Letter from Mission President

Christmas Phone Call

Here is some information from Cody from our phone call on Christmas.  Next time, we are going to Skype!! It will be so fun.

Cockroaches are everywhere. "We just flip them on their backs and after a couple of days they die."
"Yep, that is my toilet! I use my flip flop for a toilet seat."
"I have gotten used to the ladle, but I don't like to use my left hand for anything."
Trevor asked if his shower was like on "The Best Two Years"...."Nope, the ladle is my shower"
"We have bunkbeds upstairs, but it is too hot up there, so we just put our mattresses on the floor downstairs."
"We got new mattresses and a new fan!"
"It's kind of cold in the morning."  Mom asked if he wears he suit jacket in the mornings. "No, the mission president took them from us when we first got here and said you won't need it the whole time so it is at the mission office."
The money they use is "peso"
They haven't had to do much cooking yet. They get fed by members a lot. A lot of rice, but he has had chicken, and spaghetti. He says everything is a little sweeter tasting. The spaghetti sauce had a sweet taste.
"I had the 'egg-thing' at the ward Christmas party. It was ok. It tasted like a cooked egg yolk. The bad part was that you have to drink the 'juice' first and it is hard to get through it."
"We walk just about everywhere. My companion is too big to fit into the jeep-things"

Fast Week

This week went by super fast. I had: temple tour, p-day, a trainer trainee training, the ward Christmas party, the stake Christmas devotional.  I had a lot of fun.  I am getting into more lessons and that is cool.  My favorite family this week was the Marcez family. They are less active but they are way funny and they love messing with me because I am new.  I usually walk around five miles every day, but my area is huge but we don't know where any body lives so we just stay in a small area.  I haven't bought an umbrella yet. For one, my companion does not carry one, and I don't get that wet when it rains.  It is at the end of the  rainy season so most of the rain is like states rain.  I already have one pair of fitted sheets so I'm good and we got new bed mats. They are huge compared to the ones I sent pics of.  I don't have to do my own laundry I pay to have some one do it.  I know the letter the mission president sent said otherwise, but when I got here my trainer was like, "we have a member in the ward who is endowed so she can do our laundry if you want",  so that is what we do.  It is great.  I will call you on my Monday at around 8:00 AM here, which means that it should be around 4:00 PM in Utah so be home at around 4:00 PM.  Make sure you have questions for me, and the pictures up that I sent and I will explain them.  I'll talk to you guys on Christmas.

Love Elder Hatch

My First Place

Sorry I didn't write on Monday. I didn't know, but I get to go to the Temple once a transfer, so we went this week, so my p-day was moved.  Every other time though, my p-day will be on Monday and I'll do a better job of letting you guys know.  Email will be the best way to talk to me.  Every p-day we go to a computer shop.  It is just me and my companion in the apartment but most have four in an apartment.  Christmas is huge here.  It is a lot of fun.  The only places that have Aircon is the church and the mission home and the temple.  Everywhere else we use fans.  Right now it is the winter and it just feels like the summers back home.  My bed is a foam mat and we sleep on the floor.  It is awesome.  The people are wonderful and funny as heck.  The ward is way cool they feed us a lot.  The focus of my mission just got changed instead of trying to get a ton of baptisms we are to try and reactivate the less active members.  The area general authority said that baptism would be nice but they won't be disappointed if we don't get any.  One of the nice things of this new focus is we are always busy.  The time is going to fly.  I started to eat rice every day but my companion is Tongan so he is going to start to make Tongan foods.  But if we eat anywhere else we eat rice.  Every family is interesting. It's hard to pick just one because they are all different.  We mainly walk everywhere unless we are late to an appointment.  The modes of transportation are Buses expensive, Jeepney Cheap but has a route, and trike but they are too small for me and my companion.  Surprisingly, I understand a lot of what is said around me but there are times that I don't have a clue what is going on.  Church is in Taglish, so a little of both.  Here are some pictures.  Don't worry I'm ok.

Love Elder Hatch

Arrival!

Here in the Philippines and it is hot and muggy, but it is awesome here.  My trainer is from California and has been out for 9 months.  His name is Elder Ata. He is way funny.  It has rained every day since I have been here.  But it is just like the rain in the states because it is winter and the end of the storm season.  I am having fun. The days are long and we are busy so I have not had an opportunity to take pictures yet. Don't worry, I will and I will figure out how to send pictures through email.  If you every send me a package make sure that you send it USPS and put pictures of Christ all over it so it doesn't get stolen.  The ward is awesome here.  Some of the people remind me so much of our ward.  Right now, I am in the city Caloocan, and most of the areas are in the city; very few are in the rual.  Our focus has been moved from baptizing to reactivating less active members.  Baptize if we can, but the focus is on less active.  We do have a few way cool investigators.  I'm doing good, tired but good.  Hope you are doing good. Keep having fun.  

Love

Elder Hatch
Sent at 1:50 am our time (He is 15 hours ahead)

Ready to Go

I will call from SLC probably around 6:30 or 7:00.  On Thanksgiving, we had a morning devotional and Russell M Nelsen spoke.  We had a big humanitarian project, dinner, and we watched 17 Miracles.  None of my teachers were here.  Flying information: I will be with two others from my district and three others from another district. We are all going to the same mission.  I got my package and thank you. It was awesome.  I mailed the letter to Trevor last Saturday so I don't know where it is.  Sorry for the short letter but I will talk to you on Tuesday.

Love

Elder Hatch

Travel Plans

I only have one more Pday but it won't be on Friday, because I have infield orientation, so my Pday will be on Saturday.  I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!! Best day ever.  I leave on the 29th, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.  Which reminds me I am going to need a call card or whatever they are called, so I can call you guys while I'm in the airport.  I leave the MTC at 4:30 PM on Tuesday my flight leaves SLC at 8:03 PM and I get to LAX around 9:10.  I will have a two hour lay-over in LAX so I need you to let me know if you want me to call you in SLC or LAX.  I leave LAX at 11:50 PM and fly to Seoul, Korea. Make sure Whitnee knows that.I arrive in Seoul at 6:15 AM Dec 1st.  I only have a two hour lay-over in Seoul also, I leave Seoul at 8:00 AM and fly to Manila.  I will be in the Philippines by 11:00 AM Dec 1st.  That's the biggest and most important news in the MTC. It is almost more exciting that receiving the mission call.  We still don't know what is going on for Thanksgiving but it will be good, but not as much fun as being with the whole family.  I've taken a few more pictures and I will take more before I leave and I might send some home this week.  Thanks for the package last week it was awesome.  Everybody loved it.  Oh guess who is in the MTC? He came in a few weeks ago and I forgot to tell you, Jory Buck. You might remember him.  Hosting was fun and weird at the same time.  The way we host is: the missionary is dropped off and we take him through registration, take his stuff to his residence, then to the book store to pick up their study materials, then take them to their classroom and that is it so I hosted three missionaries in an hour.  I think I am good with everything and I will probably be sending some stuff home because my suitcases can only be 50 lbs, but I am craving some home made toffee so if it is possible could you make some and send me a bag. The funnest thing that happened this week was yesterday when we got our flight plans, one of the Elders in my district didn't get his out our whole zone he didn't get his.  The MTC couldn't find him so it bad but the way he handled it was funny.  This week scripture wise I am trying to memorize the First Vision in Tagalog so thats what I've been doing and it is hard.  I think that is all if I think of any thing that I really need then I will send an emergency letter asking for it but the main things are a calling card and taffe if you can.  Talk to you soon.

11-11-11

 I think I get my travel plans next Thursday and I'll know for sure what day I leave.  I got shuffled around again this week another elder in my district went home so my tripanionship broke up and we are all in companionships now.  All my companions are going to Quezon but the rest of my district are going to Alogapo.  Valarie sent me a box of donuts and eclaires, but my district leader didn't get me the package slip till after the mail room had closed so they went a little stale but they were still good.  Two things happened this week.  First on Tuesday we had a Seventy come and speak and the spirit was so strong during that devotional it was awesome.  Second is I went and did sealing this morning, just as proxy children but it was a lot of fun.  Sealers are way cool and super smart and in touch with the spirit.  It was a pretty good week.  Next week though I get to host the new missionaries it is going to be a lot of fun.  With the language there are a few words that I have replaced with Tagalog ones.  Last week it felt like the language had finally clicked but this week I feel like I got destroyed in the lessons and the language.  I don't know what the plan is for Thanksgiving there are rumors of an Apostle coming, of us doing a service project, of us getting a p-day out of it. No one knows.  I have seen Marshall four times that he has been here.  I can't believe that he is already leaving.  I am not the district leader or zone leader or the travel leader,  but I am the senior companion, ha ha.  They don't make us memorize anything but they say we should memorize scriptures in Tagalog.  I'm having fun so don't worry.

Love,

Elder Hatch

Questions & Answers

--What is something fun that you have done this week?  This week I went outside on the field to play soccer that was fun. I'm the only one that plays defense.  Another fun thing was I was King of four square in the last five minutes in gym.  It was the best.

--What is something that made you laugh this week?  My teachers are really funny there is Brother Itri who just makes fun of Elder Anderson and there is Brother Ah mu and he has the best facial expressions.  Then there is Brother Lopez, he is just a goofy guy.

--Have you had more opportunities to talk to Marshall?  I only see marshall on sunday after choir because our schuedle are so different.  I look for him but there isn't much that over laps]

--Who was the devotional speaker this week?  The devotional speaker was Elder W. Craig Zwick.  It was a way good talk about prayer.  I have almost figured out how to tell if an apostle is coming to speak or a seventy or just someone from the MTC.  Oh and on Tuesday when President Monson was at BYU we heared about it because all the teachers were talking about and went to it.

--What is your favorite hymn to sing at the MTC?  We sing all the hymns in Tagalog and my favorite ones to sing is I Need Thee Every Hour and Come Follow Me.

Answers to Mom's Questions

I saw Marshall the day he came in at dinner.  I talked to him all of dinner.  I tried to tell him all the in's and out's of the MTC but he is only here for 3 weeks and I have no idea what the English missionaries do.  My favorite thing to say is maluwalhati which means glorious and pananampalataya which means faith and hwag which means stop or don't.  The hardest part of Tagalog is every verb we have to change for the focous we want and there are like 10 to 15 different ways to change to verb.  Shaw's picture was awesome and so funny.  I have six hours of class time of that six hours my teacher speaks English maybe an hour to and hour and a half.  Then I have an hour of language study and an hour of TALL time, TALL is BYU's language study tool on the computer.  My companions and I are supposed  to speak our mission language as much as possible, we need to work on that.  We are never in the call center.  I only get to greet new missionaries if they come into our zone or if we get picked to host, but thats about it.  The only thing I need is contact solution.  We can hang picture on our wall, one of the older districts that left two weeks ago gave us a lot of pictures to hang.  It makes the room feel more like home and less like a prison cell.  I will have three people in my room starting tomorrow because one of the elder heads to Manila.  The rest of the MTC has six people in a room which is crazy, but I won't have to worry about that because my residence is the oldest residence in the MTC so they won't cram us any more than they need to.  When my companion went home they didn't tell me anything, he just said that he had to go home.  The best part of the MTC is the Tuesday and Sunday devotionals, they are awesome.  Last Tuesday a seventy came and the time before that Richard G. Scott came.  My teachers have told me that it is hot all the time, so I'll sent some stuff home when it gets closer only 3 more weeks and I get my travel plans for my flight to the Philippenes.  Tell Dad that I don't know Joel's address but he can send him a dear elder he just needs his mission and they will send it to him.  Oh so every Thursday my companion and I teach people from BYU most of them are RM's but it is still way fun.  This week there wasn't enough vollenteers so I had to teach in English and I was weird, it was a good expericance but not teaching in Tagalog was weird.  That's my experence for the week.

Cody's friends posted this picture on Facebook with this caption:  Cody and Tory couldn't be at Marshal's farewell, but they were their in spirit. I guess the camera can capture spirits.

Love Elder Hatch

Short and Sweet...

Thanks for the pictures that Trevor took, but can you sent me some pictures of the family? I don't know anything about my passport or VISA but all the older districts didn't have a problem with theirs.   I don't get mail from too many other people, but oh well.  With the language I have good days and I have bad days in how much I can speak.  I'm learning it but it is still hard.  I'm doing good. I'm finally getting into the groove of things, but I can't wait to get into the field.  Thanks again for all the letters it makes the day go better every time I get one. We are just about to go to laundry and my companions are awesome.  We get along real well.  About every other day we teach a progressing investigator and yesterday we were teaching and the spirit directed it completly. It was awsome.  We just tossed our lesson plan and followed the spirit.  This week I'll write down the experience and tell you about them.  Oh and Richard G. Scott came and talked to us Saturday. It was way cool to see him teach by the spirit.  I'm off to laundry.

Tripanionship

Ok so right after I sent the email that I got transfered,  that night I was transfered back to my old district.  I now have two companions Elder Anderson, from Salt Lake, and Elder Robinson, from Kemmerer, Wyoming.  We are all getting along and we have some good times.  Elder Andus, he is in one of the older districts that is leaving Monday, has a lot of pass downs that my companions and I will probably get.  He has a big wooden latter that we will get, tons of pillows I think he has seven and we're getting those.  Just a whole bunch of stuff like that.  The older districts are really funny, our zone leaders, Elder Jewks from Kaysville and Elder Frebrizo from Sandy are hillarious.  They have this old man walk where they will out of nowhere just hunch over and walk.  It is way funny.  Then in another one of the older districts Elder Volcosburg he is a good guy, some where along the way of them all being here someone started to bow to him and he hates it so now when ever we see him we all just drop and bow.  It is one of the funniest sights ever. 

Changes and Challenges

Sorry I haven't wrote back. It has been a crazy week.  The letters are awesome thank you.  Letters are like gold in the MTC.  Just keep sending the letters and I'll reply at least once a week back through email and if I get time I'll hand write one back.  Wednesday my companion went home so I had to get a new companion and switch districts.  Which sucks because I had really gotten used to my first district.  They were a good time.  The other hard part about switching districts is switching teachers.  Conference was awesome in the MTC but because we had been working so hard all of us at some point fell asleep during conference.  Traci sent me some donuts and it was awesome. All the guys in my old district were so mad. It was funny.  Could you send me all of the Tucketts addresses so I can write them back and thank them.  The laguage is coming slowly but surely.  I'm picking up more words every day when the teacher is talking.  Tell Whitnee that Love is Magmahal and Chocolate is Tsokolate. 

The MTC first days!!

Just a few thoughts from Cody so far..

I am learning so much in here. It is super hard. The first day my teacher only spoke Tagalog.  I had no idea what was going on.  In the 4 days I've been here I have learned how to greet some one and how to pray and I almost have bearing my testimony in Tagalog.  I like the dearelder.com so reply to all my emails while I am in the MTC.  Just so i can get some mail.  I have P days on Fridays.  have everyone write me a lot with dearelder.com.

The Drop Off