12/17/2012

Family!

I'm donezo here in the office! It's my last day here, and a ton of missionaries are here because it's transfer day and they always flood the office to say goodbye to everyone who's going home. Everyone is trying to get me to tell them where i'm going, but I've kept the secret :) I'm only going to tell you guys. Tomorrow i'm going to Cajamarca!! My ward is called Atahualpa, and my companion is Elder Giraldo, from Colombia. He has been in the mission for like 6 months i think. I'm not going to be district leader or any sort of leader, just senior companion. What a relief. I've been some sort of leader for like a year and a half of my mission. I'm super ready to just hit the streets and focus 100% on my investigators for the last 2 fantastic months of my mission. I hope the office-to-world change isn't too hard on me. My time here in the office has been great, I've learned SO many things, and will always be grateful for the opportunity and life lessons I've learned here. Oh, and guess who the new assistant to the president is going to be?! Elder Insaurralde!!! My companion from the start of my mission when we were both super new and had no idea what we were doing. We've come a long way. When i think about the lessons we taught i almost cringe because of how bad we were! But i'm proud of him, he's a great missionary and will be an excellent assistant. 

As for Christmas  i'm 99% sure i'll be able to use Skype  I'll be in the fanciest part of Cajamarca, so i'm sure some member will let us use their computer. i'll call you a few days before Christmas and set up the time.

Mom and dad- have you figured out if we're going to puno or the jungle?? i want to know! And i can't believe dad won the grand prize at work! You guys are so lucky! Mom with her flights to Hawaii, and now dad to anywhere in the US. Not bad. At least they weren't for anywhere in south america too, after you had already bought the tickets to perú. That would stink! haha. 

Elder Infante... He's doing great. He's so funny- classic super stubborn peruvian from the mountains. There's a stereotype of the people from the mountains here and he fits it perfectly. He has been scratching himself constantly for 2 months, and didn't want to go to the doctor.. finally i made him go and the doctor gave him some creams and pills to take every day. now a week has gone by and he's only taken the pills once and put the cream on once, but doesn't like it because it makes him feel sweaty. And he is still itchy all the time! When he complains i tell him to take his medicine, but he won't. But he has a lot of faith in natural medicine, like the water from boiled potatoes supposedly cures your kidneys, etc.... haha i have more faith in modern medicine.

This week we did an exchange with the zone leaders from La Victoria zone. Elder Hurst and his companion, Elder Fandiño. I worked there in their area with Elder Fandiño. They have awesome investigators, and we had a few lessons that were so spiritual! One was with an entire family they're teaching. They had assigned Mormon 7 for them to read, but they didn't read, so when we got there we read it with them and taught as we went along. That chapter is prefect for teaching so many things, but anyway, the spirit was so strong and when we got to the part about being baptized by water and by fire, one of the girls asked "by fire?" and i don't even know what i said but it turned out perfect and they all accepted to be baptized :) Ah, i LOVE teaching people the truth by the Spirit! That same day we taught a lady with a million questions about the book of mormon, prophets, and everything else. She knew a lot about the bible, which is super rare, ah i was so excited while we were teaching her. 

We visited a lot of other companionships and basically weren't even in our area this week. Typical. But I'm content with the work we were able to do in San Felipe. 

In President Monson's Christmas message he said that we should think about what gifts we can give to others and to the Savior. I feel like right now i am in the perfect situation to give everything i can- all of my heart, might, mind, and strength in the Lord's work. I hope I can live up to what He expects and needs me to be. I love our Savior, and am trying to be like Him. It's hard, but i really think i'm changing and becoming better.. putting off the natural man little by little. :) 

I love you!

Elder Hatch

12/10/2012

Hi family, 

Yes, i got the smaller package (i'm going to open it on Christmas, as instructed) And i got the little paper saying the other package is in customs here in chiclayo so i have to go pick it up, but yes, they're both here! A lot easier than last year! But i loved the tension of waiting. :) 

The good news keeps coming lately. I get to talk to all the zone leaders every week (i'm kind of burnt out on reporting now, i've been receiving reports for almost a year and a half now), and basically all the missionaries every few weeks, so i get updates on how my old investigators are doing all the time. This week the zone leaders from Pomalca told me that Jorge Medina, a 16 year old champ, went to the temple last weekend and did baptisms for his dad and grandpa! It's the best feeling ever to know that a person i have been able to help be baptized has gone to the temple. The Floreano family is still planning on going to be sealed in January, too! 

Here's the story of the multizone conferences with Elder Camargo this week. 

Monday night we got to cajamarca and ate some killer KFC with president and sister Risso- we ate a bucket of chicken and a super good christmas cake thing. I have been really spoiled with all the fast food. But luckily i haven't gotten chubby, people actually keep telling me i look skinnier...? no exercise and lots more food, and i get skinnier. I don't get it. But i love it. Anyway, tuesday morning Elder Camargo was supposedly going to fly from lima to cajamarca and get there just in time for the zone conference. We were all waiting there while pres and sister Risso went to pick him up... time goes by... they call us, and guess what? The plane got there, but no Elder Camargo. Like 100 calls and an hour later, we figure out that he missed his plane from Colombia.... So we just did the conference with pres and sister Risso and us for four hours. it went great! Then we drove back here to chiclayo. Wednesday morning and afternoon we had 2 more conferences, and by then Elder Camargo had gotten here to chiclayo. When there's an authority there you can feel the tension in the air. The only bad part was that he took our time away! He said i'm going to ask you (the assistants) to give me your time... Seriously??!?!?! We spent like a week planning everything and he told us we had an hour, then he changed his mind! haha so he and his wife took 2 hours. Of course, it was way cooler than what we were going to talk about, and i wasn't really mad, just kind of bummed. I got to talk a lot with him. After the first conference wednesday mornign he asked me what he should talk about in the second meeting, so i gave him a few ideas. And in the afternoon he put me on the spot a few times, for example, he was walking along talking and said in doctrine and covenants 4 it says we have to serve God with what, elder Hatch? I knew that one. All of our heart, might, mind and strength. But later on he also quoted part of 3 nephi 28:29 and asked me where it was, but i didn't know.  I don't think anyone else did either, though. I went 50%, not bad. In another part of the conference he pulled me up in front of everyone as a volunteer. He was talking about how when we go on a mission we are literally set apart from the world, from sin, etc. He grabbed me by the shoulders and moved me a few feet away from him and said, "You have to separate yourselves from sin!" and he looked at everyone- in that second i shuffled a little bit farther away from him, and he looked back at me and everyone started laughing. I don't know why i did it, i wasn't trying to be a clown, but it just happened. Luckily he laughed too, and said "well done". It was a moment i'll never forget. 

After the conferences he talked a few minutes with Elder Infante and i, and invited us to a meeting with him, president Risso, and all the stake presidents from Chiclayo. I was so pumped! He talked about how missionary work needs to function in the wards. Then we all went in president Risso's car to an appointment with a tough investigator of a companionship of some sister missionaries. The investigator didn't show up... It would have been an awesome lesson. 

So, since we weren't even going to participate, we didn't go to the conference in Jaen. It was fine though, because we had a few days to work in our area, which are scarce lately. 

Saturday we went to work with some zone leaders in the Chiclayo Central zone, and we moved from our old apartment where we lived with the other four office elders to our own area in our own apartment. I didn't want to move, but elder infante is always super angry at the other missionaries because they never clean up after themselves, so he finally exploded and said we're moving tomorrow, and we did. It has its pros and cons, but oh well, i'll only be here another week. 

Tomorrow is zone leaders council. It's my 10th, and last time, in attendance. It's tradition that the elders who are leaving bear their testimonies, so i'll probably do that tomorrow, and we're going to talk about what we were going to talk about in the multizone conferences there. 

I can't believe Christmas is in 2 weeks! I haven't really had time to think about it. But i love this time of year. 

Thanks for all the prayers and love, i am so grateful for my amazing family, and the support you are constantly giving. 

Elder Hatch

12/3/2012

hey family!

Sorry this week is going to be really really short because i have a lot to do this morning before we head off to cajamarca after lunch! This week we were in the office a ton, planning stuff for the multizone conference. I´m attaching a picture of a little card we're making for the missionaries to put in their agendas to give them more ideas of topics when they´re knocking doors. This weekend our ward did a caravan to the temple in lima, and Anthony went! He did baptisms! And on sunday both him and leila, the other lady we baptized a few weeks ago, bore their testimonies! I was so happy i had to fight back the urge to fist pump a few times. It's been a good week. I love you and hope you have an amazing week!

11/26/2012

Family,

Today is transfer day in the mission! Elder Chuiz, my last companion, is going home today. It's interesting to see the missionaries on their last day and talk to them about how they feel, etc. I feel bad for President Risso though, because he passes the whole morning in interviews. I swear, half of being a mission president is interviews.

The picture last week of the missionaries sleeping is a picture i took in the office- here we have a little makeshift storehouse for all the materials and furniture in the mission- those matresses are for new areas, etc.

Scop's baptism went great! The only problem was that Scop and his family (with a lot of less active members) showed up right on time and everyone else came like a half hour late. I was pretty stressed. But once we got started everything went well. The best part is that every week more of the family goes to church. This week Leila's sister and her two daughters were there! It's amazing to see the difference that one person can make on the entire family!

Oh, more good news. I have pink eye. Yesterday it was at its peak and it was bugging me pretty bad, but now it's feeling better.

We found a few cool new people in our area this week. The problem is that one couple can only meet with us once every two weeks... so it will be pretty hard to get them to progress. They said they were really interested in the Church and wanted to attend the meetings yesterday, but after all they didn't show up. We also taught the husband of a long-time member lady. He asked us a few quesions to test us, like "every church says their church is the true church, so i can't believe everyone who tells me it. What do you say?" But i just shared my testimony and invited him to find out for himself. Sometimes i get frustrated just wanting people to understand and accept our message- it's so simple and clear to me that it's all true and that if they do the things we invite them to they'll be blessed, but people get so confused because of all the other churches and different ideas that exist.

Oh, President Risso told me that i'm going to be transferred from the office in 3 weeks! Because a lot of missionaries are going home mid-transfer because they want to be home for Christmas instead of getting home at the start of January. And he said if it's possible he wants me to have a good 2 months in the field to be working like a normal missionary again. i'm happy with the idea. :) After being in the office so long i need a breath of fresh air.

Here's my thanksgiving story: A few north american missionaries who i saw throughout the day wished me a happy thanksgiving, but other than that i honestly didn't think about it too much. Elder Infante made Fettuccine Alfredo for dinner- i like that he loves to cook! But the real excitement happened on Friday. We were walking by a trash dump (they are abundant in chiclayo) and we heard what sounded like a bunch of cats, so we went to see what was up, and saw a little baby dog, like born that same day size, on the ground crying, and a black bag a few feet away that was moving and making lots of noise- it was full of baby puppies. Someone had just tossed their dog's newborn puppies in a bag and thrown it in the garbage. Obviously we couldn't just let them die, so we grabbed the bag and took them to a member family's house where they have a mom dog who gave birth not too long ago. Long story short, the mom dog didn't accept the babies and wasn't lactating anymore, but the family offered to take care of the puppies if we would search for houses for them. There were 9 of them!! I even named one that was golden hatchi (it's a common dog name here) haha. We had to give them milk in syringes, but yesterday seven of them died.. It seems like the other two are going to die too, which is sad, but we tried! That was our adventure of the week. Oh, one more adventure.

We sent our suit coats to be dry-cleaned- four of us from the office, and the lot fell on elder Infante and i to go pick them up saturday at night. So we get there and the girls who work there start getting nervous and realized they had given our four suit coats to four different missionaries.. So we called them and they just happened to be the missionaries who live in the most dangerous part of chiclayo, but we needed out suit coats to go to church on sunday morning! So we took the four coats they had in the store and took a mototaxi to Villahermosa.. After getting lost for a while we finally made it and did the exchange. it was risky and we got home at like 10:30! But we were safe.

i'm out of time, i love you family!

Elder Hatch

Here's Scop's baptism!

Marvin, the same young man that baptized Leila, baptized Scop. The other people are her family, all less active people who are reactivating!

And here i am feeding a little puppy!

Here's one of the little puppies eating.

11/19/2012

Hi fam! 

Right now i'm listening to Christmas music! I'm getting into the Christmas spirit. I wanted to set up the christmas tree here in the office today, but appartently president risso said we have to wait until december. But we're basically not even going to be here in december. Here's the rough outline.. So, Elder Pino from the 70 was going to come but he´s super busy so he's sending an area 70 in his place to come do the tour of our mission.... kind of a dissapointment, but i'm sure it will still be great. Anyway, the first week of december he's scheduled to come and we'll probably be going to Jaen and Cajamarca in that week, and have a huge conference with all the missionaries here in Chiclayo. The second week we have zone leaders council, then the next weeks we have ward activities, visits to Cajamarca and Jaen for Christmas activities with them, and a christmas activity here in Chiclayo. President and Sister Risso are having 200 uruguay national team soccer jerseys made for all the missionaries! shhh, it's a secret though. Oh, and as for christmas decorations here in Chiclayo.. decorations outside of the house don't really exist here because people would rob them in the night, but inside the houses everyone sets up crazy huge manger scenes, but not until the weeks around christmas. The only places that are decorated now are big international retail stores. 

When we got back from our trip we taught Scop, (great name), Leila's son. He's 12 and really wants to get baptized and go on a mission to the united states :) haha but Elder Infante and i are helping him gain a testimony. He's going to be baptized this saturday! We're excited for that. 

Oh, and yes mom i know sister Case! She was in my zone in Latina. Now she's in Jaen and this last week when we were in the snack break during the conference for sister missionaries she told me that my aunt is her mom's boss. and President Risso said "and Elder Hatch is your boss" haha it was so funny! 

I had another funny and embarrassing moment this last week.

We were in a zone meeting in the Chiclayo Perú zone- like 20 missionaries. I was talking about how to be more effective in the first lesson. I was finishing up my spiel and i was trying to say something like this "so that we can have more naturality in our first lesson" but what came out was "so that we can have more nature in our first lesson" and everyone laughed at me. But i bounced back quick :) I'm surprised i don't make a fool of myself more often. 

I was studying yesterday in Ether 12. Verse 12 always has been interesting to me. it says that if we don't have faith God can't preform miracles. I'm sure God wants to perform so many miracles and help us out so much, but we limit what He can do for us a lot because we don't have enough faith! I'm trying to boost my faith by being constantly obedient and trying my hardest to prech the gospel effectively and by the spirit so that i can see miracles in the lives of the people i'm teaching! 

I love you and hope you have a great week!

Elder Hatch 

The first picture is of Elder Samamé and Elder Perea working hard sunday night in the office while the rest of us were working on reports.

The second is of Pres and Sister Risso with us at Gocta! Sister Risso would kill me if she knew i was sending this picture home! haha i was taking pictures of her and President walking and we were all sweaty and she was yelling at me to not take pictures! haha

11/13/2012

Hey fam, 

This week was nuts! I feel like every week is nuts lately though. 

Tuesday was the zone leaders council- we talked about a new sheet we made for all the missionaries to track their progress in their personal studies, and about how to be more effective in the first lesson. 

Wednesday we went to the Chiclayo Perú zone's zone training meeting and they asked us to talk about the first lesson and do practices with the zone. That afternoon we planned a new special conference for only the sister missionaries in the mission on Thursday. We talked about basically the same things, but a little different, to keep building on what we talked about in the zone council. So that meeting was only for the sisters in Chiclayo, 16 sisters. That night one of our investigators we've had for a while, Stefani, told us she doesn't have any plans to be baptized, and that she only goes to church because she doesn't want to make her uncle feel bad and she feels obligated because she lives with them.. Bummer. But it's her choice! I'm glad she was honest with us. 

Friday at about noon we started off to Jaen- we got there in the evening, and Elder Infante got sick from the drive and was all barfy, but he bounced back quick and we went to a ward mission night in the zone leaders' ward. Saturday morning we gave the same special conference for sister missionaries to the 6 sisters in Jaen. In the afternoon we drove to Chachapoyas. Sunday morning in church i played the little electric organ in sacrament meeting- i'm getting used to playing without a pedal.. In the afternoon we went out with a member of the branch to visit less active members and ended up trekking all over the hills in chachapoyas and only visited one person. It was fun though because Chachapoyas is beautiful and it was lightly raining- it's seriously paradise there. The only problem is that the nasty mattresses we throw on the floor to sleep on when we visit them are definitely infested with fleas, because i always wake up scratching myself. Monday we had p-day in Chachapoyas! there are a million sweet tourist attractions around chachapoyas, and president and sister Risso chose to go the third tallest waterfall in the world, Gocta. It's about an hour driving from Chachapoyas, then three hours hiking in and three hours hiking out. It was pretty tough for me, and my companion and president and sister risso were basically dead half way through. I didn't think they were going to make it. But it was so so pretty there! We even saw a really rare almost extinct parrot type orange bird. We had a tour guide who told us all the myths and showed us the plants, etc. The entire day i had flies trying to land on my head. I was about to go insane. Oh and the tour guide showed us a huge boulder on the side of the pathway that has fossilized seashells in it. I don't know how the ocean got to gocta.. It's not even close to any ocean or lake or anything! 

Then, when we were all dead tired we drove to Jaen for the night, pres Risso put in a Beatles cd.. not too bad :) and elder Infante and i got to stay in the hotel where pres and sister risso stay over night. It was SO hot though, and our air conditioner didn't work- the one night in my entire mission where i have an air conditioner in my room and it doesn't work.. haha. So i didn't sleep too much but today in the car ride back i slept like four of the five hours. We just got here to the office, and now this week we actually have some time to work in our area! yayyyyy. 

I'm really tired and kind of out of it right now, and can't think of what else to write! So that's all for today. Have a good week :)  

Elder Hatch

Here i am on the trail to Gocta!

And this is Leila's baptism!

11/5/2012

Hey family!

This week was pretty much the best week ever. I had one of the happiest moments of my whole mission. I'll slowly build up to it with the awesome experiences. 

First off, i'm happy because i can finally listen to christmas music- some of the office crew made me hold out until November. So now the atmosphere in the office is awesome. I LOVE christmas music! 

Oh, bad news mixed into all the good news- i'm pretty sure i have skin mites.. I don't know if those even exist, but supposedly elder Infante has them, and he was always scratching himself.. a few weeks passed by, and little by little, now i'm always scratching myself. but it's not as bad as the fleas i had before. haha i hope they go away soon.

 Yeah back to the good stuff now. On tuesday we had an appointment with a lady named Leila who we've been teaching forever. Elde Infante and had planned a sweet lesson for her like two weeks ago but we couldn't find her to teach her for a long time. Finally we put it in play and it went great! We felt the spirit and in the moment it just felt right to invite her to be baptized (even though we have done it many times before) and we had planned to invite her to be baptized the 10th, but in the moment elder infante got mixed up and invited her to be baptized the 3rd! When he said that i was just waiting for her to say no, but she thought about it for a while and said yes!! So we had to plan everything really fast, and she had kind a rough past, so President Risso did the baptismal interview on friday, she passed, and got baptized on Saturday!! It was awesome. I've had a lot of baptisms happen that way- they don't even have a baptismal date a week before, and they want to be baptized and do it that same week! But the best part was seeing her pretty rebelious son and brother who's super less active at her baptism and in church the next day! Little by little, i know Leila is going to save that whole family if she stays faithful. 

Next good news is that we're probably going to Chachapoyas this weekend- the farthest away exotic fun part of our mission, because president Risso has to do some interviews for people who are going on the mission and for priesthood advancements. I can't complain. We're going to be there next p-day, so i'm not sure if i'll write until tuesday, but we're going to try to convince president Risso to go to a cool place close to chachapoyas where there are some really old ruins. I don't know if we'll have time, but we'll see. 

Thursday night we had a ward sports activity where we played soccer and volleyball. A bunch of young men were playing soccer, but all the ladies were just standing around being awkward and not wanting to play volleyball, so elder infante and i had to get the party going. The volleyball ended up landing on top of a pointy fence and popping so we had to search all over to find a new ball, but it all worked out and we found some new investigadors, too. 

Elder Orcohuaranga wrote me and asked the exact dates i'm going home and if my parents are going to pick me up, because he wants to change his wedding date so that i can be there for their sealing in the Lima temple!!! I would love so much to be there. We'll have to work it out. 

Now for the absolute best moment of the week. 

Thursday we taught 50 future missionaries in the Latina stake. When we got there Elio Floreano, the father of the awesome family i helped be baptized last year, was helping with everything, greeting people, etc. Turns out he's on the stake high council now!!! And he was telling all the stake leaders that i baptized him- it was funny and a cool moment. But it gets WAY better. So, i'm getting the power point ready with Elder Infante and i see Yaruska, his 20 year old daughter there- she came and talked to me and said she's thinking about going on a mission!!! and that their family is going to THE TEMPLE in january to be sealed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have seriously never felt the way i felt when she told me that. It was like i felt a little piece of heaven. I was and am SO happy! But right then the meeting started and i had to gather myself.  Part of what i talked about in the meeting was what motivates us to go on a mission. I showed a clip of The District 2 where some sister missionaries baptize a family and the spirit was so strong, and i couldn't help but talk about the Floreano family and how the motivation is that so many amazing people are just waiting to be found and receive the amazing blessings God has in store for us and our families. Ah it was just the best. I love being able to see that these fantastic people are living the gospel! 

Tomorrow is the zone leaders' council, thursday we're doing a special meeting for all the sister missionaries in the mission, and saturday we probably go to chachapoyas. It'll be a good and ridiculously busy week! 

I love you!

Elder Hatch 

ps, i'll send pictures of leila's baptism next week, i left my camera in our room.