednesday was a good day. We had a lesson with Sean, our investigator. He is doing alright. Still struggling with the WOW. We also had a lesson with DeShayla, our investigator that can’t be baptized because her parents won’t let her. That went alright as well. She is young so she was super distracted by her tablet. That night we saw the family we saw on Monday again. We had a good little lesson with them as well. Thursday we went to Davis for zone service, which is always fun. That night we had splits, and we had an awesome unplanned lesson with a former investigator whose husband is a member, and her mother in law is too, and she lives with both, so we went there with a member, and there were already 2 members from the other ward visiting her too! So it was really awesome, it was a neat experience for sure. We are hoping to continue to teach her. She is soooooo close to being there, but she has felt a lot of pressure in the past so we are going to take it easy with her. We then saw the family that the sisters want us to see again and had another cool little lesson there. Friday we saw Sean again. We had a member there with us that Sean loves so that helped out a lot. After that we had weekly planning. And that’s where the day started to suck. We got a text from our investigator that we had that SUPER solid lesson with last Friday and set a baptismal date with her, she texted us and told us that she doesn’t want to meet anymore and isn’t going to be baptized. So we were just in bad moods the rest of the day about that. Like, it is just so sad to see. She was so awesome, prepared, you name it, but she decided not to go through. And it sucks, because we KNOW she felt the spirit and knows it is true, and she is still choosing to go away from it. So sad. But that night we had a lesson with an RC and it went well. The WML was there for it and he is such a loving great guy. So awesome. I am going to miss the people in this ward when I have to leave. Saturday we went up to Knights Landing. We were able to see one of our investigators up there. He is a frustrating guy. He knows what he needs to do, and knows what it feels like to live the gospel, and he wants it back in his life(former member) but he just won’t make the steps for whatever reason. And he doesn’t even know why. It’s so frustrating, but we were able to see him which was good. That night was adult session of Stake Conference. We had 2 seventies at our stake conference due to us getting a new stake president. It was elders Falabella and Auna (the second guy is he is Hawaiian. We were able to sit by our investigator and her member husband that I talked about in the Thursday paragraph, so that was good. It was funny, President and Sister Wright were there, and during the rest hymn when I was standing up I made eye contact with both of them, and I was standing pretty far back, but it was just funny cause they said that they saw me sticking up above the crowd and couldn’t help but laugh. It was pretty funny. Sunday was a pretty cool day too, because of Stake Conference. We had the Stake Presidency rearranged, and the 2nd counselor is now the Stake President!(totally called it) What’s cool about it is, that his sister and her family are the cool family in my ward that we ate with on Tuesday(refer to the Tuesday paragraph) and so after he was set apart, he was able to confer the Melchizedek Priesthood on his nephew, and there were two seventies in the circle for that. We are pretty close with this family and go over a lot because they are cool and the dad isn’t a member so they want blessings sometimes, and also so we can see the dad even though he smokes like a chimney. He is a really funny and great guy though. So since we know them Alex, the nephew, invited us to be there for the ordination. We weren’t in the circle but it was cool to be there for that blessing since his uncle is the new stake president and there were 2 seventies in the circle. So that was really neat. Our old stake president is going to be a mission president in Brazil. He is only like mid 40's so look out for him to be an apostle in like 20-25 years. President Cuvelier. That night was topped off cause we had dinner with the Dennis'. SO that was great. So all in all it was a pretty good week. Not the best, but not the worst. I am pretty pumped to hear about Utah being a 3 seed in March Madness! That’s sweet! I hope they do well. I’m totally picking them to go all the way. Mostly since I am super out of the loop on college sports, and you never know. It’s not that unprecedented for a 3 seed to win the whole thing. Anyways thanks everyone for all that you do! Remember to always be missionaries and ask your local missionaries for some #Hallelujah cards, or go to FollowHim.mormon.org to see the new Easter video. You can share it on facebook too! You never know who might need that message. Love, Elder Hatch

Week 35 Happy Birthday Elder Hatch

March 7, 2016 Family, Well, it was a pretty dang good week here in Woodland. We got a lot done and saw some pretty cool stuff too. So on Monday we had a lesson with our recent convert, but right before that we thought we should go and try to see a church headquarters referral that we have been trying to see for a long time now, and we ended up having a sweet door lesson with him and he is really interested. Unfortunately we couldn't set up a time to see him this week but we will see him this coming week for sure. Tuesday we had our district meeting, and that was good as well. We then had a lesson with our progressing investigator Sean, which went well. He is a great guy. We had a new member lesson with a recent convert that night and had a quick stop by our other progressing investigator. Wednesday we went down to Winters and Angie Hand and the Le Brett's came and took me and Julander (and our companions) to lunch. It was really good to see them again. We then came back and had a lesson with DeShayla, who can't be baptized but we are going to teach her anyways. We then saw a member that night and did some member finding for the rest of the night. Thursday we went to Davis and did mulching, and we saw a potential investigator and he said that he would come go church! He isn't really interested in joining but he wants to learn, so sometimes that's how it starts. He didn't come this week, but he said that he wanted to come next week. We then saw our progressing investigator and she is doing well also. She is still struggling to set a baptismal date by we are working with her. So Friday was the best. First off, it was my birthday, so the other elders that live with us had one of the Hermanas make a cheesecake for my birthday, and they woke me up and sang to me and stuff with the cheesecake on my desk. It was pretty funny. So for lunch went to Panda Express and Flinders(my son, who happens to be serving in the other woodland ward) bought my lunch for me. So that was nice. We then had an awesome lesson with Sean, our progressing investigator and we had a member come with us. So that was sweet. We then did weekly planning and it was really good, really effective, we made some solid plans for the week. After that, we went and had dinner at our recent converts’ house and she made us fried chicken which was delicious, and some sort of southern thing where you take mackerels and cut them up and basically fry them or something, apparently they are called croquettes or something like that. Pretty nasty but it's all good. She got some cake and ice team for us as well. So when we were at her house, her neighbor that came to church last week came over for a second, and she ended up staying in Lianas front room and we had an unplanned lesson with her. And it was the best lesson I have had on my mission to this point. The spirit was incredibly strong and she opened up so much and we taught the whole restoration, and we committed her to baptism for March 26th! So we are really excited about that and are hoping that she will continue to progress. Plus she has 3 kids and she wants them to learn too so we will hopefully teach them too this week. So that was the best birthday present ever, an amazing unplanned lesson with the coolest investigator. It was probably one of if not my best birthday. So Saturday we talked to a self-proclaimed inactive member, and that was good, but he still isn't coming to church. But turns out he is a Utah fan so we talked about that for a little bit. It's rare to find one of those out here. We had a lesson planned for that afternoon but it fell through, so we did finding most of the day, and it rained ALL day. Like nonstop and it was pouring. And it was super, super windy all day too, like I haven't seen that kind of a storm since I have been here. That night we went and saw a non-member whose whole family is members but he is super stubborn but he loves the missionaries so we talked with him for a bit. He has all kinds of guns that he shows us when we go over. We also picked up a new investigator that night too, it's a woman who was almost baptized but wasn't because she has a few minor concerns but she says she wants to get baptized and her husband and in laws are members, and I think they are in our ward. So we will see how that goes as well. It looks pretty promising. Sunday we had church, and the woman we had that awesome lesson with came again! So we were happy. We had a lesson with a guy out in Knights landing so that was fun too, and we thought we were going to have a lesson with another new instigator but he wasn't there either, so that is unfortunate. But we will keep trying with him. Anyways it was an extremely awesome week. We saw a lot of cool miracles and were able to notice the spirit a lot in everything we were doing. So it was a really good week. It's been amazing to see, since Elder Hamula came and I have applied the principles he taught, I have been able to already see amazing blessings from it. Also I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot lately and it really is just awesome. I like to read for a specific subject and mark that, then also just write down the scriptures unrelated to my topic that just stick out to me. So it has been really cool to see that. Anyways that's for everything! I love you all so much! Love Elder Hatch

Week 34 New Companion Elder Taylor

February 29, 2016 Family, First off happy Feb 29th! Such a weird day. It feels like right now shouldn't even exist haha. Also it's sooooo weird that I am going to be turning 19 this week too. It's like I know it's not that weird, but it feels weird. It's pretty cool to think that only this week I would be 19, and without the age change I would maybe be leaving on my mission sometime in March or April, but now I have been out for almost 8 months! It's pretty cool and it really makes me feel so blessed that I have been able to have the experiences that I have had thus far on my mission. I wouldn't have been able to have if not for the age change. So that is pretty cool. On my birthday we happen to be having dinner with a recent convert in the ward who is this super cool black lady and she is making us some of her homemade fried chicken. Mmmmmmmmm. I'm so excited! It's been a while since I have had any of that. So on Thursday we went to do some service for a woman in another ward with her elders which went well, then we went to zone service in Davis which was good as always. It was a good bonding activity for everyone. We then taught our investigator, DeShayla, that can't be baptized, but we are teaching her all the lessons anyways because we feel that she at least deserves to know about it all. Later that night we had dinner with a cool family in the ward and they played a little prank on my new companion. Nothing too mean, but it was really funny. They had a guy from the members mission that played pranks on him come out and help with it, and they acted like a big meteor was going to hit San Francisco and that we needed to like evacuate the area. Hahaha they sent a text from like some fake random administration like when you get those flash flood texts and stuff. It was pretty good. That night we saw a family in the ward which was also good. Friday we had our zone meeting and that was really good. Kind of another mini slap in the face like it was with Elder Hamula, since he was the one that taught the MLC where they got the zone meeting material. So that was another good boost. We had our weekly planning that day and then went and had a killer lesson with our progressing investigator with the ward mission leader. It was pretty sweet. Saturday we did some service for some investigators and we are hopefully teaching them this week too. The rest of the day we pretty much did finding all day long with little to no success, but I have a rule where when I see any PAC-12 stuff in a yard or on a car or house or whatever, I have to stop what I'm doing and knock that door. . So I talked to this guy about the Warriors and the NBA and stuff for like 20 minutes. Other than that not much happened, we saw a less active at night which was also nice but she didn't come to church... But on Sunday, the same recent convert that is makings fried chicken and whose granddaughter we are teaching, brought her neighbor to church and she was really interested/prepared and whatnot. We gave her a Book of Mormon to read and set up a time to come and see her and her family. That was such a blessing and such an amazing thing to see that when we have a tough day or time, the Lord blesses us in a way that we weren't expecting. It was really cool to have that happen and I am really excited to teach her this week. That Sunday we had dinner with the Dennis's and I know he was FB messaging mom. It was funny, kind of weird. I always get a kick out of it when that stuff happens. Other than that it has been a good week. Elder Taylor is doing well, and he is a good kid. We are working well together. Anyways thanks for everything! Thanks for the birthday wishes, and thanks for the box mom! It was awesome! Love, Elder Hatch

Week 33 Called to Repentance

February 24, 2016 Family, Well it has been a weird week. Pretty strange. It’s weird to be training again but it should be a fun experience. My greenie is Elder Taylor from St. George, Utah. He is a really good kid and is really... enthusiastic! Not just because he is a greenie but that is just his personality. He is kind of strange but I love him. He is at least adjusting well and isn’t a Nazi so that is nice. We work hard together and hopefully I can show him a few things and in turn learn from him. But Monday night was good. Elder Hardy and I had one last good run together and set a baptismal date for March 11. Unfortunately since then it has been postponed, so we are disappointed about that but it was good in the moment. Tuesday we were in Santa Rosa all day for the transfers and for training meetings. It was really good to see some of the missionaries that I haven't seen in a really long time. We also had dinner at President’s house that night, so that was fun as well. We drove back to Woodland and didn't get back until like 9 or 9:30. Wednesday we had a lesson with a new investigator DeShayla and set a baptismal date with her, but now have since come to find out that she cannot be baptized because in short she doesn’t have parents’ permission. So that was good then as well, but disappointing now. It’s kind of been rough the last few days with both baptismal dates cancelling. But we will work through it. Thursday we had a bunch of finding, so it was funny. Elder Taylor’s first day we had a bunch of lessons and set a baptismal date, then the next day we did a bunch of finding. Friday we had a district meeting which I didn’t have to teach! It was soooooooo nice to sit back and relax in a district meeting. We planned later that day and then went to a Spanish baptism that night. It was cool, one of the Hermanas that just went home got to skype into the baptism so it was really cool to see that. Saturday we did service with some investigators in the morning that we are hoping to be able to teach soon. They are super, super cool and honestly prepared, but we just need to approach it in the right way. We are doing service there again this week. We had our PPI's with the zone leaders and a ward spaghetti dinner that night as well and played soccer with the Spanish branch too, which is always fun. Sunday we had the usual stuff and we were able to go out and take a couple in the ward to a lesson with us that night. Mom I think he is the one that you messaged. He is a great guy and he and his wife help a lot in the lessons with that one investigator. Ok so Monday was crazy. We had the conference with Elder James Hamula of the 70. He talked to us a lot about being "of a sober mind" and such. Like he pretty much threw down on the mission and said that we are too frivolous and not of a sober mind. It’s pretty true though. I recognize it in myself and others, so it was definitely inspired. He also talked about faith a lot and having the desire to have faith and see miracles. Pretty much he called us out and told us how to be better and not only how to be better but why. It was a great experience. He promised us many times that if we will cut the frivolity that we will be open to infinitely more revelation and blessings for ourselves and areas, and that there are some things that we cannot know or learn without removing excess frivolity and lightmindedness from our work. It was really great. That night we had a lesson with our investigator that told us she is postponing her baptism again. So that’s that. Yesterday was a good day, we had like 4 lessons, and we talked to this lady in the ward whose daughter had just died, but we didn't know that. We shared the video "Mountains to climb" and Alma 40:11 and I was tearing up during it. It was so cool. It has been a good week. I like my greenie, and my area, and the guys that I live with, so all is well. Thanks for everything! Love, Elder Hatch

Week 32 Training Again

February 15, 2016 Family, Well, the transfer is here and there is some cool news. So unfortunately Elder Hardy is going to go to Fairfield, so I am really sad about that. I love Elder Hardy. He is a great guy, and a really good missionary. He is going to be a District Leader there and he is going to be awesome. I get to stay here in Woodland and train a new missionary. He is gonna be brand new out of the MTC. It should be good. It will be a good experience, I think that I am much more prepared now than I was when I first trained, especially since I actually know the area this time. This ward is a really good ward to train in. It is a good ward, big area, and good work. It should be good. I hope that I get another good greenie. It should be a good experience. What is cool, is that Julander is coming to this zone, and Flinders is here still and will be follow up training, and I am having another son. So I will have 2 sons, 1 step son, and 1 granddaughter all in this zone. So I am pretty pumped about that. Anyways so last Monday was kind of lame for pday, but the night went well. We went and saw some good people that night. Tuesday we were on exchanges and I went with Elder Judd, who was in my first apartment in Crescent City. It was really good, I learned a lot of good stuff from him. That day we were able to see some of our potentials and set up appointments with them. They are some people that we have been trying to see for a long time. That night we had splits and we were able to see 2 families which was good. Wednesday we did service at the food bank then again in Davis for Graffiti Abatement. So that was good. That night we saw 2 more people that we have been trying to meet with the whole transfer. One is a couple of brothers whose mom is a member but not active. We are going to try and meet with them regularly now. Thursday was a good day too. We went and saw potentials in the morning, then during the afternoon we had a lesson with one of our investigators who is hopefully being baptized in August. We saw him on Sunday and he has been doing well with the commitment we left him. Later that day we saw a girl that is the granddaughter of a recent convert and is super interested and golden. We are going to start teaching her this week and hopefully her siblings too. We had dinner with a cool family in the ward that night then saw our RC Hunter that night too and it went well. Friday we went and moved a bunch of stuff for a senior couple from one sister apartment to another and that ate up most of our day. We had dinner with a cool family in the ward again, the dad of whom isn’t a member. That night we saw a less active family and it went pretty well. Saturday we all did a big service thing as a zone then had fish tacos at a member’s house, like the whole zone. It was awesome the fish tacos were super good. We had dinner with a member from Vallejo that night, then a lesson with a less active family that we met for the first time. That went well. We then had a semi party at the church waiting for the transfer news. Sunday there was a big multi stake conference for California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and BC. It was good; there was some really good counsel. We found out that Elder Bednar is coming to the Woodland Stake Conference in April, so I hope that I am going to be here for that, It would be so great! We had this stake conference, then another one in March where we get a new Stake President, then that one in April plus general conference. So it’s a bunch. But it has been a really good week though, and I am excited to train, it should be a much better experience this time. Thanks so much for everything everyone, I love you all so much! Love, Elder Hatch

Week 31 He knew Elder Foster

February 8, 2016 Dear Family, Well it was a pretty good week here in Woodland. We had a busy week and I can’t believe that there is only one week left in the transfer. The two transfers before this were so long, and this one went by so quickly! It seems just yesterday that me and Elder Hardy became companions. Our time together is rapidly closing. I am thinking that he will leave and I will stay here. I am really hoping that I don't have to train again. That would be rough. But anyways this last Monday we went bowling and it was super fun. All of the sudden I am way better at bowling than I used to be. I bowled a 159, then a 154, which are both my highest scores ever. So I don’t know what is happening. But it was super fun. Tuesday we had exchanges and I went down to Winters with Elder Kay. It was pretty fun, because Elder Kay was living with Nick Foster in his last couple of transfers and saw him die. So we had some good conversations about that. We were at this family’s house and their kid was like throwing up all over the floor. It was nasty haha, but not too bad. Wednesday we exchanged back and went to find some part member and less active families in the ward. It wasn't super successful but not too bad. Thursday we went and gave a sister a blessing then did service at this hoarder house, and it was like crazy hoarder. Like we were walking through trails in the house and backyard. In the process we threw a couch off of a balcony. It was pretty rad. That night I did my first baptismal interview and it was with a 9 year old girl. She was baptized by one of the sets of Spanish Elders and her dad who was baptized in December baptized her on Friday. It was super cool. Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Sean, who is hopefully being baptized in August. We hope he makes it to that. It’s a long ways away but he has some difficulties he has to work through before he can be baptized. That day we did weekly planning then had Hunters baptismal interview, then Lisset’s baptism that I just mentioned. Saturday we did service helping clean up the crèche festival stuff for a member in the ward who is in charge of it. She is super cool, we had a bunch of the zone there and it took like the whole morning, but it was fun, because we rode in the back of a moving van to put the stuff in storage, which was super fun haha. This member is crazy, she loves the missionaries. So that was fun. Later that day we had a lesson with two recent converts, then had dinner with this random member from Vallejo who knows Elder Hardy. So that was fun. That night was Hunter’s baptism, which went very well! It was really cool to see him be baptized. He has changed a lot in the past month, he comes to church every week and goes to young mens every week as well. Sunday we had church, then we went to find some people. As we were in a lesson with some members in the park, there was a lady sitting by herself in the park, because her daughter was off playing with the member’s kids. So we invited her to come and read with us. Unfortunately she was Spanish so the communication was off but luckily we had a Libro on us so we gave it to her! It was cool, the Hermanas’ are going to try and find her later this week. So that was pretty cool. We were reading 2 Nephi 9 and about 20 verses in I decided to act on the prompting I was getting to invite this lady, because it was getting stronger and stronger. I am glad that I did, afterwards one of the members we were with said that she was getting the prompting too but didn’t act on it. So it was cool to see a prompting in action work out for the better. That really helped my testimony of the spirit grow, and know that its promptings are real. Other than that, not much happened this week. I’m mad that the broncos won the super bowl of course but I will get over it. We tried to visit people Sunday afternoon and night but everyone was either not home or was mad that we interrupted the super bowl, so that was annoying. But anyways, thanks for everything everyone. I love you all and pray for you all every night. Love, Elder Hatch

Time Flies

WOW the time is flying and I am so behind on my blogging. I will try to catch up this weekend so we can see how Elder Hatch has been doing for the months of February and March. Watch for upcoming pictures and messages.