Week 10 Feed His Sheep

September 14, 2015 Hello everyone! It was another great week in Crescent City! I really enjoy it here and I am loving the weather, although it is getting sort of chilly up here these days. The ward is great, and the people in it are awesome. There are a few families that feed us like once a week or every few weeks and they are all awesome. There are some really great people up in this area. I will be sad once I have to leave. Also I don't have hardly any pictures this week... Sorry! So Tuesday we went down to McKinleyville for Zone Meeting and it was good to finally see the new members of the zone and the new zone leader. It’s weird not seeing anyone in the zone ever except in Crescent City and it is a rare occasion that we do, so I always love going to those meetings. We got 3 more brand new greenies this transfer in this zone, just like me and the other 2 last time, so we have a bunch of greenies up here. It was nice not being the youngest ones in the mission anymore. Although I am pretty sure that I graduated the same year as most of them. So that is cool too. Wednesday we were up in Smith River and did some more service for people up there that we have been doing service for, and we were helping them clean up this nasty mobile home thing and there were tons of black widows, grey widows, brown recluses, and pumpkin spiders plus a bunch of other ones too, it was crazy. Luckily I wasn't too scared of them, not like I was a few years ago. I just killed them when I saw them for good measure. But as we were doing service for the people they were asking us questions about the church and stuff and I cleared some things up for them. Like that Warren Jeffs isn’t Mormon. Hahahaha I was glad to clear that up. They just asked some basic questions about the church and things like that. He said that maybe we could tell him a little more about it later though, and that he is open to trying new ones right now. He seemed kind of joking but there is always a little truth to things like that. Who knows maybe he could be baptized somewhere down the road. They are already great people, and have 7 kids so they said that people would always joke around with them and thought that they were Mormon for that reason. Hahaha. Thursday we didn't do much, just tracted a bunch and cleared out our area book. Friday we planned, then were going to have a lesson with one of our progressing investigators, but she wasn't there, so we went along to our next appointment. Later that night we had another set appointment drop, which always sucks to have 2 drop in the same day. Seems like that has happened 2 weeks in a row now. Frustrating, but there’s nothing we can do about it now I guess. Saturday we went up to a place called Gasquet that is in our area, but I haven't been to before. It is a beautiful drive up there, just past Hiouchi. We did a blitz up there (which is just taking everyone in the district to one place and tracting the heck out of it) with the first ward elders, and didn't see much success, but there has been a bunch of fires up there in Gasquet for a month or so now. All of the fires in California are nuts right now. Some sisters in the mission were emergency evacuated out of their apartment this last week, although I’m not sure where exactly. Anyways the population of Gasquet is about 600 and there are like 400 firefighters camped up there fighting fires. It is pretty big news in Crescent City. Later Saturday night though, we had a guy in our ward that has been here like a month call us and tell us that he had a prompting to get on his knees and pray, and right afterwards had the prompting to call us. So he did and we met up with him later that night. It was so crazy, there was like miracle after miracle after miracle that happened when we were with him. A bunch of his concerns and thoughts were answered during our meeting. At one point his flashlight stopped working(he is staying at a campground because he doesn’t have a job or money to pay for a place) and his flashlight is really important for him there, so we said the closing prayer and when we started the flashlight was dead, with the bulb part facing down on the table, and when we finished with the closing prayer, we could see a little light creeping out from between the flashlight and the table, and sure enough we grabbed the flashlight from off of the table and it was working. It was just enough for him to be able to see for a little bit, and we took him to the store that night too. We actually took his dog with us too, which is not technically allowed, but Jesus healed people on the Sabbath right? Anyways I just try and not let the rules overrule common sense. So bottom line the work is getting a little harder up here, but I still love it and love the area and ward. It is a cool place. I am excited to see where my next area will be and who my next comp will be. I know that's a ways down the road but I always did like surprises. Also MAJOR congrats to Josie on the mission call!!! That is sooooooo cool Panama is such a cool place to go! It’s kinda funny, before I got my call I was thinking that Panama would be a really cool place to go!! Congrats and love ya Josie! I know that you will do amazing work there! A quick spiritual thought for yall. I was reading in John today about when Peter and the other apostles go fishing after the Savior has been crucified and resurrected. After they come in, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Peter responds that of course he loves him, to which the Savior says, "Feed my sheep". Jesus and Peter then have the same exchange 2 more times, to which Peter was "grieved because he said it unto him a third time". I really feel bad for Peter here, but the fact of the matter is, it was his own fault. It was striking to me how the Savior asked the same question 3 times with the same response. He helped Peter to realize his own faults and see things as they really are. I think that's how it is for us in our lives today, we often don't realize what the best thing to be doing is, or how things really are, but from help by Christ, we can realize that helping get God’s children back to him is the most important thing for us to be doing. While there are other worthwhile endeavors in life (like fishing) we must realize that we cannot sit idly by and forget our duties as soon as someone is not keeping tabs on us. Just like with Peter, who quickly forgot his purpose shortly after the Savior left earth, we often forget our purpose shortly after Sunday, or our missions, general conference etc. We must always seek to "Feed [his] sheep", and set aside worldly goals for a more worthwhile goal, helping those around us. I pray that we will each find time to "feed [his] sheep" and constantly strive to be more like Christ. Thanks for all that each of you do. I love and pray for each of you nightly. Love you all, Elder Hatch