(no subject)

Email received August 26, 2013

Hola Familia,

Sounds like you guys had a fun week. It got really cold here but it was still a good week. Oh boy right now I feel like I´m eating all of my words when I used to tease Brother Sandberg for doing all of his stretches before and after playing sports because this morning we played American football and I didn´t bother doing any stretches before and after about 45 minutes I was feeling all stiff and sore. ¿When did that start to happen? I now see the genius behind the Sandberg-stretching. Haha but it was really fun playing with the zone leaders. Then we all went to the church by the temple and the Hermanas made us french toast (some more great blessings of having a district of hermanas, they invite us to breakfast and many times they bring baked goods to district meeting).

The area that I´m in is right on the Paraguay River so it´s kinda a fishing community, así que comimos pescado la semana pasada. I have never been a huge fan of fish but being on the mission has really changed my taste buds so it was actually really good. It made me think of Spencer because I feel like he´s probably eating a ton of fish and rice. Here they eat lots of meals that are either rice or noodles with some kinda meet mixed in it (sometimes its better if you don´t ask what kinda meat).

Well I'm having the hardest time remembering what all happened last week. I know that we had only 18 people attend our little branch on Sunday due to the cold (and for the first two hour we were less than 8 people including 4 missionaries). It got really cold all of the sudden on Thursday until this morning but it looks like it´s warming up again. We still don´t know transfers but my companion is super sure he´s gone (so sure that he´s already started to pack). We get along fine but he´s super caught on the idea of leaving. I always feel really bad for my companions because this last year I've noticed how hard I am to live with. Luckily the Lord has blessed my companions with a large dose of patience. I really think it´s important like I've said to not sweat the small stuff, be part of the solution not part of the problem, remembering that teaching a lesson never works, and look for the good in others while realizing that I myself have things about me and do things that get on people´s nerves. I can't expect to be everyone´s best friend but I can definitely get along with just about anyone as I focus on putting them before me. I always think of the Savior for that example. Putting others first doesn't mean thinking about them enough that things are fair or that they just aren't suffering, but it´s walking the extra mile. The Savior taught through His example and words that a leader is not the one that is great but the one that's on bottom lifting and loving everyone else up, helping and serving others. I sometimes think about how He washed the feet of all of His apostles, the humility that that requires and the love so that they would feel more comfortable. We don´t only have to serve others by doing things that they can´t do for themselves, we can serve others by doing things to simply try and make their day a little better or make them a little happier. I've learned that that is how we will feel happiest too. If I'm sad or down or frustrated or anything I'm realizing it´s because I´m thinking about myself a lot. The simple remedy to that is start thinking about others and their needs or just the things that they do and how I can help them. It goes a long way. Sorry you guys always have to put up with all of my little soap box spiels of little life lessons I´m learning here in the Paraguay but it´s been cool to learn things like this. I´m sorta embarrassed that I´m 20 years old and just now learning a lot of the things that I've been learning, but I feel like I'll be learning these things for the rest of my life. I love you guys and hope you have a great week.

Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

P.S. i´m having a hard time sending fotos right now but I will try and send some next week.

(No Subject)‏

Email received August 19, 2013

Hola familia,

Boy what a week. The weather here is either really cold or really hot, but I kinda like that because you either dress for warm or for cold, you don´t have to do that awkward kinda hot kinda cold thing. This week was really really great and really really hard at the same time (I think that´s what made it so great). I don´t think we had a single full work day this week, but the Lord still really helped us work hard when we could. On Tuesday we had zone conference then I had to go do some stuff in the cyber for my district, then on Wednesday I was the sickest I´ve ever been in my entire mission then on Thursday we had to go hang out with one of our zone leaders all morning (which was actually really cool, I´ll explain why later), then Friday we had to do some things for the branch and only had a few hours is all to work, then Saturday we the other elders in Trinidad had a baptism that we helped them out a little bit with (but it was definitely worth it because we had an investigator and less-active member attend) then Sunday the normal church and rendir cuentas at night. But the cool thing about all of that is that in spite of it all we were still able to get most of our goals for the week and we had 4 investigators in church and about 12 less actives! It was a huge testimony to me that when we use the Spirit to set goals then do all that we can to reach them that the Lord takes care of us. It´s been one of the coolest things for me to see the Lord´s hand in the work, and lately more than ever I can see it so much. We have a big focus in the mission now on working with the less-active members, and even before President had told us about that I was already feeling the same need. But as we´ve been searching for the families that haven´t been to church in years it´s been a common thing to hear "You know I was just thinking that it´s been a while since I´ve been to church and I think we need to go back" or "It´s so funny that you guys came by today because I just ran into so and so from the branch and I started thinking I should go back". The Lord is definitely softening the hearts of the people here and it´s so great to see it and be a part of it. One of the coolest experiences I had this week was when we went to hang out with our zone leader. What happened is that on Thursday a group of people, mostly youth, from Concepción (about a 6 or 7 hour bus ride from here) came in to go to the temple and one of the families that came in was a family that my zone leader had helped get everyone baptized and they were being sealed, so he got to go to that but President didn´t want his companion going into the session so they called us and asked if we could hang out with his companion and just do a giant study-a-thon. So when we got there we got to hang out for a while with all of the youth and it was such a strong spirit that they brought with them. A lot of them shared their conversion stories and it was so cool and so powerful hearing that. Then I also got to talk with my first zone leader that I had here in Paraguay (he was Paraguayan and has since finished his mission but he went to the temple that day and I got to see him and say hi). It was really cool talking with him and remembering how much he had helped me. Then we studied and went back to the temple to look for the elder that was in the session and we got to talk to more youth and some families and again I felt the Spirit so strong and it got me super excited to go and find the less-active members and bring them back so that they can go to the temple. This week we have a baptism scheduled for Saturday for the son of some recent converts and this should complete their family so in about a year, probably right around the time I´ll be getting ready to go home, they should be getting sealed and I hope I´ll get to participate in that. The temple really is the goal and there is nothing that is worth sacrificing it for, I really felt that super strong this week. My companion has been a little antsy to leave lately, he´s been in the area about 6 months now and it's a pretty small area and it´s been pretty tough the past few months working with the leadership of the branch, but things are a lot better now. But it´s looking like next week he´ll be leaving but luckily we have tons of people to be teaching so I don´t think it´ll be too bad for him this week. I understand what it´s like in your first area because you really want to leave to get to know the country more and everything, but at this point in my mission I realized I hate leaving areas. Right when I feel like we have tons of progressing investigators and the ward is really starting to be involved I get transferred, so I sure hope they keep me here a good long while. But this morning we did companionship haircuts to build a little bit of trust and unity, it was pretty funny but both of our haircuts turned out pretty well I feel like. I haven´t written Andrew in a few weeks but last I heard he was still the same Andrew with his great work ethic, just loving the work and the people. I´m really bad about writing the cousins, I tried writing Caleb Reber and Travis Maddox but I still don´t have their email addresses, if you could send them to me that would be great. I bet Caleb Reber is going crazy with the time thing, especially if he has a Latin companion. I´ve learned to start telling my comp that we need to be places a half hour earlier than we actually do so that we can arrive on time and still the things never start on time. It used to drive me crazy but I´ve learned that there´s nothing I can do about it, so I do my best to make sure I´m ready and everything on time and try to help my companion so he can be ready too. Well I hope you all enjoy school this week, just remember how fast last year passed by and pray that this year passes a little slower because I need a lot more time in the mission, it´s going by way too fast.

Con mucho cariño y amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

(No Subject)‏

Email received August 12, 2013

Hola Familia!

Hey sorry I really don´t have hardly anytime today because we had a big zone barbecue today that went really late, but I´ll try to get the good stuff in. Last week was really fun at the TGI Fridays, they made me do the chicken dance but then they gave me a brownie for it so it was all worth it. I´ve got another drunk story from the same guy that told me I have a number 4 on my face. He was listening as we were reading Galatas 5 about the Holy Ghost and as we read each characteristic he would nod his head and say "Approved". Haha so now me and my companion keep joking about that and saying "Aprobado" at every little thing. I feel like I´m making progress on my language, my companion is helping me a lot realize the little things I can change to fix my accent, and there´s a lot so there´s a lot to do. Sometimes I feel like my mouth just cant make the sound, but it has to be possible so I'm going to keep trying. This Sunday was pretty interesting, but one of the coolest experiences of my mission. So church starts at 8:00 Sunday mornings and at 8:45 there were 7 people in attendance (4 missionaries, an active young woman, her friend visiting from another ward, and this less-active young man my comp and I are teaching)! I couldn´t believe that no body came. We have sacrament last and by the time we were doing the sacrament there were about 62 people in attendance, but the cool part about that was about 15 of those in attendance were less-active members that haven´t been to church in at least a month (for most of them it´s been years)! I was so happy to see them coming back and they all said that they are going to keep coming back. It was a really cool feeling for me to see all of these people trying to change and do the right thing. As I hit my year mark in my mission I thought back about all of the things that I´ve learned in the past year. I still haven´t seen the gold plates or the sword of Laban and I still am not sure where Kolob is, but what I´ve learned about faith and repentance and baptism and the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end, and the relationship that I´ve been able to develop with my Savior are incredible and to me far more valuable. We were teaching a lesson this week and the lady started telling us this story about how this soldier didn´t know how to drive a car but then he read the bible and prayed and all of the sudden he was able to drive and that this was a great miracle. I told her yeah but I realized that those miracles are great and they come from God, but the greatest miracle can be accomplished is the forgiveness of our sins. There´s a story in the New testament where Christ is brought this trembling kid and the first thing that Christ tells him is that his sins are forgiven him. The pharisees begin to say that that´s not what the guy needs, so then Christ says that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins I command you to walk and the kid was healed. So many of us, myself included, seem to think a lot that the most miraculous things that Christ does are heal us or help us get through a hard time, and these things are huge and great and are miracles given to us because Christ loves us and wants us to be happy, but I realized that in the long run a lot of those things aren´t that important because as long as we have the forgiveness of our sins it doesn´t matter how are health is or what we´re going through because we will have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God (D&C 14:7). But like I said Christ wants us to be happy and to enjoy life so he also blesses us with great miracles that make life a lot better and they come from Him, but I realized that I had really taken for granted just how big and important the remission of sins really is. I hope you guys have an awesome week!

Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

P.S I can´t believe Josh Torgerson is already coming home, that´s wild! Tell him hi for me.

Blind guitarists, old British ladies, and the number 4‏

Email received August 5, 2013

Hola familia!

Man this week was quite a busy week here in Paraguay too. My birthday was pretty good, I went to this fancy looking restaurant in my area for lunch and I did a baptismal interview in the night. Also Hermana Mcmullin called me and made her kids sing to me, it was really special for me. Also today my zone leaders are treating me to TGI Fridays so that should be pretty fun. Thursday I was praying all day for little Spencer and on Wednesday for little Travis (speaking of which I would love it if you could send me their emails and Caleb´s too). I had interviews with Presidente Mcmullin and it was awesome! He had sent his son off to the MTC in Chile the day before and he was telling me that as parents you don´t want anything else for your kids than for them to be on their missions, but it still hurts to send them. I felt so peaceful looking at the photos that dad sent me of the departure, I´m so proud of Elder Hulsey the hijo as they say in Spanish. The big city is treating me well, there´s a lot of cool things here to do on P-day but in my area there´s just tons of humble people. One cool thing though that we found out this week is that the Paraguayan river is one of the boarders of our area, so Argentina is right on the other side of the river! The cool part is that there is an island in the middle of the river where some of our investigators moved to, and from what we hear there are tons of people there and missionaries have never been to this island before. So we´re going to talk with President this week about going out there on a boat and seeing if there is any potential! The island I´m pretty sure is still technically my area and I think that would be sweet! The branch I´m in has a lot of less-active members and not a lot of active members at all (there´s actually only one family that´s active and about 10 other people that are active but not entire families, Trinidad A has a little more activity but not much). So in my interview with President we talked about helping the less-actives, it was great. President and I are actually a lot alike so I´m really glad to get to be working with him. But despite the lack of active members, the less-active members still love to feed us so we have plenty of lunch appointments. Like I said my area is poor as dirt but I love it a lot. It hurts me so much to see how these people are suffering in poverty but still so many of them harden their hearts. I've been focusing on loving them more and it´s really sad to see the people I love suffer so much and knowing that it´s not necessary all of the suffering. So many of their problems could be solved by the Lord if they would just keep the commandments, but I understand how hard it is for them because to keep the commandments for them really would require so much faith and sacrifice and trusting in the promises of the Lord. They really don´t know where the day's food will come from so to pass up a job opportunity for a Sunday seems ridiculous to them because its a chance to eat, and getting married costs money and they view it as an unnecessary expense because they can just live together anyway. I wish I could just show them the blessings that await those that keep the commandments, like it says in Mosiah 2:41. So that´s my situation right now and I kinda feel like I´m in Nephi´s position when he had to get the brass plates. He knew what he had to do but he wasn´t sure how, so he went and tried many ways and eventually he was able to obtain the plates. I know that I need to help these precious souls come unto Christ and I´ve tried a few ways that haven´t really brought much fruit, but last week I had a great idea in bringing less-active members to fellowship and support other less-active members so they can share their testimonies and feel the Spirit that way. It was great and on Sunday one of the families we´ve been working with came back and a young man we did this with too! The work is tough but possible and in working with the less-active and new members we´ve been able to find even more people to teach. I´m really blessed to have a great district. My district is me and my comp then two companionships of hermanas and they are awesome! They work super hard so it´s great working with them.

So this week there were a couple of funny things that happened. We were sitting in our lunch appointment when these two old men came walking in to the house with super dark sunglasses and a guitar and they were dressed just like grandpa charlie (same red flannel shirt with blue pants). I stuck out my hand to shake the guys hand and he just ignored me, then the kids told me that he was blind. They guided him to the couch and he sat down and pulled out his guitar with trembling hands. Then all of the sudden he started playing some of the best guitar I´ve ever heard and singing these old Spanish love songs! It was super sweet! The guy was kinda crazy and he kept telling my comp that he would play a Bolivian song for him because Bolivia is close enough to Peru. It was pretty funny. So then later that day we saw this super old lady having a hard time walking so we offered to help her to her house and we started talking with her. I guess she had lived all over Europe and the US (she speaks french, italian, english, spanish, portuguese and guaraní) and she was pretty funny. She said she was a psychologist and could read people like books. She looked into my eyes and said I´m smart and happy, then she looked into my companion's eyes and told him he´s also smart but very shy (which is funny because I would not call him shy) and that he needs to be more confident like me because we´re both good looking so we both can be nice and confident. Haha. Then the best thing happened on Saturday. We went looking for a less-active member and we found his family so we started teaching them. The dad started drinking a ton when we got there and at one point he got up and tried whispering something to my companion (but it came out a lot louder than a whisper) and he told him that I had a giant number 4 on my face, so tomorrow in his big soccer game he´s going to wear the number 4! Me and my companion were laughing super hard and his family reassured me that I didn´t actually have a number 4 on my face.

Well I love you and thanks for the pictures and packages (I got the birthday one and the year mark one a few weeks ago, the rainbow chip was a great call. My oven doesn´t work so I cooked the cake in the microwave and it actually turned out great). I figured out how to just put the pictures on my memory card so I can just do that and look at them through my camera so you don´t have to print them out and send them to me. I love you guys so much and hope you have a wonderful week.

Con amor,
Elder Zahcary J. Hulsey

(No Subject)

Email received July 29, 2013

Hola familia,

 

I can´t believe big Spencer and Travis are leaving this week, it seems like just yesterday we were playing basketball todos juntos on the court and now we´re all in the Lord´s army! How awesome is that! I´m loving my new area a lot, even though it´s really tough. The people are super nice and normally let us in, but all of the less-active members use the same excuse and all of the investigators have theirs for why they don´t go to church. This last week we focused a lot on helping less-active members come back and capacitating the branch leaders. It´s been really cool and I´m making lots of new friends. There´s a family that recently got baptized that wants to give me dinner on Friday so that´s how I´m planning on spending my birthday, doing this work that I´ve grown to love and eating with this family. Also now that I´m in the city I live close to Pizza Hut and they deliver to our house so I might get a pizza! It´s really hard for me to imagine that I´ve been a missionary for almost a year, I still feel like I got here yesterday. I´m learning a lot about how to receive revelation and it´s been a really great experience. In the MTC I was a disaster and I was so stressed and I worried about every little thing but over the course of the last year I´ve learned a lot about stress management and making sure I do all I can do (without procrastinating), writing things down so I don´t forget, and leaving what is out of my control up to the Lord and letting him control the results. It´s amazing how much stress is avoided that way, I wish I would´ve realized that years ago. Also my district is really awesome and works really hard so it helps take a lot of stress off too. I´m glad big Boo-boo is okay, people here drive so crazily but there´s hardly any accidents (that I´ve seen). The only one I was a part of was on a bus in my first area and we were going super slow tyring to drive past this garbage truck but we totally drilled it. It was a Sunday on our way to church and we had an investigator on the bus with us and we all had to leave the bus through the back door and walk across this giant pile of smelly garbage. It was pretty gross but the lady went to church anyways and had a great experience. My companion is doing a lot better and my Spanish is getting a lot of much-needed help. Being with Americans I got pretty confident but being with a Peruvian I´m realizing that my accent needs a lot of work. But it´s good because I get to teach my companion English so it helps stay nice and patient with one another.

 

I´ve been learning and growing so much here, it´s been a super great experience so far that I haven´t regretted one bit. Sometimes I feel kind of down like if what I´m doing is even making a difference, but then something always happens that makes me feel really peaceful or the Lord will help me realize how to help the people in another way. I´ve been finding a lot of comfort in the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. We always joke (but it´s kinda true) that the Book of Mormon is talking specifically about Paraguay. It´s a wonderful country with awesome people, but a lot of times you can definitely see their laminate background poking through. I really like studying in Alma because those guys are my heroes. I didn't really appreciate the Book of Mormon of it´s stories very much before the mission, but Ive really grown to love and treasure that book. The truth is I don´t think I really understood how to use it or apply it very easily to my situation, but I´m learning now. Also I´m finally understanding how great of a resource Preach my Gospel is! I didn´t really appreciate that amazing manual before, but now I´m really learning how to use it and it´s amazing. All of the tools are there for us, we just have to figure out how to use them (it´s really not that hard, you just have to study looking for answers instead of just reading pages). The mission has taught me so much in the last year and I can´t wait to see what the next year holds for me. I´m turning old this week (I always tell the old ladies that I´m going to be 20 soon then I´ll be old, that always makes them laugh) but for the first time in my life I´m really not wanting time to move any faster than it already is, I´m really happy where I´m at and I´m glad that I get to keep doing this. Have an awesome week!

Con amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey