This week was up and down, but pretty good!

Yolanda and her family, as well as Malcolm's, didn't make it to Church again, but she is determined to make it next Sunday. I hope we see her! We also committed her to live the Word of Wisdom, and she accepted! She also has been praying, and expressed concerns about the opposition she feels. She knows this is important, and wants to do it, and recognizes that Satan is working hard for it to not happen. But she is going to be baptized!

Also, we met Michel and, consequently, Bazil, at the Globehouse on Sunday for 'Africa Day', a celebration of African culture. It was good to spend more time with Bazil and continue to strengthen our friendship with him.

That's mostly what happened this week! It felt like a really short week, but things are looking up this week! We hope to help Sligo continue to feel the missionary spirit. Have a great week everyone! Thanks for your support and emails. I know this Church is true, and I have faith in the Lord's promises to bless and guide His children to Him. Love you!

Love,
Elder Devin Jay Hunter

P.S. Kirk out!

Here we are at the top of Knocknarea Mountain on P-Day! :)

Dear family and friends. This morning we got our move's call. The news is...



Elder Jackson and I are staying together in Sligo for another transfer! This is his last one on his mission. Which means... I will be ''killing'' him off! That's two missionaries I'm killing off in Sligo. Who's next!? :)

This week has been absolutely fantastic, with some blotchy spots. First off, we met with Bazil, and explained baptism and confirmation to him to make sure he understood why we put an emphasis and keep talking about baptism. We sensed he is a little put off by it, and now hopefully he understands better. According to Michel, our friend in the branch who resides currently at the Globehouse, he doesn't want to be baptized, but wants to attend church. He also currently drinks coffee, tea, and occasionally alcohol, but wants to stop. We hope to see him progress soon.

We also met with Yolanda, and she is doing great!!! She has prayed and has received answers to her prayers, she wants to change her life and herself, and she even tried to come out to church on Sunday with Jade and Jemma, her daughters, but her lift (Robin) ended up having to go to the hospital on Saturday night, and she was unable to find another lift with her brother Malcolm, so she couldn't make it. She has accepted the invitation to pray about the baptismal date of June 21. She is so golden! And her daughters Jade and Jemma are learning and starting to like it too. At least we have a good discussion about it every lesson.

So I am most likely, unless the Lord whitewashes the area at the end of this moves, going to stay in Sligo for at least 2 more moves. Fantastic, huh?

Yolanda is also raising a baby crow, because her less-active dad, Chris Wren, found it in his chimney and saw it was abandoned, so he told Yolanda she could care for it, or he could just wring its neck. She, being the good-natured and ''can't see anything or anyone get hurt'' person she is, took it in, and now is taking care of it. It's pretty weird seeing her feed it. It like swallows her finger with the food, and then let's go, and keeps crying for more until its full. It's disgusting and cool.

Well, that's all for this week. I'm gonna send pictures and stuff now. I love you all, and I know that the Lord forgives, watches, and tends to and keeps us even when we can't feel it or see it. I know this Church is true. Keep the faith! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Devin Jay Hunter
P.S. Kirk out!
P.P.S. Hope you all had a good Mother's Day! :)



​P.S. Here's me with some Himalayan Vultures. :) They're so cool!

Hello family and friends! This week in Sligo, we had some really good moving forward points. This is the 2nd week in a row that the Walshes have been to sacrament meeting! It's good to see some progress with them, because they've been unable to attend the past 5 weeks or so.

Elder Jackson and I had a cool experience with Who, What, When, Where, a tool given specifically to the Scotland/Ireland Mission, where we went to a specific street we prayed about at a specific time, and, in the short 20 or so minutes we had, we met the person we had planned for. It is a great faith-building experience.

We've met with Malcolm, Yolanda's sister. He wasn't able to come to church, like Yolanda, because of their niece's christening. But we met Yolanda on Thursday night and we had our first semi-formal lesson. We used the leaflets to teach the Restoration of the Gospel, and, amidst bingo cards, people going in and out, and random questions and conversations happening everywhere, we taught Yolanda and her daughter Jade. They had amazing questions, and we were able to answer them and I could tell it made sense to Jade. We told Yolanda how she could know it is true, and she said she already knew it was true, but she needed to rekindle the feelings she had as a youth with her LDS friends. She is also open to baptism and coming to church.

We're still serving at our new Eagles Flying place, where we get to clean up after and help show off rescued birds, animals, and all manner of living beings. It is a great experience to be able to work with these animals. I might hold a bird this new time, instead of being on the alert to avoid vultures. I also got to take a feather home. Normally those are around € 80, but I got one for free. Pictures next week, I forgot the camera cord this week. Sorry.

We also met with Bazil and explained baptism and confirmation a little more clearly. He has the desire to change, but he wants time to change things like the Word of Wisdom, and to invite his friends to the baptism. He is still on the radar, but needs work.

I also got to skype my family. It's so weird and cool to see how old and different and still the same everyone is! Never underappreciate family or family pictures. They are the among most precious of things on this Earth.

Well, that's all this week!



Just kidding! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY all you mothers out there! Mom, Grandma Betty, Grandma Vada, Grandma Gines, Nana, Nana, and all the other moms who have and are making me who I am! I hope you enjoyed your day. You are so special to me! I love you!

That's all this week. I know the gospel is true! It brings peace, hard work, charity, faith, and hope to our lives! I know Jesus Christ lives and loves all of us. Keep true to the faith!

Love,
Elder Devin Jay Hunter
P.S. Kirk out!

This week was a slow but quick week for us. We taught Morris about the Family Proclamation and he absolutely loved it! He took in every word and we discussed it in intimate detail. He said it was the best leaflet he had read in a long time! But still no church beans to his name. We weren't able to see Bazil, or Yolanda, but we contacted her brother Malcolm, who almost joined the Church two years ago, but didn't because of the ''man-made'' rules; basically, the Word of Wisdom. We hope to work with him and his 18 year old son Collin some more in the upcoming weeks. The Jacobs (our lovely Enniscrone couple) are inviting us and Elder Jackson to visit them again. We hope to teach them more, and help them to start learning the gospel. Today, we had a branch activity where we had food at the church and then we went to the beach. It was a blast! At first, I thought it was only going to be us, the Branch President, the Tiernans, and the Ducusins, but then Michel showed up with 3 Venezuelans and a Zimbabwean who looked Indian. It was such a great night! Then Sister Tiernan taught us and two more of Michel's friends some line dancing and then an Irish jig. Sister Holmes, bless her heart, stopped the dancing because she was afraid that missionaries couldn't hold members hand... but don't worry, no white handbook violations occured. Me and Elder Jackson simply danced as a two instead. Then we went to the beach in Strandhill, and had a grand time. I'm looking forward to working more with the Globehouse members, or rather, prisoners, in the future, especially the Venezuelans and the Africans! :)

Well, that's pretty much all this week! I'm exhausted again, but the work is still moving forward at His rate. I hope all of you experience or are experiencing the joys of missionary work. There are none greater. I love you all, and thank you for your support and letter I received this week! I truly appreciate it! :)

Love,
Elder Devin Jay Hunter
P.S. Kirk out!
P.P.S. Just for fun's sake.

April 29, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was an incredibly short and crazy week. Bazil was in Dublin all week, and won't be back until Thursday. Morris had us over with Brother Tiernan, and they make such an interesting combination! We hope to get him to church soon. We are also working with Yolande, a mom with 3 daughters and a son ( I think). They are a crazy family who smoke and have people going in and out of the house and joining the conversation a lot. She wants to stop smoking, and learn more about God and Jesus Christ. Our lessons have been a bit scattered so far, but she is looking forward to reading the Book of Mormon and Bible with us. She grew up with Mormon friends, sometimes attended Church and Young Women, and her dad is a member.

Other than that, the only other news is we had something called a Zone Development Day, where the whole Dublin zone got together and spent a day doing fun team-building activities and strengthening our friendships. We played capture the flag, ultimate frisbee, blindfolded person touches someone in the circle with a spoon and makes an animal noise and the touched person  makes the noise back and the blindfolded person has to guess who it is, and then we had an improv drama activity. It was a blast, and, if you know how hard I hustle when I play something or work at something, you can imagine how sore I am. :) Anyways, that's all this week. I am kind of worn out, which explains the not very detailed and short email, but thank you for reading them! Thank you for your support and emails I receive each week. I really feel loved from the amount of support I continue to receive. Have a good week! I know the Church is true, and that the Savior Jesus Christ can change who we are if we keep His commandments and trust in Him with faith. I love you!

Love,
Elder Devin Jay Hunter
P.S. Kirk out!
P.P.S. Mother's Day soon! =)