milagritos.. little miracles

"kiss the frog! he will turn into your prince!" catching frogs with some ninos

Well this week was a good one! We have been working HARD! It feels so so good. My companion is doing well with adjusting to missionary life, everyone takes time, but she is handeling things really well. 

So our week did start off a little rough. Tuesday at lunch (our pension is a restaurant) this man was just staring at us and then asked if we were from America. He started speaking in English and said he was from France. He asked me what we were doing here in Peru and I explained the whole missionary thing. Well... then he went off on a rant on his beliefs in not believing in Christ. It hurt so bad to hear someone talk that way. Then he started going off about the states and saying horrible, not true things about the army, the people, the government.. a lot of things and even started threatening. Then he started attacking us for being gringas and the rant ended a little like this "Get out of here. GO HOME. No one needs your help. No one needs your money. You selfish gringas. Just go home" I told him "enjoy the rest of your lunch" and i turned around. My comp was in tears and it was just a rough moment after all the nasty things and even some rude hand and finger actions. I realized in that moment.. that man did nothing but strengthen my testimony and make me more grateful for the life the Lord has blessed me with. I am thankful for these hard moments that in the moment are heart breaking, but just make me stronger.

Well we were in a trio for a couple days with Hermana Nelson and it was fun working in the 2 sectors getting to know each others people and learning from one another. Well it was really awesome. This week we saw even more suffering. Emotionally, temporally, spiritually.. everything. It is so heart breaking to see people like this. The jungle is a rough life! It hurts a lot when you just LOVE these people so much. But we had a theme going this week in every lesson.. the answer to solve all this suffering is to make sure you study the Book Of Mormon and say your prayers every day. As an individual AND (this is KEY) as a family. This makes miracles. The spirit is in the home. There is more love, peace, patience. Your attitude changes,, you are more HAPPY! The "endure to the end" part of life- which is the hardest part- becomes easier. You have God on your side helping you through everything.. when you do these things. Of course going to church and keeping all the other commandments is crucial, but if we dont read and pray, the rest dont happen as easily. Some of these people have such testimonies of this. We went to a married couple that has two kids and they just arent getting a long right now and we asked them if they are reading the BOM and praying together.. they said no. We asked them what life was like when they did. They said "there was a lot better communication in our marriage when we were reading and praying together." .... yep. there you go! It is something so simple, but like elder Oaks said "JUST DO IT!" Miracles, MIRACLES come to pass when we do these two simple things. Our desires to be better are stronger. Our understanding of the gospel and its importance are a lot clearer. Everything is just better! The people out here progress in life when they read and pray as individuals and as families. It will do the same for all of you. Do not miss a day. It is something so crucial in these times. I am so thankful my parents made our family wake up early in the morning to read and pray. It taught me just how important it really is. DO IT. 

Milagros came to church yesterday! She loved it. She was just so cute and has so many questions so we are gonna go this week and explain every little thing to her. We took her home after and her whole family was at the house. They were super friendly, as always, but still not wanting to listen. Poco a poco! Milagros is the most amazing 15 year old girl. Just craving to learn more and listen and in church she asked "Hermana Hunter, how old do i have to be to be like you?" I asked her what she meant and she pointed at my missionary plaque. I was so filled with joy! and I told her 19, and that she would be the best missionary. I am so thankful for her. She teaches ME! She told us this week she doesnt hang out with friends from school much because they dont do good things so she likes being with her family. She is gold. Before I didnt know how i felt about letting her get baptized without a family member, but I feel like she is just progressing so fast. She answered questions in Sunday school perfectly! ahh i just love her. Yesterday I just thought about my friend Rachel Cornelison. She was a 15 year old girl looking for the truth as well and now she is on a mission, even though her family wasnt being taught at that time she was, she was faithful. Joseph Smith, searched for the truth at 14 years old and stayed faithful. Why not Milagros? I am so proud of her. She is amazing.

Well my funny side note is that on our way to Triunfo in the bus, we stopped at a stop light and the bus jolted forward and when it did that.. the little kid sitting in fron of me leaned over and hurled all over my foot. Yep. I was just proud of myself for not vomiting.

I love you all so much. I love being a missioanry. I am just so happy! It is hard, but I see miracles every day. Miracles that are so small, that they turn out to be huge. I love these people here. I feel attached to them already! I love this work, and I love this Gospel. 

love always,

    Hermana Hunter

happy halloween!

we had time on halloween to go grab some ice cream to celebrate

Im a mom

Elder Justin Jensen and I !!! so fun to see a friend

Hi everyone!

Well this week was mostly in Cusco, but I have some fun things to say. So i traveled all day tuesday and got to Cusco tuesday night and I got there and Hermana Arroyo, Hermana Hoskins, and Hermana Purse were all there in the Cusco house waiting for me and welcomed me with a tackle to the ground. It was so fun to see the Hermanas from my group! I just love them so much. Hna. Purse had a change back to Puno! And Hna Arroyo and Hoskins are training as well! It was so fun to catch up. Well Wednesday I got my hija! Hermana Whit from Washington. She is so cute. She wanted to serve in the Jungle so she is loving it here in Puerto. It is so fun to see her just love the people already and want so badly to communicate with them and they are being so kind to her so I am so happy! We got to go contacting in the plaza in Cusco at night and it was so fun. I told her to lead me and to start up every conversation and she looked at me all scared, but then did it! Its so awesome having someone so new. Its just all this excitement which makes everything so fun! 

So we got back here to Puerto on Friday and got right to work. My heart broke. We started visiting all of our people and they all completely opened up to us and everyone is suffering. I really dont know what happened, but its like this dark wave of problems hit puerto. Everyone is trying to look for jobs, family members dying, people in need of phsycological help, husbands hittling their wives, hearts hardned to the message, struggling for food on the table.. everything!!! My companion was just in shock of the suffering here. We even watched as Hermana Luz told her children that she wasnt going to cook didnner because there was no food left and the dad hadnt gotten back from fishing, which is the only way they can eat. My heart just broke more and more every visit we had! But something amazing happened. It seemed that, for the most part, everyone realized they were in need of our visits more than ever. Even members are asking us to come visit them to help strengthen them. My heart was so touched this week as some of our less actives that have not been to church in MONTHS came yesterday and some even brought non member friends! As much as it hurts to see everyone suffer, it was so happy to see poeple like Giovanna come to church with her kids. One experience that really touched me was with a 20 yr old girl named Judith. We got our first visit with her and asked her why she got baptized and why she doesnt come to church. She wants to come back to church, but her parents dont have a job right now and she had to quit studying to take care of the kids during the week and then she works on the weekends to help her family. It broke my heart. We had a powerful lesson on enduring to the end and then she offered the prayer. After the prayer she was in tears. She then opened up telling us what really was going on in the family, but asked us not to share with anyone. It broke my heart into pieces. But she was touched and she is going to try and come to church next week.

 Something funny that happened.. we were talking with our pension yesterday and Tom asked my comp is she has a boyfriend and she said yes and told him that he is waiting for her. Tom then looked at me and laughed and said "hermana hunter, all of your comps have had boyfriends waiting for them at home. you dont! do you get sad?" I looked at him and just laughed and said "hermano Tom I am not worried and no I am not sad I am on the mission." Then he got all serious and started to say to Karen and my comp "Hermana Hunter is a very special girl. As I get to know her I realize she is one of the few girls that is super fun, but is also spiritual and she isnt crazy. She is just a good mix." Then said "Hermana Hunter, dont worry, the day will come. You are a super cool girl. Just try and hurry up and get married when you get home before something bad happens:" I am still a little confused but to me it was just the funniest thing that has happened to me. Hermano Tom likes giving me life advice. Then i teach him how to live the gospel;) I love them. They are like our little family out here.

  I love these people so so much!! I am so grateful to be here serving. I am so grateful to be a missionary in this time. It is a hard time to be here on this earth, but the Gospel is our anchor to hold us still in all the storms of life. I love this gospel. I love the mission. I am more and more grateful every day for the many blessings I have. I love all of you. Read, pray, go to the temple- Its the little things that make enduring to the end a little easier. Its a crazy world, but be strong. Thats what I learned this week.

I love you all!

Hermana Hunter

my investigator has a Utes football!!! WHAT

transfers are always a surprise

the triunfo hitch hikers

Hey everyone!. Well today was transfers! I have never had a transfer go by so so fast! Its crazy! Anyways, my companion and I thought we were both safe for one more transfer here in Puerto together, but our district leader called and changed everything. We really thought he was joking because he began with "both of you have a change" and i thought what?! i just got here!! Well he told my comp she is serving in a little pueblo close to Puno and then said "Hermana Hunter, you will be training a new missionary" Oh my.. I was not expecting that. I still cant belive it! I have 7 months out in the mission, but I still feel like a baby out here! I am so nervous, but so excited to have this amazing opportunity that not many missionaries get here in this mission. I know that not only my President has trusted me with this assignment, but also the Lord. And I trust in them as well. Just pray for me!! 

 

  Well this week a lot of things happened and it was pretty rough! But I have learned so so much this week and I am so thankful for that. On Tuesday we had a cita with some of our investigators, Maria y Milagros. Well Maria, the mom, wasnt there so we just taught Milagros. Shes 15 and just the cutest. Well in this lesson Milagros told us that she prayed and she got the same feeling that she gets every time we teach. She said it was a feeling of happiness, but it was a different happiness that she has never felt before and its through that, that she knows the church is true and feel in her heart that what we are teaching is true. I was amazed at this 15 year old girl! Just so confident in what she was saying and that she sincerely looked for an answer, recognized it and wants to act. She even asked me "how do I get baptized?" Well I told her to start by coming with us to church on Sunday and she told us her mom said she needs to go to the catholic church and that kinda threw everything off. We then prayed that her mom would soften her heart and that both Maria and Milagros could come to church. We called Milagros Saturday and she said was allowed to come, but that Maria didnt want to. Well we went to pick up Milagros yesterday and no one was home and the neighbors said that they had traveled to the monte (deep jungle) I was so sad!! But I know that maybe right now isnt the time for Milagros to be baptized, but one day she will.

 

 This week we were invited over to one of the members houses for lunch (lunch is the big meal of the day) and oh my. it was SOO good. we were there with the elders as well. it was so fun! then we had to walk a long way back to the bridge to catch a bus, so jokingly i put my thumb out acting like i was hitch hiking and this man pulled up in a moto car and said "jump in! I will take you back to the city!" it was sooo funny! so we all hopped in the back and rode back. the elders said "we need to walk back from triunfo with you more often!" ha. it was my first official hitch hiking experience.

 

 Remember Hans and Giovanna?? well they have to get married. They want to progress, but cant until they are legally married. 6 Different sister companionships have worked with them! Well me and my comp had said that we wanted to teach in the way that the prophet and all the counselors spoke to us in this last conference (yes i finally watched it! and in english!) STRONG and DIRECT! Here, the people kinda need it. so I wont go into detail, but this lesson was absolutely incredible. There was no beating around the bush and trying to be all mushy with them. It was straight up. Their faces said it all. They finally understood. But... Hans said he wanted more time. He wants do do whats right, but now is not the time. Before I could even think the words came out of my mouth.. "Hermano Hans, this life is not a game. The time to do the right thing is NOW" The spirit really helped us in this lesson. It was amazing. We felt the impressions and we acted. We didnt listen to the impressions and say it in a different way, we just spoke. The way it ended broke our hearts when Hans said he just wants to be "perfect" before getting married. We testified so strongly. I wish I could say it all, but this lesson really impacted me. After the lesson my companion and I both needed to just sit down. We were heart broken and literally spritually exhuasted! We sat down by the river and just broke into tears. As missionaries we can literally see the potential people have. What God sees in His children. It is easy to see the distinct difference between lite, and dark, right and wrong. This is a blessing, but in this moment it hurt so bad! This family knows whats right, but they just will not do it. To know of their potential and the blessings they are missing out on literally breaks my heart. 

 

  I want to testify this week that God lives. The church is true. This gospel is perfect. It is the only way back. Satan is so so strong right now. I see it every day and it breaks my heart. But I do know this as well, God lives. We are His beloved children. He has provided the way and it is up to us to live it or not. When we dont live it we are simply lost. But when we do live it, we can so clearly see how true it is and how much joy and hope it brings us in this world. Every day if we are doing our best to do what is right, every day it gets easier and easier for us to see the path set before us. Every day, try a little harder to be a little better.

 

 I love this gospel. I love missionary work. Some days I feel like I just cant keep going, but each time I make it through. The Atonement is real. Use it

 

I love you all! I will be in Cusco until Saturday so it wont be so interesting next week, but pray for me and my new hija!! 

 

Hermana Hunter

xoxoxo

 

My first coco agua experience!! its nasty.... i dont know why they love it

I Am A Child of God

cake to the face

Hola a todos!! 

  Ahhh. the mission! Oh my I have some awesome experiences to share. 

First, so it was our Pension's daughters second birthday and we had cake, then i told the little girl, Carly, to go put whipped cream on her dads nose, she did it, then to all of us.. well then it ended up in a cake fight! we all were COVERED with chocoalte cake and whipped cream and laughing our heads off. It was such a fun experience because our pensionist's were returned missionaries who fell in love, were going to get married, got pregnant, now Tom doesnt want to marry Karen and says hes not in love. We are working sooo hard with them! They left the church for 2 years and recently are comming back. Its a tough situation, but this night we saw a little change. They had FUN together! and as a family. So I guess.. if theres problems, just throw some cake!! 

  We are teaching a less active little boy with his non member parents and we watched the Joseph Smith movie and then talked about the BoM and then I asked Giovanna <the mom> if she prayed about Joseph Smith and the church. She smiled at me and said si! I asked, ok.. how did it go! she smiled and said _ I got my answer, I know the church is true. I was amazed!! this was our second lesson with her! I was so happy to be reminded again that there truly are people prepared to recieve this message. It gives so much hope to all. The gospel is for everyone. I asked her to be baptized and she said she wants to pray because she is catholic and was baptized there and theyre all about the one baptism. one faith. thing. But for my companion that was her first lesson with Giovanna and she was amazed. I asked her why she was so shocked and she said that before, the mom was always pushing them out the door and never wanted to listen and now she's thanking us every 10 minutes in the lesson for being in her home and teaching her and accepting the church and completing her commitments to pray! That made me so happy. Everyone has their time, but the gospel is for everyone. 

  So president came this week and as always, it's the best and we leave with bien animos to work so hard! One thing he told us is that something so simple, that everyone needs to absolutely understand is that they are a child of God, and that He LOVES them. When you understand, you change. You no longer want to do your will, but the will of God. We were told that if needed, we can have a whole lesson on just that basic principle. I loved that! So it was interesting, we went to teach some of our less actives, Maria y Juan. They had a son die in a moto accident a year ago when he was only 21. They stopped going to church a little before his death, and haven't been since. We could tell that this pain was causing a hardness in their hearts towards the church. Maria even said <why did this have to happen?> So that first lesson we taught the plan of salvation, then we went back on Saturday and were going to teach the Restoration. Well we began, and it hit me that we needed to teach them how they are children of God and that He loves them. Just that. I was amazed at the spirit during that whole lesson. Maria could barely breath she was crying so hard and Juan even was choked up. That basic principle really is something so powerful. They have been mad with God for the death of their son, but once they understood that God LOVES them and they are His children, they CHANGED! they were softer, more accepting, more willing to change and even said <we are going to church tomorrow.> I was so overwhelmed with what we had just felt and what we had witnessed in that lesson. I think Maria, Juan, my companion, and I all left that lesson with a better understanding of who we are and how much God really does love us. We all were changed, and we all gained a new testimony. It was incredible. 

  We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father. He loves us more than we will ever be able to comprehend. He has a plan for us. Its not going to be easy, sometimes we will ask the question.. why? but its because He loves us. As we come to better understand that we truly are children of God, we understand more of why we are here and what we need to do. Ask God if He loves you in your prayers. He will let you know. This knowledge is the most precious thing to me. To know I am a daughter of God and that He knows me and Loves me, has helped me feel more confident. More happy. More willing to except lifes challenges, and more willing to do His will and not mine.

 I loove you all bastante!!! until next week

Hermana Kenzie Hunter

puerto has some cool art

elections, flu, temples. what a mix

my favorite little jungle kids!! 

Oh my what a week.

Well, tuesdsday and wednesday were full of amazing experiences!! We worked SO hard!!! We had a visit from our hermana liders and I got to go out with Hermana Chipunavi, from Bolivia. She is so funny! It was so fun to learn from her and get to have a different feel in the lessons. I had two experiences that really impacted me.

 1. we went to a less active that we have only visited once named Betty and we walked in and she was a little different. Then her monkey started going crazy and I was trying to start the lesson... only in the jungle. Well she then said "hermanas i am gonna leave now to the city." so I asked her if we could leave her with a prayer and she kinda just looked at me and didnt respond and then i asked "or we can just come back tomorrow?" and she said " hermanas, its better that you just dont come back" i was schoked. my heart sunk!! I just had all these thoughts in my head like "no! this cant happen! she needs to raise her kids in the gospel, go to the temple, have a forever family!" Me and Hna. Chip. just started testifying to her and she wouldnt look at us. Then I said "hermana, can we please come back?" and she said "bye hermanas, nice to meet you." and stuck out her hand to shake our hands which here, you greet everyone and part ways with a kiss on the cheek. We walked away and I felt as if I just watch my sister walk into a dark path. As missionaries it is so amazing how you can litterally feel things and even though i barely know betty, i so strongly feel that she is my sister! It hurts!!! But I am just praying and praying for her and I want to go back in a couple weeks when maybe she is more calm

 2. we have a less active couple that we are trying to help with their papers to get married, they are almost all done, but now for some reason they want to hold off. NO!!!! Their names are Hans y Jovanna. Oh my. I LOVE Jovanna. She wants so badly to do what is right. She wants to go to the temple so badly. Our branch is going to the temple in December and so her family is going to get sealed, but if she doesnt get married, she cant go in with the rest of her family, or her own kids and husband! I feel such an ergency to help them so that they can go to the temple.  Well we decided to read a talk with them about why the temple and the ordinances are so essencial in our lives. Its by Robert D. Hales and it is beautiful! It talks about the pioneers and how they new they needed to be endowed before making the rest of their journey and how it helped them overcome trials and challenges. Then it goes into forever families. Oh my the spirit was SO strong. I started testifying to them about my temple experience and that covenants really are so essencial and so beautiful and help us in every day of our lives. Then i testified about how much a forever family means to me. Oh my. it was amazing. Hna. Chip. also gave such a powerful testimony! Then Hans was going to tell us something and then said "ah, i just lost what i was going to say" it was so frustraring!! we were so close to getting something out of them. But they both kinda bore their testimonies of the gospel and it was so special. Jovanna shared that her non member sister waited outside the temple while the rest of the family was inside. She started to get teary then we were both in tears together. I then told her that I dont want to see them waiting outside the temple, I want to see them inside making covenants with God.

  I can honestly say that was one of the most powerful lessons ever. Then a couple days later Hans saw us walking and bought us Inka Kola and chased us down to give it to us. SO cute! There was a little change. I know that we can help them progress now. Just kinda had to give them a wake up call;)

 Well that night we went out to dinner with the hermana liders and well... the next day i was regretting that. Yep... sick sick sick!!! it was such a bummer!! But I got a blessing from the distict leader who heard i was sick and then came straight over. It was so nice! 

 So Peru had elections yesterday. Everyone has to go back to where they were born and you HAVE to vote. Also, we werent allowed to have church. yep! thats a law too! no meetings on election day. which meant no conference. So in the morning yesterday while all of peru was voting, us and the elders played uno. ha! it was fun. yesterday we kinda had to stay hidden in houses for my safety as a gringa on the craziest day here. It was kinda funny.

 Well, i want you all to know that the misison is easily the hardest thing i have ever done, but I am so happy to be here. Every day I feel a change inside me. I learn something new everyday. I become more and more grateful everyday. I understand Gods plan for me more and more every day. I love the gospel more and more every day. I truly realize what life is all about. And I now understand what the important things in my life really are. I am so thankful for this time I have to be here, to learn, to grow, and to become more of the girl God wants me to be.

  You are all amazing. Thank you for supporting me here. I love you all!!!

Hermana Hunter

Uno with the elders and our "mommy"

Just call me Jane of the Jungle

bananna chips!!

Hi family!! im alive.. i dont have a lot of time so I just wanna share with you what happened today

So we got invited by some members to go to their chacra o monte, or in other words DEEP JUNGLE. they grow bannanas and pineapples so they have huge property in the jungle. So we traveled for 2 hours in a "moto car" (sorry mom) its in one of these pictures. anyways we got their and we chopped down pineapples, bannanas, and went fishing and then made ourselves lunch with all of it. SO FUN!! we also studied our scriptures out there which was so awesome. so then after lunch we decided to go explore. We brought machetes and water and decided to go for it. So we are walking on the trail, enjoying the jungle, the trees, bugs, and then we thought " hey, we should go off the trail into the deeper part of the jungle. no path will be so cool!!! total Indiana Jones!" so we did!! well it was pretty cool, but the deeper into the jungle we went, the more anxious i felt, like not very safe. We then got so deep that we were cutting our way through with these machetes and trying to press forward. We then decided to go down  by tis little river, well we went down and I was right behind Moises, one of the members and we found ourselves in a pile of HUGE fire ants that bite "fuerte" anyways, so we run out of that situation. The other two hermanas and my comp are screaming, tripping, and I am just jumping over things and didnt care about the other spiders and jumping bugs haha. then Moises said "you like the adventures dont you? youre not afraid of the bugs and getting dirty. your husband will love you." I laughed and said "I grew up going camping and hunting with my dad and brothers, I am an outdoors girl for sure." Then I thought, wow, all of that really did help prepare me. these other girls think they are dying! so we kept walking on, then we had to cross a narrow log that was SUPER high up above the stream to get to the other side to hopefully find our way back, it was so scary crossing it and I did it without screaming like our other friends;) and then we kept walking and it seemed like we kept running into dangerous obsticles. Finally, we found our way to the path again and it was a wave of relief!! We had been in there for an hour! 

So on our way home I was thinking about how we thought it would be so fun to go off the path because the jungle just looked so much cooler off the path, then we got lost, ran into challenges that were a little scary, and how I was just feeling unsafe the whole time. Well thats life! We are on the path, living the gospel, doing what is right, then we get tempted. Something that the outside world offer can seem super cool, but once we get off the path, you run into other dangers, you dont feel good because you dont have the spirit, you feel lost, and it can be hard to find the path again. It is so important to stay on the path! and when we waver a little, do everything you can to get back on the path, because the farther away from it you go, the harder it is to come back and the more dangerous it becomes. 

 We have the gospel, we have the path set out before us, we have to make the decisions that will help us STAY on the path. The path is narrow, but dont lose it. When we are on the path, we have the spirit, He will help us along our way. Dont get stuck in a pile of ants or have to cross a super scary log or get lost. Keep that ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE. 

   I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Hermana Hunter

me and my friend Niko the mono!!!

going off the path....

the scary moment...

our hot ride

Welcome to the Jungle!

yep, river... i was wearing my comps glasses and forgot

Hi everyone!!! Well, I am in Puerto Maldonado now!!! Oh my... It is HOT!!! Like really, I went from Puno where it was snowing to here where I feel like these people are crazy for living in this heat. But oh my it is beautiful!! Our sector has the main part of the city and then the real life jungle! We have Triunfo, Puerto Viejo, and Pueple viejo and then the plaza de armas, a huge bridge that takes 15 minutes to cross. Here in Puerto we are only 2 hours away from Brazil so there are Brazilians here and we hear some portugese and its fun- im learning for you dad!. oh my it is so different than my last sector. It was actually super hard leaving Puno and my companion. It was my home for 5 months! Now I am meeting all the people here and trying to get around this huge sector, it has been a hard change, but I am excited for what's ahead. My companion is from Peru, she is from Lima and she is such a cutie. She speaks English well too! But I told her I will help her with her English and speak to her when we are in the house, but outside we just speak spanish and it has been great. Just in one week I feel a lot more confident speaking. My grammar is good now, I am just working on learning new words. 

  Well this week was mainly me meeting the people, and it surprised me, but we only have 2 investigators. I still haven't met them, but yeah the problem here is everyone is inactive, thats why its just a branch, so we work a lot with less actives which is cool, but all the ones we visited didn't come to church. They all said they were busy chopping down all the plants, picking the coconuts and selling them, unshelling nuts and selling them... ahh jungle life. It really is hard though, but I got my companion excited about finding new people to teach and really figuring out what the deal is with all these less actives here. I can tell there has been a slip in the work here, but I want to work SO hard and I just want to help these people and help this rama become a stake. Its gonna be hard, but I am excited. Also I was informed that all the missionaries that come here to Puerto stay here for a realllyy long time. like I will probably leave when I hit my year mark. So that will be cool to really get things going here.

  Well some funny things, my first night here I already had to take a shower, we take about 3-4 a day, and I came out and there was a HUGE cockroach!! I kinda squeeled and made my companion kill it. She laughed and said "welcome to the jungle" yeah the bugs here are HUGE. Oh my. And every missionary has a bunch of scars from all the bug bites!! Also, the other day we were teaching a less active and it started raining SO hard!! Like we could barely hear our own voices. So when we left we RAN to catch the bus back into the city. Well we went and got boots on to walk around in the water the rest of the day and oh my.. i kid you not the roads down in the jungle were literally mini rivers!! I feel like Indiana Jones here no joke. Its an adventure every day!! 

  Something I learned this week is about forgiveness. I learned that when we forgive others, no matter what may have happened, we immediately feel the love of God, for us, and others. It is an amazing feeling. It isnt always easy to forgive, it take humility, and many Christ like attributes to really forgive, but it is so important. I know that is we cant forgive others, God wont forgive us on our part. It is better to let things go and keep moving forward than to keep something nagging at you forever. This life is filled with trials, and some of the trials come from other people, but if we forgive and move on and focus on what God thinks of us and that what we are doing is right, we are filled with His spirit and love. So I hope that we can all forgive others and also treat others the way Christ would. Life is a lot happier!

  I love you all more than you know!! Seguir adelante con fe

Hermana Hunter

xoxoxoxo

found some kids chopping down stuff with their machetes.. livin the life