June 17, 2013

Hello Family!

Thanks for all the mail, a lot has gone on in the past few days; I had been working in a near-by area for a recent trade-off so most of it wasn't spent with my investigators. We had two Chinese men at church this week though, hopefully next week we can have more like 6. The work goes on. Transfers are soon, I'm a bit worried one of us is going to move out of Mawson Lakes, I've grown pretty comfortable where we are and it'd be nice to spend one more transfer here with Elder Sexton. We'll see what happens. Evidently we're getting I-pads in a couple weeks as well, I think I'm more excited than anyone else. We're headed down to the Mission Office today so that he (Elder Sexton) can record a talk he's giving to his grandparents, who are being baptized at the end of the month. His father was basically disowned for joining the Church when he was young, but over many years they've finally come around. Hopefully, President and Sister Carter will be there, they're pretty much the best. We have about 6 or 7 solid investigators right now, plus our Filipino family, and a whole bunch more that may or may not ever get anywhere. Our favorite right now is Terry, 23 year old Chinese uni student who is extra keen for baptism and has come to Church for four weeks straight now. He's the man. We're teaching him with President Carter on Tuesday. I'm not sure I've ever been more excited for anything in my life. Closely following in Erming, also Chinese, also at Uni he's an Environmental PhD working on catalysts to basically dissolve contaminants and pollution. He's been in China the past few weeks, but he just got back and came to Church yesterday. So he's great. A formerly less active member still needs his two kids baptized, and they're on track. We're also teaching a man named Simba from Zimbabwe, and he's recently started to really progress, he came to Church the week before last, and committed to this week as well. He's moving around though, so he's kind of hard to catch. Our next favorite is our wonderful Filipino family, who have committed to Church as a family for this coming week. We get them a little farther every week. They'll be baptized by the end of the year. Max is another Chinese student who is having issues with social conversion, and just general faith, but he'll get there too. We just got two new Chinese students this week, and we're excited for them, as well as another dark researcher, this one from Tanzania who pretty much just radiates with wisdom. And then there's everyone else that we don't like as much.

Also, I have another hole in my pants now. More important than clothing though, is a special request. I need a big USB with any audio talks and firesides that you can get. Preferably Bednar, Holland, and Uhctdorf heavy, but throw in whatever you like as long as it’s a General Authority. And especially ones that are a bit older. I would love some Hinkley and Maxwell talks. And Faust. Also if a GA ever visits, record him by hand and send me a copy! We've been listening to one by Joseph Fielding McConkie now for a couple weeks that’s fantastic. And a couple Mo-tab albums would be nice, but honestly I could just get those from any of the Elders here. Talks are harder to come by though. That would be amazing.

Thanks again for the mail, good luck this week.

Elder Hatch