October 5, 2015

Hey everyone! This week has been pretty interesting. It's been a bit
hard though. The work is slow in this area. There's been some really
cool miracles this week though.

You know the girl we met on the street after my bike lock incident that I told you about last week? So we'd been pretty disappointed because we weren't able to meet with her last week. She wasn't there at the appointment we had set, and we lost her cell number. We were worried that when we had talked with her
last week she was just trying to get rid of us or something, or being polite but didn't really want to listen to our message. We had that mentality until last Monday night, when we unexpectedly received a text from her. She apologized that she wasn't there at the appointment and said that'd she'd been super busy that week. But she still wants us to come over so she and her mom are working on a time that we can come over this week. Very exciting!

We also met Another Sister this week. We were biking down the street Tuesday to get to the church building when this lady down one of the streets starts waving at us, waving her broom and calling for us. She's in her mid 60's and turns out she's had a very trying history and right now has a autistic child in her 40's who hasn't been given much longer to live. She's been trying to run the house with her husband having health problems, etc. But she asked us if we could help her and pray for her family. We've been able to go back and help her
and talk to her some. Turns out she has a son and grandson who are both Mormon and she's encouraged them to go to church and stuff. Hopefully more will be happening with her.

We also got in contact with a lady who wants to meet with us. She's had a lot of crazy stuff happening in her life and is really embarrassed about her past. She wants to meet with us though. We haven't been able to meet with her yet. Hopefully we'll see her in person this week.

The work has been slow but our teaching pool has been growing. I remember we were asked by our Ward mission leader to teach some member families to give us "practice". We haven't had a lot of lesson visits with many people. I remember feeling frustrated from the meeting, feeling like 1. It wasn't enough to keep us busy and 2. felt frustrated that my visa had been delayed for something like this, an area where we don't have a tone of people to teach. I guess it felt anti-climactic needless to say. I was thinking about this,  and then I remember the phrase came to my mind "stop worrying about if you're doing enough; go and make Mesa you're home". I've felt a lot less self conscious after that point and a lot more happier. There's a lot of really cool people in our wards and I'm learning a lot.

Mesa's awesome and I'm learning a lot of cool stuff. If you could keep Brianna, Sandy Geis, Dawn Surakus and the Farley family in your prayers that would be awesome!

Ik hou van  jullie!

Elder Hunt

Trainer, First Arizona sunset, and landscape

With First Trainer Elder Roberson

more pictures from Sept 28, 2015

Branch Presidency in the MTC

Brother Ellis on the top right served his mission in the Netherlands so he would speak Dutch with us.

Gets to see Elder Sam Madsen

Ending the first day in Mesa with Ice cream sandwiches

September 28,2015

 Well... so you're all waiting to hear what Arizona's like. Well, it's hot, it's dry, and it's AWESOME! Me and Zuster Parker got reassigned to the Mesa, Arizona mission until our visa applications were approved. I want to apologize in advance. I've been taking TONES of pictures to show you what Arizona is like, and then realized that my card reader is lost in my luggage somewhere. So I can't send pictures right now (I promise I'll send like 30 pictures next week). I was disappointed.

Nope the missionaries here aren't as spoiled as I thought they would be. I don't have my i-pad, I don't have my i-phone, and I don't have my car. It's me and my cute bike. It's great prep for Suriname though. To get a car in the mission you have have a health condition, be a AP, ZL, Spanish, ASL, or YSA missionary to get your car. I don't fit any of those categories so I get a bike. Biking isn't bad in Mesa though. You literally can't bike for more than 2 minutes before someone honks and waves at you.

Missionaries in the Mesa mission don't get i-phones. But they do get i-pads. I have to wait three weeks to receive mine. So I'll officially have an i-pad for 3 weeks of my mission. The missionaries are definitely spoiled though in the fact that we're eating dinner with a member family every night. It's the coolest because we'll go to the store or go eat somewhere and someone will pay for our stuff (or buy us extra stuff). At the grocery store by our apartment, if you scan the bar code that's on the Book of Mormons they have here, you get a VP discount. There's all sorts of stuff like that here in Mesa.

My companion is Elder Roberson. He's from the heart of Portland, Oregon, and he's AWESOME! I've been learning sooo much. He keeps telling me that I've come to the mission field pre trained though.

Elder Burr and Buehler left a day before I did, so I got to hang out with the other Dutch missionaries headed to the Netherlands for a day. It felt sooo taboo being there in the MTC with just me and Zuster Parker. I got to teach by myself that day though. The lesson was awesome!! It was a solid 35 minute lesson of just Dutch!

The flight was good. Got up at 2:10 and all that fun stuff. There were three other reassignment missionaries besides me and Sister Parker. Two Portuguese and a Spanish missionary. Luckily there's missionaries from Brazil here in the mission so the Portuguese reassignments got to be paired with them. And Spanish is obviously in Mesa. I'm like one of 4 people in Mesa that speak some Dutch.

At orientation we went over some rules about cars, i-pads, etc. President and Sister Jenkins are super nice. They let us take a 2 hour nap at the mission home after orientation. I remember I woke up from my nap, walked down the hall still tired from the nap and Elder Madsen and his comp were there. It surprised me soo much but I was so happy to see them. I got to spend the night with them. I got to see a baptismal service that night was so cool.

I'm in the Mesa South Stake covering the Cooper and Kingsborough Park wards. We were at some apartments making visits and we were about to leave and the lock on our bikes wouldn't unlock. We tried to unlock it and were starting to panic a little bit after 10 minutes. We finally got the bikes unlocked. Not 1 minute past and we were on the sidewalk, and there was a girl walking down the street. We talked to her and she totally agreed with everything we were saying. Her name is Briana and she accepted a Book of Mormon and a return appointment! It was super cool, it was my first street contact!

The neighborhoods here remind me a lot of Orem with St. George landscaping. Most people here are either already Mormon, work with Mormons, or are super active in their churches. Everyone is super active in their churches if they adhere to one. We'll talk to people in the streets or on their front porches and they'll talk to us about how they've already seen/read some of the Book of Mormon and how they're comfortable with what they have.

We're teaching a hand full of people. We're teaching the Farley family who have been investigating the church for 22 years! The husband already knows the church is true, but his wife has been anti-Mormon. But for the past month, she's been sitting in on the lessons. The first time in the past 22 years! Hopefully stuff comes about from it.

I'm loving Arizona and everyone here! I'm beginning to see why I've been called here. The work is progressing!

Ik hou van jullie!

Elder Hunt

Zuster Schwab

Broedar Norton

Broeder Bonny

This is Elder Hunt with President and Sister Jenkins. He is From Idaho and was called in 2013

So 5 hours later...... on September 16,2015

So....... I just received word that my visa didn't come through with Suriname. The Travel Office is re-assigning me to the Mesa Arizona mission for a transfer. I fly from Salt Lake City and arrive in Phoenix, Arizona at 9:18 am. So ya... that's what's happening.  Zuster Parker was told she's headed to Mesa too

 We leave Tuesday and not Monday.  I'll probably call you before I leave the airport  I'll probably call you around 7 o'clock. I arrive in Phoenix at 9:18 am. Apparently it's just orientation day that day.

The night I got my reassignment I called Brother Parkes (1st counselor in our zone). He's a super nice and sweet man . I called him and he came over an hour or two later. We had a good 40 minute talk just helping me with my reassignment. I made sure he knew how grateful I was to have him come to the MTC last minute and take that time out of his night. It was a really good talk.

I'm actually super pumped to go to Arizona now. Last night at dinner I was talking with one of the Danish sisters who's from Gilbert. She said that Mesa is like a mini Utah, and that there are a tone of members there. I'm super excited to go now. The difficulty now is trying to keep up all of my Dutch. Anyways, I'll call you Tuesday at 7ish.

Talk to you Tuesday!

Elder Hunt

Also we got to go off campus. Travel sent us to the BYU police department to get fingerprinted for visa paperwork. I haven't gotten a notification that they've reassigned me so I'm guessing my visa to Suriname came through. .

Friend from school, they got to go to Germany together as exchange students

hoi! Ik ben on! September 16, 2015

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!! Gelukkige verjaardag!!! I'm soooo sorry my card to you will be late. I've been super busy here in the MTC. I'm trying to pack up, get haircuts, do dry cleaning, figure out what I need to send home, eat, write friends and family, and then on top of that I have my classes and trying to plan lessons in Dutch. We also got a new recruit to our district. Eldste (Elder) Holt is headed to Sweden. His district left on Monday, but he fractured his ankle or something so he has to wait until tomorrow to see the doctor. If he get's the ok than he's headed to Sweden. Meanwhile he gets to hang with us. Elder Buehler is his comp now so me and Elder Burr are sort of comps.

Update on my travel plans. We got our travel plans last Friday!!! We're super stoked! This Monday (Sep 21st), we fly from Salt Lake City and:

Arrive in Houston at 12:05 Texas time, (11:05 SL Time)

Depart Houston at 1:40pm Texas time, (12:40 SL Time)

Arrive in Port of Spain at 8:20pm New York time. (6:20 SL Time).

There's 8 people in our travel group. There're us four Dutchies, and then we think two more Spanish missionaries and 2 English missionaries. And with our luggage we're allowed 50 pounds to get to Trinidad, and then travel within the mission is 44 pounds. So ya, we're probably allowed 50 pounds to Trinidad, put we have to be at our 44 pound mark to fly to Suriname a few days later.

Maar ja, I'm like intimidated and super excited to leave at the same time. I love traveling and seeing new places but at the same time I'm super intimidated because I actually have to talk to people now XD. Whatever, as long as I'm doing my best to be worthy of and keep the spirit with me, that's all that's important. If they listen to me or not is their problem ;D.

I like learning a language because it forces you to give lessons extremely simply. All my Dutch books are so freakishly heavy! I'm going to have to send some stuff home. Idk what, but being over even a few pounds over 44lbs/50lbs can cost hundreds of dollars. Our lessons are getting better. I remember our "investigator", Evine, exclaimed in one of our lessons we gave her, "Ik voel zo gelukkig met dit!", -I feel so happy with this-, which was cool to see, even if it was fake.

For TRC this week we did Skype. We taught a man from Belgium. I remember it was super hard to understand him. In Dutch there's Hollander Dutch (proper Dutch that we're learning), Vlaams, or Flemish/Belgian Dutch, and Surinamer Dutch (which is pretty much simple Dutch). Afrikaans is pretty much Dutch, just super simple. Everyone calls Vlaams -Flemish-, Irish Dutch. In vlaams they don't pronounce any gutturals, very different from Hollander Dutch, and talk with what we would call an Irish accent. But ya, he was super cool. Kinda made me wish that I was going to the Netherlands again but I know I'm supposed to go to Suriname or wherever the mish president needs me.

The devotionals here have been AMAZING (as usual)!!! Brother Heaton, head admin at the MTC, spoke to us about the importance of recognizing the spirit and having the spirit with us. One of the things he said that I thought were super cool was that, one of our payments for serving a mission (probably the biggest), is being able to learn how to receive answers to prayers. He played a video that was by Bednar. In the video Bednar said, "Have you wondered if, in missionary work, it's you or the spirit?". I love his response: "If you are, quit worrying about it". Not at all what I was expecting but showed me that we shouldn't be enamored with this idea of whether or not we have the spirit with us when we talk to or teach people. This is something that I've definitely needed to work on. Tuesday night President Wixom, primary general president, was the guest speaker. She gave an amazing talk. One of the things that stood out to me was the importance of praying to have a love for the people that you serve. She also said that "missions are the beginning of a walk with the savior that will last for the rest of [our] lives". She also reminded us what we need to know what it means and feels to exercise faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance. This is something that I think I really need to work on. Maar, I'm learning so much here in the MTC and even though I'm super nervous, I know that I will have the spirit of the Lord, the powers of heaven, and manifestation of angels on our left and right as we go forth. I'm grateful for that manifestation that I have already felt in the MTC. 

I'm loving the MTC and I'm super excited to go to Suriname. Most likely the next time I'll write to you, I'll probably be in Trinidad or Suriname.

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

The Three Musketeers 

Elder Josh found this great shirt