Baptism #2 Ronaldo

ha Still has the same sense of humor!

Baptism Number 2.. Ronaldo!!

Elder Ramirez, Elder Hunt, and Ronaldo's Family

The new group after transfers

Elder Hunts second companion, The DL Elder Ramirez

Hey Fam!!!
Well its only been a few days since i last wrote you so not alot has happened besides a few things. This week we had a baptism with Ronaldo on Saturday and it went pretty good. The guy in the ward that was supposed to baptize him ended up not being able to do it so i had to last minute. It went really good though and i know that Ronaldo is really happy and excited to be a member of the church. William was also supposed to be baptized with Ronaldo but because he is a minor you have to have a parent sign for you and give you permission. Well his dad will never sign so his mom has to do it. She would do it she said but she lives in argentina so that means we have to wait until wednesday to do it for ward night after the office receives the fax of her signature saying that it is ok. I really hope that everything stays really strong with him over the next few days and he can avoid temptation. Well its been a pretty difficult week with the new companion, we have worked really really hard but he is just SUPER quiet and doesnt say anything and is actually quite BORING!!!!! so the days are really slow, thank goodness i was blessed with Elder Kragenbrink in the house cause i would probably die if there was another latino in the house and i couldnt speak any english!! i pretty much look forward all day to when i can get back to the pension to have some fun because Elder Kragenbrink is super funny and we get allong great!! My companion is a super hard worker and the new district leader... i actually think that he was born to be a misisonary robot!!! he never wants to stop for anything and i almost have to beg him to go back to the house to eat dinner and rest a little. Obviously i have to with my forrest gump feet and so that has really irritated me!! i am trying to be a good companion but i just dont see it working!! So this week we had a big storm and as i sat waiting for the zone leader finish the baptismal interview the thunder came and didnt leave for almost thirty seconds!! it was SO SICK!!! haha oh ya so i went on splits with the zone leaders for a day and a half for baptism interviews and it went alot better than i thought that it would. Elder Roberts is a really great teacher and he taught me alot!! I have had a little better week i guess but the thing that i think i am struggling with the most is that i usually can just pick up everything super fast and accomplish anything, i am a natural leader and usually know exactly what to do and how to do it but the whole misison thing is something that does NOT come naturally to me!! especially where right now i am planning all the visits and everything because i know the area and he doesnt. Got any help dad?!?! We had a zone activity today and played soccer and basketball then after we had like a thanksgiving dinner together, it definitely was NOT normal thanksgiving food but i am grateful for everything that they did and that we have food to eat. Oh ya so with elder roberts we had to finish our contacts in the rain without umbrellas so we were SOAKED!!!! it was a great journal entry! haha we found a guy this week who told us he has never sinned and has no sins whatsoever! haha i had to just laugh at him because he was sinning as he told us that!!!! Saturday we had lunch with Sister Vega and after Elder Kragenbrink was super sick, he barfed probably thirty times! haha it was funny but sad all at the same time!! So in sacrament this week we were doing the sacrament and all of teh sudden we hear a little kid just yell out... Que Puta... haha with is a really bad swear word here!!! haha we were laughing so dang hard cause his mom says it all the time and we know that he learned it from her!! haha Well i love you all so much and i will write you again next week!! Thanks dad alot for the line of authority and everything else taht you are doing. That really kills me to hear that john quit the team, he is such a retard!! he was the only one really who had a super bright future as true player!!! chad is such a bad influence! i really wish i could call him and talk to him, you and travis should sit down and talk to him about it!! well thanks again for eveything! i love you! no mom i havent heard anything really about the call but i wll ask this week! i love you and i am looking forward to it too!! Elder Hunt

Cow Brain and Tongue... DELICIOUS!!!

A mini Palm Tree farm! He knew I would totally love this, and those of you who know me know why too :)

So Dang Cute

This is a Cows Head... (for all of you who know our Elder Hunt you are thinking there is no freaking way)

This is our dear Elder Hunt eating Cow Brain, Tongue and everything around it... (At this point I was still thinking it was a joke)

This Is Elder Hunt LOVING Cows Head.... In his Words "It was just so dang good and delicious, I couldn't stop eating it! I slept so dang good that night... It's like eating tons of Turkey at Thanksgiving." What the heck this is most definitely not the Benetton I remember! NASTY (Guess Not!)

Looks like our Elder Hunt will be having a Christmas after all! YIPPEY!

The tree we sent him. I think it looks pretty dang cute!

I guess he misses the Ol Celica!! Though I think this one puts his to shame ;)

Gorgeous Paraguay!

Ha not sure what this is... A map of the City?

Hey Family!!
Well this has been a really really long week with changes and everything and as you know i wasnt able to do email on monday because we had changes this week so i am doing it today. I do have a new companion but i will get into that a little bit later. I am gonna give you the rundown of everything that i wrote down to share with you and then how the work is going. I got my first elevator ride here when i went to asuncion with elder arrieta to sign. It was so sweet cause it made me feel right back at home!! This week we had a narly hail storm and thunder and rain and lighting and crazy wind!! It is so weird here because the weather is great and then all of the sudden it just goes crazy!! We were waiting for a collectivo or bus and then it started storming. The hail was just nailing us left and right but we found a little coverage. Then about 40 feet in front of us we saw lighting hit the ground!! it was INSANE!! it left a big mark and all the dirt was like crystalized!! IT was so sweet though! haha dont worry i am safe and everything is fine. My foot is doing fine and its a little better, i have really tried to be alot more careful with it because i dont wanna be a winer about it or let anyone see that i have a weakness. haha oh ya if you could get me bishops email that would be great. We had zone conference and it was GREAT!!!! we talked alot about eternal families and how we need to really help all the wards right now cause retention is horrible. The area authority showed us a statistic about this area which includes paraguay argentina uruguay. In 2005 there was 73000 active members in the church. During those five years until now we have lost 3000 members who are now inactive. Here is the really sad thing... during those 5 years we have baptized 65000 people... so really we should have well over 120000 active members in the church but there isnt. So we are really focusing in on that and so far so good. The attendance continues to grow every week in the ward so its nice to see the fruits of your labor. I made your cookies this week for FHE adn they were so dang good with a nice glass of cold milk!! i just ate them and pretended that i was home with my pajamas on watching a movie with kelsey!! I got to see elder richards this week at the zone conference. so this week we found a wonderful church of the catholics that had a big painting above the door where you enter... the painting was a cross with MARY being crucified not Jesus Christ. Talk about blasphemy here!! me and eldre hall had a hard time believing it at first! haha This week i put up the paper tree and all the ornaments!! All the little messages made me so dang happy and cry all at the same time!! it made me miss everybody alot but feel closer to them too. Thanks mom and kelsey and anyone else that helped do that!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! I had a crazy dream this week that i was like a pro parkourer and was chasing someone through paraguay! it was insane how good i was. haha i didnt want to wake up. I got my letters from the ym/yw this week and they were really good! that is pretty crazy about spencer brown going to the same mission as his dad. I LOVED teh picture of preston skimboarding down floodstreet!! That is the dopest thing ever man!! i put it up on my wall in front of me when i study!! Everyone thinks it was super sick!! So there is a member that gave me the nickname Eminem this week. He says that i look just like him. I dont see it but i guess he does. I watched a sweet dog fight this week with like 8 dogs total royal rumble and going insane for like 3 minutes!! it was sick and i was laughing so dang hard!! So as you can see in the pictures... this week we had dinner with some members and yes... I ATE COW HEAD!! i ate the brain and the tongue and everything else surrounding it! it was so dang good and juicy and i couldnt stop eating. I slept so dang good that night.. its like eating a bunch of turkey during thanksgiving!! haha i bet you are probably thinking to your self right now there is no way that i ate that... but i did and i didnt even hesitate to do it!! haha i am gonna buy some tongue and have a member cook it for lunch one day. So we have an investiagtor that we found who is addicted to crack!! he smokes 50 mil guaranies a day minimum. His family doesnt have any food and he doesnt have a job. Its really sad because his son is getting baptized this saturday and he probably wont even be there to see it. So yes this week we have two baptisms. Ronaldo who is 13 and william who is 16. They are really great smart kids and have bright futures. I cant wait for it to finally go throw. When your in limbo of time for baptisms anything can happen!! so i am praying really hard for it to happen!! haha This week as week walked home i saw a huge grow of people and elder hall told me that they were doing an exorcism. And they really were!! it was crazy to listen to them. So my new comp is elder ramirez. He is from peru and is the new district leader for our district. That means i am gonna be working my butt off like crazy. Wednesday as i waited for him to show up i thought alot about home and how much i missed everyone!! I couldnt stop thinking about kelsey at all!! It kept running through my head that i just wanna be home already and marry her!! That was a really hard day and i had to rely alot of the lord!! i know if i came home though everyone would KILL ME!!! hahaha i but i will do my best to stick it out during the hard times and finish strong!! Well tahts all for this week! i love you all! until monday!! Elder Hunt

A Really Fast Week!

Family!!
What a really fast week!! Changes are sneaking right up on us and i dont know if i am excited or nervous because more than likely i will have a new companion. My comp now Elder Arrieta finishes his mission in February so he definitely has his house in mind but we are still working hard and all is well. This week was really strange with the weather and now just a normal week. It rained one day and was dry the next! haha i love when it rains cause its nice and cool and i love the darkness of the clouds and how good it feels with a slight breeze in the mornings. But man is it horrible the day after when the sun burns off all the clouds and it is humid as i´ll get out!!! I got my dear elders and a letter this week from a kieth may.... i had to think and think who the heck that was and when i opened it it was our neighborhood news letter!!! I couldnt put it down!! i felt like mom while she was reading twilight!! haha i would really love to get them all because it makes me feel closer to home and i love to hear about everything and everyone in the neighborhood. So maybe they could keep sending them to me. If you could ask them that would be great!! i have read it like two or three times now.. haha even the food storage article!! haha This week we put a baptismal date with William. He is seventeen years old and used to live with his grandma. Well she died about two weeks ago so now he is alone in the house and really misses her. But we had a REALLY great lesson about the plan of salvation where i bore testimony about the power of prayer and how when grandpa sim passed away i was really sad. But the first thing that i did once i got back to the pension was kneeled myself in prayer for comfort in the plan that i would be with grandpa again. Sure enough the lord blessed me with an immense feeling of comfort!! I think that really helped william, and i was the one that put the date!! My first one that i have done and it felt great!! haha we have alot of work to do with him this week to prepare him for saturday so please prayer for us and him to be ready and that satan wont tempt him in anyway to change his mind about this decision. I would greatly appreciate it!!! So fun facts for the week that i always write down... The clotheslines here are actually barbwire!! Its a great invention, its dual purpose cause you dont need clips for the clothes and they put it low enough to severe your face if your not paying close enough attention. haha So i have one favor mom... I got a dear elder from you and you have said this before in other ones and it IS NOT TRUE AT ALL!!! your ARE NOT A FAILURE as a mother... You prepared me AMAZINGLY!!!! so my favor would be to accept that i was prepared great by the best mom in the world and you can feel at peace!! I LOVE YOU!!! So this week we had an all day of service! haha we started after study and cut down half a tree with only a machete... ya thats what they use here as a multipurpose tool! haha its great the technology here! haha after we finished that tree we got a call from another member that said hey can you hurry and run over to my house i need your help with a big tree we are cutting down. So we ran over there and this tree was easily 65 feet tall and the trunk was about 7-8 feet in diameter. Well they had it cut about half way through when we got they. They had tied a huge rope to the top because the way this bad boy was gonna fall was right on to their house and the neighbors! haha well as it fell we pulled and pulled haha luckily we won the battle! haha after we had lunch there and i had my first paraguayan pizza! all my comp could say was how could it was... well ya it was pretty much gross!! the sauce is more like liquified onions and a tiny bit of cheese and then tons of meat. After we went back to the pension to shower when we got a call from another member who needed our helping painting a house. So i painted my first house too. haha i have pictures i will send next week cause the computer i am on right now i cant use the USB to get them off my camera! This week we had a great ward night... usually the kids are just CRAZY!! but we decided we would put in a movie for them and that shut them right up. haha they were in heaven. So we found a new investigator this week named alexi.. ya its a guy and i guess he used to bat from both sides of the base ( that means he was gay, haha if you dont understand preston can explain it) anyways he was all talking about how the usa has polygamy and that his teacher at college tells them all about it and how the church excepts it and that it is legal. So as soon as he finished i said to him in a stern voice... and where does your professor live? oh ya and where do i live? haha well he shut up right after that and never said another thing about it. We were teaching him with some members in the ward that are his friends and when i said that they were all like oooohhhh haha it was way funny!! So as i walk i have totaly dejavu all the time that i am in california! haha i was laying in my comps hammack the other day and the weather was great ad we had the window open and i totally felt like i was on the beach with the sounds of seagulls and the window and the fresh air and just everything. haha another thing that i have thought about alot that i miss like crazy is going to fab freddys with dad during work to get drinks and talk soccer! haha i cant wait to do that again!!! Today we had to go to asuncion for my comp to sign and do things for when he leaves so that meant.... YES I GOT MY PACKAGES finally!! haha but i still havent opened them casue we came right here off the bus! haha i am SUPER STOKED THOUGH!! thanks soooooo much mom and kelsey lynn!!! I LOVE YOU!!! and thanks to anyone else who sent one! I will be in heaven once i get home to open them all!! So in my dear elders from cluadia she asked what i want for xmas... so here is the list....
xmas music!!!!!!!
pictures of everyone
a letter from everyone in the family including lisa doug chris jill kaden kathy and the davis´s
then there is a book that just came out called the Joseph smith papers!! i would LOVE THAT!!
other than that is everything... besides american candy and goodies of course!! haha and anything else that they can think of or want to send.
We have zone conference this friday and the area authority is coming!!! its like an all day thing and i am super stoked for my first one. then the week after that is changes. We really arent sure what will happen because any of us could really be changed so we will have too see. Since changes are next week that means we wont have pday on monday so i will email on that thursday. So this sunday i had one of the MOST AMAZING sunday meetings i have ever had. The spirit was SO STRONG and i bore a great testimony... there was a missionary here who finished his mission last week and was visiting this area with his parents. It made me think all about you guys and how it would be AMAZING TO have you and kels visit here with me one day! i would have such a blast with preston and hannah and ashton and maybe one day. Elections were this week and it was INSANE!!! a member told us that they saw on the news that a bunch of people got in a fight over different parites and one of the men got their ear cut off!!! well i am running outta time but i love you so much and i am so grateful for your concern and fasting for my feet. ITs only my left one and its when i make certain movements is when it really hurts but i am gonna be more careful and all will be fine i know the lord will bless me!
I LOVE YOU!!! Elder Hunt

A bit of a scare

Well we had a bit of a scare on Saturday. Sister Callahan, President Callahan's wife, called Shelly and this is what she said... "We are having a situation with Elder Hunt." As you could have guessed a million things went through her mind at that point just like they would for any mother. I am sure all moms with missionaries can understand completely! Well luckily it wasn't as bad as what she was expecting to hear next. Benetton has always had a lot of problems with his feet and more specifically his heels. He has a condition called Severs Disease. If you would like to know specifics about it you can most definitely look it up, but basically there was a crack in his heel and he had to have it casted. Thanks to the Wonderful Dr. Adam Dustin he was able to manage it and get things back to pretty much normal. He still would experience a some pain after walking barefoot or with out his orthotics for long distances. Of course when it was time to start getting the mission papers in, it was a slight concern because as we know most missions involve a lot of walking. So we did the best we could to prepare, he had his foot checked while we were in California, where he got several new pairs of orthotics. As prepared as we thought we had been, walking 15 miles a day has still taken a toll on his heels. He has been experiencing a lot of pain and his Companion Elder Arietta finally contacted the President and his wife to let them know. This doesn't surprise me one bit because I know Benetton would walk till his feet fell off and just deal with the pain order to preform his duties as a missionary. That fact makes me very proud and angry at the same time! haha They are currently trying to figure out what would be best so that he can get back to his normal missionary life. No don't worry coming home is not on the option list! Which of course we are all grateful for! We have full faith and trust the The President and his wife will take very good care of him and make sure that everything turns out just fine! We are grateful for their willingness to take the time out of their busy day to day responsibilities to watch of each missionaries individual needs and to involve the parents when needed :) Please keep Elder Hunt in your prayers! We know everything will turn out great for him!

Crossing the Boarder to ITAIPU!

A visit to the temple

ITAIPU! The Largest Dam in the world!
The Happy Couple
No sure how I feel about green noodles :/
I guess this means he got his Halloween Package!
Dear Family,
This week has gone by really fast which is suprising because we didnt get a whole lot done, which means we were not very busy. My companion has two changes left so he has kind of hit the whole TRUNKY wall and is not in the mood to work really hard, he has a little burnout and i hope that this pday will rejuvenate him and get him excited for the work again. I am trying my best to work as hard as i can but its hard when you cant really say everything you need to or understand everything. I am still relying on him alot obviously because he can speak the language perfectly. But all in all it was still a great week. There was a wedding and a baptism. It wasnt our baptism öfficially¨ but it should be because we found him and taught him a bunch of lessons too. Oh well... So this part is for kels... i had a dream last week about us in paraguay. You were here with hailey and we were watching paraguayans play soccer and she said that she wanted to play so she ran out there and the first attempt to steal the ball she went down. She started screaming bloody murder and i realized she snapped her leg in half and we could see the bone. I am pretty sure i wrote this to you in a letter so i will let you read it and finish it more in detail when you get it! haha so anyways last week when we went shopping i found... SNICKERS AND TWIX here!! oh man i will tell you what that was eye candy literally!! I was so excited and had to buy a few of course!! i ate them nice and slow like i was on a commercial or something trying to make it look and taste as good as possible!! haha So about the baptism, we found him and his name is Ever. He has a girlfriend whose is a member and they live in our ward. So we taught him once and then gave the reference to Elder Hall and Guizada because its in their area. He was golden!!!! he read everyday in the BOM until he got baptized, he made it half way through mosiah. He ended up getting baptized but of course him and his girlfriend had to get married first because they were breaking the law of chastity. The wedding was in the church and turned out really nice. We decorated it a little but it was simple and everyone liked it. The food they had was nothing like a wedding reception we would have in the states! it was all like super fat meat and greasy things. Nothing sweet or sugary or delicious thats for sure!! Only the cake at the end and even that was dry. They just dont really know anything sweet or rich like we have in the USA. So we made our usual weekly stop at burgerking to get shakes and i realized that they charge people to play in their playplace!! haha and better yet you can have them cader a birthday party there!! like a super all out nice party for children!! its super expensive but thats the difference between mcdonalds and burgerking here!! they are like 5 star resturants.!! haha oh ya i took out 25 more dollars of my account. Just for safety. But i dont plan on using it at all and i dont plan on taking out anymore for a long time. I am going to be super frugal This month!! i have my budget set out and i am going to make sure that i stick too it! we just got done with shopping and i bought everything that i needed to buy and a little more for less than my alotted amount i gave myself! ha yay me!! i learned from the best! MOM!! so this week we had a MASSIVE storm come through. It was really random because we were studying and it was super sunny and hot and then BAM!! rain and wind and thunder hit like CRAZY!! i loved it of course... simply because we were still in the house! haha once we left it sucked because its just a muddy river everywhere but we still make it fun! haha it lasted for like two days and there were trees that got ripped outta the ground and broke in half and it was sweet!! days like that though i wanna just sit inside and watch it storm. We made more brownies this week, its like a main staple of american desert food here because its cheap and fast. We forget ot buy real butter though so we had to use margarine, ya i soon realized my they say use real butter!! haha they were still better than the cakes here though... i just used alot of milk and it was fine!! So i had another dream this week that i got home and we were driving to the lake and dad stopped at this car lot and bought a brand new huge decked out tundra and i was like what are we doing and you told me that we were rich now and he had been waiting for this custom tundra for months!! haha we left the camry there with everything inside and took the new truck and BOAT that dad bought out to sandhollow. I just remember mom having a FAT roll of hundreds in her hand!! haha it was funny! So it sounds like kelsey had a good time for her birthday. Thank you SOOO much mom for everything you did!! i really appreciate it and i know she did too!! So as far as halloween goes here.... well ya it just doesnt exist whatsoever!! people acknowledge that its a suppose to be halloween but they dont do anything and there is NO excitement or change in the daily routine whatsoever. So that was pretty lame. We wore or patches and pirate stuff. I will send those pictures next week. I am trying to space out all my pictures i take so you can get some every week. I only have one request. I would really really like and benefit from having my LINE OF AUTHORITY. If you could help me with that dad i would be so grateful!! Thanks. So yesterday was the biggest soccer game in paraguay. Cero vs Olimpia. They are rivals and it is just huge!! I guess people kill people after the games when their teams lose!! haha its crazy because everyone is totally wasted drunk thats why there is fights and crashes and death! So yesterday was pretty much worthless for the work because they were all drinking and watching the game. Which was at 4 in the afternoon so it wiped out the whole day!! Today we got up early and went to ITAIPU. Which is the worlds largest dam. It was really really cool and just massive!! Its in brazil so i crossed the boarder for like twenty minutes as we rode in the bus that does the tour of it all. It was realy cool and you will be getting pictures of it in this email!! haha you can look it up on the internet too because its huge. It took almost 30 years to build!! I guess before they made it thought the waterfalls that used to be there were considered one of the seven wonders of the world. So they ruined that. haha but this is the dam that powers ALL of paraguay and brazil! its crazy the amount of power it can generate. That was fun!! Well sorry not alot happened this week but i sure do love you all and miss you alot!! i think about everyone constantly and cant wait to talk to you soon!! Until Next week!! I love you
Elder Hunt
oh ya our zone conference i am not quite sure what day but it is before we end this change and that is the 17th of this month. And i will call the office and ahave them bring me all of my packages when the president comes. We stay here and meet in the stake center and the pres and his wife comes to us. Oh ya so i got a bunch of dear elders this week... One was from claudia. She asked what i wanted for christmas and to be honest i dont know so just have kelsey tell her to suprise me or just load it up with junk food or whatever they want!! Thanks i love you!!