A Fond Farewell for Elder Sharp

April 14, 2014

My dear family,

This has been quite a week getting to see General Conference.  Seeing all the leadership of the church makes me think of my swell Bishop Hunt back home!  I love you Fadre.  The mission will be over sooner than you or I think and BAM! I'll be home.

Please continue to tell Madre and Brandon you love them.  You always did that with me and it made a difference in my life.

So transfer calls have come, and Elder Sharp is headed to Durrant, Oklahoma!!!! Incoming will be an "Elder Wheelhouse" (dun-dun-duuuun!) whom nobody in our zone knows anything about!  (We are so thankful that Graham was able to serve with Elder Sharp as long as he did.  They worked together for over four months!)

Sounds like y'all had much fun in Arizona! Each of y'all need to have 33% more fun on trips and such to compensate for me not being there!!!

Love- the smashing, dashing, gospel preaching

Elder Graham Bradley Jeffree Hunt the First

(This was shared with me by a member of the Frisco Ward where Graham is serving..."Elder Sharp and your son made a great team. Glad they were together as long as they were. We are excited to meet your son's new companion.  Your son always has fun and laughs a lot. He is also a great missionary and carries the spirit with him. We are glad he is still in Frisco.")

The best way we serve our Father in Heaven is by being a positive influence on others ...

April 7, 2014

Dear Family,

I want to send you the video of an insane hailstorm we had, but I cannot find it's location on the camera card, so I will just describe it to you.

Elder Sharp and I had just stepped inside our apartment, to grab a few things before heading back out to go to an appointment. When we walked in the door to our apartment, there was no rain, no precipitation what so ever outside.  Moments afterward, we started hearing plinking against the window and the wall.  We stepped outside to find hail the size of golf balls flying down at terminal velocity!  Car alarms were blaring and the sound was intense as hail struck concrete, metal fences, apartment buildings, and air conditioning units. It was an expression of God's power the likes of which I had never before witnessed. Truly He provided, for if we had been caught out in the open, we would have been hurt.  Many roads do not have shelter at the side.  It was intense! 

General Conference was no less intense.  (Our church hosts a worldwide meeting called General Conference twice a year where our prophet and apostles speak and give direction specific for our day.  You can see it on www.lds.org.)  We watched a part of General Conference at the home of the Mullins, with Courtney.  Richard G. Scott answered the question and prayer I went into conference asking. He said, "The best way we can serve our Father in Heaven is by being a positive influence on others and serving them."  While a very broad statement, to me it was as precise as the scalpel.

My family I love you, I hope y'all know that!

Please stay safe both physically and spiritually!

-Elder Hunt

An Infinitesimal Speck of Time

March 31, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

General conference is this week!

I'm very excited to see it, and it feels as if last conference was not long ago...

Last Saturday we taught Courtney about the Word of Wisdom.  (The Word of Wisdom is our health code and includes not drinking alcohol, smoking or taking recreational drugs.)  She had some questions and concerns but at the end she totally understood why it is so important. Brother and Sister Mullin were there with us as well!  It is so cool to get to teach, work, attend church, etc. with someone so closely connected with back home. (Brother Mullin grew up in our area in California and his parents attend our congregation.)  That truly is a blessing! 

My back is fine and has been for weeks- thankfully!  I did get Grandma Pat's birthday package so if she asks- y'all know. Pretty soonish it'll be Mother's Day, Madre! (On Mother's Day, all the missionaries get to call home to their mothers.  Needless to say, I am really looking forward to this coming Mother's Day!)

I suppose I should make one comment about my birthday.  Today I turn 19, next year I'll turn 20 and then there will only be four months until I return home!  D:  So often the mission suddenly will seem like an infinitesimal speck of time. 

Brandon must be doing quite amazing, I don't know how relatively high eleven and a half feet is but that sounds huge! And a double PR is insane!!!!!!! (Brandon is a pole vaulter for his high school's track and field team.)  Yet he isn't the only one clearing new heights! I can now hit my head on a 6'5" pole by just simply standing there!  Heheheheh..

Well, thank you for all your well-wishes and support!

I saw this on a sign on a house the other day:

"May the angels protect you,

trouble neglect you,

your neighbors respect you,

and heaven accept you."

Love Ya!

-Elder Hunt

We were the missionaries meant for the job...

March 24, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

This past week every single day Elder Sharp and I have met people with whom I just got the feeling we were the missionaries meant for the job.  No matter where you are called, no matter where you end up, the Lord has people that YOU are meant to teach.  YOU with YOUR specific personality and skills and traits and everything.  Whether you notice it or not, the Lord is in dire need of you.  That is why even though I think, "Wouldn't it be nice to play World of Tanks on the computer and watch Pokemon reruns and go to the ocean with Brandon.." I still know that this is what God wants me to do, and those fun things will just have to wait till post-mission.

I have grown to enjoy biking, it is so much fun and you get so much exercise and you feel so good! Being on a bike is much better than a car (in my opinion).

"Until we meet again,

Godspeed ten fold."

I just imagine myself flying down mainstreet on my bike going 60 mph!

That would be awesome..

-Elder Graham Hunt

A Mind Blowing Week

March 17, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

This past week has been mind blowing. Either I am just noticing it more, or the Lord is utilizing Elder Sharp and I much more. I could talk about alot of experiences but I will pick two.

The first was last Thursday. Elder Sharp and I were heading out to go tract and we saw a man carrying stuff from the side of the road in front of an apartment complex to a nearby parking lot. I biked over to talk to him, and asked him if he wanted help moving. He emphatically affirmed that he did! It turns out that Arnold had been kicked out of his apartment. His belongings had been moved out front where by Texas law anyone can come up and take stuff. He had been frantically trying to move his possessions to one place so that they were secure and the whole time people had been driving up and asking if they could take this or buy that all while he was trying to protect his belongings. So he was very glad to have us help him. After we were finished we talked, said a prayer, and he related the story of the good samaritan to us - how we helped when others just passed by. His friend then showed up with his truck and we loaded everything. He would take it all to another apartment in a part of the city down south. We gave him our number and told him how he could get in contact with the missionaries down where he was moving. Elder Sharp and I did not get to speak with as many people that day, but we did do something much more meaningful.

Two days before that on Tuesday, Elder Sharp and I were tracting. We had just passed by an old man and his very young grandson. After speaking with them (and he declined by the way), he called out as we walked away something about having his own church, then the child then yelled at us something about how we were going to Hell.  Elder Sharp and I did not quite catch it because the boy was so young. We kept walking, turned the corner and then were approached by a teenage girl.  She looked to be Brandon's age. She said she wanted to talk about Mormons, why we were Mormons and what we believed. We sat down in front of her house and started to answer her questions. She had talked with missionaries before; she even had a Book of Mormon. She told us that at her school (a private school) they were having a unit on world religions. She said her teacher had taught that Mormons were not Christians and that Mormons were going to Hell. Yes, kids in Texas are taught that in certain schools. She had many questions and we had a great discussion with her, teaching portions of the Restoration and God's Plan of Salvation. Because she was so open minded, Elder Sharp and I could testify of these things, bear our own personal testimonies, and really have the Spirit of God present while we talked. I don't know for sure, but I got the feeling that by the end of our conversation she was reconsidering some of what her teacher taught her. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon, pray to God and ask if what we taught was true. I love extending that invitation.

I think of you, Brandon, as I think of this experience, but really this applies to everyone. Truth and Falsehood. There are many people who will tell us many things. We must not exclude or dismiss anything we hear or are taught, yet we must doubt and test, prove and question everything; Everything. This especially applies to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't just take Mom's, Dad's, and my word for it that this is the Church of Jesus Christ restored in these days, in its complete form, nothing missing. You must find out for yourself, nothing less will suffice, nothing less will suffice when that mission approaches, nothing less will suffice when the days get hard. Find out for yourself. Take God's word for it.

Elder Sharp and I are meeting with Courtney and Justin later today, wish us luck!

There is one thing I would like in my birthday package: with the heat of summer coming on the water from the tap starts to come out warm and tasting like algae. Yeuch! I was wondering if you could send me some raspberry herbal tea. With it, I will make iced herbal tea and have a delicious drink for after long bike rides and hours in the sun. (Graham's birthday is at the end of this month and I asked if there was anything in particular that he would like me to include in his birthday package.)

I love y'all <-- hahaha! I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Hunt

The Work is Accelerating!

March 10, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

The work in Frisco is accelerating- finally!

Elder Sharp and I are now teaching Courtney.  Her husband, Justin, is a member of the church but has been inactive for a decade or so. They were referred to us by a member in a neighboring ward. Courtney grew up Baptist and had been jumping from church to church, yet never felt fulfilled. She said that much of the time she was told not to question things but to "believe because I told ya so". As Elder Sharp and I taught the restoration, she kept exclaiming how much sense it made. She said we answered questions she had asked for years. All in all it was a bit trippy for me as I have never taught someone so enthusiastic. 

Tyler (a young adult whom Elder Sharp and I used to teach) was baptized yesterday! He had faced severe opposition in his journey from many fronts, yet it only made the experience a greater triumph. 

As always, my good family, I love the work, I love y'all and I love the Lord!!

-Elder Hunt

Fantastic Frisco!

March 3, 2014

Elder Sharp and I are together still!

So transfer calls came and we will still be in Frisco yet!  Moreover, the work picked up right before the end of the transfers.  We have found people who might be interested in learning about Christ and his Gospel. Better yet- we actually have people we are teaching now!  Will and Nancy, friends of a family in the ward have been asking tons of questions, so this family had Will and Nancy and us missionaries over for dinner.  By the end we taught most of the restoration and plan of salvation and answered many, many questions. 

They do, however, live in different ward boundaries which means that although they are taking the discussions in the home of the Sonnes, soon we will refer them to the missionaries down where they live. 

As to my back: last night I was able to sleep on my right side for the first time in weeks without dull pain keeping me awake, so I am much healed : )

Funny story on the I-shuffle: apparently I interpreted the e-mail wrong. There are apparently missionaries with tablets and other electronics that are not their cameras or music playing devices (such as CDs or iPods).  The note to send electronics home is about those electronics. We are allowed to have things like an Ipod with uplifting music. So, one thing that I would enjoy in my birthday package would be for y'all to upload all your favorite Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other good stuff on it.

(Graham is such a great young man.  He thought the mission president had asked them to send home any electronic device so he promptly sent home the I-shuffle he had with music on it!  Now we can load some more music on it for him before we send it back!!)

I love you all!!
I mean y'all!!! hahaha..
-Elder Hunt