Remember the girl that waited 6 months to be baptized??

Hey mom the week has been great!! 

Remember the girl that waited 6 months to be baptized?? Well now we are teaching her family!! Right now her brother is the one that is usually taking the lessons but the little sister and the mom sometimes sit in and are excited to learn as well! The mom is now excited to see the missionaries when we pass by and likes to feed us dinner and ask us questions! I'm hoping that the family can learn and progress together for a baptism date so they can have a family baptism! 

Other than this family we have about 6 other people, and one other family that are investigators! They are all pretty receptive and excited to learn but we are in the beginning with most of them so I hope they keep their excitement! That's all for the update on missionary work this week. 

 I'm excited for the  family everyone sounds like they are doing pretty great! I'm glad that Alan likes his new job so far and maybe when I get back I can take you all to Bolivia in the summer with Alan's buddy passes and I can be your translator! It'd be a great experience!

 Tell Spencer good luck with his hike and I hope you get better soon mom! I'll be praying for the family! If you haven't sent the package yet, could you send my black Nike backpack for exchanges with other missionaries?? If you've already sent the package don't worry  probably  I can survive without a backpack. 

Thanks for all the updates and love!!Love, Elder Thatcher

I'm very grateful for the gift of tongues!

Elder Matthew Thatcher                       Monday January 13, 2014

Bolivia Santa Cruz North Mission

You all sound so good!! I'm so excited to here about all of the family's missionary work!!

 Alan is going to be working for the airport?? That's so exciting!!  

 I miss your lasagna and all of your other food too!! It's a lot of rice and chicken here ha ha. 

Thanks for the post on Facebook it means a lot!!

  I'm still in my first area with my trainer. We have transfers the 29th and my companion is going home this transfer so I'm definitely getting a new companion. But the work is going well!! We have 6 people with baptism dates and one of them is really working hard to be baptized. All he needs to do is marry his girlfriend but she needs to officially divorce her "ex husband". 

We also have 3 families that are in active that we are working with and they are attending church!! So the work is moving along great and the Spanish is coming very easily! Almost all of the members and investigators say that my Spanish is better than other missionaries that had 3 months. So I'm very grateful for the gift of tongues! 

 I have the same message to share that every member is a missionary and that when we all do our part to share what we know is true with others we will see the blessings of the Gospel more in our lives and in the lives of those we share it with!!

 I hope you all have a great week and that everything goes well with your missionary work!! Thanks for all the love! Tell everyone I say hi and that I love them!

Love, 

        Elder Thatcher

Photo's of Elder Thatcher

MTC group photo

10/2013

2nd baptism with his trainer 

First Skype with family on Christmas 

Oh and the fruit is called Granadilla! eewww!

Making fudge in his apartment.

A woman in native clothing in front of a museum. 

I think its Llama........ or is it an Alpaca? But either way Elder Thatcher is too big for it!

Members home for Christmas

Coming out of the waters of baptism. I love the look of joy on their faces!

(First baptism)

Oh (Baby) Christmas tree, oh (baby) Christmas tree !

Elder Thatchers first Christmas with his trainer.

Elder Thatcher in Bolivia with his mission president and his wife.

                                                                                   

Elder Matthew Thatcher

6th week in Mission Field

Bolivia Santa Cruz North

Monday December 9,2013

I'm párt of the Carmen Branch. We can't go to the temple because it's out of our mission. The work is moving along nicely! I baptized a 16 yr old girl on Saturday!! It was amazing!

I don't have my camera cord  this week but I'll try my best to send pictures next week!!

 Tell Grandma and Grandpa Bitton congrats on their 48th wedding Anniversary this week and thanks for the Christmas money!! I hope your anniversary on December 19th is amazing!!

It sounds like a lot of fun in the snow out in VA! I miss the winter weather right now it's summer and really hot.

  We get jugs of fresh water for drinking! If you haven't sent the package yet can you send a small cook book with a bunch of different recipes? Also I need a new water bottle and I can't find any nice ones like the nalgene bottle you sent with me.

Running is going great! But I need to run more I think I've gained weight. Could you have DAD send me a workout schedule or sometype of program to help me stay in shape and loss the weight I've gained?? Please and thank you!

 The brownies were great!! I can't wait to make more things! I just need to make sure I have a balanced diet because right now im getting fed a lot of bread and greasy or fried food. It's a lot of carbs. I miss your cooking and all the great things at home but i'm doing good out here!

 I wash my own laundry by hand and if I don't have time I have to pay a sister to wash it for me. I'm hoping to find someone with a washer to use. Because right now i can't wash my laundry because my finger got cut on a fan when I was drying to hang my shirt to air dry.

 Thanks for all the pictures I hope I answered the questions you had! I might need a little bit of money but I think im okay for now. I love you and hope you all have a great week thanks for all the photos!!

Love, Elder Thatcher

Elder Matthew Thatcher

5th week from the mission field

December 2, 2013

Bolivia Santa Cruz North Mission

     Thanks for all the emails mom!! Yes I got more shorts for running and I ran twice last week and this morning also! Only 2 miles for 2 of the runs and 3 for the other, but It felt really good to run! I'm still running around a 7 minute mile pace for my runs. My companion is doing well with keeping up for the runs so it's working out! Thanks for the brownie recipe!! All the plans are working out great and I had a great week!

 

     It's so great to hear all the great news!!! I can't believe you lost 15 lbs in such a short amount of time!! Yeah they have trees for Christmas but I'm not sure about the stockings. I'm glad the holidays are going so well!! It's so crazy that the house is empty I got a little sad when I saw Alan's empty room! But I'm so glad everyone is doing well!! Tell dad he needs to get in shape because Sister Harper beat him! Ha ha It's great that Uncle Kevin is finally moving out to VA so he doesn't have to drive 4 days up and back and he'll have lots of work too! The pictures are great I love to see Katherine and Spencer happy, fighting , playing whatever it's great to see them! 

     I can't believe it's December only 23 days and I get to see you and talk to you through skype! If yo u want to you can let a few people come over for skype but it's up to you. Tell Nathan I say hi and that I miss him as well! It's great to hear that the family is so happy!! Also tell Mandy hi if you ever see her ha ha.

      But on the more missionary side of the email. Everything is great I gave another blessing yesterday! We have 2 families that we reactivated and I'm baptizing a 16 year old girl that's waited 6 months for permission from her mom to be baptized! I don't need money yet ha ha I'll let you know if I ever do. Thanks for always checking up on me!! The Lord is definitely  blessing me with everything I need! I eat lunch ever day at member's house and almost all of our investigators and members are happy to feed us! So there's no need to worry!

 

LOVE YOU SOO MUCH!!!

                                       Elder Thatcher

ELDER MATTHEW THATCHER

4th email from

Bolivia Santa Cruz North Mission

November 25, 2013

Thanks for the pictures!! They are so great! I'm so proud of Tyler and the team! I just hope I can live up to the Thatcher name ha ha! I've been doing a bunch of core strength and stuff but I didn't get to run. But this week I will run every other day! I set up a program with my companion for exercise and I hope it works out!

 The baptism was great! We had our investigator come and she's very excited for baptism! I'm having lots of success and some difficulties but I can only expect that with adjusting to missionary life. 

Oh by the way, I had a great chocolate chip pancake breakfast for my birthday! Also a member family had us over for a lesson and cake on my birthday as well! 

Thanks for everything I don't have much time so I wanted to say I love you and I'm great full  for everything that everyone is doing to help me with my mission. Also thank full to everyone doing their own missionary work back home! Thanks for the love and care! Almost forgot could you send me a brownie recipe in the next email, I'm making them for a family next Monday!

Love, Elder Thatcher

 S

ELDER MATTHEW THATCHER

Third email from

Bolivia Santa Cruz North Mission

November 18, 2013

Thanks for the pictures! Spencer did such a great job!! I can´t believe that Alan is leaving the house that´s so crazy that only Spencer and Katherine will be there! Our investigators for the most part are very receptive and open!! We have 2 baptism dates of our own and I can´t wait to have my first baptism! Last week I gave my first priesthood blessing in Spanish and gave another one yesterday! The people and culture are great! The language is coming pretty fast but it´s still a little difficult to communicate at times but we are having success because of the spirit! Thanks so much for the birthday wishes!! Tell Tyler good luck for me! I know that he´s going to kick butt!

 My companion Elder Cordova and I are doing great! We get along great and are teaching each other Spanish and English! I´m so happy for you and you´re health progress! I´m not surprised that Brother Harris got called into the stake young mens presidency because he did such a great job with the youth in our ward!!

 I was able to clean but need to clean some more today! No exercise clothes yet because I couldn´t find any last week but hopefully I can today! I´m doing fine with money for now I´ll let you know if I ever need help! I´m glad to hear everyone is doing well! I´m glad I think of you when I want a clean house as well! I haven´t been able to run in Bolivia yet but hopefully I can today. I workout everyday other than sunday as well! I Hope I can run this week because I actually miss it haha! I can´t wait to tell you more next time! Well I tried sending pictures but for some reason it won´t attach it says the format isn´t supported. I´ll get a flash drive transfer pictures and send them home as soon as possible!

Love Elder Thatcher