Semana Abençoada: My Beloved Son and The Family

Mission Theme:

LiVE

Little Victories Every Day

Monday-Normal day because our P day was switched to Tuesday because of the temple!

Tuesday-What a great day, every time I go to the temple I learn and love more and more! :) After, we ate lunch at a churrascaria! Só na proteína with a good ole root beer from Desert. 

275 eggs for less than $10

Eating Acai

That night, our bishop went out with us to our lessons, it was great for him to be able get to know our investigators and recent converts.

Elder Bisbo, the first Elder that Marcus has trained as a new missionary

Wednesday-Today was the day, the day I became a father...

Some complications happened involving some missionaries having to go home. Their companions were what we call "Curto Prazos" like normal teenagers from our mission who do a "mini mission." The 2 curto prazos had such a bad time with these other 2 missionaries who had to go home that they didn't want to stay on their mini missions anymore, so President Farnes called them and told them to give it just one more week and told them that he would put them with us, Elder Messick and I. 

Elder Bisbo and Elder Hunt

Capribaras- the largest rodents in the world.  Native to South America

So that is what happened, I got Elder Bispo (who is from Engenho Novo, his own ward- lol) and Messick got Elder Oliveira from another ward close by. We now became Zone Leaders/Trainers haha, so cool! I was so excited!

Elder Bispo and I went to town! TONS of news, lessons, dates, and best of all, we marked baptismal dates with 4 people in Cristina's family (the same family of Wesley, William, and Emily the dog!) for Saturday! 

Cupuacu

Thursday-District meeting, Elder Messick and I designed and planned a super detailed zone training which involved getting a bucket of water with a hole in the bottom, to the other side of the room with all the water...it failed miserably, but fortunately noone even noticed and we quickly changed the lesson and whole point of the training and it worked out smoothly.   Great powerful lessons and follow up as well.

     

Taking Care of Business

Having a little fun

Friday-Today was the day. I did the most detailed planning session of my life, and looking back on this day, it made a huge difference on what happened the next day.

We went and bought a super expensive cake, 50 blue balloons, candles, and Styrofoam letters "Baptize." Elder Bispo and I ended up throwing a little surprise party for Cristina, Thayane, Erick, and Alyson! It was a huge success; it literally went perfectly! :)

Thayne, Alyson, Cristina, and Erick on their baptism day

Saturday-We woke up at 5am to get everything organized and ready for the baptism which happened at 7:30am. It was a beautiful baptismal service, the Spirit was very strong and all 4 of us baptized, Messick, Oliveira, Filhão, and I, their first baptisms in the field! So amazing, so satisfying, and this family is literally among my favorite and most beloved on this earth. I love these people.

Baptism balloon

That afternoon we went and bought them a frame and printed their baptismal picture, they loved it :) 

Sunday-All the confirmations, a good lunch, lessons and that night a member made us American chili! It was such a treat! 

50 oranges for $2.50

Brasil on a Sunday for you!

Food from Sam's Club

Monday-This morning a member took us to Sam's Club! I know, Sam's Club!!! We got some treats ;) then after we went with some members, and our recent converts from Cristina's family and we played football! So much fun! 

P-day game of American Football

This was a great, amazing week! I learned and grew with new responsibly as a trainer (father), the zone baptized 12, I baptized my favorite family here on the mission, and everything is great! :)                            

Allan, who is from Cidade Nova in Zone Itu who is a really good friend of Elder Hunt's, came to visit before he leaves for his mission!

Playing soccer

Transfer calls are coming this next week, let's see what destiny has in store. Also we have until Wednesday to have 6 more baptisms as a zone to break the mission record, LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!  

Elder Hunt

LiVE (Little Victories Everyday- the little 'i' is to forget yourself)

   

Monday-We went to 25 de Março and went to that awesome meat and pizza place! :)

Tuesday-We had the amazing experience to be able to go to the temple! We were able to go as a zone because we broke our zone record last month. It was a super spiritual experience where I was able to receive personal revelation, but more importantly, revelation for our investigators and our zone. Great temple experience! After we went to the Deseret Book of Brasil, which had some tasty American goodies. ;) 

This week was focused on two big families in particular, the families of Cristina and of Zu. We visited their two families every single night with members to do as much as we possibly could to baptize their two large families. 

Quarta Feira-Great district meeting, we did a fun little training making the whole zone of 20 people share one small one small cookie, then reading D&C 18:16, then at the part where it says that your joy will be greater with many souls, we threw 20 Reese's peanut butter cups into the crowd! haha They loved it!

Quinta Feira-The highlight of the day was my division to Cajamar! In the evening I went with a teenager in our ward to the sister's area of Cajamar.  I showed up in style with my dark suit jacket, and tan pants and I did two baptismal interviews. haha :) But the real highlight is who gave us a ride, his name is Kawé, he is 19 years old, is preparing to serve his mission, and the best part, HE HAS A NEED FOR SPEED. He drove us around and ended up driving me home in a sports car that had no limits. ;) He drove me home SO fast that my entire wonderful car driving memories all whooshed back, Drake Marley knows what I'm talking about. ;) 

We ended up getting lost at one point, but we talked a ton about the mission and our lives and we became very good friends! AND I got home safe, sound, and with a healthy adrenaline high. :)

Sexta Feira-We bought 70 eggs for the equivalent of 7 American cents per egg, yay America! 1Real is 4 American dollars! Tons of lessons, and also this week WAS A SCORCHER! It was very, very, very hot this week, more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit per day!

Sabado-We did a divison with Vila Dirce, but this time I stayed in our area with the fabulous Minas Gerais raised Elder Marcos! He is honestly so remarkable, he was baptized at 17 and went on his mission at 19! He is a great leader and a great friend. Tons of interviews, and in the end I thought we had at least 2 firm baptisms for Sunday, but the darkness won this round. 

Domingo-Our Sunday was full of letdowns, BUT implementing and living President Farnes famous "LiVE" (Little victories everyday) we had at least 2 victories.

First, Erick, (Wesley and William's cousin) went to church and he LOVED IT! He participated, asked questions, and even watched a baptism from the sisters. Amongst it all, he asked if he could be baptized that same day, but he has to go to church next week and he will be baptized this Sunday. He is such an elect, and he is always asking about serving a mission! 

The second miracle was João. He is a man who the sisters baptized, but the man has a problem with his arm and leg and he is very large, so Elder Messick and I both entered in the water and we baptized him. I did the ordinance, and we both had to lift him up. It was a great special baptism; what a great man! :) LiVE!  

     

This next week will be much better as a zone and we are going to the temple again tomorrow!!!! :)

Elder Hunt

A Week Like No Other

Elder Hunt took a trip down memory lane and visited the CMT this week

Monday-Sooo, we didn't have p day last week, we were to only use our email in the morning and then work like normal the rest of the day. It was cold and rained a ton. This certainly didn't help Elder Messick and I who were super sick. But luckily we had planned an activity planned with the young men and women to integrate some of our teenage investigators. The activity went well, not what we planned, but it went well :)

Tuesday-Today was technically our p day, it was a special day because we went back to the MTC! We went there with a few of the Sao Paulo missions to see a The Brasil Area Presidency speak. While there, we went and picked up one of the good old donuts that I would get when I was in the CTM, and I ran into my CTM comp Elder Mayfield! What a walk down memory lane. Also something sort of funny happened while we were there. We started talking to a missionary from the Sao Paulo West mission and he began to talk badly about our mission and started to brag that their mission baptized 109 people last month, then we told him our mission baptized 271 and he shut up pretty fast- haha. It was very easy to tell the difference from our two missions based upon our obedience and results versus theirs.

Elder Hunt's Alphaville Zone

Wednesday-We had a super cool zone training! Messick and I wore our baptismal clothes and gave our training. WE LOVE USING OBJECT LESSONS, so we bought ice cream, cookies, and sprinkles to make an ice cream sundae, each one of the 3 objects represented good teaching, good planning, and knowing how to work efficiently. Then we added Tabasco hot sauce, salt, and oil, each one of them being, if you don't have faith, or desire, or obedience, it was all bout being the best most complete missionary you can be. The big emphasis was on being the best YOU, not comparing yourself to others and working to reach YOUR true unbelievable individual potential. It was great training with some of the other things we taught and passed to our zone.

Having fun together as a zone

Thursday-We had one of the most incredible life changing Zone Conferences from President Farnes. I work my hardest every single day to continually raise my vision to push the limits of what is possible, but after a conference with President Farnes, Acts 2:40-41 can be made a reality- "And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls." President Farnes makes dreams a reality; I am unbelievably blessed to have him as my Mission President.

Elder Hunt and Elder Mayfield (companion in the CMT)

Friday-WEEKLY PLANNING. That afternoon, Elder Messick went to Cajamar to do interviews for the sisters and I stayed with a rad 16 year old in the ward named Davi. We had some great lessons and followed up very well with our investigators! That night Messick got back at about 8:30pm, BUT all the power in the city had turned off and the buses had stopped service, it was also raining, we ran out of phone credits, and we were VERY far from home. In the end, we got a ride with a member to our house, but we got home SUPER late, it was terrible.

    

Saturday-We did tons of divisons, tons of Elders, tons of switching areas to get all the zone interviews done! Another night where we got home very late.

    

Elder Hunt's new love- Emily the Husky

Sunday-An amazing family of five we've been teaching went to church! AND THEY LOVED IT! And they all have baptismal dates for this end of the week ;) Also remember the family I talked about last week, Cristina, Wessley, William, and Emily the dog? 

Well, Cristina and her daughter went out of town, but Weslley and William were baptized, they are very special friends and even more special, that was my 80th baptism in my mission. Great day, great week. The zone baptized 10 and we are leading the mission for thr month with 19!

Wesley and William on their baptism day

Lunch today with the Elders- All You Can Eat!

Monday-I was working out in the morning with my weights in my back pack and it completely ripped. :( So we went to 25 de Março, remember that really cool place? I bought a new back pack and we went to that all you can eat meat and pizza place, it was great! :)

Elder Hunt

Gripado- The Flu

Monday- Today was a fine p day- sleep, numbers for the assistants, a subway sandwich, and some weighted pull-ups and ring dips, with some visits in the night. 

Tuesday- District meeting! As a motivating activity, I had everyone jump over a stick, lifting it higher and higher until no one else could jump over it. Then I got the Elder who jumped the highest, and asked him to jump over the stick at a very low height, and he only did a little jump to clear the stick. The point was that he only did a little jump when everyone already saw that he could jump higher because that was all that he had to do.  This teaches that you only give a little effort if that is all expected of you , even when you can do so much more. It was good and everyone enjoyed it.-  :) After that I went on a division to Vila Dirce, I did some interviews, and it began to rain and I started to get sick. :(

Wednesday- I got a haircut in the morning, and it turned out quite well, Brasilian style! haha. In the afternoon we went and tried to find good new investigators, but we didn’t find many that we are going to continue teaching. References from members are way better! We then followed up with our investigators that we were preparing for baptism.

Thursday- We had counselho de liderança! Leadership counsel! Very good, except that I woke up so sick that Elder Messick had to do all the talking for us at the counsel because I totally lost my voice. At one point I was asked to talk, and it was hilarious because of how bad my voice sounded, but it's all right because on the mission, and especially all the zone leaders are my buddies. :) President was happy, but not satisfied with us breaking the record as a mission, baptizing 271 people in the month of August. 271 is fine, but anything less than 300 is unacceptable. 

Friday-Our usual route for the day is that we leave our house in Boa Vista, visit investigators in Engeho Novo, then Cruz Preta, then all the way to Parque Santana where the majority of our teaching pool is. But I want to take a minute to talk about a very special family we are teaching. The mother's name is Cristina, they have a 20 year old son, Allison, 19 year old son Wesley, a super snakey 17 year old daughter Thaiani, a 14 year old son William, and TONS of other family members who live close by. This family has visited church twice, they always go by themselves, which is remarkable here, no one does that. We always have to pick and wake people up. They also have an awesome white and gray husky that looks just like a wolf and loves to play around named Emily! They love the church, but they are of another church, and we are doing EVERYTHING possible to get them baptized this week. They are fabulous, I honestly love them and want them to have and understand the eternal blessings that come through Christ's restored Gospel and its ordinances. 

Saturday- We did some interviews for the sisters and we finished up all the preparations for Larissa's baptism which happened the next day. Larissa is 19 years old and has a 2 year old baby boy named Yiago.  He is very naughty! After having him at church with us on Sunday, it made me 100% sure that I do not want to be a Dad yet, haha. But Larissa has found great joy in the Gospel and in the healing power of the Atonement. 

Sunday- Church, baptism, and a great lunch at bishops house! Our Bishop is so amazing here in this ward! 

To end, our zone baptized 9 this week, we are doing well, but we need to pick it up! Tomorrow we will be going to the Brasil MTC in Sao Paulo to hear from The Area Presidency, should be great! :) Until next week!

Elder Hunt