Elder Hunt is out of the Mission Office!! New address is on the right! :)

Monday, November 28, 2011

ask us ANY question…

We baptized our 300 pound investigator this week! yay! My companion and I were a little worried that the member, who was going to do the baptizing, wouldn't´t be able to lift him out of the water. It was a little rough, but he got him under the water and then out of the water, so i guess that's all that matters. It was a nice service though.

So Paco is baptized but we are still teaching quite a few other people.

We had a pretty cool lesson experience this past week that I would like to share.

We were teaching an investigator of ours and we were teaching him about the restoration. He ended up having a lot of questions in regards to the soul. He started asking us questions  and the cool thing about it, was that we knew the answers to every single question. I ended up saying to him, ask us ANY question, and we will have the answer. So he did. And we had the answers. It was quite the experience that is hard to put to words because I truly felt directed by the spirit. I also felt and realized the promise of God that we would not be confounded before men. Most of his questions were answered by the plan of salvation. What a blessing it is to know where we came from, why we are here, and what´s next!

I am a little short on time, so I will close up, but I did attach some pictures!

We took a "preach my gospel" shot pretty close to our chapel.
 

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Paco was just shining on the night of his baptism!
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For thanksgiving we got Doner Kebabs for dinner. Doner kebabs are from...TURKEY! yea, it was my idea.
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Elder Estrada and I made a cake with Pillsbury doughboy frosting that got sent to us and the family we were teaching absolutely LOVED it.
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Well thats all I guess for this week!

I can´t believe its about to be december! That just blows my mind!

Os Quiero!

Jason

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Baptisms!

We are going to have a baptism this Saturday and I am so excited for it! Paco is progressing strongly and he is pretty excited to get baptized. We´re pretty excited too! I´ll send a picture next week!
Speaking of baptisms, this past week 4 of our investigators accepted the invitation to be baptized but we have yet to set a date with them. It was a very cool experience with two of them.
We taught the sister and nephew of one of our members here. We taught them that the Church of Jesus Christ was lost after the death of the Apostles. We explained that the gospel of Christ is like a plate held up in the air. The "plate" was dropped with the death of the apostles and shattered into thousands if not millions of pieces and because of that there are thousands if not millions of churches on the face of the earth. It was cool to see Manuel (the nephew) at this point. His eyes lit up and it was as if everything just clicked to him. He even told us that just the other day, when we first made contact with them, that he wondered how we could be any different because there are so many churches. Then he began to wonder WHY there were so many churches. We taught them the restoration and bore testimony that because of a loving father in heaven, we have the fulness of the gospel through a restoration through a prophet. We talked about authority to baptize and when we invited the mom, Sandra, to be baptized by someone who held the priesthood of God, before she could answer Manuel budded in and exclaimed "Claro!" And I can´t really explain the look I saw in his eyes. I don´t think I have ever seen anyone say "Yes of course" with so much conviction and sincerity. There really are people looking for the truth but don´t know where to find it. I am so grateful, in this season of thanksgiving, to be shedding some light in such a dark place. The Church of Christ is on the earth! And that is something to be truely excited about and really thankful about!
I am doing great and I love the people of Spain. I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving!
Os Quiero
Jason

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Do as the Europeans do, right?

This week really flew by. It started with being a little sick though. I´ve been really congested and had a bad cough. I think it has been because of the frequent change of the weather. It gets really cold with rain and wind, then the next day its sunny, free of all clouds. I am now just about over it but I still need to carry around a little bag of Kleenexes.

But in other and more important news, we have found and are teaching a man named Paco and he is going to be baptized on the 26 of November. He really popped out of no where as a friend of a less active and now we are teaching him, he accepts everything and he is ready to go! We tried to change the date to this Saturday, because he is just so ready, but he said that was moving a little too quick for him. But he is completely fine with the 26. We are pretty excited about it! 

Paco is hard on hearing so we are yelling for basically the entire lesson and it is almost impossible to ask him questions. He can´t hear them, but when he does, it is hard to make a question sound like a question when you are yelling in spanish. So we do a lot of reading with him because he can read just fine. We also visit with him everyday because he has nothing to do, so that has been really nice for us. He is actually a pretty funny guy for being in his 60s and weighing about 300 pounds. He calls me a yankee.

When in Europe, do as the Europeans right? They are really into the skinny suit and skinny tie look here and I found a great deal at a mall and now I am the proud owner of my first pair of skinny dress pants and I am also rocking the skinny tie! I got the pants, a new belt and 2 skinny ties for 23 Euros!

But its ok! Missionaries in Europe are allowed to wear stuff like that! haha!

I´ll have to send a picture sometime.

Well not to much else is going on. Working hard. This week we got the most lessons I had ever gotten before in my entire mission and this week we want more. We also got 6 new investigators this past week and we are really trying to get this place going. This pday really just snuck up on me because we have been (thankfully!) so busy! Busy is good!

I love you all lots and I am so grateful for your love and support!

Os Quiero,

Jason

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

New area, new companio, new address, and practically a new language!

This is the new one!

C\. Capitan Alfonso Vives
Nº80   6º IZQ
Elche, Alicante 03204
España

But anyways! New comp. Turns out, I´m training!
Who would have thought, you would think the president would have told me when I was being transferred!

There is a new "training program" that the church is doing for new missionaries and it consists of 12 weeks of training. It's actually really nice for me because we get another hour of personal study in the middle of the day. I like it A LOT.

My companion is named Elder Estrada and he is from Salt Lake City, sorta, he is Guatemalan and lived in Guatemala and Salt lake throughout his life, so he already speaks Spanish perfectly as well as English. That has been nice. He is a great elder and we are getting some good work done!

My new address is above and now I´m living in a small apartment with another companionship. I don´t really like having 4 elders in one apartment. It  makes it harder to stay on task and really get things done. It is crazy because I am actually the oldest missionary in this group in terms of time on the mission! We are a very "young" group of missionaries.

Speaking of young -  yesterday at church, I was told by I think over 3 people that I look like I´m only 16. To tell the truth I was a little offended! I´m 20 years old! Practically a full grown man! eh, whatever, I guess its better to look young than old right!

The weather has been soooooo cold! At least to me. I´ve been in Sevilla this whole time where the coldest it gets is in the 70s, and now I´m here and I wouldn´t doubt if it started snowing! My blood has definitely thinned out over the summer. I sleep with socks, slippers,  and a jacket with the hood up at night along with the heater blowing hot air in my face and I still wake up freezing! I´m not at all used to the cold anymore!

Nothing too exciting has been going on. We contact in the street a lot and don´t have too many investigators. But that´s missionary work for ya! I´m doing good, I´m happy at least, and I am learning lots.

Here in Elche they use the dialect called "Valenciano" and it comes from Valencia. However, it is so mixed up with French that it could be its own language. With all the official documents and government buildings they have both Spanish and Valenciano showing. Its been a little rough getting used to this new way of speaking.

But that's all, I don´t have any pictures to send yet but I will try to take some nice ones this week!

Os Quiero,
Jason

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Transfers, P.S., P.S.S, and Lots of Pictures!

I was very surprised this past Friday morning when our cell phone went off and it had "Pte. Clegg" on the caller ID. I answered it and he said "Elder Hunt, Are you ready to go?" I thought he was talking about up and ready to go for the day and so I said, "yea I´m up and ready" and he said "Alright, your outta there and your headed to Elche" I was totally shocked and said "That kind of ready to go?!" he laughed and told me a little bit more about Elche. I was totally shocked! I did not see a change coming to me this transfer!

But yes, ¡me voy! I have a good 8 hour bus ride waiting for me this week because Elche is on the eastern coast of Spain and now I am on the western part of Spain. My companion has only been out a month but he is what we call a "nativo" (they are either Spanish or South American and already speak sSpanish as their language) so I´m saying "adios" to English for the next couple of months!

Nothing too crazy happened this week except for the transfer call. It was really hard telling Pepe that I was also headed out. I also got pretty close to the Bishop and his family and it was hard saying good bye to them as well. Turns out, the bishops daughter has had a crush on me this whole time. She can wait for me, but I don´t think I can wait for her. She´s 5. haha. She drew me a good bye picture though. It was precious.

This week I also got to "fight apostasy" as we say in the mission. We had some weird prayer groups that we had to put down. But that's a story for another email!

Oh yes...Since I´m being transferred...DON¨T SEND ANYTHING TO THE OLD ADDRESS. I´ll send my new one next week!

I´ll try to explain the pictures. Elder Hall and Elder Card got me pink fuzzy slippers for my Birthday. The odd thing though is that this wasn´t the first time I´ve gotten pink fuzzy slippers for my birthday...weird. But they have bunnies on the top and say "Happy"
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Another one is at sunset on a big Hill here in Alcalá de Gaudaíra.
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Ok...I don´t remember the rest....

I think I sent one from the Halloween party. Elder Berrett and I dressed up as Cowboys. They loved it.DSC07316

Well I guess that´s all for me!

Os quiero!
Jason

oh yes...PS

The ward halloween party was NUTS!

Our chapel is in a pretty sketchy part of town and basically in the center of the ghetto. I´m not sure who made those plans...

But we walked over with Pepe and he was bringing his nieces and nephews and they invited some friends. So 7 kids were following us to the chapel. As we walked, all the kids from the ghetto popped their heads out and were like "where are those kids going?" and they started to follow us. There were about 40-50 kids in our small chapel. It was wild. Then the people, the adults, from teh ghetto saw all their kids going into the chapel and they all came in as well. It was very interesting. The entrance smelled like booze. But a TON of people were there. It was insane! A good activity, but insane nonetheless!

ok...one more story!

This past Thursday, an old man approached us and said that he had a dream the other night and because we were "religious men" maybe we could shed some light on what his dream meant. I was just thinking to myself," oh great, crazy old man with crazy dreams" He started telling us his dream and it was actually pretty cool. The whole time though I was praying to know something to say.

He dreamed that he was a priest in a catholic church that was on his street. He was in the front with a group of other priests and they were giving the sermon and preparing their communion or sacrament. He said that as he was preparing the bread wafer things, the statue of Jesus spoke to him and he said that he had to leave the priests and stop going to this church. The priests were false priest and he couldn´t find God in this church.

This man said he has had the dream 3 times since then. After the third time, he has stopped going to that catholic church. Now he goes to the catholic church two streets down...

he asked me what it meant and i said, its pretty clear. You´ve gotta leave the catholic church, not just the church on your street and you need to search for the true church of Jesus Christ. Then we testified of the restoration, gave him our number, he wouldn´t give us his, and then he went on his way. He said he would come to church, but we´ll see.

ok...that should be it!

love you lots!

Jason

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The Turning Point

General Authorities often relate experience that acted as "the turning point" or "the day I figured it out", in their talks. Many of us know the story from President Hinckley where he was frankly tired of failure in the mission field and wrote his father saying that he was wasting his time and money. His Father wrote back with only a simple phrase and said "forget yourself and get to work." President Hinckley says that was his "turning point" and that all good and blessings have been a result of him "losing himself in the work."

A few years ago in conference, or it could have been just an article in the ensign, Elder Jay Jensen said that about a year into his mission he had yet to test Moroni´s promise about the Book of Mormon. He had never placed his trust in the lord in that aspect regarding the truthfulness of the Book. He decided to pray about it and he received a testimony that the Book of Mormon was true. He also says that this moment was crucial to his mission and to his future, and claims that ever since then, he has been able to Trust God and the blessings have flown.

In a Halloween/Birthday Package, Miss Tish sent me a talk from Brent L. Top entitled "Strengthened by His Hand". Brother Top´s experience he told opened my eyes to a new view of a certain scripture passage. This different way of seeing has helped me, perhaps, have a "turning point" of my own. It might not be the first, nor the last, but I feel that it was indeed a turning point, and that blessings have flown.

Matthew Chapter 14 tells the story of Peter walking on water. It is a very popular story from the New Testament so I will skip the details but discuss what was important to me.

It was nighttime, middle of the night-ish, and the disciples were out fishing. It was a windy night with lots of waves and in the darkness, they saw Christ, but did not recognize it as him. They thought it was a spirit, or as it says in spanish, a phantom, and they were afraid. Christ called out to them and said it was him, so peter answered and said "lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water."

"And he (Christ) said, Come." Peter got out of the boat and "he walked on water." Now this is the part that hit me hardest. It says that Peter became afraid because of the "boisterous winds". What was Peter, a fisherman, doing being scared of the wind? Why would the wind and the waves scare someone when he was probably so familiar with them?

I don´t want to contradict the scriptures, but I feel that it wasn´t the wind that scared him. I think he realized at that point, that he was walking on water.

I can picture in my head and almost feel that I can relate with the moment that Peter realized what was happening. He saw himself walking on water and with that, might have thought "wait, I can´t walk on water." And that is when he began to sink and then he cried out and said "Lord, Save me."

It might show my weakness and lack of ability, but I was called to be a senior companion and I didn´t feel ready at all for the task. I felt incredibly inadiquate to carry out that calling.

My last companion, Elder Barney, and I had a great relationship. We worked well together and we had a lot of fun as well. If things werer going slow or we had a hard day, it was all good because we had eachother to lift ourselves up. It might sound extreme, but I still had my trust in the "arm of flesh" as the scriptures say. Like I said, if things were going rough, I would turn to my friend elder barney and everything would be ok.

But the Lord, in his infinant wisdom has provided me a chance to place my trust in him.

I have previously commented that I have had a hard time with my new companion. With his criticisms on my every move, corrections to my every fault and his expressions of lacking confidence in my ability to lead the companionship bore heavy burden upon me. And on top of that, he didn´t speak any nor understand the language. So it was really me pulling us along, with him dragging his heels.

This was about 2-3 weeks ago and I had never felt so overwhelmed, lonely, or tired in my entire life. I felt completely and utterly solo. However, the task was still before me and I still had to do it.

This is where I would like to make the connection from Peter´s experience to my own. Figuratively speaking, I saw myself walking on water, doing something I knew I couldn´t do and I began to fear. I began to sink; sink into feelings of despair or discouragement. And as I sank, all I could do is cry out and say "lord, save me."

As the scriptures say with Peter "and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him", I feel the savior has done the same for me.

In my state of loneliness, I had the only option to trust in the lord. My prayers became more fervent, my mind was filled with hymns, and my scripture study was an effort to put myself closer to God.

This wasn´t a one moment and it happened event, but rather over the space of time, about a week actually. But I feel that this might have been one of those moments where I can look back, and realize how everything became better because I put my trust, all my trust, in the Lord. I really do feel like it was a turning point in my life and I don´t think I´ve ever learned so much nor grown so much spiritually as much as I have these past few weeks.