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