May 30

Another Bomb Week here in Guatemala!

We baptized a lady that has been investigating the church for years! Who knows why, well, God knows, but she decided to be baptized with us. She is super pilas. Everybody already thought she was a member of the church. So, when it came time for her to be baptized, we had to do it on the down low. We planned a baptismal service with only her family and us. There was the Stake President and his wife, Francia (the one baptized), her 3 daughters and Francia's son-in-law, and my companion and I. It was such a great service. It was super simple but powerful. Afterwards, we went to the Stake President's house and feasted on some Domino's! Within the next couple of years, this Francia will be Relief Society President, for sure. I don't doubt it at all. (Just for future reference, when y'all have baptisms, make sure your companion is included in the pictures to. For this baptism, my companion didn't even bother to invite me to take pictures because I was with a different missionary in another room. WHAT?!Que mala onda, not even including your companion in the baptismal fotos of your convert.)

Another good baptism, was Sunday morning. We have church at 8 am every Sunday, we baptized a guy at 7:20. Awesome! Being baptized and confirmed all before 8:30 in the morning. This guy's name is Giovani. His wife and kids are recent converts, but he wouldn't stop casually drinking his beer. Well, we got that to change! What a miracle. To get him to be baptized was actually a struggle. The Recent Convert wife didn't want him to do it. She would bring up topics like us becoming Gods, like there's no archeological evidence that the Book of Mormon is real, and that we pressure or obligate people to get baptized. WHAT?! I thought members were supposed to help us out with baptizing. But not this one! She was working for Satan. But, we got 'er done!

May has been a month of miracles. Just in this month alone, we baptized 6 people! The area is literally on fire right now, and I hope it never goes out!

Anyway, fun stuff?

My house is huge. It's like a mansion compared to what ever Guatemalan house. Anyway, we cleaned out the tile living room floor and set up boxes as soccer goals. Then we got game time going! It is so sick. We took a video the other day and it is hilarious!! Everybody is trying to pull some fancy moves since there's not a lot of space. We play every night from like 9:40 until like 10:10. I love it. It's a good sweat though since there's no air conditioning here in Guatemala.

Since I'm here in the office these days, we go out and work with the new missionaries between the MTC and entering the mission field. I absolutely destroyed the guy I worked with. It was super funny. He had some fancy dress shoes. Just so y'all know, I walk pretty fast. This poor guy running to catch up. At like 8:55, we ran home. I purposely got far away from the house as to run a long way. He gave it all he had, but just could not make it home. I'm the kind of missionary that runs home every night. Doesn't matter what kind of day it has been or where I´m at, I run.

I got a new companion!! On Wednesday, I felt super accomplished. I helped the office pull of my first successful change meeting. Everything from mini-missionaries to fixing telefone problems. Anyway, I received a new companion here in the office. His name is Elder Clouse, from Mesa, Arizona. I love him. By far my favorite companion. We get along super well and are just killing it, the people absolutely love us together. He's super funny and clever and sarcastic. He's like a really good friend. We've only had 3 days together, but they've been great. I'll send pictures later. As you can see, I had to come into the office at 9:30 tonight to be able to write home this week and to write to president. It has been an incredibly busy with pre and post change things. WOO!

On Tuesday night, to get everything finalized for change meeting on Wednesday, we were in the office from 10 until about 1:30, so we got home at 2:00am. Lucky me, I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to take a missionary to the airport to go home. That was an incredibly hard day. I did not shower. Oops. 'hépaleee'.

Anyway, I love y'all!

Pictures

Elder Santiago went to Antigua. This is a painting he loved and got.

I believe this photo is from the wedding of the young family Elder Santiago helped teach.

The young family on the wedding day!

The newlyweds on their baptism day

On Santiago's one-year mark, he did the traditional "burning of the shirt"

Email from May 15

Interesting little week!

Everything from weddings to baptisms to Mother's Day to working with President Brough to interviews with President Brough.

On Friday, we went to Antigua!

So, we've had a young family that has been super interested in the church and the things we've taught them.  Their names are Saray and Jairon. Anyway, we could only teach them on Saturdays because Jairon works from 2 pm to 2 am Sunday through Friday. So, the first time we went, we taught lesson one and left the commitments of attending church, reading the pamphlet, and praying. When we went the second time, they had read the pamphlet and prayed and asked God if Joseph Smith was a profet. They received their answer! In that same moment, we challenged them to be married on the 10th and baptized on the 11th of May. Here we are 3 weeks later with them married and baptized! The wedding Saturday was a hoot and a half. I think they mixed up the word "Boda" and "Fiesta" or "Wedding" and "Party". When we showed up, there were two speakers as tall as my waist! They're baptism on Sunday was always fantastic. This family was introduced to us through a family that was baptized in March. Anyway, the dad of the recent convert family had not yet received Priesthood, but we really wanted him to baptize his friends. So, we got him an interview with the bishop and he got the Priesthood in the third hour, just in time for the baptisms! It was a really nice baptismal service. My companionship baptized two, another companionship baptized one, and an 8 year old kid was baptized by his dad. (Don't worry, pictures are attached.)

On Sunday, God blessed us big time. We had 12 investigators attending church! What?! It was absolutely crazy but amazing. 12 investigators attending, 2 confirmations, and 2 baptisms. Just for a quick update, the work is progressing nicely. We have a baptismal date for someone this Sunday, the 18th, and 2 for the 25th. That's not even counting the spontaneous miracles that are to happen. For this month of May, we've had 4 baptisms and at least 3 more. The field is white, and we're getting the harvest on!

For the first time ever in Guatemala City Central Mission, we were able to Skype home for Mother's Day! WooHoo! It was one of the strangest things. It kind of took me out of the mission. Made me remember the days of when I would be in college and Skype home occassionally on Sunday afternoons. (Don't worry, I wasn't unfocused when we went out to work.) It's actually weird to think that this was my second to last fone call/Skype call home. It's a sad realization that I won't be serving a full two years, I'll go home two weeks before the two year mark because that's just how the changes fall. But, it's not like it's a big deal at all.

On Tuesday, I had the best and worst day of my mission. I got super sick. Like super sick! My body was super achy, a pounding headache, and a fever with chills. Also, President Brough came and preached the gospel with us! IT WAS AWESOME!!! In the morning, I was really wanting to get better, so I asked President Brough and Elder Ward to give me a blessing. President Brough annointed me and it was incredible. His prayer wasn't at all something normal, but super unique. He said something like, 'Elder Harold James Hunt, by the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood, and in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I annoint you with this oil that has been consecrated, blessed, and set apart to bless and heal the sick and afflicted in the house of faith. Amen.' It was more or less like that, just a bunch of power. We started working together at 5. During the whole day, I hadn't gotten better, but still, we went to work. In the first lesson, I. was. miserable. At the end, President leaned over to me and asked if I was ok. But by the end of the night, I'd say I got back to about 85%. I couldn't even begin to explain what happened or what I learned when I was teaching and working with him. It'll all be written in my journal (the 4th one, this will be entry #1).

I beg of you, help the missionaries. Accept what President Ballard said in General Conference and present someone to the missionaries every 3 months! Y'all have to set the example for the ward and stake. Especially since you have two sons that are out right now on missions.

This morning we had interviews with President Brough. FANTASTIC. He talked a lot about the transition from him to President Markham. We discussed a little of loyalty. We talked of why he called me to the office. We talked of the things that have happened in my mission for the Lord to prepare me for this. This will also be included in my journal. But in the last prayer, he said something that impacted me a lot. He said, "Help Elder Hunt as he will be crucial in the transition and success of President Markham as a mission president." Talk about pressure! I knew I'd be a big factor for the transition, but I didn't know I'd be crucial to determine the success of President Markham! This'll be fun :)

I love y'all. Just keep on keepin on.