Week 42

Well, the day has come Ladies and Gents, the change has ended. As exciting and stressful as yesterday was, I was greatly relieved to find out that Elder Goodfellow and I will be staying here for another change. There are so many more people who I want to help here! We have 3 families we are working with right now. In our district we only had 2 changes so not much is different although now we have an Elder from Mexico so no more "All Americans" :P 

This last week wasn't the greatest and we didn't have the success we wanted but hey we still have plenty of time. Yesterday we were able to have a Ward Counsel Training at the Stake Center. I really hope that it will help our ward out so we can all work together. This last week we were able to provide service to a few families here in the ward which was nice since we haven't been able to for a while. 

We had a new difficulty come up this past week which I have a feeling will affect us for a while. In one of the popular newspapers here they published an article about how Joseph Smith had 40 wives. Let me just say that they really do blow everything out of proportion and like to twist the truth! I've heard that the church has come out with a few videos to help people understand more about the falsehoods that are commonly spread about us. It sucks that there is so much contention in today's day and I know that it's only going to get worse before it gets better! It is really going to prove who is loyal to the Lord and who is not! 

One thing that I have really learned to do here on my mission is to defend my faith and my beliefs, something that I definitely couldn't have done before. I will forever treasure the things that I am learning here on my mission and can only hope that I will continue to do so! 

There was a talk given by Elder Neil L Anderson in the October Conference that talks about how important it is to really become converted and be able to defend what we know so that we can be ready to help others do so too. I'm thankful for the Gift of the Holy Ghost that we have all received and the guidance that it gives us everyday in our lives. If we will but follow the prompting's of the Holy Ghost and stay on the path the Lord has set before us, and hold fast to the Iron Rod, we will make it to the tree of life! 

I can attest that although it is not easy being a follower of Christ in these times, it is worth it! Just being a member of the Lord's Church doesn't guarantee us eternal life, that depends on each one of us and how we live. Be an example to the people around you. Seek to find people that really need your help in their lives so that they can be brought to the knowledge that we have in our lives, so they can receive the blessings of God. I love you all and I love the lords work here on the earth! 


I hope you all have a great week! 
Con mucho amor, 
Elder Hunt

Missionaries in my District

Week 41

It's crazy how close I am getting to completing a year here in the mission! It's a great feeling but at the same time it scares me as there are still many things that I want to get better at and change to help the people around me. 

This past week, my Companion and I had to travel to Quito for a verification meeting with President Christensen. Lets just say that I don't love that trip.... I don't miss being in Quito. It was nice to be able to see President Christensen again. He really is such an amazing Servant of the Lord! He has so much love for all the missionaries here in our mission. He really is doing so much to help us reach our true potential so that we can help as many people as we can here in Ecuador. 

We were going to go visit the Tsachilas (An Indiginous Indian Tribe here), but we didn't get permission so were played soccer again. The love that I once had for soccer has greatly decreased while being here on the mission as now every time I play, all I get out of it is being super sore for 3 days.

This last week we were able to get 6 people at church. Family Espinosa (2), Family Zambrano (2, Parents of Alexander and Estiben), Lulu and Alejandra (Grand daughters of a less active member who we have reactivated). What we are really trying to focus on now is getting our recent Converts and Investigators to the point where they have friends in the church so that when we leave they don't go inactive. 

This last week we did a family home evening with Family Zambrano and Family Zhingre to help F. Zambrano meet more friends and to have an example of why they should get married. On Saturday we had the baptism of Rosa. It was great to finally baptize her!  I'm really excited to finally baptize a family! Although we are having success, there is much more that we can be doing and more people that need our help in their lives. I truly do love this work and the blessings we receive while making sacrifices in our own lives for the Lord. I hope you all have a great week! I can truly feel the love that God has for each and every one of you! 

It saddens me to hear about all of the deaths that have been occurring back at home! Please make sure that if you know of someone that has suffered something like that to reach out to them! President Monson said in his talk last spring "Although tomorrow you may forget the words you say or things you do for someone, they may cherish them for a lifetime." Show forth the true love of Christ. I love you all and wish the best for you!

Con Mucho Amor, 
Elder Hunt

Baptism of Andres

 Baptism of Rosa with Estiben and Alexander

The Sanchez Family put their Christmas tree up already :) haha

Me and my Zone Leader Elder Lopéz after soccer

Sweet sunset we had the other day

Sweet sunset we had the other day

 

 

My favorite fruit here called Guanabana :)

My favorite fruit here called Guanabana :)

Week 40

Well, the end to a great week has come! This week was a really good one and a fun one too. Our hard work really paid off and we were able to end it with success:) It was quite the crazy week but those are the ones that usually make for the good ones! 

First off, one of our Investigators broke up with her boyfriend, our recent Convert, and wasn't sure anymore if she wanted to attend our ward and get baptized as she has no support from her family. A few days after that they finally made up and got back together luckily and now she is really excited for her baptism! I knew that she would get baptized no matter what but it's a really great opportunity for Estiben to get some practice with Missionary work. He's been reading Preach My Gospel and is planning on going to the Temple here in a few weeks with his little brother. We are currently working with their parents also so that they can get married and baptized. That's our goal, to get them all to the Temple and sealed as a family. 

We also found another family this last week named the Espinosa family. They found out about the church from the church website. The mom watched/read something about Eternal Families. She asked her husband if he would like to be with her and their daughters forever and he said yes! She told him that she found out how they can do it. They really are so great and so ready to accept this gospel and really change their lives. They are so accepting of everything and as the mom partook of the sacrament on Sunday she said she really felt the spirit and that it was something she could not explain, something she had never felt before in the Catholic Church. I'm so excited to really help them reach their true potential and receive the blessings that our Heavenly Father has for them! 

We were able to baptize Andres on Saturday and are now working to get his mom and dad married, his mom baptized and his dad active in the church again. Here, there are a lot of less active members that are so ready to come back to the church and many of families that have family members who aren't baptized. We are working on getting them active again and baptize those who need it. I really do love this work and can see how it is truly blessing me in my life! 

Today we got to play soccer as my Zone Leader, Elder Lopez from Spain goes home after this change. Lets just say it was a little bit hot and I may or may not have gotten really sunburned but hey, we go hard on P-Days haha!! I love you all and hope you all have a great week! 

Que Dios Les Bendiga!! 
Con Mucho Amor, 
Elder Hunt

Week 39

Well, we are now officially done with my first change as being trainer. This last week was a pretty good one! We were able to find some new people and we will be having another baptism this coming Saturday. 

Right now we are really focusing on the less active families where not all of them are baptized. There are more than 1000 members in my ward here but every week we average about 150 who attend church so were really working hard to find all those members that aren't coming. It's been a little bit hard since we haven't received as much help from the members lately but we are now focusing on strengthening the ward so we can have the help that we need. That's something I've learned while being here - that missionary work without help from the members just doesn't work out as well. They play such a huge role in this work and without them we can't do much! 

We found a family that has a lot of references for us but they don't really trust the missionaries here (we've had quite a few not so righteous missionaries in this ward before) but they do have the desire to help us. My companion and I are really excited to prove to them that we are here to work and to gain their trust!

Tonight we have a family home evening with them and a few of the references they have for us. It's great to be here and to be able to help the members and the members that have become less active as they also need a lot of help in their lives! I'm excited for this week and to be able to work more with the members and have more success. Thank you all for your support and for all the prayers sent my way! They truly have strengthened me in the times when I need them most! I hope you all have a great week! 

Con mucho amor, 
Elder Hunt

Elder Hunt & Elder Goodfellow after the family
history activity we had with a member named Jair

The really good and surprisingly
cheap frozen yogurt we bought today

Central Park with a statue and a
Catholic Church that's actually pretty cool!

Santo Domingo streets, pretty cool!

Week 38

Well, I'm officially done with my second week as being a trainer and it's actually going quite good! My companions name is Elder Goodfellow, as I forgot to mention that last week haha. He's from Las Vegas and he's 18. He loves being outdoors and going to Southern Utah to mountain bike and hike Slot Canyons so I've been learning a lot about that so I can try it out when I get back and do something that I've always wanted to. 

This last week we had another baptism for Alexander who's 12 and is the brother of Estiben who we baptized in September. The plan was to have Estiben baptize him but we later found out that he fell into temptation and didn't feel he was worthy to baptize him so  he chose me to baptize him. It really is so great to be a special part of these peoples lives and to help them become closer to God and have more happiness. You truly can see a huge change in the people from before and after their baptism! 

So, this past week we had a few experiences that I'd like to share with you. So yesterday as we returned home from church we found that our house was flooded. Apparently the faucet in the kitchen got left on and the drain doesn't drain so well so the sink overflowed for about 4 hours. We had about an inch of water that we had to scoop up with plastic bottles. That was quite fun! It took us about 2 hours to get it mostly cleaned up. 

The other one happened on Saturday before the Baptism. We were walking toward the church and next thing we know this lady was yelling down to us from the second story window and told us to "Wait" in english so we waited. We started talking to her and found out that she's from down here in Ecuador but she lives in Boston and is a member of our church. She is down here visiting her sister. Right before we passed she went to the window and started to talk to her about our church and then saw us. We ended up talking to her and her nephew from New York for about an hour in English, which was AMAZING! I really think we might be able to help out her nephew and I want to try and get him an English Book of Mormon that we have in the house and help him find more direction in his life. He told us after learning a little bit about us that he looks up to us and wants to be like us so hey that's a start :) 

This week was honestly a pretty good one. I'm just trying to learn and grow from everything. I hope that you all have the chance to study one of the Conference talks this next week and learn more about what you can do to be better. 

Con mucho amor, 
Elder Hunt

The Baptism of Alexander

Elder Hunt, Alexander, and Elder Goodfellow

Alexander's Family

We found a Nature's Sunshine here so I thought that was cool:)

Me after we got done playing soccer today :)

Week 37

Well, what a week it has been! One of the fastest/craziest weeks of my mission! So, last Sunday when we received the changes I was notified that I would be training this change. Not sure how I felt about that but it was a mix of being excited, nervous, and a feeling a bit of inadecuacy. It's always scary knowing that you'll be with someone who has no idea what the mission is like or what to do or how to even speak Spanish so everything really does depend all on you! 

I spent last Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday with my District Leader and his Companion. We weren't really able to work a whole lot in my sector just because it was hard to go back and forth. It was also interesting because I had none of my own clothes with me and had to go all the way back to my own house to shower and change clothes everyday. Over all it was an interesting three days but it was good. I was able to really see if I was ready for the challenge coming my way and it was nice to be with more gringos too :) 

So, on Wednesday me and 3 other missionaries went to Quito and let me just tell you that was not a fun ride nor do I want to go back to Quito anytime soon! It is really cold up there and the rainy season is really hitting them hard. We spent the night in the mission hotel and got to know some of the new missionaries. The next day we got up and went to the big Stake Center in Quito for our meeting with President Christensen and to be assigned our new companions. We got our new companions and headed back to our sectors, which for us meant a 3 hour bus ride :( We finally arrived back in Santo Domingo at about 9 o'clock at night so we went straight to our house to rest from our long day. 

The next day we got to meet all the new missionaries in our zone as we had district meeting. It was really good! We were able to learn about the importance of listening and asking inspired questions to be able to really understand what the investigators need in their lives. We were able to get out and visit some of our investigators afterward and try to apply what we had learned. The next day I woke up with the flu... Pretty sure my body is against me being here or is trying to set the record for the most times I can be sick. I believe what made me the most sick was going to Quito and back so fast and such a drastic change in altitude and climate. We didn't work at all on Saturday but on Sunday Camila was able to be confirmed and Alexander passed his baptismal interview so he will be baptized this coming week. It's been a crazy week but its been good. We're still working hard here we've just got to stay focused and find the people god has prepared for us here. 

I hope you all have a great week! 
Con mucho amor, 
Elder Hunt

Week 36

So, I just have to start off by saying that Conference was absolutely AMAZING! I loved every second of it! I never really cherished Conference much before but now I really see the blessing it brings into our lives. Although it was such a short time to learn everything I plan on studying the talks throughout the next 6 months to get more out of all of the talks. 

We were also able to have a Baptism this weekend. Her name is Camila and she's the sister of Maria Jose so that was really cool! Her dad afterward also came up and asked us what they need to do to get married so were going to work more on helping them to get married. 

We got changes yesterday and my companion went off to Ambato today and I'm here with my District Leader and I will be training this change. Its going to be crazy but I'm ready for the challenge! I hope you all have a great week and I hope you all know how much I love you! 

Con mucho amor, 
Elder Hunt

House painting

The baptism of Camila

Us with Camilla's family

Us with Estiven & Alexander

Us with the Sanchez Family