WEEK #65 Training!

Hey guys so this week was pretty crazy!  Lots of new things going on!  We found out that we had changes Monday night and that Elder Ririe was leaving and for me that I was going to be training! Pretty exciting!  Tuesday we all just went around saying goodbye to everyone!  Wednesday we went to San Pedro Sula and said goodbye to some of my really good friends that I've made here in the mission that are going home!  Elder Baird, Woods, and Homes!  Sad to see them go!  Soo many good memories with all of them!! Then we all went into a room where all the new guys were waiting!! It was sooo cool reminded me of when I was in there too getting capacitated and not having any clue what was going on!  My comp Elder McNeely from the MTC is training too along with my buds Elder Cerros and Elder Hadley!  It was way cool chilling in there with all of them waiting anxiously to find out who are kid was gonna be! We finally got told and my kids name is Elder Martinez from Mexico!
He's a pretty cool guy!  He has a killer testimony and already knows tons!  Gonna be fun working with him!  He says some funny stuff always comparing his country with Honduras and how much greater Mexico is and such!  He absolutely hates the heat though which is funny cause it's not even the hottest right now!  Funny hearing all about his country though and how the houses are so much better and stuff!  I'm teaching him a lot of English though every moment he gets to ask me what something is in English he does which is really cool!  He really has a desire to learn!  So hopefully I can teach him all that too!  But super excited to be working out here with him!
We had a good week!  It was funny cause his first day with me we had a crazy Evangelical person go off on us about dumb stuff dancing and such and after he was like does that happen often?  He was a little bit spooked and it really happens like once every month or something like that so funny that it happened his first day.  Also, the same day some girls were trying to flirt with us super hard and asking me to get married with one of them and telling me that I was super handsome right after the crazy lesson.  So got out of there fast too.  Funny how that all happened his first day.  Anyway lots of crazy things happening and I'm just trying to get everything put together! Gonna work super hard this week!  I'll tell you all better how everything is going next week1  Love you guys all so much!  Miss you tons!!
Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #64 Trincheras

So I now have two changes here!  Pretty crazy to think about.  Time is just flying by and these 2 changes have been great with my buddy Elder Ririe!  He now has 6 months here so is probably getting changed out!  We will see what happens with changes and all that fun stuff!  Hopefully everything goes smooth!  The weather is off and on kind of hotter this week but for the most part getting rainier and cooler every week.  I like it a lot.
Well my old comp buddy Elder Baird is leaving the mission this week so we had some cool celebrations with him one for his birthday and we all went to Pizza Hut and we had cool little party with some guys from our zone and from Puerto Cortes cool to see my buds always!  We also had a sweet paper football tournament last night1  I went undefeated and then lost twice in the championship to Elder Chankai!  haha super fun though.
So this week we did pretty good!  My comp got sick at the beginning of this week and we were down for a day but got some good work in on Wednesday and on!  We set a baptismal date with Will and he looks really excited about it all and can't wait to get married and baptized!!  He's such a good guy and it was a really good lesson about the Plan of Salvation and the Celestial Kingdom and I asked him so now that you know this plan what does it make you want to do and he said makes me want to follow the example of Jesus Christ.  He couldn't of answered it better so I asked well will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized in his church by someone who has the priesthood authority of God.  He said yes and then we put a date with him.  Also had another cool lesson with him and we brought a member and it was way cool!  This member is so stoked to be helping and seeing that Will is stoked about the gospel as well!!
Also our investigator Moses had a very challenging week this week.  His mom died in a motorcycle accident.  So we talked with him about the Plan of Salvation more and about where we go after death and it gave him a lot of comfort and he found it really interesting and wants to know more and more!  Hopefully he can accept this gospel and just feel the assurity that comes with it and the bigger view that it gives us of life and the grand scheme of things!  And the peace and joy that comes with all this knowledge that families can be together forever!
Anyway that was about my week!  Hoping to have lots of new cool stuff to report next week and more progress!!  Keep praying for us please here in Trincheras we need all the help we can get!! Looks like we have changes!  Gonna be cool to see who my new comp is!  LETS GO!!
Love you guys!  Have a great week!  Enjoy the weather and football and such!  Miss you all and talk to you next week!
Love Elder Hunt

WEEK #63 Monos

Hey everyone so this week was pretty good.  We got a lot of good stuff done!  This morning we went and fed some monkeys at a park and it was pretty chill.  But they didn't want bananas which was weird cause it's like monkeys and you automatically think bananas but they liked futbolitos or like cheetos.  It was fun!  Weathers been overcast and rainy this week.  Loving it.
So this week we challenged Will to baptism and he said Yes!  So the next time we go were gonna set a fecha with him and things are looking pretty good for him!!  I'm excited!  Me and Ririe have been making it a point to baptism challenge more cause its somehting we've been failing at doing.  We also are progressing with our dude Moses as well!  Kinda stunk on Wednesday I think cause we were teaching him the Restoration and an inactive member was there trying to help us but just teaching pure apostasy and Moses kept looking at me like what the heck?  This inactive even said that Jesus was a sinner and at that point we were all like who is this dude?  It was alright though cause Moses understands truth and rejects apostasy so he was fine.  We just told him to mainly listen to us.  But we had another cool lesson with him to about the authority and he's understanding really good!  We ate dinner with him as well Saturday night and he invited us for Breakfast in the morning before church so we could desayunar and head off to church together full.  First time I've done that with an investigator.  He really opened up to me at church too and said that he loved it.  Good things in the future for Moses!  He is just a dude that understands truth for truth and has a great capacity of understanding.
This Friday me and my comp went to san Pedro Sula to have his last check up and it was a blast!  We went to all the big stores and bought a lot of stuff.  Went to Juniors and I bought some Golden Puffs they are sooo good!  Went to McDonalds and tried out the McNifica.  Went to Tio Sam which is basically an American Shop they export all american stuff and everything is in english which is weird to see.  We even got permission to go the the City Mall is was so dope.  Checked out some shoes in the Nike Store they're so cool!  Annd my comp is 100 percent now to workout and everything which is awesome!!
We got back on Friday night and went to the church for a Ward Singing Talent Competition thing.  We were just watching and then we got the great idea to sing as well so we hurried up and through something quick together some Jason Meraz I'm Yours.  It was dope and everyone loved it haha.  Pretty funny stuff.
Saturday was a bust.  All the citas dropped and so did my companions sweat rag into black sewer water.  It was hilarious.  Just waiting for a cita and it slipped off his Book of Mormon into black sewer water and I just heard a no no no ahhhh dang it.  Best part of the day haha.
But something good did happen on Saturday which was my Moms birthday!! So Happy Birthday Mom sure love you!  Hope it was great!  I actually did get to go to a little birthday celebration later this night for one of the ward members so that was fun being the same day as my Moms birthday!
Sunday was good.  We had a killer Noche de Hogar (FHE) to end the night and watched 2 videos one about the apostasy and the other the restoration.  These people were just mind blown and actually understood it pretty good and the member bore a killer testimony and well hopefully good things will happen with them!  This was with Rosa and her husband who is not that pilas and another couple who is friends with them!  Anyway hopefully they read the BOM and can pray and do what it says to do in the invitation. We shared Alma 32 with them as well.  Love that scripture about a seed.  All you gotta do is give it a little place to grow and if its a good seed than it will grow and be something delicious for you and you'll know that it's true.  Read, ponder, pray, and act simply put.  Anyway that was about my week!  Good things coming!!
Hope your all having a great fall.  Enjoy the leaves, the mountains, hunting, and the cold for me.  Missing it but there's nowhere I'd rather be than right here in the Trenches of Honduras.
Love Elder Hunt

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