Christmas call

This week was interesting. For starters we have many dinner appointments for the next 3 days and that is fattening for me which is just fine.

Since we'll chat tomorrow I'll just a say one thing now.  We got shot at 3 times with a pellet gun. We're fine but my comp was mad and wanted to go find them which we didn't do.  I though it was funny.

Chat tomorrow
Elder Hunt

Mission Christmas Conference

Our Christmas nativity

Pittsburgh

A terrifying but inventive way to get their basketball down

Mission accomplished!

Excited for baptism!

This week was a great week!  For starters we have 3 new people we’re teaching, and they are excited to hear of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!!  We got a call from a person we’re teaching, and she told us of her experiences when she reads and prays for forgiveness.  She said that there is no denying the gospel has been restored to the earth and how she is excited to be baptized.

As for what day are Bryce and Alandra getting married my guess is March 16^th.   I'm not lucky enough to have my brother get married on my birthday, but here's to hoping.

I'm very glad that Kayla is ready and excited for her mission she’ll be an awesome missionary!

I have exchanges tomorrow I don’t know where I'm going but I'm ready. Zone conference is on Thursday and I'm excited for that every time!

Have a great week

Elder Hunt

Live Nativity!

We had our ward Christmas party.  Elder Zarges and I had a lot of fun there because it was a live Nativity. Us Missionaries were the tour guides, taking people to the different rooms with the shepherds and the wise men, next room was the angel and Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus. A member wanted the Missionaries to take a pic with Saint Nick so that's the picture she sent you.

My companion split his face open!  He was playing basketball on exchanges with the Spanish Elders and they headbutted each other.  He got 3 stitches, but his scar is coming undone, in my opinion, the nurse should have given him 5 stitches

The Bishop’s family fed us yesterday, we had Hawaiian Haystacks and they were so good. Tonight, we’re having dinner with Norman, the musician we’re teaching, and he asked me to make crepes, so I said yes absolutely.  So, we're having pork ribs and crepes for dessert.

I'm doing physically fine. Emotionally I'm doing great!   I’m staying warm so don’t worry. I think the weather feels fine, however, Elder Zarges thinks it's freezing.  But he IS from California so.

Love 

Elder Hunt

Photo from the Ward Christmas party sent to us by a ward member

Best homemade lemonade and hot chocolate 

Christmas in Pittsburgh

"A deer 6-10 feet in front of me"

The deer are everywhere 

New tie from Kayla!!

Messed up seasons!

For starters, this week is hot!  Yesterday it got in the high 60s today it's the high 50s so it's hot around here in the great city of Pittsburgh. I'll be heading out on exchanges again this week with one of the Spanish Elders, Elder Neddo.

My companion talks in his sleep and some of the things he says are just the funniest things you'll ever hear coming out of a man sleeping.  Now here's the conversation my companion and I had while he was sleeping.

Him- tosses and says, “We do this all the time,”

Me- mumble “Agreed”

Him- “Yeah we do this all the time”

Me- “And what is that?”

Him- “Yeah! we flash our souls!” mumbles for another 5 seconds

Me- dying out loud laughing!!!

I love my companion! We get along great.  He’s the best.

We had our first fried chicken dinner here and it was great, better than Utah’s fried chicken.  An 80-year-old couple fed us and gave us sugar cookies.  They are the best, gotta love them.

We have 2 people on date for baptism.  They are great people and love what we tell them but are they willing to leave their old life and start a new one centered on Christ? Not really, not yet, but were working with them.

I love what I’m doing! I love meeting and talking to new people every day.  My favorite part of my days is my personal study.  I really love it.

Take care and stay warm

Elder Stuie

Our investigator, Norman

Merry Christmas

Dinner? Breakfast? There's never any fruits or veggies! 😂

Changes!!!

This week was a great week!! New changes with my new companion Elder Zarges, I’m very happy to get him, he's so awesome!!.  Elder Zarges is from Sacramento California he is the 2nd oldest of 5 and he has been out for 18 months so far.

Oh! I met Elder Hale!  He was so confused when I told him about how I knew him then he’s like “Yes, I think I met you once at the parade when he was running for Mayor” I said, “Yes that was me.”

The Christmas package was the funniest thing I’ve opened so far mom!! Elder Zarges is very grateful for the things you gave him. The Christmas necklaces are the funniest ever! We are planning to wear them to zone conference (with President Bednar’s approval) We decorated the Christmas tree and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

We met some Catholic preachers who wanted to Bible bash with us. They wanted to prove to us that the Trinity is real. So, we asked them a simple question about how Christ was at the sermon on the mount when he says to pray to the father in his name. They gave an answer saying he was praying to himself up in heaven. Then we asked them about when Christ was baptized with the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove and Heavenly Father speaking from heaven to John the Baptist. They gave nearly the same response to that too so, we just let that go and just said, good bye, have a great day!

We met more people to teach and both seemed very interested. We have appointments with them this coming week. They are very grateful to have met us and I for one am very grateful to have met them too.

I saw Bryce's Facebook profile changed to engaged so I'm tremendously happy for him and Alandra.

It's a little late but Happy Birthday mamma I love you and I wish you the best from now until I get back, so I can tell you in person, and I hope you are keeping up on the deal we made with each other when I left.


Thanks family and friends for all the support.

Elder Stuie

Elder Hale

Elder Atkinson

Elder Atkinson and Elder Downs

Decorating the Christmas tree

It's hilarious they chose to set up the 1 foot tree on the 

floor rather than a table.  Boys are so funny!! 😂

Elder Zarges

Some of the streets of Pittsburgh

Happy Thanksgiving!

This transfer is going to be an interesting one.  For starters, Elder Atkinson is leaving, he is going to Huntington over in Altoona and I'm ready to take over the area. Then the Spanish Elders are becoming Spanish entirely and we will get new missionaries in the South side.  My new companion will be is Elder Zarges.  I don't know anything about the other missionaries on South side.  I am the only one left in the English part of our district. Transfers are tomorrow because of Thanksgiving on Thursday.

My favorite part about a mission is the first lesson with people.  I love when we can teach!

As of right now we don't have any dinner date for Thanksgiving Day but previously we had an inactive family have us over for dinner and it happened to be a Thanksgiving dinner.  After dinner they gave us 2 bikes, so I have four bikes at our place, but we plan to give 2 of them to the South Side Elders.  Another dinner we were invited to was also a Thanksgiving dinner with one of our investigators we’re teaching.  Her name is Michelle and she is the best!

It snowed on Wednesday night and Thursday Elder Atkinson and I enjoyed a snowball fight. Then on Friday it all melted so no, I don’t count that.  It only snowed a couple of inches.  It doesn't snow a ton in the big city of Pittsburgh because of the pollution from the steel industry and the whole downtown big buildings thing.

This city is getting more violent by the day.  I’m not afraid of the gangs, I know why I’m here and I know I’m protected.  I hear gunshots almost every night while in bed. It’s pretty weird.  At first, I thought they were fireworks, now I know they’re just gunshots.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Elder Hunt

Busy week!

This week was a long and packed one. We had at least 2-3 teaching appointments a day! Wahoo!  We taught the restoration and the plan of salvation mostly. Some we taught the word of wisdom because people in this city do nothing but smoke it's not even funny, it's terrible.  I would say to my companion “Hey is that pollution or cigarette smoke?” He would reply with the latter.

This week we were treated to Arby's for dinner and I had a French dip. Some of the members know about my family and the French connection so they asked me what the dip was called I told them its au jus and of course, for some reason, they couldn't repeat it back to me correctly. It was funny to watch.

️Snow has not hit the ground just yet but it is ABSOLUTELY cold here. The coat you sent is the best, it works miracles. Thank you!

With one of our teaching appointments we had to go across town and we got there an hour early accidentally because we were too cautious with traffic. My trainer, who had some members tell him about this place that got good reviews, said he wanted to try it out so we decided to eat dinner at this place called "The Church Brew Works"... yes its exactly how it sounds it used to be a catholic church but now it's a brewery.  I didn’t take pictures in this place except I did take a napkin. You can look up pictures of this place in Lawrenceville PA. The food was great.  It was bar food and it was delicious, I liked it! That's a mission story I can tell throughout my life.  I can already see it, "Yea, my trainer took me to a catholic bar."😂

Love you
Elder Hunt

The Church Brew Works at night (Stuart's photo)

The Church Brew Works, Lawrenceville PA

I Googled some shots so you can have an idea😂

Dishes after making banana bread

I love the ward here!!

This week was absolutely slow.  I don't like it when nobody ever comes to the door when its painfully obvious that they saw us, and we saw them.  I just wish they had the courage to answer the door and do either 1 of 2 things.  1, say not interested or 2, open and listen.  So, we knocked on too many doors to count and some people answered and said not interested which is something I'm 100% fine with.  Others wanted to know more and I'm happy for that like 200%.  We got 4 new people we’re teaching and hoping for another appointment. One guy is a musician and works with Dan Forrest, great musician.  I love them.

We had zone conference last week too and this new Elder beat my height by quite a bit.  My guess is he’s 6'6 to 6'10.  I stand next to him in the picture of Zone Conference.

I love this ward, they are so willing to go on team ups with us and so happy to help us.  Especially when you consider most of the members are college age and some are still in school.  They can't find the time to get a good night’s sleep, but they will team up with us without hesitation. I love that!!!

And I love this mission I don't want to be anywhere else!  Yes, I want to be here more than in France. I also wonder why I am here and not in France like the rest of my family? I don't know, but I know there’s a reason, food for thought.

So yes, we have transfers coming up soon, Elder Atkinson and I are pretty sure that he will be transferred somewhere else while I stay here probably with a follow up trainer.  Exchanges also went well.

We were invited to dinner a few times this week.   They were great meals.  Pineapple over here is something else compared to Utah.  Let me just say pineapple here is way better than in Utah.

Elder Stuie

Fall in Pennsylvania

Zone Conference