*Elder Hatch returns home from his mission the last week of February and he will report on his mission on March 10th. More details will be posted as it gets closer.

Monday, February 27, 2012

2/27/2012

Hi family!
Well, this morning at 11 we took elder Chaco to the mission office and right then President Risso got there too and told us that we could go if we wanted, so we said goodbye to elder Chaco, and left.. He stayed there to have his final interview with President Risso, and in the afternoon he´ll go to Lima, then on to Arequipa. It´s so weird to have a companion finish the mission! He was ready for it to end, and really excited to see his family!
February was a rough month for the zone. Only two baptisms as a whole zone! That´s super duper low and everyone is worried. I talked to Elder Gomez, one of the assistants to the president, last night and he gave me some good ideas of things i can do to get the zone up and running again. I think i´m going to do a lot more visits to work with the missionaries and get them excited about the work again! Everyone just feels dead and like they don´t want to work.. There´s definitely a lot of things to improve! It will be fun with my new companion to get cracking and see improvement. Right now i´m in a trio companionship with other elders from my zone, but in the morning President Risso told me my new companion is going to be Elder Cox, who´s been in the mission office as the financial secretary basically my whole time in the mission field- since last june. He´s american, too, as you can tell from his name. We´ll have fun :)
I´m glad you got the manger scene! I sent it about three weeks ago. When i got changed! I had it up in my old room and was wondering if i should send it or wait for next christmas, but i decided to send it! it should have a CD in there too that says fe en cada paso on it. It´s a musical fireside we did in the Piura mission and i sing in a quartet! Make sure to watch it!
Yes we cancelled the old phone, We still don´t have a cell phone, it´s miserable being zone leader without a cell phone. we´re always calling people and have to go to public phones, borrow cell phones, etc. Doing reports is a nightmare without a cell phone.
We travel around the zone in vans. They´re almost the same as astro vans, but with extra seats and they´re pretty cheap. The farthest away area, Chongoyape, is five soles.. about two dollars. for an hour and a half drive that´s not bad. All the areas are along one road that goes straight east into the mountains.
We´re really only making progress with one family right now as far as normal missionary work goes. Their daughter, Rudy, is schizophrenic and was baptized a few months ago. The parents are in their 60s and have attended various churches. they´re super nice and always give us lots of food. The husband wants to get baptized, but the wife´s a little hesitant and shy about it. We´ll see what we can do with Elder Cox, because we want the couple to get baptized together, not just half! They want to be baptized in a river too, if they do it, so that will be cool.
I know this work is God´s work and that He guides me all the time when i´m dilligent and seek His help. I´ve been a little down about the results of this last month, and just when i needed it most, i found the advice and guidance i needed. In the January Liahona President Monson talks about being positive and making new goals. etc, and elder Carl B. Cook in the same liahona talks about looking up, like his talk in general conference. It was perfect, and i´m going to stay positive instead of getting down ont the zone. They might not be having much success in their areas, but at least they can have a fun, happy zone leader! I´m excited to get to work this week.
Elder Hatch

Pics:
A cool mountain pretty close to here. It´s from my first p day
The zone from last tuesday! Now Elder Chaco is gonezo.
A ward activity we planned, we had a camp fire and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. I ended up with a marshmallow stuck to my shirt- i have no idea how it got there.

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Monday, February 20, 2012

2/20/2012

Family,
First of all,  i´m going to write the things i want to say so i don´t forget while answering mom´s email.
Thanks mom for the valentines package! I got it a week and half ago, and forgot to write last monday about it! I loved the beef jerky and i shared all the cinnamon hearts with my zone. (i´m getting better at sharing.. )
Thanks linds for the pictures of your kids! They are SO cute, and i love the style of the pictures!
A funny thing the people here always say is "si Dios quiere" or if God wants.. It´s really funny when we commit people to go to church and they say if God wants.. I always tell them that of course He wants them to go to church haha it´s funny.
On sunday all four of us missionaries here in the Pomalca ward gave talks in sacrament meeting. The other companionship only took up like 10 minutes together, so elder chaco and i had like a half hour. I talked for like 15 minutes- i´ve gotten so much better at giving talks now! I talked about the tender mercies of the Lord, like Nephi says in 1 nephi 1 20 i think. There was a talk by elder Bednar in the liahona about that this month. I felt the spirit really strongly while i was speaking and ended up crying. I´m turning into a cry baby. But i really love the oportunity to talk, i feel like i always learn so much.
Saturday elder Chaco and i were talking to a drunk guy and a 18ish year old guy was listening to us and walking around behind us.. we didn´t pay much attention to him, until he stuck his hand in elder Chaco´s pocket and went sprinting off yelling and elder Chaco realized he took our cell phone! like 10 people saw it happen, a bunch of kids that were swimming in the irrigation canal and they know the guy who it was. He´s a druggy and his name is Chino Huaman. We paid a little kid 2 soles to show us his house, took the police there, and he wasn´t there, but it was his house.. He´s definitely sold it by now, so we´ll see what happens. Bummer, so we´ve gone a few days without a phone. Being a zone leader without a phone is the worst! There have already been a bunch of problems.
Yeah so pomalca is only about 7 kilometers from chiclayo, super close. I feel like my whole mission is going to be within five minutes traveling time..
Our zone is big though. I visited Chongoyape and Patapo this week. Chongoyape is an hour and a half away in the mountains, super prettty! and patapo is about a half hour away.
I still teach a ton, but about half of it isn´t in my own area. I feel like i don´t even know my area or elder Chaco that well.. We go to chiclayo to the mission office, to the bank, to buy stuff for the zone, all the time. almost every day we go there.
Elder Chaco is doing well. I´m keeping him working while i can! and yes, we´re both called zone leaders. he´s zone leader 1 and i´m zone leader 2 .
No, i don´t cook myself rice. We get enough of that from other people! I mainly eat cereal or bread and lunchmeat for breaakfast, and hotdogs or hamburgers for dinner. lunch we rotate in different members´ houses because we don´t have a pensionista, but this next month we´re going to pension on the second floor of our house with a member family.
All the stuff about dad´s surgery is crazy, but i´m so glad everything went well, and that doctor conley could do the anesthesia too! He´s the best. It´s good to hear about all the support and love the family has gotten, too. I know everything will turn out right and that the Lord has a special plan for dad now! I´m sure your joke reportoir has gotten a lot bigger! oh, and i´m expecting pictures.. it´s so easy to take a picture and send it with an iphone, so do it! :)

Pictures:
1. Pomalca!
2. Elder Sampson and elder Cajas last p day at a place called BorĂ³, a resorvoir.
3. Elder Chaco with our pink mosquito nets in our room. These are for the sister missionaries, we´re just trying them out for a few days before we give them to the sisters. Our room looks like a princessy little girl´s room!
4. a little trail up to an altar on the mountain in Chongoyape! i wish i could have gotten better pictures there, it is BEAUTIFUL!

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Monday, February 13, 2012

2/13/2012

Lots to tell today! So, tuesday i went around saying goodbye to everyone in los amautas, that was hard and sad.. I don´t like seeing people sad and crying! Blanca gave me a really nice silver ring with my name engraven inside, my pensionistas gave me two mugs, i gave the ctr rings you sent me to estefany and her cousin, victoria. I had an amazing experience there in los incas and los amautas. 

Then wednesday was the big day of changes. everyone with changes was there in the institute building, and they announced the transfers by zone. My zone, chiclayo peru, was the second to last one announced, and all the zone leaders had already been transferred except me and one other, and the two zones without a zone leader still were the zone i have been in for six months, or pomalca. Thankfully i got pomalca! My companion is Elder Chaco from arequipa, peru, he has two weeks left in his mission, and it shows haha.. So basically i have two more weeks to get to know everything about my area, zone, and being a zone leader, because i´ll be getting a new companion in two weeks. 

Pomalca is 7 kilometers from chiclayo, super close to where i´ve been my whole mission, but it feels like a different world!! it´s so so amazing here. The town is built around a huge sugar factory, and for miles in every direction are neverending fields of sugarcane. The city has a really small town feeling,  and i´m loving the change. we live with two other missionaries, but we have a big house. I eat lots of cereal and candy and yogurt, but we´re going to buy groceries today and i´ll get some good stuff. (more candy :) haha jk. 

There are 14 missionaries and 4 sisters in our zone, and the area farthest away is about an hour from here. This week i´m going to do working visits in a few areas to get to know the zone a bit. 

The sister missionaries had a baptism of a lady who recently had eye surgery and couldn´t get her eye wet, so elder chaco and i had to search for some swimming goggles one morning and go 40 minutes both ways to take them the goggles. that was fun! our zone is so beautiful with rivers and mountains and everything´s green! 

There´s a lot of work to be done in my area and in the zone. I´m sure i´ll be here for a while, so i´m going to buckle down and get some good work done.

We watched a movie called 17 miracles as a zone today, and i loved it so much. It made me think about how much other people have sacrificed for the Gospel and made me realize that what i´m sacrificing is so insignificant. I hope i can be even a little useful to the Lord to help His children find the truth. I know God loves his children and is always willing to help us when we are obedient. I´ll be praying for you a lot dad, and the whole family. I love you!

Elder Hatch 

ps the computer stinks and i can´t put up pictures, sorry!

Monday, February 6, 2012

2/6/2012

Well, i have like no time to write today, we´re only doing a half hour
and i still have to write to president risso. Thanks so much everybody
who wrote me emails, and all the letters, etc. around Christmas time,
i have been so so blessed!
I´ll get right to the nitty gritty. Transfers night last night, elder
Kirkland called me with the transfers.. he says elder hatch, se va
como lider de zona.. i said.. en serio? haha translation, elder hatch,
you´re leaving your area as a zone leader, i said seriously?! he said
yes. so that´s my new assignment! I´m humbled and excited! Changes
with this new assignment:
new area, either Pomalca, Dorado, Las Americas, or Jaen. I hope it´s
jaen!!! we´ll see though.
new companion. There are like five possibilities, no idea which it´ll be!
cooking my own breakfast and dinner! We still will have a pensionista
for lunch.
last, and most importantly, i´ll have a CELL PHONE!!!!!!! :) well,
between our companionship we´ll have one.
transfers are Wednesday, and in the morning i´ll find out where my new
area is and who my companion will be, too! I´m so excited and sad to
be leaving my present area at the same time!
The package was UNREAL! Thank you so much mom, and family! I started
crying when i saw everything!
The bearded beanie and byu stuff was amazing sisters! The little fan
is a hit with the Latinos.
I love my mission, i love life, and i love the gospel. I love
testifying to inactive members about what they´re missing and inviting
them to return to Christ. I had lots of opportunities to do that this
last week. President Uchtdorf said it best, The Gospel is living! I
feel so humbled and blessed for all the opportunities i´ve had and
continue to have. I love you all back at home, and keep praying for
me! I pray lots for you!
Elder Hatch

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