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