Monday, July 21, 2014

Things Are Just Peachy!

HEY HEY HEY!

What an awesome Eye opening weeks I had!!! It is so crazy to me that every week is full of just so many spiritual events! EVERY WEEK!  I hope after I get home it will continue to be that way.  subconciously, a missionary gets into a state of complacency.  I think we get so used to or comfortable with the amount of spirit that we are always feeling.  This past week I have challenged myself to work for more! And let me tell you... IT WAS SUCCESSFUL!!!!

Fist I have to say that we here in the Riverside Ward had an awesome Pioneer Day celebration!  Most people dressed up bonnet an all! We also had a Pie competition! So I decided to enter!  haha. All the woman in the church were really intrigued that a missionary would sign up to make a pie.... wellllllll they don't know me.... HA!  so I entered the pie contest and made a Peach pie! shout out to Jen Smith!!! thanks for the recipe!! My pie took second! I was okay with the outcome, due to the fact that most people were sick so their taste buds were probably a little off? just kidding. The winning(Apple) pie was great!!! I sent a picture of the pie too.

Alrighty! Back to the spirit!  So this week I was praying in my heart all the time that I would be able to first better sense the spirit and then immediately follow the prompting.  It was crazy how FAST the promptings would come.  k the key thing to this whole experience is that I was looking for opportunities to follow the spirit. They were all around.  I would see someone leaving somewhere and feel they need to go talk to them and just tell them we love them!  Or I saw someone get offended by something another person said and would go talk to them! It was really little weird things like that, but I would always be watching at the right moment!  I know if we prepare for the day prayerfully and then go out and put ourselves in a position to feel the spirit, our answers and promptings will come.   A lot of people say, 'I don't know if I have ever felt the spirit.' Well I can relate! Growing up I really struggled with my faith in all of this.  This past week I have come to the conclusion that if you get a feeling or thought that promotes you to do or say a good thing; then it is Heavenly Father's spirit. Anything that invites you to do good or be good is from God.  So follow the good feeling you get! And trust that Good will come from God!

Our investigator Renee is amazing.  She has literally been through it all!!! It amazes me as one who lives a pretty pampered life that I have faltered in my faith in God from time to time.  But Renee who has gone through Hell has never once questioned why God let her go through these things?  I really didn't understand it.  I was quite disappointed in myself!  I am striving to be more like Renee!  She has so many obstacles but is relentless in her faith in God!  This is the kind of person we all need to be.  Faithful.

I am SO thankful for the refining process of a mission! I feel like everyday I am loosing more and more of myself, but subsequently I am also finding myself. I wont say its always a smooth beautiful process, but it is worth it.
I know the Savior loves us just how we are, but enough to not leave us that way.  Let the Refining BEGIN!!!!

Love you alll!!!

elder patch


address:

246 Clinton Heights Ave.
Columbus, OH 43202


Monday, July 14, 2014

The Great OCM

This week has just been great!  

We got meet up with the leadership of this mission and have a council with our new mission president!  President Daines is the cooooolest!  He has just a greatpersonality and is so real and relatable with us! it has been so great getting to know him better and gain trust with him so quickly! He is so down to earth and is leading this mission with LOVE!  It feels way good.  I am so excited to see what comes of it!  His wife, sister Daines is amazing!  She just reminds me of you mom!  Like the most loving woman!  

We have taught a ton of lessons this week!  We are teaching just some really fantastic people who are so humble and willing to learn!  It has been so hard to find these people but I am so grateful that we have!  We are teaching a woman named Renee.  She is so fun and loving!  She has had quite the past and is always open with us!  I just have to say how grateful I am for the life I have. I love hearing peoples life stories but I can't believe how blessed I really am to have my life!  Some things that people go through is amazing!  I think if i had to go through any bit of what they have to I would just crumble.  But what is so great is that once these people catch on to what we are really teaching they start to see relief!  I love preaching HOPE! I realize more and more how proactive Satan really is.  This guy is not lazy!  Seriously!  Whenever something good happens it seems like he tries to foil it in some way! soooo annoying. like C'mon! give us a break! shhesssh!!! Renee is getting baptized at the end of the month! We are so excited and proud of her!!

Last night we had an awesome lesson with this mom.  She was so sweet and had so many questions about this gospel!  The whole time I just felt like I was teaching my mom!  We meet with a ton of people, but I love teaching mothers the most, cause I just know how important Mothers are, and I know what a difference this can make in their lives as well as their children!  So mom thank you for everything, especially showing your love for this gospel my whole life!  I love being able to really testify to these woman that I know personally what this gospel will do for them! I see it everyday when I am with my MOMMA!  SHOUT OUT TO MOMMA PATCH! 

I am just really grateful to be here!  to be learning so much so quickly!  I love the people we get to meet!  everyone here just feels like people I would hang out with back home , so it is like I am sharing my testimony with all my friends!  This area I am in has pushed me and challenged me in soooo many ways.  It is so much like home and the people are so similar to people I know, so it can be hard to stay focused! But a ton of prayer and faith has helped a ton!  I love you all!  keep being missionaries where you live!

LOVE

Elder Patch





Monday, July 7, 2014

-HOLD ON-


HELLO GREAT PEOPLE OF MY LIFE!!!!!!


Thank you EVERYONE for all the letters and cards and everything!  I can't believe how kind all of you are!  It seriously makes a missionary feel so great!  I am so SO thankful for so many amazing people in my life.  I hope each of you know how much I love you!  I would have never gone on this mission if it wasn't for so many of you!! SO THANK YOU!

This week has just been awesome!  It also weirds me out that a year from now I will be home!  I talked with my mission Pres. and we decided that I would go home the July 10th transfer oh 2015... I am so excited for this next year!  I have been think a lot about what I have learned and the many people that have changed my life while I have been here! I hope this year I will get to bring even more people to the gospel!  I have never had so much joy in my life, than seeing sons and daughters of God that embrace and hold on to this truth!  ONE YEAR TO GO AND A MILLION LIVES TO CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!

I have heard about some issues that have happened in Utah with certain disagreements with church doctrine.  I think having questions about certain things is very healthy!  I love that in this church I feel free to ask and  question things to get a better understanding!  But I also realize that God IS STILL YET REVEALING THINGS.  I Know for myself that I need to trust in the Lord and His Prophet and wait for further revelation to come in its time.  It is sad for me to hear that people leave this truth.  But I am reminded of the vision Lehi had in the Book of Mormon of the Tree of Life.  Lehi sees people that are holding STEADFAST to the Iron rod.  These people are consistent and are partaking of the fruit regularly.  There are others that are involved as well!  People who are CLINGING to the rod, and once they partake of the fruit, they fall away because they are ashamed.  I realized from this vision how important it is to provide myself with daily spiritual sustenance.  If we only cling on to grand spiritual experiences and then don't supplement afterwords then chances are we will fall away.  We must constantly STEADFASTLY be nourishing our testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel. Like I said last week... GOD IS SIFTING!  He is looking for his daughters and sons that will put all their trust and will towards him!  Through this process that we don't fully understand; we can become refined and changed!!  We should not let ourselves let go of the truth or faith we have or had just because we don't understand!  We have to have faith when we lack comprehension!  'Doubt your doubts before you doubt you faith!  I always say that FAITH will lead to action!  But in reality DOUBT WILL ALSO LEAD TO ACTION!  Defend yourself against doubt by holding on to that rod steadfastly!  

I just have to bear my testimony of this truth!
I KNOW THIS IS REALLY TRUE!  I have learned so much EVERYDAY from what I am teaching!  THIS IS NOT ABOUT RELIGION!! This is all about the TRUTH!  I know Satan is working so hard!  But We are working hard too! And I PROMISE I WILL NEVER GIVE UP! I know what this gospel can do!  It is doing it for me right now!  I know that the Book of Mormon is true! I know that we have a Living, breathing, smiling Prophet on the earth again!  I know Christ Lives!  This gospel that I am teaching is living and breathing and growing, because it is the gospel of Christ who lives!!! I love you all, and am so thankful that God let me know and love each of you, even if we don't share the same beliefs! In the name of JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.

Elder Patch

pics.
1. my new companion! ELDER CAMPBELL!! THE MAN!!
2. hey.
3.Fourth of July Breakfast! wayyyy good
4.We Built a Deck! Yes i even helped.... :)
5. Missionary lunch! #Bibibop
6. Carey. my favorite Italian.  she is getting baptized!









Manna From Heaven



HEY FAM AND FRIENDS!!!!

FIRST OFF THANK YOU FOR ALL THE 

BIRTHDAY LETTERS! AND GIFTS!
YOU ALL ARE AMAZING!!! I REALLY MISS AND LOVE ALL OF YOU!!! EXPECT LETTERS SOON!



Well a cool thing just happened!  We just ran into NEON TREES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY HAVE A CONCERT HERE TONIGHT AND WANT TO TAKE US OUT TO DINNER AHHAHAHAHAHHAHAH! WHAT IS LIFE?! THATS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SHOP AT URBAN OUTFITTERS HAHAH! 

 Well I have to stop writing in all caps.. I am just so HAPPY!!! 
A lot of things have changed!  We got a new mission President today! President Daines!  He is the VP for AT&T!!! Can you say IPADS!!!!!? Also I have a new companion!  Elder Kevin Campbell!   The coolest kid ever.  I really needed him!  We have been having so much fun!  I missed having fun! It has been so great to just instantly get along and want the same things! Makes things so MUCH easier!!! 

So many great things are happening here!  We are teaching the most amazing Part member family!  The dad is a member and he is trying to gain courage to come back to church! I love that man! He is so tender and just wants his family to be happy!  It is really interesting to meet so many different people and hear their individual story and then you get to be a part of it!  it is a beautiful thing!  I want every moment that I add to their story to be a positive happy one!  I love LIFE!!!!!!!!!!! i really just love being a missionary! This last week I have just more fully grasped how important it is that i am here right NOW!  Like the world is getting so crazy bad!  Satan or any adversity is just sick the way the turn things or prepare people specifically not to accept what GOOD things we are teaching!  I just think about how stupid it would have been for me not to go on this mission!  Their are so many people that I KNOW I was supposed to find specifically and if I chose not to go they may not have been found or had the same experience!  I look forward to coming home cause I WILL do so much better at inviting my friends to learn and be a WAY better example for them!  I love that everything I am teaching is positive thing!  I think before my mission I was consumed by "good" things but not the "best"!  I want the best for the rest of my life!  AND LET ME TELL YOU! THIS GOSPEL IS THE BEST!!!!! SO START LIVING WHAT YOU BELIEVE!  God DOESN'T NEED VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS OR DOCTORS OR LAWYERS OR CHEFS!  HE NEEDS DISCIPLES! MEN AND WOMAN THAT WILL STAND BY HIM AT ALL TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thankful for all of you!  You have no idea what each and everyone of you has done for my life!  EVERY single one of you have added to my story in a positive way!  Thank you! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!


Elder Spatch