Making a Difference

January 20, 2014

Here in Texas, Elder Sharp and I have been working with some great people.  We have two investigators: Carl and Tim who are both almost to the point of baptism and all the lessons have been taught to them. 

One of the cool things as a missionary is you get to see people learn of the Gospel and you get to see it make a difference in their lives! You see changes in people, although nobody goes around doing miracles like healing physical sickness.  The miracles today are emotional and mental wounds and diseases being healed, it is more subtle but just as profound. It is a blessing to my life to serve God. 

Brandon, I want you to make wise decisions and surround yourself with good people so that you can have this great opportunity of serving Christ should you choose to. If you have not yet decided if you want to or should serve a mission I would recommend that you ask God if you will not be happier in doing so. 

So I have some news for y'all! With transfers this week, some big changes have occurred with Elder Sharp and I . Elder Sharp and I are still together, but we have lost the YSA branch to another pair of elders. We are very sad about that. Furthermore, we lose our car and will be on bikes now. Even more sad. But enough of the downheartening news! Elder Sharp and I now get to focus on the Frisco 3rd ward, we are on bikes- so plenty of excercise and cardio! And Elder Sharp has been made district leader!!! So that makes every single one of my companions district leader while I was their companion (Elders Findlay, Kowallis, and Sharp). 

There are plenty of changes around in the district too. Elder Garner has left and a new elder (I forgot his name) replacing him will get here Tuesday. Carl and Tim (both in the young single adult branch) are both sooooo close to being baptized. Carl even has his interview complete! All that is needed is to make a program and fill the font. And Tim (who was previously fence sitting) told us he wants to be baptized and we are coordinating that. Unfortunately (for us) they are both in the YSA branch so we turn them over to other elders.  

We have no investigators in the Frisco 3rd ward despite spending most of our time this past 6 weeks doing work for that area. Well, I guess it is time to find someone - or be blessed with a miracle referral. 

I discovered something called Museli.  It is oatmeal but has many delicious things like rice puffs, sunflower seeds, almond bits, cranberries, raisins, various chopped nuts and much more! I put it in a bowl with milk before I go to bed,  it sits overnight in the fridge and I eat it in the morning and thus it is quick, cheap AND delicious! So life is great, the work is great, and God is great!

Ta-ta,

-Elder Hunt

p.s. Madre thanks for sending the little gift bag with the Mullins.  It was great talking with them. Thank you for sending me the okonomyaki recipe and other recipes too! I am so surprised that I could live off of oatmeal, rice and beans and spaghetti for 6 months and only just now be getting tired of it. (I exaggerate by the way.)  

Windy, Wet Weather

January 13, 2014

Dear Family,

The missionary choir sounds like fun, I wish I got to do that here in the Texas Dallas Mission.  (Yesterday, we had the most amazing sacrament meeting.  The California Irvine mission has started a missionary choir and the 60 member choir came to our sacrament meeting and presented the most inspiring program through song and testimony.  One of the choir leaders was Elder Risk, an Elder who had served in our ward and had encouraged Graham in his missionary preparations.)  I remember Elder Risk, he is the missionary I look up to the most of all I have ever met, both before and during my mission.

Texan weather is nonsensical.  We went from very cold, humid sprinkling rain that made my hands get thick and hard to move  to humid, almost warmish drizzling rain like Hong Kong during the monsoon rainy season. (Yes, I do remember the way the monsoon rainy season felt from when we lived there.) Then we had beautiful, even cool tempatures with a light breeze and yesterday we had winds so strong you had to brace against them as you stood or walked. Now today, it is not quite as windy, not quite as rainy, not quite as cold, not quite as humid, not quite as wet- back to normal? What even is normal? I don't even know what normal weather is here in Texas in January! 

This month of January is the month I hit my six month mark!  It has come sooner than I expected.  The last month with Elder Sharp has especially flown by.  Time goes by much faster than it did back home...

Love ya,

Elder Hunt

P.S.  On my P-day, we often play disc golf!  This picture is from last week:

From left to right Elder Garner (Frisco 2&6) Alex (from the YSA branch) Elder Sharp (my jolly companion) Elder West (Frisco 2&6 with Elder Garner)

The Greatest Blessing on Earth

January 6, 2014

Dear Family,

I have recently realized just how blessed I am. I feel like I am disproportionately and unfairly blessed more than others. I have been trying to figure out why. One reason I think is because of you - my family. I owe my height, thinness (my curse has turned to blessing - 180 degree flip now that every missionary and their dog is trying to stop the inevitable girth expansion caused by the Texan diet), intelligence, love of the gospel, work ethic, frugality and ability to cope well with stress to my family.  

My  happiness and joy come from my knowledge of the gospel.   I have experience with how when the gospel is lived well it can make the home a refuge and place of safety in troubled times.  Our home has given me a glimpse into the Celestial kingdom (our home is like a Celestial embassy or consulate).

Elder Sharp and Elder Hunt

I have been blessed with open mindedness, good grades, college acceptance where I want to go, travel to far and exotic places, love of many different and diverse foods, and love of trying new food.  I am grateful for the many, many letters and packages, this last email and emails every week- consistency! 

I could keep going on and on and on and on and on until the file gets so big I can't send it all in one e-mail and I have to send this list over the course of 10 e-mails.  To me, family is the greatest blessing on earth, eternal life in heaven. All that I am I owe to y'all. I love you, each and every one of you. 

Elder Graham Hunt

The Best Family Ever!

December 30, 2013

Dear Family,

Thanks for a wonderful time catching up a bit with y'all!  It was wonderful to see you on video in real time from across several states!  Truly technology is such a blessing from God; information can travel so fast! 

I have a funny story about our Skype conversation.  After we hang up, I went into the other room and the family hosting us said I was very enthusiastic during my call. They said that I must have the best family ever - these were their exact words.  I said, "Yes," to be polite but in my mind I said, "YEAH THEY ARE!  I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY IN THE WORLD AND THERE ISN'T A BETTER ONE TO BE FOUND!!!"  Of course I didn't say that out loud...

Love y'all! 

-Elder Hunt

Merry Christmas!

December 23, 2013

President Durrant said to give his love to y'all!  We plan to be calling at 11:00 am (Dallas time).  I will start with the home phone but only to set up FaceTime on an iPad or Skype or something.  I WANT TO SEE YOUR BEAUTIFUL FACES!! haha...  (One of the best parts of Christmas is each missionary calls home to their parents.  We had a wonderful visit with Graham via Skype on Christmas morning.)  

For most Christmas day is a day of celebration and gathering with family and friends.  However, for some Christmas is the loneliest time of the year.  It is a time when they should be with loved ones but instead find themselves all alone.  As representatives of Christ we will go out on the day we celebrate his birth and find those who are alone, to share some Christmas cheer with them.  We will set aside much of our traditions in order to (hopefully) bring that joy to others.

Last Friday, we had a training with President Durrant.  We practiced teaching and shared our prepared talks on what makes a successful missionary.  President Durrant gave us all a Christmas gift - an acorn!  He talked about the many things the acorn symbolized like the seed of faith and obedience to mission rules.  Well, it promises to be a great week!  I can't wait to speak to y'all!!

Elder Hunt

Elder Sharp is great!

December 16, 2013

My new address is 24222 Wallabie Way Sydney, Australia!!!!

 Just kidding..

This week has been crazy, going for the first time to a new area. Elder Sharp is a great, great guy and we get along very well. It is truly a blessing to be companions with him. 

Not only do we cover the Frisco 3rd ward but also the YSA ward too! We have two investigators, Tyler and Christian. We just set baptisimal dates with both of them in January!

Because we cover the YSA ward, our area extends beyond the borders of the 3rd ward, it includes Frisco, McKinney the Colony Little Elm and more, not that we tract or attend wards in those cities but we cover referrals there.

Most important however, we have a car!!! This is truly a blessing. I enjoyed the bike but it is good to be able to cover so much ground so fast.  Yesterday just before sacrament meeting started the Bishop of the 3rd ward, Bishop Fredrickson asked me to come up right after the sacrament and introduce myself and bear a short testimony. Talk about opportunity! I got to introduce myself and bear a heartfelt witness of the gospel of our Savior. That jumpstarted my quest to get to know everybody, rather than "oh- I didn't know we got a new elder" all day people knew that I had arrived and I wanted to learn their names and faces. 

Well, I hope to be sending more updates and writing more letters shortly. Dearest family of mine please, please, please know I love you and pray for you. Although it seems as if I will be gone a long time it will come sooner than any of us can imagine. The days and weeks fly by like a flock of Geese headed north for the summer. Time is very relative.

Elder Hunt
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Ice Storm Adventures

December 9, 2013

So I woke up one morning to a beeping sound.  I got out of bed and searched for the source.  It was cold, quite cold and our heater had not been working for several weeks.  It was 5:00 am and the previous day we had heard much talk about an "ice storm" coming.  Well, turns out that it had hit and hard, too.  I went to flip on a light and nothing happened.  I went to other rooms and tried those but none of our lights would turn on.  In fact, there was no electricity in the apartment whatsoever and it was the first day after a raging ice storm.  Everything was covered in thick sheets of ice!

We had no heat, so we were ordered to head to our zone leaders apartment and stay there until further notice!  As we waited for one of the members of the ward who had a four wheel drive truck to pick us up, we could feel the temperature dropping even as we spoke.  We were at the zone leaders place for about 24 hours with four missionaries in one apartment.  Although it was not cramped, we still got cabin fever.

Texan cows have too much grit to let a little ice stop 'em!

In Texas, there is humidity and wind, which means that when it falls to 20 degree weather, it renders your coats and windbreakers useless.  The cold goes right to your bones.  Luckily, there is now a thaw and the roads are [uhh..] "safe" and things are considerably warmer.

The pictures will look like snow, but it is all ice and it was dangerous! Both Elder Kowalis and I have fallen and hurt ourselves already!  I got pics of a few higher end nice cars covered in icicles.  I was like a kid, playing in the ice, sliding around, breaking rows of icicles with a swipe of my hand.  I have learned something about myself:  I love winter and I love the cold!  The colder it is, the more I like it.  The wetter it is the more I like it and the windier it is the more I enjoy it.  This is something I never realized while in sunny warm So-Cal.

So I am getting transferred!  I am going to Frisco Ward and WE HAVE A CAR!!  I also will be working  in the Young Single Adult ward and covering young single adults in all of Frisco.  Apparently, this new area is even more affluent than Plano, something I have a hard time believing.  I don't know my new address but I will send a letter ASAP when I get there.  I will be with one "Elder Sharp" and I have heard good things about him.

Hope y'all have a most meerrryy CHRISTmas!  Please know that I love each of you...

Elder Hunt