Email from Sept 8

This week, there is not much time to write at all. We have three days of Conferences with Elder Ochoa, somebody from the Area Presidency. But I'll try to write a little bit.

On Monday, I received a fun fone call. The missionaries from the Coban mission called (about 8 hours away by bus). They explained to me that they had two missionaries in the capital doing some stuff for their Visas. But he said they wouldn't be able to get back in time, so they asked if they could come work with us for the day, stay the night, and head out of here early on Tuesday. I said of course. So I got one and Elder Hernandez got the other one. We absolutely destroyed them. To the point where as I was walking, this missionary was literally running beside me. I ran him all around Boca del Monte. I was walking, but for the pace, he had to run. At night, we were knocking some doors. As I knocked a door, he couldn't even stand. He would just sit there on the ground and try to rest. I purposely got a little farther away from the house at about 8:45 PM to give a nice walk all the way home. On that last one home, I made him give it all he had. As I was walking and he was running, I decided to run to. So we started running home. We was about 3 yards behind me, because I can't just run away from him. Anyway, we got across the street from our neighborhood and I ran across the street, in the colony, and all the way to the house. I got the the house, paused, looked behind me, and there was nobody. I was alone! So i retraced my steps and ran out of the gated colony. He had still not even crossed the street. It was so funny. He was absolutely destroyed. But that's the culture of this mission. We walk fast. Why? Because there's stuff to do. We destroy ourselves every day, sleep, and repeat. Somehow, God blesses us for it. Mission Culture, that's what's up.

I have some weird food disease going on. I'm not sure if it's a rash or what. The mission nurse thinks it might be an allergy. It itches really bad. She told me to start taking Benedryl every day and to put some anti-itch cream on it. But apparently , I scratch my foot as I'm asleep, so I now have open sores on my feet. It's fantastic! I love it. It hurts really bad, itches all the time, and makes my feet really pretty.

We went to Antigua yesterday. I finally got Mom's gift. It's a good one. It only took 16 months to find it. I love going to Antigua because we always go as a Zone. We rented a bus and on the way back, somebody put in their memory with a bunch of EFY music. Music that we, in the office, listen to all day every day. So of course, we know all the words to all the songs. Especially the song called 'I Am His Daughter'. So we blasted that one for sure. Missionary life is weird. But i wouldn't trade it for anything.

Anyway, sorry the letter is so short. I just don't have time but I had to write something.

Love y'all!

-Elder Hunt

Email from Aug 25

I feel like I have just been so tired this week. So it's hard to remember what's been going on. Mainly just office stuff seeing as how we just started a new transfer change. So I've been a little busy right here at the beginning trying to get a lot of stuff done quickly and correctly. But it's fun. It's always a big rush in the first few days, but then everything gets a lot calmer.

I think something that has really worn me out is that we had to go to 2 sessions of church on Sunday. Here in my area, we just had to split 2 wards into 3. So I now work in two wards. Meaning investigators have the potential to come to both wards and we never know, so we have to be there. And this Sunday, we had investigators in both sessions. So we have church from 10-1 and then from 2-5. yea! It makes for a reaaallly long day. But it makes me happy to see the growth of the ward and the progress of the work of the Lord. The goal is to one day have like 5 wards here in Boca del Monte. It started as one, went to two, and now it's three. It's totally possible and I know it'll happen. It'll just take a little while. One ward had the attendance of 110, the other 123, and the other 220. Also, we're about to start construction on the church building to make it bigger.

Elder Hernandez and I are having so much fun together. I feel like I've really refined my sarcastic comments in Spanish, it's awesome. So we go around having a lot of fun and always laughing. Time truly does fly when your having fun. Maybe that's why I feel as though my time here in the office has really gone by so fast. There's always something to do and people tend to be in good moods, not always, but usually. Elder Hernandez is such a buena onda. He just likes to serve other people. It makes it really nice to be his companion ;)

There was a miracle on Sunday. Out of nowhere, a member brought her neighbor to church. A family of three, the dad, mom, and a 9 year old child! yea! I love when things work out like that. If your diligent and obedient, God blesses. You might not know how or when, but He does bless-because He's obligated to do so. But it's a really cool family because their from the mountains but came to live here. So, they don't talk Spanish very well, I love it. Nothing is really feminine or mascule. Words don't end in -a or -o, they end in -e. It's the best. Also, their tone of voice is a lot different so it's interesting. I love talking to people from the mountains.

We just keep chuggin a long out here. Everything is good. I'm safe and healthy. Just needing a nap, but what's new? I'll be home in 8 months. I can't believe time has gone by so fast. The sisters that entered with me go home in 2 months! That makes me feel so old!

Love y'all!

-Elder Hunt

Email from Aug 18

This week, once again, has been crazy. It was the week where changes went down. Change week is always the most interesting week of the change. We are so busy, worried, stressed, happy, excited, baggy, tired, animated, etc. For this week, we have all the emotions in us. But, now that it's Friday, I can say, in reflexion: Mission Accomplished. Everything went smoothly. There were minor problems, but with minor problems come quick solutions without a bunch of hassle. I have a new companion! I don't remember if I mentioned early to y'all, but a couple of weeks ago, I got to choose my companion. Out of all the missionaries, I chose Elder Moises Hernandez. He entered the mission with me, so we've got a special bond. He's from Nicaragua, and he's awesome. It's interesting to a see a companionship when the two of them have been District Leaders and Trainers. We're two leaders put together that mesh well. You know what that means? Miracles. I love this kid, he's so fun. We get a long super well. My trainer, Elder Aragon, has left the office and entered back into the real mission field...poor fella.

Last Saturday, we had our District P-Day. Normally, it's against the rules to have P-Day on Saturday, but it was President Markham's idea. He wanted to go to a place called El Tejar in Chimaltenango to make bricks. It doesn't sound like much fun, but we made it so fun! So really, you get some dirt (clay) and add water to make it into a finer clay. To make it fine, you have to walk in it and get the clumps out with your feet. So the mud pile was like 8 inches deep and it was super fun. Since we're all 20 year old young men, mud wrestling was inevitable. Normally, you get a little dirty, with our mud wrestling, we were covered from head to toe with clay. So fun! Attached is a couple pictures of the day.

On Tuesday, we got the new missionaries, the ones entering the next day. Our goal as an office is to walk a ton and absolutely destroy the news that have come. Mission Accomplished. All the news got back that night absolutely destroyed. Why? Because that's what we do in this mission. We don't have cars or bikes. We have our two legs and we walk fast. There is urgency in all things. We taught the news that we give all of ourselves, every day. Until we can't go much more. Then we go to bed, wake up, and do the same thing over again. For two years. The Lord blesses us with health and strength to do it. At about 8:15 at night, I went down a huge hill. Imagine a hill twice as big as the one from the cemetery on 8th East until past Grandma Hunt´s house in the cul-de-sac. That's what we went down. Why? So we'd end the night coming up it. We started running, but after about 10 seconds, they were dead. So they busted it out, step by step, until we got to the top. It was so fantastic because they didn't complain. All the news were destroyed, but there were no complaints. Maybe because we bought them all Domino's that night for dinner.

That Tuesday night, we still had to come into the office to get stuff done for Wednesday. I got to bed at 2:00 AM and we got up Wednesday morning at 4 AM. 2 hours of sleep! No need to say: it was a long day.

After the mission, read this day with me. Something really...interesting happened. So, put that on your list of one of the first things to talk about with me when I'm back home.

Well, since it's such a busy week, I don't have much time to write. Just enjoying every moment as much as I can and am loving serving the Lord.

I'm His representative, and I testify that He lives.

--Elder Hunt