First email January 2012

Hey family,

Thanks for the emails. It is great to hear from you and it is back to the classic form of communication (email) lol.

Well today we're spending our P-day in Toowoomba. It is the new month and we have k's (kilometers/miles) we can use on the car and we don’t have to worry about running out until later. Which sadly we will probably run out later this month but anyways...


So Devan (Gardner) is going on a mission!!!!! Congratz! She'll do great as a missionary. It will be a hard mission for her, honestly, but she'll enjoy being in a foreign country and I reckon she adjust well. That is exciting to hear. Colin I need details…lol. (Devan, second girl from left, was in Fifth Ward with Kiefer. She and Kiefer went to Middle School, High School and Seminary together and both attend BYU.)

It has been a pretty normal week honestly. Monday was Elder Blackmore’s birthday and he kind of told everyone so we went over to a couple of people’s places to celebrate. All and all it wasn't too exciting though. Tuesday was a pretty normal work day. We visited some less actives most of the day and then did a little bit of finding. We had a trade off on Wednesday with the District Leader. That went well. We did a lot of finding that day and it was a warm one. Our dinner appointment forgot they were feeding us but they threw something together and we had something to eat luckily. Thursday was District Meeting in Toowoomba which is about a 45 minute drive from our flat. They had some birthday decorations for my birthday and we went and got some good food for lunch. It was nice. Other than that the rest of the day went about the same. It was kind of slow but that’s how it goes. We had dinner at the Bishop’s house and it seems as if they had forgetting until we called to remind them. That was interesting. He a good guy but just really busy and has like 6 kids that are relatively young. I've resolved to give people a little more advanced nice than what we have been doing. Friday was weekly planning which was a bit of a drag and then Saturday we got to do some service for a less active family which turned out to be pretty full-on but fun all the same. New Year’s Eve here involves, mostly, everyone getting wasted so we had to be in the flat by 5 pm on the 31st. That was nice. We had some ginger beers and some sparkling grape cider left from Christmas so that’s how we celebrated. It was a crazy night…not really though. I went to bed at 10:30 pm and didn't hear much after that. Yes, they do fireworks and stuff over here but since we're in the country it was pretty quiet. All the same I liked the extra sleep.

The next week looks busy so far. We have some training in Brisbane. I haven't got my (birthday) package yet but maybe I will when in Brisbane. Good luck back at Uni Colin, work hard, and enjoy your time there. Let me know how things are going for you. Love you all. Have a great week. TTYL

Elder Hatch