10-28-13 email

Hello Family! Hope you are all doing well, I loved getting all your letters this week! Even though it did make me feel guilty about not sending anything back yet, especially mom! (on the record, I did remember your birthday though! Happy Birthday!!!) I'm doing pretty good here, I'm pretty tired though, because we have been working a lot. Honestly though, the last few days have been difficult. All of our set appointments have been cancelling. ugh. That's ok, it just means we were able to visit a bunch of people we weren't expecting to. So we still had some great lessons. Thankfully, Elder Blood is doing well so far, so training hasn't been too difficult. Training really just means that you have more companionship study, and you have a companion that can't really speak much spanish yet. It's not too different. Right now in our area, we actually have a lot of investigators that are progressing a lot, but like I said a minute ago, we haven't been able to teach them as much as we want to recently. We did have a family at church again though, so that was great. I'm hoping this week is even better.

Honestly, there's not a whole lot to say. things are going well though. It's good to hear that you are having a great time though! I hope you have a fun Halloween! I'll have to see some pictures next week. A princess?! hahaha Well, I better go, but I'm going to try to send some pictures with this email too! Hope you have a wonderful week!!

-Elder Hatch

Last picture with Elder Bath and I

First picture with Elder Blood

Some scenery from Sierra Blanca

an awesome pumpkin we carved in district meeting

10-21-13 email

Good morning family!

Well this week has been super busy! Lots of stuff happened. First off, I got my brand new companion, his name is Elder Blood. Fun name right? Most of the people here think it's pretty funny. He is from Herriman Utah. He is already 19, so I don't have to deal with some 18 year old haha. He is already learning Spanish pretty well. He is definitely still learning, but hes doing a great job. He actually got to be one of the first missionaries in the mexico city mtc. I thought that was pretty cool. He says it was really fun to learn Spanish there. So I've been a little stressed lately with training and district leader stuff, but it looks like things are starting to calm down a little. Hopefully this week we can get more settled in. Our investigators have been doing pretty well recently. We were finally able to get some people to church! The Vasquez family came to church again this week. We are just starting to teach them, but thanks to a wonderful sister in our branch, they have already come to church twice! Awesome!!

So my district is great as well. It's a big district. There are 6 elders, 4 sisters, and a senior couple. They are all really great. And we have all those missionaries for 1 ward and 1 branch. The work is growing! I'm pretty excited for all the work that is going on right now. I try hard not to focus on how soon I am going home, but it's hard sometimes. I'm getting pretty excited to see you all again!
Well that's pretty much all I have to say this week. I am just so used to missionary work I don't know what to write really... Oh, I guess I have one funny story, I kicked a dog for the first time this week! He tried to bite my leg when we were on our bikes, so I kicked it in the face. Not to say I enjoy kicking dogs, but I'm glad it didn't bite me. And on that note, I hope you all are doing great! talk to you next week!

-Elder Hatch

10-16-13 email from the mission office- Official Release Date!

New Mexico Albuquerque Mission

to: mattlindyhatch@msn.com

We have learned that there is a data error in the 2014 release dates.  The confusion between January 8^th and January 15 occurred because of that.

The firm, verified date for Elder Hatch is January 8,2014.

Best wishes for a great reunion with your missionary.

Sister Cottle

10-14-13 email

Hello Family!!!

This week has been crazy! In a good way! Lots of good ways. Sorry I didn't really have any time to write more letters, there was a lot going on. So first off, my birthday was wonderful! I loved your package, and I had a great day. The members here kind of spoiled me. I had cake at least four or five times. And of course, the rest of the delicious mexican food never ceases! I hope I can learn how to make some of this stuff, because I don't know if I can live without it anymore. Haha, so transfer news this week was kind of a shock to me. I guess the Lord doesn't want me slacking off my last two transfers. I'm staying here, but I'll be training a brand new missionary for the first time! And on top of that, I'll be district leader again. Wow. I have to admit, I'm a little stressed about it, but still pretty excited at the same time. I think it will be good for me. It also probably means that I will be staying here for the rest of my mission! Which I am very happy about. I am also very happy about the rest of this week! I don't know why, but the missionary work in our area is starting to explode! I have seen more miracles in the last week than in the past few months of my mission! I don't even have time to write about all the great things that have happened! (lots of preparing to do today) The members here are getting excited all of the sudden, and they are helping us SOOO much! We had 36 lessons this week, with 20 member present lessons! Thats about double what we are used to. We had three or four people this week tell us they want to get baptized. Like I said, I don't have much time right now, but this has probably been one of the best weeks in my mission. I just hope it keeps going! I also hope you can all feel the missionary excitement too. I love you, and miss you all so much! Have a great week! -Elder Hatch

PS Electric fences?

10-8-13 email

Hola Familia!

So sorry I had to email on tuesday AGAIN. We don't have any libraries or anything in our area, and the closest one in Fabens is not very reliable. We thought for sure it was going to be open yesterday, but it wasn't. Ugh. That's ok, it just means I'm emailing a day later. So, this last week has actually been really good! The members have been working with us more and more. We had a few come out with us last week, and we have a bunch scheduled for this week too! I think everybody in general is starting to get more excited about missionary work. I know I am, and I hope you are too. Conference was really great! As usual, I loved all of the talks. I think my favorites were from Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Nelson. Also, Elder Dube's talk was pretty cool too, but that might have been mostly because of his accent... Hahaha Anyways, conference was especially great because we had a sister in our branch bring a family of four to come and watch too! Turns out they are pretty interested, and we will hopefully start teaching them this week. We also started teaching a girl named Yesenia this last week. She seems to be very sincere, so we are hoping the best for her as well. Other than that, things are pretty normal here. It's kind of weird though, it doesn't really feel like it's my birthday in just a couple days. 21 here I come! That makes me feel old. I can't imagine how old that makes you feel mom and dad! We actually get fed really well here, so I should definitely have a good dinner on my birthday. Coincidentaly, This Friday is also my 21 month mark in the mission. It's almost like I get two 21st birthdays in a row! I thought it was funny anyways. Also, this week is the last week of the transfer, so I'll find out this Saturday if I stay or if I go. I sure hope I stay here. Well, I think thats about it for this week, but I hope you are all doing great! I'll try to wrte a couple letters this week. Hasta Luego! -Elder Hatch 

10-1-13 email

Dear Family, I don't have much time today because it's a tuesday, but I am sending a couple handwritten letters soon. So this week was pretty good. Not much new to report I guess. Brian hurt his foot or something so he couldn't go to church. That's ok, because we have 5 chances to get him there this week! I can't really think of anything to talk about, so I guess I will talk about the temple trip. 

So, yesterday morning, we woke up at 4 and then started driving. It's like a 4-5 hour drive, but it wasn't too bad. The temple was amazing, and it was fun to see Albuquerque again. I'm thinking I might actually go through one more time before I go. Sometimes the Mission President takes the missionaries who are going home the day before they leave. So we'll see. It was pretty nice though. They even served us lunch at the temple! Then we went to the deseret book. I guess it's a pretty big blessing to have one of those in our mission too, but there are some missionaries who blow A LOT of money there. I don't even bring my wallet in because there's too much temptation. I don't really need any of that anyways. I would rather have food. So anyways, we rode there and back in an SUV with a few other missionaries and one of the senior missionaries. It was fun, but we got back to our house around 10 that night. It was a long day to say the least. 

So our new mission president is doing pretty well. His wife is very quiet sometimes, but they have been doing a wonderful job. He actually has come down to El Paso a lot recently, so we've been able to talk to him a few times. He's an interesting guy though.

So I'm glad to hear that Grandma is doing well, and that their mission is only postponed a little. She is definitely in my prayers. In fact, I put her name in the temple too. I'm also pretty excited to hear that Alice is pregnant too! That's great. Definitely send my congratulations. I hope you are all doing well too. I have been feeling very loved lately with all of the letters. Especially mom's letter. We had a fun time reading the letters from her class. Fun idea!

Well I hope this letter was long enough. Sorry there wasn't much exciting. We'll hopefully have more next week! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

-Elder Hatch