Week 35 Happy Birthday Elder Hatch

March 7, 2016 Family, Well, it was a pretty dang good week here in Woodland. We got a lot done and saw some pretty cool stuff too. So on Monday we had a lesson with our recent convert, but right before that we thought we should go and try to see a church headquarters referral that we have been trying to see for a long time now, and we ended up having a sweet door lesson with him and he is really interested. Unfortunately we couldn't set up a time to see him this week but we will see him this coming week for sure. Tuesday we had our district meeting, and that was good as well. We then had a lesson with our progressing investigator Sean, which went well. He is a great guy. We had a new member lesson with a recent convert that night and had a quick stop by our other progressing investigator. Wednesday we went down to Winters and Angie Hand and the Le Brett's came and took me and Julander (and our companions) to lunch. It was really good to see them again. We then came back and had a lesson with DeShayla, who can't be baptized but we are going to teach her anyways. We then saw a member that night and did some member finding for the rest of the night. Thursday we went to Davis and did mulching, and we saw a potential investigator and he said that he would come go church! He isn't really interested in joining but he wants to learn, so sometimes that's how it starts. He didn't come this week, but he said that he wanted to come next week. We then saw our progressing investigator and she is doing well also. She is still struggling to set a baptismal date by we are working with her. So Friday was the best. First off, it was my birthday, so the other elders that live with us had one of the Hermanas make a cheesecake for my birthday, and they woke me up and sang to me and stuff with the cheesecake on my desk. It was pretty funny. So for lunch went to Panda Express and Flinders(my son, who happens to be serving in the other woodland ward) bought my lunch for me. So that was nice. We then had an awesome lesson with Sean, our progressing investigator and we had a member come with us. So that was sweet. We then did weekly planning and it was really good, really effective, we made some solid plans for the week. After that, we went and had dinner at our recent converts’ house and she made us fried chicken which was delicious, and some sort of southern thing where you take mackerels and cut them up and basically fry them or something, apparently they are called croquettes or something like that. Pretty nasty but it's all good. She got some cake and ice team for us as well. So when we were at her house, her neighbor that came to church last week came over for a second, and she ended up staying in Lianas front room and we had an unplanned lesson with her. And it was the best lesson I have had on my mission to this point. The spirit was incredibly strong and she opened up so much and we taught the whole restoration, and we committed her to baptism for March 26th! So we are really excited about that and are hoping that she will continue to progress. Plus she has 3 kids and she wants them to learn too so we will hopefully teach them too this week. So that was the best birthday present ever, an amazing unplanned lesson with the coolest investigator. It was probably one of if not my best birthday. So Saturday we talked to a self-proclaimed inactive member, and that was good, but he still isn't coming to church. But turns out he is a Utah fan so we talked about that for a little bit. It's rare to find one of those out here. We had a lesson planned for that afternoon but it fell through, so we did finding most of the day, and it rained ALL day. Like nonstop and it was pouring. And it was super, super windy all day too, like I haven't seen that kind of a storm since I have been here. That night we went and saw a non-member whose whole family is members but he is super stubborn but he loves the missionaries so we talked with him for a bit. He has all kinds of guns that he shows us when we go over. We also picked up a new investigator that night too, it's a woman who was almost baptized but wasn't because she has a few minor concerns but she says she wants to get baptized and her husband and in laws are members, and I think they are in our ward. So we will see how that goes as well. It looks pretty promising. Sunday we had church, and the woman we had that awesome lesson with came again! So we were happy. We had a lesson with a guy out in Knights landing so that was fun too, and we thought we were going to have a lesson with another new instigator but he wasn't there either, so that is unfortunate. But we will keep trying with him. Anyways it was an extremely awesome week. We saw a lot of cool miracles and were able to notice the spirit a lot in everything we were doing. So it was a really good week. It's been amazing to see, since Elder Hamula came and I have applied the principles he taught, I have been able to already see amazing blessings from it. Also I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot lately and it really is just awesome. I like to read for a specific subject and mark that, then also just write down the scriptures unrelated to my topic that just stick out to me. So it has been really cool to see that. Anyways that's for everything! I love you all so much! Love Elder Hatch