December 21, 2011

Dear family,

Some updates of

how things are going:

The big thing out here is not ice cream, but custard. It's EVERYWHERE! Seriously. Have you ever heard of Culver's? It's a fast food place out here that has a different flavor of the day every day of different things they mix in the custard. It's delicious :)

I finally went into a Menards. What the heck?? That store is crazy! It's a hardware store mostly, but then you're walking through, and suddenly you're in the middle of a cereal isle. Continue walking, past the Ranch dressing and tuna fish, and you will soon come upon clothing. And toys. And who knows what else because that place has EVERYTHING! It's crazy.

And now to the more serious things (though ice cream/custard is quite serious in itself): Our ward is awesome. In addition to all the food they gave us, they have now given us tons of Christmas presents! Our "tree" actually kind of looks like a tree now it has so many things under it! And once again, our counter is beginning to overflow with goodies and treats. Apparently everyone has the same train of thought, which goes a little something like this: "I have WAY too much of this food and these Christmas treats... I know, I'll give it to the missionaries! We had to freeze some of it we have so much. And some of it might still go bad before we can eat all the leftovers, becuase the ward feeds us every night! It's awesome.

Have you ever been to christmas.mormon.org? You should go. It's cool.

About investigators: Jasmine (have I told you about her?) is doing great. She is so cute! She is 12 years old, and has such a strong desire to follow God! She really is incredible. And we were finally able to meet her mom! We tried to schedule times that she would be home, but then things kept coming up, and it would only be the grandma home, who doesn't actually speak English... (She is from Haiti, so she speaks French Creole). Then on Monday, her mom came home right as we were getting ready to leave. She was so nice and thanked us for teaching her daughter about God. It was really cool. English is her second language, so she said she struggles sometimes knowing how to teach Jasmine about Him, but she seems to be doing a pretty good job so far. We talked to Jasmine about prayer on Monday, and she said that they say their prayers every night before bed, AND they have family prayers. umm... AWESOME!

We also just started teaching a girl named Nathalice (sounds like Natalice). She is 16 and has a 6 month old baby, andwants to be a better person. We found her because she had ordered a Bible from mormon.org after she heard people talking about the Second Coming and she wanted to know more because she was kind of scared about it. She said we could come back, and we were able to talk to her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We have our third appointment with her on Friday. She is so sweet. It was actually really sad (turned into a good thing) too, because she said that she didn't feel like she could pray or that God would listen because she hadn't been to church in a while (her family is Catholic, but I don't know how strong they are) so when we told her she could pray to know about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, she was really happy to know God would still listen to her and that He would answer her prayer. The next time we went back, she said she had been having a really bad day, so she decided to pray, and afterward she felt really good and things started to get better. It was so cool! She's great and I am so excited for her to learn more about the gospel and be able to turn her life around.

Update on Don and Rose: Rose had a crazy weekend working, so she wasn't going to be able to make it to church. Because she wouldn't be coming, neither would Don. But, the Spirit was working on him, and on Friday he told us that he was going to try to come even if she couldn't! And even though it would be far for him to drive alone. Sunday morning it was really foggy outside and we weren't sure if we would see Don or not. But he still came!!!! Without Rose, driving far by himself, and driving through the FOG! It was a miracle. Then yesterday we had lunch with Don and Rose and it was really great. We were able to explain a little more about the Restoration to Rose and answer some of her other questions. And we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read from it!!!!!

Things are really moving forward here in Woody 2 and I am so blessed to be a part of it!

I love you all so much! I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas.

Love, Sister Ali Hatch