god answers prayers, he answered mine

Hey there Merica!

I hope everything is good over in the wonderful USA!
This week has been really awesome, we've seen miracles all over the
place left and right, god is great!
1. Last week was so hard and this week we had District Meeting with
the sister training leaders and zone leaders from down in Hobart and
Elder R (DL) called the night before and asked me to do a
training. I was so frazzled and overwhelmed and that just added to it.
So i had to pray and ask for help. I dont know if ive ever prayed so
sincerely before  for help. But i did and asked that i would know what
these missionaries needed, and what would help them most to train on
this week. So the next morning i woke up and was really relaxed, didnt
even worry because i put all my faith the the lord that He would help
me know exactly what to do.
  The coolest thing happened!  i looked through the book and one part
just seemed right to use. So i studied it a little and then went to
Book of Mormon study and just in the chapter i was reading in I found
the PERFECT verse to use for the training. That made it all come
together and everything worked out so well. It helped all the
missionaries and helped build my faith and trust in the lord. Because
now i can testify that I sought help and really needed and wanted it
and He helped me! This gospel is true and His love is real people!!
2. We went on exchanges with STLs and Sister R(LOVE HER) was with
me. I am new to this place right and we were trying to find a house to
get to an appointment and we could not find it anywhere. Like we were
hopeless. We have a GPS but didnt have the address and nobody would
answer their phones so we just pulled over and asked for a little help
from the one with all the answers and drove away and turned the corner
and the house was right there! What a miracle. God is aware of us and
wants to help us, we just have to ASK. If it matters to us it matters
to Him.
3. J and H
They are the most amazing investigators and we LOVE them! They both
have these amazing testimonies of prayer and scripture study. But this
week J let satan in a little and started doubting the prayer
thing and if God really answers. So he prayed and asked for a
significant answer to his prayer. But we didnt have any idea about
this until we were at church and we were teaching the Gospel Doctrine
class. We didnt know what to teach earlier in the day so we prayed to
know and we taught about prayer and answers and everything. J
started giggling and acting weird in the lesson and then shared that
THAT WAS HIS ANSWER. The lesson we taught was what he needed exactly.
And everyone was so overwhelmed with the spirit it was just amazing. I
cant explain how cool it is to see these people come closer to christ
and learn about how REAL this gospel is and how much we all need it.

"the Gospel is not weight, its wings. It carries us." Jean A Stevens

Thats only a couple of the miracles. But this week has been awesome!
Looks like everyone is having fun in the sun over there im jealous!
Thats okay though Launceston is pretty nice weather and the people are
the coolest.

Me and sis s are having a gooood time. And im finally starting
to like getting up at 630 am every day. I actually like it...its so
weird! I pray for help to like it so now i do hahaha im telling you He
cares about every little thing! its really cool.

we get up and go for a walk (because sis stewart can run bc broken
wrist etc) and that just starts us off right. Exercise in the morning
its gooooood.

okay i cant think of anything else to write so ill go now bye! i love
you all heaps and heaps and heaps with a big scoop of milo on top.

Lots of love from australia!!

Sister Hatch

 Sister Training Leaders

ELder C is the one with glasses and this is elder S
our other zone leader. they are AWESOME

high fives are not allowed haha makin jokes

eating at the famous raspberry farm in deloraine after district
meeting with everybody!

doing service! we literally picked tiny leaves from these rocks
hahaha it was so funny

 Show message history

 

new dawn new day new area!

 

First week of the new transfer!! Its been so cool coming over here
to Launceston (launie). Its only 45 minutes away from Deloraine my
last area but its so different. Its funny because i know so many
people over here still because they are related to the people in
deloraine or something like that. There are some awesome members over
here and i'll tell you more about them as we get further in to the
transfer.
    Sister S is a killer missionary! She is good at what she
does. And the best part is that she isnt perfect, she makes mistakes
and it makes me feel better because i obviously do too. Being golden
(greenie) is so hard! i just want to know everything now, but skills
come with time and practice so im working on it. I learn every day how
blessed i am for being here though, and see miracles that help my
faith grow leaps and bounds! Its crazy looking back and seeing how
much ive changed in such a short time. ITS MY 2 MONTH MARK TODAY.
Crazy huh? I guess over in Australia its the 21st so my 2 month will be
tomorrow in America but whatev.
    Haha well we had so many miracles this week. I walked in to a
well prepared teaching pool thats for sure! We are teaching H and
J. They are not married but are wanting to be baptized. They are
planning to be married in 2016 but thats just not going to work! We
committed them to a day to be prepared for baptism and they are
getting the paperwork done for a marriage license this week. We hope
they will go through with a quick marriage on the day of the baptism
and go through with it! We said they could still have a big
celebration wedding in 2016 with just a ceremony.
      Miracle 2 is that our recent convert M (who is this awesome
16 year old girl made of stone, ill tell you her story later) but her
brothers girl friend lives with them and has gotten the pamphlets and
things from M and then called us telling us she wants to be
baptized when she moves here next month! crazy huh!
    Also the miracle of prayer. I've had to rely on the Lord heaps
this week and im predicting for the rest of my mission. I guess this
week ive really had to learn to rely on him and pray my hardest for
help and strength. In case you didnt know missionary work is SO HARD. I
have learned God speaks to us through the spirit and through
scriptures! The scriptures are so powerful and hold all the answers im
telling you! Ether 12 helped me heaps. I came across it today and
studied it like crazy. I love the promised blessings of strength if we
have faith.
    Also i wanted to tell you a little about the aussies and the
weird things they do.
1. none of them have heaters throughout the house. like k? its 6
degrees out and you have no heat. they just use little space heaters
and only heat one room. so all the corridors are freezing and only one
room is warm, and even then only by the heater.
2. they all say hell and damn and ass like its nobodys business. like
people say it in church lolol
3. hot milo and tim tam biscuits are crazy popular!! they suck the
milo through the tim tams and call it a tim tam slam! its funny and so
dang good! people give us milo everywhere we go
4. "boot"= trunk
5. PEOPLE ARE CRASZY FOR THERMOMIXES (thermomix) look it up it makes
EVERYTHING food wise.
6. "flat out"= SO BUSY and people say it all the time. oh sorry i cant
im so flat out this week
and the best news ever............I AM THE DD. THE DRIVER OF THE CAR. THE PERSON THAT DRIVES THE CAR
THAT HAS THE STEERING WHEEL ON THE RIGHT SIDE. its so weird. and
honestly i have almost gotten in trouble but its good! haha everything
is good. sis stewarts wrist is broken so i drive. ps i might have to
buy a gps? hopefully not!

and i had to say bye to my mom this week:( sister baker! ugh it was
sad we cried at the airport. ps did you know in australia we can go
all the way to the terminal like where they board even if we dont have
a ticket? its so crazy haha but ya all the way through security and
everything. but ya its been quite the week.

my first night here we were on the radio! it was good. i have pics.
love you all peace out!

sending love from tassie

sister chelsea hatch

cradle mountain tasmania north district!

HEY AMERICA !
    This week was crazy! Really good though. I have some big news!
Don't get too excited though its not that crazy.
  Monday we went to Cradle Mountain, its this famous mountain down in
Tas. Its so pretty! Ill send some pictures of it. It was foggy and
rained while we were there so you can't see the whole mountain but its
still beautiful. We are definitely coming back around here!
    I saw so many miracles this week! It was really cool. We haven't
had very many teaching experiences with investigators because there
just aren't any here, its hard to keep the confidence and motivation
every day because its so hard in this little town. So I just prayed
more for the people around us and for the spirit to guide us to the
people who were prepared for our message. Also that I would be able to
know when the spirit prompts me and when to act on the prompting. And
it worked!! I had so many awesome experiences, none very big but
definitely helped me know that there is someone listening to me and
helping when I need it.
    We went and had a lesson with this lady C, we GQed her.
She is really sweet and open to learn but its so hard to teach because
she believes God is everything and everyone, we are all just one
energy vibrating at different frequencies. what??? It was so weird we
didn't even know what to say. But we went over and she needed help
taking out a massive honeysuckle bush that had overgrown. So we went
over and helped with that for a few hours with like 3 of her friends.
It took ages! We were so messy but it was the best thing ever we love
doing service! Its the first time we've been able to here because
everyone always says they don't have anything for us to do. So it was
greaaat. We think C would be an awesome member if we can just
help her realize what is true!
    So the awesome miracle this week was on Saturday. We were having
a slow day, not a lot had happened at all really. But we decided to
tract Best St. We got to it and it was the shortest street ever! We
didn't think anything would happen (wheres the faith huh haha) but we
knocked 2 and no one answered but the 3rd I talked to the lady and she
was so great. She had all these cool succulent plants and I love those
because they remind me of az so we talked about that and whatever
else. Then we asked if she needed anything done and she said yes! WE
WERE SSTOKED. So we went home and changed and helped her in her garden
for like 2 hours. She opened up and told us so much, how she was
feeling so sad and lost and that she felt like she needed to do
something different in her life. She said that she felt scared and
didn't know what to do, scared because she went to school for so long
for massage therapy and now felt like she should change careers. But
me and sister B knew what change she really needed!! Her name is
S by the way. But she cried at one point and just told us all
these concerns about life and everything, it was such a great teaching
opportunity. We taught about Gods love and the holy ghost and praying
for help, we think she will be an investigator soon. She was so happy
we were there and the funny thing was that she is friends with
C the lady from earlier in the week, she saw us helping
C so I think that gave her more trust in us when we asked to
help her. Man she was just so prepared and so ready! God lead us to
her because she needed us so bad that day. I am hoping to be able to
go back and help her and teach more, shes awesome! I already love her.
    OKAY big news now. We got transfer news this week and man it was
crazy! Me and Sister B had a pretty good idea of what would
happen, like pretty sure. They send a call out with all the areas and
names of missionaries and if they are leaving Tas or not in one big
message and send it to everyone. So we got it at 945 Saturday night
and we weren't worried because we knew pretty well what was happening.
Then they got to Deloraine on the message and said that Deloraine is
closing!! Sister B is going up to the main land today and I am
being transferred to Launceston with Sister S (already in my
district). WHAT. It was crazyyyy. So today we had to both pack
everything ( so nice not having to worry about weight to fly this
time) and had to deep clean the flat because they are closing it all
down. We are heading to Launceston to drop off Sister B and Sister
K to fly out, and to move me in to my new flat! Im really sad to
be leaving the "penthouse of missionary flats"because that's what ours
is here. Its a senior couple flat so its awesome. Launceston flat is a
little dodgy but its okay ill send pictures!
    So there it is! Crazy week. Launceston sisters (us) will be
covering Deloraine one or two days a week so I hope I can keep seeing
these awesome people.
also, read the "be perfect in Christ" talk in the Ensign this month it
is so good!!

Have an awesome week, love yas

Sister Chelsea Hatch

 Last district pday at Cradle Mountain

 elder campbell and rozier

This is some of the T's, S&S, they are missing 3 boys so we took a pic in front of the family so you can see them

Luv it here even with the fog,this is my new comp Sister S, going to move in with her today

In front of the best flat ever, so sad to leave!

 Show message history

4th of july down under! tasmania style

 

HEY THERE

Tasmania is awesome as ever over here for the 4th of July week! It was so weird nothing happened at all. Its obviously an American holiday but dang it was weird as. Not having fireworks and all that jazz this year. But we did get the flags and all that good stuff so we felt a little patriotic!  It was good. Some members heard we didn't have any sparklers or anything so her and her mom (G and J) they are awesome. Anyway they bought us some that morning after seminary and brought them to us! So nice of them haha it made that night so much better.

 So we still teach seminary every day, they haven't called someone yet but they better soon or I will freak out! 545 is just so early! But luckily the next 2 weeks are school holiday so no seminary. We get to sleep in until 630! that's the best thing ever. This week was big because the main guy over seminary came down from Melbourne and evaluated us, haha what. It was good though he liked us. Friday (4th) we brough breakfast for G and A (seminary) hoping it will be our last time teaching. HOPING.

  This is going to be a bit random so sorry!

   Just going to go on about how beautiful it is here and home much I love it. All the other missionaries have said its nothing like this on the main land. So im enjoying it while I can! I hope I can go up the the main land hopefully the city before my mission is over. Ive heard its awesome.

   We started teaching a lady named E. She is in her 70s and has her own church but we commmited her to read the BOM and are going back Tuesday so hopefully all goes well. We know she felt the spirit when we taught restoration so were hoping.

    We had a miracle this week! We were GQing (street contacting) which is kinda hard in tiny Deloraine because there aren't that many people, but we ran into this Phllipino lady, she is about 30. We talked to her about everything and then her fiancé came out and we talked to him. But they were so prepared! She is looking for a church to go to and he had just recently quit smoking and drinking and all this cool stuff its awesome. The craziest part was when they invited us to their wedding! WHAT. after 5 minutes they were comfortable enough to inviteus to their wedding. Haha the wedding was yesterday. It was pretty weird and nothing like the weddings on the show "Four Weddings"which was a pretty big let down. But it was fine haha I have some pictuers ill show you. We are hoping to teach them when they get back from holiday in a couple weeks. Their names are J and N. The guy is an Aussie. 

    So when we teach seminary we are given permission to exercise in the day so we go about 10am and run down to the river and back up. Its this massive hill and beautiful I love it! We are headed to a big mountain today that is I guess the big attraction of Tassie. Its called Cradle Mountain and ive seen pictures it looks awesome. im excited to see what its like. District Pdays are the best!

  Did you know that they call braids "plaits" (pronounced plat) its so weird. I braid my hair a lot because lazy and don't care and people say it all the time. It took me a while before I figured out what they were saying haha E finally told me. Did I mention I love EG and her fam bam? Theyre cool.

  Well more about the glorious 4th of July, that is boring in Australia but its fine. That day we dressed in all red white and blue and carried flags everywhere. For companion study we pledged to the flag and for district meeting we sang the national anthem. There are more American missionaries than aussies so we overruled them! It was funny. The Aussies wouldn't stand when we sang it though haha rude. But it was a good meeting we learned so much. The zone leaders came up from Hobart and trained it was really good. I had a pretty hard day, it was the first hard day since ive been in the field. it wasn't because of homesickness (because lets face it it doesn't feel like 4th of July because its freezing and nobody has normal accents) but it was because I just felt inadequate and like I didn't know anything. Then I read that article I told you to show Jordan and it made me feel better. I mean everybody should read it! Its so good. Then the ZLs gave sis b a blessing and I really felt that I needed one so Elder H( from England) gave me one. It was so powerful and exactly what I needed. I just really gained the strongest testimony of the power of the priesthood right there, its real. They really have the power to speak as if they were God and I felt that when elder H was giving my blessing, he was saying things that he would never know I needed help with and was giving comfort in all the exact perfect ways. There is no other way that he could have known to say those things except through god. The priesthood and the power and authority is amazing! Use it often and always be worthy of it, seriously awesome.

  Ps this week I had to pray in church and crazy enough it was the first time id ever done that. Ive had a lot of 1sts in the last few months, which only means im growing stronger! The first step to becoming better and moving forward is to step out of your comfort zone and ive seen that's the only way to to things on your mission. Its helped me so much.

Well overall this week was a solid one and I cant wait for more amazing times out here! Sorry this is short but 1 hour is just not enough time! I'll write letters and stuff. I just need addresses and im golden! (Literally golden because that's what they call "greenies" in this mission. im a golden!)

and we get transfer news this Saturday night so stay tuned!! Wish me luck!

Have an awesome week you awesome people in Merica.

I love usa

 

sending love from Tassie!

sister chelsea hatch

PS and make people mail me stuff, not instead of email but definitely do

that too haha I want letters

Australia Melbourne Mission

76 Cathies Lane

Wantirna South VIC 3152

Australia

6.29.14

Just go to Seminary!!

HELLO "MERICA"

You guys are awesome and it looks like youre having an awesome summer that's so good! im glad its not warm here so i don't feel left out. when im outside im not thinking i want to go boating or anything like that its FREEZING haha so its good. the last few days have been POURING rain. like crazy. And the best part is that our whole zone is almost completely out of Ks for the month so we decided to do a car fast. Our car fast was on the 2 days that it was pouring rain so we had to walk everywhere in the cold wet weather. It wasn't too bad but tiring because its all uphill and windy and were already cold! Man ive been so happy to have my gum boots (hunter rain boots also called gummies) But we were helped God is great! We saw a lot of miracles this week from it too it was good.

So back up to Monday, pday was good as it could have been, we had no money or Ks to drive anywhere so we just stayed around town. Australia is weird because they just close down stores for like no reason on the most random days and its kinda annoying. haha on Monday everything was closed and Deloraine has the cutest stores so i was bummed but oh well! Ive got like 2 more weeks at least here. It was pouring rain the whole time we were walking too so that was fun haha it actually it is nice to have a good reason to wear my gummies because i love them! 

this is our get up for the rain walking. gummies and an umbrella too.
grocery bags over our normal bags haha ghetto

Pday ends at 6 so we went to dinner at members home (S and S. T.) they are awesome and cook the best food! They have 5 kids and are really normal, we like going there for dinner. The T's like run the town they are everywhere. Everybody is related to them! Our bishop is K. T. and that girl E that i said i love is his daughter and like everybody we know here is related to them its funny. So after dinner we went to Sarahs to see her. I broke her chair when we went back on Wednesday...dang i felt so bad haha she already doesn't have that much money. i have pictures its funny. i guess it was already cracked and then i leaned forward on the front leg and it cracked more and i tried to bend it to be straight and it snapped right off. Hahahahah me and Sister B were like crying it was so funny. A.G. (E's hubby) fixed it they are our go-tos. 

Tuesday we woke up at the crack of dawn as per usual at 5:45am and went to teach seminary to two students!! it actually is really good and is bringing so many blessings i know it! Let me just give you guys a word of advice, don't ditch released time DURING THE DAY EASY seminary and not graduate because you will end up going on a mission and having to teach it at 630 a m. just a warning i'm not even kidding. haha but really everybody there is so lucky to have seminary during the day it makes it so much easier and to have a normal sized class?? that would be like a luxury for these Tassie kids let me tell you. JUST GO TO SEMINARY and love it, dang if i would have payed attention to seminary i would know so much. 

Tuesdays we have District Meeting and all the missionaries in northern Tas drive to Deloraine and we have it in our chapel. 10 of us all get assigned a topic to train the district on and i did the Christlike attribute Charity. it was really good! chapter 6 of PMG, read it live it and love it. the key to this gospel and true conversion is BECOMING like Christ. that's the only way. charity is the pure love of Christ and we need to seek to attain that attribute every day! read  the charity and love section in that chapter and study it and pray for the gift of charity, to see people the way that Christ would see them, and love them enough to share the gospel with them. DO IT DOODZ.  Around 3 the Sister Training Leaders (sister R and S) came to do exchanges! They are so great i love them. we went to Westbury and taught a few lessons and went to a less actives home and it was good. Later we went to dinner at E and A. G. (the awesome G's) and had pizza YUSSSS. we don't ever have pizza here so we take every chance we get, like today when we go to launy were getting some we are stoked like stoker. So the STLs stayed the night with us (24 hour exchange) and we planned and did all the usual and it was great. i was with sister R. she is from Utah i think and she is a GUN. i love her. She leaves in 1 transfer and i'm so sad. But she taught me so so so much, the way she teaches helped me out so much and she gave me so much confidence that i needed. We planned really well and had a good chat. We all pulled our beds out to the front room and had MEGABED. Ya idk missionaries have fun sometimes too. Bad thing was we weren't asleep until like 12 and 545 came so early.

Seminary Wednesday was so good because G. C. (one of the students) her mom heard there would be more sisters so she brought toast and hot chocolate! dang it was nice, i wish that would happen every day. Sister S and R added so much to the lesson and it was so great, they taught me so much. Sister R brought up the atonement and how it is for us and how real it is. She said Christ will literally be our advocate and stand up on judgement day and defend us. ( D&C 45:3-5). It was awesome. And later that day we taught about how the scriptures are so important to read because of all the trials and everything people went through to get them back from Jerusalem in the beg of the BOM. so read them because they only wrote the most important things and only for our benefit. READ YOUR SCRIPTURES. and be enlightened  every day. in D&C 50:24 it talks about light and getting new and brighter light every day and in pmg in the first chapter it talks about preaching the gospel every day and learning more about it and you will always gain new light and knowledge no matter how many times you read a scripture or study a principle, there is always more to learn until that perfect day! So ya i love Sister R she is the best teacher ever. Best missionary ever.

We also taught bishop and DT and taught about faith and being someone else's witness of that faith to help them grow and these people are like killer. the best missionaries ever, they pray for a missionary opp every day and set a goal to have one every single day. So that's what i want you all to do is to pray with real intent to have a missionary experience every day. Be someone elses witness, there is a scripture in romans 10:14-17 that talks about it! its awesome.

So then Thursday we did fam history and it was good good and then saw J and J.T. (bishops son). J has a smoking problem and we are trying to work with him on it with the Addiction Recovery Program oh man this program is awesome. we are also using the stop smoking thing but the addiction program is so good. Bishop and D go to the meeting every week, they don't have any problems they just feel that it brings them so much closer to Christ and like teaches so much about the atonement and everything and recommended everyone go to it. we are going next week. bring someone you know to one! just look up on the church website where one is. Promise its worth it!

Hey also, out her being a missionary i have to bear my testimony literally like 50 times a day and i never thought it made that big of a difference to bear it but it DOES. Dang like such a difference to just tell people what you know and really believe, it seriously it helps people and your testimony grow so much. I want to challenge all you people to bear your testimony this week! DO IT. It will bless your life so much. seriously its the best way to really get a solid testimony and grow every day.

sorry I have to go but i hope this letter was better.

tell everybody you know to send me a hand written letter because they are the best. also our ward made missionary gift boxes full of awesome missionary stuff and sent them out to their missionaries,,,,,....hint.

haha have a good week luv you all

This is the view from Bishops house

ps we met a lady that is a musician and John Denver recorded one of her songs before he died and she knows Keith Urban personally. you best believe we are going to her house to teach her tomorrow. HOLLA @ US

Q&A-

Mom- What are three of your favorite Aussie words and do you use them?

SH- um idk about my favorite but the ones i use most are "heaps" (which means lots or tons etc) and "rubbish bin" trash can and "flat"apartment and heaps of other words ill send a picture of the list i have its funny?

Mom- What is your favorite Aussie food?

SH-my favourite aussie food is the roast chicken the make its so YUM (that's what they say, yum, not yummy or yucky) haha but that and this killer Chocolate Ripple Cake look it up its so good!

Mom- Do the members feed you often?

SH-the members are awesome and feed us nearly every single night!! last month we didn't have dinner one night and that's it. they are really awesome here and there are only 1 or two really dodgy places (dodgy is like shady or sketchy) and the rest are pristine.