WEEK #62 The Trenches

Hey everybody!!  So things are going good here in The Trenches o sea Trincheras!!  The weather is finally starting to cool down a little which is nice!  Plus I got a sweet new cooling towel from the fam that is crazy cool and keeping me cool as well.  So good getting a package this week from them!!  Sooo much American Candy!  Seriously the best!

So this week went pretty well!  Finally starting to work with the members a lot more which helps so much!  We found this sweet guy last week named Moses who is super pilas and loves the Book of Mormon!  We watched The Testaments with him and his family (you guys gotta watch that!)  and he told us that he loved it and said he wants to believe that Christ came to the Americas and he feels deep down that its true but its just a lot to take in!  So we read Alma 32 with him and it was perfect and hes super smart and basically taught himself and told himself what he needs to do which is experiment with the words we are teaching and pray to know if they are true!  It was super cool and then he got out his guitar which is the same guitar I played the other week cause him and the other kid Cesar are brothers come to find out and he could actually play and what was funny is both of our 2 favorite songs to play were the exact same!  Dust in the Wind and Stairway to Heaven haha what a coincidence!!  Then we started talking about lifting and other stuff too!! This guy is way legit and it gets even better!  Hes married!!  I so hope this one goes over good!!  It would be sooo coool!!

Also Elder Hadley has been teaching us how to skinny ties so thats been fun and stressful cause I suck at sewing.  Learning though so thats good!

Our ward missionary leader is a boss!  He gave us last week a reference of an entire family granted they have to get married but theyve been coming to church and we had a pretty cool first lesson with them!!  Gonna watch the Restoration video with them here soon!!  Miguel is soo pilas!  We could be baptizing in the future this entire family with the help of Miguel and his wife!!!  Excited for that!

Rosa is still as pilas as ever and is gonna get married soon in November and we have her baptism date planned as well as little Jefferson who is her nephew whos gonna get baptized as well with her!  Hes a funny little kid!  

Funny thing that happened this week was that we started our fast in the church on Saturday and then we went out to teach Rosa and she wasnt there so we sat down and taught Jefferson instead!  My comp was super tired and a little out of it and me too.  But what happened next was that the older brother Victor came out who is a member and gave us both glasses of Pepsi.  Ririe says thank you without thinking and starts chugging the Pepsi to get rid of his sleepiness and headache and I was thinking either and started to drink a little and then it tasted so good and I realized that we were fasting and we were outside on dirt so I spit out my Pepsi and Ririe looks at me like why would you do that and then he realized we were fasting as well!  Anyway the kids asked us what happened and we told them we had forgot we were fasting for a sec.  Just goes to show how tired we were I guess.  But the funny part is is that we asked one of the kids to open with the opening prayer and as he was praying he said Thanks for this Day Thanks that the Elders could come over, Please forgive Elder Hunt... and Elder Ririe for drinking Pepsi while fasting.  Etc.  It was so funny!   I thought he was gonna say Elder Hunt for wasting his Pepsi, but it was all good.  But ya oooops.

Anyway that was about it for my week!  Been getting super tired lately but thats good cause were working hard.  I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the leaves changing and the cold weather coming in!!  Also good look on the opening of the Deer Hunt!  Wish I could be there with you all!  

Love Elder Haden

WEEK #61 General Conference Weekend

Hey guys!  I hope you all had a great week this past week and that you were all able to enjoy the conference talks as well!!  They were sooo good!  If anyone didnt see them make sure to go back and watch them.  Its worth it!  We are so privileged to know this restored gospel and know without a doubt that our church is guided by Jesus Christ through his prophet and apostles!  Were so privileged to be apart of the only true church on earth and to be able to receive instruction and advice and encouragement to be better disciples of Jesus Christ.  How cool is it to know that we have these great men to guide us and tell us the things that God himself would have us know?  Makes you wanna share it with others.

Today was so fun.  Took a trip down memory lane.   We woke up and went to the beach!!  I haven't been back there since a year ago when I was in Puerto Cortes taking it back to my first area.   and it was so good to see it again!  We drove right through my area I had worked in and it was so cool to be back there again.  Funny cause that place is still embedded in my head like it was yesterday and it was a year ago.  Miss it!

So this week was good!  We had some really good progress with our investigators.  Getting some good lessons in.  Had some divisions on Tuesday with my old comp Elder Baird!  Haha great going out with him again!  Had a good time with him and my comp!  Played some good Monopoly that night and got a good guitar playage in!  

Friday we did some divisions with the ward missionaries!  Man they are so pilas leaving with us and actually telling us that they have appointments that we need to go to!!  We had one appointment that ended up turning into me and the 2 young 16 year olds teaching like 10 people the Plan of Salvation and they all froze up and it was all on me!  A little bit scary but I pulled out a sweet video and they all loved it and they had tons of questions!  Found 2 new investigators out of it!!  We were able to get a lot done splitting up though!  It was real cool.

Well biggest news of this week was conference!  We got 11 investigators there in total!  Huge difference from having 3 show up in Puerto, and zero in Villanueva!  It was legit!  The work is really progressing!  Im just learning a ton of patience with myself and with everyone.  People just put the lamest excuses here for not coming but thats normal.  Just gotta love it when they tell you they have to work or do something and then you go to their house and theyre just chilling outside doing nothing.  Or they tell you well I need my Dads permission to be able to go and hes not home and his phones not working.  These kids never need permission for anything.  No but its all good!  Just definitely learning patience!!  and more than anything Im grateful for the great turn out we did have!

Anyways I gotta go!  Thanks for all your prayers, love, and support!  Miss you guys and love you all!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #60 Progress

Hey everyone so this week was a much faster and better one!  It was nice to be able to get out and work hard, and thanks for all the comps that went my companions way!  He is feeling a lot better and we were able to get back into it this week and get a lot done!  The weather was perfect this week and its still staying cloudy and overcast which is so nice!  Little drizzles here and there!  The rain season is coming upon us!

So this week we were able to make some really good progress with the investigators and drop a couple that weren't going to progress.  We had some really good lessons and were able to answer a lot of their questions and doubts that they had!  As opposed to a zero assistance of investigators in church last Sunday we were able to get 8 this Sunday!  I think that might be a record in the mission for me.  It was so awesome and Ririe and I were so stoked to have that many!  The members are actually starting to help us out more here and its awesome cause 2 members brought new investigators to the church that already have interest!  Were gonna go visit them this week!!  

We had a super sweet contact this week and one of the most favorite Ive had in my mission.  We got out of a VAP or a lesson with a member and then as we went outside we saw these 2 kids like around 16 playing a guitar on the corner or learning how to.  So as we were walking past them I felt like them holding that guitar was like a sign from God saying talk to them.  Contact them.  So I asked them how it was going, and if they could play the guitar good.  They said no but were learning and they asked me if I could play I said somewhat and I sat between them both and started playing a couple of songs.   It was super cool and we hit it off just like that!  They are also super interested in learning English so we invited them to the English classes that we are giving as missionaries and they said they were going to show up!  It was also super cool cause they kind of just opened up to us and talked to us and told us that they arent like regular Honduran people here.  And many people think that they are a little weird or not the norm.  They said they dont like to do bad things.  They dont like going to bad parties,  they dont like drinking or smoking or having bad girlfriends.  They were just like we like to do good things and help people and stop bullying.  We find greater joy in doing good things.  So that was shocking to hear from 2 kids here.  Weve already taught them twice in the church and they love the message of the Restoration!  See what happens with them!  But pretty cool being able to contact them by playing the guitar!

Also got to go with my comp to another baptismal interview he did but we had some time like 30 minutes before the interview started so we were walking to it and I heard something very familiar.  Then I realized that it was a baseball bat hitting a baseball.  So we looked over and saw some dudes playing around with 2 mitts a baseball bat and a ball.  I havent seen a baseball in like a whole year!  So we went over and were watching through the fence then the ball came to us so I threw it back and they invited us over to play with them.  It was so fun hitting the ball and throwing with some guy on a baseball team.  Ive missed it so much and honestly been wanting to throw for like 8 months now.  It was so fun!!  We invited all these dudes to church as well.  

Also we have like 4 couples right now that we are working with to get married.  Such a barrier here in Honduras.  Satan sure has worked here to make marriage so difficult to do and has made it custom to the people that marriage is unimportant and unnecesary.  So ya were trying to help all of them to get a testimony strong enough of the church so they know they have to get baptized and have to get married so they can get baptized.  Its tough but we'll keep on working with them!  But please pray for all of them that they might be able to gain a strong testimony of the church and that the Lord will open up the means for them to get married!

Have a great week and Im so excited for this general conference!  It is going to be a memorable and special one for sure.  The Lord has lost three of his 15 finest servants in the world right now.  These 3 apostles have served well in all their callings they have ever had and God has called them back to his kingdom.  This General Conference we will have the opportunity to find out who the Lord has chosen and called to be his new apostles and we will have the opportunity to sustain them.  May each one of us take the time necessary to prepare ourselves for General Conference and prepare ourselves to be able to receive the word that the Lord wants us to hear.  The things we need to know at this time in our lives to be the best members and people we can be.  We will receive what we put into it.  It is also a great time to invite others who arent members to listen to a living prophet with us and invite them to learn more about our church.  Take advantage of this time to share the only true, complete gospel of Jesus Christ with your friends and loved ones!  Also make sure to go with a question in your heart and I promise that it will be answered in this conference!  I love all you guys and miss you tons!  Have a great week!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #59 Pause

So today was so beautiful!  First day in forever that it wasnt a billion degrees hot and there was nice cloud coverage today like low 80s i feel like and we went out and played football as a zone and chilled!  Felt so nice to not be sweating for a change.  It was wonderful.

So not much to report about this week.  My comp on Tuesday was not feeling his best and was hurting to walk, so we went to the doctor the next day and found out that he needed some surgery.  So they did some surgery on him and basically we had to stay in the house all this week and let him rest so that he can heal.  It was a bummer not being able to work but just a little hold up!  Our Mission President came by the house to check up on him and was asking us if we were getting in some nice R and R.  Rest and relaxation. haha so ya thats basically all we did all week.  Kind of got super boring but it was nice.  Hopefully hes better so we can work this next week.  Please pray for him that he may heal fast!  But looks like every Wednesday we are going to have to go to San Pedro to get him checked up.  It was also super funny when he was getting operated on.  I just heard them like so ya were gonna inject you now with anesthesia this might hurt and a second later OUUUCH.  and all that fun stuff.  Super funny.  Hes been waddling around like a penguin all week. 

So anyway that was basically our week.  I made Baleadas for the first time without any help at all from any Hondurans and they turned out delicious.  So get ready for some Baleadas when I get back!  Also I just wish that people were married here.  We have like 4 Pilas Families that are just lacking getting married and they could get baptized.  Then they get discouraged cause the marriage process takes so long and forget about baptism.  So pray for us here please!!  Love all you guys!!  Miss you tons!  Have a great week!  

Elder Cazador

P.S. i got one of our investigators to lend us their guitar this week so that was fun.  literally played til I had blisters on my fingers haha love you guys

WEEK #58 Cooking!

Elder Hunt looking sharp with his Honduran tie!

So ya it was pretty hot this week.  But yesterday I was honestly just thinking as I walked out of the church and looking at the sunset and the palm trees surrounding the church and just thinking to myself there is nowhere else I would rather be right now.  How cool is this scenery.  but ya getting a little cooked here in the sun and also we stopped eating with our lady that makes us food usually and decided to start cooking for a little cause we were getting a little tired of the rice and beans and tortillas and eggs and chicken every day.  haha so this week we decided to start cooking and well the first day was a super funny experience.  tried making some spaghetti and it was terrible.  the sauce was so chunky and thick and the noodles all stuck together.  we started off the meal like ya man this is so much better than her food and i finally managed to get all my down and Ririe was asking me Hey man can you pour more water on my spaghetti?  He ate like half of it and couldnt finish cause it was so terrible.  I dont think ive ever heard that line before though so it was pretty funny.  the rest of the week turned out good and we actually got a sick recipe from a member for spaghetti so all is good now! 

but ya it was a good week.  we got a lot of lessons in and made some good progress with alot of our investigators.  the dude were probably most stoked about right now is Will.  He is progressing so good and is reading everything we leave him and investigating it so hard!  he always has so many questions when we come and its gonna be really cool this next week cause its gonna be the first time that he can come to church cause he doesnt have to work these next 4 sundays!!  hopefully he loves it but he basically told us this week as we were asking him hows it going with his studies with the JWs he told us that well ya its been a while since ive studied with them.  ive got the truth right here and my new brothers here with you guys and im not going back!!  super cool to hear that!!  he then invited us to a family birthday party of his little niece and was introducing us to his whole family!  his mom dad and sisters and everyone!  we all sat at a table in the middle of everyone and he was like ya they are all evangelicals, and basically saying that we need to teach them soon.  basically like he already has his mind set that hes a mormon like one of us!  so awesome!!  such a humble guy!

not much more happened this week just watched Meet the Mormons this Saturday with the ward for an activity and the spirit was so strong there and we had a good turn out with investigators showing up!  gonna watch this movie with some other people too cause its honestly soo good!!  only bummer this week is that no one showed up to church on Sunday..  so that stunk but will have a good turn out next week for sure!!  good things happening here.  Rosa is doing very well as well!

Anyways I love you all and miss you guys tons.  Missing watching football and playing for that matter and all that good stuff but glad to be out here serving the Lord and helping the people here in Honduras.  Keep praying for us please and thanks for all your support and love always!!  Enjoy the leaves changing colors and the mountains.  Go BYU!

Love Elder Hunt

P.S. shout out to Dave Glenn Happy Birthday man hope its a good one for you!

WEEK #57 Dreams!

Cool kid with a Rams t-shirt!

My first baptism is going on a mission!

So this week was such a good one!  We got work done and everything just went so good.  So cool to be a part of this work and see everything thats happening!  We saw lots of little miracles this week and it was legit.

Well we just had some dang good lessons this week and the spirit was so strong.  Our investigators are progressing and learning tons every week!  Ririe is as awesome and chill as ever and were having a great time here. 

So we had a super cool experience this week.  Last Sunday we were teaching this inactive lady about prayer and she called here daughter in law in to listen to us as well and we taught them both about prayer.  Anyway it was a cool lesson and all and we just challenged the both to start praying more and stuff.  Anyways we went back for the follow up appointment on Friday and when we went back we were shocked.  So basically the daughter in laws name is Rosa and well we started talking with her and she had a couple of little questions for us and stuff and we answered them, then she told us something super cool.  She told us that after we left on Sunday night that she decided to pray.  She asked God in this prayer to know if our church is the true church and then ended and went to sleep.  Anyway that night she had a dream.  And in this dream her and her husband were both climbing a big hill.  And there were 2 Elders that were helping up them up the hill and guiding them up.  Anyway they got to this harder part to climb cause there was a steeper rock they had to go up and so Rosa wanted her husband to go up first and to help her up.. but then a random man came to her and told her that she would have to be the one to climb it first and help her husband up after she had gotten up.  So she did it and they finally reached the top of the hill and at the top there was a LDS Church and there was a bunch of other families that were going into it as well.  She said that they both went in and they knew it was the true church of God.  They both got baptized in the church and she said she saw a little glimpse into the future of their lives after having been baptized and they were blessed, prosperous, united, and happy.  When she woke up she knew that this was an answer from God and she immediately knew she had to be baptized.  So anyways she started reading the Book of Mormon and got to like 1 Ne 6 and she read the whole Restoration Pamphlet and everything!  She told this all this and we were stunned.  Such a cool experience so anyway she is progressing so fast and good and she loved the church this Sunday and just loves this Gospel.  So cool to have that experience!!

Anyways so definitely seeeing so many miracles here in this area and things couldnt be better!  I love it here!  Also gotta to see my convert from Puerto Cortes today!  My dude Dony!!  Hes doing so good and just put in his mission papers and is stoked to be going out!! Should be leaving this December!!!  Hope he goes State Side!   Had a nice little lunch at Wendys and it was so good catching up with him and seeing him.  I really couldnt speak spanish that well in my first area so it was super cool actually being able to talk with him today full out!  Hes such a cool guy!  Love him!


Anyway I hope your all doing good in school and work and having a great time at home!  Love you all!  Catch you later!   Have a great week!

Love Elder Haden

WEEK #56 Awesome Week

Hey guys hows it going?!  Hope you all had a great week and thanks for all the emails and love sent my way always!  I love you guys!  This week was suuper hot and I keep thinking its gonna cool down a little but..maybe at the end of October haha.

Gonna keep this one short.  But Ririe and I have been coming home every night so exhausted from working its crazy!  And God just keeps on giving us new things to do, more people to work with and its honestly such a blessing.  Im just so happy right now to be doing the Lords work and to have such a cool comp to do it with!  

So Tuesday was an amazing day like honestly one of those days I always dreamed that my mission would be like.  I never dreamed of my mission with regards to rejection, haha i never even though about that aspect of the mission.  But I always had this dream of success and seeing people see so clearly the message of the restored gospel for what it is.  And thats exactly what happened this day.  We set up 3 baptismal dates!  One with this dude we found named David!  Working with him to help him overcome his addiction to drinking, but putting this fecha with him definitely puts a light at the end of the tunnel for him and something to work towards!  Also set up a date with Carlos and Dunya for the day after their wedding!!  They are such a cool family and story.  Carlos is like a ex gang member but is spun a 180 with his life and now has a family he cares for and realized the truth of this gospel and how it can help his kids in their future.  Hes a real smart guy and started speaking English out of the blue with me this week.  I was shocked cause I had no idea he even could hahaa.

So just some cool thoughts going through my head this week.  I honestly felt this week like I was opening up my mouth and the spirit was speaking through me.  Like words were seriously coming to my mind and I would just say them as they came and I could just feel the spirit working through me.  I explained some things that are usually hard to explain, and it came out so easy and I knew that the words were not just my own.  I looked back and tried to remember what I said and I really couldn't  this reminded me of a really cool scripture in Doctrina y Convenios 100:6. You all should read it.  The other cool thing that happened was just realizing the power and authority that Ririe and I teach with.  I recognize that this power and authority comes directly from our setting apart as missionaries and worthiness and faith and diligence in the work.  Alma 17:3 is one of my favorite descriptions of this power and authority that I'm talkingaabout. These lessons we have been having though seriously couldnt be planned though and I can see the Lords hand in our lives every day using us as his instruments to call to his chosen people.  

Anyway I just wanna say that its a blessing and privilege to be out here serving in Honduras.  Im so grateful for all these experiences that Im having.  No where better I could be.  I love you all and hope your all having a great start to the school year and doing great in work and in church!  

Love Elder Haden

P.S. Shout out to my homie Kyle Schauerhamer for getting his mission call to Milwaukee!  Hes gonna kill out there and work so many miracles!  Love you dude!

WEEK #55 Exploding

Loving the work!

This week was so crazy!!  Hardly had time to catch my breath cause there is so much work we have to do here and that were doing!  Literally running around all day and meeting so many cool people every week!  We are definitely exploding this area!!  Wish that we had more hours in the day cause there is just so much to do and so many things to keep track of!  I seriously come home at night and Im dead tired.

This week we learned how to make Baleadas twice!  So I think we finally got it down!  Gonna try it out sometime this week with our new stove!  Hopefully Ill have it down by the time I get home so I can make Baleadas for everyone cause they are too good for anyone to not try them.  But Ririe and I are getting pretty pro.

We got out of a lesson this week with this guy who had studied a whole bunch of religious stuff throughout his life like Mythology, Theology, and has multiple degrees from studying the Bible.  Anyway I cant remember all that stuff that this guy had said about all the stuff he has studied but he knows alot to say the least.  However we were able to answer his every question and explain to him new things that he had never known before in the Bible.  We got out of that lesson at Ririe said to me you know its crazy that were only 19 years old but yet we can keep up with a talk like that in a language that isnt even our own.  We figured its because even though hes studied all that stuff he only has bit and fractions of the truth but we have the whole truth and thats the difference.  Pretty cool to think about it.

We had a multi zone conference this week too and our Mission President bore his testimony at the end about Jesus Christ.  I swear I could see Jesus glowing through our President.  That man is so awesome.  You all should look up the message the church has called The Messiah its a song that was performed way back when.  Super cool.  

Thursday we went with some of our investigators and we found out that their uncle had died and it was really cool to just sit down with them and talk with them about the Plan of Salvation and to be able to tell them that their uncle is in a better place and that they will be able to see him again one day.  Then that night we went to teach English Class and well the key broke that we were trying to open the church door with and then basically a hurricane came down on us!!  It was crazy, lightning sttriking a thunder booming, all the lights went out!  We just kinda waited it out and thank goodness the roof of the church provided some shelter so we didnt get soaked!!  

Friday we had 2 amazing lessons!  One with a less active and the other with our 2 investigators Carlos and Dunya!!  In the first one with the less active Vanessa we hadnt really planned anything and went in and ended up talking about Jesus Christ and when he was walking on the water and Pedro went out to meet up and sunk when he looked at what was all around him but then called out for the Lords help and immediately the Lord grabbed his hand lifted him out of the water.  We all bore our testimonies and she told us with tears running down her face that she had never felt the spirit that strong, then what she had felt in this lesson and that she kind of just went through the process with the missionaries but never felt anything or the spirit like that.  She kinda just got baptized cause everyone was pushing her into it but then she looked at us and told us that she knew without a doubt that this church was true and that she would start coming back!!  So cool!  Also we finished reading 2 Ne 31 with Carlos and Dunya and we were testifying about the authority and he asked us why we say that we are the only church with the authority and we explained the Restoration a little more and he finally got it.  HE UNDERSTOOD PERFECTLY!!  He told us now that he feels just so much better and that he has a peace of mind and heart when he thinks about joining our church now!!

Saturday we had a Mission Conference and it was a broadcast from Tegucigalpa Honduras because President Neilson came and spoke there and it was broadcasted to all the central America missions!!  It was so cool and the spirit was so strong and I learned so much!!  We also got some yummy food before and after.  Dennys to start off and some Chilis after!!  Got to be with all my buddies and it was such a good time!!  Also gave a talk yesterday in church and tons of our investigators showed up that we didnt think were going to!!  So stoked about the work here!!  Anyway busy busy busy here.  Having a blast with Ririe!  Freaking love that guy!!  Trying to get everything organized with all the work were getting.  Well get it together soon!!  

Love you guys and miss you tons!!  So great hearing from all of you always!!  Til next week!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #54 Trincheras #2

My new companion Elder Ririe

SORRY I HAVENT BEEN ABLE TO SEND PHOTOS THESE LAST COUPLE OF PDAYS ITS CAUSE MY SD CARD GOT A STUPID VIRUS ON IT AND YA TRYING TO GET IT FIXED.  BUT THATS WHAT YOU GET ON THESE LITTLE HONDURAS COMPUTERS.  BUT BESIDES THAT EVERYTHING IS GOING GOOD!!  I LOVE THIS NEW AREA, NEW HOUSE, NEW COMP, NEW EVERYTHING.  

THIS IS GONNA BE SUPER SHORT BUT LIFE IS GOOD!  HAVENT BEEN THIS HAPPY IN A WHILE.  SEEING LITTLE MIRACLES EVERY DAY!  WE HAVE A COUPLE THAT WE ARE WORKING ON MARRYING.  THEY ARE SO COOL AND COME TO CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY AND READ THE BOOK OF MORMON AND THEY WANNA GET BAPTIZED HERE SOMETIME IN THE SHORT FUTURE AFTER THEY GET MARRIED!!  HAVE A DIFFERENT COUPLE AS WELL THAT HAS 2 KIDS WHO GOT BAPTIZED LIKE 3 MONTHS AGO AND THEY JUST NEED TO GET DIVORCED WELL ONE OF THEM AND MARRIED TO EACH OTHER SO WE ARE WORKING WITH THAT AS WELL!  DOING STUFF HERE IVE NEVER DONE BEFORE LIKE MARRYING PEOPLE BUT ITS AWESOME!  

FINDING TONS OF NEW PEOPLE HERE AND WEVE ALREADY FOUND LIKE THIS SUPER PILAS FAMILY THAT WE TAUGHT YESTERDAY AND THE HUSBAND IS SO EXCITED TO LEARN MORE AND ALSO FOUND THIS REALLY COOL GUY NAMED DAVID WHO HAS PROBLEMS WITH SMOKING AND DRINKING BUT TOLD US HE WANTS TO CHANGE.  SUPER HUMBLE GUY AND WE TAUGHT HIM THE RESTORATION AND HE TOTALLY UNDERSTOOD IT.  SO COOL.

ANYWAY LOTS OF GREAT THINGS HAPPENING HERE!  MY COMPUTERS REAL SLOW SO IM JUST GONNA KEEP IT SHORT AND TELL YOU MORE COOL STUFF NEXT WEEK!  LOVE YOU GUYS TON AND MISS YOU ALL!  TIL NEXT WEEK!

LOVE ELDER HADEN

WEEK #53 Trincheras

Hey everyone so I had a pretty crazy week with changes and all, but definitely one of my favorite weeks of the mission so far!!  So I left Brisas del Plan, Villanueva Wednesday morning and the lights were connected bad in our house in Brisas so I got home from saying goodbye to everybody and couldnt pack cause we had no lights that worked and a flashlight didnt cut it.  So I went to bed pretty late trying to get what I could ready and then wook up at like 5 the next morning when the sun was coming up to get everything packed!  We all went to the Banquet in San Pedro Sula to get our new changes cause as you know they didnt tell us.  It was pretty cool though cause they all took us into seperate rooms divided as zones and then 30 minutes later the APs came in with a paper that told us all where we were going and so then are ZL read them off to us and my change to Trincheras in the Fesitranh zone going as companeros iguales (or like were both senor comps)  with wait for it Elder Ririe!  I was so stoked to find out that he was gonna be my new comp cause hes one of my buddies that I had met when I was in Santa Barbara, when he was comps with my best bud Elder Fackrell.  Anyway hes freaking awesome and super chill.  Weve been having a good time, working hard and laughing tons.  Its amazing.  Hes from Utah.  And we actually have some cool people at home that we both know!

So my new area is sooo legit!  First off my house is gigantic!  We live with 2 other missionaries another one of my buddies Elder Hadley also from Utah and another Elder from Nicaragua Elder Hernadez!  So basically in the house there is never a dull moment!  This house is so open, and like 3 times the size of the house I had last, the pile is enormous like we could do laps in it (not really), we both have seperate rooms to study in (never have had that before)  and theres always water pressure, the bathroom is like elevated and super fancy and has a super sick shower head that spits out water good, and the kitchen is legit as well, plus a room to exercise in cause why not!  And the best part about this new house is that the room that we all sleep in at night has AC!!!!!!!!!  Thats a first as well and sleeping has never been better!  The ward here is amazing,  all the members Ive met are awesome, the mission leader does work!  Our investigators are few but super pilas and are all progressing real good!  Super stoked about them!  And this area is ready to get exploded!  Me and Ririe are already seeing miracles here!!  We got some new tactics were trying and working super hard!!  Gotta feeling this area is gonna be one of my favorites!! Stoked to be here!  High on life right now!

So this week was just a bunch of getting to know people and the area.  On Saturday we had a Zone Conference/Stake Conference and a member of the Seventy was there Elder Ochoa who we have heard from before in a mission conference and he capacitated only us as a zone and it was so legit!  He helped us and all the ward leaders to look out of the box, and how we can have a ton of progress here, and inspired us all to have more faith.  Just so cool to be that close to a person who kept telling us and promising us stuff as a special witness of Jesus Christ.  The spirit was so strong there listening to him and being instructed.  

So Ill tell you all more about the investigators and area next week but Im gonna tell you about the baptisms we had this last week in Brisas!  So we had the baptisms of Dunya and Oscar!  Dunya is a 45 year old lady who is the daughter of a Isidra who is a convert as of 3 months ago.  So amazing to be able to see her see the change that her Mom had in her life and be able to recognize that her Mom is in the truth and to see her testimony grow and see her get brotherhooded in by the ward and see her progress to her baptism!  She was so extatic and after she had passed her interview the Friday before she was so excited and came up to me and said Im good to go I passed!!  The most animated Id ever seen her.  She was so ready and it was such a great experience to be able to baptize her!!  Isidra was also very happy and content and pleased that her Daughter could get baptized.  Slowly her whole family will get baptized in the future I just know it!!  One person at a time always exactly how Christ had everyone come up and see the marks on his hands when he visited the Americas!!  They both have such great faith, it honestly blows me away sometimes.

The baptism of Oscar was also just as marvelous and good!  We had Hno. Garcia baptize him cause hes their neighbor and his the Familia Garcia has helpled us so much in the conversion process of Oscar.  Man though Oscar has such a great spirit and is just straight up special.  He just understood everything so well and just has the spirit of Christ!  Such a good kid!  He wrote me the sweetest letter when I left telling me how he was so grateful for us missionaries and that sometimes he would be sad in his house and then we would always come and teach him about Jesus and teach him how he could be a better person and that every time when we had left that he just felt so much better and so happy.  Such a good kid and he promised me that he is going to do everything good so that he can go on a mission one day!!  Hes also so excited to get the Aaronic Priesthood here soon and be able to pass the sacrament like Jesus did.  He also bore his testimony after his baptism and it was honestly one of the happiest moments on my mission.  One that I will never forget or take for granted.  As he was baring his testimony the spirit was so strong and I looked over at Hno. Lorenzo and he had the biggest smile on his face and had little tears running down his face, I couldnt help but do the same.  

Just so glad to be out here doing the Lords work and I can just see his hand in my life every day.  I know that he gives us trials to learn and grow and that after every trial there is always so many blessing waiting.  Grateful to be a missionary here in Honduras helping our brothers to come to Christ.  Nothing better.  Nowhere I would rather be.

Love You all and Miss You all

Love Elder Hunt

 

WEEK #52 Goodbye Brisas!

Well this was my last week here in Brisas!  And it was a very good one!  Couldnt be happier with what happened this week!!  I definitely experienced Honduras this week to its fulness!!  Today we went to Lake Yajoa with some members and went around the lake and saw some breathtaking sites!!  We also went fishing for a while and well we caught fish!!  But they were all little minos and I dont even know how they could bite the hook haha!  But the guy that took us got some luck and reeled in 2!!  It was definitely a different type of fishing though!  Not your regular fishing with poles and reels.  We used our hands, the string, a hook, a worm, and a piece of wood to wrap of the string!  Definitely got a good feel for Honduras fishing today!!

Looks like I have to cut this one real short cause there turning of the computers here real soon.  But Ill tell you all about everything what happened this week and next week next week!  We did end up having the 2 baptisms and it was such a great experience!  One of the happiest moments on my mission so far!!  I love you guys all so much!!  Cant wait to tell you everything next week!!  Where I am, hows the new area, new comp!  How the baptisms were and send pictures and everything again sorry this is so short!!  

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #51 The Hump

Hey guys!  Hit the year mark this week!!  Crazy to think its already been a year!!  Crazy to me to imagine being in the MTC a whole year ago and with my Distrito David and all the bros from the MTC, not knowing Spanish and just trying to go with the flow learning everything!  Crazy to think that I havent seen any of you for a whole year.  Crazy to think about that vivid experience leaving all the buddies, my home, my family at the airport and leaving behind everything that I ever knew or loved and heading out into the unknown not knowing what to expect.  Well I dont think anyone could of ever told me what to expect.  But I can tell you one thing, that when I entered that plane heading for Guatemala on the 23rd of July last year, that was the best step Ive ever taken in my life.  I took a step into the dark and as a result recieved more light than I ever thought possible.  The miracles Ive seen, the experiences that Ive had, the Joy that Ive experienced representing Jesus Christ and preaching his gospel have been undescribable and I wouldnt trade them for anything.  Im not gonna lie , its hard being a missionary.  But as Ive done it and am doing it, Ive come and coming to know more about my Savior Jesus Christ.  The path he walked wasnt easy by any means.  But what he did enables happiness for everyone that has ever lived!  And thats why its so great being a missionary!  Helping people to be able to come to know their Savior Jesus Christ and sharing his gopsel which enables us to be happy not only for this life but for forever!!  

So Tuesday I had a sweet interview with the Mission President!  That man is just so inspired always and always helps me so much!!  I honestly have the best Mission President in the world!  and his wife makes the best peanutbutter chocolate fudge brownies in the world as well!  Very blessed to have them as my Presidents!!  Wednesday I gave our convert Johan a prayer rock to remind him to pray and it was funny when we came back Saturday and him telling me just how many times hes stubbed his toe on that rock, but that  its working!  Its a pretty big rock!  On Thursday we had a sweet lesson with our investigator Wendy and she had actually read the Book of Mormon for like 3 hours and prayed about it and she told us that right before saying amen that she felt chills run all up and down her body and her heart was burning too!  It scared her a little she said but we told her that that was a definite answer from God confirming the truth of our message and of the Book of Mormon!!  We challenged her to be baptized and she said yes!!  Just gotta get married!!  On Friday we visited Noblia, Mirari, Jessica, and Oscar!  It went well but the both of them got half their heads shaved like Miley Cyrus or Rihanna and well there mom was real mad about that and its not good cause they look like some girls from a gang now.  They also didnt want to come to church with their hair like this.  So definitely a bummer there.  But theres hope for them!!  They read everything we leave and really have been learning really well!!  There little brother Oscar is such a stud though and is getting baptized this next Sunday!!  He honestly reminds me of my cousing Hunter Shaw with his voice and everything!!  Such a special kid, he like the Nephi in his family!  He understands everything so clearly and perfectly and is always striving to do the right and this Sunday he didnt even have a ride or anything to get to church but he just started walking and found a ride there!!  We also have Dunya who is the daughter of Isidra who is a recent convert!!  We taught her about temples this week and both her and Isidra are so excited to be able to do the work for their ancestors!  Really been cool to see her progress and come to know this truth!

Im super stoked about this next week!!  Were gonna be having the baptisms of Dunya and Oscar!!  So excited for them and to see them take this step in their life!!  They are both so amazing and Im so happy that weve been able to help them get to this point in their lives!!  They are both so pilas and ready!!  Im just very grateful to be a missionary here in Honduras and feel so blessed always.  I love you guys so much and hope your all enjoying life right now!!  Have a fun week!!

Love Elder Hunt

P.S. Shout out to my buddy Tanner Davison for getting his call to Brazil!!  Stoked for you man!!

WEEK #50 Joya Grande

A fun P Day!

Well it was a good week!  Got some good stuff done!  Pretty hot this week though, but saw some cool storms as well and had to plan by candle light one night.. closest thing we get to romantic here in the mish lol.  Today we went to the zoo called Joya Grande and it was really cool and flippin huge!!  I was very suprised to see such a nice zoo here in Honduras.  It was clear up in the middle of nowhere too in the mountains and I saw some pine trees.  Seeing a deer might have been my favorite thing!  Been a while.  We also explored this cave and didnt have any flashlights or anything so we were using the flash of our cameras and walking blind.  I have a sick pick of what we didnt see haha perfect timing!

I had to go to San Pedro this Wednesday to get a nail taken care of.  My same one that got ingrown in Santa Barbara grew back bad so I had to get it out again!  So we went to the clinic and got there at 4 but the doctor had already left even though he wasnt supposed til 430 so we ended up staying the night in San Pedro with the APs and Secretaries!  It was pretty fun chilling in their house!  Its so huge!  Felt good to get out of my clastrophobic house into a nice big open house!! They also had a guitar so that was fun jamming with them!  Then the next morning we went to the Doctors and got my nail cut out!  Gotta love injections in your toe they feel so weird.  

Crazy bat!

Anways had to take a little break on Thursday cause your not supposed to walk on your nail the day of the surgery!  We started a movie night at the church and watched the minions.  It was pretty cool and all in Spanish which was pretty funny.  Had some investigators show up though which was good!  Also we had a sweet lesson and put dates with a family this week!  The children all said yes and we set dates for the 2nd!  The mom and dad still got to get married or split but the mom was crying and told us that she was ready to make this change in her life!  It was so cool and it was one of those moments I felt close to Christ seeing her see more light in her future through his gospel!

Anyways good week all and all!  Didnt have the good dats at church like we did last week, but I finally got this one little kid to show up by promising him a box of cookies!  Definitely worth it!  Anyways love you all and miss you tons!!  Keep having a great summer!

Love Elder Hunt

P.S. guess we didnt know these little guys were swooping right past us!

WEEK #49 HONDURAS

Hey everybody!!  Good to hear from alot of you this week!  Always love hearing whats going on at home!  Sounds like your all having a great summer though and doing great!!  Things are going pretty good here in Brisas!  We finally were able to see this week the results of our work!  We were able to get a lot of the people or are mains to church this week and they all loved it and had a great experience!!  Today was chill and we went to San Pedro Sula to do some shopping and look at some cameras and we went to this sweet Nike shop too that was legit!  Also best part of today was definitely the burger I had at T.G.I. Fridays!  Probably the most expensive meal Ive bought here in Honduras but worth every penny!  Got me pretty baggy for the states though being there as everything is Americanized if thats a word haha.  So delicious though and the lemonade too wow!!

So Tuesday I had divisions with my DL and it was super chill!  First time getting out of my area in 4 months and it was great being able to see other people and help other people away from my area!!  Our DL is super legit from El Salvador and we were talking loads about Lifting and all that good stuff!  Hes probably one of the most legit Latinos ive met here in the mish!  Funny story with him as we were walking down the road this drunk guy was trying to get us to stop and we were like if you wanna talk come here and so he was riding his bike and couldnt stay up and like ran into Elder Colindres twice and we were just laughing our heads off as it was raining a little too!  Had a good time with him and the other guys in La Victoria!!

The rest of the week was pretty chill.  My comp is getting lazy on me and is ready to go home is what hes telling me!  I sure hope my next comp is just ready to tear it up.  But we went out early in the morning to pick up our investigators before church which starts at 8 and so we got up at 6 and went out and all the investigators that we went to pick up that had promised us to go were either still sleeping and the other had to go bring firewoood from the mountain but promised us again hed go the next week for sure!!  The good news though is that all the other investigators were able to make it with out us going to pick them up!!  We had 4 in church was is a record for here!!  We could definitely be seeing 3 baptisms before i leave this change!!  I sure hope they keep coming!!  They all loved it and had a good experience in the church and we have dates for 3 of them!!  So keep praying for our sucess here and that the people can be motivated to change their lives and have greater faith!!  Will keep working harder!

Anyways thats all I can really think of for this week I forgot my planner again so its hard to think of everything!  Ill bring it next week!!  Nothing better than doing the Lords work though even if its hard at times!!  Im grateful to be a missionary out here in Honduras teaching Gods children!!

Love you all! and Miss you tons!  Have a great week!!

Love Elder Haden

WEEK #48 Happy 4th of July

A little pest control!

Hey whats up everybody!!  Hope your 4th of July was sweet and that you all had a great time barbacuing and shooting of fireworks!!  This is probably the first year in my whole life when I didnt see one firework go off on the 4th haha.  Maybe on September 15th though when its Independence Day here!  Ill be repping my Honduras tie for sure!

So not a lot happened this week.  I had divisions with our ZL on Tuesday and that was pretty chill and fun.  I learned a lot from him and we had a good time and got some good work in and even placed a date for one of our investigators Dunya!

On Wednesday I had to go to migration to get my Honduras residence card cause I think ive been here illegal for a little or as they say mojado!  But its all good now cause im getting my residence card which means ive been here for a while.. which reminds me that this day next year July 6th Ill be coming home haha I definitely got a lot of work to do in 1 short year!!

Then Friday was my comps birthday and we went to Dunk N Donuts to have a little celebration in the morning and then he was pretty sick the rest of the day and we just went to the house to let him rest.  Then Saturday he got better and I started getting sick and I was down Sunday with the same stuff.  A little fever, sore throat, pain in my body, and kind of like allergy systems as well.  But it went away this morning and were both feeling good to work hard this week!

This Saturday the other Elders had a baptism and it was a pretty cool thing to see.  This guy was a raging alcoholic before and his life was a mess and his family was falling away from him.  But the Elders showed up at his door one day as a reference from a member and started helping him and little by little he gave up the alcohol and the cofee and his life got changed around.  A complete 180.  So cool to see and to hear how his family is coming back to him and how this gospel has changed his life.  Anyways love you guys and miss you tons!  Keep having a great summer!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #47 Badtizmi

Hey everybody!!  So this week we had changes.  Im still here in Brisas with my comp Estrada haha.  It was a really good week this week and we finally were able to have our first baptisms here in Brisas Del Plan!!  It was super cool and Ill tell more about it later!!  Its been a while though and it felt so good to help these young guys come unto Christ and take their first step back towards him!!

So Monday we had our English class like normal and it went good except for the fact that we didnt have a whiteboard so that was hard but we got to the end of the class and I asked if there was anything else they wanted to learn and of course Noe and Johan wanted to learn a bad word in English and so me and Elder Oxborrow tricked them and told them that Baptizeme is a bad word.  Anyway when we got over there Tuesday the first thing they said when they saw me was "BaptizeMe!  Baptizeme!" It was so funny!  They kept asking what it meant and I told them I would tell them after their baptism on Saturday haha but they looked it up and found it Friday and it was pretty funny.  But they spelled it in my agenda BADTIZMI.  Pretty funny!

But ya this week we worked with them a ton and had tons of lessons with members and were just helping them get prepared good for their baptism!  We had a pretty intense lesson with them and their parents as their parents werent quite sure if they wanted to give them permission to be baptized, but they decided it was a good thing at the end and gave them the permission!  So that was good, I just hope that their parents can be supportive of them and were actually gonna start teaching the parents as well!!  Should see some good things with them!!

There older brother Allan had a date for this Saturday too but still isnt ready.  Hes just gotta make some decisions right now and basically hes got to get married or leave the girl thats hes with.  Were gonna work with him a lot this week though and see what we can do cause he wants to get baptized as well!!  Hopefully all goes well!

So Saturday was the day of their baptism and we did service that Morning with a different investigator.  What we did was we went out into the mountains with him with machetes and chopped down some trees and then chopped them into 3 feet pieces and carried them back on our shoulders back to the road which was super far away.  It was a pretty legit experience though and it reminded me of Deer Hunting a bit!  I liked it but my body took a beating haha super tough work and I feel bad for these people that have to do that every Saturday so that they have fire wood to cook for the week!  Bummer though cause this guy promised us that hed show up to church with his family and they didnt show up.  But I actually just love serving.  Something that Ive learned out here is definitely service.  It makes you feel good doing stuff for others and really shows how much you care about others.  I love service!!

Anyway we had Johan and Noe come over later to try on their baptism clothes and we left with them and their mom to their baptism!  It was a really cool service and the spirit was present for sure!  They were a little nervous but we went down into the waters together and it was an amazing experience being able to baptize Johan and my comp baptized Noe.  Afterwards they both said that they could just feel something special and told us just how great they felt!  So cool to see their eyes just light up in purity.  There Mom also commented just how beautiful everything was!  I really hope that her heart will be opened to us through seeing this and that we will be able to teach her and help her come unto Christ as well!  

I bear testimony that this is the True Church of Jesus Christ restored on the earth today, and that we are doing his work in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Love you all, miss you all!  Have a great week!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #46 Service!!

Hey everyone!!  Hope your having a great summer there in Utah!!  Hope your all doing some fun stuff and getting out of the house and getting out in the sun!  I met this cool guy from Utah today whos from Salt Lake and he showe me his new Iphone 6 plus and it looked so cool and it was good to hear about Utah and all the crazy weather that you guys had in April like a snow blizzard and such.  Things are going pretty good here though in the mish!

I honestly frogot my planner today so its kind of hard to remember exactly what happened this week, but we got the English classes started this week!!  They were pretty good!  I honestly forgot how hard it is to learn a new language and felt for these people that couldnt get the alphabet down. haha but it takes time obviously and hopefully they like these classes that we are giving!  The first class on Monday was a pretty good turn out cause we had a white board and everyone was interacting alright!  The second class we didnt have the whiteboard cause the people werent home and it as a lot more difficult being as no one could write stuff down as easy.  But it was a pretty good turn out all and all and hopefully we can get more people there and learn how to make the classes funner everytime and be better teachers for these people!!  Gotta love how my investigator Johan whos 14 knows all the english swear words and when he couldnt get something theyd all come out of his mouth. haha good thing the others dont know those!!

Friday was a sweet day!!  Did some divisions with my boy Elder Oxborrow and we killed it!!  We worked in his area and taught some sweet lessons, met some sweet people and found a golden investigator!!  Honestly one of the coolest experiences Ive had on my mission!  We were walking down the street and were just looking for opportunities to serve people and we saw this guy shoveling dirt so we were like lets go help this guy!  So we went over there and asked if we could help and helped this dude out!  He was extremely grateful for the help and we told him we love giving a helping hand when we can.  Then we told him that we are actually missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ and he was like so whats your message for us today and I said well service!  Then we kept on talking with him and actually found out that he had worked for the church earlier helping with construction of like 10 churches but had never met with missionaries before.  Then he said Im ready to listen though.  So that was super cool to hear and then what even suprised us more is that he told us that that morning he had been having a very difficulty day and had prayed to God for the first time in a long time for some help and here we came later in the day to help him.  He told us that we were literally the answer to his prayers and that he knew that he had to make some changes in his life and wanted to start by coming to church with us tomorrow!  So that was so cool to be an answer to someones prayer that drastically!!  Such a spiritual experience!!  Being led by the spirit!!  He and is wife came to church the next day and had lots of questions!  Hopefully Elder Oxborrow and Ochoa can progress with them this week!!  

Also Friday my comp went with Ochoa to our investigators!  They set some baptism dates with Allan and Noe and Johan for the 27th!!  So everyone please pray for them that they will be able to do everything to take this important first step in this life this Saturday!!  Weve been working with them for a while and they all have testimonies of this restored gospel and are trying so hard to have this change in their life!!  I hope everything goes well with them!!

Anyway thats all I can think of for right now and hope lots of good stuff happens this week!!  I love you all and have a great week!!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #45 The Week!

So mv kevboard is broke and the Y wont work so everv time vou see a V  its actuallv supposed to be a Y.  Haha gotta love Honduras stuff sometimes!  So I hope vou all are having a great couple first weeks of summer.  Whether vour hitting up the lakes, camping in the mountains, or driving around listening to countrv music.  That all sounds like a bunch of fun and I miss all of it haha.  But Im happv here in Honduras doing the Lords work and I know there is nowhere better I could be right now!!  

Rainy day and I'm loving it!

We had a prettv good week this week!  Wasnt the biggest for numbers but the appointments we had were affective!  We set a date for 3 of our investigators this week!!  Allan and his 2 little bros Noe and Johan!!  Thev all have prettv strong testimonies of this gospel and its been amazing to see them learn and grow from not reallv paving attention to knowing how important these things are!  Were just working with them a little right now with the Word of Wisdom as its super hard getting use to not taking cafe!  But things are going good there!!  Hopefull the 27th will be there dav!!  Prav for them please!!

Got some other good stuff going right now and a potential 9 other people that are working towards baptism but just fault coming to church!!  Its super hard in this area as all the others that I have cause the church is so far awav.  Vou have to take a taxi or a bus and its like 15 minutes awav in taxi or bus.  Alot of these people dont have the monev to spend either, ecspeciallv when its a poor familv that we are teaching.  So tough there but we are trving to work with the members to help bring the investigators that we have!!  The work is so much easier with the help of members but its hard to get them to do it!  

This week I got a girl to listen to us in a lesson bv challenging her in a jump rope contest!  I had to jump the alphabet each letter 3 times in a row!  It was actuallv a lot harder than I thought it would be and I barelv did it!  On her 3rd time around she messed up on like V super close to the end and so I won and she had to listen to us!  Prettv cool!  :)

Elder Hunt

Im seeing little miracles everv dav and mv testimonv is groing stronger everv dav!  We had some lessons this week that were so good!  Probablv some of the best lessons Ive had in mv whole mission.  Its so important as missionaries that we teach everthing so clear so people can understand and I feel like weve been doing that latelv cause vou can just tell in the people eves when thev finallv understand and get it!! 

So this week one of the members in the ward got jumped on his wav to work in San Pedro and thev literallv just punched and kicked him in the head countless times and robbed him of everthing (the little almost nothing) that he had.  We went and visited him 3 davs later at his house and he had the biggest swollen back eves with red splotches of skin on his forhead.  This guv is a brand new convert that got baptized as of 2 weeks ago.  One of the missionaries that we live with converts.  Super sad to see and hear about being as this guv is such a good guv.  A super cool part of the storv though is that while the 5 men were jumping him and beating up on solelv his face, he told us that he had one of them in a position where he could have killed him.  But he felt a strong prompting from the spirit not to do it.  So he just took the beating and knew that if he would have killed one of the asaulters that thev would have killed him.  He told us how grateful he is that he has the spirit with him to give him guidance in such situations and that he is still alive and with his familv.  What a testimonv!

Anvwavs this week was good and the work is progressing!  Please keep praving for this area and for us!!  We need all vour help that we can get!!  I love vou all and miss vou tons!!  Keep on having a great summer and enjov the nice weather!!

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #44 Great Week!!

One of my favorite families!

Thisweek was some good weather, not too hot, nice and cloudy with some good breezes as well!  Hey everybody this last week was awesome!!  Thanks for all the birthday wishes and all the love sent this way!! I had a great birthday and the work is going good here!! 

On Tuesday me and my comp didnt have lunch so we decided to make some Egg and Baloney sandwiches and we found a toaster in our house to use to toast the bread!!  The funny thing is, is that my comp had no idea how to use the toaster as he'd practically never seen one before or used one!  So that was funny teaching him how to use a toaster!!

On Wednesday we had a sweet lesson with Allan and his little brothers and they all decided that they want to get baptized!!  So we just gotta work with them a little more and get them to church a little more!!  Super cool though!!  And they want to get baptized in a river like Jesus!!  And they are pretty set on a river and not a font!  So thats gonna be way cool!!  We also played soccer with his Dad after and are slowly gaining his confidence!  Hopefully in the future the whole family will be able to be baptized!  They are such an awesome family!!

Ribs for my birthday dinner!

Thursday was my birthday and it was one of the favorite ones Ive ever had!  The Patriarch of the ward bought us all some pizza and wings and soda to celebrate my birthday for lunch and it was so much food and soo good!!  We had some sweet lessons this day and we went with my favorite family Hna Isidra and her family!!  It was such a cool lesson about the Plan of Salvation and at the end her little grandaughter was like I just feel so good about this plan and everything that you guys have taught I know that it has to be true!!  She wants to get baptized and also Hna. Dunya was really into it as well and we actually had a sweet lesson on Sunday with her with a member and the spirit was there and I know shes gonna get baptized here soon in the future!!  All the little kids gave me a big group hug for my birthday and it was really cool spending time with them!  We went to Rancho Carne after that!!  A nicer restaurant here in Villanueva and went with all my buddies from the zone!!  It was so fun!! We got some ribs and platanos and it was some pretty good food!! They had some dang good sauce!  Then once we left the restaurant we crossed the street and everyone gathered around me!  I knew something was up and was checking their hands to see if they had anything but I couldnt spot anything and then they all pulled eggs out of no where and egged me and smashed them on my head as tradition here in Honduras for birthdays!! So crazy and it smelt so bad haha!  Super funny though!!  Such a good birthday!!

I have officially been egged!

Saturday we had a sweet soccer game scheduled with the Dad of Allan!  It was sweet!  Like 6 random kids showed up and we played against them on a little field outside of Allans house!  It was tons of fun and then after we asked them if they would be interested in hearing a message about Jesus and they all said ya but they just gotta get permission from their parents!!  So that was sweet!  Also I was thinking that were gonna start an english class every saturday night or something like that with all the kids where we live, cause im constantly getting asked if I can teach some kids english so were gonna start a class and hopefully that will get us more people to teach as a result!!  Hopefully everything goes well with that!!

My birthday cake!

Frosting fight- so fun!

Monday we went to a members house to eat dinner and she made some good rice for us and she also got me a birthday cake!!  It was so nice of her!!  So we had a sweet birthday celebration and I had to take a little bite of the cake and they shoved my face in the cake pretty good!  Reminded me of home haha!  And then we had the biggest frosting fight ever!!  I wiped some on the 2 littler kids and then they tried to get me back and then everyone got in the frosting fight and we got it all over eachother!! It was so fun!  

Anyway it was a great week!  I love you all and miss you tons!!  Thanks for all your prayers always and your love!!  Have a great week!!

Love Elder Haden

WEEK #43 It's June

Kissing a crocodile!

Hey everybody!!  Its already June!!  My birthday is this Thursday haha finally hitting 19!  Gonna be a wii bit diferent without the fam but we got a sweet dinner planned at Rancho Carne that night!  Hopefully its some good food!  Today was sweet!!  We went to the Cocodrilera or the Crocodile Farm and saw some sweet crocodiles!!  There were lots of different fenced off sections where we couldnt see any cause they were hidden in the filthy green water so we had some fun throwing some rocks and sticks trying to see where the Crocodile would pop out!!  It was legit!!  We also saw a couple of crocodiles fight and one of them bit the other bien duro and  it started bleeding!  It was crazy!  We even got to hold some little guys and there was also some monkeys and lions there to see too!  Super cool!  We also went into this fenced off area with the owner and it was pretty crazy cause there was a crocodile hidden in the water  that was 118 years old and 5 meters long!  The biggest one and he grabbed a stick and started hitting the water to get it to react!  I guess it was blind so he said we were fine to be in there as it was too old to come out and get us!  Pretty  cool though being that close to a Cocodrilo that was born in 1897!!

This week was alright!!  Kind of got bummed out yesterday cause one of the super pilas investigators that we found completely ditched us and I really thought he was going to progress so good!  Guess its not his time though!  His family completely ignored us and he hid outside back door and they said he wasnt there haha so that wasnt the funnest!

Going to miss this boy on his birthday!

We had some really good progress with some investigators we have this week though!!  Allan and his little brothers are progressing really good and so is Dunya the daughter of Isidra and her little grandaughters who are 9 and 10 came to church this week too!!  So were gonna keep working hard with them and hope for the best!!  Keep praying for us and this area please!! We need all the prayers and blessings we can get to get this area going!!

Wednesday we tried making some baleadas in the night time being as we didnt have dinner and we even bought the easy gold star pre made flour to do it and we added too much water and so we had to improvise and put some of my pancake mix in and well they didnt turn out the best to say the least haha.  Pancake baleadas just dont do it haha so were definitely gonna have to try a round 2 and learn how to make these things good so I can make them for you all when I get home!!

Saturday was a funny day!!  We went and did service and helped one of our investigators build his house that hes making for his daughter!  It was probably one of the ghettoest house constructions Ive ever helped with as we were just putting random pieces of wood wherever they would fit and it was all just random nailing stuff in trying not to leave holes where people could see into the house!!  They were super happy none the less to be recieving so muc help from 4 of us missionaries and it definitely put out a good reputation for us out their in El Chorizo (the sausage) haha.  

They also gave us some drinks for helping them out, but these drinks looked everything but sanitary!  Elder Oxborrow and I didnt know what to do cause we definitley didnt want to drink these drinks but we didnt want them to see us pour them out so Elder Oxborrow tried to pour it out as he was trying to make it look like he was drinking it and he was pouring it out over his back and it all landed on his jeans he was wearing and got all over him!  He was trying to be clever and made a mess haha it was so funny good thing no one saw!  I managed to pour mine out as I was bending over to pick up a soccer ball and spilt it all out as I was picking the ball up!!  Pretty funny!

Also the other missionaries had a baptism this week and it went really well!  Everything was going perfect and the spirit was there!  They both got baptized the son and the father and then while they were all getting dressed to come back in the bishop was trying to play a mormom message.  He accidently clicked on the wrong file though and on the screen appeared Pink singing So What!?  Her music video hahahaha!  It was so hilarious and he quickly hurried and got out of there and switched it to the video!  He was like and thats the opposite of what we were looking for sorry about that!  hahaha

Anyway it was a funny week and I hope things go well this next week too and that the people we have can receive answers to their prayers!!  Keep praying for them!!  I sure miss all of you tons and I hope you all know how much I love you!  Hard to express it over an email!  Anyways love you guys and have a great week!!  Enjoy your first weeks of summer for me and get out and go boating for me too!  

Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #42 A Sick Storm

Hey whats up everyone??  Hope your all enjoying the rainy weather in Utah!!  We actually got hit with a sick storm this week of pure water.  Dumped super hard for like 3 hours on Saturday and than called it quits.  Definitely want some more rain here in Honduras!!  This week was a good one, but not much to report!  Did lots of work and taught some pretty sweet lessons!  Had some good progress this week and 3 in church again that are progressing towards baptism here in the future!!

So first off let my just tell you that my companion is sweet!  Hes like an exact replica but just the latino version of my buddy Hunter Bolles from Lehi!  So its pretty cool!  We have a lot of fun together and are working super hard here every day.  This week we had some crazy lessons but we also had lots of heart felt spiritual ones.  Its crazy the different things the variety of things that can happen in lessons!

This week we did a Noche de Hogar or a family home evening with the family of hermana isidra.  Isidra is a new convert and is the only one in her family that is a member.  She has 12 children and tons of grand children and in her house they live 12 people in total.  Of course all of her kids are moved out except for one that cares for her mom and then the rest are the grandchildren of Isidra.  This poor lady has to deal with a lot of persecution from her family every day and it has a hard affect on her but she has the strongest testimony of the church and the gospel and just knows that one day it will bless her family.  But its gonna be a while.  We had a Noche de Hogar with her family and we were going to share something simple a video about the family and being good for your parents and such, but this lesson turned into a jumbled mess of questions, attacking, contention, etc.  A lesson Ill never forget.  We started it off with a hymn and a prayer and started talking about the family and had everyone say one thing that they love about their family.  It went really well, but then one of the grandchildren asked a question and we went off on a spree of questions jumping from one subject to another, and receiving accusations and such.  I finally stopped it and said alright were not accomplishing anything right now.  Me and my companion had planned to share this message about the family and we would like to do so if you will let us.  We then tried to share a message about the Plan of Salvation, and the funny thing is is that they believed in everything that we explained and agreed but they got so lost trying to argue it inside their heads that they thought that we didnt believe the same thing even though they were agreeing with everything we said.  In this lesson they both stood up on their feet and were talking in loud voices, and searching the scriptures so hard for something.. they never used any scriptures or anything but they were trying to find something to contend with us.  Anyway it just went to show me that contetion is from Satan and that we can't teach with a spirit of contention and that we just waste our time when people are trying to argue with us.  The cool thing about this lesson though is that Isidras daughter Dunya was actually listening and was trying to defend with us and believed and liked what we were saying so we are going to focus in with her!!  I just feel bad for this poor lady Isidra who bore a strong testimony of how she had raised these kids and she knows whats best for them and knows this gospel can help them so much, but their hearts are just so hardened.

Now a different example is that we explained the Book of Mormon with a new family that we just found and they listened quitely and asked some simple, heart felt questions with a desire of seeking truth and we were able to teach them with the spirit and at the end asked them if they will be baptized once they have a answer from God if these things are true and that the Book of Mormon is true and they both said yes.  It was a really good lesson and the spirit was present. 

Anyway cool week.  Learned a lot!  We had a multi zone conference which was super cool and President talked about the Holy Ghost.  He is such an awesome president and I feel like he will definitely be a member of the 70 one day and will see him at General Conference speaking here soon!  Anyway played lots of soccer this week!  Dominated it!  Played in the rain!  Helped a taxi driver with a flat tire, helped a guy carry wood on a dirt trail in the forest with his horses.  Sang Called to Serve for a member in English to give him some uplift, gave a blessing to a old lady who was sick.  Being a missionary is awesome and Im glad that I have the opportunity to do it right now.  I know that there is no better place to be than serving the Lord!!  Love you all and miss you tons!!

Love Elder Hunt