WEEK #20 Feliz Navidad, Prospero Ano y Felicidad

So its the 22nd and its bright and sunny and hot here in Honduras.  Super different to not have the snow and coldness of Utah in this time of the year haha.  This week flew by like I feel like it was PDay yesterday.  But lots of fun, good things happened this week!

So much fun!

For starters today we woke up and I made some really good cinammon panqueques (pancakes) and then we went to go play soccer on this turf caged indoor field kind of like the ones in Lindon!  It was super fun 5 on 5 and we played for an hour! I must be super out of shape or something cause I was dying after like 30 minutes, but my team won!  Like 25 to 20.  It was legit!  Tons of fun!

This week we had our Cena Navidena!  Ward Christmas Dinner and it was awesome!  There was so much work that went into it though!  For one we performed as a choir and weve been practicing like at least twice a week for 2 or 3 hours every Sunday and Thursday and we also had to set up the lights and trees and decorations for the dinner and that took a while cause we got out the lights and like 10 out of the 40 strands worked so we couldnt go buy new ones cause we dont have a lot of money here in Honduras so we had to take each light and test it on one that worked and then replace it on the strand until you did every single light like 150 or something like that and my first strand after all that effort didnt even light haha so that was fun but we finally got all them working after a while and set up everything and it looked really good ill send some photos.  

A lot of work turned out to be a lot of fun!

Friday was the Cena Navidena and it was a great turn out!  We had the investigators there that we wanted.  Omar and his son Kenith and their friend Johnny, along with Yolany and Cory.  I dont know if any of you have heard about Miss Worlds or know what that is or if you heard about what happened to Miss Honduras like a month ago but Cory is the sister of Miss Honduras which is really cool.  Miss Honduras was killed a month ago and I dont know all the details about that but her and her sister and her mom are all members and we visit her mom a lot and Cory is the only one of them that was never baptized so were working with her real good right now.  That family is amazing.  The choir did the best we ever had and I could feel the spirit really strong as we were singing.  We then had Dinner and some of the ladies in the ward did a little funny dance and then santa came and all the little kids got a little toy car or a doll.  Pretty cool to see being as for a lot of them, that will be the only present that they receive.  Makes you grateful to have so much.  Our investigators really enjoyed the dinner though and it was a great turnout all and all.

Merry Christmas!

So I said last week that Yolany was gonna get work off but I guess Hermana Lucia didnt tell us the truth cause we talked with Yolany this week and she said that her boss didnt say that.  So that was a bit of a bummer but I told Baird to not worry cause we fasted and maybe it just hasnt worked yet.  So we kept up the faith and she talked with us 2 days later and said that she quit her job because she wants to go to church and its that important to her.  How amazing.  A little Christmas Miracle.

Another Christmas miracle is that lately ive been able to understand a lot more of spanish and speak a lot better so thanks for your prayers.  To finish I want to share a something that Gordon B. Hinckley said in a video about Christmas that I watched.  The video is of him in Jerusalem and he talks about how 2000 years ago our savior walked these roads and worked miracles in this city.  Alot of people like to go where the Savior has been and walked where he walked.  But he then goes on to say that it doesnt really matter that we walk where he walked but how he walked.  In this Christmas season we need to try to think more in the savior and be more giving to others.  Read the scriptures more and try to share Christ with more of our friends who arent members.  The biggest gift we can give to others is the gift of Jesus Christ.  To let others know that his church is once again restored on the earth and through him we can live again with our Father in Heaven.  

I love you all and hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

Love Elder Haden

WEEK #19 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Merry Christmas 

We had a Christmas Multi Zone meeting on Tuesday which was awesome!  We got to listen to our Mission President and his wife and eat lots of food and Sister Dester even made us brownies!!  They were so delicious!  I got to see my old companion from the MTC Elder McNeely and it was awesome being able to talk to him and everyone else and enjoy eachothers company and sing songs and celebrate Christmas some more!

After using a machete for 4 hours we made this... Oh Christmas Tree!

We have our investigator Omar who has really been progressing and giving us tons of references and has been doing really good and we had a baptismal date for them on this Saturday but I dont think its going to happen cause he didnt show up to church this Sunday and I guess hes been feeling a bit to rushed so that was some kind of sad news to hear.  But hopefully we can push the date back a little further and be able to keep progressing with him!  Hopefully we can figure that out and have some good news for next week!

This is a little miracle we were able to see this week.  One of our investigators Yolany hasnt been able to make it to church lately because she got a new job and they required her to work on Sunday.  So we had a lesson about fasting with her and we decided to fast that her boss would let her be able to go to church on sunday.  We fasted and were looking for her on Sunday and it was a no show.  so we were kind of bummed, but then we talked to the little old lady she lives with and she told us that her boss told her that she could start having work off on Sunday and we were so happy!  A little miracle we were able to see through the power of fasting and it made my testimony of fasting grow even stronger!

Pizza- delicious!

I gave a talk this Sunday on how Jesus Christ showed his love for others.  It went pretty well, its still hard and a little scary to give a talk in a different language, but I hope they could feel the spirit as I spoke because the spirit is the real teacher in every situation.  It is amazing how much Jesus Christ loves us.  From healing the sick and afflicted out of compassion, to washing the feet of his disciples, to giving his life for us.  There is a scripture in John 15 that talks about his love the greatest of all, to the laying down of his life for his friends.  And he says that we are his friends if we keep his commandments.  So during this Holiday season let us all be a little kinder towards one another, love a little deeper, serve one another a little more, and try and remember Jesus Christ every day and try to become like him and improve ourselves each day. 

WEEK #18 Dengue Virus

Merry Christmas!

On the first day of December a mosquito gave to me.. a virus thats called Dengue.  Hello everyone!  So this week I was down for the good first 5 days like Monday through Thursday with a virus called Dengue.  The symptoms.. well in the MTC they told us I hope none of you get this cause it's horrible.  Just had super chills, a fever of 103.7, my head hurt ALOT, it wrecked my throat and gave me a cough, and just made me so weak for like 4 days.  I had to lay in bed for 3 days straight and drink a ton of water so it kind of stunk to say the least but I feel a lot better now and am ready to get back to work!

The Sister Missionaries know how to cook-YUM!

So despite the sickness starting December we were able to end the week with the 2 and a half days we worked with 11 new investigators.  We've been doing this new thing that the church has out called El es la Dadiva.  Which means He is the gift!  We just walk up to a lot of people every day and talk to them about how Jesus Christ is the best gift the world has ever received and how much God loves us and wants us to return to Him and that is why He sent his son.  We talk to them about how we need to remember Jesus during this holiday season and need to be thinking about the real reason behind Christmas!  These pass along cards work great!  Hopefully this next week with me being healthy we will be able to find even more people!

I hope you all got to listen to the First Presidency Message on Christmas!  I really enjoyed it and loved hearing the story about the 10 cents and the candy and the one week of Holidays for that little boy.  I hope it all got you in the holiday Christmas spirit.  During this time we need to look for those people that need our help and reach out and help the people who don't have a lot.  

Anyway right now I'm missing the mountains, and the snow, and the christmas decorations that everyone has on their houses and the cold from home, but I know this is where I am supposed to be right now.  I hope you all are enjoying the cold and I would love to here from all of you and if you would like to send me pictures or a nice Christmas letter that would be great too!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #17 From the Beach, To the Mountains!

Twins that rival my twin brothers at being little stinkers!

We got a call on Monday night and our District Leader Elder Jordan was like, Hunt you have changes.  I was like what?  This whole time I had it in my head that my comp was gonna have changes cause thats what everyone had been telling me and so I was kinda of shocked to be going, but anyway ya i had changes.

So Tuesday we basically went around to all the people that I'd drawn pretty close to and I said goodbye.  It was kinda of sad to be leaving my first area in the mission and the great people in my ward.  Especially because I wont see them again probably for a while, if I see them again.  Sad leaving our converts, but felt good knowing that we had helped them come unto Christ and that we had had sucess.  

I'm leaving the beach...

Wednesday we woke up at like 3 in the morning and I had about 3 hours of sleep cause I was packing.  We took a bus with all the youth in our ward who were going to be going on missions soon to San Pedro Sula to the big church there and then took a taxi to the terminal cause we're not going to be having change meetings anymore I guess.  So I went to the terminal and got my new companion and we headed off to Santa Barbara which is like a 3 hour bus ride.

My new area is called Galeras 2 and the city is Santa Barbara.  Everyone in Puerto was telling me that this place was so beautiful and it is.  I love this new place.  First of all its not hot, like at all, like the first 3 nights I was kinda freezing cold going to bed and waking up in the morning.  I have to sleep with 2 blankets on  and in my last area I would sleep with barely a light blanket with a fan on me the whole night!  Second of all, it is so pretty here.  I am basically up in the mountains that are all green and so pretty and we walk up big hills in the mud cause it rains a lot here and it reminds me of hunting and hiking!  Its awesome!

My new apartment:)

My new comp is so sick!! His name is Elder Baird and he's a gringo!  He's white like me!  He's from New Jersey and well he is from all over the country cause his dad works in the Air Force so he's lived in like 10 different places like Utah, Hawaii, England, New Jersey, California and many others.  He's way sick.  It's so nice to have someone to talk to the whole day.  He's awesome!  Oh, and he is a kicker like me.  He wants to go and try to walk on to BYU when he gets home!  

Our Thanksgiving Dinner!

Church was sweet on Sunday.  They had a youth program going on which was really cool and we had 10 investigators in church.  I was amazed.  My comp says that this area hasn't had that much sucess though but by the numbers we had in church I figure we're going to have sucess as long as we our diligent in our work.  Have a baptism lined up for the 20th and the 27th so hopefully that can happen.  

So Life is good oh and Thanksgiving I had a gringo to celebrate it with and what we ended up eating was some Mash Potatoes and some cubed ham in a bag and some corn and we got some sparkling cider.  Pretty good, but i missed the good old cooking from home. Nothing beats turkey and stuffing!  

So I hope you all had a great thanksgiving!  Miss you guys!!  Love you all!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #16 Thanksgiving Week

This week flew by super fast.  They are all kinda just starting to blend together its crazy.  So we find out if we have changes today or not. I think we are going to be having a change but still not sure haha.  So we will see what happens!!  

So this week we taught a lot of lessons. Well not as much as we would have liked cause it rained super hard for 2 days and when it rains everyone just sleeps and they don't answer their phones or their doors and don't let you into their house wet haha.  But we had some good lessons with our main investigators this week and they all promised that they would go to church this Sunday so we were excited for Sunday,  but to no evail because no one showed up on Sunday for the third week in a row-So that kinda stinks.  These investigators we have are progressing but not progressing.  We have taught almost all the lessons with them and all they lack is going to church.  So thats kinda sad to see.  We are going to drop one of our investigators for a little (Julia).  She's one of the first people we found here and I wrote about her in my first letter and she's been to church twice and has felt the power of the Holy Ghost, but we've been teaching her for 3 months so were gonna leave her for a little and see if she notices a difference without us in her life.  I hope all will turn out well with her!  Give me some more ideas on how to get our investigators to church please!!

So this week I heard it snowed 3 feet in the mountains and ski resorts so I'm super jealous about that.  We had a huge rainstorm this week and we absolutely got soaked.  We had some youth members with us to go to the appointments with us and it started pouring cats and dogs.  The streets filled up with water and our shoes got filled with water from the pouring rain.  It honestly didn't matter if we stepped through the one foot deep puddles or not.  My companion had his new boots on and was bragging about how he didn't have any water in his shoes so we were walking to see if we could have a lesson with one of our investigators and there was a huge puddle and we started walking through it and he tried to take the high ground where it wasn't as wet but we pushed him into the puddle and we had a huge water fight which was super fun.  

Something pretty funny that happened this week, we were walking to one of our appointments and on the way saw one of our new investigators that hasn't been answering are calls or opening her door when we try to have a lesson with her.  Anyway we saw her and she saw us too and she was sitting down in her backyard, and spotted us and literally flipped onto her belly and started trying to army crawl to where we couldn't see her.  It was hilarious!  She eventually stopped and was layed out in the grass in plane sight and we waved at her and she was trying to remain hidden.  

Anyways gotta go!! I love you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving!! I will try to not miss you all to much and I'm gonna try to cook a turkey and mash some potatoes!!  Remember this week to make your prayers full of gratitude because God seriously gives us so much.  People here a lot of times don't have food to eat but they are still happy!  So make sure to eat my portion and have fun on Thanksgiving!!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #15 Another Nice Week in Honduras

So this week was pretty chill again.  The weather has been super nice lately.  Cloud coverage practically the whole day and light rain.  Our investigators are continually progressing slowly but can't find the insentive or the will to go to church.  So that kinda is a bummer right now.  Learned a ton of spanish this week!!  Heres a quick recap of my week.

Wednesday-  We woke up at 530 and went to go do service for a less active member.  We chopped their grass with machettes from 7 in the morning til around 11.  I got a huge blister on my finger as usual.  I probably chopped like 30 percent of the yard while my companion did like 70 percent.  My companions a beast at chopping and well i just dont think my body was made for chopping.  You can call it an excuse or whatnot but im just a lot higher off the ground than him and its harder for me to get low and level with the ground.  I have to get on my knees and chop like that haha.  My body is not really an excuse its just that his whole life hes grown up chopping and knows the ins and outs.  Im sure I'll get better at it as time goes on though!  Also we found this super cool new investigator.  I dont know if you all remember the story i told about the big family we taught on a little porch but we went and taught them again and well they dont really want much from us but they had a friend over whose name is Pedro so we asked him if we could come visit him one day and he agreed and he is awesome.  I know that God puts people in our lives as missionaries maybe solely to find the people that they know and the people that God has prepared for us.  So i hope everything goes well with Pedro.

Thursday-  Taught a super long lesson to Pablo and Anna.  They always have their workers there which i think ive mentioned and always come loaded with questions for us.  They were bombarding my companion with questions regarding polygamy this time and joseph smith and everything.  He answered them all really well and we taught them again after having studied a lot more on the topic of polygamy and everything.  They like to be taught by us because they say they learn a lot but Pablo still hasnt prayed to know the truth and we can only teach so much.  The spirit is the real teacher and if they don't get on their knees and pray they can't know the truth.

Friday-  I asked Yanely if we could kneel to pray and if she would ask God what baptismal date was right for her cause shes leaving out of town for a whole month and we could baptize her in 2 weeks or in january.  we all felt the spirit super strong while she prayed and she said January sounded better for her. 

Saturday-  I got to baptize the sister missionaries investigatar David!!  Hes such a super cool young guy.  He wanted me to baptize him cause he said im big and strong haha.  So that was a really cool experience.  He was pretty nervous for it but everything went good!  We then ate homemade baleadas at the church after and he is really good friends with all the other young men in the world so thats good to see that he has a place with them and fits in perfect.

Sunday-  Had a huge stake priesthood conference.  It was really good.

Also our convert Dony is doing so good!  He has the Aaronic preisthood now and has been blessing the sacrament every week.  He has started his missionary papers.  He cant leave til a year after his baptism but hes super stoked and getting started already.  He reads at least one chapter of the book of mormon each night.  Hes been learning english and italian cause he wants to go  on a mission to Italy or to the U.S.  He comes with us and teaches with us for one day out of the week every week and bares powerful testimony of how this church has blessed his life and what a blessing it has been for him to be able to bless the sacrament every week.  He wrote me a letter in English that said, "although my friends have been mad at me for joining this church, i dont care,  im proud of this church and of you guys for preaching the gospel and leaving your families so you could find people like me."  So powerful and hes going to be recieving the Melchizedek Priesthood next week.  I honestly cant express how much joy all his sucess and he has brought me.  Hes such an awesome guy.  Im so blessed to be a missionary out here in Honduras.

Love you guys!  Have a great week in the cold snowy weather of Utah!  I miss it.  Go hit the slopes for me.  And ill keep up the work here in Honduras!  

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #14 Chill Week

So not a lot happened this week.. we didn't have a baptism this week so that ends the 4 week streak!  Dang.  But things are going good here in this area.  I feel like its slown down a bit though.  We dropped a lot of our investigators that werent progressing, not coming to church and such.  So heres a nice little recap of this week.

Tuesday-  My umbrella finally died in a rainstorm, so I had to throw it away.

Wednesday- We went to San Pedro Sula because my companion had to get his passport and it took pretty much the whole day.  We ate lunch with the family he lived with in his first area and they were super cool.  They are evangelicos which is werid, but they house the mormon missionaries haha then we went to the mission office and met the new APs and the secretaries drove us to the bank.. got to listen to their Christmas music in the car!! Super good hearing some familiar Christmas songs!  

Thursday- Had a really cool lesson with our investigators Pablo and Anna.  They are progressing really well.  She prayed and asked God that if the message was true for this missionaries to show up to the next lesson and continue teaching them and if not to have us dissapear or go away and not teach her anymore.  Anyways we showed up so that was an answer to her prayer which was super cool and they are so receptive and he owns his own business and has a new employee worker there every time listening to our lessons.  They still havent come to church cause they had something that they had to do yesterday but next week there gonna come!  They also have two sons so hopefully we can teach them also soon!  

Friday-  We woke up at 5 and took the bus to El Centro to do service for one of the investigators of the Zone Leaders.  We basically moved a mountain.  Ive shoveled huge heaps of dirts before but this one was way bigger than anyone ive done at my house.  It was like 8 feet high and 10 feet wide.  We shoveled it into a wheel barrow and moved it into the investigators yard which was basically a swamp.  We were putting the dry dirt down so they had some earth to walk around on instead of water.  The zone leaders had a meeting so it was just me and my companion and 2 sisters from Centro.  But it was super fun and service is always good.  If nothing else hopefully they'll be able to say that the missionaries are awesome and love to serve!

Saturday-  I had to stay back with Elder Marte on divisions cause he had a fever and we went and ate lunch with a member and then went to a fiesta of this little 3 year old girl named Amish.  They kept on bringing me food and I kept trying to say no thanks, ive had a lot already but they didnt listen and kept on bringing me plate after plate of rice and home made rolls super good!  They had 2 pinatas and all the little kids and bigger kids all took 10 hits at it and it still wasnt broken so they said Elder Hunt.. do you want a turn?  I tried to say no im good, but they insisted so I took a couple hits and the kids just wanted me to break it so I finally took a good swing and showered candy all over them.  It was awesome to see them smile as it poured over them and wrestle for it.

So thats basically all that happened this last week!  This week I'd like you all to try and find an opportunity to go out and serve somebody!  I promise it will make you happy.  Remember when you are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God!  Love you all!  

Elder Hunt

WEEK #13 Rain, Halloween and More Rain!



The Bishop's baby girl who always wants me to hold her:)

So this week was pretty sick!  Flew by super fast!!  To start off we were lead to 11 new investigators this week, which was super cool cause a lot of our previous investigators have died off and we need new people to teach!!  We were talking to this one super Christian man who didn't want anything to do with our church and asked him if he knew anyone that needs our message in their life and he pointed us to a random house.  So we went there and it was a house of women, which is very common here.  3 women and all their crazy little kids and then 2 more showed up as well and we were on this little patio me and my companion teaching the restoration to 5 women and 10 little kids which was super cool.  My Spanish is starting to come a lot more natural which is amazing!!  So were gonna meet with them again soon!  Then that same day we were hungry so we went to a pulperia near by and bought some churros (chips) and coca cola haha and the lady asked us who we were and what we do!  So we taught her and her husband showed up and they wanted to hear a lot more!!  Pretty crazy though cause we taught them again yesterday. Her husband says that he has dreams with God and that he talks to him and that he has healed people when they've been really sick and such..  We asked him to pray to know if he needs to be baptized into this church and if the restoration is true so hopefully his dreams will confirm yes!  We also found a girl named Danira the next day and she's super peela, her sisters a member and she could feel the spirit really strong as we were teaching!  Also found some Testigos that were teaching so a total of 11 new investigators.  Hopefully we can teach them a lot more!

My little tiki pineapple jack o lantern!

Halloween was this week and I wanted to "trick or treat" a ton of houses, or in another words knock a ton of houses for Halloween but the weather said otherwise.  It rained so hard all day!!  We went to the super market to get our money for the 2 weeks and I bought tons of candy in memory of Halloween!  Haven't really touched or put a dent in it yet but Hay Mucho Dulce!  Umm so when it rains here you can basically count that all your citas or appointments are gonna fall through for the day.  The people just sleep here when it rains and don't let missionaries into their house cause they don't want it to get wet or themselves either!  So we took refuge at Hermana Figuroas house for a little, just to take a break from the pounding rain and she offered us some nice hot milk and sugar bread.  Super delicioso, y rico!   Taught less actives for the rest of the day and it was super awesome!

Angie's baptism day!

Now onto Saturday!  Craziest baptism ever!  First of all the Mission Leader filled up the faunt on Friday night, but since its been raining super hard the water was straight up brown.  Like you couldn't see anything, straight up mud water!  So the plug to the faunt was also not functioning so we had to bail the water out through the window to the outside cause we couldn't baptize Angie in Cafe Water!!  So basically what we did was got tons of trash cans and lined the up where the water was falling off the roof of the church the fastest!  We then collected the rain water in the trash cans and poured them into 5 gallon jugs.  Then once the jugs were filled they would scoot them over to me and I (since I  could reach the window)  would pour these hefty 5 gallon jugs through the window into the faunt!  Okay so now think about how much water it takes to fill up a faunt..  We were there for 4 hours from 8 in the morning til 12 collecting the rain water and pouring it through the window!!  I calculated about 70 five gallon jugs that we poured through the window to fill this faunt just enough so we could have a baptism.  Elder Ordonez  baptized Angie and she literally had to sit down in the water while he was kneeling cause there wasn't a lot of water, he had to do the baptism 3 times cause her knees kept coming up in the lack of water, but baptism by immersion is the only thing that really matters!! It was really cool!! Her family showed up too which was super cool!  And her little brother wants to get baptized too!  

  Just tons of rain here in Honduras!  Hopefully it gets snowing soon in Utah!!  I know for sure my dads started to listen to Christmas music by now.. haha and la vida aqui es masiso!! Love you all!!  Heres some pics from this week!! Tambien.. I carved a pineapple instead of a pumpkin for Halloween here in Honduras!! Pretty tricky!  Love you guys!! Hasta la proxima semana!  

Love Elder Hunt 

WEEK #12 Interesting Week!!




My nice gringo sunburn!  "OUCH!"

Well this week at home i would have been hunting with my family and four wheeling and finishing up with the football season and such.  I just want to say congratulations to my little brother for shooting his first deer!!  They have a word here in the mission called baggy and whenever your thinking about home or talking about home everyone says Esta baggy?  so ya i was kind of baggy with the deer hunt and such this week.. but i know this is where i'm supposed to be!!

Visiting Castillo de Omoa- "I'm on top of the world"

To start off this week my companion told me one night that the President would be coming with us on our appointments the next day from 1 to 6!!  So i was kind of nervous.. because my Spanish still isn't the greatest, but i was excited also because my President is so awesome!  He reminds me of my dad.  He is a very knowledgable, spiritual, humble man.  The day turned out great.  President was able to meet with Julia and we taught the Restoration again for the 5th time and I finally think she understands why a restoration was needed and that this church is the only true church on the earth today.  It seems so simple in my head the need for a restoration but a lot of these people down here and i guess all around the earth can't get the concept.  Satan has really done a good job of fogging peoples minds so they can't see the truth.  But one thing I learned from the President is how important teaching with the spirit is.  I can usually feel the spirit in our lessons, but with the President there the spirit was so strong and I knew that our investigators could feel it too.  Another huge thing I learned from President is how important it is to share the gospel even when someone looks like they are busy or even if they are busy.  This is an example he spoke of for you at home who work among those that aren't members.  If the people that we work with at work aren't members and they work 6 days  week and have one day off working 10 hour days they will never have an oppurtunity to hear the gospel unless you talk to them.  A lot of times we are timid in dealing with those that we work with.  But if we dont talk to them.. they are never gonna hear the gospel.  Just something to think about!  

Tenemos que irnos- I guess it's okay that my son is getting beat up by an old lady with this kind of view:)

The next part is just a funny story that happened this week.   We were walking over the bridge like we usually do and at the bottom of the bridge there was this old lady probably 70 all dressed in white and had white hair and a white cane in her hand.  My companion said hello to her as we were walking by and she looked up and saw me and my companion and started yelling at us.  We just kept on walking like we do when people yell at us and I looked back and she was trying to catch up with us and yelling hey you!! your an american, true?  and then she hit me with her cane in the arm and i was like oh freak.  Then she hit me again and said you think your better than me or something!  My companion moved in front of me so he could take the hits, but she only wanted to hit me and so my companion was like Caminar Rapido!!  So we walked away quickly from her and she was trying to chase us but was too old to do so.  My companion said that she was using very strong words against us.  haha so that was pretty cool.  I can now say that an old lady has beat me up!  haha not really she was just hitting my arm and it wasnt bad at all.  pretty crazy old lady haha.

Marla's baptism day:) How cute is she?!!!

Too finish we had a baptism this week!!  It was the daughter of Kenya!!  My companion was gonna baptize her but he didn't have his baptismal pants.. he lost them somewhere in his mission and mine don't fit him cause i'm a whole head taller so he told me to baptize her.  he's such a nice guy.  he said it doesn't matter who does it as long as it gets done!  So true, but hopefully his new pants get here in the next route!  Marla the daughter of Kenya was so excited to be baptized and was so happy!  I love this work!  I hope you are all doing great at home!!  Try to find your friends that are not members and invite them to church!  It can't hurt!  Love you all!  Heres some pics of this week!!

WEEK #11 Bautism de Dony!

Haden took soccer balls to give to the kids- he was so excited to get this!

So this week was really good!  We had changes this week but nothing happened with me and my companion.  We are still here in El Centro and doing great!   The new Elders and Hermanas are really cool and pretty funny.  The only other white guy in my apartment left though so now it's me and 3 latinos.  They are all really funny though! The water wasn't working one morning and it was raining really hard so we all went ouside of our apartment and took a shower in the rain!

Dony's baptism- what a beautiful day!

We had Dony's baptism this week!  It went great!  He showed up early like Kenya did and was all ready to go.  The water was green again because of all this rain but it was good.  This baptism was at 4 in the afternoon instead of at 8 in the morning so lots of  people from the ward were there and it felt more like a baptism like they are at home with lots of people there.  I performed the service and it was so awesome and spiritual.  Nothing quite like the joy you feel from from missionary work and being a tool in the hand of the Lord.  We also found 7 new investigators this week!  Four of them look to be pretty solid so I'll let you know how that goes!

In church this Sunday we didn't have any new investigators show up but had Julia, Angie, and Kenya along with her daughter and Dony.  The daughter of Kenya is getting baptized this Saturday and I'm super excited for that.  She is loving the church, except for one little girl who said she has a face like a dog, but this girl also makes fun of me and being a gringo all the time so I told her not to worry about it!  She's such a pretty girl.

So the goal for the week, if there's ever  a new member or investigator in the church which is rare in our ward at least, make sure they feel welcome!  Also, look for mission opportunities everywhere to share the gospel!  Read the scriptures every day and always strive to serve others and be like Christ!

Love you all!
Elder Hunt

WEEK #10 My First Baptism!

Well this week was amazing!!  I had the privilege of getting to baptize Kenya!!  My first baptism!!  It was such an amazing experience!  We got to the church at 7:30 in the morning because her baptism was at 8 and she was already there waiting for us!  She was all ready to go!  We had 2 little talks about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost from members in the ward (there were about 12 people there in total) and then me and her walked out and of the baptismal water.

My first baptism with Kenya!

 It's been raining a lot here and when it rains the water that comes out of the faucet is like yellow or sometimes green and so this baptismal font was filled with green water but it was cool.  I said her name then said the baptismal prayer in Spanish.  I could feel that God was happy with her decision and it felt like he was smiling down on us.  Something I'll never forget.  There is so much joy in being a missionary.  We then had Kenya bare her testimony and she said, " I know that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true.  I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  I'm grateful to have this church in my life and that these elders were able to find me."  It was so awesome and I felt the spirit again so strong!

 On Sunday we kinda had a spook cause church started and Kenya wasn't there.  She was just running a little late though cause she was picking up one of our investigators on her way to church.  She is sos awesome.  We are probably going to baptize her daughter in 2 weeks and we have Dony lined up for this week to be baptized and he is super excited and ready.  We also had Julia at church this Sunday with Kenya and Angie again!  It's awesome being a missionary.  Hope all is going well for you guys at home!  I'm gonna try to send some pictures but this computer is being dumb.  You'll definitely get some next week though for sure!! Love you all!!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #9 I Love Conference

Me and my buds!

So this week was amazing!!! Sorry I didn´t get to send a big email out last week!  Didn´t have a lot of time but my mom created this cool blog for me so you can check that out if you want its called hadenhunthonduras.blogspot.com  so check that out its way cool!  Wow where to start?? This week was absolutely amazing with conference and our investigators and everything! 

Second we have Dony´s baptism on the 18th!!  He is a supeer peela investigator which means super good

We are baptizing Kenya

investigator.  He always reads and does all the challenges that we challenge him to do!  I´m so stoked for him and his baptism as well!  and we got a new investigator and set a date for her baptism on the first lesson!  She came to all the general conference sessions along with dony and kenya!!  Shes the girlfriend of one of the members so hopefully shes taking these lessons for herself and not for him!  I can tell though that she felt the spirit during conference!

Thirdly conference!!!!  What a great opportunity we all had to listen to the Prophet who receives revelation from the Lord for us, and all of the apostles and other general authorities.  What a blessing we have to live in this gospel!  In this conference there were some talks in Spanish, in Chinese, and in Portugese.  That in itself is so awesome!  The gospel is being spread all over the world, and I am so lucky to be a part of that preaching the gospel down here in Honduras to these people.  Its funny I never thought about this before, but what a privelege and blessing we have to listen to the prophet in english and actually be able to hear his voice and the apostles as well.  I don´t know if you liked hearing the translator for those certain talks as well as you liked actually hearing the real voice of the authorities that spoke in english.  Hearing the actual voice of the people that speak is so cool cause you can hear exactly what they´re saying with tone and pitch of their voice.. when they´re feeling the spirit like Elder Eyring when his voice gets tender or Elder Holland when hes getting serious about something or feeling the spirit as well.  I actually just listened to the speakers in spanish when they spoke spanish so i could hear the tone of their voice and i could actually understand a lot of it which was really cool.  

We are so blessed in so many ways that we may not even see.  I think we take it for granted sometimes.   One thing that really stuck out to me in general conference was a talk in Preisthood Session and it was Uchtdorf who said, Lord is it I?  Of course this is when Jesus and his apostles were at the Last Supper and Jesus looked around and said one of you are going to betray me.  The apostles then asked Lord is it I?  I´ve heard that story so many times and I always thought that that question was kind of werid.. like wouldn´t you know if it was you or not??  But instead of pointing fingers and saying oh its gotta be him or him they looked inwards and said Lord is it I?   These conference talks are for us personally.  The words in conference and in the scriptures are for us.  Evaluate yourself.  Study the conference talks again when they come out in the Ensign and ask yourself what do I need to work on? 

 I promise if you will honestly ask God what you can work on, he will give you an answer.  We don´t need to make drastic changes but always be trying to better ourselves improving little things here and there.  Fine tuning is what it is.  More than all though as the Prophet said, follow the footsteps of the savior Jesus Christ.  Always steer a straight course back towards Eternal Life and always have your mind set on Salvation and Exaltation.  Always look heavenward for guidance.  Be an example for good and be a light up on a hill that stands out in the darkness.  We are members of the restored church of Jesus Christ back on the earth today.  We are different then the rest of the world.  Don´t hide it.  Devoted members of this church are missionaries.  If you know any sheep that are lost, bring them in.  Every member a missionary.    I love you guys!  The Lord is hastening his work and he needs all of us to be a beacon of light in a world of darkness.  Enjoy the fall colors and football for me!  I miss you all!

Love Elder Hunt    

The Elder's I live with who crack me up!

WEEK #8 Well Quick Letter to You Guys Cuz I Got To Go!

Washing my clothes

September 29, 2014

I love you all!  WE got 16 new investigators this week!  Things are progressing!  The language is coming the words one by one!  Thats the saviors teaching though one by one!  It says it 6 times in the Book of Mormon!  I only found 4 when I read through but Elder Bednar said theres 6.  Gonna teach these people one by one, take these days one by one, and learn and grow.  I miss you guys and wish you the best in Utah!!  Love you all!!  Oh ya and i have to wash my clothes which I actually enjoy its different!

Elder Hunt

WEEK #7 Investigators in Church!!

We drive past this a lot on the buses!

So life is good out here in the mission.  I have my ups and downs but its all around pretty good.  Its funny as I'm learning this new language i feel like my english is getting worse.. some kids that have been out here for a year and a half from america have a hard time speaking english sometimes!  Its not terrible but they'll forget words sometimes!  Its pretty funny!  I can't wait til I know that good of spanish that my English fails!  gotta while before that though!  Umm weather was pretty good this week I gotta pretty cool picture of my area this week to give you a taste of the streets and area i'm in!  Definitely not the beautiful changing leaves that you all are experiencing right now, but I like it haha!

We finally got 2 investigators in church this week!!!  We have baptisms set for them on the 18th of October so hopefully that all goes well.  They have to come the next 2 sundays in a row and be worthy to be baptized.  People down here have a huge problem with the law of chastity and the word of wisdom as you can imagine so hopefully nothing comes up too big when we talk about that.  Their names are Dony and Kenya!  Dony is a really cool dude who is a super good investigator!  he studies what we give him and always has questions for us!  He wants to go on a mission!  He's 20 right now.  We were actually talking to a man through a chain linked fence and dony was sitting on the bench behind him and listened in and was interested so he came up and listened too.   Pretty cool that through teaching the man who didn't really care dony was able to hear what we had to say too and that he wanted to hear more!  Kenya is a mom of 3 children and doesn't have a husband.  She's had missionaries visit her before and attended church for 6 months I guess so maybe, hopefully this time she will want to be baptized.  only time will tell though!  

So I finished the Book of Mormon last night and what a powerful experience that was.  I took Moroni's challenge and prayed to know of the Book of Mormons truth.  I know that that book is true!  I didn't have an angel come down and tell me it was true,  but I know its true because of the way i feel when I read it.  It makes me feel happy.  I feel peace.  It gives me comfort.  There's a burning in my heart when I read it that testifies of its truthfulness unto me.  One thing I've learned is that the Book of Mormon has all the answers to any of the questions we might have in our life.  I invite you all and challenge you all to start reading it if your not and if you have a struggle or a question pray to God with real intent and then read and if you do it with a sincere heart he will provide you with an answer to your question or struggle!

I love you all!  Would love to hear from all of you!  

Elder Hunt

WEEK #6 Spanish is Coming!

Les queremosss muchooo!! son los mejores!!!

We love you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you are the best!!

So this week was much, much better with Spanish!  Thanks for all the prayers!  Last week I hardly knew what was going on in the lessons and felt lost and this week i pretty much understood everything that was going on in all the lessons and even taught these past couple of days a little!!  The weather this week was a lot of cloud coverage and rain!  It felt so nice!  Much better than the hot sun beating down on us all day haha hopefully we will get lucky this next week as well!  At night it usually dumps a whole lot of rain and we get to fall asleep to the sound of rain pouring down which I love!  It rains super hard here!

So on Saturday we got to go do a service at the casa rosada!  We took a bus clear out into the middle of nowhere and hiked on this trail going to the house.  However there was a river that got in the way.  Usually you can walk on sandbags to the other side but the water had rose and so the sand bags were covered by a foot!  so we had to take our shoes off and walk through this nasty, nasty water.  We got to the other side and Elder Wing pointed at a log and there was gross lookin stuff up against it and he said you know what that is?  Is you can imagine it was poop.  so we basically walked through sewer water.  We wiped off our shoes on leaves and bushes the best we could and put our shoes back on and continued to the house.  We got there and it was this little farm house.  There was cows and pigs and palm trees everywhere!  We started helping them move bricks from one place to the other and there house was filthy.  There was tirantulas and cockroaches crawling around everywhere!  We moved all their furniture out and swept the house and mopped it and then moved everything back in.  It´s hard to believe that the people could live in that filth but they´re accustomed to it I guess.  I got to chopp grass for the first time with a machette!! It was legit!  It´s such hard work!  You have to bend down so low and try and get the blade even to the ground and then slice the grass over and over again.  I got blisters on my fingers.  You guys at home are lucky to have a weed wacker haha.  We also picked coconuts of a palm tree!  Basically you climb this ladder thats about 6 feet tall and then you have this pole with a hook on the end.  You balance on the ladder and try to get the hook hooked on a coconut and then yank super hard.  The coconut then falls and you never know where its gonna go..  Elder Marte almost got hit in the face but moved just in time and it hit his arm on the way down haha.  We then cut the cocnuts open and drank the juice right out of it!  It was super sweet and good!  Then we ate the insides as well.  Pretty cool experience!

so i´ve learned that the people here are super receptive, like we´ll give them a pamphlet and set an appointment with them and teach them the first lesson!  Then will ask them if they will follow the example that Jesus Christ set and be baptized by proper priesthood authority like Jesus was and they say yes.  Will teach them more lessons after that and set there baptismal date but they need to come to church 3 times before they can be baptized and none of them come to church.  Everyones kinda just uncommitted here and a little bit lazy..  They love talking with us and accept our message but they don´t act on it or do anything with it which is super frusturating.  It´s also kinda hard cause are area is about 3 miles away from the church we attend and its a 45 minute walk to our area every day so its hard for them to get to church.  We ask the members here if they can help carpool our investigators but they usually only have room for their own famillies.  So this next sunday were gonna wake up super early and walk to are area and try to get them to come with us to church!  We have 25 new investigators and 10 of them are progressing pretty good so hopefully we can get them to church.  If any of you guys have some good ideas though on how to get them to church please let me know!  Would love to hear some good ideas!

Thats it for now!  Love to hear from all of you!  Love you guys!  I¨m gonna send some pictures in a sec! 

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #5 Vamos a la Playa

My companion Elder Ordonez from Guatemala

September 8, 2014

So my first area is the beach!  So stoked to be here!! I didn´t even think I´d see the beach cause my mission barely has any of the coast on it but I got my feet wet in the ocean today!!  My companion is a little guy from Guatemala.  He doesn´t speak a lick of english but is the nicest guy ever!!  His name is Elder Ordonez I´m in a city called Puerto Cortes and my area is called El Centrol!  So the main food that everyone eats here is Baleadas!  They´re pretty dang good!  Look them up if you get the chance!  And half the time we drink drinks here its Coca Cola!  Welcome to Honduras! haha  So my area is a bunch of dirt roads, and palm trees everywhere!  We have to walk like a mile or 2 to get to it every day and walk over this bridge overlooking the ocean that kids jump off!  it looks pretty fun!  like a 40 foot jump.  It is so, so, so hot here!  Being in Guatemala was like paradise weather compared to here!  I´m already getting that missionary tan line!  halfway up your neck and a huge farmers tan on your arms haha!   It is very pretty here look it up on the internet and you´ll see!  I met my mission President and he is awesome.  He´s from bountiful Utah and is the nicest guy ever.  He is very spiritual and just such a good guy!

 

So a cool spiritual experience that happened this week!  We were walking around on these dirt roads and we saw a lady hammering a board into a tree with a nail!  She was struggling pretty hard so we were like this is a perfect opportunity to offer service!  We asked her if we could help and she was hesitant shaking our hands cause her hands were so dirty.  She let us help though so i held the tree steady and my companion started hammering the nail in and all this wood flakes were falling on me.  We finished it up and then started chatting with her.  We asked her how here relationship was with god and she said it was good and then we asked if she´d like it to be be better and she said of course.  So we told her that god loves her and cares about her and that the gospel of jesus christ blesses families.  She started tearing up cause she could feel the spirit super strong and started crying.  It was really cool,  we talked more about the restoration and I bore my testimony and told her how the gospel has blessed my family.  Super cool lady!  I love feeling and having the spirit.  Theres not a better feeling.  We visited with her again and she is super receptive!  We challenged her to be baptized and she said she would so hopefully everything goes good with her!

 

Anyway tons more I want to say but we gotta go now.  So I love you all and here are a couple of pictures from this week!  love doing backflips on the beach haha

Love Elder Hunt

The beach scene would not be complete without a famous Haden flip

 

WEEK #4

September 1, 2014

Travelling to Honduras

Leaving on a little plane to Honduras

WEEK #3 Leaving in 6 days!

August 27, 2014

Times ticking down!  we leave in 6 days!  not much happened this week just learned a lot of spanish and there were some big rainstorms here!!  this last week we can't speak any english to eachother, its pretty tough!!  email me!  or write me! i'd love to hear from all of you!  heres our last group photo! love you guys! p.s. the plane ride to san pedro sula i heard is pretty intense weaving in and out of mountains and the runway strip is super short and the plane has to drop pretty fast so i'll tell you how that goes!!  and the people there also speak super fast so that'll be fun haha!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #2 Cool Week in Guatemala!




Poverty

August 19, 2014


So we placed a Book of Mormon this week to this kid named Hermon!  It was sweet!  Are roomate left the key in the room and it was locked so we were locked out and so we went to the temple to have some guy open our door.  While we were at the temple this girl came up to us with her friend Hermon and said he wasn't a member and wanted to know about the church!  So we talked with him and gave him the book of mormon.  We asked him why he wanted to know about our church and he said cause he likes the feeling he gets when he's around the temple.  It's different and he liked it!  such a cool opputunity!  god has his hand in everything.  Even if it means locking us out of our room so we could give a Book of Mormon out to Hermon.  I hope everything goes well with him!!  My spanish is improving a ton.  I can get my point across to everyone what i'm trying to say pretty much about anything.  Sometime my conjugation is off or I'll use a wrong word but I'm doing tons better!  Thanks for all the prayers back at home!  We had a fast for 4 days from english and that was super hard.  But it forces you to use all you know about spanish so it helped me out a lot too!

Me and my companion

 



We heard from a member of the 70 this week!  it was really cool.  He talked about being bold declaring the gospel!  He said that whenever an opportunity comes around for you to share about the gospel take it!  don't let any opportunity pass! A cool thing he said to us was you get to serve the lord for 2 years and in return he serves you for the rest of your life!  We only have 2 years to represent Christ and grow and then the rest of our lives to think about it!

 

I hope everyone is doing well at home!  I'm gonna try to send some pictures.. will see if they'll download to this computer haha

Love Elder Hunt



the wall is of soldiers that little children draw whos dads are in the military.  It's really cool.





I love my district




Cool fountain

 

 

WEEK #1

just a view of the temple from the ccm

a cool church thats built out of lava stone!!

August 11, 2014