Zone Conference

My week was a great week!! We had Zone Conference and this zone conference we learned how to teach the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ all in 15 minutes which is not bad.  It is easier than anything else.  It was also great because we got to meet new missionaries and see how they teach and learn how to teach better from them. It was such a spiritual experience that it makes a person exhausted.  If you think about it, it's true all throughout time, think of someone who had an experience seeing Christ or having a profound spiritual experience, they all were exhausted after the experience.  Like the Nephites in America most of them went home and hit the sack hard or like Joseph Smith after he had the vision he was sent to work on his father's farm and collapsed in the corn field and his father told him to go back to get some sleep... food for thought.

We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders.  I was with Elder Stratford. What a great guy.  One thing I found out about him is he was Elder Hale’s trainer.  Elder Hale is from Arizona but Robert Hale, his grandpa and our Mayor, lives in Midvale so that's one more interesting thing. Elder Stratford and I had a lot of teaching appointments, and I must admit my teaching is improving a little. His area is in the Oakland YSA ward. There are a lot of people he must cover because of the University of Pittsburgh. I love people they’re too funny, we met this guy that told us that Jesus was black and he took 20 minutes trying to make his point that if we just, "think about where he was born its literally impossible for him to be white" so, after we said thank you and went our way.

We also play Ultimate Frisbee with random people on the streets and after the game we talk about the restoration and that's something cool.

We didn’t get fed this week but on the other hand we did get bikes! So super happy about that. It’s a great bike for a tall guy like me.  It has shock absorbers on the seat and the front tires and a 2” seat cushion. I wouldn’t mind riding it the whole 2 years.

Have a great week

Elder Hunt

Bought a new warm jacket

The new bike!!

No caption needed

Beautiful brick streets of Pittsburgh

A very old and scary elevator

"This spider is seriously bigger than a half dollar coin!"

Being tall in a short city...

 This week, oh boy... well, for starters we had exchanges and I went with the Spanish Elders in our district.  I got super confused every time they said something because I didn't know what they were saying, other than that it was great.  We visited some investigators who were confused that my name tag was in English. So, there I was watching the other 2 in my trio do the talking while I sat all confused because I didn’t know squat.

We have many people that we are teaching, but the problem with them is consistency.  We teach 1 lesson and they leave us for 2 weeks and then show up saying goodbye forever.  That is something that really bugs us, it's just disappointing.  But God gave us agency, so we can't complain.  My teaching skills are not always on point but I’m getting the jest of things.  Every once in a while, a person will ask a question I didn’t even know existed like "Hey, from what tribe was Lehi?" That is something I never asked anyone before so obviously someone had to ask me to answer that question, I told them I didn’t know but I would be more than happy to find that out and answer it next time we meet, but of course there never is a next time so yeah.😢

As for transportation we have the bus and we just got bikes on Saturday!!!!  It's a great bike for a tall guy like me.  Oh, that reminds me about this city... this city was not built for tall people.  My head hits the roof of the bus every time I walk in. It's so annoying and of course the people in the bus think it's so funny.  They act like they’ve never seen a tall guy before so that's something.  Also when I walk into a member’s house for dinner I have to duck in the doorways in every room, and again, of course its funny to them 🙄

This week the awesome members fed us chicken tacos on Friday and chicken curry on Sunday. 😉

Well, have an excellent week.  Love you,
Elder Stuart Hunt

City of Pittsburgh (apparently not for tall people 😉)

A study of Pittsburgh's comical advertising

Gotta cut loose every once in a while

Inner city gangs, member dinners and trying to share the gospel message

Alright to begin with this week let's talk about the city of Pittsburgh. It’s been raining for the past 3 days and the people here are all a part of some inner city gang.  So, every person knows at least one gang sign.  I see people with 5 packs of cigarettes, they smoke so much here like you have no idea.  I've seen cigars that are huge, and the people try to keep them in their mouth all the time it's funny (but not really) to watch the cigar drop out when they try to keep the cigar in their mouth when they yawn.

There is a lot of history here, the buildings look like they’re from the 30s and probably are some were built in the 20s too. Some look like they’re from the 50s which is not that bad.  I mean the roofs are collapsed on the insides, but the outsides are fine excluding the roofs.

Now me... I'm doing great and yes can you send me the winter coat that you were talking about? The Clif bars are great.  I’m eating fine, don't worry about my health but I know me saying that won't stop you from worrying mom, so I guess it’s pointless to tell you otherwise. 

The members feed us a lot.  I love it because I get to meet them, and some members from the ward are from Salt Lake City so I tell them I'm from Sandy and they reply with... I'll give you 3 guesses but you’re only going to need 1... that's right, Provo.

We made 5 dozen chocolate chip cookies to give to investigators we might meet.  They weren’t as good as yours mom.  Most of our people we teach don't follow through with the appointments we set up together. When we do have a meeting with someone we give a little gospel message.  My skills are slightly improving from freezing up and can't speak to giving them my testimony. We met this 1 person that believes that god hates his children and to punish us we "smoke" until we get cancer and when we have cancer we suffer with the cancer for 5-10 years and we die and that's it.  She said that there's no afterlife and when we’re buried that’s it.  We couldn't tell her that God actually loves us because she didn’t want to hear it so that's sad 😢

Love Elder Hunt

Contacting in Pittsburgh

The classic trainee sleeping

My study area

I think his idea of eating healthy and mine differ slightly 😉

Our chocolate chip cookies

a 95 year old man in one of the building we tracted paints these oil paintings.

Greetings from Pittsburgh!!

Hello all,

Holy mother of pearl, the humidity is terrible in Pittsburgh, I hate it.  It's so bad I feel like I could just inhale air and get a drink simultaneously,

I'm in the true gangster zone of the mission.  We have an investigator his name is ______, but his gang name is "______" he talks like a regular gangster from New York.  He is the best guy, he’s a saint on the inside but a shoot to kill ask questions later guy.  He wants to know about the gospel but doesn't want his appearance to look different in the hood.

My companions is Elder Atkinson.  He’s a great trainer.  He’s been out for a year and he’s a magician of cards and coins.  He taught me some tricks and I taught him the ways of the Rubik’s Cube.  He learned really fast.  I'm happy that he’s my companion.  He and I are so much alike, we both like soccer, basketball and volleyball. We like sleep, food and we love it when the members feed us.

A little about leaving Utah and getting here.  Packing in the MTC went well, it was super easy to pack.  We got to bed at 9pm and got up at 3am to catch our Flight.  We took FrontRunner and then switched to Trax to get to the airport. It all went well.

I was the Assistant Travel Leader for our group of 27 traveling to Pittsburgh.  Some people were able to call home, but as you know, I didn’t get a chance. We had a connection at the Minneapolis airport then on to Pittsburgh.

President Bednar is the best mission president anyone can have.  We spent the first night in the mission home, there were a lot of people in that mission home.  The next day we got our companions and went to our area.

I love study time, it’s the best! In the mornings we study our own stuff then we discuss it together. We can sleep in a little only on P-days so today we slept in until 7, so nice! The rest of the days we get up at 6:30am.

The members here are wonderful and super friendly! The Bishop and his family fed us yesterday. I never thought about how much missionaries loved being fed until now


I love this place!! This is the best thing I could ever do with my time!

Chat next week,
Elder Hunt

Elder Hunt with his trainer, Elder Atkinson

27 new arrivals 

New arrivals, their trainers and President and Sister Bednar

Elder Hunt in Pittsburgh

Elder Atkinson

His new stomping grounds

 

Leaving the MTC

FrontRunner and Trax to the airport.  You can see all the missionaries clear to the end. 

Maneuvering through the airports

Tracking his flight from his seat on the plane

MTC group tag photo

Last night at the MTC

View from our MTC dorm window

Some MTC murals