Never Assume

I will address the title at the end of the letter.

Super great but weird week. I have a great companion, Elder Contreras. He told me in companionship inventory that he likes how I try to be Mexican . . . . Love it!

This week we gave a lot of blessings. The sisters in my district got really sick this week, especially Sister Grover. She got this weird sickness called Dengue . . . . and she got it really bad. It was at a level just below fatal. So they called us and explained the situation and we headed over to their house to give her a blessing. It’s so humbling to give blessings, you basically just open your mouth and let the Spirit do the talking. Sis. Grover is now doing fine and feels almost perfectly healthy. We also gave blessings to some members and a crazy old guy we started teaching named Jose Padilla! He’s my 3rd favorite Mexican old guy so far! It feels good to not just hold the priesthood, but to experience its power in action.

Friday we had a zone conference and it was awesome!!!! One of my favorite phrases that the zone leaders shared was from President George."Si queremos investigadores do oro, debemos ser misioneros de oro, no do plomo." ”If we want golden investigators, we have to be missionaries of gold, not of lead" Sounds better in Spanish but it’s so true!

I got my package!!!!!!! BEST DAY EVER! Love you guys. Thanks for the letters and the candy and the U of A shirt and the book! It was great.

Now to address the title of this email. Choncita, and Jaime, and Alex and Dania (her family) are amazing. They’re progressing so much and it’s amazing to see the change in their lives, her boyfriend Jaime ALWAYS looked angry to me. It was scary talking to him at first because I always thought he was going to punch me. Now his face is calm, almost smooth. I don’t know how to explain it, but they’re changing. We invited them all to be baptized this week and they all accepted! We haven’t put a date to it yet, because Choncita and Jamie are not married, but were working hard with them and were seeing so much physical and spiritual changes in their lives.

I love being a missionary and I love seeing the change. I know the church is true and the gospel really changes families. Never assume that anyone will reject this message. The gospel is for everyone; druggies, alcoholics, gangsters, rebels, disobedient children, torn families, the list goes on and on. I was assuming when I first got here that Choncitas family would reject us, and look at them now, all excited and preparing themselves for baptism.

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

Love,

Elder Hunt

Elder Contreras

FAMILIA!!! LES EXTRAÑO MUCHO!

What a week! We’re all settled into our new house and now things are pretty normal over here. First a little about my new companion ELDER CONTRERAS!!! He’s from Monterrey, Mexico and he’s from my generation! Super great guy. Super funny and a hard worker. He speaks like zero English but I speak like 80% Spanish so we get along pretty well. With Elder Gonzales I still don’t know what happened. It was so surprising and all of a sudden.

So Wednesday we had an activity with the other ward. It was for the Young Men so it was really just me, my companion, Moises, the sister missionaries, and the young men from the other ward. It was super fun! The theme was "Una hora en la mision" or One Hour in the Mission! They had name tags, and exercised and did some contacting and taught some lessons and each was assigned a mission. It was really well organized (not how I’m making it sound), and turned out really well. Moises is a total stud! He’s going to be a great missionary. He was teaching so well and it was so cool to watch him. By the time the activity ended, it was getting late so we headed back to our area with Moises and still continued to talk to everyone that passed us and even got a couple street lessons in. It was so cool and fun to do all this with Moises!

This week we’ve been focusing on Choncita in a different way. We’ve been teaching her for about 2 transfers and nothing is happening with her marriage or divorce so we decided we should start teaching the entire family. So this week we taught her, Jaime (her boyfriend), her daughter, son, and his girlfriend. It’s something that I think will bring a lot of success. They were very interested and participated really well. We have also got to teach the family Durante. We’ve been having a lot of success with one the ladies named Erica. She’s a great listener and has so much interest in the message, but can’t read, so she’s been having her kids read to her! All she needs to do is come to church and then I know everything will be ok with them.

Fun week . . . . and a weird one, but I love my mission. My companion is cool and were working hard. Love and miss you all a ton! Thanks for the letters!

Love,

 

Elder Hunt

Elder Contrerasand Elder Hunt

It's the rainy season!

Super and INSANE week

It’s been a super insane week!

OK... I don’t know how I’m going to organize this letter... I’m thinking of just throwing all the info at you guys right now because I’m still thrown off...

We visited the doctor several times this week because my companion is having some serious psychological problems... I don’t know how to explain it but he’ll randomly see stuff bend in half and he feels bugs crawl under his skin and its getting really bad so we talked with the doctor and he said he’ll need to go home. There was some other stuff that happened in the past that we think has been causing the problems, but basically I’m getting a new companion!!!! Today at 2:00 were going to pick him up!

We’ve talked to a lot of the less actives this week and they basically said that they don’t come to church because the members don’t help them with their problems... dumb reason to not obey God, but it’s also dumb that the member’s don’t help them. Seriously they don’t do any of their home teaching or visiting teaching and it’s really hard working with them, but that just gives me more of a reason to love the ward, serve hard and work hard.

We changed houses this week! Today at 6 in the morning! It was crazy! But it feels good to have it done and be out of that garbage house. Now were in a 2 story house and it’s really nice! The only thing it’s lacking is AC... Maybe we can talk the guy into installing it! We’ll see what happens but we spent the morning moving and we still have a ton of organizing and cleaning to do but yeah.. new house!

More spiritual things...

Remember Nicolas? The perfect investigator?! We haven’t been able to visit him at all these past couple of weeks because he’s always working, but recently the sisters contacted him and he said he wanted to hear from us again, so we stopped by his house on Sunday and taught him again about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson we told him he can know if it’s true by praying and reading. I told him "for God, there’s no such thing as kind of. For God its either yes and no. Nicolas, this book IS true or it isn’t. We know it is and we want to help you know too" then he said "don’t worry about it... it’s OBVIOUS that this book is true" It was so great to hear that. I know by experience when the spirit is present, it testifies of truth!

We also taught Familia Durrante this week, but only the mom was there. She can’t read but we explained that if she prays, she can know that Joseph Smith was really a prophet. We helped her with the closing prayer and invited her to be baptized and she said yes! So well be working super hard with her and Choncita this week along with Samuel and Nicolas.

I love the gospel. The church is true and it’s amazing to be a part of the work here in Tapachula Chiapas Mexico!!!!!

Love ya all and miss ya all tons!

Love,

Elder Hunt

PS. Just got news that my investigator from Tonala, Josaphat (the one with the serious problems), just got baptized!!! WOOHOO!

We're moving - A visit to Huixtla

Hey family! les extraño mucho. entonces en esta carta voy a escribir in puro español... no es cierto. jajaja. Just kidding, but it was a weird week.

Basically we’re moving houses because our land lady is insane. I can’t explain everything right now but were moving to a 2 story house and were pumped! We’ll be moving in on Friday. One of the great things that happened this week is my companion and I gave the sister training leaders a blessing in English. Because they both speak English they asked if we wanted to give the blessing in English and we were like . . . ."I don’t know, I’ve never given one in English before" so it was a super great experience! We also traveled to one little city in our area called Buenos Aires and worked with some of the less actives and found some new people to teach. It’ll be nice to visit there every week and start helping the members come back to church. It’s hard for them because its 45 min away and church starts at 8 in the morning. We went on exchanges this week with the elders of Huixtla! Super fun! I went over there with Elder Martinez (different elder than my old companion in Tonala!) and we worked hard! Huixtla is a little city about an hour away from Tapachula. It’s super green and kind of reminds me of Tonala. We ate some hamburgers, slept in their house . . . . with AC!!!, and taught a ton. One of their investigators has a little ranch and one of his goats got loose so we helped him catch it and throw it back in its pen, super fun and good journal material. When we came back home we traveled back in a van (combi) that has 15 seats. Guess how many people were in the combi . . . . 20. Twenty people were slammed into a 15 seat combi. Another great story for the missionary journal. This week we also found a new man to teach named Samuel. He’s a great guy but has had a lot of problems in the past. He’s got a ton of questions too but has a true desire to learn more. We also found a young man named Obeth. He doesn’t have much of a religious background but he seems interested.

It was another hard but good week. I love and miss you all tons and I can’t wait to hear from you next week.

Love,

Elder Hunt

Sorry it was short . . . I ran out of time. Love ya’ll!!!

Mother's Day

I know I just talked to you guys, but I’ll still give you a quick update because we don’t have a ton of time.

So Tuesday we were teaching a member and in the middle of the lesson we heard a bunch of squeaking and pain . . . . what was it you ask? Oh nothing, just the house cat killing a BAT!!! It was insane. Then the bat got away and started flying around and there were Mexican ladies running around screaming and me with a broom chasing the thing trying to kill it. I finally got it and had to be the one to take the bat out of the house. Good journal material.

We found a new kid named Andryck who is super cool. He’s 13 and he’s a really smart kid and answers all the questions perfectly. Can’t wait to teach him more. Alan is pretty good too... couldn’t come to church this week because he had to work double shifts but next week for sure!! Choncita's great and little by little is starting to understand! Were also looking for a new house and I think we found one!! It’s two stories and super nice... the price for rent is a little high so tomorrow please pray for us so we can bribe the guy into lowering the price . . . . and maybe installing some A/C!

Saturday we went to a recently baptized member’s house and she told us she was going through some hard things right now. I felt prompted to share the story of joseph smith while he was in liberty jail. So we read a little in Doctrine and Covenants 121 and 122. She especially loved the closing verses in 122. The next day at church, she gave a talk and guess what story she shared... Doctrine and Covenants 121 and 122. The Holy Ghost is an amazing thing.

Just before I skyped with you guys we went to contact a lady named Maria. Her whole family was there so we talked with them all about what we believe and why. Then we gave all of them some Restoration Pamphlets and the youngest of them said; " Wow! . . . you guys are totally going to heaven" it was a funny/ touching moment.

Super fun week. Loved talking with you all. You all look great and love and miss you tons!

Love,

Elder Hunt

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He will answer

Que tal familia!

So this week was pretty good. Definitely better than last week! So I’ve been praying a lot for a baptism because well... I haven’t had one. And the Lord answered my prayers. Not in the way I was expecting, but he answered it. The daughter of a single sister in the ward was getting baptized. When we went over to their house last week to teach a lesson, she asked me if I would baptize her daughter Cristina! So Monday we had a baptism and it was a beautiful experience! Super great. And I think the Lord was trying to tell me something. 1) Be more specific in prayers and 2) baptisms are great... but they’re not the most important thing in the mission. I’ve been so worried about having a baptism and think that thought sometimes gets in the way of the importance of the true work of missionary work. Baptisms are important, but what matters most is that I put in my full effort not how many baptisms I have. Just something I think the Lord was trying to tell me in a mysterious way.

The rest of the week was great:

We got medicine for our stomach problems and went on splits with some of the members, ate some amazing quesadillas and President George came over again! It was great hearing from him, like always. He talked about how important the members are and how we need to work with them to find people and strengthen the ward. How we need to focus on the needs of our ward. Our ward has a ton of less actives so I think we’re going to change gears and start working a whole lot more with the less actives. Also this week, there was a TON of rain! One day we were walking to a lesson and I said to my companion as I looked up in the sky... "elder... something bad is going to happen" BOOM! Lightning thunder and rain! Oh Tapachula. I hate your bi-polarness of cool rain and hot as heck sun. We also went on exchanges this week with the Zone leaders. Super fun. We got some great and funny zone leaders! I was with Elder Luna this time. It was great. Also this week, we found a new investigator named Araseli. I don’t know if I told you about her last week. She talked with the missionaries before but wants to know more, so we went over there a couple times this week. I invited her to be baptized and she said yes so I hope everything works out.

Now for a crazy story . . . . so last week we contacted these 2 people and they said we could stop by Sunday. So yesterday we went by. They weren’t home but the mom an

d sister were there. We basically listened to the mom go on about how the daughter (the one in that was with her in the house) is mentally ill and makes up random stories and tries to do crazy things. Then we heard the daughter go off about how she’s fallen from a 25ft cliff and lived and how she got hit by a train and a bunch of wired stories. Anyway all we could do was bear our testimony of the gospel and tell how it blesses families and leave. So we did, and as we said goodbye and began to leave, the crazy daughter tried to kiss my companion! Luckily nothing happened. All he did was say "sorry we can’t" and pushed her away. And then she started toward me! So I put my chair in front of me and said, "Thanks for your time, see ya later . . . . maybe," and we booked it out of there. Luckily nothing happened but it was a really weird experience. I don’t think we’re going to go back there any time soon! Oh the life of a missionary! ha

So that just about sums up the week. Can’t wait to talk with you Sunday. Love and miss ya tons and thanks for the letters you’re all great!

Love,

Elder Hunt

Look for the Good

I’m not gonna lie it was a hard week. I’m learning a lot on how to focus on the good things and not the bad. Elder Gonzalez and I are still recuperating from the sickness. Just about everything is ok but our stomachs. It’s been kind of hard because of the sickness but also because we haven’t had a lot of success with our investigators this week.

Nicolas, the young man we found last week, just got a change in his work schedule and now he doesn’t come home until 9 or 10 at night, so basically we can’t teach him. Sunday we went to pick up our 5 new investigators for church and none were awake. Only Choncita came to church, but I’m not going to complain about that, she’s so faithful, she’s really great! Also we accidentally locked our keys in the house so we had to climb on the roof and hop down and come through the back door to get them. It was just one of our adventures this week.

Like I said I’m not going to put too much emphasis on the bad, because even though this week was hard, a lot of good happened! Although a lot of the lessons fell through we found a LOT of new people to teach. Yesterday all the lessons we had were unplanned lessons because we talked with everyone! We talked with a young man who told us he met with missionaries a while ago and is "already convinced" that the church is true. We found 2 other kids that told us they’re coming to church on Sunday no matter what. We FINALLY found Alan again (not sure if you remember a lot about him) but he really wants to learn more. And Miriam and Brian, two new investigators, really loved the story of Joseph Smith as we showed them the movie, they absolutely loved it, especially Brian. He has already started reading the Book of Mormon and I think we’re going to have a lot of success with them.

Anyway, it was a hard week, but it is nice to reflect upon the good. That’s what it’s all about. I love and miss you all so much and can’t wait to talk to you on Mother’s Day!

Love,

Elder Hunt