July 25, 2017

It has been a pretty awesome week for us really. I am staying right here in Lorain in the same spot with the same companion.  It is kind of crazy though. I have been companions with a lot of the people who are going home this week so that is really weird. We have continued to be blessed with lots of great people to teach, we found some pretty awesome people lately, but it is just getting them to stick that has been a little more difficult. It seems if you can at least meet a few times people will progress, at least some. We just taught 2 middle aged ladies yesterday and they are looking for truth and answers it seems for their families. We have been trying to continue to ride bikes and it has been great. The weather has been marvelous here and I hope it stays like that. I also had some of the best pie I think I have ever had Sunday. We ate dinner at the Buchanan's, they are retired I think but own a berry farm and Sister Buchanan cuts hair. Brother Buchanan used to be a top 40 recording artist a while back, in country music I believe too. Anyway, she makes the best pies ever! We have been trying to hunt down quite a few less actives lately too, there are a lot it seems here. We just keep plugging away.



I am still doing well, I am very blessed to be able to serve here and this week I have learned much. I have learned more that it is all about service. That to lift where you stand is one of the best things you can do. I hope you all have a super awesome week too! We are going to try to get going "harder in the paint", and do what we need to do. Thanks for all you do.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

July 19, 2017

We have again been blessed in many ways this week, it is kind of amazing how it happens. First, it has warmed up this week and we have had some nice humid days for sure. We have been able to spend lots of time with one of my favorites Brother Pickersgill this week. He has been baptized for about 4 years now and is the Sunday School President in the ward. He is a bigger man and cant walk to far, so he rides his wheel chair around a lot. We went with him to eat dinner on his birthday, went to a couple appointments with him, and he has the sisters in his area so I think he liked the change up so much that he took us out to eat again on Saturday. He is super nice and loves missionary work. We also got to visit with the Maynard family this week. They are an older couple who Sister Maynard is pretty active, and as Brother Maynard puts it, has been investigating for about 60 years. They could tell you stories all day about missionaries and it was fun to meet them because I had heard a lot about them. We also visited with Stephanie again this past week, and had a great lesson. She is really seeing the need for the Gospel in her life right now and wants to make some changes it seems, so that is super great. Yesterday we went on exchanges and had some super awesome things happen. We did lots of bike riding and some tracting too, and when the day was over we had 3 new people to teach for our area between the 2 of us.

I am glad to hear summer is cruising right along, I was thinking recently that this time of year used to be kind of like summer was almost over. It is transfers, so I will email on Tuesday next week. I should be staying but there might be a couple little changes that happen so it is better to be safe than sorry. The other elders had an appointment with Marie, but she cancelled because she was sick so they are going to call on Tuesday and try to set something up. 

 i havent really ran into any Amish much, I have been in the city most of the time. I know there are places where there are hitching rails at wal- mart for them though. 

Elder Walker and myself are doing ok, we are quite different thats for sure. He is super caring about the people we teach and that is always amazing. As far as getting used to companions, it depends. some it takes some time to adjust, some are pretty easy,  but always you have to adjust things. 

 I am so thankful for all that you all do. Have a great week!!

Love Elder Koden Hunt

July 12, 2017

This week was one full of events for sure. Of course going to see President Uchtdorf was awesome. He is just so smooth and good with people and he is a fabulous speaker. He talked about lots of different things, but one thing that stuck with me a lot was what he related to Independence Day. He was talking about of course the 4th of July and what that means for this country and then said everyday should be an independence day for us. When we go to bed at night we can review the day, repent where we need, and go to bed having put the day behind us, except of course what we learn, and starting the next day fresh. We can go to bed with the past day out of our minds. Then we wake up and pray we will do the best we can and begin as if yesterday didnt really happen. He also talked a lot about having a testimony of the Book of Mormon.
We are still working to find people who are really prepared still. We taught one lady named Stephanie who has lots of health issues and is living in a pretty rough place, but she wants to learn and get the blessings from the gospel. We have been doing lots of biking lately like usual. It has been warming up and raining quite a bit too. Nothing super crazy for us, just in search of those who are ready and helping those who need a hand. I have for sure learned a lot about what it means to truly care for people and hopefully do what Christ would do this week. The teaching has gone pretty good, we have been able to have some good lessons, and some that aren't official lessons, but we have been able to share things with people and it has been good. I have learned how to study the scriptures better I think this week so that has been something I have really enjoyed learning more about and got to study about too.
It sounds like you are all having lots of fun and I hope you all have the best week ever. I am grateful to be here in Lorain and be able to learn all I have here. You will probably get message from a lady who said she saw a blog to take pictures of missionaries and send them to their moms, so we arent sure who it was, just a random lady.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

July 5, 2017

This week has been a really crazy week for us. After last email Elder Walker ended up getting pretty sick so we would go out in the morning (Thursday and Friday), then after lunch he wouldnt feel to good so I listened to some General Conference talks mainly. On Saturday we went on exchanges with the other Elders in the ward and it was great. We have had some amazing weather lately and we got our biking in for the day for sure. We had our Stake Coordination meeting on Sunday with president Brown, President Snyder (stake president) and the sisters and other Elders ( which would be Elder Stephens and his companion) so that was fun. We also ate dinner with a family that used to be in the Cleveland Ward a couple of years ago, so that was fun too. We had interviews on Monday, and then we went on exchanges for the 4th of July with the Elyria Elders.
I have been able to learn so very much this week and it has been wonderful! I have been able to begin to see people in a different light, I have been able to see more of people's true identity which has been great. I have also" learned again, for the first time" as Elder Gong puts its, about how powerful prayer can be and the effect it can have on all things. Thought I learned much about prayer before, it actually goes right along with the talk I am giving in church on Sunday. I am giving the talk on prayer and they referenced me to a article from the October 1981 Ensign by President Spencer W. Kimball which is super good.
We dont have anyone who is moving super fast right now, we were able to meet a younger man with some great potential. He just got out of jail and is really looking for the truth right now. We went to the wrong house for our appointment with him yesterday, so we tried to call him and he didnt answer. He tried calling us back while we were driving but forgot to get back to him once we parked the car. So later while we were riding our bikes we didnt recognize him, but he flagged us down and we were able to talk to him, it was pretty great.  We also have some others in the wood works.
There are only Elder Walker and I in our apartment, the other Elders are on bikes and dont live super close, but we pick them up a lot because they are a long way from things, especially the church.
Glad to hear you had a great 4th of July. Elder Brown who I was with yesterday loves the 4th of July. He has lots of family in the army or some used to be. His mom also works at the Joseph Smith building on temple square so she has some cool stories. I hope you find all the cows and that you get some rain too. We keep chugging along here and it will be a great week to come , I know that. I hope all goes well with all the activities and that your summer is super great, which it will be with all the fun family things going on.
Thanks for all you do and I hope you have an amazing week!
Love Elder Koden Hunt 

June 28, 2017

It was an interesting week here in Lorain. We did lots of finding and we again reaped many rewards from our labors. We went on exchanges with the Elyria Elders and it was a great time. We had some Hungarian soup for dinner and were able to start teaching the lady from Puerto Rico who had already gotten a Book of Mormon before. We also got a good soaking while riding our bikes around, but it was all great because it was so warm it didn't make to much of a difference. We got to eat lunch with the Lee's who are a pretty old but super nice family. We also were able to start teaching a lady who requested a Bible online so that is always a great opportunity to teach people. A lot of the people we are teaching right now are in the beginning stages which is a super good experience to try and help them progress and keep commitments. We have been traveling all around the last couple days, because of the lower number of missionaries in the mission at the moment we are in a big district which includes missionaries about an hour away, so we drove to their church building on Monday for District meeting and yesterday we went to the Mission Office for mission leadership council.  I also talked to Elder Jennings, the Site director, and he knew Grandma Schmutz and he knows Kim and Becky Hafen too. Sister Rice who works in the office and is also from St, George also said I need to stop by her house when I get home to visit, she is a super nice lady.
It has just absolutely been amazing weather for us here, in the 70's usually, maybe a little breeze and mostly sunshine. I am continuing to learn things all the time and it is wonderful. We are going to keep pressing on here and I hope everyone has a super wonderful week!
Love Elder Koden Hunt