Letter of the Week

Well to answer the pink shirt question - it is Palermo's soccer jersey. Don't worry. I just got a good deal on it with another shirt, so I said...why not. Thanks for all the letters and stuff. It is always good to get letters. Let's start with a run down of the week.

Last Wednesday, we went to Napoli to eat a pizza. We got nice replica Napoli soccer jerseys and shorts, and a fun time was had by all.

Thursday we taught some inactives and some investigators. Our investigator with a baptismal date told us that she didn't want to be baptized yet. She felt like she still isn't ready. I pray that someone will be able to find the answers to her concerns. She has only been an investigator for 8 years. Then we had a very interesting lesson with our new convert that is preparing himself for the Priesthood. We talked a lot about the blessing of modern scripture. He was under the impression that the Bible contained everything necessary for the Church of Christ to run. Although that is partly true, the blessings of modern revelation are why the church is what it is.

Friday we did weekly planning. I hate planning for week 6 of the transfer, because if someone gets transferred it throws off your plans for the rest of the week. But we did it nonetheless. We taught a few more lessons that day, one with a very Catholic woman who told us that it is written in the Bible that babies should not leave the house until they have been baptized. But that doesn't make sense, nor is it written in the Bible.

Saturday we did yard work. I mowed the lawn. YES! It was looking really good for our branch activity later that night. After we did yard work, we ran home and showered and ran back to the church to have a lesson with Carrie. She will be baptized next transfer. I say next transfer, because she is going to Canada for a couple week to visit family. The activity was awesome. We had seven members there and 12 investigators there. So that made us pretty happy.

Sunday morning was one of the most interesting mornings of the mission. The assistants called us and gave us our transfer calls. I am being transferred to Messina in Sicily (Sicilia) tomorrow. I will be a zone leader down there, so there was another shock. My companion will be staying here and will be host to his new companion. Plus, they are opening a companionship here in Battipaglia. The rest of the day went really well.

So I will be traveling to Messina, sadly, by myself, and if I understood right, it will be about an 8 hour trip. So lots of time to talk to people, I guess. The last few days have been normal. So that's it for this letter.

Love you all!
Anziano Hatch

My new Napoli jersey and sunglasses

One of the greatest families in Battipaglia

Dearest Family

Well the time keeps on flying by, and the vacation season is here. Nonetheless, we are striving for a goal of 30 lessons and 3 new investigators this week - just to show that it can be done. My companion and I are pretty big into stuff like that. Doing things just to show that it can be done. We have had nine lessons in two days and plan on having 13 by the end of today. This will be good and interesting. Well, let's move on to weekly news.

1. We bought a 3 kilogram ball of mozzarella to celebrate our one year anniversary. It took us 4 days to eat it, eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Cheesin it up

Notice that I found something bigger than my head

2. We have a baptismal date with a woman named Anna. She has been an investigator for 8 years and knows that the gospel is true but is just scared of the committment I guess. She has had many dates before, but we are hoping that this one will go through. We are hoping for the best.

3. We did yard work again this week, and I was able to dish the mowing to someone else for this week so that some other jobs could get done effectively. We are having a "pioneer day" activity on Saturday, so we have been trying to get the church grounds up to snuff. Things are looking pretty good over there. The thing that needs to be remembered is that without an automatic sprinkler systerm, someone has to remember to water the lawn. But that seems to be getting done.

4. It has been hot and humid for the past week or so until Sunday when some clouds rolled in and threatened to rain. We just had some dry thunderstorms which made the work interesting. I thought of Dad and tried to decide what he would have done in that situation. Regardless, we stayed out and worked. Then on Monday we experienced a tender mercy of the Lord, and it rained for about 45 minutes which really cooled things down, so the past few days haven't been as hot.

5. We had our first cockroach encounter of our missions this week. It was a fairly big one, although I am sure that other family have encountered bigger ones. This one was about 2-2 1/2 inches long. We were planning, and it flew into our house. We freaked out and then after a while we regained our composure and decided on a plan of how we wanted to get rid of it. We decided to spare it, so we got a cup and a piece of paper and captured it, shook it up, and tossed it off the balcony. Close one.

Well the work is going great. First transfer calls with a new president are next week, so we will see what kind of interesting things happen. Sounds like a fun weekend was had by all, and especially dad sounded like he had some good time to be goofy. I love that you do that dad. Whoever confiscated the grapes is a play hater and a party pooper! Haha. Till next week.

Con Amore,

Anziano Hatch

Zone Conference, President's Inteviews...Oh My!

Well that is right. After three weeks of wondering what the mystical new Mission President was like, we finally met him. He is a very awesome and capable man - both he and his wife. Speaking of his wife's capabilities, at the very end of every Zone Conference, we sing our "mission hymn" which is called the Hymn of Rome. It is beautiful. I have been wanting to send the music home for some time now, but haven't gotten around to it. If worse comes to worse, I'll bring it home in a year. Anyway, so she was asked to play it and she said, "Well, I have only played it a couple of times." Then she got up, and the first chord she played was the right one. Then she slowly played the intro, then was off. No mistakes, at least none that were noticeable, and played it like she had been playing it for years...and that was without the music. So very capable.

So President Kelly was a business lawyer working for JetBlu if I remember correctly. He has served as a BYU bishop and a U of U Stake President. He is really personable and understands youth really well. From what I saw, he is going to do great in leading this merger.

At Zone Conference yesterday, a lot was talked about loving your companion and being obedient. My companion and I have talked about it and (his dad being a mission president in Mexico City) we talked about the things he saw in his dad's mission when he was a new president. What we came down to was something that an elder said yesterday in Zone Conference. He said basically that it doesn't matter what a new mission president does or new leadership in zones, we are called to find, teach, and baptize. And that is what we will do. Who our leader is, what his name is, where he is from does not matter. He was chosen by comeone that we sustain as prophet, seer, and revelator. So whether we did knowledgeably or not, we also choose to sustain our mission president. I thought that that was a beautiful insight into things.

It is good to hear that you are all doing well. We have had a pretty average week the last couple of weeks. Just trying to help our investigators progress while making more time to find. We haven't seen the blessings from that yet, but we will, in the Lord's time.

So my companion's dad wrote him and said basically this: that he, at his Zone Conferences, ripped into his missionaries for being lazy and babies. That is what he said. He said that he used his two sons on missions as examples. He said that if "my son in Italy can reach 20-24 lessons a week, we should do much better than that. If my other son in Russia after some planned activity with 20 minutes to nine can be dedicated to use that time to find instead of going home and then find a new investigator, we should be able to do much more." He told them that they were scared to see what they could be and that they were too much so mammas boys. (Not that that is a bad thing mommy, but it can be in excess just like everything else). So that was cool to see that about a different mission.

Mom, I got the license renewal letter and signed it. I accidentally ripped the page, but I taped it so I hope that is fine. Other than that, keep praying for miracles and you'll see them!

Love,
Anziano Hatch

P.S. I don't think I need anything that I haven't said already as far as packages go.

President and Sister Kelly are in the top left

Week Three

So it sounds like there were good festivities held by all for this fourth of July weekend. We had a good week this week. We'll start from last Friday-Saturday. I was on an exchange in Napoli with one of the zone leaders. It is amazing how much my opinion has changed of that city. I used to hate it. It was dirty (still is) and all that I could see was the bad. But being there more has helped me see the beauty there is in that ancient city. We started our exchange Friday night just in time to get back to Napoli to go to their apartment. So the next morning we played some basketball. We had some good competition. Well, really, there was just one of those there that was good. We were playing each other. I enjoyed playing against him. Of course, we ended up winning and got some good contacts. Then we had appointments for the afternoon, but then all of those fell through. So we spent the entire afternoon doing finding work...there was no one on the streets due to the Germany-Argentina game. But we managed to get a few numbers and do some good work. Then trains were late and connections were missed and my companion and I didn't get home until 10:45. That made for a deep night's sleep.

The time spend with the Zone Leaders was good. They told us that Pres. Acerson, before he left, really stressed "cleaning the inner vessel." Which is for us to take inventory and look at the things where we could improve. They warned us against pride with two missions merging together. Be humble and recognize that we are here doing the same things and no one is better than anyone else. Pres. Acerson, I guess, was expecting that the missionaries, next transfer, will be shuffled together like a deck of cards and then distributed. But that is not for another three weeks. Next Tuesday will be the first time that I meet the new president and will also be my first interview. So next week I will have the information that you are all dying for.

The biggest news after that would be that the member (Francesco) and I had a good talk about the priesthood last night. I didn't have anyone in my English class, so we just talked about priesthood organization and started to talk about the responsibilities for these things. Then we ran out of time. But I think the main problem is that he just doesn't want it for now, cause he doesn't understand it. But we can help with that. We have an appointment with him for tomorrow. So we'll see the fruit from that later.

So to answer mom's question about our little party - it isn't going to be anything big. We are just looking for the biggest ball of Mozzarella di Buffula that we can fine. That is mozzarella made from Buffalo milk. They are good. One of the pictures is of those Mozz-balls.

Well family, I love you. Thanks, Jalayne, for the package. I hope that I'll get it by zone conference so that I can enjoy the contents. Love you all!

Love,
Anziano Hatch

Mozzarella di Buffula

A picture of, you guessed it, the Italian Football League. It was on at an investigator's house. Really funny.