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)