*Elder Hatch returns home from his mission the last week of February and he will report on his mission on March 10th. More details will be posted as it gets closer.

Monday, May 23, 2011

5/23/2011

Family!

Wow, it´s so weird to think about it being cold in Utah.. Sometimes I wish it would be cold here, then I realize every morning I get five minutes of cold when I shower and that´s plenty. And dad, that sounds like a crazy few days with the truck. I had a feeling the boat wouldn´t come in.. haha. I´ll answer your questions.. No, there are a few americans in our zone. I don´t know about that picture, but i´ll try to send one with our new zone soon. In our zone now there is Elder Rigby from logan, Elder Schrivner from New Mexico, Elder Stewart from Arizona, and Elder Burton from Idaho. There´s actually a lot of us from the states in my Zone. I´ll try to send some pictures of the streets, etc. The problem is that if you take your camera out in the streets you´ll probably get robbed. I´ll do it though.

As for the kisses, yes it is because the custom here is to greet with a kiss. They almost always do it, so it throws people off when we give them a stiff handshake from far away, but they get the message usually. and of course they just can´t resist me.. Ooh dad, that´s awesome you saw the new pirates of the Caribbean! When i was in hawaii I heard they filmed a lot of it like 20ish minutes away from BYU Hawaii! How was it? Today for p-day as a zone we watched the work and the glory movies, yes, three of them. I slept through the second and orco and i left when they were starting the third, they´re probably still watching it now.. But we also had pizza hut and ice cream as a zone, it was a pretty awesome p-day! And orco and I just went and got haircuts.

This upcoming week is going to be really busy, i´ll give a little outline: Tomorrow morning we have district and zone conference (which is one of my favorite parts of the week, because that´s when we get our mail!), and from there Elder Orcohuaranga is doing a working visit with elder Burton. That means Elder Burton is coming to our area to work for 24 hours with orco, and I´ll take his spot in López Albújar for a day. I like the working visits, it´s like a sleep over. Then on thursday We have a multi-zone conference this thursday with the mission president from 8 am to 3 pm. Friday I believe I´m doing a working visit with one of the Zone Leaders. Elder Rigby´s new companion, Elder Aroni is super cool. He´s from Cuzco (where machu picchu is) but he´s never even been to it! we talked on sunday for like an hour while orco was interviewing someone for a baptism. Then on saturday in the morning we have interviews with president chipman, which i´m kind of nervous for. Lots to do! and we have to solidify Asunción for her baptism on Sunday! it should be an awesome week.

As for this last week, it was one of my favorites of the whole mission!

First and saddest of all, Elder Orcohuaranga got dear johned officially last week. A few weeks ago she kind of hinted at it, but last week in an email she dropped the bomb that she was dating someone else and in love. That, combined with the fact that he has 27 days left, have made him get pretty trunkie, but i´m keeping him in shape :)

Last Tuesday i was super pumped to finally get the package from home and i was expecting it at the zone conference, but it didn´t come. I was bummed.. Then that night while orco and i were eating at our pension the zone leaders showed up and said there was an emergency transfer and i had to leave with them right then and orco was mad because we had an appointment right then, but it was a joke and they were special delivering my package that came in later that day! it came!!!!! Thanks so much for everything. When i opened it, the inside was filthy dirty and i thought it was dirt that had gotten in, but the packet of oreos had just opened up and gotten all over. And in a marvelous showing of self-control i made the candy last all the way until today! I loved it, and i love my family :) Also, as for the package you sent with the wrong name, it´s fine. the office will send me a paper with a power of attorney thing and i have to put a finger print on it and sign it and the new elder can pick it up.

A random fact, I accidentally bought a battery powered tooth brush, and those flosser things came, and i´m using some awesome toothpaste megan conley sent me, and with all this awesome stuff i have now, i´ve found a new passion for dental hygiene. I love love brushing my teeth now haha.
Random... but people always vend fruits in the streets here, and on these fruit carts there are always huge piles of these little red romano tomato things, and i would always see little kids eating them and i was so confused why the kids loved them so much, then one day our pensionista gave them to us. Turns out they´re called ciruela and they´re amazing! it´s like a plum mixed with a peach mixed with a grape... haha i can´t describe it. but they´re orange inside and so good!

Now the story of yesterday, which i think has been the best day of mission to date.

We had planned the baptism of Fernando Cotrina, and everything was all ready for him, but anderson told us during the week that he wanted to wait a while to get baptized so we were kind of bummed. then after sacrament meeting anderson told us he wanted to get baptized that day! so we hustled and found some more pants, got him interviewed by the zone leaders, etc. And we had two baptisms yesterday! sorry i forgot to bring my camera today, but i´ll send pictures next week! and Elio, an awesome investigator we have, went to the baptism with his wife, and they talked to the bishop in his office for a while, and when they came out the bishop called me over to them, and Elio said he wants me to baptize him! it´s such an honor! he´s going to be the most unreal member ever. He already studies the book of mormon every day, the bible for an hour every morning. Give him two years and he´ll be a stake president or something. Then a 25ish year old member came up to us and said he is just reactivating, and his non member wife wants to get baptized and asked if we could teach her... we grudgingly accepted... haha we taught her last night and she is the definition of golden! she answered all of our questions better than i could have, seriously. And she has a baptismal date for the 12th of June now! The field is so white all ready to harvest it´s unreal! i hope it stays like this my whole mission!

also yesterday i spilled some weird fruit on my tie, shirt, and pants, got gum all over my pants somehow, and when orco and i were racing up the stairs my shirt got snagged on a metal thing and ripped the shoulder haha!   bad day for the clothes. this is long enough now! Love you!

Elder Hatch

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