Dear family (and other people who read this email), 

The photo of me with a snake and an iguana was in Huasco (a port town of Chile) during a local festival. You tell me not to do it again but it is not every day you can hold a boa in the driest desert on earth. I had to give it a shot. Plus it happened four months ago so...(I was wondering why no one had asked me about it sooner) 

I also managed to find my Mom´s car here in Arica. It is parked outside a church building and it was only the second time I have seen a car like that here in Chile. I had to take a pic. Grafitii is common here in Chile but I only take pictures of the grafitii I like. I would not say that grafitii on cars is THAT common but I have seen it more here than in Utah. Of course, I do not know if there are not those things in Utah or if I just did not get around like I do now as a missionary in order to find that stuff.

This week was rough. We taught very little. We found only 2 new people. But. You know what. This was the best Sunday I have had in this sector. We had an attendance of 85 and 6 Investigators in Church. Plus it was the Primary Program which is always a hoot. Francisco wants to get baptized (he should have his interview tomorrow), Mario wants to get baptized and his wife is more receptive now, Emanuel wants to get baptized (he participated in the Primary Program!), and Nicolas wants to get baptized (found him last night). Lots of good things even when the work is hard. Mario and Daniela have attended twice now and Mario is sharing the gospel already. He went out to visit people with us on Wednesday and he introduced us to Nicolas. Nico had problems with drugs but wants to leave all that behind. He is only 18 but he has passed through a lot.

This morning we went to see the Chinchoro Mummies. They are older than the mummies in Egypt. It was pretty cool walking around the museum and learning about this ancient culture. My comp kept getting excited because he compared everything with the Jaredites from the Book of Mormon. It was the first time we actually did something fun for P-Day here in Arica. Apparently I will be with Elder Mariscal for another 6 weeks so hopefully we can make this transfer more enjoyable than the last.

This Saturday we have our conference with the entire mission and Elder Cook. There should be some other Seventies such as Elder Ulisses Soares and Elder Walter F. Gonzalez. Something big must be going down because it is rare that there are so many authorities in one place (well, other than Utah). I have videos of our choir practices but I doubt we will be able to record the actual performance. It actually turned out very well in my opinion.

I am glad that you guys are doing well. I love being a missionary but I do miss being able to do normal things. I plan to do a lot of "catch up" in order to know about movies, shows, books, news, technology, ect. I like to be informed. This week we learned about the terrorist attacks in France by pure chance. We had no clue until we entered a house and they just happened to be watching the news. Of course my focus is not on the world for now but I plan to stay updated once I get home.

Anyway, I love you guys. Thanks for your support and enthusiasm. It truly makes a difference. And even though I am fairly certain that I already have skin cancer, I put sunscreen on everyday so don't worry. Take care and God bless.

Con amor, Elder Hunter

Dear Kate,
can't use youtube. Not even for things from the church. Thanks anyway for the update.

Lots of crap is going down and it was all prophesied many hundreds of years ago. yet the people still dont listen. Gosh dang stubborn planet Earth. I am still in Chile so yes. There are still doors that are too short for me. I have pegged my head twice in the current house. I talked to my Mission Leader.... and I forgot to tell him. Sorry. But the man does not have a cell phone so it is hard to actually get in contact with him. I will see what I can do.

Take care sis. Con amor, Elder Hunter

Dear family (but let's be honest here this is mostly Dear Mom),

I have had a lot of issues trying to upload videos (through correo or on onedrive). I will see what I can do but I believe that for the majority of the videos you will just have to wait til I get home. Sorry. For everyone else that wants to see my photos:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B2427ECFACEEAD2A!106&authkey=!AHd3Ha6V4mX4bW4&ithint=folder%2cjpg 

These are my first year photos.

 https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B2427ECFACEEAD2A!576&authkey=!AMCqbWl70gLTdWE&ithint=folder%2cJPG

These are the photos of my second year in the mission.

Our investigators here are doing fantastic. Francisco wants to get baptized on the 28th of November. Emanuel wants to get baptized and loves church. He will participate in mutual this week with the Young Men. He is only 11 which means he can't get baptized alone so now we are working on his family. Royers left the city to go fishing... but that is his job. He is a fisherman so we hope that he is reading the Book of Mormon on the boat. Mario Navia is another investigator that we have and he has his answer. He knows this is the true church and wants to get baptized but now he has to start living all the commandments... his wife, Daniela, still has a few doubts but we are working with our Mission Leader so that they can share with more members and make this decision. Maxi and Nathaly, the recent converts, are also doing well.

We have been seeing some good progress here but we have also been struggling to keep our appointments. When we go, the people are not there, and if we do not go or if we get there late the people were waiting for us... someday we will get this to work out.

Not a whole lot more I can say this week. I am doing well, using sunscreen, still can't remember peoples names, ect. I thought my Spanish was pretty good but a few people shot me down this week. Guess I need to study more.

Anyway, Love you all. Take care and God bless.

Con amor, Elder Hunter

You are a good, dedicated Bishop and father. I would like to see more Bishops like you here in my mission but hey. I am sure each one is just trying to do the best they can. Unfortunately I feel that many of them are like I was. They procrastinate, are pessimistic, and blame others for the lack of progress. I guess I am still like that in some ways but I am doing a bit better. 

It is interesting how you see the best and the worst as a missionary. I see great examples of faith and diligence but I also see plenty examples of laziness and blame. I can't count the number of times I have wanted to smack someone because they tell me that they don't go to Church because of the Bishop. I always try to help them remember that their baptismal covenant is with the Lord, not with the Bishop nor the missionaries and some people listen and come back. Sadly, many do not want to listen to the spirit because of their pride. Now, I am not a perfect missionary (though I am sure Mom tells everyone otherwise) but I do wish that people would understand that their eternal salvation is at stake for something so simple as not partaking of the sacrament.

sorry. needed to vent a bit. last week we had an attendance of 48 in a Ward. I was kinda frustrated. This week we got up to 73. Doing a bit better. Love you Dad. Thanks for your example and your advice.

Kaitlin, I appreciate your enthusiasm but I have no idea what policy change you are talking about. I have one day of the week that I can use the computer and I use the majority of my time writing you guys. All I know is that the Church is true and the book is blue. (the triple technically has other books so the Book of Mormon is blue and true)

A few of my socks have had holes but I sewed those up. A few of my pants had holes, sewed those up too. A few of my shirts have had problems with the front pocket, sewed those up too. The only things that I have not been able to really fix are the insoles of my shoes, the tags on the garments, and my Pday shoes. 

Enjoy the snow. I still have to wait a year... but I have sand in the meantime! 

Love ya sis, Elder Hunter

We haven't seen pics for several months.  These are a few of my favorites from the 600+ we got today!!

Duck Brock Duck

He is on the Atkins Diet

Dryest place on Earth

One year later

Pday Shoes

Elder Hunter, Elder Holloway

Elder Acosta, Elder Hunter

Elder Mariscal

October Conference 2015

Brock thought Mom was checking up on him

Chilean Wal-Mart

This one's for Mimi - Brock got in the pic

Atacama Desert

It's a small world after all

Tie Couch

Cushions filled with ties

Ay Caramba!

Dear family,

This was an interesting week. A good week but definetly interesting. We were able to find several new families to teach out of nowhere. The Lord is helping move his work along. Sadly, only 1 investigator came to church this week but he is getting ready to be baptized in November so we will be happy for him while we are sad for the rest. Hurray for Francisco! 

Emanuel did not come to church this week. His Mom came down from the mine (she works 10for10) and she does not like us as much as Emanuel´s grandmother.

We have three people with set baptismal goals . If you want to pray for people then please include Francisco, Emanuel, and Royers (Rojers) in your prayers.

I had an intercambio with Elder Francis this week. The last time I was with him was 6 months ago in Copiapo. It is cool to find people again later in the mission. We are preparing a special musical number for when Elder Cook comes. I am learning to sing bass. There are two missionaries who know what they are doing (Elder Hinton and Elder Childs) and the rest of us are kinda lost but I think the song sounds pretty good. We are singing Praise to the Man (in spanish of course). I also had a heart to heart with my comp. Things have been better with him so far. Hopefully it continues.

Halloween was fun. Elder Mariscal and I switched name tags and we worked dressed as each other. No one seemed to notice but oh well. There were a lot of kids dressed up this year. We also found a lot of people who were completely against the holiday and they blame the North Americans for bringing it to their country. Oops. 

We have recieved a lot of help from the members recently. We have even been able to do splits and visit several families at a time. I have been able to do splits here more times in 4 weeks than I have the rest of my mission. It is weird sometimes to be with members instead of my comp but it is good.

I am very sad to hear about Nate Wagner. It is weird to hear that people I know are getting married but even weirder to hear that someone I know has passed away. 

I am glad that you guys enjoyed Halloween and I hope that you can get prepared for Thanksgiving. I look forward to being able to celebrate with all of you next year. But for now I have to focus on the mission. SO, I will talk to you guys next week. Love you, God bless and take care.

Con amor, Elder Brock Hunter

ps. I heard from a member that David Archuleta has a new song about Family History Work but they have only seen it in spanish. It is called Nunca Pensé (I never thought). I was wondering if it existed in english or not (as I cannot actively search on google as a missionary I hope that you can help me know)

Kaitlin

This week has been interesting. To say the least. The way to celebrate day of the dead is to go to the cementery. We did not go but most everyone else did Saturday or Sunday. 

In truth, my garments are getting worn out. The tags at least are torn to shreds... you cant see my name anymore (and I have had to rewrite my name several times with a sharpy).  Garments, jerky, and a skype call should be good for Christmas this year. I still have the christmas decorations from last year and next year when I get home if you want you can give me more things. For now I don't need more "stuff" (nor do I have space for it). 

If you are determined to give me a "gift" this year then there are options to buy some personalized leather scripture cases here in Chile with the logo of the mission. If you send some money then that would be a great christmas/ birthday present for this next year.

Also, my mission leader here in Arica has a request. He wants a triple set of the scriptures with the gold leafing on the pages, tabs for the books, and his name on the front. Apparently you cant buy those here. He is willing to pay for it but was wondering if you could send it in the next package for me. His name is Javier Delgado.

Chile does not have any form of Thanksgiving. That is a gringo holiday.

That should do it for now. Take care Kate. Keep working hard.

con amor, Elder Hunter

Dear family,

Nice to talk to you again. The miracle of the week would have to be Saturday night when the Grandmother of Emanuel decided to let him go to church with us. Emanuel is 11 years old and is reading the Book of Mormon and praying by himself. His grandmother was working on Sunday but said she would accompany him next week because she saw that her grandson is interested and that it is something good for him. We were just walking past the house when she called out to us and at first she was very critical asking why we were sharing with her grandson but by the end she understood and was interested in our message.

I am sad to hear that the hunt was not overly successful but it definetly could have been worse. Here in Chile some people love Halloween and others hate it with a burning passion. We shall see what happens. (the pumpkins here are green, they dont have orange pumpkins)

It is super weird to hear that people at home are getting married. I dont know why but it is just so strange. Congratulations to Cameron and Travis. A family here in our ward wants to watch Mormon Movies and they are looking for the film where two inmates escape and pretend to be missionaries. What is that movie called? Also, I noticed that my debit card expires in January. Do I need to pull out all my money before January or do you think I can replace my card?

This week I was slightly less lost though I still cannot remember names. We managed to work with several members this week in order to visit people. This morning we spent all our time waiting in the PDI just to change our adresses in the Government records... oh well. Things you gotta do. I am doing well, just a little sunburned. I am getting along with my companion, at least for now. We also had interviews with the Mission President this week but I am not going home just yet so that is a good thing.

Referring to the package: I am glad you guys liked your gifts, the cats are technically chinese but you will not find a business here (any business) that does not have at least one of those cats. The cats are supposed to bring in luck and prosperity with their paw. 

Dear Grandparents,

It is weird to think that another hunting season has passed by. I cant remember an Elder Adams but the name sounds familiar. This apartment has some good things but it also has a few doors that are just too short. I have already hit my head 3 times... Thanks for your support. Love you.

Sis, 

My companion is a convert of 3 years. He read the book of Abraham first and knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and then as a member he started to read the Book of Mormon. I have gotten to know a few people better but most of them I still cant match the names with their faces or their addresses...

 Halloween is Witch´s Night here in chile and the first of November is the day of the dead (I believe it is also All- Saints Day). We shall see how many crazy people there are here in Arica.

Take care Kate. IOU one gift that could not be sent...
Con amor, Elder Hunter

I love you guys.Time in the mission passes ridiculously fast so I will talk to you soon.

Con mucho amor, Elder Brock Hunter

Dear family,

Nice to talk to you again. This weekend Maximiliano and his daughter Nathaly were baptized and confirmed. I was in the font with Nathaly and I was also the one who performed her confirmation. Unfortunately, she unplugged her nose as she went under the water. She thought she was going to drown. Poor girl. She said she liked the confirmation a lot more. They were baptized for Maximiliano´s birthday. Elder Mariscal baptized Maxi.

We have several investigators here but they are not reading or going to church... we also found several new people this week and hopefully they will progress a bit better. I am still lost and I don't know the names of the members...

Hopefully the deer hunt will start being a bit better for you all. It has been a while since I have seen animals other than dogs, cats, turtles, and pigeons.

I dont know how Halloween will be here in Arica. It is the land of eternal spring because it is still warm in winter but in summer it is hot and burning (just like the rest of the mission). 

Today we cleaned up the pension a bit and we found thousands of ties inside the couch (instead of real cushions). We both managed to find a few that we liked. Supposedly there are other pensions here in Arica with even more ties. I will have to see it to believe it.

I feel like there was something else that I needed to say today but I can't remember what... sorry.

Love you guys. Enjoy your week and God bless.

Con amor, Elder Hunter

Dear Grandparents,

Thanks for writing me and supporting me. A lot of missionaries don't have the support that I do. I love you guys and I hope that you can enjoy this deer hunt season. Hunting is not very common here so a lot of people are interested in why we do it in the United States. Some people get offended too but they have no problem having a giant barbaque every soccer game...

I really enjoyed conference too. It was cool to see three new apostles. The next General Conference will be my last one in the mission. Hopefully it will also be a very spiritual experience. 

Love you guys. God bless.

Con amor, Elder Hunter

It is always interesting adjusting to a new sector. Arica is dirt brown and is a big change from green Vallenar. I am next to a hill so my sector is long and curved around the hill. It is an urban area but there is also a section of "haciendas" which are large plots of land. The people there can be very poor but have a lot of land or they can be very rich with huge mansions. Supposedly we have an investigator that lives in one of the mansions. You can see the sea from some parts of my sector but everything here is dry.

I have kinda recovered from the bus ride but I have felt groggy all week. Hopefully that will pass with time. The Mamitas here are inactive members who love the missionaries (again) but we will be working with them. Elder Mariscal was a mechanic with his own shop but then he changed carreers to be an engineer and then he opened a restraunt for his mom to run while he came on his mission. He is a hard worker and he likes to talk with people. There is a lot of work to do here but there are several members who are excited to work with the missionaries. We will have a baptism (maybe 2) this Saturday. We taught Maximiliano 3 times in a week so that he could have the baptismal interview. He wanted to get baptized on the 17th because it is his birthday. He went from not wanting anything to not wanting to wait to be baptized in about a month. His daughter, Natali, also wants to be baptized but we have to teach her a bit more.

I cant believe you guys met the new apostle. I did not really know who he was when they announced his name but I really enjoyed his testimony. The Lord prepares those he calls.

Jake

Of course the Apostle comes when I am on a different continent. That is awesome buddy. And though you lost the football game I know that you played hard and if you did your best then you can't ask anything more. You can get a lot down with those powwows if you work hard and smart. Stay amazing Jake. Love you too. Elder Hunter

Tell Grandpa Mellor and Cooper happy birthday for me. Love you guys. Take care and God bless.

con amor, Elder Hunter

Dear family,

My conference weekend was special to say the least. I was uplifted by several talks and recieved some much needed personal revelation. I also puked after Elder Bednar finished his talk.... but hey. Life is full of ups and downs and that is what  I get for eating coconut cookies during the morning session on sunday. We watched the conference in the District Center. I watched each session in english but my companion watched in spanish. We did not have investigators present but we did have a few less actives that showed up. Some of my favorite talks were from Elder Cook, Elder Montoya, and President Monson.Gathered together as missionaries we also shared our opinions of the talks with one another and we also felt that President Monson´s talk shows just how dedicated he is as the Lord´s servant.  I enjoyed Elder Bednar´s talk as well which is why I did not go to the bathroom as soon as I should have...

I did have a transfer this week. I am now in Arica after 22 hours and 30 minutes on a bus (literally the longest bus trip possible in this mission).  My new companion is Elder Mariscal from Trinidad, Bolivia. He is 25 years old and a convert of 3 years. I do not yet have photos and I do not know more about him... My new sector is called Valle Azapa. I know nothing of my sector and I only know the Papito of food who is not a member (his wife is a member but she was not home. She was in the airport saying goodbye to their granddaughter who is going to serve an LDS Mission in Colombia). As soon as I finish writing we will go out to work.

My last week in Vallenar was good but because I did not know if I had cambios (transfers) or not I was not able to say goodbye to everyone that I wanted too. There are several people who might be able to be baptized in this next transfer.

I dont really know what else to say. My bus trip kinda wiped me out. I will write you guys again next Monday. Love you guys. Take care and God bless.

Con amor, Elder Brock Hunter

Kaitlin,

Congrats on being region 12 champs. I hope that you will do as well during the playoffs.

It just keeps getting hotter. I was dying on the bus because they do not turn on air conditioning during the night.

Take care sis and enjoy homecoming.

con amor, Elder Hunter