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

July 22, 2013

hey moms and pops and family,
Well this week was really good!

August 5, 2013

so real quick sorry we had transfers and i have my first native campanion and... he has less time than me hahah i got assigned senior campanion so theres a lil more pressure haha.. But no elder Aragon ya jake his name is from the lord of the rings i thought it was so cool i call myself elder legalis hahah but no he is a really good kid and has a big desire to work so im excited! 

 

Last week was incredible i was really on cloud nine! in one day i contacted 20 people and that week we had 43 contacts it was really cool i touched the pacific ocean hahah so navolato is almost on the beach altata a little town is to the west which is the beach and ya we had a lesson to teach over there so we went and took pictures haha it was cool but now im in culiacan, a colonia called cañadas... its 1,000 ° in canada i know right hahaah but no it was really good i got very emotional leaving a few families yesterday especially our most recent convert, he started crying when we were talking to him telling him i was leaving then for about ten minutes he thanked me and bore me his testimony and told me to tell the family if he knew you he would love every one of you and it was the best 10 minutes of my life then we gave each other a very firm hug and i left.  Then i had to leave the familia  who we lived with their sons  wrote me these super sweet letters and it broke my heart leaving!!!! 

I threw up i think from how much i worry it randomly comes i think i might have the startings of ulcers i have no clue quite honestly its only every once in a while but that was a good impression during my first meal here with the hermana haha ya your food was so good i barfed five times hahaha no she was understanding and very sweet she gave me three pills to take to help. 

 

 I have come so much closer to the lord through prayer it really is the key to the heaven. I am excited i was very excited for the changes and my new district leader is from west jordan he reminds me a lot of randy hes a poly and super funny and riiiiiiipppped hes 6 foot 225 and all rock haha but im excited to work with him. but i dont have much time so ive got to go but ill send more next week i love you all dearly and pray for each of you individually y think about you all often.

Love Elder Drew

 

No Empty seats

We can do hard things

July 30, 2013

Dear family,
right on so basically i was sick all week, but today I am suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPYYY:DDDDDDDDDDDD  today I'm off the walls singing called to serve.

That's the one thing Ive learned through out my mission is that sometimes we've done all we can like Obinidi and we still end up suffering the will of the lord to show our loyalty. He was obedient I mean he was the prophet, he was totally obedient and he got burned!!!! HE DIED!!! Lots of the pioneers died they gave up everything to die from hunger sickness or the weather but the lord knows their minds and sacrifice and literally like it says in dc that not one hair shall faltamos.... no se como se dice en englais everything will  be restored every jot and tittle... i love that word tittle haha but it really is like that sometimes the lord doesn't give us the answer to the test cuz he knows we can answer the question we just gotta struggle in the test even when we say "I've done everything help me!" But rather when we ask in patience he gives us what we cant do for ourselves and so much more as long as we know despite what happens 1 Nefi 3:7 the lord doesn't give us anything we cant overcome. Man this was a tough week being sick all week with my bacteria so you have to have a 1:80 ratio to qualify for the bacteria as positive.... my results came out 1:160 hahaha suffice to say I didn't feel good that day.
I love you all so much.
Elder Drew

July 15th, 2013

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah that is sooo cool I'm so excited for Jakes and football   But everything else is super exciting too tell Joshy congrats on his eagle I'm way stoked for him.
 k I'm barely starting on my letter now haha I loved the letters so much! But this week was awesome!!!! First! An amazing man got baptized and I feel absolutely blessed to know him let alone be able to baptize him and bring him into the pathway of the arms of our loving Heavenly Father! He has throat problems and he has really bad eye sight but he can barely read but it hurts his eyes. But we started visiting him as a reference from a member and we visited him for the first time my second day in the mission. I have been with three comps since we have been teaching him. We visited him a lot and now he got baptized! He is  a stalwart whose looking for the truth we just had to go the extra mile to get a ride for him every Sunday and be patient lovingly while he learned,  But he started waking up every morning at 5 to read so the sun didn't hurt his eyes worse than they already hurt and he started progressing last week he payed his fast offering and fasted which was incredibly humbling to hear a man say pues claro que si! like duh! When we asked if he'd pay a fast offering when he literally doeds not have much money. They are the family of those super cute little girls I sent you the picture of but he said he'd  get some money  He did it without the slightest hesitation thinking it was a sacrifice. I was excited to show his faith and get blessings! So last Sunday he fasted and we helped him fill out his fast offering  he paid it with out thinking it was a sacrifice! The widow's mite) And then we were visiting him this week getting him ready for his baptism on Saturday he broke down into tears and told us how the book of Mormon has changed his life and how he is better because of it as a person and that he knows it will change his family! it was sooooo special! And then we had his baptism. After his confirmation it was so wonderful seeing him stand up from the chair and shake every one on the stands hand and sit down with a big smile. And then we were in gospel principles and the teacher asked him at the end if he had any questions or comments and he said "I just feel incredibly grateful right now for them and he started choking up and pointed at us and paused and said for all the time they spent to help me understand our Heavenly Fathers gospel little by little and for helping me start on the path to getting back to him. I just feel absolutely grateful! It was absolutely worth every   cita that fell through to bring one soul earnestly searching for our father I know that man will make it to the Celestial Kingdom he is one of the most pure people I have ever met!

 Some favorite ties, mango smoothies.CANDY and Jesus getting baptized

July 9th, 2013

Hey everyone,
The trip to Europe sounds soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cooool I'm so jealous that all sounds absolutely awesome!!!!! I'm so glad you all got to go and your experiences in the temple too were all super cool to read!!!Here are pic..
Missionaries being crazy, I love the little kids they are so happy, and me with Jesus.

July 1st, 2013

 Dear Everyone,

  Elder Coombs is awesome we stayed up till 1 the other night talking we get along really well he's such a good guy we were at lunch and he saw an old lady walking, sprints from the table to go help her. My infection was really bad last week, but I went to a doctor and he said I'll have it my whole mission but I can try to control it better, but I was super sick the ratio is 1:1.60 to register as having the infection and I was 1:3.20! But its not horrible we still go out every day its just that i'm super ache and tired but I'm getting shotsin the bum (nacho voice) "its the beeest!" haha

We were eating with a family and I could barely eat with my stomach hurting so bad and so I put down my head just to rest since I was in pain and the grandma started crying she felt bad I was hurting which was so sweet to know that is how much I mean to them! But one miracle we were teaching a lady and she said she prayed and received an answer that she felt very peaceful and super good when she prayed and she was so happy and it was soooooooooo good as a missionary to hear that because that's why I'm here sweating like a... Monkey in a green house hahah and being exhausted with an infection from the food here for people like her.  She has school on Sundays its the only day she takes this class and it so happens to be in the exact same hours as church! So we asked her to see if she could change the date, if not it doesn't end for 8 months and we don't know if the best thing is to tell her to quit it when its probably expensive they don't have very much and she could get baptized after but we will see. But idk part of what makes miracles is that they're not constant so we appreciate them were being completely obedient but ya the lord blesses us after the trial of our faith but we baptized the other sister on Saturday!!! We've been teaching her the entire time I've been here in Mexico and she finally got baptized which was awesome were working with her mom now. But one really cool prompting was we were riding on the other side of navolato and I had a thought to try and stop by a reference from our activity we had. So I went against my doubting like oh it'd be such a waste its all the way across navolato and she might not be there but we went and it happened to be the only day shes home and set a appointment with her for this Saturday and shes pretty interested! Elder Coombs gave a blessing and in it promised that if she stayed faithful her husband would reactivate in the church! So we will see how that goes but were working hard the first week of the transfer is really just introducing them to the ward. Then working in between and I was sick a lot and we had our first conference with President Velez he started last week he's awesome he's a Mexican version of Scott Anderson!!!! He is awesome I'm excited to serve with him
 Love you all so much have fun touring Europe... WITHOUT ME oh so one last story so we were biking back from lunch and see this guy staggering around and I was like elder did you see how drunk he was and he said I'm pretty sure he was just handicapped then right then we hear a thud in back of us and we look back and beer cans are rolling around that fell from his backpack when he fell in the middle of the street haha i definitely won that one.. definitely drunk haha  love yall Elder Hunt

June 24th, 2013

Hey Everyone,
I've got some pics I'm gonna send next week I forgot the card reader.
 Here is another funny experience was we were in a lesson and a recent convert we baptized thanked heavenly father for coke specifically.. hahah  glad that is is not against the word of wisdom. Another said in his prayer thank you for the sun to dry my clothes so innocent. The culture is just so different and I cant explain what it is but people are just so different here talking to people about god to people here isn't strange at all they're such an awesome people but I'm very excited I feel like me and elder Coombs are going to see a lot of miracles together!! he's a very loving, humble person so it'll be good!
Need to go.. love you all.
Elder Drew

June 17th, 2013

Hey family and Friends,
We had another baptism Saturday!!! We baptized a very energetic sweet 11 year old whose going to turn 12 this  Sunday! Me and Elder Toomey found him teaching an inactive family in my first few weeks and he was like hey I wanna get baptized randomly in the middle of one of the lessons. So we always go back but he was always out playing with his friends and when we would visit him he already forgot what we had taught the last time. So we had to decided if we should drop him, but I felt like we should still keep going back. So in the last two weeks we spent a lot more attention on him and  told him that its not a joke and if he wanted to be baptized he had to read every day  for the next two weeks. I thought that was just going to make him lose all interest, but we came back and he had read and was working on memorizing the first article of faith. He was still himself but he literally changed he had a desire to really be baptized and change, his mom said he could as long as she saw a change because he used to swear and things like that and he completely changed in a matter of three days!! He's such a good kid he cracks me up! He was super sad yesterday when I told him I'm eventually going to go to another area but that I'd try to come back one day and visit him, he really liked that idea!! But it was so  funny when I baptized him  he said I didn't move my arm enough for him to grab his nose, because I was so focused on the prayer and getting his name right I forgot about his nose lol so as I'm pushing him down he's trying to catch his breath and trying to come out of the water hahah so i barely got him under and he came out and just looked at me with a face of shock and said- hey... I couldn't breath! which sounds horrible but if you were there it'd be a lot funnier everyone was laughing he's a goofy kid but it was very sweet when I was waiting for him to finish changing in the bathroom in the hall he yelled Elder! I asked what was up and he said i've never felt this good in my life before! I feel so beautiful inside!!!  And I sat there feeling so good then remembered to respond telling him that was so awesome!!  He's a funny kid though we visited him last night and asked him how church was and he said, "I didn't like it... then we were confused and like why! and he said BECAUSE I LOVED IT!!!" He's a good kid and I felt a sweet spirit when we gave him the gift of the spirit that he will serve a mission. It was awesome! Then Thursday we had divisions and I went with Elder Moehdano  from Mexico city whose 1 generation newer than me . He speaks Spanish lol but it was awesome we    taught a very simple lesson to a member family in bauchiguilato their area about the importance of daily prayer and study and we teach extremely well together and in the middle of the lesson the lady just burst into tears it was a very sweet spirit!!    We also taught the lady we taught before from the last divisions that we contacted on the street that's quote unquote catholic and she said you can come but I'm catholic so we went to visit her and when we went in, here kids were screaming and it was noisy and  she was a little flustered and by the end of the lesson out of no where she said "I feel very calm right now, I feel peace" and we were so excited. We did wrap up well and its just a nice example of the effect we have with the spirit to a lady who says she never wants to change from being catholic can feel the spirit through us, it was a very special experience! Then we had a family home evening with a family in their ward and   it was awesome it was to their new baptisms two weeks ago they baptized 5 brothers and sisters this family and we went and taught them and it was very fun and it was very easy to come across a laugh in that home before it started we were just having a lot of fun then when it was time to be serious we started teaching them the importance of scriptures and Elder Moehdano that stud him he was prompted to say - "were going to say a prayer for a scripture that will show that we truly can receive revelation from studying the scriptures prayerfully".- and I was sitting their in awe of his faith the whole time I was praying he didn't turn to a scripture that had nothing to do with prayer.... so he opens up the scriptures to a random page and it was Mormon 5: 21 and it says the I the lord hear the prayer of the righteous and everyone including him were shocked we received an answer that direct it was awesome! Me and him get along super well and the whole night we were talking about telling president we received revelation we should be companions haha we had so much fun that night!

And two days ago we had a conference with all the zones in Culiacan area so 3 zones and it was Pres. Cantus last time to talk to us and it was a very good experience.  The conference it was very spiritual we had the chance to bare our testimonies and I got up and shared mine and it was a very sweet experience, when you feel like you should take any chance to bare testimony of Christ he fills you with his spirit! While we were filing up the font Friday and Elder Smalley was sleeping since it takes like 3 hours I started to clean the church  to  show my gratitude for the lord for blessing us with a baptism and I was sweeping and sing because I have been given much and  then started thinking another song but remembered the one I was singing I felt the spirit strong when I sang it so I started thinking which song  was I singing and i couldn't remember for the life of me so I had a thought to say a prayer and instead of rationalizing against it I did and I said "Heavenly Father I know its not a big deal but I would really appreciate and receive a stronger testimony of prayer if you helped me remember this song and three seconds or so after the prayer the song just started 'playing in my head again. It was a sweet tender mercy from the lord to show me how involved he truly is with us.

So now to some fun stuff, we were riding back from the Chulavista where Juvel and Louis live which is like 3 miles away from our house( by the way I'm super good at riding my bike without my handlebars now thanks to how often we ride bikes and I rode there with the highway and turns all without hands super cool haha I was proud]) but  we were talking and a German Shepard starts chasing us. Now usually the big dogs are the ones that DONT chase us cuz they've got nothing to prove but this guy was just mad for no reason so I kicked out and they usually stop running after that but this guy was different he starts lunging at me  and snapping so I started  subconsciously yelling like a little girl as I'm riding my bike looking g for cars in front of me and kicking the dog in the nose as hard and fast as I can as Elder Smalley starts cracking up lol. So when the dog stopped. Elder S paused and said how was that and I just said "well sometimes the only thing you can do in life is move on elder lol and we started laughing, we have a lot of fun together and we work really hard. We have a lot of good talks  and its weird cuz he really is polar opposite of me but we get along really well.

We were teaching a lesson to Jose the guy who asked us when he could start preaching lol and some kids started a water balloon fight and they started throwing  them close to us so Elder Smalley grabs one and  chucks it at a kid running. A kid gave me one daring me to throw it across the road at his friend cuz he thought I couldn't throw it that far so I bombed it like 50 yards and it hits this tree bursts and rains all over the kid underneath it haha it was so funny! Sometimes its easy to get entertained when you typically don't have fun as a missionary haha.
The people are so kind here and I just remembered we taught a referral at  the plan of salvation activity and she is golden so ready for the gospel her and here boyfriend are getting married the 17th of July and she accepted to be baptized but we didn't put a date yet but she told us when she went into the celestial room a room the members decorated to show each kingdom of glory she started crying because she saw her a relatives spirits that had passed away and said she felt her son who died holding her hand!  So after that I extended a invitation to baptism and she accepted without hesitation! She has three kids so we could possibly have like 6 baptisms this next transfer which would be awesome!! And when we went to go pick up some medicine in the mall in Culiacan which was suuuuuuuuuuuuper nice I felt like I was home again even then it was like city creek nice and we were waiting till it opened and this guy   came down and started talking to us he's Mexican and served a mission and speaks English so that alone is rare but he's inactive and  is pretty studied out in anti church stuff but was nice and didn't want to bash us at all but he said he still believes in it, he's just studying things out to legitimately see whats right and I feel like we helped him out the best we could and at the end he said to me I don't know why but I can tell you will be a leader in the church one day but like high up, which was cool I joked with him saying "ya I'm gonna be the churches first man primary president" and he laughed but it was an incredible miracle!!!
Have a great week.
Love Elder Hunt

June 3, 2013

Dear Family and friends,
I don't know if I will be on June 27 is the big day where the mission splits and we saw pics of both presidents and I already sent my profile to the one here so hopefully 'ill stay here but, where ever the Lord wants me is where I will be.

I will let you know it all depends on next transfer so in 3 weeks will determine but ya I have been so much better this week. Elder Smalley and I have awesome talks. But another story for ya so a new convert of three months was at someones shop and they started crying saying they don't have any business and he without a shadow of a doubt although he he is so new in the Gospel said a prayer and said watch you'll get business if we pray. rrrright after he said amen someone came!!! What faith, we all need to have this much faith, the faith of a little child in the Gospel!

so funny stories real quick we gave a sister a blessing of comfort and her sweet little boy whose like 5 put his hands on top of ours while we were giving the blessing, he just wanted to be apart of it!

The soon to be dad of the two getting baptized soon gave me a pink tie and its a gorgeous tie, just because I said I liked it his name. They are so willing to give you anything they have.  He told me I am learning super fast the language. So its coming along and Jose and Carmen they're super kind just like everyone else and gave us these key chains so well remember them and mines from Canada and I was so touched they wanted to give us something so bad. 

love ya'll,

Elder Drew