8/15/2011

Mi querida y amorosa familia! 

I loved all the emails from the fam! It sounds like the week was great, and that was so fun to hear all about little baby Holland! She´s so cute, thanks linds for the pictures! I have to admit i´m super jealous that you took the name holland. I have absolutely fallen in love with Elder Holland in the mission, and as soon as you said you were going to name her that i almost screamed NOOO. Almost. That´s how badly i wished i would have claimed it. Oh well, maybe i´ll just name my first daughter Bednar.. haha. Sorry if last week´s letter sounded like i was a little down! Probably because i was, and still am a little bit.. Don´t get me wrong, i´m fine, but we just haven´t had too much success this month. We were working a ton with Soledad, Esmeralda, and Jose, and when they decided not to get baptized it was really tough for me! Then Evelyn waited until thursday to make her decision to wait too...... Ahhhhhhhhhh. So, since transfers are this next week and i´m very likely to get changed, it looks like the baptizing in Campodónico has come to an end. There are a few who have had baptismal dates in the past and just decided to wait, so i´ll see if i can get at least one to do it this week! There are a bunch of people who are so great here but just want a little more time to prepare and get to know the church a little more before they get baptized. Sometimes i get frustrated, then i think about how i would feel in their situation. I would never completely change my life and get baptized in a matter of two or three weeks! So, i´m working on my pacience, and i know things will all work out! 

We taught a 50ish year old lady last week. There are like a million people living in her house.. 13 of her 15 grandchildren and their parents live there. She can´t read, which makes teaching super rough, but we taught her a little and she accepted a baptismal date. A few days later we went to teach her, and when we were walking down the road to her house she was sitting out front in a chair, then she ran away into her house and wouldn´t come to the door.. Don´t think she´ll get baptized too soon.. 

We are still working with Evelyn, who wants her friends to listen to us too. She´s super great and will get baptized here in a few weeks for sure. Just not with me probably :( Her dad, a 50ish year old man, was there yesterday when we taught. He always tells the most ridiculously long and irrelevant stories about the history of peru, etc. He also has a strange fixation with Germany and the USA. He just rags on peru and their government. It gets really frustrating when we´re trying to teach and he just starts in a 15 minute story, but such is the joy of missionary service. Which reminds me of Gilberto! He´s a schizophrenic man who we´re teaching. He is the definition of you never know what´s going to happen next. I´ll start talking, and half way through the second word i say he cuts me off to talk about who knows what. It´s to the point where we have to tell him every few minutes that he needs to listen to us and stay on the subject. He really wants to learn and stuff, but his sickness gets in the way and we get pretty frustrated sometimes. 

We´re teaching a 20ish year old guy who just moved in with some members, he´ll get baptized in a few weeks too. Ah they´re all going to get baptized as soon as i leave! But it´s ok, it´s awesome to have played a part in their conversion, and i´ll get to work with new people too. 

About food now. 

Mom and dad, and everyone else for that matter, you HAVE to try avocado with sugar and lime juice! it´s so good! i love avocado now, salty and sweet. Apparantly they eat avocado sweet like a fruit in Paraguay, and i love it. A thought i had this week during lunch. You know i´m a changed human when i´m using onions to wash down the cow stomach i´m eating. Also, the floreanos told me that i ate (without knowing) cow tongue, and the inside of the cow´s udders.. If i would have known i don´t know if i could have stomached it! But i actually liked it haha! 

As for a birthday present, all i ever want is candy. any kind is great! But i really don´t need anything, i just love your letters and support! 

I know this work is the Lord´s work and that He really does support His missionaries! Even though i´m so far from home, and everything i ever knew to be normal, I´m so happy! I love serving Him and knowing there´s nothing i could be doing that would please Him more than being here and giving it my all. 

Elder Hatch

Ps. Tomorrow i´m giving the lesson in district meeting and President Risso is going to be there! i´m kind of nervous but it should be great! 

The pictures are from today, we played soccer at a sweet place with turf and there are a bunch of advertisements on the walls. I really loved the GINORMOUS beer ones, so i made everyone come take a picture there :)

And since I (Lindsey) put up these posts I wanted to include a picture of Jacob’s new niece, Holland.  She was born last week, and her older sister Carly wants to hold her ALL THE TIME.