January 4

Hey everyone,

Its been a crazy couple of weeks with Christmas and New Year all around the same time. The Holidays went well, the members really fed us well. Over the last week we've been spending a good deal of time helping one of the less active members giving up smoking. He's doing really well and we're happy that he's progressing. It has been tough the last week since Elder Merrill was leaving for home and all. He didn't get too trunky but they're was some dodginess going on.

Today was transfers and I got a new companion. His name is long and a little hard to say but we just call him elder tui. We've only met just a couple of hours ago but as far as I can tell and from what other missionaries say he's a pretty good guy and a solid missionary. I'm excited and hopefully we can learn a lot from each other and get the work moving in the Forest Lake area. He's from New Zealand and is Tongan on top of that so I know the ward will love him and hopefully will really warm up to him. I can easily see how two short Americans could easily put off a primarily poly ward lol. He's been out for about 9 months now so it will be interesting. Oh, and this transfer I get to drive! lol. On the left side of the road and all. I'm a little apprehensive about it but I'm not too worried. Just keep thinking "to the left, to the left". We'll see how that goes. I'll tell you how it is next week.

New Year's was good but quiet. We had to be in the flat by 5 pm so we could let the Aussies get all their drinking out of the way before we take another go at them in the new year. The next day was deep cleaning and that was amazing to say the least. The flat probably hadn't been seriously cleaned in like 6 months, so yeah... It was like bad. There was a thick layer of brown goo on the inside of the toilet where the water sits. Needless to say its white again. lol. It was fun. I really like the flat but it is pretty ghetto.

Elder Hatch