i'm losing my family!

We have transfers this week and both Sister Larsen and Salyer will be leaving me, which I'm gutted about, however I know who my next companion will be and I'm so excited! I'll be training a new STL, who knows how that will go but I'm stoked anyway. You'll all meet her next week.

Ah the time is going so quickly I can't believe it! All goods though. I'll tell you how I used my precious time this week. Some highlights- Pday we went to Melbourne Zoo! We watched elephants paint pictures...leave it to artsy Melbourne to do something so hipster aye.

Monday nights we have families who volunteer to have regular monthly FHE where we can bring investigators, less active or recent converts etc and have dinner and a lesson so we went to two of those (splits). Sister Larson and I went to the Kumarasamy's (they are Sri Lankan) and had heaps of Sri Lankan curry, rice and bread and ate w/ our hands. One of  my FAVORITE things about serving in mighty Melbourne is the culture. I just can't get enough of it. One night will be Sri Lankan then Peruvian, Indian, Persian, Aussie, Tongan, Samoan and these just the past week. For real! And I love all of it. Can't forget all the Asian food as well.

But it was a good FHE! Taught the restoration, it always makes me happy to teach it because of how miraculous it is! Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ came to a boy in his time of dire need of help and direction...it opened windows of heaven! Now we know the way and God promises to give us more light and knowledge and wisdom if we just ask. (James 1:5)

Ever since my mission I've had lots of questions pertaining to my life and the gospel. Questions about certain points of the gospel that I didn't fully understand before. I would usually write down the question and or topic I wanted to learn more about and I would always get answers. Elder Pearson said "All revelation begins with inspired questions" and that is where my revelations began! Heavenly Father teaches an open mind if it is willing to listen.

For example a long time ago I really wanted to learn more about sacrament or at least understand it better so I wrote that on my list of things to study. Its hard to get to that stuff because busy studying other things but Heavenly Father still taught me! After that I was asked to teach a class on sacrament and the talks in church happened to be about sacrament and the particular place I was reading in BofM was about it, it all happened so slowly and subtly that I didn't realize until now as I look back and see how far I've come. I now understand the sacrament.

He is like a parent on earth, always teaching. Like toddlers who want to learn and walk, parents might leave the walker out so the child will try themselves.

This happened this week. Heavenly Father taught me more about a principle I wanted to understand. Gods love, charity. I told Him I want to love more, the real love like He feels for us and slowly without me realizing He has helped me understand so much! But all in my ACT of doing something good, putting myself in situations where He could teach me. I learnt so much when we went to the temple with a member in our ward who is leaving on a mission in a few weeks. Jhinny, I love her! And I learnt so much in the temple like I said. Also at church it wasn't so much what was being said but all the things coming to my mind...all went back to my questions at the beginning of week. (D&C 50:24)

Ah its just so cool the way Heavenly Father works. He just loves us all so much and wants to give everything He has to us. His incomprehensible love for us is something that the human mind just can't understand...but we begin to as we feel it! A short moment here, a glimpse there, but as we constantly do good, do the things He simply asks, we can feel it. It is glorious! It is the fruit that is sweet above all that is sweet, why wouldn't we want that? I know the gospel of Jesus Christ provides the outline we can follow to have a life full of love and happiness, it is our duty to make our lives Christ-centered, CHRIST-centered, and we will never thirst or hunger because He will fill us with his living water.

Ah...sorry, change subject. I'll tell you about our ward mission leader, his name is Jet (Jethro) lol. He is Chinese...Asian of some kind and he is fantastic! I've never met someone so into their calling but man he gets a bit sassy sometimes. He makes hilarious faces when he gets annoyed with us, which is often...I'll send the picture I took of him yesterday when I left my coat in correlation and he brought it out to me. It is gold.

Also, this month our mission OVER ACHIEVED the goal for baptisms in July! Our mission has not hit a goal for 3 years and this month we did! A day going down in AMM history! We got the great news last night...looking forward to smashing Aug as well :) haha Melbourne is my home!

Hastaaaa

Sister Hatch

at melbourne zoo

and beautiful Jhinny after she went through the temple

selfie stick! after exchanges with our lynbrook sisters :)

dinner at bishop lavakas! tongan food=life

to all my people!

From the mighty Melbourne mission...just an update on 7 miraculous days, we got to go on exchanges Tues w/ our lovely sisters and my eyes were opened to so many things (typical for exchanges). 1 being consistency. How important and impactful it is being simply consistent w/ small things. Whether it be in the gospel or just normal daily life. Waking up on time every day or smiling @ strangers when you see them, consistently going for a walk/jog daily. These seemingly small things that don't make a big difference in each day will make ALL the difference in the long run. If you go for a 10 min run every day for a month you will see results, although the effort and time daily was small it has the ability to have great results. Opposite is true...if you go for an hour jog once a month it will just wear you out so much in that one hour you will need a whole month to recover and the results will probably be unnoticed or nonexistent.

Same w/ missionary work or the gospel in general. We can't go on "holiday" and eat junk food and watch TV/movies all day every day for 29 days and then try to go out and run for an hour on the 30th and feel great. It makes things a lot harder to do nothing and then go run a marathon, so why not train? Why not do a little every day so when the marathon is here your body is ready?

Reading our scriptures daily (whether it be 1 verse or one chapter) is the spiritual training that doesn't normally make a HUGE impact on each day..but after a month or even a week, the results...although seemingly small, are there. Just like building a muscle and for me, when I lift weights (uh...the baby ones) and start seeing a bit of a change I get more motivated and excited. Same w/ spiritual exercise! I promise if you are doing what you can God will let you see the change, even if its just a short glimmer of who you'll be, but he'll show you. And that, if nothing else, will build your motivation every day! Consistently reading the words of the prophets or saying prayers or just building someone up w/ a sincere compliment every day, every day, every day will allow God to give you a boost and propel you forward to reach the spiritual and physical capacity that only He can help you achieve. Nothing and no one can make of us what He can.

However, just as I talked about before, the opposite is true. If we consistently don't do these seemingly small things every day our spiritual muscles begin to weaken and just like the muscle in our arm, if they're not being used they are going away. If we are not moving forward we are moving backward. The adversary knows our weaknesses and although he isn't good, consistency is one thing we can learn from him. he does seemingly small things every day to pull us down...things that lead us to make choices that don't seem to make a difference in the day...but over time can place us in a deep hole of despair and darkness.

For example he might say "just have this one cookie" (which isn't ALL that bad) or "just skip exercise today you're tired" or "just go home early from church, this team is your favorite". These are all small and I feel we are all guilty of one or something similar, but guys...the moment you give in to one of those, the easier it is to give in to the next "harmless thought" satan puts in your your mind. Like I said, he is consistent, always doing some thing day after day and that is why so many have fallen because there are 2 sides working and if one side is being consistent and the other isn't (us working against adversary) one is going to win. If we don't exercise our muscles daily satan is going to wait until we are at our weakest and then throw us into a vicious battle and we will have no weapons, no strength to fight, and he will win. We can't let him win!

We are in the last stretch of our marathon, we have come this far and we can't let him win. The greatness of the gospel is when we are consistent w/God He is consistent w/ us. The more we do the more He gives. D&C 50:24

I know we need now more than ever to put on our armor daily, to strengthen our spiritual muses by consistently doing the small things. The world is only getting worse but the miracle of the gospel is, although we are in the midst of so much darkness and digression, we can still move forward! We can still be happy and every day become stronger. All w/ the help of our Savior Jesus Christ. How lucky are we to know Him.

Man it sounds like a talk or something but I felt impressed to write it. I know it is true! I'm still trying to get in shape myself.

I went to the dentist this week, AUS is dodgy. They stuffed my teeth up! The numbness (word?) made the day a bit more exciting though. No updates on Robert, he is MIA. He went to the Gold Coast and we think he got lost in the wilderness.

We met 2 girs Mahdia & Samar from Iran. I taught w/ Jhinny and Mason (cutest couple, we were on splits) and they are so excited to learn more. Although their English is imperfect they understand when we taught of Jesus Christ. They are Muslim and still understand. Their faces were bright w/ light when we left. They'll be reading the BofM this week in Persian and Urdu. Mohsen speaks both, he'll come next time!

That's all for now!! All my love to you.

xxx

Sister Hatch- BACK!

And..we're going to Melbourne zoo today. I am STOKED.

this is me and sister enoka

and us with our less active who went back to the temple on saturday!

beautiful Australia at dusk

 sisters pday and sister wairpo

we had a miracle this week!

We had a miracle this week, a homeless guy we found his name is Robert, he came to church and cried, he loved it and wants to get baptised on the 25th. He came to our lesson at the chapel and asked where the dotted line was so he could sign up! He is golden. Hopefully all will go well with him! Sorry I have to be short this week I have no time at all.

When you wake up give everyone a hug for me!!

Love you,

Sister Hatch

Sisters for our sleepover we did, we played a game, haha

Pink lake, naturally pink! Leave it to Australia to have something so beautiful & artistic come right from nature.

happy america day!! 7.5.15

Dear Family,

Man the weeks are flying by so fast, I wish time would slow down! I had a bit of a mid-mission crisis this week. I pulled out old planners and realized I have nearly 500 of them (10) which means I only have a few left. Its definitely something that has helped me reflect though. It is so cool to go back 1 year and see how far I've come and how much I've changed. The atonement must be real because man those weren't just big steps those were leaps and flights I took to get to where I am now. Only possible though Christ!

I feel like I take a trip around the world every day here in Dande...its a melting pot here. We meet people from all over the continents weekly! Monday we got to have food from all the continents...we had Aussie pumpkin soup, Chinese duck pancake rolls. Spanish rice and sausages and Samoan koko. And we got to meet a random and have a lesson w/ him in the 8º C weather. Gr8 night Monday was.

We started teaching a less active family recently. Mum is from Cook island and dad is Maori (?). They have 2 young kids and want to come back to church! We have really good lessons w/ them and go back every week for tea so I'll keep you updated! Hopefully to temple as main goal. We love them.

We got to go on exchanges w/ the lovely Footscray sisters. I went w/ Sis Brodie - we came back to Dande and Sis Salyer was sick so we only got to go out a bit, but it was a good day. Exchanges are my favorite! I get to learn from other missionaries and have a different type of day than usual. I love Sis Brodie! I had so much fun w/ her- we are a lot alike which made it like being w/ an old friend. Exactly the day I needed!

Sorry 90% of what I talk about is food but we have some good food. We got 8bit. It was American burgers! They were better than In-n-Out! 

Then the 4th of July. It was raining just like last year! (still can't believe I can say "just like last year") but we went to lunch at TGIFridays with Sis Gibby/ Sis Palre. Me and Gibby got a tower of fajitas!

Sunday was great. We met this awesome guy who is homeless...but he came to church and felt the spirit so much and cried and left reading the BofM. Hopefully we can help him enter the waters of baptism soon!

We also got to go to the Jurkovic family for tea...Katie their daughter is one of my mini missionaries. They are great! Also great food. We had a mini testimony meeting with them! The spirit always punches when you bear testimony. Mine grew last night. I know the BofM is true!!

Love you all-

Happy America Day!!

xxx

Sister Hatch

Donutella w/ Jhinny & Pho

I'm turning Asian

Guinea pig

My mini missionary Katie

Happy America Day!!

xxx

Sister Hatch