September 23, 2013

From a missionary serving in his area..he is serving just a little south Culiacan in Costa Rica)

 "There was a lot of damage,The worst part is that there is a giant canal here and it overflowed and went to the houses and just ran right through them. The
 water was up to the peoples waists. A good amount of the members got water
 in there houses and just ruined everything. couches, clothes, everything.
 It was super sad to see the things that they have lost. But it has been
 amazing to see how humble these people are! They are so strong. They have
 lost so many things but yet they are so happy. But it made me realize how great the people are here. They know that the worldly things don't matter, and they were all just happy to be alive. These past 2 days all we have been doing is service! It's great. and crazy. Seeing their houes filled with inches of
 mud and water. and some of the houses don't have concert floors. so it's
 just mud. I love giving service to the people. It makes me so happy to help
 them. I love seeing the happiness and joy in the faces of the people. I'm
 glad to be here serving in this area. To have the opportunity to be able to
 serve the people here. Whether it's spiritually or physically.
 We were without electricity for a day and water for 2 days. 
(so for family and friends, Elder Drew's area was not hit that bad, in his mission there were places that were completely wiped out.) 
The hurricane hit us but it really was just a lot of rain.. it did a lot of damage in other parts of Sinaloa but here in Culican some colonies got a lot worse than others we were completely fine we had to stay inside all day but it was a good day: read a lot, wrote letters and it felt so good with the rain haha at first they told us it was a cyclone and for us that's really all it was but it was a hurricane and we were just further out so it was just really windy and rainy the only thing we had to do was put like 10 pots out to catch the drips 

It was super cool the other week we were walking to the district meeting and a lady popped her head out the door and said le habla! she's talking to you. So we turned around we were with the hermanas cuz they didn't know how to get to the chapel. And a super sweet older lady said come in Mormons so i kinda laughed thinking oh man that's all we need is another catholic to try and bash with us then she said"I have to show you something I love dearly" and she turns around slowly taking out a liahona in her hand and she said "I have read this for 5 years over and over and it is the most accurate doctrine of any church I have ever found."  She asked us where the church there was so we told her and she asked if she could join our church we laughed and said Certainly!!!!  Then I asked her where she got the liahona and she said a man who was shipping dairy products to her little shop had it and he gave it to her. From that seed planted 5 years ago and an inspired district leader Elder Famasili who for "some reason" felt like we should have the district meeting in their chapel again when we usually switch every week a Daughter of God has a baptism date and will soon be a member of the church. The lord truly does bless us and his children even when were not looking for it, he puts us in the path of others looking for the truth.

  (mom's quote wall, I need to send more!)

Drew and his love for life

 with a member who got their mission call

September 16, 2013

The coolest experience was with a lady we are teaching. Shes a single mom with a daughter who is 14 and son who 9 and the cutest little girl ever whose 2. She has a  boyfriend but we had her pray to receive an answer to her prayers if she should marry him or break up, so she can get baptized. She said she felt an overwhelming spirit that told her its time to break up and everything will be ok.  Shes so over joyed right now and she hasn't told her boyfriend yet cuz she wanted to tell him in person and she hasn't seen him in a while. But shes so cool she lived in Colorado for 6 years I think so we talk in English a lot really sweet lady. She is so excited to get baptized and her son  is so anxious to get baptized he asks us every lesson if he really has to wait 5 weeks to get baptized. It is a new rule in all Mexico you have to go to church 5 times b4 baptism. and her little daughter and me always play together she's adorable. Later on in the week when we went to see her, she said every time we come she doesn't want us to leave cuz she loves the spirit we bring with us. She said the sweetest prayer the other day and cried for a minute straight in the middle of the prayer with out words and it was a very sweet spirit. I love obedience its so beautiful in our lives. . But ya so they're the 3 baptism dates and we have a fhe with a anonther sister,  she is golden and truly looking for the truth.

 haha we had to experiences with drunks this week and the one he gave me a kiss on the cheek and fore head three times then asked if i could give him one on the cheek and I tried explaining no, then he started getting mad so I did and then all was well haha he was the dad of one of the families we were teaching. I drew a Mr bean and pink panther on balloons  for a girl in the ward. I will send you pictures.

Love Elder Drew

No empty Seats

more pictures Sept 9, 2013

What his pants and shoes looked like after a rain storm

How to stay cool in Canada, Mexico

salt marks from his body after he sleeps

What a crazy address!

Sunset in Canada

September 9, 2013

 A great member who opened his mission call

Here is their short cut so they don't have to walk all the way around up a hill. He pushes his comp up, then his comp holds onto the fence and Elder Drew grabs his foot and pulls himself up... ha ha

His new friend

this area has LOTS of hills

Drew with their GREAT ward mission leader

He just got his mission call. We get along great

Sept 3, 2013

One of the great members in his area

Happy Labor Day

 Hey Hey,

 Well i will sum up this week from a phrase from one of my favorite prophets Moroni in ether 4:6 and i quote"TIGHT LIKE UNTO A DISH" super tight! We led the zone in lessons we worked very hard.               

            Bishop Hernandez is awesome he is so pumped to work and help us with the mission work. he and his family are really stepping it up they invited a family to their house and we had dinner and they had legitimate interest that we didnt have to use our gnarly conversation gospel, conversation skills and I am excited to see how that goes. well i went a week with out a Mexican telling me i look like Jim Carey,Nicholas Cage or Mr Bean... all look very different from each other. haha 

 

I had an awesome experience with the power of fasting this week. I fasted because a hermana asked me to give her a blessing the next day because she is going through a hard time. It was the most clearly I have ever given a blessing it flowed very well and i mentioned things i didn't think about b4 the blessing in preparation. AAAAnd i touched a shovel three times this week and a saw and paint so it was a very good week we had 4 service projects and still cranked out 30 lessons. 

 

Back to fasting haha i didn't even fast for our investigators it was specially for a sister but i know that the lord blessed us with two baptismal dates that day for the sacrifice. But it came through the courage to ask the person in the other room(the person you weren't planing on teaching ) To come in and in those two lessons someone will receive celestial rewards because i was willing to go out of my way when i was exhausted and focused on someone else. 

The lord really does put the means out there but he also pushes us to the max to get there! I talked football for an hour with the assistant Elder Cozza it was awesome to get all the football out of me haha!!!  I miss I the family, volleyball ,Utah in general, a lot of things, freaking air conditioning haha thats such a foreign term oh haha. We had no power for a few days, I slept in 90 degrees without a fan and of course with out ac and i used a wet rag that froze throughout the day in the freezer to keep me from death... good times lol haha. 

But back to the point I MISS You A LOT but ive never been more PURE in my life even though i dont have the relationship i desire with the lord im getting there and i know he loves me for it. I love the members so much its hard getting so close to leave like that. but we actually have stake conference next week and im gona see navolato o0n sunday so im excited!

here is a wonderful piña colada recipe for smart people hahah

1/4 of a pineaple

3 liters of water

1/2 a liter of pineapple  juice

1 cup of sugar

2 limes i made that up idk how many till it tastes like the fruit of the tree of life:D

1/2 a cup of cream of cocanut

We had Elder De Hoyos from the 70 come to our mission this week and we had an awesome inside of the work of how we need to work with the members. everything is reference based now which is kinda nuts but really this is the way the lords work should be every member with a responsibility to bring souls to Christ. Elder de Hoyos was very impressed at my participation in the conference and so his wife after the conference was thanking me for my thoughts and we started talking me her and elder de Hoyos and she told me she liked me a lot so we took a picture haha you have no idea how cool i felt with my arm around a 70 in a picture! Ohhh and then at the lunch after i got to talk with all my buds in the mission which was super fun then when sister Velez was serving me I joked that I can handle the extra's, she laughed and said for a tall handsome missionary who will burn it off a lot better than the rest of us you need it and she gave me another slice hahah shes such a doll, i love her to death i feel like im talking to grandma when i talk to her shes just to sweet and we always laugh around each other.

After the conference when i was talking with Elder and Sister de Hoyos, hermana Velez joined us too and she just came up to me with the biggest smile and yelled ahhh Elder Hunt how are you! and i yelled Hermana Velez so much better now! and she laughed and she said i just love you and i said hermana well i just love you and your husband to death and its so hard talking to someone i love like my mom or grandma and cant give you a hug and she said with the sweetest like in her eyes elder i love you and one day we will ahh she is so sweet she really is an adopted grandma!!!!! and it was so sweet watching sweet President Velez sing "I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord" with all his love for this work ahhh it was an awesome day"!!!!!!oh Elder Hymas is hunters age he is fresh in the field he played on the Idaho volleyball team.

Love you,
Elder Drew
no empty seats

Elder Faamausili with Elder De Hoyos and his wife. He his a Seventy

more pictures in August

Loved this pizza!

I am in Canada

pictures in August

 Sweat marks with his arms on his pants for a minute

Loves to have fun with the Kids in Mexico

hospital pictures

August 19, 2013

BBBBBBuuuuuuEEEEEEEEEEEnnnnnnOOOOOOsss tardes xD

Pues esta semana era the bomb! haha me and my handy companion el espiritu set four baptism dates all within this transfer!!! We went on splits with our district leader Elder Famasili whose a stud he reminds me so much of randy, he is an awesome missionary i think he is the best missionary in the mission he is just a stud. We were going to contact an investigator and i didnt know the area too well since it was the second week of the transfer and so we contacted the wrong house but the lady who lived there ended up being super golden and we went back yesterday and while my comp was talking with our district leader on the phone I taught her lesson one and asked her to pray to know if she should be baptized and that if she recieved an answer be baptized in two weeks and she accepted!!!!! It shows that dilligence truly does bring blessings!!!! With  another investigator  she has had the missionaries for 5 months and i had no idea but i challenged her to baptism and she accepted and a date too haha and we taught an awesome 13 year old who is taller than jake he is huge and his mom said he had to change before he got baptized and so they started arguing and it wasnt going well then i started trying to calm down the situation and before i knew what had happened i had made a chart with the things his mom wanted him to improve on and a two week calander with a contract that if he was obedient for 2 weeks he could get baptized. After the lesson i was like what in good gravy just happened!!! I am not that creative the spirit absolutely took over a situation that was about to hit the fan and at the end he had a baptism date it was super cool!!!! And we set another fecha with a the mom and the couple i told you guys about. And she has visted with the missionaries for 2 motnhs and never really sparked her attention till one of the members who is awesome went and visited her and when she left she felt the spirit super strong and said she felt like she was walking on clouds and i went on splits with  a guy in the ward whose aweeeeesome and we set a baptism date with her. And my legs hurt cuz we sprinted a mile up and down the crazy hills of Cañadas to get to a lesson last night haha. But the work is awsome i get here on mondays and its like uhhhhh what should i saw, cuz everyday the lord is building me and his kingdom and its awesome! But its craaaaazy hot the lowest it got last NIGHT was 91 fechin degrees its so hot and of course we dont have AC and my fan barely works hahaha. But ive made a goal this week that helps especially when youre exhausted to boost your spirits is what i think the most important key indicador is as a missionary how many smiles you can get in a day!!!! I love it making people smile has made me feel so much more accomplished in the moment of a very long day in a very hot mexico!!!! A I shared dc 122 with an hermana and when she read oh god where art thou in dc 121 1 she burst out into tears the poor hermana is going through a hard time but is such a stalwart her faith has strengthened my testimony tons!!!

 Theres a family here  and they call me their son so suffice to say we get along super well haha and there getting married in three months and will probably get baptized after which is super exciting. Dude so there was a guy who my comp started talking to, come to find out this guy drinking on the side of the road he kills people in the drug mobs... things for a living and wants to change his life and was drinking and doing cocaine literally three feet in front of me just sniffing away it was the biggest eye opener ever to this world hahah were not in Utah any more todo!!!! I don't know if i told you guys but the last week in Navolato i made a sister cry singing silent night in English that was super cool! hahah everyone here thinks I am 21-30 and i say 19 and no one believes me.  Thank you for the package. I loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooovvved the candy and mambas hahaha hey and we went to walmart today it was so weird feeling normal again hahah .

ummmm.... oh at the zone conference everyone snatched the pics of Christ you sent hahah so if you could send more small ones that is the perfect gift to an investigator. oh i was so excited though it was like Christmas i bought together forever, finding faith in christ and another haha aaaand a big spanish hymn book and a case for it but i gave it away that night to a investigator when she accepted a baptism date haha so im gona buy another one cuuuz i dont have one anymore lol but it was totally worth it!!!! It was awesome though yesterday we taught 7 lessons in 9 hours and thats with walking like 4 miles, not too bad!!!! 

 

But its so exciting to see how much potential we can have as missionaries it really takes a lot of creativity to be a good missionary im definitely feeling ether 12 27 hes given me weaknesses so i come to him my loving dad for advice!!!! But I love it the work is great we have tons to do and oh crazy change in the mission so President decided that we cant contact people in the streets anymore unless we feel prompted which is a huge bummer cuz i love contacting and have had quite a bit of success from it but the purpose it to be focused on the lessons and working with the members and were not supposed to have lessons without a member which is gonna take a ton of communication and planning but its exciting how the missions changing. The best feeling at the end of the day is dreading the thought of sleeping cuz i just want to teach people about Christ and happiness we have in him and then by the time my head hits the pillow i zonk out cuz im just drained hahaha but its awesome and mom and dad thanks so much for the sweet blue shirt and the volleyball pictures the members love them and they're like hey you used to be strong lol. But on splits with Elder Famasili after the last lesson he said" dude you have this area unlocked and i asked what he meant and he said you've only been in this area for a week and you can already tell that your so deeply engraved in the members and investigators hearts thats something very rare its an incredible gift of the spirit and you will be an incredible missionary because of it!" it just about made me die and go to heaven i was so happy hearing that from the ammon of our day!!!! But man the mission is so much fun once you learn how to speak spanish everything starts falling into place!!!!!

Love you all 
Elder Drew Hunt

August 12, 2013

Orale familia pues les amo muchisimo y estoy super stoked(therez animado but not a word that does a justice to stoked) a estar aqui in cañadas!
 So ya Cañadas is a colony of Culiacan and we went today to office depot in centro and it was missionary heaven i bought pens scripture tabs ah man oh and ah despicable mi 2 folder I am so mad i have to wait for that.
 It was really fun i like my new district its half of the zone haha were 8. 4 hermanas and 2 companion ships of elders. Elder Fa Masili is our district leader he was a zone leader but got released since he goes home soon hes super cool he is hilarious ripped and reminds me a lot of randy just an awesome kid all around tell randy i said that hahah but im excited me and him are going on splits next week and hey im getting a new fan that works haha so when its 95 degrees in the middle of the night i don't faint from sweating so much. True story by the way almost died. k no almost fainted but its soooo fetching hot here sweat literally drips off you nose the only time i've sweated this bad is wearing a football helmet and even then you have a sweat rag and dry your face and i kid you not in 10 seconds sweat is streaming literally down your face and off your nose.
The ward here is a little smaller than Navolato it has about 70 every week, 40 last week and they don't even have enough priesthood to have quorums so they just have everyone in priesthood stay together which is like 4 young men and 3 men its crazy they dont even have a young men leader cuz they literally don't have the need for one. but we meet in the stake building which the chapel is gorgeous and its got a really cool court and ya its actually in the stake of Navolato and we have a stake conference this cambuio so ill be able to see the members from Navolato which im very excited for!

But Cañadas is all hills. I kid you not imagine the alpine hill but that's every street without exaggeration its crazy my legs are ripped haha they fill out the legging of my pants completely they barely fit haha it just make me laugh going from Navolato with bikes and flat flat road then coming to Cañadas which itself is the hottest part of the mission cuz its in Culiacan with the pavement and its all crazy steep hills everywhere in the hottest part of the year hahah it just makes me laugh my luck there. But we have awesome investigators if me and Elder Aragon work super hard and most importantly are obedient we really think we will get 6 baptisms this transfer and calculated a possible 14 realistically its crazy but the 2 most prepared are a young couple  they have a little 5 month and are awesome He is super funny were super tight like unto a dish ether 4:6 hahah fun fyi here haha is jaja cuz j makes an h fun fact haha anyway they already have prayed and received answers this is the only true church that president Monson is the Prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is true but hes been in 7 churches so is investigating thoroughly b4 his baptism and doesn't want to be pressured but already goes to church every week he just said its a matter of time and his wife already wants to get baptized haha.

 There is 13 year old almost as tall as me who we just have to get permission from his parents. We are teaching a super nice Jehovah witness shes awesome and were sharpening our bible skills we have a cita with her tomorrow it was cool i felt i should contact here a few days ago when i saw her in the street and shes super interested also another young man who agrees with everything is just scared to get baptized. and ya those are the priorities right now. but our new bishop is super chill haha hes just a very relaxed guy very nice hes awesome and our ward mission leader really works hard with us.
I was playing with this super cute kid and his mom said your kids will never be bored they'll always be laughing and  they'll never ask to go to the park or things like that cuz ill exhaust them with playing haha it was an awesome compliment.  Its funny a culture thing here is body language is used a lot more like there are signs with fingers that mean yes no share it haha its funny and if any one has the slightest thing on their hands they give you their fore arm it happens a lot here its kinda strange and funny.

but I have got rashes because its so humid you sweat like crazy and so hot the sweat separates into salt and dries on my sheets ill send a pic and in the streets the sweat chafes from drying and causes these rashes its a pain but the heat is unreal I have never appreciated air conditioning more in my life which we don't have and luckily the only temperature of water we have is freezing cuz its so hot haha. but we have a pretty big house its 2 stories and has 4 rooms two for each of us and 2 we use with our clothes. then a kitchen bathroom and study room its nice to have so much room. holy cow we had a rain storm this is the rain season and its such a relief in the moment but the heat and humidity the next day is unreal we seriously have to ask for water in the streets or else we would pass out but we went on splits yesterday with a kid in the ward. He is suuuuuuuper cool he got his call to Santiago Chile he went with us to one of his friends were teaching and i kid you not hes already a better missionary than me and Elder Aragon combined hes a lot like Chad Wilson just super chill and way nice and ya hes the bomb haha he leaves in November and hes gonna start joining us for our companionship study so he can start getting used to what its like and we have another 18 year old sending in his papers who wants to come with us everyday till school which is awesome and we have 3 sisters in the ward their Chinese and Mexican them and their parents have lived here their whole lives but their grandparents are Chinese so its weird they look Chinese and are i guess but speak Spanish it throws me off haha but they are awesome they come with us like 4 times a week to lessons so the support from the ward is here and they're very involved so its only a matter of time for the miracles now!" But we were waiting for someone at Walmart while it was down poring and we were sitting under the ac one of the only times I have felt it in a very long time right under the moving doors haha and they had a lot of shopping carts so me and one of the young man  looked at each other with out saying anything ran and starting helping the worker with the carts in the rain and he was blown away we would help him let alone in the rain and it was just super fun. He is such a stud he speaks English pretty well and I am gonna give him my English hymn book with my name on it cuz he said he wanted an English hymn book and they are very humble circumstances so I am gonna surprise him with it.
Love you all.
Elder Drew Hunt