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