Hello!
This week was really good! We had a lot of special stuff this week
which made it interesting. We had Mission tour and also stake
conference this week so we spent pretty much all of Friday through
Sunday in Salzburg. But it was way fun! I learned a lot this week
which was awesome. We have not had a ton of progress with our
investigators and we have been trying really hard to find some new
investigators but finding here is pretty dang hard. But we keep
trying. This week we spent a total of 11 hours finding. Haha which in
a bigger stadt would not be that bad. But in a bunch of small dorfs
it's a ton. Haha on Tuesday we doored for 6 hours straight. We almost
doored a whole dorf. Hahaha in that 6 hours we found one PU. Haha but
we are keeping our heads up and working hard to find new people.
We also went through our whole area book and called a whole bunch of
people and cleaned out the ones that the numbers didn't work and had
no addresses or anything. We found a few people there that we may
start teaching. Hopefully those work out.
On Friday we had Mission Tour in Salzburg and our zone and the Wien
zone came together which was way fun. It was great to see Elder
Cornetta again and catch up with him, then I also saw Matt Lyman! He
is the zone leader now in Wien and it was way fun to talk to him and
catch up and talk bikes a bit together. He is awesome. It was cool in
mission tour we actually talked a lot about the Articles Of Faith and
it's cool there is a very cool organization to them that I had never
recognized. It's 4x3+1.
1-3 talk about the plan
4-6 talk about structure of church
7-9 talk about resources
10-12 talk about activities in church
13 is
It was pretty cool to see that. Then we also talked a lot about
following the rules and how exact obedience brings blessings. It was a
pretty good meeting!
Then on Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference which was way
awesome. There were some really good talks and it is so cool because
the focus all around the church right now is on Member missionary
work. It just goes to show how important and truly vital it is to
missionary work. One thing I really liked that was said in conference
was that nothing we do in this work is ours. My two years of serving
no matter how many lessons I teach, people I baptize, people's lives
we bless, etc.  it is not for my own glory. It should all be done in
the glory of God and for him. This is his work. I thought that was
really cool. And at conference I saw and talked to Jakob Schenk for a
bit. He said to tell the Leishmans hello! He is way cool and he
actually was one of the first fellowshipers for our investigator
Horst. It was fun talking to him for a bit.
It was another good week and I continue to learn so much from
everybody around me every day. We had a companionship stay at our
apartment for conference and one was a brand new missionary this
transfer and I was thinking finally I'll know more than somebody in
the mission, but as I talked to him I swear I learned more from him
than a lot of other people. Haha but it's good. It was humbling. :) I
love my mission! I hope everyone else has a great week also.

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

                                                     So fun to see Jacob Schenk again!

                                                           .... and Elder Matt Lyman

The gazebo from the sound of music

Funny video clip

     Wow this week was crazy but so good. It is already my second transfer
here in the field which seems absolutely crazy to me. But I am so
stoked about it all right now. Seriously the mission is so hard and
very hard work a lot of times when the last thing you want to do is
work but it is so worth it all. But anybody that is considering
serving a mission, it is so worth it and I can't even explain how much
and how quickly you learn.
      Now speaking of learning quickly I'll start
of about how I learned being familiar with your scriptures is
important. We had a lesson last week on Monday with a lady that
invited us back after we did an Umfrage (survey) the Saturday before
and so we were teaching her for the first time and we were teaching
the restoration and she was asking why there are so many different
churches and I had the great idea of sharing 2 Nephi 28 15-18 which
talks about the great apostasy.. Oh no I lied its 2 Nephi 28 3-5. But
I told her the previous one. Of course I accidentally pulled out one of the
very few scriptures in the Book Of Mormon that says the word whore and
talks about burning in hell.... Luckily she understood that I made a
mistake and happily read the correct verses. But yes, I now know I need
to know my scriptural references a little better... Haha sadly she was
very happy with where she was at and was not interested in learning
more but we left her with a Book of Mormon and our phone number and who
knows maybe she will change her mind. We made contact and introduced
it and invited and that's all a missionary can do.

     Then on Tuesday we had Distrikt meeting and that was really good we
spoke a lot about how the Book of Mormon is the keystone to our
religion and how once you know the Book of Mormon is true then you
really can know everything else is true. It all falls into place from
the Book of Mormon. One thing that I learned and have been practicing
is not just praying for an answer if the Book of Mormon is true once
but to continually pray about it. Pray about every chapter. Pray to
know what you should learn from this certain verse. Pray to feel
comfort. I have really been learning how helpful the Book of Mormon
really is in every way and when investigators read in the Book of
Mormon it's crazy how much more progress they make and honestly just
their countenance even changes. It's so cool!! But then it was also
cool because it just so played out that in almost every lesson this week
that subject became very relevant.  It was cool!
     Then on Wednesday we had to go to the doctor because Elder Harvey
dislocated a rib during Frühsport so now we have to go to Salzburg
once a week for physical therapy. Haha we also met with a member
family that is part of the ward missionary team and it is seriously so
cool here in this ward how dedicated they all are to missionary work
and helping us and giving us referrals and joint teaching and
everything. It is truly incredible how much more smoothly this work
goes when the investigator is introduced into open arms of people that are
really actually welcoming them. This ward when we bring a investigator
to church we have members greeting them people sitting next to them
even people inviting them to their house for dinner. It is amazing. I
would really like to invite everyone at home to take any opportunity
you get to really reach out and help people and make them feel
comfortable. Invite somebody to dinner, ask someone if they want to
hang out, it doesn't even have to be church related just reach out and
be a good example of standards and you will be doing missionary work
already.
      Sadly this week we have completely lost contact with David. We call
him but he never answers and he doesn't answer his door if we come
by.. I think he is just scared to go any farther with his dad being so
upset about it so we have backed off a bit and just praying for him.
Sonja told us that she really just is happy about her life and that
she doesn't really have a desire to know more truth and we talked to
her about spiritual potential and showed her the video of the guy
going on the cruise and just sitting in his room the whole time
because he doesn't realize his ticket includes everything and that
seemed to have sparked it a little but we will see. Patrick is doing
awesome he has been praying every day he says and he tries to read
every day he is the smartest kid ever but sometimes it makes me worry
that he relies on his own knowledge more than knowledge from the Holy
Ghost. But he will get there, and hopefully pull Sonja along with him.
Cassandra has made some good progress finally! She came to church this
week and she actually read this week she actually had a cool
experience with receiving an answer in the Book of Mormon and so she
was excited. I made a deal with her that next fast Sunday I'll bear my
testimony if she will bear hers. Haha those are the main people right
now.
      After church we went to cassandras house and she fed us and holy crap.
I have never been so full and sick in my life. A Romanians diet
consists of meat, meat, and more meat. We had like this meat soup,
then schnitzel and like 5 of that, then they brought this huge salami
plate out. Man that was too much meat. I never thought I would say
that. It's funny I get a taste of everything here. I have had greek
food, African food, Argentinian food, Romanian food, Turkish food and
German food. Haha hopefully I don't get too fat.
    It's also cool. Our zone this transfer challenged us to every day try
to find a miracle in the day and write it down. It's cool to see how
fast that list adds up. And it's not just all the big crazy miracles
but all the little miracles that if you weren't thinking about it you
would totally miss.  God really is in our lives every day and helps
us. It's really cool to realize that.
     Then last thing I wanted to talk about that we talked about in church
this week is talents. Everyone has talents and we are all so blessed
to have been given the talents we have. I know that we have all been
given the talents we have in order to bless our lives and bless those
around us. Use your talents and work on them and improve them. But the
coolest part is that the places where we aren't "naturally talented"
if it is important and we are humble we can be made strong.
Ether 12:27                                                                                                                                        "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men
weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all
men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves
before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become
strong unto them." I really like that!

Well I love you all!

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

The two pictures are of Mondsee, which is one of my favorite places in our area. The church in the picture is in the sound of music

Hallo,
     Wow my first transfer in the field is already over. It's crazy how
fast it actually went! We got our transfer calls on Saturday and I am
staying here with Elder Harvey! Which is sweet! Elder Harvey's last
transfer!! My second and his last. Haha but I'm stoked to be staying
with him.
     This week was fun because we got to mix it up a little bit and do some
different stuff. On Tuesday we had Distrikt Versammlung which was
awesome. Elder Storrer went off on how Muslims and other Christians
Faith's believe a lot of the same things as us but that a lot of their
doctrines conflict themselves and he went deep haha like a 5 page
booklet comparing stuff. Pretty funny. But then after we had district
meeting we did a district finding day which was seriously way cool
cause we all traded companions and so I was with our zone leader Elder
Samuelson and it was just so interesting to get to see another persons
approach to finding. It wasn't better or worse than what we do
normally but it was just one more way to know. He was so good at
pulling out scriptures to answer people's questions right there on the
street and I thought that was so cool. It makes me want to be better
familiarized with the scriptures!! But that was way cool and I learned
a lot.
     Then here comes the crazy part. Then they made me and sister
whiting who is only one transfer older than me go together and it was
hard. I went from being able to always fall back on my companion if I
got stuck, to being the one saving. Sister whiting had never been
street contacting and I think she is scared to just throw herself out
there in German.
     But we talked to a few people and struggled through
the language barrier but succeeded not to get Englished but no real
interest from anyone then sister whiting stopped somebody for the
first time and I was kinda finishing talking to somebody else and I
heard her stop him right as I was saying bye to the other then just
silence... She didn't know what to say. Hahaha so I hurried and
started talking and he was the coolest guy. I explained to him that we
were just in Salzburg today and simply wanting to share a message
about Christ and faith. He was very open and I asked if he had a
religion or faith and he told me he didn't really have a certain
religion but he has faith in Christ and knows he is our savior. We
explained that we know he is our savior as well then we shared mosiah
3 5-8 and that lead into us talking about the Book of Mormon and we
explained that we believe in the Book of Mormon as well as the bible
and that we use them hand in hand and he loved it. I gave it to him
and invited him to read from it and had him read Moroni 10 3-5 and he
said he would give it a shot and then he told us that they have a
group that gets together for bible study every Tuesday night and that
he would love for us to come and talk about the book! Sadly I had to
go back to Neumarkt so I didn't get to do that but he was so ready for
the gospel and I hope that he will accept it as the Salzburg elders
begin to teach him.  He was so cool!
     But it was seriously so cool because just in those short few hours I
learned so much from both Elder Samuelson and Sister Whiting, I feel like
my mission is helping me learn that no matter who I am with I can learn
something from them. Or at least that has been the case every time so far. Even if maybe
it's somebody you are not so open to learning from... I have learned
that too.
     But then we started our austausch so me and elder Nebeker headed back
to Neumarkt and we taught Sonja the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and
it was really good. She opened up to us a lot about her childhood and
how it was pretty rough for her and yeah it was good. Then we had a
member appointment and sport abend where we just played some fußball!
It was pretty fun me and Elder Nebeker had a pretty good time together
and had a good day then we tausched back the next day about 12 and it
was fun being with Elder Nebeker but Elder Harvey is the best! Haha
     The week in between that was pretty average. Nothing big. But then
Friday we were going 90 miles per hour all day. We had ward mission
council then a lesson, then a lunch appointment, then apartment
inspections, then one lesson, two lesson, then a dinner appointment.
Holy crap. It was awesome though!! In our Distrikt the Ehepaar has a
competition that whoever has the cleanest appartment gets to go out to
lunch wherever they want with them. We got 100 percent on our cleaning
check and he goes hard. Like checks everywhere. Haha he checked the
blinds for dust. But yeah so we ate
​a great Asian buffet today. :)
     Then Saturday was pretty cool. We got to be the witnesses for a
baptism in Salzburg and everything there went well. It was cool to see
a convert baptism as I have actually never been involved in one. It's
cool to see someone so excited about it. It was this African guy named
Peter! He was way cool! Then we just played some basketball with the
kids at the baptism.  All in all it was a great week!!
Liebe grüße,
Elder Hunter

Guten Morgen!

Well this week was a little bit different because I was dying coughing
this week and just had a constant headache. It was rough haha. But I
also learned a lot from it this week. Elder Harvey wouldn't let me get
out of bed so I slept a lot this week and we tried to stay inside as
much as possible since it's still pretty cold. But on Tuesday and
Wednesday I just slept in till like 9, did companion study and said I
would do language and personal later then went to appointments. I did
do my personal study but it was very short and not as meaningful as I
wish it would have been and it was crazy the difference I felt missing
just two days of good personal study. I felt like I was just lacking
so badly. It made me decide that no matter what I always want to have
good meaningful studies. It's really so cool how much better you feel
the spirit and the wholeness of the gospel when you make the effort to
invite it each morning.
Even though I was sick it was still a really good week. We still
taught 14 lessons this week and we worked hard. We did a lot of area
book work and had hardly any success haha but we were able to clean up
the area a lot and make the area book a little more useful now.
I also finally applied for my Visa this week so now I can finally be
legal! Haha
We met with T and we kind of dropped her as an investigator for
now because while she is living at home she really can't make any
progress and she is not really putting forth any effort to make
progress either. But we decided we are going to try going by her house
and talking to her mom and seeing if maybe she will open up to it at
all. Then we also met with D who earlier this week called his dad
to talk to him about him investigating our church and tell him he is
thinking about baptism. I guess that did not go well. His dad told him
that being baptized twice is a Huge sin and that if he does it he will
disown him as his son and not talk to him anymore. It's hard because
D has gotten answers and he has told us he knows all of this is
true and he wants to be baptized and he is willing to quit smoking and
drinking but he said he can't do it if his dad says no. So it's hard
to find the right balance of making sure he knows how important family
relationships are and that we would never want family bonds to be
broken to be baptized but also telling him that if he knows it is all
true and everything that maybe he needs to take a step and just trust
in the Lord. So that's where we are with D. All our other
investigators are just continuing as normal in the lessons and making
progress. Nothing huge this week. We have about six progressing
investigators this week which is good!
I have found this past week that the best way to learn a language is
to throw any pride you have out the window and just look like an
idiot. Even if you have no idea how to say something just try it. And
every once in a while people understand you!! Haha but really. The
times where I notice the most progress in my language is when I really
push myself to speak German with everybody even though everybody here
can speak English. Haha it was also really interesting. We met one
girl from Northern Germany and wow it was CRAZY the difference in the
language. She was speaking Hoch Deutsch which is what most people
speak there and it was soooo much easier to understand. Haha I didn't
realize how heavy the dialect was until then. So it makes me feel a
little better. Haha here they tend to kind of slur words together and
leave off endings of words and yeah... It's hard to understand
sometimes. Especially H and A. Mostly A though
he is a investigator and he is 45 and wants to be baptized but his
parents won't let him. He still lives at home because 10 years
ago he
got in a really bad car crash and is now pretty heavily handicapped.
Which is why is German is so hard to understand. Because first his
dialect is a little slurred but then because he has some mental
handicaps he slurs it even more. Haha even Elder Harvey rarely
understands him. Haha but he's awesome. This week was great and I love
you all!!

Liebe grüße,
Elder Hunter

Servus!
        This week was awesome!! It felt like a really slow week work wise but
it was seriously so good. We got 15 lessons, 4 new investigators, we
had 7 investigators in sacrament, seriously just everything was so
good plus we had so much fun this week. I really think it just goes to
show that if you have fun and you truly love the work and have a good
attitude you will have success. We honestly played a lot this week but
every time we were doing something we were having fun we had our
purpose in mind and brought it out in a fun way! But don't worry we
were still obedient!! :) haha but I think that is one of the biggest
things I have learned this week is that truly you need to be happy in
order to ever be successful. If you are miserable nobody will talk to
you let alone agree to meet with you. We seriously just joke around
with people and talk honestly about things and somehow the gospel
always comes into play. If you really are just genuinely interested in
what they are saying the words come! A little rough in German but they
still come.
      It is also so amazing to see how HUGE member missionary work is.
People that are recommended and brought to us by there member friends
are so so much more welcoming and willing to listen and be open to the
message of the gospel because the door was opened by a friend rather
than two guys knocking on their door with broken German asking them to
listen to our message. I would like to ask everybody that gets this
email especially my family to really try to reach out to others in
service and friendship and extend the invitation to learn more about
this amazing gospel, tell them how it's blessed your life, share a
scripture, anything! You'll never know until you try and you feel so
good giving people the opportunity to hear something that you know is
so correct and such a huge blessing.
      We also had Zone training this week which was really good! We talked
about finding, the Book of Mormon, but my favorite thing we talked
about was personal conversion. This was something that for me was very
close to me. Before my mission I really took the gospel for granted
and I never really read or honestly even said meaningful prayers if I
prayed at all. I started trying harder as I decided I wanted to go on
a mission but I still took it for granted and I had this grand idea
that I would go to the MTC and gain a perfect testimony, know with all
my heart that it's true, and know all the lessons. Little did I know I
would be almost at the end of my first transfer in the field barely
knowing the first and second lesson, really still working on my
testimony, and I have realized I don't KNOW that all of it is true,
but that's okay. I don't need to have a perfect knowledge all I need
to do is have faith that all of this is true. Alma 32: 21 is perfect
for this. I guess what I am getting at is that the gospel is something
that we could learn something new about every single day for the rest
of our lives. I am realizing being on a mission that it is so true
that the gospel is so simple a child can understand it but so complex
you could spend a lifetime studying it and still not get all of it. So
we can not feel inadequate when we feel a little behind or maybe even
a little disconnected. All we can do is move forward in faith and
continue to strengthen our testimonies.
      Everything here in Neumarkt is great and the weather is getting a
little warmer and the air is a little clearer and wow the mountains
look amazing. We bought Elder Harvey some running shoes so now we
switch off every morning between p90x and running! We have generally
been running about 5 miles whenever we do run and we hold at like
7:30-7:45 pace! It's awesome and I need to take advantage of it while
I have a companion that will do it with me! On Valentine's Day we had
an awesome day. We had a ton of investigators at church and also
potluck after church. Then also made schnitzel and of course we wore
lederhosen and listened to some Austrian Yodeling music. Haha it was
pretty great. And also can't forget that it was Lauren's birthday!!
Happy birthday!! All is going well here and I am so happy and I feel
like I learn about a million things a day. Missionary work is very
hard but seriously so rewarding and can be really fun if you make it
fun. :)
Alle mein liebe,
Elder Kade Hunter

Morgan!
This week was awesome. It started off really slow and not good and
just got better and better! Monday was all good. But then Tuesday we
just got super thrown off because a New convert named Marek needed
help moving his stuff from Braunau to Oberhofen which is like a 45
minutes drive so we drove him all the way there and we're going to
help him clean out his old house (a shipping container like you would
see on a train) and once we got there he refused to clean out his
container and just got super upset with us and told us he was staying
and to leave. So we left and just got breakfast at a bäckerei and then
drove home. So we wasted two hours and almost 200 km first thing in
the morning. Haha then the rest of the day was just off. Then
Wednesday we had Distrikt Versammlung and went into Salzburg for that
and it was super good. We talked a lot about having Christ like love
and talked about that we have to try and look at people the way Christ
would. Then we had an amazing burrito lunch that the Ehepaar made for
us. Then we had a few teaching appointments that all went good. We
found out Sonja, Patrick's mom, is a total hippy in our lesson with
her which was pretty funny. I was able to relate with her about the
peace that we can feel in the mountains and away from everything. I
really think she has huge potential.
Then on Thursday it was just a pretty normal day. Nothing good or bad.
Then Friday was rough. We started the day good. We did the p90x
challenge again with the pull ups and push ups and we almost got our
goal of 16 pull ups and 29 push ups! Haha then we went finding and did
some tür zu tür then at 14 we had a lesson with Patrick and we invited
a member to come with us to teach him and that was a bad idea. Patrick
is only ten years old but he is freaking smart. He started asking
crazy deep doctrinal questions and me and Elder Harvey were kinda just
like yeah we can talk more about that in a later lesson and tried to
bring it back but then our joint teach took off on some very illogical
and horribly explained doctrine and at one point even accidentally
said that God is not almighty. Wow it was bad. Haha but it's okay.
That just threw us off because we were planning on doing weekly
planning but it sucks to sit at your desk for three hours trying to
optimistically plan for a whole week after a lesson like that. But we
did it and literally right as we said amen in our closing prayer after
planning our favorite members called and asked if we wanted some food
because they cooked too much. Haha God rewards us when we are
obedient.
Then Saturday was a pretty different day. We actually played
basketball all morning with the members and it was really good we
strengthened our relationship a lot with those that were there then we
did all our studies then we had kinder fashing which was super fun and
we had the chance to talk to a lot of the kids non member parents and
we found a couple people that could be really good! And also it was so
fun we were in charge of one of the aktivitäts and the kids here I
swear are all so cute. Then Sunday was the best day of the week by
far. We had two investigators at church and both of them did a full 24
hour fast and paid a fast offering which was awesome! Then we met with
Herr Meingast and the fed us and we spoke about the Book of Mormon and
he said he knows it is a true book and that it is direct revelation
from God. We extended a loose baptismal invitation and he gave a loose
yes. Haha we will see but he is so nice and very intelligent and
religious. Then we went to Hoarsts house because he was in so much
pain he couldn't get out of bed. I had the opportunity to give my
first priesthood blessing in German. It was really cool because before
we started i just apologized for my German and he said it's okay God
understands all languages. I thought that was really cool and helped
me realize truly all I am is the mouthpiece and god knows what Hoarst
needs and everything is good.  Afterwards we actually were even able
to teach a short lesson and he was sitting up and seemed like he was
in less pain. It was really cool!!  Then we had a second dinner
appointment and ate way too much food in a short two hour period. Then
we went and taught David he is from Russia, but it was such a good
lesson. We gave him the Book of Mormon about a week ago and he is
already at the end of second Nephi! Crazy! We extended a baptismal
invitation for April 2nd and he said yes!! He is the coolest guy. I
really like him. The only problem is he has to ask his dad who is a
orthodox minister I believe is what is said. So pray for David. Haha

Then today we went to a lake Kunigsee and it was so cool. We saw The
Eagles Nest up on the mountain and then we hiked to something called
the Eiskapela (ice chapel) it was super pretty and was just like a
circle of mountains with snow. Super cool! And of course we hiked it
in our lederhosen!! Haha all in all a very good week!
Tschüss,
Elder Hunter

                                                                     Hiltler's Rock

      Elder Hunter and Hunter

Hallo!

This week was full of ups and downs! Monday we had a really good day missionary work wise then Tuesday was horrible we had two people drop us no potentials and all but one of our lessons cancel. Then the next day we had a little more luck taught some good lessons and found two potentials then we just had no luck the next day. But all in all it was another good week!! The bad days just made the good days that much more appreciated.

We also had a really cool thing happen. So we had just started teaching this ten year old that is seriously crazy. He has read the Book of Mormon the Karan the bible like he's crazy! But he has been coming to our church saying he knows it is true and we taught him once and his mom had no interest in meeting with us so she just dropped him of at the church and said she would be back in 30 minutes. Well she came back 30 minutes later and we were not quite done so she sat in and you could tell it actually peaked some interest and she started asking some questions. Then that next night Patrick. The boy, calls us and says he can't come to our church anymore, we asked why not and if we could help with anything and he just said not important. And hung up. We were both so bummed we were like okay we just got dropped by a ten year old. That's awesome. But then the next night his mom calls us saying she needs to talk to us, so we set up an appointment for the next day. We met with her and we talked a lot about repentance, families, and the atonement ( she had Patrick when she was 15) and Patrick thinks she is damned and has no chance to repent so we talked to her and told her we can always repent and the spirit was so so strong and she was crying and our joint teacher was crying and maybe I shed a like half a tear... But it was awesome! She said she wants to hear all the lessons and learn more. So we will see!!

I also have my first talk in German this Sunday. Wow it was ROUGH! But it was good. I prayed for confidence and to not be nervous and it was crazy I got up and started to speak and I felt so comfortable and so calm and I wasn't even nervous. My language stunk and probably made no sense but I was confident in my effort! Maybe next time I'll pray for help with the language! But it was just a short 5 minute talk on missionary work and my testimony! Pretty simple!

Hmm what else... I finally bought my lederhosens today but time goes by so fast on P day so sadly no pictures yet but I promise next week! They are awesome though! It is so good to hear from everybody at home and here how you are doing! Have a great week!!
Love
Elder Hunter