Hunter responded to some questions we had from his last letter:

Are you ok after hitting your head?

Don't worry about my head! I still have a bump, but I'm sure it's ok. The glass door was more shocking than painful. I didn't hit my knee below the knee cap so I was good. I actually acquired a dirt bike helmet, so I'm just gonna wear that allatime! I will be very careful! Don't worry about my brain. I'm serving the Lord so He will keep me safe!

Do you have bike route's?  Are you teaching anyone from the college?  Have you seen the Placentia lake (I was wrong about the lake name)?

Hmmmmmm, nope, no Placentia lake in our area! Did you see the map of it? I gave you the street names........the closest thing we have to a lake is Anaheim Lake....and it's more of a muddy construction puddle. I'm not teaching any YSA kids from the college. That's our ZLs job. And yeah,not looks alright from a satellite view, but go to the street view, or Google Cinnamon Tree apartments in S. Cali and that's a better representation.

Who was the man on rollar blades you pulled along for discussions?
The member was none other than T (Chancho) M! I love that guy! He is SUcH a hoot! He is a really good roller blader, so he was ok. And the park was actually a golf course for old people. More news on the area to come......

Hunter

In other news,.....I went to a leadership training meeting this week for 7 hours! But I'm gonna tell more about that later. Also, have you been able to put music on my thing yet? I love you all and your prayers are definitely helping! We had 2 investigators come to church (M, the husband of less active gal. They are both cops and are super awesome) and O, the boyfriend of A. Another Investigator named P is ok with having us over and talking to us, but his wife is pretty resistant to reading the Book of Mormon or talking to us. But P is cool. And he's talking with people from his work (his boss) who are mormon and are telling him to read things (like Moroni's promise) which sounds so much better coming from a friend/boss/someone who is not a missionary. Those are my three favorite miracles this week! I love you all! Keep being awesome missionaries!

Elder Hunter

Heloooo everyone!  Sorry I have not written in such a long time!  Where in the heck as january gone?!?!  This weeeeeeeek is my last week of this transfer!  Things that have happened since I wrote about 20 years ago......Last Monday we went ice skating.  I slipped a lot!  Then a couple minutes before we left I slipped again!  And in the process of getting up, I slipped again!  My hands went behind me and I stopped my fall with my forehead, a little abouve the inside corner of my left eyebrow.  For those of you who weren't aware, water is extremely hard when you hit it very fast in a liquid form.  It is much harder when you hit it in a solid form!  I got a solid goose egg, a cut, and a mild concussion all in one go!  This week was suuuuuuuper busy.  We biked about 100 miles (this is estimating).  I know in three days we biked about 50 miles, so 100 is a safe guess.  My area is 6 square miles, so it's not huge, but we basically do bike sprints to every place we go so we make up for the lack of distance in speed.  We taught 15 lessons this week!  That is a TON for our area.  it is impossible to get to people when they are not busy.  It is incredible how busy people are! Too busy to hear about or care about the Kingdom of God, which makes sense, because I mean, c'mon, priorities.  Kingdom of God vs. drinking/smoking/videogames/dinner/  Drinking/smoking/video games/dinner OBVIOUSLY come first!  That was extremely frustrated sarcasm for those of you who couldn't tee......but enough complaining!  On Thursday we went on splits with some guys from the ward aaaaand I got to go with a new guy named C H, which is a pretty fantastic name if you ask me!  Anyway, on our way into this retirement home there was this glass doorway.  And a glass door.  The door was open and I couldn't tell the difference between the open door and the glass doorway.  It was sooooooo clean.  Anyway, I was walking (full speed mind you.  I was probably doing a solid 3 or 4 mph!) and I walked straight into the doorway!  I smacked my recently concussed head (in the same exact spot as where I hit it on the ice) and hit it with my right knee.  I have never been so stunned in my life.  To have your velocity go from 1/5 m/s to 1 in an instant without seeing the cause is VERY confusing.  I stood there for a second wondering why I had been clubbed in the face by nothing and a couple ladies were freaked out, and then I saw the imprint of my face on the glass that had not been there a few seconds before.  That is all that happened this week!  Just lots of biking, teaching, and rejection!  A good way to describe the people we are working with (and a lot of people in the world) is this passage from the Book of Mormon (in Helaman 13).  
26  Behold ye are worse than they; for as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil.
27 But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say; Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth--and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.
28 Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him.
29 O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you?  Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides?  Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light?
 I love all of you and here are some pictures finally!!!
Elder Hunter

Photos

1. 5 generations of trainers and trainees!!!

Back in December Hunter was able to help one of his investigators A, enter the waters of baptism.  A sweet day!

Elder Hunter in front of the Temple.  Our temple trip two weeks ago!!! The picture with the people is our Zone. Top row from left to right is: elders Erickson, Wilding, Henderson, and then his trainer (and my grandpa!) Beutler, Hamby!!!!!!!, then Elder Chung (those of you in Fairfax might recognize him)

Middle row: Elders....my own good self, Cipcic, Z. Johnson, and Christensen.  Bottom: Elders Karn, Halle, and Sisters Jessen, and Contravo.

2-4. since we no longer have a car, this is how we got another guy in the ward to come to a lesson with us! (Elders can't teach a single woman by herself unless a male is present or 2 other females are)

It again sounds like you guys are super busy and up and doing things!

This week has been pretty crazy. We taught 15 lessons and have 0 progressing investigators! It's kinda sad. It IS the most productful week we've had, but so many of our investigators have just stagnated.

Largely because (as I finally put this together yesterday) they were not invited to be baptized during the first lesson. And Elder Johnson just turns all our visits into social ones with maybe a spiritual thought at the end. It's frustrating. He's super good with talking to people....just forgets why he's talking to them. He doesn't accept correction very well, which is understandable, but he needs to be put with someone who has been out for much longer. That's the biggest problem. Just because he knows how long I've been out he doesn't trust me as his trainer. He's got a lot of maturing to do. He is VERY much like Kyle, but I'd say he's more rude and antagonistic. Sometimes he's my favorite companion, but other times I just want to throttle him!

(Figure of speech of course). His training is almost finished, but hopefully, as I said before, he will soon be put with an older missionary so he can learn better. It's kind of weird that you got a letter from President just recently.....I've been training for 5 weeks now.....so maybe I'm going to train again! That would be exciting! But president Taggart is pretty awesome like that!

I spent $400 on bike stuff because at first I was using an old Nike. I had to buy a new rim and tube and straighten some tires out. Then I just got a new one because it was kind of like our old green van. I was just going to spend a lot of money continually fixing it. So I just bought one from another elder. It's better and it came with lights and an odometer. So now I'm going to sell the old one to try to get some money back. My area is about 6 square miles and biking is DEFINITELY better than walking. It's population is similar to that of Burke. The roads are worse (condition wise) and so are the drivers.

One time it rained and one of the officers in our Ward said he was at the scene of at least 2 dozen accidents.

It's awesome that you were able to talk to some people about the Gospel! Unfortunately that is what almost all of our investigators are like. Either that or they are just nice and love the 'spiritual messages' we share. That's one of the concerns I talked about Elder Johnson with last night. Most of our lessons are social visits with a spiritual thought, so we are going to start all over with everyone.

That's why it's important to invite someone to be baptized in the first lesson. If not, you become a support group that comes by to share uplifting messages. For example, last night we tried to teach a guy named Chris, but all Elder Johnson did was talk to him about the Seahawks game and sports. THATS WHY NONE OF OUR INVESTIGATORS ARE PROGRESSING!!!!! And that's just the way Johnson is. He's the party animal, so he just wants to 'have fun' and not the sharing the gospel kind of fun. But back to the people that are morons! Wish people like that I take the approach of, 'We're not just going around sharing a feel good message about how Jesus has saved you. We are sharing the message of the restore gospel of Jesus Christ and you will be held accountable for rejecting it.' Or, 'we're not trying to get you to join our church. We're inviting you to join the kingdom of God that has been restored again to the earth.' Or something similar to that.

It makes people very uncomfortable, which I don't really mind at all!

It's incredible how true Helaman 12:19 is! People are so used to following satan that they are uncomfortable feeling the spirit! They are angry when we are bold and have deaf ears when we are not! Your prayers are very much appreciated, but if you could pray for our investigators, that would be awesome. Pray for the Lord to soften their hearts and to change their attitudes. I love you all! I'm going to try to send a late CHRISTMAS package to you guys. I think all of you will love what I'm going to send!

Elder Hunter

P.S. Pictures to come later today! Hopefully.

Do you guys still have those same missionaries in the ward?? Or different ones now? And aaaactually, heads up with what's happening with the iPads for real.....they are having all the families of elders in 'well to do' countries pay for their missionaries 'mobile device'. So we're keeping the iPads in the mission and will get to bring them home too! I'm not sure exactly how it's all supposed to work out because the letter we got from President was really vague. Missionaries definitely should not be just doing that (using the video to teach the lesson), but  I have used videos from time to time when I leave dinner messages. They are extremely helpful for teaching, organization, and are very convenient to carry around. I was extremely skeptical myself of missionaries using iPads, but when used correctly they are very powerful tools. And when I use a video when leaving a message it is 1. When I'm prompted to and 2. Always backed up with an actual spiritual thought and/or scripture. The explanation for expenses from my debit card. I've spent $400 on a bike and repairs. The McDonalds one. There was a homeless guy who turns out, is an inactive YSA. He was sitting on the ground outside a shopping center. Had a broken arm. So I told him to come to McDonalds with us and I bought him a dinner. 

We've dropped a few investigators and have referred a whole bunch that should have been a while ago. Everything is just kind of slow. We haven't done anything noteworthy. We set as many appointments as possible, and more often than not they end up no being there or say they can't meet right then. So then we try to just visit potentials or investigators in the area. And no one is ever home during the day so it is super frustrating! And that's why I haven't written a lot about what we've been doing. I'm not actually teaching any French speaking people right now. I just try to speak to Spanish people and the best I can speak is French...thank you for the spiritual thought! And don't worry about pants burnings, we only do it 4 or 5 times a week! (Just Kidding)

Elder Hunter

Hello everyone!!! I didn't get to sending an email last week, so sorry about that...everything has been pretty crazy!! A had her baptism last Saturday! Well, actually 2 Saturday's ago. I will hopefully have pictures next week! We also went to the Temple today, so i will hopefully be able to have pictures of that next week as well! It's really difficult to get them sent because I usually take them with my ipad and then have to take pictures of the pictures on the ipad with my camera and then hook that up to the computer. It's a pain. But I'll figure it out! Fun things that have happened in the past two weeks are....1. Christmas! except we didn't really do anything. Just sat and wrote letters most of the day and then skyped my family later on! 2. New Years! I got to turn in earlier than usual because of innebriated crazy's driving around at night. Then our District leader and Zone Leaders came over and we had some cider. 3. I'm getting really good at riding bikes. I can wreck, fall off, and jump back on in one fluid motion. 4. Missionaries here go to someone's house with a fire pit when they reach their 6 month, year, 18 month, and 2 year marks, and burn a tie, shirt, pants, then suit respectively. This last week a couple Elders had stuff to burn, so we helped Sister D start a fire and then waited for them to show up (we had dinner with her right before). She was getting rid of her Christmas tree, so we chopped it up into pieces and when we put the pieces on (small 3x2 ft. pieces of a pine tree) we got a MASSIVE flame out of it! The last one we burnt wasn't any bigger than the others, in fact it was a little smaller, but the pillar of fire that shot up from it was a good 20 ft. and I'm not exaggerating at all!!!  5. The biking is killer in this weather! It's nice during the day, so we are fooled, then the temperature plummets towards 5 in the evening so we spend most of it freezing as we're pedaling around. I also got 2 more flat tires. In the same day. The first time there were 2 holes so I patched them up, and when I was blowing it up again another hole appeared!!! YAY FOR FLAT TIRES!!!! So I called our zone leaders and asked for a ride to the bike shop, and they willingly obliged. Cool side story, Elder H, our new Zone Leader, was going to go to the AF Academy, but he just decided he wasn't going to so he might do ROTC with me at BYU which would be AMAZING!!!  6. We went to the Temple! I love going to the Temple. I really can't think of anything else right now because it's been so long since I've thought about what to write. Our area isn't doing the best right now becasue everyone keeps cancelling appointments...Actually I just remembered, we had 2 interesting conversations this past week right after each other. The first guy, P wanted to know why the Book of Mormon is necessary. C, the second guy wanted to know the same thing, except he believed that the book of mormon comes from God and just doesnt' think it's important. I'm not going to answer those questions in this email, but food for thought. Would God just out of the blue, stop giving earth prophets and revelations for the rest of time? If God had books written by the Jews in the "middle east" or where the bible came from, how is it illogical that he would have a remnant of the House of Israel also write stuff in a different continent? If God were God, (and He is btw) wouldn't he have more than one physical document testifying of His reality? And who are we to say, no, God doesn't speak to us anymore? All of y'all have an awesome week!!! Je vous aimez!!!

Elder Hunter