My Dear Family,
I want you all to know that if you send me an email, I read it. Though sometimes for some reason or another I may not respond, please be ensured that I read every bit of all of the emails you send to me. I look at all of the pictures and I see all of the quotes. I truly treasure all of these things.
These past ten days or so I cannot share everything about, but I can honestly say that they have been the most difficult of my entire life. For reasons other than just being away from home and family and giving up my personal interests as well. If you felt that anything you said was inspired and you didn't know why, please know that it definitely was. I am having an extremely hard time right now - I even sought serious help from my Mission President in my weekly letter today. I love you all with all of my heart.
I know that the Lord visits his children in their afflictions. I know He will help me.
With that out of the way I want to ensure I answer the questions you've asked me:
- Do we send mail to the mission office, or do you get mail where you are? I believe mail is just sent to the Mission office and sorted from there.
- Did you fly or go by boat to your island? We took a ferry to my island, onto which a bus we rode in would drive onto, then back off of.
- Is it hot/humid/rainy? It is humid but I am used to it now so I don't know how to gauge it, same with heat.
- How big are the geckos?The geckos are all about the same size as lizards in Winslow (but now and then I see a tiny lizard-like thing that's not a gecko and its dark colored - also the geckos poop like pigeons).
- Where (city/island) is your companion from? My companion is from Naitasiri in Viti Levu.
- Did you make it to the mission conference last week? I did make it to the Mission Tour - we got support money.
- How many missionaries are on your island? Two
- Is your area the whole island? Nah, just Levuka and Baba behind it, the area a little ways north and Natokalau to the south.
- Is there a branch or ward? It is a branch.
- Looks like your grocery store (morris hedstrom?) stocks a lot of weet-bix, have you tried it? If yes, do you like it? (Jason Richards likes it and he has some at his house here in Winslow.) I have tried weet-bix. Perhaps mine wasn't prepared right but I didn't care for it much.
- How many sulus did you buy? Three - a black with stripes, a brown, and a lighter brown almost tan.
- Is there anything you need? I am grateful for the support you've given me, and I think that's all I need.
Levuka is pronounced Le (like French) vookah, lehvookah. Baba is mBamba. I haven't eaten anything weird nor totally delicious - maybe I already mentioned I tried octopus. I also am a champ/tryhard at eating mangos though they're nothing special to me right now. I haven't gotten anything by mail yet, it's ok if you don't send - I won't be hurt. I am super grateful for email. Language is OK and I'm improving my hearing/discerning/piecing-apart-what-people-are-saying though I may not know what it means. I truly do want to serve the people here.
I hope everyone who emailed me will get to read this email I am sending in response. I am having a hard, hard time, but I know the Lord will visit me in my afflictions and bear me up.
He will not let me fail.
Thank you all so so much. I love you all dearly. Please remember that.
-Elder Hatch
No comments:
Post a Comment