Days Go By

Well another week has gone by and a hard week it has been. We have lost most of our investigators due to lack of interest. We are still trying to work with a few, but they always cancel appointments. So our days have been largely filled with finding work.

Finding work...my my my, I love it. Hard stuff, not going to lie, especially in Italy. First, there aren't a whole lot of people that want to listen anyway, but then you ring their door bell and that just makes them more irritated. So i nstead of house to house, we try other things like riding the metro to and from it's final points of destination. We ride the busses. We draw the plan of salvation on the sidewalk. All sorts of stuff to try to talk to people. But it is hard. You just have to dig in and literally dig through the people that aren't ready and find the people that are ready. We have had almost no success until yesterday. I was talking with a woman on the train who lives in Ostia and was investigating the church some time ago in San Domingo. What a break that was. Although we have trials we will still have blessings. Like the story of Nephi - bows break, bellies are hungry, but when you don't murmur like Nephi, you become an instrument in the Lord's hands and find the promised land (blessings).

So that sums up our week. Our baptismal date got moved to the 26th, but that is still on. She is strong but pushing the date back scares us a little. She has already had the interview and passed, but she said she wanted to wait for some family to get into town. So we wait, pray, and continue to work with her.

I have to pause and say, "DAD, YOU HAVE AN IPHONE?????!!!??!???????? Holy cow. I didn't see that coming. But I hope it treats you well. I mean you could basically throw your computer away seeing how that phone does just about everything you need it to. That is cool.

The weather here has finally changed from being sunny every single day to rainy, actually. We had a rather huge lightening storm last night. The storms come hard here. There is always a lot of water coming from the skies. We were soaked last night. There was also one around 4:30. Which is my next thing. I guess my body has really adjusted to the time change, as a couple of weeks ago I started to wake up at 4:30 in the morning every morning without fail. Usually I don't get back to sleep, but that is ok. I just review the language in my head since I don't have permission to get up since it is a mission rule to not wake up and do stuff without your companion. So until I get a chance to talk to the president about it, that is how it will be. I like it really. I was usefull in college, cause I am not tired when I wake up then. I just feel full of energy like I got a full night's sleep. But just keep chugging.

Well that is about it this week. I love you all and hope that you all continue to do as great as you sound like you are doing! Peace and love from the city of ruins!

Love,
Anziano Hatch

Ok, the head shot is me at the top of a hill in an area called Casal Bernocchi. It was beautiful with the reddish stone from a sunset on a dark bloud background, although I don't think that the picture captured it was well.

The next one is how many different languages of the Book of Mormon that we found in our apartment after cleaning it deeply. There is something like 26, I forget though.

The next one is some members. Can you get more Italian than Armando on my left?

Next are some ruins we walked past today while we were in Rome. It was like the Forum of Augustine or something, I can't remember. It is still being dug out.

And then an update on how I a looking with my companion in the background throwing a blue steel at the camera.

That is it. Love you all!

Anziano Hatch