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

What a week

I believe the above title describes everything to perfection.

Happy news first! We had a ward mission fair on Wednesday which we were all really worried about because it didn't seem like it was going to come together, but then it did! And guess what? THE ENTIRE COMMON GOOD CAME. All of them! Well...minus a couple. But everyone that was there that night! Including my favorites. Which is what counts. And we had 3 investigators at church! 2 in the branch and 1 in the ward! It was absolutely awesome! 

Now to the sad. In case you all did not notice, today is Tuesday and not Monday. This is because this week is transfers. And guess what is happening? Sister Hodson is leaving me. It makes me sad beyond all measure. But I suppose I have to share her with other people. Such is the mission life. But still. I would like to keep her. 

Then there is the worst news of all, Sister Planer had to go home on Friday for medical leave. We all miss her a lot. I love Sister Planer. Hopefully she'll get better and be able to come back out really soon. Because seriously, she is the best person. And a great missionary. And I miss her. 

The only highlight of this event though is that she ended up having to leave right after the 6 of us had dinner at our ward mission leader's home so we all went out to say good bye to her and of course ended up crying because we all love her. When we came back in Brother Williams sees all of our faces and asks what happened so we tell him she had to go home. Then he says, "Oh...do you want some chocolate?" That is a smart man, ladies and gentleman.

So because of Sister Planer going home we've had to be in a triple up with Sister Maddox since Friday night. Which is weird. Triple ups are weird. They're not terrible. They're just weird. It's also extra fun because we're having to cover two areas. But we have had a car because of that as well. And I got a cold on Friday so it has been nice not having to bike while sick. But yeah. This week...lots of good...lots of sad. But the nice thing about all of it is even though there was a lot of sad stuff this week I love being a missionary. I am so glad I am out here. There is something extra amazing about doing this work. Who is it that has the quote "there's nothing more satisfying than missionary work?" It's true. 

Well, I miss you all! Continue being wonderful and writing me! 

Me on my bike in front of a beautiful tree. 

A picture of us with Nichelle!

And us with my favorite people from the Common Good!

Pictures this week: Our district! 

Our amazing investigator Jessee!

A picture that I believe describes me and Sister Hodson fairly well

A Rather Excellent Occurrence

Dear Family and the Friends,

First of all, Happy belated Easter! I hope you all had a really great one! Because it was fairly wonderful for us. Were you all able to watch Because of Him? Do so. It's wonderful.

This week has also been rather wonderful. We have another new investigator! She met with missionaries a couple of years ago but then had to stop because she got really sick and then her parents told her she was not allowed to. So the sad news is if her parents tell her to stop again she will. She's 21 though so it kind of sucks they won't let her make her own decisions in such matters, but we're not there to create bad situations between the family. She's really great though and I hope that we'll be able to continue. 

In other news, are you all ready for the best pick up line that has ever happened? We were doing service at St. Mark's this wednesday (As we do every Wednesday) which involves helping them serve dinner for the community for those that are struggling to eat and the such. You get quite a lot of characters there let me tell you. But anyway, I was standing at the end of the serving line asking them if they all wanted some candy when this quite possibly 70 year old man comes up and reads my name tag and goes, "Sister...Hunter...hmm" and then starts to walk away. But then he turns around and goes, "I've been hunting for you all my life." And then walked away completely. I about died laughing. Every one has been saying that is the pick up line my future husband will use. So we shall see.

Another semi-great semi-sad occurrence involved our leaving the Common Good that same night. I don't think I have told you all about the Common Good. It is this inter-faith bible study the other sisters found before we came where we go there and we read a few verses from the bible and then everyone has an opportunity to discuss what they got out of it. And after there's a sort of 'free for all' where you can ask people questions or just start a conversation. Every one is super respectful and sincerely pays attention as we're talking. It's awesome. We were able to teach the Plan of Salvation in our last go round and everyone was super interested. But anyway, we're having a ward activity on the 23rd so we told them we wouldn't be able to be there and that transfers are the week after so one or both of us may or may not be back. The leader of the group told us, "That's just unfair. It's like you guys tease us with being awesome people and then you're gone." (I'm paraphrasing but that was the general meaning behind it) And then a couple of seconds later was like, "That's it! Bible study is cancelled!" So, they love us. And we love all of them. But anyway, I won't make this terribly long, know that I love all of you and I'm sorry I have no exciting pictures this week! 

Sincerely,

Sister Hunter

p.s. Next week is transfers so I will be emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday!

Crazy Greatness

On this the day of the 14th of April I write to inform all of you of my imminent...continuation...of my mission...yes. We got two new investigators this week! One is super solid. She was meeting with missionaries two years ago but then decided she no longer cared and stopped and we called her up and she said she'd call us back, and no one ever does. But then she did! So we've started meeting with her and it's super great! She's loving it and has dived right in to the Book of Mormon! The only thing that sucks is that school gets out in about 3 weeks and she is a student at the university so she shall be gone in 3 weeks. Hopefully she'll continue to meet with missionaries wherever it is she ends up. 

Our other investigator is also great! We met her at St Mark's when we were volunteering there. She said she thought we were doing was really cool and 'would like to do that'. So we had to explain to her that you had to be a member at least a year before you could be a missionary, but she's still interested which is great! 

We've had a super busy week though. We found out recently that there are a bunch of members that aren't on our ward list for some reason that haven't been attending so we called every single one of them. A lot of the numbers were disconnected, most didn't answer, the ones that did said they didn't want to hear from us, but eh so is life. We're stopping by the homes of all those that did not answer so we shall see when that comes. We had the ward Easter activity this last Saturday. Sister Hodson and I were in charge of the 'missionary race'. They had to dress up in missionary clothes, run to a chair at the end take off the clothes and then the next person had to put them on and whoever got through their whole team first won. Included should be quite possibly the best picture of Bishop Lake you will have ever seen. He kind of reminds me of David Tennant. Just a bit.  

But yes. Things are trucking along. This new area has been pretty great. Sad for the people that we haven't been able to see, but great for these new ones that they have. :)

I miss you all a lot! And thank you so much for your letters and all of your kind words! They're great. See you all in a little more than 15 months! (Can you believe it's only 6 days from my 3 month mark?) And congratulations to Jon and Morgan! Travis is adorable and that is so exciting!!! 

P.S. I don't know if any of you have had hummus with 'fresh crushed pepper' or something like that but it is incredible. Especially if you eat it with pita chips. Just saying. And that definitely related to everything I said above.