Mark your calanders!

Mark your calendars so you can be at Sky Harbor Airport to welcome Jordan home. He will arrive:

Tuesday June 15th
, 2010
at 5:30 pm

on British Airways to Phoenix.

Everyone is invited to welcome him off the plane!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

We were able to visit with Jordan on Monday during his layover in Washington D.C.. It was great to visit with him and he was so excited to be moving onto the mission field and getting to know and work with the people of the Czech Republic. He was also very appreciative for all the letters and goodie boxes that he has received while in the MTC. So as a mom, I thank you for your love and support!

Jordan will be able to receive email and here is his address: starsihatch@myldsmail.net

thank you!
Florence

He made it!

Dear Parents,

Just a note to let you know that your missionary arrived yesterday, tired but eager to get busy with missionary work. They spent the day with the 2 Assistants to the President touring downtown Prague and having an authentic Czech dinner. While out on the walk they experienced some street contacting.

Today they are having training and interviews with the president. At lunch they will be introduced to their trainer/companion and will leave for their first area. We have some of the most qualified missionaries in the church and your son/daughter is in good hands. President Slovacek is a wonderful, caring mission president and fantastic leader.

We are very impressed with our new missionaries and are grateful that they have been sent to us. Thank you for raising such fine men and women.

Very truly yours,

Sister Alsop

Secretary to President Slovacek

Thursday, July 24, 2008

more MTC pictures!

Jordan with his companion Elder Moat



Elder Hatch with friend Elder Cappucio


District going to the Czech Republic in front of Provo Temple


Elder Mittanck with Sisters Clark and Perez


Elder Jacob Brimhall from Gilbert, going to Alabama



Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Tuesday July 22, 2008

Hey family hows it going? It sounds like you all had a great time at the Beach which is great being able to relax and be with family. That is awesome you got a 5 on your AP human geography test Ian way to go. This last friday we got our flight plans to the Czech Republic which is very exciting, we have to meet at the travel office at 5 am where we will go up to Salt lake and catch a delta flight to Washington DC at 8:40 i think we have like a three hour layover in Washington DC and then we will fly from there to Vienna on Austrian Airlines and from there to Prague and we will get into prague at 11:40 in the morning so that is gonna be one long day but it will all be good. I will call home during the layover in Washington DC i think we land there around 2:40 Washington time? I am not quite sure i dont have my paper with me so make sure your by the phone or have your cell phone with you.

I went in and checked yesterday and i had recieved my visa which is awesome, of the seven of us going to the Czech prague mission six of us have our visas and we are hoping the seventh one comes in this week or they will have to be delayed. The two slovenes in our district havent recieved theirs yet either so they are really hopin it comes in this week.

The mtc is going well we are working as hard as ever it is pretty motivating to learn the language when you know that within a week we will be in the Czech republic but we have all been working hard the whole time and although its kind of nervous to think about i know we will do fine we really have a good district. Our teachers have been telling us more and more what to expect when we get over there about customs and food, something that is pretty funny is that Czechs are in love with ketchup. They put ketchup on pizza, french toast and pretty much anything else you can think of. One of our teachers was telling us they have a whole aisle in the grocery store for ketchup with tons of different variations. I guess the milk is also alot different, it comes in like boxes that are good for 6 months before you open them but after you open them they are good for about a week. Brother Ruda was telling us how they eat their french toast over there, here we put on butter and syrup or jam or powder sugar, over there they take the french toast put on some mustard, ketchup, onions and pickles and eat it for lunch and dinner. I guess the Czechs also have no tolerance for spicy food. Brother cardon one of our teachers was telling us how the missionaries made sloppy joes for a branch activity and the members were complaining about how spicy it was and asking what was in it and it was just like ketchup and a little bit of pepper. But i am excited to get over there and start teaching and helping people out and getting to know and love the Czech People it is going to be awesome.

I read a really good article yesterday by Jeffery R. Holland called the Other Prodigal Son talking about the older brother in the story, it is really good and I learned alot from it I recommend it to all of you to read.

That is exciting Jenni and Mason are back in dental school starting their second year sure was a short summer for them. Its also crazy Alyssa is starting her freshman year and Ian is a big junior now what classes are you two signed up for? My advice for you Alyssa is make good friends who will make good decisions and don't be too cool for seminary try to get as much out of it as possible, there is so much to learn from the scriptures, I thought I knew quite a bit before my mission about the scriptures but the more I read here the more I learn how little I know but it makes me excited to search the scriptures and find answers to my questions.

We are syl'ing pretty much this whole last week to get ready for the Czech republic, that stands for speak your language its crazy speaking in a different language but i love it, haha we learned this last week that there are 19 different ways to say one and 11 ways to say first that got a little bit of whining out of us but it is all good its kind of cool how specific the language is you don't ever have to get the meaning of stuff from the context its all in how you declinate it. So a week from now you will be getting my first email from the Czech Republic so fyi i wont get any of the dear elders you send after the time limit on friday we dont get them on saturdays or sundays and im leaving first thing monday i hope you all have a good week.

The atonement of Jesus Christ is real and we all need to partake of it daily it is the most amazing thing that has ever happened and we all need to give thanks for it, I'm happy and excited to be able to share this wonderful message of hope with the Czech People.

I love you all be good and keep me updated with everything

Love
Elder Hatch

Monday, July 21, 2008

Jordan's new address

Cirkev Jezise Krista
Elder Jordan Hatch
Milady Horakove 85/95
170 00 Praha 7
Czech Republic - Europe

This will be Jordan's address his entire mission - going directly to the Mission Office. They will distribute it out to the missionaries 2-3 times a month if they are outside the Prauge zone. It costs 94 cents to send a letter. It will also be posted on the side of the blog.

I'm sure it would be wonderful to arrive to a bunch of letters, so people pull out your pen and pencil and write Jordan a note. If you send it off now it will be there by the time he gets there! He leaves in 7 days!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Tuesday July 15, 2008

Hey family hows the beach treatin you? I hope you all are havin a good time and not driving kamille too crazy :) this last week has been pretty much like all the rest, we have gotten into a pretty steady routine here but it is good. So in a couple of days we should be getting our travel departure information which is exciting. We are all learning a lot here but everybody is getting kind of antsy to leave. I am excited to get out there but kind of nervous, it just seems crazy that 2 weeks from now i will be in the Czech republic. We play soccer everyday as a district in PE its us czechs and a couple of bulgarians vs the russians it is pretty fun we all have a good time and get along good.

Something i found out is they aren't calling anymore north americans to russia because of visa problems so a lot of the people learning russian here are nervous they might get reassigned. One of the elders here at the MTC is 7 foot 2 its like having goliath here basket ball would be pretty easy when your that tall but it must be a pain having to duck everytime you walk through a door.

Thanks to everyone for the treats i have gotten i still dont know how i havent gained weight must be from the hour of pe a day and all the stairs i have to climb.

The senior missionaries who are here for a little while before going on their missions are so nice they are always interested in talking to us and finding out more about us. If any of you out there are thinking about going they really want you and treat you great so go for it. There is a senior couple that live in murray and they come down once a week for language training in Czech they are going out there in october so that is cool, they also have one morning a week where they call up and learn czech on the phone i cant imagine how hard that would be.

We are doing a lot more SYL now, that stands for Speak Your Language where you dont speak any english we did that for all day yesterday and it was interesting we can communicate pretty well with each other and it teaches you want you need to learn so you can say everything you want too. I finished the book Jesus The Christ this last week and it was really good to learn more about him and just strengthened my testimony that he is our Savior and Redeemer its a really good book if any of you are interested in reading it kind of long though.

Something about being here for 9 weeks is it seems like as soon as the 3 weeks elders get here they are gone, the elders who left today for canada and australia got in to the mtc after we had already been here for a month. The time keeps on going by faster it seems, I think my first full day in the MTC on that thursday was the longest day of my life but it has changed so much since then. We have a really tight knit district which is good not having any fights or disagreements between us. I cant really think of much else to tell you guys i will have plenty more to tell you when i get to the Czech Republic, i ran into one of my BYU professors Dr. Rowe he was my nutrition 200 teacher he is retired now and is a district president at the MTC.

I love you all very much make sure you eat an extra apple fritter in rememberance of me :) haha and if kamille splashes water on your sandcastle ian try not to punch her jk time goes by fast in no time at all ill be back out there with you dont worry about me im doing great the language is coming along well and im growing in the gospel very much, I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that it can provide us with so much joy and hope I am more and more greatful for it everyday, be good everyone and i love you

Love
Jordan

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A classroom in the MTC


This is how Jordan gets his big guns, the local pull up bar!



This is a picture that Sami, Kamille's younger sister drew for Jordan.

Tuesday July 8, 2008

Hey family and friends I have had a good week and I hope you all had one too. I would like to start off and thank you all for all the letters of support I love and cherish them all, also thanks for the cookies, donoughts and other goodies you guys are the best I feel so lucky. It sounds like alyssa had an awesome time at EFY which is great ill write you more about that alyssa. How was your boat made out of cardboard and weighed 300 pounds Ian? That must of been some pretty heavy duty cardboard but that sounds like it was a ton of fun how long did it take you guys to make it? And what is even better is you got paid doing it :) I am glad you had a good birthday dad sounds like you got some pretty cool gadgets and i am sure you loved working on your plane. Was there still snow around the cabin at all? I still see snow off in the distance on mount timpanogos which is kind of cool.

I was asked what my sunday schedule is like and it goes pretty much like this 6:30 wake up shower get ready and are in our classroom by 7:00 for studying/interviews for an hour, 8:00-8:30 is breakfast which is just cereal and fruit since they try and keep the staff as low as possible on sundays, 8:30-9:30 is branch council 9:30-10:30 leadership training. From 11-12 is priesthood meeting and 12-1 is a district lesson which is always really good, 1:00-1:45 is lunch with 1:45-2:45 sacrament meeting. After sacrament meeting we usually go up for a walk around the temple take some pictures and head back to our residence halls where we usually listen to a talk we call it an evening with Bruce since one of the disctrict members has a bunch of old Bruce R. McConkie talks on his ipod, that goes till dinner at 5:45-6:30 and after that we go get a seat for the fireside at 7, its really nice the 15 minutes before the fireside starts we all sing a bunch of hymns to get ready then we have a speaker usually somebody who has to do with the missionary department of the church, this last sunday was a couple who had just gotten home that week from serving as mission presidents in brazil. After the fireside we get to watch a church movie which is always great and thats about it, sundays are pretty sweet here.

For the 4th of july we had a big fireside and played these songs with chimes which was surprisingly fun and then after that they let us go out and watch the fireworks which i have decided is alot better when you are with family but it was still good.

The TRC went good this last week we did it all in Czech, we had a woman from the Czech republic and it is alot different hearing a native speak quite a bit faster but it still went good and its good to hear what its going to actually be like. That statistic you wanted mom is 3910 hopefully that helps. Our district is really tight and we have alot of fun together but also stay focused and learn alot, its amazing how much you can learn here and how strong the spirit is. The temple is closed for the next two weeks but ill be able to go one more time before i leave you should all go at newport it was really good when we all went there the last time i was at the beach. How are the living arrangements gonna be this year at the beach? It sounds like Jenni and Mason are doing great in Texas that there dentistry went well there and that they are excited for the beach its crazy that summer is almost over it seems like it was just starting when I left.

Mom and Dad you guys are getting pretty adventurous with the mountain bikes that sounds like alot of hard work up there in those mountains with no air. I'm finally starting to get in some good cardio shape here. Our teachers told us some pretty funny stories this week they were telling us how sometimes a member or an investigator starts getting a thing for a missionary and how for us to deal with it they told some stories about some crazy stalkers and stuff haha. i think my comb over, short sleeve dress shirt and pens in the pocket will protect me though.

Its going well here i am really starting to enjoy it there is an amazing atmosphere here you cant get anywhere else. I hope you guys all have a great week I love you all so much you are so awesome. The gospel of Jesus Christ is truly a wonderful thing and i am so thankful for the opportunity i have of being able to share it with the Czech people. In church the hymn i have been given much was played and i felt like it applied so much to me then, I have been given much so I too must give. Have a great week everybody i look forward to hearing from you all

Love
Jordan

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Photos from the MTC

Here is Elder Hatch's desk at the MTC. Notice the pictures drawn by Sami and Kale.


Here are a few photos that Elder Hatch sent from the MTC.



Here are two of his Basketball companions



Another of Elder Hatch's friends from the MTC, Elder Parente.




Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Hey family and friends I have been here a month now at the MTC, it is going well it seems like everyday goes faster then the previous. This past week has been a pretty busy one here we are really starting to put a lot of time into learning the language and it is going pretty well. We have to teach in czech this next week so that will be quite the experience but I'm sure it will all turn out well. I have PE 5 times a week everyday but sunday and p-day this is because we are foreign speaking and will be here awhile, the elders who are here for only 3 weeks only get to go 4 times a week. Once a week we have service. We have ours Thursday morning and go to a different residence hall where they have us cleaning sinks, toilets, vacuuming taking out the trash and stuff like that. haha i actually enjoy it just because it breaks up the routine and we get to do something different, they were telling us how the service came to be because it hasn't always been around. A few years ago alot of mission presidents reported that they were worried about the cleanliness of missionaries so the MTC started this program so missionaries would learn how to clean stuff and it turns out they save like 600,000 dollars a year from not having to have janitors do it all so that's pretty cool.

Sounds like your trip to Mexico was a success that had to be cool working in the dental clinic for the first time did it make things a lot more efficient? I am glad you were able to make it home safely, so did any of the dental work interest Ian? Greer sounded like it was a good time to get out of the heat and relax sounded like there was a pretty good group there. I know its a lot hotter at home but it gets pretty warm here especially when you have to wear a suite coat to certain things but it is all good.

I have been playing quite a bit of basketball with starsi briggs he is pretty amazing and is showing me some of his moves. haha maybe ill turn into a baller. we go play soccer every once in awhile to mix it up. We are all very greatfull for the time off for gym. sitting for 12 hours a day in a classroom without it would be pretty much impossible. Its really nice having an hour of personal study a day it is one of my favorite times of the day to just get to sit and read the scriptures you learn something new every time.

The TRC went really well this last week especially the language part he was asking us different questions and i was able to answer them in my broken czech. I would have to say the hardest part of the language is learning how to declinate everything, the verbs are pretty easy to conjugate there are 5 different patterns they conjugate depending on the ending but for nouns there are 7 different cases to declinate with like 10 different patterns to follow so i know a lot of vocab and can kind of communicate i would just sound very stupid to a czech but i have no worries i know it will all come with work and practice. Some of the missionaries get really down on themselves about not learning the language as fast as they want then they get discouraged and its kind of a downward cycle. you just need to stay up beat work hard and know it will all turn out. Its crazy to think ill be out in the field in a month preaching the gospel im way excited but im thankful for the opportunity we have to learn here at the MTC and hear from all over the speakers at devotionals and firesides.

We watched the Testament sunday night and it was awesome and very spiritual i think it is my favorite out of all the church movies just because it depicts Christs life and resurrection so well.

The food is getting steadily worse here it seems some times they can have some really good options and at others its just gross. They served Chicken Broccoli casserole the other day and i couldnt have it mom just cuz i knew yours was so much better. We joke about how efficient the Cafeteria is because they are always serving left overs and stuff, you can always tell when they order too much of something because it will be out there for a couple of days but have no worries i have more than enough to eat especially with all of the goodies that you send me thanks to everyone for those.

Was alyssa excited for EFY? DId she go with anyone she knew? Kamille is at EFY right now i believe in san antonio, are Jenni and Mason still down at that clinic place? When do they get home? So we were at the RC last night and one of the teachers looked really familiar. It was Brother Smith, Lindseys husband, so i talked to him a little bit which was cool and then i saw him again this morning when i was walking to the temple always nice to see someone from the outside world that you know. we are in our own little universe here at the MTC but it is nice to not have the cares of the world and to concentrate on learning the gospel and our language i am lovin it, it seems like it just gets better and better.

Haha im only here for another month so keeps those letters coming i wont be able to get them everyday over in the Czech republic and you guys do an awesome job of sending them. I love you all very much and miss you but I'm at the right place, remember to choose the right and that the church is true.
Love
Jordan