Tonala is HOT!

Hola

So Tonala is getting hotter and hotter... I hoping I get transferred to San Cristobal or something soon because by March I’m going to be scorched. Anyway it was a pretty good week.

Lunes – we found a new investigator named Pablo. He’s 17 and awesome!!!! We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his atonement and he was so interested. We asked him to say the closing prayer and when he did he said "I’ve never felt so much peace and warmth in my heart for all my 17 years" IT WAS AMAZING! So yea, it was a great P-Day.

Martes – after Reunion de Lideres, Elder Garcia (one of our zone leaders) spent the day with us and he, like elder Jimenez is awesome! We did a ton of contacting and we found a new investigator named Josafat. He’s also a teenager and he’s the first person we taught that doesn’t believe in God. It was a very interesting conversation but he wants to know if God is real. He says he prays but just doesn’t know if anyone is hearing his prayers. He’s a good kid and I hope we can help him see that God is in fact real.

Miercoles – we ended our trio and had Kentucky Fried Chicken for Lunch!!!!!!... well it was close enough, ha. It was from a place called Happy Chicken and it was pretty good. We had a hard time finding people because it was New Year’s Eve but we had dinner at the house of Familia Trujillo. They are an awesome family and we ate some great food! We left around 9:00 and started running home because we were pretty far. By9:20 we were almost home and my companion realized he forgot the keys... so we ran back got the keys and ran back home and got home at 9:35. I was so tired! I haven’t ran for 3 months!!!

Jueves – was New Year’s Day and there was literally NO ONE in the streets. It was insane we did hardly any contacting and teaching that day because everyone was gone! About half of our contacts were drunk so that made for some fun conversations!

The rest of the week was a lot of contacting and teaching and finding referrals! Church was great. We have it at 12:00 now and Josafat came to church! He loved it and has a lot of friends in the youth. It was pretty great. We taught Jafet after church too. It was the first time we taught him that week... we stopped by every day but he was never there. It’s hard but we’re still praying for him and his mom.

Anyway thanks for your letters and prayers I love and miss you all so much and can’t wait to hear from you next week. Nos Vemos!

Love

Elder Hunt

 

Feliz Navidad

What a fantastic week!

So this week we went on splits with the zone leaders. Elder Jimenez was paired up with me and Elder Martinez went to Ariaga with Elder Garcia. Elder Jimenez is from Columbia and speaks really good English. He also was the trainer of Elder Schmitdlein from my batch in the MTC! It was great to work with Elder Jimenez. I learned a lot from him and can’t wait until I have 20 months of experience like he does. With him we found a new familia, Isacc and Maria Gonzalez. A mom and her son. It was great working with him. Wednesday(Christmas Eve) we had district meeting, took pictures, and then we went to Ariaga to pick up my companion. When we got back we ate some pretty dang good food.

So for Christmas Eve in Mexico, everyone does something called Noche Buena. It’s basically a Mexican Thanksgiving... kind of. Everyone gathers together with their family and makes tons of food. Then around 11:00 or midnight, they stuff it! So for our meal appointment we got some of that food, tacos, tostadas and some kind of salad. It was great. We went to Jafet afterward, but he wasn’t there so we couldn’t talk with his mom or him so that was kind of dissapointing.

Thursday was Incredible!! I talked with my Family! That was so great! I miss you all so much. I was glad to hear about everyone and to see snow! I think I forgot what cold feels like, but yeah, it was great to talk with everyone. I can’t wait until Mother’s Day. Hopefully I’ll be able to see Cam and Amber and Brit and Max and Ciera and Seth and my nieces and nephew next time, but seriously it was such a great day! Love and miss you all a ton.

Friday was pretty great day too. We found a new investigator. Her name is Laurelis, she’s great and really interested in our message. After we taught her, we went to the church for our activity navideña! We put on a play and sang and played guitar and ate food. It was great. After that it was kind of a hard week. We had a lot of appointments fall through and every time we went to Jafets house, he wasn’t there. This is definitely a trial to test our patience and to see if we will continue to put our trust in the Lord. It’s hard but I know that I’ll be able to reap the rewards "after the trial of my faith".

Love and miss you all a ton. Keep praying for Jafet, Marcos, Adan, and our new investigators. Thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Hunt

Hola Familia!!!!!!

What a crazy week!

Monday we taught Marco, the guitar kid, and it was awesome! He’s so excited about the Book of Mormon and has so many questions. It was a great lesson and the Spirit was strong.

Tuesday was hard. A lot of our appointments fell through but….. we had ICE CREAM!!! Our lunch appointment gave us ice cream and it was glorious!!!

Wednesday was a pretty good day. We had one great experience, we were on our way to a lesson that was really far away but I felt that we should stop and visit a less active member first. I talked with my companion about it and we decided to visit the less active first and then go to our other lesson. We would be risking not being able to teach the other lesson because it was late and we would be really far away, so we followed the spirit and went to the home of the family Dominguez. We taught a really simple lesson about prayer. I don’t know what happened but the father of the family just broke down into tears and said "thank you so much elders for your message, we needed it. We love you elders"... What a fantastic experience.! To be able to see the blessings of following the spirit. God knows what he’s doing. I have learned if you receive a prompting, listen.

Thursday was awesome!!!!! We went to Ariaga for a multi-zone Christmas conference. At the conference I saw elder Burk and elder Crowley from the MTC!!!! It was so nice to see them and catch up. For the conference we put on a little play and I was one of the wise men! Ha, me a wise man. It was pretty fun. We also had a talent show and so our district sang Oh holy night. One verse in Spanish and the other in English and I played guitar. It was awesome. Afterward, one of the elders from the office came up to me and said, "That was awesome! Want to jam with me?" so I had a jam sesh with one of the Mexican missionaries. It was so cool and wow was he good! Then an elder named elder Tuafu from HENDERSON NEVADA started singing and playing guitar with us. It was so fun to sing and play with a Tongan and a Mexican. We ate a ton of food, learned a lot about Christ and ate SCOTCHAROOS! Sister George made scotcharoos for everyone and it was delicious! Though it made me miss home a bit. Thursday was great.

The next couple days were busy. I gave a pregnant woman a blessing and ate some clams things. We talked with Jafet; his mom is still being difficult with things. We’re working with him, he needs to be baptized and wants it so bad. I’m going to talk to his mom about it tomorrow. I’m nervous because I don’t exactly what to say, but Jafet needs to be baptised.

Anyway I’m out of time but that was basically the week. Love you and miss you all and can’t wait to talk with you all on CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Elder Hunt

PS: MOM... Happy late birthday. Love and miss ya tons!

Withy Elder Burk and Elder Crowley

I actually aet this!

Multi-Zone Christmas Conference

 

Querido Familia,

What a hard week!

Monday was a crazy P-day. Elder Reyes Leyva and I were saying our goodbyes to as many people as we possibly could in the short time we had before I went to Tuxtla. At 5 PM we got to the bus station in Ariga and that’s where we said goodbye. Elder Reyes Leyva is such a great guy. He’s now the zone leader in San Cristobol!!! He’s so lucky to serve in San Cristobol, the weather is so nice and cool there. When I got to Tuxtla I spent the night with the zone leaders. It was really fun. We ordered pizza and talked in Spanish. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Tuesday was the day we got our trainees! There are a ton of missionaries from my generation who are training but only 3 of us are white. Myself, Elder Thomson and a sister that was in another district in the MTC, so I don’t know her very well. We were all a little bit nervous. Before we got our new missionaries we attended a meeting. We all talked about how important our job is as trainers, that we need to love our companions, lead by example, and really listen to the Spirit. After the meeting, we got our companions!!!! I’ll be training ELDER MARTINEZ. What a cool guy! Seriously, he’s so funny and he’s a hard worker! We’ll be a good team! He’s from Jauja Durango, Mexico and doesn’t speak a lick of English. It will be a challenge, but I know I will grow from it, and I can tell I will enjoy him as my companion. By the time we got back from Tuxtla it was already 8:30 PM so we unpacked, talked a bit and hit the sack.

Wednesday was my first District meeting. I don’t know if I mentioned it in my last letter, but I will also be serving as the district leader as well. It's a lot of responsibility, but it’s just me, Elder Martinez, Hermana Keaton and Hermana Canalizo! We had a great meeting about faith, patience and miracles! Everyone in the district is new. Either new in the mission field or new in Tonala, so we had a great meeting about how we can work hard and with faith and be able to see miracles. Then we got to work!

One of our investigators is Guadalupe and her boyfriend Jared. Jared is a member but she is not. She wants to get baptized but they need to get married first so we’ve been working a lot with them and everything is almost ready for their marriage. They should be getting married soon and hopefully we’ll be able to baptize her by the end of this transfer.

Thursday we did a lot of service. Macheted a little bit and picked some lemons for a sick hermana. We also visited Adan and his family. They are so close to finishing the house!!!!

Friday was Crazy!!! I don’t know what’s going on with these Catholics over here, but they were up all night with fireworks and beer. It was insane! Something about the Virgin Guadalupe. But yeah, everyone was partying and there was a parade in the park with an ice skating rink, it was weird!

We met with the guitar singer kid from last week and he wants to learn more!!! His name is Marso, and he and his family loved our message.

Saturday was tough, we didn’t get many lessons in but we were able to contact a lot.

Sunday was great! At first it was kind of disappointing. Many of our investigators weren’t able to come to church but jafet did show up. We talked with him and guess what….we can baptize him THIS WEEK!!!! At least it is looking that way. He said his mom is thinking about it. I think her heart is softening!! His grades in school are great so she will to let him get baptized!!! I’m so excited.

After church the missionaries from the other ward introduced us to a family in our area. The dad is less active and the mom and all the kids want to be baptized. They have all been going to church for the past couple of weeks so we should be able to baptize them by the end of this transfer. After church I had the privilege of eating pig head tacos...it was pretty good I’m not going to lie!

Anyway, that was basically my week. I’m out of time so I just want to say I love and miss you all a ton!!! Thanks for your all your letters and prayers!

Love,

Elder Hunt

Leaving Elder Reyes Leyva

My district

My new Companion, Elder Martinez

 

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