Picking up Jordan in the Czech Republic

Florence and Greg flew to Prague, Czech Republic on Tuesday June 8th. We arrived Wednesday June 9th in the evening, rented a van, and drove into downtown Prague on our own. We picked up Elder Jordan Hatch at 8 am Thursday morning at the mission home in Prague

Here we are with President and Sister Slovacek at the mission home in Prague

Jordan took us on the "greenie missionary walking tour through Prague. That is the St. Vitus Cathedral in the background.

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague

The Vltava River with the St. Charles Bridge back behind us.

Laura and Craig Przybyla were in town for a conference, so we all went out to dinner together

One of Jordan's converts "Iva" in the town of Trebic

Mamika in Brno, the Relief Society President while Jordan served there

Ptakovi family. We visited their beautiful little country home. Jordan taught and baptized them in Brno.

The chapel in Brno. The only building constructed from the ground up as a chapel

This is Cesky Krumlov, one of the most beautiful cities in the Czech Republic

Cesky Krumlov

Hluboka castle from the 13th century was beautifuly decorated and the grounds were gorgeous.

We attended the Sunday Branch meetings in Plzen. Here are some of the Relief Society Sisters

This is the Branch President, his wife, and his counselor in the Branch Presidency in Plzen

This is Vratislav, one of Jordan's converts. He plans to serve a mission in another year.

These are photos of Karlovy Vary, where the James Bond movie was filmed.

Karlsteja Castle, just below where Elder Widsoe dedicated the Czech Republic for the preaching of the gospel

This is the site where Elder Widsow dedicated the Czech Republic for the preaching of the gospel

The back of the Karlstejn Castle taken from the site of the dedication

The cathedral of St. Barbora in Kutna Hora

We visited the "bone church"

This is in the main plaza of Liberec, Jordan's first assignment

Eating a gyro on the plaza in Liberec

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague at night

Grandma Ruth in Phoenix upon our arrival

Steve and Joyce upon our arrival in Phoenix

He's home!

He's just the same, only two years older and wiser!

It was wonderful to be back together as a family, even if it was for less than 48 hours. We went tubing down the Salt River, visited with cousins and family, and had way too many people over to our house to see Jordan. What a wonderful weekend!

Jordan and Ian went back up to Provo Sunday evening, Jenni and Mason flew home to San Antonio, and Alyssa went to EFY on Monday. It's sad all leaving each other after only being together for a short time! So for this week, our parents are empty nesters!

A big thanks to everyone who showed up at the airport, who visited Jordan in our home, and came to hear him speak in church. It was wonderful to feel the love and support that everyone has for him!

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Hey family,

Well as we say here I am in overtime mode now since I hit my two year mark yesterday so that means you get twice the blessings. Today was a great day Kenneth and Valentine Anthony were baptized this afternoon along with another man taught by the sisters here in Prague and there was a great turnout for the baptisms. The other baptisms that were supposed to happen today got pushed back a little bit because of different reasons, one didn't return in time from nigeria, the other had a family emergency and had to leave town and the 3rd wants to gain a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon.

So this last week we had zone conferences in Brno on monday for moravia and slovakia and on wednesday for Bohemia. It was my last zone conference so I gave my "final testimony" at both of the zone conferences which was a interesting feeling since it had always seemed like that day would be so far off in the future. It was probably one of my favorite zone conferences from the training and the talks that took place, the main theme of the conference was having the Spirit with us and Losing ourselves in the work. Elder Doxey and I did a little piece on how to lose yourself in the work and we also did a training on helping people to get baptized.

So last P-day I bought my first European suit and Sister S and Heidi approved of it so hopefully you will like it mom. We had a cool meeting yesterday with this business man, he was a referral I got from an American who was at church and is business partners with him. We met in his office which is really nice and he drives a Porsche but just a nice humble down to earth guy, he is from Armenia and when he was 9 he was actually sent to America to live with an American family for a month in California and it was a Mormon family. He believes in God but is trying to figure out if Jesus Christ is just an abstract idea to illistrate perfection or if he was actually the son of God and our savior. So we taught him about the Book of Mormon and how it can help him find an answer to his question. So he is reading in the Book of Mormon right now.

This last week was pretty amazing, I think it was the first week I have been in the office where I have not done any visa or insurance work, I almost didn't know what to do with myself. Today after the baptism we played tourists and walked around Prague. Its fun to observe all the different people from around the world. On Thursday we had our office vylet where we went to see the place where the Czech republic was dedicated to the preaching of the gospel in 1929 by Elder Widstoe, its up on a hill overlooking Karelstejn castle, there is a little monument there hidden off in the trees, it was my first time being there and it was great to see where it took place. It was fun being with the senior couples they are pretty fun and spry and full of good stories, we were blessed with good weather for the trip.

I am working hard till the end and not getting trunky which I am happy about. I love you all and I'm very grateful for this opportunity i have to share with others the joys of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and thank you for all of your prayers on my behalf

Love,
Elder Hatch

Photo Album from Jordan

Click on the link below to get to Jordan's latest photo album

http://picasaweb.google.com/ElderJordanHatch/PragueJan162010Apr222010

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

hey family,

It's been another great week of missionary work, traveling, exchanges and trainings. in our own area a cool story that happened last week but i think i forgot to tell it was with our investigator Julio. I was talking to him as he came into the building for our meeting and he starts telling me how he stopped smoking because he knows it is bad for him and that God would not want him to smoke, that was before we have ever even mentioned the word of wisdom or that smoking was bad, he is doing great and should be getting baptized a week from today. He is busy with work but he always reads at least 5 or so pages in the Book of Mormon every day.

We were down in moravia on exchanges this last thursday and we had some good experiences there, I was with a missionary who had never been let in his whole mission tracting (he had been out about a year) and had no faith that it would work, so I was like well lets go tracting tonight and get let in, there is always a first for everything. We headed out tracting that night and were going for a couple of hours with no success, the czech national hockey team was playing against finland and everybody said they didnt have time, we kept on working hard and as it got later and later I was scared because I did not want our experience to confirm his belief that nothing happens with tracting so I started praying harder and harder and then at 8:30 we got let in by a man. he told us he would hear us out but that he didn't believe and thought believing in God was pretty laughable well we didn't dilly dally around with our teaching but went right for it with some thought provoking questions and strong testimony and by the end of our 30 minutes with him he was saying that it would be great to have that belief in God and that he might just have a little tiny belief inside of him, he invited us to come back whenever we want so the elders will be visiting him when he gets back in town after the weekend. I have been trying hard lately to bear my testimony boldly with everybody that I have the opportunity to and i have seen some great things from it with finding.

Friday we were in Brno for zone leaders council which went pretty well. My companion and i did a training on the scripture in matthew "he who shall lose his life for Christs sake shall find it", it was hard to train on something like that when O am still far from being the perfect missionary but it went pretty well I think. Sister S was super nice and bought air mattresses and a pump for us to take on our road trips so that we would have a nice bed to sleep in, only problem was I forgot them this last time right by the door so the result was a nice night on a lumpy old couch and a kink in my neck and back but its already getting better.

Today we went on a trip to cesky krumlov which everybody always says is the most beautiful city in the czech republic so i figured it was about time for us to check it out, and i would have to concur it is a very beautiful city and i took a lot of pictures so you all would be able to see.

Pray for our investigators this week we should be having 5-6 baptisms this next saturday, Sam, Valentine, Kenneth, Max, Julio and Katka and the Judge should be the week after since she wants just a small baptism with only a few people there. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers and dont worry about me i am working hard till the end. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, share it with your friends and they will love you forever for the joy it will bring into their lives. have a great week and be good

s laskou

Elder Hatch

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

Hey family,

Well the miracles keep on happening here with some unfortunate news thrown in, katka who was supposed to be getting baptized today, unfortunately will be pushed back 2 weeks, she had lost her job about 6 weeks ago and had been searching around desperately for another one which she start this last Monday, and unfortunately she is having to work today but is disappointed she has to miss her baptism and excited to have it done soon.

Right now we have 9 people with scheduled baptisms on the plan: six for may 29th and 3 for June 5th and they are all such great people. I love working with them so much and they all have such great faith and are willing to act on it.

We taught the law of tithing to our 4 Nigerians on Wednesday and they were like "finally! we kept on wondering how we could pay tithing and we didnt see the donation box so this is how you do it, we have always been taught since we were little that we need to pay 10 percent to the Lord". They were so excited to start paying and bearing testimony about it to us, and then Sam (he is the executive for Hewerrt Packard) started talking about how 10% is just the base and it is ok to pay more like 15 or 20% if you have the means.

We went on exchanges to olomouc on Thursday and worked all day with them and saw some great success- they said it was the most successful day of their transfer. They are hard workers and they are going to have some good things going for them there. We spent the night there and got up the next morning and went to Brno where we had our new missionary progression seminar. I really like working with the new missionaries because they are so open and willing to suggestions and have great desires to become good missionaries and are full of faith. It was also a great feeling to watch them as we went through different scenarios and they found out for themselves that they could do all these things in czech and slovak.

We had a interesting experience last night, there was a man baptized here about 4 months ago named Kenneth from Africa and he was baptized by a senior missionary. We had been trying to get in touch with him for awhile and I found a number in my phone for a member named Kenneth so I called him up and set up a meeting and we went to meet him with this senior missionary. As we show up to the door the man answers it and introduces himself as Kenneth, the senior missionary whispered to me its the wrong Kenneth but he invites us in and it turns out he is from nigeria was baptized in germany 13 years ago and lives and works in spain now where he goes to church every week but was in prague visiting his family and now his family is investigating the church. It was a strange event that turned into a mini miracle.

Another interesting experience I had was at the mission home the other evening. I went to pick up laundry and President was talking to a missionary who returned home about a year ago and was back for a school thing, he had 2 friends with him and we talked with them for a bit. One of his friends looked really familiar and I was like where are you from you look familiar and he said Arizona, I was like are you john spears? he was like yeah with a confused look on his face and then I told him I'm Elder Hatch and then he recognized me, small world these days.

Missionary work is going great I am loving being a missionary and I am working harder than ever so I can finish strong. I really enjoy everything I am doing and I see the hand of the Lord in the work so often it is amazing. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Hatch

Photos from Prague

We received a surprise Photo Chip with 141 photos from Jordan today. Here are a random few. I will upload all of them to his web album and place a link here on his blog once I get them uploaded and with captions.