Email received January 27, 2014
Hola familia!
This week was so fun. We went on a ton of divisions all around and it was super fun. I love going on divisions and working with the missionaries. Elder Dickson and I worked really hard to help them be able to use their area book to find new people to teach and in every division that we went on we were able to find whole families that accepted what we were teaching! It was a huge miracle and it was a ton of fun. Elder Dickson is from Ogden, Utah and he just has one more change than I do in the mission. He goes home in June. He is also going to Utah State so we talk about that sometimes. He´s a really good missionary and we compliment each other really well because I tend to think very in the moment and black and white and he looks a lot on bigger scale things and getting there so it´s a really great balance. Luckily we´re both obedient and like to work so we get along great. We went back to the couple that we prayed with but the wife was busy and the guy had changed a little for the worse, but we´ll keep working with them. We had a super cool lesson last night though with a family that has been progressing a lot and are just waiting on a few little things to get baptized and the husband will then get baptized. It was really cool because the wife is a member already and we just baptized the daughter a few weeks ago and anyways last night they said that they were watching some videos about missionary work and they just thanked us so much for helping them really get to know who their Heavenly Father is and for helping them make covenants with Him. It was super cool and they said that we can feel good about our work here and that we didn´t come in vain because we got to help them. It really makes you feel good hearing that. You know that you didn´t really do much, but sometimes it´s hard to keep animated all day when it´s super hot and hard, but the Lord always blesses you if you just keep pushing through it.
So now for the adventure of the week. So right now I´m going off of about three hours of sleep. Today we had a big leadership meeting that my companion and I were in charge of so we were working on that getting it ready for today. We didn´t get everything finished but we had a visit that we had to do si o si last night so we just planned on waking up around 5:30 to get it finished. Well we had been in bed for about a half hour when we got a call from President and apparently two Elders had gotten in a fight and one of them locked the other in the room and peaced on out. So President had my comp and I go to look for him in the airport and make sure he didn´t try and fly home. Meanwhile President and a couple other missionaries went over to the Elder´s house to get his comp and look for him around there. So we were just looking around the airport and such until about 2 in the morning when finally President called and said that we need to rest and that church headquarters was informed and now we just need to go home. The Elder finally showed up to his house around 6:30 in the morning, about an hour after I had woken up to go finish everything up in the office with my comp. Right before the meeting started President looked at us and told us we all look like zombies but the the Lord will sustain us to get through the meeting, haha. The meeting actually turned out just fine and now everything´s taken care of. I really think the big things to avoid problems like this are communication and obedience. I feel like if you´re applying those well then you probably won´t have problems to that caliber. I sure love you guys and I hope you have a great week. Don´t worry about me. I´m healthy and I´m safe and I´m happy.
Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
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Monday, January 27, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
(No subject)
Email received January 20, 2013
Hola familia!
How´s everyone doing? Last week was quite an adventure. I went out all around Paraguay and it was soooooo cool. Paraguay is such a pretty country. It was a ton of fun getting to go and visit all of these places and all of the missionaries. I got to talk for a little while with this one elder from the Dominican Republic and it was super cool. They have such a fun accent. It was a really cool trip because it was basically like 18 hours in the car getting to pick President Mcmullin´s brain about all sorts of things. My companion and I had made a little deal with him a little while ago that if we don´t write him, then he doesn´t interview us (which is funny because whatever we would write to him we just tell him in person, and we have interviews all of the time, they´re just not scheduled formal ones). Anyways this car trip was kinda like an 18 hour interview. He told us all about how to be a bishop and a dad and a husband and how to manage your time and have happy and successful children. The trick is organizing your time and planning out in advance. Also one of the biggest things he showed us was that family always comes first. He said his family always has a trump card in anything that he´s doing. It was super cool listening to that and it made me super happy to be a missionary and not deal with all of that stress yet. It was also fun traveling because I got to do some fun divisions. We found some super cool families for other missionaries to teach and it was really fun teaching with them. We ate really well because president bought all of our dinners and he´s not a big fan of just getting a couple of cheap empanadas on the street. We went to some really good places. We stayed two nights in a hotel and one on our cots that we have for when we traveling.
Trinidad does have a ton of slaughter houses, but at this point I´m mostly used to it. During the siesta though when it´s a million degrees outside and all that meat is just sitting there cooking...haha it has quite a smell. I love Trinidad so much though. It´s a little tough being there now because we don´t get to spend very much time working in it (just a few days a week) and there is so much potential there. But we´ve been putting a big focus on helping the members to do visits even when we´re not there so that work still gets done even when we´re not there. We´re making great progress with some of our investigators. We have this one that is super excited to get married and we´ve just got to work through a few more things and then they´re set. We did have one pretty sad experience though. We have one investigator that´s had a rough background but was really shaping up and changing. But some things happened and he got arrested on Saturday night. We kinda laughed about it and went to visit him today in jail but when we got there it was super sad. I guess they´re really not treating him well and he´s pretty shaken up about things. He was just crying and it was really sad. He might get out in about 10 days and we´re going to try and help him more. He´s a great guy just had a rough lot thrown at him. On a happier note though Elder Dickson and I had a super cool experience that just increased my testimony even more about obedience with exactness. We got into a lesson with a young couple (a man and his pregnant wife). They were super friendly and let us right in and it turns out the lady had actually talked a lot with missionaries before (she requested that we sing praise to the man to begin). After we sang that the guy started asking some great questions about if the prophet in that song was Joseph Smith and why he was so great. He also commented about how we´ve lost some things because of all of the times the bible was translated. So we started talking about the Book of Mormon and we thought they were just going to eat it right up, but quite the opposite. We tried presenting it to them in a variety of ways and using it to respond to their doubts and they were just having none of it. The guy just kept rejecting everything we were saying. Finally at one point he told us that we didn´t even know this stuff for ourselves and that we´re just following because our parents are members. We stopped him right there and explained to him just a bit of what the life of a missionary is like and about how if I weren't convinced I wouldn´t do what I do. We then bore the purest testimony we could about the Book of Mormon and he couldn´t really say anything against it, but he didn´t really accept it either. So in our mission we have a rule where we invite the head of household to offer a kneeling prayer at the end of every lesson so since the lesson had pretty much come to an end, we knelt down and invited him to do similarly and to pray with us. He knelt down and offered a fine prayer and when he stood up his whole countenance had changed. Him and his wife were both completely surprised and he started telling us that what we did was super symbolic of the Savior. He told us that it took a lot of humility to do what we did and what we do and that as we knelt down and prayed with him he realized that we really were convinced of what we were doing. He said we deserve his respect and that he is going to read the Book of Mormon and find out for himself that it´s true like what we´ve done. He also invited us back for this Saturday to come and teach them again. It was a strong testimony to me to always keep all of the little rules. I´m having a great time and I´m super happy and safe. I hope you have a great week.
Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
Hola familia!
How´s everyone doing? Last week was quite an adventure. I went out all around Paraguay and it was soooooo cool. Paraguay is such a pretty country. It was a ton of fun getting to go and visit all of these places and all of the missionaries. I got to talk for a little while with this one elder from the Dominican Republic and it was super cool. They have such a fun accent. It was a really cool trip because it was basically like 18 hours in the car getting to pick President Mcmullin´s brain about all sorts of things. My companion and I had made a little deal with him a little while ago that if we don´t write him, then he doesn´t interview us (which is funny because whatever we would write to him we just tell him in person, and we have interviews all of the time, they´re just not scheduled formal ones). Anyways this car trip was kinda like an 18 hour interview. He told us all about how to be a bishop and a dad and a husband and how to manage your time and have happy and successful children. The trick is organizing your time and planning out in advance. Also one of the biggest things he showed us was that family always comes first. He said his family always has a trump card in anything that he´s doing. It was super cool listening to that and it made me super happy to be a missionary and not deal with all of that stress yet. It was also fun traveling because I got to do some fun divisions. We found some super cool families for other missionaries to teach and it was really fun teaching with them. We ate really well because president bought all of our dinners and he´s not a big fan of just getting a couple of cheap empanadas on the street. We went to some really good places. We stayed two nights in a hotel and one on our cots that we have for when we traveling.
Trinidad does have a ton of slaughter houses, but at this point I´m mostly used to it. During the siesta though when it´s a million degrees outside and all that meat is just sitting there cooking...haha it has quite a smell. I love Trinidad so much though. It´s a little tough being there now because we don´t get to spend very much time working in it (just a few days a week) and there is so much potential there. But we´ve been putting a big focus on helping the members to do visits even when we´re not there so that work still gets done even when we´re not there. We´re making great progress with some of our investigators. We have this one that is super excited to get married and we´ve just got to work through a few more things and then they´re set. We did have one pretty sad experience though. We have one investigator that´s had a rough background but was really shaping up and changing. But some things happened and he got arrested on Saturday night. We kinda laughed about it and went to visit him today in jail but when we got there it was super sad. I guess they´re really not treating him well and he´s pretty shaken up about things. He was just crying and it was really sad. He might get out in about 10 days and we´re going to try and help him more. He´s a great guy just had a rough lot thrown at him. On a happier note though Elder Dickson and I had a super cool experience that just increased my testimony even more about obedience with exactness. We got into a lesson with a young couple (a man and his pregnant wife). They were super friendly and let us right in and it turns out the lady had actually talked a lot with missionaries before (she requested that we sing praise to the man to begin). After we sang that the guy started asking some great questions about if the prophet in that song was Joseph Smith and why he was so great. He also commented about how we´ve lost some things because of all of the times the bible was translated. So we started talking about the Book of Mormon and we thought they were just going to eat it right up, but quite the opposite. We tried presenting it to them in a variety of ways and using it to respond to their doubts and they were just having none of it. The guy just kept rejecting everything we were saying. Finally at one point he told us that we didn´t even know this stuff for ourselves and that we´re just following because our parents are members. We stopped him right there and explained to him just a bit of what the life of a missionary is like and about how if I weren't convinced I wouldn´t do what I do. We then bore the purest testimony we could about the Book of Mormon and he couldn´t really say anything against it, but he didn´t really accept it either. So in our mission we have a rule where we invite the head of household to offer a kneeling prayer at the end of every lesson so since the lesson had pretty much come to an end, we knelt down and invited him to do similarly and to pray with us. He knelt down and offered a fine prayer and when he stood up his whole countenance had changed. Him and his wife were both completely surprised and he started telling us that what we did was super symbolic of the Savior. He told us that it took a lot of humility to do what we did and what we do and that as we knelt down and prayed with him he realized that we really were convinced of what we were doing. He said we deserve his respect and that he is going to read the Book of Mormon and find out for himself that it´s true like what we´ve done. He also invited us back for this Saturday to come and teach them again. It was a strong testimony to me to always keep all of the little rules. I´m having a great time and I´m super happy and safe. I hope you have a great week.
Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
(N0 subject)
Email received January 13, 2014
Hola familia,
Hey so like I said, I don't know how long I will be able to write for today but just so you know I'm safe and happy. Last week was pretty cool, the Lord blesses us so much. We pretty much couldn't work in our area until Friday, when we had a super cool baptism. This girl named Marcia got baptized and it was super cool. She asked me to confirm her on Sunday and it was actually the first time i confirmed someone so it was pretty neat. Today we had a super fun P-day. We went mountain biking then we went to Burger King, it was super fun.You can check elder Brown's blog for pictures because i think he got some. The driving is going well, I'm learning stick shift just fine, I only stalled once and it was because i thought I was in neutral but i was actually in 4th. It was fine because it was at a red light so it didn't matter. Anyways I'm still loving the mission. I believe the words of President Uchtdorf about hit it right, I'm ''blisfully overwhelmed''. There is always so much to do but it's super fun so I'm loving it. We have been doing a ton of contacting with other missionaries on our divisions and I've been having a blast doing it. I really have a strong testimony of talking with everyone. I got to talk to a guy here in Paraguay that is from Belgium that has lived in Utah for the past some odd years. It was super cool and he knows a lot about the church. I wasn't able to get where he lives but I showed him really well where the church is so i hope he comes by. We also on Sunday had a cool experience. I was sitting in sacrament meeting when i saw this little kid run through the outside gate then a lady follow him in. So then i went out and talked with her and she was super nice.She said her little nephew loves coming and running around the church but she had never entered in before. I invited her in and she followed her nephew into the gym. She stood by the curtain separating the gym and the sacrament room and she looked in but wouldn't enter. Finally her little nephew ran in through the curtain and so we brought her in through the main doors and invited her to sit down in the air conditioning and watch her nephew from there. She actually really liked it and said next week she is going to come back with her sister and participate. the Lord is working great miracles. This week I'm going to see the country and visit some missionaries, it should be pretty fun. Sorry this letter is so short, I will try and write more next week. Just know that I'm safe and I'm happy as could be. Tired as all get out but I've come to really enjoy that super tired feeling knowing that you've put in a good day’s work and you can rest at night. I really love my mission and I really love Paraguay and Spanish and pretty much everything about what I'm doing. My mission is the best. I've gained a huge testimony lately of the Book of Mormon and it's converting power. I love the Lord and know He lives. have a great week and remember i love you all and pray for you all daily.
Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
Hey so like I said, I don't know how long I will be able to write for today but just so you know I'm safe and happy. Last week was pretty cool, the Lord blesses us so much. We pretty much couldn't work in our area until Friday, when we had a super cool baptism. This girl named Marcia got baptized and it was super cool. She asked me to confirm her on Sunday and it was actually the first time i confirmed someone so it was pretty neat. Today we had a super fun P-day. We went mountain biking then we went to Burger King, it was super fun.You can check elder Brown's blog for pictures because i think he got some. The driving is going well, I'm learning stick shift just fine, I only stalled once and it was because i thought I was in neutral but i was actually in 4th. It was fine because it was at a red light so it didn't matter. Anyways I'm still loving the mission. I believe the words of President Uchtdorf about hit it right, I'm ''blisfully overwhelmed''. There is always so much to do but it's super fun so I'm loving it. We have been doing a ton of contacting with other missionaries on our divisions and I've been having a blast doing it. I really have a strong testimony of talking with everyone. I got to talk to a guy here in Paraguay that is from Belgium that has lived in Utah for the past some odd years. It was super cool and he knows a lot about the church. I wasn't able to get where he lives but I showed him really well where the church is so i hope he comes by. We also on Sunday had a cool experience. I was sitting in sacrament meeting when i saw this little kid run through the outside gate then a lady follow him in. So then i went out and talked with her and she was super nice.She said her little nephew loves coming and running around the church but she had never entered in before. I invited her in and she followed her nephew into the gym. She stood by the curtain separating the gym and the sacrament room and she looked in but wouldn't enter. Finally her little nephew ran in through the curtain and so we brought her in through the main doors and invited her to sit down in the air conditioning and watch her nephew from there. She actually really liked it and said next week she is going to come back with her sister and participate. the Lord is working great miracles. This week I'm going to see the country and visit some missionaries, it should be pretty fun. Sorry this letter is so short, I will try and write more next week. Just know that I'm safe and I'm happy as could be. Tired as all get out but I've come to really enjoy that super tired feeling knowing that you've put in a good day’s work and you can rest at night. I really love my mission and I really love Paraguay and Spanish and pretty much everything about what I'm doing. My mission is the best. I've gained a huge testimony lately of the Book of Mormon and it's converting power. I love the Lord and know He lives. have a great week and remember i love you all and pray for you all daily.
Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
Monday, January 6, 2014
(no subject)
Email received January 6, 2014
Hola familia!
Haha this week has been pretty wild. I feel like this week was sooooooooooo full of things to do but it went by soooooooooooooooo fast. I got to learn how to drive here in Paraguay (just imagine mario kart in real life) and plan a training meeting for the leaders of the mission. It´s been a super weird experience here in the office because I´m not used to sitting behind a desk, but I´ve already learned so much. I´ve already got to know a whole new side of President McMullin and it´s been super cool seeing the administrative side of the mission. I also love being back in Trinidad. The branch president gave me a huge hug when he saw me and just started telling me all these people that he wanted me to visit. It was cool because I got to see a lot of the people that I had helped while I was in Trinidad. I was super nervous that nobody would remember me but everyone recognized me and seemed genuinely excited to see me again which made me feel really good. New years was pretty cool because there was this super less-active lady in Trinidad and I met her once right before I left and did some service for her. Well it turns out after I left she got active and is now the relief society president and we had a new years dinner with her and her family. It was pretty cool. Also we have some pretty cool investigators that are progressing super well. One of them named Marcia is getting baptized on Saturday and then her parents are getting married on the 25th then the guy will be getting baptized. We also visited them on New years too. The guy is named Cesar and he is super funny. The hard part is that we don´t have a lot of time to be working our area. President told us that Trinidad has been spoiled to have us for so long so he wants us to put our program in Trinidad on back burner and he wants us on the road doing divisions to train the missionaries. We got some little bed rolls and he wants us 4 times a week out in the field doing divisions. I also get to go tour all the zones in the mission next week to give a training to all of the zones with my companion and President. It´s been a great experience learning things from him. I´m learning so much about the running of large organizations and it´s super fascinating. My Preparation day is still on Mondays but I´m not sure if I´ll always be able to write home on Mondays because this is a busy day in the office. Our Preparation day used to be Saturday with the rest of the office elders but a few months ago it was changed to Monday so that we can visit people on Saturday and help them come to church the next day and with the limited time we have to work in our area I´m happy with it. I honestly don´t really know how much weight I´ve lost, it´s been a while since I´ve stepped on a scale, but don´t worry because the mission office is right next door to a burger king and right in front of a super nice grocery store so whatever weight I may have lost will most likely be coming right back on (plus when you´re on divisions you tend to eat a lot of empanadas and lomitos which aren´t the healthiest things for you).
I really get along well with my new companion. Like I said I lived with him in capiatá and so I already know him. He´s from Ogden and planning on going to Utah State after the mission too. He´s super nice and thoughtful, my first day he polished my shoes while I was in the shower for our new missionary and trainer meeting. He also has been super patient with me as I´m mastering my stick shift abilities and my new assignment. It´s also really nice being with him because he´s a great missionary and a really good teacher so we had some super cool lessons. Yesterday for example we were preparing some stuff for our presentation today and President came out of his office and said there were some kids playing basketball out front and he wanted to go talk with them. We went and talked and President told them that Elder Dickson and I would give them a church tour (which neither of us had ever done before). Haha it turned out okay and we got some solid references. President had snuck back into his office and we thought he had left but after he came jumping out to see how it went. haha he´s a really funny guy. I´ve been learning so much about my missionary purpose and just about whose work this is. I think my motivation to keep working hard is as high as it´s ever been because there is so much to do there´s no time to think about anything else. I love the Lord and I love this work. I am super pumped and tired at the same time, but my prayers have gotten so much better lately so at night I always have a super nice prayer and fall right asleep. I´ve got to go now but I will talk to you next week.
con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
Hola familia!
Haha this week has been pretty wild. I feel like this week was sooooooooooo full of things to do but it went by soooooooooooooooo fast. I got to learn how to drive here in Paraguay (just imagine mario kart in real life) and plan a training meeting for the leaders of the mission. It´s been a super weird experience here in the office because I´m not used to sitting behind a desk, but I´ve already learned so much. I´ve already got to know a whole new side of President McMullin and it´s been super cool seeing the administrative side of the mission. I also love being back in Trinidad. The branch president gave me a huge hug when he saw me and just started telling me all these people that he wanted me to visit. It was cool because I got to see a lot of the people that I had helped while I was in Trinidad. I was super nervous that nobody would remember me but everyone recognized me and seemed genuinely excited to see me again which made me feel really good. New years was pretty cool because there was this super less-active lady in Trinidad and I met her once right before I left and did some service for her. Well it turns out after I left she got active and is now the relief society president and we had a new years dinner with her and her family. It was pretty cool. Also we have some pretty cool investigators that are progressing super well. One of them named Marcia is getting baptized on Saturday and then her parents are getting married on the 25th then the guy will be getting baptized. We also visited them on New years too. The guy is named Cesar and he is super funny. The hard part is that we don´t have a lot of time to be working our area. President told us that Trinidad has been spoiled to have us for so long so he wants us to put our program in Trinidad on back burner and he wants us on the road doing divisions to train the missionaries. We got some little bed rolls and he wants us 4 times a week out in the field doing divisions. I also get to go tour all the zones in the mission next week to give a training to all of the zones with my companion and President. It´s been a great experience learning things from him. I´m learning so much about the running of large organizations and it´s super fascinating. My Preparation day is still on Mondays but I´m not sure if I´ll always be able to write home on Mondays because this is a busy day in the office. Our Preparation day used to be Saturday with the rest of the office elders but a few months ago it was changed to Monday so that we can visit people on Saturday and help them come to church the next day and with the limited time we have to work in our area I´m happy with it. I honestly don´t really know how much weight I´ve lost, it´s been a while since I´ve stepped on a scale, but don´t worry because the mission office is right next door to a burger king and right in front of a super nice grocery store so whatever weight I may have lost will most likely be coming right back on (plus when you´re on divisions you tend to eat a lot of empanadas and lomitos which aren´t the healthiest things for you).
I really get along well with my new companion. Like I said I lived with him in capiatá and so I already know him. He´s from Ogden and planning on going to Utah State after the mission too. He´s super nice and thoughtful, my first day he polished my shoes while I was in the shower for our new missionary and trainer meeting. He also has been super patient with me as I´m mastering my stick shift abilities and my new assignment. It´s also really nice being with him because he´s a great missionary and a really good teacher so we had some super cool lessons. Yesterday for example we were preparing some stuff for our presentation today and President came out of his office and said there were some kids playing basketball out front and he wanted to go talk with them. We went and talked and President told them that Elder Dickson and I would give them a church tour (which neither of us had ever done before). Haha it turned out okay and we got some solid references. President had snuck back into his office and we thought he had left but after he came jumping out to see how it went. haha he´s a really funny guy. I´ve been learning so much about my missionary purpose and just about whose work this is. I think my motivation to keep working hard is as high as it´s ever been because there is so much to do there´s no time to think about anything else. I love the Lord and I love this work. I am super pumped and tired at the same time, but my prayers have gotten so much better lately so at night I always have a super nice prayer and fall right asleep. I´ve got to go now but I will talk to you next week.
con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
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