Contact from Mission President

15 September 2017

Dear Brother and Sister Hatch,

Your missionary, Elder Hatch, arrived safely in the Fiji Suva Mission.  He is assigned to serve in the Levuka-FB area with Elder Rakatia as his trainer.

Elder Hatch will be a fine missionary!  He is excited to be serving, and we are happy to have him.  We know your family will be blessed by his service here in our mission.  Thank you for the role you have played in his preparation.

We know you will support him with your letters and in turn, we have asked him to write to you each week.  For your information, missionaries are able to e-mail their immediate family once a week on preparation day.  However, please be aware that from time to time our missionaries are assigned to the more remote areas of the mission where e-mail is not available.  Sometimes the regular mail is a little slow, but be assured that we will do our best to keep the communications channels open.  A phone call home is permitted on Mother's Day and Christmas Day.

We look forward to a wonderful association with your fine missionary.

With warm regards,

John R. Higgins, President
Fiji Suva Mission

Elder Hatch with President and Sister Higgins

Elder Hatch (far right, middle row) and the other new missionaries to the Fiji Suva Mission

Elder Reed Hatch

Holy Cow!!

September 10, 2017

So yeah, I'm in Fiji!

Ghhaghaaggkk

There's a lot I want to say but I've already shredded 38 min of my time so here it goes.

The travel was all good but I threw up on the bus to the mission home after landing in Fiji. Maybe it was the airplane food. 

The Mission President and his wife are soooo extremely nice and warm and welcoming and Fiji is beautiful. My companion is Elder Rakatia, a native Fijian. I think I'll learn a lot of Fijian in this companionship - though mostly through trial by fire because he can talk fluently to the people and I can't understand almost a single thing they say. But it's ok, they will talk in English if they need to. They all just talk so dang FAST!!! AAAAA but it's gonna be ok.

The people are all so nice and polite though, they always ask if I want to keep eating in the meals and I have to try not to offend if I've eaten a lot already but they aren't offended by stuff like that so its ok. The food isn't spectacular but it is pretty good still so that's not really an issue. Wearing the sulus (island skirts for males) wasn't as spectacular as I thought either but it's still awesome and waaaay better than wearing pants, I can already tell.

As for the place itself, the frequency of animals compared to America is like this: the dogs are like pigeons, the pigeons are l --- ok never mind there's a lot of dogs around and cats too but the dogs are always in the streets. The pigeons are only really concentrated at one place by the shore/downtown but at that one spot there's hundreds of them. 

There're little geckos that chill on the walls by the ceilings in the flat and I'll see three or four every night - they're super flinchy though, they're harder to catch than the colored stripey lizards in Winslow. 

 

The flat itself is ok - I mean nothing is super nice in Fiji that's just how it is but we've got a pretty nice setup. I'm comfortable there. The little universal media player is awesome, you can put in DVD's or USB's or even SD's and then look at pictures or watch videos or listen to music or talks.

   

   

Uh there's a mission conference this week on like Wednesday that we'll have to make a trip back into Suva for that I really hope we can make but we may not if we don't get more money for the fare. 

Yesterday we had church and I introduced myself/bore my testimony and there was a lot of emotion building up to that point beforehand with the Sacrament hymns because I was feeling super uncomfortable with the whole there's two years ahead of stuff like this but it's ok because I just need to get used to it and learn the language but I don't right now and how long will it take -

But I know that the Lord has helped and will continue to help me along my way. I'm trying to make sure I'm obedient to the rules and that I know what's going on so I can make sure I'm a good missionary. I love the people and want to serve them, I just need to learn the language so I can.

I love you all so so much and I love to hear from you and see the pictures. Please know I love you and I'm grateful for what you do and have done.

Bye, Love

Reed

Travel to Fiji

September 4, 2017

We received this message and picture on the day Elder Hatch and his group headed to Fiji:

"My name is Bryson, from Provo, Utah!  We saw your missionary on the train on the way to Fiji!  Thought we'd let them wave hello to you!" :)

There's nothing that warms a missionary parent's heart more than messages like this.

On September 5 (which was already September 6 in Fiji!), we received this quick email from Elder Hatch:

Just a quick email from the Mission Home to let you guys know I'm here safe and sound! More to come on Monday - talk to you then!

-Elda Hatch

HEYEYYEYEEEE

September 1, 2017

GGGHAHHAHHAHAHAAKKK ITS HAPPENING

Things are still going very well here at the MTC - I've had a lot of great experiences. I'm almost sad that I have to leave, but I'm going to Fiji so I get over it very quickly. Yesterday 8/31 was in-field orientation, so that was sort of a big 'this is happening' moment for me. It's crazy to think that in a few days I'm going to be 5,500 miles away from the US but I can't wait!

I'm going to miss the Elders and Sisters in my zone a lot though. We've had so much fun together and have grown so close. Learning Fijian and hearing about all the other island languages like Tongan, Samoan, Malay, and Kiribati has been a really cool experience for me. Seeing pictures from my teachers' missions has also been awesome, and I feel like just from that I've gained a lot of love and respect for the people and the culture. It's going to be awesome! 

Yeah we started pseudo-preparing for Fiji and it's gonna be wild. The twenty missionaries in our group are all going to Fiji, but there are two elders that are visa-waiting: Elders Brown and Pomat. Elder Brown is going to Vancouver Washington if it doesn't come in the next couple days and Elder Pomat is going back to his home country of PAPUA NEW GUINEA to proselyte. Both are so awesome and I hope they make the most of the time they have outside Fiji - and I hope they can get their stuff quickly.

Elder Lauaupututau with Elder Hatch

TakeAName is a great app Bro Day showed us to find family names USE IT PLEASE!

I don't think I really knew how to play foursquare before I came but now I'm pretty good. Also I DID beat my mile goal - I ran 6.27! HOW ABOUT THAT GRANDPA :D !!! Then I felt bad every gym time after so I just sort of stopped but whatever.

Looking forward to Fijian in the field.

I got some masking tape and it's gonna be awesome with scripture stuff.

That's all for now, but I'll try to talk to you Monday in the airport!

Love you guys!

-Reed/Elda Hatch

Elder Hatch with some recent goodies. :)

Eclipse

August 25, 2017

Hey Mom/guys!

Yeah we should be arriving in Fiji September 6, but we don't have flight plans or anything yet.

It's been another great week - we had great devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday. 

Foursquare for gym time is awesome and we've got a huge crowd coming now (it's kind of hilarious) - also my new PR for the mile is 6:39, and I hope I can get it below 6:30 before I leave the MTC. Everyone has me tune the songs when we sing in class now so that's also cool. 

The solar eclipse was awesome on Monday and we could see it with some stuff the other Elders and teachers brought, and I got some wild pictures of it. 

We got to basically home-teach over Skype with a woman in Fiji, her name was Naomi and she was awesome. Us Elders took our second SLE (second language evaluation) to see how we were coming along with the language and I felt pretty good about how poorly I could talk. I did ok but the questions were super simple so...

The language is coming along very well though, I'm getting more and more confident in it. My testimony is getting stronger as well. I think I can teach with the Spirit more now that I can move further away from worrying about language. I can start to make out what the scriptures are saying with minimal help and my gasenivuli valagi (teachers white) are almost totally understandable in a gospel setting. I've started trying to make the scriptures come alive when I read them, almost as if I'm watching a movie when I read, and it's super awesome - it helps a lot. I love to see the huge murals around the new studying buildings they've built, they help make the scriptures come alive too. 

I can't wait to make it to Fiji in a little over a week but I'm gonna miss some of these guys I've met and started loving. I'm grateful for this awesome opportunity to learn and serve - I thought I'd miss what I've left behind by now but I'm still doin' good. Maybe that will change once I go 5,500 miles away, but knowing that I'm here for the people has made a huge difference in my attitude and behavior.

Things are moving fast and I'm still loving all of it - I can't wait to do more.

Besides that I've seen a couple Elders I know - one from working at the temple and another from UA! Things are great, not much to report that I haven't already or won't in the pictures. 

Thank you guys so much, and have a great week!

-Reed

Another Great Week

August 18, 2017

Elder Dallin Hatch and Elder Reed Hatch
Elder Dallin Hatch reported to the MTC August 9 to serve in the
Colorado, Denver South Mission

Elder Ballard visited the MTC last Sunday and Elder Anderson the Tuesday after (no joke, it was crazy). It was also crazy that I was at the entrance to the MTC for tour hosting and saw a family come in with a little brown-haired kid who I gave a thumbs up to [to which he looked away sheepishly] - and later that evening Elder Anderson mentioned his family present at his talk and it was the family I saw and thumbs-upped at.

Yeah I was happy with my improvement in the mile - that same day I emailed I ran a 6:52. Then I got sick and haven't run since. Nothing major, just enough to irritate me.

YEaH tUCsON TeMpLE we watched the little Mormon Newsroom thing and I saw a guy I knew leading the music and Brother Castleton singing in the choir (bottom right). That was really cool. But I hated the cultural celebration solely for the hip-hop I hope they call me on a mission. Not ok. But that's cool about President Uchtdorf's talk. This last week me and a few other elders checked out relativefinder.org and looked at our ancestors, as well as our relations to each other (We're all connected by like 9th or 10th great grandparents).

Also happy about how well Seminary is going - that's always great to hear. I've been thinking and I think even when I may not have been learning the scripture I was still getting useful tools just by being there.

Things have been awesome here though. I wish I could show everyone everything, but it's great. I've had a lot of great experiences, some truly remarkable, and I've written them in my journal so they're not forgotten, so I'll share them sometime hopefully. But for now it's enough for me to say that I have a testimony of the church and of listening to the Spirit. I've had no deep longings for the worldly things I've left behind - only brief thoughts of "that'd be nice" that pass almost instantly. I'm certain it's prayers from everyone and the help of the Lord to thank for this. I miss home but I'm not homesick in the slightest - I actually feel at home here. Maybe things will be different in the field but for now it's amazing. Good luck to everyone with everything and I hope things are great.

I love you guys. Remember that the Lord makes weak things strong.

-Elder Marvin Reed Hatch III

MTC is Speeding Up

August 11, 2017

Here we go:

The week has been great - we heard from Joseph W. Sitati and his wife on Tuesday. Sunday was really good, Jenny Oaks Baker and her family spoke and played some music for us. Afterwards they had everyone in the MTC watch "Character of Christ", and I guess the guy who gave the talk came and answered questions - I think his name was Elder Bednap or Redcar or something. ;)  But yeah. Elder Bednar coming to do QA was really neat - I didn't get to ask him a question but he answered it anyway. I'm learning a lot and it's started to move really fast. Things are great. 

Sometimes we will sit on the floor in practice lessons and in the room but besides that we're slacking a little. Haven't been stretching either.

Elder Slack in class

So far on P-day we do our laundry, email, go to the Temple, and eat sack breakfast and lunch because we're too lazy to dress for the cafeteria.

   

Elders Dierdan and Laulupututau are going to Samoa but the other companionship is going to Fiji too.

Elda is how they say Elder in Fiji, and I think that's what we'll get once we're in Fiji but I don't know.

Singing with the Poly elders is really fun, yeah.

Also I ran a mile in 7:01 - third time and I've been shaving 22 sec. off each time. I've gotten everybody's letters - thanks a bunch for them.

Elder Hatch with Elder Aaron Johnsun from Joseph City,
called to serve in Argentina Resistencia 

Feelin' good. Have a great week and tell Grandpa I said hi and I love him.

-Elda Marvin Reed Hatch III

Email to Everyone

August 4, 2017

OK hey everyone, I'm running a little behind today so I'm gonna do some general discourse and send like six photos.

My room is great and we all have a great time hanging out with each other at meals, class, and exercise, as well as in the room. Everybody is funny and it's just a really fun time. I hope you can see some videos of us being us.

P-Day (Preparation Day) in Room

MTC Companion, Elder Slack

The elders of our room: Elders Dierdan, Lauaupututau, Hatch, Slack, Brown, and English

I ran into Janae Ricks when she was on a tour of the MTC

My floor on the other hand can be pretty noisy (a lot of Polys acting Poly and serving Poly) but they're still great. We had an Elder leaving for HAWAII and we had a farewell Noqu Masu and HAKA (which everyone participated in and was awesome). I again hope to send some videos of that.

Noqu Masu, a Fijian song (Noqu = my, masu = prayer) pronounced "known goo moss ooo"

The food is good and yesterday we had Navajo tacos that skimped on the meat but the frybread was decent - Elder Slack always finishes before me and chocolate milk is fantastic.

So after the crazy first day and the exhausting/exhausted second day things are going well now. I can bear a decent testimony in Fijan ({Vosa} Vakaviti  [like Fiji]).  Bro. Banks was our first practice investigator, Tevita (David), and I learned a lot from teaching in only Fijian, like listening to the Spirit.

District G with Brother Banks (far right)

There's about 20 elders going Fiji and 4 Sisters.

I wonder if I'll see anymore elders going to Farmington - I've met some other Arizona (from and going) though.

Elder Hackett going Indonesia from Safford AZ 

and the In&Out shirt he gave me - what an amazing elder. 

We all miss him already. 

I hope I'll be able to tell more about the people specifically but for now things are awesome and I'm really gonna miss these guys when the time comes. 

Moce! (Mow-they - goodbye)

Elda Hatch

MTC

July 28, 2017

Bula Vinaka!

I'm gonna try my best to shove everything I'd like to tell you in this email.

-Good to hear everything went well after dropping me off - 

-I'm glad someone thought it wasn't rushed because I felt like I was thrown into a pinball machine.

-I didn't have to get a haircut but I will sometime soon for those sister missionaries.

-My companion is Elder (Andrew) Slack - he's 6'5", played football and basketball, is from Springville, and is a real fun(ny) guy. He works hard with both the gospel and language.

-All the elders and sisters in my zone are fantastic and great to be around - the two other companionships in our room are hilarious and like my voice.

-The blankets are very square so they are plenty wide but my feet often come uncovered, and the food has been pretty ok so far.

I don't know what to say about the language besides that it's strange - "c" is "th" and "q" is "ngga" but besides that it seems pretty basic. I got a Fijian hymnbook to help me.

Besides being tired, things are starting to smooth out. I've seen a bunch of other people I've seen before but haven't spoken to them yet. I'll send pictures later because I forgot to bring my camera but there's not much to see.

I've come up with a motto that's already starting to really help me: "It's not about you. You're here for the people." Anytime I get bored or displeased with whats going on this snaps me back to where I need to be.

If I think of anything else I'd like to tell you I'll make note of it but for now that's pretty much it.

President and Sister Weidman of the MTC Presidency with Elders Hatch and Slack.
President Weidman was Sister Lauren Hatch's Mission President

Love you guys

-Reed

The Road to the MTC

Reed Hatch received his mission call to Fiji, Suva in May, 2017.

We spent some great family time over the summer.

Grandpa Harry Hancock's 89th birthday.

D-backs Game

Tucson Temple Open House

Reed received his endowments in the Snowflake, AZ temple
on his 19th birthday.

Four Corners in July

Then it was time for Reed to bid his farewells and head to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT. 

With Grandpa Hancock

Provo City Center Temple

Our last family picture before Reed reported to the MTC.

One last group selfie.

Reed entered the MTC on July 26, 2017.  We were so grateful to all be there with him as he embarked on his service to the Lord.  We look forward to hearing about his experiences and adventures in Fiji.