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