Mission Leadership Council

October 6 Final words from Elder Dustin Hatch

Hello!

 

It is crazy to think that this is the last time that I will send an e-mail before I am home. I am having a little bit of a hard time getting my thoughts in order and putting them into words. My mission has and will forever change my life and there is nothing that else that could have helped me as much as serving the Lord. I have had so many different experiances over the past two years that have helped me strech and grow. I have been put into situations that have required me to forget about myself and serve others. I have had to work harder than I have ever worked before in my life, but I am so glad that I all ready had a good work ethic. I have met many people and have grown to love them very much, there are many people that have changed my life forever and I look forward to being able to know them for the rest of this life and the life to come. I have been able to live in some of the prettiest country perhaps on the planet. I have been able to be a part of people accepting the Gospel. However the best thing that has happened to me over these past couple of years is that I have really strengthened my testimony of my Savior and of the Gospel. There is nothing better than being able to feel the love that the Savior has for all of his children.

 

I am so thankful that I have had the support of an awesome family. There have been times that your love and prayers for me kept me going. I am so glad that I had the great example of many in our family of serving missions. The experiances that I have had have really allowed me to be able to grow in the gospel. There is no doubt in my mind that missionary service is an inspired thing.

 

I know that this Gospel is true. I know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that because of the Atonement we will all be able to return to live with Him and with our Father again. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be a Prophet and to Restore the gospel in these days. I know that President Monson really is a prophet. I know that this really is the Church of Jesus Christ.

 

I love you all and am so excited to see you!

 

Dustin

September 29

Hey!

 

This past week went by very fast and this week won't be any different. Time is really flying by and I can't belive that it is all ready October!!!! Crazy!!!

 

It was a good week though. We had an exchange with the AP's on Tuesday and that went really well. Elder Buhler came to the area with me and he served in my area about 6 months ago and we were able to go and contact a few people that we had been trying to see but hadn't been sucessful in our attempts so it was nice to be able to make that contact with someone who all ready had a realtionship with them.

 

Then Wednesday we had our Temple trip. That was a great experiance to be able to go and worship there. It was so nice and then after the temple we took the way home through Tualatin and stopped at my favorite restrant there, Roxy's Hawiian Grill. It is so good,out of my mission now but we needed to eat somewhere.

 

Then after the Temple trip I went out to Lincoln City with Elder Hardy. It was so much fun to be able to be out at the beach. From their balcony you can see the ocean. There is a hotel that is blocking the view directly in front of them but you can see it off of both sides. It was fun to be able to go running on the beach for our morning exercises. The biggest problem that I had was I forgot running shorts and shoes, so I went wearing a pair of plaid flanel pants an orange hoodie and no shoes. I look rediculous but it was fun. the sand on my feet made them all nice and smooth:) I was so ready to get soaked while I was there because it is a bike area on the coast, that is just asking for rain. Much to my happy suprise it was blue skies and sun shine all day!

 

Friday through this morning we had a crazy rain storm. Apparently there was a typhon in Japan that came accross the ocean and landed here. There is a mountain inbetween Banks and the ocean so we didn't get as much rain but in the 2 1/2 days we had 5'' of water.

 

There seems to be something about running right now that we seem to be always involved in, on Saturday there was the Oregon Marathon that we helped take down after the event. tyfoon rains and a marathon don't really mix too well. It was crazy but fun and everyone was soaked! Then Elder Lee and I went running this morning to start to prepare for our 5k in two weeks, I made it 2 miles without stopping and I could have finished all three just fine. Tell you what though the air was thick and very wet which made it hard to breath as we were running.

 

I am so excited for conference! It is so much fun to be able to listen to the prophet and hear what the Lord has to say to us. I love you all and can't wait to see you! I am still working hard but ready to come home.

 

See you soon!

 

Dustin

September 22

Hey!

 

Another really fast week and this week is looking like it will be much the same. This is the basic plans that we have this week

 

Monday - Pday

Tuesday - Exchanges with the AP's

Wednesday - Temple Trip (way excited to see the changes there) and begin exchange with Lincoln City

Thursday - All day in Lincoln City (one day and two nights at the Coast)

Friday - District Meeting in Tillamook and end exchange with Lincoln City

 

It should be a great week!

 

This past week was great though. Elder Lee and I have focused our efforts on finding people. We have been trying many different ways to finds and it has been incredible as we have seen that take place. On Wednesday of this past week Elder Lee asked me if the Stake had ever done anything with the YSA's, up to this point the YSA's have been going to a Ward in Beaverton but because of the mission split that has been thrown off because coordinating councils were changed as well so they were in limbo. I told him that I didn't know of anything and they we started thinking of ideas of how to get a YSA group going here in Forest Grove. On Thursday night there was a Preisthood Leadership meeting that we were asked to attend and help to train the Ward Mission Leaders, which went fairly well, but while we were there we decided to talk with President Richardson (Stake President) and see what the Stake was planning on doing with the YSA's.  Long story made short they had never really thought of using the missionaries to build up the YSA or thought of forming a group but he was excited about the idea. He asked us to get in contact with President Samuelian and see if we could begin working with YSA. When we called president he got really excited, he has worked in the YSA program for most of his church life. While we were still on the phone with him he ran up to his office and wrote on his white board "Areas to open on Oct 14 - Forest Grove YSA Group." He asked us to type a proposal and give it to President Richardson and see if that is what he had planned. So we got it all tyoed up and set up an appointment for Sunday. President Richardson asked his counselers to be there and we came in and they started to share a bunch of ideas that they had talked about in their PEC meeting. Interestingly enough all of their ideas were in line with the proposal that we had typed up to give to them. Anyway that was a really long way of saying that Elder Lee and I got ourselves assigned to work with the YSA's and how we are going to create a YSA group and eventually a Branch. One cool thing about this is now I get to work with President Stoddard.

Things with Kindel on Monday went really well. We had dinner and then we gave her a hardback copy of the Book of Mormon and a Family Proc and Restoration Pamphlet. Her Dad was also there and was very interested in that. She said that it isn't the religion that she would choose but she isn't opposed to learning about it. I think that it will be a very slow process but she is friends with several members and we ahve made them aware that she has had us over a few times and asked them to just reach out to her and be good friends. The Janeway family who she knows lost a baby this summer due to SCID's disease and they are having a 5k fun run and Sister Janeway is going to invite her to come run that. So there is a lot of good fellowship and hopefully it will go somewhere. If she does end up runnung the 5k we will be there, Sister Janeway signed us up to run. It is a sad but really cool story, they turned the experiance into an awesome missionary opportunity. Jordan was in and out of the hospital for over 6 months and durring that entire time the Janeway's would get on a blog everyday and talk about the miracles that they had seen and how being members had blessed their lives. Banks is a small town so a large part of the population followed the blog through the entire process so that is why we are going to be at the race, finding people to teach.

 

So it turns out that it is a very good thing that I ordered a new suit, Friday my suit pants ripped in a way that they couldn't be fixed so I am now down to one suit and it is on its last leg. The pants on the suit that I have left have a hole in the back of my leg from my wallet. I got an e-mail and my new suit has shipped so I should have it in about a week, it takes a while to get from India.

 

Thanks for all that you do for me! Love You All!!

 

Dustin

September 15th

Hey!

 

It has been another fast week. We just keep running and running and we keep seeing good things happen. We plan out our day and it seems like we always end up planning more than we are actually able to get done. Partly due to the fact that our area is so big that it take 20-30 minutes to get anywhere.

 

We have been struggling to meet with our investigators lately. They are caught in the good and better while missing out on the BEST. It is hard but we just keep working at it and keep pressing forward. We have apointments with several of them this week and we are praying that they don't cancel again this week.

 

We had out Mission Leadership Council this past week and it was really good. President Samuelian had Wyn Dunford from LDS Bussiness College and Bro Allen from the Gallup Corp there and they spent a few hours talking about our strengths and how to apply them in our lives. President Samuelian is very devoted to us missionaries and the success of our lives. He has worked it out with LDS Business College that anyone from the OSM gets a 50% scholarship. 

 

Other than that there wasn't too much interesting that happened this week. I have been working on my Personal Progress, a challenge that the Young Women give to every missionary that serves in the ward,  and I am on track to have that finished before I leave. When I finish I get a medalion on a key chain. I think that it is a cool idea to get the young women involved and motivated to get their personal progress done. This ward has a great youth program, there are about 80 youth which is great to see. I am convinced that if you want a great ward you need to have a great youth program. Something else that is cool is they Young Men all challenged the Elder Quorum to a Duty to God challenge. So the Elders are racing the young men to see who can get it done first.

 

It is exciting to see the gospel roll forward and to see all that the Lord is doing. There are miracles out there to be had and there is nothing to stop us from seeing them other than out lack of faith and trust. Ether 12:12

 

I love you all and wish you the very best week.

 

Dustin

 

September 9

Hey!!

This has been another great week! It went by SO fast. The first week of a transfer always seems to be the fastest but I really don't think that it is going to slow down. Big events always seem to make time go faster and there are several "big" events over the next month. Elder Lee and I had a great week. Both with Elder Irvine and with Elder Lee it has been weird being their companions because we have served around each other for so long that it feels like we are just on exchanges. It is great though. 

Things in my world have been a little more quite, Elder Irvine and I never stopped talking so it has felt very quiet over the past week. Not that Elder Lee and I don't get along it is just a different companionship and we don't talk like a bunch of teen-aged girls. We spent a lot of the week going around and trying to see different people and searching for new people to teach, everything in life as a missionary depends on having people to teach. 

We do have one investigator with a baptism date, Kristyn. She started to meet with missionaries over two years ago but her parents won't let her be baptized until she is 18, which happens in November. I hate to see parents be so unsupportive of their children. It is so sad to know that they really want to be a part of the church but mom and dad say no. She has even been paying her tithing over the past two years even though she isn't a member. I am just really excited for her that she can be baptized soon. 

So I had Sister Hawker help me order a suit. It ended up only costing $150. The really funny part is that I went to pay for it and what do you know my debit card had expired so I had her log into paypal and just take it out of my checking account. They said that it should be delivered before the end of the month and if there are any problems with the fit Sister Hawker said that she can adjust it. It is so nice having the Hawkers live next door, they really take good care of us. Today we went with disk golfing with Brother Hawker. It was a great course out in the middle of nowhere (between Banks and Vernonia if you want to look it up on google maps, Stub Stewart State Park). I will miss places like that when I get home, it is cool to be able to drive for less than 15 minutes and be at a state park. I am going to sell my bike to the Hawkers. 

I am really excited to be able to go to the temple. I haven't been able to go since July and I am excited to see the changes. I get to go on the 25th with my district and then I get to go again on Oct 8th for the departing trip. It kind of freaked me out when they told me that this week, time has just gone by so fast. I am just glad that there are good things happening here and that I get to have such a great finish. 

Thanks for all that you do for me! I love you all!

Dustin

September 1

Hey!

 

This has been a great week! I got Elder Irvine shipped off down to Albany to be a ZL down there for 6 weeks. I am super happy that I was able to stay here, I really didn't want to have a six week area. I really wanted to stay here and get the work built up. My new companion is Elder Lee. We served in the McMinnville District together for 6 months and we work together quite a bit while we were there. He is a great missionary and I am glad that he is my companion. He and I are a good fit and we work well together. I really never would have thought that he would ever be my companion, I have learned to never to to guess or predict what is going to happen. Elder Walker is training which is way exciting! That makes two mission sons and three mission grandsons.

 

Last night at Kindel's was great. When we set it up she said that her husband was going to be gone hunting but when we got there her entire family was there (husband and two kids) and then a few minutes later her father came over. The dinner wasn't quite ready when we got there so we visited with them for a while while it finished cooking and then she asked me to say grace. We then went out on her back porch and had dinner, she has an awesome view of the valley. Our dinner conversation was great. We were able to talk about what a mission is and what we do as missionaries. Her father had the most questions. It was funny at one point Kindel told her dad that he needed to ask her a question so that I could eat before I wasted away. After dinner she took us and showed us her goats and chickens. Then she showed us around her house, she has a sweet office that dad would love. Just before we left I asked if we could share a scripture and Kindel called her kids in. I decided to share Ether 12:27 and talk about grace. It was cool because they had heard about the Book of Mormon but didn't really know what it was so I was able to share a little about it. She then handed us a dozen eggs and some brownies and as we were on the way out she remembered that she wanted to hear my companion play the piano but it was getting kind of late so he said maybe next time. She was excited about that and said if you don't hear from me in the next few weeks to just send her a text and invite ourselves back up. They are a super awesome family and they would be awesome members of the church. Perhaps she will have a few questions and she will contact you or maybe even she will contact me. We will try to make it back up there before I leave. I was so happy that I didn't get transferred, I totally set that appointment in faith that I wouldn't get transferred because it was the earliest time that she could do it.

 

This past week after I was able to get in contact with Kindel I remembered that after I got my call mom told me that she had a friend that lived in Banks which is near Portland and that maybe I would get transferred to Banks and be able to teach her. Then I got transferred her and got an appointment with her, I didn't get transferred and I extended. If all of that hadn't happened I wouldn't have been able to meet her. Maybe this is the reason that I needed to extend was so that she could have the gospel. She said that she occasionally goes running with Nina Shurts who is the Young Woman's President. She already has fellowship:)

 

Things here are going really well, we just keep having miracles happen and I don't see them ending anytime soon. It is so much fun to be a part of this great work. I am so glad that I have had this great opportunity to be here and to serve. 

Thanks for all that you do for me! Love you all

 

Dustin