Sorry, for this letter comes a day late as yesterday was a wonderful pday full of not being at an internet point. The entire Rome zone was invited to a day at an American member's house for a day of American football and eating. I didn't do much eating as we showed up a little late. So all I did was play football for about three hours with the other elders. It was really fun. Then that night we went with our district over to a senior couple's house and they fed us a traditional Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, everything. It was delicious. At the dinner were me and my companion, the assistants, President and his family, two senior couples, and the sisters in our district.
Yes, I am now in the same ward as the mission president and his family. It was weird seeing him on Sunday. This district is so much different than the one I was in. It went from being two people to ten. Like I said, my new district is two sets of elders, one of which is the assistants and the other is my companionship, a set of sisters, and two senior couples. It is weird working so closely with so many other people. The area that I am in is the northeast sector of Rome. It is a pretty big area.
My new companion is an awesome guy, except for the fact that he is a Buckeye fan. He is a convert from Columbus, Ohio. He is a pretty amazing guy.
Well, there are a billion other things that I could say, butI don't have the time this week. So I'll try to remember them for next week.
Love,
Anziano Hatch
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Transfer Call #3
Well, we received transfer calls last night. I am being transferred to Rome. Like Rome Rome. The area is called Rome 2. It is the northeast section of Rome. My new companion is Elder Hartsock from Ohio. He is an awesome elder. The only problem is he is a Buckeye fan. :( Haha I am just kidding. That isn't a terrible thing. I am sure I will look past it. It will be fun to wear my Michigan shorts around him, though. My companion, Elder Gillespie, will be training here in Ostia. That will be fun for him.
Other than that, last Thursday and Friday was my three month conference and President's house with my district from the MTC. Really for us, it was our four month conference. It is just something that President and his wife do with the APs once new missionaries reach their three month mark - or thereabouts. It is full of trainings and good food prepared by Sister Acerson. It was a good conference.
Saturday was a busy day, because it was basically our only free day. So we crammed three appointments into it. We taught a first to our investigator from Peru. That lesson went really well. We recapped with our investigator from Sri Lanka and then had a quick chance to meet witn Aaron. A very busy day.
Sunday was Stake Conference. It was really good. The talk that hit me the most was given by the Stake President , President DeFeo. He talked about how blessings have if-then statements attached to them, and only the Lord has control of those conditions and when we receive the blessings. It was a good talk. Then we were invited to lunch at our ward mission leader's house. That is always fun because the whole family speaks English, and they love to practice with the missionaries in their house. So that was a really fun lunch. Then we had zone singing at Piazza del Popolo. And that was good as usual.
Monday and Tuesday were filled with the usual grind of service, finding work, and member appointments such as FHE and a fireside.
To answer Dad's question, we don't work directly with the ward council. We work with the ward mission leader and then he goes to ward council and such.
This week has been a really good one. I will miss Ostia even though I will not be that far away from it. Sounds like the family is healthy and happy. Keep that up. Love you all and thanks for the letter and prayers!
Love,
Anziano Hatch
Other than that, last Thursday and Friday was my three month conference and President's house with my district from the MTC. Really for us, it was our four month conference. It is just something that President and his wife do with the APs once new missionaries reach their three month mark - or thereabouts. It is full of trainings and good food prepared by Sister Acerson. It was a good conference.
Saturday was a busy day, because it was basically our only free day. So we crammed three appointments into it. We taught a first to our investigator from Peru. That lesson went really well. We recapped with our investigator from Sri Lanka and then had a quick chance to meet witn Aaron. A very busy day.
Sunday was Stake Conference. It was really good. The talk that hit me the most was given by the Stake President , President DeFeo. He talked about how blessings have if-then statements attached to them, and only the Lord has control of those conditions and when we receive the blessings. It was a good talk. Then we were invited to lunch at our ward mission leader's house. That is always fun because the whole family speaks English, and they love to practice with the missionaries in their house. So that was a really fun lunch. Then we had zone singing at Piazza del Popolo. And that was good as usual.
Monday and Tuesday were filled with the usual grind of service, finding work, and member appointments such as FHE and a fireside.
To answer Dad's question, we don't work directly with the ward council. We work with the ward mission leader and then he goes to ward council and such.
This week has been a really good one. I will miss Ostia even though I will not be that far away from it. Sounds like the family is healthy and happy. Keep that up. Love you all and thanks for the letter and prayers!
Love,
Anziano Hatch
Friday, November 13, 2009
It's Been One Week...
Well, what do you know it has been another week. This week started out fairly slow with lots of finding work, but it yielded fruit. We have two new investigators! One from Sri Lanka, named Angelica, and the other from Peru. Her name is Nancy. They are both really awesome. Although if one is more prepared for baptism I would have to say Nancy. But we'll see.
Then we volunteered at a place called the caritas (charity). It is basically a glorified soup kitchen, and there was a fight between two drunkards. My companion and I helped administer the break up. That was fun. My companion and I have both decided that if we ran a place like that, you would have to be sober to eat there. Point in case, a man yesterday peed his pants and couldn't even stand up straight he was so drunk. So that is always a weekly adventure.
Congrats to Justin and Ashley on the new twins! They are beautiful! What an exciting adventure that will be.
Julie, it sounds like you gave a good talk. And sounds like you are doing great in school. Keep that up! I hope you get better soon! Kim and Chris, didn't get an update on you this week, but I assume everything is great. You two are awesome. Jalayne, I almost sent you a letter last week. I didn't have stamps though. So I hope to write an updated letter and send that today. Mom and dad...you two are wonderful!
Ok, two more things for this letter. One, I translated in sacrament meeting on Sunday. I translated 2 1/2 talks. The other half of the third one, the speaker didn't announce the scripture, so the ward mission leader that was helping me took over. Our ward mission leader is awesome. He is an Italian but served his mission in England. So he speaks English and he is Justin's age. He is awesome.
Other thing. After church, some Romanian members of the church came wandering in. They were on vacation in Rome, and they were searching for three hours to find the church building. I asked them (they spoke English) with only two days in Rome why they wanted to get here so bad. They said they wanted to see a ward-sized building. They were so amazed at the size of the building. Even though it is a stake center it is nothing like an American-sized stake center. But they were awed, because they only have branches currently in Romania. It was a cool experience to talk to them.
Well that is about it for this week. I'll talk to you again in a week. Good luck to you all in your pursuits. Thanks for your many prayers!
Love,
Anziano Hatch
Then we volunteered at a place called the caritas (charity). It is basically a glorified soup kitchen, and there was a fight between two drunkards. My companion and I helped administer the break up. That was fun. My companion and I have both decided that if we ran a place like that, you would have to be sober to eat there. Point in case, a man yesterday peed his pants and couldn't even stand up straight he was so drunk. So that is always a weekly adventure.
Congrats to Justin and Ashley on the new twins! They are beautiful! What an exciting adventure that will be.
Julie, it sounds like you gave a good talk. And sounds like you are doing great in school. Keep that up! I hope you get better soon! Kim and Chris, didn't get an update on you this week, but I assume everything is great. You two are awesome. Jalayne, I almost sent you a letter last week. I didn't have stamps though. So I hope to write an updated letter and send that today. Mom and dad...you two are wonderful!
Ok, two more things for this letter. One, I translated in sacrament meeting on Sunday. I translated 2 1/2 talks. The other half of the third one, the speaker didn't announce the scripture, so the ward mission leader that was helping me took over. Our ward mission leader is awesome. He is an Italian but served his mission in England. So he speaks English and he is Justin's age. He is awesome.
Other thing. After church, some Romanian members of the church came wandering in. They were on vacation in Rome, and they were searching for three hours to find the church building. I asked them (they spoke English) with only two days in Rome why they wanted to get here so bad. They said they wanted to see a ward-sized building. They were so amazed at the size of the building. Even though it is a stake center it is nothing like an American-sized stake center. But they were awed, because they only have branches currently in Romania. It was a cool experience to talk to them.
Well that is about it for this week. I'll talk to you again in a week. Good luck to you all in your pursuits. Thanks for your many prayers!
Love,
Anziano Hatch
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
BAPTISM!!!!
Well, it happened. And it happened beautifully. Last Saturday at 1500 hours, we held the baptismal service for Pietro Bartilocchi. It was an amazing service. Actually, to avoid having to move the date again, we had a combined baptism with the sisters from La Dispoli. Their investigator had a girlfriend/wife (I am not sure which one) that was a member.
I underestimated how powerful the spirit was going to be there, and my voice got kinda cracky when I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Yes, that is right. I successfully gave my first talk in Italian. I got quite a few compliments on it. I did not think it was as good as they were saying, but what can you do? Then on Sunday, Pietro bore a powerful testimony for a convert on how he knew he had to be baptized. It was great to see him and his wife be a full member family. His wife got baptized in May of this year.
Then on Sunday, we set a baptismal date with one of our other investigators for the 29th of November. He is excited. He is from Ghana. I'll have to write Jared about that. And I'll answer dad's question right now. I am able to keep in touch with Jared and Tyler by email, Logan only by home address cause I don't have his email, and I don't know if his president lets him write email to people other than his family. The rule here is family first and then any extra time you have can be used on other people. But don't spend more than an hour at the internet point.
We have started to teach an English class at the library. I don't know if I have told you that yet. It is fun. Every week, though, we have people ask us if we can teach for longer than one hour a week. And we have to be like, sorry we only have this much time that we can devote to this. It is fun though.
We had president's interview on Monday. They went well. I told president about Justin's soon to be born twins, and he was excited for you, Justin. He told me to keep him and his wife updated. He'll be excited as am I to know that the twins are coming into the world on Friday. I'll try to dream about them that night. That is so fun!
We have given many blessings lately because of sicknesses that are going around. We have made it a goal to make sure we have the wording memorized to give a blessing both in English and Italian. We have both reached that goal. I feel more ready to be called on to give a blessing with the wording memorized.
Well, that is about it for this week. It is great to hear from all of you! Keep up the good work. Thanks for all your prayers. You really helped with the baptism of Pietro!
Love,
Anziano Hatch
Oh, P.S. my companion did the baptizing.
I underestimated how powerful the spirit was going to be there, and my voice got kinda cracky when I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Yes, that is right. I successfully gave my first talk in Italian. I got quite a few compliments on it. I did not think it was as good as they were saying, but what can you do? Then on Sunday, Pietro bore a powerful testimony for a convert on how he knew he had to be baptized. It was great to see him and his wife be a full member family. His wife got baptized in May of this year.
Then on Sunday, we set a baptismal date with one of our other investigators for the 29th of November. He is excited. He is from Ghana. I'll have to write Jared about that. And I'll answer dad's question right now. I am able to keep in touch with Jared and Tyler by email, Logan only by home address cause I don't have his email, and I don't know if his president lets him write email to people other than his family. The rule here is family first and then any extra time you have can be used on other people. But don't spend more than an hour at the internet point.
We have started to teach an English class at the library. I don't know if I have told you that yet. It is fun. Every week, though, we have people ask us if we can teach for longer than one hour a week. And we have to be like, sorry we only have this much time that we can devote to this. It is fun though.
We had president's interview on Monday. They went well. I told president about Justin's soon to be born twins, and he was excited for you, Justin. He told me to keep him and his wife updated. He'll be excited as am I to know that the twins are coming into the world on Friday. I'll try to dream about them that night. That is so fun!
We have given many blessings lately because of sicknesses that are going around. We have made it a goal to make sure we have the wording memorized to give a blessing both in English and Italian. We have both reached that goal. I feel more ready to be called on to give a blessing with the wording memorized.
Well, that is about it for this week. It is great to hear from all of you! Keep up the good work. Thanks for all your prayers. You really helped with the baptism of Pietro!
Love,
Anziano Hatch
Oh, P.S. my companion did the baptizing.
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