Una gran sorpresa!

Wow.  You could never guess where I am right now.  Nor with who.  Even if I gave you like, 100 guesses, I don't think you could ever guess.  I am in Mission Viejo with the one and only Elder Nealy.  Crazy, right?!  We were SUPER surprised at transfers.  I thought for sure I was going to never come back here.  So, I am in Mission Viejo now.  Again.  It's so crazy seeing all the same people again!  Especially since I could never communicate with them before, but now I can!  It's kind of nice not having to get to know a whole new ward. :) 

So, Elder Owens went back to Dana and is with Elder Gneiting.  Crazy.  Elder Thompson went to English work (kind of.  he has a little Spanish group that they teach. In Fallbrook.)

It's super sweet being back in Mission Viejo.  When the people that I taught in Dana get baptized, that means I can return!  WOO!

This week was pretty good.  English classes are still going on here!  Woo!  But, we were super late to them on Tuesday...  And on Thursday nobody showed up :(  But, that's okay! 

We taught a ton of lessons this week.  We taught 12 lessons!  That's a lot more than I had in Dana.  Our area is actually kind of small with like, 3 complexes with Spanish people.  We have this one place called Promenade where we basically spend all of our time.  It's cool.  It's right next to the stake center, the mall and Saddleback College.  So, there's lots of people to talk to. 

I don't really know a whole lot about the investigators we have, but I will do my best to describe them.

There is this one kid named Livan.  he's a freshman that looks like he's 18.  It's crazy.  He goes to some Christian church but decided that he wanted to learn more.  He's really strange, but a cool kid.

There is this couple named Luis and Priscila.  Luis is 25 and Priscila is 21.  They just had a baby 3 months ago.  They are going to be baptized!  Luis is married to another woman, but they are getting a divorce next week and will be able to be married a month later!  WOO!  Elder Nealy and Elder Robinson found them knocking.  We have sacrament meeting last here, and Luis works on Sundays, but right after he gets off of work, they come to church!  Even though they only come for like, 25 minutes, they come and they really like it.  It shows a big desire for them because they live like, 20 minutes away from the church and so to only come for 25 minutes is sweet. 

I don't know much about the other investigators, but when we start teaching them more, I will be able to tell you more about them and how the lessons go.

So, we are full time car here.  No bike for me!  I think I might die here... (end my mission)  I only have 4 transfers left... Elder Nealy has been here for 3 (this is number 3) so he could stay with me one more and then I could have another companion for two and then go home.  Time is super fast!!!  I am most likely going to be an Irvine missionary.  I am kind of excited.  But, President said there are no Spanish in the two stakes that are coming from the Anaheim mission.  So.  There will only be two Spanish wards in Irvine.  Mission Viejo and San Juan.  Crazy.  Sounds like some missionaries might have to go to English work...

YAY JAXON IS GRADUATING!!!  I got the invite in the mail yesterday.  It was sweet. Tell him to stop being lazy and email me!

That's so crazy about Maddy!  Hopefully she is okay!  That's a long time with a bone fracture... She is always broken jaja

Trek is going to be fun!  How long is it?  How much are you going to walk?

I haven't thought of anything that I need or want for my birthday... Maybe money?  Jaja.  If you buy me garments, mesh would be preferable :) it gets hot up here

Well, I think that is all for this week!  I am excited for this week!  We have exchanges with the Zone Leaders tomorrow and I am staying here!  And the Zone Leader that is coming with me doesn't speak Spanish!  So, I am going to be teaching by myself all day tomorrow.  :) 

Oh yeah.  we went to el temple today :)  It was nice

Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

1.  Elder Nealy and I at the temple (he likes to take weird pictures)

2.  Elder Nealy and I at the temple

3.  Our district

Me voy :(

So, surprising news.  I am leaving Dana Point :(  I am super sad.  This has probably been my most favorite area.  It was a big shock too.  I don't think I told you this, but we have this thing called AMPs.  I don't remember what it stands for...  Anyways, AMPs is when the Zone Leaders meet with the District Leaders and discuss what would be good for all the missionaries.  They happened like, 2 weeks ago.  During AMPs, the Zone Leaders asked Elder Thompson if he would be willing to go to English work for a little. (Not really sure why.  He kind of struggles with Spanish, but I don't understand why they would send him to English work...)  So, Elder Thompson has been thinking for the 2 weeks that he was going to English work and I was staying here with Elder Gneiting.  Well, we were wrong.  Elder Gneiting is staying and Elder Thompson and I are leaving.  Crazy.  Elder Gneiting is basically whitewashing.  Whitewashing means moving to a new area with a companion that has never been there before.  He has been here a week, but that is not even close to enough time to learn an area...  So, he's staying and Elder Thompson and I are going.  Everyone thinks that I am going to Del Mar.  It's one of the few places I haven't been and they say that the Elder there needs help with his Spanish and I guess that is my calling in life haha; help people with their Spanish.  But, we will find out tonight!  

So, this week has been pretty good.  We still haven't found any new investigators... But, we taught a few of the ones that we do have!  On Wednesday, we taught Gustavo.  He is kind of a crazy guy and loves to talk.  We taught him the Restoration again, because we don't believe that he understands it.  He always says he wants to come to church, but he never does...  But, recently he started working with a member from the ward, and so hopefully the member will talk to him more about the church and stuff!

Thursday was good!  We were going to teach Adriana with one of the members, Tony.  Tony is super cool.  He is the one that offered Gustavo work.  He is like... 26 or 27?  So, anyways, we were going to go teach her with Tony, but he arrived like, 30 minutes late.  And we had another appointment to go to at 8.  So, we went on splits!  Woo!  Elder Gneiting and  ELder Thompson went and taught Javier and I went with Tony to teach Adriana.  But, she was getting ready to leave for her daughter's birthday party :(  so, Tony and I went knocking and contacting.  It was pretty cool.  I haven't been on splits since I was with Elder Josse!  And Elder Gneiting and Elder Thompson taught Arturo, a friend of Javier that was there (he wasn't interested :( ) and then I came back and we all taught Javier!  It was a cool day.

On Friday we taught Arturo!  I don't think I have ever taught Arturo so frequently in my whole time here!  Anyways, we watched the movie John Tanner with him.  He really liked it.  I don't remember if I told you this or not, but as an assignment for Arturo, we gave him the movie "Together Forever". When we went by on Friday, he said he had watched it with his wife and daughter FOUR TIMES.  They watched it four times together and loved it!  It was super cool.  We also taught him yesterday about prophets and he understood it super well.  He also said he hasn't gone in to work with his boss for like, a week.  He is super set on finding another job so he can have more time to study and stuff.  Arturo is so cool!

On Sunday we taught Adriana!  I don't know how it worked out, because we were SUPER lucky to teach her.  She usually starts work around 2 on Sundays and works all morning with her mom.  But, she had asked for work off for the weekend.  So, we were able to teach her!  It was a super good lesson.  We talked a lot of the authority that the church has and why we need to be baptized by someone that holds that authority.  She had some questions about how we can know that this is the true church and where does it say that we need to have the authority.  We had given her Moroni 10 to read the last time.  We told her to read just 3-5 (the promise of Moroni) but she liked those verses so much that she read the whole entire chapter!  She is awesome.  We asked her if she wanted to know the truth and we told her about Moroni's promise again and she was like, "Yeah, I really want to know if this is true."  She is prepared and will be baptized, she just has to pray about it and read.  She cried when I told her I was leaving and said that it was a sign from God that we talked to her that day we met her.  She had been wanting to learn more about the Bible and stuff.  She had been learning with her Dad, but she never felt like she could apply it.  Then we came and helped her out a ton!  She says she always feels so good when we come by.  I hope I will be able to go to her baptism!  But, if I go to Del Mar, probably not :(

Other investigators.

Daniel.  We haven't met with him for a long time...  He is never home :( His mother-in-law has returned from the hospital back to home, so that's good.

Pablo.  Nothing. :( 

Familia Berdeja. Nothing. :(

Nothing has really happened with a lot of the investigators...  Hopefully Elder Gneiting and his new companion can make something happen!

Well, I think that is it for this week! Pretty long email, which is good.  I hope you have a wonderful week!  I love you all!

Love, Elder Hunt

District pictures from my time here in Dana- not sure if I sent them to you already

1st- fotos!

Pictures first this time :)

Sorry, no bike picture still....................

1.  Our district!

2. Arturo and I!

3. My new haircut!  I cut my hair yesterday, like normal and asked Elder Gneiting to cut around the ears.  Well, while he was doing it, the cord got stuck on the chair or something and he cut a big gap in my hair... So, he had to blend it so it would look good and it's super short...  But, that's okay :)

Nobody was home when we went and visited them so I don't have many pictures of the people around here...  We are supposed to go see Adriana today in an hour, so next week I will send that picture!  Hopefully you like the pictures!

Elder Gneiting

So, bad news first before everything else.  I forgot my camera today... I'm a horrible person :(  Today has been pretty crazy.  We had a district activity today and went hiking up this hill by our house.  We climbed up a huge steep hill and it was tiring.  We started at 11 ish and then it took like, 2 hours to climb.  Then we went home and showered and ate some lunch and then got ready to come out and finish the day emailing and shopping.  It's been a crazy day so far!  

Also, as you know, Elder Gneiting is our new companion!  We still have no clue as to why he is with us.  We received a call from the Assistants on Saturday and they told us to be at our house soon to receive a new companion, Elder Gneiting!  It's strange being in a threesome.  It's difficult to transition sometimes and sometimes someone just gets left out.  But, we are working on it.  It will probably only be for one week (transfers are next week).  Usually I would leave because I have more time in this area, but the zone leaders told Elder Thompson that he might be moving to English work this next transfer.  So... I don't know what's going to happen!  I might stay, he might stay or maybe we will both go!  I think it would be really awesome to stay though.  I love this area!

This week has been pretty slow.  On Wednesday we were able to teach Haley and get to know her and her grandma better.  Haley's dad lives with his mom because he split up with his ex-wife.  So, we got to know them a little bit more.  They are a cool family.

Do you remember Arturo?  The one with his son in jail?  The one whom we only teach like once every two or three weeks?  We taught him two times this week!!!  Two times!  It's a miracle!  We taught him on Friday and then again on Saturday.  He is super cool.  He has a goal to go to the temple!  He only has two main problems.  He works A TON and goes until really late and the only day he can see his son is on Sunday at 9.  So.  he can't come to church :(  well, he can, but then he wouldn't be able to see his son...  It's a crazy situation.  I think his son is released in 6 months or a year.  Around there.  I'm not sure.  But, Arturo is super cool.  We had made a batch of cookies (I am Mr. Mom around here again jaja) and made some regular cookies and ones with TONS of salt in them.  Then we told him that life is like a cookie.  If we have too much of one ingredient, the cookies tastes bad, even though it looks okay on the outside.  He really like the object lesson and said he was going to talk to his boss about more time for other things.  Arturo needs time, but he will for sure be baptized.

We had another cool contact the other week too.  We were out in Dana on Saturday walking around.  We talked to this one guy named Jeff the week before and we found him again this week working out in his yard again.  He is a super nice guy and always offers us water and stuff.  His wife was outside working with him too and it turns out she is a member!  Inactive, but still a member!  She was baptized at 14 or something, but went inactive after her boyfriend left on a mission.  Something like that.  Anyways, we were talking to them both and she said she had been wanting to come back to church!  And her husband was all for it too.  So, it's a shame we can't teach them, but we are on the same team!  So, we referred them to the English missionaries.  Hopefully it goes somewhere.

We taught Daniel on Sunday!  His wife's mom is now in the hospital...  The life of his wife must be crazy right now.  They are in Vegas, so we have not been able to teach her yet...  Hopefully soon though!  We set another date for the 8 de junio.  I think this time he will actually be baptized!  I think this is the 4th or 5th date he has had since he started learning... In October.  

Other investigators.  Adriana.  We were going to have a lesson with her on Friday, but it was Mexican Mother's Day... Mother's Day in Mexico is always the 10th of May, no matter what.  So, we couldn't teach her :( we were going to teach her yesterday too, but she had problems with her car :( so, not yesterday either.  Hopefully on this Thursday we can teach her.  

Familia Berdeja.  Haven't taught them in over a month :(

Pablo.  Cancelled our lessons we had.  Another lesson set for Thursday.  I think we might drop him because he isn't progressing and doesn't seem to want to progress... :(

Gustavo.  FINALLY got a hold of him.  We haven't taught/talked/seen him for like, 3 weeks.  But, we just called him today and set an appointment for tomorrow!  

We have found some SWEET potenciales this week and so hopefully next week we will have some new investigators to talk to you about!

FaceTime was super sweet.  Last call home I will make as a missionary... We were thinking about making cookies for the family that let us call.  Not ones with sal though jajajaja

When are you going on Trek?!  Who's going?  Where are you going?  

Kelsey is old!  I can't believe all the '05 kids are going to be baptized soon!  They are so old!  Time is going by really fast...  I am going to miss almost all of them :(

well, I think that is it for this week.  Next week I PROMISE pictures!  Pinky promise x2!  

I love you all!

Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

Mother's Day 2013

it was so good to talk to you on Sunday!  I miss you!  Time is going by fast!

I love you Mom!

Six months...

This week was an exciting week!  

On Wednesday, we had exchanges and I went with Elder Belbin!  I went to La Zanja again!  It is such an awesome area.  It's like a mini Escondido, but better because we are in Orange County :) I love Orange County!  I never want to leave!  We met some pretty cool people on exchanges and hopefully the other Elderes will have some sweet new investigators.

On Thursday we finally taught Adriana!  It was a good lesson.  She had a date to be baptized el 4 de mayo, but we didn't meet with her for 2 or 3 weeks, and so that failed...  We talked to her a lot of the Gospel of Jesucristo and how it can help her out.  We tried setting up a new baptism date for her for the 25th of may and we found out her doubt!  She really wants to be baptized so that she can be clean from her sins, but she doesn't want to be Mormon...  She likes being Catholic and likes the beliefs that she has right now and doesn't want to change them...  Her concern is kind of strange, but we found it!  We don't think she understands the power of authority that we have.  Neither does her dad.  Her dad is feeding her a lot of information wrong.  HE doesn't believe either that there is one church that has the authority either; it just matters that you are baptized.  So, we are trying to talk to him about it too.  We have an appointment with her on Friday, so hopefully all goes well!  She is ready to be baptized, she just needs to come to church and understand the authority that we have in our church.  Soon as we have that down, BAUTISMO.  She's awesome.  

On Friday, we had a surprise lesson with Pablo.  We had a member with us because we had another lesson that fell through, so we decided to go and visit Pablo.  The member that was with us is a good friend of Pablo.  So, we had a lesson.  It was a decent lesson.  Pablo is still pretty stuck on the "I'M Catholic, my wife is Catholic and I don't want to cause any problems" thing.  They are going to baptize their 7 year old in the Catholic church sometime soon..............  NOooooooooo...  We are still trying, but it is looking like he doesn't want to do anything... :(  

Daniel has finally come back from Mexico!  I don't think I told you... His father in law passed away like 2 weeks ago. I think.  Something like that.  So, he went to Mexico for the funeral.  He came back and we taught him on Saturday!  Turns out his wife's sister also passed away on Friday.  She had already had heart problems, and the whole thing with her dad just did her in.  Crazy.  His wife has gone through 2 deaths within a 2 week period.  And the mom is really sick too, so it won't be long...  Crazy.  We taught Daniel on Saturday about the Plan of Salvation and where all his family members go after death (Because he thinks everything ends after death).  He really liked the plan and wants to share it with his wife.  We want to teach his wife too, but she is busy... :( soon though! Soon!

Cool miracle on Sunday.  The Hermanas are teaching someone and this someone was looking for work but couldn't find anyone.  We (elder Thompson and I) were out contacting after church talking to people.  We talked to one guy and right away he said, "Hey, do you guys know anyone that is looking for work?"  MILAGRO!  It was sweet.  Milagros are everywhere!  

Yesterday we have conferencia de zona! (Zone Conference) We talked a lot about how we can help the investigators see the importance of the message by teaching to their desires.  Like, if they desire more happiness and time with their family, then teach to that.  It was really good.  I learned a lot.  I feel like these past few weeks I have become a lot better missionary than before.  I have realized that my time is drawing to a close VERY quickly...  Come the 9th of May (2 days away) is my six month mark!  I only have six months left!  I am in the same spot that Elder Price was in when he trained me.  C. R. A. Z. Y. Time goes by so rapidly.  I really haven't been the most diligent missionary, but I can change all that if I work super hard my last six months.  Only six more months left of 100% preaching the Gospel!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Picture with me on a bike next week :) Pinky promise

Riding a bike is sweet!  Riding to Dana Point is hard though.  I don't think there is any way for you to see the hill we ride up, but it's steep.  But, it's good exercise!  It's fun too.  

We aren't going to be able to reach the goal of 300 by the time the mission splits... So, we have lowered the goal to 235.  It's a super sweet goal and we are going to make it!

That's crazy about Maddy's teeth!  What dentist did she go to?  VIP list is the best!

The food here is great.  We eat with members every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.  The other days we make our own food :) Now that Elder Farnsworth left, I make lots of food for everyone!  He was a really good cook.  We eat anything and everything!  We recently found the dollar store in our area :) They actually have really good food!  Cheap too :) No more expensive Ralphs for us!  WOO!

That's so dang cool Dallin is going to Mexico!  Jaxon is going to Costa Rica!  El espanol es el mejor!!!  Ojala que hable espanol!  Pero que sea la voluntad del Senor y no la mia!

No new investigators yet.  But, we sure need some!  The ones we have aren't progressing too well, and we have already dropped a ton...  We need to work more!  

Well, I think que es todo.  Puedo talk in dos languages.  Jaha isn't it suave?  Quiza when I regreso puedo teach you espanol.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK.

Love, Elder Hunt

Dia de las madres!

So, we have church from 11 to 2 as well!  But California time.

We will probably be calling after church sometime.  The family we are going to go with has Skype, so Skype is a possibility! Will you be home all day in order to call?