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.

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…

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

3/26/2012

Family!! 

First off, i really liked that analogy about the atonement and a marble egg mom told me, it reminded me about another analogy that people always use here- they say that when we sin it´s like hammering a nail into a piece of wood.When we repent we can take the nail out but there´s still a hole for us to remember it. But to God we´re made clean and he doesn´t remember it, so i don´t like the analogy that much. But the marble egg one is good, because it shows how our experiences make us who we are, and even though we´ve made mistakes, we can learn from them and they make us beautiful. I´ve learned so much about the atonement here in my mission. Before i knew what it was, but now i´ve experienced what it is, and really come to love Christ as He´s worked in my life and i´ve seen him work in others´ lives. It´s like what christ says. A debtor will love his master if he forgets a small debt, but a person with a great debt who is forgiven truly loves his master even more. It´s sad that we all make mistakes, but it´s because of those mistakes that we come to love Christ for saving us from them! 

In our new house the water continues the same... it´s okay though, we´ve learned to live with it. we only really need water to bathe and we have that in the morning, so we´re happy. 

With transfers i think we got 7 new missionaries in the zone. I´ll try to get a picture of the new zone tomorrow in our zone meeting. Being a zone leader is fun, but stressful sometimes! I´ve learned to adapt my schedule and be ready for anything. Yesterday was the craziest: we went at like 3:00 to fill up the baptismal font for a baptism from the missionaries in Tuman (they baptize in our chapel because they don´t have a baptismal font there) and the font was still full from last week and it had cockroaches in it and was all murky and smelled like a fish tank, so we started emptying it and then the pipe was clogged so it started flooding into the street, but we just let that go because the streets are mud anyway, then we cleaned the font, but no water was flowing, so the bishop had to come open the utility shed and we hooked up a hose and filled it up that way. It was crazy! Then at the last minute we had to go running for baptismal clothes too! ahh but it all worked out in the end. 

Yes, Elder Cox and i are SO excited for general conference. It´s like the super bowl for missionaies. I think i´m going to be shaking when elder Holland talks. He´s my hero- if i had one wish it would be to have him as my companion for a day to see him knocking doors and teaching. sometimes i day dream about him and Paul from Christ´s time being companions together and baptizing all of pomalca in a day. :) 

But we´ll watch it here in the stake center and hopefully get a lot of investigators to come! This week finally 6 came! The whole Frias family except Marjori who had a baptismal date, and the Tellos, too, who are progressing. 

Love you! 

Elder Hatch 

Elder Thompson, Elder Hill, me, and Elder Hurst in transfer meeting. Elder Thompson is a trainer now, elder Hill is in Chachapoyas (the coolest area of the mission) with my old companion, elder Insaurralde, and elder Hurst is in Cajamarca (the second coolest part of the mission) All my old buddies :)

Looking fierce on my mototaxi

This is in front of our bishop´s house. This fruit is called a guanabana- inside it´s white.. It´s as big as my head!.

3/19/2012

Family, 

Another week that went by way too fast. I feel like i say that every week, but that´s really how i feel! Elder Cox and I are kind of discouraged because again, none of our investigators came to church on sunday. It´s impossible for them to progress if they don´t come to church! Everyone tells us they´ll go, we even send members to pick them up, but things always come up and they don´t show on Sunday. When it comes down to it, it´s their choice and we can´t force them, but we´re going to give a last effort this week and if they still don´t show up we´ll have to drop a few investigators. But we have one investigator, Marjori, an 18 year old nursing student, who´s awesome. She couldn´t go to church this last week because her uncle died and she had to go to his funeral, but she accepted a baptismal date and we´re excited to work with her. 

Yes, elder Cox is from Utah state.. It´s a shame. But he´s going there for engineering on a scholarship- a really smart guy. He says he´s thinking about changing his major to something with computers and then he would transfer to BYU. I´m encouraging him to make the right choice :) And it´s really funny that we look so much alike- we get asked all the time if we´re twins. 

Where we live now just he and i are there. The zone leaders get nicer, bigger houses with a kitchen. Our new house is awesome. It´s easily the nicest place i´ve lived. The only problem is that water only comes three hours a day. they´re going to fix that today though supposedly. 

yes, Kraps crackers are just like Ritz and i love them. I also eat a lot of piqueo snax. It´s doritos, spicy fritos, cheetos, and lays mixed. It´s amazing. I also eat apples.. that´s the only fruit i eat. For dinner i usually eat hotdogs or grilled cheese and cereal  for breakfast. I feel like i´m back in college again, i love it! Not as good as mom´s cooking, but i´ll take it. 

I wear my glasses almost all the time. If i´m not wearing them in pictures it´s because i usually take them off. I would wear my contacts, but there is SO MUCH dust in the air it´s ridiculous, and i always have dust in my eyes, and i feel like contacts would be miserable. 

This week is transfers. We already got the info- we´re both staying here, but seven missionaries are being changed from our zone. So it´ll be another fun and exciting week! Sorry Brooke for not writing back.. I´m bad at writing back in emails, i don´t have much time. But i´ll write you right now :) 

Love you family! 

Elder Hatch 

Here are some pictures of the room!

3/12/2012

         Well, this week has been fun but went by way too fast. They´re all going by too fast now. probably because we´re so busy lately! We had a zone leaders´ conference on tuesday- we have one the first tuesday each month, and i learned a lot. One thing the assistants and president Risso suggested to us was that instead of giving a whole chapter from the book of mormon to investigators that we can give just a few verses, or one verse that will really hit home with them and answer their questions and preoccupations. We´ve been trying it out, and i´m excited to see the results this next week. We had some really good lessons this week, but none of our investigators came to church, so that´s frustrating. This week we´re going to try to visit all our investigators with a member with us so they can go on sunday to pick them up and go to church together. Wednesday we had zone conference and elder cox and i taught the zone about some things we learned in the zone leaders´ conference. Thursday we went to chiclayo to the mission office to take care of all our financial things. since i´m senior zone leader now, i have to control the zone fund. i have to keep a running total of how we use the money, and i´ve forgotten a few times and can´t remember at the end of the week what the discrepancy is from, but it works out in the end. Friday i went to Tuman and did a work visit with elder Cifuentes, one of the district leaders in our zone. Like all of his investigators are pretty teenage girls... i´m kind of worried. Surprisingly, lots of missionaries are like that. Saturday morning in Tuman we cleaned their church. It´s a big building they rent and use as their church and it was so dirty! We basically dumped a bunch of water and soap all over everything then squeegeed it dry. Saturday night elder Cox and i realized we still needed to find a house, so we used the half hour we had free to search. we were talking to a member lady in the street and i saw a few other random ladies and just felt like i should talk to them. I did, and turns out her brother was has a house up for rent, we went and looked at it, it´s perfect, and we´re moving in tomorrow! i´ll send pictures next week.
        I got good news from the zone leaders in my old zone at the zone conference, a family i found with elder Thompson knocking doors in Los Amautas got baptized this last week! A mom and her daughter, and the mom´s younger sister. Such good news!
        Elder Cox and i are getting to be good friends, we found out we had similar taste in tv as children.. He started singing the Arthur theme song and i joined in.. We were both really surprised when we remembered THE WHOLE THING! Sometimes we´re so tired we can barely stay awake, like after we ate lunch with a member family on sunday. The mom was talking about all her problems and i was falling asleep, then elder cox put his arm on my shoulder and started falling asleep and i realized the mom was still going strong with her story. Another time i was exhausted and teaching about the book of mormon. I was trying to say that all joseph smith did with the book of mormon was change the language, but instead i said that all he did was change its religion.. I couldn´t help laughing at myself.
Elder Cifuentes had some books to learn italian in his room, and i asked to borrow them and he let me, so now i´m learning italian in my free time. Il ragazzo é italiano. That means the young man is italian in italian. Impressive, i know.
No, i haven´t bought many things from here in the mission.. I´ll have to buy some.
Oh and last thing, I´m probably going to extend my mission three weeks.. because of the mission change our transfer schedule is three weeks off, and so to not be a problem for president risso, i´ll probably go home three weeks late. i know it´s still a long time away, but i know mom likes to plan vacations well in advance :)
I love you!

Elder Hatch

Pics:
A few people from the zone playing wackee six!
dad´s favorite crackers :)

3/5/2012

Hey fam :)
first of all, dad asked about if i live somewhere as a zone leader or i just travel. Yes, we live in a house and are assigned to half of a ward, the Pomalca ward. We visit other missionaries about one day a week, and the rest of the time we work in our own zone. There are always a lot of meetings and things to do though, so our time we can dedicate to the real missionary work is cut in half most of the time. This last week we had LOTS of unexpected things come up. Friday morning the stake president called me and said he needed us to go to his house urgent, so we went and he told us that the family we´re living with is having family problems and we need to move to a new house asap. so, we talked to the family and now we´re looking for a new house. Some brother in law of theirs moved into town and is renting a house and really mad that the missionaries live where he "should" be living, so the stake president thinks it´s best if we just leave. So, we´re searching for a new house.. not fun. and the missionaries we´ve been living with have had a lot of problems in these three weeks, and finally they both cracked and almost got into a fight, so they had an emergency change.. We had to wait three days until president risso could get it all worked out, so half of this first week i wasn´t even with my new companion, elder Cox, but with one of the missionaries who was having problems and elder Cox was with the other. Today we´re finally back together and happy.
Thankfully we got our new cell phone and it´s made a lot of things a lot easier. Just barely though we were teaching a lesson and it went off right while elder cox was bearing his testimony and killed the spirit.. the downside to having a phone. It´s loud even when it vibrates.
Here basically everyone works in agricultural things. Livestock, cutting sugar cane, in the sugar factory, etc. Most people are really poor. Houses are really cheap to rent. a big house of two levels that´s really nice is like 300 soles per month, aka a little more than 140 dollars.
Elder Cox is from Orangeville, Utah. Where in the world is that? about 20 minutes from price. Super small town. Elder Cox has been in the mission for 20 months, and 10 of those he has been in the mission office. I´m senior companion but he knows way more than me and teaches me so much! He´s a great, obedient missionary, and fantastic companion.
Here are some scriptures that have impacted me this week:
D&C 24:8
D&C 88:63
Luke 21:19
Mostly about patience, I´m learning lots and know that i need all the help from the Lord i can get! I love my assignation, companion, the challenges and fun times that i´m having. I am honored to be a missionary and be able to help others.
Have a great week, I love you and pray for you always!
Elder Hatch

Pictures:
Hanging out with some pigs in Chongoyape..
Elder Cox and i and some other missionaries/random people on the bus back from Chongoyape today for p-day.
The pomalca zone in chongoyape. It´s so beautiful there!