Tuesday was great we had zone training and it was so fun to see
everybody there. Me, Elder Bybee, and Elder Nielson were all there and
all three of us were comps with Elder Harvey. So we took a picture and
sent it to him. Zone training was really good and I loved the theme of
it. We talked mostly about how missionary work should not be boring,
routine, everyday the same work. We need to learn to try new things,
try talking to people different ways, be creative. Our zone goal this
transfer is "to kill the robot.". It is so easy to just get stuck in
the routine of missionary life but when you just settle in with that a
lot of times you stop pushing yourself and you just settle in. I don't
want to do that, I want to have fun, I want to try my best everyday
and not just go through the motions! It was really good. I liked it!
Then me and Elder Stomps got to teach about studies and how we can
improve our studies. I think it went really well. We just talked about
where does a good study start? Then we talked about planning our
studies, praying for help in our studies, and having a good morning
routine so you are ready to go at 8 to start studying (I know I just
contradicted myself..) then we focused a lot on comp study and talked
about how it's really a chance to actually teach each other and learn
so much more than we would alone and then how we can use our companion
studies effectively. I think it went really well. :) we also watched a
talk during zone training from Jefferey R Holland and it related
missionary work with the atonement of Christ. He talked about why
missionary work has to be hard and why we have to be challenged. It is
so that in the smallest way possible we can feel just a small part of
what Christ felt. He said "missionary work is not easy, because
salvation is not easy, it never was easy!" That really touched me and
it really made me just want to work harder. It was a great Zone
tRaining. After that we headed back to Wil and taught Yvone. She has
never really had a strong faith in anything and she hopes that God is
there and she hopes for a lot. But we talked with her and just told
her she doesn't have to hope she can know. She just has to ask. We
committed her to just pray and ask if God is even there and then go
from there. She was very shocked with the idea because it was so
simple but she said she will do it. Then we just spent the rest of the
day going by on people. On Wednesday the day started out really good,
we went and ran with Nanu and Audrey and me and Nanu did intervals on
the track. We did 6x400 on 4 minute interval and were holding like
67-69 the whole time. I was DYING. I threw up after the forth... Haha
but it was great. Other than that we had a pretty boring day, we just
had to go to Zurich to anmeld (register) Elder stomps. That took a
really long time. Then we finally came home and just went by some
potentials but nobody was home. Thursday we had planned most of our
day to a service project that didn't end up happening. So instead
elder Stomps decided he wanted to cook banana bread and so he did that
and then we took it to a few members. Then we went by Bruder Riesen
and talked with him for a while and shared a spiritual thought on
"gods will not ours" and he shared some really personal and really
touching stories. It was really cool. Then we just went and tried to
catch some less actives at home finding along the way. Nobody is home
right now because everybody is on vacation!
Friday was pretty boring we just did all our studies and then went out
finding for a bit and found one really nice lady from Peru, she said
she would meet with us and also gave us the numbers of three of her
friends and her mother in law to try to meet with them as well. That
was cool. We will see how they turn out. Then we went home and did our
weekly planning and ate some lunch/dinner and then we went and played
soccer with the YSA and Mario was there and we got there early with
him and taught him a lesson. Saturday was a mix up but way good. We
went running with Audrey in the morning and then afterwards ate
pancakes and had a mission prep class together. It went really well.
Then we went to the Kudrnac real quick just to see how they are doing
and we caught them at just the right time and gave a spiritual
thought. Then we headed out to Steckborn to go by on a less active
family and do some finding. I had never been there before but it is a
way cool city. It's right on the Bodensee and is just a cool little
town. I liked it. We didn't have any success but at least the
surroundings were good! :) on Sunday we had a great day. We had church
in the morning and it was way good. I really enjoyed the talks in
sacrament meeting and then for the second hour the girl teaching it
got sick in sacrament and so we got to teach that lesson. It went
pretty well for about 10 min prep. Haha :) we just talked about Joseph
Smith and his life. He is seriously so amazing and had to suffer so
much in order to restore this church on the earth for us. I love
studying Joseph and his life and really just trying to see him in real
life through my imagination. After church we went to the Diethelms for
lunch and both of their inactive sons were there with there none
member girlfriends. We got to teach a small spiritual thought just
about God and they all participated in it which was really cool. We
had a great lunch (bread with blue cheese and garlic and all kinds of
stuff. So goood). After lunch we all were just talking around the pool
and talking and then the two sons thought it would be funny to push me
in. Haha it was pretty funny. I was obedient though and got right out.
It was tempting to stay for a bit... Haha I was soaked. But I think I
was able to really build a good relationship with the two of them and
we had lots of fun which was good. After that we went by the
Wichterman family to pick up a backpack for today for Elder Stomps. We
got there and they asked us if we wanted to play a round of Wizard and
so we did and then we played a round of dido dog as well and had
dessert and then we shared a fun activity/thought with the kids. It
was way fun. Today we are going back to Pizol because Elder Stomps saw
the pictures and really wanted to go so now we are headed back. Haha.
Then afterwards a member invited us to go to this Mexican restaurant.
Should be a fun day!!  Only four more weeks here in
frauenfeld and I am actually already dreading that I am leaving. The
ward here is seriously already like family. They are just so open and
friendly and just great people. I am just going to love and enjoy the
time I do have left though. :) I hope you all had a wonderful week as
well.  Love you!!

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

 Top of Pizol again!!

I was thrown into the swimming pool by two boys that we were visiting!

 

Making pancakes after our morning run!

Hello everybody!!
This week has been a good one and a pretty interesting one. Monday was
great and we had a really great last p day together. We got incredibly
sunburnt but it was worth it. We gained 2200 meters one way! Pretty
sweet! Then we went to Czieslas and had dinner and it was great. Then
on Tuesday we had district meeting and I taught about baptism and
helping people get to baptism. It is always fun to study all the
different topics and you always learn something new. But what I would
say what was for me the most important is that it is not that baptism
is honestly even the most important convenant we make it is just the
first and that's why it is focused on so much but it is just the
entering into the straight and narrow and there is still a lot to do
afterwards that is equally important. After district meeting we went
to Andres for lunch and Gmk. Afterwards he let us shoot his pellet gun
for a bit which was fun! Then we went to the klaumunzners and ate
dinner there and went to a big look out tower and climbed up it. It
was way cool. As we were hiking I was talking to sister klaumunzner
and she was so nice and offered to give Elder Mikulenka a new pair of
shoes before he left and we made a plan for her to come by in the
morning. Wednesday morning she came and gave him the shoes and he was
so happy it was like a kid at Christmas. It was really cool and nice
of her! Then we headed to Zurich for transfers. It is always fun with
all the changes and excitement and seeing everybody. Elder Mikulenka
met his comp pretty quick and they took off back to their area. Then I
waited until my comp showed up from Stuttgart. He finally showed up
and he is so tiny! Haha not in a mean way but he is so small. I feel
like it's my little brother that's older than me. We headed back to
our area and let him unpack a bit then Roger from Sankt Galen picked
us up to go BACK to Zurich to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. That
was really cool, we had Suveybe there with us (she is an old
investigator) and she really enjoyed it a lot which was awesome and
also the girlfriend from Nanu Klaumunzner was there. I met sister
Gehris during the intermission and got a very nice little package from
my family with some treats and some sweet letters in it! (Thank you
everyone that wrote letters) :) then the concert ended about 9:45 or
ten and then we got a ride home with the fuhrers. It was funny because
I saw somebody from Neumarkt that was only there my first transfer and
it was weird to actually speak semi okay German with him.

On Thursday
we had our first full day together as companions. Me and Elder Stomps.
He is a good guy.  haha then we had an appointment
with an older couple and they were really nice. We will be meeting
with them again beginning of August. After the lesson we went and
played fussball with the YSA group and it was way fun. It was a
smaller group as usual because it's summer and so many people are gone
but it was still way fun. I have only been here for one transfer and
seriously I just love the ward so much. So many really cool just nice
caring people. I will be really sad to go this next transfer. On
Friday we did weekly planning which is always rough for me. Planning
is extremely boring but also very important. Then we went to the
church to download the new area book app. It is pretty cool but will
deffinatly take some time to get used to and also take a lot of time
to transfer all the records. Changing three records took me almost an
hour and we have hundreds of records. Haha then we went to Czieslas to
help them get rid of all their food before they go out of town... :)
then came home. On Saturday we went to wintertour and sang with the
sisters and a few people from the ward there at two rest homes. It was
so fun how happy it made the older people there. We sang some Swiss
German songs and man they sound crazy. Haha we also had to sing a song
in French. It was a lot of fun. We got to also give one of the members
a blessing because she is having foot problems. I always love having
the opportunity to give people blessings and knowing God is working
through me in that second. Then we got to find in wintertour for a few
minutes waiting for our train. Then we went finding in frauenfeld
again.

Also this week in frauenfeld was a big hip hop festival
(biggest one in Europe) and it was seriously crazy so many people were
here. The streets were just lined. I kinda felt like I was serving in
the hood with all these kinda scrappy people half naked blasting rap
music and the whole city just smelled like marijuana. It was
interesting and funny for a few days but I am happy it's over. Then on
Sunday we had church and it was really good. Nanus girlfriend came
with him and stayed all three hours. After church we went to
Klaumunznrs house and ate lunch and got talking with Nanu and Rahel
and she agreed to hear the first lesson. It actually went really well
and she asked a lot of questions. It was cool for Nanu to get to help
teach her and you could really feel the spirit especially when he
would explain something to her. Really cool lesson. Then we went
straight to fuhrers and had a BBQ with all the YSA, if you haven't
noticed we do a lot with YSA in frauenfeld. It's way cool! We had a
BBQ and played some games and did a little spiritual thought. It was
great. The game we played is when you have to talk and try to get the
others to guess what the word is without saying the word but we played
the extreme version where you get brownies and candies stuffed in your
mouth while you try to talk. Haha it was hilarious. Today we just went
to Konstanz to go shopping because it is WAY cheaper there and now we
are getting our hair cut. It was a fun chill P day. Hopefully we can
have a good week this week here and even more hopefully you all have a
wonderful week this week!! I love you all so much. Thanks for all that
you do!!

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

                        Me and Elder Mikulenka at motab concert. Comp reunion   (after 1/2 a day)

Us with our GML (ward mission leader)

Hello everybody!! I hope you are all doing great and loving life!!
This week was good, really really slow again but good.

Tuesday we had district meeting which was great and then afterwards we
had exchanges. I stayed in Wetzikon with Elder Edvinsson. He was so
cool. I really loved the time we spent together. He is from Sweden and
is almost done with his mission. Just a really good down to earth guy.
We had a lot of fun. I had a pretty cool experience in a really weird
way while I was there. We had an appointment with this guy named Hans
and we show up and as we show up before we could even say a prayer he
pulls out his iPad and a envelope of papers and starts just rattling
of anti Mormon papers and trying to show how the Book of Mormon
contradicts the bible and just everything. It was a bible bashing
appointment to the max. But we just sat there and listened and it was
funny because honestly he knew the bible really well and honestly if I
had not have been on my mission and really began building a strong
testimony he probably could have convinced me I was wrong. But it was
so funny because there were so many things he said where I knew there
were scriptures in the bible that I knew and could show him but for
some reason I couldn't quite remember where they were and so I never
tried to fight back against him. But instead of feeling stupid and
feeling like maybe I was wrong. I just had the most comforting feeling
and The whole time with every word he said my testimony and knowledge
of why the church is true grew a little bit. At the end I was able to
bear witness of it and I told him what I had experienced. He didn't
like that and said we were lost forever in gods eyes. But I just
didn't care. I knew so strongly in that exact moment that I was
exactly where I was supposed to be and that this really is the true
gospel. It was really a testimony builder. After that we just headed
home and ate some dinner and laughed about it all and it was also
funny because right after we left the appointment I could remember
exactly where all those scriptures were. I just don't think I was
supposed to fight with him. Bible bashing is stupid because nobody
benefits and it's just lessons of anger and trying to prove who knows
there bible better.

Wednesday we just went finding for a bit and then exchanged back and I
came back to frauenfeld. Then we had a very slow day. We were trying
so hard but we just can't find anyone. Eventually we got invited to go
play soccer with the youth and so we went and taught a lesson
afterwards and there were a few non members there too so it was good.

Thursday we actually were pretty busy. We went to Sister Klaumunzners
school class and talked about where we are from. Everybody was very
excited to ask about America. It was pretty good. Even though they are
only like 15 so we won't really benefit but it was more service than
anything. Then we went to the Diethelms and had lunch and then did a
service project there for a few hours. Then we came back for
appartment checks and that took forever. They were there for literally
an hour and a half. It was such a waste of time. But then we went and
played soccer again with a big group of kids mostly non members and
got to teach a lesson again. We got one guys number and he said we
could meet again. So that was good.

Friday we made breakfast for the Czieslas and then we went finding in
Wil the whole day. We found 6 potentials that were really cool. Only
one of them lives in our area. :( that was a little sad. But still
people that will meet the missionaries.

Saturday we got our transfer calls and I will be getting a new comp.
his name is Elder Stomps. He is apparently the shortest missionary in
the whole mission (girls included) but it is funny because that means
I will have a different comp three transfers in a row. He is from
Holland I think. You'll hear more next week after I have met him. He
sounds a lot like Elder Harvy from what I have heard. Then after that
we had a stake soccer tournament and we played for our young men's
team. We actually did pretty good we ended up getting like 4th I
think. It was way fun though. Then we came back and met Selma and got
to teach her a little bit. She will be coming to the motab concert so
that's cool.

Sunday we went to church and it was testimony meeting. It was really
good. I really enjoyed it and then we also talked about being a man in
preisthood and I really liked it. It pretty much said that to be a
real man we need to ignore almost everything media tells us a man
should be.  It was based on a talk from Todd D Christofferson. After
church we went to Sergio's house and man I had a headache there. The
mom and son speak Russian with another, the mom and dad speak Italian,
and we had to speak in German and they replied to us in English. Wow.
That was weird. Haha but still great. They were really cool. Then we
went straight to the Wichterman family. We were already so full but we
ate a lot anyways. Haha then after that we went to Sankt Galen and
slept at the Zone Leaders House.

Monday we were in a train at 5:12 headed towards Chur to go to a
mountain called Pizol. We got there at 6:40 and started hiking. We
were back by 5. We hiked/ran/slid/climbed a total of 37 K it was
crazy! I am so so dead now. But it was so so beautiful. I loved it. A
lot. I just love being in the mountains. But we also had a really
cool/scary experience there. We were hiking down and above us a guy
slipped and fell about 25-30 meters and was just rolling, he ended up
right by us and he was uncontious and pretty bloodied up. I got to use
the very few things I remember from Emr class and I stabilized his
neck and spine and called emergency services. We then just waited with
him till the helicopter came. Crazy. Hopefully he will be okay.

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

                                           Little Elenora stole my ipad during sacrament

                                                                           Hiking Pizol

Elder Edvinssen

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

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

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!!

Hello everybody!
It's already Monday. Wow this week felt like it was over in the blink
of an eye. It's crazy how fast the weeks go by. Today we are going to
the eagles nest by Königsee which is hitters house shortly described.
It's up on top of a mountain with a beautiful view. But it's also I
decent drive there so we don't have a ton of email time this week so
it might be a bit shorter. But here we go. There were some fun things
this week and also some really cool things this week. Tuesday was a
crazy day, because Monday everything was closed since it was a
holiday, we had to do all our shopping and everything on Tuesday. So
we had district meeting which was good, then the Ehepaar made us
"lunch" something called the zoo. It was just a big bowl of ice cream
with a bunch of random sweets mixed in. I made us stop on the way home
and get a sandwich and then a made a green smoothie at home. Haha then
we had to hurry and get all our food and everything and get our hair
cut. The hair dresser guy was way cool and actually gave us a referral
which was good. Then we had dinner at Stefan Roths and then had sport
abend with Harry and Andreas and Tobias Dengg. That is always way fun.

On Wednesday we started off the day by taking a birthday present to
Frau Lissi which was just a picture of us with her with a little note
on the back and she was so excited. It was really funny. She then just
talked to us for a while. Showed us all her old stuff her and her
grandson used to use to grow marijuana.... She's great. Haha then we
met with Marek, then went by sister Huber and went for a walk with
her. Then came back and met with Sonja and talked with her about
Patrick. She said she is still just waiting for him to give her a good
answer as to why he wants to be baptized. Then we just went dooring.

On Thursday we had a pretty busy day which was way good! We started at
12 and met with Harry and had a good lesson with him, did some doors
the. Met with Andreas at 2 and talked about the talk why the church
from last conference and he asked some really good questions which was
way cool. Then we doored some more. Then we met with Horst at 6 and
sadly he was not feeling great (but hadn't drank all week.) and his
sister was not able to help him go shopping this week so we offered to
go to the store and buy him some of the essentials. I left him my iPad
and he watched meet the Mormons. He loved that so much. Then after
Horst Sonja invited us to come to a museum opening thing. It was kinda
cool. We just went to make her happy and keep a good relationship. We
just called it our dinner hour.

On Friday we helped set up for a big relief society thing and that
took all morning then we met with Patrick. We had a really good lesson
with him, he still hasn't said he wants to be baptized but we asked
him some pretty blunt questions like "do you believe Thomas S Monson
is a living day prophet?" Do you believe this is Jesus Christs church
restored back to the earth? Etc.  and he said yes and gave really
strong testimony to all of them then it was interspersing at the end
he prayed and was saying thank you for our church here on earth and
for our prophet and apostles and for our ward. It was just funny, he
sounds like he is already a member. Then we came home and did some
weekly planning and then had dinner/ mission correlation at Benny
Malzls house. That was really good.

Saturday was way fun. We just did our studies then we put to the
Kellnersteinmetz for a day of service. We got there at 11 and we
started by power washing the pool and cleaning it out. Closest I'll
get to swimming for two years... Then we started up the grill and had
some Käsewürsts and fried zucchini and salad for lunch. Then Samuel
really put us to work. He had us take out a whole fence and move it
back about a meter so that it was on the actual border of their
property. Each post had a big block of cement on it that we had to dig
out and then dig a whole equally as big to put it back in. We worked
on that until 7:30 and then helped clean it all up and then they took
us to McDonald's (which is sooo much better here) and then we came
home.

Sunday was sooo cool in church. Ever since I have been here we have
been working with Harry trying to get him the priesthood and there was
always just something holding him back and making it just not happen
but this week he was finally ordained a priest. Bishop announced it in
sacrament and had him stand up and he just had the biggest smile ever.
He is such a good guy. I was/am stoked for him. Then after church we
went to the Kellnersteinmetz AGAIN for lunch (not complaining). We
made cordon bleu. And I have to say... We did a dang good job. Haha
and breaded mushrooms as well. It was a good lunch. They had invited
to non member friends as well and we got to teach a lesson. They were
really nice and listened and asked questions and everything. It was
great. Then we came home and did studies and finished weekly planning!

Now today we had a district p day and we went to the kehlstein haus.
(Eagles nest) sadly it was super foggy so we didn't get to see the
amazing view from the top but we did get to see a lot of really cool
historical stuff. We went through the WW2 museum and it was kinda cool
to listen to some of Adolf Hitlers speeches and actually understand a
lot of it. He was a very angry man. The history of ww2 is really so
sad. There was just so much evil. But it is good to learn about. Then
we went shopping and got all our food and everything now we are just
doing some emails!!

I had a great week this week and it is crazy to think there is only 1
more week in this transfer! And it was even a 7 week transfer. But
next week I will know if I get to stay here in Neumarkt for two more
or if I will be headed somewhere else! Guess we will see!! Hope you
all have a great week!! I love you all!!

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

The pictures are of 1)the fence we took apart and rebuilt, 2) the cutest little girl we got to spend all day with, 3)Harry (the newest priest in Gemeinde Neumarkt), and 4)the saddest text saying some members were cancelling on a hike early in the morning.

Hello!
This week we were a little slow and didn't meet with as many people as
I wish we would have but we did honestly use our time well! It was a
good week for sure!

Tuesday we went into Salzburg for zone training! It is always way fun
to all come together and just talk and be together as missionaries.
You all just have a connection no matter how different you are. It's
cool to see! But it was a really good training. We talked a lot about
mastering the message and did a lot of things with that including a
test to see how well we know all the lessons and finding a scripture
that goes with each point without using anything. I need to work on
that a bit more.. Haha we also talked a lot about having the Holy
Ghost there and what we need to be doing to really have that. It
really was great! Then afterwards a bunch of us went to Burgerista to
eat some American food! Haha we all got burgers and fries and drank
lemonade! It was great! I talked a lot with a guy named Elder Kaufusi
(i think I butchered his name) BUT he is way cool. He has a
scholarship at BYU to play football once he gets home, and he is just
super cool and a fun guy to be around. His brother just barely signed
with the Ravens. Haha I don't follow football much but that's still
pretty cool! Then we went back to Bahnhof to head home and we saw
Horst at Bahnhof, sadly he was super drunk and almost didn't even
recognize us. But we talked to him and helped him get to his train and
got him on his way home. After he realized it was us you could tell he
was really ashamed. He is trying so hard but he just needs to keep
going. We're on his side! Haha after that we had just area book work,
studies, and calling then we had sport abend! It was way fun this week
and we had a good lesson and played some füßball and it was way fun.
Right as we were about to leave Tobius was like hey look and he showed
me his phone and Harvey was there in Skype!! Haha I was kinda bad and
talked to him for a second and just saw how he was doing. But it was
way cool to see him again and catch up for a few seconds. He is a good
guy!

Wednesday we met with Tomara in Salzburg and talked to her about the
plan of salvation and just talked about it and read some scriptures. I
don't really feel a ton of true intent from her but we will keep
trying a bit longer. Then we came back and helped Frau Lissi. That is
always fun! Haha then we did some dooring in straßwalchen and nobody
was really interested but we had some great discussions. Then we went
to Markus Malzls house with Harry and Andreas like we normally do on
Wednesdays and it went well! We had a good time. We taught them about
personal revelation and then talked to Harry about him talking to
bishop about reciving the priesthood. Then we played ping pong! I am
so bad at ping pong it's ridiculous. Hahahah but I have a great time
doing it and we have lots of fun! Elder Jensen slammed into what he
though was the wall and ended up shattering a glass light fixture.
Hahaha that was funny.

On Thursday we just had two appointments and a lot of finding planned,
then the weather went from raining to a straight shower to crazy
hail!! Haha we were driving down the road and it was like a river and
you couldn't see anything!! Haha it was pretty funny and pretty
awesome. Luckily right as we went to go finding it died back down just
a little bit. And we found the rest of the night in the rain! I
actually kinda enjoyed it though! It was a good finding method! People
felt bad for us and would talk to us! Haha everybody thinks we are JWs
though!! Haha we found a few potentials though which was really
awesome. We met with Horst as well and he is trying so hard. We read
in the Book of Mormon and just saw how he's doing.

Friday we had our correlation meeting and that went really well! Then
we met with Patrick and we were really hoping this would be THE
lesson. We taught about baptism and had bishop there and had a really
good lesson but he's still just not quite ready. But the whole lesson
he was quoting articles of faith and talking about the general
conference talks he watch and it was crazy. Haha this kid is TEN!! But
he has a really good knowledge of everything I think he just really
needs to receive a answer that this is what he needs to do. Then we
found for a while and then went to the Brunners house, they have 3
crazy little boys and a brand new baby girl. The kids are so funny and
so loud! I loved it! We shared a short thought and then talked for a
while and headed home!

Saturday we played basketball with the members and had a lot of fun
then we went and gave Horst a sick blessing. It is really cool how
much faith he has in the power of the priesthood. Then we went finding
for a few hours with not a ton of success but we covered a lot of
ground! Just got to sort out the people who are ready and who needs a
little more time. Then we came home and did our studies and weekly
planning the rest of the day!

Sunday we had a great day at church, we taught the lesson in the
investigator class and talked about the signs of the second coming and
it is crazy as you study all of that you realize the seriously almost
all of them have already happened or are happening! It was a really
good lesson though and it was really cool for me to study too! Just
goes to show you want to ALWAYS be prepared! Then after church we went
to the Kellnersteinmetz and had a grilling party, he just let us pick
whatever meet we wanted and throw in on the grill! It was so good and
we ate sooo much haha it was awesome. After that we came back to the
church to help set up for the baptism of two kids in the ward! It was
really good!

Today is a holiday so nothing is open and it's really rainy outside so
we are just chillin at the church playing games and emailing all day!
Haha just a day to relax! It was a good week and I hope you all had a
great week as well! Love you all so much!!

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter

Hello everybody!! This week was awesome!
On Tuesday we had district meeting which was way fun because we
celebrated all the elders in our districts birthdays because they were
all within a week of each other. Three of them being on the same day.
Haha pretty funny coincidence. But before we celebrated we had a
really good meeting, we talked a lot about becoming "masters of the
message" which just means really being able to understand and know the
message we are sharing so that as we try to share it with others we
really understand it ourselves and can bear real honest testimony. I
talked about a little bit different part of it that I found in preach
my gospel that intrigued me. It said that as we teach the
understanding of the people we teach will be influenced by our own
personal worthiness. I found that really interesting and honestly
something I didn't really think about. But if we are not worthy of the
Holy Ghost then the real teacher is not there and nothing is truly
"learned". It was interesting to think about. Then we had a great time
going by our good old Marek. We taught him about the priesthood and he
liked that a lot. I guess he had never learned much about it... Haha
good thing to be taught. Then we had sport abend and played fußball.
On Wednesday we had a really interesting day. We woke up did our
studies then went into Salzburg to teach a girl named Tomara. The
lesson went well. It was nothing special just a good lesson. Then we
came back to meet with Sonja who had called us the day before saying
she really needs to talk to us about something so we were obviously
curious as to what it was. We met with her and she told us the Patrick
told her he wants to be baptized. Which is amazing but she is worried
he has the wrong motivation for it. She said if it is for the right
reasons then she supports him but that she needs to see that first.
She is worried he only wants to be baptized so that he can become a
deacon. Which is awesome that he excited about that. But we need to
just talk to him and see where he is really at. We decided we will
just go through the interview questions with him and see how sincere
he is about it. It's hard to really judge with a ten year old kid. We
will see. Then we had a lesson that a old investigator actually set up
for us and she is a English teacher and we were really excited about
it but then Frau Jerey made us teach it is English to a guy that
speaks fluent German and barely understands English. We soon figured
out she was just using us as her teachers for his tutoring session.
That was kind of annoying but whatever. We gave him a Book of Mormon
and at the end bore quick testimony in German that he understood and
hopefully he got something from it. Then we did finding the rest of
the day! We found one really solid potential named terra. We will see
where that goes!

On Thursday we had a pretty interesting day. We were invited to the
stake sport day in Salzburg. We went and were able to bring a new
member and an investigator (Harry and Andreas) and we played sport
from 10-4 o'clock. Haha we played 4 straight hours of fußball, I did a
little training session with a few members training for an ironman,
then we slack lined for a bit. It was way fun hanging out with the
members and meeting the rest of the stake in a fun way like that. Also
way good to get an investigators there having a ton of fun! Great pre
birthday party!! Haha after that we came home and met with a less
active member and then met with Fabian and had a really great lesson
on the plan of salvation. I really see him making a lot of progress. I
am just waiting for it all to click for him. He's a great kid.
Then the birthday! Friday! Haha how often do you get companions that
have the same birthday at the same time of their birthdays!! It was
way fun haha. We celebrated together. We opened a few packages in the
morning and read letters from family and friends. The letters are
always the very best part. Then Frau Lissi called us and told us she
made us some birthday brunch. So we went and ate and talked with her.
She gave me some cloths from her cousin that he gave to her... Haha
then we went to the top of a big hill to do our studies before going
and playing füßball with Harry and teach him a lesson. We had a great
time and great lesson. Then we did weekly planning for a bit, called
some people, went finding, then went to a members house for dinner.
They grilled a bunch of meat for us! Steak, käsewürsts wrapped in
bacon, ribs, corn, potatoes, and Kool aid! Haha they spoiled us! And
the whole time I just got to play with their little girl named Tara
who is just a year and a half old and the funniest/cutest girl ever.
Then they gave us both a t shirt with part of the Austrian national
anthem on it! Way cool! Then Sonja surprised us with a birthday cake
and a couple presents! Haha she is too nice! To bad the cd she gave me
doesn't have any church songs... Haha some sweet German rap though!
Good for when I get home! German rap is the coolest! Haha then she
also gave us some aloe plant because we both got very burnt this
week... Very. Haha it was an AMAZING birthday.

Saturday we met with Andreas and had a great lesson about the tree of
life and what it means exactly and related it to out lives today and
then I rode his unicycle for a bit which was way fun. Then we went and
visited Horst and went over his reading plan and what he had read
between last time and this time and discussed it all and all the main
points, then we read a chapter together and talked about it. Me and
Elder Jensen both have the feeling we need to talk to him about
forgiving his parents which is going to honestly be really a very
sensitive subject because his parents were horrible to him. I don't
honestly think I could say I would forgive them ether. But we both
have gotten the feeling that is really what is holding him back. So
hopefully we can talk about that and really have the spirit help us.
He is such a good guy and literally the happiest most friendly guy in
the world. He just has had a crazy hard life. But then we went to the
Denggs house and celebrated our birthdays and also Michael Denggs
birthday who was also on the 6th. There family is so awesome. I love
them!

On Sunday it was Mother's Day! One of the days all missionaries look
forward to! Haha we had a great day at church, a very busy day but a
very good day! We were supposed to teach the investigator class but
then someone asked us to teach one of the primary classes for a bit
and so Elder Jensen taught the investigator class and I taught the
primary class. I defiantly got the best part! I got to hang out with
them for about a half hour and teach about missionary work and do a
few simple role plays, then I went back to the investigator class and
translated for the English speakers in the class. Then after the class
two of the kids ran into the room and jumped up onto the chair next to
me and gave me a big hug and one kissed my cheek. Haha very unexpected
but it was so funny. There are so many kids in this ward. I love it.
Then we got to help out in primary for third hour! After church we
went to the Albrechts house and had lunch and talked with them and
gave a spiritual thought about mothers and then we went to the church
to talk to our families on Skype! It was so much fun to talk to
everyone and see that everybody was doing so well and hear all your
voices and see all your faces! 2 of 4 calls home are already done!
Crazy! Haha

Today we just did our shopping the. Went and hiked Drachenwand again
because it's way cool and elder Jensen had not done it yet! It was way
pretty than we visited Horst on our way back and now we are about to
go to a members house for dinner!! Great week!
Liebe Grüße,
Elder Hunter