Week 68 May 21, 2012

Ya know family, its extremely difficult for me to explain the things we are seeing here in Portugal.  I feel like this is a special mission and that it is just us seeing these huge miracles, but I know without doubt that the Lord is doing these miracles on all sides of the world, working in the hearts of all men to accept his Gospel and to come unto him. 

One thing that has been really impressed on me here in Portugal is that the Lord is preparing people to come unto him, he is the one working in the field, he is the one who has planted the field and watched over it during all of its times of struggle and all of its day, he is the captain and this is his work.  My job has become more and more simple as I have decided to BELIEVE in that.  Believe completely that I am just here to harvest, and that I should just leave the rest up to him.  Just in case anyone didnt understand that analogy, let me explain it out just a little bit better.

When I say that he is the one planting the field, I mean that he is the one that started this work, and the one who planned it all out.  He is the one who is planting this seed of faith and love in the hearts of men, all around the world.  When I say that he is always looking over his field and taking care of it, I mean that he is constantly working with our brothers and sisters, constantly taking care of the things that will help them recieve his Gospel, he is the one making the way.  Just like a good Gardner, he watches his plants grow, and he works with every single one of them.  And then he calls me, his missionaries, and he says, HEY, THAT ONE RIGHT THERE, HE IS READY TO BE PICKED.  I PREPARED HIM FOR THIS MOMENT.  And that is what we are supposed to do:)  Its so much more simple then we make it some times.  We look at all the other plants and we think, HEY I CAN PREPARE THAT ONE TOO, OR, NO THIS ONE ISNT READY YET, or I WILL JUST KEEP PLANTING MORE SEEDS TOO.  Haha we just got to trust in the Lord and do HIS WILL not our one.  HE is the one that knows all, we dont know much haha and my job as a missionary just gets more and more easy when I shut my mouth and just follow what the Lord tells me to do, because he is literally preparing people to be baptized every single week here.

E is a Brazilian that came to Portugal to play soccer and look for some work too.  He didnt know why, but he just ended up here in Portugal.  Out of all the cities that he could have ended up in, he ended up in S, without work, and looking for something to do.  He is 22 and he is single, and only has a uncle here in Portugal.  One night he was walking through the park and he found a pamflet of the restauration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and he just felt like he should call the number on the back.  He called us and we met up with him at the church. 

He accepted the lessons and he loved them!!  He felt the Holy Ghost testify to him every single day, he loves the Book of Mormon, and everything about the message just made a click in his eyes.  Of Course the Lord would keep calling Prophets, he always has, and he always will.  It was just right for him, he was ready to hear this message.

One week and a couple days later, after recieving all of the lessons and recieving an answer from God about this message, he was baptized:):):):)  Yesterday he was baptized.  He will be confirmed and recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost this next week, and then the following week he will return home to his family in Brasil, where he wants to share the gospel with the rest of his family:):)  Tell me this is all coincidence and I will testify to you with power and authority that this is GOD.  and that God loves us so very much, he has a plan for each and every one of us.  He is preparing us to recieve the fullness of his Gospel, and the fullness of his love.  Not even WE prepare ourselves, there is no preparation on our part, and its not the missionaries either, they just teach four lessons and call people unto repentance.  The LORD and his angels prepare us:) 

The mission is easy and so much fun, when we trust in the Lord and live worthily to recieve the people that he has prepared.  Unfortunately there are many who dont believe in that, they want to do things there own way, and they think they are the ones runnin the field..... they are just losing blessings.  The principle is simple, let the Lord do his work, and trust in revelation, because it is the way that he runs his work.  For all of you that have a calling and are wondering how to fufill it, ask God, and follow and witness the miracles that he will use YOU to do.

Elton is the story of this week, which taught me so much:)  I feel so grateful to be apart of this work, it is incredible!!!  I am so grateful for a Mission President who is teaching me to help me become the man that I need to be.  I am grateful for pure and clean revelation that is a proof in itself of the truthfulness of this work and this Church.  If anyone ever had any doubt about the Church or its message, just look at the work that is being done in it, none of it comes from man, all of it comes from God.

Like I said in the beggining, I feel like this mission is special:)  I am grateful for leaders who work with me and have great faith to help me continue to build up my own.  This weekend alone the mission baptized 43 people here in Portugal, and this year we have baptized about 600 so far.  I look forward to working harder, helping more, sacrificing more, and seeing more miracles in the lives of others, and in my own. 

I hope this these stories are not just stories to you all.  I hope they help strengthen the testimony that all of you have of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his great work and glory that he is doing right now.  I share these special moments with you all because I want to help you all witness a mighty change of heart in  all of your hearts.  Being a sunday going member isnt enough, lets become members of Gods church every day, and follow him everyday.  It is easy for me to recognize the person that has recieved this mighty change of heart, and the person that hasnt.  If you have, great, do it again, and promise yourself more, if not, I invite to test out the Lord and his message, and see what happens.

I love you all!

Elder Hatch

Week 67 May 6, 2012

Well, today is officially the first day of transfer number 12 in my mission.... wow, its going by fast.  This week I will enter into the fourth quarter of my mission, aka the time to do some serious work.  I love fourth quarter, its where the good seperate from the best:)  Its the time for me to really shine and work with all the might that I possibly can.  All the heart all the soul (right now I am holding up my four fingers like they do in texas football games).  I am lucky to have Elder Lefevre here with me to start my fourth quarter, because this is his last transfer and he is a hard worker, its going to be transfer FULL of miracles!!!

Speaking of miracles, I stand all amazed of the things that I have seen this last week.  I told you all about N, that we found and marked last week, well he was baptized and it was pretty much one of the coolest and most spiritual that I have seen.  He was probably one of the most prepared investigators that I have seen in my entire mission, serious, the guys was ready to change his life completely!  I remember the night that we saw him walking down the big hill in the street, we ran after him haha caught up to him and said a prayer.  From that moment on its been just miracles with him.  I think that he is a future bishop or at least branch president, becuase he is just super strong!  He is from Angola, and ya his dad used to be the President of a country that is trying to declare its independance there, pretty intense.  We are really excited to talk to him about the work done in the temple that he will do for his parents.

Well, as I said, we are into a new transfer, its official that I am staying here with Elder Lefevre, and that we continue to work hard in the area of Santarém.  We are super pumped to have a transfer just full of miracles and to help a bunch of people recieve the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Great expectations this transfer.  Now that we got things runnin a little better with the branch, we  know that the Lord will bless this area a ton, and we look forward to finding more people like Nuno, who are truly prepared by the Lord. 

 Oh, and I am doing a diet right now too, cool huh?  Well, bem, I have been doing a diet for the past couple weeks now, and people are telling me that they are seeing the results, which is cool, I just dont have a scale to see what the facts say.  We started gettin up a little bit earlier so that we can work out more and get into some good shape, because everything just seems to go better when I get a good workout in.  I am seeing that this rule has a purpose.  Every commandment of God has a purpose, even if we dont understand it at first.

Oh ya, this is also President Torgans last transfer as the President!!!  Wow.... its going to be so weird having another President, I trust that God is sending someone like President Torgan, because he just did a TON for all of Portugal.  I cant even explain how much Portugal has changed because of the work and leadership that he put into here!  I am super blessed to be able to recieve training from him and hear from him, because he inspires me and the entire country to just to better!  This wednesday I will go to Lisboa to have a leadership meeting, which I am super excited for. 

Well, I will be talking to you guys in like a week, so write down any questions you got for me...... I will explain everything about my area when we talk because it is just so much easier and faster.  Sorry I never really explain the area or the people, no time hahaha its the life of a missionary here in Portugal.  If President Torgan could he would probably take out Pday haha, I would be somewhat down for it.

Love you all!

Elder Hatch

Week 66 April 30, 2012

Hey Fam!!

Well, this week was super good!!  I loved it, it started out pretty hard, but ended out really well.  I learned a ton from it and grew a ton from it as well.  What did I learn?  Stick it out and trust in the Lord to do his miracles.  

We have been working a lot with a man named I our good friend.  He has some problems that we have been working with, but everyone has problems, so it was normal.  Pretty much to put this story into a shell, we didn't expect him to come to church on Sunday, he came by himself, and for one of the first times in his life, he was knocked out by the spirit.  He loved it!!  He felt so good, he wanted more:)  And that is exactly what happened.  We invited him to be baptized that very day, and he was.  He is now a member of the church with a bright new future, making those big changes.

Sorry I just put a HUGE miracle into a couple of words, I just really don't have that much time today.  I have an appointment here in like 20 minutes.... they called right now, I have to go haha.

This morning before coming to do internet we had one of my favorite lessons in my entire mission.  We have been praying and praying for a man named N, and been searching for him for a long time now, and out of nowhere he called us and told us that he wants to meet up with us.  After having a super spiritual lesson in the church house, we marked him to be baptized this Sunday.  He is super excited to make these changes in his life, I can't even explain how prepared this man is!!!  

Dang, I feel bad that I have written like nothing this week, but ya, life is super good we are seeing a ton of miracles!!!  I will write them all down really well to tell you all in the phone call coming up pretty soon.  I love you all!!!

Elder Hatch