Rosa's baptism...BEST WEEK EVER!

My dearest family,

 

This was the best week EVER! I just want to skip right to the baptism but I’ll save that for the end.

So last Monday, we went to Rosa’s house to teach her and to ask the big question . . . Who do you want to baptize you? So after the lesson we asked her and she asked me to do it. I really thought she might ask Elder Ramos because my companion is so awesome and it honestly didn’t matter a whole lot to me. Of course I was honored that she asked me but my focus wasn’t on who was going to baptize her, it was just getting her baptized so she could make that wonderful covenant with our Heavenly Father.

We went to visit Jose and Isis this week and talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. We taught that the ONLY way they can know if our message is true it by reading and praying about the book of Mormon. Isis was pretty excited for it, but Jose was a little reluctant. We think he’s just kind of going with the flow to make his wife happy, but we’re working on him.

Thursday we went to visit Lorena and read with her from the Book of Mormon. She loves reading it and loves talking with us, but doesn’t understand everything. So were helping her with that by reading with her.

Friday we finally contacted a less active member named Margot. We dropped by several times recently, but she’s never been home... FINALLY we got to talk with her and her non-member husband. It was great! They were so excited to see us. They were showing us all their trees and fruit and telling us about all their problems... they really want help and my companion and I were thankful that they trusted us enough to tell us about their life.

Finally Saturday came. At8:00 in the morning we went across the street to the church to fill up the baptismal font. It was the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard. After we got everything set up for General Conference and the baptism, we called and texted everyone we could think of to come and attend conference. We went over to one part member and less active family named Marvin and Eva (I think I told you guys about them a while back) we invited them to conference and they were so excited!

Conference was a great success, not only were there amazing talks given and not only was it incredible to see 3 new apostles called, but we were able to have 6 investigators come to church and 3 less active families! For our little branch that was exciting! Then came the baptism. The Spirit was so strong. We didn’t have a ton of members attend, but everyone was so happy. After pictures and the opening program, we had the baptismal ordinance. I entered the water first and then Rosa followed after me. She couldn’t hold back the tears. When she came out you could just feel the cleanliness. She just stood there in the water crying and saying "thank you God, thank you." After we changed clothes and ended the baptismal service I asked her "Rosa, how do you feel?" she said "Magnifica!!!! Siento Magnifica y limpia" (magnificent and clean). And you could see it on her face. She was smiling ear to ear! And so was elder Ramos and I.

Family, the church is true. There is no other way to salvation but by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s how it’s always been and how it will always be. I know God answers prayers . . . even though it took a year of praying and fasting, I know that a year’s wait was the best timing that God had planned for me. I love you and miss you all tons! Thanks for the letters and prayers!

Love,

 

Elder Hunt

Pre baptism week #2

OK... Rosa is going to get baptized THISWeekend! President came down on Thursday and interviewed her and told us October 3rd! We’re very excited and she is very ready for her baptism! After the interview, President George took us out for tacos. So let’s just say Thursday was a great day. We’ve been working a lot with Rosa and she’s really moving along great! We have just about all the lessons completed and now it’s just words of encouragement to keep her motivated for her baptism. It’s incredible to see the blessings of the gospel coming into the lives of others. Just to know that her past life will be not just forgotten but exchanged for another perfect NEW one is so great to see. Please pray for her so that she can make this covenant with our Father in Heaven this weekend. Satan is going to be working hard on her, but our prayers and faith are stronger than him.

Lorena is loving the Book of Mormon and reading it every day. It’s hard for her to come to church because she lives so far away. We talk to her at her work, but we're praying that this weekend will be easier for her since it is general conference.

We found a new family this week; Jose and Isis from Honduras. They’re awesome! When we taught the Restoration to them the spirit was so strong! It was incredible. They understand the Restoration really well and are willing to pray to know if it’s true. We know the Lord will answer their prayers.

We taught some English classes this week too. It was ok I guess. I have no idea how to teach English but we tried it out. We’re thinking about maybe doing an advanced group and a beginners group because there were people who came who know no English at all and others who already know a bit and want to get better. My comp is real good at English so that’s probably what we’re going to try this next week.

Well family, I’m out of time, but I love and miss you all so, so, so much and I’m loving the letters and pictures I’m getting, keep ‘em coming! Sorry this was a short letter. I know next week will be a LOT more eventful! you’re the best!

Love,

Elder Hunt

Pre baptism week

WE'RE SO PUMPED!

Rosa is going to be baptized this Saturday! We and she are so excited . . . . and nervous. We had a lesson with her this week and she revealed to us some information that will require her to have an interview with President George. He’s 75% sure he can come down this week but not completely sure, so we're praying a lot and we fasted this week. We know that if it’s the Lord’s will, it will be done. She is doing fantastic. She’s coming to church and really progressing well. She’s so ready for her baptism.

This week it also rained A LOT! and it’s still raining, which totally stinks because all the clothes that I washed today are still going to be soaked for like 4 days! but I’m thankful for the cool!

This week we found a less active member named Marvin. He’s about 30 and has a little boy. He loves the church but hasn’t attended for like 15 years. He wants to go back so bad but the“natural man” inside won’t let him. We had a great lesson with him and at the end sang, Abide With Me Tis Eventide. He was crying and kept saying "thank you, thank you". It felt good to find him and help him and show his wife that the Mormons aren’t all that crazy (she’s Baptist and has a lot of ideas about us).

We met with Josue and it went pretty good. He loves listening to us, but I don’t think he really understands what we do as missionaries. I think he’s looking more for an inspirational message, not a life change. We’ll still work with him and pray that he’ll be able to see the importance of what we do.

This week we’ve also been working with a new lady named Lora. She sells furniture and is about 40 years old. She’s a little round lady with a big smile. She loves the message of the Restoration and loves reading, so the Book of Mormon is a pretty nice thing for her! We’ll be stopping by to see her tomorrow to see how she’s doing on the reading, I’m sure she’ll be great.

So that was this week and next week is shaping up to be awesome! We’re so excited and can’t wait to see the hand of the Lord in this work.

Love and miss you all tons! Can’t wait to hear about your lives every week!

Love ya!

 

Elder Hunt

Good week and random week

It was a good week and very random. So, remember my toenail . . . . it got ingrown again so we went to the doctor and he numbed the sucker and took out the ingrown piece. It was quite painful but I’m ok!!! So after that experience on Tuesday we were in the house for a couple of days on doctor’s orders and couldn’t work at all. It was a bummer but now I’m totally ok. So mom don’t worry! My toe is totally enjoying being in a shoe comfortably now. I repeat. I’m OK!!!!!

So here is what happened this week . . . .

We worked with Rosa to get her ready for her baptism in two weeks. She accepted the word of wisdom easily and basically is already livings it, so that was great.

We met a guy names Josue. HES AWESOME! We contacted him yesterday and he told us "yeah, you guys can definitely stop by my house. I don’t know why, but you guys seem different. I feel peace when you guys talk to me." So we’re totally visiting him this week!

We helped a less active member get excited to come back to church. Her name is Blanca. She’s gone through some rough things recently but is ready to come back into the gospel.

Sunday was the best day this week. We went to San Cristobal for the temple dedication of the Mexico City temple. It was an incredible experience! So amazing! Pres. Eyring and Elder Holland spoke. Their words and testimonies were inspiring, especially when Elder Holland bore his testimony in Spanish. I’m pretty sure everyone there was crying. It was so awesome! It made me really excited to go to the temple. I’m hoping after I finish here in Comalapa, that I’ll be able to serve some time in Tuxtla so I can go to the temple there.

Sorry, that’s all the time I have for today because we went to some lakes called Los Lagos de Colon. And no, it has nothing to do with the body part! Ha! Anyway it was very beautiful and so fun. We went with the zone leaders and some members from Comitan. There was a pyramid there too and I’ll be sure to send all the pictures next week.

Love and miss you all tons. Thanks for the letters!

Love ya.

Elder Hunt

More adventures

It was an adventurous week . . . ish

So Wednesday we had ANOTHER meeting with President George but this time in Comitan (not complaining. I love it when President comes). It lasted from 10:00AM until around 3:00PM and it was fantastic. He said so many things and shared so many experiences, it was so great. He really focused on keeping the Sabbath day holy. Recently the church has really pushed for having the members better keep the Sabbath day holy, it is especially a problem here in the mission, so we talked about how important it is to sanctify the Sabbath day. As I look back on the years before my mission I think I could have done a better job at keeping the Sabbath day! Anyway it was a great conference and we’ll be applying what we learned in our area here!

Thursday was interesting. We went to Ana’s and as we were teaching her, her dad came . . . . wow! The first thing he said was "Who invited you here?!" We were like "uhhh we were just giving your daughter a message." then he was like "DONT YOU RESPECT THIS CROSS!!! (pointing to a cross painted on their house). “In Mathew . . . . blah, blah, blah, . . . it says . . . .blah, blah, blah!" We were kind of stunned and so was Ana Isabel. We told Ana we’d stop by on another day and then left. It was an experience that was really annoying and it kind of ticks me off that Satan can be such a pain in the behind sometimes. She’s going to get baptized anyway, even if it takes a couple months to do it.

Then on Friday we got a call from the Finance Secretary and he told us we had to go to Tuxtla, that day, to renew my green card. The problem was there is some strike going on with the workers between here and Comitan. So we had to take the highway down to Motozintla, then to Huixtla, then to Tapachula, and then on to Tuxlta. You can map it out if you want to but let’s just say that because of the strike going on our trip was 12 hours instead of 5! We had an adventure day on Friday and got into Tuxtla at 1:00 in the morning!

Saturday after we got everything worked out with my green card we got home around 6:00, just in time to have a family home evening with Rosa and her kids and a family in the branch. It went pretty well. Rosa and her sons came to church on Sunday and sacrament meeting went really great.

Overall it was a little harder week and we didn’t have much time to work with our investigators, but this week we are definitely ready to put in some good time, find some new investigators and get these investigators that we have progressing.

I love you all very much and miss you tons. Thanks so much for the support and the letters and prayers.

Love

Elder Hunt

PS: a drunk guy kissed my companion on the neck yesterday! It was funny!!! Ha ha ha!

Another miracle week!

Holy smokes!!!! this week was AWESOME!!!!!!

Ok, so .... so many prayers and fasting was answered this week and were so excited!!!

I’ll start off with our meeting in Tuxtla... IT WAS GREAT!!! I got to see so many friends from the MTC and it was just terrific to be with them all and the other elders I’ve got to know! We ate pizza, told our weird mission stories to each other, it was the best! The meeting with president was awesome! He and the assistants talked about so many things! Basically this was the gist of it all:

1. If they’re not ready or don’t want to be baptized, DONT BAPTISE THEM! (ya don’t say)

2. Why pray if you don’t have faith.

3. Inspired questions invite the spirit.

4. If you ever have problems with your companion, just remember he has a loving family too, and he’s making a sacrifice too.

The meeting was a lot better than the way I just described it, but there was so much that happened it’s difficult to explain.

When we got back, the miracles started to happen ….

Wednesday night we went to visit Milton’s mom, Rosa. She’s the one who was in the hospital last week and we gave her a blessing. We went to her sister’s home to see how she was doing and as we got talking she said, "elders, while I was in the hospital I had a lot of down time, I was able to read the pamphlets you gave my kids and I also read some of the Book of Mormon. I was able to also do what it says, pray and ask God. when I prayed, I had a very strong peaceful feeling wash over me and it was almost like I heard God say, this is the correct path... elders I know this is the path I should take." We were almost speechless! We committed her to baptism and we have a date for the 26th of September, but were going to try to get her baptized sooner, she’s already been to church 3 times! so we COULD do it in 2 weeks, but we’ll see what happens, she came to church this Sunday and was as happy as could be!

The other miracle was Ana Isabel. Remember her? Elder Cabrera and I found her a month ago or so. We had a great lesson with her but every time we stopped by we could never seem to find her in her house. And every time we called her she never answered. Well, one day we were planning on who to visit and she came to mind, so we put her down and went to visit her. When she saw us she was like "where have you guys been?!?!?!" so we apologized and told her we could never find her at home but we taught her the first lesson and it went REALLY well. She said yes to baptism and also came to church this week!!!! When she left church, she said "I absolutely loved it, I’ll see you guys next week! She has a baptismal date for the 3rd of October.

Lastly Augusto. he’s been kind of a pain lately and has been really hard-hearted about the Book of Mormon. We share scriptures from the bible and the Book of Mormon and he still doesn’t accept it. But this week we brought a member to his house, his name is Hugo, he is a counselor in the branch presidency, and he really seemed to soften him up with his testimony about the Book of Mormon, it was a great lesson. Augusto didn’t come to church, he wants to do more "studying" first, but it was still great.

Anyway, it was a fantastic week. All in all, we have 2 sure people getting baptized this transfer and we doubled the attendance in church this week so were pretty happy... it has been a week full of seeing the prayers and fasting answered. I love being a missionary. The church is true, God loves and prepares his children! Love and miss ya all a ton!

Elder Hunt

ps. SHOUT OUT to my nephew Sam!....I know it’s a little rough right now but can’t wait to meet you in a year!

Elder Ramos

OK, right now I’m in a crappy cyber cafe writing on a computer that still has Windows 2000, and about to leave to Tuxtla for a meeting with all the DLs and ZLs in the mission. We’re leaving in a little bit so sadly I’ll have to make this email quick.

First of all my companion is AWESOME!!!!! his name is Elder Ramos and he’s from Tijuana and speaks 50 or 60 percent English. He’s a super funny guy and we’ve been getting along great! And for a greenie he teaches with the spirit so well. For example, one of the first things that happened when we got back from picking him up in Tuxtla was to contact a family that Marina told us that we should visit! They are the Perez family. The member of the family who’s most interested in our message is the dad, his name is Agusto. The lesson we taught was one of the worst organized lessons I’ve participated in yet it was one of the strongest where the Spirit was there. The rain slamming on their tin roof couldn’t drive away the peace that was felt during the lesson. It was awesome! And a lot of it was due to my greenie companion. Also, 3 times this week people have told us that we look like angels . . . awesome random thought.

We helped a lady in the ward move her house . . . literally . . . . we tore the roof off and took the kitchen apart and took the pieces of her house to another piece of land they had. We really enjoyed helping them.

Finally, I want to tell you about Carlos. We found him yesterday and he loves to talk! He’s a carpenter and talked so much that we couldn’t get too much in. While we were teaching him about the restoration, his wife peeked her head around the corner and said something to the fact of "this is interesting; can I listen in on you guys?" HECK YES YOU CAN! We’ll be seeing them again this next week.

Anyway it was so nice to work with my new companion and to be able to teach him what I have learned. He is a very teachable elder, I know were going to do great things this transfer!

Thanks for the letters. Love and miss you all so much!!!

Elder Hunt