Family History Mission in SLC

This is the end of our third week serving our mission. We made many new friends from all walks of life at the MTC.  We became good friends with Elder and Sister Kira, who live in Hawaii, but who have now left to serve in their home country of Japan.

                 



                                                                                                   
Jeanne, who lives in Orem, and Jon, who was in the area visiting family, drove us from the MTC to Salt Lake last Thursday. It was great to visit with family on the way over. They first took us shopping at Harmons for the basics: eggs, milk, cereal, butter, bread, apples, and salad. Oh, bottled water for Lucille, Sister Hunt.

We now live in an apartment very close to Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UT.  It is a furnished apartment. The mission has given us a mission starter kit: pots and pans, plates, silverware, drinking glasses, bedding, towels and some soap.  Our temporary assignment mission is the Family & Church History Headquarters Mission. Everyone here is very nice and kind to us.We love our mission and it is teaching us what is means to be without the luxuries of a normal life.

We have been getting to know our way around by walking everywhere. Most things that we need including our work-site are in walking distance. There are so many young and senior missionaries who work on Temple Square. So many young sister missionaries are assigned to greet and give tours on Temple Square (we love seeing the name tags which include flags from their native country). Some senior couples are also assigned to give tours, others work at the Family History Library, some work with us in Data Corrections in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Still others work in other church buildings. Many young elders are also assigned to Family Search within the different buildings. This place is huge and zillions of jobs for the missionaries. Family Search is an exciting place to work. We have been on the Family Search website learning and exploring our jobs. Next week we will be training on different programs. It will be exciting and interesting. We are looking forward to it.

Today is the 24th, Pioneer Day. Happy Pioneer Day to all! We are grateful for our pioneer ancestors who gave their all to establish their families in safe places where they can worship God as they please. There are many great stories of our ancestors that we can share with our children so they too can pass them on to their children. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ has made it possible for stories to be recorded and stored for generations to come. That is one of the missions of Family History.

We are still waiting for our visas. We are told that the Finish Mission is doing all they can to get our visas approved. Thank you for your love and prayers. We love you very much.

Family & Church History Mission

Since leaving the MTC and setting up house in our new temporary assignment we have had no wifi. We have ordered it for our apartment but still it's not installed. Just posting this from my iPhone.

The Last Day of the First Week at MTC

A beautiful rainbow in Provo Canyon above the temple.

This was a very positive omen for us. That's the Navajo coming out in Sister Hunt. It rained all night and we watched part of it.  First we could hear it on our roof then we went out in the patio to see it. We are thankful for every drop of rain and hoped that Blanding would receive some too.   

Today we got to watch President Boyd K. Packer's funeral. The whole MTC closed down to watch it. What a wonderful man and President of the Twelve he was. He accomplished so much. His testimony of Jesus Christ has touched millions throughout his life. His work truly continues on in paradise. We loved all the talks that were given. You can watch a video replay on lds.org and other church sites.

Being it's the last day of Preach My Gospel training we did some evaluation and some departure information for those who are leaving for their mission countries and areas. We will be returning to class on Monday for training for Young Single Adult (YSA). There are only a few couple missionaries staying over the weekend, the rest have gone to their new assignments.  We will be finished with our training at MTC next Wednesday.  Then we will be leave on Thursday morning for our temporary assignment at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City. Our new address will be

Elder & Sister Hunt

Garden Apartments

 135 West 200 North #26

SLC, UT 84103

Our VISAs have not been approved yet.  So we are still waiting.  We don't know how long it will take for the appeal to be processed.  We will serve where ever our Heavenly Father needs our help.  Thank you very much for your prayers and support in every way.  We love you all.  

Elder & Sister Hunt

4th Day at MTC

Guess what today is Thursday, July 9th, 2015. We are happy to be at MTC.  In just a few days we have learned so much.  Today we taught a sweet elderly Mexican lady from Orem.  She wants to be baptized but she enjoys her coffee with her bowling friends.  She has lots of fears about getting baptized.  Doesn't want to be alienated from her active friends. She doesn't want to stop bowling because they bowl on Sundays. We taught her about the Book of Mormon. She has been reading it and is about half way through. Heavenly Father will bless her if she would pray to know if what she is reading is true. She said she would pray about it. We invited her to go with us to our ward baptism. She agreed to come.  She also offered the opening prayer. She is well on her way to baptism. The past missionaries were teaching her.  This was a mock teaching with a real investigator playing her former life before their baptism. It seemed so real. We had a good teaching experience with her.

It was a really good day.  We have excellent returned missionary teachers. They are the best.

Our District couples L-R; The Battys, The Bigelows,

The Udalls, The Hunts and Sister Esplin our teacher.

Our District couples with our teacher Sister Ricks.

3rd Day at MTC

08 July 2015 Wednesday

Today has been another busy learning day.  It was also the new young missionary day.  We watched hundreds of new missionaries in line checking in.  It was a wonderful site.  We later saw Sister Dominique Sherrow or she saw us and called out to us while we were walking between buildings. We greeted each other with an embrace.  It was so good to see her, a beautiful missionary from our Third Ward in Blanding.  We are so proud of her.  She's going to serve well.

The cafeteria serves ice cream at two meals, lunch and dinner when the new young missionaries come.  It was a treat for us.  Calvin, I mean Elder Hunt had vanilla with fruit topping and Sister Hunt had strawberry ice cream.  It was so-o-o good.  The ice cream comes from the BYU Creamery.

We have met so many Senior Missionary couples from all walks of life and training to serve all over the world.  One couple from our district is already to leave for one of the islands in Guam. They leave on Friday.

It is great to be learning from the best trained in the gospel teachers who are extraordinary returned missionaries.

 Sister Sherrow's first day at MTC.

MTC cafeteria where missionaries can eat all the ice cream they want.

Day Two at MTC

It is Tuesday and we already started our day with a nice hearty breakfast, scrambled eggs, ham and a bowl of fresh fruit.  Class at 8 o'clock with Brother Peterson. He was so entertaining and brought the meeting and lesson to life.  He talked and discussed with us from the book Preach My Gospel page 11 Remember This: "Your purpose is to Invite Others to Come Unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." 
There was so much good information.

The other half of the day we attended another class where just our district met with our teacher, Sister Esplin, a returned missionary.  She taught us how to begin teaching from the Preach My Gospel book.

By the end of the day the Senior Missionaries were saying that they were not hungry even though it was time for supper.  We saw the young missionaries rushing to the cafeteria while we took our time getting there.  They have so much energy and it is fun to watch them because they are everywhere. We have seen and talked with Elder Braxton Brown several times.  Yesterday he recognized us and came over to welcome us. Elder Brown is the son Elder Hunt's coworker at Eagle Air Med in Blanding. He worked part-time at Eagle Air Med for the past three years. He already is a great missionary.

Our second day has been a great experience.  We are happy to be missionaries.  We love you all and thank you for your support in every way.

We are trying to reach our country, Finland.

Cafeteria where all the good food is served.

First Day at MTC

Hello Dear Family & Friends,
We are enjoying our education and training at the Missionary Training Center (MTC).  Three days ago, Monday, we were dropped off here by our daughter, Margo, who now lives in Heber City. Everyone was so nice and kind to us.  The young missionaries were assigned to help us with our luggage and show us to our room which is set up like a motel. There are so many couple missionaries who checked-in on the same day.  They have been called to serve all over the world including homeland America.

   Happy to be at MTC but nervous.

                                     Saying good-bye 
                                     to our former life.

Hard to say good-bye to family but we are now at MTC.

We are also learning how to blog.  Soon we will be able to do these things quicker.  In the meantime, we want to share with you some of the wonderful things we have already experienced.

Day one: Got checked in and put on our name tags and ordered our Finnish ones at the bookstore.  Went to orientation where we met our MTC Mission President and his counselors.  Some of the quotes we heard from them: "As couple missionaries work as One Unit."  A quote from President Hinckley, "Your sacrifice is your investment."...investment in every aspect of our life as missionaries. "Trust in the Lord. He will take care of your families. Family members will be strengthened."  "Open your heart, mind, mouths in speaking the gospel." "Take care of yourself, don't stop taking your 'stuff' (medication) stay on your stuff." "The Lord has prepared some people for you. It's just a matter of time. You will be trained to meet them. We promise it will happen."  We heard many other wonderful and encouraging lines in their talks.

We were given all kinds of schedules and do's and don'ts.  Then it was time for lunch.  That was a real treat in many ways.  First of all, we didn't have cook or clean up.  There was so many variety of food on the menu. All we can eat! And we did eat!  We were still not hungry by dinner time but we ate anyway.  The food is excellent.  The Young Missionaries always make way for us Senior Missionaries when they see us near them.  It's nice to be a Senior Missionary you get special treatment almost everywhere.  

We were divided into districts.  Our district has four couples in it, including us.  We met briefly and the day was over. We were so tired and it felt good to have been here our first day!

Day two: Next posting. :)