1/30/2012

This week was really weird for me! It hit me that my mission is actually half over and i started thinking on what i´ve done so far and what i want for this second half. I´m going to make some goals this next week to push myself and really focus on achieving goals. I´ve learned lots about life and missionary work in this first year though! Here are some random thoughts i´ve had this week.. 

Before my mission i didn´t know missionaries worked on sundays.. I also thought missionaries got changed every few months (sometimes true, but definitely not for me). When i imagined missionaries teaching lessons, all i ever thought about was telling the first vision story. I imagined myself being junior companion until the half way mark of my mission. It was fun for the three months it lasted.. 

Elder Thomson is really improving on his spanish. There has been a marked change in his abilities, but he still makes some super funny mistakes! Last night i was looking through the new investigator information that he had written.. For one investigator he wrote- "very young. likes to learn, i think." When i found that and pointed it out to elder thomson i started laughing so hard i cried, and so did he. I haven´t laughed that hard in a long time! then we started looking for other funny ones and one time he was trying to say that a guy works as a mototaxista, or the motorcycle taxi guys. Instead, he wrote "I work like a motorcycle" I was dying! I had to put my head between my knees  with my face in front of the fan to stop laugning, but hearing myself laugh into the fan just made me laugh more. Sunday nights after reports are great. 

This week we had mixed success. We taught a ton of lessons and had 16 new investigators, because we went back to teach the 18 new ones from last week and none were there so we ended up knocking lots of doors and teaching new people again.. So now we have 34 new investigators from the last two weeks alone that we have to find and teach. its rough because this is their summer break, so everyone is always traveling, and they all go to the beach on sundays.. But we´ve found some really cool people. We taught one of the best lessons of my mission to a baptist lady. She asked us about the confirmation, so we explained that then made the transition into the restoration and focused on the authority of the priesthood and taught her the book of mormon and everything. She was excited to read, i hope she does! We went to an appointment with one of our investigators, a 40ish year old lady, but when we got there there was a party out front. When they have parties here it means there are those soccer tent pavillion things and a ton of chairs out in the middle of the street, music blaring, and lots of drunk people. We walked by and saw our investigator with a bottle of beer in each hand.. Two ladies did this nasty kissy noise thing at me.. ick. 

Not much else is happening with our investigators. We have a few with baptismal dates for the end of february, but they didn´t go to church yesterday. Brayan has been to church like 6 times and goes to all the activities, but still doesn´t want to be baptized.. sadly, i´m pretty sure this is my last week here in Los Amautas, so i´ll try to leave a lot of good stuff going for the next missionary who comes in. 

The package is yet to arrive! i´ll see what i can figure out today. 

The picture of elder freeman and his companion on his mission in the ward newsletter was so sweet! But we could never do that here because if we left the camera on the ground like that or took it out in public, it would be gone.. 

I taught the combined priesthood and relief society lesson on sunday about how to prepare people to recieve the gospel. The first thing i did was tell them to go to enos  verse 9 in the book of mormon. Like 20 seconds passed by and nobody found it.. Then finally a guy yells out "What chapter?" I said a little too loud, "there´s only one..." and everyone had a good laugh about that. But then i explained that when he was converted he wanted to help other people feel the same way. I came up with five steps to giving a reference to the missionaries. 1. pray, read the scriptures, and have weekly home evenings 2. think of people you know to share the gospel with 3. make a goal of when to do it by 4. make a plan of how to invite them to an activity, etc. 5. Tell the missionaries. 

four of the five baptisms i´ve had here in the ward have been referrals. It´s so tough to find good, prepared people knocking doors! The only person we found on our own was Estefany. 

I´m excited for transfers this next week. i just hope i have a change! 

Elder Hatch 

It was so weird to see American money when i took it out to deposit it for the package! It had to be in dollars for some reason? 

You can´t really see what the sign says, but it says my first year! Elder Morales came to Chiclayo for a mission meeting on our year anniversary

1/23/2012

Famblie, 

first item of business.. i still don´t have the package. I could have gotten it last week, but I´m being a good boy and waited for p day to leave my area to go to the bank to deposit the money. so, right now after internet i´m going to do that and it should come this week. 

Second item: Blanca got baptized!! It was so so so amazing. Monday night like i told you we had an appointment with her. She had talked with her husband on the phone and he yelled at her, and that´s all i knew going into the appointment. Turns out when he came home from work he hugged her and told her that she should do what she believes will make her happy. She took an hour telling us the story, so it was about 7 o´clock and she said so, when can i get baptized? tomorrow? and i said SÍ (yes haha) and we had to hustle to do everything for the next day! We got the zone leaders to interview her at 8:30 that night, and while she was being interviewed i killed like 300 crickets that had sneaked into the church, that was fun. Tuesday at 11 am was her baptism, which was right in the middle of our zone meeting, so what did we do? had the zone meeting in our chapel and the whole zone went to her baptism! Elder Eastwood, our zone leader, played if you could hie to kolob on the violin and all the elders sang joseph smith´s first prayer with it. It was pretty, but i looked at blanca and she was crying so i started crying too. I got to baptize her, and it was such a special experience! She got confirmed yesterday and now she´s a member! yay blanca! :) She said she was so happy after she got baptized that she wanted to go on her roof and just yell! It was so awesome and funny when she told us that. 

oh, and i got a notification that tania guevara bravo wants to be friends with me on facebook, add her! She´s my first baptism that moved away right after she got baptized! 

We had interviews with President Risso on thursday, that went well. we talked mostly about the ward, it´s really week right now and we need to work a lot with the members. 

This last week was really good for us in the work, we found a ton of new investigators, and are reorganizing everything in our area book, etc. to be more effective. 

and yes, there is seminary here in peru. They have it in the mornings in the chapels. 

I can´t believe i´ve been out here a year already. It´s going by way too fast. It just flies by in three month chunks. I´m pretty sure i´ll be transferred in two weeks when there´s transfers, so i´m enjoying my last few weeks in Los Amautas. 

I read Elder Scott´s talk today about the power of the scriptures from conference. I feel exactly like him, that when we memorize a scripture it´s like making a new friend. I love the scriptures so much. I say that all the time, because it´s true. And i know the book of mormon is true. I love using it to refute people´s doubts when we knock their doors and they don´t want to let us in because they already belong to a church. They always try to attack the church and the book of mormon, and whenever i testify to them i feel so strongly that it´s true! I love this work and the opportunity to focus so much on becoming more like Christ. I hope you read the scriptures every day! 

Love you! 

Elder Hatch 

The pictures are of blanca´s baptism. One with our whole zone, another with her kids and some of the cerdan serquen family, her friends/ our pensionista who gave us the referral! 

1/16/2012

hello family!

About the investigators:

Blanca had a great week in terms of her progress! She decided firmly that she wants to be baptized, and even told her husband she was going to always go to church. For me i was content with that, but then she even told him she was going to be baptized, and apparently he yelled at her but told her to do what she wants with her life. He treats her like a five year old.. He wants her to ask permission to leave the house, etc.. But she´s super nervous that the week of her baptism has arrived. We have an appointment with her today at 6, and i´ll try to calm her nerves with some good scriptures and we´re going to try to get her more excited! She should be baptized saturday if everything goes well. I´ve gotten to be really good friends with Blanca. I feel like i know her life story (i actually do) because i´ve spent more time with her than any other investigator just because she has so many problems and loves to tell us everything. She´s super attached to us missionaries. She even asked me my name (jacob bryant) in case she has another kid so she can name him after me! If there´s a Jacob Mendez here in a few years running around i´ll be happy :)

Estefany, who we baptized not too long ago, has some new problems. A recent convert from the other ward, Los Incas, Yeiner, who´s 18, has become very fond of her, and she of him, and the young womens presidency is about to go crazy. We´ve talked to her, they´ve talked to her, and him.. It´s just trouble asking to happen. I hope we can work it out. Her little brother, Brayan, is progressing well. ´This week we´ll see if he accepts a baptismal date.

The english class this week was way fun! It was the first time i´ve felt good at teaching something. I don´t consider myself much of a teacher, but it was cool to see them be so happy to learn. The only problem is that only members and investigators we already have show up.. The whole point is to find new investigators, but the members are lazy and don´t invite anyone.

The ward is on the verge of a breakdown. Nobody paid their tithing, there´s like 42 percent activity, and nobody does their home teaching.. the bishop says it´s on the verge of becoming a branch. Everyone´s pretty depressed and there are TONS of problems in the ward. lots of inactives, long time members switching to being seventh day adventists.. I don´t know what to do to help the ward! we can spend all day every day visiting less active members, but they never go to church, or we can baptize people knowing they´ll never be visited by home or visiting teachers.. it´s a sad and difficult situation, but all we as missionaries can do is work! I´m staying optimistic, looking for solutions, and i´ll see what we can do this week.

I hope everyone´s happy at home. I can´t believe time is flying by so fast. These last five months have passed like one month.

In church on sunday the bishop talked to the elders quorum about the golden six things.

praying, reading the scriptures, fasting, going to church, tithing, and doing home teaching. He said that if we do these things we´ll be in good standing with the Lord and all the other commandments will be easy to follow. I have a testimony of reading the scriptures. I love them so much, i can´t believe how much i underappreciated them before my mission. I could have been a much better person had i really delved into them like i´m learning to do now. I feel the spirit speaking to me so strongly about things i need to improve, or something i can share with an investigator. I love it. I also have been receiving a lot of inspiration while i pray. I´ll be praying and start meditating and important things i´ve forgotten or new ideas just pop into my mind. I love just having the clarity of mind and how the Lord can communicate to us when we´re focused on His work and doing everything in our reach.

I love the Savior and know He suffered and died for us. I´m so grateful and feel so blessed to be called His servant. I love being here.

Love you,

Elder Hatch

Elder Martin (from logan) and i decided to look like Jehova´s witnesses today :)

These are proudly called peruvian dogs.. super ugly bald dogs! This one was in Tucume.

This is the same picture elder Orco and i took when i was a brand new missionary!

1/9/2012

Hey Everybody!
First of all, THE PACKAGE. haha it´s been an adventure trying to get
it to me! Hno Jesus and Hna Graciela have worked so much to get it
here! The whole problem is that the customs here randomly opens a
package every once in a while to see if the statement of goods matches
the actual contents. Mine was the lucky one. I think it matched up,
but they decided to try to charge importing tax to the business for
the stuff. So, this week they have been proving that it´s a gift to
me.. Turns out we didn´t need the list of stuff from mom, but it was
fun to talk again haha, i´m not complaining. But honestly, i can´t
thank the Cerdan family enough for everything they´ve done trying to
get the package! Hno Jesus worked four hours one day on it while he
was at work, writing up legal documents and stuff, that´s what we
needed mom´s license number for.. We´ll see if it works. it´ll just be
that much better when it makes it here!
I bought a new watch last p-day, another casio one that´s pretty
similar but more ghetto and basic. I almost died in my two days
without a watch! I didn´t realize how much i use it.
Happy birthday this week casey and craig! You´re both old... :)
The leadership conference on wednesday was good.. Nothing new, but
it´s kind of the chance for all the missionaries to get together and
prove how smart and spiritual they are in front of the president. One
elder got caught not paying attention twice though, it was funny. I
led the hymn and all the missionaries were actually in tune, it was a
miracle.
The christmas package from the ward has nate bryson´s name on it, but
a bunch of people wrote stuff on a big poster paper in there too, so
it was a combined effort! I liked mikey freeman´s message a lot.
The investigators are doing well. We need to find some new people..
But mainly we´re working with Blanca Mendez and Brayan (brian)
Guevara, Estefany´s little brother. Blanca is progressing inch by
inch, but accepted the 21st as a baptismal date, her husband´s
acceptance pending. Brayan is 14 and is more interested in music,
soccer, and girls than the church, as is normal for his age, so that´s
the biggest challenge with him, just getting his interest and helping
him gain a testimony. We also found a 20ish guy who wasn´t sure if God
exists, and it was a really cool lesson. The first time i´ve been able
to bear my testimony that God exists and how much i´ve felt Him in my
life.
We´re teaching english classes now as a way to get new investigators,
but i feel more like all the members are going to come and not bring
investigators. Not many people showed up this last week.. We´ll see
though.
Hope Dad´s doing well. Today i was talking to elder Martin who´s going
to run track for Utah State when he gets back from the mish and he was
talking about a guy who´s a world famous runner who has prosthetic
legs. they were arguing on ESPN about whether it was faster or slower,
and figured out it was the same. Maybe you could get back into running
dad! plus now that you´re so much skinnier.. You can help me get in
good shape when i get back from the mission.
the work´s going well, time´s still cruising by, and i´m loving life
here. I know the Church is true, and is the only Church that Christ
has organized and not unauthorized men. It´s so easy to see as we talk
with members of other churches and hear about all the different
problems as a result of pastors who make their living off the church,
etc. I can´t believe God has blessed me so much and gave me the chance
to be born into the Church. Remembering that makes me want to work
hard to not underappreciate such a huge gift!
Love you
Elder Hatch

This is elder Zepeda and i by a pyramid in Túcume! Elder Orcohuaranga
and i took almost the exact same picture like 8 months ago.

Elder Eastwood from PG, my new zone leader, and I on top of "purgatory
mountain" It´s just a huge mountain in the middle of super flatness.
The ancient muchicas (like incas) built mud pyramids all around it.

1/2/2012

As for missionary work, this week was stinky. Everyone was drunk or busy and we didn´t get much done. 

We´re still working with Blanca. This week i´m going to either set a baptismal date with her or stop visiting her, because i´m getting impatient. She just needs to talk with her husband and tell him she wants to get baptized, but she´s so scared of conflict that she won´t do it. Ah... We´re going too fast for her this week. 

The only thing of note that happened was that i got robbed again! haha this time wasn´t as exciting though. here´s the story: 

it was like 7 o´clock and we were on the main road of our area. A drunk guy comes walking down one of the side streets toward us and yells elderes elderes, so we stopped to talk to him for a bit. He was telling us he wants to change and everything, so i was trying to get his address to visit him and help him get out of the terrible life pattern he´s in, when all of a sudden he yells "give me your watch" grabs my watch, which came off way too easily, and stumbled away. I had to fight every instinct in my body to not run him down and tackle him,. because he was super drunk and unarmed, but there were a lot of people around and the missionary handbook says we can´t fight back, so i just let him go. we followed him a bit and he walked around the corner and sold it to somebody quick. It lasted me almost exactly a year, the watch mom gave me for Christmas. I enjoyed that watch. 

Wednesday we have a conference with all the leaders of the mission with president risso, so i´m excited for that, and to see if we can get some investigators with baptismal dates! 

I also got a package from the ward, but the one from the family is nowhere to be found. Thanks a lot, ward! I love the harmonica especially, haha! 

Elder Hatch 

I don´t remember if i already sent this picture of Estefany´s baptism, but here it is! that´s her little brother, Piero on the side. Cutest little kid ever!

Elder Thomson and i went all out on new years eve and bought 7up and Fanta!

We hung out on Sunday (new years day) with our zone in our house and made guacamole and ground beef and had nachos, and watched the RM! Elder Zepeda was in my first zone and is one of my best friends here in the mission. He´s been in Jaen for 6 months though, and now he just came into our zone and is the other district leader with me! Elder Aroni and Gomez are the assistants to the president