Can Every Week Be A Miracle Week?

This week we found 11 youngsters that like to do drugs and smoke and drink and be super crazy. They beckoned us over and we were like...uhh...okay. So we started to talk to them, and they were all making fun of us and stuff at first, and then we sang a hymn. We sang ¨I am a Child of God.¨ Their faces changed, and they started to listen to us like their lives depended on it (which they do). The Spirit was able to enter and touch their hearts. They all accepted to work towards a baptism and towards changing their lives. 

There is this really awesome convert in our branch that has been a member now for 8 months. He used to live in the US, but for being like these youngsters, he had to come back to Mexico. Here, he found a few American missionaries and started to talk to them, and he changed his life. We brought him with us to visit these young kids, and we all were crying by the end of the lesson. Yesterday, four of the eleven went to church for the first time, including one that worked in another state yesterday who went out of his way to find a church building to assist. Since when did teenagers want to go to church? Only when the Lord is hastening His work.

I don´t know about you guys, but I´m getting pretty scared seeing all these amazing miracles passing. These are definitely the last days.

I love a line I found in Preach My Gospel this week about repentance. It says ¨Bringing our lives in line with God´s will through repentance is a central purpose of our lives.¨ That´s our purpose in this live. Right now, as missionaries, our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, but putting my life in line with God´s will is the grander purpose. It is the bigger purpose. If we can accomplish our purpose of doing always the Lord´s will, we accomplish every other purpose as well.

I hope you have a wonderful week! Enjoy the snow!

Hermana Hunt

PS don´t you love how they teach English here?

PPS Parral is famous for its mine. They had a lot of work about 30 years ago, and that is why people live here. Last Monday we went to check out the mine and the nice view of Parral from up on top!

hit my one year mark November 20th. You can see how happy I am about that.

Tere is like my second mom. Seriously love this family.

My comp hates me and shut my thumb in a car door...hahaha just kidding she doesn´t hate me. 

But she did shut my thumb in a car door ;)

Another Week of Miracles

This week started off sad because we had a really old lady that wanted to be baptized, but everyone told us that it was going to be really cold this weekend. We knew that with her knees and heart and everything, she would not even be able to walk if it was really cold. She is 84 years old. Then everything started to say that it was going to be a cold weekend. News, people in the street, and the weather itself said that it would be a cold one. How sad. Even Thursday was the coldest day out there. Her service was planned for Friday. We started to fast and pray and tell everyone to fast and pray with us so that P would be able to be baptized. Friday morning we woke up and the first thing we looked at was the sky. Cold. Fog and coldness.

We kept praying.

We finished exercising. Thirty minutes later.

We looked out the window.

HEAT!!!!! SUNSHINE!!!!!!! It was the most beautiful day this week!!!! P was able to be baptized. It was a beautiful service. No one thought it was possible because usually the old people here are SUPER catholic and P was SUPER catholic, but then God started to let her feel the spirit little by little. She started to change little by little. And little by little, the Lord placed the way so that she would be able to be baptized. In the service, her and her daughter both cried and expressed their love for eachother. They both expressed how happy they were. P forgets a lot of things, but all day long she said "I´m already baptized!!" hahaha :)

I have seen so many miracles for fasting these last few weeks. If we have a question or a problem, fasting puts us closer to the Spirit so that we can find an answer. We can do it whatever day and whatever time we need.

We saw another miracle with T and D this week too. Remember how last week she told us she didn´t want anything to do with the church anymore? Welp, this week she is a member of the church. Her and her daughter. Right after their baptism they went to visit investigators with us. They are huge examples for me. They are so committed to do what the Lord says. All week long, T was like: what am I feeling? What is this feeling that just wont leave me? Why do I feel like this?! We helped her to understand that it is the Spirit´s beautiful voice that makes us feel good about the decisions we are making.

I am just standing here in awe at what is passing in the Lord´s work right now. He is working, and He is working hard. Are we watching on the boat or watching from the shore? Are we helping this grand work? Are we on the Lord´s side? Now is the time to show ;)

Love you all!!

Hermana Hunt 

Week Of Miracles

I don´t remember if I told you or not, but a family of investigators went to church for the first time last Sunday, and it was wonderful. However, on Tuesday, we went to visit them and the mom, T, told us that she never wanted to go back to our church, that she had decided that her church is the true church, and that her church was going to help them out with the priesthood just like our church would do. I remember we left that lesson quiet with nothing to say. My companion asked me after a lot of silence--¨what do we do now?¨ T and her family are like our family. They are so wonderful and they had been progressing really fast, especially her daughter, D. I remember walking down the street saying ¨We put our trust in God.¨ and hoping that I would be able to follow my own council.

On Wednesday, we started a fast for her and her family. We trusted in our zone leaders to go and visit her, and we trusted in our Heavenly Father. Our zone leaders went to visit them with our branch president, and I left to do divisions with the other sisters in Parral. Yesterday we saw a miracle. T and D went to church!!! When we went to visit them after church, T told us: ¨I know now why I felt anxiety and sadness when I told you I didn´t want to keep listening to you and I didn`t want to go to your church anymore. I found my answer. I am going to be baptized on the 22nd of this month. I want to be a part of every part of this church.¨ My face--> O:I

It was a wonderful, wonderful moment. I love the happiness you can get when others finally find their answer after searching so hard. T says that she wants to be baptized really soon so that she can go to the temple too. She already started doing her family history and she is going to feed the missionaries like, six times this month. I feel like their family is my family. I feel like her daughters are my little sisters. They are so wonderful and going to be blessed so much by this gospel. 

I went to do divisions with the sisters in Parral and discovered that Parral is........FULL of HILLS. I am sending a few pictures that I hope will help you to understand exactly what it means to walk up the mountains on your tippy toes so that you don't fall backwards, and then to be afraid to go back down because you feel like you`re trying to walk down a slip and slide. It is beautiful, but my oh my these poor sisters have a lot of hills in their area! Something that amazed me though is that these sisters are so happy up in the hills. They trust in God and are seeing a lot of miracles in their areas. When you ask them about the hills, they`re all chill like: Oh yeah, there are hills. But think about this thing that is way cooler than thinking about hills.... hahaha they are a wonderful example for me.

This week in Cuahtemoc, they were able to bring 20 investigators to a branch that in the past has had 100 in attendance. Yesterday, they had 220 attend, with 20 of those being the investigators. We saw a miracle here in Parral also in the divisions when we found a woman that has known that the church is true for years, has a testimony and passion so deep that she wants to be baptized with all her heart, and is just looking for a way to get baptized. She has already been prepared by the Lord. What a blessing it is to see that the Lord is hastening His work. I hope you are praying for missionary work and trusting in Heavenly Father that He will help you know what to do and what to say when the moment comes to share the gospel. It´s a beautiful labor :)

Have a great week! I look forward to hearing your missionary experiences next week!

Hermana Hunt

PS one of the relief society members made us food Thursday. She is really old. Every day we eat at 2 in the afternoon. When we went to this lady´s house, she said with her shaky old lady voice: ¨I started to cook at six in the morning but you didn´t arrive and you didn´t arrive. I hope the food isn´t cold. I have been waiting for you for a long time...¨ hahaha

Pine tree seeds, not rocks. Pine tree seeds are really expensive here and really delicious. I`m pretty sure they just fall on the ground there and no one cares. But they are yummy!!

This is what our bed looked like yesterday. Sunday means you don`t have to make your bed, right? Hahaha this is the first time this has happened in the mission. Sorry mommy....

Porch steps? Who needs those when we built our house on a mountain?

Sister R. It rained a lot this week. It was pretty cold.

Sister J´s house is bigger than my house at home, and they pay less than $250 a month in rent. This is the view from their spectacular windows that face the whole city of Parral. Beautiful. And a beautiful house. they have a jacuzi (dont remember how to spell things) and three bathrooms and a giant kitchen. Hahaha they are living the life :D

Parral

Okay, can I just tell yall that I am living the dream of a life?! It´s EN SERIO. I do not see how life could get any better. Just maybe if all my friends and family moved to Parral. Yep. That would make it 100 percent perfect instead of just 99 percent. 

I´M IN PARRAL!!!!

Everyone, and I mean everyone, told me I would never go to Parral because I´m super white. Well take that everyone!! Parral is known as the most beautiful place in the state of Chihuahua. I am kind of in Chihuahua heaven right now. AND. To make things better, my companion is HERMANA M!!!! She´s crazy awesome!! She is so awesome. So yeah. Rant over.

This week was pretty cool. We spent most the week in Chihuahua or on a bus from Chihuahua to Parral or Parral to Chihuahua. (PS. Chihuahua is the biggest city in the state of Chihuahua, where I have been all my mission until now. Now I live 3 to 4 hours in a bus from the big city. Hope that clarifies a bit of the confusion with the whole Chihuahua-Chihuahua thing.) In Parral there is only a branch, not a ward, but it is a really big branch. We just don´t have enough priesthood holders. Hello looking to help men be worthy and be baptized so that we can get a ward out here. The members are awesome. We fight a little bit more to have a place to eat, but most of the Relief Society members are willing to give more than they should to the missionaries out here. One branch. TEN missionaries. We´re a lot of crazy youngsters. Don´t blame someone not wanting to give food to ten extra people. The members are so dedicated out here. It´s amazing.

This week I loved a phrase we sang in English the other day ¨fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed; for I am thy God and will still give thee aid¨ and another one that said ¨we doubt not the Lord nor His goodness--we´ve proved Him in days that are past.¨ I have realized that my entire mission I have done the things for my own hard head, and I have not trusted in the Lord. I have trusted in my own strengths. Last week, I saw how I had no power over a situation, but the Lord, yes. I saw miracles. I saw that I have ¨proved¨ the Lord, and He came through on His part of the deal. He always will. This week, I have been trying to trust the Lord more and to have more faith in Him.

You know those confidence tests they do where you have to fall backwards and trust that someone is going to catch you? That is how I should be with our Heavenly Father. I should confide in Him so much that I don´t worry about falling. I know He will catch me.

Another thing I liked this week, me being super quiet and keeping in my complaints instead of expressing them, was something President said. He said (in Spanish......uhhhh....) ¨Don´t confuse humility with quiet pride.¨ When something isn´t right, a lot of times I just don´t say anything because I don´t want to be all prideful like, hey look dude I´m better and this is just not right, but I think it in my head. I need to stand up for what I know is right instead of just staying quiet. I can´t make a difference if I don´t stand up for what I believe in. 

Hermana Hunt

They eat dead people´s bread here for their dead people day. AKA two days after Halloween. Why is it called dead people bread? I do not know. Why do they eat it on dead people´s day? I do not know. Is it delicious? Obviously.

Parral

Satan cat. We gave it some yummy food. Then we had two cats. Then three. There are animals all over the place here in the streets. It´s pretty sad sometimes.

I finally got my scripture cases. They´re awesome!!

President took us to a sweet country restaurant. Yes I took pictures in the bathroom. How cool are these sinks?!

A member made us these CUTE sister missionary cookie jars. They are pringles containers that she cleaned out, decorated, and filled with cookies. I will miss my old ward. They are crazy wonderful.

Transfers

After six months of being in New Paradise, they are finally kicking me out. I have transfers tomorrow!! I`m still not sure where I´m going or with who, but I´m sure it will be great. I am sad to leave such a good ward!

This week a lot of miracles have happened. I have seen how the Lord´s hand is in everything. We get frustrated--we frustrate ourselves--because we do not see the big picture. We don´t see things how the Lord sees them. A few weeks ago, we were frustrated because we had a really awesome baptism planned for Brother A, had already talked to the bishop and our ward mission leader, and invited a lot of people to the baptism. A few hours before we were to start, we recieved a phone call from the Assistants saying that the baptism would need to be moved to another church at a different hour. We didn´t understand why, but we followed what they said and the baptism went well. 

This week, one of the families in our ward sent one of their daughters on the mission to Chile. When they were right about to leave for the airport, one of her luggages broke. They had to hurry to buy a completely new suitcase with only twenty minutes to catch her flight. They ran to the store, but when they had picked out a suitcase, they found there were seven people in line in front of them! They asked for mercy from one of the workers there, and he ran them up front to check them out when their entire system went down and they were not able to purchase the suitcase!!

Long story short.

The man that was helping them to purchase recognized them from A´s baptism, and recognized that they were members. They let them go without putting a dime down for the luggage, trusting in them that they would return in a few hours to pay for the luggage after dropping their daughter off for the mission. Their daughter made her flight on time and she is now in Chile in this very moment.

How crazy it is that litte things always happen and we don´t even realize it. We get angry, we get frustrated, when really it is God´s plan for us. We just don´t see the big picture. I know God loves us and is patient with us, even when we don´t see what He wants for us.

Have a wonderful week!!

Hermana Hunt

¨We need to learn how to lead and how to be lead¨

¨Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with faith have courage as well.¨ President Monson

i will miss these ladies.

member missionary work.

separation is a hard thing.

No one told us about daylight savings time, and we woke up at 5:30 on Sunday. We left the house for church at 8 at 6:50. The good thing about all this? The Elders gave us some eggs. Hahahaha :D Note the really expensive Elder´s dwelling place in background one street above compared to the sad Sister missionary´s dwelling place you have seen photos of one street below.

This Was a CRAZY GOOD WEEK!

Hey family and friends,

I have been informed that I can no longer speak english, which is pretty sad because I´ve got an american companion. She´s been trying to teach me english. Hope it doesn`t keep you from trying to understand what I want to say today :D 

This week was a week full of miracles. 

First off, we met a man so prepared to hear the gospel that I cried. Here in mexico, they have police that roam the street and then they have some big military man who roam the street as well. They are a bit scarier. They drive a giant, military truck with somewhere around 20 military guys just hanging out in the back. Everything is open so that you can see that they are big and powerful, and they are. This week as we were walking a little bit scared by one of these big trucks, the driver stoped us and started asking us questions about why we are here and what we are doing. I´m not gonna lie, I felt a little bit anxious. We answered his questions trying to listen to the Spirit to help us out.

Then all of the sudden, his face changed. He started telling us a beautiful story about his only fifteen-year-old daughter. His wife was not able to have children when they were first married, and they tried five years to have a child, including moving to Chihuahua to find better doctors here. They were faced with a decision shortly after and they had to chose between an expensive procedure and buying a house. They chose to buy the house, knowing that it would mean they might never have a child. That night, this big, tough military guy knelt down and begged that they would be able to find a way to adopt a child that would not cost very much. The next day he went to work only to recieve a phone call from his wife shortly thereafter. ¨I´M PREGNANT!!¨ she exclaimed. They were able to have a beautiful daughter, and sixteen years later this military man still remembers how much he felt in that moment that God really does exist. That He really does listen. That He really does care. We told him about how families can be together forever and he cried. He said that his church teaches that families dont last longer than this life. He was completely ready to do whatever it takes to have an eternal family.

I don`t know why it hit me so hard. I think it´s becuase I had already judged him like, oh jeez let´s try to pass by without creating any attention... that it suprised me so much. It also suprised me that he knows so strongly that Heavenly Father lives becuase of the tender mercies He gives us. It taught me a lot. I saw another tender mercy this week when we went to watch a baptism with one of our investigators, A. It was the most beautiful service I have seen in my entire mission and one of the most spiritual experiences I have had in my life. The man that was baptised was so incredibly happy and he felt so clean. It was a miracle to see. We also saw progress in one of our investigators, R, that we were thinking about dropping a few weeks ago. He was not progressing, but something told us to hold out. We found his need, and he is progressing like crazy. The other day, he prayed in front of us and prayed exactly the way Jesus taught us. It was a little miracle that brought us a lot of joy :)

I am loving this.

Hope you have a great week!! Love you!!

Hermana Hunt

1. These are green prickley pears. We eat them every night. They are deeeelishus.

2. This is our friend. He was watching us this morning so we started barking and he freaked out like--where is this coming from?!?!

Funnythings.

The word body (cuerpo) here is very similar to the word pork (puerco). Yesterday we had the Primary program and one of the kids said ¨My pork was created in the image of God.¨

A random dude in the street said ¨Hey young laides!¨ with such a good accent! Everyone who knows English here tries to use it with us when they see two Americans walking down the street. It gets pretty funny sometimes.

Little Things Make Big Things Happen

This week we were blessed with another miracle as we found a family that really needs Christ´s help. 

As we were talking to one of our investigators, R, a group of young people walked up and wanted to buy pan de nata. My companion started talking to one of the youngsters because he had a knotts farm sweatshirt on from California. He expressed his concerns for his mom who is really sick, and they all invited us to go to their house and talk to them. They didn`t remember their address very well because they had just barely changed houses, so they told us the street and the number that they could remember and took a pamphlet home with them to read. 

The next day we went to look for their house, found it, knocked, and it wasn`t them!! We were devastated!! They had given us the wrong house number. The next few days we spent our time asking everyone in the street if they knew a teenager named E that lived around that area. Nothing. We found some other investigators and learned our area a little better, but nothing. 

The other day we were with member and we had to stop to explain him something, and an old man came out of one of the houses exactly before we were about to head for another appointment. We were already late because of a situation in the afternoon and a different member we stopped and talked to for a little while, but we took advantage of the situation with the old man to ask him if he knew a teenager named E. HE DID. It was E´s grandpa!!! We passed by Sunday to visit them, thinking we had just seen a miracle, but little did we know...

E told us Sunday that he never wears sweatshirts. His mom made him put on a sweatshirt because it is getting a little cold here, so he put on a plain, black sweatshirt. Just before leaving the house, he stained that sweatshirt and had to put on another. The knotts farm sweatshirt. We were able to help them feel better with their mom, teach them Heavenly Father´s plan for us, and make plans with them for baptism. Maybe the biggest miracle I have seen in the mission so far.

Everything we did that day and he did that day lead up to us meeting each other. The sweatshirt, the pan de nata, the lateness of us meeting. If we had not had a catastrophe in the afternoon, we would have passed by there earlier. If we had not stopped to talk to the member for a little bit, we would not have been in that spot at the exact time we needed to be there. 

I know Heavenly Father works in miracles. He is a loving God who wants us to return to Him. I know this gospel is true. I know it for the Book of Mormon. I know it for a prophet on the earth today. I know it for the little blessings I see each day that turn into big blessings.

I love being a missionary :)

Hermana Hunt

Funny things:

Hermana Lowe looked up the word ¨maya¨ this week (which means nylons) and in the dictionary it says ¨mesh, mail, leotard.¨ She read the definition to me and I heard ¨MESH MALE LEOTARD.¨ That´s awkward.

Hey yall! Just want to share a really cool experience with you from this week.

A few weeks ago, we were carrying around a Book of Mormon to give to one of our investigators. That same day, we contacted a man at his work and he accepted pretty fast. As we were talking to him, I felt the impression to give him the Book of Mormon that was meant for our other investigator. I was like: no way jose! This book is for R. I tried to make myself feel better by giving him a restauration pamphlet, but I still felt like I needed to give him the book I was carrying around. Finally, I gave in to the impression and gave him the Book of Mormon. My companion looked at me like: what are you doing? That book is for R! haha we ended up having to give R his Book of Mormon the next day.

This week, we passed by that same spot on our way to an activity. As we got closer to this man, we saw a book in his hands. As we got even closer, we realized that it was the Book of Mormon that we had gifted him!!! He was reading it and is almost in 2nd Nephi!! When we asked him about the book, he got really serious and said: It`s marvelous. It is wonderful--it. is a miracle.

I know the Book of Mormon is true! It is marvelous and wonderful and definitely a miracle. A man can get closer to God by following what that book says than by any other book on this planet. I loved what Elder Lynn G Robbins said in general conference--¨Which way do you face?¨ Do we tolerate satan with fear for what the world will say, or do we seek the approval of God? I have seen in the mission that if we seek the approval of God and not that of man, we recieve the blessings. As we read the Book of Mormon (more important than sleep or a job), we will recieve God`s approval. 

I also loved what Elder Jorg Klebignat said about our weaknesses--that we might have the same weaknesses we have battled against all our life for our entire life, but when we make the effort to overcome them, the Atonement will cover us. That gave me a lot of comfort with some silly little things I keep doing even when I want to change. 

I know Jesus Christ will cover us with His wonderful cloak of the Atonement if we just follow Him. He is asking us to just follow Him! That`s all you have to do! Just follow. Never again follow the wrong voice. His voice is where we find peace. I know it`s true.

Have a great week!

Hermana Hunt

The Spirit

This week was a week full of miracles from our Heavenly Father. A few weeks ago, a friend wrote me with a spiritual experience he had when he was listening to the missionaries. They stopped the lesson and asked him if he could feel the spirit. We have an investigator right now that is having a hard time knowing if she feels the spirit. We were able to stop in the middle of the lesson to see how she was feeling. She said she felt super calm. We testified to her that it was the spirit testifying that our message is true. If I had never heard my friend´s missionary experience, that one investigator in Chihuahua might not have understood the spirit like she does now. It was a really spiritual night that made all the difference with that investigator.

We saw another miracle yesterday as we went to bring one of our investigators to church with us. Our Sacrament Meeting starts at 12 in the afternoon, and it takes us about 30 minutes to walk to church, so we arrived at his house at 11:30. He wasn´t home, but one of his friends came out so we started to talk with him. At 11:35, he took a shower and got ready to go to church. The same day we contacted him, he went to church!! Milagrosamente, a few members passed by to give us a ride and we got to church on time. After Sacrament Meeting, he turned to us and said: ¨I feel really good right now. I feel really peaceful. Next Sunday I´m gonna come back.¨ It was a wonderful experience! We testified that he felt the spirit there.

I learned a litte about how the spirit speaks with ME this week too. Friday night, I had an impression to not go where we were headed. I felt...uncomfortable. Something in my heart that just didn´t feel right. Because it was not in any way convenient to follow the impression, I unfortunately didn`t follow it, and we fell pretty hard that night. After repenting, Saturday, I saw the complete opposite. As we were sitting in the church listening to the women´s conference, I felt the tranquility of the spirit testifying to me that what the speakers were saying was right. I realized that the spirit has never spoken to me in a loud, thunderous voice and has never yelled at me, but has prompted me with little, quiet feelings. It has never came in the thunder of a storm or the loud, harshness of the world, but has spoken so quietly that I have never realized it was the spirit.

I´m grateful for a miracle-working God who loves us and sends us the Spirit to comfort and teach us.

I love you all!! Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Hunt

PS I learned how to make pan de nata this week. DELICIOUS.

Giant shopping cart. Why didn't they think of this before?