July 29th, 2011

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Sorry I don't have much time (as usual) and I am going to e-mail a few other people this week so I better keep this short!

AWKWARDS INCOMODOS y CHISTES

• ok... so I don't have very many this week. Actually I don't really have any.  I'm sorry. Hahah. This week wasn't very awkward... maybe because I am just too comfortable here now!  Funny things happen everyday though.. but they are the sort of things that you have to be there for!  I guess I will share that our district leader and another elder in our district (they were friends before) played a big joke on us Hermanas this week and pretended that they got in a fight during gym and were having to go home.  I wasn't so sure if I was convinced or not.. they are always joking!  But Hermana Michaud and Harper were both definitely very convinced.. it was quite funny
• that one time when Hna. Harper and I taught and couldn't stop laughing the whole time... yeah, one of the elders in our zone saw the whole thing and every time he sees us now without fail he asks us to sing 'Mas Cerca Dios De Ti' (neared my god to thee) hahaha. We are known as the hermanas that sing... except we haven't sang at the beginning of a lesson since then now... we are too scared we will crack up!!

AWESOMES

• once again I have to say how awesome it is that we pray 24/7 here. At least 10 times a day, and always fully in Spanish, which is AWESOME!  Spanish prayers are so beautiful
• the devotional this week was Elder Simmons... he was Alan Hood's mission president in SLC and he is in Alicia's ward in Fruit Heights.  It was so awesome!  So many of the things he said were major answers to my prayers this week
• on Sunday for the fireside the speaker (Elder Allen) had us listen to the Mo-Tab version of Come Come Ye Saints and he had us sing along with it... it was SO incredible.  Once again, I bawled my eyes out!  The spirit was so strong!!

Ok... all I have to say is that this place is absolutely amazing.  If anyone is questioning going on a mission, there is one answer.  DO IT.  If you are worthy and able to go, DO IT.  There is no other place I would rather be right now and no better place I could be.  Heavenly Father answers my prayers every single day and my faith and testimony is being strengthened every day.  I am so happy to be where I am!  The weeks are flying by and I can't believe that next week I will have been here a month... wowww time is so weird here!  At the same time I feel like I have been here forever.  Mom to answer your question--yes we do go to the temple!  Finally!  It has been closed this whole time but just opened this week so we got to go today.  It was amazing!  Inside the Provo Temple is sooo beautiful!  Also Spencer Hatch was in our session which was fun, I talked to him for awhile. 

Well, that's about it for this week!  Some days are hard here and you feel pretty low, but it's always worth it once you get past it.  I have never been happier... the gospel is so incredible and essential for everyone!  I hope everyone has a fabulous week!  Continue to write :) it's so good to hear from you all!  LES AMOS!

Love Hermana Hunt

July 22nd, 2011

Hola familia y amigos!

Whewwww so much to write this week but so little time!  This week has definitely been the best so far! (yep, the best out of the 2 WHOLE WEEKS I have been here, haha).  Here is my list for you all...

 

 

AWKWARDS, INCOMODOS, y CHISTES

• that elder that told me about the bandaid.. yep, I see him ALL the time.  At least once or twice a day.  He always says hi to me and talks to me.  The other day I was sitting by myself at lunch waiting for my comp. and I was looking around cuz I couldn't find her and he came over to me awkwardly and said 'sister Hunt are you ok? did you lose your companion? you looked pretty lonely over here!' haha I was like yep... I am ok.... :) haha. Yesterday he told me that I 'looked nice today'. Bahaha. He is a .... nice... boy.. hahah. (Love those cute 19 year olds here, they are just adorable)
• nighttime.  the middle of the night is so weird here.  my roommates have told me that I have been sleep talking, and the other night I remember waking up and I have no idea what I was thinking but I called out loud 'Hermanas!'  Then I looked at my clock and realized it was 2:10 am
• while we were teaching 'Mario' (our teacher Hermano Gillis) he started going off about how he couldn't pray during our lesson and we couldn't tell why.. something about his friends and being mad.  Well, I thought he was saying something like how his friends were talking to him about us, and for some reason I assumed he was going to drop us.  So I start going off trying to say something along the lines of 'will you give us one more chance?' Only I didn't know the word for chance so I just said Cita which is appointment... he looked super confused and then started laughing and said no, no, no, I'm not saying I don't want you to come back!!  After all of my pleading.  My companion got a kick out of that one.
• also with Mario we have been singing hymns at the beginning of our lessons.  He 'doesn't know them' so we end up just singing by ourselves, so basically we just sit there and sing to him which is funny by itself.  Then the other day we happened to come across Hno. Gillis' book where he writes down how he feels after all of our lessons. The first thing we saw by Hna Hunt and Harper was 'Deben cantar en un coro' which means 'they should sing in a choir'. hahaha. At least he likes our singing!
• ok. this was the best teaching experience ever.  We were teaching another missionary and he is acting like an investigator.  First we started with a hymn and they sang with us, and for some reason Hna Harper and I both got the giggles at the same time, so we start cracking up and they had to finish the song without and we couldn't stop laughing.  Then during the prayer I have to hold my mouth and turn away because I couldn't stop laughing.  Then during the lesson we asked if he had a religion (he was playing an investigator who is obsessed with football) and he goes 'si, mi religion es N F L' in spanish letters haha and we taught him how to pray and this is exactly what he said in his prayer: "Padre Celestial, me gusta futbol americano, gracias por comida, en el nombre de Jesucristo amen'. bahahahaha. For those of you who don't know spanish that means 'Heavenly Father, I like football, thank you for food, in the name of Jesus Christ amen'.  We were laughing SO hard.  I tried to cover it up and turn it into crying and said 'we just felt the spirit so strong!'  Oh man, good thing he wasn't a real investigator!

AWESOMES (there are so many this week I don't even know where to start!)

•  after all the classes are finished, walking to our residences and seeing a huge group of missionaries standing in the middle of the commons outside singing Joseph Smith's First Prayer in another language.  The spirit was so strong, he just stopped and stared for a few minutes.  There is no place in the world like the MTC!
• devotionals and firesides. oh my goodness! at the fireside on Sunday they told this amazing story which I will tell at the end of this e-mail.  The Tuesday night devotional was given by Elder and Sister Hammond.  They are the most adorable couple in the world, I want to be like them with my husband when I'm older!  They told us a lot of good advice about missionary work and the power of the Book of Mormon
• Called to Serve.  Everyone who serves a mission gets to do this.. but we sing it a different way.  Sister Nallie (she is the wife of one of the counselors in the MTC presidency) wrote this version I think and it is SO incredible.  It starts out with her on the piano playing this little noble march tune like a bugle or trumpet would play and we all start out sitting down singing the first verse and chorus softly like we are marching and you can hear us in the distant, and then it changes keys and we sing the 2nd verse a little louder, and during the 2nd chorus when we say called to serve our KING we all stand up on King and then it changes keys again and we sing at full voice the chorus again, and then sing the last 2 lines slower and with more power at the end.  Both times we have sang it so far I have hardly even been able to sing the ending because I am sobbing by that point!  It is the most powerful thing I have ever felt.  Imagine 2,000 missionaries doing that all in the same room.  There is so much power and strength there, I am SO grateful to be a part of such a noble cause!!
• this Sunday I received an 'assignment' (basically a calling except I am already called as a missionary so it's a calling within a calling).  I am the new Coordinating Sister for my zone!  I have been told by multiple people that it is equivalent to a zone leader, except I don't think it is because I only have 4 sisters in my whole zone (they're all in my district) to take care of.  But I basically work with the zone leaders, make sure all of the sisters are doing ok, make sure all of the people in my residence hall are following rules, and welcome in new sisters and show them around if we get more in our zone.  Awesome!  My comp. also got a calling as the music coordinator for our branch.  Those are pretty much the only 2 callings that sisters can get here.. so we're pretty happy!
• ok... time for the awesome story.  This is a true story that was told at our fireside.  There was a young man who received his mission call to Colombia.  He had lived in Japan when he was younger and was fluent in Japan, so he was disappointed when he learned that he wouldn't be serving there.  He wrote a letter to the first presidency and asked to get his call reviewed because he didn't think it was right.  They wrote back and said no, it was right.  So he went to the mtc and learned spanish, and at the airport when he was leaving he was still upset that he wasn't going to Japan, so he wrote the first presidency again, and they replied with the same thing.  Well towards the end of his mission, a Japanese man found him and his comp. on the street and said 'I've been looking for the church for many years!  I have a book of mormon but I haven't been able to find the church, will you come teach my family?'  of course they said yes.. so they went to his house, and there were 65 Japanese people there.  The Japanese man had been teaching to them from the Book of Mormon, but none of them knew where the church was.  This missionary baptized 65 Japanese people at the very end of his mission.  Before he left, he went to write his testimony in the Japanese guy's book of mormon.  He looked through to see if he could find where he got the Book of Mormon from.  There on the next page, was the testimony of the missionary's dad.  His dad had given the Japanese man the Book of Mormon many years prior in Japan.

Miracles happen my friends!  I see them happen every day here.  Sometimes we don't understand why God puts us in the places that he does, but we must trust in him and recognize that he knows us better than we know ourselves, and he knows what he's doing.  Thank you everyone SO much for your support!  Thanks for the letters this week and the packages (Mom and Al!), it is so good to hear from you all!  Write me as much as you would like!  This gospel is incredible.  There is no better place on earth for me to be right now.  Have a fabulous week and I will talk to you all next Friday! :)

 

Love, Hermana Hunt

 

P.s. I saw Dillan Lewis this week and also Josh Wendell and talked to both of them!

 

 

 

2nd Letter

Hola Familia!

Como estan? Ah I only have 22 minutes to write so I can't write a novel like last week (sorry!)  

Awkwards and awesomes this week!

AWKWARDS, INCOMODOS, Y CHISTES

-a guy in my district is the little brother of this kid I used to kind of date..... yeah... that was kinda weird talking to him about that, haha

-getting ready for the fireside sunday night.  Hna. Harper and I wanted to get there early to get good seats and the room was already full and someone was giving a musical number... we were really confused and thought that maybe they had a musical thing before so we go in and sit down on this row where no one is sitting.  About 5 minutes later we realize we just sat down an hour late into a meeting for all the elders and sisters leaving that week..... . Oops!  we just decided to stay and listen until it ended anyway

-writing 'Herman Hunt' on one of my papers instead of Hermana Hunt

-trying to sing hymns in spanish.  it's very entertaining if you try to listen to us pronounce the words and try to stay on beat

-singing songs and getting off topic.... songs such as 'don't cry for my argentina', 'feliz navidad', 'come on vemenos, everybody lets go' and even making up songs like 'feliz companero' instead of feliz navidad

-our district leader.  he falls asleep, ALL THE TIME.  it is hilarious! I'll send pictures

AWESOMES

-firesides and devotionals (Elder Winkell spoke... dad I think you know him?)

-our district! SO awesome! we are all getting to know each other and becoming way tight

-learning to teach by the spirit

-praying in spanish. once again.  everything we do is in spanish now and praying is the best!!!

-singing.  I never realized how much of a blessing singing would be while I'm here!  My companion has an awesome soprano voice and we sing together all the time.  sometimes we just walk around singing random hymns haha.  My branch president (President Hansen.. he is so awesome!) told me the choir will love me because I have a good alto voice.  I'm usually the only sister singing alto in my district and zone so everyone can pick me out...  My companion and I are going to sing a duet in church and also a quartet with 2 of the other elders in our district

-the elders! our elders are so awesome.  they are hilarious and all such great guys.  they are like little brothers to us haha and we all keep each other in line

-our branch presidency and their wives.. they are all awesome!! And yes Brad Brown's good friend is in the presidency.  Brad told me to look for him before I left and I couldn't believe I ended up in his branch!  He is way awesome

-after the devotional we got to meet as a district with President Hansen and go around and share our feelings on the devotional--which was about the Savior.  It was SO awesome and so spiritual.  I admire all of these missionaries so much and look up to all of them!

Whew... there are a lot more but there's just not enough time to write everything plus you all don't want to hear it all anyway!   My spanish is coming along and we have learned SO much.  We have now taught multiple lessons in spanish and we know how to bear our testimonies, pray, and do a lot of other things in spanish.  It has been a little bit of a struggle because my companion hasn't learned any spanish before so I spend most of my time helping her.  But esta bien!  I am glad to be able to help her and I know we were put together for a reason.  I think the hardest thing has been deciding and agreeing what to teach and what to say during lessons.  But I have learned a lot about following the spirit and also trusting in the Lord and in my companion's ideas, I know she is also in tune with the spirit.

To answer some questions.. my companion is going to Nashville :( :(, and the rest of the hermanas in our district are going to my mission.  Hna. Harper (my companion) and 2 other elders from our district are going to Nashville unfortunately.  It's going to be hard for us all to break apart when our time in the mtc is done!  Our p-day is every Friday (not saturday... that was just for the first week) and we have 30 minutes on e-mail, that includes reading e-mails and sending e-mails.  So the best way to write me right now is through DearElder.com and then I will respond through e-mail.  It's just like writing an e-mail only they print it out here and give them to us like mail.  We get mail every day, but we can only write letters on p-day.  So if you DearElder me I will get it that day which is awesome!  And then I can either write or e-mail back that next Friday.  If you e-mail me I will only be able to read it on Fridays.  Also we can't send pictures via e-mail from the MTC so I am going to send some discs home.  This week was also kind of sad because we had an elder in our district decide to go home on an honorable release.  We don't know what was going on... but it was really sad to have someone leave us and we all feel for him.  All is well though!  I love this gospel!!  Estoy muy muy agredecida por este Evangelio y por la oportunidad estar aqui a la CCM. Yo se que necesito estar aqui.  Jesucristo es mi salvador, mi redentor, y mi hermano y mejor amigo.  Estoy muy agredecida por la expiacian.  Yo se que la expiacian es necesario por todos personas y Jesucristo es el salvadar de el mundo.  Le ama!  I love you all!  Thank you for your support!!

Love, Hermana Hunt

P.s. send me pictures and keep me updated on what's going on in everyone's lives! :) 

I Made It! First Week at the MTC

Hola familia y amigos!!

Como estan?  Well... I made it through the first couple days at the MTC!   OK, it is not ANYWHERE near as bad as everyone described to me!  Seriously.. it has been awesome!  The days have been SUPER long, but besides that I have loved everything!  Mi companera es la Hermana Harper de Las Vegas Nevada.  Va a Nashville Tennessee.  She is awesome!  We are really similar and we get along great.  We are both musical (she plays the violin) and not so sporty.. haha, and we are both really easy going.  We also have random things in common like wanting to learn the cello and only eating the egg whites of hard boiled eggs hahah.  We share a room with the 2 other Hermanas in our district, Hermana Michaud from Arizona y Hermana Blatter from Montana.  They are both really cool!  Our district is also awesome.  We are just starting to get to know everyone and be comfortable around everyone so it's been really fun.  Man, time is short here so I can't say much but I will hurry.  I decided when I write letters I am going to copy my dear friend Sydney from the daybook blog and write down some wonderful Awkwards and Awesomes from the week! (ok so she's not my dear friend I've actually never met her but I do like her blog a lot and I think this will be fun!)

 

Awkwards, uncomfortables, y chistes (funnies)

• having to wait for your companera while she uses the bathroom.  or worse, making her wait for you
• going out everyday with wet hair... yes, I really do go out with wet hair.  We have next to no time to get ready.  It's a good thing I have no one to impress here! :)
• playing sand volleyball. you all know how good I am at sports!
• even worse, having an elder tell me I had a bandaid stuck to my behind while playing sand volleyball (how the heck did that get there?!)
• and even further, seeing that same elder later at dinner.  he waved to me and I didn't recognize him so I waved back awkwardly, and he had to explain who he was.. haha
• sleeping on the top bunk.  yeah... YOU try getting up there with no ladder!! It's harder than it looks! I have 3 bruises on my legs from that.  Luckily mi hermanas found some ladders for us in an empty room :)
• teaching our first lesson. in spanish. on our first real day of learning spanish. holy moly! more details about that later.  but the funniest part was when we were opening with a prayer... Hna. Harper was saying the prayer and I had it written down.  We were teaching 'Mario' (who was really our teacher Hno. Gillis) and the prayer I had written down was originally for an earlier invesitagor (Luis... our other dear Hno. Hill), so one of the sentences said "Estoy agradecido por Luis".  Hna. Harper was reading what I had written, and I was trying to tell her during the prayer to say 'Mario' instead of 'Luis', but I couldn't really tell her while she was praying. Soooo.... during our first prayer in our first lesson with Mario, we said 'we're thankful for Luis'.  It was great.  I was trying so hard not to laugh but I couldn't help it

 

Awesomes

• seeing people I know!  Holy moly, I forgot how many people were here right now.  I saw Trisha Zemp, Tara Prince, Rachel Hill (unfortunately we're not in the same district or zone :( :( ), Courtney Moses, Meg Pearson, Rebekah Gamble, Greta Martino, Tressa Tenney, Trent Hyer, Kevin Hilton, Garrett Seymour, Jimmy Frazier, and Mike Larsen teaches here.  I also saw a kid who went to Bingham.  I didn't recognize him but he was like 'hey I know you! I went to Bingham!'  it's always good to see a familiar face! 
• the spirit here.  It is everywhere, and so awesome!
• Mi Companera!  Like I said.. she is awesome
• my teachers... they all go to BYU (one of them actually said he thinks he had a class with me because I look realllly familiar)  they are all spiritual giants and really down to earth and cool
• learning spanish.  We are in what's called the pilot program which means they only speak spanish to us from day 1!  They are nice sometimes and repeat their sentences in english, but it has been pretty crazy and very cool at the same time!  I'm surprised at how much spanish I know actaully.. I can understand them 95% of the time and it's been good because I am able to help mi companera (she has never taken any espanol).  Now I just need to learn to speak!
• praying in Spanish.  So far I have felt the spirit the strongest when I have prayed or taught.  The first time one of the our elders prayed in spanish I felt the spirit so strong and I feel it every time I pray now (we say all of our prayers en espanol).  When we were teaching Mario as well, I felt the spirit so strongly when I testified that God exists and that the plan of salvacion is real.  We had no idea what we were doing but I felt the spirit guiding me and helping me pull out every spanish word I could remember to help him understand what we had to say

 

Well I don't have much time so I can't say too much more.  But everything is going sooo great!! I really love it here.  I can see why people get anxious to get out, but it has been really awesome.  We basically just get to study and learn all day which I love doing.  Mi companera and I for gym time like to jog to the field and then walk around and do core exercises while we practice spanish.  At night mi hermanas y yo sing a hymn together in espanol.  We have been obedient (there are A LOT of rules here) and we have been getting into really good habits which is awesome.  It feels great and I know this is where I am supposed to be!!  This evangelio (gospel) is amazing!  Lo siento por (sorry for) mi Spanglish.. hahah.  I am learning and trying to practicar a lot.  I love you all, thanks for your support!  Send me letters! :) TE AMO MUCHO!

 

Love, Hermana Hunt

 

P.s. Loag thanks for the dearelder letter!  It was my first letter! :) It made my day!

 

P.p.s. Aric thanks for the language tips... mi companera and myself are already using them and it is helping a lot!

 

 

P.s. Familia.......

 

Mama, thank you soooooooo much for the package OMG it made my day!! Hahaha I was laughing SO hard at the picture of tux!! And I actually did buy an alarm clock but I will find someone to give that to. :)  also.. if you ever find those colored pencils they would be really helpful.  if not, no big deal!    Also, I tried sending pictures but I can't figure out how to attatch them into an e-mail these computers are so weird and only let us do certain things.  I will send some home in a letter and hopefully figure out how to e-mail them next week when I have more time!  Thanks so much for everything!! LOVE YOU ALL!

Lots of hugs and goodbyes... and tomorrow I'm on my way!

Well well, it's finally here!  The day I have been waiting for for 5 years or so.  Tomorrow at 11:00am I leave Farmington and head down to Provo with the parents.  We'll stop somewhere to eat lunch, and then they get to drop me off at the 'drive-thru MTC' as my mom calls it, haha.  It's crazy that it's finally here!  For so long it didn't even feel real, and since my farewell I have just been ready to jump in.  The anticipation is killing me!  

The goodbyes haven't been hard, I think because it hadn't really set in yet until I said goodbye to my nephews and nieces tonight and then I had to choke back years.  A year and a half is not long, but for little kids who are growing up so fast, it's an eternity!  I hope they still remember me when I get home :(.  

I'm starting to finally get emotional... I thought it would never come!  A lot of mixed emotions definitely... sad to leave people, and scared to death, but so so excited!  Mostly though right now I am feeling SO grateful for how incredibly blessed I am.  I can't even believe how many people are supporting me on this journey... I am SO lucky to have so many wonderful examples and role models who care about me and give me support.  From ward members, to co-workers, to neighbors, to friends' parents.  

I am also especially grateful for so many wonderful friends.  As my testimony is growing stronger, I am realizing the kind of people I want to surround myself with more, and eventually the kind of person I want to marry.  I realize how lucky and blessed I am to have superstar friends who are so strong in the gospel, who understand the atonement, and who have their priorities right.  I am eternally grateful for their examples to me and the influence they have had on my life.  My friends are awesome, and I wouldn't be who I am without them.

I am also incredibly blessed with an amazing family who is supporting me as well.  I look up to each and every member of my family and value my individual relationships with them.  My parents are such strong examples and so are my siblings.  I look to all of them as examples on how to raise a family, and how to live righteously in the gospel.

Aaaaaand, that's that!  I am off on a wonderful adventure that will change my life forever, and hopefully the lives of many others.  I can't wait to fall in love with the Argentine people.  I can't wait to fall down, to get hurt, to feel the depths of pain, and to learn even more-so everyday how to rely on the Lord Jesus Christ to help me back up and give me the strength I need to get past my trials and progress.  I can't wait to lose myself, to forget about myself and the world, and to focus on nothing but charity.  I am so blessed to be able to serve a mission.  Here I go!...

P.s. My MTC address is on the sidebar and my Argentina address will be up there soon as well, so I would love to get some letters from you!  My mom will be updating this blog with my e-mails each week, so if you stop by make sure you send me a little note here and there so I know how you all are doing as well. :) Adios amigos!