8/1/2011

Fambly :)

First I’ll answer mom’s questions.
Yes, go to the peruvian restaurant on center street, it´s called se llama peru! Get lomo saltado and inca kola, and you´ll be eating exactly what i eat at least three or four times a week. it´s so so good! basically french fries with sliced beef, onions, and tomatoes, and rice of course. Teaching this week was kind of rough. One of our investigators, a 14 ish year old girl named lorena who had a baptismal date, fell through. We kept going to her house and they would never answer, so we went to ask her friend who´s a member if something had happened. It turns out her grandma forbade her from going to the church and her aunt yelled at her and she doesn´t want to talk to us anymore.. It´s crazy how much the devil works in people sometimes! The same thing happened with other people too- the not being able to catch them home part.. and so we knocked a lot of doors this week, more than i have in any other week or maybe even month of my mission. Knocking doors is basically a waste of time though. This week we´re going to start visiting the members again i think. I´m open to suggestions. But this sunday all our work payed off and 10 investigators came to church! including a family i´ve been working with my whole four months here and hasn´t come, finally came! And on the 13th we should have four baptisms, so we´re excited for that. But in these two weeks we have to do a lot of work to make sure they happen! One investigator has to fix some law of chastity issues with her boyfriend, and we´re waiting to see how that goes.
Yes, a few elders i know will be coming home this month, and one, Elder Wilding, will be going to BYU! Elder Rigby, my good buddy is coming home too this month. He wants all my friend girls´ info, so watch out :) But he is going to utah state, he went to mountain crest in high school and he has a deep bred hatred toward timpview :)
As for birds.... haha the only birds i´ve seen here are vultures, and there are a TON! They´re always circling over where we work all day because there´s always dead dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, you name it, it´s dead in the street in Fanny Abanto. They´re so yucky with their little eyes.
Yes, i definitely feel like i´ve had the gift of tongues. I don´t think i´ve talked much about that, but before i got into the mtc i honestly could barely speak spanish. I could understand alright, write a little bit, but couldn´t talk at all. The first day in the mtc i felt like i could communicate decently in spanish, and from there it has just gotten way better and better. I feel like it has been an incredible blessing as a missionary. Now i don´t even realize i´m speaking in spanish anymore when we´re teaching. I know all the gospel words, etc. but outside of the church world there´s still tons of stuff to learn. Learning spanish is one of my favorite things in the world.  it´s so cool to be able to communicate in a different language!
There´s not much to report on this week, it´s just been a solid week of working hard and doing everything i know how to try to find people to teach! Thanks for all the prayers.
My testimony of the power of the scriptures has grown exponentially lately. I know with all the surety possible that the book of mormon is true. The testimonies of Christ are so powerful and moving. Every day when i´m reading and studying i feel the spirit, and i feel the need to improve. This week i read through part of abinidi´s amazing testimony to king Noah. Wow, what courage to stand up to a king and all his priests! I love it. I hope you´re all reading the scriptures every day. I can´t imagine a day without studying the scriptures, i love them so much!
Oh, and today in the morning we played soccer on a sweet turf field in the centerish of chiclayo, our zone with the office elders, and it was so fun! then we went to a polleria called Rocky´s, and their rotisserie chicken is unreal! it was a great p-day.
Elder HATCH

The picture is of elders: Abregú, Wilding, Me, and Burton about to eat some yummy chicken at Rocky´s. And FYI that is the nicest, biggest room i´ve been in in chiclayo, so appreciate it.