6/27/2011

This week has been super different from the whole rest of my mission! I feel a lot more like a missionary now haha, i can´t explain it. But before with elder Orcohuaranga it was almost too easy to baptize and stuff. He was such a great missionary. But now everything is tough, Elder Insaurralde and I have to struggle for every lesson, and the best way to describe it is just work. Tuesday morning we went to the bus station which is always super crazy on transfer days because there are TONS of missionaries there and it´s really fun to see everyone. There are already a lot of familiar faces. Anyways, i went there with the zone leaders and picked him up, and we grabbed a cab back to our area with just us two, and it was in the cab when it really hit me that i would be directing the area, and that he knew absolutely nothing about campodonico! Not gonna lie, it was (and still is) a super rough transition from extremely junior companion to basically senior. Elder Orcohuaranga taught me well though and I´m to trying to teach Elder Insaurralde all I can. He´s a really cool guy, a little timid, which i´m helping him with, but he´s a great companion. He is from the very corner of paraguay like five minutes away from brazil. He speaks spanish (duh) english, portugese, and guaraní (if you spell it like that), which is awesome and i want to learn them all from him! As is imaginable, we didn´t have many appointments set for this week because orco was finishing off his mission, so we basically started from square one again. I feel like it´s even rougher than being in a completely new area though because i already know basically all the members and we already baptized all the easy part member families! so this week we knocked a lot of doors, and had very very little success with that. So we´re going to change it up this week. We got a few references, and i want to start visiting the old investigators again. But it´s been tough to find new investigators. This morning all the missionaries went to the institute of religion here to say bye to president and sister chipman. It was so weird to think he´s not going to be my mission president anymore! The mission Chiclayo officially starts on the first of july, and on the second we´re going to meet president Risso, from Uruguay! But it was really fun this morning to talk to some other missionaries. I talked to elder Seitz from vernal ut, and he gave me a bunch of sports updates! I heard Jimmer went to Sacramento! but he got drafted to another team originally... I´ve been completely lost as to the sports world. I actually forgot about sports. Not kidding.
Last night we taught a lesson to a 50ish year old man named Wilfredo Sanchez. He´s super into politics and thinks peru is the worst country in the world and basically worships america and germany. He was talking about how all the people are so wicked and spend all their money on alcohol, and we tied it in with how the world is going to get worse and worse until Christ comes again. I basically got on my soapbox and preached to him. It was awesome, because usually lessons are to people who just sit and listen to you, barely answer your questions, etc. But last night there was a dance party next door to where we were so we were already basically yelling and it just made everything more exciting. The spirit was definiately present and as i was telling him that the answer to all of his questions can be found in the book of mormon and that all he had to do was read and pray, i felt really grateful for having had it in my life always. I´ve taken it so for granted that we just have the book of mormon and know the church is true, but other people are so lost! I hope he follows through with his commitment to read. This week will be another hard one, but i´m ready to get to work! Pray for me!
Love you all,
Elder Hatch
ps the picture is of elder insaurralde and i with pres and sister chipman

6/20/2011

This week has been a week unlike any other of my mission so far. Elder Orcohuaranga was finishing up his mission and did so very well. We had pretty good numbers, even though for the last few days we were mainly saying bye to his converts, etc. It was really cool to see how much the people remember the missionaries who brought them the Gospel. One family orco baptized just went to the temple a few months ago, and it was so so awesome to see how happy they were! I can't wait to have people i've baptized go through the temple. So, this morning we woke up at 3:30 AM so we could make it to the bus agency before 5 when orco's bus left to piura. He'll spend the day there today then tonight he'll be home before 10. We exchanged ties and stuff, it was a cool last day together and he was an awesome trainer. I'll definitely miss him and wish i could still ask him for advice during this next transfer.
 
So, today i'm with the zone leaders waiting out the change that will happen tomorrow. We found out this morning at like 11 all the transfer info. dun dun dun... I'm staying in my same area of Campodónico, and my new companion is elder Insurralde (i think) from Paruguay! but my companion only has one transfer in the mission, and we´re a co-companionship. But since it's my area and i have more time than him, etc. my zone leaders told me it's basically like i'm senior companion. I was absolutely scared when i found out. I was just sitting there meditating on what in the world i was going to do and what i did to deserve such a radical change for like an hour. Then i went to pray and read the book of mormon for about ten seconds before i found the answer to all my doubts and it put to rest all my nerves. I read in 1 Nephi chapter 9, and the last two verses of the chapter gave me such amazing peace, i can't explain it. I know so strongly that the Book of Mormon is true. Every time i read it it gives me in some way exactly what i need. My testimony has also been strengthened exponentially by seeing other people recieve their personal testimony of it. It amazes me how much people are willing to change when they feel the spirit whispering to them that it's true. This next transfer is 9 weeks, because there's an extra three weeks for the new mission president to get settled in kind of, so my new companion and i will have a little extra time to see what the Lord can do through us with so little experience. President Chipman even wrote me an email and told me that missionaries with so little experience are almost never put together like this, but told me  to trust in the Lord and that we would see His hand in the work. I'm really excited to see what will come out of these next few months. I have faith that we'll be able to have some baptisms, but i feel like there are going to be some serious challenges too. I'm so excited!
Thanks so much for all the prayers and support, I can feel the extra help i'm receiving. Please keep it coming in these next few weeks, as i'm sure they'll be a tough transition!
 
Mom and Dad, i'm sure you're having a blast in Europe, and I can't wait to see photos and hear all about it!
Love you,
Elder Hatch
 
The first photo is of elder orco and i with Yaruska on the right, who we baptized a few weeks ago, and her little sister Katia on the left. She's the last member of her family who still isn't baptized, we'll try to fix that! :)
The other photo is taken from the window of our zone leaders' apartment, but it's basically what all the streets in my area look like too. All of chiclayo is identical!

6/13/2011

I still don´t think i´m going to be able to send pictures, the computers here are so ghetto! the internet goes like a mile per hour.. Yeah sorry about last week, we didn´t end up having time to come back and i was super frustrated. But the quartet went really well! the musical fireside was awesome and the spirit was super strong. We have another one this friday night too, and we´ve invited a bunch of people so it should be great. About the glasses package, i wrote you about a month ago or so with the new missionary`´s name. it´s not cox, i´ll see if i can find it if i have time. but sending them now is risky anyway, wait until you come back from the trip because right now i´m not sure what mission i´ll even be in. We have transfers this upcoming week, and i´m really excited for a change. As much as i love my area and elder orcohuaranga, I can´t wait to have a new companion, and maybe new area and mission. But i think i´ll stay in campodonico one transfer more.. So to answer dad´s question, i´ll find out which mission im in next monday! Elder orcohuaranga leaves this sunday and i´ll live with the zone leaders for a day. Haha elder orco is super ready to go home.. and he´s getting worse and worse with the rules each day. he´ll make it alright though. I can´t remember if i said thanks for the package with the calendar and ensign, but if i did thanks again! the calendar is so funny and mom that was so so nice of you to go through and write all the days, etc. I love you!

Some stuff that´s gone on since i wrote last.. it´s been forever! We baptized Elio on the 7th of June, his birthday. He´s the same age as dad, and it was really cool. We also baptized his daughter, Yeruska, who is 19 and wants to go on a mission really bad when she turns 21. I baptized them both and hope i´ll be able to send a picture someday! Yesterday we baptized Luz, the most golden investigator of all time. It was a really spiritual service, and they are going to be such a great family in the church! So now if we´re counting i have had the priviledge of participating in 8 baptisms already! It´s been a great time here in Campodonico.

This last week I started having a handwriting crisis. First i changed to cursive, then to super neat normal handwriting, which i think i´ll stick to. It looks kind of girly, i still need to work some kinks out.. haha.

This last week we were walking in the street and i heard something come crashing down on the street so i turned around and a little old man had been pulling a bike-cart filled with bags of cement and it tipped over on his leg and he was yelling for help, so orco and i ran and helped him and everything. I felt kind of like a superhero, but a lot more of christ´s love and it felt so good to be able to help him. Then i realized that´s all i do now is help people with their salvation, what amazing work! I really want to send pictures, and i´ll try some more after i finish this letter, but i probably won´t be able to, i´m sorry!

Mom and dad everything sounds so fun in the summer there! And have an awesome time on your trip and be careful with your money. Maybe you´ll see austin saguibo in paris! He´s like an hour away from there though. And casey thanks for the letter, it´s awesome to hear from you and to get the sports update, even if the heat and mavericks, my two least favorite teams are in the finals...

I know the work i´m doing is God´s work. I feel it every day as i´m sharing the gospel with people. I want to be so much better, and just want to be able to convert everyone! it makes me so sad when people just don´t have the desires to listen or change. If they only knew how important this was for them and how much better their lives could be! I´m eternally grateful for having been born into the gospel, because who knows if i would have found it otherwise. What a blessing it has been in my life and of our family. I thank Heavenly Father all the time for my amazing family and pray for you all too! Have a great week

Elder Hatch

My zone by a river going to Sipan

Anderson and Fernando´s baptisms. Anderson is the short young man, Jesus baptized him (the other young man who´s taller whose pants don’t fit) the patriarch baptized Fernando, he´s the oldish man.

The Sipan Museum