(no subject)

Email received November 26, 2012

Hola Familia!

 

¿Gosh how the heck are you? Sorry that my last letter sounded a little down, I just couldn´t think of anything really exciting that happened during the week, but this week was way good, so many great stories (I´m only going to be able to share a couple). But I´m glad to hear thanksgiving was fun. Thanksgiving here was weird because it was just a normal day, but we did have a great lunch with one of my favorite families (they´re both returned missionaries and they have a son that´s a returned missionary and they have two kids on missions right now, so they really hook the missionaries up). It was fun because the other Elders in our house and the Elders whose area touches ours came too, so there were 6 of us. Then we went out and worked, but We found this way cool guy named Seferino and we taught him. Also Seferino had a huge pet Turkey, the first one I've seen in Paraguay so I thought it was very appropriate that I saw it on Thanksgiving. As far as changes go, they happen every 6 weeks (so last week was the first week of this change). The way it works is you are almost for sure with your trainer for 2 changes, but a lot of times you are with them for 3. This change will end the first week of January so unless they do special changes for some reason I will for sure be here through Christmas which is awesome! I love Luque so much. I still don´t know how Christmas will work out but I do know that we will be doing skype. I believe you guys have to add me as a contact on skype, I just set up my account. Just add me and then we can talk on Christmas. I haven´t received my packages yet but I have to go to Asunción on Wednesday for zone conference so I will see if they´re there. I did get my halloween card and a letter from aunt Linda and Josh and Jamie today though, thank you very much! There has been a ton of rain this week and the nights have been pleasantly cool, but this week will probably be super hot and humid because of all of the rain, oh well. Better hot than cold right? They tell me that it gets super cold for a couple of weeks in like June and July so around then I would love some sweaters. Paraguayans are so funny because they are ALWAYS complaining about the weather. We were eating lunch the other day and the lady was going off about how sunny it was and how awful that is, then it started to rain and she was complaining about how it´s raining and there´s no sun, pretty funny. But hey Sergio and Nedia came to church on Sunday so they got confirmed! I´ll send home the picture of their baptism.

 

So one pretty funny thing that happened this week. We were out tracting and we clapped this door and this older man let us in. He asked us where we were from, then started telling us about how he´s mad because his wife left him because he drinks and she went to Argentina, but he swears he´s not violent (and he was saying all of this with a huge smile on his face and in a very cheerful voice, I believe he was drunk as a skunk). Then he asked us where we´re from and told us the same story about his wife about 30 times more. We finally left and went down the street to another house. We were in the middle of teaching a family when all of a sudden our drunken friend walked through the gate, took one of this family´s chairs, and joined in and started helping us teach the lesson. It was so funny and the family was just laughing so it´s all good. There are a lot of pretty funny people in Paraguay.

 

Well my times about up, but I want to share with you guys something that´s kinda been like my theme for my mission so far. It´s pretty daunting to think about doing this for 2 years, to be completely obedient for two years and walk around for two years, but dad before I left you told me to read a talk by Elder Christofferson called give us this day our daily bread. I printed that out at home but didn´t read that until my first or second week here in Paraguay and that has helped me so much. The theme is that we don´t have to worry about being strong enough for 2 years, we just have to worry about being strong enough for one day. For example one day I woke up at 6 29 (like I do every morning) and I thought "well I got up today but how in the world am I supposed to get up this early every day for the next 2 years!" It seemed like an impossible task and then I started thinking and I realized that if I worry about that then it might just be impossible, but I don´t have to worry like that. Every night now I ask the Lord to give me strength that I can wake up tomorrow on time, I don´t worry about waking up any other day than tomorrow. As I work each day and try to be diligent and obedient I only worry about it for that day. This applies to everything, take no thought for the morrow (3 Nephi 13 I think). This is such a true principle. Obviously we need to plan and figure things out for the future, but we don´t have to get overwhelmed thinking about how daunting a task is. I´ve learned so much about patience and chipping away at a big task a little bit at a time (like eating meals. I know that sounds funny but they give us such huge portions here and a lot of times there seems like no way to finish, but I just eat a little bit and keep working at it and eventually the food is all gone). Patience really is a blessing. I love you guys so much and hope you have a great week. I love Paraguay and I love being a missionary. I´m happy, don´t worry. Keep living the gospel the right way. and tell caleb reber congrats on starting his papers.

Con Amor

Elder Hulsey

PS I hope that Caleb Hulsey´s birthday was a success, I can´t believe he´s already 1. He´s only got 17 more birthdays until he´s out on his mission that doesn´t seem very far away with how fast time seems to be moving lately (haha sorry mom).

 

[Zack refers to 3 Nephi chapter 13 of the Book of Mormon in which Jesus Christ visits the Nephites after His resurrection and teaches them, among other things, the same things He taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Compare 3 Nephi 13 with Matthew 6.]

So close!

Email received November 19, 2012

Hola Familia!

 

How is everybody doing (I STILL don´t know how to do a question mark on this computer). This week was pretty dang awesome, sounds like it was great back home too. I´m so proud of Sam Harris, he´ll do great in England. The people will love him, it´s kinda impossible not too, he´s such a nice kid. Tell Spencer not to be too bummed about not doing much this thanksgiving break because next year he´ll probably be pretty dang busy. To be completely honest I haven't been getting trunky at all for the holidays because its so dang hot that it doesn't feel like holidays should even be coming. Everyone in Paraguay is freaking out about the 21st of December and the world ending and everything. Some of the Elders are thinking that we wont be able to go out and work on the 21st or maybe even the 20th because the people are going to be nuts, but well see. So I just had lunch at this pizza place and rumor has it that the guys Italian, I wish i knew how to speak the language. But it was cool because Elder Jenson and his comp came up to Luque to eat with us and buy stuff from the bishop (He makes hats and all sorts of cool things. I definitely think I will be dropping some serious dough at his little store, the stuff is so cool). So it was cool seeing him, he´s doing well. As for Sergio and Nedia, they got baptized on Saturday! Elder Morinigo got in the water with them, the problem is they didn´t show up on Sunday to get confirmed. But we happened to find Sergio´s uncle in church on Sunday (he´s part of the other ward that meets in our building) and he said that he´ll go and pump him up about coming to church. Hopefully we can confirm them next week. Also this week I got to do a division with the zone leader. He´s Paraguayo and his name is Elder Escriva. He is super amazing! He goes him in December (He only got baptized like 4 or 5 years ago). He and his brother are the only members of the church in their family and the rest of them are super anti. His parents told him that he can´t live at home when he comes back, but over the course of the last 2 years they´ve changed their minds about that. He taught me a lot of really important things and got me so pumped up to go out and work hard.

 

I haven´t really bought any souvenirs yet but I keep seeing things that I really want to buy, but I never have my money. But one of these days I´m just going to make Morinigo go with me and we´ll go buy all sorts of things. I almost bought a sweet red white and blue apui tie, but I´ll just wait until next week. Like I said the bishop does all sorts of cool things with leather and crocodile and snake skin, so there shouldn´t be any problems getting cool things. Also there are a couple of well known (among the missionaries) Paraguayans who make the really cool leather scripture cases and things, so I´m going to look into getting myself some of those for Christmas. P-day today was pretty fun. We played basketball and it started raining super hard, so we went in the church and started telling stories. Its always fun when we can talk with the other Elders.

 

So last Monday I learned a super important lesson about meaningful service. So the past little while Elder Morinigo and I haven´t been fighting or anything, we just haven´t been super close and we never talked or anything. The days were so long and boring. But on Monday during P-day he likes to take a nap, so I usually study or play with my yo-yo or something during that time. But last Monday I decided that I was going to write down the words to one of the EFY songs that he loves to listen to in the apartment. He loves it so much when I write down the words to songs so he can sing along and learn how to pronounce them, he´s always asking me to do that. So while he was napping I did that and it turned everything around. He made me dinner that night and we have been joking and getting along super great! We get a long like friends now and the days are fun. He shared with me his biggest dreams and his life plans and everything. I learned that it doesn´t have to be anything big, it took me like 10 minutes max to write down the words to the song, but since I thought about it and did something just to be nice, it made all of the difference. That's why people cant tell you meaningful acts of service to do for someone, because if they're meaningful then it means that you´ve paid attention and are doing something that is special and thoughtful. I was filled with so much love and it has really made the difference.

 

Well I´m sorry this email isn´t that great, I can´t think of too much stuff that happened this week (but I know as soon as I get home I´m going to think of all sorts of things that I wanted to tell you guys about). But I sure love you and I´m so proud of you. I laughed when I read that Eli was saying maybe next time for the prayers because I can´t tell you how many people tell us "Otra Día" because it´s how the Paraguayans reject us (they´re too nice to say no, but I always ask them what day and they get a super confused look on their face like "doesn´t this American know that means we´re not interested" its pretty funny). Keep choosing the right and keep helping Spencer prepare to join me out here in the campo. I´ll keep praying for each of you.

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey

 

P.S. If you guys come pick me up, I already know a few places we´re going to visit, Igua su falls and Ciudad del Este (this city has the third biggest shopping center in the world).

(No Subject)‏

 



Email received November 12, 2012

 

Hola familia,

 

Gosh what a week, a lot of really humbling things happened this week, but one thing that i´ve noticed is that every time the Lord humbles me, i´m always so much happier after. Our baptism didn't happen this week because of a couple of things. But they are so ready for this Saturday! They are such an awesome family, they have so much faith! But to start out a couple of fun stories. First off I went to this pastry shop close to our house. The pastries all looked so good and I couldn´t decide which one I wanted, so I bought two. They looked a whole lot better than they tasted. But remember how I had to get over germs, well I still really hate being sticky and these pastries made my hands super sticky. I asked Elder Morinigo if he thought they would have a sink I could use to  wash my hands. He told me no way and basically that I just need to suck it up. I was not about to just walk around with sticky hands so I asked the lady super nicely if she had a sink I could use. I must have looked pretty concerned because she let me go behind the counter and use this weird sink. My companion was pretty surprised so I told him that´s what it means to ask in faith. Another thing is that we went to do some service for some people, we went to mow their lawns. But they don't mow lawns out here with normal mowers (at least we didn't) we just got the machete and started hacking away at the grass! I didn´t know what I was doing at first and the people were asking me if we just don't have any grass in the United States, I told them we just don't have machetes. 

So as far as the shower goes its not bad. Its either super hot or super cold, and I usually opt for super cold because I shower right after I exercise in the morning. It does rain a lot down here, usually once or twice a week but we´ve only had 1 or 2 really big, flood the streets storms since I´ve been here. I cant believe I've already been here a month. the time has gone so dang fast! Also one thing that's better here than in the states is that since they don't celebrate thanksgiving, I can listen to Christmas music all I want and no one tells me to wait until after thanksgiving. So a typical meal here consists of some kind of meat wrapped in something and deep fried (usually you can know what type of meet you're eating by looking around and seeing which pet isn't here this week that was there the week before), rice and bread (they cant eat unless they have bread to eat it with). Its not bad and when I go shopping I always get yogurt. Its so good here and you drink it, I love it. I also finally found some milk that tastes almost as good as the states, the problem is that its only good for 5 days. Also there are 2 treats here that I just love, alfajors (I´m going to try and send you guys some home for Christmas) and fresh juice. There area a couple of fresh juice stands here that are so dang good. 

 

Well now for some Spiritual experiences for the week. This one night we were out working and it was a long, HOT day. We contacted this house with this seemingly friendly old man. Turns out he was not that friendly. He just wanted to tell us about how we don't live the bible. He started quizzing us by asking us like "how many times should we be baptized" to which I responded "well we believe in what it says in Ephesians 4 that we should only be baptized once". That ruffled his feathers and he started looking for another scripture to hit us with. I realized that the Spirit wasn't super strong with us as were doing this, so I prayed that I would be able to resist fighting with him. We were teaching his daughter with him, and then all of the sudden her husband showed up and the old man had to leave. We started talking with the husband. Turns out he had been talking to a friend of his at work who is LDS and he was super prepared to listen to us. It was a really cool way to end a hard day. I know the Lord has prepared people for me to teach, I just have to find them. I miss you guys and I love you guys. I hope you know that. I pray for you and my cousins every night. Sorry I cant answer all of your questions that you send me but keep sending them each week and I´ll do my best to answer them. Keep on living the way you know you should.

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey

 

(no subject)

Email received November 5, 2012

Hola familia,

 

Como estan todos!(I can't find the question mark on this computer). I hope you all had an amazing week celebrating halloween. I also hope you had as much success as I did knocking doors (just kidding, we don't knock doors, we clap). But as far as the zero tracting thing goes I think it's that they want to work more off of referals because that's where you can find the most success. But pretty much all we do all day is clap doors so I hope they still let us do that for a little while longer or I'm going to have to figure something else out to do all day. That's so cool that kristy kholert got her mission call, she'll be awesome. I had seminary with her my junior year and she is really good at gospel stuff. So last week I sent home pictures and I had no idea which ones I sent home, but the one with me in it is on this huge monument in Asuncion from my first day, the temple too. The one of the jungle is from my window. So this week has been quite a great one even though my companion has been sick. Last Monday I had to teach myself how to sew because I accidentaly pulled a button off of my shirt. I think I did a pretty good job because none of the other elders could guess which one I sewed on. Then on Tuesday I did splits with one of the assistants. It was way cool and apparently a little weird to already be doing splits with the assistants, but I loved it. Elder Vance was his name and he was mad that I already can speak Spanish (because for some reason that day my Spanish was way good). Two really cool things happened during the splits. 1 was that we were talking with these people and Elder Vance told them I had only been in Paraguay for 3 or 4 weeks, then they asked me what country I'm from because they thought I was Latin! How sweet is that! the bad news is that after that my Spanish was not as great for the rest of the week, oh well. The other really cool thing is that I had a super strong impression to share 3 nephi 27: 27 with this family. I have no idea why and I still don't konw, but it was such a strong feeling. Then I returned home and got to go back to my area on Halloween. Halloween here is a little anti-climactic. I saw one guy dressed up as a grim reaper running around at like 12 in the afternoon, then these little girls with witch hats were driving around the city at like 9 or 930 yelling something (probably happy halloween). Elder Morinigo tells me that the parties usually start at like 930 or 10 and go until like 6 in the morning, but its mostlly for the teenagers to young adults. But yesterday this lady from the ward did give us some little halloween goody-bags which was awesome!

A couple of really cool experiences from this week. So as far as investigators go, we haven't really had any solid investigators. But theres one family, Sergio and Nidia, who just needed to come to church one more time and then they can get baptized. Well yesterday at church they werent there and I was so dissapointed. My companion asked me if I wanted to call them but Im still super afraid to use the phone. But during one guys testimony I just thought that we should call them. I wanted to wait until the end of this guys testimony but I told my companion that we should call them and we left right in the middle of this guys testimony. right as we stepped out to place the call there they were, they didnt know if they could come in or not. We brought them in and now theyre scheduled for a baptism this Saturday (the day before your birthday mom)! How sweet is that! They´re such a great family. Then another thing is we visited this way cool member for a lunch cita. He told us his conversion story and it was way cool. He was just wondering around one day trying to find different churches because he wanted to follow God. A missionary approached him on the collectivo and gave him a pass-along card. He went to church and was baptized then served a mission. His story is a lot cooler than that I just cant remember all of the details. But he was a pretty awesome missionary too. One other really cool thing that happened this week was I was really praying hard to know what I should study to help me with a few things Im struggling with. The thought came to me so clear to study in chapter 11 of Preach My Gospel. I started studying it and I was doing all of the activities and everything. This whole chapter is talking about stuff that I need to work on with my investigators, but there was one scripture in the suggested study that was pretty good. But the cool part was that when I opened that scripture I saw a random one in my scritptures that I had highlighted. I read it just to see what it was and then I read the whole section it was in. It was exactly what I needed even though it had nothing to do with chapter 11. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

 

Well I love you guys a ton. I pray for you every day. Happy birthday this week mom. If you were here they would throw you a huge asada with all of the deep fried meat you could handle, and then they would make you eat more. Im so glad that your my mom. I got this really weird rash on my foot this week. I decided that I would look in that bag full of random medicines and stuff and I started thinking "what would mom tell me to use right now". I went with the A and D ointment, I think its helping. But that bag that you packed me with all of the random stuff has saved me a couple of times already. Thanks for everything guys, Ill keep an eye out for that package (Also its super expensive to send a package and I know that you have to pay for Spencers mission now too, so a birthday package and a Christmas package should be fine. And they told me that packages shouldnt have a declared value of more than 90 dollars or we have to pay to pick them up). I love you all and keep living the Gospel the right way. I promise that its the easier way and the way that will lead to the most happiness.

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey