Email from Oct 27

This has been a crazy week. I hardly even know where to start, so much has happened. 

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to speak twice in church. I've been in one of these wards for 13 months, so i know it really well. I also know that there are many in the ward that are not helping us with missionary work. I said that to them. I was like 'I've been here for 13 months, and there are many of your houses that i've never been invited to. So it looks to me as if y'all aren't fulfilling y'all's callings as missionaries.' I was really direct with the ward during my talk. I based it off of David A. Bednar's talk from this last conference entitled 'Come and See.' Here's a little outline of my talk:

-2 Nefi 31:3 to warn them that I was going to be direct and clear with them. Why? Because that's how the Lord works, and I'm His representative. 
-The Church of Jesus Christ always has been and always will be a missionary church.
-Devoted disciples of Jesus Christ always have been and always will be valiant missionaries. A missionary is a follower of Christ who testifies of Him as the Redeemer and proclaims the truths of His gospel. 
-But our eagerness to declare this message is not merely the result of a sense of spiritual duty. Rather, our desire to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with you is a reflection of how important these truths are to us. (So, if your not sharing this gospel, it's not important to you.)
-Dyc 58: 26-29 explaining how they don't need to wait for us to ask them to participate, because that condemns them. they need to be anxiously engaged in the work. 
-Jacob 1:19 explaining that if they don't warn their fellow brother, the sins will come upon them.

This whole talk was direct and not very sugar coated. But, I also made sure to express my love to those participating and to thank them also. As the ward in whole, the talk was effective and accepted. After the Sacrament meeting, people came up and were like 'you should visit this person or the other' or just came up and thanked me for the talk. The talk was not received by the bishop in the slightest sense. hahahah. I felt crushed by the talk (Good!). He went up to Elder Clouse and Elder Roney (not to me) and said, 'you don't have the keys to say what you said.'. Uh....those aren't keys. I quoted an apostle and i quoted the scriptures. I don't need keys to do that. It was a great talk. Just for future reference, if you need someone to talk straightforward to a ward about missionary work, I'll volunteer. I've got my little talk ready. 

In the second ward I spoke in, I toned it down a little bit because i'm not as familiar with the people. I shared the same David A. Bednar quotes. I also shared DyC 58 and mentioned Jacob 1:19. But, I took a nicer approach and read also from DyC 80 and 81 and read 1 Nefi 2:16. This talk didn't have the same effect on the ward because everybody was asleep because church was at 2, right after lunch. But the people that paid attention appreciated it. Also, this Bishop really liked the talk. He thought it gave encouragment for the ward to do better. Score!

On Tuesday, we took out the new missionaries again. It's always fun because they try so hard but just can't keep up. We ended the night with a mile and a half run for the house. They were absolutely dead tired. We got to the house and there was pizza waiting for them. They were too tired and out of breathe and worn down to eat. They refused the pizza. But I ate it without a problem. I love working with the new missionaries. But anyway, a fun fact about this Tuesday, I slept less than an hour that night! woo! We had to go to the office to get ready for change meeting the next day because there was stuff to do. On the way to the office, we stopped by the gas station to fill up the Hi-Lux, a diesel truck. So we filled it up, went to the office, got stuff done, and left the office at like 2:05 am. We tried cranking up the truck, but it didn't go. The battery was charged. The tank was full. What's the problem? Who knows, it's Guatemala. So we wait for like 20 minutes, try again, and it fires up. Weird. We get home at like 2:45 am. Elder Clouse, who was going to leave the office, still hadn't packed his bags. So i stayed up with him while he packed his bags because i had to get up anyway at 3:30 to take a missionary to the airport by 4. It would have been the same as going to sleep anyway. So i stayed up. I took the missionary to the airport and got back home at like 5:30. In full mission attire, i went and laid on my bed for a second. When 6:25 rolled around, i was up and about again starting the day. We went to change meeting. After the meeting, we were on our way back to the office. I fought hard with the car to start for some reason, but I won. Also, the exhaust was letting out a lot of smoke. But, we cruised on to the office. Out of nowhere, the car stopped. It just shut off. So we were stuck. We called the car guy from the area office and he got the car towed off. The problem? The Elder that filled up the gas tank put in normal gas...it's a diesel truck. epic fail. When i found out, i died laughing. Rookie mistake. Putting normal gas in a diesel truck. Noob!

Fun News. I'm leaving the office in 6 weeks! After 14 months in Boca del Monte, I'll be saying goodbye and heading out to the normal mission field! I received my replacement Executive Secretary. His name is Elder Hansen, from Washington DC. I love him. We seem to get along quite well. I'm so excited to leave the office. I want to lose myself in missionary work again. It'll be so much less stressful. Now, I have to focus on office and field stuff. Soon, it'll just be field stuff. The excitement is to stay tuned as to where I go. One day, I'll be able to get like 7 hours of solid sleep a night. No more nights of 55 minutes! Wow, que rico.

Today, i started 6 weeks to sexy. woo! I hope I get sent to the coast so i can lose all the weight I put on here in the office. Only 6 months to go, that's crazy.

Anyway, this week has been crazy and that's just a sneak peek at what's gone on this week. I'm loving life. I love the mission. I know it's the work of the Lord so I'm not slowing down, just speeding up. 

On Thursday, the sister missionaries that entered with me in the mission went home. I took them to the airport. Crazy! I can't even believe it's been so long. 

I love y'all!

--Elder Hunt

PS: letters are always accepted.