Bautismo!!!

So, the week was pretty sweet.  Last Tuesday we taught Haylie for the first time.  Turns out it wasn't her dad that did not allow her to be baptized but her mom.  But, the dad and the mom separated and the dad allowed her to be baptized.  We had planned on going over the Restoration with her.  Usually appointments take 40-50 minutes.  We taught the Restoration to her in like, 10.  Since she had been going to church her entire life, she had already known EVERYTHING.  So, when we asked her questions, she already knew the answers.  It was pretty cool.  

Wednesday was exchanges with Elder Nelson!  I went to his area in San Juan.  I don't remember if I told you this or not, but they have this one area called La Zanja (in Spanish zanja means trench).  It is like 15 streets or so FULL of Spanish people.  I think there are maybe 3 or 4 white people that live there.  So, we spent our whole day there.  It is such a sweet area.  

Thursday was a good day too.  We weren't able to teach Adriana again because she had left with her sister to go and do something in Huntington Beach...  I am getting kind of worried about her...  

Friday was super good.  We had a little of weekly planning and Haylie had her baptismal interview.  She passed, of course!  It was her birthday too, so we made her cookies and gave her a few little toys.  Then Elder Thompson and I had to go and set up for the activity we were going to have.  We had planned out to do a missionary activity because the last one this ward had had was the one for Christmas!  So, we got everything all planned out and it was a good activity!  We played some games, ate some food and watched a few Mormon messages.  It had a good turnout and we are going to do it the end of every month so that the members have an opportunity to invite their friends.  

Saturday we had Mormon Helping Hands!  This one was A LOT shorter than the other one I went to.  We went to a park and helped paint benches, plant plants and paint a handball court.  It was a lot of fun.  

And Sunday was the baptism!  WOO!  The baptism was super good.  Haylie was super excited.  Want to know something really funny?  Since we started teaching her on Tuesday and we had exchanges on Wednesday and Thursday, Elder Belbin taught Haylie more than I did!  Jajajaja!  He taught her twice on Wednesday and Thursday and I taught her once on Tuesday.  She was super excited to finally be baptized.  It was a huge miracle!

Monday (yesterday) was pretty good too.  Since we were on bikes, it was a lot more difficult to arrive to places.  We rode up this HUGE hill.  It was hard.  I didn't make it because I am not accustomed to riding a bike yet haha.  I can't believe I have been a missionary for almost a year and a half and never have ridden a bike until now!  Crazy!  It was a lot of fun now.  Not at the time, but looking back on it.  Riding bikes is fun!  Sometimes.  

Haha I am good with pants.  There is a member in the ward that knows how to sew, so I am going to bring them to her to see if she can fix them.  My Ross pants aren't ruined, they just have a hole in them; it's not very noticeable.  I am always wearing my helmet and locking up my bike :)

I hope Jaxon receives his call soon!  I have been telling everyone that he would be!  Everyone wants to know to where he is going!

Kind of short letter this week, but it's all okay!  Everything is great in the work of the Lord!  Nothing can stop us!  I thought I couldn't make it up the hill nor walk after making it up, but I did!  God works miracles all the time, especially little tiny ones.  We just have to open up our eyes and really LOOK for them!

I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love, Elder Hunt

Miracle baptism!

We had a SWEET miracle on Sunday.  But, I will tell you about that later.

This week has been pretty good.  Had some pretty good lessons, exchanges and miracles.  

Since Elder Thompson is District Leader, we have Zone Leader exchanges.  I haven't been on exchanges with Zone Leaders since Rancho!  But, we had them on Thursday and I went to English work!  I went with Elder Goulding.  He is super cool.  We worked a little together in Vista and then we both went to Escondido at the same time.  He moved in with Elder Gneiting and Elder Hansen in their four man apartment in San Marcos.  So, Elder Goulding and I have been friends for a few months.  It was awesome to go on exchanges with him.  He goes home the end of this transfer.  We taught a few lessons and it was really good.  English work is super difficult to adjust to.  I had people all the time telling me, "You're really quite!"  Then I had to explain to them that I was usually in Spanish work.  I had one lady ask me if I could still understand English hahahahaha.  It was fun.

Our investigators are doing well.  We taught Daniel a few times and he's been really receptive.  He was going to attend church with us on Sunday but he received a call that told him that his father in law was getting worse.  So, he wasn't able to go to church :( And we talked to Daniel yesterday while riding our bikes and he told us that his father in law died yesterday and he's going to Mexico this week and part of next week, so we won't be able to meet with him :(  Hopefully he keeps his ganas to learn!  We are trying to talk to his wife too in order for her to know the plan of salvation and that she can see her father again.  

Adriana is doing well.  I was on exchanges on Thursday, so I wasn't able to teach her... Then I found out on Friday when I came back to my area that the other Elders didn't teach her either because she had cancelled :(  and she didn't come to church either!  We were getting worried because we hadn't seen her for a while and it's not good to not be in contact with your investigators for that amount of time.  So, we went by Sunday and she was finally home!  We think her dad might be feeding her anti info because she was talking to us about el dia de reposo and that it is supposed to be Saturday and not Sunday...  Her dad has been giving her stuff to ask us, we think.  Hopefully she doesn't turn bad!  But, we have an appointment with her on Thursday, so we will hopefully see what's going on.  We think the white member might have scared her a little bit too... Yikes.

We had a lesson with Gustavo yesterday.  Kinda.  He is looking for work so we put him in contact with a member that is hiring people.  We started reading a little from Alma 40, but then the member showed up to talk to Gustavo about work.  So, then we left.  But, that's okay because Gustavo had a fellowshipper now!  Jajaja.

That's about all for investigatores this week.

Now, miracle time.  On Sunday the Hermanas had a baptism.  So, we went to it.  Bishop talked to us there and said, "Hey Elders, do you want a baptism this weekend?"  So, then he told us of a member family who has a daughter that is turning 9 on Friday.  Her dad is inactive and never had allowed her to be baptized until now.  The daughter (her name is Haley) has already asked Bishop to baptize her and the baptism is pretty much all set up.  All we have to do is teach her!  It's a crazy cool miracle because (I don't remember if I told you or not) but as a mission we have a goal of 300 baptisms before the mission splits on June 30.  Each companionship has to get at least 2 baptisms for us to reach the goal.  We have been working hard and we have been blessed!  It's a sweet miracle.  We have an appointment today with her.  

Yesterday was crazy.  Because of all the new missionaries, there are lots of new areas opening up within the mission.  Lots of English wards are getting 2 sets of missionaries.  So this past transfer (2 weeks ago)  there were two new sets of Sisters that came into 2 different English wards.  President Cook has a policy that all Sisters get cars, no matter what.  So, because of that, a few English missionaries had lost their car.  But, this one English missionary insisted that he needed a car even though his area isn't even 2 miles long...  It's just my opinion but I think he is being a baby.  So, he got his way somehow and Elder Nelson and Elder Belbin had to give up their car and we were in a car share.  I didn't think it was possible for us  in Dana to do a car share because our area is so big and not many places to work.  So, we didn't really do a car share...  We just took it the whole time and Elder Nelson and Elder Belbin rode bikes and walked and we dropped them off in places.  Anyways, last week the Zone Leaders told us that we (Dana Point) were moving back up to Dana to be more close to our area and to share the car with this missionary that complained.  So, we were like, okay...  So, yesterday and Sunday night we packed up all of our stuff and took it all to the apartment in Dana.  Back track for a second.  The apartment in Dana has four English missionaries and two of them are living out of area.  So, we switched places with the other two missionaries.  We moved all our stuff to Dana and they moved all their stuff to San Juan.  The Zone Leaders had told us that we would share the car Sunday-Wednesday (us) Thursday-Saturday (them).  But, this other missionary didn't like this arrangement so he tried to change it.  This missionary is super stubborn and has to have everything his way.  But, we had set up our dinners and appointments and everything according to the schedule that the Zone Leaders had given us.  So, long story short. (I hope all this is understandable...)  We moved all our stuff to Dana and then moved it all back to San Juan.  We are in a car share with the other Spanish missionaries and ride bikes!  I rode my bike for the first time yesterday!  It rides sooooooo nice!  Riding bikes isn't as bad as I thought.  I ripped a huge hole in my pants though on the way home...  Good thing they are the Ross pants I bought and only cost 17 dollars :)  Yesterday was crazy. 

El tiempo me ha acabado! Hasta la proxima semana!

Hard work = blessings!  

Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

Pictures: 

This is the caterpillar (oruga en espanol) that you sent a little while ago.  We liked to play with him.  But, we played with him so much that he got stretched out...  Then we decided to poke a hole in him to put the pump in to make him bigger.  He's a vegetable..  We did lots of surgeries on him the past few days... I hope he makes it!

Elder Goulding

Muchas lecciones!

Woo!  Lots of lessons this week!

So, we had the three from Monday that I had told you about last week.

None Tuesday :(

None Wednesday :(

Two on Thursday with Gustavo and Adriana!

The lesson with Gustavo was good.  We finished talking about the Restoration of the church.  He really liked it, but he gets side tracked so easily...  We were going to have a lesson with him today, but he never answered his phone, so we didn't go :(  But, maybe soon!  He will definitely be baptized.

The lesson we had with Adriana was super good too.  We had a member from the English ward come with us.  Cool story there.  Last... Monday night?  We were sitting in our car making a few calls after we had just finished visiting a member and some lady drove right next to us and rolled down her window and asked if we were the Spanish missionaries.  A little freaked out, we told her yes, and she told us she was a member in the English ward.  She served a mission to Peru and had moved to Mexico for like, 3 or 4 years with her family, so her whole family knows Spanish. (she has a husband, a 23, 21, 17, 14 and a 10 year old)  So, she said her family always used to help the Spanish missionaries out with lessons and stuff.  So, that was a cool miracle.  It's hard up here in the rich part to find members to help us out because they work so much and their schedules are crazy. Anyways. So we had the husband of this family come with us to the lesson with Adriana.  We wanted to younger kid 17 but he wasn't home :( So, the lesson was really good.  The member went into some kind of deeper stuff, which wasn't too good, but thankfully nothing super crazy like Kolob!  Adriana is super excited to be baptized and feels that it's all true.  She's awesome.  She didn't come to church on Sunday, and we don't know why.  She works all day Monday - Wednesday and Saturday and Sunday in the afternoons, so we haven't been able to see her yet.  But, we have a lesson with her on Thursday, so it's going to be good!

On Friday we taught Pablo and la familia Berdeja.  Pablo is doing good.  He's still stuck on the point "I want to be 100% that I am making the right choice before doing anything."  The only problem is is that we don't think he's reading or praying in order to help him in the process... We have another lesson with him Friday, so we will see where it goes. With Berdeja it was not a good lesson.  He basically talked the entire time and we didn't get anything in.  IT was just him, not his family.  He likes to talk.  

Saturday none :(

Sunday two!  With Daniel and Arturo!  

With Daniel, he has always been interested in the message, but he's always been missing something but we never knew what...  But, something has changed within him and he's accepting the message so much better!  After the lesson we had with him about the 10 commandments last week, he has been super focused and willing and ready to learn.  It's a huge miracle to see something like that happen.  He wasn't able to go to church Sunday, but he said for sure this next one.

The lesson with Arturo was awesome too.  We were going to talk to him about priorities and how God needs to be put first in our lives.  We thought it would be difficult to try and tell him that.  But, we never even mentioned it; he did!  He knows he needs to make time in his life so that he can go to church and be baptized.  We talked to him about eternal families and temples and his goal is to go to the temple!  It was a sweet lesson.  He is even looking for a new job so that he can have more time to study!  It's so cool!

Yesterday we had a lesson with Noe.  It wasn't too good.  We invited him to be baptized and he said no; that he doesn't think he is prepared enough to be baptized.  I really don't think he has any desire.  He doesn't read, doesn't come to church or anything... We are going to do a church tour with them to see if that sparks any fire or anything, but if not, then they will probably be dropped... :(

Transfers:  Elder Belbin is Elder Nelson's new companion!

Next P-Day for sure you will receive pictures!  I forgot my camera today :(  Tomorrow we have a cleaning check, so we have been going crazy cleaning.  Our house is sooooooooo clean!!!

Good luck in your new callings!  I am sure they will be great!  How's the ward?  Any new people?   Jajaja kids are so funny!

I think that's it for this week. Jaxon should be receiving his call soon!  I say Costa Rica!  WOO!

Que tenga una buena semana!

Love, Elder Hunt

Me quedo!

Me quedo este traslado!  Estoy muy feliz.  Vamos a tener mucho exito este traslado y queria ser parte de el.  

This past week has been sweet!  We have set two new fechas!  WOO!  We have taught some sweet lessons too.  Lots of milagros!

So, Wednesday we had a sweet zone meeting on how we can do invites better to the investigators so that they are more willing to accept them and change.  It was a sweet meeting and I learned a lot from it.  We really used the things we had learned and I think that is one of the main reasons we have had so much success this past week.  We also had a new family move into our area last week, so we went to go and visit them.  They are so cool!  It's a husband and wife and their 19 year old daughter.  They are super missionary focused.  The first day we meet her last week, she asked us for a BOM so that she could give it to a friend that had asked for one.  So cool!  When they lived down in Mexico, their ward was so missionary focused that they continually had 100+ baptisms A MONTH.  Crazy!  Hopefully we can get them to start helping our ward and get some more baptisms!  The last baptism in this ward was in December last year...  But, we have lots of potentials this month and the next!  

Thursday was sweet.  We had 3 lessons!  THREE!  That's so many!  In one night!  Remember la familia Berdeja?  Elder Hansen and I taught them a few times.  Well, the dad contracted shingles and we weren't able to visit them for like, a month.  Then he went to Washington for work for a few weeks.  Finally we were able to meet with them!  We had a SWEET lesson on prophets and how we need them in our day.  They were like, "Yeah, prophets are necessary for us!"  Then we explained General Conference to them and they were so excited to come!  They didn't come and watch it with us... But, they probably watched it at home!  The "wife" was super interested too, which was awesome because she's never been that interested before.  

Then we had a lesson with Noe!  We have been teaching him since Elder Hansen.  He is a really nice guy, but has a few problems accepting that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  But, he is cool.  We taught him a little about the plan of salvation and our purpose here in life.  

Then we had a lesson with Adriana!  That lesson wasn't super good (but it turned out to be okay because we had a lesson with her the next day).  Her dad was there and he likes to talk a lot...  Plus she had just returned back from Mexico recently and she was telling us a lot about the stuff she did there.  We didn't teach a whole lot, but we set a good foundation for the next lesson!

Then Friday!  Super sweet lesson with Adriana.  Her two little girls were there, so it was difficult sometimes to teach, but it was sweet.  We had told her the day before we were going to watch the movie of The Restoration, so we watched that.  Upon finishing it, we were talking about it and she said there is no way someone could have made it all up and it has to be true!  We were so excited when she said that!  Then we explained to her about the BOM and that it is the evidence of that Jose Smith was a prophet.  We read the story of Christ being baptized in 2 Nefi 31 and then asked her to be baptized and she said yes!  We set a date for the 4 of mayo.  She said she wanted to learn more first, but then we told her we would help and she is so excited  to be baptized!  Then we watched Elder Holland's Mormon Message about the BOM to introduce her to what conferencia general would be like, and she loved it!  She didn't end up coming to Conference with us because she had to work :(  But, she said she would watch it later!  It's awesome.

Saturday and Sunday were AWESOME.  Conference is the best!  They had some super good talks and some really funny ones.  I love Conference.  I only have one more as a missionary... Time is going too fast!

Yesterday we had 3 lessons again!  Not all at night, 2 during the day and one at night, but it was sweet!  We taught Daniel about the 10 commandments.  The Catholic Church doesn't really teach those to their members... Daniel didn't know anything about them.  But, we had a focus on Sabbath Day, and it was a sweet lesson.  Then we had a lesson with Gustavo!  We taught him about 2 weeks ago, but he has been super difficult to contact.  He is from Colombia and is super super hard to understand sometimes.  But, we get by :)  The first lesson we had with him was just a basic overview of everything.  HE likes to talk.  When living in Colombia, there was a church right in front of his house!  But, he never went...................................................................................  But, that's okay!  Yesterday we taught him and he likes to talk a lot and get off subject...  But, we did our best and invited him to be baptized and he said yes!  Then we set a date for the 11 and he said the same thing Adriana did: "I want to learn more first."  But, he accepted it!  It was sweet!  We are going to have lots of baptisms this transfer!  And we definitley need it.  The mission has a goal of 300 baptisms before the missions split on JUly 1.  That means we have 3 months.  We have a little over 120 baptisms now.  We are going to need all the help we can get!

Transfers:  Elder Farnsworth is leaving.  Elder Nelson is staying.  Elder Thompson is staying.  I am staying.

Haha Elder Farnsworth is Mr Mom around here.  He cooks so much!  But, he is leaving now :(  Maybe I will become Mr Mom!  Quien sabe?

Not much seafood...  We had shrimp the other week, but I hate shrimp.  I wanted to throw up...

Well, lots of sweet miracles this week.  Hopefully this week will be filled with more!  Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

"Remember not to count the days, but to make the days count."

Transfer time

This week was pretty sweet.  We had some good lessons and some cool miracles.

We finally were able to teach Arturo!  We taught him last Wednesday at 9 AM right before district meeting.  It was a super good lesson and we rescheduled his date for the 27 of abril.  Hopefully this time we have more success.  He knows our message is true and feels super good when he reads the scriptures and prays and stuff, but his work keeps on becoming an obstacle.  He works a ton and it is always super hard to try and find him.  He said he was going to talk to his boss about it (his boss is Mormon too) and see if he can make a few changes so that he can have time to learn.  We are praying for more success with him this time!

Daniel is doing well too.  We were going to have a lesson with him today, but he had to go to the hospital for his suegro.  His suegro still isn't doing too good.  He start radio a little while ago and has had a few treatments.  He wasn't able to come to church but hopefully a session of conference! 

OMJ!!! Conference is so soon!!!  Time flies by too quickly!!!  This weekend last year was my last week with Elder Price.  It's so crazy!!!  Time goes by too fast... After this conference I will only have one more left, and then one more month after that last conference...  WOW.  

Guess who we taught this morning?!  Pablo!  Remember Pablo?  We decided to stop by his house a few days ago to see how he was, and we set an appointment for today!  So, Elder Thompson and I went to go see how he was.  He is doing pretty good, and he still has the same doubt, "I want to be 100% sure that I am making the right decision". So we promised him that, if he prayed and read and came to at least one session of conference with us this weekend, he would receive an answer.  He seemed pretty excited about the conference too.  I don't blame him!  I love Conference!  We hope to have a lot of success with Pablo too.  Maybe a few months ago wasn't his time.  But now it is!  :)

Adriana is back from Mexico too!  She just returned Saturday night.  We gave her a call on Sunday to see how she was, but she didn't answer.  But, she gave us a call yesterday to set up an appointment!  That never happens!  She's awesome.  She said she was reading the BOM while she was down there, but then lost it :(  one of the reasons why she went down to Mexico was to donate clothes with her family.  So, she packed up some clothes in a suitcase and then I guess her book got lost in there somewhere too.  So, she lost it... But, that's okay!  Someone else will find that book and be baptized!!!  WOO!  So.  We have an appointment with her on Thursday.  

This is the last week of the transfer!  I am pretty sure I am going to stay here with Elder Thompson for one more.  Elder Farnsworth and Elder Nelson have been together for 3 transfers, which is a long time for Spanish missionaries, and we think Elder Farnsworth will go.  We hope Elder Nelson will train!  But, we will find out tomorrow :) President Cook does all his leadership calls on Wednesdays.  Time will tell!

The Easter packages were sweet!  Especially the little books. Now I have three!  One from Christmas and two from Easter.  I love to flip through them every once in a while.  They are so awesome!

Missionary work is growing so much!  All the time I hear of new mission stuff.  http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-secures-use-of-additional-buildings-for-missionary-training 

The work is growing more than we even know!!!

Jajajajajaja I loved the April Fool's joke!  I told Elder Thompson (he doesn't like BYU and likes Utah State) and he was freaking out too.  Jajajaja that's so funny!  I didn't play any nor did we have any played on us...  As missionaries, we don't really get holidays like that... Just Conferencia General :)  which is this weekend!  WOO!

I think that is it for this week!  I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will look forward to hearing what happened this week!

Love you all! Elder Hunt

P.S.  Tell Connor he is old!

Pictures of our apartment