Week 13 What Lack I Yet?

October 5, 2015 Family, Well it was another great week of missionary work here in Crescent City, one in which I am extremely grateful for General Conference. I have never looked forward to a general conference so much in my whole life. For one, with the 3 new apostles that was super crazy! Rasband was kind of expected and Stevenson wasn't too out there but I have honestly never even heard of the 3rd guy. He seems like a very spiritual guy though, and can't wait to hear from him in the upcoming general conferences, as well as all of them. One reason I was so excited though was it just seems different now. I seem to actually understand that Jesus Christ himself has prophets and apostles on the earth today that he speaks through, to each of us directly. It was just weird to think that there are actual apostles on the earth right now. Also fun fact, Elder Stevenson's son is in Hagen's mission, and is his zone leader. Pretty cool. Hagen got to go on exchanges with him a few weeks ago. Anyways last Monday was cool, we got to go bowling, and that was pretty fun. The place just reopened or we would have gone earlier. That night we had dinner with a family that the grandpa is a college football fan and I got to talk about the Utes with him. It was sweet. I haven't had the chance to do that much. Speaking of which, GO UTES!!! Dang I can't believe it 5th in the country?? Plus Gameday coming as well? Holy cow. Maybe we can sneak into the playoffs. Tuesday we went down to McKinleyville and had interviews with President Wright and also a training from him and Sister Wright and the Assistants. It was awesome, it really helped me out. I just love President Wright as well. He is such a jolly guy, always has the biggest smile on his face and you can tell he genuinely cares about each of us. While we were going to McKinleyville we stopped by this tree that is called 'The Big Tree" It is 21 feet in diameter and over 300 feet tall. Pretty magnificent and humbling. They say it is around 1500-2000 years old or something like that. Later that night we saw Ervin and his family. Man I love that guy. His stories are the best. It was great, when we told him there was no church because of conference, he was like,"so what am I supposed to do about all that stuff I did this week then if I can't take the sacrament? You know cause I really enjoy taking that every week I feel like it really helps me out" I was so glad to hear that he enjoys the sacrament so much! I just told him that it would still work the same for him if he took it the next week. He was very glad to hear that. Wednesday we went up to Smith River, and we were able to see Jonah, the Egyptian former Jew. That was good, and we also did service again. We got to put the bottoms on the eves of a roof that a guy is building on his trailer park. It was just on a mobile home so I wasn't on any roofs or anything. Thursday was a very good day. We had 4 lessons, and 2 of them we had members at. One, we had it with a progressing investigator that I firmly believe will end up being baptized at some point, we taught the word of wisdom and she expressed her desire to quit smoking and drinking coffee. She doesn't think that quitting cigarettes is possible but she is trying to get off of coffee this week so we will see how that goes on Thursday. I really hope that she didn't slip up on that, because then we can get into the cigarettes next. It was quite a good day. Friday was a good day as well. I got to wear the tie that all of me and my friends have because that is the day we chose to do it, first Friday of every month. Anyways our appointments fell through on that day, which sucked, but luckily most of the day was taken up by weekly planning. As for Saturday and Sunday, we mostly watched conference. We watched all the general sessions on the computer at the church as a district, and me and Elder Smith watched Priesthood session at Brother Tinsley's house, who is the Ward Mission Leader. Today, we went down to Klamath and went to a cool place called Trees of Mystery. I have some good pictures that I will send. Not quite as good as last week but pretty good. Anyways in other news we will find out this Friday whether we are staying, going, and all that. It will be exciting to find out if I will get to stay here longer, or have a new adventure somewhere else. I am excited either way, but I am thinking that it is more likely that I leave. We will see though. My favorite talk in conference was by Elder Larry. R. Lawrence of the seventy. He spoke of prayer and of the spirit, and how the spirit really does give customized responses to honest questions of, What lack I yet? I thought along with it being a very funny talk, it also had a very good message. I really liked that he promised that if you ask the Lord with a humble heart, "What is keeping me from progressing?" he will give you an honest, clear, and personal answer. I challenge all of you to do this so that you can know how you can better be a member of this church and a servant of the Lord. I love all of you and thank you for your love, support, and prayers in my behalf and those in this area. Love, Elder Hatch