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