5/9/2011

Mi Querido Familia!
Ah, hace tanto tiempo que hablamos, no se como empezar... jk. It was
so awesome to talk last night with the whole family! except kari and
aaron, but i know they were there in spirit. Yesterday I was thinking
about how blessed i am to have an entire family who are all strong
members of the church and who all completely support me on my mission,
and on top of that all of my friends too! There is an elder in my
zone, Elder Pacori, who is the only member in his family and he didn´t
even tell his friends he was going on a mission. Yesterday he tried to
call home and they didn´t answer, but he´s still so so positive. I
can´t even imagine that, i´m so blessed! Last night when we called we
were in the house of the ward mission leader. We were going to call
from our pension but their phone wasn´t working so we had to walk all
the way back to campodonico. But their family is so great and they were all listening to me talk and they
thought it was so funny to hear me talk in english. Afterwards they
were all trying out their english words on me. It´s so hard to
understand people when they try to speak english! Way harder than
spanish haha.
Actually it was mother´s day here in Peru too. And mother´s day is
HUGE here. It blows american mother´s day out of the water. Everyone
goes and visits their mother, even if they live hours away. And in our
wards they put on huge programs the nights before, and there were
parties in the streets, etc. And yeah elder orcohuaranga got to call
home too. He wasn´t really that excited because he´ll be home in six
weeks anyway, so he didn´t talk too long.
I feel fine mom.. i´ve had a little cold that won´t quite go away, but
overall im just dandy. I have my vitamins but i haven´t been taking
them, i´ll start. And yeah im pretty sure you did the package right!
they just take forever. And yes put the name of the secretary first.
But there were changes and now just put Elder Cox, that should be
good. i don´t know his first name and orco said that should be fine.
Today were cambios. I want to say changes in english because that´s
what it translates to, but i´m not sure what they´re called in
english. Elder Orcohuaranga and i are staying in our same area like we
thought, but now he´s district leader. Like half the zone was changed,
but my life will still be the same for another six weeks when i get a
new companion and probably a new area, and maybe a new mission too! I
may even get the chance to open up a new area, that would be so cool!
Other than that not too much has happened! Anderson´s baptism is
coming up this next sunday and we´re hoping to get Fernando baptized
then too! also, Tania´s mom, Asuncion, who was super super super
catholic when we first met her has a baptismal date too! for the 29th.
She has this agenda that the church put out that she´s secretly been
reading and totally agrees with all the doctrines and understands
everything. I´m excited for her! We should have another solid cambio!
I have truly come to love this work. Sometimes it´s so hard and
discouraging, but looking back those are the times i´ve grown the
most. I know i´m still a baby in the mission and have lots to learn,
but for now i´m loving it!
I absolutely know that the church is Christ´s church restored today,
guided by Him through a modern day prophet. I can´t think of anything
i´d rather do than teach people this amazing message and watch their
lives be changed through Christ. What an incredible opportunity it is
to be a part of this work! Have a great week everyone!
Elder Hatch