Email received June 10, 2013
Hola familia mía!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So pretty crazy week last week. We had changes...Elder Williamson left and he is switching to the south mission and I stayed in Piro´y so I will be staying here in la misión Paraguay Asunción Norte (I remember when I opened my call I couldn´t even say Asunción right haha). My comp came out here to die so I will be killing him (that´s mission talk for he´s going home in 6 weeks and I will be his last comp). His name is Zachary Landers and he´s from Highland, Utah (he didn´t go to Lone Peak because he went to that UCAS school at UVU). He´s a nice guy and he doesn´t seem too trunky...yet, haha. We get a long well at least and I just told him that he can decide what we do for P-days until we go home. Like I said he´s super nice so it should be a fun couple of 6 weeks. The other elders we live with also had changes and Elder Barker from Ogden came in and he is also finishing up his mission with my comp, but he doesn´t seem trunky at all. Super full of energy so we get along pretty well. We also got a new hermana in my district and she says she is in Ann Kawai´s stake, small world. So Dad congarts on the Job! I´ve been praying and fasting for you, I´m super happy for you. I´m glad you guys enjoyed the temple, it´s a great place, I wish I could go more. We taught the familia Cristaldo about how in the temple we can be sealed together forever and the hermana told us that to her it seems like a grand blessing to have a temple here in Paraguay and I realized just how true that is. Speaking of the familia Cristaldo we had an awesome lesson with them where we watched that corny church movie Together Forever and they loved it. They weren´t able to come to church because their little newborn´s throat swelled up and they had to go to the hospital, but he´s doing better now. It was a bit of a sad Sunday because there were only 27 people in church, but an old investigator randomly decided to show up at church yesterday so that was sweet! His name is Alexis and he also wants to serve a mission! He was hesitant to accept his baptismal fecha because he didn´t want to have to go up to the pulpit and give a talk yet, we told him not to worry about that right now. I can´t believe Blake Clark is going to Japan! I never would´ve guessed that one. Anyways so this week I was studying a talk called the 4th missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge and I may have talked to you already about this talk because this isn´t my first time reading it but it talks about giving God our desires. I realized that I had gotten a lot better about not thinking about home or anything, but I was getting all sorts of distracted with other things like cool recuerdos and little things. I realized that I need to focus more on the people and my purpose in helping them. I´m here to invite lost souls to come unto Christ. I want to be able to help people feel the joy and the Spirit that I have felt, and unless I consecrate myself by giving ALL to the Lord, my thoughts and my actions, and serve him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength than I will not get to be as influenced by the Spirit and that is what I want more than anything. The recuerdos are cool and all of the little things that distract me aren´t bad things, but they´re not the best things. This week I´m going to try and sacrifice a little more and try to give my whole heart to the Lord and His service. It is a sacrifice because it´s stuff that I enjoy thinking about, but there is a time and a place for all things and during the working week I need to be focusing better on my work. I´m really excited to get better at this because I know that I will feel a greater influence of the Holy Ghost. I hope you guys enjoy the summer vacation and enjoy the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost that you were promised as you were baptized and confirmed a member of the true and living church, even La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días. Les quiero mucho!!!!
con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
P.S. so you can keep sending stuff to the same address, nothing´s changed.
Yeah I´ve turned into a ranchero.
