February 15, 2017

This week has been a super great week for us. Of course last week I got Elder Stephens as my companion, he has been out 6 weeks longer than me and he is great. He is from Magdolina New Mexico and has 8 younger siblings. We have lots of similar interests so that is good. He likes being outside and playing sports. Elder Cortez also is living with us now too, i knew him from Toledo. Elder Robinson is particular about some things so that is what reminded him of me mostly. It has also been pretty fair for the weather so more people are out and about for us to talk to which is great. We were able to set a baptismal date with Corrina, so that is always good. We have struggled a little getting in contact with people this week, but have been able to do some good work I think. We have done a good share of biking and visiting less active members this week. Yesterday we went to a food bank in the basement of a baptist church and helped out there, mostly just giving people their food or helping them carry it outside. We also helped another man move into the ward on Saturday, he is a super nice guy. Yesterday we had a cool experience, we had just got done eating our lunch and got out of the truck to go knock on a less actives door. We saw a guy walking down the street so we talked to him. After a little bit he told us he hadn't prayed this morning and that he was about to relapse on taking drugs( which he was in the process of taking addiction recovery classes), but because he talked to us he wasn't doing that anymore and was going to work. I feel I have learned mainly how to better teach people this week. Elder Stephens is a superb teacher. I am doing pretty good right now I think. We are just chugging along doing missionary work, time for sure fly's by that's all I know.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

February 7, 2017

Another awesome week here in the Land of Cleveland. The verdict is I am staying in the same spot and Elder Davis is leaving, he is going south of Akron a little ways to Massillon. Elder Edmond is also leaving and going to Hiram. Elder Cortez is replacing Elder Edmomd ( I knew him from Toledo) and my new companion is Elder Stephens who is a zone leader in Youngstown. This transfer it seems a new person is always popping up and this week it was Carina. She came to church last week and this week drove to Stake Conference in Westlake too. She is really excited to learn. We keep working with Ami, Sister Jenkins, Henry and others which is a great blessing. We got our fair share of biking and talking to all sorts of people this week. Yesterday we went with Brother Cagahastian who is a member, he is single, older, and is a doctor, to visit our investigator James. James is great, but we couldn't meet with him because he couldn't walk down the stairs to open the door for us. Stake Conference was great. Elder Corbridge of the 70 was the visiting authority, he is from Idaho originally. He gave a great talk on the purpose of life is...... Life. He also mentioned how we don't go to church to get entertained or necessarily to learn, which can happen, but to worship. It is up to us what we get out of church. It has been pretty decent weather this week, It is pouring rain today though, but things are going great.
 Thanks for the updates, they are always fun to hear about. I am doing great though, we are going to finish emailing, eat lunch, and probably play basketball or volleyball in Westlake at the Stake Center. Have a wonderful, fabulous, awesome week.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

February 1, 2017

Well it has been a really awesome last week and beginning of February for us. This week was packed with things. We had maybe the best pizza I have ever eaten at a members house on Wednesday. On Thursday we had interviews with President Brown and those are always great. We then went on exchanges and I went with Elder Edmond starting Thursday night going to Friday and that was good, we did lots of biking because the other Elders had the truck. Saturday we taught a really awesome guy named Henry, we met him again yesterday and he is great. He is 25 and loves to learn and is commitable too. Monday we were very blessed to be able to teach a lot of people which is always great, not to mention we finally got some snow on Monday to heat up the excitement. Yesterday we watched the broadcast for missionaries. It was originally last Wednesday but with the missions schedule we watched it yesterday. It was Elders Oaks, Bednar, Anderson of the 12, Elder Nielson of the 70, bishop Waddell, Sister Oscarson and another guy. It was great helping us to be more effective and focused on Christ. They also changed our schedule around as i'm sure you have heard. Preparation day starts at 8 now instead of 10, and they shortened our lunch break up so it will be good. 

I am doing good though, transfers are here again, next week I will be emailing on Tuesday instead of Wednesday so time is flying by for sure. It hasnt been too cold, it has stayed about 30 or so most of the time. Church is good, this ward is interesting in the fact that most our students, like I mentioned before, are a lot of people who come to church without a spouse for one reason or another so it has an interesting dynamic. We have no active young women and 2 active young men so pretty low on that scale like Toledo.  No one really has to many questions about being from Utah because it seems half of all the Wards I have been in are from Utah originally anyway or at least a good amount have been. Most members that arent from Utah seem not to want to go there and live, and the ones from Utah want to go back.  I am glad to hear Dad still is putting the ball in the hoop these days too. I hope everyone has an awesome week and thanks for all you do. 

Love Elder Koden Hunt

January 25, 2017

It was a week that just flew by out here in Ohio. We had mission conference with Elder Gay Thursday, and then we had another short meeting Friday, with him and it was great. He talked again, about how important members are in doing missionary work. He said there was a stake he was visiting and there was 1 ward that hadnt had a baptism in 5 years.  So he told the bishop if they would get the members doing missionary work they would have a baptism in 8 weeks. They had 1 in 4 weeks. . He also talked a lot about teaching to peoples needs and not just teaching them lessons. He also talked about we can talk about things all day but we have to change something fro anything to happen different. It was super awesome though. He graduated from Harvard with a PHD, I believe, he owned Dominoes and Burger King and other things from doing something with stocks. He is friends with Steve Young and Truman Madsen and others a lot of people know.
I do have some pictures this week, but from other people because my camera must have got wet or something because the screen is all blurry when you try to take a picture.
The rest of the week was a lot of trying to find people to talk to. We helped a lady dig up her grass in her front yard when we were biking around which was good. We for sure get our door knocking in, but we usually visit with quite a few people as well.
My talk was on Spirit guided decisions and I made it through so that was good. We have been getting quite a few members out teaching with us which is great. There are a lot of Pediatric students so it is tough for a lot of them to feed us very much.

I am glad to hear you are getting some moisture, here it has been in the 40 or 50s with rain off and on. We have been trying to use our bikes more so warmer weather is good for that. Thanks for the pictures and the updates, they are always super good.

I am doing super duper out here, we are taken care of and blessed all the time.  Thanks so much fro all you do and I hope you have a super awesome week.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

January 18, 2017

It has been a crazy week for sure here. It warmed up to spring time weather with rain which makes things a good adventure. We also went on exchanges with Strongsville West Elders, I went with Elder Brewer who is from Springville Utah. All 4 of us stayed in our area so Elder Brewer and I were on the bikes most of the day, talking to people. We also helped some people move into a new house. Yesterday we went to North Olmsted to go on exchanges, I went with Elder Lancaster again and it was a fun and good day. We got soaked once but luckily it was in the 50's and we went home for lunch and threw our clothes in the dryer.

We have been still teaching lots of different people, this week a man named Julian who is about 60 came to church, he has a nice house and likes us to come over and teach him and answer his questions on Sundays. We are still teaching Ami and he is doing good, along with Sister Jenkins and the others we see on a regular basis. 

Tomorrow Elder Gay of the 70 is coming to visit the mission so that will be fun. We dont have zone training meetings anymore, we just have zone conference every transfer now except this transfer because Elder gay is coming. It is fun to go and play ball for sure just because there are enough people and some of them really like to play which is fun. I havent met anyone from Enterprise, but sometimes a member will know where Enterprise is but most people think it is by Hurricane. 

Elder Davis did whip up some hawaiin haystacks which was really good. But he hasnt got the crock pot running yet. We also took an older man named Brother Santiago teaching with us on Monday and it was fun, he has lots of stories but he wakes up at 3 a.m. every morning to pray for 2 hours, then he reads his scriptures from about 5 to 12 or 1, than maybe prays more before having lunch. He doesnt do much else, but we thought that was crazy.

 I continue to do good, we just go out and talk to people while walking or riding bikes or hopefully we are teaching someone. We are blessed each and everyday. That was a cool thing they did for Aunt Annette. I hope you all have a really great week and before you know it basketball will be over and it will be spring.    

Love Elder Koden Hunt 

January 11, 2017

This week was a really awesome week for us. We had lots of lessons to teach and were able to get many members out teaching with us which is always fun. But the shining part of the week is a man named Ami. We met Ami while we were knocking doors and he opened up the door and the first thing he said was to come in, this was back on new years eve. We met with him 2 times last week and on Monday as well, and he came to church and he was just so excited about it it was fun to see. He said he wants to bring his whole family this week to church. he is actually getting his CDL to be a truck driver so hopefully we can continue to at least meet with him a little bit. Our area is pretty unique, we live about 3 miles from our area and we cover some of the nicer suburbs of Cleveland, along with a part of Cleveland that looks like a piece of pie, so we get a lot of different variety in the people we talk to. you can talk to everyone in Cleveland, and then hope they are where they say they are going to be to meet again. The nicer parts there are fewer to talk to but they usually keep appointments  I am starting to get to know the ward better all the time, it seems like for me it usually take a couple months to get to know everyone. It has been regular Ohio all over the place weather, this weekend was really cold, and today when we woke up almost all the snow had melted away.
 It is really interesting for us to have preparation day on Wednesday, it feels like you aren't having one, and then it feels like the week fly's by the rest of the week. Elder Eardley gave me yesterday at our meeting mail from Grandpa Scott and Grandma Sherry, Grandpa Terril and Grandma Julie, the Shurtliffs, and a package from the Bastians, and I got Aunt Shirley and Aunt Dori's letters too, so thanks again to everyone for there letters and cards, they were great.
Elder Davis is a good guy, he really wants to work hard which is good. Elder Edmond, who lives with us is just a really funny person always making you laugh which is good. Elder Davis is kind of a cook, he was saying today how he needs to get making some things in the crock pot.
I am glad to hear things are going good still, it hasn't hit below zero that I know of here yet so hopefully you can at least stay a little warm. I am doing good, we are always busy doing something so that is a good thing for sure. Thanks for the updates they are always great. I hope you all have the best week ever.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

January 4, 2017

So I made my way over here to the center of it all in Cleveland. Elder Davis and I live with 2 other Elders, Elder Edmond, who I know pretty good from seeing him around and he is from the suburbs of Los Angeles, and his trainee Elder Robinson who is from Page Arizona. Elder Davis is from close to Seattle Washington in a place called Snowhomish. He is a hard worker so it has been great the first week in. We are teaching a lady named Linda, she is about 60 and loves learning about the gospel and is fun to teach. We also found some great new people to teach too. Our area has a little bit of everything from the richest on down, so it is fun. A lot of the members in the ward are younger families and the husband is in training to be a pediatric doctor. Elder Eardley is staying in Toledo for his last transfer which is good stuff.
It is really interesting, most of the time I am just so happy that anyone is feeding us instead of having a sandwich I just eat most anything and like most of it too. It is funny how that works. But the Chinese we had was pretty good, or maybe I was just super hungry who knows haha. I will miss Larry's baptism, and you always would like to be there, but it is just good he is doing what he is doing. We didn't do anything special for new years ourselves, just the normal Sunday things with meetings and the doing missionary work. We are pretty close to the mission office, about 20 minutes away so we will be going there today and probably for most of our preparation days too to play basketball or volleyball or something. I got some more letters, so thank you all so very much.
We also went on exchanges yesterday, and I went with Elder Sanches who is from Toston Montana. His family has about 1000 cows, it was good and interesting to talk to him. The weather doesn't know what it wants to do around here. It warms up and rains, or is cold and the wind blows, so who knows what we are going to get here for winter. I bet it is coming though Have a super wonderful week to come.
Love Elder Koden Hunt

Elder Hulet, Elder Hunt, and Elder Eardley

Elder Eardley and Elder Hunt saying goodbye. 

Elder Eardley is staying in Toledo.