*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, April 30, 2012

4/30/2012

We´re in the same stinky internet and i can´t send pictures again. 

FAMILIA

This week was amazing. We had so many blessings come to our area because of our fast. I can´t even explain how big of a turn around our area has had, and we´re so happy! We didn´t change anything about our way of working or anything, but the people just all started progressing! This week we had TWELVE investigators in church and four of our investigators accepted baptismal dates for this month! Katherine and Jorge, two teenagers, will be baptized on the 12th, and we have a lot of other possible baptisms in between and then on the 26th Eugenio, a 78 year old man will be baptized and maybe a lady we´re teaching who needs to get married before she can be baptized. When i saw all our investigators filing into church i almost started crying. For the first three weeks elder Cox was here with me we had a total of one investigator in church, and now it´s so awesome to see the blessings. 

What´s your cell phone number mom? i think i forgot.. I think i´ll probably call a little earlier on sunday because now sunday nights we´re really busy with ward council and reports from the zone. I´ll let you know the info when i call. And as for skype i´m not sure, i´ll have to talk to the assistants to see if we´re allowed to. 

Every tuesday we have zone meetings that are about missionary work. First they have a meeting with their districts for about an hour and a half where the district leader teaches something then they practice teaching for about an hour. Then they all come in with us and we give announcements, teach something usually, and sometimes have testimonies. This last week two missionaries in my zone finished their missions and gave their testimonies. They talked like 15 minutes each, it was killer. 

here it never really gets cold enough to want anything more than a sweater, i´m sure i´ll be fine with just that! 

I have a question that mom reminded me of with what she said about like 99 percent of the spirits accepting the gospel in the next life. We have had the debate in our zone about whether the spirit world is actually two separated physical areas or if it´s spirit prison and paradise based on the state of mind of the person. I don´t know why a person wouldn´t accept the gospel and pass over to paradise if it´s possible! 

This week are changes, and Elder Cox is leaving to another area as a zone leader. I´m sad that he´s going because we´re going to finally have baptisms! But i´m happy that i get to stay in my area and baptize! I´ll have a new companion tomorrow. Everyone in our area (each companionship) has a change and so we´ll have a lot of new missionaries in the zone! I´m excited for everything. Love you family and have a great week!

Elder Hatch

Monday, April 23, 2012

4/23/2012

Family, 

Wow, i feel so humbled that they asked mom to give a talk about my mission! I´ve never heard of parents giving talks about their missionaries before. I loved being able to see what the talk said too. It´s been an amazing year here in the mission field. Elder Cox goes home in three months. Sometimes he gets me thinking about post-mission life and i get scared! I realized how much i prefer the mission to college when he was telling me about the schedule his mom signed him up for.. yuck. 

This week was pretty crazy. Today we had a big zone activity that i had to use all my activity planning skills to bring about. I came up with a bunch of competitions. we had a saltine eating contest, pop chugging, one where they had to eat a super hot pepper and see which person could wait longest before drinking their water, egg toss (i lost that), water balloon duel (lost that, too), a game where someone starts reading a scripture and then a companionship races against each other to see who can start reading along fastest (i beat elder cox :) and the winner got to smear shaving cream in his companion´s face, there were arm wrestles, push up contests, and the finale was a huge relay race where everyone had to put on missionary clothes and walk across the soccer court with an egg on a spoon in their mouth. It was so fun! 

We have been having major problems helping people to get baptized here. We have an amazing set of investigators, but we are trying to get everyone to pray to have a testimony of the Church and the Book of Mormon. The main problem is that they DON¨T PRAY! It´s so frustrating! But we just have to keep inviting them and encouraging them and finding new ways to help them. So, finally Elder Cox and i decided to fast. It was on wednesday and it just so happened that that day i went on a visit to Pucalá with elder Yauri. We walked to his branch president´s house that´s a 35 minute walk one way, and we ended up almost running back from there to get to an appointment. I should have counted, but im pretty sure elder yauri drank at least 5 water bottles while i was fasting. Elder cox and i got back together at the end of the 24 hours absolutely drained. Then we went to visit our investigators with a lot of faith, and.. nothing. It was so hard to not be more frustrated. I think i know a little bit of how parents feel with a rebelious child. You keep trying to help them but they just don´t respond! 

We went to Jean pierre´s house like 10 times and he was never there. We went to the campos family´s house like 5 times and never could teach them, david was always out with his friends... 

We found a family who had been taught for years by the missionaries and never baptized. We also began focusing on helping them get a testimony of the book of mormon, but they were last on our list of people to visit this week- on saturday. The mom of the family, Mari, is awesome. The first time we taught her i told her i wasn´t sure how her answer from the Holy Ghost would come, but to be on the lookout for it. The second time we taught them Mari had a really bad pain in her side and her mom who´s a member asked us to give her a blessing. I gave her the blessing and at the time everything seemed normal and we left. So, this last saturday when we went to visit them, Mari told us about what happened when we gave her the blessing. She said she felt like her back went all tingley and she felt a warm sensation. She recognized it as the spirit, and teared up when she told us about it. She has gone to church twice now and is going to ask the specific question in her prayers if the book of mormon is true. I know she´ll get the answer! 

Today we were walking down the street and a lady from another ward here in Pomalca came up to us and said she was going to sign a girl up for seminary and they realized she was never baptized- she thought she was. She´s been less active but now has been to church three times, and the miracle is that she lives in our area!  and this lady told us to baptize her because she´s all ready! 

A few other people are all ready for baptism and just want to wait a few weeks more. It has been awesome to watch little by little as the blessings of our fast come in. I heard a quote from elder Holland this week and it´s come to be very true for me. He said something like this. Sometimes the blessings come sooner and sometimes they come later, and sometimes they don´t come until heaven. But for those who live according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they will come. Don´t you give up, keep on trying. The blessings will come. 

I love being a missionary. I can´t even express how amazing it is. When everything is going wrong and you just feel discouraged, the Lord knows exactly what to do to keep you going and tell you to not give up,  to keep on trying. I know this Gospel we preach is the only true gospel in the world. I just want everyone to accept it and see how God can bless them! 

Disneyland and the price is right and other shows, wow that sounds so fun! Have a blast there next week! 

I love you, 

Elder Hatch

Monday, April 16, 2012

4/16/2012

FAMILY!
First and foremost, it has been SO hot here this week. Technically it´s fall now but it has gotten way hotter! We were walking along this dirt road a few days ago and i honestly felt like i was being roasted. We sleep with the fan on, i´m so grateful for that fan, and when we go to the mission office (it´s air conditioned) it´s like heaven, and it´s hard to leave sometimes. The heat is especially rough on elder Cox because he´s been in the air conditioned office for 10 months, but i always tell him being in the heat builds character. We played catch with my football then we played volleyball as a zone, and i put on sunscreen but i´m pretty sure i got burned anyway.
As for packages, the little ones come easily in boxes, but the bags/envelopes are bigger, cheaper, and get here faster, so i would recommend going with those! All dad´s prosthetics sound awesome, i want to see pictures!
I´m glad to hear we have a better tv/speaker set up now! Now all we need is a pool in the back yard :) The grandkids would love it mom, and i wouldn´t mind it either :)
Here in the area things are moving along slowly. The families we´re teaching all have problems that are keeping them from being baptized.. The Tellos want their schizophrenic member daughter to act perfectly or they don´t want to be baptized. We´re explaining to them that that has nothing to do with them being baptized.. oh well we´re praying. The Campos are NEVER home, but came to our ward game night we had this week. The Frias... Marjori, who´s 18, is a nursing student and in june she starts her second semester which involves practices in the hospital every morning, sundays included. So, she said she doesn´t want to be baptized then go inactive for a few months. We read 1 Nephi 3:7 with her and invited her to pray for a way to make it work out. Her older sister who we thought was living together with her boyfriend is actually married. She is very interested and has been to church twice, but she just had a baby cesarean this week so she´s out for a few weeks. Kind of frustrating. But the blessing this week was that a 12ish year old kid, friend of the bishop´s son, came up to me in church and said when can i get baptized? i told him the 28th and he was all excited, so i hope that works out! His name is Jean Pierre. We´ve taught his mom before and she´s really receptive, but apparently his dad isn´t wild about it. I hope that all works out.. I haven´t had a baptism in a while and it gets frustrating. We don´t have as much time to dedicate to teaching as we would like, but we always make the best of what little time we have.
This week we had a conference for the district and zone leaders in the mission and i actually participated a lot. I usually just like to listen to everyone else, but now i´m becoming more of a participater. President Risso made the analogy of how leadership in the church is like a relay race. One person gets the baton and runs until they hand it off to the next guy. Each runner is important and everyone gets the prize. The important part is that everyone gives their individual all.
We´re working hard and time keeps flying by. Elder Cox is starting to think about home because he has to enroll in utah state for fall semester really soon!
Love you!
Elder Hatch

Pictures:

Right when Hermana Gorosito was going to take my picture a little three year old granddaughter of some invesigators called me and told me i love you, so this is me saying i love you back haha.
And here´s the second take. Today for p-day we made burritos as a zone! They were amazing. I felt like i was back in the dorms at byu with my bean burritos every day.
The last picture is of a fruit called mamay. it´s not very good.. on the outside it looks like a brown coconut but inside is orange with huge pits and tastes like a really bland apple/carrot.

4161

4162

4163

Monday, April 9, 2012

4/9/2012

Family!
It was a great Easter weekend. Well, here it's called the Holy Week. They celebrate holy Thursday and Friday, and Sunday of glory. I can't remember what Saturday is called. The only special things they do for Easter here is eat fish every day and the Catholics actually go to church! and the Jehovah's witnesses had a HUGE meeting last week I ate fried octopus and fish together, and actually liked it. I ate cow stomach and hated it.. it's so chewy and looks hideous! and today i ate a handful of raw onions on my chicken and didn't even flinch. it still makes me laugh to think how much my tastes have changed. For a special Easter message elder Cox and i downloaded a few Mormon messages and the new bible video called he is risen and burned it onto a dvd and are showing it to some of our investigators and tomorrow we're going to get the stake projector from the stake president and watch it with the zone in our zone meeting. I also read the chapters in Jesus the Christ and the parts in the Bible that talk about what Christ went through this weekend. I love and have run over time and time again in my mind the amazing moment when the angel told Mary Magdelene that Christ wasn't there because He was risen. I truly know that he conquered death and because He went through everything, He can help us through anything. I love what President Monson said. Something like, He taught us how to live, he taught us how to die, he secured our salvation. This was probably the first Easter where I've actually celebrated it how it should be celebrated, and it was incredible. A whole family of five came to church on Sunday, and we're more than excited for them. We have a lot of investigators who are progressing well, but the Tellos, who had a baptismal date for this Saturday, say they want more time because they don't feel ready yet. Sometimes i just wish i could make the people know that baptism is the right thing to do! But then i remember that's more like satan's plan... haha.
Oh and yes i got the easter package!!  Thanks so much! I loved the jelly beans :)
We had to do a lot of things for the zone this week; we went to Chiclayo twice, Chongoyape for a work visit, patapo to pick up baptismal clothes and find out about a massive wedding for the sister missionaries. We planned a p-day activity today to go to an awesome ecological reserve called Chaparri, but 6 people in our zone didn't want to go because it was going to be kind of expensive, so the cost of renting mobility would have been way too much divided between less people and we couldn't do it :( so we ended up going to the Huaca Rajada- a huge pyramid where they found the Señor de Sipan. Look that up on Google or something, it'll probably have some cool pictures! The toughest part about being a zone leader is planning all the p day activities because somebody is always complaining or doesn't want to participate, but after the fact everyone is always happy they came. missionaries...
I'm so happy and so tired, loving life. Everything sounds great at home. I'm glad to hear dad could finally go back to church! Now whenever i see people without legs here i feel more compassion toward them, knowing my dad is going through similar feelings. I love you guys!
Elder Hatch

Elder Cox chickened out and bent his legs on our floating picture.. we did it again and it worked, but elder Marker cut my head off in the picture, so just imagine that it looks cool :)
There are owls here!! i never saw one in Utah…

491

492

Monday, April 2, 2012

4/2/2012

Family!
This week was so fun. I felt like all i did was explain to people about prophets and the schedule of general conference and invite them to it. in the end 7 of our investigators went, so we´re happy about the turn out :) My favorite talks were by elder Hallstrom about the difference between the Church and the Gospel. and how it´s possible to be active in the church but not the Gospel. I love that, because sometimes going to church can turn into a routine; the truly important part is if we´re living the basic parts of the Gospel in our daily lives! The part that impacted me most were President Monson´s talks. When he was ending conference and said to fix problems in the family NOW, i loved it. I love my family.I felt like there was a ton about the family in conference. I´ve realized how grateful i am for my family now that i´m here away from them and with lots of families with problems!
        The zone is doing great. We are finally baptizing more, so everyone´s happier and excited about the work. This week some of our investigators accepted baptismal dates! Eva, a mom, went to church last week and when we visited her she told us that she knows the church is true! From one week! That´s the difference in the true church. She accepted a baptismal date for the 14th. We might have problems with the word of wisdom with her, but i´m excited to work with her and her family. Also, José and Elizabeth, a 60ish year old couple, accepted to be baptized the 14th, too! There´s still lots of work to do, but we´re finally going to have baptisms here in Pomalca. This week elder Cox and i knocked a lot of doors in jehova´s witness territory. We got a few harsh rejections- the best was from a catholic man though. i was talking with his grand daughter in the door and he said from behind that they don´t have time right now. I said ok, when can we come back to share our message with you then? he said oh, we´re pretty much never here in our house. So, i started inviting him to general conference but he interrupted me and said to be honest we´re catholics and can´t listen to you, now move on. Here the people are generally so nice, so it´s rough when they are like that. But we´re having success and loving out rime here in pomalca.
As for easter plans.. there aren´t any! just working and testifying about the atonement as always! I love my job :) Hope everyone´s happy at home.
Love,
Elder Hatch