Hey family
So I am writing this email to you from Brno, fun to be back in the city for a day. My companion Elder Chambers is a really good singer and they are doing a special musical number on thursday for the mission conference so we had to come here for him to practice with the others.
So we had some cool experiences this last week. Starting off on our vylet in znojmo last week we met up with some former missionaries who had gone home about a year ago and talked with them as we saw the city, one of them was brother johnson who was my teacher in the mtc so it was fun to see him and talk with him in czech and catch up a little bit, i guess airfairs were really cheap there was a group of them that came back to see the country for two weeks.
We usually email at the library in trebic and the librarian woman is super nice and we usually talk with her, the missionaries had approached her in the past but she didn't have any interest but she always comments on how we are perfect young men. So this last week elder chambers and I made brownies and took them to her while she was working to thank her for always being so kind to us, she wanted the recipe so we came back two days later and gave her the recipe and than we told her that we were going to have talks in church and invited her to come see us, she said thanks but Sunday is my only day off so i will probably be resting. Well we got to church on Sunday and there she was talking with the members inside when we came in, she was like I woke up and it was such a beautiful morning I decided to change my mind and come see you and than afterwards she was like it was really good I think Jesus wanted me here.
And then the story continues, while we were giving her the brownies in the library a woman came up and contacted us and was like hey you are the mormons right? We were like yep thats us and than she asked us if she could come to church with us on sunday because she wanted to find out more about us. So she was at church on sunday as well and loved it.
Church was a little interesting this week, a bunch of members were out of town for this district kids camping trip, so i ended up speaking, playing the piano and blessing the sacrament but it all turned out pretty good. It was the first time i had played the piano in 5 months so i was a little rusty but it turned out well, I spoke about prophets and it went pretty well.
Ana is still doing good loving everything. we taught about chastity and word of wisdom and she was like, well i already keep that but ok i will keep on keeping it. The problem that is coming up is that her parents are very against it, they were raised in communist vietnam and think that faith in god is stupid. Her parents are very nice people but arent supportive of her at all when it comes to faith, she is 19 so she could get baptised without their approval, but she has asked to move the baptism back a little bit to prepare more and get her parents support so she wont be getting baptized this next week but she still has a strong desire to get baptized i think it will probably be in 2-3 weeks. It amazing how far she has come, she met the missionaries a month and a half ago when she was completly athiest and now she has a testimony of God with a great testimony of prayer and how it helps her every day.
So my companion has sleep apnea so he cant sleep very well at night so he falls asleep sometimes during the day, it comes on him pretty quickly sometimes we are talking in comp study and right in mid sentance he falls asleep. So i have a soft nerf football i keep to toss at him when he falls asleep to wake him up.
There is this old woman we see pretty often walking around who lives by us, and every time she sees us she smiles at us and says those clothes look good on you boys she is about 80 and reminds me of grandma ruth. This morning we were coming back with our groceries, and she saw us and calls us over and she reaches into purse and gives us each a piece of candy for being such good boys she said.
People here in trebic are way nice its got a very small town feel. We had a good experience tracting this last week we talked to this one guy and he was like oh yeah i know david he is a member of your church, and as we started talking more he was like yeah i have seen how happy david is and the good family he has i would like to talk to you more and find out more about your faith. So we are going to be meeting with him at his friend davids house which will be cool, its my first experience finding somebody who already knows a member, so remember people are observing you so be a good example.
I hope everybody has a good week i look forward to hearing from you next week and telling you how it was with elder Perry.
Love
Elder Hatch
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Monday May 11th, 2009
Hey family it was great talking to you all today, we are in znojmo right now on a vylet seeing the city and the sites which is pretty fun. It was great talking to you last night on the phone it was good to hear all of your voices and hear that you are doing good. I saw a picture of you from prom Ian you looked like a borec (thats czech for stud) in that tux of yours.
So we had a great week, we had extended a baptismal date to this young man named tomas and it was kind of a surprise to him and he didnt answer our call when we called him later. But luckily we have been teaching him with members so one of his member friends called him up and invited him to church and he was there yesterday and loved it.
We were driving all over the country side yesterday visting older members who live too far away to come to church with the Branch President. We were on all these country roads and we went like 20 minutes without seeing another car, the czech countryside is pretty beautiful its just rolling hills. The branch here is amazing I love serving in this city, they have had some pretty bum missionarys in the past so that makes it pretty easy for the branch to like us and help us with everything and they are getting very excited to see their branch start growing, I think there has only been 1 baptism here in the last 3 years and he went inactive right afterwards so they are definitely ready for some growth. They have this little pond hidden away up in the mountains i guess where they baptise people so they are really excited to go there. It will be fun to have an outside baptism I am looking forward to it.
Well that is about all from me this week I hope you guys have a successfull week and once again I am glad i could hear your voices.
Love
Elder Hatch
So we had a great week, we had extended a baptismal date to this young man named tomas and it was kind of a surprise to him and he didnt answer our call when we called him later. But luckily we have been teaching him with members so one of his member friends called him up and invited him to church and he was there yesterday and loved it.
We were driving all over the country side yesterday visting older members who live too far away to come to church with the Branch President. We were on all these country roads and we went like 20 minutes without seeing another car, the czech countryside is pretty beautiful its just rolling hills. The branch here is amazing I love serving in this city, they have had some pretty bum missionarys in the past so that makes it pretty easy for the branch to like us and help us with everything and they are getting very excited to see their branch start growing, I think there has only been 1 baptism here in the last 3 years and he went inactive right afterwards so they are definitely ready for some growth. They have this little pond hidden away up in the mountains i guess where they baptise people so they are really excited to go there. It will be fun to have an outside baptism I am looking forward to it.
Well that is about all from me this week I hope you guys have a successfull week and once again I am glad i could hear your voices.
Love
Elder Hatch
Monday, May 4, 2009
Monday May 4th, 2009
Hey family,
Well another week has come and gone here in trebic and it was a pretty good week again. We had a couple of good things happen. So we have our baptisimal date for Ana who is a 19 year old vietnamese girl who is getting pretty close to baptism, and this last week an 18 year old member girl in prague who is half vietnamese found out that we are teaching her so she decided to come on down for a day to teach her with us and get to know her, and it turns out that they really hit it off and became good friends and Ana invited her to spend the night so she stayed for two days and hung out with our investigator which was awesome because there is a big gap in our branch for girls her age group there is a 12 year old girl and than it jumps to 30 year old woman with kids but now she has a friend and they talk quite a bit they are already planning for the member from prague to come and stay for the weekend when ana gets baptized so that was a highlight.
Another highlight was the branch put on this barbeque+ping pong tournament, the branch here is so awesome and willing to do whatever it takes. We had like 8 investigators there and they all loved it one of them was talking to us afterwards about how it seems like one big loving family and my companion elder chambers was like well thats because it is and its because of our faith in Christ and the investigator was like I am really starting to truly believe that. Haha so they have this event every year and the same member has won the ping pong tournament for the past 8 years i think and everybody was training to beat him but he won again, I got 2nd place which they were surprised at because czechs are really into ping pong so i won some more of their respect :).
So you wanted to hear so more about my companion, Elder Chambers is from Vancouvar Washington 20 miles from portland oregon, he is going home in 3 months so he has been out for awhile, he is a great missionary very hard worker and dedicated, he will be going to Utah State when he gets home and we both have served with Elder Nowland, he served with him 2 transfers before I did.
Some other good news from this week is I got a message from the Ptakovi who are starting to prepare for baptism and the mom told me she will remember me forever as the missionary who taught her family how to pray together, so of course that gave me a pretty big head but it was a good reminder that we are affecting peoples lives so much on an eternal basis and how important this work really is.
And than another highlight from the week is we got news this week that Elder L Tom Perry and Elder Robert Oaks are coming to tour the mission which is a big surprise, because we already had our yearly mission tour but i guess they like whats happening here so they requested to come and visit, they are only going to be here for like 3 days so may 20th there is going to be a big fireside for all of the members in cz republic and slovakia and than the 21st we are having a whole mission conference in prague with them so the whole mission is excited about that, there hasnt been a mission conference in like a year and a half and than with an Apostle I am way excited to how it goes we are pretty lucky and blessed to have such a great opportunity.
Thats pretty much all from this last week, so today we are heading up to Jihlava to go through some catacombs there with the missionaries which should be a fun time, we are staying busy and working hard tonight.
here is a funny story we were over at a less active familys house last night and the 23 year old son challenged Elder Chambers to a pepper eating contest and the results were pretty funny I took some videos so you will see those some time, I sent a chip home last week so you should be getting a bunch of pictures pretty soon. I hope everybody has a good week and stay safe.
Love
Elder Hatch
Well another week has come and gone here in trebic and it was a pretty good week again. We had a couple of good things happen. So we have our baptisimal date for Ana who is a 19 year old vietnamese girl who is getting pretty close to baptism, and this last week an 18 year old member girl in prague who is half vietnamese found out that we are teaching her so she decided to come on down for a day to teach her with us and get to know her, and it turns out that they really hit it off and became good friends and Ana invited her to spend the night so she stayed for two days and hung out with our investigator which was awesome because there is a big gap in our branch for girls her age group there is a 12 year old girl and than it jumps to 30 year old woman with kids but now she has a friend and they talk quite a bit they are already planning for the member from prague to come and stay for the weekend when ana gets baptized so that was a highlight.
Another highlight was the branch put on this barbeque+ping pong tournament, the branch here is so awesome and willing to do whatever it takes. We had like 8 investigators there and they all loved it one of them was talking to us afterwards about how it seems like one big loving family and my companion elder chambers was like well thats because it is and its because of our faith in Christ and the investigator was like I am really starting to truly believe that. Haha so they have this event every year and the same member has won the ping pong tournament for the past 8 years i think and everybody was training to beat him but he won again, I got 2nd place which they were surprised at because czechs are really into ping pong so i won some more of their respect :).
So you wanted to hear so more about my companion, Elder Chambers is from Vancouvar Washington 20 miles from portland oregon, he is going home in 3 months so he has been out for awhile, he is a great missionary very hard worker and dedicated, he will be going to Utah State when he gets home and we both have served with Elder Nowland, he served with him 2 transfers before I did.
Some other good news from this week is I got a message from the Ptakovi who are starting to prepare for baptism and the mom told me she will remember me forever as the missionary who taught her family how to pray together, so of course that gave me a pretty big head but it was a good reminder that we are affecting peoples lives so much on an eternal basis and how important this work really is.
And than another highlight from the week is we got news this week that Elder L Tom Perry and Elder Robert Oaks are coming to tour the mission which is a big surprise, because we already had our yearly mission tour but i guess they like whats happening here so they requested to come and visit, they are only going to be here for like 3 days so may 20th there is going to be a big fireside for all of the members in cz republic and slovakia and than the 21st we are having a whole mission conference in prague with them so the whole mission is excited about that, there hasnt been a mission conference in like a year and a half and than with an Apostle I am way excited to how it goes we are pretty lucky and blessed to have such a great opportunity.
Thats pretty much all from this last week, so today we are heading up to Jihlava to go through some catacombs there with the missionaries which should be a fun time, we are staying busy and working hard tonight.
here is a funny story we were over at a less active familys house last night and the 23 year old son challenged Elder Chambers to a pepper eating contest and the results were pretty funny I took some videos so you will see those some time, I sent a chip home last week so you should be getting a bunch of pictures pretty soon. I hope everybody has a good week and stay safe.
Love
Elder Hatch
Monday, April 27, 2009
April 27th, 2009
Good Morning everybody
It sounds like you had a good week this last week with stake conference and the air plane show. We had a pretty good week here in Trebic. There was a baptism in Brno on friday that we took three 16 year olds too that was a good experience for them to see a baptism they really enjoyed it. It was a pretty big thing for them, going from trebic to brno is like taking some kids from globe to phoenix going from the little town to the big city. I really like trebic just because it hasnt gotten all modernized and commercelised it was a big shock for me to be back in Brno and see advertisments and a different kind of people i would definetly say it is much more worldly in Brno.
When we were walking from the train station to the tram stop to get to the church building I ran into Lenka she was on her way to work and it was completly chance that we bumped into each other but it made her day since she was sad she couldnt go to the baptism because of work. One of the 16 year olds is vietnamese and has an older sister who is 19 and who we gave a baptismal date to this week to be baptized in a month unfortunately she couldnt come with us because of school.
My companion turned 21 on thursday so we had a dinner to celebrate and invited all of the less active priesthood holders in the branch to come, it was a great turn out and pretty much all of them came to church yesterday which was amazing because 2 of them have only came like 2 or 3 times in the last year. I had a talk in church yesterday which went pretty well, i was pretty nervous about it because it was a 15 minute talk but it went well and it sounded like the branch really liked it.
The missionaries have talks once a month and i guess they usually always talk about Jesus Christ, the restoration or the plan of salvation so i decided to mix things up a little bit and talk about knowledge which the branch liked because it was something new and which our investigators liked because they are all going to school right now.
Yesterday we went to visit an investigator we found who lives about a 45 minute train ride away in this little town called moravske budejovice which has about 8,000 people he is probably one of the nicest and most sincere people he showed us around his town and then we taught him the message of the restoration which went really well he took some pictures and sent them to us so i'll forward those on to you guys. People in the czech republic are able to understand the apostasy very well mainly because they are turned off to churches because of all of the bad things that were done in the name of God in the past.
We have to be in our aparment by 9:30 every night and the other night we were in there at 9:30 and the window was open and there were these 2 15 year old guys out there who we have played soccer with before so i started talking to them and they wanted to know more about what we believe so i was able to teach them about God from our 3rd story window which was a first for me.
Life is great being a missionary I highly recommend it to all. I hope you have a good anniversary mom and dad congratulations 26 years later and still going strong. Have a great week everyone.
Love
Elder Hatch
It sounds like you had a good week this last week with stake conference and the air plane show. We had a pretty good week here in Trebic. There was a baptism in Brno on friday that we took three 16 year olds too that was a good experience for them to see a baptism they really enjoyed it. It was a pretty big thing for them, going from trebic to brno is like taking some kids from globe to phoenix going from the little town to the big city. I really like trebic just because it hasnt gotten all modernized and commercelised it was a big shock for me to be back in Brno and see advertisments and a different kind of people i would definetly say it is much more worldly in Brno.
When we were walking from the train station to the tram stop to get to the church building I ran into Lenka she was on her way to work and it was completly chance that we bumped into each other but it made her day since she was sad she couldnt go to the baptism because of work. One of the 16 year olds is vietnamese and has an older sister who is 19 and who we gave a baptismal date to this week to be baptized in a month unfortunately she couldnt come with us because of school.
My companion turned 21 on thursday so we had a dinner to celebrate and invited all of the less active priesthood holders in the branch to come, it was a great turn out and pretty much all of them came to church yesterday which was amazing because 2 of them have only came like 2 or 3 times in the last year. I had a talk in church yesterday which went pretty well, i was pretty nervous about it because it was a 15 minute talk but it went well and it sounded like the branch really liked it.
The missionaries have talks once a month and i guess they usually always talk about Jesus Christ, the restoration or the plan of salvation so i decided to mix things up a little bit and talk about knowledge which the branch liked because it was something new and which our investigators liked because they are all going to school right now.
Yesterday we went to visit an investigator we found who lives about a 45 minute train ride away in this little town called moravske budejovice which has about 8,000 people he is probably one of the nicest and most sincere people he showed us around his town and then we taught him the message of the restoration which went really well he took some pictures and sent them to us so i'll forward those on to you guys. People in the czech republic are able to understand the apostasy very well mainly because they are turned off to churches because of all of the bad things that were done in the name of God in the past.
We have to be in our aparment by 9:30 every night and the other night we were in there at 9:30 and the window was open and there were these 2 15 year old guys out there who we have played soccer with before so i started talking to them and they wanted to know more about what we believe so i was able to teach them about God from our 3rd story window which was a first for me.
Life is great being a missionary I highly recommend it to all. I hope you have a good anniversary mom and dad congratulations 26 years later and still going strong. Have a great week everyone.
Love
Elder Hatch
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Tuesday April 21st, 2009
Hey family
Well I am going to start out this letter with the funniest story of my mission so far so get ready. So we were at this apartment complex calling up a guy that had been found before trying to meet with him and i see these two 10 year old kids ding dong ditch a door and run off right in front of us while we were on the phone. then this 55 year old woman came out and asked if we had buzzed and i told her what happened and than she asked us what we are doing in the czech republic and we told her and she was like come on in boys, come in boys, come on in boys like 15 times and we looked at each other because she seemed a little crazy but we decided hey who are we to judge and went on in with her. We walk into the dirtiest looking apartment i have ever seen and it is full of a haze of smoke. She asked us about 10 times if we smoke or drink coffee but we finally were sitting down and getting started talking about what we are doing and she interrupts and starts asking us if we need to sit on the toilet we were like no we are good but thanks for the offer and she said are you sure? I know how it is when you got to go and we just bought fresh toilet paper so go ahead and use it. We finally convinced her that we didnt need to go to the bathroom. At this time her friend walks in who is this huge 300 pound woman sits down and starts fidgetting and doing all of these little quirks. So we start talking with them about the Book of Mormon and the big woman (Jarka) was like yeah i have heard of that i read about it in the bible they talk about mormons alot in the bible and she went on and on about that and was like Jesus was a mormon too i remember reading that in the bible, Elder Chambers and I look at each other and we were like umm not really... but she continues to insist its true so we just kind of skipped on over and give them the Book of Mormon they seemed pretty excited to read it so we assigned them a chapter and set up to come back in a couple of days to see how it went.
So a few days later we are back and we have a plan to walk with them to the church building which is only 3 or 4 minutes away just for a better atmosphere to teach but Dana (the original woman) said she had already been outside 3 times today to go to the store and it would be asking too much for her to leave again.
So we are like ok well how did the reading go?
Dana- Boys we have just had no time whatsoever to read we have just been so busy. we didnt even sleep last night
Us- Oh really why didnt you go to sleep last night
Dana- I dont know just too much stuff
Us- Ok well how about we read that chapter from the Book of Mormon with you.
Dana-OK and starts gazing around as if looking for the BoM
Us- Do you still have it?
Dana starts thinking and than was like ahah oh yeah i remember, and than she starts undoing her sweat pants and we were like what is she doing? And than boom there came the book of mormon out of her pants and she smiles at us and was like i have had it there since you gave it to me its my good luck charm. (czech book of mormons are bigger than english ones and its a hard cover) She went on and said how it was with her for all 3 of her trips to the store. We are like ok and than she tried handing it to me but i was like oh no thanks thats yours i have my own to read which i pulled out. She commences to put hers back in her pants and my companion was like no we are going to read together and she was like yeah i know and he was like but you cant read it while its in your pants and she was like oh yeah good idea so she brought it on out again we read with her a little bit and than jarka comes walking in doing all of these weird quirks looking like she is throwing invisible things around and shes like "I'm throwing out illigitamet children help me they are everywhere." So my companion and I decide its about time to get out of here so i offered to pray and during the prayer i asked for them to have health and she interuppted and was like we aint got none of that. then when the prayer was over she pulled out her government card and on it it said that she has skitsophrania as we were leaving she was putting the Book of Mormon back in her pants so who knows maybe two years from now a missionary will contact her and she will surprise him and pull the book of mormon out of her pants hopefully you guys got a good laugh out of that.
We had zone conference in Brno yesterday which was cool to be back there, Lenka and Maminka came at the end of it to say hi to me so it was good to talk to them for a little bit, thanks for the easter package and thats a beautiful tie good job on picking it out Alyssa i like it a lot.
The work is going great here we watched General Conference on Saturday and Sunday and we were able to get 6 of our investigators to see at least one session which was awesome. I would say my favorite talks were Bednar's Hollands and Hale's. Trebic is a beautiful town, i would say its the most beautiful city i have served in probably its very quaint with a nice river going through it and beautiful hills, its a big change from Brno, Brno you are walking down a main street and you see a potential 100 people to talk to where as in trebic when you are walking down the street you see 4 or 5 but it is good because it makes you rely on the Lord more and not so much on yourself.
In answer to your question mom yeah it is kind of hard to move everything with all of my stuff but it was nice because i knew i was going to be back in brno soon for zone conference that i left a bunch of books and so i brought a small suitcase with me yesterday and loaded it all up, the hard part is moving in the summer because i cant wear my coat and my coat takes up alot of room in my suit case but hopefully i will be in trebic for 6 months. My companion is a very hard worker and a fun guy so we work well together and have alot of good times, the elders from Jihlava the other city in our district are with us today for p-day and we have had a good time exploring the city. Well thats about all from me this week i hope you guys have a great week and keep up the good work.
Love
Elder Hatch
Well I am going to start out this letter with the funniest story of my mission so far so get ready. So we were at this apartment complex calling up a guy that had been found before trying to meet with him and i see these two 10 year old kids ding dong ditch a door and run off right in front of us while we were on the phone. then this 55 year old woman came out and asked if we had buzzed and i told her what happened and than she asked us what we are doing in the czech republic and we told her and she was like come on in boys, come in boys, come on in boys like 15 times and we looked at each other because she seemed a little crazy but we decided hey who are we to judge and went on in with her. We walk into the dirtiest looking apartment i have ever seen and it is full of a haze of smoke. She asked us about 10 times if we smoke or drink coffee but we finally were sitting down and getting started talking about what we are doing and she interrupts and starts asking us if we need to sit on the toilet we were like no we are good but thanks for the offer and she said are you sure? I know how it is when you got to go and we just bought fresh toilet paper so go ahead and use it. We finally convinced her that we didnt need to go to the bathroom. At this time her friend walks in who is this huge 300 pound woman sits down and starts fidgetting and doing all of these little quirks. So we start talking with them about the Book of Mormon and the big woman (Jarka) was like yeah i have heard of that i read about it in the bible they talk about mormons alot in the bible and she went on and on about that and was like Jesus was a mormon too i remember reading that in the bible, Elder Chambers and I look at each other and we were like umm not really... but she continues to insist its true so we just kind of skipped on over and give them the Book of Mormon they seemed pretty excited to read it so we assigned them a chapter and set up to come back in a couple of days to see how it went.
So a few days later we are back and we have a plan to walk with them to the church building which is only 3 or 4 minutes away just for a better atmosphere to teach but Dana (the original woman) said she had already been outside 3 times today to go to the store and it would be asking too much for her to leave again.
So we are like ok well how did the reading go?
Dana- Boys we have just had no time whatsoever to read we have just been so busy. we didnt even sleep last night
Us- Oh really why didnt you go to sleep last night
Dana- I dont know just too much stuff
Us- Ok well how about we read that chapter from the Book of Mormon with you.
Dana-OK and starts gazing around as if looking for the BoM
Us- Do you still have it?
Dana starts thinking and than was like ahah oh yeah i remember, and than she starts undoing her sweat pants and we were like what is she doing? And than boom there came the book of mormon out of her pants and she smiles at us and was like i have had it there since you gave it to me its my good luck charm. (czech book of mormons are bigger than english ones and its a hard cover) She went on and said how it was with her for all 3 of her trips to the store. We are like ok and than she tried handing it to me but i was like oh no thanks thats yours i have my own to read which i pulled out. She commences to put hers back in her pants and my companion was like no we are going to read together and she was like yeah i know and he was like but you cant read it while its in your pants and she was like oh yeah good idea so she brought it on out again we read with her a little bit and than jarka comes walking in doing all of these weird quirks looking like she is throwing invisible things around and shes like "I'm throwing out illigitamet children help me they are everywhere." So my companion and I decide its about time to get out of here so i offered to pray and during the prayer i asked for them to have health and she interuppted and was like we aint got none of that. then when the prayer was over she pulled out her government card and on it it said that she has skitsophrania as we were leaving she was putting the Book of Mormon back in her pants so who knows maybe two years from now a missionary will contact her and she will surprise him and pull the book of mormon out of her pants hopefully you guys got a good laugh out of that.
We had zone conference in Brno yesterday which was cool to be back there, Lenka and Maminka came at the end of it to say hi to me so it was good to talk to them for a little bit, thanks for the easter package and thats a beautiful tie good job on picking it out Alyssa i like it a lot.
The work is going great here we watched General Conference on Saturday and Sunday and we were able to get 6 of our investigators to see at least one session which was awesome. I would say my favorite talks were Bednar's Hollands and Hale's. Trebic is a beautiful town, i would say its the most beautiful city i have served in probably its very quaint with a nice river going through it and beautiful hills, its a big change from Brno, Brno you are walking down a main street and you see a potential 100 people to talk to where as in trebic when you are walking down the street you see 4 or 5 but it is good because it makes you rely on the Lord more and not so much on yourself.
In answer to your question mom yeah it is kind of hard to move everything with all of my stuff but it was nice because i knew i was going to be back in brno soon for zone conference that i left a bunch of books and so i brought a small suitcase with me yesterday and loaded it all up, the hard part is moving in the summer because i cant wear my coat and my coat takes up alot of room in my suit case but hopefully i will be in trebic for 6 months. My companion is a very hard worker and a fun guy so we work well together and have alot of good times, the elders from Jihlava the other city in our district are with us today for p-day and we have had a good time exploring the city. Well thats about all from me this week i hope you guys have a great week and keep up the good work.
Love
Elder Hatch
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday April 15, 2009
Hello everybody
So it has been a pretty eventful week since i have last written. Monday after we emailed we went with Maminka and the whole district to a castle where she did her annual transfer event. Brno has its own language with all these slang words that people use for common items and she tests us on them and than knights us brnaks which is always a fun tradition. Basically the rest of my time in Brno was spent packing and saying goodbye to investigators and new converts which are two of my least favorite things in the world I hate saying goodbyes and packing but it went well.
We went out to our family to say goodbye and they just started crying it really hit me how much of an impact we have had on these peoples lives the husband broke down and told us how he had lost all hope in a good world but we had brought that back to him and than there were alot of other goodbyes. I gave Adam one of my ties and taught him how to tie it which was a cool experience as i said goodbye to him.
Wednseday came awfully fast and i was on a train off to trebic it is only about an hour train ride from brno and my new companion was there waiting at the train station for me when i got off. Luckily we live pretty close to the train station so it was an easy walk to our apartment. My companion is a great guy. as i walked into the apartment there were all these signs put up welcoming me in and talking about the great success we are going to have here.
The branch here is amazing they are small but way solid probably the most solid i have seen here. We are the only missionaries here in the branch and city which is a first for me.
Church was great we had an easter program and they had me come up and introduce myself. So the reason why i didnt email on monday is because monday is like the second half of easter and its a huge holiday here. So what happens is you make these whips out of little branches woven together and all the guys go around and whip the women before noon and after noon all the women get to pour water on the guys. Its some old pagan holiday that got put with easter, one of the members explained to us that its supposed to make the women fertile because the life forces go from the branch to the women. Haha so the whole branch like came up and scheduled with us when we can come whip them, and after you whip them they give you a boiled egg to eat so i ate quite a bit of boiled eggs. Its alot like halloween in america, basically all the women and girls stay home and all the men go out with their boys and go visit everybody they know and whip them and then they get candy and chocolate, so the streets are full of guys with whips and baskets full of candy. its quite an interesting holiday and it was great because we got to meet and interact with all of the members and they fed us so much food, it was a little awkward when 70 year old women wanted you to whip them but we survived.
So mom sent me that pedometer when i was in brno and in brno we were riding alot of trams so we werent doing too much walking about 12,000 steps a day and then i came to trebic where everything is walking and the other day we walked like 31,000 steps and everything is either uphill or downhill so it was a little slap in the face but i am getting used to it.
We are teaching this mother and daughter here the daughter is about 10 and is way into it she has read the whole childrens picture book book of mormon and reads from the bible and Book of Mormon every day, the mother is kind of struggeling with commandmants and is wanting more time but is supportive of her daughter. We took the daughter to the branch presidents house for FHE which was really good they are a great family and had a good FHE on easter and than had some fun games afterwards, the Branch president was talking to her while we were leaving and she told him that she wants to be baptized so we might be having a baptism here in a couple of weeks.
We are also teaching this group of friends who are all 16 and 17 that we met through english and They are showing a lot of progress as well, its a big change in teaching and finding for me because in brno i mostly taught college students and there is no college here all of the college students are in Brno but I am adapting and we are doing good.
Yesterday was district meeting which takes a while here our district is made up of our companionship and a companionship in a city about 50 minutes from here so we switch off every week what city we have district meeting in and we went there this week which takes a pretty big chunk out of our day.
So the address of our apartment here is:
Elder Jordan Hatch
Tkalcovska 1061/9
674 01 Trebic
Czech Republic
I am glad to hear that you all had a great easter and hiking the grand canyon went well. We still havent watched conference yet we are going to watch it in czech saturday and sunday but if you guys could send me the ensign version when it comes out that would me great. I am loving the city here and my Companion we are going to do some great things here I love you all at home and hope you have a great week.
Love
Elder Hatch
So it has been a pretty eventful week since i have last written. Monday after we emailed we went with Maminka and the whole district to a castle where she did her annual transfer event. Brno has its own language with all these slang words that people use for common items and she tests us on them and than knights us brnaks which is always a fun tradition. Basically the rest of my time in Brno was spent packing and saying goodbye to investigators and new converts which are two of my least favorite things in the world I hate saying goodbyes and packing but it went well.
We went out to our family to say goodbye and they just started crying it really hit me how much of an impact we have had on these peoples lives the husband broke down and told us how he had lost all hope in a good world but we had brought that back to him and than there were alot of other goodbyes. I gave Adam one of my ties and taught him how to tie it which was a cool experience as i said goodbye to him.
Wednseday came awfully fast and i was on a train off to trebic it is only about an hour train ride from brno and my new companion was there waiting at the train station for me when i got off. Luckily we live pretty close to the train station so it was an easy walk to our apartment. My companion is a great guy. as i walked into the apartment there were all these signs put up welcoming me in and talking about the great success we are going to have here.
The branch here is amazing they are small but way solid probably the most solid i have seen here. We are the only missionaries here in the branch and city which is a first for me.
Church was great we had an easter program and they had me come up and introduce myself. So the reason why i didnt email on monday is because monday is like the second half of easter and its a huge holiday here. So what happens is you make these whips out of little branches woven together and all the guys go around and whip the women before noon and after noon all the women get to pour water on the guys. Its some old pagan holiday that got put with easter, one of the members explained to us that its supposed to make the women fertile because the life forces go from the branch to the women. Haha so the whole branch like came up and scheduled with us when we can come whip them, and after you whip them they give you a boiled egg to eat so i ate quite a bit of boiled eggs. Its alot like halloween in america, basically all the women and girls stay home and all the men go out with their boys and go visit everybody they know and whip them and then they get candy and chocolate, so the streets are full of guys with whips and baskets full of candy. its quite an interesting holiday and it was great because we got to meet and interact with all of the members and they fed us so much food, it was a little awkward when 70 year old women wanted you to whip them but we survived.
So mom sent me that pedometer when i was in brno and in brno we were riding alot of trams so we werent doing too much walking about 12,000 steps a day and then i came to trebic where everything is walking and the other day we walked like 31,000 steps and everything is either uphill or downhill so it was a little slap in the face but i am getting used to it.
We are teaching this mother and daughter here the daughter is about 10 and is way into it she has read the whole childrens picture book book of mormon and reads from the bible and Book of Mormon every day, the mother is kind of struggeling with commandmants and is wanting more time but is supportive of her daughter. We took the daughter to the branch presidents house for FHE which was really good they are a great family and had a good FHE on easter and than had some fun games afterwards, the Branch president was talking to her while we were leaving and she told him that she wants to be baptized so we might be having a baptism here in a couple of weeks.
We are also teaching this group of friends who are all 16 and 17 that we met through english and They are showing a lot of progress as well, its a big change in teaching and finding for me because in brno i mostly taught college students and there is no college here all of the college students are in Brno but I am adapting and we are doing good.
Yesterday was district meeting which takes a while here our district is made up of our companionship and a companionship in a city about 50 minutes from here so we switch off every week what city we have district meeting in and we went there this week which takes a pretty big chunk out of our day.
So the address of our apartment here is:
Elder Jordan Hatch
Tkalcovska 1061/9
674 01 Trebic
Czech Republic
I am glad to hear that you all had a great easter and hiking the grand canyon went well. We still havent watched conference yet we are going to watch it in czech saturday and sunday but if you guys could send me the ensign version when it comes out that would me great. I am loving the city here and my Companion we are going to do some great things here I love you all at home and hope you have a great week.
Love
Elder Hatch
Monday, April 6, 2009
Monday April 6th, 2009
Hey everybody
So we got transfer information this morning and it looks like i will be heading to Trebic, i went there a couple of weeks ago on a zone finding activity. It is this little town that is very pretty and i think it is the smallest city in the czech republic that has missionaries, there are only two of us there. My companion is Elder Chambers who is a stud I have interacted with him a lot before and I am excited to work with him I am ready for some great things to happen in Trebic.
So we had some amazing things happen this week in the work, thursday night we started the stop smoking program with this young woman named Katka and Maminka is her supporter during it. So i was talking to her friday and she said she was doing great not smoking and than the afternoon came and she got this big temptation so she went and bought a single cigarette ( you can do that here) and sat down on a bench on the town square and started to light it up when this woman out of nowhere came up and didnt even introduce her self but was like what are you doing? dont light that cigarette you know its bad for you, you are a beautiful young woman dont destroy yourself by smoking and than just left, so katka threw the cigarette away and still hasnt smoked. When she was telling me that story i said well it looks like God sent somebody to help you and she completely agreed.
Last night we went out and taught the Ptakovi, she told us that she was on the tram leaving the church building after the concert and there was this loud drunk person bothering her so she prayed and than this guy helped her out and got the drunk person to stop bothering her, so her prayer was answered. So I taught them about prayer and read with them in 3rd Nephi about how Christ commanded them to pray as a family, and bore testimony about how family prayer helped our family so much and committed them to pray together as a family every night this next week which they are very excited to do.
The weather got very warm this week which is very nice because people are just sitting on benches all over the place and you can sit down and teach them. So we sat down with this one guy from Ukraine and taught him on a bench and than invited him to church and he was there at church yesterday which was sweet.
I got a call from Brother Lambson and he is taking me and my companion out to dinner tonight which is very nice of him.
So friday night we had a spring concert that the branch and missionaries have been working on for the last month or so, the Senior Sisters were in charge of it and organized a very good program, they had spiritual numbers and than some fun ones. There is this member from England who married a czech woman and they have a family here, and he has an amazing voice and sang the song "If i was a rich man" from fiddler on the roof, you would of loved it mom he was amazing and sang just as good as the guy in the movie, he dressed up like him and even grew a beard out for it. It was a great experience we had like 6 of our investigators there and they all loved it.
Adam and Lenka are doing great with the church, it will be sad to leave all of my investigators and new members and all of my member friends but I am excited to go to a new area and do it all again, we werent able to catch conference I think they are going to show it either next week or maybe the week after that since next week is easter, it is interesting they celebrate easter on monday instead of sunday in the czech republic, and all of the men go around with whips and whip the girls in the butt singing some song so it should be an interesting experience. So i cant think of much else to say, ill send my address to you guys when i get it so you can send stuff to trebic i hope you all have a great week and that Charlie has a great 60th birthday.
Love
Elder Hatch
So we got transfer information this morning and it looks like i will be heading to Trebic, i went there a couple of weeks ago on a zone finding activity. It is this little town that is very pretty and i think it is the smallest city in the czech republic that has missionaries, there are only two of us there. My companion is Elder Chambers who is a stud I have interacted with him a lot before and I am excited to work with him I am ready for some great things to happen in Trebic.
So we had some amazing things happen this week in the work, thursday night we started the stop smoking program with this young woman named Katka and Maminka is her supporter during it. So i was talking to her friday and she said she was doing great not smoking and than the afternoon came and she got this big temptation so she went and bought a single cigarette ( you can do that here) and sat down on a bench on the town square and started to light it up when this woman out of nowhere came up and didnt even introduce her self but was like what are you doing? dont light that cigarette you know its bad for you, you are a beautiful young woman dont destroy yourself by smoking and than just left, so katka threw the cigarette away and still hasnt smoked. When she was telling me that story i said well it looks like God sent somebody to help you and she completely agreed.
Last night we went out and taught the Ptakovi, she told us that she was on the tram leaving the church building after the concert and there was this loud drunk person bothering her so she prayed and than this guy helped her out and got the drunk person to stop bothering her, so her prayer was answered. So I taught them about prayer and read with them in 3rd Nephi about how Christ commanded them to pray as a family, and bore testimony about how family prayer helped our family so much and committed them to pray together as a family every night this next week which they are very excited to do.
The weather got very warm this week which is very nice because people are just sitting on benches all over the place and you can sit down and teach them. So we sat down with this one guy from Ukraine and taught him on a bench and than invited him to church and he was there at church yesterday which was sweet.
I got a call from Brother Lambson and he is taking me and my companion out to dinner tonight which is very nice of him.
So friday night we had a spring concert that the branch and missionaries have been working on for the last month or so, the Senior Sisters were in charge of it and organized a very good program, they had spiritual numbers and than some fun ones. There is this member from England who married a czech woman and they have a family here, and he has an amazing voice and sang the song "If i was a rich man" from fiddler on the roof, you would of loved it mom he was amazing and sang just as good as the guy in the movie, he dressed up like him and even grew a beard out for it. It was a great experience we had like 6 of our investigators there and they all loved it.
Adam and Lenka are doing great with the church, it will be sad to leave all of my investigators and new members and all of my member friends but I am excited to go to a new area and do it all again, we werent able to catch conference I think they are going to show it either next week or maybe the week after that since next week is easter, it is interesting they celebrate easter on monday instead of sunday in the czech republic, and all of the men go around with whips and whip the girls in the butt singing some song so it should be an interesting experience. So i cant think of much else to say, ill send my address to you guys when i get it so you can send stuff to trebic i hope you all have a great week and that Charlie has a great 60th birthday.
Love
Elder Hatch
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