(No Subject)

Email Received March 25, 2013

 

Hola familia,

 

Espero que todo esté bien con ustedes. What a week huh? It was a little bit tough because the adversary has been working a full como se dice aquí, but it was still a pretty great week. So as far as the Argentine pope the Paraguayans are thrilled. I guess the pope said something about how great the people from Paraguay are and that it´s one of the first countries that he´s going to visit. It´s kinda funny because we´ll be teaching a lesson and have just explained about how we have a living prophet hoy en día and his name is Thomas S. Monson then the people ask us if we think it´s weird that the new pope is from Argentina and they ask us if we believe in him. Oh how I love my Paraguayans. They´re such a funny people. I can´t tell you how many times I´ve heard that song ¨Girls just wanna have fun¨ playing on the streets, including all sorts of remixes. They just love that song here. So as far as Easter goes, they celebrate the semana santa here by making tons of chipa. Chipa is kinda like bread sticks with cheese inside, just a lot better (sometimes they even put meet inside too so i´m pumped about that). While we´re on the topic of great foods here I´ve got to tell you about these things called Lomito Arabes. Every time I eat one I think about Dad because he would love these so much. What they do is they put beef and chicken on a big stick and put like an onion or some kind of vegetable like that on top, then they let it slowly cook like that all day and it absorbs all of the juices. Then then put it in this pita bread type tortilla and grill it for a little bit. Then they give you this garlic salsa that is just so good. Mom you´re probably gagging right now but I think I might try and take a picture of one and send it home to you because Dad you would love this so much. Also before I forget, I got a package this week but a different Elder picked it up for me so I´ll get it tomorrow in district meeting.

 

Well like I said, this week has also been pretty great spiritual. We found some pretty great investigators, but my favorite part has been being able to help out the new Elder in our house. He´s having a really hard time adjusting to the mission life and he´s super homesick, but for some reason he and I get along really well. So I´ve been able to talk a lot with him just about things that have helped me in my mission. I realized that I think the best way to find joy in the mission is be obedient and work as hard as you can. If you do that, and always humble yourself before the Lord and ask him to make you better than you are, then you have no regrets and you receive amazing blessings. I read a scripture this week in Helaman 10:4-5 and I replaced Nephi´s name with my name. I can´t wait for the day when the Lord can tell me that He´s proud of my work. A lot of time we work hard and it seems like no ones watching and that we´re not even making a difference, but the Lord is watching and He´s able to make all of our work worth while in one way or another, that´s why it´s important that we always work hard and be obedient. Right now we have some pretty golden investigators, and each one has great desires to get baptized and follow the commandments, but each one also has at least one huge obstacle that they have to overcome, but I know that if I do all that I can, the little bit that that ends up being, that the Lord can make miracles happen in His work (which is exactly what we need, miracles). I´m hoping to receive some revelation about what to do for them this week because we get to go to the temple on Thursday! I´m so excited, I miss being able to go to the temple every week. I love you guys and I hope you have great weeks. I so pumped for you Spencer, getting your call dentro de poco and as long as your ready to dedicate your whole heart to the Lord, work hard, and be obedient you´ll do great.

 

Con muchísimo amor,

Elder Hulsey

This is a picture of the cows that graze in front of our hose, I literally took this picture from inside the gate to our hose. Also a picture of a Lizard that always sneaks into our house and helps take care of the bugs

 

 

 

 

 

(No Subject)

Email received March 18, 2013

Hola familia

 

Whats up everyone! We had another great week in Paraguay. But holy cow my cousins are so lucky meeting all of these basketball players, I couldn´t tell you one thing about whats going on in the NBA right now, but if you´re wondering about south American soccer I hear all about it. Gosh this week was pretty insane. There were changes last week and Elder Williamson and I are still together, but he was made the district leader. They split our zone so the other elders that we live with aren´t even in our zone anymore, it´s kinda funny. Anyways my new district is me and Elder Williamson and two companionships of hermanas, so it´ll be pretty tough keeping up with them because the hermanas work a full (all of the Paraguayans say that phrase). But the Elders that we live with had changes. The one that left was named elder Dickson and he was replaced by a new missionary who just got here so he´s being trained. It´s kinda fun seeing him getting trained because I hadn´t realized how much I´ve just grown into the mission but seeing a new kid I remembered having all of the same concerns and everything. The new elder's name is Elder Mechaca and he´s from Monterey Mexico and he used to be a boxer before the mission. He´s pretty funny and he speaks Mexican, it's a little different than Paraguayan Spanish. Paraguayan Spanish is pretty simple and mixed with a lot of Guarani (any kind of phrase like what you sent me dad is said here in Guarani) so I´m really glad to have a Mexican in the house because I´m learning tons of Mexican slang and phrases. So we had a couple of miracles happen last week. Benigno has been hiding from us lately so we were about to drop him, then we were teaching these two girls that live with a member family but they didn´t really have desires for baptism either, so we were at the point of loosing all of our best investigators. But Saturday we were able to talk with the girls and then again on Sunday and they want to get baptized this week! Then we talked to Benigno and it just so happened that this branch president from a branch in the stake was visiting and he helped Benigno a ton in this lesson. At the end of the lesson we asked Benigno what he thought about baptism this Saturday, he said he doesn´t want to this Saturday, he´d rather do it this Wednesday! The only problem is that each of the investigators have some hurdles that we have to get over so we´re praying a full for some more miracles, but I fully believe that this is the Lord´s work and that if I do all that I can than he will make sure whats supposed to happen happens. Anyways so yeah we might have three baptisms this week or we might have 0, I´m so nervous. But the work out here is great, we´ve been trying to work more with the part member families and contacting houses closer to ours. A lot of the part member families have members that are super strong and active so I think that a lot of the missionaries that were in this area before just assumed that others have tried with their non-member family members so maybe they didn´t bother, same thing with the neighbors that live close to us. Pero no es así. We talked to one of the neighbors and she was so excited that we finally stopped by, she said for years she´s seen us leaving the house everyday and sometimes even wave at her but they never arrived at her house. This week is looking pretty good.

 

So like I said they split the zone. I was a little bummed because I have some friends that just got taken out of my zone and my old zone leader was super awesome (he was almost exactly like good´ol Elder Otterstrom. He was telling me stories of his high school days and the things he did and the way he told his stories was just like Jeff. Elder Johnson, the zone leader, is one of the greatest examples of a missionary that I´ve ever met and I imagine Elder Otterstrom is the exact same). But anyways the new zone leaders de repente decided to do a division with us last Friday and I went with my new zone leader named Elder Harward. He´s from Orange County, California and a spitting image of Russell Allphin (he doesn´t know nearly as much about music as Russ but he´s got a great love for it and he´s picking up the piano). It was such a fun division and it made me a little envious of all of Russ´s companions.

 

Bueno, les quiero mucho. Espero que tengan éxito esta semana y que toda salga bien. La semana pasada me dí cuenta otra vez en cuánto al amor que he ganada por el Señor, su obra, y su gente elegido acá en Paraguay. Yo sé que esta gente realmente es especial, es una gente loca pero la quiero demasiado igual. Yo sé que vive mi Señor, y que cada misionero que hace su parte y trabaja duro va a poder acercarse mas a Él y disfrutar la misión. Ya no quiero volver a la casa aun después de que cumpla dos años acá, me gustaría aun mas tiempo porque la obra misional da mas gusto que cualquier otra cosa que hay. Que tengan una semana maravillosa y disfruten todo!

 

Con amor,

Elder Hulsey

(No Subject)

Email received March 11, 2013

 

Hola familia,

 

Well I took a little bit longer writing my president this week because some crazy stuff happened (some sad but mostly all amazing!). But yeah, crazy week. I´ll start off with the sad. Benigno didn´t show up to his baptismal interview and we spent most of the night trying to track him down. Elder Williamson was pretty upset but I don´t blame Benigno, it´s a pretty big thing and he actually understands that. I was finally able to get ahold of him on the phone the next day and he said he´s not ready for baptism, so we went over there and we shall see when he´ll get baptized. But other than that this week was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So the way our house is there is our little house and our front porch is our dueños back patio (our dueño is menos-activo). So on Wednesday night I was on a division and we taught this guy right in front of our house. It was a really powerful lesson. But that's just one thing. So like I said I was on a division with my district leader, Elder Funk, who lives in my house with me. Last week he had a meeting in Asunción and couldn´t go grocery shopping, so after we had got our goals around 8 he asked if we could go to the grocery store and he could pick up a few things. It was on the way so we went and then we were going to go visit the next door neighbors and teach them (because they´re menos activos). On our way home from the grocery store we were walking home behind this guy that was walking really slow and then all of the sudden he just stopped and put his head on the wall on the side of the road. Elder funk asked him if everything was alright and I told him that as missionaries, we´re just here to listen to people and talk things out with them. He was about 20 years old and he told us that he would like to talk. So we went under a street light a little in front of our house and he just told us all of his problems for about 10 or 15 minutes. He was crying and his life was pretty much as low as it can be. We had just had a big zone capacitacion meeting the day before about using the scriptures and bearing pure testimony about the doctrines of Christ. We started sharing scriptures with him and telling him about how he could apply the doctrines of Christ to help him right now. I think we shared probably 20 scriptures with him, all of them just came to us from revelation. It was so cool to me to see how the Gospel literally gave this guy hope that he had completely lost. It was also such a cool experience being able to bear pure testimony of the simple doctrines of Jesus Christ, because really it´s the small and simple things that bring to pass great things. We don´t need to know all of the fluffy things, we just have to be able to bear genuine and pure testimony and that´s what makes the difference in people´s lives. Afterwards me and Elder Funk were talking and it was just amazing how strong the spirit was. It really made me start to change the way I look at this opportunity I have to be a missionary. God trusted me to go out and help His children here in Paraguay be able to live better lives now and enjoy celestial glory in the eternities. That´s a pretty powerful and sacred trust. I love so much being here, I know I´m exactly where I need to be and I know that as we serve God with our eye single to His glory, and doing it in the way that He wants, He will continue to bless us and thus we continue being unprofitable servants (Mosiah 2 I´m pretty sure), but I think that´s the way He´s planned it. He promises to compensate us for whatever sacrifices we make (Matthew 19:29) and being on the mission I can really see that that´s true. I love you guys so much and I hope you have awesome weeks!

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey

 

P.S. I had my first big mac here today, the salsa especial isn´t nearly as good as in the states.

P.S.S. Also here's a picture of this sign pointing to the Korean cemetery here (there´s a lot of Korean things in this area but I still have never meet a Korean here).  

 

(No Subject)

Email received March 4, 2013

 

Hola Familia,

 

¿Como están todos? La vida acá en Paraguay es excelente! So first off, before I forget I got my valentines package 2 weeks ago and it really hit the spot. I´m living with 4 missionaries again and all but one got a package but we shared and he´s expecting one soon. In my next package if it´s not too much to ask I would love some more socks because the hermanas that wash our clothes have a tendency to loose those quite often, also I would love some sweaters. I couldn´t believe it but last night was actually really cold! It was such a nice break from the crazy heat. Also tell my little cousin Boo boo that I got his letter and that I´m working on writing him back but that I can only hand write so it will take a little while possibly. Alright, there is a lot to say and I have no idea how long I have to write because this computer doesn´t tell me the time, but I´m pretty sure I remember about when I started. Anyways a little bit about Piro´y. The ward is small but it´s amazing! We have a ton of member participation even though it´s only got about 6 active families. Also just thought you might like this mom but in the cyber i´m in they are playing the Smiths but in Spanish, it´s pretty funny. Anyways The ward mission leader is awesome, he finds people and then comes with us to go teach them. The bishop has been bishop for about 10 years and he´s still awesome, his wife is from Brazil but speaks Spanish pretty well, his mother in law however doesn´t speak a lick of Spanish so it´s kinda fun talking to her because I have to guess that I´m answering her questions right, but Portuguese is pretty close to Spanish. Like I said we live entre 4 here and the house is... not very great, but I really like it because we really don´t need much. It´s got ac and a couple of pet mice, so what more do we need right. We are looking for a new house but it´s fine now, I´ll take some pics and send them home. Elder Williamson and I are going strong, he´s a super nice guy and really funny. He loves going out and working hard and he´s obedient. We´re seeing some real success out here and it´s awesome! If nothing crazy happens we should have a baptism this Saturday. It´ll be Benigno and he just moved in with a member family so hopefully one of them will be able to baptize him.

 

Alright so yesterday was stake conference and it was super stressful. There were so many people and it was about impossible to locate our investigators and make sure they all had seats, but we had 5 in church which was awesome because two members of the 70 and president were there and spoke! It was a good conference. The problem was that a lot of our investigators couldn´t make it, but Benigno was there so that was good. He really liked it. A bit of a funny story that happened this week now. On Saturday we were in a village and we had reached all of our goals, and it was about 8:00 and we return home at 9:30 if we don´t have a lesson and 10:00 if we do, so we still had a good hour and a half of working time. So as we were working I saw this semi older looking lady trying to dig a hole, so I told Elder Williamson that we needed to go help her. We walked in and I took her shovel (which was a pole with a head size of a blue book of Mormon to dig) and I asked her why we were digging. She had this big steel oil barrel in the ground that she had been working on taking out all day and couldn´t, so I started digging around it to pull it up. Well it turns out that this big barrel was actually a tube and they used it as a sceptic tank! It smelled super bad and there were mosquitoes all over the place. Elder Williamson didn´t really know what he was doing with the shovel so I was going at it for a while. Finally it started moving and the women got really excited. She jumped inside the tube (it was about a meter tall (yeah, I speak metric now)) with the gross water and everything and started trying to wiggle it around from the inside. We were finally able to get a big piece of wood and pry the thing out, it took a good 45 minutes. It was funny, this lady was crazy but I guess her son almost got baptized once but at the church with all of his clothes she got scared and told him he couldn´t. She has two copies of the Book of Mormon, one in Spanish and one in Portuguese, and we´ll see what happens there. After that we went to a menos activo family we´ve been working with and they gave us hot dogs. I really feel bad eating with the people in the villages because they made us eat 2 hot dogs each, and their 3 kids split two hot dogs and the mom and dad had a potato and water stew. The people here sacrifice so much for the missionaries that it makes me want to cry sometimes, but I believe they will be blessed. On a side note I think I forgot to tell you the most interesting thing I´ve eaten. It was in Marambure and it´s called mundungo. It´s cow intestines and we ate it with these small fish they caught from this dirty lake behind their house and they made it a stew with boiled water.

 

Well I love you guys so much. I love my mission a ton. It´s been super hard and super rewarding. I´ve been more blessed than anyone here in Paraguay. A lot of people say there´s real life and there´s mission life but going off a thought from Elder Holland I don´t think I knew what real life was until I came on my mission. Real life is that extreme poverty exists, 13 year old girls have children, people have to live with abusive spouses just to have a roof and some food, and the magnificent part is that the Gospel has the power to make all of their lives better. I love soooo much seeing how the gospel can take peoples lives from the worst places possible and give them hope, let them know that there is a reason to fight and that God has a perfect plan for each of us that we can have a better life, a perfect life. I love being out here and working hard, the harder you work the better you feel, it´s so awesome. Que Dios les bendiga para siempre!

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey

The pictures are of my new house, the hermano Justino florentín from marambure and two of my little amigos that thought I was a magician because I would do little magic tricks for them. They also loved it when I did that really fast clap for them.