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.

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 Boró, 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!

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!

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

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!