Thursday, July 4, 2013

My First Birthday As A Missionary...

Dear Family,
What a great week!!  Not only was it my birthday, but we've seeing lots of progress in the missionary work out here!
Last Monday during P-day we did a puzzle.  It is such a nice stress-reliever; I'm sure I will be doing puzzles my entire life!!  That evening we had dinner at the Wilkinson's.  They smoked an entire turkey and it was incredibly delicious!!  Also that night, we met a guy named Jake.  As we talked with him on his doorstep he said that he's been really looking for and seeking guidance from God lately...and we showed up.  He is so genuine and is very knowledgeable about the scriptures.  We taught him the restoration and he's now reading the Book of Mormon.
We are still being eaten alive by the hordes of Maine bugs!!
Tuesday, we had District training in Caribou.  I gave 90 minutes of training, and then we went to Pizza Hut for an early celebration of my birthday.  I went on exchanges with Elder Tusa after that.  We did a lot of walking and knocking in the hottest weather I've ever been in.  It was 90 degrees with 100% humidity...
it was brutal!  However, we had some success too.  We stopped by a referral we had gotten from last week's funeral, and now there are three new investigators, which is great for that area!!  We also got to visit the O'connell family who was baptized a few weeks ago.   They are the coolest family!  They have 9 kids ages 6-27.  One of the girls picked some fresh strawberries for us and we had the mtost delicious strawberry shortcake!  They also had a violin, so I played a few pieces for them.  Bill O'connel and I got along great because he played college sports, too!  It was a great night for Elder Tusa and I.
On Wednesday we exchanged back.  Since we were low on miles (being the end of the month), we walked all over Houlton, which really tweaked my knee.  It got really sore and stiff.
Thursday we taught Jake again.  He's fascinated by what he's read in the Book of Mormon and he's sharing all the things he's learning with his roommates, and teaching them as well.  But, just so you don't get the wrong idea, thinking EVERYONE is happy to meet us,  we also met a guy who basically said, "I'll see you in Heaven, and God will tell you that the Mormon's were wrong!"  That was pretty funny, and even though we tried really hard we couldn't help but laugh.  :)
FRIDAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY!  I turned 20 years old and am no longer a teenager!  (Amazing!!  I FINALLY don't have any teenagers!!...only 9 more years and I'll have GRANDKIDS that are teenagers!!)
Birthdays on a mission are much different, but a lot of people made mine incredible.  For presents, I got:  St. John's Wort, a clothes steamer, Ding-dong cupcakes, Albertson's Chocolate chip cookies (my favorite!), a nice, new white shirt, and a really nice Braun electric shaver!  All of that was from my parents.  AND I got a great new watch from Erika!!  I also got a card from Kristy and Chris.  Elder Edmond took me out to lunch at the new "Amatos" restaurant, and it was delicious!  For dinner we were at Carters and they made a big lemon cake with 20 candles on it!  I also received a phone call from my trainer, Elder Deem,.  It was really good to talk to him!  Then, after that, Elder Nzojibwami (my MTC companion, who HAD been serving in New Brunswick) called to wish me a happy birthday.  I was so happy to talk to him.  He's now an Assistant to President Leavitt, and is just a stud!  Overall my birthday was great!  And I feel so blessed to have so many people that care about me and show that love, too!!  Thank-you!!
On Saturday we had a lesson with Mike L.  We started outside where I cut his hair with my clippers.  I must have cut 4 inches of hair from his length.  It was a lot!  And that was my first "barber" experience without it being another missionary.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he committed to baptism on August 15th.  (Happy birthday, Brandon!!)  It was a really good, spiritual lesson.  Later, we had a lesson with Dan D.  We met him a couple of days ago.  We had been walking down the street and I saw a guy sitting on his porch, but we were going the other direction so I didn't think much about it.  But then I was prompted otherwise and we went and talked with him and set up our lesson for Saturday.  Well, it went great!  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he really opened up.  He's 24 and going through some hard things, and has been looking for guidance from God.  Well, he's getting it!
Church was really good on Sunday.  Brother Peters was called to be the new Young Men's President, which is incredible!  We also watched part of the Missionary broadcast in the combined meeting.  I can't wait to see when our specific mission gets to try these new technologies.
Sundays are very busy as a DL.  That's when there are lots of phone calls, etc. for reporting.  My knee is doing pretty good.  Same twinge of something messed up, but my body is adjusting to just dealing with it and compensating, so that's good.
So, that's it for now.  Thanks, again, for making my birthday so great!

Love you all!!

Elder Hunt


No comments:

Post a Comment