Wetumpka, Alabama

October 25, 2016
Hey Yall'
Okay so computers in Wetumpka were shut down yesterday, but luckily it wasn't before I figured some stuff out first. t have a lot to say and not enough time! So I didn't have a P-day last week because traveling was my P-day! But I'm in Alabama now in a cute little town by the name of Wetumpka! I'll explain more about it but first i'm going to explain everything from last week.

So i talked about Heidi and how her spirit was so awesome and she was so intrigued by the atonement and she finally understood why people need Christ in their life. WE COMMITTED HER TO BAPTISM, this was all in the MTC so unfortunately I am not able to get involved with that because I was leaving! It's been so much fun teaching her and I love seeing how the gospel changes people’s lives. Also I had an awesome district, we would help each other out with struggles someone maybe going through. 

Okay so when we had moved back into our new residence it was terrible because they had a vending machine on our floor and right next to the room I was staying in. I tried so hard to not spend my money on snacks, but they even had ice-cream snacks, it's like they were trying to torture me. And now there is another bat problem in the building were we have our classrooms there has been a bat on that floor! And I swear but everyone said I was crazy and maybe I was crazy and it wasn't there but I went to the bathroom one time and I heard a Bat in the bathroom. I wasn't sticking around for anything, I got out there as soon as I could, my district all laugh when I ran out of the bathroom because they said I made a weird wailing sound. But yeah lots of fun moments in the MTC, if you go with the right attitude and a goal set of what you want to accomplish anyone will have an awesome experience. Talking about that I was sick all this last week, I had lost my voice and it HURT!!! But yeah I was just going to deal with it but Sister Wright really encouraged me to get a priesthood blessing if not for myself then just give the elders a chance to exercise their power. So I asked Elder Allen to give my a blessing because I new that he had never given a blessing before. The experience was way cool, and the spirit was present for sure, by the end of that night my voice wasn't back yet but it had felt a lot better.

The last day in the MTC! I was so excited and ready, everyone was crying and writing in each others journals but I was just really excited. I tried to be a little more sincere because a lot of people were shedding tears and bearing testimony of how great was the MTC was, but I was counting down the hours. Sister Wright and i hadn't have time during the day to pack so we stayed up late packing up all of our stuff, and we used the rest of our money on snacks in the vending machine... YES! So we got to bed around 12 am then we had to wake up at 2:30am. So yeah we met up with Elder Sommerfeld and Allen before going on the bus because we were the only one in our district going to Alabama. The trip to the Airport was super short, not enough time to get in some sleep but after checking in and getting to where we needed to go we all had the chance to call our parents. It was really nice to talk to them and get some words of comfort before leaving. And sorry I don't remember what all we had talked about because I was really tired.

But yes the ride on the airplane was nice got some sleep in on the way to Atlanta, Georgia, then on the way to Alabama Birmingham I had a chance to talk to lady named Danny and we just talked about religion and I was telling her about the church. She said she was open to learning about all religions so I gave her a mormon.org card and asked her to check it out, I hope Danny did check it out. she was really cool. So landing from the plane we got off and met Elder and Sister Sainsbury, they took us over to the mission Home and fed us awesome food! Every thing here in Alabama is so different, I feel like I'm being drowned by trees and wild bamboo, cotton, and vines, but its so green and beautiful down here. We then got down to business and everyone had to get set up for their area, When I went to go fetch my driver's license my wallet was gone! I tried to stay clam but then I think everyone kinda ignored the situation because I was calm. I then asked for some help and  Sister Morrision allowed me to call my mom, and figure out some stuff. I felt like I was a wreck because I only had 5 hours of sleep and I was sick and had lost my wallet! It was not my day and I was trying so hard not to cry, i did what my mom suggested which was to get a priesthood blessing and after that I felt at peace, like I knew i was going to be okay. When we got to the hotel I was wiped out! And that night I realize that even though it was a bad day a lot of good things happened, and because I struggle to write in my journal I decided to make it a gratitude journal instead, so that way I have things to be grateful for every single day and I felt like it's helped me with so much.

The next day we got to get up and when we had gone over to the transfer meeting there was a lot of people. I got to meet my new companion SISTER BEGAY!!!!! she is Native American, and I love her so much. She's been so patient and supportive and she laughs at all my lame jokes, so she makes me really happy. That first night I got to know the bishop and a few other ward members and I could just tell that there was something missing here. Sister Begay says that they usually don't talked to members that much and that was the most open she's ever seen the bishop, I can tell that the relationship between missionaries and members is kinda weak! I’ve been encouraging sister Begay to see as many members as we can while we have to investigators to see, but she just doesn't see how important it is to get involved with members. That was until we had a lot of referrals from members, So We are working on it , but i feel like we have a lot of work here to do. Sister Stihora is a recent convert and she is so funny because she is so stuck on the conversation of the 3 nephites, her little girl named Lila is so adorable and reminds me a lot of Natilee. 

Investigators we have recently seen is William we are reading the B.O.M with him right now and trying to get him to pray, but i think we need to maybe go back to the basics of helping him find his faith in Christ. Tinasha We too are reading the B.o.M with her and she knows it's true but she is having commitment issues, so we are helping her with that. The Cabals we she are ready to get baptized so we are going to invite them to be baptized the next time we see them. we had just met Angela but haven't gotten back to her because she is an on call nurse so we are working on contacting her. We also just met Kiequan and were meeting up with him tomorrow and he's a really sweet kid and I can see a lot of potential with him.

Real quick cool story, We went to go and visit a less active named Heidi, when we ran into her she was just on her way to see her neighbors who were going through a hard time and had invited us to come with her. Her neighbor's name was Lisa and her father had stage four cancer and they were expecting him to die. Lisa knew we had the priesthood in our church and asked if we could give blessings to her and her father for comfort. we explained that only men could hold the priesthood and that we could get the elders over here with no problems, before we left to get the elders I had a prompting to share with her D&C 121:7-8 and I bore my testimony of my Grandma Barbara of the peace she had when she had past away that she knew God was watching over her and that God will take of her father Also. That's been the strongest I felt the presence of My grandma Barbara and we quickly fetched the Elders to give a blessing, super cool experiences this week.

So sorry but I have ran out of time! I love each of you and I know that Christ has Atoned for all of our sins and because of that we are able to become better people. Learn from your mistakes instead of letting them pull you down and find peace through your trials by giving your burdens to the Lord. LOVE YALL"

Sincerely

Sister Hatch