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.
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.
