Leadership Meeting and Distritc Conference

Well this was an incredible yet slow week. My companion got sick so we basically did nothing most of this week. I was so glad to get out of the house and preach the gospel again!

Monday we traveled to Tuxtla for our leader meeting. Every month, all the zone leaders from the mission meet in Tuxtla to talk about monthly goals and what we can do to be better missionaries and leaders and all that good stuff. It was awesome because a lot of the zone leaders right now are some great missionaries from my generation and it was so good to see some old faces.

Tuesday was the actual meeting and it was so incredible . . . . and long! The new assistants are making a lot of great changes in the mission; how we work and study and what not, this month, one of the mission goals is to work more with Family History. It’s always been a part of the mission goals but no one is focusing too much on it, so president has a new vision on how we should work with it.

It was a great meeting and we talked about so many other things, I learned so much. Afterward we had the privilege of going to the temple. I LOVE the temple. I’m so lucky to have one in my mission and to be able to go. I’m not going to spend too much time talking about the temple but let me just say that I know the church is true and that part of the evidence of the truthfulness of the church are the temples.

Once we got back on Wednesday my companion got super sick and so we were in house for basically the whole week. I had my first zone meeting as zone leader though. It went pretty well but I feel like there is so much I need to work on. It’s hard enough to be district leader and lead 6 missionaries, but now I have to teach and help 18 missionaries. The pressure is a bit rough but I’ll get used to it.

This weekend we had a great district conference. President George is just an amazing man and he knows EXACTLY what the district needs. It’s because he is so in tune with the spirit. 

Wow, this was an awful letter, im so sorry. The time we have in the cyber is limited and as zone leaders we have to send in the numbers for our zone. It’s a long story. I love you all, and can’t wait to hear from you next week. I promise that my next letter will be better!

Love you all!!

Elder Hunt

First week in San Christabol

IT WAS AWSOME! There’s so much to tell you about and I know we just talked yesterday but I will cover the main points.

- lots of Catholics

- lots of hippies from all over the world

- cold (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!)

- a lot of old narrow streets like you would see in Italy or somewhere.

- some people speak Aztec dialects (Zotsil, Zental)

Monday I said goodbye to as many of the families, converts, and investigators in Tuxtla as I could.

Tuesday I got to San Cristobal and we went right to work, showing the new District leader and his companion their new area and meeting with the sister training leaders to plan our leader meeting for the next day.

Wednesday I met one of our incredible investigators named Freddy. He has all the church attendances and wants to get baptized, but his family and friends make fun of him because he’s meeting with us. We set a date with him for the 28th after teaching the discussion The Gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s excited but nervous about his family and friends. We’re working hard with him

Thursday we went to watch the BYU dance group. It was pretty awkward. Maybe because I’m a missionary and to see girls dancing with boys is weird. It was a "dance around the world" theme.

Friday we found another investigator named Francisco. He’s really receptive but is listening to missionaries from 4 other churches at the same time! We taught him The Restoration and he really liked it and says he is willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know for himself that its true!

Saturday we found another new investigator named Juan Carlos and his dad Celestino. They were really receptive and said they were willing to come to church but we stopped by Sunday morning but they weren’t there

The branch is pretty weak. It’s gone from an attendance of about 120 to 80 in the last couple years so we have a ton of less actives to work with, but the members that are active are awesome.

Anyway I better wrap things up here. Love and miss you all tons and can’t wait to tell you more about the area next week!

Love,

Elder Hunt

San Cristobal de las Casas!

I’m so excited!!!! 

San Cristobal is the dream area in the Tuxtla Gutierrez mission and I get to serve there. It’s nice and cool there! For instance right now in Tuxtla it’s 91 degrees and it’s going to hit 100 today. The high for San Cristobal today is 80 degrees and the rest of the week around 75 and it dips down into the low 50’s at night. Ahhhh, sweater weather, WOOHOO!

I’ve been asked to serve as a zone leader there so that will be a growing experience for me. I am excited to serve with my new companion who has been the assistant to the mission president for the last 6 months. He will finish his mission there . . . . Something tells me I’m not going to be able to slack off the last few months of my mission. Anyway, tomorrow I’m leaving so I’ll write you all about it next week.

This week was pretty good. I always write down what I did throughout the week on a post-it note so it’s easier to write you and write in my journal, but I left my other planner at the house, so I’ll try my best by memory . . . .

We kept teaching Cristian and he’s progressing pretty well. He wants to be baptized, even though his parents are only a little ok with it (they feel like the 4th of June is too soon) but my companion and his new companion are going to visit him and his parents with the Young Men’s president and talk about his baptismal date.

Yareni loves the message of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and is willing to read to know for herself if it’s true. We haven’t been able to meet with her boyfriend though. He’s really against religion, but yeah, that will be another project for my companion too!

To be honest, that’s all that I can think of for the highlights of the week and I don’t have much time. It’s been hard and hot in the Aguilas Ward at times, but I’ve learned so much! I’m sad to leave the people that I have come to love here but I am so excited go to San Cristobal and get to work!

Love ya all tons!!

Elder Hunt

Yuriana' baptism

Saturday Yuriana (an old investigator from my other area in the ward) got baptized. It was an incredible experience. It’s been so great to see people I taught be able to progress so much. Carmen, Angela, Jorge, Yuriana, Adolfo. I look back 9 months ago and remember when I still hadn’t had a baptism yet and now I’ve been able to help so many people follow Christ’s example. I love being a missionary.

This week we taught Sochi (it’s actually spelled Xochitl. It‘s Mayan). We taught her The Restoration and when we invited her to be baptized she said yes!!! She wasn’t able to come to church so we’re going to invite her again and put a date. She has a struggling teenage son, but every time we stop by to visit her he’s not there. Hopefully we can find him this week.

Christian is doing well. He read the pamphlets we left him and is a great learner. He said he prayed and got an answer that this is true but that he should wait a bit more!!! I hope a bit more is like a couple weeks!!!  

We also found a new investigator names Yareni. She’s a young mother who isn’t married and is looking for the truth. Her boyfriend is a pretty hard hearted guy but he’s friends with a member who is his neighbor. We found her on Friday and she was really open to us. From the beginning she just opened up and started telling us about her life. It didn’t give us much time to teach her about the Restoration, but we’re going to teach her tomorrow and hopefully everything goes well.

We’ve been having a bit of a difficulty finding some new investigators and helping those we have progress, but this week we had a ton of lessons with less actives. In our ward council we talked about an hour regarding problems with the less active members. So we figured that we need to start helping the ward grow and be strong before we can have a lot of people start joining the church. So that’s what we’re going to work on this week, getting more members active and THEN the ward will be ready to keep the new members there.

Anyway it was another super-hot week but we’re loving being missionaries. it’s been hard but I’m loving the work and loving the people.

Thanks for the prayers and love you have for me. Keep ‘em coming.

Love ya all!

Elder Hunt

This week was HOT!

HOT week!

And I mean the weather. It was really, really hot this week and the worst thing was that there was basically no one home! But I’ll tell you all about the good things that happened this week!  

We found 2 new investigators Ofelia and her mom Maria, they seem really interested, especially Ofelia. Ofelia is 19 and she was really intrigued in the restoration, especially the part about the Book of Mormon. They were unable to come to church on Sunday but this week they should be able to.

We met with Christian several times and he came to church and absolutely loved it, he’s definitely getting baptized. His parents are really catholic but they’re supportive to him listening to us and even said if he wants to join the church he can, but he needs to make the decision. So that’s awesome!

Also this week we’ve been visiting Adolfo a lot to help him with some of the problems he has been facing. He’s still enduring to the end, but it was a hard week for him. Sunday, he told us that some of the trials he’s had were lessened so that’s good news.

Anyway those are the highlights of this week. Sorry that there’s not much to tell you all. Oh, one other thing . . . . although Sunday we didn’t have many investigators to church we did see several less active members we have been visiting come to church with their families. So there was some fruit, just a different kind of fruit.

I love you all and miss you very much and thanks so much for your letters and motivation!

Love,

Elder Hunt

Carmen and Angela are baptized!

It was a good week.

Adolfo is enduring to the end. He’s been having some hard moments but we’ve been visiting him and helping him with words of comfort, videos, and scriptures. We watched with him, Elder Holland’s talk last Sunday. After watching it he said, "that was just for me wasn’t it?" He bore his testimony in church on Sunday and got pretty emotional. It was a great testimony.

Me and my companion got up early one morning to BOX! . . . Ok, not really, but my companion is a boxer and so I told him, "hey, tomorrow morning you’re going to be my coach and teach me how to box!" So we did. I almost died. I haven’t done that much exercise for a long, long, time! Anyway it was fun . . . just wanted to share that with ya.

We ate a sea food cocktail Friday at the bishop’s house. It was pretty good. It had octopus in it which was a nice surprise! ha 

Ok, really it was a nice week, but I want to tell you about Saturday. It was so awesome. We had a great ward activity and also Carmen and Angela’s baptism. So the activity was called “One Day in the Mission.” I don’t know why, since it only lasted an hour but it was fun. So the way it worked is we gave the members that attended the activity a survey for the members to take to people in the area. The survey asked them things related to the restoration like: What do you know about prophets? And Do you believe there are prophets on the earth today? And How different do you think the world would be if everyone listened to the prophets counsel? And Would you like to learn more about a living prophet? So the members took 3 surveys and went out tracting and contacting people. The activity started pretty grim. With an attendance of  about 10 adults and 6 youth. It didn’t look very promising. But after we got them all excited , we paired them up and sent them off. About an hour later and they were back and of the 5 companionships we made 17 referrals! The members saw many miracles and met many people who were interested. We go the idea from a brother in the ward that did it when he was a missionary and he had 22 baptisms from it. Now we’ll be working on contacting the referrals and hopefully will be teaching them. I can’t imaging how the activity would have been if the ward actually participated well. Anyway it was a great testimony builder for me and the few members who showed up.

Then we had the baptism. Due to the fact that we didn’t plan the baptism (remember, Carmen and Angela now live in the sisters area) it was an honor to participate in it. I was able to baptize them Saturday and then Sunday my companion confirmed them. They bore their testimonies on Sunday as well. Carmen got pretty emotional. She’s a great lady with not much education but she bore a simple and pure testimony, as did Angela.

Anyway it was a great experience teaching Carmen and Angela and then seeing them join the Church. It has been a great week. 

Sorry for the very unorganized letter but I love and miss you all tons. I know the Lord answers prayers and I know he wants us to be the best we can be and he’s willing to help us if we do our part.

The Church is true. I know it and love it.

Love,

Elder Hunt