May 20, 2013

We've been talking to a young Pilipino family since I got here, and we've been trying to get the other three members of their family involved for a while, and this week they started participating and said they'd stick to it as a family! WOOO!!!!!

LMRA (Lockheed swimming pool area) is closing?! That’s crazy I thought they'd never pull it down. Sad. I'll miss it. 

Good luck with the house! Take lots of pictures for me! Make sure whoever buys it from you understands they have to house me for a few days after my mission. And the kangaroos and koalas I bring home. Jokes aside, I'm definitely coming home with the biggest didgeridoo I can find. We're short on time this week, most of P-day we had rehearsal for a thing we have to sing with President at an upcoming Zone Conference.

Mark and Christina look great, I hope they had a lot of fun.  (Friends from Seminary)

This is my favorite. Ever.

May 13, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!! I'm not sure if I said that yesterday. I hope you got breakfast in bed. From the sound of it dad might not be too good at walking right now though. Just bring the stove to the bedroom and cook from there. It was great to see you guys and the cats, I hope you weren't waiting on the computer for too long. Too bad that Kiefer couldn't have been there too.

It’s good that Kiefer's doing well and staying busy. Seventy five hours (working the week of Women’s Conference – BYU) is a ton! Tell him he needs to send me something expensive to celebrate. Stop buying those (cheap NET10) phones! He should just put Skype on his iPod and call you from that.

Our Sacrament Meeting this week was just Family Relations counselors giving talks on their courses so it was a bit dry. We had a ton of people there (not as many as we would like as a companionship) that don't usually come so it was really great. There’s a less active who is coming back. He's an MMA fighter. Great guy.

Have a great week! Transfers are next week and I may be leaving, I'll keep you updated.

Colin

It was great to Skype to Colin on Mother's Day!  I wish I would have been smart enough to take of picture of him on the computer screen.  He looks and sounds great!  We are so proud of him.

May 6, 2013

Hi Mom

I'm actually really mad I missed Cinco de Mayo. My companion and I were planning on it being a big deal, but we both completely forgot. Sad day. I'll be picking up the package (from home) from my Zone Leaders today. I'm excited. And so are my companions. I may or may not be draining my personal funds today. We'll see what happens. I need a coat mainly, which I will be getting this week.  I just a windbreaker I can be on the bike with. When we're in the car we're fine with just suit coats.   I also need some little things that I can't go any longer without and a watch. Did I tell you mine broke? And then I lost it? So irritating. For a few days we had one watch for three Elders. Not fun.

Our Ward’s area is basically, if you draw a circle around Mawson Lakes, Tea Tree Plaza, Holden Hill, and RiverCrest(...River something I don't remember. Something like that. With an R.) There is one other Elder companionship that covers from Para Vista east, and travelling Sisters comps that covers our Ward and Golden Grove Ward.  So 7 missionaries, a lot. Our flat has a washer, but there aren't any dryers in the Mission, everything is hung up. I don't really know about fresh bread and produce, the Woolys is pretty much just like grocers in the states. We eat pretty well. Aussie food really isn't that different, it’s more how they eat. Yes we get just about as much boiling hot water as we could want and the flats pretty new so the bathroom isn't smashed yet. We're working on it though. Toilet broke for the first time last week.

We'll be Skyping Sunday morning around 9am Adelaide time (for Mother’s Day). I was just informed. Prepare yourselves. We'll be at a member’s home going from their computers.

I love you, happy Mother's week.

Elder Hatch

April 28, 2013

To Dad:

You're the man (ran his first ½ marathon on April 26^th). That's fantastic! I'm glad the race went so well, it sounds like a great experience. A seven minute miles at the start is pretty intense. I think eight minute miles alone are pretty intense. It’s a great pace. Unfortunately I don't think I'd keep up much if I had been there right now, but when I get back and have some time to train we can run one.  So what are the workout plans now that the race is behind you? It’s great to hear from you, have a great week, let me know how it goes.

The weather around here is still just about right. We're hoping for it to get just a bit more a chilly side right now so that we can wear sweaters (makes contacting way more effective), but most of the time it’s too hot for them. It'll cool down a lot soon though. And yes I'm still in the trio, but probably only for the next three weeks. We'll see what happens when all the new missionaries come in.

This week was pretty solid, the President popped up at our District Meeting unannounced to do interviews so that was fantastic. He's pretty much the best. Other than that not a whole lot going on. We’ve got another baptismal date, hopefully we'll have some Mawson Lakes baptisms in mid-May to early June. We're excited.

To Mom:

Thanks for sending the package; I'm excited for it to get here. I know I shouldn't be spending a lot money I'm still thinking about grabbing the mini scriptures. We'll see about the windbreaker, everything is just so insanely expensive here. I think I'd rather just be cold.

I have no idea what’s going on for Mother's Day. We'll see what President says. I'm sure it'll work out though, I'll keep you updated in the weeks to come.

This week was pretty uneventful; we did some more missionary work. We're still working with a Chinese guy named Erming and a Pilipino family right now as our focus, but we have about 20-25 solid investigators. The work is good. Ask more questions so I can write longer letters!

I hope this week goes alright, good luck :)

April 21, 2013

There was some problem with the library computers and reservations today so I got to read all the mail but I'll respond in full next week. First, my Mission President is the best he really cares about his missionaries and the work. We had a Stake Conference with Elder Rasband this week and he pretty much demanded he make time for a special meeting that morning. 

I'm going to be needing to buy a windbreaker style coat soon, the one I came with doesn't work with suits and I need something to throw over it when we're in the rain. I think that was it. I'm going to look around the salvos here for some more suits. Thanks for sending the sweater over. I love you, have a great week, sorry I couldn't write more.

Colin