THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT

Last Monday started with an especially good workout in the morning. I moved my rings to our new house, which is more convenient to use.   That night I went on a division with Elder W Silva, while Elder Allan and Elder Medina tried to go take care of the member angry with us about the chicken pox.   Somehow that night I was able to speak really well, we talked with EVERYONE we saw. We then had dinner in the home of Dirce and I for the first time was able to make decent small talk and carry conversations not about church stuff ha-ha. That night was a great experience!

                   

Elder Hunt's zone with President and Sister Farnes

Tuesday we had a multi zone conference with President Farnes. It was great; I understood about 85% of it, which is an improvement from last time! 

His main thing was DESEJO, which is the word 'desire' in English. 

It was great, motivating, and awesome!  

Elder Hunt with Elder Henline

After I went on a division with Elder Bravo and went to Pirituba, where we have our zone conference every week. It is about 30 min away by bus. It is wealthier than our area, but still. It is similar to the city we went to last Saturday Vista Verde. There are no favelas in the area of Pirituba I was in.  Honestly it was tough, no one would talk to us and the streets were empty. It really made me appreciate Brasiladia. It was a super tough day, but I pushed through.   That night we ordered pizza so that was great. There are 4 missionaries who live in that apartment including an American named Elder Henline from Gunnison Utah.  He will leave to go home after 2 whole years on Wednesday, crazy. He is awesome; he was so helpful, funny- he was the best! 

He seriously helped me so much. He even wrote me a letter of encouragement just because. 

 All you can eat restaurant

McFlurry in Pirituba

Train station

Wednesday I was still in Pirituba and we received money for lunch instead of food. We went to a place that you pay 13 Reais and it is all you can eat. It was honestly the best lunch of my entire mission so far. The food was great, good quality and delicious. It was the first meal I had without rice and beans. I had chicken, different meats, and fresh fruit; it was such a good morale booster. And to finish it off, for dessert, we went and got McFlurries from McDonalds, what a blessing. It was so good!

Street Art

Thursday I was back in Brasiladia, Paulo and Sueli really let us down and have still not gotten married. We taught some great lessons today, I really feel the Spirit with us more and more during our lessons and during the day. Around 8pm I was starving and out of nowhere the churro truck showed up, so we bought some! A small miracle haha. 

Drying out Elder Hunt's shoes, scriptures and planner

Friday- This week has honestly flown by, we had a great weekly planning session, we just don’t have a lot of progressing investigators right now, so we need to work on that.   We had a good lunch at a members house, and then it started to rain, and rain and rain...It rained so much, I’d never seen that much rain before.  I went on a mini division with Elder Raesch again, but only for a few hours. I only had my umbrella, I should have brought my rain coat but I didn’t think I’d need it...I was soaked to the bone, every inch of me was wet. We walked in the streets with the water up to my mid calf. The rain soaked through my bag, and scripture case, my scriptures, and planner got soaked, which was horrible.  Somehow every time I teach with Elder Raesch, we find a ton of people who are totally ready for the gospel. I made the baptismal invitation and a man said yes on the lesson. 

Saturday-Elder Allan and W Silva had 2 baptisms today so it was a great opportunity for us to bring Eurides, who had fear about the actual baptism. But we brought her and it was a great experience. It was especially great for Elder Allan because he was able to baptize in his final week of the mission.  I was very happy for him. 

 Eurides

 Eurides, 81 years old on her baptism day

Sunday was a day of miracles. Drica and the 81 year old Eurides were baptized. I baptized Eurides and a friend of Drica baptized her. When we met Drica, she was a typical, uninterested teenage girl who was too 'cool' for us, and would never smile. But now she is a happy girl who laughs, smiles, and is nice to everyone. Her baptism brought her part member family A LOT closer. Her father and older sister are now interested and are supportive of Drica, and her member mother and sister.    

Drica with Elder Hunt and Elder Medina

We had no way to heat the water in the font, and we knew if it was cold, Eurides wouldn’t be able to handle it and would back out, but when the time came, the water was warm somehow, what a miracle.  

Also, the man who hated us and wanted to leave the church because of the chicken pox disaster came back to church and hugged us and was so happy and forgave us. 

Church

It was a great day. After we had a FEAST. A member named Dorihna cooked us a feast. Lasagna, meat, sausage, soup, pasta, salad, dessert- she had everything!

Elder Hunt's breakfast- egg, berries,and acai

That night we went to teach a teenage girl and we asked if we could come into the home, but she said it probably wasn’t the best idea because her parents practice black magic (which is a lot of here in Brasil,) and said that her parents refused to let us in, so we were like alright, we'll teach you outside. We did and it was an awesome lesson.  We also taught a less active member that I came to find out played 4 years of American football in a professional Brazilian league which was super cool. 

Elder Hunt loves his Acai!

Appointment book for his First Transfer in the field

My language skills are definitely improving a lot! Tomorrow marks the end of my first transfer in the field. That will be 3 months including my time in the CTM.  We already received the crazy news of the transfers. Elder Allan is going home because he is done with his 2 years, Elder W Silva, who I like a lot will be transferred. BUT Elder Medina and I will stay together for 1 more transfer, yes!!!   Also, the best missionary in the whole mission will be coming with a new companion as well. Many things are changing, I think for the better. Elder Median and I are going to go off this transfer because I know the area and members so much more and my language skills are also so much better.

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT!

"You have to fight to win the war"

Elder Hunt

The Most Amazing Feeling In the World

Elder Hunt's first physical baptism, Henrique Perreira Moreira. 

The MOST AMAZING FEELING IN THE WORLD.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Hey everyone,

I hope things are well.   I started off this week very, very sick. I was so sick on Monday that I just laid on the floor in agony the entire day, and barely walked to the place we email. I didn’t eat a single thing all day. My body felt like a truck had hit me. My stomach and head were killing me too. 

Later that evening, I got a haircut from the Stake President’s wife; it looks alright, certainly not bad, but just not as thorough and complete as what I am used to in the States.  I was still sick and remained home and in bed all of Tuesday and Wednesday with horrible diarrhea and much weakness in my body. All I could eat was rice, plain rice, little by little, ha ha.

 Feeling sick, but with a pretty good haircut.

 The package from his Mom arrived, 7 weeks later.

It wasn’t until Wednesday that I remembered I had diarrhea antibiotics, which definitely did the trick haha. Also on Wednesday, Elder Allan and Elder D’ Silva went to the mission office and picked up Books of Mormon, supplies, letters, etc. Also there, was my package from my family!!!!! Filled with beef jerky, peanut butter, and sour candy! All these things you cannot get here in Brasil! I’ve been missing them! There were also, some clothes that I’ve really needed. Along with it came a letter from my father. All of these things really made my week, and made me feel so much better after being sick.

       

This is the mascot of the World Cup, named Fuleco.

 This emblem is that of Corinthians Fuetbol.  It is a team everyone loves there!  They are sort of like the Oakland raiders though because it is the team all the thugs like. ;)

Wearing his new tie

Thursday-TODAY was great!! We talked with EVERYONE we saw and taught many lessons! We also taught Kleber, which is always great. In the feira, I bought 35 eggs for 11 Reais, about $5.50. In the homes of members, which we eat in every day, they feed us SO MUCH. They give us all they have and often spend a lot for us to eat, and they expect us to eat a lot, so out of respect, you have to eat a ton, even if it’s not the healthiest. So, to combat the fat, I am only eating eggs and protein powder when I am in the house.   It was rainy and cloudy which I loved. We made progress with Drica, a 14 year old girl, who has had no interest in the church but is finally coming around. We invited her to be baptized and she said no.

Lady from Elder Hunt's ward

Friday-Another great cloudy rainy day! I wore my cardigan from the package. We taught Drica again this morning and brought a teenage boy who is cool from the Ward to help. Something amazing happened. We taught an amazing lesson on faith, and then we had the boy with us invite her to be baptized and she said yes!!!!!!!!  

We went to the house of Fernando, an older man who is pretty crazy and has a beard that he likes to stroke, lol. His wife and 18 year old daughter were there as well. They are interested and have tons of potential, but we are going very slowly with them so they understand it all. But at this visit, they made us "tapioca" which is only one ingredient, a flour like substance put on the stove and in about 1 minute it turns into a tortilla like thing with a different texture. It’s too bad I didn’t get a picture! But then you put condensed milk and coconut on it and eat it and it was delicious! My comp said he had never had it before, so it was a first for us both, but it was interesting and great!    

That evening we had dinner with Kleber woohooo haha. It was super good, and we asked him to give us a ride to take Drica to seminary to continue helping her. When we asked, he grabbed his keys, and strapped his berreta with 2 extra magazines on his belt and said lets go; it was legit. In all the super thug hood neighborhoods he would turn up his N’sync and Backstreet Boys music hahaha he doesn’t care!     

On the bus

After dinner, we found one of our investigators drunk out of his mind lying on the sidewalk. He tried to get up and walk and he fell horribly. Medina and I carried him back to his house and put him on his couch. It was very sad for my comp and I. Alcohol is very bad.  In Brasilândia, they have a lot of 3 things: Bars for drinking, places to get your haircut, and churches.

 Vista Verde

Saturday- Fun day! We had a zone activity in Vista Verde, a different area about 10 miles away from ours. Our zone got together to help out this area because it has been struggling. We went out with a member who had a car and we worked the area. We got tons of referrals, taught lessons, and talked with so many people. It was great to go into a different area to mix things up, so nice. The other area is a lot greener than our area, a little more nice, but still poor.   We started at about 10:30am, came back for lunch at 1 and ended at 6pm

Lucas Camargo, and his son with Elders Hunt and Medina

But the best part of the day was that for the first time during lunch and the other times when we were around the other missionaries from our zone, I finally felt like one of the guys. Like, I can speak well enough to joke around and talk with everyone. 

It was so fun and I enjoyed myself a lot!   After 6pm, Lucas Camargo, the guy we went around with during the day (who is about 40 years old, has a child, and served a mission) he gave us a ride to our dinner appointment. It was a wild ride, we got lost, it was raining, there were tons of parties going on so there was a ton of traffic, and at one point, his car couldn’t get up a hill, so we had to get out and sprint up the hill, and he had to pull a maneuver to get up the hill.  Dinner was amazing, the woman has been a cook for 40 years of her life, there were so many options!!! It was amazing!!

Flavio Henrique Perreira Moreira, 13 yrs old

Flavio Henrique Perreira Moreira with his mother on his baptism day

Sunday- Today I baptized someone for the first time. I was so nervous, but the Spirit took over and it was just an unforgettable experience. I baptized Flavio Henrique Perreira Moreira. He is 13 years old and he goes by Henrique.  He is the grandson of Dirce, the recent convert woman who has been so good and sweet to me.  The feeling of baptizing someone is the most amazing feeling in the world. Knowing that when the person comes up out of the water, they are the cleanest person in the whole world at that moment; it is just spectacular.  

Brasilian Churrasco

After we had another churrasco, BBQ, haha. It was good, but not as good as the last one.  In the evening my comp sat me down for a serious talk. He talked about "snakes" girls who are interested in me and not the gospel. We have one investigator right now who is a bit of a snake.  

Elder Media was like,

"As your trainer, like your father, you need to be careful, and I’m being 100% serious when I say this, but Elder Hunt you are sexy and you need to be so careful. I’m ugly, everyone wants to talk to you, be careful" Hahahahahaaha!

It was hilarious, but he was totally serious, he didn’t even crack a smile. (he’s not gay either, lol) 

Well, that was my week everyone! Talk to you all next week!

Elder Hunt

First Baptism and First Illness

'Kanye called and wants his glasses back,' says Elder Hunt

 Hey everyone,

     Monday- Had a great P day, I was able to write everyone and have some good time on the computer. We went and checked our our new house as well! The house needs a ton of fixing up, there are not many functioning light bulbs and out of the 5 bathrooms, there is only 1 shower head, and it is broken...dreadfully cold showers everyday.  Tonight we had dinner with some recent converts, they live in a very small home and are very humble, but they are so cute together.  They work in the feira (market) , so the food was delicious :) Meat cooked with so many delicious vegetables, fresh fruit juice, rice, beans of course, and a great salad. It was great. 

Elder Hunt's new house

Kitchen

Elder Hunt's bed is the neat one :)

The view from the 3rd floor of their new house

New house Family room

      Tuesday/Wednesday-  We started all our preparations to move in the morning. We had lunch and then because Elder Medina has a bad back, and Elder Allan and I are the strongest, we stayed behind together to move the whole house. I like Elder Allan a lot, he is very wise, and he knows how to help me because he is America. I'm honestly going to miss him a lot when he leaves in early October.  We had adventures carrying odd dirty objects and packing up all the food, everything haha. Elder Allan gave me good advice, showed me some mission tricks, and told me some great stories. It is interesting because we are at opposite sides of the mission spectrum, I just got here, and he is about to leave.  The good thing is that the house is not too far from our apartment.     

      But the highlight of the move was in the night when I rode in the Scooby Doo type van of Brother Jose Alvez.  With the van packed to the brim, I "sat" as awkwardly as possible, trying to squeeze in the van.  I was half sitting, half standing; it was a super tight squeeze, super condensed and super claustrophobic. But the best part was the trunk wouldn't shut, so I had to hold on to the trunk so it wouldn't open and all our stuff fly out.  The only thing to grab onto to hold the trunk closed was a piece of barbed wire... I have no idea who though that was a good idea.   We had to go up an about quarter mile hill, straight up vertical, with everything in the van trying to slide out and me holding the trunk closed with one hand, clenching the barbed wire, holding on for dear life. I was dying, it was so tough, but if I let go, me and all our stuff would tumble out and get ran over by the car behind us. It took me so much mental and physical power to hold on. We arrived at the house with my hand bloody, and my forearm absolutely fried.  I was so fatigued and gave it my all, oh yeah, the funny part was that I had to do that same thing 4 more times...      We slept in the new house and I slept horrible, it was so hot and I was convinced the house was haunted.

Elder Raesch

        Thusday-We did a division with Elder Raesch and Elder D' Silva.  This is when you just switch companions for a day. This was so Medina and D'Silva could go do the baptismal interviews with our investigators!  Elder Raesch is half American and half Brazilian, but he looks American. He lived in Brasil in the favelas for 5 years. He has had many many trials and problems in his life. He is a convert and he has such a strong testimony of the church, it is crazy. He truly knows how hard life can be with out the gospel. It was good to go with him and see the different styles of teaching. He also had great advice as well. 

           Friday- My companion and I had a disagreement but we worked it out.   We decided we needed to love more in the companionship and love our investigators more. We need to see every person the same way Christ sees them. Any person you talk to could be the next stake president or relief society president. 

Pascua, first person that Elder Hunt taught that was baptized

          Saturday- We had the baptism at 6pm. It did not workout the way we had hoped and only 2 of the 5 we thought got baptized.  A HUGE SURPRISE WAS A woman named Pascua, who is a little "special" but we got permission from President  Farnes. Pascua was gone for her baptismal interview so we thought all hope was lost, but then she showed up to be baptized so we had to hurry and call the district leader to hurry and come interview her, it was so cool :) The second person who was baptized was Thiago, he is 10 years old and he is always super excited and animated about the gospel, it is awesome and so is he! :) His parents believe, but will not get married (a common problem in Brasil.) Hopefully the example of their son will convince them to get married, and then baptized.   Today we also had a lunch appointment really, really far away up in the hills. We ended up getting lost and when we finally arrived, the woman was at work and forgot she was even feeding the missionaries that day. 

 Thiago, a 10 yr old boy Elder Hunt taught, on his baptism day

Thiago's family

        Sunday- An 81 year old woman was planned to be baptized after church. I was going to be the one to do it too! :) But she got sick or something and it didn't workout. We even had a member drive us to her house to give her a blessing and to get her to come to church. She refused, my comp and I were devastated.  I had practiced and practiced and even brought all my baptismal clothes. It was very sad.   We were invited to a BBQ after church. IT WAS AMAZING. There was SOOOO much meat, sooooo much, we all just ate and ate and ate. It was amazing. 

     Unfortunately, I ate myself sick, and was on the verge on puking for hours.  I said that I was not going to eat a single thing for 2 days. Then we went to a members house and they had made us a ton of food...to not be rude, we had to eat more.  I pushed it down, but it was a bad idea. After, out walking to the next appointment, I threw up. 

 Family Home Evening, hosted by Elder Hunt and Medina

     After we hosted a great family home evening at the house of a member mother and investigator daughter who is about 16. We invited all the youth of the ward to help fellowship her. We got an AMAZING turnout!! It was so successful. We then headed home and I really did not feel well.   I had a horrible nights sleep; I was so hot and then so cold, and in the middle of the night, my bed broke and my mattress and I fell...I woke up feeling horrible. 

Elder Hunt is very sick

      Monday (today)- I feel absolutely horrible today. My entire body aches and hurts, My stomach hurts and I get so cold and then so hot. It is absolutely miserable; It is difficult to stand and it hurts to sit stand or even lay down. It hurts to breath. All my bones and muscles hurt. This is honestly the worse, and I'm not getting better. I almost didn't email today because I'm so bad right now.  I'm glad I did though. I'm also suppose to be getting a haircut tonight, but we will see. I do not think I will be able to work tomorrow. I hope I get better soon.

Elder Hunt