Last week of the transfer

So... Bad news.  Once again, Manuel was not confirmed...  We called him the day before (Saturday) to see if he needed a ride and he said his wife was in the hospital.  But, he said he had a friend that would probably take him.  But, come Sunday morning, we tried to call him like, 5 or 6 times in the morning, but no answer :( so, he has still not been confirmed...  It's kind of frustrating, but what can you do?  But, the good things is that he wants to continue.  We met with him yesterday, and he kept on saying things like, "Man, lots of things are going on right now, but I make myself strong and push through it.", "There's no point in being sad; I like to smile, it makes me feel good.".  Manuel is pretty crazy, but he is such a good guy.  So, next week!!!

Sunday was a frustrating day for two reasons: Manuel didn't come, and neither did Jennifer and her family...  We had a baptism last Saturday and they even came to that!  She also passed her entrevista!  We called them and asked them why they didn't come, and the mom said they woke up at 9 (when church starts) and since they missed sacrament meeting, they didn't want to go at all.  The mom is kind of an obstacle in this...  Jennifer wants to go to church and to all the activites and stuff, but a lot of the time her mom doesn't...  So, we are working on that too.  Jennifer wasn't baptized this last Saturday, but we have a new date for this Saturday (the 4th), so she can be baptized then! 

We still haven't found Guillermo...  Isaac and his dad, we haven't taught them either since we found them...  We found Jaime once, but he just arrived from driving and had another assignment to drive the next day, and since he is a truck driver, he has to have at least 8 hours sleep in order to function correctly.  So, we didn't teach him :( and then a few days after that happened, we went to find Isaac, and we talked to the mom and she said he never had permission in order to call the phone number on the card...  So, we are thinking that the mom isn't too fond of us.  Which is sad.  But, we are still trying to continue to find them!  We finally got back in contact with Jesus. I think I told you about him.  We have an appointment with him tomorrow, so hopefully that turns out.  There's Antonio too, but he is on the verge of being dropped.  He isn't progressing at all, and always cancels citas...  We haven't taught him for about 3 weeks now...  And, that's all the investigators we have!

August is almost here!  This is the last week of the transfer.  This transfer has felt a lot longer than all my other ones have.  But, it has been a lot of fun.  I have no idea what is going to happen...  We will find out Saturday night! 

The weather here has recently been pretty hot.  Now, when I say hot, I mean like 85 degrees...  That's super hot.  California has converted me into a baby.  Here, it gets cold around 65 degrees and hot around 80.  Going back home to Utah next November WILL NOT BE FUN. 

Summer vacation went by fast!  I cannot believe Jaxon is going to be a Senior...  Tell him to email me!  He doesn't have anything better to do!  Maddy is going to Junior High!  She's too little!  I cannot believe it has been almost 9 months... Wow, time flies by!  And everyone is going on their mission now!  That is so cool.  Brandon Barton received his mission call a little while ago.  Or so I hear.  Nobody will tell me where he is going!  I ask and ask and everyone just ignores that question! :(  All my friends are still doing their Vivint stuff.  So, they are good! 

So, yeah.  That's my week!  I am glad to hear that your week went well too!  I hope you have another wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

Baptism!

YAY!  Manuel was baptized on Saturday!  It was super cool!  But, on Sunday, we had some problems with his transport (his car is broken, so we have to find him a ride) and so he didn't make it to sacrament meeting and wasn't confirmed... :( :( :( :( :( :( :( but, next week!  When I receive the package with the SD card thingy, I will send you a picture!  And as for Jennifer, we have no idea what is going on... :( :( :( since Elder Nelson and Elder Owens set the baptismal date, we have not been able to meet with them... :( They always cancel the appointments we have with them, or aren't even there... Nor do they come to church, which is a reason the dad will have to not let her be baptized...  So, hopefully we can figure out what is with them soon.  We haven't found Guillermo since we set  his baptism date either...  So, who knows? :(

We had apartment inspections last Wednesday and guess what score we received?  40!  The housing coordinator said this apartment has looked the best since ever!  So, that's cool.  All my inspection scores have been 39 or over.  :)

Saturday was a cool day!  The ward had an activity of the Pioneers (like Pioneer Day).  We didn't go, because we didn't have any investigators :( but, I heard it was fun!  Then, after, we had the baptism of Manuel!  That was super cool.  Then, a member dropped us back off at our house, and the Zone LEaders were waiting for us there because they had a sweet referral that they had received and wanted us to teach because the dad spoke Spanish.  Now, let me go back to Thursday.  We were out contacting and we talked to this kid named Isaac.  He didn't seem super interested, so we gave him a card for the movie "Finding Faith In Christ" and continued on our way.  But, it turns out he CALLED THE NUMBER.  I have given out thousands of cards, and have never had anybody CALL THE NUMBER (that I know of).  So, right after the baptism, we had a super cool lesson with this kid's dad (Isaac was there too).  The dad had talked to missionaries before, and they had given him a Book of Mormon and he said he has read it more than once!  And it shows too, because he has a knowledge of a lot of the stories.  So, the referral from the Zone Leaders was actually a contact from us!  The only problem is that the dad is a truck driver, so his schedule is CRAZY.  But, hopefully we can get something out of that family! 

Sounds like you are going to have a crazy week!  Sounds like a lot of fun though!  Wish I could be there!

I have no clue as to what is going to happen this next coming transfer... There are going to be 7 missionaries going home (3 Elders and 4 Hermanas) and not very many coming in... So... It will be another crazy transfer meeting!  Supposedly next transfer is when we are receiving a whole bunch of new Spanish missionaries. So, we will see what happens!  I think I might stay this one, and then leave the next one to train somewhere.  But, I don't know!  I have been telling Elder Owens he is going to train this next transfer too, just to bug him :) he doesn't want to train.  We don't have as many members in this area as I did in Rancho.  And about half of them are less active/inactive.  But, the members here are really good too!  I just talked a lot more about Rancho because it is my greenie area, and everybody loves their greenie area :)  we haven't had any youth come out with us yet.  There are only like, 2 that are able to do so...  And both are pretty busy... But, we are going to try!

I still have no riden the bike yet... There is a lot of construction going on in our area, and so the roads are smaller and riding a bike is harder...

Good luck on your trips and have fun! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

Baptism! (Saturday)

So, remember Jesus that I told you about last week?  Well, the appointment with him fell through last week :( and we haven't been able to get into contact with him this week either :(  he works a lot... But, we are going to continue to try and contact him!  He is really prepared for the Gospel and really needs it in his life too. 

Last Wednesday, we taught Manuel.  And guess what?  He brought a friend!  His name is Guillermo.  We were teaching Manuel about the Gospel, and we got to baptism and invited Guillermo to be baptized!  Guillermo said "Of course, anything to follow God." (because Hispanics ALWAYS say stuff like that) and Manuel said, "Are you sure?  Baptism is a pretty big commitment."  Manuel is super ready to be baptized.  The Hermanas had a baptism last Saturday, and Manuel came and he really liked it!  He is super excited for his baptism too this Saturday.  So far, he is still on track.  He has his interview on Wednesday, and we are pretty sure he will pass.  His memory isn't so good, (like yesterday, we were teaching him and he couldn't even remember the word bautismo...) but his heart is in the right place and he wants to do it. 

On Thursday was pretty cool too.  Elder Ochoa (he is DL) so he had a meeting to go to.  So, Elder Nelson was going to come and join Elder Owens and I in a trio.  But, the assistants forgot to tell us that there was another Elder that needed a companion.  So, I stayed in my area and worked with Elder Acaro!  He just barely came in, but he has been a missionary for almost 6 months.  He is from Peru!  So, he didn't speak English.  He was a missionary in Peru for 3 months, waiting for his visa, then 2 months in the MTC and now has 3 weeks in Cali.  So, that was a fun 4 hours.  I helped him a lot with English and he helped me a lot with Spanish. 

Friday was boring because we had weekly planning and none of our lessons were accomplished :(

Saturday I went on exchanges with Elder Ochoa!  They have a family investigating the church, and they are going to be baptized this Saturday, with Manuel.  We did some service for the parents of the dad, which was a lot of fun.  They were cleaning out their backyard to put a shed in, and so we helped them with that.  It was a cool experience and nice to show them a few things about the Church.  So, I don't know if I have told you about Jennifer or not (probably) but, her mom is already a member, but her dad won't let her be baptized.  She knows everything already and really wants to be baptized.  While I was with Elder Ochoa, Elder Nelson and Elder Owens went to go and teach them and the dad was there!  (I have seen him 3 times in my 2 months here)  Then they talked to him and he said Jennifer could be baptized in two weeks: the 28th!!! YAY!  That's so cool!  So, we are going to have a baptism next Saturday too!  WOO!

So, that's all the super cool stuff that happened to me this week.  Fun week!

Time goes by super fast!  This transfer has felt really long for some reason, but it has still gone by pretty fast.  Since Elder Nelson is a greenie, I can see how much a person can grow in such little time.  Like, he has only been out almost three months, and so I only have about 6 more months that he does, but it's so crazy how much a person grows in such little time.  All through the help of Heavenly Father!  He really does bless his missionaries so much.

My camera is a PowerShot A495 by Canon.  But, the library has USB slots, so that will probably be a lot easier if you could send like a USB that I could put my SD card in to. 

The members here are all really nice.  There is a member in our area that is a manager at Carl's Jr, so we get Carl's Jr. every Friday :) we have to walk there because we don't have the car that day, so we walk off all the fat :) jaja  Haven't tried any new food recently... Mainly just the same old Hispanic food.  The weirdest things I have eaten is still menudo though.

I hope you have a wonderful week!!! 


love, Elder Hunt

Transfer of bashers

So, I don't know if I have told you about Manuel before... He is about 50s.  His wife is a member, less active, and has a tumor in her brain that is impossible to remove.  The doctors told her she has >6 months to live :(  so, sometime before I arrived here, she referred the missionaries to her husband because she wanted her husband to be baptized before she died.  We have been teaching him a lot recently, and he has a baptism date for the 21 of July!  YAY!  He is really old, and kind of forgets stuff easily, but he really has a desire to be baptized.  Also, he really likes baptisms for the dead, and he wants his grandparents, children, other family members that have passed on to be baptized too.  So, baptism the 21 of July!  YAY!

This transfer with Elder Owens has been like the transfer of bashers.  I don't know why we have run into so many bashers, but it's awesome.  We were talking to a guy on Friday, and he was probably the best basher I have run into yet.  But, he was still wrong.  He was saying that we, as Mormons, worship a different Jesus Christ than he does.  We asked him all these questions about what his beliefs were, and just about everything he said contradicted itself at one time or another.  He would never answer our questions full on, and would just talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk and wouldn't even allow us to say anything!  But, I love talking to bashers because all they are is just a strengthing of the testimony.  Any time I ever talk to a basher, I just cannot help but think, "Wow.  He is so misguided.  He calls himself a Christian, but is bashing against Christ.  I am so glad to have the TRUTH!"  it's so cool.

Then, on Saturday, we ran into another basher!  Or so we thought... We were walking by a Frazee Paint store, and then, all of a sudden, this guy walks out and starts calling us sinners and asking where our horns were!  But, turns out it was just a member, playing a joke.  It was actually pretty funny. 

We had a SUPER good lesson yesterday.  About a week ago, Elder Owens and I contacted into a guy named Jesus.  He has had a very troubled life  including prison, drugs, abandonment, you name it.  He told us he is addicted to heroine right now and really wants to change his life around.  While on exchanges with Elder Nelson yesterday, we taught him and it was SO COOL.  He is so prepared for the Gospel right now!  We have an appointment with him tonight!  He is going to be baptized!  He definitely needs the Gospel and said he has been praying for a way to get out of the path he is on right now. 

So, Elder Ochoa's greenie is Elder Nelson.  He is from Brigham City, Utah.  He is really cool and we just got finished with exchanges today.  He is a really good missionary, and he has a good trainer, so he will be even better.

Elder Owens is cool.  We don't really have any of the same interests though...  But, we get along.  He comes from a family of 10 kids, and he is the youngest.  He is from South Jordan, like a hour away from where we live! (in Utah)

The apartment here definitely isn't as nice.  I was really spoiled up in Rancho.  I have to use the laundromat in our apartment complex.  I will take some pictures and send them to you! (or try jajaja)

Recently, the weather has been really cold and cloudy.  Just like, 2 days ago it started to heat up and now it is super hot.  Like 90!  Good thing we have a car!

4th of July was good!  Holidays don't mean anything for missionaries though.  It's the same thing every day.  Thanks for the package!  I loved it!  I have the little ornament thingy sitting on the counter and it is going to stay there forever!  And thank you for the Spanish book!  I got it last week too, and it has been awesome so far!

I sent a letter to Elder Hunt #2 last week, so hopefully he has received it by now!

I am glad to hear you are all doing good!  I miss you all!  I love you!

Sorry I can't answer all the questions! I don't have much time left :( but, ask me them next week and I will answer them for sure!

Love, Elder Hunt

P.S. Jaxon's glasses look like old lady glasses

Elder Owens!

My new companion is Elder Nicholas Owens from South Jordan, Utah! (all my companions have been from Utah)  All my previous companions are now all home :(  It was really sad at transfer meeting seeing them all stand up when President Cook called their name, going home.  But, they were all really good companions and served great missions.  Elder Owens actually has the same amount of time as I do, so my prediction of receiving a companion with lesser time was wrong.  And, he is also senior companion, so we are in a co-senior  companionship.  But, since I know the area better because I have been here longer, I start the lessons and stuff.  At first, it was pretty scary because I have never done it before, but it has definitely been a good learning experience. 

Ever since Elder Anderson left, I have been feeling a lot more confident in being a missionary.  Maybe it was because I have always had a companion a lot older than I am and now with Elder Owens, we both have the same time out, and so sometimes wwe have no idea what to do!  So, that's a good thing I am learning too.  Really just how to do missionary work.  What's effective and what isn't and so forth. 

This past week has been exciting!  On Thursday, we didn't have the car, nor did we have appointments...  President Cook told me to help Elder Owens to get to know the area really quickly, so we spent all day walking around, talking to people.  I have never walked so much in my life!  But, it was a lot of fun!  Nothing super exciting happened on Thursday nor Friday, but on Saturday, we ran into these 3 Hispanics who were resting and have some drinks.  We started talking to them and then one guy started asking us where we received our authority to preach.  He was drunk.  He went inside his house, picked up his Bible and came back outside to talk to us and said, "Tell me what your message is today, and I will look inside my Bible and see if it is true."  He was drunk.  So, we just left because the conversation wasn't going anywhere.  And yesterday was like Basher Day or something.  We were out looking for antiguos and there were these guys from a Christian church called Victory Outreach or something.  They started talking to us and wanted to know the difference between our church and any other church.  So, we told them our church was restored through Joseph Smith and that it is the one and only true church upon the face of the Earth.  Then he came up with this weird analogy that if you have this old 57 Chevy, you can't replace the old engine with a brand new one from a brand new Charger... (if that doesn't make any sense to you, it's okay, because it didn't make any sense to us either).  He was tripping all over his words too.  We would give him a piece of TRUE doctrine and he would agree with it, and then like, 5 minutes later, contradict himself in what he believed.  Bashers are funny.  They think that they are doing harm to missionaries, bashing on one's beliefs, when in realidad, they are actually helping to build our testimonies.  Yesterday, we also ran into another guy that basically called us devil worshippers.  He said that not everyone is a child of God and that we had to do certain things in order to become children of God...  That we are made out of clay and by living the Gospel, we can then become children of God...  Kinda weird.  I am glad we have the truth!

Another thing that I have realized since Elder Anderson left is that my Spanish has gotten a whole lot better.  There are a few certain times in my mission that I have realized my Spanish knowledge has basically skyrocketed.  When Elder Price left, when I came to Vista (that was probably the biggest change), when I started reading el Libro de Mormon and when Elder Anderson left.  It's really cool to see how much I have grown since the MTC; missionary wise, Spanish wise, pretty much everything.  Missions really are life changers and I am so glad to be on one!

So, with English classes, we are still trying super hard to get them started!  We started a list of people that want them, and we already have like, 8 or 9!  WOO!  English classes, here we come!

Sounds like those fires are scary!  While we were walking home from dinner yesterday (it was close by our house, so we decided to walk) we ran into a bishop of one of the English wards.  He asked where we were from and I told him Saratoga Springs and he was like, "Wow, I have heard there are a lot of fires over there right now!  Is your family okay?"  So, I hope that everything is okay over there!  I haven't heard of any fires or anything here in Cali...  The weather is really nice.  It's warm, and most of the time is 75-80.  I love it.  Elder Owens was serving in Oceanside before, which is also part time car, so he has a bike.  We will probably start riding sometime soon. 

As for pictures... I don't have a thing to connect to the computer to put pictures on!  Maybe that's something you can send me :) The only time I could send pictures was with Elder Price because he had a connecter thing... And the library doesn't have anything like that, so that's no help :(  maybe you can find something that will connect my camera or SD card to the computer to send pictures!  Then I can send pictures all the time (when I take them)  ;)

So, that's all from me this week!  I LOVE YOU ALL.

Love, Elder Hunt

Transfers!

So, tonight, I will be getting a new companion! I am staying in Vista! The Assistants called on Saturday and asked if I would be Senior Companion...  Scary!  I don't want that!  I will most likely be receiving a companion that doesn't speak as much Spanish as I do, someone with less time than me, so I am going to have to take charge...  All my companions before have been Senior and have always been the ones in charge, but now it's my turn!  It's scary.

So, English classes... Failed again :(  And they probably won't be started back up...  We told the Ward Mission Leader and Bishop that we were going to do English classes to try to round up some more investigators, but they pretty much shut it down...  They said they don't want to start them up until we have five sure people that will go.  The only problem is, we hand out flyers all the time, and we don't know how many people will show up... They are looking at English classes as just teaching English, while the missionaries are looking at it as a way to try to get more investigators, and help others learn English as a side effect.  It's kind of frustrating, but that's what happened.  We are still going to try, but they probably won't be starting any time soon...

We had a cool experience on Thursday!  It was like, 8:30 P.M.  and Elder Anderson and I had to use the bathroom really bad.  I also had a really bad headache.  We were super close to our house and we going to go home and use the bathroom and then stay in and plan.  We were really close to finishing our contact goal of 25 people; 4 contacts away.  We were walking on our way to our house (we didn't have the car).  We then decided that before going home, we were going to finish our goal, no matter what. So, we took the long way around. We found four different people to talk to, they all rejected us, but we felt fulfilled because we had finished our goal.  Then on our way home, we ran into this family that was on their way home from the park.  We talked to the dad before they got into their car and left and it turned out that he had talked to missionaries before!  He used to live in Oceanside (the next city over) and then moved to Vista and lost contact with the missionaries.  He is a really big family man, and so we shared the Plan of Salvation with him.  He seemed super excited, and said he would love to learn more!  So, we got his info and then he left.  Sadly, he isn't in our area :( so, we don't know what will happen!  But, it was still pretty cool.  It goes to show that the Lord will bless you when you make the effort to finish your goals!

Elder Ochoa is training this transfer, so there will be another greenie!  I don't know if I told you this, but there is a HUGE gap in between my group and the one ahead of me (of Spanish missionaries).  Elder Anderson, Josse and Price are in the group that are leaving today.  Then there are like, 2 or 3 missionaries leaving next transfer (in 6 weeks).  Then after that is Elder Ochoa and his group, which is like, 2 or 3 missionaries too and they leave in November.  Then there's the group I came out with.  There's almost an entire year gap!  My group of missionaries are going to be the oldest Spanish very quickly. 

It has been really hot the past few days here too!  Saturday is when it started.  The days before that were really cool, not too hot, not too cold, but then Saturday hit and BAM!  Burning hot!  It's no fun trying to work in super hot weather :(

My fire danger sign failed!!! :'( :'( :'(  That fire sounds really scary.  I hope everything turns out okay!  Poor fishies :(

I cannot believe Zack is going to the MTC TOMORROW!  OMJ!!!!!!!!!!!  Elder Hunt #2!  That's so crazy! 

Devon hasn't left yet; he leaves the middle of July.  Where did Josh Yates go on his mission?!

I think that's all for this week!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hunt

Week 6 in Vista!

Wow, time sure has flown by!  I have already been in Vista for SIX weeks!

So, the bad news...  English classes last week were a failure :( nobody showed up :( but, tonight, we are going to try again!  We had a few people call this yesterday and a few more members have showed some interest too.  Fingers crossed!

So, this week, we had a really good lesson with Antonio.  He prayed for the first time!  It was so cool.  He seemed like he was really talking TO God, not at God.  Sometimes, I feel like there are a lot of times when we pray, that we just talk AT God.  I read somewhere that one of the prophets said that we treat prayer sometimes like a fast food order.  We just ask for the things we want and then it's done.  But, what we really need to do is talk TO God.  I have found a bunch of cool talks from Apostles about prayer and it has really opened my eyes about how sacred and special prayer is.  God has given us prayer so that we can ask for help to not only address our needs, but the needs of others as well.  I will have to send you some of the talks I found.  They are super good.

We also had a really good lesson with a less active family about priorities.  This family hasn't been to church in such a long time that the Dad doesn't even remember what priesthood he has...  We showed him (http://mormon.org/william/) (http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng&query=sid+going#your-day-for-a-mission) those two videos about two rugby players that gave up their careers in order to serve missions.  The second one happened a long time ago and the first one is just barely.  They are both super good videos. 

The weather here is lousy.  Sundays are always nice and sunny, but every single other day is cloudy in the morning, then super hot during the day, then really cold at night.  I am never going to live in Vista.  

Thanks for the packages!  They were so AWESOME!!!  I loved everything you sent me!  The GPS is a really nice one too.  I use it every where we go! (even if I know how to arrive to where we are going)  It's fun!  Elder Anderson really likes it too.  He's the one that is able to play around with it while we are in the car.  

Summer vacation just started here.  There are some schools that got out 3 weeks ago, some schools got out last week and there are still some schools that are in session!  You would think that since summer started, there would be more people outside... Opposite.  It's pretty dead when we walk outside.  And it's hard to contact people when nobody is walking outside, obviously.  

My Book of Mormon Spanish reading is going really good!  If you thought Isaiah chapters were hard in English, read them in Spanish.  They are a lot more difficult!  I just finished 1 Nefi yesterday, but haven't started on 2 Nefi yet.  I love Spanish!  I am so glad I was called into Spanish work!  Life just wouldn't be the same without Spanish!  

I am glad you received my package!  I was becoming really worried that Elder Josse didn't send it.  

That's it for me!  This is Elder Anderson's last week as a missionary, so we are going to work HARD!

Have a fantastic week!

Love, Elder Hunt