7-29-13 email

Hello Family! Well, this week has been probably one of the craziest weeks on my whole mission!!! So I got stepped down from district leader to open up a new area in the mission! So I drove all the way from Santa Fe to the now most southern area of the entire mission, Fort Hancock! So my new area is right on the border of Mexico, about an hour south of El Paso. We are literally out in the middle of nowhere. So, to clarify, this brand new area covers about an hour and a half worth of driving. With all sorts of town starting with Tornillo, Fort Hancock, Esperanza, and Sierra Blanca. They are all very small towns. As far as I've seen, there is not a stoplight in our whole area. It is also very hot here. At least, It's much hotter than Santa Fe. Haha, especially in our new apartment (no air conditioning) I think it stays in the 90's at least for most of the night. Lots of fun. Oh! and I almost forgot, my new companion is Elder Bath. He's from Hawaii. So anyways, we actually live outside of our area in another town called Fabens. The branch is here, as well as our new PO Box. Which is PO Box 2754 Fabens, TX 79838. You can send mail there. So we talked with the Branch President and Mission President, and our goal for this area is to start a branch in Fort Hancock. Wow. That means we are going to have to work very hard these next few months! There are only a few members out there, and none of them are active, because it's so far away. So keep us in your prayers. It's going to be an adventure. So far I really love this area though. We are basically in Mexico at this point. They don't even have the fence in most of our area. They have BP patroling, but you can pretty much just walk across in some places. Which we will NOT do of course. Well, sadly, that's all the time I have today, but I'm going to try to send some pictures too. More news next week! -Elder Hatch

My district in Santa Fe

 Some other brothers from the branch as well. 

The Labra family

The Antillon family

 Jorge Lemus (the guy I would run with)

The Valles Family

Me at the Mexican Border

a nice pecan orchard. (lots of farms and orchards here) Mostly pecans, cotton, and alfalfa.

7-22-13 email

Hello my wonderful family! So, I guess I'll start with the big news. I am leaving Santa Fe! I'll be honest though, I am pretty sad to be leaving. I mean, I've been here for a while now, and I'm definitely excited for my new area (possibly my last?) but I'm sad to leave these people behind. Oh well. Life goes on I guess. I really have no idea where I'm going though. haha, getting transferred is always a little stressful. Especially since I hate packing. Speaking of that, I'm actually sending a package home today with just some random stuff. Nothing too exciting, but I didn't have room for it in my suitcases and I won't want any of it till I get home, so I'm sending it your way. Anyways, other than transfer news, nothing much really happened this week. I'm definitely ready to have a companion thats not sick all the time. Not that it's his fault, but it is frustrating. We did have a lot of people at church yesterday though, including a less -active family that we have been working with a lot. So that was really nice. It's good to see people making progress. Hopefully this area will only get better. I took a lot of pictures, so I will hopefully send some next week. The rain finally stopped too, but that just means it is getting hotter. Not too bad though. Unless I'm going back to El Paso. And I don't think I've met a brother Pringle, but I'll keep my eyes open. Oh! congratulations on hiking Timp! that sounds like a lot of fun. I can't wait to get back to some real hiking when I get home. I sure miss it. Anyways, I already have to go, but I hope you all have a great week! I'll have lots of news and pictures next week! Have a great time in San Diego! -Elder Hatch

PS as far as room and roommate go, I would say just to choose for me. I can't really think of anybody I could room with, and I'm pretty open to making some new friends anyways. The closer you can get to campus the better I guess, but other than that I don't really care. After all the people and places I've lived with here in the mission, I'm pretty sure I can handle anything.

PPS Ya I got the package! It was great! Did you get my letters?

7-15-13 email

Helloooo Family! Well, another week of being a missionary gone by now. It was a good week, we had a lot of lessons and got to see a bunch of people. Elder Dorado is feeling a little better, which means we've been able to get out more. So this week is the last week of the transfer! Oh how time flies! I find out this Saturday if I stay or go. I really have no idea on this one, so we'll just have to wait and see. I have been in Santa Fe for a while now though... Anyways, Prissy was able to come to church this week! Which was awesome. The branch here is really struggling right now though, so there was hardly anybody else there. We are working a lot with an increasing number of less actives. It is getting kind of frustrating to me because I feel like we can only do so much as missionaries. The branch just needs to learn how to get along! Oh well, on the other hand, it means we have been able to get to know a lot more members through all of the visits we do. Haha always look on the bright side right? So another great thing this week- it has been raining a TON! Everyday this week it has been lightning and thunder and rain. In fact, pretty much since the 4th of July honestly. Apparently it has helped the forest fires a bunch. Which is good. So as far as cool missionary experiences this week, on Saturday we went to the plaza downtown to just contact some people and spread the word you know, and we just met a lot of people who were interested. We gave out a few Book of Mormons and had some nice discussions. Nothing too extremely special, but it got us in a really good mood, and helped our confidence to see that there were people who wanted to listen to us. Also, I had a really spiritual experience in English class on tuesday. So I was teaching the class, and we were talking about how to bear your testimony in english. Even though they could barely get a few sentences, I could feel the spirit there with us. So even in simple, broken english, you can feel the truth of their testimonies. I feel that I have become much more sensitive to the spirit as a missionary recently. Even in small random experiences like those. I sure hope it continues. So anyways, I am definitely jealous of the camping trip. It just reminds me how much I miss you all. I have to admit though, everybody looks a lot different! It's kind of weird. I hope you guys had a lot of fun though. As far as BYU is concerned, I'm pretty sure I filled out all the necessary paperwork before I left, so I think it should go pretty smoothly. I don't think I have any particular roommates in mind, but after being a missionary, I'm pretty sure I can handle anybody. Plus, I bet in the winter semester it will be easier to get a room solo anyways. I really don't care where it is either, I just don't really want to go back to the freshman dorms. Whatever works best I guess. I'm not too picky with living conditions anymore... Anyways, just update me on any info you find, so I can start talking to Pres. Miller. Who is pretty cool so far btw. Well, I got to go, but I hope you all have a great week back home! -Elder Hatch

PS Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!!!

7--8-13 email

Hello family, so this week was pretty good here in Santa Fe, not a whole lot of new and exciting, but we had some cool experiences. We are still working a lot with Prissy, but we had to drop her bap date. Not to worry though! We still just need her parents to give her permission. On the bright side, we have been working a lot more with her cousin Sergio, and his dad (also Sergio) We actually had a funny experience with the dad the other day. So we went over for an appointment and we found him getting ready to paint his porch. So we helped him strip the old paint off and talked to him for a while. As we were doing that, some Jehovah's Witnesses roll up and start talking to him. Turns out he had been meeting with them too. So they start talking, and one of them starts bashing the Book of Mormon. Then Sergio says, "I don't want to see you guys anymore! You just want to argue with me, the mormons are helping me! I'm mormon now so go away." As much as I kind of felt bad for the Jdubbs, it was pretty awesome. Anyways, other than that, the week was pretty normal. Our branch got pretty motivated from the mission broadcast. And we got our new mission president! He seems pretty cool so far. We just got to meet him briefly in a meeting. He seems a lot more social than the last president. I think he will do a great job. So to answer some more questions, we usually just email here in the family history center at the church. And yes, I probably should take notes... We'll see if I ever do, haha, but it would help. My companion has felt a little better lately. He has something wrong with his intestines. ulcers or something like that. He's usually just fine, he just can't exert himself too much. But he's doin okay. So on the fourth, it was pretty much a normal day for us. We got to watch some fireworks from our window, but they weren't much because of the fires we've been having. It isn't really a big deal to all the Latinos we work with. Which makes sense, considering most of them have only been in the US for a few years. It was good though. It has rained a lot here in Santa Fe, so that should help with all the fires. Oh and congrats on sending a Book of Mormon! Time's running quickly though! Just think, six months from now, I'll already be home! Speaking of that, I would love it if you could check on any deadlines or other things I would have to do to make winter semester at BYU, so I can start talking to my president about that.

So on to the sadder news, I can't believe Brother Bingham passed away. Even though I was only in priests quorum with him, I had a lot of respect for him. You know I'm not very eloquent with words, but please say thank you to his family for me. I think I'm going to fast this week for them too. He was a very good man.

Well, I just want to say I love you all very much, and I hope you have a great week! -Elder Hatch

7-1-13 email

Dear Family, Im going to sart out with some pictures, then I'll send the email! ummm ok it's not working on this computer. Oh well maybe next time. so ya I'm apologizing now for my short emails, I think all week about what I can tell you guys, and then I get to the computer and forget. Anyways, this week was pretty good. My companion Elder Dorado has been feeling pretty sick again. but we were still able to get out and teach and preach and work as missionaries do. We have had a lot of conferences and meetings the past couple of weeks. Which has been really cool, but it means less time to proselyte. So first we had the missionary broadcast last sunday, That was great, I loved all the things that they taught us! With that, I would just like to encourage you again to make the goal of giving ten BOMs before I get back. We are ALL supposed to be missionaries! You should definitely find it online and watch it. My favorite parts were probably the video segments from Elder Anderson and Elder Packer. As far as changes in the work, we haven't seen anything yet, but our new mission president might come in with some more news on that. Speaking of that, President Miller left this morning! The new president miller will be arriving today as well. We get to meet him tomorrow in another meeting. I remember when I first got to the mission, I thought that it would be forever before the presidents switched! but now it's already here! And I'm almost at 18 months too! June flew by so fast I'm still writing May on things. So our mission is going to be seeing a lot of changes pretty soon with the new mission president, but I'm pretty excited for it. Anyways, on saturday we drove down to Albuquerque and heard from Elder Villareal and Elder Echo-Hawk (both 70s) It was also our last time seeing President Miller, so it was a great meeting. It was sad to see President and Sister Miller go though. And then yesterday we had another fireside for our little branch which was spectacular! Elder Villareal (who speaks spanish) came all the way to Santa Fe to see our branch! It was a very inspired meeting. We got to talk to him afterwards too about how we could help our branch. I don't know if you remember, but the branch here has been really struggling, because people aren't getting along very well. The fireside definitely helped though. So it has just been a load of really awesome meetings this week! No complaints here, that just means we're back to real missionary work doubly hard this week. We are still working a lot with Prissy (sadly, we still don't have her parents permission urgg...) but she is still progressing well. There are also a couple part member families that we have been working with more. Hopefully Elder Dorado will feel good enough this week so that we can teach a bunch. So it sounds like you guys have had a great week back in Utah. Congratulations on getting your patriarchal blessing Miranda! I hope you had a lot of fun in Europe. I would love to hear more! Thanks for the pictures though, they were awesome. Well, I hope this letter is a little bit better, have a wonderful week!!! -Elder Hatch