September 27, 2010

Hi Mother and Family!

So last week it rained on us a lot. I just forgot to tell you that. And in Utah the rain is nothing I mean here when it rains it feels like you are in the shower. You cannot escape the water you just get soaked. It is not bad though or cold it actually feels really good. But this week it was really hot and in that cause it feels like you are in a sauna. By the time the day is over we are just drenched in sweat and our backpacks are just dripping sweat and we have to hang out our ties so they can dry too. The weather here though is nice on some days it just perfect. And so that is way good. Also at MIT where we do most of our contacting the geniuses that they are they made the area a wind tunnel so that way it is always windy in the summer which is way nice it almost feels like AC in the main campus streets.

The leaves are all changing colors and it is becoming very pretty. I have some sweet pictures of Boston and the city at night with the Charles River and stuff that I will send home hopefully soon. I forgot my camera cord today. I was thinking I might just buy a camera card and send them home every transfer then you could put all the pics on the computer and then send it back and I will send you the other or something like that.

Right now we have 3 main investigators and a few others that should be shortly. All three of them have been meeting with missionaries for a long time. Jessica is probably getting baptized Oct. 9th. She is awesome and has been investigating the church for 2 years but hasn't had the faith to be baptized. Then Jim he is so awesome and crazy. He always is getting in fights and like 6 months ago injured his back and had his lung punctured so he barely had back surgery. He is just a punk white boy that is like 35 and is confused about life. He comes to church and yesterday he was so funny. So he was on his pain medicine and was talking the whole time during sunday school about what he said to a Muslim that lives by him and different stuff like hitting on the teacher and cussing. Yeah it was the most swear words I have ever heard at church. But he has a testimony and tries to do what is right. We are going to his house Wednesday to see his new tie and teach him then take him to institute. If he will join the church it could really help him get his life in order.

Raj on the other hand is a hindu guy from India he is super nice and has a middle eastern accent. He ditched us 3 appointments in a row and our ward mission leader was at all three so he called Raj and said if you don't want to meet with us then don't!! and Raj explained that some crazy stuff had come up. But Eric, the ward mission leader, was very bold with him and told him what he needed to do to have a chance and that he needed to listen to our message. So he drove an hour into town last night and picked us up and listened to our lesson it was a very good lesson and we taught him the basics of christianity like war in heaven and Adam and Eve and the need for a Savior. He understood it very well and our ward is awesome and is taking him to Palmyria in a couple weeks to see the sacred grove. He is ready to be baptized but also just needs to make the decision and take that leap of faith.

Our ward is really awesome. Eric the ward mission leader is getting his Ph. d at Harvard in finance and is going to be a BYU professor. He was just called as ward mission leader and is very cool and wants to have success. Also there are a few other guys in the ward that are just amazing and will do anything for the missionaries and also are trying to find referrals and are just amazing at fellowshipping the investigators and new members. Also the Sister missionaries were taken out of our ward which is good. So now we can teach all the girl and guy investigators. The sisters somehow didn't have any investigators they had 3 drop them in a week which is sad to hear but we are going to try to keep working with them.

The mission has been so great. I have lots of fun and me and my comp get along very well. We have weights in our apartment so we lift some mornings and run others it is a good way to wake up and be ready for study. I have been doing some bible study with Elder Yurevich who lives with us at night. He is super smart at the bible and loves to hear himself talk so I try to take advantage of that and listen to what he knows. It is great. Also I am becoming way better at contacting people on the street. I realized 2 things that help me a ton in getting people to listen a little to what I have to say. The first is being confident and speaking loud and boldly and the second thing is by Smiling all the time. It is amazing at how many people will listen to you if you look at them and smile and say hi or whatever. A lot of time I just try to talk to anyone about anything giving sincere compliments because most people here think missionaries are just salespeople that annoy everyone. But when I ask them questions about themselves they love to talk especially atheists they love to talk about there not being a god. So I just bear testimony to them of God being our loving Heavenly Father and that is about all I can do for them at the time.

We had a sweet experience. I ran into this kid who looked like maybe 23 years old and was working on a Phd at MIT. He was super smart and thought everything through a lot. He was an expert at the Bible and believed in Jesus but no main religion. So he and I and Elder Sorel talked with him on the street for like 20 minutes and he said he was in a hurry and was going to eat at Quiznos across the street so we went and sat down with him and taught him the first lesson and the importance of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Everything that we taught him he said made sense and he said that he would pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He was ready to hear the gospel. Hopefully he accepts it. He is very busy applying to med school he said and won't have much time to meet with us. Even if he did meet with us we would have to pass him to the other missionaries because he isn't in our age range. He was just such a stud though and a great guy.

We have good experiences everyday and it is amazing. I love the mission we have lots of fun. It is the hardest thing I think I have ever done but is becoming easier every day. and I am enjoying it more and more. The time is going by fast already the weeks and days go by so fast. I need to continue working hard.

Tell Bryson to keep working hard and also Mckay, I haven't heard from him and I don't know if I have his email. I would love to hear from them. I love all you guys. I would love letters. I got Tylas and dads 3 days ago and will write them back.

Love Elder Hunter

September 20, 2010

Dear Mother,

First, I want to tell you that I want more detail not from you but from freaking Mckay, Tyla and Bryson. I miss them and would absolutely love to hear from them.

Second, When in the world did you and dad become the party animals that stay awake and outside the house past ten?? What in the world??

I am glad Bryson is tearing it up he is such a stud and I wouldn't expect anything less of him. Does he have any TD's yet? What is their record? Also is he going to Homecoming? He should. Jonba emailed me saying that he, himself was going. Bryson should go too. (Note from mom: Yes Bryson is going. . we've had 3 planning meetings at our house. . . the main theme yelled at each planning meeting is "The girl don't want to get wet" Oh My.)

This week was good it went by way too fast! Right now we have 3 investigators and they are all bums. All of them know of the truthfulness of the gospel but none of them are willing to take that leap of faith into the waters of baptism.

Jim is crazy and he has been investigating the church for a while and he is kind of a punk. He always fights people and is very opinionated. I guess he has been in jail for fighting a few people and was jumped like a month ago and had to have back surgery and a punctured lung! He is a nice guy that is lost. I don't know what his situation was growing up and what not so we are trying to get him to stop smoking and be baptized. He won't show up to his lessons we have planned with him though, but he comes to church every week and talks to us after.

Then Jessica was the only lesson we did actually have go through this week. Jessica is the only girl we can teach because when the sisters came into our ward she said that she wanted us to teach her. She has a Boyfriend that is a member which is good cause he helps us teach and we had a very good lesson with her and invited her to be baptized then kneeled right there and had her ask if she should be baptized. She committed to continue praying and asking if she should. That will be way good.

Elder Sorel and I are trying to get both of them baptized by this transfer. Which will be a hard goal because both of them have been investigators for a long time and they just don't seem to be able too have the faith to make that covenant with God. It is sad.

Since most of our lessons fell through this week we spent a lot of time on the street trying to contact people. It seems like nobody wants to listen to us. I have lost respect for both MIT and Harvard. The people that go there are so smart that they have lost all logic!! None of them are willing to open up their hearts and even try the message that we have. It is sad seeing how many of them are so lost and so miserable yet they won't accept the plan that will make them happy. Everyday we are usually down in Kendall which is by MIT and the people there are nice and will kind of listen to us. Harvard is a beautiful campus but everyone is all way to liberal. It kind of drives me nuts.

Also the guy we played basketball with last Sunday we have been playing phone tag with him and haven't quite gotten a hold of him. But his message says that he loves the Book of Mormon and has been reading from it and wants to meet with us again.

Since we haven't had much success in Harvard and MIT we decided to go to downtown Boston on Saturday and talk to people there. It was quite the experience. First we went to Dorchester where people would all listen to us but none wanted to meet with us again. They say they are already too sent in their ways of life. Then we went to Boston Common cause there are always a ton of people there and it was the wrong day to go because it was a freedom festival where they were trying to legalize marijuana. It was packed and stunk of smoke and drugs. We actually met a guy there that was just sitting on a park bench and we taught him about priesthood authority. The guy wasn't there for the festival but by meer chance of waiting for his wife to be done with her dentist appointment. He chose not to accept our message, though I think since all the chaos going around he couldn't feel the Holy Ghost. That was the saddest sight I have ever see. All of these crazy people trying to legalize marijuana and they were all high. They all looked possessed dancing crazy and saying some terrible things. And all the girls were dressed terrible too. Elder Sorel and I were so sad at that sight. It reminded me of the the great and spacious building in Lehi's dream.

Sundays are my favorite they close ofd Mem drive and set up games such as badminton and tetherball and different things and families and kids go down and play basketball and other games all the time and it is a great environment to go teach and make friends. I go down and talk with people and people actually aren't in such a hurry to so they listen and I play basketball with a bunch of 14 year olds yesterday and am nice to them. Hoping to plant a seed in their hearts and I tell them to look at the church website. It is always great fun and gives me hope!!

We see lots of historical sights in the city I live in. Somerville is where the first American flag was raised and it is a pretty sight until we see what has become of our sad city where no one is ever happy and people don't even say "Hi" they just ignore us.

No matter what happens Elder Sorel and I talk to everyone bear testimony as often as possible and work our butts off. Every night my legs are sore and I can barely stand. Put still I am on my knees pleading that the Lord will soften the peoples hearts that they might find peace and happiness in this life and forever.

We also still have lots of fun. Our apartment is sweet. We always talk and joke at night and discuss gospel. One of our roommates likes to bash so he tries to bible bash in the room it is really funny to role play with him. He is impossible to teach as a fake investigator. But I don't bash when people wanna bash i bare testimony ask if i can leave a card then walk off. This life is all about Honor and Integrity. If everyone had those two things it would be a fun place were people would be nice and follow the commandments of god!

Well I love you all very much and I miss you guys. Also you should look at doing missionary work at home if at all possible a referal to the missionaries is the greatest thing ever! Tell my siblings to write me, and also dad too! Not every week but somewhat consistantly.

Love you all you are the best family ever!!

Love Beau :)

September 13, 2010

Hi mom and family,

I made it here safe and I sent a post card and a letter telling you I made it. I was hoping that you would have gotten it by now. The mission field is crazy cool. Our mission president is the most loving and tender guy I have ever met. His wife on the other hand seems to be the one who enforces the rules more. She is super awesome too though, she cooked us food the first night and we stayed at her house and she ironed my shirt for me. Just an amazing couple the president and his wife. They will do anything for any of the missionaries.

So I received my first area and trainer. My trainer is Elder Sorel from Gilbert, AZ. He has been out for 5 months and he is super cool and we get along great. I think that we will do very very good together. We both work really hard everyday and are focused on the work. He was a baseball player in high school and is about 6' 3" so we talk sports and what not and we have similar interests which is really good. We are assigned to the Charles River ward which is the single adults 31-45 years old. We also are limited to just males because we have some sisters in our ward that teach the sister investigators. When I first heard this I was bummed but after I went to church yesterday I absolutely love the people. They are all very educated and I have no idea why they aren't married yet. Some of them have like 3 and 4 master degrees and most go to MIT or Harvard. They are all super nice and very giving. We have been taken out to eat 3 times and fed 1 so far.

Since we are assigned to the Charles River ward we don't really have an assigned area we just kind of stay in the Boston area. Mostly Cambridge is where we do our contacting. We live walking distance from Harvard and MIT which is cool. We can't proselyte on Harvard campus but we can around it. We can proselyte on MIT though. Which is good. The buildings on Harvard are beautiful. I will take pictures of them and send them home eventually.... I would now but I forgot my camera. We travel everywhere by foot or bus or subway we have a pass that lets us ride as much as we want to.

All the buildings are just so cool looking even the LDS churches are sweet. They just made a new stake center that is 3 stories and has a gym and 2 chapels in it like a couple blocks from MIT. Our ward just meets in office space thing but still it is pretty cool. Everyday when I am walking around I feel like I am in a movie because I am not used to the way everything is built and looks. We see lots of cool things everyday. Like Bunker Hill and the minute man trail. Lots of history here and I plan on future p-days to go look at it all. Also we are fairly close to Fenway which we go contacting at sometimes. It is way cool seeing everything.

There are a lot of people here that are very liberal and some people just make me mad! My first day we went out all day trying to find people to teach because our teaching pool is pretty small right now. I was yelled at multiple times and called the f word multiple times. The first guy came after me yelling at me because we disagree with gay people. Then like five minutes later a lady was yelling at me saying women don't have enough power in our religion. Then right after that this huge black guy that works in a athletic personal training place comes out saying that there aren't enough black people in Salt Lake and that he would not listen to our message until we had more black people in Salt Lake and until BYU gave more scholarships to black people. With all of these people I just simply explain to them the best I could and was very nice and told them to have a nice day. Except the black guy I told him that my message was equally important to him as it is to any white person. I think he was surprised that I didn't just run away from him. There also was a lady that was a religion major and she told me I didn't want to talk to her. I just answered that I would love to talk to her and tell her how I could bring peace to her life. She just walked away.

The first couple of days were hard. Nobody would listen to us. Me and Elder Sorel have been praying to find people and figured that we need to become more of a part of the people here. Yesterday we decided to go down to MEM street which goes right along the Charles River. Our bus was 30 minutes late. Right when we get off the bus there is a man that immediately comes up to us and talks to us about our religion. We got his info and set up a time to teach him tomorrow.

Then after we went to MEM str. and were walking around when we came to a basketball court where this guy was shooting. We went and started shooting with him. Then another guy came and started shooting too. We challenged them to a game of 2 on 2 we were in our prosylting clothes still and we played them once. They beat us but we weren't trying so we go to play again and I say if we win we get to teach you our message? The one guy replied, "I will listen to your message win lose or draw." Which was sweet. so we were playing and smoking them then we kinda just messed around and lost. The one guy was about 25 and didn't care to much to hear our message but he said he wants to start a team with us and some other missionaries. We are going to ask our president about that. He also said there are about 80 guys that play in the league and maybe some of them will be willing to listen to us. We got his number and he left.

Then the other guy said he was like 52 but he didn't seem that old at all. We think that he would fit into our ward very well. He told us to walk him home share our message and then he would get us a cold drink and a business card so we could call him. He was the nicest guy ever. He said that he spent time in the with the juvy and kids that were locked up there for 25 years. We walked him home which was like a block away and shared the first lesson on the restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked if he would read from it and pray and he said he would and also that he wanted us to come back and check up on him. It was the coolest experience ever! After we were about to leave he said that it was his birthday and that he knew that we came and talked to him for a reason. He gave us some powerade too.

It was very cool to see how the Lord puts us in places to teach the gospel to those that are ready for it. I truly am an instrument in his hands. And have a path made for me by our savior Jesus Christ. I love the mission and the feeling of my feet being sore after a hard day because I know that I gave it my all.

Today is p-day and the Spanish missionaries challenged us to soccer. So we will go play them. But usually we play basketball on p-day and there are some good ball players in our zone. Elder Hiatt is from Payson and played ball there and Elder Hansen played for Bingham. Then there are some baseball players that are all good athletes here. Boston is safe but the people are crazy and most of them lost in their life. Which sucks!! I will help as many as will here the Lords message.
Love you a ton!

Elder Hunter

Letter we received from the Mission President a week later and picture.

September 7, 2010

Beau will fly to Boston tomorrow. Once his mother has an address in Boston it will be posted on this blog.
Thanks to everyone who sent packages to Beau at the MTC. I love you!

September 1, 2010

My Roommates

Elder Faust, Me, Elder Clay, Elder Hatch
Elder Ellis, Elder Anderson, Elder Adams-Hart, Elder Orisskel

Our District
Top: Elder Faust, Me, Sister Russell, Sister Brough, Elder Clay and Elder Hatch
Bottom: Elder Ellis, Elder Anderson, Sister Parkin, Sister Brown, Elder Adams-Hart

Me and Elder Faust

Hi Mother and family :)

So this week went by so fast again. There is not enough time in a day to do the things that I want to learn. But I try my hardest. I even get up at 5:40 and read from my Book of Mormon and then stay up at night with a flashlight underneath my blanket reading Jesus the Christ. It is crazy how much I didn't know. Since I am at a lack of knowledge the best way for me to be a successful missionary is by me being exactly obedient so that I can have the spirit with me at all times. For I am just an instrument in the Lords hands. It is a great feeling the feel the spirit in my everyday and recognize that it is the spirit. Before I came here I don't think I recognized the lords hand and how it plays such a big role in my everyday life as well as everyone in our family.

Well this week we had some very amazing experiences. First of all, on Sunday I talked with Brother Tyler who is in our branch presidency about my companion. And brother Tyler is a walking talking scripture he was a seminary teacher for 40 years and he practically has the scriptures memorized. He told me about how I was put with my companion for a reason, and that I was doing a great job at getting along with him.

That being said my companion and I are getting along terrific he has come a long way so far. He now is always reading his Book of Mormon and talking to us about the gospel. When we teach our lessons he is great. He is way good at teaching the doctrine so that our investigators can understand it. And he always reminds us to pray before we go to teach our lessons. Which is key so we can have the spirit with us.

There are two other things that I want to share and the first was that last night we had the opportunity to hear from Richard G Hinckley. He is exactly like his dad. He said a story about how a missionary was able to see one of his investigators sealed in the temple with their family and the missionary said that it was no sacrifice being on a mission that it was way more worth it to see his investigators sealed then to go on a mission.

Well the days are pretty plain here. We play volleyball at Gym which is what we all look forward to and we also eat all the time. I now go and get the wraps to eat because all they serve is hamburgers with something else they find in the fridge on it everyday and some sort of potatoe. But the wraps actually have fresh ingredients so that is good and healthy the only place I can eat onions and tomatoes and fresh spinach leaves. I think I have lost weight here which is weird. I think I lost mostly muscle. I still do 50 pushups everynight with some ab work outs and stuff but my pants seem to be growing.

I have learned a great amount of very valuable stuff and now see how the mission benefits every missionary that serves. We learn how to Plan, set goals, work hard but learning is not good enough so I have to go out and develop those things into my life and make them part of me in the field and keep them with me as long as I live.

Well I love it here and I will call your phone mom and dad. But dear elder me so I know for sure if I should or not at the airport. Also I learned that am not that smart at English because I am constantly looking up words from the scriptures in my dictionary. It is crazy how much I can learn now and makes me think I am glad I'm not going foreign speaking because I don't even know my own language.

I'm glad everyone is doing so well and thank you for the mints it keeps me awake during the day. Which is a miracle. I seem to do fine with sleeping only 7 hours a day and that was practically impossible for me before. Well, I am almost out of time but I love all of you guys and thank you for everything.

Love Elder Beau Hunter (the tightest missionary ever)