Dear Family,
Tuesday we froze (what else is new?) as we were knocking on doors in -35 degree weather with the windchill factored in. My ears are permanently damaged, I think. In the evening we had dinner with the Harkers and then we had our ward activity, which had a Valentines theme with lots of fun activities and games. After that we drove to Saint John, NB to do splits with Elder Torrie and Elder Jensen. These elders are great! On Wednesday we met up with the other missionaries downtown and did some street singing. We sang hymns and talked to people as they walked by. We did some additional street contacting downtown, played hacky-sack with some guys and discussed the church. We met people from France, South Africa, and British Columbia. We got interviewed by a CCBC reporter on the street wanting to know what our favorite Olympic moment had been so far…uhmmm, didn’t have one as we haven’t seen any of the Olympics!
Thursday we were back in Fredericton. We started a museum tour thinking we would do volunteer service there, but partway through we decided it wasn’t for us. Later we had a lesson with Jacqueline, and had an amazing experience! I had asked if we could start with a prayer, but she refused. After I explained why, she conceded. So we said a prayer and after saying “amen” she was crying. That was just the start of a spirit filled question/answer session where we taught many truths. We didn’t even have to think about the answer to give…the Spirit completely took over and taught. It was so cool to be a part of.
Friday was Valentine’s Day. Can I just say that being on a mission for Valentine’s Day kinda stinks!! But I’m one lucky duck because I still got a package from Erika. She sure is good to me, and I’m grateful to have her in my life.
With the storm that blew in Thursday evening, there was tons of snow, so we grabbed our shovels and dug out random driveways. All the people we met were very nice and appreciative. At one point we began to work on one house that looked like the snow hadn’t been moved all winter, and we started to think that it might not have anyone living there. So we knocked on the door to check. An older man answered the door, looking quite crippled. We asked if we could shovel his walkway for him, and he said yes. I talked with him while Elder Wolsey shoveled a lot. The man had a stroke 15 years ago, and he never goes anywhere. He lives alone and only certain parts of his body can work. He invited us in after we finished and since he was living off of peanut butter and jam, I went through his fridge and made him some glazed, oven-roasted ham so he would finally have a good meal to eat. It was a really neat experience as we spent part of our Valentine’s evening with Larry and felt such a Christ-like love for him.
On Saturday I had an interesting experience. After we did several different things during the day, we had dinner with our Bishop and his family. Going to their home truly humbled me. I thought the bishop was a “well-to-do” man without any troubles, but we arrived at their house which was a trailer. It was amazing to me to see how little they have by temporal standards, and yet how much they are willing to serve the Lord. We had a wonderful dinner with them and I was grateful for the things I learned there.
After dinner we did some contacting and have some good potentials. We also found a lady who had been baptized in the 70’s but was no longer active. We had a good chat and even had a prayer together before we left. My favorite part of the prayer she offered was, “…I thank thee for the good conversation and reminder of thee…even though we’ve had a few glasses of wine…but we know you understand.”
And Sunday we woke up to another blizzard! We dug ourselves out of our parking lot and made it to church, but there were only 14 people there…total. I played the piano for prelude, and then we just had the Sacrament and a very short testimony meeting. The rest of church was cancelled and everyone went home. Elder Wolsey and I, and the sister went out to do some snow-shoveling contacting. We did a fair amount of shoveling and I got pretty sore. I also got rather hypothermic and was pretty frozen the rest of the night, even with blankets and heater bag all over me. Brrrrrr!!!!!
Well, I’m sure you get tired of hearing how cold it is here…so do I! But it really is great and as you can tell, I’m having some amazing experiences! Keep writing. I love to hear from you!
Love,
Elder Hunt
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