Chiflon and Teaching with the Spirit

This week was great and hard and I learned a few of lessons.

I’ll just talk about the two main points in the subject line.

Chiflón

We went to a waterfall called Chiflón this week and it was so awesome!!!! It was a multi-zone activity and wow. . . . absolutely beautiful! We started at the bottom of the river and walked about 1.25 kilometers to the top where we saw the waterfall. It was so cool and we had a blast. It was so fun to see some old friends and companions too! After the waterfall we ate some delicious pizza and then went back to Comalapa!

Teaching with the Spirit.

I learned a very important lesson this week, in a hard and humbling way. I’ve been praying a lot for the Spirit this week and to recognize how to teach with the Spirit. I don’t know why, but sometimes, I feel like we don’t have it so much. Elder Cabrera is a great guy but sometimes we have disagreements and that effects everything we do. So Friday we had a disagreement and it turned into a little argument. It ended quickly but with 2 angry elders . . . . and thus we see that the Prophet Joseph Smith really was a prophet because he said " if a man has not the spirit he shall not teach". . . . and we didn’t. All of our lessons fell through and no one would listen to us. As we ended our day, we both apologized and repented.On Sunday after we took the sacrament I felt a lot better. We went with Marina and had a fantastic lesson with her. She opened up to us much more than usual, and talked about how hard it is with her husband because he’s never home but that she wants to get baptized. We testified that God would help her and then it hit me . . . . I remembered what I had prayed for and I had received my answer. We didn’t have the Spirit for a day and it was a disaster but now we had it again and I was able to really recognize the difference like never before and it just felt great! I know that the Spirit is a guide for us and that he’s always there, we just have to prepare ourselves and listen for it!

One other thing . . . . transfers came this week and I’M TRAINING AGAIN!!!! I’m super excited and ready for another opportunity to have a "hijo" (son) ha.

Love and miss you all tons and I’m so thankful for your letters. Keep being an incredible family!!

Love,

Elder Hunt

 

Little Miracles

Hey family it was a pretty great week down here.

We were in Comitan for Monday and Tuesday with the zone leaders. It was pretty nice, super fun, but it was nice to get back to our area and start working again.

We went over to 3 Maravillas again to see if we could find Francisco but he wasn’t there. Luckily his wife was, so we got talking with her and it sounds like they’re all in the same boat, trying to find God but not knowing exactly how to do it. We talked about what we do as missionaries and that the message we share is exactly what she and her husband are looking for. She didn’t have a ton of time to listen to us so we couldn’t teach the restoration.

Milton’s mom, Rosa, was never at home whenever we stopped by so we couldn’t ever teach her this week. We’re going over there today so pray that she’s there!!

Our Miracle Day was Friday. We went to the bank to deposit our rent and while we were there a guy kept looking at us. He finally came up to us and talked to us. He said he’s from a city about an hour away. His whole family is baptized except his daughter and he wants us to visit them so we can baptized his daughter!!!!! It was awesome, not coincidence. We were in the right place at the right time. We then went to 3 Maravillas, Francisco wasn’t there AGAIN, but we decided to share a message with the family. They told us that Francisco had just left and wasn’t going to be home for another hour, 5 min later Francisco shows up. Why he came back I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that the Lord had something to do with it. As we ended the lesson, he told us " thanks for being so concerned for us and trying to help us accept God in our lives" it was a great experience. Sadly, my companion was not feeling well afterward so after lunch we went home. The next morning . . . . BOOM! My companion had chingunkuya. I felt so bad for him, he was dying and there were several times I could tell the poor guy just wanted to cry. He had a super bad fever, head ache. muscle and joint pain and was throwing up. So that’s how was spent Saturday and some of the day Sunday. But he’s doing much better now so were going to see if we can work today.

Sorry for the short letter but that’s a quick summary of our week. If you guys can help us please pray that Rosa and Francisco and our other investigators can accept a baptismal date and go to church. You guys are the best and I love ya all tons!!!

Love,

Elder Hunt

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA!!!! LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!

3 Maravillas

First of all, HUGE shout out to the best dad ever for his birthday and also, LaRea and Lincoln . . . . have fun at school!

Week 4 in Comalapa was awesome and crazy! Right now I’m in Comitan because I have a doctor’s appointment for an ingrown toenail (I’ve been walking around in flip flops for 3 days with no socks . . . . doctors’ orders) but we enjoyed our P day by walking around and buying stuff from Chiapas and taking pictures. Anyway . . . .

This week we went to a little community called 3 Maravillas. It’s about 10 min outside of Comalapa and it was great to talk to the people over there. None of them have ever seen missionaries (let alone a 6 foot gringo) and so they were interested to hear us. Our biggest success over there was a man named Fransisco. He’s about 30 years old, hasn’t gone to church in forever and wanted to know how to come closer to God. So we talked about the restoration and taught that partaking of covenants like baptism by someone who has authority from God is how we can come closer to God. It went well. The Spirit was strong and he said yes to baptism and we set up another appointment with him. Unfortunately, we were unable to see him again this week because we had exchanges with the Zone leaders, but Wednesday well be sure to go over there again and probably be visiting 3 Maravillas more often.

We also found another new investigator. Rosa, the mother of the recent convert named Milton. I thought she had probably listened to the missionaries who had taught Milton, but one day she sat in on the lesson with Milton and Nancy and she wanted to know more. She said yes to baptism and we’ll be working a lot with her over these next couple weeks.

I went to Comitan this week for the exchanges and guess what . . . . It’s the same ward that I started my mission in!!!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome to talk to some of the members and I was surprised to find out that many still know me! I was with Elder Reyes and wow he’s a hard worker! It was so fun! We were talking with everyone and teaching everyone we could! One investigator we stopped by has been listening to the missionaries for 3 years and for some reason hasn’t ever accepted baptism. So we got talking with her and we had a great Spirit filled lesson and I don’t know how nor do I have the time to explain, but she said yes to baptism!!!!!! Shows just what the Spirit can do! It was so great to work with Elder Reyes and to work with the spirit even though it wasn’t my area. We celebrated our successful day with tacos.

So those were the highlights of the week. Sadly, none of our other investigators came to church, other than Milton’s mom (WOOHOO) but it was a good and busy week and fun to work! I love being a missionary even though it’s hard as heck. Love and miss you all tons!

Love,

Elder Hunt

 

Oh, Mexico!

It was a really hot week but also SUPER RAINY! Comalapa is so weird. But I love it!

A simple yet cool experience on Tuesday. We were getting into the combi to go to our meetings in Comitan and we were already running late. So we were waiting in the combi for like 15 min, and the driver still wasn’t leaving because he was waiting for more people to fill up the combi. So I said a simple prayer asking that we could leave so we could make it on time. Not 10 seconds after I ended my prayer, a van pulled up, and 5 people exited and entered the combi! It was awesome! And we made it on time to the meeting!

At the meeting, we had an awesome lesson from the zone leaders. We talked about miracles and what we can do to be part of miracles and to see them. We wrote down on a piece of paper miracles that we each need in our individual areas and then we prayed as a zone that we could work diligently and see the miracles come to pass. Then, once we arrived into our areas we started a fast for the miracles we had put down on our papers. And the next day we started to see the fruits of our fasting . . . .

As we were walking to a lesson, we were walking next to this lady and got talking with her and introduced ourselves. She was interested in our message and said she would love for us to come by. Her name is Ana Isabel, and we taught her and her sister about the restoration and she loved it. At the end of the discussion she said I’m going to church with you tomorrow, what time does it start? It was awesome. Unfortunately . . . . she didn’t come . . . . we’re not really sure why but we have a lesson with her this week! She was an answer to our fasting and prayers.

We were able to visit a lot of members and start strengthening the branch. It really needs it! We visitied a member every day and on Sunday we had 10 people more come to church!!!! This was also an answer to our fasting and prayers.

We had a pretty good week in seeing some of the fruits of our fast and I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for us this coming week. Thanks for the letters. Love and miss ya tons!

Love,

Elder Hunt

 

Week two in Comalapa

It was a fun and exciting week down here! It was super hot at times but then super rainy at others! On Saturday, it was so rainy that our umbrella only protected our heads from getting wet, but it didn’t bother me much because the saying goes that the more times you get soaked from the rain while preaching as a missionary, the more pretty your wife will be. BRING IT ON, RAIN! Anyway it was a great week down here.

We got to teach Milton, Nancy, and Fernando several times this week and the lessons all went really well. They always have questions and are great listeners. Saturday we had a great experience with Fernando. As we got talking with him we knew something was bothering him, after talking a little bit more with us, he said, "elders, I’ve sinned" and he was having a hard time holding in the tears. He said he smoked and drank. We talked about forgiveness and repentance and it was a great lesson. The spirit was strong and testified of our message. We gave him a blessing before we left.

Also this week as we were walking around contacting people I had a really strong impression to talk with a man that was sitting on the curb. We got talking and he basically told us he’s been waiting to get answers about God. We talked about everything from baptism to the pre-mortal life. He was such a great guy. The problem with him is that he doesn’t live in our area, he lives really far away. As we ended our talk with him, he told us. "Thanks for talking with me, it was just what I needed" By listening to the Spirit, we were able to answer the questions that this man has had about God.

Friday we had interviews with President, and it was great. Going into the interview I had so many things to ask him, but I didn’t have to, we just started talking and he answered all my questions without me even asking them. I feel my mission president is really called of God and receives revelation for all of us missionaries. He’s a great man.

Sunday it was voting day here in Comalapa and so no one came to church. Sadly the members and investigators use that as an excuse not to come to church, so not many people came. Then we got word from the zone leaders that some gang called Zapatistas, who hate the government, were going to destroy all the voting places in Comitan and Comalapa so we had to go home early, but nothing happened. So don’t worry mom.

On our way home, we found Angel. He’s moving to Puebla. But we had a great talk with him. He’s been going through some really hard trials lately and wants help. We followed the spirit, which led us to baptism. Both he and my companion and I could barely hold back the tears. I don’t know why, but it was a powerful lesson. As we closed, we invited him to be baptized and he said, “I’ll do anything to follow Jesus Christ and to be like you guys" it was such an amazing lesson even though it’ll probably be our last with him. As we left, he told us he will never forget us. It’s amazing to me the positive influence we can have on another person in just a few weeks. I’m hoping he stays here so we can help him with those steps toward baptism, because he’s seriously a golden investigator!

Love and miss you tons, family. Remember the Church is true, the Spirit ALWAYS guides us if we’re listening, and Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children!

Love,

 

Elder Hunt

Comalapa!

I’M IN COMALAPA AND I LOVE IT!!!!

OK . . . . like always I don’t have a lot of time so I’ll make it as detailed as I can in the short time I have to write. Comalapa is so beautiful and there are so many people. It’s a little smaller than Tonala but there is so much work to be done! So many people and so little members. We’ve got about 20 active members in the branch and it takes like 45 min to walk from one tip of the area to the other. Another thing about this area is the number of churches there are. I’ve never seen so many in one place. I thought there were a lot in Tonala, but here there is literally a church on about every other block. The other night I counted 16 from our last lesson to our house and we weren’t very far from our house. Needless to say we have a lot of fun conversations with some of the contacts! ha ha. Anyway I’m loving it here. It’s a little hot but definitely not like Tapachula or Tonala! My companion is Elder Cabrera from Tijuana and he’s such a cool guy! We hit it off really well and I can tell it’s going to be a great transfer with him!

So, here’s the week...

Monday was basically saying goodbye to all those I could. There wasn’t a whole lot of people home but we got a couple of pictures with those that were.

Tuesday I traveled to my new area. It wasn’t as long I thought it would be. It took about 8 hours. It was fun getting stopped by the border patrol every 30 min. . . . . NOT!

Wednesday we finally started working and wow it was awesome! SO MANY PEOPLE! We were talking to everyone and teaching a ton! One of the people we taught was a less-active named Baudi. He’s pretty messed up. Basically he lives in a cage at his parent’s house because he drank so much he went crazy. Interesting guy but a good listener.

Friday we taught a man from Honduras named Angel. He asked us all the golden questions. Why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going? We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved it. We have an appointment with him this Wednesday.

Saturday we found another guy who’s super churchy. He says Amen and Hallelujah after every comment, but he’s great. His name is Luis Hilberto and he was really intrigued about the restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he promised us he would read it. He is going out of town so we won’t be able to see him until NEXT Saturday but it should be a great lesson!

Sunday I gave a talk! Our little branch is so awesome! They seem a little discouraged because out of the 50 members in Comalapa only 20 are active, but we’re working hard and I can just feel it that this great area has a lot in store for us.

Sorry for the shortness of this email, but please pray for these 2 investigators, the branch, and that we can find those people who are ready to accept the gospel!

Love you all so much!

Elder Jonathan Garth Hunt