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   

June 21, 2017

The Lord has poured out his blessings upon us this week. So i am in " The Great Lorain Ward" as they call it out here and it is pretty great, I like it a lot. Lorain is about right in the middle of Ohio by the lake. It is a smaller place from where I have been the last 15 months or so, but there are still lots of people to talk to too.

 My new address is: 1310 Shaffer Dr. Apt. A     Lorain, OH 44053

There was an investigator in the area book that hadn't been contacted in a while and Elder Walker didn't know him, so we went by. When we got there a man was setting on the porch and said his son wasnt home, but said we could visit with him. He speaks Spanish as his first language it seemed but it was a super awesome lesson. When we were getting towards the end his son showed up and visited with us for a few minutes and it was super cool. They both wanted us to come back and visit with them more. We also got to start teaching a man and a lady who is hopefully his wife, who just moved from Cleveland not to long ago and there last name is Morman, so they took a Book of Mormon for sure. They are really looking for the right church and how to better follow Jesus Christ in their lives. It is pretty cool. We have one man who has a baptismal date for July 23rd so that is pretty fun too, his name is Josh and his wife is a less active member.  

Elder Walker is from Pleasant Grove and is a great guy. He has one older brother and his parents are both school teachers. He has been out on his mission about a year but is older than me. I didn't get a picture with him before we came to email, so we will shoot for next week.

I am doing great, learning so much everyday. One thing I learned in my studies this week, and I cant quote it exactly from Preach My Gospel, ... when we let Christ's words sink deep into our hearts then we are able to be enlightened with new knowledge. It made me think about the importance of pondering and not just reading the things we study, or in other words " treasure the words up". I later learned how we cant just learn things from reading them, and we cant just learn from experience, we need both. When we have the knowledge and the faith, we have the " power of God unto the convincing of men". 

The weather has been pretty good for us really, we have had some great enjoyment walking and biking around and talking to all sorts of people. I hope you all have a great week. I didnt get to tell dad Happy Fathers Day! I am 2 steps behind this year. I appreciate all everyone does for me and the support I receive. I hope you all have the best week ever and keep it up.

Love Elder Koden Hunt 

June 13, 2017

So the big news.... Yes, I am leaving Cleveland and going to the Lorain Ward. It is not super far away, it is still in the same stake and is the ward where Bishop's relatives live I'm almost 100% sure. I will get you the address next week when I know it. My new companion will be Elder Walker. I remember him from when he came out last summer but dont really know him, it will be good. I will still be a zone leader there too. Elder Stephens and I were banking on staying together 1 more time, but I will still get to see him around at meetings we will have so that will be great. This week flew by like it has been. We had zone conference and that was wonderful. Brother Packer from Kirtland came and was acting as a Bishop for a role play we had. It was super awesome for him to come and to be able to see him again, he is a really great guy. We then had exchanges and I was with Elder Williams who just got here from Russia. He had been serving his mission there for about 21 months or so and then when they shut down the mission over there, he got transferred here, he goes home in July. We had a great exchange though and he is a good missionary.
We were also able to go to Kirtland with Charine and her husband and it was awesome. They enjoyed it and Charine came to church Sunday too. She is doing as good as some of the ward members already. I have been able to learn a lot this past week and it has been super wonderful. Jesus Christ's power can help us all to truly find peace and happiness. He can help people change.
I hope everyone stays busy and keeps having a blast doing it this summer. It sounds like that wont be a problem either. It has warmed up pretty good here this week, in the 90's some of the time. We do continue to stay busy and try to keep finding those who are prepared. I hope you all have a great week. I appreciate all everyone does.  Keep up the good work and don't blow away! haha
Love Elder Koden Hunt

Elder Hunt with the Gardner's and their son

Elder Hunt and James Mitchell

Elder Hunt's buddy Elder Taylor

Charine Zsaludko, our investigator

The Lloyd's

June 7, 2017

This week has been kind of like running around like a rabbit trying to dodge the brush, jumping and going all over the place. We also were able to see how the Lord was able to help us dodge those big old pieces of sage brush. We went on exchanges with our district leader in his area which is just north of us this past week and it was great. I was with Elder Harmon who has been out about 3 months and we did lots of bike riding and walking and their are so many people in his area we talked to a lot ( which wears you out pretty good). We also ended up in downtown Cleveland which isnt quite like to many other places I have been, it is like a downtown you see on movies or even picture in your head. Elder Stephens got a flat tire towards the end of the day so that made for a good adventure trying to patch his tire and eventually we just had to go by a new one after trying 3 different tubes. Yesterday we got to do some service for the Lloyd's other, other neighbor and it was really great. We got to help this older man who is probably around Grandpa's age put some wire around his gardens fence to keep the rabbits out. He has a super awesome garden and it was good. Cherine is still doing awesome, she loves to learn still and is commit able which is a great blessing for us. We had some great testimonies this week in church and served as a great boost for us. Truly, I have been taught many things this week which is a great blessing to help me progress and improve. The Gospel truly does bring happiness.
I did get a treat and the converter and Elder Nelson said he was pretty tempted to eat it before we got home. That was another thing that threw a twist in the week, I wasnt sure what to think. We were talking to some people when Dana called and so we didnt answer but when I heard the message I couldn't believe it was her for a few minutes. Avon is a little bit away from us but I hear a super nice place.  It is amazing to have the support I do and I hope you all know how great you are and how much I thank you!
We will be rolling our sleeves up this week with zone conference, exchanges, and then transfers. I will be emailing Tuesday again next week. I hope everyone is having a great summer and continues to have a great one. It sounds like everyone is staying busy and that is great! So am I! Have a great week!
Love Elder Koden Hunt 

May 31, 2017

Another amazing week here in Cleveland. On Saturday the other elders had a baptism, and Cherine and Mike came which was really good. They liked it a lot. Cherine talked with President Brown for a few minutes and that is always a good thing, she was enlightened you could say. Cherine is doing amazing right now which is a great blessing. She came to church and she just loves to learn. Mike also came to church but the house he is living in now he wont be living in this weekend because the rent isn't paid, so who knows what might happen there... James also came to church and he is still progressing along at his own pace. Sot the family, Doug and Ashley, are different from the ones who wanted homework. They just have craziness going on all the time so it can be a good challenge to meet up with sometimes. Many are progressing along pretty good right now though. Last week Bishop was telling us that there was a lady who called him who none of the rest of her family are members but her grandparents, who live in our area, and her dad who would be visiting from Chicago would like a blessing because the grandparents aren't doing the best health wise. They live close to the Lloyd's who are great, so Brother Lloyd came with us to give them all a blessing. It was a super great and spiritual experience. The daughter who is the member we found out moved to Arizona for college I believe, got baptized and got married in the temple too. We also found out the dad of the member has a son who is on the track team at Utah State right now, just like Elder Stephens will be. Hopefully that all makes sense. It was super awesome.

 Nothing to special for us for Memorial day, it was really great weather and that is always super nice. We did some biking around like usual and trying to visit people too. It did pour rain a couple times too, but more like thunderstorms and not just raining all day, at least for the most part so that is good.

I am doing really well. We have many wonderful opportunities all the time which is great. I hope everyone has a super awesome week. We also got an elder from a mission that got shut down in Russia, and he goes home in July, so it will be a crazy adventure for him. We stay super busy with all sorts of things to do all the time which is good. Hope all is well for everyone and you all have lots of fun being out of school and doing summer stuff. Thanks for all you do for me. Have a great week.
Love Elder Koden Hunt