Baptism

Jose and Christina

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I didn't write anything last week. I was sitting here and started to write but I got really distracted and couldn't think so I just exited out and left. haha sorry about that. But hopefully this one will be long enough to make up for it. 

So two weeks ago we had a General Authority come and give us a training (Elder Schwitzer if anyone wanted to know) and he talked about the Book of Mormon and how we need to center everything we do around Christ. That week I had been praying about how I could come closer to Christ and really feel him in my life and I felt like the WHOLE time he was talking he was answering my prayers exactly. It was seriously so awesome. And then President Bell gave us a challenge as a mission to read the Book of Mormon before Christmas as a gift to Christ. He gave us a green and red colored pencils and anything to do with building our faith is in green and anything to do with the Savior and the atonement is in red.  It's been a really neat experience and I've really learned a lot. The Book of Mormon truly is an amazing book. 

This last weekend we had my first baptism in the mission! Jose and Christina were able to enter the waters of baptism and make that wonderful covenant with their Heavenly Father. I had the privilege of baptizing Jose. It was AWESOME! And yesterday we got to help confirm him and his wife in church. Words can't describe how happy and spiritual it was. I was on a spiritual high this whole week to be honest. We have had some great spiritual lessons with that family and they were just ready from the time we met them. They knew this is what they wanted. 

The ward here is so great. They support missionary work like none other and they realize how many new people there are in the ward and truly make an effort to help in fellow shipping them in this new journey of their life. ALSO they are already really good cooks so I can't complain. My companion is leaving the area this transfer so we've been eating at everyone's house and they all ask him what he wants for dinner and he always says "breakfast for dinner" so needless to say I've had more then my fare share of bacon. Which probably isn't to healthy, but whaaaatever. haha 

We've had some amazing miracle here in the last couple weeks. I can't think of a super specific one that will blow everyone away, but there has just been so many little times where I know that the Lord is right next to us guiding us to exactly where we need to go and it's super amazing. We've been able to work with some awesome people that are super smart and really I feel that they are teaching me more then I'm teaching them. 

I'm getting a new companion tomorrow, which is pretty exciting. I love my companion now, but it will be a nice change to get to know someone else and learn from them. There's a lot of change going on in this transfer which is a bummer because we have all become so close and have truly gained that love for everyone. Missions are awesome. I love it so much. 

I would like to share a scripture that has really helped me in the last couple of weeks especially in teaching about the Book of Mormon. It's found it 2 Nephi and it reads " hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And ifye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach allmen that they should do good." Everything that we do should revolve around Christ. He leads and guides this church. No man leads this church, HE does and it's so cool to be apart of it. As we go into Christmas I would invite each of you to remember exactly the "reason for the season" it is Christ and his birth and the wonderful thing that he has done for each and everyone of us. 

I love you all so very much and would love to hear from all of you! Thank you for you're love and support back. 

-Elder Hunt 

District Pictures

My District

My "Family"

My "mom" (STL) Sister Sherman and her "daughter" Sister Forsgren and other "son" Elder Nix

My "mom" Sister Sherman

Karen Bazzelle posted this picture on Facebook

Elder Hunt and Elder Whitaker for dinner.  Little early for the tree Elder W. said.

Pictures

We had an investigator take pictures for us this week so that's why all of these are kinda strange but I know I will look back on them with fond memories!

November 10

Another great week in the KWM. I'm really getting into the routine of things here and I love it. My companion pointed something out to me the other day. He said "Missionary work is the least stressful thing I have ever done in my life" and to be completely honest. It's 100% true. Yeah it gets hard sometimes but really there is no stress involved. You just have to talk to people and help them come closer to Christ and that's not stressful at all!

This week we decided to go on a sanctification plan so that we can become more spiritual and find the elect. That means that we are giving up all of our doubts because you can't speak negatively and expect the spirit to guide you where you need to go, we are giving up music because we want to show the Lord we are willing to sacrifice something, and we are accepting challenges with vigor and excitement. So far it's been awesome! I have seen so much spirituality come from it.

Since we don't listen to music anymore we have been listening to a lot of talks right now. We have listened to A LOT of Elder Holland's talks. Safety for the Soul is super powerful and amazing! and His grace is sufficient by Brad Wilcox is another awesome talk. They bring in the spirit so strong in our car that whenever we drive somewhere we both feel so edified and several times we have been able to use what we learned in the talks in our lessons with other. If anyone has a favorite talk send it to me because we go through them pretty fast!

The people of Kansas are so nice and so amazing. The only problem is that we are in the Bible Belt and they really don't want to listen to what we have to say. I have heard the phrase, "I'm pretty comfortable in my religion right now" about 200 times in the last month. but it's okay because generally the people are pretty nice and let us talk to them for a minute but usually they don't really want to hear what we have to say. That's hard but honestly it could be a lot worse.

I love you all and would love to hear your favorite conference/ spiritual talk!

-Elder Hunt

Halloween Pictures

Pictures

Halloween Week

Hey Everyone! 

I seriously can't believe that it's already Monday again. The weeks are going by so fast here and it's making me nervous. If every week goes by this fast, then these two years are going to be awfully short! While there are some hard times throughout the days they are overshadowed so strongly by the good times that it makes up for it! 

A little update on last weeks story. We went over to the guy's house (the guy who texted us he couldn't join) and we had a "Do or Die" lesson with him. Basically it was supposed to be our last meeting with them if they weren't going to progress any further. The lesson actually went VERY well and we talked about his concerns and while he didn't come any closer to accepting the gospel he still is trying. He gave us a booklet that he printed out entitled, "Why I can't become a Mormon". I was laughing because it was obviously all stuff that he got on some Anti-Mormon site because I seriously doubt he found the time to study Joseph Smith's journals. But we ended the night on great terms and he's going to invite us to his graduation. He's such a great guy but just not entirely ready right now and we'll be there for him when he decided he is ready. 

This week for Halloween my companion and I traded name tags and ties so that we dressed up like each other. I don't know how many people actually understood the joke, but hey I thought it was pretty clever. We've had a lot of investigators coming to ward functions this week which has been so great! I love the ward I'm serving in. They are so helpful and loving to everyone that we bring in which makes it very nice. They feel fellowship the minute they step in the building and it really does make all the difference. 

We have a couple, Jose and Christina who are about to be baptized. We started teaching them right when I got here and we have been meeting with them a couple times a week and it's been so much fun. They are such neat people. I know that the Lord has been preparing them to receive the Gospel and lead us to their front door at the perfect time. They came to church yesterday and their kids didn't want to leave they were having so much fun! We've had some wonderful spiritual experiences with them that have grown my faith and have really opened my eyes to the problems that everyone has to go through and how the gospel can really help everyone with any circumstance. 

We also had zone conference this week! It was amazing, it was like a spiritual tidal wave the whole entire day. I can't get over how loving the Mission president and his wife are. They are seriously the best people in the entire world and the way they care for each and everyone of us is so amazing! Learning to love everyone has definitely been emphasized in my mission. Through love and developing  Christlike attributes we can truly change the world! 

Love the Gospel, Love my mission, and Love you all! 

-Elder Hunt

ELLLDERS!

This week was awesome! We went and carved some pumpkins for FHE and brought an investigator which was way fun! The family we went to has a two year old little kid and whenever we come to their house he always yells "ELLLDERS!!!" in a super high pitch voice and comes and hugs us. It's probably the cutest thing ever. ahha i love going to families houses that have two year olds because it reminds me of Drew!