Monday, July 13, 2015

Temple, Paintball, and a Baptism- One Year Mark



Elder Hunt and Elder Farias at the Campinas Brasil Temple

Monday- P day was normal. We prepared and were super excited for the temple! We had a great family home evening and marked four baptismal dates (1 that was baptized this week ;)

Campinas Temple




Tuesday-We went to the Campinas temple, and it was fabulous! It was my first time going to the temple since January and my first session since last September. Whoa it's been a while. BUT, it was super special and I had an amazing experience, super spiritual and I was able to feel such peace. The temple is literally where you go to get out of the world; worries, problems, and anything that is not virtuous; it is Nirvana. 

There is a street near the temple that is named after Elder Hunt's Great-Grandfather, President James E. Faust.  He was a missionary there as a young man and then also went back later as a General Authority with the responsibility to oversee the building of the Sao Paulo Temple.  He is beloved by members and non-members alike in Brasil.




It was great to see again "Rua james Esdras Faust" too, its always nice to see that and remember Grandpa. :)

Division with Franklin, a new member who is preparing to serve a mission


Wednesday-Today it rained a ton and was very cold and nice. We bought a ton of meat for our churrasco (BBQ) for the next day! We also did a division with young men from our ward and from the stake to get more work done! It was great, I was with a recent convert of less that 1 year preparing to serve a mission. His name is Franklin and the whole time he tried talking to me in English about the band Simple Plan. 

Zone Itu won the Mission Competition so the President took them Paint balling


Thursday-TODAY WE PLAYED PAINTBALL!!!! We got up early, and as a zone we walked really far to a super sick forest area in ITU (it looked just like the woods on the east coast.) President Farnes and his family played paintball with us! Well, President Farnes and his 2 sons did! 

President Farnes with his sons and Elder Hunt



In the beginning I played on a team with the President and his sons.  It was super tactical, Skylar (President's son who just got back from a mission in South Africa) and I strategized and destroyed!!! After that, the President switched teams and got me really good in the arm! (Which is still bruised, lol) In the end, we had so much fun, we left the forest exhausted and covered with welts and yellow paint.

Barbecue after the paint balling

Elder Hunt had his picture taken this week on Thursday at the July 9th Street sign.  July 9th marked his one year mark in serving his mission.


Even more for our "we won the mission competition party," we had a little BBQ at the church with our missionaries; it was great! 

Friday-Today we did all our baptismal interviews, but everyone in the zone was a little slower because of we were all feeling sore. haha. I also woke up feeling super sick which sort of stunk- runny nose, bad cough. I couldn’t even workout or anything. 

Ana on her baptism day


Saturday-We had the baptism of Ana Giulia!!!! She is SO elect!!! She literally told her parents that she had a dream that she was baptized in the church last Sunday night.  We showed up Monday night and marked the baptismal date and she was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. 


Ana's family is wonderful and supportive

Ana's uncle baptized her

Her family members are super strong members of our church, her cousin is on a mission in Brasilia and her extended family helps us out A TON.  Only her father is less active and her mom isn’t a member, yet ;) but her uncle baptized her and it was a beautiful baptismal service.  There is so much support and love in that big family. 

Saturday night we found out about transfers! I will stay in Itu for my 3rd transfer and I will train a new zone leader, Elder Alvis, an American from Texas who played football! This will be great! It will be another great experience for me to grow, learn, and teach others, I’m pumped! 


Sunday-So there is this guy who is 17 years old, a really good friend of a member, always goes to church, knows the Bible front to back, is really strong in another church and his name is Guilherme. He had his Joseph Smith moment where he knew it was true so he decided to get baptized. Everyone cried and was so happy for him because he is so amazing and smart and will do such wonders in his life and in the church...but 20 minutes before the baptism, his dad flipped out and didn’t let him. It was super, super sad :(((((((((((( But I know that soon it will all work out :)


Monday-We had a churrasco this morning and found out that for the 2nd week in a row, our zone is again in 1st place in the mission despite a rough slow difficult week for the zone. 

A ton of new things are going to happen and I’m super, super excited for it all!

Much love,

Elder Hunt! 

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