Hullo everyone!

This week has been incredibly slow! Out of all the appointments we had set with people, three of them happened! Woohooooo! So we spent a lot of time going, "sigh......well what do we do now? I guess there's some doors over there that look kinda nice, let's go knock on them!" So we do. That's actually another bright spot in my life right now! It's super fun to laugh about the things that people make up as an excuse to not talk. Then on Sunday the weather decided to go arctic and rain simultaneously, so riding our bikes in that was super fun! We left the smell of wet elder in our ward mission leaders truck when he gave us a ride home after dinner. This next week undoubtedly has many exciting things in store! I'll let you know when they happen. An pictures will come later today! Finally!

Elder Hunter

1. Our zone at the temple trip cuz i forgot if i sent that one..
2. Me on a dolphin

3. This guy was a drug adict for 25 years and then got his life back together

4. Me and elder Choi! He plays the piano like a boss...so like elder Thompson!!!!

1. Elder Choi and Elder Shawcroft
2. Brother P. He's 93. And still mobile!!!

3. Elder Johnson by a wild Lamborghini!!

4. Chinese New year Dinner with Sister L

1. Me looking epic

2. Me modeling my running shorts

3. Modeling my running shorts again

4. Me getting super excited about reading the Book of Mormon!!!!!!!

This is Hunter's letter to his Dad.
This week has been full of doing the obedience walk. It's really depressing. So many people here have even harder hearts than Laman and Lemuel. A lot of people think it's easier to serve in the U.S. Or in California. Or just easier to serve in populated areas. I'd much rather serve in some backcountry place of a foreign country where it took time to get places and where people would 'have time' to listen. I'd much rather not have members feed us and have everyone ten miles apart than what I'm stuck with right now. Almost all of our investigators, potentials, and less actives say, "just come by and see if we're here!", when we try to set up a return appointment .  I just want to yell at them sometimes. Tracting has been dubbed a 'waste of the church's time and resources.' Most of our appointments always fall through, and no one is ever home. It makes it soooooooo hard to be actively doing something. Which is one of the good things about riding bikes around, but our area is only about 3 square miles, so........basically it gets to the point of there just being....nothing to do! It's great....

   It's awesome that you were able to hang with a seventy that's friends with president Riggs! I actually just met someone who's family is really good friends with his family! It's too bad that mom couldn't eat anything, but hey, when you have new running shoes everything else is inconsequential! I'm glad you were able to talk to Katherine! She is really excited about going back to Japan.

    The Scott sterling video was going on at a members house or just some person's house sometime. So many people here have their tv's on all the time. If you walk through some neighborhoods you can hear the sound of tv's because there are so many on. The Super Bowl was even worse than what it's regularly like, if you can imagine that. My pink running shorts aren't completely pink. They just have a strip of pink on the side and I just call the, my pink running shorts in order to differentiate them. And they're not racing shorts. Racing shorts and running shorts are different, and that difference is about 6-8 inches. But I do think just pink running shorts would be amazing! Or yellow or green. But they would have to be a bright green.

      We are starting to work more with a couple less active/part member families. Excited to see where that goes! I like that TIP thing. The problem here is that people do not recognize the significance of things, recognize promises, or even recognize the spirit. We're trying though! Thanks for your testimony. I appreciate and treasure it, and would like to also leave you  (and the fam) with a thought. Something I've come to realize and need more is member missionary work. Our area is barely hanging on to life. It is virtually impossible to find new people to teach by finding ourselves. Members are so important. What I really want is members that will say to their friends, 'we're having some missionaries over! Come and listen to them! They can answer all your questions!' And when they say yes, give us a call and say hey, we're having some friends over at this time to listen to you guys! So invite people over to hear the missionaries! If you tell the missionaries a day in advance they will be soooooo prepared. As long as they have nothing scheduled. It will develop your trust for them, and their trust for you. Trust goes both ways on a mission. Not just members trusting missionaries. I don't trust most of my ward here (even though they are awesome) to have anyone for us to teach. I wish so much more that I'd done that before my mission. Just sharing talking about modesty or the word of wisdom with someone isn't enough.  Follow up everything like that with an invitation to come and listen to the missionaries, and make it so they can't say no. If they can't do a day or week, just say, well, we are available this day, and keep on doing that until you finally have a day set! So that's my rant. I love you all!

Elder Hunter

(P.S. If you want to see an example of what I'm doing to proselyte on Facebook, search for the fox 13 news thing on the excommunication of John Dehlin.)

Hey everyone!!!! This last week has been hoooooot! It was 90 a few days, and on bike and in this California sun, that is NO fun!!! You can feel the gamma rays frying you. It hurts.  Everyone this week just......decided to not be home without telling us, so that was really convenient. One of the highlights of this week was meeting with C and A though. They were actually there!  And they were putting together a TV stand, so we helped C put that together in a jiffy, then sat down for a short lesson!!! A said she had been thinking about getting baptized, so we were pretty stoked about that, as you all can probably imagine! That is about where the great stuff ends. In other news......going  mountain biking on p-days is becoming somewhat of a regular thing! Today we went to a great spot in Peters Canyon. It was the first time I was in that area and I loooooved it! We biked/ran from a parking lot to a huge nature park that has hills galore! It was a runner's heaven! We ran up some small mountains and close to the ridge line to the top of a large hill. Then we went back.  On the way back my companion wiped out spectacularly! He hit his seat so hard the metal part bent about 10 degrees backwards, the handle bars were mangled, and one of the front prongs on the handle bars (so if you want your grip facing forwards instead of sideways) broke completely off. And the tires got a bit twisted. And his pants ripped almost in half. Lucky he brought spares! So that was super fun. And now I am beat, and ready to start another week of teaching people about the gospel of Jesus Christ!! Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I love you all!

Elder Hunter

I love the temple! That's awesome that you were able to go on Kumen's birthday! I was wondering if you could send me some cartoon cutouts for the plan of salvation lesson. Do you remember the sisters that would come over in Texas and do the thing with the puddles and bridges? Something like that. Also, what is a good recipe for dump cake? I'm not sure what exactly to do with a cake mix and fruit I have and I don't wanna ruin it! And what is that stuff you told me to use to get protein stains out of clothes? If you send me any clothes, I wouldn't complain if you sent me another one of my old long sleeve shirts. With the gold tag on the neck. 

Mom, you will make an awesome 1st councilor! You're out of the Primary! That's crazy! How long has it been since you've been in the relief society?? It sounds like Avery is as cute as ever! Sorry about few pictures. I take them with my iPad (have you gotten the letter from the proselyting department yet?) and then have to take pictures of the pictures and then upload them through the computer. Since we're on bike we have to kind of go along with whatever the other elders driving us around are doing. 

Today we had a super good lesson! Taking time out of p-day was so worth it! We taught M (investigator, cop, and SWATT sniper) and L (returning member, cop) who got married about 2 years ago. They are having a kid!! Yayyyyy! M is willing to prepare himself to be baptized and has already come to church twice. He just needs to feel the spirit. We retaught the restoration today because he didn't really understand the whole Joseph Smith story. It was super good. You know those pamphlets? Best teaching tools ever. Start on the cover. "What do you see?" Then explain. Next picture. "What do you see?" And continue throughout the whole pamphlet and elaborate as the spirit directs. It's super awesome. 

I didn't send out a general email last week. I didn't have time. But I made sure to write you guys! There's not much to tell about our area right now. We now have a grand total of 12 investigators, but we only meet with 3 on a regular basis. N, the 95 year old, M, the guy we taught today, and M.....but she isn't really progressing to much right now. I'll try to send more pictures! I love you guys a lot!

Elder Hunter

Hey everyone! This week was pretty slow! Buuuuuut we had transfers!!! I'm staying in Good ol' P3 with Elder Johnson, but come 6 weeks and I'm going to get transferred or get a new companion. The ideal situation would be staying in P3 and training a new elder. We're going
to be getting a lot more in the next few months because about 100 people are going home in the next 3 months. Anyway.....this week was really slow until Wednesday. That night on our way back from the apartment I got a call from Sister Taggart (and talking on the phone with someone while biking home in industrial Anaheim is always fun). She said there was a leadership meeting they wanted me to come to, so we changed our plans for going on exchanges with our District leader and Elder Johnson Jr. went in a trio for the day and I went with the Zone Leaders to a SEVEN HOUR MEETING! It went from 9:00-4:00 and we had a 15 minute lunch break. It sounds really miserable, I know, and it was, BUT it was AWESOME!!! They (pres. Taggart, Sis. Taggart, Tom Jackman, and Bro. Donaldson) spoke a lot about a lot of things, but what struck me the most was what President Taggart said about the Book of Mormon. <Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a book of modern scripture that is (in place of a lengthy explanation) proof of God calling a prophet on the earth again. That is why mormons
are nicknamed mormons and it is one of the most important things in this world that can be shared with people. And spoiler alert for when missionaries come knocking on your doors (if they have not already :), as missionaries we ask people to read and pray about the Book of
Mormon. Because if you do, God will confirm the truth that it was translated by the gift and power of God by a prophet.> Anyhoo, basically he said that those we're teaching NEED to read the Book of Mormon. AND ITS TRUE! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to change human nature so people can change their lives. And people we are teaching are not doing their part to change, and people in S. Cali got BIG problems that they need to change. The other thing I learned that I want to share is something I've never known before. For those of you
who don't know what September 21st is, it is called the Fall Equinox. For those of you who don't know what that is, it means 'The Day of The Harvest.' It is the day that Joseph Smith was told about the Book of Mormon by an Angel of God and the day he continued to be taught by that angel for 4 consecutive years afterwards. The fact that the Restoration of the Gospel really began on the 21st brings new meaning to the following revelation from the Lord to Joseph Smiths father.

1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.
3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;
4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.
6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.
I'll just leave it up to all of you to see the significance of that connection. I love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Elder Hunter

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)