Can you say confusion?

Well. This week. Super special. Super awesome.
I got called to ..kind of train? But not really? It's an interesting story. My new companion is pretty awesome. Her name is Sister Bullock. She is from here in Ohio. She was serving in Arizona (Phoenix, not scottsdale, sorry, steph) but then had to go home for medical reasons and is now here waiting to get a call to a completely different place. So she basically is going to have 3 different missions. How fun is that! But yes..so I'm supposed to be 'refreshing training' type of thing? I don't know. It's interesting. President called the night before transfer meeting to say he wanted me to go so I could meet her there like all the trainers meeting their new missionaries. But I'm not really training. But then he wants us to go to training meeting on Friday. So it's just all sorts of weird. But hey. It's fun. And Sister Mejia is training so I got to see her there and we'll be half riding up with her on Friday. So that'll be awesome.
Sister Bullock is super cool though. I enjoy her. She understands sarcasm and loves cheese so we can be friends.

This week has been pretty crazy what with transfers and everything. I miss Sister Mertlich quite a lot. She is such a cool person. But we all must move on. She got called to be a sister training leader though. So that is quite exciting!
I am also now the 'oldest' one in Bowling Green. In the sense that I am the missionary that has been here the longest now. That is weird. But awesome. I love Bowling Green. It's so great. Especially now that everything's not dead. But it's also starting to get terrible humidesqueness. So that's less fun.
At the interfaith bible study we go to on Wednesdays they asked me if I'm killing off my companions. I told them they'll never know.

We had to give a talk yesterday in Branch with the theme of anything father's. I gave one for the first time with just bullet points instead of writing it all out. So that was special. Fourth talk ever given. I actually managed to last 15 minutes too. I am proud of myself. Look at me. Growing. Shucks.
I was reading the book of mormon this morning and something in it reminded me of that talk that President Uchtdorf gave a couple conferences ago about doubting your doubts before you doubt your faith (it was uchtdorf right? Or was it Holland? Pretty sure it was Uchtdorf). But it was really cool because I had this realization about it. Before when I thought about it I always thought it meant that if we doubt anything we should immediately write it off because it means you're not letting your faith take over. But really I think he meant that when we have doubts we should thoroughly 'investigate' those doubts and not let those doubts seep in to other aspects of the gospel that we know to be true. That we should never say, "Well this one little bit seems to be wrong so every other thing is obviously wrong as well." I think that is what he meant by it. Which I'm glad I realized that. Because we all have doubts sometimes, and pushing them into a corner doesn't make them go away permanently. Studying them out and finding them to be wrong or baseless does. And then when we have studied it out and proven those doubts to be wrong, our testimony of that thing is that much stronger. It's really cool.
And there is my two cents for the week. I bid you all adieu.
-Sister Hunter

PS Sorry this is all over the place. My head is all over the place today. Not literally though. It is in fact in one piece on my neck.

Pictures:
Me sitting in the back of the van with all of the luggage on the way back from transfer meeting. It was my favorite moment. How do you fit 5 missionaries and 3 of their luggage in a minivan? Tetris and mad skills. That is how.
How lovely the bruise on my foot is progressing
The bruise and cut I didn't realize I had on the back of my leg for a while because I was so distracted by the fact that my foot was swelling up to a gumball and then exploding from within.

A wedding, a performance, transfers, and a broken foot

This week has been pretty crazy. We attended the wedding of a member in our ward whose name is Lizzie. It was really beautiful. They were adorable. We then had a musical performance thing in the church on sunday evening called Women at the Well. Which some of you may know very well but I knew nothing of. It went great. Sister Mertlich and I were only in the choir BUT WE MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE. Not really. But it was great! 2 of our investigators came and a lot of people from the community and other wards so it was quite the success! 

And sadly transfers are upon us and Sister Mertlich is leaving me. I am really really sad about this. Because she is wonderful and I love her. And we only had one transfer together. But it was very likely to happen since she is a Kirtland sister. But I am going to miss her so very much. I will be staying in bowling Green for another transfer though! So that's awesome! But this will probably be my last one. Maybe not though. We can hope right? I would love it if I could stay here until Jessee and Laura come back for school. But it's probably not going to happen. 

As to incredibly exciting news: I thought I broke my foot yesterday! I accidentally dropped my bike on it and the part where you squeeze the brakes fell right between the bones of my toes so when I picked it up it was creepily sunk into my foot and then began to swell immediately. I included a very terrible picture of the swelling. It didn't last very long before spreading out across my whole foot. My whole foot is swollen now instead of just the awesome goose egg looking thing. But luckily one of our fellow sisters has her LPN or some sort of nursing something and she said it is not broken so that is good! 

And we have a lot of things happening today that we want to do so we are making emailing short so I shall end this here! I hope you enjoy the pictures! Sorry I have failed at remembering cameras and cords and taking pictures every week. 

The first one: Sister Mertlich and I. She had to buy those glasses because bugs kept flying into her eyes. 

The second: I decided to lay on the couch upside down. So we all decided to do so and make Ohio out of our arms. Because obviously that's the next step you take when laying on a couch upside down.

The third: Our investigators Melodie and Charles! The ones that played the music in the park! I love them!

The fourth: A terribly blurry picture of my swollen foot! Hopefully you can see how far up it swelled. It was pretty gnarly. 

Another Week Down

And I don't really know what to say about this week. I went on exchanges with Sister Turpin and that was super fun and a lot of happiness. It was strange being back in my old area. I was kind of sad because we weren't able to see Sister Fenn or the Chases. But that's okay. Because I see them at church still of course. But yes. Fun times. Sister Turpin and I took a series of incredibly beautiful pictures together. I would show you but guess who forgot her camera cord again! 

We were able to go to the baptism of the woman that drove us to Kirtland this Saturday (the baptism was saturday. She drove us last wednesday. In case that is confusing). She is so incredible. She received a special invitation from Elder Holland to be able to attend the meeting. Seriously though she is amazing. She was telling us in the car on the way down that she wrote this letter to her old preacher that she is very close to telling him that the only defense she has for joining this church is the Book of Mormon. If he wanted to ask her any questions she told him he had to read that book first. How amazing is that? 

I think this week I've grown to love the Book of Mormon more than I previously had. It's considered the keystone of our religion for a reason. We put everything on that book. When you come to know that it is true that is how you know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that every other aspect is true. It's a lot of weight to put on something.  I also love that we invite people to read it and ask God for themselves. It's not a moment of, "Here this is the truth. Accept it." It's, "We know this is true. But you shouldn't take our words for it. Read it for yourself. Ask for yourself. Find out for yourself." And as we read in Moroni 10, "and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart and real intent he will manifest the truth of it unto you". Ah people. Missions. They're great.

Speaking of which, my other favorite part of the week: Sister Mertlich and I were on our bikes paused for cars to go so we could cross the street and all of the sudden some random guy sticks his fist out the window and is like, "Mormons!" in the most excited way possible. It was hilarious.

And with that, until we meet again familia y amigos. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Has occurred. And for that reason emailing could not happen yesterday during preparation day as the library was closed. And for that reason there is now a very limited amount of time to email today. So I apologize now if I don't get to any of your letters. Next week I will do so! 

This week was incredible. Why was it incredible do you ask? Well, I will tell you. We were able to hear from Elder Holland! And Elders Hallstrom and Seldon. But Elder Holland! The message he gave us was amazing. 

My favorite part was when he told us the saddest thing for him is when full time missionaries return from their missions and then fall away from the church. He said, "We can't go out and find the sheep when we have to go find the shepherds as well." So he said in order to not do that we need to stop thinking that when we come off our mission we are going back to 'real life'. He said, "THIS is real life. THIS right now is the CLOSEST you will ever get to real life." Which I realized I have definitely been guilty of thinking about it that way. Not so much as real life more of 'normal' life. But how we are living right now is how we should be living all of the time. We should be devoting this much attention to the scriptures and trying to understand them more. We should be feeling the spirit as much as we do. We should be trying our hardest to live the best lives we came and make the most out of the time we have. Not just now but always.

There was a whole bunch more but I don't have a lot of time today so there. Take that. Run with it. Steph and Andrew, remember this. I will say more next week! 

But yes. It was great and amazing. And things are going well. I hope things are going well for the rest of you too! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Hunter 

The Week of 3 new investigators!

That is right! 3 new investigators! We are so excited. We have 'standards of excellence' here, I don't know if that is every mission, but one of ours is to have at least 3 new investigators each week. So far I have no met that. UNTIL THIS WEEK.

It was awesome! The first one was a former investigator that elders were teaching 7 years ago and she got too busy and no one had seen her since. On Friday one of our lessons cancelled so we decided to go try her and she let us right in! She pulled out a notebook and pen and everything and was like, "So what do you want to tell me?" It was awesome! 

Then yesterday we were in our dinner appointment a half an hour longer than we wanted to be because everyone there loves each other and talks quite a bit. So we decided to cut across the park instead of walking all around it like we normally do. Then we happened upon a couple of people that were recording themselves playing guitar and a box (Just like the box that guy played at battle of the bands that one year, Beth! Do you remember?!) And I didn't want to give them a card because they had a camera and my thought process was, "Ain't nobody need to see a recording of me givin' out a pass along card." But then Sister Mertlich was like 'doing it anyway.'

And so we did and it was awesome! They kept saying we were the answer to their prayers because they had been praying to meet people who have faith in Christ. And there we were. It was awesome. Plus the girl had some blue streaks in her hair. So obviously we bonded immediately. It was really cool though.

We had a lot of cancellations this week and the weather has been fairly dreary, but it has overall been really amazing. 

I hope that all of you are doing well! As always, thanks for the letters. And stay classy. 

Love,

Sister Hunter

A picture of Sister Mertlich, me, and Brother and Sister Williams and their son Kayden (I have no idea if I spelled that right). Brother Williams is doing an internship for the next 3 months in Michigan so that is probably the last time I'll see him on the mission.

 

And me and Laura one of the recent converts in the branch! She is pretty much amazing. 

And then Gabby who is the relief society president of the branch. Well...was. Sad day. Both of them are amazing and I miss them dearly. 

The Week of Heat

Everyone, I am going to die of the heat out here. It was only 83 and only somewhat humid and it was terrible. I would like the never ending winter to return. Not really. That was also terrible. But the last 6ish weeks have been good. I will take those. None of this heat. None of this heat on bikes. You should have seen my bangs. Mom and Dad did yesterday. VIA SKYPE. That was great. It was awesome talking to you both and the rest of the family that I got to talk to. Sorry I had to cut it short. But such is life.

This week has been pretty great and also sad. Practically everyone we teach in the branch are now at the various homes since college is out so that is sad. We did meet a really exciting person on roller blades yesterday who said he would come to church though. So there is hope for some more! (Everyone in Ohio roller blades. Is this a new thing that is happening everywhere? Or is Ohio just weird?) 

I would send you all pictures this week but I forgot my camera cord. So you shall have to go without again. Sorry. I am not the best with the pictures. They take forever to load too though. So cut me some slack. Jeesh...I have no idea how to phonetically spell that word. Hopefully that worked. 

We had a bunch of cancellations yet again this week so that was sad. But I'm getting a lot better at contacting random people on the street! 

On Saturday we did A LOT of service. It was great. We helped one family in the ward move this giant tree stump because their tree had fallen down. It hit me in the head as we were putting it down. It's still sore. But don't worry, no concussion or bleeding or anything. FEAR NOT. 

Well, I don't know what else to say this week. Sister Mertlich is awesome. I'll have to send a picture of us next week. Probably from her camera because apparently my  new life story is stealing my companion's camera pictures because I dislike my camera. But there you go. 

And I guess with that I'll bid you all adieu. Love you all! Miss you all! I'm so very glad I got to talk to you Mum, Dad, Wendy, Becky, Robert, Cory, and Jack. And my apologies to Sammy for not asking about him and causing him to walk away in offense.

Love,

Sister Hunter

And so it begins...again

Hello all! I hope all of your weeks are continuing to go well and all that fancy jazz. Another week has past in the good ol' Ohio and our apartment is quite different. 

We have two new sisters! My new companion is Sister Mertlich and she is absolutely wonderful. We are having a really great time together! She is actually a Kirtland sister (meaning her mission call was to be one of the missionaries that gives tours in Kirtland along with the other mission life) but because all of the sisters have an opportunity to go 'full pros' (pross? proz? PHAOTPHE?) (as in full proselyting...which is what it is called when we go knocking on doors and teaching and all that jazz) she is now here with me! It's great. She said she'd been praying for the opportunity to be on a bike and here it is! 

We also have Sister Urso in the apartment, she is hilarious and adorable. She's probably less than 5 feet tall (I have yet to ask) which makes it great because Sister Maddox, her companion, is 6 feet tall exactly. They make a great combination. They're both really great. Though I am really sad that Sister Hodson is no longer here. But such is mission life, right?

This week has been pretty crazy what with transfers and everything. It's finals week for the university so we're going to be losing a lot of our teaching pool this week, which is sad. I'm going to miss all of them a whole lot. They're so great. Ah. Bowling Green. I didn't think I would like it here but I really do now. Particularly since everything is no longer dead. That definitely helps. 

Ah, Ohio.

Have I said how grateful I am to be here? Because I most definitely am. I can't say for sure if I've changed anyone's life, but I know that I have changed my own. And that's definitely worth every minute. There's a 'how to begin teaching' point that we have as an example of things to say to people that says, "We may not be able to answer every question you have, but we have been called by a prophet of God to share what we know. We know that this message is true." That one was my favorite from the first time I read it. Because there are so many things about this gospel that I don't know. But I can say that I know that what we share is true. I think the best is looking back over the past 3 years where I went from thinking "No way is that true" to "Well probably but I'm not telling any of my friends" to "Yeah. Definitely. Gonna share it with the world" and it makes me laugh. I do know that this is true. There are too many things that have happened that don't make sense in any other way. And why shouldn't it be true? Why can't we believe in something that is so filled with hope and happiness? That teaches us how to live good lives? That changes so many lives? What's wrong with believing that there is something better out there? Nothing. There is nothing wrong with that. 

Look at that paragraph. Full of inspiration. So serious. Yep. Gonna stop there. 

Until next week, I love you all! (I stop loving you after next week. Sorry.) I look forward to skyping with you on Sunday Mum and Da!

Love,

Sister Hunter