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

 

Good week, bad week

Yeah, that happen sometimes. This week was a little difficult.

Jonathan moved. He didn’t even tell us. But to be honest, it’s a good thing for him to move. His land lady told us he went to find work so he can start to support himself and his family. He left Wednesday. The last prayer he said with us was really epic, I’ll just share some of what he said:

"... and thanks for sending the Elders to me. I’m glad they don’t ever give up on me. It’s awesome, that nothing stops them, not even the rain. It’s great." I’m going to miss him, but I’ve got to look on the bright side of things, now he can get work and start turning his life around. We did our part by planting those gospel seeds.

We also went to the hospital to give a blessing to the brother of the Relief Society president. Let’s just say I’m really grateful I was born in America. The hospital was so disorganized and when we walked in you could smell that it wasn’t very sanitary. It was really sad to see the chaos with beds everywhere and so many sad people. We were able to give the man a blessing and it went well. After the blessing we asked the man how he felt and he said . . . "well, now I feel fine!" Priesthood power, it’s real.

I was privileged to give a baptismal interview and attend the baptism of Idolina a 60 year old lady who loves the gospel. Her daughter was baptized in February and she got baptized this week. It was a spiritual experience with the spirit being there so strong!! And guess who came to the baptism with us.... CHONCITA, JAIME, ALEX, and DANIA! They loved it!

Saturday me and my district cleaned a walkway (minus Huixtla. they live forever far away). It went really great. Two hours of sweeping and picking up nasty trash, but it was sure fun!

It was kind of a rough week because the ward is really struggling. I don’t want to talk bad about it so I’m just going to leave it at that and say that if it doesn’t improve anytime soon, there won’t be a Famboyanes ward... it’s sad to say but that’s the situation.

On other thing . . . I’M GETTTING TRANSFERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m going to Frontera Comalapa! I’m so stoked! It’s in the Comitan zone... the same zone where I started my mission!!!!!!!!!! F. Comalapa is super far from Comitan , my first area, like 2 hours in a combi! It’s a little warmer of an area than Comitan was but not anything like Tapachula! Should be nice for a cool down. Anyway that’s what’s happing. So tomorrow I take the 12 hour bus ride to Comalapa! WOOHOOO!

Love and miss you all tons. Have a fantastic week

AND FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS LINCOLN! love ya man! Hope it was a blast and write and tell me what you got!

Elder Hunt

Exchanges, The Book of Mormon

So pretty good week. I don’t have a whole ton of time so it’s going to have to be short.

Jonathan is making a lot of progress!!!! seriously he’s so dang awesome! He came to church with us yesterday and he loved it. He wants to be baptized so we set a date for the 1st of August and he accepted! He wants so bad to change his life and he recognizes what he needs to do, but he’s having a really hard time setting aside the drugs and cigarettes. We gave him a blessing yesterday and he wouldn’t stop thanking us. He was so happy and just wouldn’t stop thanking us.

This week, we did a little challenge in the district. We went all week walking around with a Book of Mormon in our hand and used it as we talked with people. I’ll just share one of the miracles. . . . We found a kid on his phone and started talking with him about the Book of Mormon. He was super interested and kept asking us question after question, at the end he told us that he is a Jehovah Witness! We were super surprised because usually all the JWs want to do is attack us. His name is Daniel and he’s a great guy. We’ll be stopping by his house Tuesday to talk with him about the Book of Mormon more.

We went on exchanges this week and I went to Huixtla with Elder Weaver! What a cool guy. It was super fun and I slept with AC!!!!! They were going to have 2 baptisms but I could only clear 1 in the interview. She needs an interview with President, but she’s a great lady so she’ll be fine.

Sadly this week Choncita and her family didn’t come to church but they’re doing fine and learning a lot!

Sorry it’s a short letter. Pray for Daniel ( the JW), Jonathan (so he can stop smoking and stuff) and Choncita, Jaime, Alex, and Dania (so they can get MARRIED!!!!!!)

Love and miss ya all tons, you’re great!

Love,

Elder Hunt

Drunk Guy Quote of the Week -

"Look guys, were not stealing... were just taking pretty things that don’t belong to us so we can feed our families" - Drunk Guy #274

Chingunkuya

I got the chingunkuya this week, well, at least I think so. It’s a nasty little virus that all the mosquitos have here in Chiapas, but don’t worry I’m doing fine.

So this is what happened this week.

Lunes- It was a fantastic birthday. We bought some pirated soccer jerseys and then ate some giant quesadillas! When we got to the restaurant the waiter asked me "are you elder hunt" and I was like "yeah why" and then he said "wait here" he then brought out a little folder and inside was a bunch of paper letters stung together that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER HUNT". It was from my district . . . . I’ve got the best district ever!!!!!

Martes- My companion got sick on Tuesday so we just chilled in the house. I read a lot and caught up in my journal but at the end of the day, I had a really bad head ache. . . .

Miércoles- I wasn’t feeling so hot. We went to the doctor and he told me I had Chingunkuya! It’s an awful thing. It starts out with a head ache and then turns to a fever and then you get super exhausted and before you know it, you want to stab all your joints because of the pain (don’t think stabbing would help with the pain but that’s how you feel!) Knowing we had conference with President George the next day, I asked my companion to give me a blessing so I could feel better and go to conference. He did and we went to bed.

Jueves- I woke up and I still felt bad, but nowhere near the way had I felt the day before, so we were able to go to conference! It was great! President George is such a great man! When he speaks, you know he does it with the Spirit. We talked about so many things and I don’t have my notes with me but basically it was awesome! We ended with a testimony meeting and after I shared my testimony, my companion shared his. In his testimony he talked about obedience (something he’s struggled with a lot in the mission. I have some stories about him that’ll have to wait till I get home, but he’s doing great now) and the importance of obedience and living with exactness. Then he thanked me for always pushing him to be more obedient! It was good to hear him say that. I honestly don’t think I’m the most obedient missionary but it felt good to know that someone else was benefitting from my example! We got home and the sickness started to come back but I was thankful that I was able to make it to conference.

Viernes- I was sick all day and it was so boring, but I was able to finish "Divine Signatures" (FANTASTIC BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and read like 10 chapters in Alma.

Sábado- We relaxed a bit more but by about 4 I was feeling good enough to go out and work. So we did and we taught Jonathan! Such a great guy. He’s the guy from Nicaragua whose brother is going to be a missionary. We taught him about baptism and the gospel of Jesus Christ and he wants to be baptized!!!!

Domingo- I feel better! We went to church and Choncita and her family came (minus Jaime) and it turned out great. We were kind of bummed that Jonathan couldn’t come. We were sure he was going to come. We were able to visit him again and it was a great lesson. He thanked us for always stopping by to visit him and never giving up on him. His life is so sad. He basically told us, out of all his family and friends, we are the only ones that don’t give up on him.

The gospel is true. It blesses families. I love being a missionary and seeing the change in these people’s lives. Love and miss you all a ton!

Elder Hunt

Tender Mercies

SO MUCH TO SAY. SO LITTLE TIME.

Ok, so much has happened this week and I don’t have a ton of time, but basically this week was filled with tender mercies and I just want to share some of them with you:

Monday. It was a super rainy day and usually when it rains, no one is home, but we were able to have 3 lessons in the 3 hours we had to work on p-day! To top it all off, when we went to teach Choncita and her family, they were babysitting a 3 year old girl who was the one who answered the door. When we came in and sat down, she asked us where our other companion went. My companion and I just looked at each other and then asked the little girl more about this "companion" that was with us. She told us it was a man in white that was walking above us in the air. . . . AWESOME! I know that the Lord is with us and sends angels to watch over us!

Tuesday. Moises accompanied us to one of the lessons with Andryck (I don’t know if you remember him). Andryck is a great kid but he doesn’t really put a whole lot of attention into the lessons. But with Moises with us, he was asking him as well as us questions and was really participative, it was great. I know that when the members and the missionaries work together, there WILL be success.

Wednesday. We found a new investigator named Carlos Antonio, he’s in his 30’s, when we found him we were actually looking for his mom, who we had contacted earlier that week. He answered the door and we explained that were missionaries who share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Gospel blesses families. When we said that, he opened the door even wider and said "PLEASE come in!!" Great guy, and we’ll be going back to see him tomorrow! I know that the Lord will lead and guide us to help find those that are ready to receive the gospel.

Thursday. While teaching Choncita and her family, Jaime, her boyfriend said, “Elders, I prayed and I know it’s true, I want to be baptized". I know the Lord will always prepare his children to receive the gospel.

Friday. We had exchanges with the Zone leaders and basically we were walking all day and were super tired by like 7:00, then the Assistants called Elder Luna and told him we had to find a restaurant to cater for a conference with president next week, so we went around telling a bunch of taco vendors we need someone to cater for a missionary meeting and they gave us free tacos. . . . We ate free tacos for an hour!

Sunday. Choncita and her whole family came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was the best Sunday EVER!!!!! They loved it and in Elder’s Quorum, Jaime bore his testimony on the Book of Mormon!!!! I know that this family will eventually be baptized!

Love and miss ya tons! Thanks for the birthday wished and have a great day!

Love,

Elder Hunt