June 27, 2011

Hola,
I love how incredibly crazy, unorganized, funny, and spiritual your emails are. I'm not sure how you manage to tie everything in so well, but you do it, and you do it well. So thank you! You're the best.

With love,

Elder Hatt.

Just kidding! I bet you thought that's all I'd write this week! ahaha... So thank you again for the wonderful email, it made me laugh and smile, which makes me happy-er? I'm always happy, how can I not be? I'm still in the most...beautiful...place...in...the....earth...cough cough. Sorry I was just getting a physical ahaha. I'm happy that your day is so beautiful today, because mine started out with rain and overcast. I was hoping I could walk outside today and see the beautiful grass. But there's still none, anywhere. It's great! By the way, for all those who have sent pictures you're looking great! Keep up the good work, and don't eat white rice! 0 rice! No rice! NEVER NEVER NEVER! It's not that tasty! I'm scared that you'll be in way better shape then I will be when I get back, 30 minutes is not enough time to exercise, and half the time I'm so tired during exercises I fall asleep on the floor... it's a beautiful sight ahaha.

Saturday I was able to go to the temple for the first time in 5 months! It was a great experience to go down with my Branch here in Barranca, and to have Sister Isabel, one of my recent converts, come as well. It was a great day which seemed to fly by. But it was very beautiful, spiritual, and memorable. Isabel loved it and really enjoyed being able to go down. How nice it was to be able to share that experience with her.

We are in a really dry spell… its going okay though... it's just dry. We've done a million contacts this week and we had some really great people who were excited to come to church yesterday. But one problem that I've found here in Peru is that a lot of people like to... how can I say this nicely... not tell the truth. Like here the people will tell that they want to come to church and that they have nothing, but when you come by their house to pick them up they're not there! At times I wish they would just straight up tell me ''I'm not interested'' so I wouldn't be losing time trying to find them! Oh well, that's part of the work! Needless to say, no one came to church yesterday :( for example, when it was Father's day, and you'd think that there would be a lot of people coming with their families! But it was quite the reverse actually, almost no one came at all, new converts, members, no one. It was sad and confusing, but that's okay, I will live.

As far as my companions are doing... Elder Cruz is fine as far as I know, we really don't have any contact. We're not allowed to email them within the mission so I have no clue, just as little Elder Garcia. Elder Fredrickson is doing well, he's training for the first time this transfer and seems to be having a bit of a hard time. His companion is very... awkward and strange, so it's been a bit tough for him. And Elder Iglesias is doing well, he's progressing and learning. He's still having a bit of trouble memorizing the street names and everything, but if there's anything I learned training Elder Cruz, it's the importance of Patience. I don't expect Elder Iglesiato be a perfect missionary, I just expect him to try his hardest and that's enough for me. I have to help him a lot and give him support because he gets down on himself a lot, but he's learning, and I am too. He's a great companion.

As far as package ideas, I don't think I have anything as of right now! I love ties... so you can always send more of those! But When I think of more I'll surely let you know. Or maybe I won't, because you shouldn't send me packages, they're expensive. I haven't decided yet!... More Canadian candy... maybe.

Anyway that's basically it for me this week! Please remember that I love you and pray for you everything, and give thanks to my Heavenly Father that he's put you in my life. In closing theres something I wanted to share with you. Every day for Personal Study I've been trying to read 1 talk from the General Conference Ensign from May. There's a ton of talks I've read which are just incredible and have helped me a lot but there's one in particular that really stood out to me. You should read it! It's entitled The Road to Damascus by President Uchdorft. In his talk he quoted Spencer W Kimball and said: ''God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs''. I think you're smart enough to put that together and see why that was important to me

I know this Church is true, without a doubt. There's so much joy in the gospel. God created a plan for us, a great and marvelous plan. It's called The Plan of Happiness for a reason. I'm super happy :)

that's it for me now.

Love you lot's!

Talk again before you know it!

Elder Hatt

June 17, 2011

HELLO!

Before I forget! Let me explain the difference between -ito and -ita! It works like this, normally in spanish if a word ends in -o, then it's masculin. However, if the word ends in -a, it's feminin, with a few exceptions of course. Therefore, if we're trying to make it diminutive, then we use -ito for masculin and -ita for feminin words or people. I am more commonly called ''Hermanito Hatt'' - Little brother Hatt ahaha, I think it's awesome, I will continue making things smaller when I get home, because it's enjoyable.

What a beautiful day this is! Actually it's super overcast and still just as dirty as every other day. Did I ever tell you that Barranca hires people to sweep the garbage off the streets? It's nice that they're actually doing it but the other problem is that they have to. Garbage cans are anything but few and far between here in Peru. Us North Americans have a saying here in Peru whenever we're frustrated, confused, or disgusted. It goes like this, ''Where are we?'' to which the answer is always ''Peru'' which always clears up whatever question you have. Don't get me wrong, it's great to be here, but I think it's the experience that's great more than anything. And the people, there's some really nice people.

So enough about my speel of how incredibly filthy (awesome) Peru is. I know that you were worried for some time that your package you sent had been stolen, but here’s the deal. No, your package has not been stolen. It's arrived here in Peru, the problem is right now that SerPost (Postal service in Peru) is also on strike! I swear, I think the evil god of postal service is just trying to make me sad and discouraged. First we received the package, then it was returned for name issues. Now we've received it again, however, the offices were unable to take them out...until this week... Thank you so much for sending me a package!!! Not to mention how much you spent on all the AWESOME gifts that were inside. Seriously I think I smiled that entire night while asleep. I read your letter, and yes, I named the beautiful turtle :) HER name is Tortuga which is spanish for Turtle, but she's very small, there for I named her Tortugita, meaning, small turtle. Very creative, I know! But seriously thank you so much for the package, I'm literally so happy right now! The pooh towel, the sweat pants, the canadian knick-knacks, the snacks, the stuffed animals. Pretty much everything, you know me too well. I don't think there's anything else I could want. But I want to forbid you from ever sending another package! You're broke, you can't send those things! But I know you'd do it anyway, so maybe you can just send... smaller packages?

ALSO FOR NEXT TIME! (If there is one) write my name and the address in Spanish. And we've figured out the perfect way to send a package. More catholic pictures! The best way is to take a big picture of the Virgin Mary, and tape it along the T-seam of the package. So if they want to open in, they have to cut off the virgin Mary's head... and no Catholic wants to do that. Missionaries do, they enjoy it. Try it some time!

But I am attaching a lot of pictures about the package experience! I have many more but I think these will be sufficient! I hope you enjoy them!

Ohh yes!! Elections! Well those were yesterday, and it was another very boring day, filled with nothing but being stuck inside all day. We actually ended up cooking lunch with a few other Elder's at their Pension's house because  she wasn't there all day... I want you to know how glad I am not having to cook. I love cooking, don't get me wrong, just not in a Peruvian Kitchen. It's hardly a kitchen! I could go on for hours about it, but in the mean time just know that it was fairly dirty, and we had a lot of trouble just turning on the gas. But in the end we made a pretty delicious meal of Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes (Elder Hatt style!)... and a pile of mushy, sticky, rice. Which we actually took to the dog who didn't even want it. So we turned them into rice balls and threw them off the roof. Probably the highlight of my day! As to who won, I think you'll be pleased to know that Ollanta... actually won! The elections were very close, but in the end,  the people chose  Ollanta intead of a Chinese woman to lead their country. I think it's because she was Chinese, not because she is a she. But I don't know. And in reality I think it's good because he's going to change Peru completely (or so he says) and really increase the quality of living and the level of security. I doubt he would send all the outsiders back to their places, but there's a possibility. He takes office at the end of July, so we shall see! I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, over Mountains or plains or seas!

I am also attaching a picture of me with my new companion! It was about 10:00 at night and we were very tired, but that's the only one I have! My companion!! Yes! I have a new companion, and he's different. He's white!! But that's NOT because he's North American (Maybe one day). Ahaha, his name is Elder Iglesias (Which is the plural of churches! Like how Moosen is the plural of Moose... or is it meese? Please watch Bryan Reegan IF you did not catch that joke, and if that is the case, I am very sad) The reason he is white is because he's from Chile! I actually think that I might be more tanned than he is aha. But he's a really nice guy, eager to learn and eager to work. And we have a lot of things in common together. We're going through a bit of a dry spell here in Barranca (Yes, same area!) so it's been a lot of work, with little progress. But we're working and trying hard, and I think it will be okay :) We have a lot in common, Elder Iglesias and I, so it should be enjoyable. I'll keep you updated. He is very green! He completed 1 month last week aha. He's having troubles memorizing the lessons and remembering the scriptures. He never really studied them too much before his mission and now he's paying for it during the lessons. He's a little frustrated, but we're studying and practicing every day and every day he's a little bit better. Patience, patience, patience :)

This Thursday we had a zone conference in Huacho! Our President and his assistants taught us how we can better be the Lord's hands in this work. It was very uplifiting and re-energizing. I love my President, he's so loving and works so hard to improve the mission. I'll try to get a picture with him and send it to you. But for right now please know that he's awesome!

Love you lot's!

Your dirty Peruvian,

Elder Hatt