(no subject)

Email received July 22, 2013

¡Hola Familia!

Boy what a week down here in the Paraguay. Sounds like you guys lived my and Jeff´s dream with the sacrament. We used to always beg Ben Platt to let us use waffles and orange juice for the Sacrament, but he never let us. Hermana Cristaldo´s baptism was a success and one of the most Spiritual experiences of my life. As we were sitting there all dressed in white waiting for things to get started and listening to the hymns being played on the piano I honestly felt like that´s whats heaven is going to feel like. Being there all dressed in white with those you love and just feeling super good. Afterward she was telling me that it was the weirdest thing because she said as she came up out of the water that something entered her heart and she couldn´t explain it. She asked me if I could hear it. I said no but that she can take confidence that it was the Holy Ghost confirming that she made the right choice and that she should write those feelings down so that she can always remember them. The baptism was also a great way for me to say goodbye to all of my friends from the ward piroy because I got transferred. I´m now in Trinidad B. It´s right in the heart of Asunción (the mission office and the temple are in my district). The assistants to the president just got moved to Trinidad A so it´s cool getting to work with them. My area is about 1/4 super rich and fancy people and 3/4 super poor. I hear that it´s actually one of the poorest areas in the mission. I love it here a lot! The atmosphere and the way it all looks is just incredible. It´s situated right on this river so it´s just incredible. I definitely think I´m in the best area in the entire mission with the best companion too. My new companion´s name is Elder Valladares from Lima, Perú. He´s got about 4 months in the mission and he´s a great missionary. He´s super excited to work and he´s nice and obedient, which is awesome. The poor kid unfortunately this week was really feeling sick. He´s been in a lot of pain but he´s kept up a great attitude and a smile and he´s still going out and working so it´s great. This branch is full of less-actives and it needs a lot of help in the organization of everything but I´m really excited to try and help them here get it all figured out. I definitely think that the Lord calls us then qualifies us, but I feel good about things and surprisingly not too stressed. I´m just going to keep trying to work hard and do my best, nothing else I can really do. My new zone leaders are awesome. I know them both pretty well (I actually lived with one of them when I first got to piroy) so I´m excited to get to work more with them. We have some cool investigators and recent converts here. Ones named Johanna and she´s come to church twice now, I´m pushing that she can get baptized on my birthday. 

I can´t believe Spencer only has one more full week at home. The mission is the best experience ever, but if you're like me you´ll be wondering for the first little while when it become so great. I felt really good and I liked it since the beginning, but it took me a little bit to really see just how great it really is, so give it time and don´t get too discouraged. Also don´t worry too much about what you think other people think the mission is or what you've heard the mission should be like. Your mission is your mission and it´s different than anybody else´s. I wouldn´t recommend comparing yourself too much to others either. Some people  go up really quickly as leaders in the mission and some people never go up. It doesn´t necessarily mean that they´re awful or great missionaries, that's just how their mission is. As long as you´re obedient and working as smart and as hard as you can and know how to do, then the results aren´t as important. We´re not in charge of our results, just our efforts. Also something that my zone leader told me once that has helped me a lot is, "don´t let anyone bring you down from where you stand". You can´t control how obedient anyone else is but you can make sure that you are waking up on time and studying and doing all the things you´re supposed to be doing. Also it´s not just rainbows and daisies all of the time, it´s a lot of work, but it´s rewarding. I often picture myself as a silver ball with lots of little knocks in it and that I have to get them all burnt off and filed down so I can be perfectly smooth. I often feel like I'm passing through the painful burning and filing down part, but the joy comes after when you experience little successes here and there and you can see yourself growing. For me measuring my self growth is kinda hard to do because I don´t feel like I´ve really changed very much, but when you get with a new companion or in a new area it´s pretty easy to see what used to be hard for you that isn´t anymore. The mission is so great, you´re going to love it. Just to warn you it goes pretty fast. As far as the one shoulder strap rule goes that was the rule in my mission when I first got here and they gave us these one strap backpacks when we got here but they were pretty miserable and they were actually causing a lot of missionaries back problems because they made you walk funny, so President Madariaga got permission from the area 70 to allow us to use regular backpacks about 4 months ago. I don´t know if that rule will change again but found a one strap bag in one of my old houses and I actually really like it and sometimes I use it so if it changes I´ll probably just go to that. It´s kind of like a giant fanny pack with a shoulder strap. Also before I left someone recommended to me the Timbuktu bag from REI because I guess it´s completely water proof. I kinda like using the one strap sometimes because it makes me feel like a messenger, which is really what I am. Well I hope you all have a fantastic week and that all goes well with the farewell and such. 

Con muchísimo amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

(no subject)

Email received July 15, 2013

Hola Familia,

Hey so I don´t have too much time because I was in Asunción all day so my comp could have his final interview with President. I still don´t have my transfers yet, any minute now they´ll come. It´s funny you ask me about my health because I was just thinking today about how lucky or mejor dicho blessed I´ve been with my health. I remember being pretty nervous before I left that I would just be sick all of the time but I really think I´m healthier here than back in the States. I realized that the Lord is really aware of my personal needs so he´s been helping me to just feel good all of the time. Your letter was awesome mom and I think it really helped. Tomorrow Hna. Cristaldo will be getting baptized and she´s asked me to do it. I´m super excited and it´s been super great being able to watch as she came to fully accept the Lord. As far as journals go I often think of myself as Nephi with his two sets of plates. I´ve got my small plates (a small leather journal I bought in the MTC) where I write everything that I learn in my studies, then I have my large plates (a bigger journal that Grandma Honey gave me as I was about to leave) where I write down stuff that happens during the day. I´m not the greatest at keeping up on my large plates, I usually only write in it a few times a week but I´ve set the goal to write in it daily so hopefully I can get better at that. So today at the office I got 2 packages! I haven´t had the chance to open them yet but I´m really excited about it. My area is doing pretty well and we have some great investigators. I´m really proud of my companion for still working hard even at the end.
I´ve been having some pretty cool experiences trying to figure out really what my role is as a missionary and what is the definition of a successful missionary. One thing I realized earlier this week is that everyone has the same responsibility from Christ which is bringing souls to Him. Before the mission I wasn´t sure what that meant. I tried inviting my friends to things and tried to be an example, not too concerned or better said aware of gospel progression. Then I got on my mission and I felt like my whole purpose was just to prepare people for baptism, baptize everyone. Then I started thinking how I have no idea what my role is after the mission. I really wasn´t seeing the connection between all of these roles, but then I read a talk by President Eyring and I realized that his purpose as an apostle is to invite everyone to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation and enduring to the end. I realized my role before the mission, during my mission, and after my mission are all the same. I am supposed to be helping everyone always grow closer to Christ. The only difference is the amount of time or my capability in doing that. Right now I don´t have to worry about anything else but this, but before I had to try to balance other things (as I´ll have to do after). But essentially the only difference is the time spent doing it. I also right now as a missionary have the grand opportunity to be able to teach and preach and testify as a special representative of the Lord and Savior and am therefore involved in the conversion process of others in a little different way, but all of us have the same mandate to bring souls to Christ and we are all called and qualified. Our objective now is to find out how we can magnify this call in the capacity that we have. The Gospel is so cool! Probably none of that made any sense, or it is completely obvious to everyone but me. But it´s something that I´ve had a hard time figuring out and is finally making sense to me (I think). I know this church is true and that the Savior lives. I love Him. I love you guys too and I hope you have an awesome week getting Big Spencer all ready for the DR.

Con mucho cariño y amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

(no subject)

Email received July 8, 2013

¡Hola familia!

Well it seems like Paraguayan winter is about over (it usually lasts about a month so it makes sense), so now we´re back to the sun. Luckily you all know me and know that I love the sun more than the cold, and the work here is so much nicer in when it´s warm so I´m excited. The only hard part is staying awake during the lessons we have in the siesta, haha but I think I´ll figure something out. This week was great. The new bishop that we have is awesome! He´s got tons of excitement for the work, and tons of excitement to do it right (meaning getting the members to do it). It´s really nice because he´s one of the few Bishops here that I´ve met that is willing to sacrafice a little now to get the work going how it should. I really hope I get to stay another change here in Piro´Y, but we´ll see here in about a week. A**** was able to get things mostly straightned out, he´s just got to wait a little longer to get everything completely straightened out, we´ll see when he will be able to be baptized. The familia C**** is so awesome! We had some great lessons with them this last week and the hermana , W****, says she´s completely convinced that this is the true church where she wants her family. They are set to be baptized a week from tomorrow but we´re going to ask them tonight if they´d rather just get baptized this Saturday! The hermana was super nice because our new mission president randomly just showed up to our sacrament meeting on Sunday entonces aprovechamos and we introduced him to the familia C**** and the hermana was just telling President how great we are and how patient and loving we are, SCORE! Haha. So I had this dream the other night that you came down Mom and met this family and it was super cool.

The 4th of July was fun. We went into Asunción and had hamburgers with freedom fries and got to meet the new President and his family. They seem really great. His son Preston is leaving on his mission to Chile the day Travis leaves for his mission and he´s pretty excited. He went up and gave a talk in Spanish for this little conference, he did awesome. Also here with him are his daughter that´s 16 and his son that´s 11, they seem excited to be here. It was weird hearing little kids speaking in English and talking like Americans with American personalities. The 11 year old kid, I think his name is Brian or something like that, reminds me a lot of Adam so that was pretty neat. President Mcmullin is a little hard to read, but he seems to like hard work and obedience so I hope we get along well. It´s quite the process becoming a mission president and it seems like a super hard calling, but I bet it would be super rewarding too. His wife seems super friendly too. 

I hope Spencer can keep his eye on the mission and not do anything stupid in St. George (haha I only say that because I also had this dream that me and him and the gang all went and did something stupid and he wasn´t sure he would be able to leave on his mission anymore due to court dates and such). But really I´m learning a lot recently about how each of us are important in this work. It´s not just a coincidence that we´re members of the church, or bearers of the priesthood, or alive at this time. We were all chosen before to come here at this time. I was elected before to be one of the few holders of the holy priesthood and to use it here in Paraguay to bless the lives of others. I´m not just here because I happened to be in the church and at mission age, and I sent in my papers and they didn´t know what to do so they just stuck me in the Paraguay Asunción North mission, and now President didn´t know what to do so he just put me in Piro´Y. I don´t believe that. I believe that God knows me, and that He´s got a plan for me. He knows I´m here and it´s where He wants me. There are people here for me to help, and I´m not just someone whose been thrown into the system and is just another body to fill a space. We had a great meeting with our new bishop yesterday and he told us that he wants to be working with specific people and names. I believe that´s what the Lord does as well. He knows our names, they´re engraven upon his palms. I know He loves me and He knows me, I also know that He knows and loves each and every one of you, and He has a special use and purpose for each one of us right now. We´re not just bodies in the system, we´re specific people with specific purposes and needs and wants. It´s hard to fathom just how deep and profound God´s wisdom and knowledge and most importantly love is, but it´s real and that´s what matters. I hope you all have an awesome semana!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey 

(no subject)

Email received July 1, 2013

¡HOLA buenísima familia mía!

 

Wow that´s pretty funny about the whole water thing. We´re only supposed to drink water that we buy in these giant 20 liter bottles, and the trucks that carry them are supposed to pass by our house every week to bring us new ones. The problem is that a lot of times the trucks don´t pass then you just have to say a prayer as you drink the water. I´ve only been sick a few times from it though so I think here in capiatá at least it´s pretty fine. Boy this week was pretty crazy, but super awesome! So the familia C**** is awesome! They came to church and the hermana said she´s ready to get baptized when we are! We put her and her son with a fecha for the 16th of July, my companions last day, so that they can prepare a little longer and also hopefully so that the husband might be able to be baptized with them. We´re not pushing it too hard with him one because he´s hardly ever home and two because they´re right now thinking about separating so we´re just going to let things play out how they will. But I love that family so much, they have helped me a ton. I consider the hermana C**** my Paraguayan mom (she´s got nothing on my real mom, but she´s still pretty awesome). We´re in the middle of what could be a big problem with A**** right now. As far as his progression he´s doing awesome! He went to the church every night last week for different activities and he even sang in the choir with us for ward conference on Sunday (which brings up some other crazy news I´ll tell you in a little bit). The problem is that he just told us last night that he has to go to court on Tuesday and is facing 5 to 10 years in prison! Dang! But luckily the Hermana C**** is a lawyer so we took A**** to her house last night and she helped us out a lot so depending on how his hearing goes tomorrow we´ll see if he can be baptized. He says if everything goes well he´ll baptize himself on Wednesday, haha, so we´re just praying that everything goes well there. As far as getting to know the new president we´re actually doing that this Thursday, so I will get to do something fun for the 4th of July. Caleb Reber is lucky because in the MTC on the 4th of July they let all of the missionaries got to the field and watch the fireworks (or so I was told when I was there). I´m glad girls camp was a success. Oh yeah yesterday I got to watch that broadcast about missionary work, ¡AMAZING! I loved it so much, it got me super excited. I felt bad for one of the hermanas in my district because we had to watch it in Spanish and she got here about 3 or 4 weeks ago so she understood about 45% of it (which if you ask me is pretty good for 3 or 4 weeks), but I´m sure she felt the Spirit egual. Mostly I just felt really good about being right here right now in the service of the Lord. I´m completely convinced that he wants me here right now, so I´m just going to be as obedient as I can and work as hard as I can. I´m proud of my companion because he´s still hanging in there even though he´s about to go home, but I´m not going to lie it gets pretty exhausting sometimes. Luckily like I´ve already said I´ve learned that I don´t have to stress what might happen, I just have to continually pray for help and miracles and everything works out fine. I was almost positive that I would get to stay here in this area another change which would´ve been awesome because I love it a lot, but now I´m not so sure. In ward conference they called a new bishop, and they officially combined our ward Piro´Y with the rama Capiatá. It makes things a little tricky because the Elders in the rama capiatá live with us but they aren´t in our zone. So now that the rama capiatá is in our ward but the area is still out of our zone, we can´t visit half of our members! But we´re getting it all straightened out. The reason that I´m now thinking that I might be going is because the group of missionaries going home this change is about 25 missionaries, and the group coming in is about half that size. The replacements for this group leaving will be coming in the end of August, so for a whole change I think they are going to have to combine areas until august. So that was making me think that they might now just combine Capiatá and Piro´Y and Elder Menchaca would stay and be in charge of the mega area because he has less time here than I do. I don´t have to worry about anything, I would just be a little sad to leave is all. I´ve done a lot of growing up here, but having changes is also fun and there´s new adventures awaiting, así que I´m just ready for anything. Changes are on the 17th so me falta todavía. So being with Elder Landers I´ve found myself thinking about what kind of person I want to be after the mission, and what I want to study and all that. But Last week I realized that I don´t have to and probably shouldn´t be thinking about that. I really want to focus more on what kind of difference I can make here in Paraguay. Paraguay needs a lot of help in a lot of ways, especially in the church. The organization gets pretty wrong some times, so now I´m going to really try and focus on making a difference here in Paraguay. Leave everything here. Give my whole heart, might, mind, and strength to the people I´m growing to love so much. I was reading a talk about Pride in the Priesthood by President Uchtdorf this week (now that I´m learning a language that guy has become one of my heroes and gives me tons of motivation to master the Spanish language) and he said something that really caught my attention. He said being humble and putting off our pride does not mean thinking less of ourselves, it means thinking less about ourselves. I love that a lot. If I´m thinking about myself than how am I going to be able to be filled with charity and make a difference here? I´ve found that there is great joy to be had in letting myself get lost in this wonderful work and quite worrying about myself and my fears, wants, all of that and start focusing on those of others. Service is a cool thing. I know that this is the only true church with Priesthood authority, thus having the only authorized prophet. I know that that prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I´ve read it. I´ve learned by the Holy Ghost that it´s true. No one can take these things away from me and they mean more to me than anything else. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and that He loves me and wants me to be a joint-heir with HIm. I don´t fully understand why He loves me so much because I have a lot of weaknesses and I stumble and fall quite often, but what I know is that He lives and loves me. I know the promises of the Lord are real, and I know that the gifts of the Spirit are two (I conducted a whole meeting in a foreign language, that´s not something I could do on my own). Elder Otterstrom wrote me and stated it best when he simple said "I love my mission", there´s really not much more that can be said. I love you and hope you have a wonderful week.

 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey