JUST ONE MORE!

Thank you all for sharing with me your past week. De verdad, me hace sentir muy contento. No sé que deciros porque nos veremos muy pronto! ¡Qué alegría!

Bueno, pues la abuela puede traducir lo que os he escrito asi que cambio ahora a íngles.

Looks like we have just about made it! I too am very excited to see you all but it all feels so strange. I know that I am finishing, but I don´t feel like it is actually going to happen.

I love my mission. I feel like I can´t express the emotions that accompany those words. I love it so much.

The clique phrase says that you leave a mission a boy and come back as a man, I sure hope that applies to me. My mission has changed me so much and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the chance he has taken on me for my benefit.

I want you all to know that I love missionary work. I love Spain. I love my Savior and I love the scriptures.

We have just about made it. I can hardly even believe it.

I can´t wait to see you all soon and share in greater detail all the great stories and experiences that have occurred in these wonderful past 2 years.

I love you all and thanks for your support.

Os Quiero un huevazo

Elder Jason Hunt

I´ll probably only speak in Spanglish!

Wow what a week!

It went by really fast!

I don´t even know what to say. My comp and I are getting along really well, he is hilarious and we are having a good time together. We only speak Spanish so I am back to the point of thinking in Spanish instead of English so that will be a fun change when I see you guys, I´ll probably only speak in Spanglish!  But anyways, things are going really well for us. We are a little short on investigators, but we worked hard this week and hopefully we will quickly see the fruits of that. I love my mission and I can´t imagine it ending. 3 more weeks. It feels weird reading over that again. I am so excited to see you all though!

We are working hard and seeing miracles here in our little pueblo. I love the lord and I love doing his work!

Talk to you next week!

os Quiero,
Elder Jason Hunt

4 Weeks to Go

What a week!

Monday was new years and Pday, Tuesday we did splits, Wednesday we went to Valencia to get my companions residency card and Thursday we were finally back to Crevillente. It was an eventful week!

As much craziness as we had, it was still a productive week. Our baptism from last week got confirmed this past Sunday and he is a great little guy. He just turned 12 and we are working hard with his family to draw them to the waters of baptism.

We had quite the miracle this past week, at least for me it was a miracle. There was a less active family that we visited once when I was with my last companion here in Crevillente.  We only visited with them once because honestly I don´t think they liked my last companion. But I called them last week and we picked them up and started visiting with them. The daughter, who is 17 has always refused to pray. Yesterday, we had a family home evening with them (We had been having them weekly with them on Sundays) and we can tell that they are really starting to open up to us. The mom went on a long rant about her complaints and we just listened.  We had a really good activity for the lesson (it was basically just a big scripture study) and then we played Spoons. They had never heard of it and it was a big hit. But at the end, the daughter offered to give the closing prayer and next Sunday they will invite a friend to come (yesterday she had a friend over as well). It was awesome.

I love my mission and I am so happy to be here serving. We have a tiny branch but I love the people so much, despite all their silly Spanish quirks! =]

Well Family, 4 more weeks to go. That sounds so weird to me. But whatever, I am working hard and I love the Lord,

Os Quiero,
Elder Jason Hunt

Strong British Names

Thanks for the letter family. Sorry this one will be short, but we can talk in basically a week. I have been on a bus since 830 this morning and it is now 1800. My new comp comes in from the MTC tomorrow so the trainers came in today (pday) to the mission home. So i have been on the bus all day.

I was in Torrevieja with my MTC buddy Elder Kirkham all week and that was a blast.

We picked olives for a service project and it was a lot of fun. A member invited his neighbor to come to the service project and turns out, he was already friends with a bunch of the youth. They invited him to church and he loved it. (the branch there is half english half spanish there are a TON of old british people that live there. I got to translate) But anyway, after church he went to the branch choir practice and he just couldn´t get enough.
We talked to him and all we talked about was Christ and baptism and he was all for it. It was a good lesson and he has been very prepared. It was a really cool experience.

At Church I was standing next to elder kirkham and a nice old british sister looks at our name tags and says "Hunt, Kirkham. That is what I like to see, strong British names." It was pretty funny. I love British people. They are so funny. It was also magical to listen to an English member give a talk about Christmas. Something about English accents and Christmas made it feel like Christmas was really coming!

Well anyway, I´ve got to get going. I have no idea what is going to happen for Christmas, timetable wise. But I will hopefully let you know next week!

I love you! Sorry This is short!

Last Transfer Training

Just like Ashley I am going to have a kid! (again)

President Deere called me and told me that I will be training my last transfer in the mission. However, my companion doesn't get into the mission until the 18th. My old comp left yesterday to go home for the surgery and so I have been hanging out with the elders from "Torrevieja". Elder Kirkham is serving here so it has been a blast (He is one of my chumps from the MTC) But tomorrow all my traveling starts.

Tuesday I go back to Fuengirola to the mission home to do a trainer training. I come back here on Wednesday. I will be around here in this area until next Sunday and then Monday I take off to Fuen again to pick up my new companion. We will be in Fuen for awhile then we are off to our area. However, the 19th we have zone conference in Murcia (I am going to say these cities as if you know what I´m talking about) So instead of going to Crevillente(my area) and then to Murcia and then back again, we will stay in Murcia his first day in the mission and then head "home" after the conference.  This will be my last zone conference so that means I will give my good bye testimony. I´m not going to tell my new comp that I´m going home until after I give my good-bye testimony, so his first day in the mission field he’ll find out that his trainer is leaving him! In total, we will be together for a little less than 7 weeks. So that will be interesting.

We had our baptism for our deaf and mute investigator. It was really nice, quiet, but nice.

Well family, I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week (8 more for me!)

Os quiero,
Jason

9 Weeks Left

So 9 weeks left. You know, saying 12 and 11 and 10 weeks left was fun because it didn't seem real, but now that I am in the single digits, I feel like I got a punch in the stomach when i realized that I am at 9 weeks left. 9 weeks is nothing! Speaking of 9 weeks, apparently my companion who has been out for 7 months and I are racing to get home. Looks like he is going to win.

ok, I shouldn't be so dramatic. But turns out my comp´s wisdom teeth are coming in and he has to go home to get them taken out. So this Sunday He leaves to go back to Madrid, he will have his surgery next Monday and then recover. Funny thing about Spain is that when you get your wisdom teeth out, they take one pair out, make you recover a week, then take the second pair out. So he will be out for at least 2 weeks. So that means that I will go to another area in the zone and wait for my comp to get back. But it is weird because he’ll get back right at the transfer change and he is probably leaving. He has already been here for 2 and a half transfers. So I am curious and anxious to know what is going to happen!

Anyway, lots of fun stuff happening. It is looking like we will have a baptism this Saturday! We are excited. His name is Jose Domingo and he is deaf and mute. Lessons are very interesting. This past week we taught him the commandments. I never have been a charades fan but I am probably pretty good at it now. Try teaching "keep the Sabbath day holy" to a deaf and mute Spaniard  by acting it out. now imagine the law of chastity.

But he is great and a Elder Aviles has picked up a lot of Spanish sign language so that has been a big help. There are also two members who can do it really well so they have also been a big help.

I am not sure where I will be next week when I write, they might even close this area for a few weeks while they figure out what to do with me and my comp while we wait for him to get back. We will see!

Well family, i love you so much. I can´t believe it is the holiday season again! How exciting!

I love you all so much and I look forward to "speaking" with you again!

Os quiero,
Elder Jason Hunt

New Area

What a week! I don´t even know where to start. First of all I guess, my time in the office FLEW by, it was like a blink of an eye. It was also a blast. I had a lot of fun and made some really good friends there.

I am here in Crevillente. It is, well, interesting. Thankfully though, we are keeping busy so I don´t have too much time to think about only having 11 more weeks left in the mission (But who´s counting?! ;p ) haha

Well anyway, I had a long bus ride but it was good, I slept basically the whole time. That was nice, a good long uncomfortable nap.

The people in the surrounding areas of Crevillente say "Crevillente: Tierra Mala, Gente Peor" (Crevillente: Bad land, worse people) They are definitely interesting people here. The branch is really great and they are excited to have a new missionary. They, being a branch, are really mission minded and help out the missionaries a lot.

We are teaching a lady named Imna and she is actually getting baptized this saturday! woohoo! She got married last week (had to get married first, she was living with her "husband") and now she will get baptized. She has been what we would call a "dry member" but she is finally getting baptized and the whole branch is very excited.

An interesting experience happened this week, there is a member of the branch who is both deaf and mute and we visited him. My comp "speaks" spanish sign language so I just sat there and watched, The member had a sign language dictionary so I was skimming threw that trying to think of something to "say" to support the conversation. Nothing came to me. In the end, I just smiled and gave a thumbs up.

My comp is elder Aviles and he is a champ. He is still way young in the mission so he is still trying to figure some things out. He´s an interesting character. I am kinda bummed to be back to only speaking spanish. I love the spanish language, but nothing compares to english!

I am having a good time. I am happy and working hard. Sometimes I have to reminded myself to stop thinking too much, because after all, I do have 11 weeks left in the mission. ;p

Well family, I sent my address to my new apartment last week so I hope that if any one wants too, they can send me some holiday love! I love you all!

Os quiero,

Elder Hunt

NEW ADDRESS

(This has been his address for the last two weeks, so sorry I’m late…but even if you sent something to the Mission home, it will still get to him…it will just take a little longer…)

Wow what a week.

Elder Jason Hunt
Avda. Madrid Nº27B, 3ºA,
03330 Crevillente, (Alicante)
España

I am headed to Crevillente for the rest of my mission! woohoo! It is a tiny little spanish town and I think the 2nd smallest area in the mission. They have a little branch there. I am very excited to go. I'll only be there for 12 weeks though, boy does the time fly. I have loved my time in the office but I am ready to get out and be a regular ol missionary. My comp there is from Ecuador, so I'll get to go back to 100% Spanish all the time right before I come home! I am sending a link from google maps so you can see the travel I will do this week
https://maps.google.es/maps?q=crevillente&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF-8&ei=NISeULvQCZDEswafyIDYBw&ved=0CAsQ_AUoAg

It is all on bus.

My address is above so whoever wants to send some holiday love, feel free! =] I could go for some "Land O Lakes" Hot Chocolate if anyone was wondering.

The week was really busy, we found a man from Norway that was baptised 20 years ago and he let us start teaching him again. We will see what happens.

Oh man. What a week, I love my mission so much. I am sorry I am not more detailed, but the lord has blessed me so much. I have seen his hand in my mission and I have seen him bless me and the lives of so many others. I love the lord and I love his gospel.

Talk to you all next week!

OH YEA! IMPORTANT! MY PDAY WILL BE BACK TO MONDAY. So next monday I´ll write you!
Oh yea, went to an Ecudorian family´s house for dinner this week and they gave us all a whole fried fish. It wasn´t bad, I actually really liked it, but those Ecuadorians eat the wierdest stuff. I´m not sure how I feel about an Ecuadorian comp. I´ll have to American-ize him.

We played Mini Golf for Pday today, it was a blast, I ended up getting forth out of 5th place, but me 3rd and 2nd place were all within one point difference. So I kept up.

“No” in over 3 languages!

My week went really fast.

Every week seems to go by really fast.

I love my mission. It´s the best.

We talked to a Jewish man this past week and he actually lived in the US for a long time and spoke pretty good English. We asked his name and he said David. I thought to myself, "well that´s appropriate."

Get it?

Anyway, We have had a lot more time in our area this transfer so it has been nice to go out and not have to worry about going back into the office for most of this transfer. We had some quality searching time this week. We knocked on lots of doors and talked to lots of people in the street. I love knocking doors. I know a lot of people criticize it as being the least effective way of finding people to teach, but that is where you meet the really interesting people. In one building alone we met a chileno, a russian, a fin(someone from Finland?) 2 brits and a Spaniard. We heard "no" in over 3 languages! hah.

Anyways, I am doing well. I am happy and I love serving the Lord. I can´t believe that we are in the last week of this transfer and then my last 2 start. I just can´t seem to come into grasps with it. it is so weird. I don´t know if you have realized it yet, but I am under 100 days until I get home, I think it is 95 or 96. I can´t remember.

For Pday, we went on this incredible hike with the Deeres (Mission president´s family) Actually, we only went with the kids because President and Hermana Deere had to go to Madrid for a conference. I am working on sending pictures. It was a pretty intense hike, but it was way fun! I´ll send pics soon.

I love you all so much. Thank you for you prayers and support!

Os Quiero,
Elder Hunt

These are pictures from the big hike we went on
They are going to be really small, sorry about that.

Short Story and Birthday Thank You’s!

This week was pretty quick,

short story, Honestly this is the only thing that sticks out from the week.
we were out knocking on doors and we came across a really grumpy old Spanish man. He told us that he was a true Christian and that weren´t because we worshiped Joseph Smith and believed in the book of mormon which talks about nothing but Joseph Smith and he continued telling us lots and lots of rude things. It got to the point where we were talking and he was yelling. I spoke over him and said "HEY (in English, then in Spanish I said,) We came here from a far away country trying to share a message from God to a fellow Christian, if you don´t want it, fine, we´ll leave". Then I proceeded to testify about Christ and that the Book of Mormon is a testament of Him. He didnt have much to say after that so he closed his door and we moved on to the next. 

But, that is the Spanish for ya.

The Mission is great. I wouldn´t trade it for anything in the world.
It is official, I am out of the office on November 14, but I still don´t know where I am headed. I will keep you updated

I love you all and thanks for the birthday love!

As far as the birthday shoutouts, I made a little list, but I forgot it at home...so....I will do my best to write it for memory.
You all (mom, dad, cameron, Jennifer, Ashley, John)
Skankeys
Grandma Jensen
Grandma Hunt (with a package a candy! =] )
The Moffats
Brownings
Chris Loomis,
Blakes,
Shirleys
I feel like there are a few more...I will have to look at my list and let you know next week...my bad. But thank you EVERYONE who sent me some birthday love! I LOVED getting the birthday cards!

Os Quiero
Elder Hunt

3 Golden Questions...and a Strange Analogy

Again, another fast week.
Where are the days going!?!

I look back and think, wait, what did I even do this week?!

In the mission we have been focusing a lot on "el rescate" The rescue, as phrased by President Monson, by working with less actives to re activate them and then find new investigators through them. President Deere, awhile ago, gave us three questions that we have come to call "President Deere´s 3 Golden Questions" and we have been working with the members active and less active using these questions. As we visit members we share something nice, or ask them to share their conversion story (we are still in the first generation of members in Spain, everyone that is a member is a convert from missionary efforts) just something to bring in the Spirit. Then we ask them 1) Who do they know that is less active, by this point, we have been talking sharing and they are a bit more open, (we did this last week and the member gave us about 30 names!) 2) who do you know that is a part member family? and then 3) who do you know that has listened to the missionaries in the past or has been to church before. This last question is supposed to be where to be where the gold is at. The Area Presidency said last year that Spanish are like the froth of beer (why they used beer as the example I don´t know). If you want to reach the heart of a Spaniard, it takes them 7 contacts with the gospel. If you have a glass of we´ll say root beer and you want a drop of water to get inside to the liquid, it would take 7 drops from a water dropper to penetrate the froth and make its way into the beverage. (that was their example) So as we ask people "who has heard the missionaries before?" we are looking for the people who have already had a few "droplets" into their "froth".

We have been using these questions in a lot of our lessons and we are finding quite a bit of success.
This is such an inspired work.
I love it.

Oh! One quick miracle story.
My companion and I were walking to a lesson in the town Mijas Pueblo in a part of the town that we had never been to before, we roughly knew where the family lived, but we took one left turn too early and starting walking down the street that was parallel to the street we wanted. As we walked, a little confused, because none of the numbers were matching up on the buildings, we hear a yell "Elders!" and we turn around and see a man waving to us. We walk over and start talking to him. His name was Edwardo and he told us that he hadn´t seen missionaries around there for 3 or so years. He was a baptized in his country (Ecuador) but hadn´t been to church in years. He gave us his phone number and address and told us to stop by sometime this upcoming week. It was incredible. I feel that I don´t even need to elaborate, but, everything is in the hands of the Lord. It wasn´t coincidence at all that Edwardo saw us when we took a wrong turn. Stuff like that doesn´t happen. It is all designed by the Master. Again, I love it. I am so grateful to be a missionary serving and looking after the Lord´s sheep. I love the Lord, I love his Gospel.

This week was good and I look forward to another one!
Os quiero,
Jason

The picture is...well... we had some spare time in the office one day. Those are all 4 of the office elders´ faces. Elder Hall actually just went home 2 weeks ago, so we got a new one now, his name is Elder Peterson.

Big News in the Family!

Hi Everyone,

This is Ashley, Elder Hunt’s older sister – the one who has been posting his letters ;) Anyway, we had some big news in our family this past week when I announced that my husband and I are expecting! Because of this announcement, Elder Hunt didn’t really write anything regarding his week last week, but we wanted to post his reaction to the news here :)

I wrote him separately (from the rest of the family) to tell him and here is what he wrote back to me:
¡ENHORABUENA!
(CONGRATULATIONS)

Oh man...
I think I said "oh my gosh" or "oh man" about 50 times before it finally sunk in about what you were saying.
oh man. I can´t even believe it! I don´t know what to say, but I do have a big smile on my face!

Wow. What an exciting announcement! I am so happy for you!

This is so exciting!

I think Mom is going off into Grandma mode or something because she told me she thinks I´ll get married before next summer (2014) comes. I don´t see that happening. The mission has helped, but I don´t think I´m nearly mature enough! haha.

Well Ashley and John, I wish you health and happiness in these next couple of months. Oh my gosh, the first time I see you after I get home that thing will have probably grown a ton. oh jeeze.

Anyways, I feel I am just rambling, but congratulations, I am so happy for you!
Love you,
Jason
PS: Yes, you may name your creation after me. ;p

(To the rest of the Family)
AHHHHHHHHHH! ASHLEY IS EMBERAZADA! AHHHH!

Oh man.
Wow.

I don´t even know what to say!
I sent Ashley my reaction so i guess you can just talk to her about it.

Does todo el mundo know about this already? or is it kind of a secret still? Or am I the last to know? anyways, I am so happy for them and that is so exciting!

oh man, mom and dad will be grandma and grandpa! AHHH!
What crazy news!

Honestly I don´t have anything to say that could possibly compare to such incredible and exciting news. So I guess I´ll just talk to you next week!

You can see our announcement (should you be interested :) HERE

Madre Mía!

This week FLEW by!

MONDAY-Sick in Bed, tried to go out in the afternoon and work, bad idea.
TUESDAY-Sick in the morning, then went and worked the afternoon
WEDNESDAY- Regular work day
THURSDAY- left for San Fernando to do a split with missionaries
FRIDAY- Snacks for the road (5€), getting our car towed (100€), going on splits and just being a missionary (Priceless)
SATURDAY- We have cleaned so far and we are emailing right now.

Wow, what a quick week!

I have been so tired lately, just beat, we have been moving non-stop but in these moments of exhaustion  I think of the words of Elder Holland when he said, in a moment of exhaustion "I will do this every single day until I take my last breath!" I am no Elder Holland, but those are some words that hit me hard and I strive to live by.

Os quiero mucho sabe!?
Elder Hunt 

Zone Conference and Vineyards

As for my week...

We had our Zone conference with Elder Kent F. Richards from the Europe Area Presidency and the Second Quorum of the 70. It was really good. we started at 0900 and it ended at 1400. It was just him talking, but he was so good that the time flew, the fastest zone conference I have ever been! I did have to translate for a big section of it though, Elder Nally and I switched off. My brain always feels like mush after it. I got pretty tired toward the end and I kept yawning. One of the Spanish sisters turns around, looks at me and says (in spanish)" Stop yawning! I can´t understand you when you speak and yawn!" I just shrugged my shoulders. But the conference went over really well and lunch was tasty afterwards. When I thought afterwards about what he taught, it wasn´t that he taught us new things or different doctrine, he taught us the stuff that we already knew, he went over basic stuff, but he taught with such a spirit, and with so much power that it just captivated me. It was so good and I felt so edified afterwards. Before the conference we had a leadership training and he talked to us about D&C 121. I´ve read that section tons of times but he expounded those scriptures to us and he just opened my eyes. Again, it was just incredible. The whole leadership training was basically a call to repentance and humility but he did it in such loving way. He is an incredible teacher. Or I should say, he has learned to teach by the spirit so well that all that hear can feel it.

Other than that, the week has just flown! We are about to start week 6 of the transfer and once it is over I will be in my LAST transfer in the office! hurray! Not that I don´t love it, but being a normal missionary is so much more rewarding.

I am sitting here in the office, drinking a pepsi, (it is cheaper than coke) and eating some Jamón (the pig leg) flavored potato chips. P day is the best.

I attached a picture of a little Spanish village that we visited a few weeks ago. When you see the size of the olive viñas, Jacob 5 and all the references to the Viña del Señor, (vineyard of the lord I guess that would be). This picture doesn´t do it justice, but let me tell, they have some HUGE olive vineyards around here. I am so grateful to the Lord for this opportunity that has been given me to work in his vineyard, especially in this section that might be a little drier than others. I love the Savior and I love my mission.

Well, I love you all! I hope you have great weeks!
Os quiero muxo!
-Elder Hunt

In the News

I am so grateful for your prayers. You have probably heard on the News about the riots in N. Africa, we pulled the Missionaries there out. There are now here in Málaga. President Deere calls me at 2330 and tells me that he needs them out of there and over here as soon as possible. So me and Elder Hall got out of bed and walked over to the office and got them some tickets for the morning. President told us to look up what was going on online so we got to check the news, it was weird. The news. But they are out and it isn´t looking like they are going to go back any time soon.

This week we are having a General Authority tour. Elder Richards from the 2nd quorum of the 70 is coming over here to do zone conferences and what not. So that has been pretty exciting.

It hit me this last week that my birthday is in a month! I´ll be 21! Dad, weren´t you 21 when you got married?! I still feel like I´m a kid!

I´m just trucking along I guess. Everything is going along pretty normal. I just don´t want to think about what is going on right now with our investigator benny. Really, this weekend has been a roller coaster of emotions. From highest highs to the lowest lows, but ya know what, it is all in the Lord´s hands so no matter what happens, it will all be well.

love you!
Jason

I went on splits down in Aaaafrica, and guess what it rained while I was in aaaaaAaaaafrica, I bless the raiiiinnn down in aaaafricaaa...

And the song continues....

But really, I had the coolest experience this past week. I actually got back this morning. My comp and I went on splits in Melilla (look it up on Google Maps) in Northern Africa. It was so much fun and such a good experience. It was so nice to get out of the office and have a great split.

I was on a boat and the landmass in the background was Morocco! AFRICA!

This one was out when we were contacting and taking the Book of Mormon out a foreign land!

There were so many Muslims. Holy cow. They were everywhere. We saw them all gathered together for the evening prayer in the community center. It is a such an interesting culture. We were knocking on doors looking for any one who wasn´t Muslim and in one building nobody answered the certain door we knocked so we go to the next one and a guy from Morocco answers, says he is Muslim so we ask him if he knew any Christians or Spaniards how lived around. He asked "You guys are American right?" We say "yeah" and he points to the door we just finished knocking and says "watch out for this guy then, he is from the Taliban", we give him a pass along card and he closes the door. Almost as if it was cued, the Taliban Guy´s door opens and this big and tall Arabic man opens it and he has this long dark nasty beard and basically yells asking what we want. We said we were introducing ourselves to all the building because we offer service to everyone, offered to hand a pass a long card, he didn´t take it, so we took off. Apparently we were in the Taliban building because of what happened and also we saw the ladies that cover them selves up 99.9% (they are in all black and have the slits for only their eyes to be seen.) It is was pretty intense. We we never scared, but it was one of those "that could have been bad" situations. The Lord protects his servants and that is the truth.

The rest of the split was incredible. Two of our best elders are over there so it was just a great opportunity to go out and work with them.  As far as we knew, we were the only 4 missionaries in all of Northern Africa. The work is going forward!

I had a blast on the split and it makes me soooo excited to get out of the office. I seriously can´t wait to have a regular area. But I love what I am doing because I am constantly serving.

We took a really long ferry ride from Málaga to Melilla from 1300-2030 on Thursday, worked with them Thursday night and then all day Friday. We left yesterday(Friday) at 2330 and we got into Málaga today at 0800. Needless to say, we are a little tired. But it is a good tired because it is after a long day of hard work.

We got a room for the boat ride back. I called it the "bo-tel" (Boat Hotel) because the place looked just like a hotel. I am holding the "duty-free" store magazine. It was a small room, and my comp snores, but I still got some rest.

Nothing else can really match with that experience from this past week. I mean, I filed some paperwork on Wednesday.

Tonight we have the baptismal interview for our investigator Benny. I hope everything goes well. I am not worried about it, but ya know, anything could happen, I mean shoot, I just went to Africa! (I hope my shots are up to date!)

Well family, friends, I love you all so much. Thanks for your letters, love and support. I love my mission so much. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Talk to you next week!

Os Quiero,
Jason

Spanish Buzz and Besitos

The week was such a blur. We have been so busy this transfer, I can´t believe we are at the end of week 2, I feel like it just started!

We had zone conference this past week and ever since coming to the office I haven´t liked zone conference as much because 1, I know what is going to be taught and 2, I have to translate. My companion and I switch every speaker. But after a 3 hour meeting of translating, my brain feels like mush.

The church and missions world wide have been doing "el rescate" (the rescue) of working on bringing less actives back to church, so as a teaching point for ZC president and sister Deere showed the clip of Buzz Lightyear from toy story 3 when Buzz goes Spaniard and says "Buzz Lightyear, al rescate". I did not realize how funny that clip is. They did a spot on job of a Spaniard, everyone was cracking up.

Two weeks ago, an old Spanish lady stopped us in the street and asked us what we were doing here, we explained and gave your typical explanation and we asked if we could come over another day and share our message with her, she agreed and we wrote down her address. I gave her a pass along card of the savior before we took off, she took the card, and give it a big wet "besito" (little kiss), the Catholic Custom in Spain is to kiss the "Imagines" of Christ. I love it, I think it is hilarious, it might be bad, but I like to see how many people I can get to kiss the picture in a day. You have to entertain yourself somehow right?! So yesterday we passed by her house and she didn´t want to let us in at first, but I saw lots of pictures in her house so I asked if she wouldn´t mind showing us her pictures. She agreed, showed us her family, and all the "imagines" of Christ that she has around the house and then we asked if we could share a message. She was kinda crazy and said she was a Catholic Jehovah´s Witness. I really wanted to tell her she was a Mormon Catholic Jehovah´s Witness, but I held my tongue. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy, she said she would read it and even gave the book cover a kiss when we handed it to her. We will see if anything comes out of it.

Our Investigator, Benny, has been doing really well. He is down to 1 cigarette a day and we hope that he can give it up completely this upcoming week. He was smoking a pack a day when we started teaching him and now he is down to 1. It has been such a blessing being able to help and support him as he quits smoking so he can keep the commandments and then be baptized.

As I was doing some work in the office this past week I found out that the visa process for Americans coming into Spain has been stopped, we have been getting fewer and fewer Americans with visas and we didn´t know why. Turns out, the intern at the US consulate that processes our visas quit back in May and the church hasn´t put anyone new in yet. So we have attempted to raise awareness about the issue to the Mission Department and the Area Presidency. I have been able to talk with General Authorities. It is kinda scary. Elder Kent Richards (who is coming to do a mission tour) called the other day, I was kinda nervous, not sure why, I just was. heh.

And here’s a picture, it was a long day in the office so we decided to treat ourselves before going on. I bought the good milk (remember, the rest comes in boxes) (for a hefty price too,) and some Oreos, and that made the rest of the day in the office much better.

Well, it has been a good week. A fast week but a good one none the less.

Os quiero,
Jason

Time is Flying By!

Week 1 of this transfer just flew by! Every single day we had something mission related going on.

We got one new sister missionary this week and four missionaries finished their missions this past transfer, so on Thursday we shipped them off. I don´t like taking people to the airport, it makes me think way to much of when it will be my turn! One more elder went home but not because he finished his mission, I guess you could say that he finished his mission, but he apparently just wasn´t into it and decided to go home. So we took him to the airport on Wednesday and sent him off to his home town in Chile. This is the 4th missionary that was gone home early since I have been here in the office. It is unbelievable! I hate it! It makes me feel awful because I can see how much these people are missing out on! and I haven´t even finished my mission! But that was a big bummer for the week. Yesterday on Friday we had a Zone Meeting in Málaga and it was really nice. My companion and I taught a section of the meeting on obedience. I was a little hesitant with this topic because every time a missionary gives a presentation or talk on obedience they open up to preach my gospel chapter 6 and read the paragraph and the 6 scriptures that accompany it. So everyone has heard that talk before, so we took a different approach. We read the story of Balak and Balaam (the talking donkey and the angel from the old testament) and we made missionary connections to the story and how we can learn about obedience from the story. It was a lot of fun because one it is a fun story and two it was a change up of things. We got a good reception and missionaries commented afterwards that they liked it. So that was nice.

We had very little time to go out and work in our area this week but we had one lesson. It was super weird though, I get a call from Benny (one of our investigators)´s mom and she is freaking out and crying to me on the phone telling me that Benny is tripping out and having a huge temper. She said he was being aggressive and yelling at her. I felt terrible and at a complete loss of what to say. I asked her, what do you want us to do? She tried giving the phone to him but he wouldn't´t talk to me. I asked her if we could come over and she said please do. We try to go over there, but the mom says, he has just gone to sleep so come back tomorrow.
We go back the next day and we try to talk about the call I got but they were acting as if nothing had happened. It was super weird. Benny had a baptismal date for the 31st of August but we all decided it would be best to push it into September. It was just a weird situation. We are going over again tonight with a member so hopefully they can help.

I sent some pictures. One is of me in the office.

One is of our new and nice living area, we painted last week.

and the other is of the study desks.

Well family, this week was a quick one and I look forward to another one!
Os quiero,
Jason

Busy Week!

This week was a blur, transfer weeks always seem to go so fast.

We were looking at our upcoming week and we have something large every single day, not including the daily duties that are required of us.

Monday- Office meeting
Tuesday - New missionaries come in
Wednesday - Old Missionaries come into the mission home
Thursday - Old Missionaries go home
Friday - Zone Meeting
Saturday - P-Day
Sunday- Church

It will be a busy week to say the least.

It hit me today, today being the last day of this transfer, that I have 4 transfers left. 4 Transfers is nothing, that goes by so quick! Time sure is flying, but I won´t complain :p

Nothing too crazy happened this week, we finally got around to painting our burnt apartment and we made an IKEA run to get new stuff. I love Ikea. We got some good stuff, I will send pictures when I get a chance.
The mission has been focusing on "El Rescate" (the rescue) by bringing less actives back to church and gospel activity. We had 3 less actives in church today so we were very happy with that. The ward did a great job at making them feel welcomed. It was great to see the ward embrace these less active members and make them feel invited to participate in everything.

Well, I have to run, I love you all and I am so grateful for all of your prayers and support.

Os quiero,
Jason

What a week!

I feel like the weeks are turning into just one long day. This past week just flew by. This week was supposed to be one of our more calm weeks, but of course, it took a change for the crazier side.  I don´t remember which day (again, the week felt like one long day) but President Deere sends Elder Hall and Manning down to a place called Sanlucar to go pick up some missionaries, nobody knew why but they picked them up and brought them to the mission office and President met with them. Turns out, one of them was having some issues and wasn´t making good decisions (Girl related) and had to be sent home. So that took the calmness out of the week. That is the WORST part about being in the office. We know where the problems are, who isn´t getting along with who, who isn´t being obedient, but I just like to think that all the other missionaries are perfect, and then stuff like this happens. Elder Nally and I realized that he is the THIRD missionary that has been sent home since we have been in the office. Last year, only one missionary got sent home (he chose to) for the whole year and that was a big deal, this year, in just 2ish months, 3 have gone home, (2 had to and 1 chose)! It seriously is a bummer.

But on a happier note, we had some great lessons. We get very little time in our area, but once we are there we try to make it count.

The same night the elder got sent home, we were in the office most the afternoon, and we had thirty minutes left before it was time to go in for the night. At this point it would seem to just go in, we could get very little done, but I just didn´t feel good with going in early, so Elder Nally and I decided to go pass by the house of an investigator and see if we could set up another time to teach her. As we walk up to her house a big group of drunk guys yell to us and tell us to come over there and preach to them, I yelled back "Tenemo´ pri-tha!" (we are in a hurry with an andaluz accent) and we entered into the investigator´s building. She wasn´t home so we exited the building and decide to go back using a different street (one that we never use) to go home so we could avoid the drunk crowd. As we were walking, an African lady pops out of a door and says "hey! where is the church?" (she was from Nigeria so she speaks English) and we began talking to her and explaining where the church is located. She is a member and has been living in various places around Europe and has never found the church since she left Nigeria. This kind of stuff doesn´t happen. We had 30 minutes left and we went on a road that we never go on and Chi Chi (her name) found us. It was a blessing for obedience and a testimony that the Lord is at the helm of this work. As Elder Nally and I talked about what happened as we walked home I couldn´t help but feel so grateful for being a missionary. I love it. I love serving the Lord and preaching the gospel.
Today for Pday we went up on these Cable Cars and saw a falcon/Bird show at the top. It was super cool. I had a falcon land on my head. It was kinda freaky. It didn´t hurt until it took off, its talons dug into my head a bit so that hurt a little. But it was way fun and a good Pday activity. We actually took President Deere´s kids with us because he and Sister Deere are in Germany for a mission president seminar. The kids are always bored so we got permission from president to take them to hang out with us for Pday. It was a lot of fun and I think the kids enjoyed it as well.

I will be sure to send some Falcon/Eagle/Hawk/Owl pictures once we get that organized.
Os quiero mucho!
Jason