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

Eager to go!

I love this place (MTC) but I'm so eager to get to the mission field and do the real thing and give people the happiness that we have. I’m soooo excited! I feel prepared to go and do it and teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. My teaching skills...I'm so terrible. I get so nervous but once in a while I say something good or I share a great testimony. Over all I feel like I could talk to people and make them comfortable about it so I think it's a great start.

To go along with that on Tuesday night we had a devotional and the speaker was Elder D. Todd Christoffersen. He talked about how God is not happy with the way we use the church’s name. He says to not refer to ourselves as Mormons or LDS and to refer to us as... you know what,  he said to tune into General Conference for the specific details about it plus you probably already heard about it so I won’t say any more on that.

Service was a good experience as well. We separated our district and Elder Foster and I got to clean a mass explosions in the toilets. We pulled out what looked like moldy rats out of a drain🤮🤮🤮. And I found a scripture that describes the food in the cafeteria, Jeremiah 4:19... read it and tell me if its not perfect for it. This morning, however, we had waffles, that was good and tasty.

I just finished at the temple. A sister in my district is a convert and joined the church 13 months ago, she had some family names she wanted to do so Elder Foster, Elder Allred and I helped her out with that. I did a baptism, the confirmation, the initiatory and the endowment. It was cool!

Can’t wait to get to Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

Have a great week
Love Elder Hunt

All copper statue of the First Vision at the MTC

Trying to be healthy

One of his roomies, Elder Allred

It's going by so fast

If I’m honest with you my week has actually gone by so fast, but the days go by slow with sitting in class so much. Yeah, I can't believe it’s been almost 2 weeks already. Holy cow it's going by fast.

The food is good.  It's all cafeteria food so that tastes ok.  We played volleyball in the sand as a district and that was really great!

So, here’s something interesting to tell. While doing our service assignment, I broke a tray of dishes and 10 minutes later so did my companion! 😳

The devotionals are amazing! Last week we had an Elder from the Quorum of the Seventies come and speak, he was really funny, and his talk was something to remember. He spoke on faith and baptism.

My branch presidents name is President Samuelian. He’s a great guy. All his talks are hilarious. My district is great as we have a district Hymn, its #60 "Battle Hymn of the Republic" I almost have it memorized.  Our district meeting was really powerful this week because everyone shared their testimonies.

Have a great week

Elder Hunt

Package from his friends, Mason and Megan

Cookies from Kayla!

Late evening snack package and treats to share

District Temple Session

"Off to bed..."

Hello from the MTC

Well... for three days it's been absolutely bazaar and exciting and its 100% worth it.  I love it so far.  On the first day I got to my room put my luggage away and went to my classroom to meet my companion.  His name is Elder Foster and he's pretty great.  He likes all sports except basketball so we play volleyball during gym time.

The second day was long and tiring. I had breakfast at 7am and then class at 8.  Class though was long, entertaining and tiring, but in all, I like it a lot. It's all very spiritual and I can really feel the spirit. I am very grateful for that, to feel the spirit as it roams around and touches people's hearts.  I love it here.  I'm just anxious and excited to get to the mission field. 

The 3rd day was better than the 2nd day.  I'm just glad that the days go by fast but they’re still long enough to enjoy them. Dinner was good.  We had pizza from Papa Johns.  They must have had a long day making enough pizza for 2,500 missionaries to have 3 slices each.

My dorm is on the first floor and there are four Elders in my room.  Elders Allred, Olsen, Foster and me. I get up at 6:20 to beat the shower rush.  

My daily schedule is eat, class, class, eat, class, class, class, eat, class, class, bed.  I'm kidding!  It's really good.  I like my schedule; my favorite part is personal and companion study I get a lot from that.

My favorite part of my days so far is gym time. You have to run it off a bit.  Oh and the freaking chocolate milk here is the best milk I've ever had!! 

My instructors are Brother Ross and Sister Grover and there are 12 missionaries in our district.  I don’t have all their names down yet. I’ve been sleeping OK. Some nights are better than others. No one snores yet. Bonus

I can read emails anytime I receive them as long as I’m not in class.  I just can’t respond until P-day.

Love you all,

Elder Hunt

The District

The only way to eat cereal

Of one my typical daily meals

My comp can solve it too!!

Our dorm room

I'm good!!

(We received the traditional two liner that missionaries send home right after arriving at the MTC to let their parents know they're OK.  Stuart's sounds very similar to Sarah's.  I think feeling overwhelmed at the beginning is the norm)

I’m good.  I got my room and it’s all good.   My companion is Elder Foster and my p-day is on Saturdays and oh my I am so overwhelmed so that’s something.

I’ll talk to you Saturday.

Elder Hunt

Lunch before the drop off

A bitter sweet day!

and he's off...