Week 95 The Weekly Round Up

Aloha family,

Yes it is that time of the week again already. I really can't believe how fast this comes around each week. It seems like I was just typing my last email home and here I am again. I don't think this week was as crazy as weeks past, but I will try to do my best to talk about a few of the highlights and a few of the crazy things that happened.

Tuesday 17th- So we started doing interviews this week and they are always fun. The interviews are a great way for us to see how the missionaries are doing and get some one on one time with them while President interviews. It is really interesting sitting down with them and talking because you find so much out about them and who they are. Sometimes they tell you a little more than you want to know but it is all good. So after interviews were finished we had a few cars that needed to go a few different places and stuff. So we took a car out to waipahu and it was good. We had to hurry back though because our ward mission leader wanted us to go on splits with us. So we hurried back and we asked him who we were going to see. He said that he was taking us to a guy that the missionaries had taught before and when they had taught him he told them that he was already baptised. Well he hadn't and our ward mission leader was on a quest to go find this guy. So we drive out to kalihi and find this guy hangin out with his family. Our ward mission leader just goes inside because it is a tongan household so he can just do that and he finds the guy. So we sit down with the guy and Brother Fatongia is like, "James you lie to me!! You tell me you baptise, but you never baptise!!" We were both just sitting there like oh man what is going to happen and then the guy was like, "yeah I haven't gotten baptised yet but I have been thinking about it." Then Brother Fatongia says, "No time for baptise!! You been taking the lessons to long already!! You need to baptise" the guy was like yeah I know, then brother fatongia looks at us and is like elda what is two weeks from fursday? We were like uh sept. 2 and he was like good we baptise then. The guy was like alright cool. Anyway I know that was kind of a long story but Elder Doane and I had a good laugh about it after. We are going by to teach him a few times this week just to refresh him on everything and then we will get him interviewed. It was just funny the way it happened. Then after that we went to this super shady part of town down by china town if you know where that is. We drive down this dark sketchy alley in Bro Fatongias truck. We get to the end and it was sooo funny. There was like this old asian couple like dancing in the middle of the street, these two tongan guys sitting on the side and this other black guy just drunk out of his mind. I wasn't scared though because we were with Bro Fatongia and he knew the people. So we are sitting there talking to these guys and we can't get out of the truck because the alley is to narrow. The drunk guy on the side is just like sitting there and Bro Fatongia is like, "Hey you never like come fix my truck?" The guy was like, "you never call me?" come to find out that Brother Fatongia had hired the guy to fix his truck, he had come to the Fatongia's home, started fixing the truck got bored, left his tools and caught the bus home. So on the way home Brother Fatongia decided to take us to McDonalds. So we get to the drive through and he starts ordering but he has his tongan accent so the lady can't understand him. It was so funny listening to them trying to communicate. Then as he was finishing the order the lady told him how much and he was like ok sista. We start busting up laughing he starts laughing and the lady that took the order starts laughing into the mic thing. So we get to the window and he gives her the money and he is like, "Why you laugh?" and she just gets all serious and doesn't know what to say because she doesn't know if he is serious or if he is joking. Needless to say Elder Doane and I had a good laugh that night about the events that had happened that night.

Wednesday 18th- So we were in Laie today for interviews. So we had to take two different cars. They needed a car in Laie and we were also supposed to pick some furniture up from Laie and also deliver some to other parts of the island. So we decided that we had become HD. Meaning HD moving services, HD used cars, HD airport services, HD problem solvers and the list goes on and on. So we got to Laie and I felt like I was back home again. We started the interviews, and even though most of the sisters have changed, they all still seemed to know me. It is always fun to go up there. The sisters are so funny. So we spent some time there and we went to the kahuku grill, an all time favorite. Owned by one of my most favorite people in the whole world President Hanneman. So we go and he is there so I gave him a big old bear hug. I was so happy to see him and he like wise. It just made the trip to Laie so much sweeter to see the good friends that you have made while you are here. So after we did that we went all the way around the island to wahiawa. We took the way all the way through north shore because it is faster to get to wahiawa. It was also good because Elder Doane had never seen the north shore. So we got to waihawa, made a quick stop to drop off the stuff and then off we went, becuase we had to get to an appointment with our ward back in town. So we got back but we were a little late. It was ok though because the tongans run on what we call tongan time. They are always late. So we get there and they want us to share a message and for some reason the got the idea that right after we shared the message we had to leave. So we told them no no its ok we can stay for a little while. It was actually really good because there were some inactive people as well and some non members there that we were able to teach. It was a good night though.

Thursday 19th- This day was really really long. We had two zones worth of interviews to do. As we have been doing the interviews we have been checking the missionaries area books. So we checked about 25 area books in total. It was ok but after awhile you just feel like you are looking at the same thing over and over again. We didn't finish all of the interviews until like 6:30, so we came back had to run to one of our members houses for dinner and then we went straight home to bed because we were so tired.

Friday 20th- Well we got up this morning and flew to kauai. It is always kind of different to fly back there because it is my greenie area. We got there and we were able to spend some good quality time with the missionaries. It is a little bit harder out there for them because there are only 8 missionaries on the whole island so when we get a chance we like to talk to them and give them some comic relief. Nothing else really happened.

Saturday 21st- We spent some time cleaning today. We never have any time to clean so we decided that we didn't have anything going and that are pad really needed to be cleaned. So we took a couple of hours and deep cleaned it. We got rid of ALL old crap and made it so the only things that are in there now are Elder Doanes and mine. It was really great and our pad felt a lot better after. I think that is the only really major thing that happened.

Sunday 22nd - So we taught our gospel principles class as normal and it went really good. We really get some good involvement from our recent converts. So we taught the class and then during 3rd hour we spent some time with the young single adults. It is really good to talk to them because a few of the guys have been trying to decide whether or not they want to go on missions so we were really able to help them. Then after church we were able to teach our investigator Erin. She is so awesome. She has such a solid testimony already and she is not even a member yet. She said she gave up coffee already and she didn't even know why. She said she gave it up just because her fiance said that in the church they don't drink coffee and she really liked what she saw in him. We were teaching her about living prophets and I asked her, "Erin what would it mean to you to know that there was a living prophet on the earth today?" She took a second to respond and when she did she got really emotional and talked about how she knw it was really important. That God is the same forever and that she thought he would call a prophet again today. She told us that it would be really important in a world that has such ever changing values. She was still emotional as she talked about how she realized that things that she saw on tv are not ok and that she would have never realized that if she would have never met with us. She talked about the trails that we face in life and how satan throws so much stuff at us. I then was able to share one of my favorite scriptures Helaman 5:12 and I think it really helped her. It was just a really good lesson and the spirit was really strong. I miss being able to teach like that all day every day. But I have learned to cherish those opportunities when they come. Then we had to run to the airport to pick up President Dalton. We had to run a few other places and we were driving our truck and all of the sudden I look behind me and there is a cop with his lights on? I was like hmm thats weird I haven't done anything wrong? So he comes up to the window and like motab is playing and he asked for they typical stuff. I was like something wrong officer? He was like yeah your saftey inspection is expired and so is your registration. I was like oh ok? He was like does this vehicle belong to you? I was like no this belongs to our church. He was like ok just tell your church to get it fixed. I was like ok. It was really funny though. Anyway that was pretty much my week. Some funny stories this week. I hope that you all enjoy. I love you all so much and am grateful for the support that you show to me.

Ofa atu

Elder Hatch