DANA POINT, ELDER...

HANSEN!!!1!!!!!1!!!!!11!!!one

I am now companions with Elder Hansen!  Dana Point is sweet.  We can see the ocean ALL THE TIME.  It's so awesome!  Our church is super sweet too.  We have to drive on a road called Pacific Coast Highway and the beach and the ocean are like, 50 feet away.  This area is SWEET.  Elder Hansen is super cool too.

So, the investigators we have here are pretty cool too.  There is this one named Pablo.  He is being baptized this week or the next!  He just had his interview yesterday, so he is all ready.  His wife is not a member and he wants her to come see his baptism, so that's why it might be next week.  But, hopefully this week!  

Another investigator we have is Daniel.  He is pretty cool.  He is going to Mexico today for two weeks and we aren't going to be able to teach him...  But, we had a sweet lesson with him on Thursday.  We were going to watch the Restoration movie with him.  We put it in his DVD player and turns out he didn't have a remote, so we couldn't change the language...  He understood a little bit of English, and so for the whole movie I just translated it for him.  It was sweet!  He is super cool investigator.

We also have a family called la familia Berdeja.  They are super close to baptism, they just need to get married.  We are trying to get them to set a fecha para casarse. :)

So, this area is super sweet.  It's perfect weather all the time (almost, except when it rains.  Like today.  And yesterday.  And the day before that.) But, I love it here.  We also live in a 4 man apartment.  It's me and Elder Hansen with Elder Nelson (with whom I served in Vista for a transfer when Elder Owens was my companion) and Elder Farnsworth (with whom I served with in Esco).  Elder Farnsworth, Elder Hansen and I all served in Esco at the same time, so that's pretty sweet.  Also, I don't know if I told you this or not, but because of the age change and the huge surge of missionaries, they had to cut down our missions by a week...  So, this transfer is only 5 weeks long and I am going to go home a week earlier than planned :( sad! :(  Hopefully Elder Hansen stays for another transfer.  He was here with Elder Chavez for two, so it's kind of iffy if he will stay.  We can see the ocean all the time.  It's awesome!

As for Maria, I don't know what has happened.  The last lesson I had with her was Monday and she still didn't want to set a date... But, Elder Jensen and Elder Hall (his new companion) were going to have a sweet lesson with her.  Hopefully all goes well.  I don't know anything about George either, but I keep praying for the both of them!  I most likely won't be able to go if they are baptized because the rule is that the stakes have to be touching in order to go...  There are like, 2 stakes in between San Clemente and Escondido :(

Sounds like the weather no es bueno en Utah... I don't want to go back to the cold :( or ice :( or snow :( or the cold! :( it's so cold in Utah...

I did receive the package!  Thank you! And tell Shanny thanks too :) I wasn't able to send out my package last week, but Elder Jensen should send it out this week or the next.  IT's a SWEET package, so get excited!

In the mission, we received like... 17 o 18 new missionaries.  No Spanish though :( it's the first transfer since I arrived since we haven't received Spanish missionaries!  There was going to be one, but he never even showed up at the MTC... :(  Next transfer there is like 4 o 5 Spanish coming in.  Numbers are increasing lots!

Well, I think that's it for the week!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

P.S. I forgot my camera in San Marcos, so... No pictures of the ocean this week :( hopefully next week though!  Or the next!  :) OCEAN!

Adios San Marcos

SO, it's official.  Adios San Marcos.  I don't know where I am going yet.  This transfer meeting is going to be the biggest transfer meeting yet!  We have like, 110 or so, missionaries in the mission and all of them are going expect 30.  It's going to be huge!  There are so many changes going on to prepare us for all the new missionaries that are coming in.  This is going to be so awesome to witness!  San Clemente with Elder Hansen is still my best bet, but with all these changes happening, I have no clue!  

So, this week was pretty sweet.  Maria Parra had an interview for baptism.  Elder Gneiting is the one that did it and he said she is so ready to be baptized.  She had so much knowledge and such a strong testimony.  So, we were shooting for a baptism for the 20 of January.  We thought she was going to do it, but we went over the next day and she pushed back the date... To when, we still have no idea...  Elder Jensen and his new companion are going over tomorrow and we have a pretty sweet lesson prepared for her to get her baptized this weekend or the next.  She is so ready and so close to being baptized; there is just something blocking her and we don't know what it is.  

So, I don't remember if I told you about this, but during the blitz time, a kid named George was found.  He is a 15 year old who plays football and wrestles.  Elder Belbin and Elder Jensen taught him when they were on exchanges like 2 weeks ago and had a pretty sweet lesson.  He had lots of super good questions and is really looking to find the truth.  We had a lesson with him on Sunday night and we set a baptism date for the 9 of febrero!  WOO!  It was the first SOLID date I have set while in this area!  It was sweet.  We have set dates with lots of others, but they were always soft ones.  But, George is pretty set on being baptized.  HE is so cool.  He has so many good questions!  HE even asked us how he could prepare his life better in order to be baptized!  It was sweet.  George is so cool!

All the other investigators are pretty much the same.  We haven't seen lots of them for a while... They are never home nor do they answer the phone.  What's the point of having a phone if you never answer it???  But, we also found another sweet investigator last week too.  His name is Alex Garcia.  We talked to his mom first like, 3 months ago.  We knocked on her door.  Then, like 2 weeks after talking to her, she went to Mexico... But, she just came back last week and we had a lesson with her and her son!  She is super Catholic and isn't interested in changing, but her son (Alex) is super cool and very open.  He has organized a soccer team for all the kids in Escondido.  Esco is a pretty gang filled town (in some parts) and he made this soccer team to help the kids stay off the streets and in school.  He has a lot of strict rules, like with grades and stuff.  He is really passionate about keeping kids off the streets and being good kids.  HE is pretty cool.

We watched the movie 17 Miracles for a ward movie night on Saturday.  It is sooooooooooooo good.

I forgot my planner this week, and so I am trying to write everything from memory.  Those are all the most important things :)

The weather here has been soooooooo nice recently.  Yesterday was PERFECT.  It was like, 60-70 degrees all day long.  I love California.

Well, I think that it is it for this week!  Next week I will be in a brand new area with a brand new companion and some brand new stories to tell!

Have a superb week!

Love, Elder Hunt

Pictures: 

1. Las Hernandez

2. Los Parra y Los Pena y Los Rodriguez

3. Maria Parra

4. Obispo Lopez and his family

5-6. Our district

Wild Animals

First of all, Wild Animal Park... SO. DANG. AWESOME.  Let's all go!  I will be living in Cali for the rest of my life, so you can come and visit me and we can all go to the Wild Animal Park!  My camera was dying and I forgot to charge the other battery, so I couldn't zoom in on my camera, and I missed the pictures of like 1 hour of fun...  But!  It was sweet.

We also taught Maria Parra on Tuesday night!  We have taught her a lot this past week.  We have been really pushing for a date, but something has happened and she just seems pushed off by a date... Or so we thought!  We had a SWEET lesson with her yesterday!  We kind of have a super soft date with her for the 20th of enero, and we were thinking, "If she really would be baptized that day, she would need an interview."  So, last night, we set up an interview with her with Elder Gneiting!  She is totally going to be baptized this weekend.  We have a super awesome lesson all planned out to just drop a spirit bomb on her and she won't be able to say no!  She will be like, "Just baptize me now!  I cannot wait any longer!" I am excited. 

 We also have this menos activa lady in our area.  I think I remember talking to your about her.  Her name is Guadalupe Case.  With Elder Lewis and Elder Acaro, we had been trying so much to find her but then never could.  But, like the second week with Elder Jensen, we finally found her!  She has a son too, living with her, that is inactive.  But, he has been saying he really wants to return to church.  We went over there one night last week and saw them both.  Her son (his name is Alfredo) said he had been thinking about inviting us over one night to do a noche de hogar!  It was a miracle!  He has been returning pretty strong.  But, he goes to the single adult ward, and not our ward :( but, he is still pretty awesome!  his girlfriend isn't a member either, so that makes it even better!  He said him and his girlfriend started to study the Book of Mormon together in their FREE TIME.  OMJ.  MILAGRO.  So, we had a sweet noche de hogar with them last night and Guadalupe.  We were going to go over again this morning, but we had a few complications that I will explain later.  But, we are going over tonight!  WOO!

We also found a cool new investigator.  His name is Armando.  he is from Guatemala and speaks Popti, a dialect!  It's sweet.  He taught us how to say some pretty cool stuff.  He hasn't ever been really religious in his life, but his "woman" is and doesn't like us very much.  We found him knocking doors and his wife was out of town, so he let us in.  He had lots of sweet questions and we think he has got lots of potential. 

Today has been a pretty awesome day today too.  Guess what time we woke up at?  4:30!  Hooray! (not)  We had plans to go to Denny's as a district to start off the day.  We still had to do our exercise at the beginning of the day, so we had to wake up earlier.  We were going to go at 6, so we could have time to eat and not be rushed and then be able to start of our studies on time too.  But, some Elder in our district *cough*ElderBelbin*cough* doesn't like to get up on time!  So, we ended up going to Denny's at like, 7.  But, it was sweet!  We received some awesome coupons in the mail like a month ago, which is why we went to Denny's :)  Then... backtrack.  Like a week ago we had a guy call us and tell us that he was going to do an oil change on our car.  So, he came this morning.  This is the first time I have ever heard of someone doing a mobile oil change, so I was kind of sketchy.  So, we gave him the keys and went back into our apartment.  He said he was going to take like, 25-30 minutes.  So, we went inside and did some stuff and came back out and our car was GONE.  I was like, "OMJ, did he just steal our car?!?!!"  It was scary.  But, then he came back like 10 minutes later and told us he took it to the street because he wasn't allowed to do it in the parking lot of the complex or something.  I hope that story makes sense.  It was pretty funny.

So, we won't know until Saturday night, but it's like 100% I am being transferred.  I have been in San Marcos for just about six months now!   I think I am going back up north to San Clemente (with Elder Hansen!!!) but, I am not sure!  It will be a big surprise! 

Guess how cold it was this morning?  31 degrees!!!  It was below freezing!  We were soooooooooooooooooooooooo cold...  I hate cold :(  Good thing I am staying here!  We talked to someone on Saturday night that said it was going to snow sometime this week in Escondido.  The first time in 70 years!  Crazy!  I believe it too!  It's so cold!

Tell James I said hi!

I am glad you like the sweater!  It's sweet.  Funny story.  The week before I bought my sweater, Elder Jensen bought one for him, but his is just all black.  Then the next week I had bought mine.  Then that Saturday night, we had a ward activity and so all the missionaries went.  Turns out that Elder Gneiting and Elder Belbin had both bought sweaters too!  Elder Belbin bought one like Elder Jensen and Elder Gneiting bought one like me (but red).  It was funny

Well, that's all for this week!

Have a good week!

Love, Elder Hunt

P.S.  WILD ANIMALS!

Wild Animal Park!!!

So, today we are off to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park!  It a HUGE place (like 2,000) acres and it has a bunch of animals.  I think it's like a safari type thing.  IT IS GOING TO BE SO COOL!  We can hand feed giraffes!  Hand feed them!  There is a bunch of other cool stuff to do too.  It's down in Escondido.  

So, I forgot my journal AND my planner today... I will do my best to remember what we have done this week.  

We found some sweet new investigators this week.  One lady is named Evelyn.  She is the neighbor of some members from the ward.  Other missionaries taught her about 3 years ago, and we decided to stop by and see if she still lived there.  She did!  She is pretty cool.  She has two kids, a 23 year old and an 8 month old.  She didn't make some good decisions in life and had her first kid at 15...  But, then she changed stuff around the past 10 or so years and really put her head on straight.  She said she was pregnant about 3 o 4 years ago too, but her baby then never developed a heart and so she had to abort...  But, we taught her the basics of the Plan of Salvation and she seems really interested in learning more!  It was a sweet lesson.  We are going back this Thursday to teach her again.

The other investigator we found is named George!  He is a 17 year old kid that some other missionaries found while on the blitz we had.  We have been trying to teach him since then, but he is never home or always busy...  But, we finally taught him!  Well, I didn't.  Elder Gneiting and I had exchanges on Friday and Saturday, so Elder Belbin and Elder Jensen were in this area and went and taught him.  They said he was pretty cool and super interested!  We have an appointment with him on Sunday, so that's sweet. 

The other investigators are all good too.  We almost set a date with Maria, but her mom was in town and her mom doesn't really support her decision to be baptized and that really put a downer on the lesson we had...  But, we have her tonight and her mom went back to Mexico, so we are setting a date!!!

I think that's all for today...  I wish I had my planner to tell you what's going on or my journal, but we went shopping this morning and are going to the Park at 11, so I didn't bring anything...  But, I already told you all the important stuff, so that's okay!  I love being a missionary!  I know this Gospel is so true and we belong to the ONE and ONLY TRUE church in the whole entire world!  Jose Smith restored the church and the Book of Mormon is the EVIDENCE we have of the Restoration! I love reading it and finding counsel and comfort within its pages.  There is nothing better than the scriptures!  

I hope you have a wonderful week and I will talk to you more next week!

Love, Elder Hunt :)

mas fotos

1. A big pile of the ties I have already worn

2. The ties I have yet to wear

3. Sweet shirt the mission gave out

4. Sweet OMJ shirt

The sad thing about having so many ties is that it takes soooooooo long for me to return to wear the same tie...  :( 

FELIZ ANO NUEVO!

Hola!  This is going to have to be a quick email.  We actually had P-Day yesterday because a lot of the youth had the day off yesterday, so we had P-Day yesterday and played games with them pretty much all day.  I am SUPER sore, but it was so much fun!  We played soccer and volleyball and a bunch of other sports.  It was a lot of fun!

So, my new year was pretty exciting!  We had lunch at a member's house, then we went out checking up on our investigators, then we had a lesson with Maria Parra at 4, and she fed us too (we didn't expect that) and then we had dinner at another member's house!  We had to be in house at 6:30, so we didn't get much done after that.  But, we ate a lot and it was good!  After we arrived home, we planned and cleaned for pretty much the whole night.  We have a cleaning inspection tomorrow, so we have to be ready for that.  And since we had P-Day yesterday and not today, we had to start early on our cleaning. 

We found a new investigator on Sunday!  He is really cool.  He is named Alonzo.  He is from Guatemala.  We had a pretty good lesson with him.  Right now he is going to an Apostolic church, but he let us in and we taught him!  Before he was going to the Catholic church, but never really believed.  But, in the year 2001, he was driving drunk and killed someone.  So, he went to jail and there found the church he goes to now.  He is a really cool guy and has lots of potential. 

Another HUGE miracle.  We were teaching Maria some day last week and she said she wanted to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We were talking to her about baptism and all of a sudden she told us, "Yeah, I have been thinking about it and I want to be baptized in January sometime."  OMJ!!!  She went to church and brought her mom last Sunday too!  Also, we were at her house for New Year's Eve for a lesson and she told us that she had been out shopping earlier for more dresses to have to wear at church so she could have a variety of things to wear to church!  It's a Christmas miracle!  We have a lesson with her tonight, so we are going to set a date with her!

Christmas was sweet.  The rest of the day Elder Jensen and I just went out caroling with some members.  It was awesome!

I received lots of candy and socks and ties.  Like, 5 or 6 ties! 

I haven't received any packages from Todd, but I probably will this Saturday!  or tomorrow.  idk

I didn't think too much of the end of the world... :( my mind was occupied with other stuff!  What happened?!  Did anything crazy happen?  What did people say?  We were at the library the day before it happened and there was this one guy asking around for the movie 2012 so that he could prepare himself for when the world ended jajajajajajajajajajaja!!!

Well, sorry for the short email, but I hope you have a wonderful week!  Les amo!

elder Hunt

Pictures:

1. My Christmas card I received from the FIRST PRESIDENCY

2. All my sweet watches

3. The SWEET OMJ tie

4. Me wearing the SWEET OMJ tie