December 19, 2016

So this week was another great week for us. Toledo has been pretty cold, but not to much snow. I think the other side of the state got all the snow, we only have a couple of inches right now, but it is about 11 degrees. We were able to meet with one of our newer investigators, James, a few times this week and were able to set a baptismal date with him for January. We also got out and were trying to find as many people as we could talk to in this cold and snowy weather. It was great to see yesterday as well at church that a few of the less actives we are working with came to church so that was great to see too. There is 1 active young men that just turned 12 who attends the ward on a regular basis so we help with the sacrament most weeks too.
I went on exchanges with Elder Brockbank in Perrysburg so that was great and lots of fun to spend the day with him again. Our excitement was we helped a lady push her car out of the main road because I think she ran out of gas. In church Sunday, an older man, Brother Arthur, told a story of how he took his friend, who wanted to meet President Howard W. Hunter, to Cleveland in 1992 to meet President Hunter. Brother Arthur's friend was from somewhere in the middle East and he asked President Hunter to pray for his country because they were in the middle of a civil war. The next day Brother Arthur woke up and on the news it said " Breaking news, the war ( in whatever country it was) just ended today." I thought that was pretty cool. This week has the potential to be pretty calm week for us. District Meeting tomorrow and exchanges with Bowling Green. Then our normal things and Christmas is a normal day as well, except it is Sunday and church is at 11 with the other Toledo Ward too.  We have about a foot tall tree from Elder Eardley's parents we have the presents around. I will for sure get some pictures. I am doing amazing though, very, very blessed in many, many ways. I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

December 12, 2016

 So we had a really great week here in Toledo. We were able to get over and visit our investigators and have great lessons with all of them. Larry, who is scheduled to get baptized in January went to Louisiana to visit family, but we got to see him on Monday. Roxy was able to come to the ward Christmas party on Saturday so that was good for her to be able to meet some members of the Ward. The picture was from Sister Insch, and Brother Insch (the ward mission leader) was Santa. We also saw Frank and he is doing super great, but is just super busy, and we were very blessed to be able to find some new people to start teaching so that was great. It did snow here, pretty much all day yesterday. It just drizzled and they cancelled church after sacrament meeting yesterday even though it was probably only 8 inches at the most last night. We were just walking down the street after church and were able to talk to a couple of people who hopefully at least had there day brightened, but that said we could come back and hopefully we see again. It is above freezing today and starting to melt a little already, there is probably only a inch or two right now after some settling and melting.

       I was on exchanges with Elder Dunne in Wauseon and we were just walking down the street in a little town called Delta and Mr. Dunfords brother honked at us, then pulled into his drive way and told us to get some hot chocolate and he gave us a ride a couple blocks away back to our car. It is a small world for sure, I wouldn't have guessed I would meet Mr. Dunfords brother in Wauseon. We also had zone conference this week and that is always good. We mainly talked about setting goals, inviting people to be baptized on the first lesson, and having President Brown expound the scriptures to us which was awesome. 

       I got Aunt Shirley's package, and a letter from Marv and Raelene, so thank you all again so much for all you do for me, I truly do appreciate it. I hope you all have an awesome week. 

Love Elder Koden Hunt  

Picture Update

I didn't realize I had all these pictures waiting to post. I apologize! 

Enjoy all these fun pics from our favorite missionaries!

Christmas Conference Pics

Victoria, Elder Hunt, Justice

The District

Sister Sorenson, Sister Kempton, Elder Eardley, Elder Hunt, Elder Nelson, 

Elder Brockbank, and Elder Long

Nicolette Mose, Mikayla, Kris, Elder Hunt, and Steve

The Silverado...

The Silverado when we were moving to our new apartment

Bro Packer and Koden at the Christmas Conference in Kirtland

Elder Okabe and I at the temple

Bro Phillips and Koden at the Christmas Conference in Kirtland

December 5, 2016

So as always lots of interesting excitement here in Toledo. Christmas Conference was great. We woke up at 5:30, and put 6 of us in the truck and headed to Kirtland last Tuesday morning. There was Elders Brockbank, Brooke, Nelson, Hale, Eardley and me in the truck. So we got there about 9:30 and went to the visitors center to look at the nativities which is always good. Also we chatted with the other missionaries there too for a little bit. I also saw Brother Phillips and Brother Packer at the sites so I will send you the pictures. We had lunch at the Stake Center there in Kirtland and then went to the Kirtland Temple for a little devotional thing. There was a lot of songs and testimonies by missionaries and other people like President Brown, President Connor, the Stake President in Youngstown, and Elder Tittera the area 70 over President Brown. I like Kirtland a lot for sure. We ended about 3:45 and headed for home. When we got back, I drove another 30 minutes or so with Elder Nelson to Bowling Green for exchanges. In the morning he was pretty sure he had hand, foot and mouth sickness, so we had to drive to a CVS and get it checked out so that made for an interesting day. Frank is still doing good as he is just so busy, but we talk to him on the phone almost everyday. Roxy we met with and she is still coming along slowy. Larry Mitchell came to church this week which was great. On saturday we helped a recent convert and her son, who both are restricted in a lot of areas, move and it took all day long, so I got my workout in for sure. Yesterday it tried to snow a little bit but the ground was to warm for it to stick much, but there was the first attempt I have seen this go round. Random questions are good, for dinner usually we will have leftovers, or I will whip up some canned soup or an egg sandwich or random things that are super easy like a pb and sometimes j or honey sandwich. Thanks for all the updates.  I got letters from John Alger's family and Bob Holt this week, so thanks to them very much. I am doing great, always learning lots. Have a wonderful, marvelous, amazing week. 

Love Elder Koden Hunt     

November 28, 2016

Well, it has been pretty good since I emailed last. Last Wednesday night we stopped by a referral and we were able to teach him the Restoration and give him a Book of Mormon which was really great, and of course he is from Africa like 2 of the others we are working with. Thanksgiving was good. We played a little basketball in the morning with a couple other missionaries, we went to Wal-Mart and got an umbrella, then we went to the Insch's house until about 6. We played a game with their son and daughter in law called Codenames, it was pretty fun. We ate dinner at the Insch's and it was good. Most people in Ohio don't make as many things homemade, but we were very grateful to eat at there house. Nothing to crazy we ate, the regular things except we had green bean casserole which I don't think I ever had before coming here, but everyone has it. We also had pie from Costco, apple, pecan, and pumpkin, they were really good. The rest of the evening we visited a old man in a care center who is a member, a returning less active, and did some stop-bys at people's homes.
This week I stayed here in Toledo with Elder Cortez for exchanges. He is from Mexico and has been out about 2 months, but speaks English pretty good for how long he has been out. It was really great to have him with me because the after stopping by a less actives home, we started knocking doors and the first door we knocked on 2 little kids came to the door and then left. We waited for a minute and then went to the next door. At the next door the lady said she didn't speak English so Elder Cortez started talking in Spanish to her. She wasn't interested but said the, door we just knocked on, that house spoke Spanish. So we went back to the previous door we had knocked on and eventually a lady answered and Elder Cortez and her started speaking Spanish and we found out that she is a member of the church. She was baptized in Nicaragua and moved here about 11 years ago and hasn't been to church in 11 years. So we are going to take someone who speaks Spanish with us to see her this week hopefully.
Also, Larry Mitchell, the man with the gold dollar tooth came to church on yesterday so that was awesome. Elder Eardley and I spoke, along with President Hamilton who is in the mission presidency and it was all about member missionary work. President Hamilton doesn't sugar coat it either.
We are still teaching most of the people we were before, at least investigators even with the split of the ward.  We have our Christmas Conference in Kirtland tomorrow so that will be fun, but a long drive. I hope you have a really fun and awesome week. I am doing great.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

Happy Thankgiving

So as always "You do better in toledo", but it is always crazy in Toledo. It was transfer week last week, so last Wednesday Elder Eardley took and brought back a load of missionaries from Cleveland and I stayed in Toledo with Elder Nelson for most of the day. Then Thursday we had to go get the truck worked on ( a recall for the airbags) about 20 minutes away so we did our planning while we were waiting for it to get finished. We also had a great lesson with Roxy who said she would be at church this week. Friday it was about 75 which was really odd, and Saturday was about 32 with it trying to snow a little. We also saw Frank with Brother Insch and it went well. He had read from the Book of Mormon and he is doing awesome. Monday was our meeting in Cleveland and yesterday the Toledo South Zone Leaders were with us for the day because there vehicle had to be used by the trainers and trainee's to go to a meeting. Today it is rainy and cold too. You never know what might happen here. We also got news on Monday that starting January 1st preparation day will be on Wednesday, so you can get ready for that. We are having Thanksgiving with the Insch's tomorrow so as always lots of fun. I am glad to hear about everyone and how they are doing. I am doing really well.  Our area is still the same as it was before except we only cover about 1/3 of the ward which is all the city part of it, the sisters have the more country part now.  I hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving where ever you are at. Thanks again so much for everything.

Love Elder Koden Hunt

November 14, 2016- A week late :/

So another wild week in Toledo, that seems to be the way it goes out here. We had some great lessons this week, we weren't able to get back in touch with that family again though, we are trying again today. A man named Frank who is from Nigeria we are teaching and he loves to hear the lessons but doesn't read super good so we are trying to help him read the Book of Mormon right now. we are still working with Victoria and she is coming along super well as well. Another girl named Roxy we are trying to help to believe in Jesus Christ, so that is lots of fun as well. 

So we are moving to a new spot, the address is 3357  Airport Highway #7 Toledo, Ohio 43609.

I guess I should mention we are staying together again for round 3. We will still be living by ourselves, and Elder Brockbank is going back across the river to Perrysburg to train a new missionary. This transfer does go until December 28. They are putting sisters in our old apartment, so we won't be covering the whole ward anymore. Elder Koppenhafer is coming out to be in our zone now so that will be fun too. Our new apartment has a baby blue bath tub so I will have to take a picture next week for you, i'm excited about that haha. 

We had some great visits this week with members. Yesterday Steve, Mikayla and Chris's step dad cooked us up a whole barbeque of ribs, chicken, hamburgers, and all sorts of stuff because they wont be in our area anymore starting tomorrow. It is always lots of fun to go to the Insch's house (our ward mission leader), he is just a funny guy. He was super excited because they bought us dinner at the scout fundraiser and thought it was spaghetti, but it was pancakes and he loves pancakes so he was just really excited. We always have lots of side things to take care of for sure so that makes things just cruise on by. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Schwartz again this week, but this time stayed in Toledo so that was good. I do have some pictures to send this week. The weather here has still been really nice, just a little jacket weather about 60. The weather says it might snow this weekend though. 

Love Elder Koden Hunt