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Thursday, February 27, 2014

(No subject)

Email received February 25, 2014

Hola familia,

How´s it going out there in the frosty winter cold? I´m LOVING the heat (no joke) and am always so glad that I don´t have to be out in the streets where it´s nice and cold right now (you know me, not a big fan of being cold). This week we did more traveling for some divisions, it was pretty fun. We went out to the campo, (countryside)- good times and we had a lot of success. I´m still loving my area a ton. The members are so great in this area. The investigators are also really awesome. We were worried at first because it sounded like the members didn´t want to work but so far we haven´t really had any problems with not having members to work with. There was a really cool area devotional from Elder Ballard and Elder Rasband that he gave to Melchezideque Priesthood holders and President let us go if we brought a less active priesthood holder or an investigator. It was super. They talked about how other dispensations may have had time to wait around for the second coming of Christ but we don´t. It went right along with my scripture study in 1 Nephi 14. Also he talked a lot about how many people are going to be there on the other side of the veil to thank us for bringing the gospel into their lives. It went hand in hand with this super amazing dream that I had. A few nights ago I had a dream that you guys came down here Mom and Dad, and all of the people that I´ve baptized in my mission so far were there as well, and we were all going into the temple together. We were all so happy and hugging each other and it was one of the neatest experiences I´ve ever had. As I´ve thought about it I realize the chances of that actually happening any time soon are very slim, but I´m looking forward to being able to do that in the Celestial Kingdom and I know that thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ it is possible.

Well I´ve had a really good week and I´ve learned so much. I´m learning a ton from the Book of Mormon and from the people around me. Today for example as I read 1 Nephi 15:13-16 I realized how cool it is that me and Spencer are both fulfilling that prophecy! Perhaps one of the most impactful moments I experienced this week was yesterday however. Here in Moroni we have the Patriarch in our ward. This guy is amazing. He was the first Paraguayan mission president and is just a super amazing guy. He´s on his death bed so we were asked to go and take him and his wife the sacrament. When we were ready to leave we asked him who he wanted to offer the prayer before we left. He said he would like too. He didn´t even have strength to say complete sentences, but as soon as he started praying the Spirit entered the room super strong. Then as he spent all of his strength offering his prayer, he said nothing but thanks to the Lord. He is suffering on his death bed and using all of his strength to thank the Lord for the blessings that he has received. I realized between that and a few other things from the week that my prayers could be a lot better. Elder Ballard said that personal prayer is either one of our most powerful tools or the most powerful one that we have. I realized as he explained a little what we should pray for that as we ask for help to help others instead of asking Him to help others for us, our prayers change into powerful tools of righteousness. I´ve set the goal to have more effective and more powerful prayers with others and when I am alone. I love you all very much and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Con amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

(No subject)

Email received February 17, 2014

Hola familia!

How`s everyone doing? This week was pretty crazy with the changes of all of the missionaries but it was also pretty great. Elder Brown did go home and that one was sad, he was one of the best missionaries we had in the mission so it was sad to see him go. But on the plus side I did get my card from Elder Hansen. It`s definitely different working in Moroni, but I really like it. Elder Dickson and I have set a goal to baptize an entire family this change so we have talked with every family that we`ve seen so far. We also had an opportunity in church yesterday to introduce ourselves and share our testimonies in sacrament meeting and we both mentioned our goal and we had some cool responses. We went and met with the bishop, Bishop Bernabeo (from France) and he told us the ward has not had a lot of animo lately to do missionary work so we`re going to try and change that. Any ideas? It`s super different because most people up here speak English. Elder Dickson and I are having the time of our lives out here. On Saturday we went out looking for old investigators and trying to get to know the area all day and we talked with so many people but only got into one lesson, but we were having so much fun talking with everyone that it didn`t phase us at all. We also got some pretty solid return appointments so it`s all good. Yesterday we went and a member brought us over to a friend`s house to teach him and his wife (they are old investigators). It was one of the coolest lessons ever! We were talking about the restoration and they were just eating it up. It made perfect sense to them how throughout all of history there have been apostasies and God always called another prophet because He loves us, so it makes sense that we would need a prophet today to be able to follow God correctly! It was super cool and they both accepted the baptismal invitation and committed to read the entire Book of Mormon with us in 4 months! That`s 2 chapters a day! They were telling us about how they felt an emptiness lately and they realized that they felt really good when the missionaries would stop by and talk with them and they feel like this can fill that emptiness! I was so excited! In the past they were having a hard time attending church so we`re going to pray a ton for them that they can attend church and keep their commitments and gain strong testimonies. Their names are Guido and Carolina Martinez (They`re already married!). In the lesson we had with them last night the Spirit was so strong and I realize it because I was learning so much as we were teaching and I got so many desires to keep studying and learning more. We also found a couple more families that are looking like they have a ton of potential to progress so we`re praying for them too. There is this one family, Jose and Gabriela, that seem pretty cool too. Jose is the son of a less active member and his wife used to be a nun but left that to get married (they`re married too). Gabriela invited us to a piece of cake because she admired the missionary program so it was a great way to start talking. She was telling us how it`s hard to find the balance between loving your children and your spouse and putting your spouse first. It sounded like a great question for the Book of Mormon to answer so we flipped open the part in 1 Nephi 4 where Lehi is comforting Sariah while their sons are on a dangerous trip to Jerusalem that the Lord commanded Lehi to send them on. It seemed to catch Gabriela’s attention and she committed to reading 5 chapters by Saturday so hopefully there`s some cool progression there. We also have a lesson planned for tonight with a part member family (the wife is a member and the husband not yet) and I`m excited to see what there is there. I`m loving my mission so much right now. Helping families through the Book of Mormon is the coolest thing ever! I started the Book of Mormon over today and as I was reading I decided to focus on a couple of questions. One of them was how can the Book of Mormon actually strengthen and bless families. Elder Dickson was studying about how the gospel blesses families. As I read the first 2 chapters, where Lehi leaves everything behind and flees Jerusalem, I realized something really cool. I started thinking about how Lehi obviously saw how dangerous it was raising a family in wicked Jerusalem, so I`m sure he went to the Lord for help. He being a worthy priesthood holder was ready to act as patriarch of his family so the Lord was able to tell him to take his family out of Jerusalem. He left everything but his sons were protected from a lot of wickedness and some of them, Nephi and Sam, were even able to gain strong testimonies and be converted to the Lord. That`s just one of the many classic examples of how the Book of Mormon teaches us how to keep our families safe in an unsafe world, turn to the Lord and fully trust in His counsel, no matter how hard it seems. We can also look at the fact that Lehi was a prophet so as we listen to the prophet we can also protect our families. The Book of Mormon is so cool! I hope you are looking for families to share the Book of Mormon with because it really does change lives. I love you all so much. Thanks for the pictures, glad Megan and Eli had happy birthdays. Until next week!

con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey



Monday, February 10, 2014

(no subject)

Email received February 10, 2014

Hola familia!

Como esta todo? Sounds like you all had a fun week last week. Happy birthday Eli, I hope that he completes the year very happily. This week was pretty fun. After we got back from the chaco we had more travelling to do. Basically I traveled from Bolivia to Argentina (because my area boarders up with Argentina) then out to Brazil (without actually entering any of those countries). I was driving out in Pedro Juan Caballero (that´s the city that boarders with Brazil) and it was super sketchy, but it was super fun and I was super careful. I´m now never going to be afraid to drive anywhere in the United States. So changes are happening this week and Elder Dickson and I are staying together but switching areas. We are now going to be in an area called Moroni. The temple is now in our area! I´m a little bummed because we were finding some super cool people in Trinidad and yesterday for example there was an entire less active family, mom dad and children, that came back to church. After we had a lesson with them with our branch president and the branch president invited him to prepare to baptize his son and he accepted. He also said the closing prayer and just started crying, it was a super cool lesson. There is just so much potential there and I just hope that the new missionaries that are there can really see it and capitalize on it and work super hard, because I really love that branch. But I´m super pumped to go to barrio Moroni! It is probably the best functioning ward in Paraguay. It´s pretty cool because I´m going from one of the poorest most dangerous areas in the misson (I can say that now that I´m not there anymore) to one of the nicest areas. The people up in my new area speak English and drive cars, it´ll be an interesting adventure and I´m super stoked to go do it!

So this week I was a lot of traveling and capacitations so I don´t have too many more stories to tell. But I do have an even greater found love and stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. I love that book. I´m convinced that if we really take the time to study that book, tanto personalmente como con la familia, (both personally and as a family) then we will have our foundation upon the rock of our Redeemer. It really does answer questions. You can study it with any question in mind and find the answer as you study with prayer. I´m learning so much as I read it and I really do believe that it is true. Elder Dickson and I also realized that if you open the Book of Mormon to any page, you will find something about repentance. The Book of Mormon has a special softening, converting, and re-taining power in it. I invite you to read it with questions. If you have no questions read it with the question of who could you give a copy of it to and how can you do it and then pray for the courage to do so. i promise you that you will see great blessings and changes in your lives, especially in regards to overall happiness and peace in your daily lives and animo to do all that you have to do. I hope you have a great week.

Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Rescue in The Chaco

Email received January 5, 2014

Hola familia!

So this last week was actually pretty crazy all around, but the craziest part was the chaco. So let me start from the beginning of this. So as I'm sure you've read there was a whole tribe of Nivacle Indians that all got baptized in the 80's. They are deep in the chaco (about 15 hours away from Asunción) up almost to Bolivia. In our mission there are about 250 missionaries. Of those missionaries probably about 200 of them are here in Asunción or in cities nearby. About 40 of them are in areas in between Asunción and Brazil, but there are only 6 in the chaco. This place where the nivacle live is way out in the chaco so they don't even have missionaries out there (the closest ones are about 6 or so hours away) and once in a blue moon a companionship from the chaco will get to go out there, the assistants haven't been there since I believe they were baptized (that could be an exaggeration but like my father always says never let the details get in the way of a good story). So Friday we were doing zone capacitations while President McMullin was in interviews with the missionaries in Luque when I got a call from a missionary in the chaco letting me know that the Nivacles were nervous about the river picomayo flooding and blocking off the roads and they wouldn't be able to get anything in or out of the community (called Mistolar) for a few months. So anyways I told him I would talk with President, but the elder called me about 6 more times before President came out, so I felt like it was a little urgent. Eventually President finished everything and I told him to call the Elder. The next morning we had a staff meeting and President said that he was thinking and the only thing he can think to do is go out ourselves and get them the supplies they need before Wednesday when the roads close for 2 to 3 months. So that day we bought all of the supplies and borrowed some brand new little trucks from PVO (the distribution center) and loaded them all up.

The next morning we went to church in Trinidad and it was really nice. Then we ate lunch with some members and packed up some things and headed out. Our plan was to go pick up some missionaries that are in the chaco then stay the night in filadelfia then make the 6 hour drive out to mistolar and deliver the supplies and help them sandbag and prepare. Then we were going to camp that night right there in mistolar with them and leave at 4 in the morning and make the 15 hour drive back to Asunción. So we got to filadelfia and stayed the night in a hotel. Then the next morning we got up and started driving. We got to this little german town called Neuland and it's pretty much the last of anything until you just hit the dirt road and get to Mistolar. So we got through the little town there was a check point and we asked the guy how the roads were looking and he told us everything was perfect. he also told us that the roads getting to mistolar would ever only be closed 2-3 days max! So we were getting a little nervous that maybe the nivacle had exaggerated a little bit and we had come out here for nothing. but we decided to carry on anyways. After a few hours we got to a little military stop and we got out of the car to talk to some of the men over there. Their report was very different from the first one we got. They said that the rains had been coming in from bolivia and that the roads would be shutting down real soon so we needed to hurry but that we shouldn't have too many problems. So we kept driving a while longer and we the guy that accompanied us told us that the water was higher than usual and that there was water where there hadn't been a few weeks ago. So we kept going and then out of nowhere we saw a little dispensa on the side of the road. we stopped there to see what they knew and the man there was named leguizamón. he told us very clearly that he didn't reccomend that we spend the night in mistolar. He told us that we should be able to get in just fine but get out by the evening. His wife was telling us that we should be fine if we spent the night and we were kinda just hoping that this leguizamón guy was a little crazy. So we went on our way again and stopped and had lunch by this little bridge. After lunch we started going and realized that the nivacle hadn't just called wolf. We got to this giant mud puddle as wide as the road and about 30 meters long. I got out with this other Elder from the chaco named Elder Zilm (he's exactly like Boo Boo) and we started poking the mud to see how firm it was and to try and figure out the best way through it. Elder Zilm and I concluded that the best way would just be to gun it on through there and push it hard until we got out. President McMullin though had to varify that one for himself, but he also arrived at the conclusion that that was our best option. So we backed up and high tailed it on through. We kept going and then there was another mud puddle even trickier. President McMullin got out and told us to hit this one slowly. Elder Dickson and President were in the back truck at this point and I was in the front truck with a member of the stake presidency in asunción and two other Elders. We went first and went nice and slow but eventually Elder zilm, Elder maidana (elder zilm´s comp) and I had to actually get out and push the truck to get out. We had got all dirty doing this so we had the stake presidency guy (gustavo marmol) pull forward and we were going to help push president´s truck out, but all of the sudden we heard president´s truck and he had decided to hit this one super fast! So we ran out of the way and hopped in our truck and just hightailed it through for another while coming in and out of these mud piles (not many people get to go mudding with their mission president for a p-day activity haha).

So we got within about 8 kilometers from mistolar and we were facing a giant river. The water had already blocked off these last 8 kilometers and there was absolutely no way our trucks were going to make it. President McMullin started thinking of the options realized there was only one. He threw a couple of liters of water on our backs and in a very Brigham Young-like way told us to go bring in those nivacle. He sent us hiking through this water to go and find the nivacle and have them come out as far as they can with their tractor and to have all of them that could come with us to unload the trucks and get them their supplies. So the 4 of us missionaries started walking down this river picamayo. It was pretty slippery(Elder Zilm fell twice) and about up to our knees at some points. Eventually we ran into some of the nivacle on the trail. They had been expecting us to come and had been waiting there for us for a few hours but eventually figured that the water was too high and that we weren´t going to come. They had turned around and started walking back but after a few kilometers they saw some clouds of dust and tiny specs and turned around and started coming back in hopes that we had come with their provisions. We turned around once we met up with them and walked back to the trucks. We backed the trucks up about 30 meters and started to unload everything. We got everything out of the truck and on the ground and the nivacle started bringing it to their tractor. After about 15 minutes the water had risen up to where the food was, they got the last bag of flour up right in the nik of time. We then said by to the tribe and high tailed it out of there. Basically the Lord was taking such great care of us. Had we have gotten there a little earlier we may have tried to enter and gotten stuck with the nivacle for a few months and had we have gotten there any later we probably wouldn´t have been able to get them their supplies. There were a lot more details to the trip but that will have to wait until otro dia no mas. It was really cool because driving home I got to ride with President McMullin (about a 7 hour interview) and it was super cool. Being with the indians really got me thinking and it really softned my heart. They came out without shoes walking on these paths to come get their supplies. My heart really goes out to them and I really want to help them however I can. President McMullin and I were talking and he told me what they need to do is keep the commandments. Last year a general authority went out there and told them that if they would pay their tithing then mistolar would never flood. We were talking about that and about how they really need testimonies of the Book of Mormon. It´s tough because they don´t really speak spanish (they speak nivacle) but President has a plan, and God has a bigger and more perfect one and I know that this truley is a special land I´m in. I´m super glad for this oppertunity that I have to serve the Lord and I´m loving it so much. I hope you have a wonderful week. I´m not sure when I will be able to write next because next week is changes so that could mean I don´t write on Monday. But I love you and see you later.

Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey










Saturday, February 1, 2014

Important Notification

Hola, I just thought I would write you a quick note right now letting you know that I will not be writing you all on Monday this week, I think I am going to try to do it on Wednesday. There was a flood up in the chaco and the roads will be closing down for a few months and the Indians need some food so President is taking Elder Dickson and I up there to prep the place and bring them some supplies. I will explain it all next week but don´t be expecting any emails on Monday. Love you all.

con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey