January 19th, 2009

Hey Everybody

Hope you all had a good week and that grandma Jacque had a good birthday. That is crazy that the cardinals are in the super bowl, i guess anything is possible. Brno is doing good it has warmed up a little bit which is always nice. We went and visited a long term investigator this last week, it was my first time meeting him. He is from Iran and speaks perfect english and czech, i walked into his apartment and it was massive probably about 3 times bigger than the biggest apartment i have been in here in the czech republic vaulted ceilings and everything. The guy is super nice has been christian for about 15 years and has read the book of mormon a couple of times but hasnt recieved that answer that it is true. So we talked about fasting and fasted with him on saturday which was a really cool experience and he is starting to progress. I was talking with my companion afterwards and commented on how big his place is and i guess back when he was working he was a "money pusher" for casinos he had to make people pay up and also deliver money to people when they won. pretty high risk job but looks like it pays well.

I was on splits with Elder Whiting this last week, he is a zone leader here and while his comp was with mine we were together. It was pretty sweet for the last six months before this he was AP so it was a good learning experiance. We went around and did a lot of tram contacting, we would jump on a tram split up and go sit by somebody. It was alot different than contacting people on the streets we would start up a conversation and than it would get to why we were here where we could take it to talking about the gospel. But before that it is some casual conversation which was some good czech practice because its pretty easy for me to talk about the gospel in czech but talking about what somebody is studying in school or does for work is a completely different story. We had some good times found a couple of people who want to meet with us and also came away with some good awkward moments. In czech culture it is completely foreign to just turn and talk to somebody on public transportation that you dont know, but once they get a little warmed up and find out that we are americans and dont know how things work they are ok with it.

Church was really good yesterday we had 3 people there and they absolutely loved it, one of them is this sweet 22 year old guy who we have had a hard time getting together with and we sent him a text on saturday inviting him. He showed up out of nowhere and loved it, afterwards we asked him when he had time to meet with us and he was like i have time whenever whats good for you? So we have a meeting with him tonight. He showed up dressed really nice in a blue sweater and white shirt and is a good looking guy and all the members and missionarys were like who is that? He is a stud.

There is this bum guy that comes to church every week just because its a warm place to sit and he can use the bathroom, he has been doing it for like 5 years, he doesnt really agree with any of our doctrine but is there every week on the front row. Well this week one of the speakers said something which he really didnt like and stood up and started going crazy, they were able to calm him down and escort him out but it was definitely a jolt for everybody, i guess we will see if he comes back next week.

Transfers are again in two weeks which is crazy time flies here, it seems like i just arrived here in Brno. Today all of us missionaries are going out for pizza with Lenka which should be a good time. I hope you all have a good week and keep on working hard and choosing the right. This is an amazing work that we are apart of.

Love
Elder Hatch