Hola familia
Sorry about how poor the grammar is in this letter, these spanish keyboards are pretty tricky to figure out. how are all of yall doing? UEA was a sucess? Man Paraguay is AWESOME!!!!!!!! First thing that happened when I stepped off the plane is I noticed how Hot it is here! That must be hard for you to believe because it is almost Winter in the states but boy its hot, but its tranquilo (Thats the word that everyone says here. Tranquilo or tranquilopa, basically its like the word cool). But actually as far as temperature goes its been perfect, I couldn´t have asked for anything better. So my companions name is Elder Morinigo. He´s from Paraguay. He was originally called to the Dominican Rebuplic but he couldn´t get a visa. He´s awesome and super good at futból (soccer). He played soccer for a team that would be the equivilant to the d-league in basketball before the mission, he´s been out about 10 months. There was only one latin trainer and I was lucky enough to get him! It was a little hard at first but now we´re pretty good at playing the game where I describe a word and he tells me what it is in Spanish then I tell him what it is in English, he really wants to learn English. He makes me laugh so hard because he loves singing American songs, but he doesn´t know all of the words, so he just makes sounds that he thinks sound like English, its way funny. But he really wants me to teach him all of the words to ice ice baby by vanilla ice. He´s set a goal to have that song down in three weeks.
So my area is called Marambure B, we´re opening up this area so we don´t know anyone. But the Bishop is awesome and he has such a great family. They feed us a lot. Gosh one thing I´ve learned is that it is literally impossible to turn down food. I try to say I´m good or I´m full but they still just give you food. But its tranquilo, the food is actually pretty good. There was one lady that is a member and we went to teach her daughter and son in law and the mom has a son on a mission, so she told us that we´re her sons now and she gave us these HUGE hamburgers with eggs and all the fixings, super good. And I haven´t been too sick. On wednesday or thursday I had a terrible headache, so I took a nap and I´ve been good until today. We live in a city called Luque and it´s about a half hour walk outside of our area. Luque is HUGE and we live right in the center. It´s pretty cool because we literally live in like the inner city. Also one thing about Paraguay is that there are no rules for the road. Wow that was weird at first, but you just learn to be careful. Also since it´s kind of a big walk to our area we take these crazy buses called collectivos. They are crazy, you jump on them (because they don´t really like coming to a compleate stop) then you pay the guy and grab the bars on the cieling because its a bumpy ride. Luque has paved roads (more or less) but Marambure doesn´t really. It´s either dirt roads that they put rocks on or just straight up dirt roads. I really like it here though, the people are pretty dang nice. They all love my spanish (probably because it´s really funny sounding). But what they really love is if you speak Guarani. My companion taught me how to say "a little bit" so whenever they ask me if I speak Guarani I say "mishimi"(I really don´t know how to spell that, that´s just how it´s pronounced). All of the people just laugh so hard when I say that. Also one thing about the culture here, you have to get over any kind of germaphobia that you have. There will be a group of us and we ask them for water and they bring out one cup for everyone to use. But I´ve just learned to close my eyes and eat or drink whatever they give me. I have to set a lot of goals to just finish what I´m eating, but I really do actually like most of what I eat. We went to Burger King today and it was sooooo good. Also it was the fanciest burger king I´ve ever been too. The people take your trays for you and its super clean. the word to describe it in Spanish "chuchi".
So about my house, we live with two other Elders and they´re both brand new too. They´re doing something called "white-washing". They´re two Americans, one has been out for over a year and the other one only for a few months (he and I are about at the same level for Spanish). The one helps me a lot to understand what my companion is saying. Their area is called Marambure A, same ward but different area. When I first got here they told me that my house is really chuchi but I didn´t believe them until I was out tracting, then I really got a taste for what a poor house is. I´ll send some pictures next week hopefully of my house and of the jungle, because there is a lot of jungle around here. Anyways there is a front room where we have our desks, then a kitchen of sorts, then there is the room taht has my companions and my "closets". My bedroom doesn´t have lights or airconditioning, so we just use flashlights and a fan. But the other elders have a light and airconditioning, so it´s a pretty nice little pench. There are pretty much 2, sorta 3, big soccer teams out here. There´s the Guarani, which is kinda just the classic old-school team that everyone like. then there is cerro and olympista, they´re the real teams that people go for. its wierd because the best team is libertad, I think they´re ranked like 8th in the world, but for some reason people don´t really like them. I personally don´t really have a preferance, yet, but I think I´m leaning more towrds Guarani, my companion is convincing me.
Well I´ve got to go, but I love you guys so much. I know this is the work of the Lord, because he´s helping me so much. I´m so glad that my cousins are out right now because I can feel their love and support and I want them to know that I pray for them everynight. Sometimes it feels a little lonely when I´m sitting in a lesson and I have no eidea whats going on, but then I can really feel the spirit and it helps me. Also when we talk about the gospel I can actually understand pretty much all of it, but when we start talking about things outside of the gospel I get a little lost, but my spanish isn´t too bad. But anyways I´m glad for my cousins example. I had a dream last night that the Spencer, Caleb and Travis all had their calls. Travis was going to Billings Montatna, Caleb to tulsa Oklahoma and spencer to Costa Rica, I guess in a few months we´ll know if it was revelation. Church was interesting all in Spanish, and I had to bare my testimony, but it was pretty easy. I´m still learning but it´s not bad, and I could still feel the spirit even when it was in Spanish, it´s a pretty cool concept that the Lord really understands your heart. I love you and I hope all is well. Paraguay is tranquilo, keep being awesome and choosing the right.
con amor,
Elder Hulsey
