I definitely felt better on Monday (April 21st) after the horrible Easter Sunday "gross stuff!" It's a good thing, too, because as zone leaders on "the rock," we don't get much P-day time. We did our emailing then packed up and spent the day driving. A 5 hour drive to St. Johns on the East coast of Newfoundland. We did splits with Elder Tusa and Elder Johnson. It was good to work with Elder Tusa again...but I feel badly for him...turns out a former companion of his went home and is now engaged to the girl Elder Tusa wanted to marry. Ouch!
Tuesday we continued our exchanges with the Mt. Pearl Elders. Elder Tusa and I went to a music store where I was able to rent a violin to take back to Grand Falls with me. Later in the day we met up with Porter Nelson, a member I was really close with from the Cole Harbour Ward. He was up here so we met up for lunch and caught up on stuff. It was great to see him!
(Just a little side note: I am so grateful to be serving in this mission. Sometimes it might be easy to "covet" friends missions due to their location, or their less strict rules...but what I am learning because of serving in this mission is such a huge blessing to me now, and will continue to be a blessing in my life later. I wouldn't trade it for anything!)After finishing exchanges in Mt. Pearl, we drove to Carbonear to visits with Elders Clark and Sorenson. It was so great to be with Elder Clark again, after serving together in Houlton. (He got "Dear John'd" by his girl, too. Sad! It was rough on him when it happened, but he's doing good now.)
On Thursday we went to the Youth Center we've been volunteering at, to help with an event. IT was called "Calra's Big Ride" and was for a lady olympian who has won many medals in both cycling and speed skating. Clara is now doing a big bike ride that loops all the way around Canada. She's doing it to raise awareness about mental health. The program went really well! And I got to wear one of her Olympic Gold medals.
After that we drove to Gander to work for the day. We found a new investigator who is French and is from Quebec. We also had some other good lessons before returning to Grand Falls for our activity night. For this activity, we discussed health, nutrition and exercise. We went over the basics and taught how to be healthy. The ironic part was that a gal brought a huge, double-chocolate cake for part of the refreshments. Food up here is so expensive that it's outrageously costly to eat healthy!
On Friday, among other stuff that we did, I wrote my own arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief." I'm learning so much about myself and my talents, and how to use them more and in different ways.
On Saturday we did a lot of parking lot contacting. It's always a little awkward to me because I imagine how I would feel if some guys in suits came up to me in a parking lot. But we do it, regardless, and it works alright. We also had a couple of lessons. One was with Time and we Skyped in President Fox from Nova Scotia. It went really well, then we began our trip to Corner Brook. The Branch had "Game Night" and to my wonder and surprise, they were playing NERTZ!!! It brought back tons of memories of playing it with Mom and the family, and I loved playing it again!!
Sunday we went to church in Corner Brook and it was really nice to be around some people again and have an actual meeting. President Patterson Skyped into the meeting and it was kind of funny has he related something that happened around midnight Saturday evening. Hewas testing his Skype for the meeting today, and President Leavitt had gotten on, saying he wanted to show President Patterson something. "He played a video of Elder Hunt playing an incredible, fast piece on the piano!" (It was Bumble Boogie.) But after his talk, we performed our musical number of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. I played the violin, Elder Jensen played the piano, and Sister Drew sang. It turned out really good and I was happy with it!
They had a "linger longer" after our meetings, and then we made the drive back to Grand Falls. It was a great week!
Now, I heard BYU's Rugby Boys play for the National Championship this week. Soooo, here's cheering them on!! (Yep, BYU beat Cal 43 - 33!!)
Love,
Elder Hunt
