It's a Wonderful Life

Well, I will start out by saying congrats to Justin on being an official blood-sucking no-good lawyer. Haha. His own words. Also, thank Jalayne for her consistent letter writing. I don't expect to get regular mail cause I told everyone to write emails. But she continues to write snail mail and it is fun to get a letter from her everytime I am near the mission office.

Second, a few things that I have seen that I thought were funny. So Italians wear almost anything that has English on it, most of it American slogans even though they are all(most) "America haters." So this last week I saw a shirt that had Maya the Bee on it, and I thought of the little theme song, Miiiaaaaaya, Maya the Bee! and I thought of Kim and Jalayne. It made me giggle out loud. The second one I saw was a Thunder Cats t-shirt and thought of the song, Thunder thunder thunder THUNDER CATS!!! That made me laugh also.

A small shout out to Elliott. I rediscovered the delectableness of raisins and eat them in my oatmeal and for snacks all day. I think of him everytime I eat some and say to myself in an Elliott voice, "MMMMM. These are delicious!" Cute.

So an update on our investigators. We had to move the baptism date to the 31st cause the bishop knows this guy really well and wants to be at his baptism and is going to be out of town on business next weekend. But Pietro is doing great still and is still coffee free. He is an awesome guy.

Our other investigators are kind of stagnant. One is amazing. He is from Ghana, but he is really hard to teach because he doesn't get home from work until late every night. So our opportunities to teach him are limited.

We had an appointment with a member and we showed up and, surprise, she invited a friend over to hear the first lesson. That wasn't what we were planning, but we are always happy to teach a first lesson. So we got a new investigator out of that. Her name is Luz and she is from Mexico but has been living in Italy for 30 years.

My Italian is pretty good. Not great. My understanding is to the point where I can understand basically everything, but saying what I want to say isn't as smooth yet. But I am working on it.

Dad, a good topic I think for young men to hear is getting a testimony early in their lives. The earlier they have it , the stronger it will be. When they befall hard times in life or on the mission, they will always have that truth to fall back onto. The sure foundation never changes.

Sorry this letter is short. I am going to write another letter to the priests and you can read that too.

Love you all! Thanks for your letters and prayers!

Love, Anziano Hatch


HELLO PRIESTS OF THE BOULEVARD WARD

I hope you are all doing well and I am grateful for the prayers that you have offered in my direction. I wanted the topic of this letter to be why I am glad that I made the decision to serve a mission.

On my mission I have seen many miracles. I have only been out for three months in Italy but I have seen the Lord change me and the people that I interact with. I will share three stories.

Story one. We have an investigator right now with a baptismal date for the 31st of October (Halloween doesn't exist in Italy). We were teaching him everything and he wanted to get baptized. We got to the Word of Wisdom lesson and he told us, "I know this is true. Drugs and alcohol are bad for you, but I don't think I will be able to stop drinking coffee." After a long discussion, he said he would try but wasn't guaranteeing anything. So we said great! We prayed so hard for two days and we got to our next appointment. No coffee. We were amazed, and he seemed to be happy with his improvement. A week passed, no coffee. Zero. Not a drop. And he told us he doesn't understand how he was able to just stop drinking coffee after drinking it for his whole life pretty much. Almost two weeks and he has had not coffee. Miracle!

Story two comes from a member that was baptized before I got here. She had a similar problem with the Word of Wisdom. But it was with smoking. She smoked 4 packs a day, roughly 80 cigarettes a day. She really wanted to quit smoking. She fasted and prayed and so did the Elders. A week later at the next appointment she hadn't smoked a single one. Out of habit one day she picked up a cigarette after lunch and just stared at it. She told them that she had forgotten how to smoke. She couldn't believe it. After smoking 80 cigarettes a day, she stopped cold. Miracle!

Last story comes from my life on the mission. About a month ago we were having a lot of trouble talking to people. Everyone we talked to seemed to be an American hater or absolutely not interested. As a result we failed to talk to people as we were on public transport and on the streets. We just felt like there was no purpose. Our teaching pool fell empty. We had no appointments. It was the worst week of my mission. During study time in the morning, I was reading an article in an Ensign about a sister missionary in England some years ago. She had the same trouble. She read a talk from Elder Holland and it was quoted in the article. To sum up, he said that his mission was hard. His whole mission was hard. It wasn't easy. But it was his testimony of the truthfulness of the Church that got him through. Every time hardship struck or disappointments came, he fell back upon the sure foundation. And in turn, he turned his mission into a blessing for his entire life. That picked my companion and me up and we went out to do finding work. The first person we talked to became an investigator, and on old investigator called us and asked if he could continue receiving the lessons. Miracle!

How can I prepare to serve a mission?

What I mostly want to talk about is having a sure foundation. But how does one go about building such a foundation. First, learn and live the commandments. Like the investigator and the member I talked about earlier, by learning about and living the commandments, we receive blessings. When we put a commandment into practice, such as reading and praying everyday, we see the edification (blessings) that come from such activities and we gain a testimony of the truthfulness of that commandment. Second, the Lord shows us our weaknesses through them. In Ether 12:26 it says that if we humble ourselves and ask for help with our weaknesses, the Lord will help them become strong. He always provides a way for man to accomplish the things which he has commanded them IF we do it his way and seek his guidance and help (1 Nephi 3:7). Third, find peace. Through living the commandments and applying Alma's test (Alma 32) we are able to find the peace that comes from KNOWING that the gospel never changes. And when we live the commandments of the Lord we have a sure foundation so that no matter what the world throws at us, our house will never fall(Matt. 7: 24-25).

I love all of you and can't wait to hear about your mission calls. Keep up the good work. The gospel is true. Continue live it and find out for yourselves.

Love,
Anziano Hatch