The First of the Last

Monday- My last day as Assistant, haha. I hung out with Alvis and Sagae, making the best of our last times together :)

     Tuesday-We woke up to find that the mission office had been broken into :( Not much was taken, but there was a lot of mess. 

Elder Hunt with his new missionary, or 'son' as they are called.

Elder Iugly Dayan Barbosa de Santana

     That morning we had a training for everyone who was training, including me haha. We had lunch and then we had the presentation to meet our filhos. I was super nervous, haha! But finally the moment arrived and I met Elder Iugly Dayan Barbosa de Santana, a recent convert of two years from Brasilia. Only he and his 10 year old sister are members, he is 23 years old. He's great! He is a super fast learner and is very driven! :) 

We got to our area in the afternoon and got to work! 

     Wednesday-I gave my first training as district leader haha, its been awhile. I love giving trainings! We went to lunch with the other elders in our area, Elder Rodrigo and Nascimento and we went to work!!!! Tons of new people to teach and getting to know the area! One thing we are also doing is every lunch we are bringing a little treat to show our gratitude for the members.

     Thursday-Work, work, work in the cold rain, and yep I got super sick, weakness, stuffed nose, sore throat, but nothing is stopping us, it’s now or never! Gaupira 2 é Noix!!!

     Friday-Still super sick, but we went to Bishop’s house and we brought a cake, a tie for him, and flowers for his wife, and it went great! We totally love the Bishop, his family, and especially his wife!  Work work work!

     Saturday-Following up with everyone to go to church and our baptisms Lucas and Emyli! Finding new investigators and talking to everyone while being dead sick! 

     Sunday-Lucas was baptized by an awesome recent convert and my son Elder Santana baptized Emyli! 

     I've never been humbled like I have been this week. I've never had to get on my knees and show humility quite like this. Without God we are nothing, with Him, anything is possible! 

     My son is awesome! Love him a ton! #10MoreWeeks #36 #1.6 #201 Let's goooo!!!!!!!!!!!

18 in 11

     Monday-Documents, documents, documents of Elder Sagae with rich rewards. 

With Zone leaders in Itapetininga

     Tuesday-We took a 4 hour bus drive to Itapetininga, where we did a division with the zone leaders there. I worked with Elder Martineau, a missionary who served nine months in the United States and had tons of wild stories from his time there. 

Awesome Churrascaria in Itapetininga

Espetinhos- meat on a stick

We had no set appointments, so we talked to people in the street and knocked doors the whole day in the chilling rain, but I absolutely loved it. It was an awesome day that I will never forget :)

We got a FREE LUNCH

Votorantum

     Wednesday-Early we took a bus to Sorocaba and got to work! We worked super and in the evening a super awesome couple in the ward called us and invited us to eat pizza with them, it was so nice of them. They are literally the best! I love them! :) 

Shortcut

     Thursday-We went to visit a few references in a father away neighborhood and to get back to our focus area, we took a shortcut through the hills and we got some great pictures :) Great days work!

     Friday-Division with Da Silva! He gave me a new belt because my other one was pretty destroyed. That evening there was an activity for integration with recent converts, also Da SIlva and I went to do baptismal interviews for the sisters that evening.

     Saturday-I stayed in division with Da SIlva and his comp Castaneda in Votorantim while Flores went the temple to see a sealing. 

Baptism of Ana's sister, Fernanda

     That evening our awesome recent convert's sister, Fernanda was baptized! It was amazing! I made a cake and we bought ice cream to celebrate (exactly what she wanted, haha.) The whole ward was there participating, it was such a special baptism for us ;)

     Sunday-We found out the transfer and so it was my last Sunday in the beloved ward of Barcelona! I gave a farewell talk and it was super sad leaving everyone behind :(

My old belt, DeSilva gave me a new one.

     I will finish my last 11 weeks of my mission training a new missionary in the area Gaupira, the biggest favela and the most productive area in the mission :) I will also be serving as district leader. Let's go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brother Alexandre and his wife

Vinicious and Jessica

BISHOP ALLEN

Cacau and his sisters

Brother Godoy

1D, Member Missionaries and the Pyramid of Conversion

Monday-Numbers, meeting with President, Alvis and I slept on a couch, Outback with President, and #SóAlegria.

     Tuesday-Same routine early rising heading out to Sorocaba! When we arrived in Sorocaba we got right to work, working closely with our recent converts and their friends and family members that have gone to church. Always working well with your recent converts results in more baptisms :) Also working well with members who have vision in terms of "...bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man," results in high baptisms and extended activity in the church. 

This past week a member named Nicole, who is 20 years old and who is going on a mission to Portugal soon brought a friend of hers to church, his name is Luan and he is 20 years old. He went to church, loved it, and we marked a baptismal date with him for that next week, which was this past week :) We followed up well with him during the week and brought members with us to every lesson, he read the Book of Mormon, prayed, and knew for himself that these things are true. Luan truly is elect. 

We will never know all things and therefore we cannot always know what is to happen, so we must always use the most basic principle of the Gospel, which is faith, believe in action. Our investigators go to church, listen to our message, read the Book of Mormon, and by their faith are baptized very shortly after, taking simply the first step. 

     Wednesday-We did a division with Zona Santana, a different zone in Sorocaba. I stayed in our area with my old pal Elder Taylor! :) It was good to work together and remember all of our good stories from Brasilandia! haha :)

     Thursday-We ended the division and shortly after we started with our interviews with President. We ate lunch and worked in our area and our interviews were last. President Farnes is incredible!!! The way he is able to raise others up and make them feel good is amazing! We feel so strongly his and Christs' love when we are with him. 

     Friday-We did a division with Da Silva! And it was also an investigator of ours' birthday today! So a day before I remembered a member in Sorocaba that makes customized T shirts, so we called him and asked him if he could make a custom One Direction t shirt for Sara because she loves 1D. He made it, and we gave it to her for her birthday on Friday and she flipped! :) She was SOOO happy hahahah! 

     Saturday-We followed with our investigators and Saturday we had stake conference in Barcelona! President Farnes gave an awesome talk/training about the "Pyramid of Conversion" which is doing 3 points of a pyramid, which are 1-Personal prayer and scripture study daily, 2- going to church to renew our baptismal covenants and learning together at church, and 3-Missionary work, acting like Christ in all things, actually acting, getting up, and working to love and help others. Doing these 3 points of the pyramid, we are promised a strengthened testimony and conversion. 

     After the conference Saturday night, we had the baptisms of Laun and Sara!!! Woohoo!!!! Awesome! 

    Sunday-Part 2 of the conference where we were able to bring many investigators and recent converts to see, great sweet spirit that day :) 

     After we had lunch and the same great member who made key lime pie for me on my birthday, and she made it again! :) So great! :)  I am so grateful to this great sister. After we got on the road to São Paulo! :) 

     Monday-Great lunch, and helping Elder Sagae get a bunch of documents for the mission. 

Leadership Counsel

Last pictures with Elder Medina

     This is my last week being an Assistant before I will step down to end my mission training a new missionary! All or nothing this week in Barcelona with Flores!!!

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Monday- Numbers, graviola c/leite, and our meeting with the President. Something interesting was that President Farnes talked a lot to us about how we treat people and the "WOW factor." He said that success in life is "...85% knowing how to treat people well, and only 15% skill, knowledge, and talents..." This was very impactful on all of us and made all of us think a lot. 

Tuesday-My very last leadership counsel was to be this upcoming Thursday, so with the countless counsels that I've been apart of, countless nights without sleep, and the other sacrifices involved in making counsel awesome, I wanted to go out with a BANG! 

Taking the words of President Farnes to heart, we wanted to express our gratitude to the leaders of our mission, we wanted them all to feel special, important, and included, so we wrote handwritten letters thanking every one of them. 

We also made them a special customized letter that has to do with them individually, and we got every one of them their favorite chocolate bar. So for the span of Tuesday and Wednesday our whole time was used in making all these things as well as the powerpoint and the rest of our training for counsel.  We had an all nighter on Tuesday. WE ARE SO TIRED...haha :)

Thursday-We arrived early for counsel in Barueri to begin the preparations ;).  We also planned another activity as a learning experience for everyone on how to treat people.   

We got one of the secretaries, Elder Gomes, and dressed him up as a maintenance man and we sent the companionships one by one down the hallway to go to the sacrament meeting room to start counselho. And every time a companionship passed close to Elder Gomes (maintenance man) he would drop a ton of things and he would need help. So the whole point of this experiment was to see how many people would stop to help "the maintenance man." Unfortunately, not many stopped to help him, very smoothly, we took notes of who did and didn’t help. 

     

We gave our training, everyone loved the letters and treats, and about mid way into our training we pulled up the powerpoint slide on how to treat people. I called Elder Gomes and he came in in his maintenance clothes, went up to the front, and took off his hat, scarf type thing, and sunglasses, and everyone in the audience gasped. We talked about how he needed help and how so few people stopped to help him. And to conclude he gave his last wise words, he said, "There are only 3 types of people. Those who just walk by, those who stop and ask, and those who actually help.”

After President Farnes tied in the parable of the Good Samaritan and then talked about "The WOW Factor" when working with members. It was amazing! Absolutely amazing! :) After President asked Flores, Medina, and I bear our testimonies in front of every one because it was our very last counselho. It was very emotional realizing that it all had come to an end, sort of. But I was very happy that I felt that I have done what I was called to do as AP (even though I still had 2 weeks being AP haha.) It is interesting because Medina and I ended together, we had our last counsel together, he goes home on Thursday. :(

Friday-We divided with Da Silva! Always great! :) We did some baptismal interviews and we had a great day! 

I'm getting pretty good at making baptismal cakes. haha

Saturday-Follow up and I made a cake to celebrate the baptisms! Also our Recent convert Ana read from the beginning of The Book of Mormon to halfway to 2nd Nephi in two days! She is awesome! :) 

The baptism of Nata, Gabriel, Renan, and Andre

Sunday-We had the baptism of Nata, Gabriel, Renan, and Andre! Awesome young men who hadn’t been baptized we found from inactive families. I also made another cake to celebrate because it was such a success! :) 

After we had lunch with an awesome family in the ward. The young couple is the 1st counselor in the bishopric and his wife is the YW President, they are so cool and funny! I love our ward!!! :)

Monday-We are all super tired, but President Farnes took us to Outback, so it was awesome!!! :) Crazy week! 

Elder Hunt