(No Subject)

Email received November 25, 2013

Hola familia!

This was a pretty crazy week. So it turns out I wasn´t white washing the area but I´m opening my new area! That was a big surprise that I wasn´t told. So we had a brand new house with no area book, no cell phone, and pure strangers all around us. But then we got our cell phone working and it turns out that some hermanas had been working the area a few months ago and we were able to find their old area book. I´m still not sure why the area got closed down before but what I do know is that I´m loving it. This is probably the nicest area I´ve been in my entire mission. Also the members here are fantastic! Our house is this super goofy apartment that I actually really like (it has a real hotel feel to it) and right in front of us live 2 member families. One of them has a son that just got his mission call to Columbia and he has left with us all day everyday since I´ve been here. It´s like we´re in a trio. It´s made it super nice. We´ve been trying to work a lot with the members and that has turned out to be successful. We have been able to set up lunch appointments everyday and we received a ton of references from members this week. One of them was for this super cool kid named Santiago. he´s about 15 and I´m pretty sure he just lives with his dad but his dad drinks a lot. Santiago lives next door to an active (except for the dad) member family and they are his friends. They gave us the reference then invited him over to be taught and we taught him the restoration with the rest of the family (including the less-active dad). Then he went to church with them and now he´s preparing to be baptized. The less active dad didn´t come to church but I asked the wife about it and she said that it´s been years and normally he won´t even accept the visits from the missionaries so the mere fact that we were able to visit him was a huge miracle asi que I´m already seeing awesome miracles here in Mariano Roque Alonso. Mariano is a branch that could easily be a ward but it´s part of a district and not a stake so it can´t become a ward. The district is the district that has chaco paraguay (like filadelfia and all of the indian tribes) in it so that´s pretty sweet. The hard part about that is that the missionaries in the chaco are part of my zone and they area about a 6-8 hour bus ride away so zone unity is really hard. But we´re organizing some divisions to go out there and see how we can help. It´s wierd being in this zone because I´m going from being the youngest senior comp in my last zone to the oldest one in this zone. Most of the senior comps in the zone have about the same amount of time as Spencer and they´re training and finishing up training of other missionaries. Then there are a few that have about nine months then a few of us that have a little over a year. It´s really different because people now look to me to help them and I still feel super new myself, but the Lord is helping a ton. My new companion´s name is Elder Ellefson. He´s from Joplin Missouri which is part of the Oklahoma Tulsa mission. He got baptized about 2 and a half years ago and is super pumped to be here in the mission. He reminds me a little of Alec Olson from next door and Dad a little bit too. But he actually more than anything reminds me a lot of myself at the beginning of my mission and it´s super cool to see because I feel like I know exactly what he´s going through and I can see the huge progress I´ve made. He´s a really fun guy and likes to work. I feel bad because I´ve been trying to do a million things this week helping all of the new missionaries in my zone and trying to get to know my area and a handful of other things so my companion is probably super confused about what the mission is, but things should calm down a lot this week and we should be able to work hard. He´s got a super great testimony that he just loves sharing with everyone. Dad I´m actually super glad you check people´s blogs because I always tell people to put pictures up in hope that you guys some how can find them. It probably was me in the picture because we did go mountain biking last week. Well I can´t think of too much more that happened (even though there was a lot to start would be very difficult to end. It´s kinda like this song I heard the other day called the never ending story. Haha it was playing on the streets and I remember Mom and Dad used to sing that and this was the first time I had actually heard it).

I have been studying in the book of Mormon a lot lately and I was in 3 Nefi right before the signs of Christ´s birth and I noticed some things that were super important. When the people were united they prospered in the land and had continual peace (and I don´t think the peace referred to here means sitting around at ease all of the time). But then they would loose their unity because Satan would puff up their hearts and then they would loose all that peace. I was thinking a lot about the importance of unity in the success of missionary work. Missionaries have to be united with the members and the members with them. Then together they need to be united with the Lord through prayer, fasting and studying the scriptures and obviously receiving revelation through church attendance to know the will of the Lord so that all three are united. As soon as one of these three is no longer united with the rest the growth and "prosperity in the land" starts to end. I´ve got such a strong testimony of unity. The lema of the mission, and least when Presidente Madariaga was in office, was United in Purpose. I think it is super important to make sure we are united within our families, within our companionships and most importantly with the Lord. The Lord has said if you are not one you are not mine. He also has said that he called his people Zion because they were of one heart and of one mind and they dwelt in righteousness and there was no poor among them. I´ve got a super strong testimony of the power of unity. That doesn´t mean that everyone is equal, in fact it´s kinda the opposite. Each person has their unique talents and abilities that they bring to the table that others don´t have and that has become very apparent to me on the mission, but I believe unity is being to take all of the individuals with their strengths and weaknesses and looking forward to the bigger picture or the main objective and overcoming and looking past weaknesses and harvesting and using strengths. I have never had a companion that was perfect, and I know for a fact that I am not a perfect companion, but when we can look past each others weaknesses and work together with each others strengths than we have success. So I invite all of you to try and be a little more patient with one another and really focus on seeing people with eyes of charity and find and focus on the strengths of others and not their weaknesses and figure out how to work together better in unity to achieve goals such as happiness. ¿Lo harán? Les prometo que al hacer eso van a ver un cambio en sus vidas que les va a conducir más cerca a nuestro Padre Celestial y Salvador y Redentor Jesucristo. Yo sé que esta es su iglesia verdadera y que Él la dirige por medio de profetas vivientes. Tell David Rapier congratulations and that I´m proud of him. Have a wonderful thanksgiving and eat a nice big slice of pie for me.

Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

For some reason the compute won´t recognize my camera but here are some pictures that were emailed to me

(No Subject)

Email received November 18, 2013

Hola Querida familia!

Boy what a week, the meeting with Elder Christofferson was super cool. His Spanish is incredible and I learned a lot. His conference was so much different than Elder Bednar´s. Elder Bednar last year talked a lot about doctrine and dropped us some cane but Elder Christofferson was super nice and happy and hilarious. He was saying so many funny things that I wouldn´t have expected from an apostle and it was really reassuring to see because it let me know it is okay to laugh and joke and be having a great time as you are doing the work. He didn´t really have a specific theme for his talk, he pretty much just asked questions and used the panel of guests that he had (the mission presidents from the 2 missions because it was a double mission conference, 2 members of the 70 and all of their wives) to help him answer them. It was cool because I noticed that the way he did his conference is the way we should be teaching a first lesson. Getting to know the people´s needs by asking them questions and helping them see how they can use the pure and simple gospel doctrines to solve their lives problems. I learned a lot and it was super fun because I got to see all of my old comps, even the ones that got switched to south mission. Speaking of switching... I got a call today from the asistentes and I´m being switched areas. I´m going to a new area called Mariano Roque Alonzo A and I´m going to train again and be the zone leader out there. I´m super excited to get to train again and we´ll be doing a white wash so it will be super fun to just start from scratch but I´m super sad to leave Trinidad and Elder Beus. Yesterday we had a church attendance of 117 people, that´s triple the amount that were coming my first couple of weeks! We also had a whole less-active family come back (we didn´t even really have to do much to help them) and we had 8 investigators in church! We have a baptism tomorrow and another 2 on Saturday with another one the next Saturday and two more the Saturday after that! I´m super bummed to be leaving because I´ve learned so much about relying on the Lord since I´ve been here, but I honestly feel like I´ve been able to be the instrument that the Lord wanted me to be here. I really hope that the same miracles that I´ve been seeing here in the past couple of months continue over to the people in Marano because I´ve just been at the highlight of my life lately. There was going to be a kid coming in from the Dominican Republic and I was really hoping to train him but rumor has it that he´s not actually coming in until the next change, but I´ll find out on Wednesday who I get to train. Training is super fun so I´m way excited to do that again and like I said I love white-washing an area and getting to establish your relation with the members and everything. I didn´t want to leave but I kinda knew I would and this was how I wanted it, white-washing and training. My new zone will be super interesting because It´s the chaco zone. My area is real close to Asunción but there are areas in the zone that are 9 hour bus rides away so it´ll be interesting to see how we work out divisions and such. The other zone leader is in one of those areas but it´ll be a super fun adventure and I´m super excited to get to know my new area.

So today I got to go mountain biking and it was sooooooooo much fun! I´m going to try to send some pics that I snapped because it was so beautiful. I now have to goal to mountain bike on every continent. Mom how was your birthday? Soy lo peor de tus hijos por no haberte felicitado en el día de tu cumpleaños, pero felicidades ahora! Also un gran felicidades to Duba doo (that´s caleb in case you´ve forgotten). I think it was a picture of him that you sent me but I didn´t recognize anything. Not Emma´s date (that was weird seeing dance stuff again, brought me back), not Maren not the couch not Caleb, it´s like I don´t know you! Haha but thanks for the pictures, I loved seeing them. Well I´ve got to go and pack up to go to my next area and prepare for my baptism tomorrow so wish me luck. I hope you all have a fantastic week.

Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

Elder Beus and I rockin our cerro porteño (my favorite soccer team out here) get up and me riding my bike through the jungle.

(No Subject)

Email received November 11, 2013

Hola familia,

Man what a great week. I´ve been so incredibly busy but it´s been super nice being busy because there is always something to do and you never have to stand around trying to figure something out to do. We have been blessed with so many awesome investigators. We had the primary program on sunday and it was a big success (and I still can´t get through that blasted program without shedding at least a tear or two, it always brings out my allergies). It was super cool because the Primary has been helping us with some kids of re-activating members and the kids had parts in the Primary program. It was super cool and we´ve been having a lot of really nice success in the area. It´s been super cool here because like I said we´re busy and a lot of the stuff that we have to do takes place in places outside of our area but the Lord can see that we´re just doing our best and then He really takes care of the rest. I had a lot of really cool experiences this week, Im just going to share a couple of them though because we don´t have too much time. So on Friday I had an interview with President Mcmullin and it was pretty sweet. So he´s notorious for scheduling 15 minute interviews then having them end after a half hour. So everyone before me had been interviewed for quite a while so I was expecting that he´d have a lot to tell me once I got in there, but it was actually kinda just a Shiblon experience. I got in and said the prayer and he asked me how I was doing and really before I could answer he told me he already knew how I was doing. He said I´ve got that twinkle in my eye that I have found my nitch and am just loving the mission. He said I just look like I´m super happy and having the time of my life. I told him he got that about right. Then he talked for about a minute just how it feels super good knowing that you´re doing all you can and being able to see the results from it because that doesn´t always happen. Then he said if there´s nothing else we´ll end with a prayer. All in all it lasted about 3 minutes max but coming out of that interview I felt so good. I felt like Shiblon and before I always imagined that he felt bad that his dad didn´t take too much time talking to him and counseling him but then I realized that it actually feels really good knowing that people don´t have to worry about you and that they can trust you to just work hard. One other kinda funny story that happened just today actually was I was waiting for a bus and I had a 2000 guaraní bill in my hand (that´s how much bus fare is) and this guy came up to me and he was obviously pretty fried and he was just saying "money money money" and getting in everyones faces. I told him I didn´t have any to give him so he grabbed the bill that was in my hand and tried taking it from me but I was still holding it and I was asking him to let go because I needed my bus-fare. Well we continued playing tug-a-war for a little when finally with his other hand he pulled out a little card with the virgin mary on it and flashed it to me. Inside it made me chuckle but I held it in. You´ve got to understand that this guy was really out of it and didn´t actually cause any threat so that ´s why I wasn´t afraid to try and keep my money, plus I really needed my bus fare. So finally I just told him that I would give him some coins and he let go of my money. But as I handed him the coins I thought it would also be a good idea to teach him the greater life lesson so I told him that that wasn´t the most effective way to ask for money. Then he took my coins and ran off. haha it was pretty funny. The many things that happen down here that just make you laugh. So this week I also feel like I´ve received pretty clear revelation that I should go to Utah State when I get home, so I´m pretty much decided on that now. It´s kinda like the same way I felt about Snow the year before i left home. I still have no idea what I want to study but those are just details that work themselves out. but as far as the support goes out here mom I´m actually not allowed to chat back and forth so it´s fine. I don´t like receiving too many packages because I can actually find most things here that I really need so it´s fine. One thing I would like just a little more of are pictures that you guys could send to me. I really like seeing pictures and you can just send those through email if you´d like. If you don´t have any start taking them. But life is good out here for your little paraguayíto. We´ve got Elder Christofferson coming tomorrow so that should be super fun and I´m way pumped. Pray for me and my investigators, I think I´ve really been under-utilizing the power of prayer these last few months of my mission. I hope you have a great week.


Con amor,
Elder Hulsey

(No Subject)

Email received November 4, 2013

Hola apreciada familia,

That´s great that halloween was a smashing success. Elder Beus and I successfully pulled off dressing as each other, he has the pictures on his camera and we´re actually on division right now so I´ll try to get those to you next week. This week was tough because due to a handful of things we had like no time to work in our area, but the time we did have you used the best we could and the Lord helped us a ton. We had 6 investigators in church! We were super scared because it was super rainy all day Saturday but by the time Sunday rolled around it was the most perfect weather. Elder Beus is 19 but he came out straight from of high school. I really like the 18 year old missionaries. A lot of them are pretty shy but they have amazing testimonies and they`ve brought such a cool spirit into the mission that it´s just incredible. We have so many hermanas in the mission and continue getting more but The Lord loves Paraguay because He´s been sending the best hermanas. I had always heard bad things about the hermana misisonaries before the mission and before I had any in my district or zone but so far all of the hermanas that I´ve been able to work with are amazing missionaries and do amazing work each week so I´ve got no complaints about them. We´re planning a big baptism for the 19th of November where we´re going to need some serious miracles happening so that everything goes through, but I`ve got faith that it all can. In jopara (that´s guaraní for "mixed" which they use to describe their language here because hardly anyone can actually speak pure guaraní so they mix it with a ton of spanish) what we´re planning is a bautismo guazú. It should be pretty fun. So this week we had tons of service opportunities which was super fun. One of them we got to do on Halloween so that was super nice, getting to shake things up a little bit. Then at the end of the night on halloween we went over to this house and started talking to a lady that we had been fore-warned about was super into her church and wouldn´t like to share with us. Since Elder Beus and I were wearing each others plaques we had a great conversation starter in explaining why, how it was a holiday in the states and this was a tradition kinda thing. She loved that and invited us in to talk a little about some of our other traditions and holidays and then she started explaining some of the ones they have here in Paraguay. Eventually she started talking about some of the bad traditions of Paraguay like drinking and smoking and how no body goes to church anymore or reads the scriptures. That was a great lead-in for us to start talking about the gospel and we ended up having a really spiritual lesson and the lady even accepted the baptismal invitation and an invitation to come to church (except in the end she didn´t actually come, but I suppose that´s why we have next week right). So then to finish the night off we came home and as we prepared for bed we had juice and dulce de leche on bread rolls and watched the scariest church movie we have (the one where Martin Harris loses the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon). It was a pretty fun night. yeah so as far as package stuff goes maybe thrown in some beef jerky, I kinda miss it, but other than that just whatever you want, I´m not hurting too bad for anything but pens. Well I´m pretty much out of things to say. I´m sorry if my letters are super boring, my life here is actually quite the opposite of boring there just is so much going on that I don´t even have time to process it all then put it in an email home. Just know that I´m super safe and super happy. Oh I just remembered one of the coolest things. So this less-active young man named alejandro that re-activated after one tiny visit from us and tons of sweet fellow-shipping from the ward went up and bore his testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting! He talked about the day before he went and did baptisms for the dead for the first time in his life and how it was super special. He talked about how he knows that this church is true. Since he´s been back he´s brought with him a less-active aunt and mom and siblings that still need to be baptized and he continues inviting all of his friends to come to church and talk with the missionaries. He had dropped out of school but he started his studies again so that when he turns 18 in three years he can leave on his mission! He was also just called as the teachers quorum president! When I first got here there was 1 active young man and last Sunday there were two benches full of them all in white shirts and ties. It is super powerful and the spirit radiating from them was indescribably strong. They´re all still crazy paraguayan teenage boys but they´re different because they hold the priesthood of God and they are part of a quorum, that´s a super special thing that I feel like I didn´t really understand just how special and powerful that was before. I love this work and I know it´s true and the Lord´s. I hope this week passes well for all of you!

Con amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

P.S. Mom your spanglish went right past me the first time I read through the email then as I re-read it I totally noticed it and felt super embarrassed that I didn´t catch it the first time.

(No Subject)

Email received October 28, 2013

Hola familia!

How´s everyone doing with their halloween preparations? I´m thinking this year I´m going around as Elder Beus. I´m going to wear his plaque and his tie and be him, it´ll be a great time. I really have no idea if they´ll celebrate it a little better here in Asunción than in Luque. It´s called día de las brujas (witches day) or they just say halloween (which I suppose they probably assume it´s spelled jalouín).We were thinking about going to this place called God´s Pan (that means God´s bread) with the asistentes for lunch but we´ll see how that turns out. It has been doing a lot of heat down here but I love it. Everyone is always sitting outside and since it´s so hot they don´t have enough energy to run and hide from you when you come up so you can get into a lot more lessons. The bugs are everywhere but I learned a long time ago to always carry around bug spray with me so when I start to see them I lather up. It always makes me feel like I´m camping. The other day we were sharing a lesson and this giant mosquito just plopped itself down on my scriptures. I´m not even kidding it was at least the size of a 50 cent piece! It was so massive but it didn´t get me don´t worry. Our teaching pool is doing well. We received some super awesome referencias from some recent converts this week which was super cool. Also since we´ve been working so much with the less actives it turns out a lot of them have children that never ended up getting baptized but our now more than old enough to be baptized. It´s a great way to reactivate the family by helping them help their children prepare for baptism. We´ve been seeing tons of success working with the less-actives. yesterday we had 19 of them return from our side and about the same from the other elders´ side too (including their children and babies)! It´s really been a huge blessing seeing so many of them return because the branch is getting super excited about it so they´re working even better with us now because they´re seeing real growth and success. I feel like our job as missionaries has been made so much easier because we pretty much just have to go and teach them and they all pretty much want to hear it. The Lord has been doing a lot of work here in Trinidad because the hearts of many have been pretty softened and humbled and they are feeling the need to come back to church to make things better and all we have to do is help them realize that´s what they need. I´m really excited to find out what Elder Christofferson has to say about all that to help us when he comes on the 13th! As far as interesting people that I´ve found there have been some strange ones but mostly just normal paraguayans. They are really cool people that are so generous and really over all friendly. They definitely have some big time quirks about them but so do I so we get along pretty well. For example the cyber we´re using right now the lady just brought us out sopa paraguaya (it´s kinda like corn bread but different, I´ll have to make it for you guys some day) and a giant glass of sprite each to me and my companion. They are super good sharers which I definately think was something that I had to learn how to do better from them. They are always greeting you with a friendly yell of something in guaraní and they always seem to be pretty happy even though they don´t really have much of anything. I imagine in some ways their lives are pretty stressful because they completely rely on their health, the weather, and everybody else for money (the majority of the people either sell stuff, recycle plastic bottles from the street, or work construction) and if they don´t have work one day there is a great chance they don´t eat, but they don´t worry about that too much. They´re kinda just in the moment kinda people. I don´t think that always being like that to the degree that most of them are is right, but I definitely think they have something with not stressing so many things all of the time. Tranquilo no más. I can´t really remember anything super specific last week that happened so I´ll just try to make something super sweet happen this week and let you guys know how that went. I love you all and Feliz día de brujas.

Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

I hope this photo comes through. It´s of me and this other elder in my zone named Elder Gunther and this kid named Ruben. We met him at the operation smile thing and he was hilarious.

Email received October 21, 2013

Hola apreciada familia,

I sure love you guys and hope your day is going awesome! I´ve had a pretty nice week. We had a super cool baptism on Saturday for this 20 year old guy named Wilson. He was so prepared and we didn´t really have to do anything. He was also a reference from our branch president and we got to teach him with some youth from the branch and one of them even baptized him so it was just a super nice service. Probably the most successful one in my mission. I was so scared the whole day because nothing was going wrong and something always goes wrong but in the end nothing did. He showed up the next day and was confirmed without any problems, Success! I´ve really had to refine my planning abilities and time management because there are a lot of things to do each day but I feel like that´s one of the reasons I´m at where I´m at right now because the Lord knew I really needed to learn these things. But as I manage my time well there´s plenty of time to work hard and have a great time doing it. In some ways I feel like I haven´t changed at all on my mission and that I´m still just the same zack (that´s weird typing my first name like that. The only time I ever use my first name is on official things where I have to write out Zachary) but at the same time I feel like I´ve learned so much better how to work hard, be obedient, and also be a human that makes mistakes. I struggled a lot with that before the mission and I feel like that´s why I was always so stressed and couldn´t make decisions but lately I´ve had to make a lot of decisions and I´ve learned how to do that a lot easier without all of the unnecessary stress. Right now in my mission I feel super blessed because I feel like I´ve got a handle on things and that I don´t really have to many problems weighing me down. I´ve been able to focus a lot better and the language hasn´t been an issue and I really haven´t felt homesick my entire misión I feel like so I´m super blessed. I feel like the Lord is blessing me without any big problems right now so that I can better help others without having to worry about myself so much. Elder Beus is such an amazing missionary and he´s got so much on his plate so I´m super glad that I´ve been able to learn better how to minister with him. I´ve still got so much to learn but I feel like I´ve learned so much about that. A new theme of mine that has been causing me to think a lot lately is when the Savior says, "He that will be mighty among you let him be your servant". That has really stuck out to me and I feel like I didn´t really understand that before. Just what is the point of a leader. I´m learning so much and if nothing else it´s really been motivating me to work super hard. I´m super pumped because they told us today that Elder D. Todd Christofferson from the quorum of the doce apóstoles is coming down here to Paraguay for a dual mission conference here in Moroni (that´s the area right above mine so super close) in a few weeks! I get to see another apostle and I don´t even have to travel that far to do it!

So as far as operation smile goes we just got to move all of their equipment into a truck to bring it to the south mission, but I think they´re still going to give us T-shirts for doing that because we get to do it again in a week so totally worth it to me(you know me, I love free t-shirts). Today we did a way cool zone activity in the temple. We got to go in and clean it and it was super cool because we got to go see all of the innerworkings of temple. Some of us almost made it all the way up to the Angel Moroni (the guy giving us the special tour got an emergency phone call right when we got to the ladder that leads up to it so we had to go) but it was super sweet. I got to clean the baptismal font and it felt really weird hanging out in water for that long but it was a blast. The spirit is still so strong in the temple even when your cleaning it, I really enjoyed the experience. We have a super cool family home evening planned for tonight with a recent convert family that has invited another family over to hear the gospel, I love missionary work! We also contacted the family that owns the cyber we usually use and they totally denied us but this morning when we went in so I could send some things to the office via email and after the lady asked when we were coming back because she wants to share with us ya. Miracle are happening all of the time, it´s super cool to be a part of them. I hope you have a rockin week.

Un abrazo
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey