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