A Great Week!

I had a great week.  It was very hard but it was a good week.  Last Friday we had a mission training.  Apparently we have been slacking off on finding.  Which is true a lot of us, especially the old guys (Me), have just been focusing on less-actives.  Which is good, but we could do better and the best is for us to be able to find and teach investigators and find and teach less-actives.  It was a really good training.  They also changed a few things about the mission.  Some styles of shoes and bags we can't use any more, like backpacks.  It is a good thing we listened to Jed and bought my shoulder bag, by the way it is still holding strong.

After the training meeting we went crazy with finding people and handing out copies of the Book of Mormon.  At the start of this week we had about 25 copies of the Book of Mormon; we now only have 3.  Almost every Book of Mormon we handed out we got a return appointment.  I have never talked to so many people in one week.  This week we had 17 new investigators.  That was the great part.  The hard part was handing out that many copies of the Book of Mormon.  We got rejected so many times.  Some of them hurt, but most of them were funny.  Some of the silliest excuses to not let us in.  "I'm Catholic" or "I'm Iglesia", I have a whole lot to say about those but I can't express it in an email.  They would also say "Next time" before I would even speak.  People are funny when they try to lie.

We only get to watch two broadcasts here, General Conference and our Area Broadcast.  I didn't even here that there was a world wide broadcast.

For the package I think that is a great idea to just put money in my account.  The package that you just sent has not gotten to me yet, but will probably come next week or the week after that.  That package will probably get me through the next 3 months.

I love my area.  It is beautiful here and the work is picking up.  We are climbing lots and lots of hills.  My legs are always sore, but it makes sitting and sleeping the happiest time.  I am taking lots of pictures and I took some pictures of my apartment.  I would send more pictures but it is hard through email and most pictures have a story behind them that I need to tell in person.

From what I remember our branch is about the same size as our ward, with attendance, but in size closer to the southern end of Cache Valley.  We have 300 members in the branch, but only 130 active.

I haven't really had any new food.  My favorite thing to cook is the only thing I know how to cook, spam and eggs.  Buying fresh fruit is always good.  I can't tell you my favorite because they are all good.

That is my week in a nut-shell.

Love you,

Elder Hatch

My New Area

The area is good.  It is a little harder than my last area, but that is just because I had my last area really established.   This one is not very established   That is the main thing we are working on.  Also in my last area we had so many people to teach.  Here not so many.  We are doing a lot of finding.  It is hard but fun.  I am in a branch, but the district just applied too become a stake.  I might be here for that in September.  We have two other missionaries in our branch.  My companion is really young and it is his first area.  I am his follow up trainer (his 2nd companion)  He has been out three transfers and I have three left.  We usually teach about 3 to 4 lessons a day.  In my last area we would usually teach about 6 to 8.  Other than that is just about the same, missionary work.

We did have father's day yesterday.  I don't know if the whole world does or not.  I think they have it here because the US was here for so long that they just adopted some of our holidays.

I get mail every two weeks, so that is how long it takes for a dearelder to get here.  I also did not get any pictures from Oregon.  Also you did not tell me that Grandma and Grandpa are putting in their papers to go on a mission.  Do you think that they will still be there by the time I get back?

Sorry for the short email this week, things were a little calmer this week.

Love,

Elder Hatch

Changes in Transfers

Last week was probably the craziest week of my mission.  We will with last, last Friday (May 31).  The AP's sent us a text saying that the transfer sheet was in our email and that we could go and look at it and print it off.  That was weird because they always send transfer announcements on Monday night.  We went to the computer shop to look at the transfer sheet, that is when we got the news.  We are no longer having a transfer meeting, where everyone gathers at a chapel and then finds out where they are going and who their companion is.  We are now doing transfer day like most other missions in the world and probably like Dad did transfers.  The way transfers are now is each zone sets up a transfer point. All those who are transferring and their companions go to the transfer point.  Once there the one transferring is sent on his way by himself to the other zones transfer point.  It was really different than anything we were use to.  So all of Saturday and Sunday we were coordinating with all the other zone leaders on how to get our transferring missionaries there simply and quickly.  That was Friday through Sunday, stress.

Monday (June 3), we were suppose to move because sister missionaries were coming in.  I woke up at 4:00 am to pack up my stuff to move and to transfer.  With the new way of transferring I had to make sure that every thing fit into two suitcases so it would be easy to transfer by myself.  We had District Meeting at 8:00 am, we had to explain the new way of transferring and let everyone know where they were going, who their companion was going to be and what their assignment was (zone leader, district leader, etc.).  That was done by 12:00 pm.  We went home and finish packing and cleaned a little bit.  Then the Apartment Elders called us and told us that we would not be moving today because they did not have the money for the apartment.  We went out to work, but mostly just said good-bye because I knew I was transferring and it was like 5:00 pm when then called and we had a dinner appointment at 7:00 pm.  That was Monday, stress.

Tuesday (June 4), we played basketball with some ward member at 6:00 am.  Just for a last hurrah.  Then we moved.  We started moving at 9:00 am.  Now moving new stuff into a new apartment super easy and kind of fun.  That took maybe an hour to an hour and a half.  Then we had the tough part, moving all the old stuff to the new apartment.  That is a beast and a half.  We had to take the bed apart, had to decide what was worth moving and what was not.  That took us until about 1:00 or 1:30 pm.  Then we had to go and get the other elders suitcases from their apartment because sisters were going to live in their apartment.  Now it usually takes about 20 minutes to get to there house, well there was traffic.  Philippines traffic is bad.  We got the other elders suitcases back to our new apartment at 5:00 pm.  We hadn't emailed.  The other elders hadn't showered yet.  And we had a Family Home Evening with our recent converts and investigators at 6:00 pm.  It also takes about a half an hour to get to our recent converts house.  We emailed for like 15 minutes.  The other elders showered and we flew up to our recent converts house.  We got to the house at 7:30 pm, but there was no male 18 years old or older so we couldn't go into the house.  Finally we got someone at around 8:00 pm, had a good FHE.  We got home  at 9:30 pm.  we spent the next couple of hours putting stuff away and repacking so that everything would be ready for transfers.  We went to bed at 11:00 pm.  That was Tuesday, stress.

Wednesday (June 5), transfer day.  We woke up at 5:00 am to make sure all was well.  We got to our transfer point at about 7:30 am and we started sending elders on their way.  My ride wasn't going to come until 9:00 am.  I just hung around and helped everyone else get on their way.  My ride showed up and we jumped in and whisked off to our new area.  I got to my new area with my new companion at 10:00 am.  We planned and ate then went out to work.  After that I just went back to normal missionary work, not as stressful.

My new companion is Elder Ehlert (Elert).  He is from Minnesota. He just go done with training.  He is really nice.  It is weird to look back and think that I was once like him.  Tagalog is still hard, leading the area for the first time.  Not really knowing all the rules or how do some missionary stuff.  But he is doing a lot better than I did when I was that young.

My area is beautiful.  It is in the mountains.  I am going to get skinny here.  We hike everyday.  I am in a Branch again, but the district is very close to becoming a stake.  I hope I am here to see it.  The members are great.

It is really nice not to be zone leader anymore.  I only have to worry about my companion and the area.

The pictures are of the my new area and me and Elder Ehlert.

Transferring

Sorry but I have no time to email you guys, I will explain every thing that happened today next week.  It has been crazy.  I am transferring.  I am not a zone leader any more.  I am follow up training.  I am going to a beautiful place where I will take lots and lots of pictures.  I am sorry again.  Thanks for the emails.

Love,

Elder Hatch