Tuxtla .....AGAIN!

This week was pretty crazy and rough, but it flew by so fast. Time is so crazy when you’re on a mission! Anyway here it is:

Lunes- It was a crazy P-day. We had a leader conference in Tuxtla for all the leaders of the mission. Every district leader, zone leader and sister training leaders went. It happens every 6 months, so I had the great privilege to go to Tuxtla again! When me and the other district leaders of the zone got to Tuxtla, we of course chowed down on that American goodness... hamburgers from Burger King and pizza! Ha! Anyway, we got to the mission president’s home and I see Elder Carpenter and Elder Schmitlein from my district in the MTC! It was so good to see them!

Martes- We actually had the Conference and it was so good! We talked about obedience with exactness and about being an example. Afterward, we again ate pizza and we were all able to do a session in the temple. What an incredible experience! The Spirit is always so strong in the temple! I also finally got the letters from Aunt Sandy, Cam and Amber and Grandma Bawden. Thanks guys!

Miercoles- We traveled home and got to work. We taught jafet and went to a homecoming of a missionary in the ward. His name is Anthony and he served in Tampica, Mexico. He’s a great guy and I can’t wait for him to help us out in the work!

Jueves-The main event of Thursday was that we helped the sisters move apartments. We used a combi from one of the members to make it a lot easier. The ward mission leader drove it for us and it was a fun project.

Viernes- I had the opportunity to interview 2 investigators for baptism. One was a little girl who lives in a house away from Tonala and the other was a young woman about 20 years old. Both of them were excited and ready for baptism.

Sabado-We had the baptism for Aimy and Isamari. It was so great! Josefat was able to go, and the baptisms made him super excited for his own! It’s going to take a while for him, though. He’s had a rough life, but through the atonement, he will be able to be baptized!

It was a hard week without a whole ton of success, but many wonderful and spiritual experiences. I love and miss you all so much and thank you for all the letters and thoughts and prayers! You’re all so amazing! Until next time!

Love,

Elder Hunt

Poco a Poco

It has been a good week. I don’t have a whole lot of time so I’ll just give some of the highlights.

Lunes- We were buying food and I heard a guy say to his wife, " Mira! Hay un gringo!!!" He walked up to me and said, " hey where are you from" in English. So we visited and he’s from Georgia and is in Mexico because he’s working on his papers to live in the U.S. legally. It was so nice to talk in English with him. It funny too because he had a weird Mexican black guy accent!

Miercoles- We talked again with Tony ( I’m pretty sure I told you about him. We found him last week. He’s got a messed up life and asks us a ton of questions). We’re working hard with him to get him ready for baptism. It’s hard because all he does is ask random questions but hes a great kid.

Jueves- It was a pretty rough morning. I don’t know why but both me and my comp were kinda cranky, so I got down on my knees and prayed for strength and love and...wow! I was overwhelmed with peace and love. The power of prayer is so cool! It turned the day around and things were great! Then we taught Josefat. Josefat is another young man that loves to talk and ask random questions, but he wants so bad to be baptised!!!! We’re working on getting permission, by the end of the transfer I’m sure he will be baptized.

Sabado- It was another difficult morning but we talked with familia de la cruz marroquin and let me tell you, the family is golden...especially the mom! They’re the ones that came to church last week and at church we watched the video of the restoration. When we talked with her she said that she had a dream the first Saturday that we taught her. In the dream she saw trees and light and heard the wind and people singing. Then we watched the restoration video at church! She said that every time we visit she feels a strong warmth in her heart. We explained that the dream was a way of God telling her that this is true and that the Holy Ghost testifies that it’s true by the feelings she has. We told her that she can know its true through prayer. We had a great lesson and can’t wait to visit them this week. Sadly, they couldn’t come to church, but they will be there next week.

The church is true and what I have found is that most of the time God doesn’t just throw blessings at us when we ask for them. Depending on the situation, he gives them little by little (poco a poco) so that we can recognize our constant need for his help and the love he truly has for us. It’s hard right now but i can see the change Tonala is making and I can see that poco a poco it will one day be full of wonderful faithful members of the church. The church is true! Love and miss ya all a ton.

Elder Hunt

Mangos!

Hola Family!!!!!!!!!!!

I love and miss you tons. OK, so I’m going to address the mango situation. Mango season has officially begun, and wow it’s awesome!!!! So many mangoes! Yesterday we got a bag of 12 delicious juicy mangoes from one of the members. This means 2 things: 1) were going to have to eat a lot of mangoes these next couple months and 2) I’m going to be spending a lot more time in the bathroom, but its all worth it.

At first this week was super hard. We had a trouble finding people, my comp and I weren't getting along that well, and it was just rough. Monday Jafet took a test and his mom said if he passed he could be baptized! We were so excited and so was he. Then Tuesday came along and we found out he had failed. That was a hard day for all of us.

Wednesday we had a lot of lessons fall through too, but we did get to visit some less actives. The first 3 and a half days of the week were just hard. I did a lot of praying this week; praying for help with my comp, with the investigators, and with finding new people. It was difficult. Then Thursday I found a scripture in Doctrine and covenants. It’s when Joseph is in Liberty Jail and he’s pleading with the Lord for help, and the Lord says that its for his experience, and that the lord will bring him success if he has patience and faith. It was a scripture I’ve read many times before, but this time it was what I needed to hear and it was an answer to my prayers.

Thursday we Found a new Investigator named Francisco Torrez. He’s AWESOME! His mom is super catholic and we taught him and his family about the restoration and a little about baptism. We invited him, his mom, and his aunt to baptism, and the mom and aunt said no because their baptism in the catholic church was sufficient. But Francisco said he wants to be baptized! There was a little argument between the ladies and Francisco, but he told them off and basically said that infant baptism is wrong and that he wants to be baptized for himself and not his parents. We ended our day by teaching an old lady named Marta about the plan of salvation. When we finished she prayed and cried and thanked God for sending us to here. Elder Martinez and I were so grateful for that day and little by little we talked more openly, resolved problems and now were great!

I’m going to quickly end with Family Morroquin de la Cruz! What a family! We contacted them Saturday and taught them the restoration. Their story is similar to Joseph Smith’s. They've been going to a ton of different churches over the past couple years and haven’t felt that any are right. When we taught the lesson the spirit was strong and witnessed to them that the message is true. They came to church the next day and loved it! They are an amazing family! What a great experience.

I need to end it here, but i love and miss you so much! Thanks for the letters and prayers.

Love,

Elder Hunt

Another week in Tonala

Hola Familia!

Another week in Tonala! So Monday we went to pay rent to our land lord and he told us we have to start paying more, so I called the financial secretary and basically we need to start looking for a new house.... it totally stinks because our house is dang awesome right now! But were looking around and we still have some good options.

Wednesday was a pretty good day. We had a zone meeting and afterward we ate hamburgers at a members house!!!!!! They tasted almost 85% to what an American hamburger tastes like!!!!! Which is saying something because I’ve had "hamburgers" here and yeah it’s pretty awful, but these were legit! After we ate we taught our investigator Josefat and it was a weird lesson.. when we walked into his house the spirit was not there and so the lesson was just bad. He’s in a hard situation. He lives with his mom and aunt and older sisters, his sisters are atheists, his mom is a hard core Jehovah Witness and his aunt is catholic, so you can imagine what it’s like around the house, anyway me and my companion left the lesson a little discouraged and without the spirit and it was just a bad situation. I sang hymns to myself and tried to think happy thoughts but nothing was changing, so I prayed for help, asking that I could have the spirit again and that I could feel peace, after I said those words an overwhelming sensation of peace came over me and we were able to teach more lessons that day and with the spirit! It was a fantastic experience.

Friday we talked with Jafet finally and talked about getting permission from his mom. At the end of the lesson I felt a prompting to ask him to fast with us before we come back the next day to talk with his mom, so I did and Jafet said " I was thinking the same thing" so Friday we fasted for Jafet.

Saturday we got the Jafet’s house and were able to talk with his mom and teach her a lesson!!!!!! It was awesome!!!! We taught her about prayer and asked her to pray to see if this path is right for her son! It was such a great experience!!!! With fasting and prayer we were finally able to talk with his mom, something we had not been able to do, though we still don’t have her permission, but were working hard, and trying to do all that we can do!

After teaching Jafet and his mom we taught family Gomez and set a date for baptism on the 31st of this month! The family didn’t come to church but we're still working with them. After them we had a mini conference in the church and talked about working together with the members of the church. It was with the district president, leaders of the branches and all the missionaries in our zone. President and his wife were there too and it was great to talk with them!!! And….. I GOT MY PACKAGE!!!!! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! Thank you so much for the peanut butter, Nutella and pictures and memory card and everything! It made my week!

Sunday Josafat came to church and he said it was good. We’re hoping to teach him in the church since his home situation is pretty bad. After church we had a movie night with one of the families we’re teaching, family Mendoza, and we brought them The Restoration movie. When we watched it with them, it was in a different language for some reason and they didn’t have a remote so we couldn’t change the language settings, luckily the subtitles were in Spanish. Anyway so it was kind lame until the first vision scene came on screen. Even though it was in a completely different language, the spirit was so strong and testified to their hearts that the things they were watching are true.

Even though things are tough here in Tonala and our investigators are struggling to progress, the Church is true, Christ lives, his Church is on the earth again, and I’m so grateful I can share it with others.

Love and miss you all a ton and can’t wait to write you again next week!!!

Love,

Elder Hunt

 

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