Halloween Preparations

So first, sorry I forgot to tell you that transfers are tomorrow so the week of transfers preparation day is on Tuesday not Monday. This week has been a pretty good week for us. Jaime decided that she didn't want to give us a date yet. She said things are to stressful right now to make that kind of commitment. We met another investigator named Donques Gambrel, he is a black guy and lives a rocks throw from our east boundary in Painesville. He is really wanting to know more. Yesterday we were walking around and saw him walking down the srteet. He said he was running because he was going to try and make it to the NFL. He said his brother almost did,  he said he wanted to come to church on Sunday. We actually have I think 7 or 8 investigators, but Jaime is the only one that comes to church and none read or pray or anything like that. So the challenge is to get them progressing. Last Monday we had a little time so we took a tour of the Morely farm and talked with the Horsely's and they said a Jones with glasses came through that knew me but we couldn't think of there name. My companion is actually a really smart guy and he is really good at explaining scriptures and things that are hard to understand. He is really self reliant and likes to keep things neat and tidy. The weather has been slowly getting cooler but it really hasn't been to bad yet.  Thank you so much for the bread, it is really good all the bread and jam is a lot better than store bread for sure. We are still working on eating it though so hopefully we do before it goes bad. I  grandma Julie letter and allie's and i think that is it. It seems it is taking about 4 days for mail to get here. Yesterday we went and had family home evening at Brother Phillips and decorated cupcakes to give out at the ward trunk or treat tonight. That is where the picture of donald is from. Thanks again for all the updates and letters and packages. It is really awesome to hear from home. Hopefully I will get a few letters out here soon, I finally found the stamps you sent. Well it's going good here and still being fed well.  Have a great week.

Love Elder Koden Hunt

Elder Hunt and Donald

Donald was baptized the first week Koden was in the field

Yummy Cupcakes!

Cold & Rainy

So things went pretty good this week. It is has been kinda cold and rainy all week but luckily it hasn't rained on us. It even snowed a skiff a couple days ago. It is in the 40's right now but it is supposed to warm up a little. So our investigator Jaime said she would give us a baptismal date this week, so hopefully she does. We were able to find 3 or 4 other people who said they were interested so hopefully we can catch them this week and make some progress with them. I went on exchanges again with Elder Demke, but this time we stayed in my area and that is when we found most of the potentials. I got to find out how to wax a car from my companion last week (Like I said before he loves cars and tells me all about everyone that we see), so that was interesting. I ate dinner at Micheal Jackson's house this week, and also had some really good pizza from Sister Tomlinson, she owns a pizza shop called Noce. We have been riding our bikes less and walking a little more because it is no fun to ride in the cold and wet. The Fosters live below us ( a senior couple), and that is nice because they always want to help us and give us ice cream and cleaning supplies and other things. I will have to send you a picture of Donald next week, he got baptised my first saturday here and he is a funny old guy. So the farm house is good and quiet. I haven't talked in church, but i said a prayer in sacrament and on Sunday we gave the lesson in elders quorum. I have figured out that I'm not to good at talking to people, but i kinda already knew that, and I am very impatient just ask my companion haha.  Last week we shopped at Aldi, and I hope I never go there again it has no name brand cheap stuff, nothing good. Luckily we found a Wal-mart to go shop at today. I did get letters from grandma julie, aunt luchel, aunt shirley(2), and dax. Thanks so much for all the letters from you guys and from all the family. Whenever I have a package or a couple letters I hear about it from everybody i see that walks into the sites. But were still chugging along here. I hope it is still going good there. Well i guess thats about all i got for now.

Love Elder Koden Hunt 

Pictures!!!

So this week was a really good week as far as missionary work goes. We went up to fairport harbor which is actually where a lot of saints came to when trying to get to Kirtland, anyway we found quite a few people who had a little interest so that is exciting. We got moved into the Morely Farm on tuesday. It is really cool to live there, but it is kind of small and the floor isn't level, but it is just a cool old house. So i did get the coat but it actually warmed up a little and the sun was shinning for a few days, but they say the cold is coming soon.  I am getting my laundry done, and that is one great thing about the farm is that we don't have to pay anymore to wash our clothes. I got your letter and the money from the burtis and the coat. I sent a letter to grandma julie back at the mtc, but i need to figure out where I drop my letters of to send home and then maybe i can get a few more sent. I got the Johnsons package and email and they had some good questions so I will try and answer them. So we have rode our bikes over 100 miles so far, but we can drive the car around quite a bit more since we moved. So really almost everywhere I have been in Ohio is just one house after another with a lot of trees and not to much open space. It has some slight up and down hills but nothing to big. So a couple things i didn't quite realize before i went out is how important and nice it is when you have good members in the ward who give you refferals ( which we havent gotten any) and that drive you around and feed you, PB and J gets old pretty quick haha. So for our contacting so far we have mainly just go around and stop by members (except now we know almost all of them in our area), former and potential investigators. We have tracted a little bit but my companion hates to tract so I mention it to him and he always tries to think of something else to do. There aren't many anti-mormons, just a lot of devout Catholics. I haven't got anyone elses letters for a week or so if they sent any. It sounds like things are going good there. How is the weather? We got a new bishop on sunday, and the Johnson guy, Dan, got called as second counselor i think he is from st. george. My companion is a pretty good worker and rule keeper. He said his last companion wasn't so he is getting back in the hang of things though. Elder Demke follows the rules and helps Elder Ellsworth keep them. I'm not sure if they have anything or not. My companion has another brother on a mission that is my age, and one in high school, along with a 7 and 3 year old brothers. So hopefully i can get some more letters written and keep everyone happy haha. We also get to go to the church and shoot hoops in the morning so that will be fun. I'm sure I forgot to mention something but i hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Koden Hunt  

His companion- Elder Schmidtke

Fairport Harbor

The Morley Farmhouse (He was excited to get moved)

Kirtland Temple

Conference

Well as you know the good weather ended and it did get cold and rainy. It wasn't super cold. So this week was pretty good, we were able to start teaching 3 new people. One of them was already coming to church and wasn't even being taught by the missionaries. She is really nice and isn't married but has 2 little kids. There is another guy named harry and he is very interesting.  And the other is an older lady who has had a rough life and her sister is a less active member. I also went on exchanges with Elder Demke and he is a really funny guy. He is the one from St. George, he has a twin on a mission right now and is the youngest of 11 kids. We were in Euclid so I got my first taste of what you think of when you think of Cleveland. Brother Phillips is a really good guy, and he feed us 3 times this week, they don't let you go without dinner around here. General Conference was different for sure not watching it on the couch and all of them in your church clothes, but it was really great because everything they talk about you can apply to you or the people you teach. We watched the 3 sessions on saturday at the visitors center. And we watched the 2 on saturday at the church. We are going to get moving hopefully tomorrow or wednesday. We had zone training meeting this week too, but is is just with missionaries from the zone, zone conference isn't for a little bit i think.  I did get everyones letters and they were awesome. Dax is a pretty good writer, and i did bring the camera so hopefully you get some pictures. I also got the seegmillers letter and yours, kaylee, allie, and Grandma Julie. Well I'm sure I forgot something, but everything is going good and I hope I make it through winter.

Mission Life

So there really isn't a whole lot to say this week I guess. We have been going around meeting a lot of the members in the ward. Almost everyone in the area I am in that we have talked to are devout catholics and we can get about 5 words out and they say see ya later. We do have 2 people who we are going to start working with who are investigators, but most of the time at this point we are working with less active members. The members are still making good food for dinner. One lady even bought steaks and cooked them up for us even though her husband is a vegetarian. We have been riding our bikes around a lot even though we have a car because we are really low on miles and the end of the month is coming up. We will get some more miles on October 1. It is kinda funny around here, my companion calls it the cleveland creep because it must happen a lot, but on our way here there was a red light and a car pulled up by us and then just creeped there way right on through the light. We will be moving to the Morely Farm next week sometime so that will be good to keep our miles down. I do know Elder and Sister Leavitt, and will probably know them well before long. They are in charge of the cars, phones, money, apartments, and other things over the whole mission. They got here about the same time I did. And Elder and Sister Horsely I see quite a bit at the family history center when we go there for meetings and to get our mail. And Brother Phillips is the same age as Grandpa Terril I figured out, he wears the same sunglasses and has the same hairdo as Grandpa Terril, which is kinda funny. There are quite a few people who know about Enterprise here actually.  The weather has still been really good, but today it looks a little rainy. I'm still surviving and doing pretty good. are schedule is get up at 6:30, exercise and eat breakfast and get dressed. Study from 8 to 10 or 11, eat lunch then go to our area. Work until 5 or 6, eat dinner, then keep going until 8:30 then go back so we can make it back to our appartment by 9. My companion has been out about 1 year he is the oldest and has 4 younger brothers, one of them is on a mission in Colorado. I'm so sorry i told the other elders you were going to hunt me down for not bringing the camera again. The weather has been about 70 degrees everyday, I haven't really felt any difference in the humidity either. Don't worry Dax i didn't forget about you, i'm still doing pretty good.  Today we are going to shop, clean and do laundry until about 6, then back to work we go, have a great week

Love Koden

He made it to Ohio!

So today is my first chance to email for almost two weeks now so there is for sure a lot to say. So My last week at the mtc was good, you for sure feel the spirit a lot and learn a lot but i would be lying if i didn't say i was ready to get to Ohio. So we woke up at 2 in the morning so we could get on our flight. There were over 100 other leaving also so it was pretty crazy. We flew to Atlanta first, and then we flew to Cleveland. The flight was 2 hours shorter than we thought because they already changed the time on the ticket to eastern. We went to the mission home (me and 23 other new missionaries) and ate dinner about 5 (eastern of course) and then had a couple of interviews and went over a lot of things. The next day we got up early again, at 5, and went to the Kirtland Temple. It is really cool and really different from what you might expect. Then we went to the whitney store and that is really awsome, especially the school of the prophets room. Next was transfer meeting and I got my new companion, Elder Tyler Schmitdke from olympia washington. He is a really good companion and trainer. He follows the rules, likes things neat and clean, and we get along good. He is similiar to me in that he always worked with his family in the business they owned all the time back home. He really likes music and cars or trucks or any vehicle. So I am serving in the Kirtland north area, which our boundary is about 1 mile from the sites and the temple. We are the first Elders in the area in like 15 years so everyone is really excited in the ward. So just in case you didn't realize how cool of an area it is, I am in the first ward and stake organized by the church in the latter days. Right now we are living in Euclid, which is about halfway between Kirtland and Cleveland. There are two other elders living with us. Elder Ammon Demke from st. george and Elder Trent ellsworth who was my roomate at the mtc and they are both awesome. But around general conference me and my companion are going to be moving closer to kirtland and are going to stay in the Morely Farm house, which is really cool on its own. So we have been meeting the members here in the first few days, and they are all really nice. Sister Myers, who is the meal cordinator, gets us a place to eat almost every night, and it is good food too. Not amish cooks but still pretty good. And our ward mission leader is the more excited about missionary work than anyone else i know besides apostles. He and his wife will do anything for missionaries. He actually reminds me a lot of Mr. Morgan at the elementary. So that is about it i guess. Thank you for the letters, you, allie, dax, kaylee, aunt luchel, aunt shirley, Grandma T., and I did get the green package too thank you. So my address will be 7800 Kirtland - Chardon Road, Kirtland Ohio. And you will have to get the zip code because we don't know it. This address will send my mail to the visitors center. Just my winter stuff would be good to get before long. i forgot my camera again so hopefully i remember next week. So are you still doing hair or whats going on there? My mission president is good and so is his wife. They are pretty strick and no nonsense about things thought which is good. They are really into rodeo, especially his wife. So hopefully everything is going good back home. It is green with no hills and im close to lake erie but you cant see it unless you are about 40 yards away from it. Have a great week

Love Elder Koden Hunt

1st Email

So, there is so much to tell you and I don't know where to start. The first few days were for sure an adjustment. I didn't know where anything was, I was nervous and overwhelmed and everything else. They said just to make it until Sunday and they were right. We listened to some good devotionals and now this week I'm starting to get the hang of things. The mtc is definitely a good place and you learn so much here, but I'm also excited to leave and get to Ohio. My companion is great. He is kind of a quiet person, but when he does talk he is pretty long winded. We get along good, he is for sure easy to get along with. The food really isn't to bad, it isn't the best but it isn't bad and there are a thing or to that is actually pretty good. They have the ice cream like they had at youth conference 2 times a week and that is really good. They also have about 10 different options of things to eat for every meal. My stomach has been holding up fine to, hopefully it stays that way haha. They for sure keep you busy and have you lined out around here. The weather has been wonderful up here so that is really good. The letters from you and aunt Luchel and Shirley and from grandma sherry really did push me through the first 3 or 4 days. I don't know when i will get to email again because we leave really early next Tuesday to go to Cleveland. So maybe i will be able to write not to long after I get there. Hopefully you got my letter and I just picked up your package this morning, thanks so much. I was able to get grandma Sherry's package last night also. I really have learned so much already in only a week. I never thought that you could learn so much. It is for sure hard but it is really good for me. I'm sure nothing has changed to much since I left but i guess let me know how its going. Also i have a tough time remembering where everything is in my suitcases haha. There is a lot more i could say but i just can't think of anything right now. I guess just make sure you sent my winter gear not long after I get there. Dax don't get into to much trouble alright haha. And hopefully dad gets to sleep a little these days.

I love you all and hopefully i will talk to you soon, have a great week

Elder Koden Hunt