I feel such a pressure to make the subject line good

Bonjour mes amis! 
Iaorana to'u mau hoa!
Hello my friends! 


I am now in Murrieta California! I still don't know where north is but ça va. 
Speaking of directions, directions remind me of driving....
And speaking of DRIVING (nice Segway Sister Hatch) I was introduced to Socal by driving on the freeway. My trainer, the lovely and incredible and beautiful Sister Winkler, couldn't find her driving card which meant that it was I who had to drive us from Riverside to Murrieta. I was VERY scared because driving is not my forte, but it went well! I literally hadn't driven on a big road in probably a year but here I am! 


Things are maitai roa (très bien or very good) here in the California Riverside Mission! It is amazing how much personal growth you can make in a week. For the first few days, I was kind of sad to not be speaking French or Tahitian. I KNOW I am where I need to be, but it is hard not to be speaking the languages that I have put so much effort into learning. 
On Wednesday I was kind of having a bummer day, but God is good and knew what I needed. Sister Winkler and I were walking around a neighborhood and started talking to this little old man. He IMMEDIATELY started speaking in French to us. He had learned it when he was growing up in Vietnam. It was soooo fun to listen to French. I am not completely sure that what I said to him was in French--probably just noises, but I understood all that he said. God knew that what I needed RIGHT THEN was French. Twas fantastic. God is good tout le monde! 


We are over 2 wards so I have been trying to learn many names. (Luckily everyone is pretty fantastic.) Why can't everyone just wear name tags like missionaries?
Example of the utility of name tags:
Our district leaders (two missionaries who call us every night) are named Elder Stevens and Elder Stevenson. Don't know who is who, which is why name tags come in CLUTCH. 
I rest my case.

Something I really love that was shared in one sacrament meeting was the story of a plastic fork. Plastic forks are the results of hundreds of years of technological innovation- factories, invention of plastic. Their invention and creation has cost millions of dollars and they have to travel many thousand miles to get to their destinations. But when the speaker is handed one in a burger restaurant, the fork is unneeded and he throws it straight in the trash. He throws a fork, an item that took so much effort to create, in the trash without a second thought. 
How often do we take our blessings for granted? How absolutely incredible is it that we have families and sunsets and flowers and cookies and God! I think we often just throw these blessings in the figurative trash, not using them to their full potential. We have been given the gift of prayer, so USE it, DON'T throw it away, and PRAY! We have been put in families, so DON'T ignore them and TALK to them! Show gratitude to God by using the blessings that He has so freely given to us. 

Want more Sister Hatch thoughts? Probably not, but if you DO, email me! 

I love you all! Je vous aime. Ua here au ia outou. (Autocorrect did NOT like that last sentence but I truly do love everyone so I pushed through)
-your Utah Tuahine who learned this week that what you are smelling is not skunk, it's weed.

Pictures! 
I called Jame and he just did filters. "I didn't know what you expected out of me Elise." 
Sister Winkler and I! 
Pretty flowers and pretty Sister Winkler. 
One last selfie with the fam
Mom! 
Friends at Sister Taintor's farewell. 










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