The Most Amazing Feeling In the World

Elder Hunt's first physical baptism, Henrique Perreira Moreira. 

The MOST AMAZING FEELING IN THE WORLD.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Hey everyone,

I hope things are well.   I started off this week very, very sick. I was so sick on Monday that I just laid on the floor in agony the entire day, and barely walked to the place we email. I didn’t eat a single thing all day. My body felt like a truck had hit me. My stomach and head were killing me too. 

Later that evening, I got a haircut from the Stake President’s wife; it looks alright, certainly not bad, but just not as thorough and complete as what I am used to in the States.  I was still sick and remained home and in bed all of Tuesday and Wednesday with horrible diarrhea and much weakness in my body. All I could eat was rice, plain rice, little by little, ha ha.

 Feeling sick, but with a pretty good haircut.

 The package from his Mom arrived, 7 weeks later.

It wasn’t until Wednesday that I remembered I had diarrhea antibiotics, which definitely did the trick haha. Also on Wednesday, Elder Allan and Elder D’ Silva went to the mission office and picked up Books of Mormon, supplies, letters, etc. Also there, was my package from my family!!!!! Filled with beef jerky, peanut butter, and sour candy! All these things you cannot get here in Brasil! I’ve been missing them! There were also, some clothes that I’ve really needed. Along with it came a letter from my father. All of these things really made my week, and made me feel so much better after being sick.

       

This is the mascot of the World Cup, named Fuleco.

 This emblem is that of Corinthians Fuetbol.  It is a team everyone loves there!  They are sort of like the Oakland raiders though because it is the team all the thugs like. ;)

Wearing his new tie

Thursday-TODAY was great!! We talked with EVERYONE we saw and taught many lessons! We also taught Kleber, which is always great. In the feira, I bought 35 eggs for 11 Reais, about $5.50. In the homes of members, which we eat in every day, they feed us SO MUCH. They give us all they have and often spend a lot for us to eat, and they expect us to eat a lot, so out of respect, you have to eat a ton, even if it’s not the healthiest. So, to combat the fat, I am only eating eggs and protein powder when I am in the house.   It was rainy and cloudy which I loved. We made progress with Drica, a 14 year old girl, who has had no interest in the church but is finally coming around. We invited her to be baptized and she said no.

Lady from Elder Hunt's ward

Friday-Another great cloudy rainy day! I wore my cardigan from the package. We taught Drica again this morning and brought a teenage boy who is cool from the Ward to help. Something amazing happened. We taught an amazing lesson on faith, and then we had the boy with us invite her to be baptized and she said yes!!!!!!!!  

We went to the house of Fernando, an older man who is pretty crazy and has a beard that he likes to stroke, lol. His wife and 18 year old daughter were there as well. They are interested and have tons of potential, but we are going very slowly with them so they understand it all. But at this visit, they made us "tapioca" which is only one ingredient, a flour like substance put on the stove and in about 1 minute it turns into a tortilla like thing with a different texture. It’s too bad I didn’t get a picture! But then you put condensed milk and coconut on it and eat it and it was delicious! My comp said he had never had it before, so it was a first for us both, but it was interesting and great!    

That evening we had dinner with Kleber woohooo haha. It was super good, and we asked him to give us a ride to take Drica to seminary to continue helping her. When we asked, he grabbed his keys, and strapped his berreta with 2 extra magazines on his belt and said lets go; it was legit. In all the super thug hood neighborhoods he would turn up his N’sync and Backstreet Boys music hahaha he doesn’t care!     

On the bus

After dinner, we found one of our investigators drunk out of his mind lying on the sidewalk. He tried to get up and walk and he fell horribly. Medina and I carried him back to his house and put him on his couch. It was very sad for my comp and I. Alcohol is very bad.  In Brasilândia, they have a lot of 3 things: Bars for drinking, places to get your haircut, and churches.

 Vista Verde

Saturday- Fun day! We had a zone activity in Vista Verde, a different area about 10 miles away from ours. Our zone got together to help out this area because it has been struggling. We went out with a member who had a car and we worked the area. We got tons of referrals, taught lessons, and talked with so many people. It was great to go into a different area to mix things up, so nice. The other area is a lot greener than our area, a little more nice, but still poor.   We started at about 10:30am, came back for lunch at 1 and ended at 6pm

Lucas Camargo, and his son with Elders Hunt and Medina

But the best part of the day was that for the first time during lunch and the other times when we were around the other missionaries from our zone, I finally felt like one of the guys. Like, I can speak well enough to joke around and talk with everyone. 

It was so fun and I enjoyed myself a lot!   After 6pm, Lucas Camargo, the guy we went around with during the day (who is about 40 years old, has a child, and served a mission) he gave us a ride to our dinner appointment. It was a wild ride, we got lost, it was raining, there were tons of parties going on so there was a ton of traffic, and at one point, his car couldn’t get up a hill, so we had to get out and sprint up the hill, and he had to pull a maneuver to get up the hill.  Dinner was amazing, the woman has been a cook for 40 years of her life, there were so many options!!! It was amazing!!

Flavio Henrique Perreira Moreira, 13 yrs old

Flavio Henrique Perreira Moreira with his mother on his baptism day

Sunday- Today I baptized someone for the first time. I was so nervous, but the Spirit took over and it was just an unforgettable experience. I baptized Flavio Henrique Perreira Moreira. He is 13 years old and he goes by Henrique.  He is the grandson of Dirce, the recent convert woman who has been so good and sweet to me.  The feeling of baptizing someone is the most amazing feeling in the world. Knowing that when the person comes up out of the water, they are the cleanest person in the whole world at that moment; it is just spectacular.  

Brasilian Churrasco

After we had another churrasco, BBQ, haha. It was good, but not as good as the last one.  In the evening my comp sat me down for a serious talk. He talked about "snakes" girls who are interested in me and not the gospel. We have one investigator right now who is a bit of a snake.  

Elder Media was like,

"As your trainer, like your father, you need to be careful, and I’m being 100% serious when I say this, but Elder Hunt you are sexy and you need to be so careful. I’m ugly, everyone wants to talk to you, be careful" Hahahahahaaha!

It was hilarious, but he was totally serious, he didn’t even crack a smile. (he’s not gay either, lol) 

Well, that was my week everyone! Talk to you all next week!

Elder Hunt

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

Exposed to Chicken Pox, Peed On, and Almost Hit By A Bus, But I LOVE WHAT I'M DOING

Elder Hunt in Brasilandia

Hey everyone,

Because of the temple last week I only had 30 minutes to write and got cut off. So I will start off with Friday August 29 with the story of when I bore the strong testimony in English.  It was amazing because the woman, nor her daughter, nor my comp, know any English, and they say they understood it all; that is amazing. A crazy part was when I was talking about all the things I left behind for the mission and how firmly I know the church is true and in the testimony I said,

"I would die for this church! But more importantly, I LIVE FOR IT! And that is why I am here is Brasil, serving my mission!"

BOOM, the woman gasped, the Spirit was SO strong! After, we fasted for that woman to join the church.

 Elder Hunt with his companion at the Sao Paulo Temple

Post temple treat- DONUTS!  Elder Hunt's favorite dessert!

Saturday August 30- We had a productive day teaching 9 lessons, 6 new investigators, 21 street contacts, and we invited 2 people to be baptized and they accepted. But the highlight of the day was the sobremesa (dessert) the member had baked about 30 mini cupcakes of all flavors!!! Chocolate, lemon, vanilla, all different combos.  The best was a maracujá cupcake; oh my gosh, sooo good.

Frozen Acai- IT'S SOOOOO GOOD!

Monday September 1-Our numbers for last week were: 111 street contacts, 9 investigators with baptismal dates, 13 investigators in sacrament meeting, 11 lessons taught with a member present, 20 other lessons taught, and 16 new investigators.    

What your appointment book is 'supposed' to look like

We have been making amazing progress with a 17 year old investigator named Felipe. He is very smart, he understands why he needs the gospel in his life, and he is very interested.

Elder Hunt with 'Kleber'

Today we taught a less active member named Manoel Kleber Ferreria. We call him Kleber for short. He is a bodybuilder, a paratrooper, and a sergeant in the Brasil Army, and he has a brain tumor.  He was extremely impressed that I workout and everything and he pulled out tons of his workout magazines and everything. After, he showed us his 9MM Beretta and showed us all this awesome army stuff and we talked about guns and the experience I had shooting the crazy guns of the Duke Family! Shout out to Dylan if he’s reading!

Elder Hunt's gym - in the house of a member in the area

Elder Hunt set up his rings to help with his workouts.

On his way to an appointment

 Wednesday September 3- I will call this wild Wednesday, because today was crazy. First we went to a zone conference in Pirituba, so we took the bus for about 40 minutes, and as you all know, any time you ride the bus in Brasil, it is wild.  After we came back we went to lunch with a member, but there was one problem. My companion had something growing on his face on his lip at a rather quick rate. It got bigger and bigger, and more and more disgusting. It grew LARGER THAN the size of a dime and popped out as well. It was not good. We taught a few lessons and at that point we decided he needed to get this thing checked out. So we called the mission office and had a big talk with them and then we walked for an hour and a half to a hospital/health care center.

Brasilandia

As you can imagine, any public place in Brasil with a bunch of sick people that is not taken care of well was an interesting experience. We waited at the hospital for about 2 hours until a doctor finally saw us. The doctor came to a conclusion, and said my comp has HERPES. I bursttttt out laughing, that was very funny to me. Herpes is sexually transmitted and my comp is a missionary haha, it was ironic. Obviously it wasn’t transmitted sexually; what had happened was we shake EVERYONES hand here and I mean everyone, and my comp touched his face and that is what happened. After, we ran around different pharmacies trying to find the right medication to help him. At one point we ran across a huge intersection. Four lanes of traffic on either side, with a median in the middle. We sprinted to the median and I thought we were stopping, but my comp kept running. I quickly changed direction to catch him. I sprinted and slipped on some rocks and sand as a bus was headed towards me. Amongst the craziness and misdirection, I superman jumped head first off of 1 leg and landed roughly on the sidewalk as I felt the bus wiz by grazing my leg. That sure was a close one!   

Almost hit by a bus.

We then went to teach a girl at the home of a member. While there, an autistic 8 year old sat on my lap and peed all over me...lol.  Brasil is wild! After we had a dinner appointment with a member. She made us SOOO MUCH FOOD!!!! SOOO MUCH, chicken, beef, pork, lasagna, beans, rice, french fries, and more. All I could say was WOW. Great meal! Later we ended up finding the right medication for my comp and headed home. All I can say about today was that it was WILD.

Taken from a 'Favela' at a members house.  It's normally not safe to take photos.

Thursday September 4- My comp woke up in the morning and the first thing he said to me was "I have a feeling we have a good chance of getting robbed today" ...lol ok hahaha. Our first lesson was deeep in the favelas, so I decided not to bring my camera that day, hahaha. Today we went to the feira and got tons of great stuff! Giant avocados, tons of bananas, guiaba, maracujá, and papaya! Great stuff!!  

Avocado from the Farmers Market

But the highlight of the day was with Paulo. Paulo and his wife Sueli have 2 children and they live together, but they are not married. This is a very common problem we encounter in Brasil. One of their children my comp baptized about a month ago, but they have been very stubborn about not wanting got get married. Finally they agreed on a date to be married. In a different lesson, Sueli and the other child accepted our invitation to be baptized. BUT tonight, after much much discussion. Paulo FINALLY, FINALLY accepted the invitation to be baptized, finally!!!! We felt so good! Hopefully it all works out and eventually they can be sealed! So amazing!!!!

The street art says, "Only God Saves" It is also the name of a prevalent gang here.  How ironic.

Friday September 5-We entered a home to teach. The small home was filled with family members of the person we were visiting. We sat on the couch and a woman with a baby walked in with spots on it. My comp gasps "Catapora", I had no idea what this meant, but my comp was freaking out a little bit and said we needed to leave. I jumped off the couch and bolted out the door and down the stairs as everyone in the house burst out laughing. We called Elder Allan and he told me "catapora" is chicken pox! I am glad I got out of there. Chicken pox when you are older can kill you. I’ve had my shots, but I still don’t want to to risk anything.   Even funnier, on the same day, the same thing happened in a different house...lol.       That night, we invited the cousin of Henrique (who is hopefully getting baptized this on the 13th) to be baptized on the same day as him and she said yes!!!! :) YAYYYYYY!!!

During the mission, I had been having many difficulties including a lot of frustration among other things. I was struggling. But Elder Allan gave me some good advice about how mentally to get lost in the work. It helped me so much and I am feeling much better. He said the most important thing is that the mission changes you and your life. I need to get lost in the work and forget myself.

Elder Hunt and Elder Silva

Saturday September 6- A cool thing about Brasil, not sure about all missions, but in ours we come home a transfer early, so I should get home sometime in June of 2016! Instead of July!  Today I had a great mental transition and had a great day.    An interesting thing here is that many American names are used here, like the name Eric, but it is pronounced Ericky. It is interesting how things are pronounced with their alphabet. Hunt is pronounced Hunch or Unchy, which is strange. Jacquline is pronounced Jacqaleeny haha. But there are still names like Mateus, which is Matthew in portuguese.  It is also interesting with the American influence here. Everyone wears cloths with English written on them, everyone tries to speak English with me, and being from Las Vegas, USA is sort of like being a movie star; everyone thinks it is super cool.  Also, much, much, much poverty exists in América, but the poverty here is like nothing I have ever seen.     

 ALSO, send me stickers to put on the back of my missionary tag! I would appreciate it, its a fun thing missionaries do.

This is our church building.  It is very clean and very beautiful.

Sunday September 7- Remember the story about the chicken pox? Well, there was a TON of drama because of it at church on Sunday. The man who owns the house is a recent convert and he was deeply offended that we left his house because the child there had chicken pox. The man wasn’t even home when this happened. Chicken pox, with a lot of people, in a small confined área, in Brasil, and I’ve never had chicken pox before does not sound like a good combination. The man was deeply offended and let the entire ward hear about, he even got the Bishop involved. He went as far to say that my comp and I don’t have faith in Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ wouldn’t allow me to get chicken pox and that since we have the priesthood, we are immortal. This man is deeply confused about things. It was ridiculous. It was very bad and the entire ward did not like us. Not a good day in church. The church here in our área is also not well organized, so that contributed.   Later we had lunch very far away in a different area. After we visited Manoel Kleber Ferriera again.    He and his wife made us protein shakes and gave us ice cream and cake!!!!!! Especially since lunch was not good it was such a blessing!!! So GOOD!!   He showed us more army stuff like a police baton, a KABAR Marines knife and he did a numchuck demonstration, it was sick! We then taught his two sons, one in his teens and the other in his early 20s, neither of them had been baptized, we made good progress with them!  After, he drove us to our next appointment in his fast little car on the tight, wild streets of Brasilândia. He jammed out to BYE BYE BYE by Nsync and drove like a wild man; he even pulled a Marcus Hunt and did a 180 degree spin turn so we wouldn’t miss our turnoff.

It was crazy and so much fun!! He is such a cool guy and I really think our efforts are helping his Family become reactivated!  After, we took two of our teenage investigators to "Family Home Evening" at the church with many other teenagers and families.  I feel like it was pretty successful!

We also got the news that we are moving into a new house tomorrow!!! Crazy! But we will have to pack everything up by ourselves and it will be a big adjustment.     

 Our numbers for this week: only 50 street contacts, 13 new investigators with baptismal dates, 4 investigators in sacrament meeting, 11 lessons taught with members present, 16 other lessons taught, 14 new investigators, 5 lessons taught with recent converts, and 4 lessons taught with less actives. We also have 5 baptisms planned for this weekend, so we will see what happens!!!

My comp and I tied the record for the whole mission with Elder Marchant for most investigators with a baptismal date who attended sacrament meeting!!!!!  Super cool!

Sunday was also the 4th of July for Brasil, so many parties and such. A funny thing about Brasilandia is that we hear fireworks going off all day long everyday, but we never ever see them. This is because they are small ground fireworks that just make a loud noise. There were many of them on Sunday. Also, Brasilândia is the equivalent to Brasil Land. Disneyland here is Disneylândia haha. See you next week! Ready for another great week!

Every single day here is hard, not going to lie, but things are getting better, and I love what I’m doing. The people are amazing and great and open to the gospel. I want you to know that I am learning and growing so much here. 

There is no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone.

I love and appreciate you so, so much! 

Elder Hunt

These Are the Days Where You Find Out What You Are Made Of

Hey everyone!

     We went to the São Paulo temple today and that is why we have p-day today instead of the regular Monday. Very hectic day, but the temple was incredible and it was 100% in Portuguese, rough haha. I only have 1 hour to write and send pictures so I need to hurry!

       Last Monday after emailing I cleaned our entire kitchen because it was/is a complete mess! I totally knew all the amazing women in my life would have been like "Marcus you better clean that, it’s disgusting!" Also it was good because I have been trying to find more opportunities to serve my companions, so it was good.

       Tuesday: I had a really rough day. It was rainy which I liked, but I couldn’t understand anything or speak at all, I did not want to be here, and I felt terrible.  But these are the days that make us grow. You can either lie down or quit, or you can stand strong and keep pressing forward. These are the days where you find out what you are made of. I can honestly say that the mission has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done, by far. I honestly know my companion loves me so much because he has given me like 4 foot/ankle massages after I rolled my ankle because he cares about me so much. I really appreciate him so much. The ankle thing only affected me for about 3 days, I’m 100% alright now.

       Wednesday- I had some bad dessert that didn’t sit well in my stomach and I taught the entire Restoration by myself for the first time, while holding back throw up. Haha!  We have a progressing investigator named Francisca who is a dwarf. I honestly think she will be baptized which is great! :)   Tonight we bought 5 kilos of açaí from drug dealers, lol.  But it IS SOOOOOO GOOD!!!! Frozen açaí is amazing!! But very expensive here, it is only grown in the northern parts of Brasil. 

         Thursday we had a zone conference and heard from an Area Seventy named Presidente Aidukaitis. Everyone said it was great, but it was 4 hours long and he was speaking really fast, so I only got the main ideas of what he was trying to say. But I met an Elder named Elder Allen from Manassas, Virginia who was super cool and we talked about the Redskins and it was awesome!  Again I felt a bit discouraged from not understanding much, but when we arrived home that night, I spoke and taught the best I ever had! It was amazing!

         Friday- we have an investigator named Lara. She is very, very strong in a different church and she has been taught for a long time and believes in a lot of what we teach, but not in a few things. My comp and her got into a huge 1 hour and 30 minute bible bash. It was too complex for me to understand in Portuguese so I just sat there. At the very end I bore one of the strongest testimonies I have bore, EVER. But I bore it in English. The crazy part was, they understood it all and they didn’t speak English.

     This week we had 111 street contacts, 13 investigators in sacrament meeting, 9 investigators with baptismal dates, 11 lessons taught with a member, 20 mother lessons taught, and 16 new investigators.

Sorry, our zone leader is cutting us off, got to go!!! Next week!  I love the rain!

Elder Hunt