¡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
