Garth's First week in Mexico

I’M IN MEXICO!!!! It’s so awesome.. and really hard! But that’s what a mission is supposed to be, awesome and hard. So first off before I forget; let grandma know I got her letter and loved it and let LaRea and Brityn know I got theirs too. I love hearing from everyone and yes Brityn I can get pictures from you through my email.

Before I do things chronologically let me tell you where I live. I live in a really poor city called Comitan De Dominguez. It’s kind of in the mountains and it’s actually pretty chilly sometimes! I’m getting a sweater today!

So Sunday was the day when we said goodbye to the other missionaries in our MTC district. It was sad but we all wanted to be in the field already. We took a bus to the airport and I called home. I flew first class to Georgia which was pretty cool (they didn’t have enough seats in coach so I and 3 other missionaries got to fly first class. I slept a total of 4 hours during the many hours of flying and layovers and it was all on that flight to Atlanta thanks to first class seats. When we got to Tuxtla the humidity was like a slap in the face when we stepped off the plane. It was awesome.

We went and took pictures at the temple after an hour drive with the mission president, then we went to the mission office to drop off our bags. From there we went to the president’s house and ate chilly dogs! they were really good. That night I slept without covers because it was so hot and there were like 24 missionaries in the office building. In the morning, after breakfast, we had orientation at the church and we met our comps... I HAVE AN AMERICAN!!! Elder Shelley from Utah! He’s really cool and works hard. He has taught me so much! After orientation and pizza, my comp and I took a 3 hour bus ride to Comitan. The ride was beautiful. Everything is so green! We went straight from the bus stop to a baptism! Can you believe it! The members are so nice and love that I can’t understand a thing that they say. After the baptism there was a ward activity since it was their Independence Day. They had me, my comp, and 2 other white missionaries sing the American nation anthem and then the ward sung theirs.

This week has been crazy and really hard. It’s hard to talk to people when they can’t understand you and you can’t understand them! But the lessons have been pretty good. We’ve committed 7 people to baptism already, and all of them said yes! It’s so cool to see the change that comes to people as they recognize the truthfulness of the gospel.

It’s rained every day and so I’m pretty much always wet! The food hasn’t been the greatest... at all. They put this stuff called mole’ on everything. Basically it’s a really crappy bbq sauce, but I also had iguana this week and that was really good! There are no dinner appointments here because everyone eats lunch at 2 or 3 and dinner at 9 or 10. And no siestas. :(

It’s been a tough week but I love Mexico. We’re teaching quite a few people. One of them is named Marco. He wants to get baptized and loves the Book of Mormon. He won’t be able to be baptized for a while though because he’s going on vacation. Were also teaching a family of 4. We asked the mom to say a prayer after we introduced the Book of Mormon to them and she cried. There’s so many people that need the gospel here. The hardest thing to do right now is open my mouth since I can’t speak the language very well.

I love you all so much. You have no idea how much I miss our family. Keep praying for me! I need all the help I can get. Ha ha. Thanks again for the letters. I’ll try to be more descriptive in my next letter, there was just so much that happened this week.

Love you

Elder Hunt

Garth at the temple in Tuxtla with  his Mission President and Tuxtla missionaries

Garth's Last 2 Letters... Leaving for Tuxtla TONIGHT!

9/3/14

Hola Familia

I love and miss you all so much! I try to say that in every letter because it's so true! Thank you so much mom for the package and the endless letters you send me! Without them I couldn’t function. The cookies were great and I love the pictures. I was showing off to all the elders in my district how amazing my family is and how I reign supreme with having the cutest nieces and nephews. I’m glad to have received the letters from Lincoln and LaRea as well. It’s so good to hear from them. I’m glad Lincoln is killing it in school and Boom Beach. I have begun a Boom Beach legacy that he now has to continue. Lincoln, when you’re top 10 in the world I better be the first to hear about it! It was also good to hear U of A won too! Who did they play? What are the players to be watching this year? Anyway on with my week

So from where we last left off I have been continuing to do well with the Spanish, but it’s getting harder and harder! Me and my companion's lessons have been going really good as well. We committed Areli (hermana Estrada) to baptism!! She loves the story of the sons of Mosiah and how anyone can go from "the vilest of sinners" to "instruments in the hand of the lord". Every day for about 30 min we teach a progressing investigator. The people we teach are members pretending to be an investigator but sometimes it’s the real thing. I don’t know if I told you about ours. Her name is Ivette and she is a real investigator... so it’s SUPER important we don’t have any scripture mix ups like I did the beginning of the MTC! haha Anyway she is planning on getting baptized in real life! We’re not really supposed to know that but some other elders that are teaching her told us. Anyway she’s kind of a difficult investigator because sometimes she’s in character pretending she knows nothing about God and then will randomly break character and ask us if God knew Satan was going to rebel in the Pre Mortal life. So our lessons with her go all over the place but they’re really good. We ask her a lot of questions and she asks us a lot. I love it. Another cool thing that happened this week is I've been assigned to be the District Leader. It’s really nothing super special. Not like in a DL in the mission field. Basically I get the mail for everyone and get class started. It’s been cool though. Our last DL, Elder Card, is really awesome and hilarious. He and I get along real well. He’s helped me out with getting started as the new DL and it’s been great. Another awesome thing that happened this week was that I FINALLY found someone I know at the MTC! On Sunday I found elder Richard Rigby from the Wildwood Park Ward, who's going to the Adriatic South Mission (I’m pretty sure that’s the same one that Tasia’s going to). We said hi and talked for a while and got a picture together just before yesterday night's devotional. We were both so pumped cause all the Utah kids say hi to their friends like every 4 seconds because they know EVERYONE at the MTC so it was refreshing to be able to finally know someone!

I love and miss you all so much! Good luck to Brityn and Max while they're in Germany and good luck to Mom with watching their crazy Kids! I sure miss them. Good luck to Lincoln and Larea while Dad is in charge and making you eat leftovers ever night! Good luck to Cam and Amber with the possibility of the new baby coming, and good luck to everyone else who has stuff going on that I didn’t mention or don’t know about! Adios!!!

Love

Elder Hunt

PS: I get my flight information on Friday so yes I have my visa and I’ll let you know what the plans are next week. Also the day I get to Mexico is on their independence day... so things are going to be muy loco when I get there! I can’t wait!

Cameron... how come I haven’t got a 4 paragraph, double spaced, size 12 font, times new roman movie review of the best dang movie of the year???? I need to know how awesome Guardians of the Galaxy was even though I already know! Be sure to send pictures of the new baby when she comes!

Dad be sure to feed Lilly cause everyone knows mom’s the only one that does it! I put some pictures on dropbox, tell me if it worked.

Lincoln and Larea! I loved your letters, remember to always love each other and give Lilly a big ol' business kiss for me! haha 

YO AMO USTEDES!!

9/10/14

Finally! I got my flight plans. This week has been so great with so many random experiences. First flight plans... 

So on Sunday at 8:00 pm I leave the MTC for Salt Lake. My flight from Salt Lake City to Atlanta leaves at 12:55 am... Yes that’s1:00 in the morning!!!! So family I’ll probably call between 8 and 11 your time Sunday night. It’ll probably be closer to 8:30 or 9 so be prepared. I'll call the house phone. I land in Atlanta at 6:30AM Monday Morning their time... 3:30AM AZ time so I don’t think I’ll be able to make any calls during the lay over there. I leave from Atlanta GA at 9:45 AM and land in Mexico City at 12:23PM. I have a short layover there and leave from Mexico to Tuxtla Gutierrez at 2:10PM Mexico Time and land in Tuxtla at 3:39 PM Mexico time. I hope I made that clear enough. I’ll probably call the house when I land in Mexico City and leave a message. I will try to call mom and dad too. Ill figure it out but for sure be ready to answer the phone THIS Sunday night between 8 and 11. Mom dad if you have any advice on when to call you when I’m in Mexico City that would be great. Let me know through dear elder or something. I feel so disorganized! 

So this week was awesome! Friday morning we went to the pillow room!!!!! So every Friday morning we do service and there's a myth about west campus that if you tell the people in charge of service, who work at the MTC, that it’s your last service day, they’ll take you to the pillow room. We asked and they guided us to the legend! It was a room filled, to the roof in some places, with pillows. We were jumping and going crazy and it was awesome! Also this week it rained A LOT! Especially yesterday. Apparently the storm that passed through here made it to AZ and did some damage. Mom told me that there was some deaths and a lot of damage. How’s the house? Send me some pictures of how bad it was por favor! Sunday I got to see another one of my great friends, Greyson! He’s going to Salt Lake and he's such a great guy. We weren’t able to get a picture though. Also mom, they took out the MTC sign!!!! Apparently they have a problem with too many people taking pictures in front of it and its gone! I’m not making this up I went looking for it and finally asked someone and they told me that they took it out. I’m so sorry mom but I did really good at taking pictures this week you can look on dads drop box account. That’s where I put them all.

On Tuesday at devotional we had a Seventy from Africa come and speak. I can totally understand why Hunter loves the African people so much. Elder Sitati was so funny and happy and gave a really good devotional. He told us to always remember our divine potential and who we are and what we can become.

Today was our last time going to the temple in English. It was really great. We’ve really gotten close as a district and its going to be sad when we split but it’ll be all good in the end. I love everyone so much!!! Thanks for all the letters and the packages!! Congrats to Kelby and congrats to Cameron and Amber and Hanna grace! Sounds like it’s been a great week for everyone. Next week I’ll be in Mexico and I feel like the letters are going to start getting a whole lot different. Love yall!!!

Elder Hunt

Half way done at the MTC!

Hola famila!

This was the longest, shortest week of my life... I don’t know why. Everything is just getting busier and busier. But before I get into that let me say el don de languas es verdadera. The gift of tongues is real! I’m nowhere near fluent or even tolerable but there’s no way I would be able to speak the way I do without the Lords help. It’s so amazing and I’m starting to feel the spirit more and more in the lessons I teach.

So this week our district started passing around a cold and I was doing pretty good at avoiding it until my comp got it. Then I knew it was coming. I felt pretty awful Friday and Saturday, but the weird thing about it was that I was able to COMPLETELY focus during class. Usually if I were to feel that way during school I would rather swan dive onto a bear trap than pay attention in class. But the second I walked in the class door my brain was focused. I still felt snuffly and achy and dizzy but I was able to think and focus like it was nothing. The Lord answers prayers. Its verdad (true)!

I also received many loving letters from family and another package from the Crandall’s! I love you all so much! Seriously, I love hearing from you all! Especially you mom! I AM getting your letters and I DID write you a letter answering all your questions! You should get it by tomorrow.

It was rainy again this week and its cold... I love it! I know I’m not going to be feeling this way for a while so I’m soaking it all in.... literally.

On Monday we got a random person to teach, her name is Ivette and she knows nothing about God. It’s weird because we have to teach her at like a primary level. I love it. Also this week our branch president interviewed us all individually and he told me 3 things. He said 1) don’t stress. The mission is extremely hard for every good missionary but it’s fun for the best ones. 2) don’t compare. Don’t set goals or expectations based on anyone in the MTC except for yourself. And 3) don’t judge. You will not be a successful missionary if you judge your companion or the people you meet and teach... I needed to hear it all. The MTC has been rough at times but most of it has been just me. I love the place and I love the missionaries here. I’m glad to hear everyone’s doing great! I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Hunt

PS: Mom I would love some Rollo cookies and some Snickers bars. I got a ton of sour skittles so anything chocolate should even out the fruitiness. Love ya! And if you could also send me a picture of when I was baptized that would be great. It’s good for investigators to see. Also the computer I’m currently using is being super lame on sending pictures so I’ll try to send you some more by the end of today. Loveya!

 

At the temple with my companion, Elder Schmidtlein

 

Week Two!

 

From the Hunt Family: Sorry we didn't post his first week! He arrived safe and has been loving the MTC! Here is this weeks letter:

 

Holy smokes! Things are starting to really fly by. I know its only week 2 but it feels like I just got here yesterday. Sorry the last letter was so lame. It was my first P day so I was still a newbie at what to email. In my district there are 6 people going to Tuxtla Gutierrez and we all share the same apartment. The guys are so cool and funny. Some of them are looking at the MTC more as a time to slack off before the real missionary work, but they’ve started to pick up the slack. It’s hard sometimes to be continually working hard when you spend 10 hours of your day in a classroom, but it’s worth it and you can definitely feel a difference between a day where you give 100% and a day you give 80%. Last P-Day was honestly the hardest day I’ve had at the MTC. Reading the emails and letters made me homesick to the max! I couldn’t eat or focus on anything and I just wanted to give up. But I prayed and prayed and prayed. By the next day my head was back in the game and I remembered why I’m here and who I'm representing

This week I had a pretty funny experience. We were teaching Hermana Iroz as an investigator (one of our teachers pretends to be an investigator and we have to teach in Spanish!) Anyway her character is really struggling with trials in her life. So I opened to what I thought was Alma 26:27, which talks about having patience through trial and affliction. Instead I had the scriptures opened up to MOSIAH 26:27! She read it and started cracking up laughing! I could not figure out what in the heck was wrong. Well Instead of having her read a scripture on being patient in your afflictions and the blessings that come from it, I gave her a scripture about how if you don’t repent God will forget you and you'll be damned to hell to live with the devil and his angels in eternal fire.... I told the rest of the district what had happened and we couldn’t stop laughing. It was a classic missionary fail and I haven’t even entered the mission field.

Yesterday we went to a Mexican consulate to get our visas. It was great. We took a 2 hour train ride there and walked to the consulate from the station. A hobo lady came up to all the missionaries and was talking about how she loves the missionaries and how she’s a member of the church but doesn’t go cause she does drugs. She was honestly the sweetest hobo lady ever, not that I’ve met a whole lot of them but she just made all the missionaries smile when she was shaking our hands and saying how much she loved us.

Anyway keep me updated with the politics, movies, music, Hollywood drama and especially how everyone’s doing back at home. I miss everyone so much. And a special shout out to grandma and the Crandall’s for sending me the AMAZING packages! Packages and letters make a missionaries day. Another shout out to Ella! Happy birthday! And shout out to LaRea's friend Marissa for wanting to become Mormon! That’s so dang awesome! Thanks for all the letters emails and packages. I can feel the love from y’all!

Su Amigo Mejor

Elder Hunt

All the missionaries going to Tuxtla!

I didn't have a spoon so I made one out of tin foil

 

Thank YOU!

 

 

Onward Christian Soldier

We dropped Garth off at the airport at 6:30 am Wednesday Aug 6th. He was very excited to be on his way to the MTC. We are happy for him to begin this next phase of his life. He is ready and well prepared. We will miss him and his off-the-wall humor, but we know he's where he's supposed to be and we look forward to the blessings that will come to him and our family as he serves the Lord.

We still have not heard from him, but we hope to soon. I'll try to post again after we know more.

One More Day

Tomorrow's the day I leave to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I cant wait! When I opened the call, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico was the last thing I expected to read. However, once I read that letter, I knew for a fact that I'm meant to serve there and it's where the Lord wants me to be. I've felt so many different emotions since I got my call from nervousness to excitement. But more than anything, I want to serve the Lord and can't wait to get out there. I love this gospel and I cant wait to share it with others. I know the principals and doctrine taught within this church are true. This is Christ's restored Church and I'm thankful to be a part of it.