Garth's First week in Mexico

I’M IN MEXICO!!!! It’s so awesome.. and really hard! But that’s what a mission is supposed to be, awesome and hard. So first off before I forget; let grandma know I got her letter and loved it and let LaRea and Brityn know I got theirs too. I love hearing from everyone and yes Brityn I can get pictures from you through my email.

Before I do things chronologically let me tell you where I live. I live in a really poor city called Comitan De Dominguez. It’s kind of in the mountains and it’s actually pretty chilly sometimes! I’m getting a sweater today!

So Sunday was the day when we said goodbye to the other missionaries in our MTC district. It was sad but we all wanted to be in the field already. We took a bus to the airport and I called home. I flew first class to Georgia which was pretty cool (they didn’t have enough seats in coach so I and 3 other missionaries got to fly first class. I slept a total of 4 hours during the many hours of flying and layovers and it was all on that flight to Atlanta thanks to first class seats. When we got to Tuxtla the humidity was like a slap in the face when we stepped off the plane. It was awesome.

We went and took pictures at the temple after an hour drive with the mission president, then we went to the mission office to drop off our bags. From there we went to the president’s house and ate chilly dogs! they were really good. That night I slept without covers because it was so hot and there were like 24 missionaries in the office building. In the morning, after breakfast, we had orientation at the church and we met our comps... I HAVE AN AMERICAN!!! Elder Shelley from Utah! He’s really cool and works hard. He has taught me so much! After orientation and pizza, my comp and I took a 3 hour bus ride to Comitan. The ride was beautiful. Everything is so green! We went straight from the bus stop to a baptism! Can you believe it! The members are so nice and love that I can’t understand a thing that they say. After the baptism there was a ward activity since it was their Independence Day. They had me, my comp, and 2 other white missionaries sing the American nation anthem and then the ward sung theirs.

This week has been crazy and really hard. It’s hard to talk to people when they can’t understand you and you can’t understand them! But the lessons have been pretty good. We’ve committed 7 people to baptism already, and all of them said yes! It’s so cool to see the change that comes to people as they recognize the truthfulness of the gospel.

It’s rained every day and so I’m pretty much always wet! The food hasn’t been the greatest... at all. They put this stuff called mole’ on everything. Basically it’s a really crappy bbq sauce, but I also had iguana this week and that was really good! There are no dinner appointments here because everyone eats lunch at 2 or 3 and dinner at 9 or 10. And no siestas. :(

It’s been a tough week but I love Mexico. We’re teaching quite a few people. One of them is named Marco. He wants to get baptized and loves the Book of Mormon. He won’t be able to be baptized for a while though because he’s going on vacation. Were also teaching a family of 4. We asked the mom to say a prayer after we introduced the Book of Mormon to them and she cried. There’s so many people that need the gospel here. The hardest thing to do right now is open my mouth since I can’t speak the language very well.

I love you all so much. You have no idea how much I miss our family. Keep praying for me! I need all the help I can get. Ha ha. Thanks again for the letters. I’ll try to be more descriptive in my next letter, there was just so much that happened this week.

Love you

Elder Hunt

Garth at the temple in Tuxtla with  his Mission President and Tuxtla missionaries

Garth's Last 2 Letters... Leaving for Tuxtla TONIGHT!

9/3/14

Hola Familia

I love and miss you all so much! I try to say that in every letter because it's so true! Thank you so much mom for the package and the endless letters you send me! Without them I couldn’t function. The cookies were great and I love the pictures. I was showing off to all the elders in my district how amazing my family is and how I reign supreme with having the cutest nieces and nephews. I’m glad to have received the letters from Lincoln and LaRea as well. It’s so good to hear from them. I’m glad Lincoln is killing it in school and Boom Beach. I have begun a Boom Beach legacy that he now has to continue. Lincoln, when you’re top 10 in the world I better be the first to hear about it! It was also good to hear U of A won too! Who did they play? What are the players to be watching this year? Anyway on with my week

So from where we last left off I have been continuing to do well with the Spanish, but it’s getting harder and harder! Me and my companion's lessons have been going really good as well. We committed Areli (hermana Estrada) to baptism!! She loves the story of the sons of Mosiah and how anyone can go from "the vilest of sinners" to "instruments in the hand of the lord". Every day for about 30 min we teach a progressing investigator. The people we teach are members pretending to be an investigator but sometimes it’s the real thing. I don’t know if I told you about ours. Her name is Ivette and she is a real investigator... so it’s SUPER important we don’t have any scripture mix ups like I did the beginning of the MTC! haha Anyway she is planning on getting baptized in real life! We’re not really supposed to know that but some other elders that are teaching her told us. Anyway she’s kind of a difficult investigator because sometimes she’s in character pretending she knows nothing about God and then will randomly break character and ask us if God knew Satan was going to rebel in the Pre Mortal life. So our lessons with her go all over the place but they’re really good. We ask her a lot of questions and she asks us a lot. I love it. Another cool thing that happened this week is I've been assigned to be the District Leader. It’s really nothing super special. Not like in a DL in the mission field. Basically I get the mail for everyone and get class started. It’s been cool though. Our last DL, Elder Card, is really awesome and hilarious. He and I get along real well. He’s helped me out with getting started as the new DL and it’s been great. Another awesome thing that happened this week was that I FINALLY found someone I know at the MTC! On Sunday I found elder Richard Rigby from the Wildwood Park Ward, who's going to the Adriatic South Mission (I’m pretty sure that’s the same one that Tasia’s going to). We said hi and talked for a while and got a picture together just before yesterday night's devotional. We were both so pumped cause all the Utah kids say hi to their friends like every 4 seconds because they know EVERYONE at the MTC so it was refreshing to be able to finally know someone!

I love and miss you all so much! Good luck to Brityn and Max while they're in Germany and good luck to Mom with watching their crazy Kids! I sure miss them. Good luck to Lincoln and Larea while Dad is in charge and making you eat leftovers ever night! Good luck to Cam and Amber with the possibility of the new baby coming, and good luck to everyone else who has stuff going on that I didn’t mention or don’t know about! Adios!!!

Love

Elder Hunt

PS: I get my flight information on Friday so yes I have my visa and I’ll let you know what the plans are next week. Also the day I get to Mexico is on their independence day... so things are going to be muy loco when I get there! I can’t wait!

Cameron... how come I haven’t got a 4 paragraph, double spaced, size 12 font, times new roman movie review of the best dang movie of the year???? I need to know how awesome Guardians of the Galaxy was even though I already know! Be sure to send pictures of the new baby when she comes!

Dad be sure to feed Lilly cause everyone knows mom’s the only one that does it! I put some pictures on dropbox, tell me if it worked.

Lincoln and Larea! I loved your letters, remember to always love each other and give Lilly a big ol' business kiss for me! haha 

YO AMO USTEDES!!

9/10/14

Finally! I got my flight plans. This week has been so great with so many random experiences. First flight plans... 

So on Sunday at 8:00 pm I leave the MTC for Salt Lake. My flight from Salt Lake City to Atlanta leaves at 12:55 am... Yes that’s1:00 in the morning!!!! So family I’ll probably call between 8 and 11 your time Sunday night. It’ll probably be closer to 8:30 or 9 so be prepared. I'll call the house phone. I land in Atlanta at 6:30AM Monday Morning their time... 3:30AM AZ time so I don’t think I’ll be able to make any calls during the lay over there. I leave from Atlanta GA at 9:45 AM and land in Mexico City at 12:23PM. I have a short layover there and leave from Mexico to Tuxtla Gutierrez at 2:10PM Mexico Time and land in Tuxtla at 3:39 PM Mexico time. I hope I made that clear enough. I’ll probably call the house when I land in Mexico City and leave a message. I will try to call mom and dad too. Ill figure it out but for sure be ready to answer the phone THIS Sunday night between 8 and 11. Mom dad if you have any advice on when to call you when I’m in Mexico City that would be great. Let me know through dear elder or something. I feel so disorganized! 

So this week was awesome! Friday morning we went to the pillow room!!!!! So every Friday morning we do service and there's a myth about west campus that if you tell the people in charge of service, who work at the MTC, that it’s your last service day, they’ll take you to the pillow room. We asked and they guided us to the legend! It was a room filled, to the roof in some places, with pillows. We were jumping and going crazy and it was awesome! Also this week it rained A LOT! Especially yesterday. Apparently the storm that passed through here made it to AZ and did some damage. Mom told me that there was some deaths and a lot of damage. How’s the house? Send me some pictures of how bad it was por favor! Sunday I got to see another one of my great friends, Greyson! He’s going to Salt Lake and he's such a great guy. We weren’t able to get a picture though. Also mom, they took out the MTC sign!!!! Apparently they have a problem with too many people taking pictures in front of it and its gone! I’m not making this up I went looking for it and finally asked someone and they told me that they took it out. I’m so sorry mom but I did really good at taking pictures this week you can look on dads drop box account. That’s where I put them all.

On Tuesday at devotional we had a Seventy from Africa come and speak. I can totally understand why Hunter loves the African people so much. Elder Sitati was so funny and happy and gave a really good devotional. He told us to always remember our divine potential and who we are and what we can become.

Today was our last time going to the temple in English. It was really great. We’ve really gotten close as a district and its going to be sad when we split but it’ll be all good in the end. I love everyone so much!!! Thanks for all the letters and the packages!! Congrats to Kelby and congrats to Cameron and Amber and Hanna grace! Sounds like it’s been a great week for everyone. Next week I’ll be in Mexico and I feel like the letters are going to start getting a whole lot different. Love yall!!!

Elder Hunt