Allorah

Well what happened this week you say? One word, transfers.

We received transfer calls last night and I learned that I will be staying in the city of Ostia for another transfer. But I will have a new companion. Elder Gillespie is his name. I don't know much about him seeing he doesn't get here till tomorrow afternoon.

So that will be a new adventure. I can't believe I have been here for an entire transfer already. WOW! My companion now is heading up to Florenze.

So that is exciting stuff. More exciting stuff - while doing house we found a lady from Peru that is very interested. We taught the first lesson last night and it went well. She said she will read and pray. What more could you ask for? Haha. She lives on the third floor and on the way down we saw some Jehovah's Witness missionaries that wanted to talk to us, but we said we had another appointment to go to which was true. Oh the JWs. What a wonderful people they are in the lives of missionaries.

So the work is progressing here in Ostia. Sounds like things are good back home. I can't believe that CC is engaged. That is crazy. That should make Allyson happy haha not. Allyson hates the idea of anyone getting married so young. Wow, two girls that I have dated down in two weeks. I guess I just picked the good ones. Haha haha.

Sounds like this summer has been great for you all and the school year is about to start again. I can't believe that it has been a whole year since I started college. Wow, how time flies.

So I can't wait to hear about the stuff you learn at that dinner, mom. It will be fun to hear what all the guys are up to. That is it this week for my email cause I want to send some pictures, and that takes time.

So love you all. Thanks for all your letters and prayers!!

Love,
Anziano Hatch

So here are some pictures.

The first two are of a church we went to. It is filled with bones and sculptures made out of bones. The other missionaries said that when you go in you seriously feel the spirit run out. So of
course I had to try it :-). So we went in. It is true. There is no spirit in there. Kinda creepy too.

Next the Pantheon. What an amazing structure. It is huge and has a hole in the ceiling. No one knows still how they built it like that.

Next, me barbequeing over an open fire. Some delicious chicken steaks. No one else knew how to cook stuff like that except the member whose house we were at. But she was busy, so I was assigned to do that. They were great!

By the way, if Chris could send me instructions on how to embed photos into the email that would be good, so I could send more in one email. Anyway, they continue.

Next I made brownies for a member. They were delicious of course although I was a little confused cause I went to preheat the oven and turned the knob and left it. I went to put the brownies in and there was no heat in the oven. Turns out it is a gas oven, and you have to push the handle in to get the gas going and then light it yourself. Haha. That was an adventure figuring that out. Good times.

Last is my drying machine (the drying rack) and a palazo like the one where I live. They are all apartment buildings here in Italy. Very rare to see houses. Especially where I live.

Well that is it!

Love,

Anziano Hatch

AHHHHHH!!!

So I just wrote you a big long email and then the computer froze as I tried to send it. And I don't have a ton of time here at the internet point left. Sorry. So let me just say that work is here is going good. We have a potential family that we have found.

I am healthy, my clothes are holding up well and everything. I have been to Relief Society for the last two weeks to translate for English-speaking members from Kenya. That is my first time in there ever, since I can remember.

Man, I am really mad at the computer now. I am sorry this letter will be so short. Mom, I bought a new MP3 cause my iPod speakers don't work anymore, and I have no way to charge them. So that was great. The ward here is good. Sorry again this letter is so short. I am just really angry right now. That last letter was very long, and took a half hour to write. So love you all and I will talk to you next week.

Love,
Anziano Hatch

So I am still very angry with the computer that I lost that letter. But we met a couple of Philipino guys that play basketball. We played for an hour and a half and the picture is of how sweaty I got. Pretty much they have a family here in Ostia that we are hoping to talk to about the gospel.

I don't think I've been this sweaty in a while. Love you all and sorry for such a short letter. I feel bad, but I just don't have the time now to rewrite everything that I wrote.

Love,
Anziano Hatch

Fiesta di Lavoro

Hey family,

I'm sure this email will be a surprise, but the 15th of August is a holiday in Italy, and everyone takes the day off. So the day for us is spent cleaning our apartment and being able to write our letter again.

So not much has happened in a couple of days except me schooling some Italians at basketball yesterday. We were playing a series of best of five and the first game we played we won 21-0, then it was like 21-7 or something. Then the next game they were up 20-14 and we came back and won again. Then we decided to keep playing. We played six games and America won every time. It was fun. There were a couple of ballers there, but they played very predictably. My companion and I were stealing passes left and right and just taking them to town.

So that was great. Our apartment is now claen and that is nice - like deep cleaned. I don't think that apartment has been cleaned like that in a good long while. So it was good that we got that done.

Anyway, not too much to report. Nothing crazy has happened, just some good old missionary work. Love you all!

Love,
Anziano Hatch

Yo yo yo!

Hey one and all. This is a letter from Italy!

So this week has been amazing. We have had a couple of finding miracles that have just been awesome. First of all, the other group of elders in Ostia set a baptismal date with this lady for the 22nd. So she just needs to keep coming to church and she will make it. It is hard for her 'cause our church building is in Rome (for some reasons that I don't want to get into 'cause it makes me mad to think about). But she is a great lady and if she keeps coming to church we'll have a baptism on the 22nd.

Next story. So my companion and I got a referral from another elder that met this woman on the metro. He gave us the number and the name and we gave her a call to set up an appointment for Friday at 11:00. Perfect. She gave us the bus number we needed to take, 764. That was awesome. So we embarked on the one hour travel to Laurantina and searched for the bus at the station. Didn't find it. We asked the woman at the biglietaria (ticket booth/sales) and she said that it existed but that we could also take a bus which was already at the station. So we said, awesome perfect, and took the 765 instead of the 764.

So relying on the word of the lady at the ticket counter, we asked the bus driver to double check if he went to that street. He said that he didn't go anywhere near that street. So he dropped us off at another bus stop. We looked at the map and found a bus that would take us close, and then we could walk the rest of the way. So we took that bus and asked the driver, and he said he didn't go close to that street. But he stopped close to a stop that the 764 stops at, and that bus would take us there.

So we wait at the bus stop. At this point it is 11:30. So we wait, and 20 minutes later the bus comes and takes us to the street. So we are searching for palazo (apartment building) number 53. Cannot find it. We wearch for another 45 minutes up and down this street. It is a way long street. Can't find anything. So we decide to just head home and call the lady and set up another appointment. So we are walking up a street that makes a T intersection with the road that this woman lives on, and we see the bus we need to take to get back to the station. And if we don't grab this bus, we will wait for another 45 minutes to catch it again. So we run. No, we sprinted with all of our might. It was urgent we caught that bus.

So we didn't make it to the bus stop, but luckily there was a lady who was at the bus stop that stopped the bus with us running as fast as we could and flagging it down. And it waited for us to get there. So we get on the bus and move to the middle. We are hot and sweaty and just want to go home and eat lunch and set another appointment with this lady, when a woman walked up to us and says, "Are you Mormons?" "Yes," I said. Then she said, "I had an appointment with one of you this morning, but they didn't show up." I then exclaimed, "You are Laura!!!!!!!" And she said, "Ya." We then commenced to teach her the first lesson on the way to her work, which happened to be the stop before ours on the way home. So we had a good 50 minutes or so with her.

The Lord is preparing his people. Even now there are people for us to find and teach. And if we mess up and get off at the wrong stop, he will provide a way for us to find his elect - if we keep pushing to do his work.

What a great miracle that was.

Ok, some other things that I wanted to share really quick. First, the Italians put their fork on the right when they set the table. I think that that is funny. Oh, and I have lost 5 kilograms (11 pounds). That is a whole belt notch for me. I can hardly keep my pants up. But my muscle is still there, so don't worry anyone that is reading this. I am still the beautiful self that I was when I left. Just a little thinner.

Other news in the mission - this mission is shrinking, and for reasons that make me angry, I will not talk about them right now. But we only have one missionary coming in this next transfer. So ya, and we are losing eight. Sad, but I guess we just have to work harder.

I love you all and hope that you are doing well. It is fun to hear from all of you. Jalayne, can't wait to hear more stories about your teaching job. Julie, you are going to love high school. Kim, your leg will get better, promise. And Justin, keep up the lawyering.

I just wanted to add another little sauce recipe real quick. So you just use plain tomato sauce and you customize the sauce they way you want. Add a little bit of olive oil to thin it out on the pasta and then add basil, garlic, and any other spices you want to add. You just have to play around with the flavors. My favorite is tomato sauce and olive oil with peperoncini (a small spicy pepper), with basil and parsley. That is really good. You just need to play with it till you get the flavors just right.

Love you all, and I am praying for you. Pray for the people in Italy. They need your prayers.

Love,
Anziano Hatch

Here are the some of the pictures

I am sending a picture of the inside of the Basilica of Saint Paul and the inscription says "EXALTATA EST AD CAELESTIA REGNA" which is translated to "Exaltation is the Celestial Kingdom" hmmm...interesting.

Then the last one on the email is of me and Chase in the MTC, and also my companions over the last few weeks.

Love ya,

Anziano Hatch