Monday, April 25, 2016

Guten morgen!!
This week was great a little crazy but way good. We started off with
just a super chill p day the weather was bad so we just shopped and
everything and then emailed and played some German games. Germany is
super famous I guess for their games! There are some really fun ones!!

Then on Tuesday we had Zone Training which was really good. We talked
a lot about working with and through the members which was really good
and me and Elder Jensen had a pretty big part of it explaining what we
have been doing in our ward and how amazing it has been. Our ward is
incredible with missionary work. We have started asking members when
we are invited for dinner if we can bring an investigator or a less
active member and teach them after. Lately the members have been
asking US if we can bring a less active or investigator to their house
and even a few taking it completely on themselves and just asking for
their number and inviting them without us. It has been really cool to
watch. But them after training we were able to have a zone party for
another 5 hours because as a mission we reached our baptism goal and
Salzburg had the biggest amount so we got to have a party and we
played füßball and frisbee and the field was super wet and muddy and
we all got wrecked... Then we barbecued some Bratwursts and made Kool
aid that elder Jensen had received in the international ward and all
talked and had a good time. Then we came back to Neumarkt had a member
appointment then had sport abend in our ward... We played sport a lot
on Tuesday... But we always teach at the end of sport abend!! :)

Then on Wednesday we did our studies then went straight to Salzburg to
start our exchange with the Zone leaders. I was with Elder Erickson
our new zone leader and we stayed in Neumarkt. It was fun to get to
know him and work with him. We did some street contacting and dooring
in Mondsee and found a girl that at first seemed really genuinely
interested but as the conversation went on realized she just wanted
money and once we said as missionaries we are not allowed to give
money and right after we said that she changed from this sweet girl to
such a brat.. But, I still feel bad. It's always hard knowing that
somebody is in a hard situation and not be able to help. That was my
first real experience thus far with any refugees really. We teach a
few but they are all pretty established and not struggling to bad.
Then we went to a members house with Harry (new member) and Andreas
(investigator) who are best friends and Harry introduced us to
Andreas.  We ate dinner then talked about the Word of wisdom. Andreas
already followed it without even knowing it. Haha he is awesome. Then
we played some tischtennis.

On Thursday we were supposed to meet with a hopefully new investigator
but sadly she forgot about the appointment so we just left a note and
she called us later and said she was so sorry and made out a new
appointment which is good!! Then we had our aus wertungs Gespräch. I
don't know what they are called in English but it's when we basically
just conduct a comp inventory of the exchange and talk about what the
other is good at and maybe something he can work on and talk about the
goals we set for the tausch. It was really good and it is always nice
to get some feedback and know what you can work on. Then me and elder
Jensen had the rest of the day and we just met with a few people then
ate dinner at Sonjas house.

On Friday we just did a lot of finding and taught Patrick which went
really good. It was a really powerful lesson and he really understood
and I think felt the spirit. I know I did! Then we did a service
project for Frau Lissi and I stood on a sketchy ladder and cut a bunch
of big branches out of a tree and then we moved and aired out two HUGE
piles of compost. It was some good work! Haha then she cooked us her
little treats she always makes us which is pretty much a jelly
sandwich with her homemade marmalade dipped in eggs and rum (alcohol
free because she knows we can't have alcohol), then deep fried. They
are really good!! She always makes us like 3 big plate fulls haha.
Then she also gives us her homemade "strong juice" haha it is just her
mix of a bunch of berries and different things from her garden and it
tastes pretty gnarly but you feel healthy that's for sure. Haha

Saturday we were at home the whole day because Elder Jensen was sick
(the service was to much for him) haha no he just had a bad cold but
bishop was way nice and brought us schnitzel and Almdudler for lunch
and I got some great studies in. I love reading in the institute
Manuels. It just lays things out and puts things together really
simply and powerfully. They are good!!

Sunday was way cool we had church which is always good, then we had a
lunch appointment and had schnitzel again haha. Then we went to
Salzburg for the baptism of Marco who is the boyfriend of a girl in
our ward who was less active but is now coming back and started
meeting with the missionaries less than a month ago. I had the
opportunity to teach him twice as well which was way cool to see
somebody I got to work with a bit be baptized. He is way cool and
hopefully he really stays on this path! Then we were supposed to have
a lesson with Fabian who is the brother from Kevin D in our ward.
But sadly he forgot and so we ended up just teaching/discussing the
plan of salvation with Kevin and also Toby. Toby is an 18 year old in
our ward that we invited to be a joint teach. He is really awesome.
That I something else we want to start doing is inviting the youth
that are close to mission age to come as joint teaches and get excited
about the work. But it was really good and Toby is excited to come
with us again to a real lesson!!
Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

Thursday, April 21, 2016

This week has just been crazy. Monday through Wednesday we had
appointments accounting for the whole day. I think we ate more food
than I have my whole time here. Haha everybody just wanted to get one
last time with Elder Harvey in and I wasn't complaining.. Haha we
enjoyed our last few days together and I am gunna miss good old
Harvey. On Wednesday morning we woke up and pretty much just finished
helping him pack his stuff then we headed to Bahnhof and waited for
the train to Salzburg. It was really weird and kinda sad knowing it
was the end! But we got to Salzburg and Harevey got on the train to
München and I had to wait at Bahnhof for about 6 hours waiting for my
new comp to get there. We did some finding and got lunch in Salzburg
with everybody else that was waiting for their new comps as well.
Finally the train came and I got my new companion! Elder Jensen. He is
from Wisconsin, loves the Packers, nicknamed the bear. He wants to run
every morning and so far we have. It's been good. The first few days I
was a little worried cause he was pretty quite and I didn't know how
that would be but he is opening up now and I think we will honestly
have a really good time. I think we will be able to get some really
good work done. The only problem is he loves area book work and I hate
area book work.. But it will be good for me to learn to like it. Haha
I would just much rather be out actually with the people talking to
them and creating relationships. It's hard to create relationships
over the phone. But hopefully we can get a good mix going.

It has been interesting taking over the area and helping Jensen
understand all the situations of our investigators and introducing him
to everyone. He will do great here. We decided we want to really
emphasize working with members and also trying to help the less
actives in the ward. Hopefully it works well. We will see. This week
has pretty much just been setting up appointments with our
investigators and introducing them to Jensen.

We also found out me and Elder Jensen have the same birthday. Haha we
have been doing a lot of calling and a lot of dooring. I push for the
dooring and he pushes for area book work and it equals out pretty
okay!

We were dooring yesterday and we came across this one lady and she was
like sorry I am eating now and I am a very devoted Catholic and went
to go back inside the. Turned back around and said hey are you guys
Mormons? And we were like yeah we are! We are missionaries from the
lds church! And she was like oh I thought you were JWs I was in Salt
Lake City and I loved the Mormons. They celebrated Easter so
amazingly! They were all such good people there! " if I wasn't a
Catholic I would defiantly be a Mormon. Have a good night!" Me and
elder Jensen were like wait you can change your religion.... Haha it
was funny but sadly she was set on not talking. Maybe we will try
going back another time.

There was another guy named Franz that we met dooring in a tiny
farming dorf and he answered the door and was really nice except you
could tell he was a little distraught we told him who we were and what
we were doing and he was like yeah no I am okay I am happy with my
religion blah blah blah but then we started talking about just the
role of religion in life and he got into it and he was like yeah
everybody needs religion, then he kinda got a little quieter and told
us he thinks his neighbor has an evil spirit. His neighbor randomly
came over one day and pointed at his new bush he planted and said it
will wither and die and that night it happened and he was really
freaked out. We talked a little about it and offered to say a prayer
with him at first he was hesitant but then he was just like okay. So
we did and it was really powerful. We said amen he said amen then he
just said thank you kinda Geary eyed and we asked if we could come
back at another time and he said no but we gave him our card and said
if he ever needed anything to call. He was very thankful. It just goes
to show not everybody will accept the gospel or our message right away
but it can still bless them before they even accept it. Maybe he will
realize it and give us a call.

My new favorite section in preach my gospel is the " Christlike
Attributes " section. You go through it and you realize how much stuff
there is that we "I" can work on. That is one of my goals I decided
for this transfer (and for life) to really focus on working on and
practicing those loving and out reaching traits. If we are always able
to turn outward to others rather than inwards to ourselves we will be
much happier.

Neumarkt is awesome. I love this area. I have it so good here. Such a
good ward, beautiful area, good companion, what else could I ask for??
Well I guess I will ask we can find a few more people. But that will
come with hard work! :) okay I hope everybody has an amazing week!! I
know I will! Love you all! Good luck to everybody finishing up and
taking finals in school!

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter


Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Hey everybody!!
This week was not super productive but we tried our best. But first
I'll just say what our week was. The week Neumarkt changed to a bike
area. Okay now the background. A while ago before I was here they had
a small car accident that we still needed to fix but hadn't got around
to yet. We finally took it in and they said it would be three days. So
we called the sisters if we could borrow their bikes for the week. At
first we were stoked. We had a lesson in Eugendorf that night and
started riding there. About 1/3 of the way there my tube EXPLODED. It
literally sounded like a bomb. Haha we had no tools or an extra tube
so we had to call a member to take us there. We were about 15 minutes
late. We had a really good lesson with a members non member little
brother and his girlfriend. At the end of the lesson they asked how we
were getting home and offered to take us to Bahnhof and checked when
the next bahn was it was in 5 minutes so he hurried and jumped up and
sped us to Bahnhof on the way out the door I asked how far it was and
he laughed and said about 4 minutes away. Haha. Sad,y we missed it and
the next bahn didn't come till 9:30 so we did our daily planning there
at Bahnhof and waited for the bahn. Then on the bahn there was a
member that offered to take us back to our bikes, we figured that
would save us a lot of time the next day so we did and we rode on the
same bike with me pedaling and Harvey sitting on the seat with the
other bike on his shoulders. People laughed really hard. It was pretty
great. We didn't get home till 10:30 and went straight to bed. The
next day we spent about 3 hours trying to find a bike shop and finally
found one and walked in right at 12 and they closed at twelve. They
were nice though and helped us out. Finally fixed the bike then went
on about our day but the chains fell off every five seconds. Elder
Harvey got sooo frustrated with it. We rode about half of Thursday and
then he lost it and we rode back and he just went and laid down for a
bit. I said a prayer that we would be able to get some work done and
that elder Harvey would be happy and get over it. About 5 minutes
later the people called us saying our car was done. That was really a
blessing. We were then able to be much more effective and went and
visited Horst in Irrsee. We also got 100 percent on our cleaning
inspection again and they said out apartment is the cleanest apartment
in the mission. They took pictures and are sending them to the mission
office. Haha!

We also got transfer calls on Saturday. I will be staying in Neumarkt
and my new companion is coming from the Office. His name is Elder
Jensen. He is from Wisconsin and was trained by the same missionary as
elder Harvey. He also only has two transfers left which means I will
either stay here for only one more transfer or else I'll be here for
three more. We will see! Either way will be great!

With Elder Harevey leaving this week we have had so many member
appointments these next two days we literally have an eating
appointment every meal of the day. On Sunday we fasted then we had
Potluck after church which is when the whole ward eats together, after
that we visited Cassandra and she insisted on giving us schnitzel,
then the Kellnersteinmetz invited us over for Helens birthday to have
cake and ice cream, then we went straight from there to the Lerchners
for dinner. Wayyyy to much food. Haha
Today we had district p day and just went to St Wolfgang and hung out
and got lunch and played at this park with Giant swings! It was pretty
fun!!
I am sad to see elder Harvey go but am also excited to work with Elder
Jensen. I know I can learn a lot from him! I am looking forward to
this week!! I hope you all had a great week and that we have now been
trying to APPLY what we have learned last week in Conference!! I love
you all. Tschüss!!!
Oh also a joke. What do you call a blind German?   A Nazi. Haha okay I
thought it was funny. Have a great week!!
Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

                                                 Wolfgang See

                                                            Stupid Bikes

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Hello!
This week was great!! I really learned a lot and we had a lot of good
successes as well! On Tuesday we had district meeting which was
awesome and then we did a district finding day again which is always
way awesome and you always learn so much. Then after that we started
our exchange and this time I was with Elder Samuelson in Salzburg. It
is such a different experience being in a city without a car. It was
really awesome. We were the classic missionaries sprinting across the
city to get to Bahnhof in our white shirts and ties because we were
about to miss the train. We thought a couple really good lessons one
in German and one in English. It was interesting teaching a lesson in
English and seeing how well I actually know the lessons and doctrines
and not having the language barrier limiting what I can say and
expound on. So that was cool. Then as we walked from placebo place we talked
to every person we passed which was a cool experience that we don't
get very much of in my area because we just drive from dorf to dorf.
But then in the morning me and Elder Samuelson went for a nice run
along the river in Salzburg which was awesome except I forgot my socks
and so then I got two awesome blisters on my arches haha. It was a
really good exchange and it was awesome again to get to learn from a
more experienced and really awesome missionary.

And then on Wednesday I would say we had one of the best days we have
had in Neumarkt. We started the day with an awesome lesson with a new
investigator named Mileva. Gerald Roth came with us (old mission
president) we went completely differently than we planned and went
from talking about the purpose of life to the word of wisdom and
baptism. Haha. It went really well though. She committed to half the
amount of cigarettes she smokes a day. We told her whenever she feels
like she needs help to call us and she has a few times so I think she
is really trying, and she also came to conference. Then we had a lesson
with another new investigator named Llama and had a really good lesson
talking about God and who he is and how we can communicate with
him through prayer. He is Buddhist but believes there is more and he
has two sisters that have become Christian. Then we taught Horst which
is always simple but good then we went to read with sister Huber and
we offered to help her outside because it was really a beautiful day.
She was so excited and said yes! We took her outside to read and then
pushed her around Neumarkt in her wheelchair for about half an hour
and later she told us she hasn't been outside in 4 months. She was so
thankful and it was really touching.

Then we had a lot of service on Friday. We helped Fabrizio move in the
morning to Salzburg in the stadt. Then we helped Frau Lissi with a bunch
of trees and stuff in her yard, she is crazy haha she will just like
point at the tree and say cut that but then not say which branches she
wants us to cut but then she is super picky about which branch you cut
and where on the branch you cut. But it was good and she appreciated
it. Then we helped another family move with the ward. There were about
fifteen guys there from the ward. It was really impressive. The family
is not a member family so they are not a potential family and they said
we could come back anytime. So we will see.

Then Saturday we went out to Mattsee to go by a potential we got but
we knocked on the door and the husband answered and saw us laughed and
closed the door before we even could say anything. Haha maybe we'll
try going back again later and hope the wife answers the door again.
But then we just continued dooring with no luck. Which is okay, we
tried! Then after doing that for about 2 hours we decided we deserved
an ice cream. Then we headed back to Neumarkt and then went and taught
Cassandra. She was making good progress for a while but now she is
very stagnant and almost even going backwards. She says she doesn't
feel like she is good enough because she never remembers all the
things she is supposed to do until she is worried and needs comfort or
something then she remembers to pray and read. Her life is just crazy
right now she is 18 has a kid, works the night shift at a bar, trying
to help her parents find jobs, it's pretty crazy. But we'll keep
praying for her and trying to help her. Then we had the first session
of Conference. It was really good from what I could tell.. We had a
couple investigators there that we needed to stay with and so we had
to stay in the German translation, I understood bits and pieces but
didn't get as much as I wish I did. I'll just have to read them this
week!!

On Sunday we got to listen to priesthood session, Saturday afternoon
and Sunday morning sessions. Conference as a missionary is crazy. Haha
you are trying to help investigators but also just trying to listen.
I'll reread a lot of talks. But one talk that really stuck out to me
was Dale G Renlund. I really liked how he talked about the farther away
from Christ we are the more we feel like we deserve to be saved and
deserve to have a testimony, but as you come closer to Christ you
start to realize that all of those things are giant blessings that
honestly most the time I don't even feel like I deserve. On my mission
I can really say I have felt this. Before my mission I had the
attitude of I deserve a testimony why is it not as strong as I want it
to be and honestly getting frustrated that my testimony was not as
strong as I would want it to be. But on my mission I have realized as
we just try to come closer to him it comes so much stronger and you
start to realize where it actually comes from. So I liked that talk a
lot.

Then today we went and hiked a mountain called Drachenwand. It was way
cool and had a super cool view at the top!! It was a way fun p day.
Last of two with Elder Harvey... Who will be next..?


Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter



    This week was awesome. We finally got to get back going again because
finally neither of us are sick. We had an amazing p day last week
which I already talked about last week so I'll not talk much about
that, then Tuesday we had Distrikt meeting and I got to talk a little
bit about promising people blessings and it went really well. It is so
cool to realize that we really can promise people blessings. And there
are so many blessings we can promise. But then we did some finding and
then went to Marcus Malzls house with Andreas and Harry and ate dinner
and then taught them about the preisthood. We are working really hard
with Harry to prepare him for the preisthood. Then we played
tischtennis for a bit.
     Then on Wednesday we taught a new investigator
named Mileva for the first time. She is super nice and comes from
Bosnia. She is going to be hard because she is so happy with where she
is, so we are just trying to help her understand how much better she
can be. And then we taught Marek (well attempted) I really try to love
Marek. But sometimes wow he bothers me. So the ward has been
absolutely amazing in literally saving his life, they took him from
living in a tent with nothing to being in a decent appartment with
everything you could possibly need but he has seriously zero
gratefulness. There is one man in particular that was a HUGE part of
the effort to help him and he spent tons of money on him in groceries
buying a storage unit for him to put his stuff in, paying for his
appartment, he did so much. But now Marek all of a sudden is convinced
that this guy stole some stuff from him. But he doesn't even know what
he thinks he stole. He went to the police and filed a report against
him. I just don't understand him. But I am still trying to find love
for him. He is so nice to us. Which I guess is good.
   But then we had Sport Abend and had a pretty large group of youth there which was awesome. Nothing huge happened the next few days just normal lessons and finding and whatnot.
    Then came Sunday and Easter. It was such a
cool day. Catholic Church bells ringing all around, beautiful blue sky
and warm day, everybody was happy, and just a good spirit in the air.
It was a really good day at Church and there were some really good
talks, then we went to three different members houses and got to teach
lessons there and eat at two of them and do an Easter egg hunt at the
other and they made us both an Easter basket with candy and a tie, and
Dr Pepper and it was so nice. Then we had a big steak for dinner which
was amazing. I miss steak. And my favorite drink called Almdudler.
It's way good. Drink it if you ever get the chance. But they only sell
it in Austria. I also met a guy that served here quite a while ago and
came to find out he was Patrick Leishmans companion here in Neumarkt.
Such a small world. His name was Jake Fields.
     Then today we went hiking again to a mountain called schafberg but
sadly didn't make it to the top because the snow was too deep. But it
was still way fun and pretty. We also took a nonmember with us and
just talked with him and made a good friendship. Hopefully we have
helped him a little bit. He lives in north Germany and is only
visiting but maybe we planted a good seed. We'll see. Great p day
though!!
This week was really good and I am hoping we can make next week even
better. I hope you all had an awesome Easter.

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter





                                                     Easter basket from an amazing family