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