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!

Monday, February 23, 2009

February 23rd, 2009

Good Morning America

Things are going very nicely here in the Czech Republic this last week was a good with plenty of stuff happening. So I will start off with a sweet story, so last week Elder Strupp and I were contacting along and there was this woman whose car broke down in the road and nobody was helping her so we went over and pushed her car to the side and let her use our cell phone to a friend and continued on our way, about 2 minutes after that we contacted this 30 year old woman had a nice little chat with her nothing special and she ended up giving us her cell phone number which we couldnt tell if it was a real number or not, and we continued on our way. Later that night we sent a text out to the people who we had met that day saying it was nice to meet them and we look forward to meeting up with them in the next couple of days. Usually people dont respond back to it, but we got back a text from her saying how grateful she was for meeting us, that everything after she talked with us went perfect and that the children in her class were little angels today and she said it was because of us. We set up a meeting with her which I wasnt able to attend because of exchanges but Elder Whiting and Elder Strupp taught her and it went really well.

Then last friday we got a text asking us to come out to their house on saturday and teach her and her husband. So their house is out of the city and we had to hop on a train which was about a 15 minute ride out into this little canyon just covered with snow, her husband is there waiting for us and we take off on a 20 minute walk up into the mountains over these snow covered paths to their little cottage which was way sweet. Iveta the woman had already taught her husband everything we taught her and we were able to explain more they just loved every moment and afterwards sent us a text telling us they love our presence and we are going back this week. They couldnt come to church yesterday because their 4 year old daughter was sick but i am definetly excited about them, they are the most prepared people i have met here.

Yesterday we were finally able to get this young man we have been working with named adam to church he is 22 and is a computer something student here in brno. I set a baptismal date with him for the 14th of March which he is pretty excited about. When he was home for christmas time he read with his mom in the Book of Mormon and she really liked it so he left a copy for her there and then yesterday he asked for another copy to give to his dad because he said his dad is having a rough time with work and he knows that the book of mormon can help him.

Friday we had zone conference here with Elder Neuewensiender which was awesome he taught some really good stuff and got everybody pumped up and even more excited to work. So I cant remember if i said this in my last letter or not but my last companion Elder Gagon has a hernia which he found out about a week and a half ago, and he isnt allowed to leave his apartment until surgery. So I was there with him for a day this last week while his companion was with mine so we could help them teach some lessons they had. He is leaving on thursday to Germany and will be there for 4 days for the surgery and then his is gonna be back here.

Funny story so Maminka is the relief society president here and she took Lenka and another recent convert a quiet girl of about 22 disco dancing with some of her friends to help get better relationships with them, it was this clean disco place and they loved it. So who knows maybe that is the new thing relief society presidents in American should try to increase unity haha

Everything here is going pretty well for me, we have some great people we are working with. I hope you guys all have a great week and keeping on working hard.

Love
Elder Hatch

ps that is a bummer that quizno's has gone out of business, i could really go for a quizno's sandwhich right now.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Monday February 16th, 2009

Hey everybody

Haha so last monday i mentioned how it was warming up here but then we got a slap in the face tuesday was a huge storm the trams were all delayed and shut down from the snow and its snowing again today so i guess i was just a little too hopeful for spring but i am stayin alive in the snow.

So we had a good week this last week with everything, Kristina the commando girl came to church yesterday and it was really good she liked it alot so commented to me after that everybody here is so positive and happy and that it makes her happy too. The sister missionary's were telling us about what happened during relief society I guess they talked about Jesus Christ and how he overcame death so all could be resurectted. And she raised her hand and was like I want to believe that but i dont know how i can, how did all of you guys gain your faith and belief in that? So the wise teacher turned the time over to the class and it was like a mini testimony meeting and they each bore their testimony about how they know its true and how they came to that knowledge and they said it was super powerful. She really hit it off with one of the sisters and as she was leaving Kristina was like hey i will see you here next week right and the member was like of course im lookin forward to it. We later watched Finding Faith In Christ with her which she really enjoyed.

We had a cool meeting with this guy named stanislav who elder gagon and i found last transfer. It was probably our 6th meeting with him he has been to church here once and was supposed to be here yesterday but had to go visit his parents something came up. But during the meeting he was like when i met you guys i wasnt a believer but i am now, so we are gonna be workin him towards baptism here pretty soon hopefully.

I gave my first priesthood blessing in czech yesterday which was cool. We were visiting our less actives and they were all sick and wanted their kids to get blessings, I was way nervous but my czech was perfect in it and I was able to say everything i felt prompted to say which was a cool experience. After that we talked with them about the priesthood and we are now going to be working with them to help their 13 year old son get the priesthood he is going to be coming to church with us every week so that is exciting.

We went on a short little vylet this morning to this castle that is just about a 15 minute bus ride from the outskirts of brno. It is on top of this hill overlooking the river, it was in the middle of a snowstorm but that just added to the fun. I am lovin the mission everything here is awesome. A mission is all about your outlook on it, as i have looked at different missionarys and observed them while on exchanges the happy missionarys have a good out look on everything, when somebody rejects them on the street they just smile and say have a good day and are on to the next one. But the missionarys who dwell on the rejection and dont move on are always in a bad mood. So it is all about looking forward with hope and having a good out look on things.

My new companion is quite the cook and yesterday we made sweet and sour chicken from scratch, like frying them up and everything so my culinary skills continue to grow.

It sounds like everything is going well at home which is good to hear the trek sounds like it is going to be a fun time. Keep on working hard everybody and being good I love you guys.

Love
Elder Hatch

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

February 9th, 2009

Hey guys

So my new companion is a good guy, Elder Strupp from Soda Springs, Idaho. Haha something funny is that Strupp in czech is slang for idiot, so it can be pretty funny for people when we come up and he is like hi im elder idiot and this is elder hatch but it doesnt seem to hurt our work at all he has been in the country for a year so 6 months more than me and he is quite the traveler this is already his 6th city at 12 months while im still in my 2nd city for 6 months out.

Yesterday was district conference which was really cool, it was all of Moravia (eastern half of czech republic) and Slovakia. The church was completly packed with people a bunch of the missionaries had to go stand outside during because there wasnt enough room. I was able to see the Slovak missionary from my MTC group for the first time since i have come into the country, Elder Larson he left at 10 o'clock the night before on a sleeper train and got into brno at like 7:30 in the morning. The Conference was really good and the family we made banana bread with came to it too which was sweet.

Haha Lenka likes imitating President's Czech because he has a funny accent with it, and she thinks he looks like a mafia boss but she really likes him and his wife its her second time seeing both of them, they both have translators for when they talk but usually have a little testimony at the end in czech.

I have had my hands full the last couple of days doing all the calling for the first time in my mission because none of our investigators know Elder Strupp. It is pretty nerve racking talking in czech on the phone because its already hard to understand in the first place and then you throw in a bad connection but we are getting along good.

We also got some exciting news the other day, Elder Neaunswchinder or something like that, from the Seventy is coming on a mission tour and is going to be at our zone conference in a week and a half.

The weather is starting to warm up here which is really nice because we can sit down and talk with people on a bench. The other day we were talking with people by a university and we started talking to this girl from poland and sat down on a bench with her for 20 minutes and talked about our beliefs a little bit, she had to go study some more but gave us her number, while we were talking to her i saw this guy on the bench next to us listening so we went and talked with him after that and sat down for like an hour teaching him and than Elder STrupp noticed this girl across the way who had been listening in so we sat down and talked with her for 20 minutes about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, it was a pretty good evening for us just moving from bench to bench. Haha it was funny because while we were teaching the 3rd person the first girl came out again for another smoke break and sat down on a bench across from us a gave us a wave but couldnt listen in because she doesnt know czech.

So that is about all for this week, Lenka loved FHE last week at the Branch Presidents playing games with their little kids.

I hope you guys all have a great week with work and school work hard and choose the right. I am very grateful for the opportunity i have right now to serve the Lord.

Love
Elder Hatch

Monday, February 2, 2009

February 2nd, 2009

Hey Guys

Well I am staying here in Brno which I am pretty excited about unfortunately my companion Elder Gagon is leaving but not going to far just to another apartment here in Brno as zone leader. My new companion is Elder Strup I dont know too much about him yet but i am sure he is a great guy. It is crazy how time has flown this transfer it seems like I was just meeting Elder Gagon, time flies when you are working hard I guess, I have learned alot of good things from him and I am looking forward to learning some more good stuff from my next companion. Every single missionary here has so many different experiences you can learn alot of good stuff from them.

This morning we had a big breakfast at the church building and than received transfer fax (which is really an email) and Elder Wooley the senior missionary here read it off. So Lukas the tea guy from church called us up this week and was like hey i got a question for you guys and we were like what? And than he asked "How long would it take me to become a member of your church?" We were like umm 3 weeks and he was like sweet im gonna be a member of your church. So he was at church again yesterday with his thermos and cup of tea along with another young guy stanislav who is like 25 and loved church. Lukas stayed after church and sang in the choir too. Pretty much all of our investigators are young people ages 18-25.

Elder Gagon and I went and made banana bread with the Betcovi the less active family we are working with, czechs have never heard of it but they love it. It was both the first time for me and my comp making it but it turned out well and they loved it. I was on exchanges again this last week and we found this one woman at night set up a meeting with her and than taught her the next morning. She is about 33 but looks like 50 because she was on hard drugs for awhile, she is in a rehab place right now and we talked with her about how she can draw power from reading the Book of Mormon. It is very rejuvenating to see somebody excited about reading the scriptures and looking forward to it. Its funny because people are always like how much does it cost? and when we tell them its free that we are giving it to them as a gift they are taken back and very grateful.

Saturday night Maminka had us over, she just got back from Egypt and loved getting the note from you mom. She called us up and we went over after a meeting we had close to her and we showed up and she suprized me with a homemade birthday cake since she was gone for my birthday which was fun, so dont worry they are taking very good care of me over here.

Tonight we are going with Lenka to the Branch Presidents house for FHE with his family, the members are really opening up to her. She also brought one of her good friends for us to teach this last week and bore amazing testimony about the BoM and how it is like therapy for her reading it. It was my first referral ever from a member, and I must say it is so much easier when that happens so everybody give the missionarys a boost and give them a referral. Hope everybody has a great week and i look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love
Elder Hatch