New Companion

I have a new companion.  Elder Naraja.  He is Filipino.  He hasn't been in the area before or to this zone.  He has been out for 10 months.  He is my senior, which means that he still leads the lessons, but I lead the area.  It is hard leading the area.  I know where everyone lives and where they are at, but I have to decide who we see and when and if we get punted, I have to think on my feet.  I have to speak a lot of Tagalog now.  It is getting easier but it is still hard.  I am always tired.  I think we will try to get to the Computer shop around 8, so around 5 there.  I am going to be really good at Tagalog by the end of this transfer.  There is a really good possibility that I could train next transfer.  Which is a scary thought.
I take a 20 to 30 minute nap right before language study, that's it.  I sleep really well at night.  He speaks a little English, but with a bad accent so it is easier to understand him when he speaks Tagalog.  I got your package.  Thanks so much for the peanut butter and that game looks fun. I haven't played it yet.  The paper of all the names is my favorite.  It's all good. We will get in to a groove soon.  One thing I thought of was on Mother's day, it will be sunday and monday here so we might be able to skype at grandma's house with every one there if you want.

Comfortable

The ice fishing looked way fun, even though it looked really cold.  I am going to be a whimp when I get back.  I am already kind of used to the heat here.  There have been a few days where it was maybe 78, but it felt freezing.  I don't know how I am going to be able to take it when I go home.  Because I got here in the winter, I haven't had to use sun-screen.  I think I will just get dark because it is really gradual to where there is more and more sun.

The baptism went great.  We got there and everything was ready. We were good to go, except we didn't have a member of the bishopric.  We had to wait until one of them got there.  Finally the bishop showed up and from there it went pretty smooth.  I was super nervous for the baptism.  I didn't really know what to do.  I mean, I know how to get baptized from baptisms for the dead, but to baptize them; that is a different story.  It was hard to pronounce his name then I was worried that I was going to mess up what I had to say.  Everything went ok.  I didn't have to redo it.  It was a great experience.


I am doing well.  You prepared me pretty well, I am still learning, but I am prepared.  There have been some hard times but nothing huge.  Just mission life and life living on my own.  It is hard but at the same time it is a lot of fun.  Also at the same time I know that it will be one of the happiest days of my life when I step off the plane and I am back home.  I have almost been out for six months can you believe that I feels like I have only been gone for a month or two.  How long does it feel for you guys?  I talked to President Sperry about coming home a transfer early for school.  Some of the elders that are going home said that they were told to not worry about anything back home but in their last transfer President wanted to know their plans.  They were like, we don't have any, so a lot of them were scrambling to make plans.  I figured that I would get it out of the way now that way I don't have to every worry about it.

Yes transfers are this week.  I get a new companion tomorrow.  I will tell you about him on Monday.  I am staying in my area for now.  Maybe next transfer I will leave.  That is all I know about transfers for now.  I haven't gotten a package from you guys yet, but mail run is tomorrow at transfer meeting.  The baptism was at our church.  I think most of the churches over here have a font.  I baptized Michael Adriono.  A lot of his family are really strong members.  This week we mainly worked in Bagong Barrio which is around my house, and over in Protrero which is over by our bishop.  It is like working in our neighborhood and in the new nieghboorhoods down on Tenth West and over on Hollow Road.  That is about the size of the area we worked.  The buses are expensive here and they are more for long distance.  Yeah we are still working with him(the chicken coop guy) he is doing really well.  He still drinks but not nearly as much or as often, so we are working on that.  He is a really cool guy and he is really funny. I have a ward directory but no map yet I am working on that.  For exchanges. it depends on if I know my area or if they know their area if we both know it then its where ever we want to go.  Most of the time I stay in my area.

Thanks for the Pictures

Love Elder Hatch

Baptism

This week has been a crazy week.  First, I had two exchanges this week so I led the area pretty much the whole week, because Elder Ata was always gone.  Those two days of exchanges were way fun, because I was with a Filipino who just barley got here last transfer and an elder from Utah who is just a transfer a head of me.  None of us knew what to do so we just went with it.  On Friday, one of our investigators had his baptism interview and passed.  He is getting baptized on this coming Saturday.  I will be the one to baptism him.  With Elder Ata as district leader we had to go interview a lot of people from the other elders.  I spent a lot of time just talking with people.  It was fun.  The craziest thing that happened this week was I ate blood soup with chicken intestines.  It actually did not taste too bad. Would I eat it again? Probably not. But if it was put in front of me at a dinner appointment, I would eat it. 


(Answers to our questions)We are not suppose to drink the water. We have water filters in the house and most of the members have purified water in jugs.  Never out of the tap unless we use the water bottle they gave us in the MTC which has a filter in it.  At the house, we don't have ice mainly because we have a fridge so that keeps it cold.  The crazy  thing is how fast ice melts here. A huge bottle of ice will melt in 20 minutes.  My shoes are broken in I'm trying to keep them nice.  The thing that would have been nice to know before I came was that they sell rubber shoes here.  They look like dress shoes but are made of just rubber.  I wear those most of the time, until my feet start to hurt then I go back to the Johnson and Murphy's. There is a lady in our mission that makes some really cool looking pants but I won't get any made for a while.  I did get some of my shirts fitted and a pair of pants.  I will get the rest of my shirts fitted.  We haven't made any more Mango shakes. We don't have the patience. We buy the mangoes but then we just eat them.  They are really good over here.  Yes, we still sleep on the floor. I don't know if I will ever sleep on a bed, because all the beds are Filipino size not American size.  Rainy season is just about over summer is about to hit.  Summer lasts from end of February to the beginning of May.  Then it is Baguio season, that is when all the storms hit and that lasts until December then it just rains on and off until summer.  Elder Anderson is in my zone.  We always hang out on pday.  We have a lot of fun.  It is really nice having him in the zone so I always have some one to talk to.
It sounds like you guys are getting along fine.  I'm having fun and doing well.  Keep reading the scriptures. Oh and transfers are coming up so I will probably be getting a new companion.


Love
Elder Hatch

Walk and Walk and Walk and Walk

The Legos are ok.  We were burning cockroaches and I decided to put the Legos in front of the flames and take pictures.  This week has been rough.  We walked our entire area, which is the size of our stake maybe a little bigger, and we taught hardly any lessons.  Everyone just told us to come back later.  My legs were so tired.  I would come home and sit in my chair and not move.  

We have one investigator who is suppose to be baptized this week, but we don't know if we will be able to get him a baptism interview in time.  He is way cool.  His cousins are way active, three of them just got back from their missions.  He will have a really good support system.  We are planning on taking him to the temple tour this Saturday, that will be good to show him what we want him to work towards.

I don't know if I told you or if you remember, but we are teaching a less active, Brother Art, he has been less active for almost 30 years.  He had a lot of Word of Wisdom issues.  This week he stopped and he is doing good.  We invited him to go to the temple on Saturday too.  I think that will really help him stay away from drinking and smoking.

So thats been my week here in the Philippines.

We have a few set dinner appointments, but most of the time it is whenever.  Sundays: we go to church at 9, we study and eat lunch (except Fast Sunday's), we go out to work until 9, go home and sleep.  Sundays can either be our busiest day or our lest productive day, it just depends.

Where is Derek at with his papers?

Every one keep working hard and having fun.  I love you all.

Love

Elder Hatch