May 22, 2012

Hey family,

Hope things are going well for you. Thanks for the emails.  We did actually get to go on a hike on Monday up Laidley Creek which was fun. Like you said it is a good time of year to get outside and do things. It was a good hike and some great scenery. Monday night we gave a little autistic girl a blessing.  It was amazing.  She couldn’t sit still until we actually started the blessing and then as we blessed her she responded as if she knew Heavenly Father was speaking to her. The faith of a child is something special. The rest of the week went fairly smoothly.  We've been teaching more lately which has been good. We received a couple of great referrals and it is looking like several of them have good potential to progress on to baptism.  Our new Ward mission leader just got back from his mission a month ago but he jumped off a cliff and broke his feet...so. We did have a meeting with him this Sunday and he was pretty keen and will be a great help.

We caught a 6’ carpet python this last week that had found its way into someone's toilet.  My companion grabbed it and we walked it out away from the house and released it. Before he let it go though he got some good pictures of it wrapped around his arm.  It was fun.  Sunday we got the transfer call so Monday we spent mostly packing, cleaning and visiting members to say goodbye. I'm tired. 

It has been a long day already. Transfers were crazy. For the news and the updates: I got transferred from the Somerset region and have a new companion. The day of transfers is always very stressful for me personally. This set of transfers was very big. There was a lot of missionary shifting and there are quite a few (new) coming in too. That makes things interesting.  It was good to see a lot of the Missionaries that I've served with previously. I wasn't too surprised to be leaving this transfer but it was sad all the same. I really enjoyed serving in Somerset and I enjoyed my companion too. It was fun. Change is good though, and I'll move on and learn to love this area too. I've been transferred down south of Brisbane to a place call Nerang. It is on the Gold Coast which is a tourist part if the state. I don't know much about it right now but that it is a lot different than Somerset.  It’s not full on city but it definitely more populated that my last area.  My companion is Elder Sin from Cambodia. So far he has been interesting, he doesn't really speak great English but I’m sure he'll get better as time goes on. The next week and following weeks after will be interesting I'm sure. I'm just hoping for the best.  Our flat has two sets of missionaries living there and one of the Elders is a greeny. It will be fun I'm sure. These days are always so stressful. Thank you for your support and your prayers. I really appreciate it and am grateful for all that you do for me. Love you. Hope you have a great week ahead of you. Talk to you next Monday hopefully.

Elder Hatch