6 months

To quote one of my favorite Hey Monday songs, today is my SIX MONTH MARK. Well actually tomorrow - but today is preparation day so we went to the Bay Street mall to celebrate! I need something new to keep me going. I've been on my mission for six months, finishing up my third transfer. Time is flying by so fast. I know I always talk about this, but you really can't understand how time works when you're on a mission unless you've served. And even then, it doesn't make any scientific/logical/rational sense.

Because of the recent change in email policy, I've had A LOT of emailing to do and so this one has to stay short. I'll try to wrap everything up quick. We got our normal car back on Tuesday - it was so nice to be back. On Wednesday, we went tracting for a bit and ran into a less active named Rebecca. She was baptized when she was 8 but then her family stopped going to church. Now she has two little kids and is interested to come back. We didn't see her at church this Sunday, but we're hoping to meet with her this week. We also had district meeting that day and our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Meredith, made a special visit for our district meeting! We had the opportunity to roleplay with them and it was a lot of fun! Their companionship is the epitome of working in unity.

We had a lot of lessons on Thursday that were really rocky because Sister Sia and I have hardly taught this transfer. I was blessed to be trained in Castro Valley where the teaching pool was booming and there were so many lessons to be taught, but Sister Sia and I have not had that here in Oakland this transfer. We saw a couple of less actives and tried teaching, but it turned into some simple spiritual thoughts. We're working on it though, and we're finally finding investigators so we'll have lessons to teach this week!

On Friday, we did a lot of studying and planning for the upcoming week, which always drains us. We had dinner with a less active member, Sister Ryden, and her boyfriend Peter. They decorated the table for St. Patrick's Day and played some instrumental Irish folk music (hope that was mission-approved). We also got to see Chameka - I had met her once but we hadn't been able to get in touch with her since so we stopped by and talked with her for awhile. She still wants to meet with us but we need to see her progress; specifically, she needs to come to church. We also tracted into a woman named Angel who has been mad at God since her dad died but she's started going back to church and looking for answers. We left her a plan of salvation pamphlet and invited her to the Lamb of God performance here at Temple Hill. She is very interested and wants us to help answer her questions! We're hoping she wants to learn - she's African-American and is a little put off by claims that our church didn't initially accept black members, which isn't true at all but it's hard to explain the priesthood thing to anyone because I still don't understand it. oh well, all in God's timing.

We had two investigator lessons on Saturday!!! It was an absolute miracle. We're slowly building up our teaching pool!!! We taught the message of the restoration to Herman, a guy that came to the VC at Christmastime and wanted to learn more. He's studied a little bit of our religion before when he was in the service and wants to understand more. We're going back to see him next week! We also saw Miriam - some elders ran into her at the grocery store and she requested sister missionaries. She's Jewish and in the process of converting to Buddhism; originally, she just wanted help for her 7-year-old daughter Emma who doesn't believe in God. But when we went over on Saturday, she said she would be willing to learn as well! She has the kindest heart and gives to everyone - she doesn't have much, but I have never met someone with so much charity for each and every single person around her.

Sunday was a great meeting at church - we had Ward Conference. The focus was on one of my favorite scriptures, Ether 12:4 -

4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of daith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

We talked a lot about how in order to have faith, we must have doubts. Hope and faith are not perfect knowledge; we will always have doubts. It reminds me of one of my favorite Mormon messages if you have time for it.

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#mens-hearts-shall-fail-them

So...just remember that. Questions are good - keep asking them, keep praying and you'll find the answers.

So things are going great. I'm slightly nervous about transfers - I want to stay because we've just started to get the ball rolling in this area and find investigators, but I'm also ready for Spanishland. Sister Sia has been in the area for four transfers now so she's probably leaving, which means if I left, the area would be shotgunned, which is what happened when I left Castro Valley, and there would be two new missionaries to the area. Speaking from experience, it's stressful to have someone shotgunning your area. I think I'll go, but you never know! I'll find out Saturday night and let you all know next week! There have been a lot of great things happening in this area, especially this past week, and Sister Sia and I are excited to see all the miracles that happen in this last week of the transfer!

I am so grateful for everyone's love and support - and emails now! They really mean a lot to me, and I hope that these letters lift you all a little bit when you read them. In remembrance of my six month mark this week, look up that Hey Monday song. Listen to it for me since I can't.

Love you all!

Hermana Hunsaker

Me and Hermana Peña! Future compañeras




The shades




The lovely Hermana Thalman - she's going home next week and this is
her last missionary outfit!!!




Our first companionship picture. Sad.




Out on Bay Street!

BIG NEWS... and a bunch of pictures!

Drumroll please......

We're allowed to email everyone now! Some of you may have emailed me and I had to ignore and not write back because my mission president said we could only email our parents and immediate family, but the official statement from Salt Lake says every missionary can email just about anybody! It will still be hard to find time when preparation day gets away from me so quick, but it will be so much easier than writing letters. If you want a handwritten letter, you can always email me your address - as a missionary, I know how fun it is to get handwritten letters. But look forward to future emails from me and send me one so I have your addresses! jill.hunsaker@myldsmail.net

So, that's exciting. Oakland is doing pretty well - I'm staying alive. Jk, it's really safe as long as you're smart around here. We are still working on building up our teaching pool - we didn't find too much time to find new investigators this past week so we don't have any results about the 72 hour kits. We received a lot of referrals this week and we've been working on getting in contact with them but we haven't had too much luck. I went on an exchange on Tuesday with Sister Oa - it's her first transfer but her trainer is Sister Taggart, one of the VC trainers, so she goes on a lot of exchanges like I did when I was with Sister Ure. It was my first time in my area by myself - Sister Sia was in Lafayette - so that was a little nerve-wracking but I managed to make some good plans and contact one of our referrals, Laxman. He grew up in Vermont but he's Nepali and his parents are Hindu. We didn't have any Nepali Books of Mormon - I'm not even sure if they are published in Nepali yet - but we brought him one in Hindi. He's awesome and way interested. We stopped by his house again last night and talked to him for a few minutes. We haven't set up an official time to meet with him because he is really busy right now. He's married, so we asked if his wife has shown any interested - he said she hasn't but he's trying to bring her up to the VC which is how we found out about him. After talking to him for about five minutes outside his home, his wife called for him so we were going to leave but he invited us in. I had a bad feeling about going in, but he assured us it was fine with his wife. We went in and he invited us to sit down on the couch but I could tell something wasn't right. His wife ended up going off on us about how much she disliked the church because of our opposition to same-sex marriage and how we were not welcome in her home. I tried to get out of there fast but Sister Sia kept offering things and even asked if we could pray with them. She said no very angrily and it was a miracle she didn't fight us. She seemed like a high-class lady but the home just felt evil as she yelled at us. We shook her hand and left. Laxman walked us outside and apologized, and we said a prayer with him before we left. It was a really disheartening experience. I was on the verge of breaking down from frustration - we've been working for three whole weeks to find investigators with no success. When we finally find one person who is sincerely interested, all hope seemed lost after meeting his wife - I can't imagine that she'll ever allow him to be baptized.

But right afterwards, a miracle happened. Their neighbor was outside was watering his plants in front of his house. I was not feeling good and I almost got back in the car, but Sister Sia went over to offer him a pass-along card. We ended up having a twenty minute conversation with him right then and there. He said he has always been curious to learn more about the church and he'd been up to the temple grounds (he lived five minutes away from it) but he had never been to the visitors' center. He's had LDS friends in the past, has heard of the background, was raised in a strong Catholic family, and was drawn to his home in Oakland because it was so near the temple. He is so prepared and we are so excited to teach him! He's just a genuinely good guy, and we know he'll find the answer and follow it.

On Thursday, we went to Wheelworks. Elder Bailey asked us to take the loaner car we are borrowing to get an oil change. It ended up taking almost four hours because they were so busy - we just studied the whole time, and tried to talk to some of the people there without acting like solicitors. So that was long. And draining. And while it was good to study so much, it left me really tired and worn down. And then we had an investigator lesson - FINALLY - my first one in this area. But this investigator is an eternal investigator. Her name is Erica - she's married to a less active in our ward and they just had a baby boy a few months ago. Missionaries have been teaching her for forever, but she doesn't agree that God is a immortal, perfect being. She thinks of Him as an energy of love - she thinks that to regard Him as a man and father is offensive to God because her father was not a good father figure. But she's felt His love and knows that He exists. She understands everything we say, but she doesn't accept it. It was totally draining as I tried to ask questions to help her learn but she had her own answer for everything and doesn't have a desire to learn. Her husband wants her to be baptized so so much so they can be sealed in the temple, but I don't know what's going to give before she opens her heart to learning. Only a miracle I guess. We're going to see them weekly and hopefully we'll be able to see progress.

One more big thing happened - Noelle got baptized on Saturday!!! I got to go back to Castro Valley - well, the chapel was in Hayward - and be there! She asked me to give a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost and how we need to learn how to receive, recognize, and respond to the promptings of the Holy Ghost that come from this wonderful gift. I related the story of how we found Noelle and testified that we knew where to go that night because the Holy Ghost prompted us to show up there. Due to special church circumstances the next day, she was confirmed right after her baptism, and then she shared her testimony with everyone there, which included a lot of non-member family members and friends. It was so so powerful. And in her testimony, she told us that she told her mom to cancel our lesson because she knew that if we came over, she would end up accepting the gospel since she already knew it was true. So if we hadn't just shown up, we never would have taught her or her mom Karen! Their relationship is still rocky, but I know they can make it better through the steps they're taking. I got to see a lot of great people from Castro Valley including Bishop Passadore, Brother Brown (Ward Mission Leader), and Sister Hall (Relief Society President). I'm still banking on going back there to finish up my mission and help Gerry get baptized!

So I got to see a lot of little miracles this week. There were ups and downs, but we can't get discouraged. We can - and will - be disappointed at times, but we can't let ourselves get discouraged or we might miss the "Anthony"s or the promptings of the Spirit. I'm slowly learning to keep faith, even when times are hard, and follow the Spirit to know my next move. My favorite scripture right now is 2 Nephi 9:18 which says:

18 But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.

I have had moments on my mission where my joy has been full, and I had some of those moments this week. And if I can have that ALL THE TIME in the kingdom of God, there's nothing more important than that. That is eternal life. I found this phrase I wrote down a long time ago in my scriptures the other day - Fun is easy. Joy and happiness are hard work. I'm coming to understand that more and more as I am here serving in Oakland, but I know all my work is worth the effort to feel that undescribable joy myself and to see others experience it in their own lives.

So work hard, be happy, and EMAIL me!!! Praying for all of you :)

Hermana Hunsaker


Me and Sister Mitchell - we met in the MTC! Future companions :)




Transfer call night - Wendy's frosties in preparation for the bad news....




Birthday with Sister Lao! We're twins!!! February 21st, 1991




Brother and Sister Jeffers - my adoptive grandparents in the CV ward




Team of CV ward missionaries




The beginning of the end - and she's on the phone




Of course it had to rain on the most complicated transfer day EVER




Sister Sia in my birthday box - we don't have a picture together yet......




On exchange with Hermana Garcia - contacting IN SPANISH at the beach!!!




Exchange with Sister Oa!




Noelle at her baptism! with the original sisters :)

It's already March!

I can't believe how fast the time is flying - I'll have my six-month mark this month in just a couple of weeks. I'll only have a year left! A year is a long time, but it doesn't feel like a long time when you reach some of those checkpoints. But I've got plenty of time to keep working here. I think I'll be able to keep this email short - we're still working on building up our teaching pool, but things are definitely starting to happen!

Last Monday was preparation day - I think I already talked about the Chinese supermarket and crossing the Bay Bridge. After that, we wrote emails and went to play rugby with the zone - which means I sat and wrote letters. I'm incredibly behind on all my letters so sorry to anyone who has written me! I'll be working on that today. We went over for dinner at the home of a Tongan member with a bunch of the other missionaries - they give us SO MUCH FOOD. I'm glad I'm not in the Tongan program - I can't afford the calories.

On Tuesday I got to go to Spanishland! It was only my second day ever in Spanishland and it was so much fun. Sister Garcia is the VC trainer that took Sister Ure's spot and so I got to go to San Leandro with her. I was her first exchange as a VC trainer and we both really needed it. She covers the Spanish area in Castro Valley so we got to drive there and I had a little bit of closure. We also played soccer with the zone for our morning exercise so it was good to see everyone again. We had both lunch and dinner from members while teaching them some English, visited a less-active sister, and taught their investigator Luz, who is just a total doll. We taught her about obedience and told her the story of Abraham and how his obedience blessed him. She is such a golden investigator, and I just love the Spanish culture because you just feel like you're at home. Even if people aren't interested in learning more about the gospel, they're nice and they want to talk to you. Luz just kept saying over and over "mi casa es su casa" (I understood that one). Sister Garcia gave me the opportunity to talk at every lesson, which was good but it was so so hard. I'm starting to understand them more, but I still don't get most of what they're saying. We also did some finding in San Leandro - we drove over to the San Leandro Marina and there were TONS of people - it's the closest thing to a beach that I've seen since I've been out on my mission. I didn't realize how close I was to the ocean! There were so many people there, and most of them were Hispanic. We didn't find any investigators but I got to get out and practice talking to people in Spanish, which is exactly what I needed and she knew that. It was a really great day.

We were supposed to see two potential investigators on Wednesday, but they both cancelled and we haven't gotten in touch with them yet. I haven't taken detailed notes in my planner this week because I've been writing in my journal a lot so I'm not sure what happened most of the week. We've just been working really hard and trying to find people and we didn't have much success. On Thursday, we ran into this lady on the road named Marjorie. She just graduated from her year-long addiction recovery program and she had met with missionaries before in Sacramento. She's in the process of finding a place to live so we need to figure out where to meet her and keep teaching her, but we're planning on seeing her this week! We also received a phone call from a man named Steve - he said we had met with him before and he wanted to meet again! We haven't been able to see him yet - neither Sister Sia or I have ever taught him before - but it's not everyday that a potential investigator calls you to find a time to meet! So things are looking up. Because we've been working hard, the Lord is starting to send people our way.

I almost forgot to talk about the VC trainings we had this week! Two men from the Missionary Department, Brother Lusvardi and Brother Mitchell, came to our mission this week. They had two trainings with all of the VC sisters on Thursday and Friday from 8am-10am. It was long - and early - but I learned so so much. We focused heavily on learning to use short and powerful statements, to teach people for understanding and overall how to really make every tour a converting experience. It reminded me a lot of the VC training I received in the MTC that I've had a hard time implementing. The VC can be very slow, but when we take a very serious approach to each and every tour, it will always be a meaningful day at the VC.

Saturday was our full-proselyting day and it was pretty busy. We've had so many meetings this week that we haven't been advertising our 72 hour kits as much as before - we just have a few more organizational preparations to make in order to get the ball rolling this week but the people we've talked to are really interested. We need to create flyers and a signup sheet and then we'll make sure that this starts happening. We saw two less actives on Saturday - Melanie and Jerome. We found Jerome just by going through the ward membership records and contacting them. We've been doing that for awhile and we haven't had much success, but we found Jerome and he's ready to come back. Even if all our efforts to track down these people were just for him, that's enough. We taught him a lesson and then invited him to a play about African-American pioneers that night. He even said he wanted to come to church so we arranged a ride for him. It's truly a miracle. Melanie was less active for many years and came back after quitting her job that had caused some major health problems. She loves coming to church and the people there - we're going to teach her all the missionary lessons again because even though she was raised LDS, she's blocked out a lot from her past. She's super sweet and we're excited to start working with her.

We had district meeting on Saturday as well - our district leader Elder Doney is great. He's got his work cut out for him - he's a bike elder, he's training right now, and he is the district leader for two companionships of sisters, three of which are Asian. I don't mean anything by that except for that fact that they're a little more high-strung than the one laidback Coloradan. He's just trying to help, and it's hard, but I've been able to recognize all the work he's putting in while they don't always. District meetings are always a little rocky, but he teaches me a lot. His training was based off the training he received as a district leader from Brother Mitchell and Brother Lusvardi, focusing on helping us study and plan better for our lessons. We went to the play that night with Jerome and the Simms (members) and the play was not that great unfortunately - it felt like a dress rehearsal and I found out later from the two missionaries that were in the play that they hadn't had a dress rehearsal so that's essentially what it was. It was full of interesting stories though - I want to study more about the African-American pioneers after my mission. They had such great faith, like all the pioneers - I'm working on developing that kind of faith, but it's hard.

After the play, we came out to our car which was parked along the road, and the whole front left corner of the bumper was dented inward - it was HUGE. Sister Sia has a picture - I think I'll add it on here. I almost didn't notice, but it had popped off a bit and was sticking out so I saw it right before getting into the driver's seat. We called the mission home and they told us to call the police, but the police wanted us to go to downtown Oakland to file a report and it was dark so.....Elder Bailey said we didn't have to do it. So there's my first accident report. It wasn't my fault, just a stupid hit-and-run, but I just hate when that kind of stuff happens. Luckily the next day was Sunday.

Sunday was pretty good - but kind of crazy. We had a Jewish convert to the church bear his testimony - he goes to the synagogue still but he believes that Jesus Christ is the Savior and he wants to serve a mission with his wife soon. It was kind of odd, but kind of cool. We also had Sister Sia's recent convert, Barbara, bear her testimony about going to the temple to do baptisms. She was a little more toned-down, but not much, as she used to have her own TV ministry. But it was interesting - you only get stuff like that in church in Oakland. We planned for most of the night, and then had a lesson with Jason about temples. He was baptized back in September, and he's still just soaking it all in. He's great.

So yeah, that's what happened. Sister Sia is going on exchanges tomorrow and leaving me in our area for the first time by myself with a brand new missionary. SO......that should be fun. We've planned pretty well this week so hopefully I'll know what I'm doing. And hopefully Sister Sia's GPS will work. Who knows. We have a rental car until our cute little Corolla is fixed so things will work out. Just working hard up here in Oakland!

Love - Hermana Hunsaker