Wow, that's nuts! Why were you selected? Do you know why yet? Weren't you going to be there for 4-5 years? Well this was quite a surprise! We can totally drive 4 vehicles up and then have three people drive back down that would be a blast! It is sad to be leaving Texas when we were expecting to be there a while. The thought that I had is that the Lord wants our family in Colorado Springs! I love our family so much, and I know the Lords hand has been in all of our moves. I can't wait to help you pack up! I guess I can joke with President that I'm getting transferred to Colorado! Will you find some non-members for me to teach when I get back before I get released? That would be fantastic. I'll be more careful on my bike, I was just taking a golden opportunity! I'm the first person to stop and talk to people, but these hills were so steep that not even people were walking on them! It was crazy! I love the lyrics to the song, I think that's one of the simplest ways to be a missionary! 

So the family!! Not yesterday, but last Sunday, we were visiting a former, and they weren't there so we knocked on 2 doors around them in a complex. The mom came to the door and said they were Catholic and one of the daughters yelled that from behind as well. Then we said something and they ended up accepting a Book of Mormon and inviting us in and giving us brownies and we set up a return appointment for yesterday! Woohoooooo!!!!! So we went back yesterday with some brownies we had made and just talked with them about a mission and prophets and revelation, and ended up teaching a big part of the restoration and it was awesome and they had awesome questions and they brought up stuff like they have problems with some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church  and it was just incredible!!! We spent a lot of time emphasizing the Book of Mormon and invited them to is presentation called Christ in the Americas where brother Linford presents all this artifact y'all and historical evidences that support the things that the Book of Mormon talks about and he has the most powerful testimony of the savior and its incredible. And ye said ye would come to it!!! So I am super duper excited for that. I'm so excited for where that is going to go. :) 

Love you so much!

Hunter

So glad you enjoyed Sarah's baptism, that sounds like an absolutely incredible experience. I did read the talk by Packer, and I'm still reading it over again, there's so much in it, I love it! Thank you so much! The one standing around wasn't watching it, it had been his companion. He just said, well, I'm not even going to bother trying to hide it." He's such a good guy, but good guys do dumb things. We didn't really even reprimand them. We told them they knew what they were doing was wrong and talked about being on a mission and how it's the only chance we have to serve the Lord like this. The one elder that was standing brushing his teeth has had a bunch of bad comp and is just completely unmotivated. He has a rough background and is basically the only active member in his family and he just wants to be done. We just talked to him about how he was doing and then helped them take their tv out to the dump. In southern Cali, everyone gets rid of everything by putting it by the dump. Couches, tv's, fridges, cabinets, beds, bikes, you name it. All the kids would love it! It's so easy to be disobedient here. Everything is just given to you. I told president, not the details, and told him we had taken care of it. 

Hahaha, this week we got Quran bashed! It was funny. We Tracted a lot, and are just trying as hard as we can to find people. Lots of tracting. Yay! I love it! It's so much fun. Last night we knocked on a door and the mom pulled the 'we're Catholic' card and was about to shut the door, then we said something and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and went in and talked with their family for 15 minutes or so and they gave us brownies (not weed brownies) and said we could come back on Sunday. It was awesome! That's about all that happened this week. I'll try to think of some other things. Love you!

Hunter 

PS  Ooh! On Tuesday we went on bike again. We went 46 miles including some of the steepest hills in the mission! I was accelerating super fast down a hill and when I hit 45 mph I chickened out and hit my brakes because it was really fast. I would've gone 60 easy. It was really fun!

This week was alright. We continued to have crazy bible bashers everywhere.  All the prom stuff and concerts sound fun and exciting! You're looking good dad! And mom just looks the same as always! Thanks for the talk! I can't wait to read through it and all the things you outlined and stuff! The rest of my week was basically exchanges. We went on three and this week we're doing three. It's pretty exhausting. We dropped nearly everyone in our teaching pool. We have 6 investigators now. C, who is going to Denmark for 9 weeks, S who we haven't met, but have an appointment for next Friday, C and L, two sisters we are going to pass to the family Ward b/c one has a kid and it just makes sense for them to be together, D who is a nut case, and M

who we are pretty sure has problems with his, um, orientation, and isn't interested in our view on the law of chastity. So we are working hard to just find people! I love finding people! I'll send you a video of a finding method we tried out a couple days ago. I've also started talking in an Australian accent in door approaches and 2/2 times I've been invited into the house and left after having given them book of Mormons! Someone driving a truck tried to run me over. Also we walked into a missionaries apartment to drop off cookies and found them watching Rocky on a big TV at 11:30 in the morning. One elder was in the shower and the other was half dressed brushing his teeth and both their beds were in front of the tv. So we had a talk with them, it was actually very spiritually uplifting and helped them to remove the tv. So that's all the fun and exciting stuff that happened this week! Love you!

Hunter

Hey all, this week was pretty hum drum except that we had people wanting to bible bash with us all the live long day, it was ridiculous. It's all well and fine to disagree with someone else's beliefs but jeez, please. Stoooooooop! So if anyone has any questions about what Mormons believe or think that something we believe is freaky or something, please ask me about it! Most things are twisted or blown out of proportion and I love clarifying things. Here's some pictures for the week!

We biked a lot. :) There was this one hill (that's the last picture) I hit 40 mph going down, it was great! Talk about a thrill.......

Elder P is 25 and is a champ! We get along really great, he's hilarious. He is very motivated, maybe not super excited motivated, but he wants to go out and work and he makes it fun. He's been out for ten months. It's a miracle in and of itself that C has a date. A few months ago he said the Book of Mormon was of the devil and he wouldn't even touch it. He's just Catholic, so he's literally breaking the tradition of his fathers. :)   Hyrum Smith said that "Character is the ability to make a decision after the emotion of the decision has passed" and it's easy to say, oh, well I would do this and that, but then the time actually comes and I hate how often the time has come for me and I've failed to show the kind of character I should have. All you can do is respect his agency and he will realize you respect his agency to make the right choice whatever that is. Way to finish the 5k in under 30! That's great! You're looking really slim dad, give yourself a pat on the back and a five second break! Tsk tsk, Ammon and Zenock and even Talmage are SLACKING!!!

Dad, if you've done anything right it's that. I couldn't have asked for a better dad here on earth and whenever I imagine how heavenly mom and dad feel and think about me I think of you and mom. I love you and mom and the rest of the family tons. 

Hunter
Hunter sent us a link to his favorite talk for mother's dayby Elder Holland
“Behold Thy Mother”

I love you mommy! Happy happy Mother's Day! I'm sorry I didn't have more time to share my testimony it was a little lame.

I had some proselyting to go do! We went back up the huge hill I biked up, but in a car, and gave the same lady a Book of Mormon and she has a son named Hunter that runs. :) So we were able to set a return appointment, it was great! Ain't no way I can sell Julliet! (his bike) I'll have a member keep her for me until I can bring her home. Maybe I can bike home over a summer or something, that would be fun!! Is M the one we gave our grey couch to? That's to bad that he's less active. I would've been even more blunt probably. After we skyped we were tracting some later in the evening and I sad this to a older YSA girl that wasn't really caring about what we were saying. "You know, just about everything we've said has gone over your head or in one ear and out the other, and I can't blame you. Most people don't really appreciate the significance of what we have for them until they try it out." I wasn't meaning it in a mean way, but she thought I called her stupid, and we ended up just walking away. What do you do? I love the council of Alma to Helaman in Alma 38. I do  feel like I was overbearing though, she just didn't want what we had to offer. :/ anyway, I love you mom! You are the best mom in the whole world and don't ever beat yourself up about 'not being good enough.' None of us are! But you did your best, and that's all I needed. :) I love you so much and I'll see you in three months!

Hunter 

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers and future mothers! I want to share a short excerpt with all of you from the words of the Prophet of God on earth today, as he related a story from The Civil War about Mothers.

"Men turn from evil and yield to their better natures when mother is remembered. A famed officer from the Civil War period, Colonel Higgenson, when asked to name the incident of the Civil War that he considered the most remarkable for bravery, said that there was in his regiment a man whom everybody liked, a man who was brave and noble, who was pure in his daily life, absolutely free from dissipations in which most of the other men indulged.

One night at a champagne supper, when many were becoming intoxicated, someone in jest called for a toast from this young man. Colonel Higgenson said that he arose, pale but with perfect self-control, and declared: “Gentlemen, I will give you a toast which you may drink as you will, but which I will drink in water. The toast that I have to give is, ‘Our mothers.’” Instantly a strange spell seemed to come over all the tipsy men. They drank the toast in silence. There was no laughter, no more song, and one by one they left the room. The lamp of memory had begun to burn, and the name of “Mother” touched every man’s heart."

I want to share my brief testimony with you all of the power and influence of mothers in the lives of others, mainly their children.

The Book of Mormon tells of the powerful influence that mothers have in a letter from a prophet and commander named Helaman to his commander in chief, Moroni. Helaman was the leader of 2000 young men, in a war between their people and another group of people called Lamanites that wanted to kill them. During an operation to take back a city, things went wrong, and they were going to have to fight when they weren't supposed to.

"And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites. For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipus. Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers,

saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.......fast forward to after the battle.......And now it came to pass that when they had surrendered themselves up unto us, behold, I numbered those young men who had fought with me, fearing lest there were many of them slain.

But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such mighty power did they fall upon the Lamanites, that they did frighten them; and for this cause did the Lamanites deliver themselves up as prisoners of war."

There is no greater calling in the world than that of a mother. I love all of you and especially all of you mothers, and if anyone hasn't told their mother that they love them in the past 24 hours, go and do it. :) Elder Johnson

1. I climbed that pole three times. That pic was the third so I was too tired to do pull ups at the top.

2. A service we did.

To dad and family: 

I need to tell you about C! He came to sacrament meeting up here in my new Ward yesterday and got up to bear his testimony to a bunch of people that he didn't know! He's a Hispanic and Catholic, and to Hispanics here, to be Catholic is to be Hispanic and anything different is like saying you're not Hispanic. It is literally a completely cultural thing. Even if a family never goes to church, and someone decides to join another church, everyone freaks out and loses their minds. So C got up and told everyone about how he hadn't agreed with so much of the things we taught him because they were directly contrary to what he grew up believing. Then he said "I've been reading three pages from the Book of Mormon every day (like I asked him to when I left) and I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know this gospel is true. And I'll be getting baptized on August 6th." If C can do it anyone can do it! I was so happy, I can't wait for that day to come! It's three months away, but that's nothing really. 

As far as my companion goes, I talked to him about setting goals and set some goals for both of us for comp study one morning. When hair becomes more important than someone's soul, cut it all off! In any case, he is getting transferred.  He is going to the Orange Hills YSA, so he knows C! The other Elder there, C really doesn't like. I'm glad at least he'll know elder S. Elder P is coming here! He was a medic in the army and has served two tours in Afghanistan. He's pretty awesome, and probably the most respected missionary in the mission.

 I do still have my bike! It's a super good one! I need to figure out how to get it home! I payed a bunch for it, I'm not going to just leave it! Is anyone from the Ward taking a trip out here anytime soon? That's too bad that A doesn't come anymore, but great that you're getting to know H more! I'm glad S and K enjoyed Kumens call letter, that's awesome! I'm not surprised that you guessed it right. What made you guess that I was coming to California? Sometimes I feel like you call up church headquarters or you're secretly friends with elder Bednar or something and just call and ask. A guy from the Ward here that just went up to BYU knows the B's! He was best friends with N growing up, that's so cool that he's in Austin now! I can't believe he has a kid.....that's weird. How do I get an ecclesiastical endorsement from P. Taggart? Do I just get him to sign a piece of paper or what? 

We just dropped most of our teaching pool because none of them were really interrested. If you would like to pray for K, that would be great. She's basically a dry Mormon but she just needs to be able to recognize the spirit and know that it's God telling her that it's all true! Love you!

Hunter 

Picture:  K got baptized on Saturday! He's awesome. He's going to Missouri next Sunday for boot camp. He's going into the army. I got to spend an awesome 5 weeks teaching him.

Parts of a letter to Dwight,

I'm glad Justus was able to spend some quality time with the family.

 I wake up at 6:15 every morning now though. I woke up at 6:00 this morning so I could go run and still meet up with elder R on time to bike the mission.  Elder R and I biked down from Yorba Linda to Tustin and back, a 40 mile bike ride, so it was a good stress reliever. And we are now basically legends in the mission, so wooptydoo! I'll read Elder Hollands talk on the Godhead, thanks for suggesting it! Thanks for the BY quote and your testimony.....love you!

Letter to all.

This week was basically the same as all the other ones! Except that today elder R and I biked the height of the mission, it was a blast, we went from Yorba Linda to Tustin and all in all it was about

40 miles.

K got baptized on Saturday! He's awesome. He's going to Missouri next Sunday for boot camp. He's going into the army. I got to spend an awesome 5 weeks teaching him.

Hunter