Almost One Year

Man I miss chopping the corn.  That was my favorite time of the year.  That is really cool that Trevor is going to get his fur bearers licence.  Is he going to trap around the farm?  Be sure to tell him that cutting is the best thing.  Like I told him, you just have to be good at it.  For YHEC are you all planning on going down or just Trevor and Dad?  He does need to study so he can get in the Top 5.  Is this his last year as a Junior or does he have one left?

The temple dedication I bet was really cool.  I remember going to a temple dedication but other than that I don't remember much.  That was cool that Dad and Trevor were invited to Daniel's ordination.

Answers:

Do you go to the temple every month?

We go once a Transfer so kind of once a month, but sometimes it is in the start of the month and sometimes it is in the end.  It all just depends on when we are scheduled.

Did you have a baptism?

Yes, we have a baptism this Saturday.  A great way to celebrate my year mark.  This baptism will be the first convert baptism in a year in the branch.  It is a really tough area but I love it now.

Do you have to walk everywhere?

Yes, we try and walk everywhere to save on money.  The fares here are really expensive and the trike drivers sometimes ripe us off.  I get lots of exercise. 

How are your shoes holding up?

The shoes are fine.  There are some part of the soles that are coming apart but I am just going to super glue them and they should be good for another 6 months.

Did you get a new companion at the last transfer?

No, we stayed together.  I think that I will stay here one more transfer and so will he, so I will be the one that sends him home.

Have you bought any new shirts or pants?

About the shirts and pants, I am fine with shirts and pants, but I want to get some pants made that are awesome and are pretty cheap in dollars.  But I have no personal money since I lost my wallet.  I want to get 4 pairs of pants and that will cost about $100, then I need another $150 to finish up buying souvenirs.  So I don't know the best way to get that here.  I don't need it right away, but no latter than the April Conference.  Christmas would probably be the best.  Just take it out of my account.

Another thing, can you send me the name of Derek and Shayla's mission.  Also,  what do you think of me coming home a transfer early for school in August, or me coming home in October, or extending a transfer and coming home in November?  I just want your opinion.  Because I don't know what would be the best.

Not much happens during Transfer week so next week I will have more stories to tell.  Thanks for all the news and support.

I read Helaman 6:47 and thought of these two scriptures, Alma 58:11 and D&C 6:23

Love you all,

Elder Hatch

Mission Info

It is good to hear that you guys are hanging out with the Rhodes and just being a friend.  Because that is just what I am doing out here; trying to bring people back and the main thing that they don't have is a friend that they can turn to when the missionaries leave.  If we could have some members doing the things that you are doing the work would just take off.  It is really hard if none of the ward is willing to help, because then the less-actives just get more and more offended. 

Ok there are two days when pday is moved from Monday to Wednesday; those two days are week of transfers and when we go to the temple.  The temple one is easy because the temple is closed on Monday.  For transfers (which are this week, but I am not transferring) we get the transfer announcements on Tuesday night, then Wednesday is pday, so all those that are transferring can pack their bags without cutting into work time and also if they want to say good-bye to any investigators, less-actives, or members, it doesn't cut into the work.  We have a Transfer meeting on Thursday of transfers.  Everyone that is transferring and the Zone Leaders go to Camerian, where the mission office is, switch companions and the Zone Leaders make sure that everyone gets to their areas.  That is a little on transfers, if you have any more questions I will try and answer them.

We are mixing it up with the families we are working with.  We are putting all the families that are not progressing on the back burner and finding new people that are prepared and willing to keep commitments.  We found a lot of new people this week.  One day we were punted from three of our appointment in 20 minutes, so our next appointment was not for another three hours.  We went tracting.  Tracting is a little different here in the Philippines we walk down a road until we find someone outside that we can talk to.  Which now I understand how we have some Investigators in some crazy places, because we did the same thing.  We were like, "That looks cool over there, I wonder what is over there."  We had a good time.  We have one investigator that has a baptism date for the 29 of September that is looking good.  We have two less-active families progressing, one one is coming church though.  Things are going much better.

Tagalog is a lot of fun to speak, but if it was not for the Gift of Tongues I would not be able to speak as fluently as I am now.  Tagalog is still hard and I still make a lot of mistakes.  I am amazed at how much I know.  With the Gift of Tongues a lot of things are easier to say in Tagalog than English.  The funny thing is even with an American companion I forget how to say things in English, so I have to say it in Tagalog first. A few people speak English it is mainly the RMs that try and keep and improve their English.  Church is all Tagalog.  There is English influence everywhere, but it is mostly from music, so they can speak some but understand very little.

I have two other buddies in the zone that we look forward to getting together at District Meeting.  So it is always a good time.  I have some really good buddies in other zones that we see every once in a while, but those are really good times.

The questions are good it helps me think about the week and what happened, and so I can answer anything that you are wondering about.  A lot of things now are just normal.  I have not a whole lot of time I just try and stay with in an hour, but sometimes it is longer when I am downloading my pictures to my Flash Drive.  No, I only email you guys.  President Sperry said that I should just write you guys if I can write letters to all the guys on missions.  So if anybody wants to write me just tell them to use dearelder.

Thanks for all of your help and support and prayers.  I can feel them all the way over here.  Thanks for letting me know what is going on, on the other side of the world.  I am glad to hear that all is well.  I read Moroni 7:45-48, I really liked it this week.

Love,

Elder Hatch

Answers to Questions

What is up family?

I have had a pretty good week.  A lot of our appointments fell through, but it gave us a chance to find some new investigators.  Some of our investigators don't really care anymore so we are going to try and rekindle the fire but if they really don't want it then we are going to find someone else that is ready to hear and receive the gospel.  We do have a few families that are really interested and progressing.  We should have a baptism at the end of this month.

Answers to Questions:

What is the weather like now?

The weather is good.  Rains a lot still, but the days are a little bit cooler.  It is really hot at about 12-3, then it cools down.  I don't use an umbrella because when it rains it RAINS.  A couple of days I have just been soaked, but I have the thin white shirts and dri lux garment so after about an hour I am dryish.

Are the missionaries in your zone doing good work so that it is easy for you to be Zone Leader? 

All the missionaries in the zone are good, hard workers.  Which takes a lot of stress away to know that they will just work and don't need someone to watch there every move.  So so far no stress.

What responsibilities did you have this week?

We had Zone Leader Council (ZLC), where we talk about what is going on in the mission.  Things with rules, things that are happening, and things we can do to improve the mission.  What families are you working with?

The progressing families are: The San Gabreil, De Vera, Sister Andrea, Rodrigez, and Philip.  Three are less-active families returning, one is an part member family and the last is an investigator.  We are having a lot of fun teaching them.  It is wonderful to watch someone accept the gospel; it is also devastating to watch someone reject the gospel. 

Are you still focusing on re-activiation more than baptisms? 

We are trying to find the balance, because when we switched new investigators dropped and so did baptisms.  The area seventy told us that we need to do better at finding.  So that is our focus now.  Less actives, new investigators and baptism.

How often do you meet with the mission president?

We see the mission president quite a bit.  Before I became Zone Leader we had Zone Conference every other month and Zone Interviews every other month as well.  So we see him at least once a month.  Now that I am Zone Leader we meet with him every month at ZLC.

Do you feel like he knows you and you have a good relationship with him?

Yeah I feel that he knows me and we have a good a relationship just like every other missionary and his mission president.

It is good to hear that you all are having fun.  With the baby blessing, indexing, the jump place, USU beating Utah, and Whitnee and the Dance.

I need a couple of things.  One could you find my line of authority. Also I can't write dearelders so I need Chris' mission office address.  Also I need the names of Derek and Shayla's missions

Here are some of my favorite scriptures this week about Discipleship: 3 Nephi 5:13; D&C 41:5, 45:32, and 103:27-28.  Hope you like them

Oh funny story of the week.  We went to a less-actives house, they have five kids, and we were talking to the kids while the parent were getting ready.  So I ask their names, if they are baptized yet, and I asked the older ones which child they were the eldest and the second child knew where they were at.  I got to the third child and I asked him if he was the third or fourth child.  He turns to is sister and says, "Ate, pangapat ba ako?  which is Sis, am I the fourth child?  It was way funny the way he said it and it helps that he said it in Tagalog.  When little kids speak Tagalog it is funny.

Thats all for now folks

Love you all,

Elder Hatch 

Travel time

This week has been kind of slow, because of all the things we have had to do.  We had district meeting up in San Miguel on Tuesday, which is an hour ride to get there.  We had Zone Conference on Wednesday, which is a 3 hour ride. Weekly planning on Friday. Saturday was a rough day. Almost all of our appointments fell through, and Sunday we had church.  Zone Leader is not too hard, but all the problems come to us.  I had to help some elders with a question about when an investigator could get baptized.  I also had to give a 45 minute workshop at Zone Conference. That was just a little stressful.  I realized why RM's are so good at speaking when they get home, because we teach all day, we have to talk in church, and we have to give workshops.  My companion is good, with him being an American we talk a lot about the differences between America and the Philippines.  I don't know what I better a Filipino or an American as a companion. There are pros and cons to the both of them.  It is really hard to think of things that are exciting now; it is all just kind or normal to me.  I have eaten almost every kind of Filipino food and all of it is really good  This week we taught an investigator who is a part member family.  It is really hard to teach  him because he has a really short attention span.  I mean, I can't blame him, he is only 10. We finally got through to him to get him excited about the scriptures.  We had the Gospel Art book. We asked him which picture he liked the best, then we gave him the chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and find out about it.  I will let you know how it goes with him.

Love you all and thanks for the updates and addresses.  I would write a little more but this key board is not cooperating with me right now. sorry.

Love

Elder Hatch