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 :)

time goes by too fast!

On Saturday, we had a member (hermana Mosqueda) from Ramona (a city close to Escondido that used to be in our mission but was taken out and given to San Diego about a year and a half ago) call us.  She told us that she had someone for us to teach!  So, Saturday night, we went over.  It was a family of 4: Fabrisio (dad, from Chile), Yolanda (mom, from Mexico), Denya (19) and Allen (13).  They said they had been taught a little by missionaries before, about 6 months ago, in Escondido.  Then they moved to San Marcos and lost contact.  Hermana Mosqueda from Ramona met them about 4 months ago and started to become their friends.  She said last week that she had a really strong impression to call them up to set up an appointment with the missionaries.  Denya has some sort of cancer and hermana Mosqueda said she was thinking of Denya and that she needed to bring the missionaries over to teach the family.  We taught them about faith and that through faith and doing the things God asks of us, we can be healed.  At the end of the lesson, we gave her a blessing!  it was sweet!!!  The family is really cool.  The mom is a little duro, but I could see them being baptized soon. 

On Friday (the day before), we got another new investigator!  His name is Elias and we talked to him about Wednesday or something.  He seems pretty cool. 

Yesterday we were knocking on one street and we ran into this guy named Raul.  We were talking to him about eternal families and he got really interested in the power of sealing families together after death.  He has a wife and a 3 year old daughter.  He also told us he was looking for a church to go to because the one he goes to now isn't satisfying.  So, we are going to introduce him to the BEST church! 

That's really all that happened this week.  It was kind of slow, but it's flying by!

So, with the caterpillar... It wasn't cooked, I don't think. I chewed it and it was dead.  And it tasted disgusting.  But, now I can say I have eaten a caterpillar!  WOO!  Like I ate menudo!  WOO!

Elder Acaro is good companion.  I have started to lose some Spanish because I speak so much English with him!  haha.  We get along pretty well.  His area before was like, jam packed 100% Spanish people, and now that he has moved here, he thinks it's the same, but it's like jam packed 90% white people.  So, that causes some conflict because he wants to do things like he did in his old area, but we work it out pretty good.  I just figured this out the other day, but I am greenie busting!  Crazy!  Greenie busting Elder Nealy's brother!  (because Elder Driaza trained Elder Nealy and Elder Acaro, so they are brothers)  But, being with Elder Acaro is like teaching English classes all day!  It's fun!

Only one new Spanish missionary came in, and Elder Driaza is training him!  But, not for long because Elder Driaza goes home at the end of this transfer... I haven't met any of the English ones though.  But that's okay, who needs English missionaries? ;)

I did receive all the packages!  Thank you!  I was going to send some pictures today, but I forgot my adapter thing... So, next week!  Pinky promise!

Congrats to Maddy and her soccer team!  The championship is super good!  That's too bad they lost though :(  Maybe next year!

I didn't send anything about the BYU game?!  Maybe it was because I was so angry... haha jk, that's too bad they lost :( good thing they didn't play on Sunday though!  ;)  why did they lose to Boise State?!?!  YAY Westlake!

Have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Hunt

P.S.

The weather here is still perfect and I can never go back to Utah.

New companion: Elder Acaro!

So, I have another thing to add on my super weird items that I have eaten list.  For a part of zone activity last week, we ate... Caterpillars!!!  YAY!  They were kind of gross and didn't taste very good, but now I can say I have eaten a caterpillar!  WOO!

So, I am getting a new companion today.  Usually we don't know who they are until Tuesday night during transfer meeting, but Elder Acaro is actually already serving in this ward, so they just decided to tell me so that he could just move his stuff here and not have to go through the big hassle of taking everything to transfer meeting and then bringing it all back.  I don't know if I have told you anything about Elder Acaro before, but I worked with him for like, 4 or 5 hours when I was in Vista.  He is from Peru, so he is learning English.  He has improved a lot from when I saw him last!  His area down in Escondido is PACKED with Spanish people.  So, it's going to be a good learning experience for him with all these white people in San Marcos! 

I was in English work again (for like, 6 hours).  Elder Lewis received a call to be District Leader, so he went to a meeting on Friday.  there is another Elder close by to us (in English) that received a call too, so Elder Lewis and the other Elder went to the meeting together and I stayed with Elder Campbell, the companion of the other Elder.  It was a lot of fun, but I am so glad I am in Spanish work!  We had a cool few lessons and I met some cool people. 

So, 15 on 15... Not even close.  There was one on 15 though!  WOO!  A little 9 year old girl was baptized, named Liahona.  There's a long story to go with that name too... One of our ward members (we are pretty sure he is one of the three Nephites because he has so many crazy stories about missionary work and life and stuff) baptized this little girl's mom about 10 years ago.  She was prego back then, and she still hadn't decided a name.  So, this hermano told the mom Liahona would be a good name.  She fell in love with it, and then named her baby that.  But, then she went inactive in the church and stuff, stuff, stuff.  But, then her daughter was baptized!  So, at least we had one baptism on the 15th!  YAY!  (not from us though; Elder Gneiting and Elder Hansen)

Yesterday we had a cool experience.  We were knocking in one complex and we knocked on this one door and this lady answered.  We started to talk to her about the Gospel and stuff, but she didn't seem interested.  So, we asked her if there was anyone else around that might be interested.  She pointed to the door across from her and so we went and knocked it and taught a lesson!  That's the first time that has ever happened to me!  In all my time as a missionary (which is a lot), I have never seen that happen before.  So, that was super cool.  Sadly, the kid wasn't interested in us returning back, but it was still SWEET!

Yes, we are still teaching all of our new investigators we found!  Sadly, we haven't seen them in like, a week...  But, we are still trying!  We actually got another one, but we are going to pass her off to the English missionaries, because she said she was more comfortable in English... Psh.

Angel Reyes was like, the #1 pick a few years ago in football.  He was going to go to Texas, but had a fight with another player and got removed... He lived in Vegas, but moved here and was here when he got into the fight.  That's all I could tell you about him.  We haven't taught him anything yet, but hopefully soon! 

I haven't received any packages yet, but I will tonight!

YAY! Take a picture of my plaque!  I want to see it!  Did you ever put up that picture of Christ that I sent home?

Tell Maddy congrats for me!  And tell her when the soccer season is over and they are champions that she should BURN that shirt!  omj  (jk)

Why does Westlake suck this year? :( 

Well, I hope you have a wonderful week!  I am excited for this next transfer! 

love, elder hunt

p.s. I hope you like the pictures!

A few families that we have noches de hogar with every Monday night. Last one with Elder Lewis

My district- Elder Gneiting, Elder Hansen, Elder Hunt, Elder Lewis

Elder Lewis & I at the temple grounds

MILAGROS!

This last week was packed full of milagros! (miracles for you non-Spanish speakers)  This week we got 4 new investigators!  FOUR!  That's more than I have had my whole first 4 four weeks here!  We found this one lady, Patricia, in our complex about 2 weeks ago and told her we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ.  That's one.  A few days later, we were contacting in our complex again and we found another lady named Idilia.  Guess what?  She rents out a room in her apartment to Patricia!  So, 3 of our new investigators live in the same apartment!  The other one is Alberto, the husband of Patricia.  So, when we went and taught them, we got to know them a lot more.  They are Catholic (like almost all Hispanics) but hardly ever go (like all Hispanics).  So, since they don't go and since they study the word for themselves, they hardly know anything about even their own church... Like, they didn't even know what the Ten Commandments were... But, that's okay!  Since they don't know anything about religion, they might as well learn the right stuff the first time!  So, that was a cool miracle.  We found three new investigators in the same house the same week!  Our other investigator is Cecilia.  Her husband was supposed to be in the lesson with us too, but he went to Mejico for something.  His name is Joel.  He is the cousin of one of the members of the obispado here.  They seem like a really nice couple too and hopefully we can contact the husband too. 

OMJ.  The best thing happened on Sunday.  We found... ANGEL REYES!  YAY!  Elder Lewis and I were both thinking that we hadn't tried to contact him in a long time, and WE FOUND HIM.  Turns out the number he gave us was the number of his girlfriend, with whom he broke up like, 2 days after us talking with him.  So, all the times we tried to call the number he gave us, it was actually his ex-girlfriend.  We also forgot to write down his actual house number (we had the street), so we could never find him... BUT WE FOUND HIM!!!  Remember the questions about baptism he had last time?  Well, he still had those questions, but made himself even more golden by saying, "Oh, I think this life is just something where we are born, we work, pay bills, and then die."  What fun would a life like that be?!  Not fun at all!  So, Angel is so ready for the Gospel right now!  Oh man, it's going to be sweet when we finally are able to teach him.   

So, yeah.  That was the miracles for this week.  This is the last week of this transfer, so we are expecting to see a lot more miracles this week!  Everyone tells me I am going to be training this next transfer, and we will find out tomorrow!  I kind of hope I do, because I love greenies and their greenie fire.  They are just so dang cool! 

So, the 15th is this weekend... I have no idea if we are going to have 15 baptisms or not... But, from what everyone has been saying about their investigators, probably not :( There are lots of marriage problems (divorce, people living with people with who they are not married but they cannot get married because their spouse still lives in Mexico and divorce papers take forever and Hispanics are lazy and don't want to get divorced...).  So, I think the most we will have is like, 8 or 9.  Which is still really good! 

I haven't received any packages yet... Probably not until Friday or Saturday.  I am excited though!  Thanks for the sweet stuff!

Time goes by too quickly!  It certainly does not feel like 10 months since I have been out!  But, then at the same time, it feels like all I have done my whole life is just be a missionary!  I cannot even remember what it is like to do things other than missionary things!

Well, that's all this week!  We came early today because we have a zone activity at 11.  It's going to be SWEET!!!

Have a super wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

Being a missionary is the best!

We had another super awesome contact this week (like Angel Reyes however many weeks ago).  But, this time, we were able to find him again after we contacted him :)  His name is Jose True, and he had a lot of the same problems that Angel had.  He feels like he has a ton of anger inside him and that he can't be forgiven of the things he has done.  But, guess what?  He can!  YAY!  So, we told him that and he seemed really excited!  He has a daughter of 1 1/2 years and said that he also wants to try to be a better example for her so that she can be raised better.  Also, when we introduced the Book of Mormon to him, he just understood it right away.  He was like, "Yeah, it makes sense that God would give us more words because he loved all his children!"  So, that was sweet.  That was last Wednesday, 29 de agosto.  We taught him for the first time on Saturday, 1 de septiembre.  We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he really liked it all.  Then we invited him to be baptized and he said it was a huge commitment and he wanted to learn more first before taking such a big step.  So, that was kind of sad, but he is still super interested!  We have another appointment with him... Tomorrow, I think?  I am not sure... But, we are going to teach him again!  We wanted him to be one of the 15 baptisms, but we think he has a lot of things to go through first...  He does marijuana for "medical purposes" and he has a girlfriend living with him... So.  We will work on that.  Speaking of the 15, as a ward and as missionaries, we have seen so many miracles happening.  I don't remember if I told you this, but during the last transfer meeting we had, President Cook gave the mission a special blessing; something he has never done before.  He said that with the keys that he held (because he is the mission president) he blessed the mission that everyone would have a successful transfer if they worked hard and did the correct things.  Everything is all just falling into place for this 15 on 15 to happen.  It's going to be SWEET!  Maybe we will even get in the Liahona!  That would be cool! 

Our ward mission leader (who served with Hermano Hardy in Fresno) taught us a cool way to obtain referrals from members last week.  So, we have been trying this out and we have seen some pretty cool stuff.  We went to go teach this one lady in our area who has lots of friends to share the Gospel with.  So, we did this thing (called ATM: Awaken The Members) with her in order to get a reference from her.  While we were saying the final prayer before we were about to leave, she said a name of one of her other friends just popped into her head.  She said that she never would have thought about this person before.  So, that was a awesome milagro!  We haven't received the info from her yet about her friends, but hopefully soon!

Another cool little miracle is that we have been trying to meet with this less active to get him on the road to the Melquisdec Priesthood (I can't even spell that in English or Spanish!)  Anyways, we have been trying all transfer in order to meet with him.  We finally got in with him on Sunday to talk about getting the priesthood.  It was really cool how it all worked out.  We started to ask him first about how he knew the church was true.  Then why he went still.  Then somehow it ended up on the sacerdocio and he said he had talked to obispo that very day about trying to get on the path to the priesthood!  That was cool how that all worked out.

Then yesterday we had a super good zone meeting about just getting back to the basics.  The mission is pretty old right now (mainly English) and it is going to become pretty young soon.  Next transfer, there are going to be like, 20+ new missionaries. IN ENGLISH WORK.  I don't even know how many in Spanish work!  It's crazy.  So, we had a meeting and did some practices about just getting back to the basics so that we, as older missionaries, can help the younger missionaries be even better than we are now.  It was a lot of fun.  Someone shared a quote from Elder Holland that I really liked too: "Missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience."  This church is a church of sacrifice.  Everybody has to sacrifice something in order to become like Jesus Christ.  That's the whole point in life.  To become like our Brother, Jesus.  To do that, we need to sacrifice our time and our efforts in further progressing the church.  And what you were doing this past weekend is exactly that.  Through all the flooding and mudslides that happen, you and all the other volunteers sacrificed their time and other things in order to help others.  That's what life is all about.  I am so glad to hear about all the volunteers that showed up!  I would have loved to show up, but there are people that need my help here in San Marcos. :)

So, that's all I have for this week!  I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love, Elder Hunt