I Am Out of Email Titles Already

So I don't know what to name this week's email, so it is nameless. But this week had been great.

Since I emailed last, we have had a couple handfuls of appointments, soccer, finding work, and all that great stuff. Rome 2 is a fun place to serve. The famous parts of Rome are in our area so we work among the ruins of Rome. It is really fun. Although I haven't had time to take many pictures, they will come with time.

We are working with a few steady investigators. One is a young man from Russia who, I think, Is trying to find himself and who he is. He will be able to find that with us. Then there is a guy who is about 21 who was born in Napoli who we had an amazing lesson with last night. He saw some terrible things in his childhood in Napoli and I think that we cracked open the shell he has had around him from those experiences. We taught a strong lesson on faith, what it is, how we develop it, and what it does for us. It was a great lesson filled with the spirit. We are meeting with him again tonight, so we will see how it goes.

My new companion is a work horse. Amazing and not afraid to talk to anyone. I have learned a lot from him already. Last night, some Jehovah's Witnesses came up to me while we were doing street and tried to bash with me, but I kept my cool and left them with a pamphlet. It was a good experience cause I was able to prove to myself what I can do on my own without my companion.

I got my Christmas packages and already opened them. I know. I am guilty, but I was just looking for the cds ;-), but I didn't find them. So either they got stolen or they didn't make it into the packages. So I would like to make a re-request for that Joseph Smith CD and Kory Kunz's CD.

Yesterday was zone conference and our district sang "In a Coming Day" by Kory Kunz. It was really good. I forgot how much I liked his music.

Anyway, that about does it for me. I can't believe that Dad and Justin have iPhones. Crazy. Both of their letters made me laugh.

Love,
Anziano Hatch

The first picture is of how massive I am. (Yes, you can put that on the blog.)

Second, a pretty view from out apartment window

Dreaming about football last P-day

Last, I found some quaker oats at a store, and well, it is a beautiful thing.

Love,

Anziano Hatch

New Area

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

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

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

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.

Than I also sent a picture of some Italian style pizza. Yummy!!

A Week Gone By

Well the baptism got pushed by ward leader back to this week. But the program is certain, and Pietro is excited and will be baptized at 3:00 on the 31st of October. So we are all excited for that. It will actually be a combined baptism with an investigator that the sisters in La Dispoli have. We don't know who is baptizing and stuff yet, but we do know that we will be singing "Un Fermo Sostegno" (How Firm a Foundation) in the baptismal services. That will be really good.

Last Thursday was Zone Conference. It was really good- really uplifting. The trainings were on working together as a companionship and districts and so on up. Also making more detailed accounts for president in our president's letters. So we will be sure to do that.

Also on Sunday, we had a very busy day. We traveled our hour and a half to church and did the church things, then went to a member's house in Nettuno for lunch. Then we road the train back home to Rome and went to Piazza del Popolo and did some zone singing. It was a busy day to say the least. We were rather tired.

We have had a lot of lessons with members lately, and wow, what a difference that makes. They are able to answer all the hard questions even though they are easy - but they are hard for us cause we don't always understand them. If that made sense. haha But wow, what a difference they make. They have really strengthened my testimony on that key indicator.

Dad, that is a crazy story that you relayed to me. I hope everything is alright. I know everything will be. Julie, sounds like you are having a blast in high school. Keep it up. Everyone else in the family, hope you are doing well. Sorry this is a short letter, but it was mostly a grinding week this week. Lots of finding work, but we got a few contacts that should yield something.

I love you all. Thanks for your letters and prayers.

Love,
Anziano Hatch

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