Pictures from the train museum

Email from Aug 10

Literally, in the office, I have nothing to do these days. Literally, like nothing. I just kind of show up to the office just so I'm not home alone. Everybody else has stuff to do but me. It's hard. I just sit around and try to keep myself occupied. So, I'm going through my memories and old pictures and deleting some stuff and organizing other stuff. Today, I got to the point of boredom where I decided to clean the office. I took out the trash, vacuumed the carpet, and generally organized the place up. You know I'm bored when I voluntarily clean. I guess me puse las pilas this change and got way ahead of schedule. But I can't not come into the office because I can't be home alone.

I've never been wetter than I was on Saturday. In about 5 minutes, I got soaked to the bone. Literally. We walked into a home of an appointment we had with a family to teach. When we got up to left, we literally were wading in the pool of water that came off of us during the lesson. It didn't stop raining all day. The thing is, here in the capital, when it starts to rain, it gets cold. So my companion and I were shiverring as we were talking to people. We had a good day, just really cold and really wet. But, I got some medicine for free from a member that owns a little tienda to prevent getting sick. Also, a warm shower upon arriving home is a missionaries best friend. God definitely blesses us after the trials, that's for sure. We just have to prove ourselves at times.

Monday was an amazing day. Instead of doing exercises, we had to do a special assignment for the mission. It consisted of us dressing up in all the tradicional fabric/clothes that we could find to look like the indigenous people here in Guate. Everybody got their costume ready and we went to take pictures. Here are a couple of results.

This is the whole district. We found us a cornfield and took a nice picture.

That's me and the assistants. I really like how this one turned out even though nobody was in it. just a test shot, but it's cool.

Monday afternoon, Elder Clouse and I left to run some errands. (Yea, leaving the office!!) We decided to go to TacoBell for lunch. TacoBell never goes well with me, but that's fine. It was quite tasty. Then we went to a Home Depot type of store, then Office Depot, then to PriceSmart which is just like Costco/Sams Club. It's where you find American Brand food and everything. It's a magical place for us. It was my first time going and I just bought a bunch of stuff to make sandwiches for lunch. It's sad when a missionary gets so excited about going to a Costco that he has to put it in his letter home. But, así es la vida de un misionero gringo en Guatemala.

That night, we had a lesson in the house of the Stake President, a Family Home Evening. The Stake President invited 3 people to his house. A brother of a recent convert and two of his children. It was fantastic. We just kind of showed up, felt the spirit, ate dinner, then left. I love when church leaders open up their house for Family Home Evenings, invite the missionaries, invite friends, teach the lesson, then provide food. It just makes a missionary happy. [Dad, do it! :)]. The likeliness of the people accepting the message and progressing towards baptism is incredibly high. Not 100%, but close!

--Elder Hunt

Email from Aug 3

This week was quite interesting. Full of so much that it's hard to explain what all has happened. I hope that as I try to explain, you can understand. I won't have a lot of pictures either because pictures of some things were not taken with my camera.

Last Saturday, I had my English class. It's fantastic. Always full of young men and women and a few adults from the ward. We worked hard on having fun this time. So I taught them Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. I have a video, but it's too big to send. It was a hoot and a half. They loved the motions and I even think they learned a little of the parts of their bodies. Even in English class, I can hardly speak English. I feel as though it's easier or more comfortable to just talk in Spanish. I don't know what I'm going to do back in America. Si quieren, les puedo escribir en español para que sea más fácil.

On Monday, I had a unique opporunity. I went out and worked with my trainer. It was the best and worst thing ever. I had some appointments planned, like one an hour. Lessons only last about 30 minutes, so we can say there's about a 10 minute block between each one with nothing exactly planned. What did we do? Bothered people. For instance, we knocked on a door and a 12 year old girl. She was like, "What do you want?" We told her what we wanted. We said, "We want to baptize you and your family". She got scared, and slammed the door. We left but her mom, a little worried about her daughter, came to the door. Exciting stuff. It is really weird to work with an old companion again. Especially now that I can speak Spanish. It was super funny.

On Tuesday, we had a Zone Activity! We went to Zone 1 in the capital. It's like a really big market with a lot of typical stuff. Anyway, I was with Elder Aragon again, the Zone Leaders, and two sister missionaries. It was super fun. We left the market and went to a train museum. (Pictures taken by other cameras). But that's not what was super good about it. What was awesome is the fact that when we were walking out of the train museum back to the market, we had to pass through a park. In the park there were benches and on the benches, there were people. In the middle of the benches with people on them, there was a preacher. He was going hard with his Bible in his hand. (As you should be able to tell, it's not a good thing when Elder Aragon and I get together). We couldn't pass the opportunity. One of the sister missionaries started filming. Elder Aragon grabbed a Law of Chastity pamphlet and I got a Book of Mormon. We decided to be preachers to. Elder Aragon started going a little ways down from the preacher, but not too far. He was preaching and talking about how everybody was going to be burned unless you lived the commandment (as a good preacher does). Then, I busted in with the good ole Jacob 2:35. But I read and explained it in English. Everybody turned to me and watched me as a North American in Guatemala preaching in English. It was so hilarious. The Zone Leaders couldn't handle it, so they like ran away and were dying laughing. They have watched the video at least 20 times.

This area is so awesome right now. So many people showing great potential. The Lord is going to start the ball rolling here again because we already see it starting. It's fun to be in the office as Executive Secretary because you learn new things each day. I'm learning really a lot of things that I'll be able to apply in my life that other missionaries don't learn while just being in the field. I've learned to be a problem solver and just get things done. It doesn't matter who I have to call, I call them (even if it be the Area 70!). When things go wrong, I'm depended on to get it right. When things go right, nobody thinks twice. Yes, I make mistakes, but it's fine. There's always a way to fix it, even if it's humbling yourself and apologizing. It's interesting how the Lord works in His missionaries. I love that I can see it.

Things are crazy. Life's good. I'm safe and healthy. The church is true. My testimony grows every day.

Love y'all!

--Elder Hunt