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!