Eventful Week

Wow. Here's the breakdown of a busy and eventful week.

Last Monday was super great! There’s a youth member in the ward and his name is Jared and he loves the missionaries. He’s 17 years old and helps the missionaries out a ton. Monday he called us all and told us he had a surprise for us at the church. We all met at the church at around 4:00 and decorated Christmas trees!!! It was awesome! I miss the Christmas decorations at home. We found this man named Carlos Gonzalez and he loves talking about God with us. We had a great lesson with him and it took a little persistence, but he said he would read the Book of Mormon! He’s Pentecostal and said he wanted to ask his preacher first. We explained that he doesn’t have to, he can ask God first, any way it was a great lesson.

Tuesday, we met with Jafet and he’s getting great grades! A lot of As and just a couple Bs. We’re working hard with him and I think his mom’s heart is slowly but surely softening. That day we also met with Adan and his house was completely gone! All the stuff on the inside, like beds and the TV, were still there but his house was gone. He’s rebuilding. His house before was just wood and tin and now its cement. So this week we met with Adan a lot and are helping him rebuild his house. It’s super fun. I’ll send a picture next week!

Wednesday, we had Zone conference (sorry mom and dad, I thought it was next week! but I might get the package for the Christmas devotional) It was a great meeting and we said a lot of goodbyes because this week is cambios (transfers)! After Zone Conference and lunch, we had a guy named Mahonri accompany us! He’s in the other ward but he’s preparing for a mission too!! He’s got his papers in and everything. He’s a great guy. He helped us with Adan and we taught Erminio too. Erminio and his family are so great! Every time we go there, they always tell us "hey we were just talking about you!" or "Hey we were just reading the Book of Mormon" Great family. We taught them the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it has all the answers to life’s questions. They love it, I can’t wait till they start coming to church.

Thursday, we again helped Adan with his house and we met with Luis too! He’s doing great and still reading and still loves his scriptures! He had some doubts about tithing but we were able to clear it up really well! He didn’t come to church this week so we were kind of bummed but he’s reading and praying and loves it.

Friday, we saw these kids on the street playing guitar and so we took the chance to contact them! They were super cool and really good on the guitar. Their names are Marcos and Carlos. They told me they were surprised how well I speak for being in the Mexico for only 3 months. That was a confidence booster since it’s been really hard communicating. I can easily talk about the lessons but the second someone asks me a question I have no idea what they say. It’s hard but I know I’m getting a lot of help and learning more and more every day. After helping Jafet with homework, Adan with his house, and Erminio and his family with reading, we taught an awesome new family. Familia de Hilberto! Hilberto is the dad. He and his 2 sons, Sergio and Kevin, are super interested. We taught them about the life of Christ and how important he is for us and taught a little about the restoration and they’re super interested.

Saturday, we went to a city in our area called Paredon to contact a referral. It’s a little fishing town and to be honest it’s really ugly! It was just weird walking the streets because there was no one around. I’m so used to all the people in Tonala. Anyway we didn’t know where to go or what to do because the referral was impossible to find with the directions we had. We were just walking and we were next to the docks when we heard "ELDERS! HERMANOS!" So we talked to this guy and he tells us he and his wife are members but inactive, the church is so far away and they don’t have the money to go back and forth, so they don’t attend church. It was sad to hear that but they love missionaries. The guy was working and so were his 12 non-member colleagues... So we taught them all the restoration! It was awesome!!!!! They were all so involved in what we were discussing and asking questions and all, the spirit was so strong. At the first of the day, my companion and I had no idea why we were in the ugly city of Paredon, but the Lord knew, and it was great to be an instrument in proclaiming the gospel to this little group of fisherman from Paredon!

Sunday, was fantastic but I’m running out of time so I’ll just tell you how it started and ended. So we went out to get our investigators to church and investigator after investigator dropped. Finally we got to Sergio and Kevin. They were waiting for us all dressed up and ready for church!! It was great and they loved it. Our day went on normally, then at night before the Christmas devotional, we got a call from someone at the church saying we had an investigator waiting for us... Elder Reye Leyva and I just looked at each other and were like... uhhhh we didn’t set anything up. So we hopped in a taxi and went to the church. It was Hermano Leonel! We contacted him and his son on the street like a month ago and have never been able to get a lesson with them. We see him on the street every now and then and always invite him to church. We always tell him church is at 9:00 AM, but Hermano Leonel decided to show up at 6:30 at night. Better late than never I always say. Anyway we got to watch the Christmas devotional with him, and wow, you should have seen his face, his eyes were just glued to the screen, he loved it!!! He apologized for not being able to meet with us and said he’ll be coming to church and bringing his family. We will be meeting him next week!

All in all a fantastic week, however this next week is going to be insane! This morning we got a call from the assistants regarding transfers and... I’m training. I don’t know how or why (other than we got a lot of new missionaries in) but I’m training! I don’t how I am going to do it, but if the Lord wants me to train, I guess he’ll provide a way. I leave for Tuxtla to pick up my new comp and the rest will be in next week's letter!

Love and miss everyone so much!!!

Elder Hunt

 

 

Permission to baptize Jafet!

Wow time is really starting to fly by. Let me start with the first big update of the church down here in Tonala... WE GOT A DRINKING FOUNTAIN!!! It’s awesome! It’s kind of funny too because we have to teach all the little kids how to drink out of one. They fill up cups instead of drinking just using your mouth, but were working with them! haha

On Tuesday me and my comp were way out in PDCH (just a little are of Tonala out in the middle of nowhere) and a truck pulled up to us and in English we heard " hey are you from Utah?" We looked in the truck and there was a WHITE woman! So we got talking and guess what... she’s from Tucson!! She used to live in Avra Valley where her husband worked on some houses! Now they live in PDCH in Tonala! It was so awesome. She knew we were Mormon so that’s why she asked if we were from Utah. She told us to come by anytime. We’re totally going to get her and her husband baptized!

Wednesday the Assistants were in town and so we were a trio with Elder Brass. Elder Brass is from northern Mexico and he’s awesome! He works so hard and really teaches with power and authority. We were with Jafet and Elder Brass talked with his mom. I don’t know what he said but basically we can now baptize Jafet so long as Jafet does better in school and tells his mom what he learned from us every day we teach him... It was amazing! We now have permission to baptize Jafet!!

Thursday we had interviews with President George! He’s such a great man! He shared with me a scripture in D&C 64 that basically said I am laying the foundation for the Kingdom of God. I have a ton of responsibility and the Lord will help me through it all. That night my comp and I celebrated thanksgiving by buying some super nasty pizza, but we’re missionaries so it was good enough for us! Anyway it was fun and we were so excited to find it.

Friday was super windy and there was a ton of power outages but it felt super great with all the wind. The people of Tonala thought it was freezing but it felt perfect to me!

Saturday we ate so much food. We went to Erminios’ house and helped him machete his yard! It was so fun! He gave us a ton of food afterward. We then taught Luis and his grandma gave us some beans and rice. We were stuffed. Then we went to lunch and ate MORE food! I thought I was going to die but I made it without dying or throwing up! That night we had a movie night with some non-members and a less active family. We set up shop out in the middle of the street basically and watched a movie on Christ. They loved it and we’re seeing them next week!

Sunday Luis came to church!!! it was so great! answers to so many prayers and Luis loved it!

Great times, crazy week, great week. Love you all and miss you a ton. Sorry it’s another short one but times up. Thank you for your prayers and letters.

Love,

Elder Hunt

 

With Jafet and friends

Using a meshetti

Too much food!

 

Week 10

Hola familia! i love and miss you all a ton!

So this past week has been pretty great! We found a bunch of new investigators and less actives! One guy is named Erminio. He was baptized 20 years ago. We are the first people to visit him from the church in 13 years! Super sad but we’re so glad we found him. He’s married and has kids and none of them are members but they love our message and are planning on baptism at the end of next month hopefully.

We also found a 17 year old named Carlos. When we found him, we helped him fill up buckets of water at a well and take them to his house because he didn’t have any water at his house. It was fun and we got to become great friends with him. We explained the restoration to him and he wants to know more! Hopefully he’ll come to church next Sunday, he’s a great guy.

We also found a family, though I can’t remember their last name, I’m absolutely awful with names here, but the mother’s name is Sandra. What I’ve noticed with all these families and with all our investigators in general is that every time we talk about the restoration, the spirit testifies. Every time I teach the words of Joseph Smith we feel the Spirit. It’s something very powerful. Anyway so those are some of the new investigators we found.

Tuesday and Wednesday we went on splits with the zone leaders! I went to Ariaga with elder Garcia. He’s such a cool guy. It was fun being with another missionary but I was glad to go back to Tonala. Ariaga is so windy and like dead. There’s no one in the streets at all and the people aren’t that nice. We contacted this lady and she said “I don’t like you Mormons! You and all your crazy beliefs! I believe in one God and one God only!"... I said “well... hermana, we believe in one God too"... she said “well I still don’t like you". It was super funny.

Sunday Jafet came to church and we were so happy. His mom is still being stubborn and won’t let him get baptized but were glad he came. We visited him later on that day and talked about missionary work and he said the closing prayer... What a prayer. I was so happy but also sad, he wants to be baptized but he needs his moms permission and at this point she is not likely to give it. The Lords will be done. He said he’ll be patient and when the time comes, he’ll follow Christ and be baptized. He then prayed for us, and our families. One of the most touching moments as a missionary is when your investigators pray for you and your families. It was such a great experience.

Good week. Hard week. Sorry I’m out of time again. I’ll be sure to write more next week. But basically we went to the beach this morning, from there we got haircuts and came straight her to write our letters, so I don’t have my notes for the week to look off of.

I love and miss you all a ton! Thanks for your letters and prayers!

Love

Elder Hunt