Week 93 Review of what has been going on. July 28th thru Aug. 8th

Aloha Family,

So it is that time again to send yo another email. I figured I would send it now because this is about the only time that I will have over the next week with the crazy schedule that we have this week. So I will try and recap the last two weeks of events since I wasn't able to email last week with the busy schedule that we had.

So starting with the first week. So I can't remember if I wrote about this week or not but it is always super stressful because this is transfer week and there is so much going on and so many things to coordinate. You have to make sure that no one misses any flights and that everyone has a ride to transfer meeting and that everyone has a cell phone and everyone knows how to get back to their pad and so on. There is always just so much to keep track of thank goodness for excel. So we got the greenies and got them all oriented the first night. Actually it went pretty smooth for it being President's first time. He did a really great job and with such a great learning curve. He kept a very level head and just stayed calm through most of the process. So Tuesday night we finished with the greenies a little early which never happens and make the preperations for the next day.

Wednesday July 28th - Transfer day!! This day is always fun and always crazy. I always sweat soooo much this day because I am just running around like a chicken with my head cut off or something. haha It is always good though. So we got the greeenies to the tab and it was wierd because I had to conduct this time. I felt really inadequate again. It seems like I should still be sitting down in the group with all of the other missionaries waiting for my asignment. It made me remember the feeling and emotions that I had every time that I found out that I was being transfered and the anticipation. I felt so bad for President though because he was trying so hard to pronounce the names of all of the places but he was struggling. My heart went out to him and I just wanted to be a bug in his ear and help him be able to say it right. I also felt bad for him because he said a companionship that I knew was not right, he had just accidenlty looked at the wrong line and when I heard it I knew it wasn't right. So I walked up really quick and just told him hey they are supposed to be with so and so and he got really embarrased but he handled it really well and just took it and made a joke about it and moved on which I was really impressed by. This day always feels so long. By the time 3 rolls around it feels like it should be 8 already. It turned out to be a good transfer day with no problems which was really good.

Thursday July 29th - This day was really good, I was hoping that it wasn't going to be to tough but I don't know who I was kidding knowing that I was going to have to send two of my best friends in the mission, home. So we had a somewhat normal morning with studies and what not and then it was time to start preparing the diers. So we met them all at the tab and President gave some of them their final interviews. It is always interesting to see the faces of the missionaries, becuase you can see in their faces who didn't do all that they wanted to and you can also tell those who did exactly what they wanted to. It makes me happy to know that I will be able to have that satisfied look on my face and being able to say that I know that I did all that I could in the time the Lord gave to me. Anyway, we went back to President's house and had the last testimony meeting with them. This is always tough because you hear some pretty powerful stuff in that meeting. We always have one last good dinner with them as well before we take them to the airport. So it came time to take them to the airport so we took them and I just spent most of my time sitting and talking to Elder Eteaki and Elder Fredrickson. It was good just to talk to them for a few minutes and to reminisce with them about the last months that we had been around each other and the good times that we shared together. Oh let me back up just a second, we got to the airport and usually this member girl helps us out but when we got there I couldn't remember her name so I went up to the counter and just started to as if there was a member that worked there and they said yes Eta worked there and it clicked with me that was her name. So they went and got her and I started to work everything out with her. It was crazy. She said that they used to email the info to her and she would get everything ready so once we got there we could get the bags done quick. So I got her information for the next time that we go. So I just started to do them one by one with her and got everyone checked in. So then it came time to take them to the security check. I was doing fine not crying until it came time to say goodbye to Elder Eteaki. Man I love that kid with all of my heart. I gave him a hug and started to let go and he just kept holding on and would not let go. He started to cry and it made me start to cry. I knew that I was really going to miss him once he was gone. He is one that I will go home and find right away. He and I will be life long friends for sure. So we sent them through and I just sat and watched them until I couldn't see them anymore and then I picked myself up and went back to work because I knew that was what was expected of me and I knew that they wouldn't want me dwelling on them.

The rest of the week was pretty much the same, not to much exciting going on. We did a lot of preperations on the weekend for all of the training that we would be doing this week. So we made all of the preperations and them we were actually able to do a little bit of procelyting. It was great. It felt great to be able to teach a little bit and to be able to go and knock on a few peoples doors and talk to people.

Monday Aug. 2 -It was ZLC which I just absolulty love because it is just like a brotherhood. We get so close as zone leaders and form a bond like none other and we just really all understand each other. It was kind of hard because there is so much stuff that goes into it and there is tons of planning and preperations, but everything went really well. All of the zone leaders took all of the training to heart and were all really excited to have it implemented into their zones. We were really glad that they took it so well, because it could have gone either way and they took it the right way. I wasn't really to worried about it though because the zone leaders are so good and I knew that they would take it the right way. We spent most of ZLC just teaching them all about the new stuff and everything that we would be training them on. But after ZLC we took some time for ourselves because we knew that we wouldn't have much time the rest of the week to do anything. The Kauai zone leaders were going to be staying with us for the next couple of days so we took them to costco and we stocked up on a few things to hold off for the next couple of weeks. It was a pretty good pday, finished laundry and headed home for the night.

Tuesday Aug 3-This was the first day of training and it went pretty well. We got everything all set up and ready to go and the training went smooth all day. It was really long though. It was like 7 hours so it took lots of concentration and we had to stay very involved. After about 6 hours of it I was pretty much cooked for the day. After that we were able to go and teach a few people and to have dinner with one of our members.

wednesday thru friday Aug 4-6 - All of these day were just full of training. It was crazy to have all of the leadership on Oahu all in one place. It was kind of scary in a way to think that all of the leaders had been taken out of thier zones for the week. It all turned out really well. It actually turned out that all of them went back to their areas and were applying the things that they had been learning for the last week so that was really good to hear. We were so excited that they were taking it to heart and applying the things that they had learned. It was cool as well because we were able to watch the new segments of the district.

Saturday Aug 7 - So today we had a baptism for 5 people. It was a really good baptism. It was a family that had 4 teenage daughters that were active in church but just had never gotten their daughters baptised. Then also a samoan lady that is married to a tongan guy. Her name is Jesse and she just has the sweetest spirit ever. She knew it was true and she really wanted to be baptised so it turned out good. Then we had a party with our ward at the park. It was really great because they had brought a few nonmembers so we were able to talk to them and hopefully we will be able to teach them. It was just good to build some trust with our ward. Elder Doane is really helping me my tongan, he is more fluent than I. The people just love him. I am trying to get better so that he and I can teach together in tongan. That would be really neat to be able to do that. After that we had some time so we started going and visiting some of the formers in our area book and were able to start meeting a lot of tongans that lived around. We were able to set up a few lessons with some of them for next week so that will be really good. It was a really good day though.

Sunday Aug 8 - Well today was ward conference and we showed up expecting the normal and found out that they were changing all of the meeting around. So instead of having sacrament first it was going to be last. We had priesthood first then sunday school and then sacrament. It all worked out. We taught the gospel princlples class and it was going really good. We had only been teaching for like 15 minutes and then bishop told us we needed to end because they were going to start sacrament meeting early because it was the ward conference. So we go in to sacrament and it is just packed. Which was good because I haven't seen our ward that full in a long time. Then after just like any other tongan event they had food at the end of ward conference. I love the tongan food now. It tasted good the only bad part is that it is not very helathy for you. Then after church we did some studies and then we went to this one senior couples house for dinner. The Freemans they are so awesome. I love them so much and they are such a strength to us in the office. But we went up and ate with them and it was great. Then we taught a lesson and that was pretty much our day.

So sorry this is so long but I felt like I should recap on the whole week. I love you all so much. I will email you next week when I get back from the big island and tell you all about my adventures there.

Ofa atu

Elder Hatch