New transfer!

So, transfer calls were last Saturday and we are all staying! There was one hermana that is going home, but other than that, our entire zone is staying! I will most likely be leaving at the end of this transfer, so I have about 6 weeks left in San Marcos. Time is going to fly by :(

Elder Hunt & Elder Jensen planning for the week

So, this week was pretty good. We found new investigators! We found one through the hermanas, when they were in our area for the blitz. And actually, we haven't even taught her yet... But, the hermanas taught her and said she was pretty cool! Her name is Irma. We have tried to have a few lessons with her, but she has cancer in her eye, so she has lots of citas to go to and is hard to find in house. Our other investigador is Luis. We found him knocking on some doors. We had talked to some other people on the street a while back, and so we went to go check up on them, and we found Luis! He is from Vera Cruz, Mexico and has been here for 7 o 8 years. And his family is still in Mexico and he hasn't seen them since he came to the US! How crazy is that?! He says he talks to them every day, but not seeing your family for 7 years would be super difficult... He goes to some Apostolic church in Solana Beach, but has only recently started to go there. We are going to get him to change that though!

Do you remember about Margarito? HE was an investigator we found like 4 o 5 weeks ago. We finally were able to see him this past week and he dropped us. HE was like, "You know, I read the pamphlet of Jose SMith and I think you are all crazy for believing that. I am fine in my church and I am not willing to change." SO, that was kind of sad, but at least he was honest and didn't waste our time.

Yesterday was sweet. We had some appointments during the day, but they all fell through, so we went knocking! We knocked 23 doors! It was pretty awesome. Most of the houses were white people, but the a few of the Spanish people we found were awesome. We were talking to this one lady, Alma. We gave her a Libro de Mormon! It's difficult to give out a LDM on a door contact. What makes it even cooler is that she has been going to some Christian church for 25 years! It's super difficult to give a LDM on a door contact and even more so to give it to a person who has been going to their church for such a long time! We had a super good contact with her and made a return appointment for sometime this week. I am excited to see how it turns out!

Yesterday was a pretty big eye opener for me. I kept on thinking about how Colin and James were going home and how fast the time went. Two years is NOTHING, especially when doing the work of the Lord. Then I was reading from my journal after planning last night and I had a huge wave of feelings and the Spirit come over me. I almost started crying! I realized that I have been blessed so much in this past year, more than I can even imagine. I thought that I haven't been doing all that I could, and I needed to improve in the work. I read about the baptisms of Enrique, Manuel and Jennifer and realized all the miracles that had happened in order for those baptisms to occur; something I didn't notice back then. I have been blessed so much this year and I can't flatline now! I have to endure to the end and do all I can! And that is what I am going to do :)

So, I haven't counted exactly how many ties I have, but it's close to late 60s. I only need like 15 more in order to wear a different tie every day for 2 transfers! That would be SO SWEET. Out of all the people in the Escondido zone (Spanish), I do have the most ties. Most people have very few, like 10... I got blessed at the beginning of my mission with dying missionaries that gave me a lot of their ties :) And 50 cents a tie was too good to pass up! I originally was going to buy, like 6, but when she said 50 cents a piece, I couldn't turn it down!

 

Maria is doing good! We have had two lessons with her this week, and they were both super good. During our last lesson, she said the prayer and started crying! She said she doesn't feel worthy of being baptized or prepared enough to do so, so we are going to work on that. During one of our lessons, she said hermano Tippetts (the nephite) made her feel really good at church one time when she went, so we are going to have to bring in his Nephite powers during one of our lessons this week :)

I did receive the packages! Thank you! I have a fun time opening a new picture every day :) Where is the 25th though?!

I also received a wedding invitation from Elder Gibbons; remember him? he is being married 3 days after Christmas. Crazy!

That sounds like a dang cool stake conference. I wish I could have heard Elder Rasband speak! Elder Jensen said he came to the MTC when he was there. I do know a girl named Jennifer Palomino! That's cool she is going on a mission! When did Jordan McGregor return? James sent me an email last week telling me he was going home. Time goes by way too fast! It feels like just a few months ago I was at his house after his farewell talk...

Sounds like Jaxon had a fun adventure! Good thing that will never happen to me because I am staying in Cali forever! This morning it was like, 45 degrees and it was FREEZING. I cannot return to Utah!

Send me some pictures of the snow so that I can realize how much I LOVE California! :)

Send me some more pictures of the doggy too! I want to see with whom you replaced me! ;)

That's super awesome about your new calling! Find out more and tell me! I am excited to hear about it!

I didn't take many picture this week, but there are some of Elder Jensen and I during weekly planning (YAY!) and a sweet picture of the Christmas Tree!

That's all I have for this week! HAVE A SUPERBALICIOUS WEEK!

CON AMOR, Elder Cazador (jaja that rhymes, even though that isn't my real name :) )

TIE LADY

So, today was pretty dang awesome. There is this lady down in Escondido. She is called "The Tie Lady", and for good reason. She has OVER 20,000 ties. OMJ. It's like missionary heaven. She usually sells her ties for a dollar each, but we brought four other missionaries with us (Elder Belbin, Elder Gneiting, Elder Goulding, and Elder Warren (the last two are English missionaries that live with Elder Belbin and Elder Gneiting)) and we told her we were from San Marcos, so she sold us our ties for 50 cents. FIFTY CENT TIES. OMJ. So, I spent like, 10 bucks and bought 20 ties. TWENTY BEAUTIFUL TIES. Missionary heaven. All the other missionaries bought about the same amount too. The Tie Lady made some good money today ;) jaja. Now I have like, 60+ ties that I don't know what to do with... Jajaja jk! I am going to wear them! Duh!

 

Last week was pretty sweet. Elder Gneiting and I had exchanges again last Tuesday. They were pretty long too; almost two days. This area has been struggling a little bit recently, so we had a few ideas on how to improve the work here. We taught a few lessons and met some pretty cool people.

 

We taught Maria Parra last Thursday! Guess what? She did her reading! That means she is PROGRESSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is the FIRST progressing investigator I have had in this area, so Elder Jensen and I were pretty dang excited. We stopped by last night to see how she was doing and she read the other chapter we gave her, so she is still progressing! HOORAY! We are going to teach her tomorrow and see when we can set her baptismal date for :) :) :)

 

Most of our other investigatores- we are still working on them. But, they will progress!!!

 

Something really cool happened yesterday too. We had a blitz! A blitz is when all the missionaries go into an area and just attack it to find more people. So, all the missionaries came to our area and blitzed it! IT was sweet. Now we have TONS of potentials to go and visit over the next few weeks. But, sadly, Elder Jensen became sick with some kind of bug yesterday afternoon... :( so, while all the missionaries were out working in our area, he was sick :( jaja it is kind of ironic having all the missionaries come to our area and work and then having us not actually doing anything. Well, not not anything. I was calling people and made two return appointments :) oh yeah! But yeah, the blitz was pretty cool. They don't happen very often, so it was sweet to be a part of one. (kinda. jaja)

 

So, with the promagrantes, I broke them apart and put all the seeds into a bag to snack on :) And I got 3 shirts dirty doing it! You think I would have learned after the first shirt... Thankfully the stains came out quickly. :)

 

Thanksgiving was pretty normal. We had tamales, some kind of Mexican fruit salad, and some pie! It was pretty good. Then we made a big circle around their dining room table and everyone shared the things for which they are grateful this year. It was pretty awesome and the Spirit was defintiely there.

 

Elder Jensen is doing fantastic. He has definitely improved in his time here. Trainers and their new missionaries are usually together for 3 months (2 transfers) and then President Cook usually splits them up. If I stay this transfer (which I probably will) this will be my longest area! 6 months! I hope I do stay. I really like this area, even though it is super white. My favorite area is definitely my first- Rancho. They say that your first area is always the best because that is your first experience with missionary work and you come to love the people like your own family. I hope to return back there sometime during the mission! With Elder Nealy ;)

 

That's so crazy everyone is getting married! Tell everyone congrats for me.

 

Baptisms are the best. Our ward is going to have 2 this weekend. This is the 7th weekend in a row that we have had a baptism! It's sweet.

 

Our apartment is nice. We live on the first floor. It has a living room, bathroom and bedroom. It isn't super big, but it's nice. I will take some pictures one day for you!

 

Christmas presents... I think something good for me would just be some money. I was thinking about buying a sweater sometime because my other one is really baggy... Maybe a watch too... I think that would probably be the best bet for me; just some money and then I can pick some things out that I would need. I will start asking around about Skype! There are a few technological families in our area, so I think we might be able to do so. That would be SWEET.

 

I haven't received packages yet, but probably on Saturday! I am excited!

 

Pictures:

1. our awesome zone

2. our awesome zone (kinda weird, I didn't know what we were doing...)

3. we went ice skating last week as a zone activity! It was sweet, even though I am not meant to be on the ice :)

 

Well, that's all for this week! I LOVE YOU ALL! 

 

Love, Elder Hunt

 

Granada

So, this week has been pretty uneventful :( We didn't even teach one investigator... We had appointments with them, but then when we passed by, they were never home... And so when we tried to pass by unexpected, they never had time to sit down with us... So, we haven't taught any investigatores this week :(

 

We have spent a lot of finding time this past week. Sadly, the only things we have found are a bunch of white people and a bunch of Spanish people that are not willing to accept the Gospel... But! One thing Elder Toronto told me my first transfer has really stuck to me in my time here. He said, "Contacting and rejection are fuel for miracles." We have had a lot of both, so we are bound to be seeing a miracle soon!

 

Thanksgiving was fun too. I was on exchanges with Elder Belbin, Elder Gneiting's son. We had tamales for dinner! They were super good.

 

On Friday, we had a follow up meeting for trainers and their new missionaries. It was a big help in giving me ideas on how to help Elder Jensen become a better missionary.

 

So... That's really it for this week. 

 

A member on Sunday gave us some granadas (pomegranate) and they were HUGE! So, I took some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope everything is well and you have a fantastic week!

 

LOVE, ELDER HUNT TNUT REDLE

TEMPLO!

So, we went to the templo today. It was sweet. The San Diego temple is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome. We will have to go sometime.

 

So, I forgot my journal at home because we went straight to the library after the temple, but I have kept a pretty detailed agenda this transfer, so I can tell you what happened.

 

Tuesday: P-Day! Then we had a lesson with los Mendez. They gave us dinner and oh man, it was soooo good. I want to marry a Mexican so that I can have Mexican ALL THE TIME. Or maybe I could just learn :) we didn't really get anywhere in their progression. :( Lalo was out with his friends, and so we just taught Roselio, but he is pretty set in his ways right now, so there is not much progression with him... Hopefully one day though!

 

Wednesday: New investigadora! Her name is Maria. She is an antiguo. We had talked to her a lot of times, but finally had a sit down lesson with her. She's super awesome and seems really prepared. We are going to go and teach her this Friday! Can you say BAPTISM?

 

We had a mission wide conference on Friday. Since our mission is so small, all the missionaries gathered up and Elder Schwitzer (?) from the 2nd quorum of the Seventy came and talked to us. IT WAS SWEET. We did a few practices on how to improve our work and Elder Schwitzer taught us some pretty cool doctrine on how to improve ourselves too. It was a lot of fun! And since it was mission wide, we were able to see all the missionaries! All my missionary friends! YAY!

 

We also had some pretty cool miracles this week. We had a ward activity this week on Saturday for Thanksgiving. We tried inviting invesitgadores and menos activos so that we could get a huge turn out. We invited this one member, Guadalupe. Since I arrived in the area, we have tried like 2 or 3 times every 2 weeks to pass by. We taught her one time like 2 weeks ago, but before and after that, nothing... But! She and her husband (non-member) came to the ward party!!! And there was a baptism before that and they came to that too! WOO! It was awesome.

We also ran into this one guy named Flavio. He is super awesome. We asked him a bunch of questions of the soul like, "Where were you before this life?", "Where are we going after death?", "What is the purpose of this life?". He seemed really interested, but then told us that his friend is a testigo and gave him a book about those questions too... But, we didn't give up! There is a section in PMG about las preguntas del alma and there is like, 10 or so questions. So, we wrote them all down in a LDM and gave it to him and told him that this book is way better than any book the testigos could ever give you. He was really hesitant to take it (I don't know why), but he finally did. He is a super prepared man, we just need to attack him with the TRUTH!

 

Oh yeah, Elder Gneiting and I had exchanges Sunday and yesterday :) It's fun training, but it was nice to have an experienced missionary as a companion for a change.

 

So, pretty much everyone here calls me Elder Cazador (Hunter). It's pretty dang cool.

 

That's cool Maddy got glasses! I looked at the picture and she looks like a little miny Kelsey with glasses! jajajaja

 

Elder Hilton was the artist for the English class two weeks ago. I really liked doing it that way instead of the usual way I do it. Maybe this week I will have to draw some more pictures to go along with the words!

 

The weather this week has been perfect! Like usual. It gets kind of cold during the night, like 60s, but other than that, I love it! I don't ever want to go back to Utah :( It's November 20 today and there is no snow! It's basically like heaven here.

 

Thanks for the BYU scores! however, it is a huge disappointment that they lost... Oh well. Next game!

 

I hope you have a wonderful week! LOVE YOU.

 

Elder Hunt :)



Elder Hunt & Elder Simmons- companion from the MTC

Elder Hunt & Elder Nelson

 

 

One year has passed. No puede ser!

My mind is absolutely blown that one year has passed... It certainly does not feel like one year... A lot less... But, we are still moving along en la obra del Senor! It is a lot of fun. This past week has been fun. Yesterday, we found a new investigator. His name is Margarito. He's strange. He is Apostolic. He believes in the Rapture. He believes that God and Jesus Christ are one Being and that when the rapture happens, Christ will come down and say, "Ha, just kidding! I was God and Christ the whole time! There's only one Being!" (exact words) Kind of strange. But, he kind of has an open mind about learning. He said he was going to read the folleto about Jose Smith before reading the Book of Mormon in order to find more about Jose.

 

This past week we also taught los Mendez, Roberto Avila, and Fabrisio (I don't remember if I told you about him. Probably.) So, the lesson with los Mendez was good. We mostly taught Roselio about the Plan de Salvacion so that he could know what we taught Gerardo too. We were getting ready to invite him to be baptized, we invited him and then he went on for like 20 minutes saying that he believes in his baptism because God has blessed him so much in his life and he doesn't need to be baptized again. He said he believes in all that we are teaching and he really likes that we come, but he just isn't going to be baptized again... But, on the bright side, when we were teaching, Gerardo actually helped us teach! He remembered all the things that we taught him! OMJ! That was awesome! even the spirit world! Nobody remembers the spirit world! So, we are going over again tonight to teach again. It is going to be sweet!

 

On Sunday we taught Roberto Avila. That was a super good lesson too. We talked about the Plan de Salvacion with him too. We taught him about baptism and the purpose of this life. We invited him to be baptized for the 8 de diciembre, and he said kind of yes! It was a soft date (not super yes nor not at all), so that's good. At the end of the lesson he said he wanted to spend more time with his family, so next Sunday: temples! YEAH.

 

Yesterday, we taught Fabrisio. He is the step-dad of Denya, the girl that has cancer. We haven't seen them very much, so we decided to start to try to see them more often. When we taught him, he basically said the same thing that Roselio said :( They go to some Christian church and are happy there and are going to stay... But, he said he likes us coming over and the spirit we bring, so maybe we will keep visiting and see if something happens.

 

Everything else is pretty much the same. haven't had any crazy contactos or anything this week...

 

Thanks for the package! I received it yesterday. It's awesome! This year has been the shortest year of my life!

 

Well, I think that is it for this week! I hope you have a fantastic week and I will talk to you next Tuesday! :)

CON AMOR, ELDER CAZA

 

Our zone before half of us were transferred or went home

 

Our last week's English class. We talked about weather!

Elder Jensen, My HIJO

Well, Elder Hunter Jensen is my hijo. He is from Moultonboro, New Hampshire! Elder Simmons was from North (or South, I don't remember) Carolina, then my next 4 companions were from Utah, and then Elder Lewis from Missouri, Elder Acaro from Peru and now Elder Jensen from New Hampshire! So, that's cool. He is a big baseball player. He had a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Virginia, but they wouldn't hold it for him for his mission, so he gave it up. (He's famous!)

 

Being a trainer is pretty scary! I have to teach a brand new missionary EVERYTHING in the mission. Everyone remembers their first companion the most, so I have to set a SUPER good example for him. This first week has been super crazy long because I have been worrying about how I am going to do everything, but now that it has been a week, everything has gotten a lot better.

 

Halloween was super exciting! (not) It was fun though. A misionera from the ward returned home on Wednesday night, and so we went to go and meet her. I have heard lots of stories about her and her mission for the past few months, so it was cool to see her return and what she was like! After we had dinner with that family, we had to go inside... But, it was actually fun! Elder Jensen and I studied Spanish for a while, helped him unpack his stuff, got to know each other better... It was fun. Definitely not something I want to do for a while though! Staying in at night is not fun! Sadly, nobody came and knocked on our door to ask for candy :( We decided we were going to give them Books of Mormon, instead of candy ;)

 

So, we taught some of our investigators this week. We taught la familia Mendez about the Restauracion again and then we taught Gerardo (the son) just by himself one time. It was AWESOME. We taught him about the Plan de Salvacion and the happiness we are able to receive from it. We asked him to talk to his family about him being baptized, and he said he would! It was a super awesome lesson. We kind of have a date with him for the 24, but it's really soft. He was going to come to church on Sunday, but his mom wanted the family to eat out at breakfast :( next week though! We also taught Roberto Avila about the Restauracion too. He is super interested in finding about which of all the churches is true. he knows there needs to be only one true church, but he just doesn't know what to do to find it. So, we taught him! Yay! :)

 

We have also had a lot of cool miracles out contacting and knocking doors. We were contacting one day and ran into this guy sitting on his driveway, chilling. When we approached him, he said to us, "You're Mormons, right? Well, I was raised Catholic and because of that now I am Agnostic. So, I don't have anything to say to you." So, we started to talk to him about his life and stuff, and we found out he played professional baseball! So, him and Elder Jensen made an instant connection. It was sweet. After that, he was telling us more about his life, that his lawyer is Mormon and how he really likes him because he is such a good guy and stuff. It is cool to see that everyone out there has this little love button and once you find it and push it, you can talk to them about anything!

 

We were out knocking doors on Sunday, and we knocked on this one door, and the dog started freaking out. So, the owner (a white guy) opened the door, saw that we were missionaries and said, "As you can see, my dog doesn't want to talk to you." Then he shut the door. People are crazy.

 

We haven't found any new investigators this week, but we are working hard to find them! We have had a few super awesome contacts, so we have some good potenciales this week.

 

Friday... 1 year... Shh! Don't say that! James is coming home sometime in December, along with Colin. I cannot believe they have been gone and are coming home! Time goes by too fast!

 

The weather down here is still super nice. It gets chilly during the night, but that's okay! I received my sweater from Elder Price! He gave it to me when he left :) it is really nice!

 

Today is Election Day! CRAZY! I didn't even know until we were driving to the library and everywhere had yellow signs that said Election Poll or whatever. WHo is going to win?!!?! You would be surprised by how many times I have been asked about Romney... Once. Way back in August, when I first came to San Marcos. But, I never see any Obama signs anywhere, only Romney! That would be so cool if he won!

 

I hate Daylight Savings. When we run in the mornings, it feels like 8 or 9 and like we should be inside studying... I don't like it!

 

Well, I think that it is it for this week! I hope you have a wonderful week! I don't have any pictures this week, but next week I will have some for sure with my hijo so you can see him!

 

Love, Elder Hunt

My new son

So, Elder Acaro is leaving. Guess who is going to be my companion? I don't know! I was on exchanges with Elder Gneiting last Wednesday and President Cook gave us both a call and told us we were training... So, Elder Gneiting is training again and I am going to have a son! Woo! I am freaking out a little right now because he is going to be a brand new missionary fresh out of the MTC! OMJ! I'm scared. But, it will be fun! Elder Gneiting is staying here in San Marcos, so that will be cool. We had a meeting yesterday with President Cook about being trainers and it's a lot of stuff. We have to help them learn to be better missionaries than we are because in a few months, the number of missionaries is going to BOOM. President said right now we have about 175 or so missionaries. But, come February ish, we are going to have 250! OMJ! He also was talking about the MTC time that new missionaries are going to have. Like, English missionaries used to go for 3 weeks, now they are only going for 12 days, 8 of those days which are only training. He said the Church has even been talking about shortening it even more, like a week, or just sending the missionaries straight to the mission; no MTC. Crazy! The missionary numbers are booming! It is going to be an awesome thing to witness. 

 

This week was pretty good for us. Sadly, los Reyes always seem to be "busy" and we aren't able to teach them... We saw them once on Saturday, but it was someone's birthday, so we weren't able to have a lesson with them, but we helped them set up for the party. We have had a few lesson with los Mendez (Roselio and his family). They are doing good. The son, Gerardo, seems really interested. We shared with them the Restoration on Thursday. We brought a member with us, which turned out to be really good, because Roselio likes to talk A LOT. So, we arrived to the Apostasy part, and Roselio just talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked. So, we let him and the member talk between each other and taught the Apostasy, Restoration and Pray to know to Gerardo. He had some pretty good questions. They also offered us coffee (it was really cold that night) and so we taught them a little about the Word of Wisdom too. It was sweet. Other than those few investigators, we haven't really taught anyone :( We always seem to find new investigators, teach them a few times, and then they disappear! Why?! Maybe they need a little greenie fire ;)

 

It has been SUPER cold here lately. The mornings are FREEZING and no me gusta. Good thing I have a sweater!

 

Wednesday (Halloween) is going to be SWEET! (but not really) It will be my first day with my verdecito! We have to go in at 6. We study from 8-10, then we have district meeting 10-12, then we have to go to the store and buy food, finish studying (because now that I have a new missionary, we have to study 1 hour - personal, 2 hours - companion, 1 hour - language. It's crazy!) Then we have to go in a 6. So, we will only have like, 4 hours of actual work! But, it will be fun :) Send me pictures of Halloween!

 

 

OMJ! I am not even close to a year mark! Don't say that! I'm old :( but, my hijo will never know how much time I have! jajajajajaja! There is no such thing as too many ties! There is this one Elder in my zone (but he's leaving) that has like 80! I only have like 60! :) But, for my year mark, we can't burn clothing :( it's against the rules! :(

 

I think that it is it for this week. Have a wonderful, fantastic and fabulous week!

Love,

ELDER HUNT