I'm having a Baby

So, Elder Acaro is leaving.  Guess who is going to be my companion?  I don't know!  I was on exchanges with Elder Gneiting last Wednesday and President Cook gave us both a call and told us we were training...  So, Elder Gneiting is training again and I am going to have a son!  Woo!  I am freaking out a little right now because he is going to be a brand new missionary fresh out of the MTC!  OMJ!  I'm scared.  But, it will be fun!  Elder Gneiting is staying here in San Marcos, so that will be cool.  We had a meeting yesterday with President Cook about being trainers and it's a lot of stuff.  We have to help them learn to be better missionaries than we are because in a few months, the number of missionaries is going to BOOM.  President said right now we have about 175 or so missionaries.  But, come February ish, we are going to have 250!  OMJ!  He also was talking about the MTC time that new missionaries are going to have.  Like, English missionaries used to go for 3 weeks, now they are only going for 12 days, 8 of those days which are only training.  He said the Church has even been talking about shortening it even more, like a week, or just sending the missionaries straight to the mission; no MTC.  Crazy!  The missionary numbers are booming!  It is going to be an awesome thing to witness.  

This week was pretty good for us.  Sadly, los Reyes always seem to be "busy" and we aren't able to teach them...  We saw them once on Saturday, but it was someone's birthday, so we weren't able to have a lesson with them, but we helped them set up for the party.  We have had a few lesson with los Mendez (Roselio and his family).  They are doing good.  The son, Gerardo, seems really interested.  We shared with them the Restoration on Thursday.  We brought a member with us, which turned out to be really good, because Roselio likes to talk A LOT.  So, we arrived to the Apostasy part, and Roselio just talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked.  So, we let him and the member talk between each other and taught the Apostasy, Restoration and Pray to know to Gerardo.  He had some pretty good questions.  They also offered us coffee (it was really cold that night) and so we taught them a little about the Word of Wisdom too.  It was sweet.  Other than those few investigators, we haven't really taught anyone :(  We always seem to find new investigators, teach them a few times, and then they disappear!  Why?!  Maybe they need a little greenie fire ;)

It has been SUPER cold here lately.  The mornings are FREEZING and no me gusta.  Good thing I have a sweater!

Who is Rick Veasey?  I tried looking him up on the LDS ward directory online, but it isn't working...  

Wednesday (Halloween) is going to be SWEET!  (but not really)  It will be my first day with my verdecito!  We have to go in at 6.  We study from 8-10, then we have district meeting 10-12, then we have to go to the store and buy food, finish studying (because now that I have a new missionary, we have to study 1 hour - personal, 2 hours - companion, 1 hour - language. It's crazy!)  Then we have to go in a 6.  So, we will only have like, 4 hours of actual work!  But, it will be fun :)  Send me pictures of Halloween!

I have never had Nutella, but I see Spanish people eating it all the time.  They really like it here.  Maybe I will go and buy some tomorrow!

OMJ! I am not even close to a year mark!  Don't say that!  I'm old :(  but, my hijo will never know how much time I have!  jajajajajaja!  There is no such thing as too many ties!  There is this one Elder in my zone (but he's leaving) that has like 80!  I only have like 60!  :)  But, for my year mark, we can't burn clothing :(  it's against the rules!  :(

I think that it is it for this week.  Have a wonderful, fantastic and fabulous week!  Love, 

ELDER HUNT

mas mas fotos!

next week I will send more!  (of me)

P.S.  I was looking at some CDs the other day and I found one that Elder Josse used to have that I really liked.  It's called "The Garden"  by Michael McLean and Bryce Newbert  :)  you should listen to it too!  It is like a play type CD about the Atonement and what Christ went through during that time.  I really liked it :)  Maybe you could buy one?  :)

Last week of the transfer!

Wow.  This transfer has gone by so quick!  WHY?!?!  (That's my new favorite word; Elder Acaro says it ALL the time!  jajajaja he's so funny)  Anyways, this is the last week of this transfer, and I am pretty sure Elder Acaro is going to English work.  During my interview with President Cook, he said he really wants Elder Acaro to learn English, and so he is going to be putting him in English work.  It's not 100%, but it's pretty certain.  Hopefully this transfer with me has helped him out!

This week was pretty good.  We found a few new investigators.

- We found this one guy, his name is Roselio.  He is a super awesome guy.  He collects stuff (clothing, food, etc.) to take down to Tijuana in order to donate it to the poor people there.  He does it like once a month.  He's a SUPER nice guy; he would make such a great Mormon!  So, we met him about the first week of the transfer.  We have helped him out a lot with his collecting and cable stripping (for money) and other stuff, and we finally had a sit down lesson with him on Friday.  He is a super awesome guy, and hopefully will be baptized!  We are teaching his son too, who is a lot like his dad. 

- We received a referral from some English Elders of a guy named Roberto Avila, like 40s.  He is really cool too.  He has a lot of questions about what the differences between all the churches are (especially catholic and Mormon).  Also why there are so many churches.  We taught him on Saturday.  And guess what?!  When we were shopping at Target today, we saw him!  It was sweet! 

- We were contacting in this one trailer park, knocking on doors that other missionaries had found before.  We knocked on this one door and found a guy named Denis.  He is about 25 years old and just invited us in right away!  (Spanish people are so nice.  I have yet to meet a white person that just lets us right in their house)  Anyways, we taught him too!  We don't know much about him because it was a quick lesson because we had to get home, but he was really excited to learn too!

The investigators we have now are... Good.  They just don't want to progress!  Los Reyes went like, crazy on Sunday when we taught them.  They never really said they were Catholic before, but this visit they were saying that they were Catholic and they go to church every week and they believe in the Virgin... It was crazy.  Alicia (the mom) has a son that is SUPER Catholic and he was asking us crazy questions (that are really dumb) like: How many angels fell with Satan and Lucifer when God banished them down to the earth?  How many times does God forgive us of our sins?  Apparently, he thinks Satan and Lucifer are the same person and that only six angels fell down with them when God banished them here.  He said he received that information from the Pope himself...  Yeah.  Also, that God only will forgive us once or twice.  No more than that.  If we sin once or twice, then God isn't going to forgive us because he knows we will just return to do it again.  So.  Crazy.  But, apart from that, we are still going to teach the Reyes!  Still haven't taught Angel though :( he's always busy playing football!

I don't know if I told you about Hugo Hernandez.  he is the spouse of a member.  His whol efamily is baptized, except him.  We picked him up about a month ago and have been teaching him every so often.  But, when we reach the subject of baptism, he becomes mad and ends the lesson...  So, we had hermano Tippetts (I think I told you about him; one of the 3 Nefitas)  come with us to a lesson.  And the same thing happened :(  So, we are still going to try to teach him, and just avoid the topic of baptism and hopefully, with time, his heart will soften up.

That's about all that has happened this week.  It has been really rainy this past week.  But, it's been nice!  It has only poured like, 1 or 2 times (we were inside, thank goodness).  But, other times it has just been a sprinkle. 

There is a pond by our house, so last week on P-Day, Elder Acaro and I went and visited!  It was nice just to sit on a bench and watch the ducks swim.  The next day, a member gave us some duck food (why he had it, I have no idea).  So, he gave some to us and today we are going to go and visit the ducks again!

To receive a new name tag, I have to send some money to the mission office and they will send me a new one. But, I never remember!  :( so I still have the same old broken nametag.  I added a Spongebob sticker though!  We found a bunch in our apartment.  It was cool.

Thanks for the package!  It was SWEET!  I blew up the pumpkin thing and it is sitting on our fridge.  I love the PME too!  IT'S SO COOL!  Everyone is going to be jealous!  The mission is going to be ordering tiny ones at the beginning of next month, but I think they are only in English!  Spanish > English :)  But, if you could send me a English one too, that would be nice :)  then I can use it for like zone meetings and stuff when we have to have materials in English.

I heard about the MTC week change!  That's crazy!  It will be nice to be at the MTC for less amount of time, and it will really put a bigger emphasis on preparation before the mission.  I think it is a good idea!  2 weeks in the MTC for English missionaries... That's like a blink of an eye!  Something that has also helped is a program they started (I don't know how long ago) when you arrive to the field.  Instead of having one hour of companionship study with your trainer, you have two and have a special booklet that the Church has given us of things you have to go over.  I think when I entered the mission it was pretty new, because my trainer didn't really know how to use it...  They have put a lot more emphasis in the preparation in the first 3 months too.  It's so cool!

Well, that's all for this week!  HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!  :)

Love, Elder Hunt

I RODE A BIKE

This week was pretty good.  I went on exchanges with Elder Hansen and Elder Robinson (another greenie that came in this transfer; Elder Driaza's greenie)  When I was with Elder Hansen, we had the STRANGEST contact EVER.  We were contacting on this street and we ran into this white guy who was walking really slow.  So, we tried to give him a card, and he's like, "No, I already know all about the Mormons."  So, Elder Hansen and I thought he was getting ready to bash with his, but then he started talking about aliens!  ALIENS.  He said stuff like that Noah and the ark was caused because aliens were having children with humans and that the angel Moroni was an alien talking to Joseph Smith and that even Joseph Smith was an alien himself!  We talked to him for like, 20 minutes because he was so interesting.  He said such weird stuff!  We were pretty dumbfounded. 

Exchanges with Elder Robinson were super good too.  I RODE A BIKE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.  But, it wasn't even my bike :( It was the bike of Elder Driaza :(  But, it was fun!  Their area is TINY (really it's like, 9 or 10 streets because it is so jam packed with Spanish people) so it was really easy to find people and talk to them. 

There isn't a whole lot going on in our area as of now... :(  We haven't found any new investigators for about 2 weeks, and the ones we have found, we hardly ever meet with because they never answer us :(  but, we have been meeting with los Reyes quite often.  Just Alicia and Rosa though.  We still haven't seen Angel in forever :(  but, Alicia and Rosa are doing good.  They like it when we come over to teach, but they are really lazy and don't want to come to church :(  But, we are progressing with them slowly!

We are also helping someone receive the Melquisedec priesthood!  i don't know if I told you about him or not yet.  His name is Arturo Alcayde.  When I was with Elder Lewis, we had made a goal to help him receive it.  Like the second to last week of the transfer we finally were able to meet with him and he told us he was trying to prepare himself to receive it too!  So, that was a cool miracle.  So, Elder Acaro and I have been meeting with him and trying to help him prepare to receive the priesthood. 

I LOVE THE PLAQUE!!!  THAT LOOKS SO DANG COOL!

So there was nothing majorly wrong with my pants?  Because all my pants are like that, just not as extreme.  Right now I have 4 pairs.  One specifically for my suit and 2 from Missionary Mall and 1 I bought from Ross like 2 months ago.  They were 70 dollar pants and I bought them for 17!  WOO ROSS!  All my clothes are holding up perfect!

Yep, President Cook speaks Spanish!  He served his mission in Mexico when Utah and Cali were still a part of Mexico (jaja jk jk).  It's not like I am struggling with the language, it's just I feel like I have flatlined and I can't learn anymore.  Which is definitely not true!  I still have lots to learn!  You would think having a companion that speaks Spanish as a native would help, but I don't even speak Spanish with him jaja.  It's all in English!  He's from Piura.  He's really cool.  Probably one of my favorite companions.  His whole family are converts.  He was baptized at 8, by his dad, but his mom and 2 sisters were just recently baptized, like within the past 3 or so years.

I hate running.  We run for 20-30 minutes in the mornings and we just run around where we live.  There is a golf course that we occasionally run through and a sweet dirt path on the side of some road.  I still hate running though.   

Well, I think that is all for this week!  I hope I answered all of your questions!  If not, you can reganarme next week! ;)  Have a fantastic week!

Love, Elder Hunt

P.S. I had a little surgery on Saturday night.  (That's what the pictures are)  My nametag had been cracking, and little by little it finally broke :(  It was on Saturday night with Elder Robinson, and it broke at like, 7 PM.  So, I wasn't wearing a nametag for like, 2 hours!  I felt naked :(  But, I taped it, and now you can't even tell it's broken!  (jk)  I colored the tape black, so it doesn't look as bad.  I am going to have to order a new one soon! 

Conferencia!

I LOVED CONFERENCE.  Conference is really just a holiday for missionaries.  What's better than hearing men called by God speak to us?  NOTHING.  The announcement of missionary ages was CRAZY!  The amount of missionaries is going to improve very rapidly.  I have already heard lots of stories about young men here and brothers of missionaries already talking to their bishops in order for them to go on a mission.  What is Jaxon going to do?!  What was your favorite talk in Conference?  Did the one by Elder Holland sound familiar?  ;)  It must be super important if he did it twice! 

This week was filled with a lot of meetings and planning, so we weren't out very much :(  We have had a few lessons with los Reyes this week and they have gone pretty good.  Rosa (the daughter) has been praying at the end of the lessons and it has been sweet!  Usually with investigators, their prayers are really short.  But, with Rosa, she has super long prayers!  It's really cool to see her have this desire to pray.  She told us she has had lots of answers to prayers, but she has been praying to Maria Guadalupe...  BAD.  So, we taught her that she needs to pray to God, not the virgin Maria.  Catholic people are crazy. 

We had a cool little miracle after Conference on Saturday.  I was on exchanges with Elder Hansen (which was weird because all we did was watch conference together, but we have another exchange next week, so it's all good) and we went to go and remind los Reyes of conference the next day.  We had nothing to do that night (because all the Spanish people go to bed really early because they wake up really early) and so we were praying for something to do after reminding los Reyes about conference.  So, when we were about to leave the complex of los Reyes, this guy comes up and talks to us and asks us a lot of questions (he was a basher).  So, we talked to him the whole time and went home!  We even gave him a Book of Mormon to answer his questions that he was asking us.  it was sweet.

We had interviews with President Cook yesterday too.  they were cool.  He gave me some tips on Spanish so that I can improve even better.  It was a good intervew.  And at the zone training meeting (we have one every month to train us on things we can do better) we learned a lot of cool things about planning and helping investigators progress.  Since the mission is really new and will keep becoming newer, President wanted us to practice the basic basic stuff in order to help all the newbies.  It was fun.

That was really all my week.  CONFERENCE WAS SWEET. 

Jaxon is 18?!  OMJ!  OLDIE!  When is HT?

These past 11 months have gone by so quickly... It's scary!  WHY?!?!?!

My health has been good.  I probably told you, but Sister Cook requires that we run every morning and that really helps out a lot with the health.  She has said that the average health cost for missionaries in this mission is like, 3 dollars a month and in other missions that it's like, 50!  Wow!  I still have a car (thank goodness!)  I would hate to have a bike or walk in this area...  There's like, no Spanish close to us :(  We are super lucky to have a car!

Members here are great!  We eat with members every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, sometimes Friday and sometimes Sunday.  And the food I have eaten here is definitely the best I have had the whole mission!

Well, I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Love, Elder Hunt

P.S.  If you need help, "Ask the missionaries.  They can help you!"

fotos!

So, cool miracles this week:  We finally had a lesson with Angel Reyes!!!  We were going to check up on all our investigators and potenciales on Tuesday night after P-Day, and we finally found Angel in house!  And his family was there too!  We were just going to set up a return appointment, because he said he was off to football practice.  So, we set up the appointment, and asked him if there was anything we could do for him before we left.  He asked us if we could say a prayer with him so that him and his family would be well.  So, of course we had to teach him about how prayer really is!  Soon enough, all of his family was there too!  His mom, his sister and two of his brothers.  His two brothers are "Catholic" (just anti other churches) so they didn't have any interest in what we were teaching.  But, his mom and sister were really interested!  Then, after we explained prayer, they had a bunch of other questions, so we got into deeper doctrine like Plan of Salvation, why there are so many churches and stuff. it was sweet!  Sadly, we haven't seen Angel since then, because he is always practicing...  But, we have taught his mom and sister a few times and they are really interested! 

Something else that was cool that happened was that I finished my journal!!!  YAY!  I have written in my journal every single say since November 9, 2011 and I finally finished the first one!  Now I started on the next one! YAY!

This past week we have spent a lot of time trying to find places where there are a lot of Spanish people.  I would not be joking when I say that this area that I am in is 80% or more white people.  We found a street the other day that we thought for sure was Spanish, but it turned out to be Chinese/Vietnamese/Japanese!  It was crazy!  There are lots of signs that you can tell a house is Spanish, so we are looking long and hard for those. 

On Saturday, I had exchanges with Elder Gneiting!  It was awesome.  We had some meetings and service during the day, but the night was full of lessons.  It's strange that on his side of San Marcos, there are TONS of Spanish, but on this side there are very few...  It's weird how that works.  But, we had some pretty sweet lessons.  A big problem that I have seen in this area is that a lot of people don't understand priesthood keys.  Like, the mom of the girl that we gave a blessing too, she told us that she could have done that too, all she needed was her Bibla and say a little prayer.  She didn't really understand that with the priesthood is how the ordinance was performed.  Lots of people are telling us, "I have already been baptized.  Why do I need to do it again?"  I am so glad to have the knowledge already of this Gospel!  I cannot even imagine life without it...  How do people live?!?!

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tell me more about Grandpa and Grandma's new mission!  That's cool they will be so close!  Will they live at home or over there?

That's cool Addison is going to Madagascar!  Maybe Josh will train him!  that would be cool!  I am so glad I am speaking Spanish.  There are lots of countries I could visit that speak Spanish, plus there are TONS of people in the U.S. that speak it and I can use it whenever I want!  Plus, Spanish is easy to learn!  One of the easiest languages!

For the Strength of Youth pamphlet is SO good.  It isn't just for youth, but for everyone!  Did you read the new one they released just barely or the old one?  The new one is super good.  I still have my wallet sized one from Bishop Morgan :) 

jajajajajajaja, that is so funny about Angel and Braxton!  jaja I remember that well!

I went on Heritage Tours in July, not June!  I remember because all my friends went and watched Inception without me because I was in New York.  I haven't seen any slideshow from that, so you will have to find a way to keep it so I can see it in a year.  I have been out almost a year! OMJ!  It's already October!!! Time goes by too quickly!!!

Yay BYU won and Westlake won!

I hope you have a super fantastic week!

Love, Elder Hunt

P.S.  If you think the weather in Utah is nice and want it to be like that year round, move to Cali :)  I know I will!

Or maybe I will just stay here

Playing with the camera :)