Week 15 Whitewash, Trainer, DL

October 19, 2015 Family, Well first off this was definitely the longest week of the mission so far. All this new stuff was so weird and it has been quite the adjustment. So much different stuff than before. Anyways Monday night we drove to Arcata, and stayed in the smallest apartment in the mission with the two missionaries there. Tuesday morning we woke up there and drove 5 hours to Santa Rosa. We had transfer meeting and it was great to see all of the missionaries from my generation, or when I was in the MTC. That night the 8 trainers all slept at the apartment coordinator senior couples house, the Porters. They are super cool and it was a pretty fun night. Wednesday morning we woke up there, went to the church and waited for the meeting to start where we got our companions. So that was weird, it was like totally backwards from what it seemed like. So anyways my companion is Elder Flinders, from Kaysville, Utah. He went to Davis High and graduated in 2015 as well. It is nice; he is basically a pretrained missionary. I haven't had to do much to train him. I have been trying to set the best example I can but it is kind of hard. I hope I won't ruin him, but he will be good no matter what. That night we met with the bishop, Bishop Hart, who is a great guy. Thursday we did service at the food bank with the whole zone, which was weird after only seeing 4 missionaries always my first 3 months. It was cool though, later that day we saw a recent convert, Zach, who is a senior in high school right now. He is super solid. It's been kind of hard because I don't know really what to do much of the time. That night we met with the ward mission leader, brother Le Brett. He is an interesting guy, he knows EVERYBODY in Healdsburg though. It's sweet. One other great thing about Thursday night, is that we had the first district meeting Friday, and we didn't get the curriculum for it until Thursday night, which is also when I got my DL training. So that was fun, because the next morning me and the other DL in the zone and the STL(sister training leader)all got together and discussed what we would do for it, since it would be later that day, in like 1 hour in fact. So it was super short notice so it was kind of stressful. I think it went well though. That day we all went to Jimmy Johns, it was actual real Jimmy Johns. It was amazing. That night, we met up with two other recent converts, who are both super awesome. Saturday, we did service all morning until like 2 pm, so it was 4 hours’ worth. The rest of the day we didn't have much planned, we went out and visited some members, and tried to get to know the area. It's weird here too, there are actually people out on the street, super weird. It's nice though. It's much easier to see people to meet, but everybody is super rich or touristy around here it's a pretty wealthy and touristy area in Healdsburg, so they don't want to talk to us. Luckily there were some nice people that talked to us, and one guy invited us to come and give a short teaching thing before they all go out and run. It should be good. Sunday we had church at 9, and it was cool, a member brought some nonmember friends to church with her, and the two kids seemed to really really like it. I hope something good can come of it. That night we all were at the church for a stake meet and greet with the stake presidency, Anyways it was a super super long week. I sometimes feel like I am not doing all that I can, or that I don't know what I'm doing, but I know that the Lord can mold me and that eventually I will be an OK missionary and be able to help some people. I hope that all of you are having a lot of fun back home and that mom and dad had fun in Canada. That was a super cool story, pops. But I love you all, pray for you each every night, and miss you all a ton, but know that I need to be here and there is a reason for me being here. Love you guys, Elder Hatch