Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Hello family! I hope you have had a great week this last week! This
week for me has been full of ups and downs. Monday and Tuesday Elder
Mikulenka was sick and so we pretty much just sat at home and slept
and studied and caught up some records and stuff. Then on Wednesday we
got to help with a primary activity in the woods! That was way fun. We
were in charge of a station and we set up a bag of candy and chocolate
way up high in the trees (like when you go camping) and had the
"prophet" another kid tell them how they could get it. Haha it was
pretty fun. Then we got to grill some wursts and corn over the
campfire and then had to run as fast as we could to Alejandro and
Cecilias house and had dinner (I was freaking stuffed) then taught a
lesson with Cecilia. That was a full and fun day.

Then on Thursday we headed to bern to go to the TEMPLE!! That was
seriously way cool! I love going to the temple. And it was really cool
to do it all in German too, except since there were a bunch of people
from Chech republic they got mixed up and did the first part of the
session in czheckish I was sooo lost. (Luckily after that all normal
German). It was kinda funny though because elder mikulenkas whole home
ward including his family was there. So I met his dad and sister, I
think it might have been kinda hard for him though. I know it would
have been hard for me to see all of you and then have to leave again.
But we did our session and then we ate some lunch with the elders in
Zollikofen and Elder Mikulenka told them all the people they should go
by on. (He served there for 6 months.) and then we headed home and we
taught this super hippy guy on the train. That was pretty fun. He was
headed to a "burning tree festival" hmmmm... Haha then we just went
finding after that.

Friday we ate at a members house for lunch and it is this old couple
and they are so cool! Haha they have literally done everything! They
were telling me all the different ski tours they have done and which
mountains are the best here and all kinds of crazy stories. They had
just gotten back from a bike ride when we got there. They are like 65
or so. Way cool people. Then we talked with him for a while and
started talking about some pretty deep doctrine and I got lost. Haha
then we went finding for a bit and then had an eating appointment with
a family we met in the street. We asked them if we could meet and
teach them a lesson and they were just like yeah come on over next
week and we can have dinner together! Haha so we went and they were so
awesome. They were like 28 or 30 and have 3 kids and we got there and
they had made this huge fancy dinner and everything. We ate and talked
and had a good time. We taught the lesson of plan of salvation at the
end and they thought it was interesting but said they don't have
really any interest. It's hard because her parents founded a church
that they are SUPER active in. But seriously perfect family. They were
awesome either way. Maybe one day.

Saturday we had two appointments fall out and so we just found most
the day. Pretty long boring day but we made it good! Saturday's I
think are by far the hardest day on the mission haha.

Sunday was good we had church and it was "besuchersonntag" which is
just that we had a special musical number and food after church and
was just a day to give members the opportunity to invite a friend.
Church was really good, then we all ate together and we got to try to
talk to all the friends that came and hopefully we will meet with them
in the coming weeks. Then after that we helped clean up and then had
to back up and erase everything off of Elder Mikulenkas iPad because
president was bringing him a new one so we did that and then president
came and we got to just sit and talk for about 30 minutes which was
actually pretty cool. I like president a lot more when you get the
opportunity to just see the real side of him. Then we spent the rest
of the evening trying to get everything back onto elder mikulenkas
iPad and updating records. Me and elder Mikulenka had a really good
talk that hopefully will help us work even a little better together.
He is honestly really really hard on him self and he even was saying
he almost think it would be better if he didn't come on a mission
because his dad wouldn't having to be putting so much money into it.
He really is a very dedicated and hard working missionary but is
always so down on himself because he "could have done better" but
yeah. Hopefully we can work on it! He's a great guy.

Today we had district P Day and it was AWESOME!! Haha we had so much
fun. We hiked a mountain called Säntis. There is a cable car that goes
to the top but it is so much more satisfying to hike it!! :) we had to
cross like five very steep snow fields and lots of fun stuff. We also
found a snow chute and we went sledding on it and it was so much fun!
We had a really great time!! I really like my district right now! Then
we had a dinner appointment with Alejandro and Cecilia at the Fuhrers
house! It was really good and a really fun environment which is
important with Cecilia. We shared a spiritual thought on prayer. Also
on a side note Phillip Fuhrer invited me next Monday to do splits and
for Elder Mikulenka to go with Tim, his son. Then me and him are going
to go on a 100km bike ride together!! I am so beyond stoked! I miss
the bike. Great p day!! :)

This week was a little slow and we didn't get as much done as I wish
we could of but we are both healthy now and ready to work hard this
week. I love you all so much and I just want to say thank you to
everybody that has helped me in so so many ways! You are all the best!
I am so grateful to for this gospel and that we really can know that
when we lose a loved one that it goes farther. We will see them again
and we can always be together as a family. I am so grateful for all
the wonderful examples  and role models I have in my life.

Liebe Grüße,

Elder Hunter





Monday, June 20, 2016

Hello everybody! This week has been a crazy week! But what week on a
mission isn't crazy.
Tuesday we had zone Conference which is really cool in Switzerland
because everybody in Switzerland comes together. That is pretty fun.
We talked a lot about motivation and how it is so easy to lose
motivation but that we need to keep working even in the days we don't
want to do stuff. We also talked a lot about the 12 tribes of Israel.
Pretty interesting stuff. We also found our we will be the first
mission in Europe that gets to test the Area Book app on our iPads.
That is going to be way nice but a TON of work. We literally have to
take every single record in the book back to 5 years ago and type it.
But hopefully it will be better! It is defiantly interesting though
being in Switzerland, because a lot of the European missionaries are
actually pretty bitter against the American missionaries now because
there is a chance of them being kicked out of Switzerland. It is kind
of sad how much it divides our mission. But there are a lot of people
that are really nice too. Hopefully after some time it will be a
little more united as a mission when the Americans are not so new. But
after Zone conference we came home and met the APs and had exchanges
with them the rest of the night and just went finding. I was with
Elder Tholan who is also from Utah. (Just like most missionaries). He
was way cool though. We had a good time.

Wednesday after studies we headed out to Sankt Galen for exchanges
with the Zone Leaders. I stayed in Sankt Galen with Elder Mateer. We
had three lessons that day. We first taught a married couple and it
went really really well. The husband was worried about that to him the
prophets in the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith and everything are
just people and it will be hard to really gain a testimony of it and
we were able to explain that if he really just has a strong foundation
on Christ (he does) then if he prayed about it he would know they
really are prophets of God. They really asked a lot of questions and
you could tell they really had the desire to know it and learn more.
We invited them to be baptized on the 30th of July and they said yes
if they were in town but if they are already gone then yes after the
vacation and they have received an answer. It was a cool lesson. Then
after that we went to another guys house and he at first didn't want
to meet with us but then I saw that he was watching a bike race and
started talking to him about that and which race it was and we got
talking and then he started telling me about this book he was reading
about the Mormons history (totally false) and I told him that there
was some confusion in what was written and we would love to answer any
questions he had and he invited us in. We talked to him for about an
hour and explained all the misunderstanding and he invited us to come
back another time. It was pretty good though. Then we got to go to
institute which was really good. We split into two groups and the one
taught the restoration and the other group taught the plan of
salvation. Met some cool people there!

Thursday we changed back and then we went and did a service project
and pulled a bunch of weeds and also got to get in a swimming pool to
retrieve a chair. Haha. After that we just went finding and didn't
have a ton of luck. There was one guy that answered the door and asked
if we were JWs we said no and then he was like good because if you
were I would have counted to ten and you would have been on the street
with or without my help. Haha he was an interesting guy.

Friday was a good day. We only had one lesson planned but then the
First Lady I talked to on the street agreed to sit down with us at a
cafe and hear the first lesson. It was really good she understood it
all and said she believed it could happen. She wasn't from our area so
we passed her on as a referral but still really cool. She was in a
hurry at the end though so I just bought her coffee for her so she
could go. Then we dropped by Rafael just to say hi and ended up having
an hour long discussion about the plan of salvation and reading from
the Book of Mormon and the bible and comparing doctrines. Then we had
a lesson with Mark. He was a way cool guy but honestly had no interest
but to meet and talk. Good guy though. Then the rest of the day we
just went finding.

Saturday we had a pretty slow day but we started it off by going to a
members house to talk about what we need to do for the primary
activity we are helping with on Wednesday. They had three dogs that
were seriously wolves. They reminded me of Carley(right?) the dog we
used to have when I was a tiny little guy. They were sweet! Then we
went dooring for a while and actually found a pretty cool family that
said they were not that interested but that we were welcome to come
back and share our message. So we will see. Then we got back to
frauenfeld and found an Bahnhof for a bit and found another family
that we talked to and the mother of the wife is actually the leader of
a different church but we asked if we could share this message with
them and the were like yeah for sure. Would you like to come to dinner
and share it with us next Friday? Haha they were way cool. I am
excited to meet with them again.

Sunday we went to Tina's house for breakfast. It was really good. Then
we all went to church together and at church I had the opportunity to
pass the sacrament with all the deacons. And also got to introduce
myself and bear a quick testimony. Then in the YSA class we talked
about a subject I really liked. We talked about the difference between
weaknesses and sin. Sin is from Satan, weakness is from God. God gave
us weaknesses for us to learn from and make progress. If none of us
had weaknesses there would have been no point in coming to earth. I
really liked the topic. Then after church we went to Pascal and
Celinas house and had a really good. We ate spring rolls and played a
WAY fun good called "Ohne Furcht und Adel" we played a round with them
and I liked it a lot. There are a lot of fun games in this part of the
world! Haha afterwards we had to take a language assessment and watch
a bunch of videos for the new area book app and then we went to
Alejandro and Cisilias house. Alejandro is a member and she is not.
Alejandro told us she doesn't want to hear "The lessons" but that we
can always give a spiritual thought. Which is good! They are both from
Argentina, Alejandro speaks perfect German and she speaks no German at
all. Haha everybody there spoke either Italian or Spanish which they
can understand each other and so they could all talk back and forth
and Alejandro translated for me. Haha but it was great. We had
Argentinian food which was just all meat. He told us salad is
unhealthy. Haha we had something called Empanadas. He said they are
super typical Argentinian food. They were pretty good! He is way
funny. Then we shared my favorite Mormon message which is called
"Vater im Himmel, Vater auf Erde" (father in heaven, father on earth)
in honor of Father's Day. I love this video because it really makes
you realize God is not just some distant powerful person rather he
knows every single one of us and loves and cares for us. Just like our
fathers here on Earth. If you get the chance you should all watch the
video if you haven't seen it yet. (I like the German one better)
hahaha the voice is cooler. But all languages the message is the same.

Today we are helping a guy with a little service project and Elder
Mikulenka is sick so we are just going to hang out all day and hope he
is better tomorrow so that we can work! The Elders from Kreuzlingin
are going to come down too and play some games together! Should be
good! I hope you all have a wonderful week this week and I love you
all!! Bye!!

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter




Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Hello!
Man this week has just been crazy, saying goodbye to everybody,
packing, coming here trying to meet my new ward, understand this
dialect, everything! But it's been awesome!! My new companion is
awesome. He is from the Chech republic and is I think two transfers
older than me on the mission but speaks really good German. He also
speaks really good English but I help him a lot with his English and
he helps me with my German, Italian, and chechish. Haha okay just
German and Italian. We get along really well. It's kinda hard though
because now all the European missionaries see the Americans as kind of
a threat of being kicked out of Switzerland and so most the euro
missionaries don't like American missionaries. But you just have to
deal with it. Hopefully it will help bring the Americans and Europeans
together more as a mission rather than the Switzerland mission and the
Germany and Austria mission. I guess we will see.
Monday we pretty much spent the day just saying goodbye to members and
I also went and bought a couple things because it would be cheaper in
austria. Then Tuesday we had district meeting and Elder Samuelson and
I both got to give our testimonies which is always fun. Then we had a
district finding day in the pouring rain! But we were actually able to
talk to some really cool people! It was good! Then the rest of the day
was saying bye to people again and also doing sport abend! It was
actually so sad/funny we were in the parking lot of the church walking
towards the church and all of the sudden Andreas just falls face first
into this big hedge and can't get up but is just laughing so hard. I
helped him out and he was fine just laughing but the hedge was
wrecked. Funny last experience with him! But then I was up till about
12:30 packing and just getting ready to go.
Wednesday we went to breakfast with Bishop Roth and had a really good
time. He is a way good guy. Then it was off to Bahnhof we were there
for a while and Elder Kopishche showed me an email in Schweitze
Deutsch and I understood/recognized about two words.. I said goodbye
to Elder Jensen and everybody else and hopped on the train with
everybody else going to Switzerland. Me and Elder Cornetta rode
together. It was fun to catch up with him. He was transferred to biel
which is literally 1 hour away from his house by train. That would be
hard. But he'll do great. The train ride was sooo pretty. I went
though four different countries in about 6 hours. Austria, Germany,
Lichtenstein and Switzerland. It was really cool!! Then about twenty
minutes from Zurich I realized everybody else had already received
there tickets saying they will leave Switzerland in 90 days and I
didn't and we had to have it so I called the office and found out they
had bought and sent the ticket to the other Elder Hunter! Haha so he
was able to fix it and get it to me which was good!! We got to Zurich
and I found my companion and he pretty much grabbed my bag and started
running! We barely caught our train back and we got to frauenfeld and
got picked up by a member named Audrey and her brother Nathaniel. We
went home changed REALLY fast and went to play fussball with the youth
from our ward. It was so much fun and a good way to get to know some
of the ward. They were all really nice and spoke normal German with
me.

Thursday we did a lot of finding both dooring and on the street. We
actually were able to teach two people lessons right there as we met
them. Neither of them had further interest but still good! I really
like street finding a lot more than dooring. People actually talk to
you. Haha we met one lady and when I told her I was from Utah she was
soo stoked. She said she watched the Paralympics when they were in
Utah and I said I had a friend that races in the Paralympics and she
just started firing off questions. Pretty funny. She was really nice
and we will hopefully meet with her again. I really already love the
people here in frauenfeld. The mentality is just different and people
are willing to actually acknowledge that you are there. We have met
some cool people. I don't think it should be to hard to really love
the people here. We also ate dinner at our Gml Andres house and we
were able to really connect because he LOVES climbing. We talked
climbing for a bit and it was really fun!

Friday we ate at the klaumunzners and they are a really funny family.
They have six kids, and the mom is from the states so they all just
speak English at home. We had spheghetti and the whole time bruder
klaumunzner just was making fun of us. He's a funny guy. Then we
helped clean their house for a bit, it is a little messy. But they are
awesome. We just did the dishes and it took about 1 and a half hours.
Haha then we went by on brother Reisner (less active) and talked to
him and just bared testimony of the church and it was really good.
Then we did some more finding and then went to the Hartmans house. The
wife is actually from Hungary and she said that she thinks she might
know grandma and grandpa Bradshaw! Haha but we had a great time there
and for our spiritual thought we tried to make a family mission plan
and honestly it didn't go that well. That is something I really want
to work on here I think is member missionary work. Everybody likes us
and invites us for dinner and stuff but the excitement of missionary
work is very low. I talked about it with our Gml as well and he said
the same. So we will see what we can do.

Saturday we cleaned the church as a ward and it was a fun way to get
to meet a good group if the members. We cleaned for about 6 hours.
Then we went finding for about an hour and then came home for weekly
planning. And watched the testaments. My favorite lds movie. :) haha

Sunday we had a conference for Western Europe where a few general
authorities spoke. It was really good. There is a ton of focus on the
refugees and how big of a blessing it is that they are here where they
finally have the ability to hear about the gospel. It was a really
good conference. I met a lot more members and it was funny I was
talking to one member and I told him I was from alpine Utah and he was
like oh hey one of my old companions is from there and I kinda was
just like well I probably don't know him but who was it. And he was
like his last name is Shubin and I just started cracking up and I just
was like I have been dating his for a while! And he lost it. He was
like man I trained elder Shubin that means you're family! And we
talked about it for a while and he invited us over for dinner and we
had a great time. He actually had Jackson call him and then put me on
the phone and I don't think Jackson noticed me for a second. But then
he did! Haha it was good to talk to him for a second! Then we went
finding the rest of the evening and then headed to the zone leaders
house for a sleepover!!!

Then today we rode the train to Thusis and went and saw the viamala
schlucht and rode scooters to the top of a canyon pass to a church and
then rode our scooters back down! It was a pretty fun p day and the
weather was beautiful. Way cool!!


Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter




Jackson Shubin's trainer!!