Nov 15, 2010

Hey whats up!Well i hope everyone is doing well and getting ready for thanksgiving.. its pretty crazy how fast time is flying.. we are already half way through nov.. and then december christmas and the year is over.. i am doing well and the work is going really well in canalitos.. my comp got a change and was sent to the office.. thatll be good so he can get completely better.. also elder vasquez who was my last comp in colombia went up to zone leader and got sent back to polochic.. that was cool that he got to go back there and that he is doing alot better.. now i am with elder duran.. he is really cool and we work really well together.. he has 10 months and is from el salvador.. he speaks english so we speak spainglish all the time.. its pretty fun and we put four baptismal dates last week.. but all of them are for the first day of next year.. they are the fam. toledo and mynor and luis.. they all should hopefully go through.. we just need a lot of time cause the fam toledo has to get married and mynor and luis cause they are only 16 have to go to church 7 times each and we need to get permission from there parents to do the baptism.. we are working full time though and this change should be a good one.. melanie the other investigator that we have says she wants to wait till next year to be baptized but she can get baptized this change if she would just change her mind about the date.. she has changed alot and her gma was telling us how she used to always just be in the street and into stuff she shouldnt be in but now she is going to church and all the time before us she hadnt talked to the missionaries at all but finally she accepted us and will get baptized soon hopefully.. if yall would keep them in your prayers that would be awesome.. i was reading in the bomthe other day and figured out why members give us food.. in alma 8 20 it says that somebody who gave food to i dont remember who is was would be blessed because he was a prophet or missionary and yeah.. i kind of failed with that cause i dont remember all the details but yall can look it up and figure it out.. we have found a lot of news recently and have actually had good luck contacting.. its alot more fun working then being with a sick comp or being sick.. my comp has been to the states before too to visit fam so i can relate better with him then with some of the other lats and his fam is maybe gonna be moving there soon.. well yeah i dont know what else to say the work is going well.. i dont have arrigamortis anymore and am feeling alot better.. that was honestly the worst i have ever felt in my life.. i wish i would have had more time cause i could have put more details in it and it would have been better but yeah i doing well.. mom and dad thanks for the emails and sorry i didnt respond to eachone but i am glad yall are doing well and mom that you are feeling better and that will be weird how they split the wards.. umm i had never known before that after dogs did it they got stuck together.. i saw that for the first time down here and it was pretty disturbing.. umm anyway i am doing well and working hard.. today i owned in dodgeball and dad i pulled a trick that you taguht me.. where you throw a ball up and softly so the other person looks at it and tries to catch it.. then you peg em with another ball.. it worked pretty well and everyone thought it was pretty funny.. well i will send more pics next week.. i dont have time this week.. well i got to go but i love yall and thanks always for the support and emails and cards and packages yall send me.. well i know this church is true and its great to be able to serve and a mission and teach others of Christ.. i am trying to be a better missionary everyday and trying to learn more about this gospel so i can better share it with everyone.. i know this church is true and keep pressing forward.. love yall a ton,Elder Hatch

Nov 8, 2010

Fam!,Well i dont have much time to write because my computer wasnt working for a bit and i had to change.. but tonight i will send the pics from a members house cause i am not gonna have time to do it right now.. but i am doing good and another change is almost over.. we find out who has changes tonight but i am pretty sure i am staying in canalitos and i have a feeling that my comp is too.. but i dunno and we will see tonight.. umm for the day of the dead we went to the cemetary and were going to paint a toombstone but we didnt.. it was fun and yall will like the pics i will send in th night.. also i have an arrigamortis story that will top all the other ones in our family.. so we were walking up in our area far from our house and my stomach starting bothering me.. luckily we made it to a members house and i use the bathroom in their outhouse on a cement toilet seat with no tp and the seat was cold and wet.. then we taught them and they fed us chicken that one of their kids brought in in a bag then water that might not have been pure.. i ate and drank though and we left.. i starting feeling terrible and we were a long way from the house and i was freezing cold cause its been really cold here recently.. to the point of wearing my sweater.. anyway i told my comp i couldnt make it to the house but then i felt better.. but then again i was about to explode.. i was like is there a little alleyway close to here.. there was and it was dark so i went running down this alleyway.. then i squated against a cement wall in the dark with dogs barking by someones house and had arrigamortis.. it was crappy.. my stomach hurt soooo bad.. my comp thought i was crazy but really i couldnt hold it in.. later we got home and i had more arrigamortis and threw up a billion times all throughout the night.. it was the worst night i have ever had in my LIFE!!! i didnt sleep and spent more time in the bathroom then in my bed.. what a blessing to get arrigamortis in guatemala.. haha umm yeah mom i got the package and everyone has been enjoying the candy.. thanks for the little part you sent specifically to my comp too.. that was really cool and it made him feel good.. and mom i am pretty sure you do have a spot reserved for you in heaven.. Haha umm we found a new family this week and little by little the work is getting better and our teaching pool is getting bigger.. last week i was pretty discouraged but things are finally coming around.. also at church this week we had two less actives come that weve been working with and two youth that weve been working with.. in church this sunday i lead the hymns so that was exciting.. alot of people have been sick so i got stuck doing it.. but tonight ill send pics.. i love yall a lot and thanks for the support as always and your in my prayers...love,Elder Hatch

Nov 1, 2010

Hey Family!Well we are into november now.. the time is flying... and i bought a card reader so now i will be able to send pictures without a problem for the rest of my mission hopefully.. anyway last email i was kind of rushed so i wasnt super clear but the spider i saw was the size of the palm of my hand and all hairy.. it was pretty legit.. also i said its really neat how the bible talks so much about the restauration of the gospel the great appostasy and about the book of mormon.. it doesnt help though cause the people here are hard and dont want to listen most of the time and only the spirit and testify that the things we teach are true.. but i just never realized how many scriptures there are about those things in the bible and then the bom too goes hand in hand with everything the bible says.. its just a little easier to understand.. also i was wondering if matt graham had gotten his mission call and if tyler white ended up going on a mission or how he is doing? well halloween here is today and its called the day of the dead.. after we finish here we are going to the cemetary with a family here in canalitos and we are going to paint and decorate a tomb looking think of the grandma that died..
they decorate with flowers and both plastic and real ones then the also paint and clean up the toombs or however the heck you spell it.. well the one pic is of a service project we did moving dirt for a family with our zone.. another is me and the typical guat food of beans eggs and longanizas.. or sausage things.. and corn tortillas.. with my guat flag i bought..

the burn i got from being really smart with beans.. me and the guajardos.. mom and dad you should look them up somehow and email them that you got the pic.. i was suppose to send it to them but i lost the card they gave me.. well the other day we got a jalon with the police cause the buses were too full.. the police dont do crap here but ateast they gave us a ride home in their little cop bus thing.. it was pretty tight and it was for free.. a lot of the little kids here always tell me to do tricks.. cause i guess alot of the missionaries have done tricks for them before.. so i always juggle for them with rocks in the street.. they think its pretty cool and i have gotten pretty good with for rocks balls or whatever now.. umm we got two news last week.. they are both 16 year old boys.. they are pretty cool and we have another appointment with them this sat.. hopefull we can get em to church and get them to have a baptismal date.. haha all the latinos say i am weird cause i am not like all the white people.. i dont play a musical instrument like the rest of them.. i dont do computer stuff i didnt play video games and all i did was sports... but i take pride in being different! haha but yeah mom and britt i sent yall letters last week so hopefully youll get them sometime this month.. this lady gave us a warm green drink with floaty stuff in it the other day.. i drank it all but even my comp thought it was nasty and didnt finish it.. it was siiiiccckkkk!! i thought i was gonna gag.. but didnt.. i am getting better and a lot less picky.. umm and just to say something about the fast i did last week.. we all know that fasting helps with spiritual things and if we have faith miracles can happen.. but also it helps with your body.. like i said in the last email my stomach was messed up.. but after i fast 24 hours i have been good ever since.. its pretty amazing.. well i dont have too much more time or anything else to say but if yall could please pray for melanie.. hna or sis lidia morales.. and the family toledo... those are the people that hopefullly will be baptized next change.. well i love yall and thanks for the support yall always give me.. but all the emails i got this week was just one from dad and so if yall have time please email me.. well yall have a good week and ill write back and send more pics in a week!! love yallElder Hatch

Oct 27

Hey fam..Well like i told maybe mom last week when i was writing here my stomach has been messed up for about 10 days now.. its pretty pretty fun and i took peptobismal one night buty it didnt work but today i am finally starting to feel better.. well today we woke up at 430 and went to the temple.. it was really good cause i hadnt been for 3months.. we also did a special fast for our area and our investigators so that was good and i also learned something new this time in the session and it was cool to be in the celestial room and feel the peace that is always there.. also before i forget.. i talked to our zone leader today who is a big and open byu fan.. and he started talking to me about college bball.. then about byu.. then i asked him if he remembered who they lost to two years in a row.. he told me aandm.. i was like yeah boy!!! i am from college station.. haha it was pretty tight cause he is a big byu fan :P.. anyway on to other stuff.. i did divisions last week so i still got to work quite a bit.. it was really good to work and get out of the house.. we still had a dr appt so i might be able to say that i know zone 10 better then canalitos but atleast now we are working a little bit even though he still has pain in his leg and quite a bit.. i just hope they dont send him home.. i just want to have a comp next change though so that i can work like normal.. also sometimes it bothers me cause he thinks he knows more then me.. i am not saying i know everything but sometimes he tells me things and i am like dude.. you worked three weeks your whole mission.. i know what i am talking about!! its not too bad and if i have him another change it wouldnt be bad at all but i just needed to get that out.. anyway we have 4 baptismal dates now.. the one original one we have fell.. out of nowhere wen went to visit him and his wife told us he is going to another churuch and doesnt want to even talk to us.. it sucks cause i feel like i could have down more.. but we were in the hospital and it was super hard to find him.. it sucks but maybe he will come around later in life.. somebody must have gotten into his head.. but we have 4 dates for next change.. a 60 year old lady whose been a few times.. a 15 yr old girl whose mom is a member and a girl and her boyfriend who are young.. but have a kid already but we have to marry them then baptize them.. i am pretty confident that atleast the couple will get baptized next change but the other two will need a little more work and need to get a really good testimony before they will really get baptized.. but please pray for them and my comp too and me if yall want.. haha umm in one of the divisions we found a conselour of pres torres.. it was scary cause i have never liked leaders or talking to them cause i am the kind to keep my distance and just be obedient and do my own thing.. but i shared a message with them and they said my spanish was good so that made me feel happy.. i still feel like i have soooo much work to do on it.. but i understand almost everything and can talk pretty good now and i think my accent is getting there too.. also we didnt have water and i ran out of shaving cream.. so one morning my stomach was jacked up..

i showered with a bowl with cold water and didnt have shaving cream.. it was crappy.. but thats the life of a missionary here in guatemala.. haha umm also i have studied alot in my time in the house and its cool how the bible talks so much about the restauration and if people would just listen and cause they all say they read the bible theyd know that the book of mormon is true that joseph smith was a prophet and that the church is true..well i saw a huge spider the other day and it was cool but i couldnt catch it.. umm ahh my time is almost out.. we did service the other day and it was super tiring but the lady thanked us and almost cried so it was definately worth it.. well my camera and pics maybe next week love yall and ill write monday!!Elder hatch