Therefore!!! sighhhh
Iaorana tatou!
This week was a stressful one so strap in.
The subject headline comes from a video call meeting I and a few other missionaries had to attend at 10 PM. This is too late for a meeting. I and all of the attendants were absolutely exhausted. One elder made a really good comment about a problem he has noticed. He kept going and was just about to give the amazing solution when he said "Therefore!" and then his brain gave up and he just sighed and shook his head. Rest in peace Elder 
Here are some other highlights:
1. I put an ad for service on a fb group. A woman named Billie responded. She lived a few blocks out of our area, but service is service. We took everything out of her shed and then put everything back in, doing all of this while her giant tortoise slept in the backyard. I only whacked my head walking in and out of the 5 ft tall shed maybe...4? 5 times? Billie was horrified at this Sister missionary who somehow felt no pain despite the high frequency of her head injuries.
The service ended. Billie was very grateful and kind. Very fun. I unfortunately got 0 pictures with the tortoise but I love doing service.
2. I went on exchanges with Sister Hess! We both felt prompted to stop by this man who previously had contact with missionaries. When the missionaries originally met him, his mother had died that week. We stopped by his house and began talking to him by his garage. He has suffered a lot of family deaths this month and needed a visit that very day. I think it is cool that missionaries have been guided to serve and visit this man in the times where he needed it the most. He is not interested but appreciated our visit and the scriptures we shared.
3. A member that we barely know called us after setting me back out car in the church parking lot. We thought he needed something or we left something at church, but he instead just wanted to know if that is a mission rule or if Hermana Humphreys is just a really bad driver.
4. We taught Hector! Hector was an ad referral. Pretty much every ad referral I have ever gotten has led to nothing- people saying they didn't mean to click on the ad, people saying they are no longer interested, etc. We called Hector and he is SO interested and really wants to meet with us in person! It was honestly a huge miracle.
5. In pretty much every second hour meeting in this ward, one baby will run up and down the aisle and his parents will chase after him. Yesterday, when this happened, this man sitting behind us shook his head and said "yeah, he's getting faster."
If anything this week, I was touched by the kindness of ward members. We get so frustrated when we have a member come to a lesson that falls through, worried that we have wasted the members time and that they won't be willing to help missionaries in the future. This happened SEVERAL time this week, and each time the member shrugged it off and thanked us for the opportunity they had to serve. One member told us he knows that it isn't really us that asks him to come to lessons, but Heavenly Father, so he isn't mad when lessons fall through but instead proud of himself for doing what God asked. Another member recognized that because our lesson fell through, we had no plans for the rest of the night. She invited us over to her home so we could finally share a message with their family. When we told her we were on our way over, she sent a text that said "let the speed tidying commence!" and a message a few minutes later that read "speed tidying completed!" Her name is Sister Hatch too, so I was so grateful to finally get to visit the cute Hatch family.
Voici ma petite pensée spirituelle:
Ether 12:27 reads:
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
When I first came into the Chaffey Ward, I immediately noticed all the problems. The ward has many visible weaknesses. What I have learned this week is that sometimes our weaknesses are actually strengths in Heavenly Father's eyes. As I have served in this ward for several months and learned about each person's situation and trials, I have realized that lots of these weaknesses are already strengths, when viewed with a more loving and less judgemental perception.
God knows us. He knows our trials and what we struggle with. He sometimes is not going to take away our weaknesses or make them better or stronger. What He will instead do is shift our perception to a more loving gaze and help us realize that some of our weaknesses were strengths all along. As my time in the Chaffey Ward comes to a close, I've been amazed by the strength of this ward, not because the weaknesses have gone away but because my perception has shifted.
This email is getting too long but know that I love each of you dearly! Je vous aime, ua here au ia outou! Keep being maita'i roa out there!
Sœur Hatch 
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