Email received May 27, 2013
¡Hola familia!
Hows life in the good US of A? This week was pretty sweet. Zone conference was a little bitter sweet because it was very spiritually uplifting and I learned a ton, but it was super sad to say goodbye to President and Hermana Madariaga. I really love them and I can really tell that they love me and all of the missionaries, it´s weird to me how they can care so much for us, I imagine it´s probably similar to being a parent just on a smaller scale, which is even a smaller scale of Heavenly Father´s love for us. President talked a lot about repentance and I didn´t even realize that I barely understand repentance until after that. It was cool (and on the plus side I still have a few more opportunities to see president and his wife before they go, but we will not be having any more interviews with him unfortunately). So today I got to go to Asunción because tomorrow we are having a special double mission conference and Elder Maynes from the Seventies is coming to speak with us and they decided to form a choir and word leaked out that I was in high school choir. The assistants called me and made me sing to them over the phone for an audition and I guess they were hurting for basses because they still asked me to join. I´m pretty excited because I realized that I should have done a lot better before the mission at looking for and developing my talents so that I can use them to bless the lives of others and I´m not saying I´m a talented singer by any stretch but I at least know how to follow along with the music and now I get to sing in a special choir. I´m pretty excited for this conference, it should be pretty uplifting.
So yesterday I had the great opportunity to attend a little while in a Pentecostal church (I have no idea if that´s and English word or not, sorry). Elder Williamson and I were walking down this street and a preacher came walking out of a church meeting and told us to come in. We were hesitating but then he grabbed our arms and pulled us in! He marched us right to the front of the congregation and made this lady get out of her seat so we could sit in the front row. Then they had us stand up and face the crowd and they all clapped for us! It was a pretty interesting experience. They do a lot of yelling amens and hallelujahs and they had us do a few other things too, I don´t want to talk bad about any other religions but it really just affirmed to me that our church really is true. We don´t have to yell or scream or anything to feel the spirit, we can just testify of truth and feel it. Haha but I didn´t realize it but I had been walking around with a copy of the Book of Mormon in my hand all day and when the guy marched us to the front I still had it, so at least it got some exposure in the other church.
So Juliana did not get baptized this week, a few of Diego´s cousins almost got baptized but they didn´t pass their interviews. We might still be able to baptize them this Saturday, we´ll just see how this week goes I suppose. But I´m still hopeful and we have some pretty awesome investigators. The better I get at the language the easier it is to develop relationships with investigators and members. There´s this one lady named hermana Toledo, her husband is the Patriarch and they take care of us pretty well. She reminds me a lot of Grandma so I love going over there. We also have this AWESOME family named la familia Cristalo, i don´t know if I already told you about them but they are super awesome. They actually do all of their reading and everything! It makes me really excited to be a missionary. The new house is pretty awesome. It´s a lot bigger and nicer and right in the middle of Capiatá. My sleeping patterns have really changed on the mission because I now fall asleep really easily but wake up like 3 or 4 times a night, but I think I prefer it that way because it´s easier to wake up in the morning. I also got really used to sleeping even when there´s a party and heavy traffic right by my window when I was in Luque so now it´s not a problem here in Capiatá. I´m a little nervous about changes next week because the way President was talking about them in zone conference makes me feel like literally anything could happen. On Monday I will know if I am staying in this mission, going to the south mission, or going to the new Argentina mission! It´s stressing everyone out, but I actually just feel really peaceful about it because I know that wherever I serve it´s where the Lord wants me. President said he had to change missions halfway through his mission and it was sad at first but then he got to know some really amazing people so it was a blessing. I know the Lord is preparing people for me to teach and meet and I can´t wait to see what the Lord has in store for me. I love you guys so much and I hope you can finish the week strong. I can´t believe I left before school started and now the school year is over... CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be smart and be strong,
con amor,
Elder Hulsey 1
These are the sweet scripture cases I got for my Spanish scriptures. The mission nurse took a picture of me when I was carrying in some nice winter blankets at zone conference. Also I did not speak at it and I don´t think I am in any need of any more winter clothes, but thanks anyways!
