April 18, 2011

¡Hola mi familia, y mejores amigos de la tierra del Peru!

(Hello my family and best friends from the land of Peru... Just in case)

One again thank you so much for the email! I don't think you really know how much missionaries look forward to the time they have to email. It's kind of like a Christmas day every week, and it's a great way to put a smile on your face for the following week. It's like a little recharge to my batteries, so thank you!

Thank you for the stories, experiences, and thoughts you shared. They were very nice to read and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I have to say that I think Kara really did set a great example for the rest of her family when she left for the mission field. As did Justin for Jarom and I. And equally so did Jarom for me... And even though I don't have any younger siblings to set an example for, I like to think that perhaps it's a good example for others! Friends, Cousins, nephews... etc. It didn't take me a while to realize it, but the mission really isn't all peaches and cream like a lot of people might think. It's actually quite hard! But it's definitely the most spiritual experience I've ever had, and continue to have! It's incredible to see just how much the Lord helps his missionaries with everything. We're called to serve him and he's here to help us. The other day I was reading the Liahona and read a little bit about the prophet Joseph Smith. I read about his experience when he disobeyed the Lord and gave the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon to Oliver Cowdery. I never realized just how devastated the Prophet Joseph Smith felt. He had sinned and as a result lost his power to translate and do the work of the Lord. However I learned something really cool from his experience... in Section 3 verses 8-9 we read:

''Behold, thou art Joseph, and thou wast chosen to do the work of the Lord, but because of transgression, if thou art not aware thou wilt fall. But remember, God is merciful; therefore, repent of that which thou hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you, and thou art still chosen, and art again called to the work''

I thought it was a really cool way that the Lord showed both love and correction to Joseph Smith. I decided to, like with all scriptures, apply it to myself! So I put my name in there instead! So now we read, ''Behold, thou art Elder Hatt, and thou wast chosen to do the work of the Lord, but because of transgression, if thou art not away thou wilt fall.'' Kinda cool eh? I've been called to this work, but if I'm not careful, I can still fall. It means that even though I've been chosen to do this, that it doesn't mean the Lord will hold my hand through it. Temptation and trials still arrive, if not more frequently than before the Mission. And If I'm not careful, I could lose this privilege to serve, to have the companionship of the Spirit, and to receive help from the Lord every day. I thought it was pretty neat :) The scriptures are awesome! I just wished I'd had a desire to study them more before my mission, I hope to continue my daily scripture study every day after my mission.

Also, just like Jarom, yesterday Elder Cruz and I both gave talks in Sacrament meeting! We had the freedom to choose what to speak about, so Elder Cruz chose the Atonement... and I felt like I'd chosen everything else. Ahaha basically mine was about Families, Prophets, the Atonement, and trials... or blessings! Basically I talked and taught about the Blessings that everyone of us have (families, prophets and the atonement of Jesus Christ) and how these blessings can help us and carry us through some of that hardest time in our lives. And even though it was in Spanish, I felt like it went pretty well and got a lot of compliments afterwards! It was a great experience, howbeit very painful. Here in Peru I'm really quite tall... And my ward doesn't have the luxury of a Podium that moves up and down. So I have to hunch over to reach the microphone when talking. And since my talk was about 15 minutes long, my back is in quite a bit of pain right now ahaha.

So yes! Yesterday was my 5 Month anniversary! And before we know it I'll be at my 6 month anniversary, or, my 1/4th mark! It's going by quite quickly actually! In 3 Sundays it will be Mother's day here in Peru! (8th of May) and I'll have the chance to call home!

Anyway that's basically it for this week! We currently have 5 Baptismal dates set for this month! 3 of the 5 are very solid. But I want to have all 5 solid! We'll see how it goes, I'll keep you updated!

Hope everything is going well and if there's anything I can do just let me know!

Love ya, until next week!

Elder Hatt

April 11, 2011

Hola hola hola!!

Thank
you for the letter, like always it's nice to hear what's going on over there in
your little part of the world! I must say it sounds like this has been one of
the busiest years for Dad! But I think I know how he feels when he says he'd
like to just go home and do the things that he’s used to do. One day I might
have the same opportunity, but for now I'm enjoying my time serving the Lord
here in Peru. It's been a tough transition, but every day I feel like it's
getting a bit easier. I hardly notice the honking every 2.7 seconds or the
stray dogs in every corner. I hardly notice the massive amount of garbage and
dirt everywhere and the severe lack of greenery. It just feels like home now!
ahaha. I definitely didn't get a vacation spot for a mission, but it's my mission!
Peru's great, it's not what I thought it was, but I love it! It'll be tough I
think to adjust back to the good ol' fashioned Canadian lifestyle afterwards.
This Sunday I will have completed 5 months in the mission! It's crazy quick I
feel. Jarom gave me some good advice to just plan ahead for the week and to not
worry about how much time you have or how much time you've been out etc. It's
been a tough transition being both a senior companion and a trainer on my 2nd
transfer, but it's been very rewarding. I've gotten a lot more comfortable in
the language and am able to converse a lot easier and understand even more.
It's a miracle I think how much the Lord helps his missionaries, not only with
the language, but with everything. He knows how important this in, and he won't
let us fail. Not when eternal salvation is in Play! Like I said, I think one
day I'll be fluent in this language :)

So
this week was a fairly good week! It wasn't as productive as I'd hoped it to be
but we've been working a lot with some older progressing investigators. Our chances of getting baptisms are
very high here in Peru. However up here in Barranca at least, I feel like we
get way more dates then we do baptisms. Which sucks! I have no idea what
happens. They're so excited to listen and commit. But then they fall through
somewhere between initial contact and their baptism... I need to figure out
why, it's frustrating. Satan probably starts workin em a bit harder... or
they're scared to really commit to the Gospel of Christ. Who knows! However
right now we do have 5 Baptismal dates! 3 of them are siblings but have changed
houses... now we have to hunt them down and find where they've moved to
continue their lessons! The other one has a ton of faith and wants to renew his
life and be cleansed through Baptism and everything. The problem is that he's
very poor and very disabled. He can hardly walk or sleep at night without
extreme pain and he's unable to read. So we have to take things a bit slower
with him, but he can't wait to go to the church to meet the members and know
the church more... slowly but surely we'll work with him :) The other is
Isabel! She's had all the lessons
and a lot of baptismal invitations from my other companion and older
missionaries. However we wanted
to find out what was keeping her from being baptized. So we've been going with
members regularly to her house in case her problem was knowing members of the
ward. That helped a ton! Then we decided to reteach most of the lessons to her,
which also worked really well! It turns out that the problem was that a lot of
things weren't clear from the other missionaries who taught her. For example
she didn't know exactly what the Book of Mormon was, if the Church was true,
why we needed to assist on Sundays... A lot of things that are vital to a
strong testimony and a strong convert. I was amazed that the missionaries
didn't teach her these things... However that's what we're here for! We've
cleared all her concerns and this week we extended another baptismal
invitation, but more carefully this time. She has a great testimony, and knows
that following the example of Jesus Christ is important, that baptism is key
and she now has a testimony of the divinity and truthfulness of this church!
(After we knelt down with her and prayed during a lesson) She had a small fear
however with persevering to the end. Fear of sinning after her baptism, fear of
not being able to assist church every Sunday, etc. However we taught her about
her faith in Christ and how he'll help her strive every day to be a little more
perfect. And that because it's a commandment from him, he'll help us accomplish
it, no matter what. She felt much more at ease and by the end of the lesson
accepted to be baptized on the 30th of April. It's been great to work with her,
she's amazing, and tonight we'll be going by with some members to do Family
Home evening with her. Can't wait! I'll let you know how it goes! Today we're
also practicing for a Talent Show we're having this Saturday. I'll let you know
how it goes! I'll send pictures, it should be quite funny :)

Also
let me fill you in a little bit about Peru! Every 5 years here in Peru we have
elections. It just so happened that yesterday was that 5 year mark! However
apparently the elections can get quite heated down here. So for security
purposes we weren't allowed to leave the house at all yesterday! Very boring,
but we did get a lot of studying accomplished!
Here in Peru any person can run for President if they want. It's not like
Canada or the states where we have groups and such. So yesterday the elections
were running and there was a group of 5 expected to win. These were the 5, it's
a very interesting group! Ollanta, Keiko, PPK, Castañera and Toleta. Ollanta
basically wants to rid Peru of the corruption and start over again... he's
basically wants to be a Dictator just like Hugo Chaviz of Venezuela! He can be
very effective... however part of his plan is to clear Peru of North American
influence... which includes me! So if he becomes president there's a chance
he'll send all the North Americans back to their homes ahaha. Keiko is a
chinese woman, she lived and studied in the states so she's very smart and well
accomplished. Her father used to be president, He was a good President but then
afterwards went into Jail... not sure what for. But now they're running
together. PPK was born here in Peru but grew up in the states, he's very smart
and very well educated... however a lot of the people just think he's a white
north american and isn't qualified to run Peru. Castañera is a new face who has
some good ideas, but isn't very well known. And Taleta used to be President,
but doesn't have much going for him. He's very prideful and is into drugs and
alcohol... seems like he'd just bring more corruption into the country. Out of
the 5 these are the results! Turns out Ollanta is 1st and Keiko is 2nd, with
PPK 3rd, Taleta 4th, and Castañera 5th. So June 5th we'll have another election
for Ollanta the dictator, and Keiko the chinese! I'll let you know how it goes,
I'm excited ahaha. However if Ollanta wins and takes office in August, here's a
chance I might have to go to another mission :( and we don't want that! I'll
keep you updated! I hear Canada is having an election soon too?

Elder
Cruz is great. He's probably the first Latino companion I've had who's been
easy ahaha. We've gotten along really well and it's been a smooth easy transfer
thus far! He's a hard worker and is very responsible. However he's quite quiet
so he doesn't like to talk much during lessons which is sad because a lot of
times he has great questions or things to say, so we'll have to work on that
more. I also get to see Elder Fredrickson from time to time too (one of my
companions from the Provo MTC), he is actually sitting right beside me as we're
emailing! He's changed areas, but not Zone or District! So we see each other at
least twice a week! We're blessed with 5 North Americans in our area (nice for
me haha)! 4 Americans and 1 Canadian :) Only Canadian in all the mission in
case you didn't know, I'm special! Or cursed... depending on your perspective
:) My latino mama is also awesome! Her food is... the same! But she's a really
nice lady, I love her!

Sorry,
but I am running out of time again! I hope everything is great, please send my
love to everyone!

Remember
who you are and what YOU stand for :)

With
Love,

Elder
Hatt III

April 04, 2011

Buenos Dias!

Muchas Gracias un otra vez por su email!

I love conference!!!!!! Honestly I loved it before the mission, well... it was a nice thing that I enjoyed going to. But now I literally love it. Like it went by too fast kind of love it. However I have a problem. Saturday day I had some sort of 24 hour stomach flu, so I was throwing up and had head pains and everything. So we went to the session in the morning but I ended up going out to sleep through it, and then slept the rest of the day. I felt sooo bad! I wanted to go really badly, and now I have to wait until the Ensign comes out to read all the talks! However mine will probably be in Spanish... so it won't be the same :( It'll actually be quite different I think... since it's in a different language. However, Sunday was incredible! It's great to go and have your spiritual batteries recharged for the week. To receive personal revelation in your life. To listen to men called of God to teach us in these latter days, also, as a missionary it's great to receive counsel for your investigators and for your area, to improve your teaching and working skills, and to prepare you as a Priesthood holder and a future husband and father. I loved it! I wish every day was conference now... however I must wait another 6 months! Oh well.

Speaking of time, isn't this going by quickly? Well at least, I think it is! I'm almost down 5 months! I've almost broken the 20 month mark! Even though it's not important how much time I have now or have left to go, it's kind of cool to look back in retrospect to see how quickly it goes. I dunno, maybe it's just me and for everyone else it's going by super slow. And if that's the case I'm sorry, but you're probably not too excited to see me again anyway :)

So right now we have 5 Baptismal dates set! With another 2 to hopefully come in the following weeks! No, we haven't been able to teach Sister Meilin Jessica Fuertes... the problem is that she has 3 jobs and getting ahold of her is almost impossible, but we'll pass by this week and see how it goes. Breno is doing well! He had his birthday last week which was nice and he invited us to go to it! Basically I went, beat him in Chess, beat his friend in Chess... then ate cake and sang happy birthday :) It was lovely! He's been asking a lot of questions about us lately and the church to his Aunt, and he wants to come to church. So slowly but surely we'll have some great progress with him I think. I  will tell you about the others next week however now I am again... out of time! We had to go to a different area to email today so we got a bit lost and as a result have been short some time.

I hope everything is going great! Please know that this church is 100% true, and that I know without a doubt. Because God answers our prayers! Please remember who you are and what you stand for :)

With Love,

Elder Hatt