I liked the dearelder letters in the MTC because it came that same day and in the MTC you need all the physical mail you can get. So send Derek one whenever you get the chance. For out in the field, the ones from Grandma and Grandpa are great. They give me a little pick me up. They are just harder to respond to. So if you want to send a dearelder, I would just say write a little encouragement, because I have no idea when it will get here.
I am doing well. Of course there are good days and there are bad days, but overall its good and I am happy. Transfers are coming up next week but I don't have to worry about them because I am training. I Taglish it a lot. Right now I am moving from English to Tagalog, because some times I have an idea I want to express but I don't know how to say it in Tagalog and I forgot how to say it in English. It is really funny when that happens, because I have to explain the idea in both English and Tagalog until the idea comes out in either English or Tagalog. Most of the time when I talk, which ever is easier to say or shorter is what I say. Like location most of the time is easier to use than English. Right now a fun word to use is "palpak" which means failure. I'll think of some other ones I use this week. My favorite family is the Esling Family. Their oldest just got back from his mission and is our ward mission leader. Two younger boys... one is deacon age and the other is almost out of primary. Then one daughter who is in between the two younger boys, she helps me with Tagalog. They feed us every Sunday and it is good food. Filipino food, of course. We have a lot of fun over there. They always ask questions about the states and what it is like in Utah: the land of the Mormons. They find it weird that a lot of girls don't go on missions in Utah. With pictures, I forget. Next Pday I will. I won't email until Wednesday because of transfers. Love you all
Elder Hatch