Malo Elele,
Well first off I would like to apologize for not writing for the past like week and a half or maybe it has been two weeks now. My bad!! Things have been really hectic and there just hasn't been anytime to write. Where to start off?? Well I can't remember what I told you last time but we had like 4 or 5 zone conferences since the last time I wrote. They all went really well and I think that we got better with everyone that we did. President said we got better so that is a good sign. Those take like all day so by the time we would get back from them we would catch up on a few things in the office and then have to call it a night. I know since the last time I wrote I went to Maui. It was really neat to get back there and it brought back lots of memories and reminded me how much I missed that beautiful island and the people that live there. I was able to get in contract with the bishop of the ward that I used to serve in over there and he said it was so good to talk to me because he had lost all my info because his phone had broken. I had a really great time there. It is really uncomfortable to fly on the plane though because they make the seats so small that there isn't a whole lot of room for me to move. Whenever I can I ask for the exit row because there is a lot more room and I can fit so much better and not make the ride really uncomfortable for me and those that are sitting around me.
I think one of my favorite zone conferences would have to be the last one. It was Honolulu and Hon-west. The spirit that was there was so strong and there were some pretty powerful testimonies born about the atonement. It was good too because I got to sit next to my good buddy Elder Eteaki. Man I miss him. Their conference was also good because it was the last one and we finally had all the kinks worked out and everything just went really smoothly without any problems. After that we had a few days off to prepare for transfers because there is so much we have to get ready. President had to go off island again for a stake conference but luckily we didn't have to go off island with him. We hang back and prepare everything for him so that when he gets back he can just go over what we got ready. Today was a big headache. It is such a long process, but you have to allow time for the spirit to work through you so you know exactly where everyone needs to go and who their companion needs to be. It is such an amazing feeling to be in the room and the spirit that is there as you plan. President is such a spiritual giant and you can tell that the spirit is just working through him and that he is receiving revelation. You receive such a confirming witness when something is right it is just so amazing. This upcoming week is going to be insanely busy. Tomorrow and Wednesday we have to finish transfer plans and then on Wednesday night we have cottage meeting at President's house so that will be really crazy getting everything set up for that. Then on Thursday we have to get all of the things ready for transfer meeting like all of the packets and stuff like that for the new missionaries, the stuff for the trunky papers and the stuff for new leadership so we will stay plenty busy. We also have to check on all the housing, the cars, and make sure everyone that is in a car area has a person that can drive and stuff like that. Then on Monday we have zlc again so we will have to do all the planning and organization for that so that we make sure we have everything that President needs and that we can accomplish as much as we can in that meeting. I won't have a p-day again. I think I have actually only had 2 since I have been in the office. Otherwise we just do things on the fly and do laundry wherever we can. I will try and email again whenever I get a chance but there is no promises. I will try and send some more pictures later this week.
Well since I only have 6 months left I have decided I am going to try and lose as much weight as I can before I come home. I am eating a lot more healthy and am eating in a lot smaller porprtions which is good. I am trying to workout whenever I get a chance as well to see if I can't burn off a little of the tongan food. Things with Elder Medeiros and I are still great. He and I get along so well and we seem to get so much done together. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve with him and to learn and to grow from him. He is such a good example of what a good missionary should do and should be. I know that I have made another life long friend in him.
Oh this last Saturday we had another baptism. It was for a girl her name is Fo'o. She is from Maui and is Tongan of course. Her husband was already a member but she was really intersted so we were able to teach her and to get her baptised. It was a really great baptism and our ward is so supportive and will help her to stay active and to continue to build her testimony. We are hoping to have another one this Saturday but we will see what happens. It is for a girl who is married to this Tongan guy she is not Tongan herself but if she comes to the Tongan ward we can teach her. She really understands what we teach her and has a desire to be baptised. I will let you know what happens with her but we don't know anything for sure yet. Well I think I have written you a big enough novel for tonight. I love you all so much and am grateful for the support that you give to me. I am so grateful for this time that I have to serve the Lord with all that I have so that I can say that I gave it my whole heart, might, mind, and strength.
Ofa Lahi Atu
Zig
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Slump Day April 15th
Zach only has 6 months left! I can't believe how quickly 18 months has gone. I am sure the next 6 months are going to fly by as well. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to write to Zach and include him in your thoughts and prayers. When he writes us we can see how much he has matured over the past year. I am sure the next few months are going to be very emotional for him. He will be sending missionaries home that he has grown to love. His mission Prsident will be released in July and a new President will come. Zach will be working closely with both of these wonderful men. I am sure he has some incredible experience ahead of him.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Week 77 and 78 It's a long one...you don't have to read it all.
Aloha,
Well I know it has been awhile since I last wrote and for me it is 4 flights later, two other islands and two zone conferences down. These last couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy!! Starting with conference, man how I loved it. It was amazing right from the get go and was filled with so many great talks all the way through. I have never been so excited to watch conference before in my life except while I have been on my mission. It was really cool, President called us and told us that we had to keep up the fathers and sons tradition and took us out to dinner for priesthood session. It was really pretty sweet. I loved so many of the talks I think that there are too many to mention. One of my favorites would have to be the one on patience. It it so important to be patient with others but especially with yourself. I liked how they talked a lot about how most of things that happen to us in our life come because of how we react to something. I thought it was amazing how so much of this session of conference was based on Christlike attributes and how we apply them into our lives. Really getting back to the basic fundamentals of the church. President said to us, " Brethren what new doctrine did you see taught in this conference?" We said, "nothing president." He said, "exactly it is all the same stuff going back to the basics." Anyway loved conference.
Monday was ZLC ( Zone Leader Council).I always love ZLC but it was a really different feeling being the one running the whole thing and making sure everything went smooth instead of just sitting back and letting someone else do that for us. It was really quite intimidating training all of the zone leaders and knowing that what ever we say they are going to take back to their zones and train all of their missionaries on. That what we have taught them will be applied through the whole mission. It was really great to be able to see all of my mission friends though. So many of my really good friends in the mission are zone leaders. It will be really hard in the next couple of months because many of them go home before I do so I will have to send them home. It is always good to see them and reminisce with them though.
Then later in the week we headed to the big island and I absolutly loved it. I really did not want to leave and I told president that I wanted him to release me so that I could stay there and serve there. He laughed and told me that that was real funny, but that I wasn't going to get off that easily. I told him come on president you don't need me in the office you can do it without me but he declined and told me I had to get back on the plane. I had a really good exchange with one of the sets of missionaries over there and had a lot of fun riding around their huge area with them in their sweet truck. I had a lot of fun. We had our first round of zone conference over there and it went fairly smooth. We had a few glitches but we were able to work most of them and we were able to talk about it with president and get everything in order for the next one. We had to get going right after the conference to get right back to the airport so that we could get back to oahu.
On Saturday we were back on oahu and had to deliver a whole bunch of stuff to missionaries all over the island. We attended a few baptsims, finished a few things in the office, and called it a night. Sunday we had church and it went really well. We have such an amazing ward and I love them so much. They would do anything for us. We went and met with the ysa group from our ward and had luch with them. They are always looking for people for us to teach. After that we went to presidents to do some early end of the week wrap up becasue he had some other things that he needed to do. We had a fireside later that night and it was all in tongan and I could pick up most of it of what was going on. One of our ward members said we don't have any tongan missionaries but its ok because they get the work done. President Peterson got up to speak after him and told him that he was crazy. He said you can't tell me you look at Elder Hatch and tell me you don't have a tongan missionariy. He said he listens better in Tongan than he does in English. He said even though he appears to palangi you peal off that white skin and you have a Tongan underneath. They all started to laugh and after that they all came up and just started speaking pure Tongan to me. I was like gee thanks president. It was a really great fireside though.
Monday was pretty hectic. We spent a good portion of the first half of the day in meeting with president. Going over the logistical things of the mission that needed to be taken care of. Then we got a few hours to get our shopping done and to get laundry and some of that stuff out of the way. We then had to head off to our dinner appointment for the night. We came back and had to get all the things sorted out for todays zone conference and make sure that everything was in order to insure that things went smoother this time then they did the last.
Today was also very hectic. We had to be up by 5:30 to get ready to make our flight on time. Man I am getting used to flying and now I know to ask to always sit in the exit row because there is so much more room there. I can actually fit in that row. We caught our flight and it was off to my old stomping grounds of Kauai. It was really kind of weird but really nice to be there again and to see how similar everything was to when I left. Not a whole lot had changed since I was there last. I enjoyed being in the nice fresh air again though and to see the chapel where I started my mission. We had the conference and this one went a lot better as we had everything in order and all of the kinks worked out so that all we had to do was present it and help all of the missionaries feel the spirit. It was a really big success. I was so tired when it was all over though and had a big old raging head ache. I can't believe that this transfer is half over already. It seems like I just got to the office and I have already almost been here 5 weeks. It is crazy. But I think that is everything that I have needed to catch up on over the past couple of weeks. I am sorry I have been so bad at writing but there really hasn't been a whole lot of time to write. I had a few minutes tonight. Sorry this is so long but I figures you would want to know everthing that has been going on. Well as always I love yo all so much and miss you. I can't believe Mother's Day is like 3 weeks away.
Ofa Lahi Atu
Zig
Well I know it has been awhile since I last wrote and for me it is 4 flights later, two other islands and two zone conferences down. These last couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy!! Starting with conference, man how I loved it. It was amazing right from the get go and was filled with so many great talks all the way through. I have never been so excited to watch conference before in my life except while I have been on my mission. It was really cool, President called us and told us that we had to keep up the fathers and sons tradition and took us out to dinner for priesthood session. It was really pretty sweet. I loved so many of the talks I think that there are too many to mention. One of my favorites would have to be the one on patience. It it so important to be patient with others but especially with yourself. I liked how they talked a lot about how most of things that happen to us in our life come because of how we react to something. I thought it was amazing how so much of this session of conference was based on Christlike attributes and how we apply them into our lives. Really getting back to the basic fundamentals of the church. President said to us, " Brethren what new doctrine did you see taught in this conference?" We said, "nothing president." He said, "exactly it is all the same stuff going back to the basics." Anyway loved conference.
Monday was ZLC ( Zone Leader Council).I always love ZLC but it was a really different feeling being the one running the whole thing and making sure everything went smooth instead of just sitting back and letting someone else do that for us. It was really quite intimidating training all of the zone leaders and knowing that what ever we say they are going to take back to their zones and train all of their missionaries on. That what we have taught them will be applied through the whole mission. It was really great to be able to see all of my mission friends though. So many of my really good friends in the mission are zone leaders. It will be really hard in the next couple of months because many of them go home before I do so I will have to send them home. It is always good to see them and reminisce with them though.
Then later in the week we headed to the big island and I absolutly loved it. I really did not want to leave and I told president that I wanted him to release me so that I could stay there and serve there. He laughed and told me that that was real funny, but that I wasn't going to get off that easily. I told him come on president you don't need me in the office you can do it without me but he declined and told me I had to get back on the plane. I had a really good exchange with one of the sets of missionaries over there and had a lot of fun riding around their huge area with them in their sweet truck. I had a lot of fun. We had our first round of zone conference over there and it went fairly smooth. We had a few glitches but we were able to work most of them and we were able to talk about it with president and get everything in order for the next one. We had to get going right after the conference to get right back to the airport so that we could get back to oahu.
On Saturday we were back on oahu and had to deliver a whole bunch of stuff to missionaries all over the island. We attended a few baptsims, finished a few things in the office, and called it a night. Sunday we had church and it went really well. We have such an amazing ward and I love them so much. They would do anything for us. We went and met with the ysa group from our ward and had luch with them. They are always looking for people for us to teach. After that we went to presidents to do some early end of the week wrap up becasue he had some other things that he needed to do. We had a fireside later that night and it was all in tongan and I could pick up most of it of what was going on. One of our ward members said we don't have any tongan missionaries but its ok because they get the work done. President Peterson got up to speak after him and told him that he was crazy. He said you can't tell me you look at Elder Hatch and tell me you don't have a tongan missionariy. He said he listens better in Tongan than he does in English. He said even though he appears to palangi you peal off that white skin and you have a Tongan underneath. They all started to laugh and after that they all came up and just started speaking pure Tongan to me. I was like gee thanks president. It was a really great fireside though.
Monday was pretty hectic. We spent a good portion of the first half of the day in meeting with president. Going over the logistical things of the mission that needed to be taken care of. Then we got a few hours to get our shopping done and to get laundry and some of that stuff out of the way. We then had to head off to our dinner appointment for the night. We came back and had to get all the things sorted out for todays zone conference and make sure that everything was in order to insure that things went smoother this time then they did the last.
Today was also very hectic. We had to be up by 5:30 to get ready to make our flight on time. Man I am getting used to flying and now I know to ask to always sit in the exit row because there is so much more room there. I can actually fit in that row. We caught our flight and it was off to my old stomping grounds of Kauai. It was really kind of weird but really nice to be there again and to see how similar everything was to when I left. Not a whole lot had changed since I was there last. I enjoyed being in the nice fresh air again though and to see the chapel where I started my mission. We had the conference and this one went a lot better as we had everything in order and all of the kinks worked out so that all we had to do was present it and help all of the missionaries feel the spirit. It was a really big success. I was so tired when it was all over though and had a big old raging head ache. I can't believe that this transfer is half over already. It seems like I just got to the office and I have already almost been here 5 weeks. It is crazy. But I think that is everything that I have needed to catch up on over the past couple of weeks. I am sorry I have been so bad at writing but there really hasn't been a whole lot of time to write. I had a few minutes tonight. Sorry this is so long but I figures you would want to know everthing that has been going on. Well as always I love yo all so much and miss you. I can't believe Mother's Day is like 3 weeks away.
Ofa Lahi Atu
Zig
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Tag You're It
I was tagged by my lovely daughter Annicka in a game of blog picture tag.
The instructions were this: Go to your first picture folder and pick the 10th picture and explain what it is.
This is a picture of Madison and McKay at a Utah football game.
"Priceless"
Join the fun and post a picture from your file.
The instructions were this: Go to your first picture folder and pick the 10th picture and explain what it is.
This is a picture of Madison and McKay at a Utah football game.
"Priceless"
Join the fun and post a picture from your file.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
HAPPY EASTER
At this Easter time may we reflect on the Gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ. That we may live again after this life. That we may have love, hope and peace in this life. That we can constantly become better and make changes in our lives to become more like him.
I look forward to Spring and the new life that comes with it. The world becomes fresh and clean once again. Time to enjoy the sun and warmer weather. Here's to SPRING.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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