Normal Week: trying not to be Trunky

Dear Dad,

My week has been good.  We didn't hit our goal of handing out Book of Mormons.  He did however get a lot of new investigators and meet some new people.  I am getting along great with my companion.  He really want to learn English so I talk a lot of English.  He is a good kid, we still have to work on our teaching unity but that will just come with time.  We are working with a great family, the Manio family.  They love the gospel and always read and they have a great support system.  I love teaching them.  There are some other progressing investigators that are really close to getting baptized as well.  I really like this area.  Now about trunky, if by trunky you mean I think about home all the time, then yes I am very trunky.  It by trunky you mean I don't work, then no.  I am still working hard from the time we go out out to the time we come home.  I am trying my best but it is really hard when I can see the end in sight.

Raton sounds like it was a lot of fun.  It is too bad that there wasn't any unity.  I think with my team and all those I shot with we had unity because we grew up together.

Did you find the muzzle loader?  Also for the scope I was looking at the Vortex Red Dot scope.  I am pretty sure that Sportsmans Warehouse has it.  Also when is the muzzle loader hunt?

Love,

Elder Hatch

It was really good to hear about YHEC.  It sounds like you all had a good time.  You really had a busy week.  My week was not that busy.  Just a normal week.  We did go to an elder's birthday.  That was a lot of fun, mainly because I was with my best friends.  Probably the coolest thing that happened this week is one of our investigators started working with us.  It is awesome.  He really wants to serve a mission.  It is fun working with him.  As we walk he asked us questions from the lesson we just taught.  And he is fellow shipping our investigators and less-actives.  We have a family that we are teaching that are really close to baptism.  The goal for them is August 17.  It will be a really big baptism.  I let you know how it goes.

Other than that not much else happened.  Sorry for the short email, but that is all that I can remember.

Love,

Elder Hatch

Good Week

It was a good week.  He is a great elder.  He really wants to learn English so I have been helping him as best I can.  It is really hard to teach English.  We are planning to keep passing out Book of Mormons.  This transfer we are going to try and pass out 500 as a district.  It is going to be a lot of fun. I am in a branch of about 300 members, but only 160 are active. There are four missionaries here as well.  My apartment is nice.  I like it.  I have been in worst and seen worst.  I have some one wash my cloths.  I washed my cloths once by hand and I will never do it again.  My favorite family is the Tan family.  They are a recent convert.  It is a lot of fun to teach them.  We hardly ever get feed in this area.  But that is alright it just means more time to work.

Sorry for the short email.  I had a survey to take and it is an elder's birthday today.  We are going to go and celebrate it.

Love you and thanks for the updates on YHEC

Elder Hatch

New Companion

Sorry Mom I don't have a lot of time.  I just got back from a waterfall.  It was really pretty.  I will send you a picture.  It is in my area, but way far away from where we work.

This week is Transfer Week.  I can't believe that it is here already. It feels like I just became companions with Elder Ehlert.  The two crazy things about it being Transfer Week is one how fast it flew and I know that the other remaining transfers are going to go by just as fast.  The other is that I only have two transfers left.  I am staying in my area and I am getting a Filipino companion.  He is a great elder.  I know him from my last zone.  He is fairly new, but I am not follow up training.

We had kind of a rough week, we didn't hand out that many copies of the Book of Mormon.  But we do have a sister with a baptismal date for July 27, and the rest of her family have a baptismal date for August 17.  So it is going to be a good next few weeks.

I want to hear all about YHEC next week and the week after that.  If you don't email me next week it will be fine.

Love you,

Elder Hatch

I could not deny it

I had a good week.  Life is good.  Teaching lots of people.  We are handing out lots and lots of Book of Mormons.  Last week we handed out 21 and this week we handed out 16.  We have had a lot of fun talking to people and giving them the Book of Mormon.  I have had some good experiences and some sad ones in following up with the Book of Mormons we handed out.  Both have strengthened my testimony.  The good ones make me happy when some one is accepting the gospel and receiving the blessing of the gospel.  The one that don't go so well still build my testimony just because even though they are rejecting the gospel and sometime tearing down our church, it doesn't phase me because I know that what I am teaching is true.  There is nothing that can change that.  This week I have really come to understand the saying by Joseph Smith "I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it"  I know at least in part how Joseph Smith felt.  I also gained a new perspective on the Plan of Salvation.

I am glad to hear about the 4th of July,  I celebrated it here.  The package you sent arrived just in time.  My 4th of July lunch was closer to a Thanksgiving Dinner that a 4th of July lunch but the important thing is I celebrated the 4th.  We sang A Star Spangled Banner in companionship study.  It was good minus the fireworks and family.

Next week is Transfer Week.  It will be less crazy and I will probably not be transferring.  I will let you all know what is going on.  I will email on Tuesday.

That is every thing that has happened this week.

Love you,

Elder Hatch

Books of Mormon

It was really good to read about your week, girls camp, high adventure, orienteering practice, Trevor getting his gun.  Sound like you were all busy.

I had a really good week.  I don't know if I told you but we had a mission training a few weeks ago to help us be better missionaries for the incoming flow of missionaries.  It was really good and exactly what we needed to hear.  We just went to work, before the training meeting I would hand out a Book of Mormon once or twice a week, but this week we handed out 21 copies of the Book of Mormon.  It was a lot of fun.  I talked to so many people.  That has been our focus this week along with teaching the less-actives.  My favorite lesson this week wasn't even a lesson.  It was when we went up to two guys to give them a Book of Mormon.  It was way fun and the two guys were way funny.  Making jokes the whole time while at the same time asking questions about our church.  We are going to them this week.  I will let you know how it goes.

I did get to watch the broadcast on missionary work.  It was really good, but it was more for the members and the changes they announced probably wont happen while I am on the mission.  I also realized that I will soon be a member and I will have to continue to help out in missionary work.

On thing that happened last week that I am very proud of was I had to fix our door knob.  It broke and we had to buy a new one and also replace the door hinge so that the door knob doesn't break again.  All I had to work with was a screw driver and a pair of pliers.

All that I know about me coming home is I will be leaving the mission on October 9.  I will get my fight plans in late August or early September that tells me exactly.  You may get my flight plans earlier but I don't know.

Love you,

Elder Hatch