Week One in Mexico

Hey world! I am in Mexico!! It is wonderful. There is no better place to be than here. It is wonderful! And the FOOD!! Oh goodness. Everything is delicious. I might come home with a millon parasites because I love the food so much and eat everything and anything.

My compañera doesn´t speak any english. Hermana L. She´s pretty good at the shirades game! Every time she asks me to turn off a light I think she wants me to close the door, so. Yeah. Hahaha I love her a lot. She´s crazy nice. Plus she actually understands me, which is different than most of the people here--when I say something to them they just smile and nod.. ¨Do you have a family?¨ Grin....shake head up and down...look away...

I love everything here. Even the dogs that try to bite my head off and the drivers that try to smash into me, and the people on the streets who grin....shake head up and down....look away....hahaha I think in two weeks I will start to understand when words stop and when they start. Until then, I will keep amusing natives with my pronunciation of ´burrito.´

I see already how much Heavenly Father has blessed me here. I can understand a lot of what people are saying, and that is a huge blessing. I don´t even know how I would begin to do this great work without Him. I know that He has faith in me, and I try to have faith that He will help me.

I forgot to bring my cord for my camera because at the MTC you could just plug your SD card straight in. Next week, there will be pictures. I live in a tiny apartment with just one bedroom and a nice kitchen. Everything is locked at least three ways here to keep it safe. We live just a little bit away from the ¨Super,¨ which is nice. We live pretty central to our area. I´m in the city of Chihuahua in the north. PS if you want to see pictures of me with all the new missionaries in a restaurant with delicious food, you can look up my mission´s facebook page: Missión México Chihuahua. Or Missión Chihuahua México. I can´t remember which one. I´m sure it will be an interesting page. My mission president speaks very well in English, but sometimes it´s funny--probably just like I am to him in Spanish.

I´m forgetting how to spell things in English.

Today is kind of like a p-day until four, when everyone gets home. We always are out to teach at four. We have a lot of investigators and a lot of referrals right now!! I love having people to teach. This gospel is true. It´s happy! My testimony has been strenghtened of ´where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them´ as I have felt the spirit so strongly in our companionship study. We study from 8 to 12 with personal, companionship, first 12 weeks, and Spanish studies.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! I will send pictures on p-day Monday. Love you!!

Hermana Hunt

Christmas at the MTC

Christmas at the MTC was an interesting one! We had Elder Bednar come and talk to us, and his talk was absolutely AMAZING! He did a question and answer session, which I usually don't like, but his was wonderful! One question I liked was:

Q: Why do I feel so inadequate?

A: Because you have some sense of what you are called to do.

I also loved how he talked about the cleansing AND strengthening power of the atonement. He spoke of how the gospel is not just about becoming clean from sin but about BECOMING. We have so much potential if we just exercise it. Things happen one grain at a time. Precept upon precept. If you took me out of the MTC right now and put me back at home, I would live my life differently. I have learned so much here through the spirit. I am a different person already. I love how close I am coming to Heavenly Father. I know the Atonement is what is helping me to get there. I not only have the ability to feel at peace about my mistakes, but the Atonement also enables me to become stronger to face my challenges.

We had our sister district leave this week, which is weird because they came in on the same day as my district. I really wanted to go with them. We still have another week. I loved what I learned this week though!! I am trying to live my last week here like Christ lived His last week. His last week was the most important week of His life. I am trying to live my week diligently so that I have no regrets. 

One thing I learned this week made me even more grateful for Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ, we would not even be here. God's plan for us to come to earth and get bodies centers around Jesus Christ and His Atonement. God loves us so much that He would not have sent us here without a way to get us back. If Jesus Christ was not willing to atone, we wouldn't even be here. We would not have the opportunity to progress on earth. I am very grateful for my Savior, who made it possible for me to be on the earth now and made it possible for me to return to live with my Heavenly Father again. 

I am praying that my visa will get here on time for me to go to Mexico on the 6th. This is hopefully my last email to you from the states! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a have a happy new year!!!

Te quiero!

Hermana Hunt

Christmas Special

Hey everyone,

I hope you're having a Merry Christmas today. I want to share with you for Christmas how my testimony of Christ has been strengthened as I have been at the MTC. It has been strengthened so much! They say the grounds here at the MTC are sacred, and I feel that. I feel the Spirit here so strongly, and the Spirit testifies of truth, so I am learning so much! I feel the whisperings of the Spirit in my heart. Mostly it's a feeing of peace in my heart, but sometimes it comes in other ways. I feel the Spirit teach me what is right, and I do not feel it when something is wrong. I have felt the Spirit testify to me that Jesus is the Christ. That He lived! That He was born to a very special virgin mother Mary.

I have felt the love of Jesus Christ in my life. I have made mistakes before (surprise!) and have felt the guilt that comes from those mistakes. However, through the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, I have felt the pure joy and enabling power that comes from His Atonement. He died for me, and because of His Atonement, I receive strength when I repent. I can see how much stronger I am in the MTC through repentance. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and how much He loves me. Without Him, I would still be lost. I would have no direction. I would have no pure joy.

I love being here at the MTC. I love having my life centered around Jesus Christ and His gospel. I have more confidence in Jesus Christ and in Heavenly Father than ever before. There have been hard times, and there have been times where I have no idea what I am supposed to say to people, member and investigator alike, but Heavenly Father knows what I am supposed to say and knows what I am supposed to do. If I turn to Him, He will help me. "Tell the missionaries: If they have more faith, they will have more success." --Gordon B Hinckley.

Each of you has the opportunity to bless so many others this season and this coming up year. If you turn to Heavenly Father for guidance, He will help you to know what to do and what to say to make a significant impact on others.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I hope you feel the spirit of Christ's wonderful, magnificent birth and have the chance to share it with your kids, your coworkers, and the lady you meet at the check out stand. Even the people here at the MTC I have seen sometimes need just a smile and someone to acknowledge them. Let Heavenly Father help you. Let the Spirit speak to you. Merry Christmas from Utah to wherever you are out there, and a happy new year!

Hermana Hunt

Merry Christmas

This week has been like, the funniest week ever. And I have been speaking Spanish almost all day every day. I am learning a lot and having...too much fun...

First of all, Hermana R is with us for a little while because her visa came late, and by the time her visa came, there were no flights left because of Christmas. She has now spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in the MTC. Poor girl. She is awesome though. She is like, a magic closet full of right answers. Whenever I have a question I ask her!

I am going Friday to get my visa!! I am really excited about that. All the other girls in my entire zone (total of two others...haha) are going on the second, so I will be flying solo on the second. Kinda weird to be a solo missionary. I will be so lonely. haha

Okay. Funny things. Elder F ripped his pants all the way from his hip to his knee. Good thing we had some lava lavas still in the classroom because that is what he wore all the way back (across a busy utah street) to his apartment to get some new pants. It was so funny. He came back to class and announced "!Yo tengo mis pantalones!" so that is the new joke in the district. Holy jamolee. It was so funny.

Also Elder F. Addressed 20+ Christmas cards TO HIMSELF. He sent them all out and stamped them and everything. They went to the Provo mail center and straight back to the MTC. When we went to pick up the mail (my companion, Hermana S, is the sister training leader now) we pulled all these letters out that were all the same size with the same handwriting all to Elder F with different "from" addresses in the top left corner. Our generation doesn't know how to use snail mail ;)

Hermana S got her hair in the toilet water.

I got a smiley face on my hamburger!!! One of the workers used mozzarella cheese to make a smile on my cheddar cheese. I didn't even know until I went to put ketchup on my burger and found THE most fun surprise EVER. It made my day. 

Our classroom flooded and ruined a lot of our books. We had to move to a smaller classroom for a little while, and because there are eight of us in the district, Hermana W had to be IN THE CLOSET. Hahahahaha her desk was in the closet, and whenever we didn't want to talk anymore we would just close the closet door. Good old West Campus. Keepin it classy.

Also, the lady at the travel office told me about how she had to train a few sisters when she was on her mission. She was talking about how crazy the sisters were. Not only did she have to train one how to be a missionary, but she also had to train her how to walk. "You're a missionary. You can't walk like an elephant!!" So awesome. I love the lady at the travel office.

Alright. Enough funny stuff. Serious things:

We committed both our investigators to baptism this week! What an amazing feeling to see them progressing and being so much happier. What a difference in our investigator, Jose! He wouldn't even look at us when we started teaching him because he was so depressed. Now he's coming to church and making amends with his family. Praying every day. It's so wonderful. We are the third set of missionaries our investigator, Patricio, has had, so I contribute a lot of his success to the other missionaries. They dropped him though because he wasn't progressing. He's progressing now!!! I love to see how eager he is to learn more and learn what he can do to be a better father and to have an eternal family. One that will be happy in the eternities with Heavenly Father. He is getting baptized the first week of February. I am so excited for him!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!! Thank you for all the letters and packages. You spoil me. I hope you remember how wonderful Christmas truly is. In Luke chapter 2, if you have time, read the story of the angel coming to the shepherds, and really focus on what the shepherds must have been thinking and what their reactions were. I loved doing that. I gained a lot of insight. Merry Christmas! Love you!

Hermana Hunt

last time i will see my teachers!! Hermano T is the big Polynesian one and hermano P is the small white guy :) They are SO AWESOME!! seriously. They have taught me so much.

sister S got 21 letters in one day. also. that green bottle is heaven. or close to.

One Month Down

Holy jamolee the MTC is so awesome. I love being a missionary!!!!

I learned this week more about faith. Faith is to have confidence in someone or something. We watched the movie "Mountains to Climb" from the Mormon channel, and it was so wonderful. I learned that when all seems to be wrong, if we have even just a PARTICLE of faith, we can exercise it and it will grow. Even when all else seems to be gone, we will always have just a little bit of faith left, and when we act on that faith, when we turn to God, our faith will increase and times will become much better. My confidence in God is growing so much stronger here as I exercise my faith every day. I see His hand in my life. 

I am grateful for all the letters. They brighten my day :)

This week Hermana D went home for medical reasons. It was incredibly hard on our district, especially her companion, Hermana S. We miss her very much. Hermana S, Hermana W, and I are now in a trio, except for these next few days while a sister from another district, Hermana R, is still waiting for her visa (so today I am just companions with Hermana S). I am starting to be a little worried with two weeks left to get my visa, but I'm sure it will all work out. We miss Hermana D very much, and hope that she will get better soon. The trio is pretty cool though. We can stay in sightsound in a triangle, and we often utilize that skill. We also have a pretty awesome handshake that turns into a rocket ship....Yeah. Be jealous.

Hermana W almost fell asleep in our lesson the other day. She exclaimed "The couch is like the Devil!!" Hahaha :) She has a hard time with the amount of sleep we get here. I've been pretty good with it. I am tired of sitting at a desk all day long though. This morning was the first morning my alarm clock was a part of my dream. My companion was like: "Hermana Hunt WHAT THE heck?! TURN your ALARM CLOCK OFF!!" Hahaha and then I realized...it wasn't a dream.

In less than three days I will have been in the MTC for a month. It seems like just yesterday I got here, and it also seems like a year ago I got here. I love being a missionary!

Love you all.

Hermana Hunt

I made it on the board for quotes. My teacher calls me Hermana Heart because, well, he just thinks that is my name and I don't correct him.

This is our goodbye to Hermana Duncan. Also this giant picture has a really funny story about framing and I like it. the picture is an original canvas and valued at over 3 million dollars. The had a really hard time getting the frame in through the doors, and they had to disassemble it like four times. Pretty funny. 

Week 3 letter :)

Today was SUPER cold, and my companion and I were walking home after our service project and both of us realized we didn't have a key to the apartment. It seemed impossible to go back to find someone with a key. They were about a ten minute walk away from us after we had already made that distance to get home. We felt like we could not turn back because we might die. Haha I know we wouldn't have, but we were seriously so cold. It was really early in the morning and still dark outside. Instead of turning back, I decided to pray and we made the last few feet to our apartment. I prayed that the door would be open, which is kind of ridiculous because it automatically locks and we have no choice to leave it locked or unlocked. However, as we approached the door to the apartment, I simply pushed on the door and it opened. I take it as my little miracle of the day. Heavenly Father is showing me that He has not forgotten about me. He loves me enough to keep me warm on these freezing winter days.

The apartments we have class in have a beautiful little stream running through them. It's amazing to see the stream with it being this cold. All the water on the top is frozen solid, and people have even been walking across it safely, but you can hear the water sometimes still flowing through under all the ice. Utah is a beautiful place to be! The mountains are gorgeous, and I love to walk home towards the temple from class every day.

I had a hard day this week with being discouraged about not being able to do this great work. This work is very difficult. I knew it would be. Still, I was having a hard day. I ended up testifying to three investigators that day to have faith. With faith, we can do anything. The bible dictionary defines faith as having confidence in something or someone. I re-dedicated myself to giving this work my all. I have confidence that Heavenly Father will make up for when I fall short.

I love love love love love being a missionary. As usual. Thanks for all the prayers and letters. I am praying for you every day, and everyone knows God gives priority to His missionaries ;)

"Be still, and know that I am God."

Love you. 

Hermana Hunt

Funny things:

1. "Our teacher" in Spanish is "Nuestro Maestro" so naturally, every time we pray, we are grateful for Nuestro Maestro.

2. This super nice woman paid for me and my companion to have jamba juice today. Just paying in to the addiction I have.

3. We found a banana phone mixed in with all the bananas in the cafeteria. We all tried to call home.

4. Hermana S is crazy musical, and she is very impressed with my singing. I sing the soprano part in the MTC choir as well as the bass part. She's very jealous of my range. I sometimes sing all the way home from class, and notice how people are looking for where the man is that is singing. They are always surprised when they see it is really me singing. I never knew I had this talent until coming to the MTC. Why did I go in to economics with such an amazing talent like this? ;)

Sorry everyone! It has taken me too long to get Sarah's first letter up, but here it is :)

The MTC is awesome!! Seriously. The spirit here is SO strong. I LOVE being a missionary!!! Holy Jamolee. So much. I can't even describe in words how awesome it is! The spirit is here ALL THE TIME. I can focus so well! The gift of tongues is real. I can talk fairly well for a missionary here, when before I left I could not remember much in spanish. I remember words from high school spanish that I did not study a second time here or see again here, but I remember them!! It's amazing. Heavenly Father is real.

My companion, Hermana W, is the companion I prayed for. She is super chill and just lets me have my own space. The other hermanas in our apartment, Hermana S and Hermana D, are crazy and fun and wonderful! I love how they make me laugh so often. Like, every day. But I like that I spend most of my time with Hermana W. I know a lot of spanish to be in the beginning Spanish class. I know more than the intermediate people who are leaving the MTC in a week and a half or so. However, there are a lot of gospel terms that I am learning. You all know how well I learn vocab words. 

It has been difficult to eat the food here and to deal with the young elders. But my stomach is getting stronger as well as my heart. I remember that Christ can use me, even with all my imperfections. Therefore, Christ can use the very young elders as well. They put me in as the Sister Training Leader, which basically at the MTC means I get the privilege of telling the sisters when their skirts are too tight or when they are flirting to much with the elders. It's a pretty funny "calling" for me. It's not really a calling because my calling is to be a missionary, so I already accepted any other responsibilities that go along with it! I love being the leader though. Last night I called a 'very important' meeting together, and it was just fun. I love watching out for the physical and spiritual health of the hermanas. 

We're on the west campus, which is the overflow MTC because there are so many missionaries!! Everyone on this campus is learning spanish, which is so cool! Ever day I'm just speaking spanish all day long! We get our own shower for four sisters! We also walk everywhere in the COLD!! I am going shopping today for some more cold weather supplies. I am also pretty sick, so I've gone through a lot of my cough drops already. I pray I will get better before they decide to kick me out. You have to go to the doctor for a sore throat here, so pneumonia is a little intense for the MTC.

Basically I study the gospel and spanish all day every day. It's beautiful. I love it. We also have an investigator named Cristobal. We are trying to teach him with the spirit. I love the lessons and the teachers here. The work is hastening! It's a great place to be.

Funny things: 

1. One of these pictures is for my dad because he said I would "never" be able to line dry my clothes on my mission. :) Why not use the kitchen?

2. I told our investigator that Christ died for the store. (la tienda and la tarrea are very close)

3. I told a couple hermanas that Christ died for our fish. (los pecados and los pescados are also very close)

4. I cried like a baby in front of everyone at lunch. It was pretty pathetic. Everyone was all looking at me like--man, that is one crazy hermana. hahaha I didn't know I was such a GIRL!! Bah.

5. I keep almost falling off my bed. It is a small bed. I sleep in the bottom bunk, but it is very high from the floor. My poor companion has about three feet between her bunk and the ceiling!

Love you!

Hermana Hunt

home is wherever i'm with you.

I'm going to miss some people. Including, but not limited to, these ones.

to store 451.

I have never felt so loved in my life. I am going to miss working at the Spokane Valley Hobby Lobby. Everyone there has become my friend. I am so grateful for a job that was also my favorite pass-time. I loved going to work! Custom framing is one of my favorite things to do. That job got me through college with enough to spare for a mission. I am going to miss the people too. I have made life-long friends there, and I will miss each and every one of them so much. I wish them all the best in their career and in their life, and I pray that God will be with them until we meet again.

fifteen days.

Things are getting real with only fifteen days left before I leave for the Missionary Training Center (MTC). I am so incredibly excited, but also nervous. Leaving is always bittersweet. But I'm so excited!!! I wanted to post a few talks I love love love and that have gotten me through some tough times. Read them.

https://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/08/his-grace-is-sufficient

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe?lang=eng#listen=audio

I know that Jesus Christ lives!! He died for me, and was resurrected and lives today. I know this. I know Heavenly Father listens to me and is aware of me personally. He helps me with my deepest desires and deepest, unvoiced concerns (like learning Spanish! Now that one is voiced!). I will devote my whole self to Him for these next eighteen months in hopes of changing someone else, helping them to see how much God loves them too. 

Life goes better when we act on the teachings of Christ. Men are, that they might have joy (2 Nephi 2:25).