Monday, April 25, 2016

Dear Family,
This was not the best week of my mission (I was sick a few days) but there were certainly some high points. I attended a District Meeting where I did not have to teach, I had an intercambio with Elder Wocicki the District Leader and we had a great day (though he is ending his mission this transfer and is fighting the trunkiness), we managed to take 2 investigators to a ward baptism and those investigators also came to church on Sunday. Roger might be able to get baptized on the 7th of May, Luis can get baptized when he wants (he just needs to have the desire), and Lucas is reading in Mosiah 14 right now but he does not come to church... but we are seeing good things.

Now to answer your other questions. I have the same comp for now but he might not be here for the call on Mothers Day and he has not helped me much in searching for members that have computers in order to do the call. BUT I WILL FIND A WAY! I will try to call around 5pm Utah time (you guys end at 4 right?) which is about 8pm Chile time but I really don’t know what will happen if I end up with a new comp...  sorry I can’t be more specific. 
As long as I am with Elder Aguirre he will not hire a Mamita. The fleas are still eating me alive. The weather is getting colder and cloudy. And a Chinese washing machine has Chinese characters written on it instead of normal words. I will get a pic but I don’t know if I will be able to send it. 
Bad luck on the Turkey hunt but hopefully things will improve. The members here sometimes say that you should not marry a returned sister missionary as a joke but some say it seriously. I could not really say why.

Everyone is working hard. Perseverar hasta el fin. No es fácil pero sí es necesario.  (Endure to the end.  It is not easy but it is necessary)
God bless you all. See you soon.
Con amor, Elder Brock Hunter
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Dear Kate,
I know a few of the members though more of them know me (I am bad with names still). Little by little.

You are planning to move in with some friends or something when you start college right? Are you moving out of Dad´s Ward? Still not sure how that is going to work out...

DUTCH OVEN!!! HOW I MISS THEE! The food here can be good but there are some things that are still hard for me to eat (pero no niego cuando las hermanas me lo ofrecen, no soy mal agradecido). –(I don’t turn it down when the sisters offer it to me, I am not ungrateful).  I love chirimoya alegre helado. I love chorripanes. I love empanadas. I love pichangas. I love zapallo italiano relleno. But I don’t know what is my favorite thing... there have been many delicious things to eat on my mission.

I swear you guys do all these things now that there are only four of you... how rude. Speaking of "how rude", have you heard of FULLER HOUSE? It is a continuation of Full House that a member showed me. Anyway, take care sis. Congrats on your new job. Remember to pay your tithing and smile at the customers. See you soon.
Con amor, Elder Hunter


Monday, April 18, 2016

Dear Family,

Nice to hear from you. The weather is usually cold at night and sometimes in the evening. If we go down close to the beach then the breeze makes things chilly as well (I have beach in my sector now). Thank you very much for your prayers and thoughts. I miss Utah weather but I don’t know that I will miss it so much when I am there again but oh well.  My comp fired the Mamita because there was a hair in their soup or something. I still don’t even know who the old Mamita was but several families have offered to help us with lunch. Those days I eat a bit better than normal...

Sunday had a lot of potential but my comp left me alone with an investigator as he started talking to people. I felt about as lost as our investigator but a few returned missionaries came and introduced themselves to him. They may have saved our investigators impression of the church because a lot of other people were cold... I know very few members still but I am starting to recognize certain streets and addresses. This ward is larger than my last ward. We had 111 people in attendance though, as always, many of those are primary children.

I am still fighting with fleas. I washed my blanket and when I hung it up to dry I found a flea crawling around so I squished it between my fingernails. Unfortunately that seems to not have been the only flea attacking me. Tell Kalin congratulations on being called to serve in the best mission in the world (even if it is not the prettiest). If he has questions now he can write me an email or he can wait and ask me when I get home.

Good luck getting everything done that you guys need to. The end of the school year is always interesting. I am still in shock that you guys will be ending so soon. I had to start telling people that I am 20 and I feel old now. Time is going way too fast. 

All the members here warn me against marrying a return missionary but we will see what options are available when I get home. Besides, I don’t want to get married too soon after the mission. I still have to see what adult life is like before I attempt to share it with someone else.

It sounds like Jake is a good shot now so I hope that you guys get the chance to find some turkey before the season ends.

The work moves on here in Antofagasta. Roger came to church as well as Patricio, but sadly Lucas did not make it. We have the support of some of the local leaders but it will require a lot of diligence to get everyone else excited to help the Obra Misional. We have done nothing exciting for Pday since I got here. The most thrilling things that have happened are when I found a lot of spiders while cleaning and the fact that there was a short power outage while we were trying to buy groceries. But oh well.

God bless you all and I will try to get details on when we are going to talk on Mother’s Day.
Con amor, Elder Brock Hunter


Hey sis.

Stressful weeks must run in the family. This week was not my favorite in the mission either though I did finally get the bday package. Tell Jake that I loved his homemade brownies and that the jerky has helped me retain my sanity. Those treats, as well as the double stuff Oreos that I bought here have helped me mucho. 

Which car are you driving now? The new one or my old one? It isn’t by chance the same tire that I crashed into the curb is it? Anyway...

We are seeing progress but slow. Several investigators are showing less interest than before, which is hard to see as a missionary but others are showing more interest and are reading the Book of Mormon. I know the area a bit better but still not super well. I also don’t know where many members live. We are renting a house behind a house. It has two floors with a kitchen (good), 2 bathrooms (both suck), a living room, and three bedrooms upstairs. Outside we have a Chinese washing machine and a cable to dry our clothes on. I sleep on a bunkbed now and have hit my head on the ceiling several times.

Sometimes I feel like I have changed a lot and sometimes I feel like I need more sleep... or that I am mostly the same. I have discovered some things about myself (like that I love working with kids. Thanks Tryston and Acey) and I have also discovered several faults (stubborn, prideful, impatient) but with those things I can make improvements. I think that something that has changed is my devotion to the gospel. I have shared with a LOT of different people and I can testify that the Gospel can help all of them. And some of these people have REALLY hard lives. I also have a greater appreciation for cultures other than my own.

I don’t know if I am taller but the members I have met from my old ward say that I am skinnier. Sometimes I have a hard time with English. I am sure that you guys will hear a few Spanish phrases when I get home because I can’t remember what I would have normally said in English. I heard about an earthquake but felt nothing. Where did the earthquake take place? There is a virus in the computer so even though I found a card reader, I still can’t send pics... now I just hope that the virus doesn’t delete any of my photos.

Take care sis. Hope this week is better than your last. 
Con amor, Elder Hunter


Monday, April 11, 2016

Jake,
Nice science experiment. Did you eat the eggs afterwards? Why do you believe that the homemade oven cooked the egg best in the 2 hour limit? If you brought that egg to my mission it would get cooked a lot faster. Just like the missionaries! :P

Hey family and friends,
Thanks so much for the birthday wishes. Those of you who did not wish me a happy birthday are forgiven as well so don’t worry about it. I did not do much to celebrate. Tell Karen Bybee Happy Bday for me.
For my Bday I bought Great Value stuff from the states and made a lunch of mac & cheese, apple juice, and bbq sauce. I still have a few things from last year so I also lit a candle and made a wish at 11:11 at night. Hope it comes true but I can’t tell you what I wished for. Then today I found double stuff Oreos so I had to buy it. I told a few members that Friday was my birthday but in the end nothing happened but that is okay. The mission is the one time in my life that I should and can focus on others more than myself. Plus that means I avoided having my head shoved into a cake. 

I did not get the package last week but maybe tomorrow. I have to go to the Mission Office for interviews tomorrow so I can ask. 

Chile gave me a different type of birthday present. I have fleas again. The weather here in Antofagasta is very different from Arica as well. I actually feel cold here and a lot of the time it is overcast. 

It has been weird learning to manage my schedule now that I also have to make time to wash, iron, and cook. But I am doing it. My shirts are not quite as white as when the Mamita washed them but they are clean. And my diet is not as healthy as it was when I had a Mamita but I don’t go hungry. I cook quesadillas, pasta, Mac&Cheese, eggs in various forms, hamburger patties, sausage, and I bought frozen Chicken Nuggets today. Not the healthiest menu but there is variety and on the weekends we eat with members. We don’t have Mamitas that help us here because my comp and his comp before me fired the Mamita... but on the weekends we eat well. This Sunday I ate octopus so that was interesting.

My comp has about 6 months in the mission and he almost has 2 years of membership in the Church. He and his sister are the only members in their family and he had to confront a lot of challenges to come to the mission but there are some problems at home and he is considering going back. I don’t know what will happen.

I have no idea what I will talk about when I get home because I know that the talk should not be a travel itinerary and I also have no idea who should talk with me. Any ideas? I also don’t know when I will call home. When I get out of church here it will be about11am there but by the time I get to a house to call... I don’t know yet if I will call before you guys go to church or after.

The work is going well here though I still don’t know the streets or the people very well. I also don’t know how much I should trust my comp sometimes because he told me that someone was named Roja (red) but when I asked him his name was Roger... the important thing is that Roger is interested in the church and is reading the Book of Mormon but still... We have two people who might get baptized on the 30th of this month but they need to attend church more consistently. We will be working hard. I have to make use of the short time that I have left. 
I know this church is true and I have never been more sure that what I am doing right now is what God wants me to do. Love you all. God bless.
 Con amor, Elder Brock Hunter

Hey Kate,
My birthday passed by mostly unnoticed. My zone leaders called to tell me Happy Bday but that was about it. My comp Elder Aguirre completely forgot though I had mentioned it on various occasions. Oh well. My week was decent but the mission always has its challenges. And my comp is a very interesting guy. The pension (our house) is a bit better because we spent 2 hours cleaning today (though it still needs a lot more work). I am still mostly lost. But that is normal.
I gotta go now but here quick we will talk on Skype. I still need to figure out what members have computers... I might have to make the call from a ciber (an internet cafe). That would be weird...

Take care sis. God bless.
Con amor, Elder Hunter


Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Dear family and friends,

Tomorrow we have Zone Training so we will see if I get the package then. If not then next Tuesday we have interviews with President Dalton and I might get it then. We will have to wait and see. Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Hopefully I will get to do something fun but I think God already gave me a birthday gift because I was able to see several families from my first ward in the Mission over General Conference Weekend. I even got to be with my convert and hear how he has been sealed in the temple to his wife! This plan works! And plus I was inspired by the words of the prophets. What a great weekend.

My sector is large with a lot of businesses separating the houses above from the houses along the beach (I have beach in my sector!) so we have a lot of walking to do. The new house... is pretty disgusting honestly. We need to clean a lot and call a plumber to come fix the bathroom. 

Someone was praying that I would learn how to cook and do my own laundry (thanks a lot guys) so in this sector we do not have Mamitas. I cook and clean for myself now. I almost went 2 years. Almost.
My comp is a new convert to the church and a bit weird honestly... and that is coming from me. He is a good guy but he keeps telling me how his rooster was the best in the cock fights (those are legal in Peru apparently). Anyway, I really don’t know what else to say about him.

We had investigators, less active members, and recent converts watching General Conference. It was great. One of the investigators with most potential is named Lucas. He is 15 but he already wants to be a missionary. We were explaining what that means to his mom the other day. I still don’t know a lot of people in the ward but there is some good potential here.

There were several talks that I loved this weekend. Some of them I hope to use now in the mission. Some of them I marked in my notes to study after the mission. (I especially liked the 70 who spoke about how his daughter had cancer). I watched it in English in the "gringo room". For several of us in the room it was our last conference of the mission. I felt really sad when I heard someone yell "no" again when they were sustaining the general authorities but I know this gospel is true and I support the prophet as I strive to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.

I love you all and I pray that God will bless you in all your righteous actions. 
Con amor, Elder Brock Hunter

PS. My flight itinerary got here... I know when I get home. But somehow I don’t feel trunky... just gotta keep working I guess. See you all soon.

Hey sis, my favorite message... I could not say. I liked several. And even though the Prophet spoke briefly, I loved how he said "if you choose Christ then you choose correctly" or something like that.

I am still pretty lost in the new sector and I have not even met the Bishop... but we are trying. There is one ward in between me and the ward where I started my mission. I actually saw several families from Bolívar at General Conference. I even got to see my convert Mario Guerra and find out that he is officially sealed to his wife in the temple! THAT IS AMAZING AS A MISSIONARY! So awesome.

Safe is relative. If you are smart and stay away from the really bad places after dark then you are fine in almost any sector. April Fools is unheard of here.  I speak well though not perfectly now. (I need to improve my grammar still) I dream in English and Spanish. Depends on the dream. The weird ones are when people from the States are speaking Spanish or people from Chile speak English...

Remember sis, don’t dear john a guy. That is just not cool. See you soon and thanks for the birthday wishes.
Con amor, Elder Hunter