12/19/2011

First of all, you´ve been getting all of my photos, right? This week may or may not work, this computer i´m on is ghetto. The computer place we usually go to was full and we didn´t want to wait.
Everything is going great with elder Thomson, there are a few things i´m really working on with him, number one is his spanish.. And i´m going to help him start studying more effectively, too. We get along great, he´s really a good missionary
Bad news, Estefany´s mom isn´t going to let her be baptized this week. it´s so so so so so frustrating, and has been happening a lot to us lately where the parents initially support everything and then last minute decide their kids can´t get baptized. But Estefany has a really strong testimony and talked with the bishop, and some ladies from the young womens presidency are going to go talk with her mom. She´s not letting her be baptized because she says that Estefany hasn´t changed enough and isn´t ready to accept God. We´ll see though, because from what i´ve seen, Estefany has had one of my most special conversion experiences of all! We´re praying lots.
Elder Uceda coming was awesome. First of all his wife spoke to us and chastised us for standing up when he walked in and told us we should only stand up for the quorum of the 12 and the first presidency. Then she and elder uceda in turn talked in depth about obedience and basically everything imaginable. Elder uceda talked alone for 2 hours and 15 minutes. I got to shake his hand and tell him my name, but after everything elder Thomson got a 1 on 1 interview with him for like 10 minutes.
That´s funny that in paraguay they paint all the houses around christmas, because it´s the exact same here! EVERYONE paints their houses to start the new year, it´s a suspicion thing. In our house we´re painting because their son comes home this saturday and hna Graciela wants everything to be perfect!
No package yet... I´m anxiously waiting!
My time frame to call is Sunday afternoon. I´ll get to call and set a specific time beforehand! and no skype because it´s sunday and so we can´t go to an internet place, and we´re not allowed to use members´ computers. bummer.
All the stuff with dad is crazy, it seems like a dream to me because i just hear little reviews of each week. That must be so hard and frustrating for everyone! I wish i were there so i could help drive dad around and everything. I´ll be praying a lot for you dad! I can´t believe you´ve lost 60 pounds! I want pictures of you!  And just in general, i want  pictures from the fam!
Christmas eve we´re going to spend like the whole day as a mission in the institute building  doing skits, eating, etc. Sunday there´s only an hour of church and i´m not sure what we´re going to be doing.
Stuff that i´ve done lately.. I played the piano in the primary program last week, i forgot to tell you about that. I played i love to see the temple and if i listen with my heart, it´s a new song. I also directed the priesthood choir for our christmas program and played the piano in priesthood, oh elders of israel. (had to include the piano stuff to make mom happy :) )  Also, elder Thomson and I gave talks in sacrament meeting. It´s the third talk i´ve given on missionary work in the same ward.. You´d think they would be sick of me speaking by now. I´m sure they are. But i make my talk different every time. This one was the most generic, because i´m running out of stories to tell them!  We´ve found a few cool families lately, i´m excited to work with them! And on sunday we had 7 investigators in church! That´s my second to highest, one time elder Insaurralde and i had 10! But we were happy with 7.
In my voice recording i complain a lot, but don´t worry, i was half joking.. And the bug bites i have all over me i´m beginning to think is an allergic reaction, because nobody else is getting bitten and they´re in places where bugs can´t reall bite me. It may be from the laundry detergent.. i don´t know.
There are transfers the 27th, i´ll know what´s happening the 26th when i email the fam. It´s almost sure that elder Morales will be transferred. He´s been in Los Incas for like 6 months. I´ve been here for 4 already! I´m sneaking up on 11 months! WOWWW time goes by so fast! I don´t even want to think about being half done!
Oh, mom asked me about a manger scene from Peru. Yes they have them, but it´s far away and would cost a lot to send it. It´s super expensive to send stuff from here to the US, so maybe next year i can buy one and we can take it home with us!
I love the mission so much, I love the person i´m becoming, and the changes i´ve made in how i act, and who i want to be when i get back home. I love the family, and i´ll be thinking of you lots on christmas, missing the snow and mom´s legendary casserole on christmas morning with the cinnamon pull apart things and orange juice. (yes mom, i miss  your cooking)
In my studies i´ve been reading the Gospels. I´m getting started on john (i had to think for a while to translate Juan to john haha) and i´ve loved studying the life of christ! Today i read and really liked John 3:19-21. I also finished the book of mormon a while ago in spanish, i don´t know if i ever told you that. it took me about six months. I read my Book of mormon study manual along with it too. I love the book of mormon. This letter is really long, and i just realized i forgot to individually answer the sisters who wrote me a few weeks ago, i´m sorry! But just love me and i´ll talk to you soon!
Love you!
Elder Hatch

My bible is dying

12/12/2011

Wow what a week of craziness! Let´s start from the beginning. (a very good place to start)...  

Monday we got the news that elder Hurst would be transferred, so at night we were bummed but went to our appointments with Estefany and Victoria and their family, and Cristian and Mario. We had fasted for Estefany (15) that she would be able to go to church (she works every sunday morning) and monday night she told us that she was able to get sunday mornings off of work and was super excited to go to church and asked us when she could get baptized!! It´s a rule that they have to attend church at least two times before being baptized, so we scheduled the 23rd as her baptismal date. She´s super excited and preparing well for her baptism! Then at the end of the lesson we told them that elder Hurst would be leaving and they were super sad! Same with Mario and Cristian. Especially because Cristian wanted elder Hurst to baptize him. But tuesday morning we got him all packed up and went to the office at 3 pm. I was nervous to have a new companion, especially because elder Hurst and i got along so well... We were waiting there for President Risso to get to the office with about 10 missionaries, he came in he shook my hand and told me that my companion is elder Thomson. He´s from American Fork. He has the same amount of time in the mission as elder Hurst.

This week went well, it was a bit rough getting used to a new companion, but we get along great! Every day we visited Mario and Cristian to get them ready for their baptisms on saturday... and they got baptized saturday! They´re great, accept everything we´ve taught them, and their mom supports them a ton. She even came to church yesterday for their confirmation. I baptized Cristian and Elder Thomson baptized Mario. 

I´m writing super early today because this afternoon at 2:00 we have a meeting with elder Uceda from the 70! We´re all excited and nervous that he´ll burn us for not being good enough. 

The package still isn´t here, but i´m sure it´ll come soon! 

We did a service project saturday as a stake, but like nobody showed up. Just the missionaries and a few other members. We went to a big dirt field filled with garbage and started picking it up and putting it into empty cement mix bags. I was sure i would get diseased because we didn´t even have gloves and we´re just digging through peruvian garbage.. diapers.. dead animals.. used drug needles. but after a little while they gave us leather gloves and gas masks! it was so legit! i used my mormon helping hands shirt as a turban and with my gas mask i looked like a terrorist. after that we helped elder morales and gonzales build an adobe wall for a member. we made mud, dug a trench and everything. The backs of my legs ended up pretty sunburned. 

Overall it was a great week! very eventful and not much time to do contacts in the street.. we only had 15 for the whole week! We normally do like 15 a day. But i´m happy and excited for this next week! 

Elder Hatch 

Our ward mission leader is the lead singer of a mariachi band. Hermano Gilberto Sanchez. Classic. This is him singing to our pensionista for her birthday! 

We get excited the first day of every month when we get all our money, but then we realize we have to give it all away for our room, food, laundry, etc. 

This is the road to a neighborhood called Teresa del Calcuta in our area, a nice peruvian sunset in the background, and this huge field that is full of trash, we call it the land of desolation.

Mario and Cristian´s baptisms!

I had a little bit of fun while we were painting the house!

In case you can´t read my paint roller writing, it says Hatch lo hizo.. Aka Hatch did it. There´s all these things printed into the sidewalks that say El Pueblo lo hizo, or the people did it. And i always tell hna Graciela that i want the glory for the transformation of the house and that we need to paint Hatch lo hizo big on the wall so everyone knows i did it :) 

Me as a mariachi singer!!! they call them Charros here.

12/5/2011

Right now i have a lot of mixed emotions... We´ll see how it comes out.

First the big news, today the zone leaders told me that elder hurst is going to be transferred tomorrow. Five elders are going home mid change because of the difference between the chiclayo and piura transfer schedule, so elder hurst is leaving and i´ll get a new companion. Chances are that i´ll finish training another missionary. I´m SO bummed! Because Elder Hurst has definitely been my favorite companion. We´re great friends, laugh all the time, and finally have two baptisms coming up this week that should actually go through and Elder Hurst was going to baptize them! Bummer. And we went to say goodbye to one member who´s amazing and cuts our hair for free and she started crying, it was sad. So, today we have to get everything ready for 3 o´clock tomorrow when we have to be in the mission office for him to go :( But I´m sure my new companion will be great too!

To finish up the sad stuff, this week i decided to drop monica and armando. They just aren´t progressing now and monica didn´t go to church yesterday. She just doesn´t want to change and doesn´t really even have to change.. I´m sad and frustrated about them, because it´s so easy for me to see that they need to join the church! But not everyone will accept.

We have been working with two brothers, Mario and Christian. Their family is a referral from a member. Christian (10) accepted baptism super quick and is already doing amazing with all the commandments. His mom drinks coffee and gives it to the brothers every once in a while, and the mom told us that the next morning he made sure they were drinking hot chocolate and not coffee. Mario is 14 and goes to a military boarding school, he only comes here in the weekends. But they´re really great and i hope they can be baptized on saturday!

This week was hna Ursula´s birthday. She turned 63 or 64, not sure. But we got Hno Gilberto, our ward mission leader and mariachi singer, to serenade her while we ate lunch! it was so fun and Hna Ursula loved it! I have a bunch of fun pictures, but this computer is super slow and i already lost five minutes trying to upload pictures, but the computer froze.

It´s getting hotter and hotter here. I´m always sweating. it didn´t help that my hair was getting way too long, but today i cut it.

We went to a park and sang christmas hymns in an area of some sister missionaries. President Risso came, that was fun. A high school had just gotten out and all the kids were there gawking at us, asking us a ton of questions, etc. A Bunch of girls were swarming elder Hurst and i ( the tallest, most classic gringos) And they all wanted pictures with us.

We fasted for one of our investigators, Estefany (15) who has a testimony of the church and the book of mormon and wants to get baptized, but works sundays. We fasted for her to be able to change something to be able to go to church and get baptized! Sunday she told us she has news for us and looked really excited, she said she´s going to tell us today in the family home evening that´s become a tradition with them. I have high hopes, and am still praying that she´ll be able to do it!

Mom´s questions..Victoria´s father just thinks she isn´t taking everything seriously enough, which is true, but she is ready to be baptized and is already basically a member. He says she needs to wait until she´s 18, but we´ll see if we can change that. He wasn´t in the family home evening last week.

Yes i got the thanksgiving card! Thanks! and i liked the bookmark too. Yes i´ll get to call on christmas, maybe even skype. We´ll see.

Singing christmas songs is fun in spanish! I  miss A Cappella and Madrigals though, that got me in the christmas spirit! Here we don´t sing much but i love when we do. And it is really throwing me off that its so hot at christmas time. The whole fun of christmas season is skiing! But surprisingly i don´t miss anything about home except the family. I miss you guys a lot! But in a good way :)

Our chapel is about five minutes walking from our house. Super close! In La Victoria, my city, there are like 10 or 15 chapels. In all of chiclayochiclayo, around 40.

Wow i didn´t realize your foot was so bad Dad! I´ll keep praying for you, and mom too, becauase i´m sure it´s rough on her to be doing everything around the house, etc. She really is an amazing woman.

Thanks so much for all your love and support! I have the greatest family ever, and am so blessed to have your examples and support in my life! Keep dong the easy, important things in life, like reading the scriptures every day as a family and personally, praying together, and going to church of course! It´s so sad to see when the people stop doing one or more of these things and their life goes downhill so fast! I have gained a testimony of the importance of constancy in the Gospel!

Love You!

Elder Hatch

11/28/2011

Family, 

Well, this week was a bummer. We had three people with baptismal dates for saturday, and here´s what happened with all three. Victoria (15 year old girl) was super pumped and ready, but her dad said she has to wait until she´s 18.. We just met him last night, so we´ll see if we can help change his mind in the family home evening we´re going to have with them tonight. So, there´s one of the three down. Friday were Monica and Armando´s interviews for their baptisms. Monica passed her interview fine, she did hers at 6 pm, but her dad, Armando, could only do his at 8, so we had to do a few change ups, plus i had to interview elder Hill and Bohman´s baptism in their area, so i was in their area, and long story short, Armando got nervous and wouldn´t even do his interview. Number two down. We were discouraged, but still excited for monica´s baptism saturday night. Saturday night comes around, a bunch of members were there, we were excited. I had to interview a baptismal candidate for elder Morales and Gonzales and it took a while, and i didn´t finish until like 8:15, so elder Hurst went with elder Morales to pick up monica. Turns out she wasn´t at home.. She bailed last minute and it was a bummer to tell the people who were at the baptism that there wouldn´t be a baptism... yeah it was rough. But Sunday was a great day, we found 7 new investigators, and did a ton of contacts in the streets and the big park in our area, and after all we didn´t feel too bad about our week. We are working with a lot of really good people, some brothers, Mario and Christian, who have a baptismal date for the 10th, and we´ll see how they go. 

My mission has costal desert plains, mountainous areas, and jungle. Where i am now is as flat as can be, and super deserty. The Cajamarca Zone is in the mountains, and the Jaen Zone is in the jungle. I´ll have been in chiclayo my whole first year, and i´m hoping to get out for at least part or all of the second! I hear Cajamarca is really beautiful. 

As for portuguese, I don´t know anybody really who speaks it, but elder Gonzales who lives with us, went through a period where he wanted to learn it and printed a liahona off the internet in portuguese so i read it and was super excited when i could understand everything! 

In a few weeks elder Uceda, a 70, is going to speak to our mission, so today we have to fill out a survey thing so he can help us as a mission with everything. 

Everything is going well, I want to baptize more people, but they´ll come when they come. We just need to keep working hard and loving the Lord´s work! Hope everything is great in Utah, i´m jealous that it´s cold there- it´s changing to summer here and i´m sweating all the time! 

Love you, 

Elder Hatch 

This is a family we´re teaching! The girls are Estefany and Victoria and the little girl is Melanie. The young man is Brayan. 

My district! I can´t remember if i sent this to you, but i´ll send it again! 

Renato, Rozana, and Paola (members), Victoria, Melanie, Estefany, Brayan, elder Hurst and I

elder Juergens and i on the beach. He´s sister wright´s nephew who plays football for byu

A great glamour shot i took trying to be ugly, but it shows a classic lunch of chicken, rice, some brown things they say are peas or something, and fruit.

11/21/2011

Family!

It was a good week, even though we postponed our baptisms for another week.. The ward went to the temple in Lima, and we didn´t want to baptize the people if nobody was going to be there for their baptisms or confirmations! Church was interesting. Like 10 members were there at the start of the meeting.. Elder Hurst and I blessed the sacrament, gave the talks, I gave mine on the importance of being an example. I talked about a study we learned about in my college psych class, and gave a few examples, and i played the piano for the rest hymn. It was fun! We also had a lesson in priesthood about the final judgement. There is a scripture in doctrine and covenants that says that the books will be opened. One of the books is our personal memory. It records everything we think, do, and say, and in that moment we will condemn ourselves with our own memory before christ. In a sense we judge ourselves and we´ll know where we deserve to go! What a motivation to keep our thoughts, words, and acts clean! This new knowledge has inspired me to repent better, and i seriously am so scared of ever sinning again in my life! All i want to do is read the scriptures, share the gospel, and have a family :) But i know i have to live a normal life too.

The ward has been helping us out a lot lately, going with us to teach our investigators, inviting them to family home evenings, etc. It´s great!

Today we went to the beach, about 20 minutes from here, and it was SO FUN! Funnest p-day of my mission! One elder has a football and we played on the beach. it was amazing, especially because there are a few college football players in our zone. I had a great time. David Cusick´s roommate from the U is in my zone too, and so we were instant friends!

speaking of.. What i want for christmas is a football. It´s something big, you can send it to me deflated, but just a normal football, please not a ghetto one, but not extremely nice. It´s all i want..

Yes we´ll be here for christmas and i´m super pumped! I´ll try to find out about a business here..

And they have the same movies we have in the US. They come out pirated here as soon as they hit the theaters in the US. The only entertainment they produce here is music, and soap operas. There´s one called Al Fondo Hay Sitio ( there´s a spot in back) that EVERYONE watches.

Oh, and i got super excited lately because i can read and understand portuguese. I don´t know how to pronounce the words, but i can read it perfectly, like 99%! I decided i want to learn it when i get back to BYU, and then i want to learn french or italian. It´s my goal to be solidly trilingual, with a little of a fourth in there.

I am happier right now than i´ve been in my whole mission. I love my area, my companion, our investigators (even if they don´t want to get baptized :) and the progress i´ve made progressing personally in my knowledge, testimony, and drawing nearer to Christ. I know what i´m doing is true, it absolutely blows the people here away when i tell them i left my family, studies, and everything in the US to come here to preach the Gospel and not earn any money. They don´t understand it, and frankly i wouldn´t either if i didn't have this testimony burning inside of me. It´s what gets me up every morning at 6:30 and keeps me knocking doors with a smile on my face. Thank you so much, family, for showing me what to do with my life. I´ve been given so much, i just didn´t really realize it until being here. Thanks for everything, your support, letters, and love. It´s so nice to know my family is in church every week, and being faithful to the gospel. I love you!

Elder Hatch

a great boat on the beach that says sun and sea, christ lives! I wanted to be an angry seaman

a slightly off centered picture of us at the beach! We went with two zones! Like 36 missionaries or so!

I look so small next to elder Hurst!

There are always a ton of flies in our room, and i LOVE killing them. That sounds morbid, but it´s really super fun! I´ve gotten pretty good. In spanish the fly swatter is called a matamoscas. (kill flies)

This is the street we live on, it´s called Inca Yupanqui. Yes, that dog is eating trash, and the man down the street isn´t wearing a shirt. I´m so glad i captured this classic moment, because this is seriously how it is here. Dogs eating trash and guys with beer bellies not wearing shirts.

11/14/2011

Great experience i just had... i was trying to find the usb port in this computer and bent over and the chair i was on broke and i fell on the floor and everyone laughed at me... but i played it off well. 

Yeah the animals are on the roof. that´s where the laundry dries too. most people have their animals behind their house, but we don´t have a behind part, so they´re on the roof.
Monica came to church this week! We´re pumped about that. We kind of layed off teaching them every day this week, and it worked well. Monica said she wants to get baptized this week. Armando is still kind of indecisive.. But we have some other great investigators. Victoria is so golden, she just needs her mom´s permission! Pray for her! And more than anything, our investigators need to go to church! 

Living with 4 missionaries is super fun! Our house, the family we live with, the ward, just everything is ideal right now! I´m in paradise. It´s so fun having elder Hurst as a companion too! We get along perfectly, and have a great time. 

Bummer that Timpview lost! how´s byu doing? 

Dad´s scooter crash story sounded funny. I hope you´re not getting too bored in bed all the time! you could take advantage of the time and do some arm exercises (totally forgot how to spell that word in english) or something! I´ve been doing tons of pushups and sit ups lately and i´m actually getting stronger! I´ve gotten a bit skinnier too, after fattening up in Campodonico. 

Working as usual and loving life! So good to hear that everything´s good with the family!

Elder Hatch 

pictures: Flashing some gang signs in front of our internet place. apparently they want to legalize marijuana here too.. There is graffiti everywhere! 

Elder Hurst and I made the cookies, it was serious business.. 

Elder Hurst and I floating in front of the museum

11/7/2011

The story of this week has been Monica and Armando. Monica is 19, she´s super friendly and has accepted everything we teach her. She went to church the first week we taught her and her dad, but since then she hasn´t gone again! She always goes dancing Saturday nights and sleeps through church, it´s really frustrating! She just needs to go to church once more so she can be baptized! But i don´t want to baptize her to be inactive either, so we´ll see. We talked to president risso about Armando, because he lives with the mother of his children but they´re separated as to sleeping together and live in separate rooms, etc. We got the ok to baptize him, and we´ll see what happens in these next few weeks. He has some grandkids that are super fun and i always play around with a little two year old girl who´s so cute, Jocelyn! Now my spanish is to the point where i´m not nervous to joke around with the people and stuff. In this last little while i´ve gotten more personable with the people, and try to be their friend and make them feel comfortable. It´s been really cool, and i´m trying to be a lot more loving,because i read a quote from an apostle.. can´t remember which, that says that if you don´t show your love then you don´t love at all! So, i´m being more loving :) 

Elmer Gonzales Vitarte... There´s an elder vidarte in the mission, but he shouldn´t be using facebook... add him if you feel like it? 

Halloween here was kind of lame. They don´t really celebrate it, more in the city with rich people.. and no, they don´t have daylight savings time here. so now you´re two hours off of my time right? 

Lately a lot of songs we always hear in the street have been getting stuck in my head, and i sing them a lot, like the two lines i know of them. I´m sure elder Hurst loves that.. 

Speaking of him, he´s allergic to all the dirt that´s here, and every once in a while his allergies act up and he explodes during a lesson, and his nose starts running and his eyes get all puffy, it´s funny but i feel bad for him. He´s learning lots. 

Preach my gospel is set up so that we can teach basically anything the spirit tells us to depending on the investigators´ needs and interests. default is the message of the restoration, but we can teach anything that a person needs. the four lessons are the restoration, the plan of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the commandments: word of wisdom, Sabbath day, tithing, and chastity. 

we had a good time teaching a super duper 7th day Adventist 15 year old kid named Roger. I´ve found that the absolute hardest teaching situation is with a very devout 7th day Adventist. They always just want to argue about how the bible says we have to respect Saturday and not Sunday.. we taught him, but he´ll never change his viewpoint. it was fun though. 

The church is true! The priesthood is real, and the scriptures are amazing! 

Elder Hatch 

Pics: the view from the roof of our house, and me being a gangster on the roof haha, a baby turkey, it looks like one of those pictures you´d see from africa or something.. and a picture from Jakeline’s baptism