8-20-2012

August 20, 2012

Hello Everyone!
Well I had a great email all planned out for this week with a bunch of stuff I studied and have learned this week..... aaaaand, I´m already out of time and have to go, haha. Guess you´ll just have to wait until next week! :)
 
But Kenz, you´re home!! Yayyy!! I´ll be writing you a letter shortly and I expect one back with every detail of how everything is. My parents of course told me all good things about your homecoming. Thanks so much for your constant example the past year and a half of how a missionary should be. Can´t wait to see you in a couple of months and chat for hours about the mission!! :) Love you!!
 
Things are going well here in my new area. Well... actually, it was a pretty rough week, haha. We worked really really hard and had very few lessons and no one in church. But I feel at peace with the work we are doing... we are constantly trying to  improve and are working hard and I know we just need to keep working and be patient.
 
We may have a baptism this week of a 12 year old girl named Veronica who is the daughter of a recent convert. She is super awesome! Super tall, and super intelligent. She is just waiting for her answer to know if it´s true. We are hoping and praying that all goes well.
 
That´s about it for now! Thanks everyone for all that you do! LOVE YOU ALL!!!
 
Chau.cito!
 
--Hermanita Hunt

8-13-2012

 Sandra's Family

Farewell to Hermana Medina

         Locked out, so over the fence!

Spider!

                New Branch and Companion in Centenario

                          Very nice  Pension

                                                                   Bidae

                                                A real kitchen

EMAIL para todos
 
Buen Dia!
First, I guess should wish a happy birthday to everyone that has a birthday in August… which is half the world, including half of my family! Haha. Happy Birthday Dust, Al, Miss, Gar, and Dave, and everyone else!! I hope your birthday have been/are excellent this year! Y bueno…. Well, it has been quite the week! Lets start with the big news… I got transferred!!! I'm now in my 3rd area, and probably my last. It's about dang time I left Parque! Haha just kidding, I do miss it.. I miss the people there a lot and especially my companion!! I'm so sad I didn't get more time with her L. But I know this is where I need to be right now and I feel really good about the change. I am now in an area called Centenario II… it's about 20 minutes in taxi from my old area, haha.. I didn't go far! I'm still here in Formosa Capital. This area is also a branch and is also really small.. even smaller than my old area, if that's possible! But it's a lot different… it's a lot more country with a lot of campo (fields) and farms, jungles, etc…. it's really really pretty! The branch is split into 2 areas that we share with another set of hermanas which is fun. The members are few but are really awesome and I already feel  right at home! The pension here is really ugly and old haha but SO much better than my last pension, even though it's a lot less nice! It's really really big, it has 5 rooms and the study and bedroom are both really big. It also has a lot of pluses… everything a missionary in Formosa Argentina would want, including air conditioning (ok so right now it's broken but they're going to fix it! Either way, there are built in ceiling fans which also is a dream here haha), a washing machine (woohooo! Those are few and far in between here), giant closets, a blender (which means licuados everyday in the summer!), hot water, and a bidae (and you betcha I use it!!). My companion is Hermana Ovando from Ushuaia, which is the very very south tip of Argentina, almost Antarctica!. She was trained by Hermana Green so I had heard a lot about her and had met her once before. She's really cool! She's very calm… not that she's shy or super reserved, but just really really calm all the time, haha. We get along well. Anyway… I'm excited to be here, although the goodbye with Hermana Medina was pretty sad. L poor girl.. she was crying all night! Haha. I don't know what's wrong with me but I think the mission has toughened me up and I can hardly ever cry now! However, may have shed some tears.. which says a lot! Haha. I just love that girl! But luckily we are still close so we should see each other one or 2 more times before she gets her visa and heads to Colombia (which is where her call really is for).
 
So enough about the new stuff, the week before transfers was really crazy! Nieve got baptized like I said last week.. I'll try and send a picture but this computer is really slow and I'm not sure if they'll be able to send. The hermanas Lythgoe and Hobbs who lived next door had to move because their new area was really far, but they were waiting for money to pay for the new pension from the office and they had to move out of the old one, so they moved in with us! Haha. All of their stuff was all over our apartment, including all of their furniture. Somehow we fit 4 beds in our room. It was great! So that meant that we had to share keys. So in our pension there was a key for the normal door and then there was a big gate outside and a key to that. We were just leaving that unlocked and hiding the key in my boot outside, but sometimes we would come home at night to find the gate locked and we would have to ask the neighbors to open it for us. Well… one night, no one else was home, and we were locked outside.
There was really no other option… we could have asked the dueno but we had already asked him once before and we didn't want to ask him again, soo…… I just hopped the fence in my skirt and went and got the key. J haha. Don’t worry, Hermana Medina took a picture! Also in district meeting we had a funeral and all wore black because our district leader was going home in a few days. It was a great funfilled week, with a lot of excitement and changes! When I found out I was being transferred I stayed up until 7:00 am packing and getting everything ready to leave off with Hermana Medina. We had to pick up Hermana Green from the terminal so we had 6 hermanas staying in our pension at one time, haha it was pretty crazy! I got all my stuff packed up and headed up in a remis (by myself by the way which I thought was pretty sketchy!!) and then arrived in my new area! All is well!
 
That's about it for this week. I hope everyone is having a fabulous week! I'm sure the heat here is probably the same or worse than there right now.. haha. We are still in winter, but of course winter doesn't exist here in Formosa it's just almost always hot. I know that Christ lives and loves each one of you, that He really is our brother and understands everything we are going through,and that He is aware of everything that is going on in your lives and is always there with open arms to help you through your trials and weaknesses.
Thanks for all that you do and for all your support! Love you all!!
 
--Hermanita Hunt

8-06-2012

Buenos Dias!

This week was a great week!  Sorry it´s going to be a short email because there´s not a whole lot to write but Nieve was able to get baptized this week!! It was a really sweet experience.  We saw that when she put her own goal for her baptism, she changed a lot and was really committed and dedicated this time.  The baptism went smoothly and it was really exciting, since it was the first baptism of my little greenie Hermana Medina :).  It was a special day and now we are going to keep working with Lucas her 9-year old son to help him get baptized too.  He was going to get baptized this Saturday but there are a few problems with his dad that we have to work through first.  We have transfers this week and it is most likely that I will stay since I´m training but there is still a possibility that I could leave since I already have 4 transfers here and lately there have been a lot of trainers that only train for one transfer and then someone else comes in and finishes the training so that the trainees get more experience with 2 different companions.  I guess we will see what happens!! All is well on the mish.  This Sunday was really great because we had quite a few inactives in church, which hasn´t happened in a LONG time.  A couple of members went to pick them up before church, and I have such a strong testimony in the power and necessity (is that spelled right?? ahh the spanish is ruining my english haha) of the members.  There are people who we have been visiting for months and they still haven´t come to church, and the first week that a couple of members visited a few inactives they were already back in church.  Hopefully this will be a good change for the branch and the members will be able to start helping out a little bit more and going out of their way to work with the inactives! Well... thanks everyone for your emails this week, they were great! Dad, I loved the picture of you in a kilt, I was laughing my head off!! Don´t worry, I am going to print it. Hahah.  I printed some pictures this last week and have been showing everyone pictures of my 2 new nephews and of my engaged best friend... they all love seeing them! Oh and since I didn´t mention it last week, A HUGE FELICIDADES to my best friend Unleash-a-Child (aka Alicia Child) for getting engaged to Mr. Mike Sly!! I am SO so happy for you, and can´t believe that you will be Unleash-a-Sly when I get home, hahah but I am excited to meet him and am so happy for you two. Life is just moving along way too fast to keep track! Could everyone just put it on hold please for another couple of months until I get home?? K Thanks. :) Haha just kidding.  Thanks everyone for your support! I love you all!!

--Hermanita Hunt

7-30-2012

Our friend Lorena

 Keyra

Lucas

Hermanas!

Wearing scarfs with Jorge

Mis Queridos-

First of all, a big FELICIDADES to mi hermana Missy and her family and their new little baby Benson! Looks like the whole world is just popping out babies these days!! Haha. I´m glad all went well and am excited to meet him when I come home! :)

Well, it was a good week! We have found a few new people to teach and we have a few others that are progressing pretty well. Our investigator Nieve should be getting baptized this week.  We have been working with her for awhile and she never reached any of her baptism dates because she didn´t feel ready and has been very up and down... not doing much of her part to prepare herself.  But the other day we asked her to pray about it and really pay attention to see if it was right or not, and the next day she made the decision and told us she would like to be baptized the 4th--this Saturday.  It was really special, because it was her decision and she put the date and everything, so we are hoping all will go through even though she didn´t come to church yesterday because of the rain/mud.  

This week we were teaching a lady named Rosana who is really interested in learning and studies everything that we leave her, but she has a really hard time paying attention to how she feels.  She wants to know more of the facts but is scared of having to change, so she´s scared to really pray and ask God if it´s right because she doesn´t really want to know.  I shared my testimony with her about how when we put our trust in God, he helps us find his path and do what he wants us to do.  It may not be what we want to do, it may not be our plan, but we need to trust in Him and recognize that even if we don´t realize it, His plan is always better than our plan and will be make us a lot happier than our plan will.  As I was listening to the words coming out of my mouth, I realized that I really needed to take my own advice and apply this to my own life.  I have been thinking a lot about the importance of sacrifice, humility, and faith.  I want to share a little bit about what I learned about that this week.

In True to the Faith it explains sacrifice as ´giving up something that we value for something that has more value´.  Sometimes when I think about sacrifice I just think about giving up something important to me.  But I didn´t realize that we actually give up something for something even better.  A lot of times it is hard for us to sacrifice because we don´t see what we are getting in return for giving up something, because the thing we receive in return is usually something of much more value, but much more long term and something we may not realize in the moment.

I was thinking about the movie Knight and Day... hahah, when Tom Cruise says ´are you with me, or without me?´ and with his hands he knows that ´with me´ is high and ´without me´ is low.  I was thinking about that´s kind of what Heavenly Father does with us, haha.  We have two options... we can choose to do things our way, or His way.  With our way we are going to be happy, we are going to progress, and it´s going to be easy.  His way is harder, but much more worth it... because we are not only going to be happy now, but we are going to receive happiness eternally and a much deeper happiness, we are going to reach our potential and become much more than we could on our own, and we are going to really actually learn and grow... because we had to sacrifice to get there and we had to struggle.  

I decided to make a list about the things I was sacrificing by serving a mission and the things that I gain by serving a mission.  At first I thought I would have a big long list for sacrifices and only a few things on the ´gaining´ side, but that they would be of more value.  I was shocked once I started writing.... this was my list:

SACRIFICING

• time
• energy
• not being able to study/go to school
• not being able to work
• freedom
• money
• friendships/relationships
• hobbies/passions
• health/cleanliness (don´t forget... I´m in the poorest part of Argentina, haha)
• comfort of my own country/culture
• missing big events of family and friends
• the passing away of/funeral of my Grandma
• new nephews being born
• missing weddings (including my best friend´s :( :( :( )
• family get togethers, etc.

I tried but I couldn´t think of any more.  This was my other part of the list...

GAINING

• stronger testimony
• knowledge
• strength/power (for life and eternity)
• patience
• love/charity
• learning to work hard
• blessing for my family
• new skills
• language
• more outgoing
• more courageous/fearless
• able to handle a lot more/more tough
• more friendships/relationships
• more hobbies/interests
• life-changing experiences
• greater relationship with my Father in Heaven and with Christ
• more of a commitment to the gospel
• everlasting happiness
• souls that are saved
• other people that are helped when needed
• inspiration/greater portion of the spirit
• more freedom
• more of a focus on the family
• an eternal perspective
• more of an understanding of the atonement
• teaching skills
• self-control
• example for my future family
• learning about a new culture
• living in a different country
• more people that have the gospel (including the generations of my converts, etc.)

And the list goes on........ looks like I got the better part of the bargain, right?? And what is also funny is the almost all of the sacrifices are things that I´m only sacrificing for a time... things that I had before and that I will have after, and the things that I am gaining are things that are everlasting.  I am realizing more and more that the more humble we are, the more we put our trust in God and not in ourselves, and the more we submit ourselves to Him, the happier we are.  The more we gain.  The more blessings we receive.  By ourselves, we are able to be great people, live great lives, and be happy.  With Him, we are able to be gods, live greatly for eternities, and have the deepest most everlasting joy possible.  Not just by having the gospel, or accepting it, or living it... but by sacrificing, by REALLY giving up ourselves to Him, and following His way.  Doing what He asks.  Really listening intently for the spirit and following what it says.  Obeying all of His commandments.  Not believing what we want to believe, but believing what´s true.  Not making excuses, but finding ways to do everything we should do.  We are just not giving up ourselves and losing ourselves... but by giving up ourselves WE actually gain so much more, as well as everyone else because by giving ourselves we are serving others and also enriching their lives.  What a beautiful God we have!

Well.... hope that wasn´t too long, haha.  Just a little thought for the week since I haven´t written any in awhile :).  Hope all is well!  Time is moving quickly and I am learning so much everyday... pushing through the struggles and relying on my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ to help me, and loving my mission.  Thanks so much everyone for your support and love!

--Hermana Hunt