Week 53 One Year Down and One Year to Go

July 11, 2016 Family, Hey y'all! So in big news you all already know that I hit my year mark this week! I seriously can't believe it. Plus, today is my "1 year left" mark, since I go home on the 11 of next year. Where has the time gone? I just can't believe it. Before you know it I'll be at 18 months. In other news, we had a good week. The Fourth of July was AWESOME!! We went out to point Reyes with the zone and did some fun hikes and went to the lighthouse and stuff, then we came back and had a big bbq with the whole zone and this awesome part member Fijian family. The wife is Fijian and the husband white and they cooked up all this food for us, like 20 missionaries. We all had a really good time it was one of the better 4th of Julys that I have had! The family was the Forsters they are in our ward. They are a super, super cool people. Tuesday was zone meeting, which was alright. I don't mind teaching that since I don't have to teach district meetings any more. We had exchanges that day and another elder came to Novato with me. We taught our investigator, Bazil, that night at a family's house. He is getting baptized on the 24th of this month! So that's cool. We are hoping to teach his brother in the next few weeks. Since their mom is an RC we think his brother will probably get baptized too, even though he hasn't come to church yet. Wednesday we had service at the food bank, and we tried to see some members that night. Thursday we had a bunch of service, in the morning and in the afternoon, then we saw some other members that night. Somebody that was high at one of our less actives house was ranting to us about something. As he was doing that he dropped a joint in my lap... Haha, super funny and I wasn't expecting it. Friday we had zone conference up in Santa Rosa all day. Since it was our year mark for like 5-6 of us, we went and got all you can eat sushi at a place in Santa Rosa called Hikunis. So that was really fun. That night we saw some of our investigators, just drop by. We were having a doorstep conversation with one when in the middle of it she was just like "I'm high right now, so I hope that's not weird but just letting you know" we were like ummm ok and so we then left haha. Saturday we went and did some service cleaning up Muir Beach. It was cool, the whole zone came. Me and elder Moniz feel like the whole zone is finally unifying, which is nice. We did weekly planning that day and some visits that night. Sunday was normal. We were at the ward mission leaders house eating and correlation and doing visits all afternoon, had dinner with a super cool family, and did zone numbers for the rest of the night. It was a good week. Full of fun, and work. Pretty crazy that it was my year mark. The time has just flown right by. Also crazy that Maddie’s baby is almost here! That's so cool! I'm super excited for that as well. Anyways, love you all! Thanks for everything! Elder Hatch

Week 52 Cool Experience on the Bridge

July 4, 2016 Family, Well another week down! It was actually a really weird one... Kinda strange being ZL but aside from that it was just weird anyways. So, Monday was a good day. I can't remember what we did for Pday or that night. My brain is fried. Tuesday we had transfers. We went up to Santa Rosa for it and had lunch with some more missionaries. We came back and had dinner then had a sweet lesson with our investigator and set a baptismal date for the 23rd! So that was exciting. Wednesday was nuts. We went down and did service for the parks and rec department by the bridge, but before that happened we got a flat tire so we had to go get that fixed and it was quite the fiasco but we managed to get it done. We then did some service at the food bank then tried to find some less active members that night. Thursday we did district meeting and I got to choose which one to go to, then we did food bank service again. So Friday was weird. We went to MLC and were late so we got roasted by president for that. But MLC was super long and boring, but that night we did contacts on the bridge, but some of the elders missed the exit and so the only options were to drive over the bridge and leave mission boundaries, or to back into oncoming traffic. But, right as they were about to go across the bridge, a cop pulled up and he was a member, so he blocked traffic on the bridge so that they could come back and get into the parking lot. It was awesome, me and Moniz got to ride in the cop car for a little haha. The member cop is so cool. Saturday we were able to set a baptismal date with another investigator for the 30th! So that's cool too. Sorry for the late letter we had fun celebrating the 4th! Crazy day. Love you guys! Happy 4th! Elder Hatch