Born of Goodly Parents Nov. 15th

Hello Everyone!!

I. LOVE. MISSIONARY WORK. So much! Everyday is so good! It's definitely been a hard week, but so rewarding. 

Our lessons this week were really good. The Lord teaches me every single time something that I can do better, which I love, because the Lord loveth whom he correcteth. But yeah. The spirit is always so strong, and we are making such good progress with our investigators! It's been a humbling experience because nearly everyone with any authority here in the MTC including our District Leader, both of our teachers, and our Branch Presidency have given my companion and I really nice compliments about our lessons and us being some of the best missionaries they have seen. I'm not saying this to brag or something, because I am fully aware that it's not me being a good missionary, it's really the Lord working through me, but so many times I just think about what good parents I have. The way they have raised us is incredible. Every day when I'm tempted to slack off or not work as hard as I know I can, I just think about what I would do if my parents walked in the room. Would I be embarrassed or could I confidently report to them that I was doing my absolute best. Everything I know and do, I have learned from Mom and Dad. I have learned so much about sacrifice for others through them. I have learned about working hard no matter what, because not giving something your best just isn't an option. I have learned that we just get along with people, and to think in terms of the other person. And most of all I have learned so much about the gospel through them. They are so happy living it, and I always knew it was true, because I knew they knew it was true. Anyway, just so everyone knows, my parent's are amazing and I'm sooo grateful for them!

It really is so rewarding to teach the gospel. I love learning how to do it better and the challenges I face each day stretch me so much, but nearly every day I feel excited to take on the next hard thing. Korean is hard. It just is. But I'm learning that it isn't the most important  part of being a missionary. It's having the spirit and teaching through that to fulfill the investigator's needs. That is when people come closer to Christ. 

I have been feeling a little sick the past two days, and my companion made me go to the health center. The doctor gave me some medicine for my nausea, which worked wonders, so now I can eat at least. My stomach still hurts, but he thinks it should feel better in a few days. Anyway, it's been cool because every time I have to teach a lesson I will feel perfectly fine while in the lesson, which is SUCH a blessing because it's hard enough to teach in Korean without thinking about throwing up. But that was such a testimony to me that Heavenly Father is really mindful of us. 

Also, I have heard a lot of weird things about MTC food and how it's makes you gain weight, and I've decided it's all true! haha I officially gained 10 pounds! haha. How exciting. Hopefully I don't gain another 10 in the next 5 weeks. But yeah. Sister Wing and I work out really hard every day, because we are going to arm wrestle at the end of the MTC, and I'm going to win! haha It keeps gym interesting.

Elder Perry came this Tuesday, and his talk was incredible! He promised us that as we listen to the investigators, rather than thinking about what we would say next, that we would understand them (IN KOREAN) and we would know what to say. I have experienced this, and I just loved having the promise of an apostle of the Lord too. He also talked a lot about the typhoon in the Philippines, which is the first I had heard of it, but the Lord truly protects His missionaries, so Mom, you can relax:) 

Thanks to everyone who wrote me this week too! I appreciate letters so much! They always help me when I'm feeling discouraged, so thank you everyone!! I'll try to respond to a bunch today! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Hunter

PS. It's so warm here btw. It was like 67 degrees on Wedensday.... I like it! Is there snow anywhere else in Utah??

Hello everyone! Nov. 8th

Hello everyone!

I hope this letter finds everyone well and happy and having a wonderful, fabulous day!

This week has been hard, but so rewarding and wonderful. I have come to the conclusion that if every day on my mission I don't do something extremely hard, then I'm not working hard enough. Trials are such a blessing. One experience I really want to share this week is about last Friday. P-day ends at 6, so after dinner we go to class again. As we came into class, our teacher announced that we would be going to TRC, so we should grab our stuff. The only problem was, no one knew what TRC was, because they didn't tell us. Our teachers have an awesome habit of telling us as few details as possible about our lives here at the MTC, which is stressful, but always a learning experience. Anyway, so TRC is when we teach real Korean people for 20 minutes in Korean. That probably doesn't sound that bad to anyone else, but that seemed (and still seems like) moving a mountain, especially with no real preparation time. Anyway, at this point I was so nervous, but there was really no time to do anything but take our scriptures, and notebooks and go. My companion and I said an incredibly sincere prayer and we both felt like we should talk on the atonement. Going into that lesson was probably the scariest thing ever, but as soon as we knocked on the door I felt all of my stress melt away. As we sat down in the room with this cute girl and taught her about the atonement of Jesus Christ, I felt such a love for her. I wanted her to know everything I know. I wanted to help her and bless her life. As we asked her questions (which is a miracle all on it's own, as I was kind of expecting to sit in silence for 20 minutes, struggling to find ANYTHING to say), and she responded, I didn't understand hardly anything she said, but I could feel her spirit and I just loved her so much. After listening intently to what she said, each time I would have a prompting of what to say in response. As I gave my best effort to communicate the messages from the Spirit in my VERY broken Korean, I was somehow able to say everything I was prompted to. It was crazy. I can't communicate to you how inadequate I was for this task, but how well heavenly father qualified me through the spirit. Seriously it was crazy. I have never felt the spirit so strongly during a lesson. At the end of the lesson I bore my testimony of God's love for us and of the atonement, and I have never had a sweeter experience. I cried bearing my testimony in Korean. That is just insane. But the spirit was so strong, and I KNEW with all of my heart and soul that the things I was saying were true. SO. TRUE. Anyway. It was incredible, and we ended up teaching for like 27 minutes, which is so awesome. 7 extra minutes of lesson may not seem like that big of a deal to you guys, but just think of a language you don't know and then imagine yourself communicating with a fluent speaker of that language with relative ease for 27 minutes. It's CRAZY. The Lord qualifies those He calls, and thank goodness for that! It gave such new meaning to to the whole, "not knowing beforehand what I should say" thing. Heavenly Father truly filled my mouth and heart. I have such a testimony that this truly is His work, or I would not be able to do it. I was just able to realize what my role as a missionary is. It's to be his hands and his mouthpiece and to do and say what He would do and say. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary and to be learning in the MTC. It's wonderful. It's hard. It's SO worth it. 

Anyway, I just want you all to know a few things that I know with all of the fervor of my heart.  I know that God loves us. I know it. He has placed us on this earth to learn and grow and serve one another, but most importantly to grow closer to Him. He blesses us with trials. They allow us to learn. He will never let us fail when we do our best. He helps us every step of the way, and is so pleased with our efforts to do what is right. I know He sent His son to suffer for our sins, because He loves us perfectly. I am so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ, and the strength that brings to my life every single day. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon. If you feel there is something missing in your life, then read the Book of Mormon a little more frequently and with real intent. Apply what you learn from it. Scripture applied is powerful. For Joseph Smith, it resulted in God the Father and Jesus Christ appearing in the sacred grove to personally answer his prayer of faith. Think of the miracles that could occur in your own life if you diligently read and pondered the Book of Mormon and applied the things you felt and read. I promise it will be significant. I know that this church is true and that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to return to live to our Heavenly Father again. I love you all and pray that you will have a wonderful week:) You're the best!!!

All my love,

Sister Hunter

Pictures from the MTC Nov. 1st

 To sum up this week, and my MTC experience thus far I'll just make a list of things I love.

I love the people in the MTC. Everyone is so friendly and happy and you can talk to everyone. We are all here united in the same purpose, and that is a wonderful feeling.

I love my companion. Sister Pratt is such a support to me. We get along so well, and never fight. We are always on the same page on our lessons and what we are doing with our time and that is huge. She is selfless and serves everyone around her. She's also really good at speaking Korean, and is very patient with me. She's also super humble and happy. I love her.

I love getting letters. I am really surprised by how much mail I get. My district leader always gets the mail and makes a big deal out of how much I get. I didn't get any yesterday for the first time though.... that was a little sad. BUT I love hearing from everyone and getting a little taste of home. It makes life here a little easier:)

I love my investigators. We got our second investigator this week, and for everyone who has been in the MTC that knows what that means, I'm a little embarassed about my Korean skills, but it's ok. I seriously love love love teaching the gospel though. It's such a wonderful feeling. Even when I ask a question and they respond with a huge explanation and I can only pick out one word (or none), and I don't know how to respond, it's a great experience. Mostly because the Spirit is there and will sometimes prompt me to say something I didn't know I knew how to say. That's really cool.

I love learning Korean. It's so hard, but it's so fulfilling. I won't lie that often I think to myself, why can't I have an english speaking mission? It'd be so much easier! But I know that it's so worth it. I love having to rely on the Lord for to teach me and I struggle to learn. 

I also love all the funny things I accidentally say in Korean. This week in our lesson, I had to pray, and I was trying to say, "Thank you for Jesus." Which is really simple. But accidentally I said, "Please bless Jesus." Now, I realized that there are much worse things a person could say in a prayer, but after I realized, I started laughing and so did our investigator, so that's a little embarrassing. I also said something else dumb, but it's harder to explain. My roommate, Sister Wing said the best thing though. I was practicing my Korean yesterday and said, "That's a beautiful tree" and pointed to a tree behind her.  She looked so touched and said, "thank you!"  haha Her companion thought it was soooo funny, so she'll probably never live that down. 

I love our teachers Brother Christensen and Brother Decker. They are so great. Brother Christensen especially is awesome. He always brings the spirit with him, and I learn so much from him! I can tell that both of our teachers genuinely care about us and pray for us everyday. Words can't express my gratitude for them. Such wonderful people.

I love Sister Wing. She and Sister Giles are my roommates. Sister Wing is so funny. She doesn't have the same common sense rules as the rest of us. The other day there was a van parked on the sidewalk and she was like, "do you think this is locked?" And she opened the door and then closed it again. She didn't take anything, she was just curious if it was locked. Haha It was just so characteristic of her, so hopefully the people of South Korea won't mind that she does that. She also talks to Sister Giles in her sleep, so that's pretty funny.

I love the older girls in our branch. They come to our room every single night with a huge box of food and candy and make us take a bunch of stuff. It's really nice of them and I love them.

I love gym. It's so great. I get to play soccer and basketball and there are other people who want to play with me! It's like a dream come true. I think they will be closing the soccer field soon though, which is sad, because I like BBall too, but it's harder for me to not be competitive. It's great though. My poor companion is probably sick of me being excited about exercise, but I've been nicknamed 'The fit sister" which is weird, but oh well. 

I love the MTC food. I don't always love what they serve, but I love that there are like 4 options to pick from every day! I have never eaten so much in my whole life and mom will be happy to know that I have gained back all the stress weight I lost before coming into the MTC. Haha. I eat so much. I just really like food. And the ice cream on Wednesdays and Sundays.

I love the devotionals. They are what get me through the week.

I love that there are NO SPIDERS in the MTC. I haven't seen a spider  this whole time. It's incredible. I'm so happy about it.

I love how strong the spirit is at the MTC. What a blessing it is to not have to worry about all the things that distract from the spirit. I love how conducive it is to getting closer to the spirit. That's so wonderful. 

I love being a missionary, and how stress free that is compared to normal life. I know exactly what I'm doing every single day, and I always have someone there to do it with me, and I know what the Lord expects of me and that is soooo nice. It's not easy for sure, but it's so rewarding.

Mostly I just love everything. It's weird, but it makes me so happy to be here and to have the privilege of putting on my name tag each morning to represent the Lord and be His hands the whole day long. That is such a wonderful task.

I love you all and pray for you every day. Hope you have a wonderful wonderful week, and hope to hear from you all soon!

Love, 

Sister Hunter

Oct. 25th

I sent this earlier today. Maybe I sent it to the wrong one. Love you. I can't figure out the picture thing though, which is sad. 

Hey Family,

I don't have much time at all to write. Lunch starts in 10 min and I have to grab my laundry before that as well, so no pics today probably. This week has been incredible though! SO so good. I have taught 5 lessons in Korean and I can pray in Korean. It's so cool! I love love love the language, and teaching is the best thing! I feel such a strong love for the people of Korea and I genuinely can't think of anything better than helping them to come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. 

I love my district, but it's weird how young and slightly immature they are. They have a really hard time focusing and studying which drives me a little crazy, but I'm trying to be a good example for them. This one Elder asked this week how he can know if he's feeling the spirit or not, and I'm just really glad I'm not struggling with that. I don't think I'd be on a mission if I didn't know what the Spirit felt like for sure. There is a guy from London, a guy from Germany and a girl from Texas in my district and that is very distracting for everyone, because of all the accents, but we have some fun times. So many funny things happen everyday, and I really love everyone. We had a little testimony meeting Monday night and I don't think there is anything cooler than seeing 18 and 19 year old boys cry when they bear their testimonies. SO cool. I love it. 

Our Korean teacher is so amazing. He always makes me feel like I can take on Korean and that we can do this. He is so great. Also, he has another job managing a sod farm, so we always make jokes about when he isn't there that he's probably out watching grass grow. So funny.

This week we taught our investigator and for our third lesson, our teacher didn't tell us we were teaching, so we had literally no advance notice. Luckily my companion and I had planned out our lesson in English, which was more than everyone else in our district, so we got to teach first, and it was incredible the Spirit that was in that room and as we prayed going into that lesson not knowing before hand what we would say. Seriously it was so cool, and I think that experience really cemented my testimony that this is truly the Lord's work.  We taught our 5th lesson last night, and He said he knows the book of mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that was the coolest thing ever. I just love the gospel so much, and I know that the Lord is guiding me and this work. I wake up giddy every morning knowing I'm a missionary:)

Anyway, that's about all I have time for, but make sure you are sending my letters to all my friends and stuff and maybe blogging if Michelle has figured that out yet!

I love you all!! Write me:)

Love,

Sister Hunter

Oct. 19th I love the MTC!

Dear Family,

I love the MTC! It is SUCH a wonderful place! So much has happened in the last 2 days! It's crazy! We haven't been able to get our mail yet because our District Leader was just assigned last night and he's the only one who can get the mail. I haven't been homesick much yet, which is good, although waiting for the mail has been a little hard. Hopefully I have some or that'll be super disappointing. (Hint hint wink wink)

Fridays are my P-day, which is great, because after yesterday I need a break. Wednesday was a really fun day. We got to meet our companions, and I love mine! Her name is Sister Pratt and she's from Payson. She sings all the time, so that reminds me of Michelle, but I don't know any of the songs she sings. They are all weird choir ones, since she's a voice major. But she started realizing if she hums a hymn I'll hum along since I"m so self conscious about singing. She is great though and I learn so much from her! There is another sister companionship in our room, and I love them. Sister Wing that we met at the temple is in my room and her companion, Sister Giles, is hilarious! I'm the oldest one in my room, which is so weird to me. We all get along so so well though! I live on the 4th floor of my residence halls and bringing my suitcases up the stairs was pretty hilarious! I should have gotten some muscles before the MTC! Who knew?? But don't worry! I'll be working out the next 9 weeks (and praying really hard) so that when I get to Korea I'll be a little more capable.... hopefully!!

Wednesday night, we had some group teaching opportunities, and that was SUCH a neat experience! It was hard to think of how to best teach people, but it was cool. It made me really nervous though about saying the right thing and especially in Korean that seems impossible. On Thursday morning though, we had a devotional and we talked about our purpose as missionaries and I had such a feeling of peace that me saying the right words is not a big deal. The Lord will bless me because I'm on his errand, and the Spirit is what teaches anyway. I just have to help and invite others to come to Him and receive His teachings in their heart. It was just such a comforting experience. 

Yesterday was a very long day. We studied Korean for so many hours straight, but it really didn't make me too tired. Everyone in my district was complaining a little though about what hard work it is, and how tired they were of studying, but maybe studying science has paid off, because it just seemed normal. Also. Learning Korean is SOOO fun! I get giddy every time! Our teacher, Brother Christensen, is so so fun and just a great guy! He's apparently the 'fun' teacher, so that has been a blessing. We can just tell how much he loves us and wants us to succeed, but he makes class so fun. The whole first day my companion and I were just laughing our heads off, because he was talking to us in Korean and asking us questions, and all we could do was try to answer and pretend we knew what he was saying. So basically we said hi and yes a lot. Cuz that's all we knew..... and yes he had to teach us. haha. Yes sounds like 'nay' in English, so that's really confusing, because that's the opposite of yes.

Our district is so so so wonderful though. I love them so much. Their are two girl companionships (Me and my roommates) and 8 elders. Their is an Elder Gehrig from Germany who is amazing, because English isn't his first language, and he's learning Korean. He's so much better than us already haha. He's stellar though. Imagine a younger President Uchtdorf with dark hair. That is the quality of Elder he is. Everyone is so good though. After spending only a day and a half with everyone, I feel like we are family. We had some really wonderful discussions together last night at our meeting with our Branch Presidency, and we grew so  much closer. I was writing in my journal last night about them, and I was tearing up about it, which is so weird, but I truly love them and am having such a good time. Heavenly Father truly knew that we needed each other to support and lift one another, so that has been such a tender mercy. 

Last night in our district we all bore our testimonies and talked about why we were on a mission. I wasn't sure what to say, because the reason I went on a mission was because the Spirit told me to. And that seems like a silly reason. Not silly, but much less of a story than what everyone else had, but as I got up to share my testimony, the Lord let me know why I am on a mission, and it was so cool. I just can't think of anything better than sharing the knowledge of my Savior with the people of Korea. I know that I covenanted to share the gospel with these people in the Pre-earth life, and I'm so grateful I have the opportunity to do that. I feel like there are a lot of reasons I'm on a mission that are still unknown to me, but Heavenly Father has some wise purposes for this. I truly hope that I can be an example to Andrew and Allan and Paul, because being on a mission is so wonderful. I have never had a better experience. The work is so hard, but it's so fulfilling. I am tired, but it's really a wonderful thing. I wake up so happy. Even this morning I was happy, even though I was so sleep deprived and tired! The branch presidency didn't let us go until 10:05 last night, which is half an hour later than they should have, and since it was P-day today we had to get up extra early for service (5:45). But usually I would have been so grumpy, but I was just so happy to be at the MTC. I think there is such a joy in knowing you are where you are supposed to be. What a comfort that is. 

Service this morning was pretty funny too. We had to clean and mop this stair way by the book store. We cleaned all of the glass paneling on the way up the stairs and then we were moping at the top and Sister Giles dumped out a bunch of water on the floor and it ran out and splashed out down the stairwell. It was so funny. I wish someone had been on the stairs, but it's good for them that no one was. I'm pretty sure i didn't explain that very well, but just imagine someone throwing a bucket of soapy water over the railing and down a stair well. So funny. Or maybe I'm going a little crazy already. But I'm still dying about it.

Everyone told me that the first week was going to be so bad, but it still hasn't really sunk in that I'm on a mission. It's just so exciting and such hard work. I feel like my time to sit down and cry and wonder what the heck I'm doing is probably coming soon though. Maybe even today, cuz I'm feeling really emotional, but hopefully I don't get too homesick. I'm just trying not to think about how long it's going to be before I see everyone again. If I'm busy, I'll be fine and the work is so exciting and a challenge for sure. It feels like I'm in physics all over again, and I'm so overwhelmed, but it's amazingly fun and exciting and I have faith that I'll be able to get Korean more than physics. HOPEFULLY. Also, we have to prepare a 3-5 minute talk in Korean about the atonement for Sacrement meeting on Sunday, which is so daunting, because I don't even know how to say Atonement in Korean. I actually don't really even know how to say Jesus Christ. I could sound it out though. Really I mostly just know the alphabet and how to introduce myself. So  hopefully they don't pick me to speak. We have the largest branch at the MTC, which is super cool! Our branch president said some pretty cool things about the Korean missions. We are just sandwiched between two very communist countries, but the work is exploading. There used to be just 3 missions in Korea with 30-40 missionaries in each mission, but since July and the addition or the Seoul South mission, we now have approximately 800 missionaries in Korea. That is CRAZY! But I feel like the Lord really is preparing the country and even North Korea for the gospel. I am so excited to be part of this. Our 2nd counselor's wife is from North Korea, and she is so amazing. I love her. Anyway, the Lord works in mysterious ways, but I know He has a plan for me and my brothers and sisters in Korea. 

I love you all so so much, and hope you all are doing well! I hope Natalie had a wonderful birthday, and that you guys went and ate something wonderful and partied after you dropped me off. I don't want to hear about it, but I hope it was fun! I'm praying for all of you, and you are on my mind. Please write me, because it's so hard not being able to talk to someone about your day. And my companion doesn't count. Because she experienced everything I did. So I can't vent to her. haha. But I love you all so so so much!

Love, 

Sister Hunter

PS Thanks mom for your sweet note in my journal! I found it my first night and it made me so happy! Thanks. Also thanks for the Reese's. I get so hungry here cuz I can only eat 3 times a day, which is hard for my little stomach and quick metabolism. I have been trying to stuff myself at meal times, but that mostly makes me feel sick, and i already eat slow so I think that makes my companion a little crazy. haha. Hopefully she doesn't hate me! (She doesn't. I can tell. She really likes to hug. Which is fine. But she lingers. hahaha) 

PPS. I forgot my book with all my email addresses in my room so hopefully i remembered moms right. I sent it to myself though just in case... Not that you would think to check there.....hmmm. I guess if I don't get letters next week I'll know why. But really write me, ok?? OK:)