March 14, 2011

Buenos Dias!!

I keep forgetting to write this... Thank you for sending me packages! I really do appreciate them, even though I still have yet to receive one. Which brings me to my question!! How did you spell my name on the packages? AND, how many have you sent? Because last week I was told by the offices that they're having... difficulties... with my packages. There's 3 of them but they can't be taken out because apparently on all 3 my name's been spelt incorrectly! Like one letter in my last name or something like that, but everything else is correct! Therefore I don't know if they're yours and it was just a mistake? Maybe I'll get them just before I finish my mission :D

So my new companion's name is Elder Cruz (Elder Cross!) and he's from... yup! You guessed it! Guatemala! Yeah he's pretty awesome so far! He's quite small but he knows a fair amount of english which is a nice change! Our two investigators names who have their dates this week are Siannah Jimenes and Jorge-Luis Jimenes. They are twins! Fraternal. And are 20 years old each! We lost the other 4 dates because they were in other missionaries areas, and now that they're here they're taking care of them! So that's all we have! But it's been going well with Elder Cruz! In all honesty it's been tough, and a fast learning experience, learning what I have to do, what we have to do, where to go, what to teach, everything! And at times it's fairly tough! However Kara sent me a great email this week and shared this analogy about swimming! I'm going to copy and paste it to save time!

''Stephen talked about how it's a little like learning to swim. You are holding onto the edge of the wall and your teacher (Heavenly Father) is holding his hands out to you beckoning you to swim to him and cheering you on. You take a leap of faith and let go of the wall and swim to your teacher only as your approaching your teacher...he moves back farther. You keep swimming and you make it a little farther and then you start panicking and flailing your arms. It isn't until your about to go under water that the teacher grabs you, pulls you up and holds you tight assuring you that he's got you and your going to be ok. Then, he turns you around and shows you where the wall is and says "look how far you have come! That is amazing! You wouldn't have known what you were truly capable of it I hadn't moved back a little bit at a time, but I knew what you were capable of and I needed to show you."

And that's how I feel write now! I feel like Heavenly Father is just moving away a little so I can swim closer to him and he can help me come further! It's a trial and it's tough, but it's a growing experience for me to say the least. I've told Elder Cruz that we'll learn together! So we'll see how it goes! Oh speaking of swimming we had a bit of a scare this week! Of course I heard about the earthquake in Japan which is terrible. They're in my prayers and I'm hoping for the best! However that little experience sent a bit of a scare to us with a 95% change of receiving a Tsunami over 100 Meters! Pretty Big! So we spent most of the day huddled in a church further up north, which is why I'm sending these photos! Then the afternoon telling our investigators we couldn't teach them, then the night in our Zone Leaders house because it was safer. Thankfully nothing happened and God protected his missionaries :P

That’s all the time I have for this week! 

With love,

Elder Hatt III

Transfer #2!

''Jesus el Redentor''

Mi Querido Familia y amigos... (My dear family and friends)

So right now I'm writing this letter to you with a stuffed up nose, a sore throat, and stunted hearing... I'm fairly certain from these symptoms that I have a cold? However I'm no nurse, so what do you think! It's pretty miserable... however it does help me eat the food that's not so tasty since I can't taste it anyway! Just kidding, for the most part it's pretty good :) Also I'm currently crying as I'm writing this letter because I just found out about transfers! Remember that tomorrow is officially the end of my 1st transfer which also means that tomorrow is Transfer day! This morning we found out about those lovely transfers and this...is...the...result... duh duh duh! Alright hold onto your seats! I'm...the new Assistant to the President! aha! Pretty crazy eh?... okay that's not true, probably won't happen for another transfer or so :P But no, legitimately I think I'm going to cry right now because I just found out that tomorrow I have to go down to Lima! Not to transfer areas, but just to go down to receive my new companion and bring him back here to Barranca! This means 2 things, I'm staying in my area, and I'm training a new missionary from the MTC. You're probably jumping for joy while I'm sitting here crying in the middle of a public place! Ahaha just kidding, I'm not actually crying! I'm slightly shell-shocked and I'm sure when it set's in I'll start freaking out. It's very rare for a missionary to be training on his 2nd transfer, let alone a North American who's learning the language. I know that my language is progressing but it's far from being perfect, so it's definitely going to be a struggle! Just wait and see that my new companion will be a North American who knows slightly less Spanish then me, wouldn’t that be an experience! So honestly I'm a little bit frightened! However I have Faith that there's a reason for it, and it must be that President Dorrius believes I'm capable of it. Therefore it also must mean that the Lord believes I'm capable of it as well... and remember that with God nothing is impossible. As we read in Luke 1:37 With God nothing is impossible, therefore I've tried to remove that word from my vocabulary.  And that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the Children of men save he shall provide a way! I'll let you know how it goes next Monday, okay? Okay!

Other than that I don't really have too much else to share. The work has been going really well here in Barranca. My area is one of, if not the, hardest areas in our Mission so at times it can be tough but we've had a lot of success lately. For the past few weeks Elder Garcia and I have been the only missionaries in all of Barranca (Normally there are 6) due to an emergency transfer and the others finishing their missions. So we've been very busy going all around the city to cover their areas. However the fruits of our labour are coming forth! We have about 6 Baptismal dates set for this month, only 2 of which are in our area. So it's been going really great!

Oh this week we also moved houses! Now we're directly across from our Pensionista (The lady who cooks for us and does our laundry) which is really great because before we had to walk about 20 minutes both ways to get there. However it's fairly small and we have no shower curtain in our bathroom, so we have to mop every time we want to take a shower! We also didn't have our hot water hooked up for the first few days so not only was it a chore to clean up after a shower, but it was a chore just to take one. I think you're definitely a man when you can wake up at 6:30 in the morning and step into a freezing cold shower. At least I like to think so :)

The church is true!

Con Cariño (With Love)

Elder Hatt

OH! And I'm attaching a really cool Picture (Well I think its cool) of me at the statue of Jesus here in Barranca. It's right on the coast by the Ocean and it's called ''Jesus el Redentor'' or Jesus the Redeemer!

March 1, 2011

Hola!! 
 
Alright so first of all I am attaching some pictures to you! The first set are of the very first Baptism that I had here in Peru! I baptized a boy named Angelo who's 11 years old. His Mother is Evangelical and I'm not even sure where is Father is. But he's living with his Grandmother who's a member and he really wanted to be baptized. So we taught him all the lessons and everything and he was really receptive! It was actually such a cool experience Dad. It's a great feeling being able to bring others into the waters of Baptism and share in such a life-changing experience with them. The Spirit was so strong and I could just feel that what I was doing as right. I think I'll be pretty happy if I can feel that way on my mission! Also the one picture with the American is me with my first companion in the MTC Elder Fredrickson who is from Utah. He had his 2nd baptism the same time as I did! It's pretty cool that we get to be in the same Zone and work together so that's why I sent that one!

The ones with the really cool wall type thingies are in a place up here called the Fortaleza. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but it's some kind of a community type thing built by the Inca's! We didn't really do too much there since it only took like 15 minutes to see it all, but we did of course play soccer which was fun! But we had to be careful because if we shot too hard on one goal then it would go into the river behind, and we'd then have to chase it down the river to catch it before it swam away. So that was fun! There were also like a million mosquitos as well! The problem with these ones is that they hurt, like they draw blood when they bite kind of hurt. Not nice at all, kind of mean actually.

The teddy bear (Peluche) is actually a gift from a recent convert of ours, it reads Con Cuñado, which means either ''With Love'' or ''With Affection''. I chose to believe it says with Affection, because that's slightly less awkward then with Love :) But you can choose whichever one for yourself!

Then the other ones are just basically my first sewing experience! I have no idea how it happened, but I found a rip in my pants one day, so I spent like an hour and a half just trying to sew it back together. And I actually thought I did a pretty good job!! Until finding out later that night that I didn't tie it off well enough so it just came undone again. So now my Latiño mama has them and is fixing them for me! But at least I tried right?

The language is actually coming quite well! I'm very thankful for the chance I had to go to the MTC in Lima, it's definitely helped a lot. And I'm beginning to get a lot more confident in the language which is nice! I think I'll have it down one day :) I think the one advantage I have is that I can hear the language... basically I just feel that I can get the pronunciation down a lot faster then other elders, which is why no one believes me when I tell them I only have like 4 weeks in Barranca and that it's my first area. So the Lord is definetely helping me out, and for that I'm appreciative! Our ward is also doing pretty good! It's nice because we have someone who knows how to play the Piano which is apparently rare! As well, Latino's can't sing very well down here, so it helps drown them out :D

Here is a little bit about my zone! We're in Zone Barranca which has about 14 missionaries in it! Our district has 8! As for Barranca, it's fairly big? I don't know exactly how many people there are here, but it's big enough to have 3 areas in one city! Lot's and lot's of markets! And chickens! Mostly dead though... Oh I also saw my first rooster fight yesterday! Pretty interesting! Aha We have the west side of Lima and about 3 or 4 other cities apart from Lima.

Our investigators are doing pretty well! We had about 3 baptismal dates set which is great! We just had one baptism last Saturday and now we have 5 dates set for the next month! 1 of our investigators is having a lot of problems with family who are Catholic and don't want to give their permission or anything for her baptism. So she's having some real problems with that! And the other one is just.. I don't actually know. She just kind of dissapeared, so I'll let you know how it goes with that one! But as I said, we have another 5 as of right now! I really hope we can work with them and have them follow through, because a lot of the time the problem is that they agree to be baptized and then fall away shortly before. So I'll let you know how they come! Transfers are next week so I hope I can stay to work with them but who knows, I'll keep you updated!

In closing let me share with you something I learned last week at a Zone conference we had! We learned about the 3 steps of Faith. Where it starts, where it takes us, and how we get there. This is how it works.

1. The first step is the Belief. But in order to get to that step we must start with the desire like we read in Alma 32!
2. The 2nd step after we believe is Works. Because faith without works is dead!
3. The 3rd and final step is our Testimony. But before we can get to that step we must pass through our trial. Because in Ether 12:6 we read that we receive no testimony until after the trial of our Faith!

So those are the 3 steps of Faith! The last step leads us towards Jesus Christ. And in order to start your way up these Steps you need the help of us Missionaries! (Most of the time at least) We're here to give them the Desire to believe, to give them commitments and jobs to work at their faith, and ultimately to verify with them to help them grow in their testimony towards Jesus Christ. If you ask me we have a pretty big job as missionaries! Remember that God is literally our Father in Heaven and he WANTS to hear from us! He wants to feel what we feel and help us through the hard times. This beings said, remember him when times are good as well! When Satan sneaks in and tries to make you feel that you don't need to pray. That's when we need to the most!

With Love,
Elder Hatt

February 14, 2011

Why Helloooooo my family!

Thank you everyone for keeping me informed and writing me! I always enjoy reading about life on the other side where it's nice and cold! It's incredible how many questions I get about my home here in Peru. I like to think that it's because I'm white, but I also like to think that it's because I'm like the only white here who's not from Utah ahaha. I get a lot of attention because all the Latino's think that I have contacts for eyes and that it's impossible to actually have blue eyes. Sometimes it get's very awkward and uncomfortable when you have all these people staring at your eyes... but I always just tell myself that this is my new lifestyle and that I have to get used to it because there's nothing else I can do!

The mission is going really well! We've had some incredibly hot days down here in Peru and it's been taking a lot of adjusting because right now I'm used to the cold winters of Canada! And pretty much every day I feel like I would switch places in a heartbeat, but that will probably change after two years ahaha. It's really a humbling experience to be here in Peru, some of the homes and places we go to would really blow your mind. It makes me so grateful for all the things I had back home! It's a very humbling experience. The people are really nice and loving down here though, which is a great blessing to have. I get some strange looks sometimes especially up here in Barranca where white people are few and far between, but that's okay, I find it funny!

Thank you for your advice as well! It's taking a lot of work to make the adjustments to Missionary work, to living in Peru, to learning a new language, to living with a companion, and to living with a Latino companion at that! But every day I adjust a little bit more and it gets a bit easier. The language is coming and I'm sure I'll have it mastered by the time I leave in 21 months! Yes you're right, it is crazy to think that 3 months have gone by already. And I feel that as time goes on it will only go faster!

Anyway I've gotta get going here to make a few more emails and write the President! Thank you for your letter! Hope all is going well!

Until next week!

Love,

Elder Hatt