(No Subject)‏

 



Email received November 12, 2012

 

Hola familia,

 

Gosh what a week, a lot of really humbling things happened this week, but one thing that i´ve noticed is that every time the Lord humbles me, i´m always so much happier after. Our baptism didn't happen this week because of a couple of things. But they are so ready for this Saturday! They are such an awesome family, they have so much faith! But to start out a couple of fun stories. First off I went to this pastry shop close to our house. The pastries all looked so good and I couldn´t decide which one I wanted, so I bought two. They looked a whole lot better than they tasted. But remember how I had to get over germs, well I still really hate being sticky and these pastries made my hands super sticky. I asked Elder Morinigo if he thought they would have a sink I could use to  wash my hands. He told me no way and basically that I just need to suck it up. I was not about to just walk around with sticky hands so I asked the lady super nicely if she had a sink I could use. I must have looked pretty concerned because she let me go behind the counter and use this weird sink. My companion was pretty surprised so I told him that´s what it means to ask in faith. Another thing is that we went to do some service for some people, we went to mow their lawns. But they don't mow lawns out here with normal mowers (at least we didn't) we just got the machete and started hacking away at the grass! I didn´t know what I was doing at first and the people were asking me if we just don't have any grass in the United States, I told them we just don't have machetes. 

So as far as the shower goes its not bad. Its either super hot or super cold, and I usually opt for super cold because I shower right after I exercise in the morning. It does rain a lot down here, usually once or twice a week but we´ve only had 1 or 2 really big, flood the streets storms since I´ve been here. I cant believe I've already been here a month. the time has gone so dang fast! Also one thing that's better here than in the states is that since they don't celebrate thanksgiving, I can listen to Christmas music all I want and no one tells me to wait until after thanksgiving. So a typical meal here consists of some kind of meat wrapped in something and deep fried (usually you can know what type of meet you're eating by looking around and seeing which pet isn't here this week that was there the week before), rice and bread (they cant eat unless they have bread to eat it with). Its not bad and when I go shopping I always get yogurt. Its so good here and you drink it, I love it. I also finally found some milk that tastes almost as good as the states, the problem is that its only good for 5 days. Also there are 2 treats here that I just love, alfajors (I´m going to try and send you guys some home for Christmas) and fresh juice. There area a couple of fresh juice stands here that are so dang good. 

 

Well now for some Spiritual experiences for the week. This one night we were out working and it was a long, HOT day. We contacted this house with this seemingly friendly old man. Turns out he was not that friendly. He just wanted to tell us about how we don't live the bible. He started quizzing us by asking us like "how many times should we be baptized" to which I responded "well we believe in what it says in Ephesians 4 that we should only be baptized once". That ruffled his feathers and he started looking for another scripture to hit us with. I realized that the Spirit wasn't super strong with us as were doing this, so I prayed that I would be able to resist fighting with him. We were teaching his daughter with him, and then all of the sudden her husband showed up and the old man had to leave. We started talking with the husband. Turns out he had been talking to a friend of his at work who is LDS and he was super prepared to listen to us. It was a really cool way to end a hard day. I know the Lord has prepared people for me to teach, I just have to find them. I miss you guys and I love you guys. I hope you know that. I pray for you and my cousins every night. Sorry I cant answer all of your questions that you send me but keep sending them each week and I´ll do my best to answer them. Keep on living the way you know you should.

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey

 

(no subject)

Email received November 5, 2012

Hola familia,

 

Como estan todos!(I can't find the question mark on this computer). I hope you all had an amazing week celebrating halloween. I also hope you had as much success as I did knocking doors (just kidding, we don't knock doors, we clap). But as far as the zero tracting thing goes I think it's that they want to work more off of referals because that's where you can find the most success. But pretty much all we do all day is clap doors so I hope they still let us do that for a little while longer or I'm going to have to figure something else out to do all day. That's so cool that kristy kholert got her mission call, she'll be awesome. I had seminary with her my junior year and she is really good at gospel stuff. So last week I sent home pictures and I had no idea which ones I sent home, but the one with me in it is on this huge monument in Asuncion from my first day, the temple too. The one of the jungle is from my window. So this week has been quite a great one even though my companion has been sick. Last Monday I had to teach myself how to sew because I accidentaly pulled a button off of my shirt. I think I did a pretty good job because none of the other elders could guess which one I sewed on. Then on Tuesday I did splits with one of the assistants. It was way cool and apparently a little weird to already be doing splits with the assistants, but I loved it. Elder Vance was his name and he was mad that I already can speak Spanish (because for some reason that day my Spanish was way good). Two really cool things happened during the splits. 1 was that we were talking with these people and Elder Vance told them I had only been in Paraguay for 3 or 4 weeks, then they asked me what country I'm from because they thought I was Latin! How sweet is that! the bad news is that after that my Spanish was not as great for the rest of the week, oh well. The other really cool thing is that I had a super strong impression to share 3 nephi 27: 27 with this family. I have no idea why and I still don't konw, but it was such a strong feeling. Then I returned home and got to go back to my area on Halloween. Halloween here is a little anti-climactic. I saw one guy dressed up as a grim reaper running around at like 12 in the afternoon, then these little girls with witch hats were driving around the city at like 9 or 930 yelling something (probably happy halloween). Elder Morinigo tells me that the parties usually start at like 930 or 10 and go until like 6 in the morning, but its mostlly for the teenagers to young adults. But yesterday this lady from the ward did give us some little halloween goody-bags which was awesome!

A couple of really cool experiences from this week. So as far as investigators go, we haven't really had any solid investigators. But theres one family, Sergio and Nidia, who just needed to come to church one more time and then they can get baptized. Well yesterday at church they werent there and I was so dissapointed. My companion asked me if I wanted to call them but Im still super afraid to use the phone. But during one guys testimony I just thought that we should call them. I wanted to wait until the end of this guys testimony but I told my companion that we should call them and we left right in the middle of this guys testimony. right as we stepped out to place the call there they were, they didnt know if they could come in or not. We brought them in and now theyre scheduled for a baptism this Saturday (the day before your birthday mom)! How sweet is that! They´re such a great family. Then another thing is we visited this way cool member for a lunch cita. He told us his conversion story and it was way cool. He was just wondering around one day trying to find different churches because he wanted to follow God. A missionary approached him on the collectivo and gave him a pass-along card. He went to church and was baptized then served a mission. His story is a lot cooler than that I just cant remember all of the details. But he was a pretty awesome missionary too. One other really cool thing that happened this week was I was really praying hard to know what I should study to help me with a few things Im struggling with. The thought came to me so clear to study in chapter 11 of Preach My Gospel. I started studying it and I was doing all of the activities and everything. This whole chapter is talking about stuff that I need to work on with my investigators, but there was one scripture in the suggested study that was pretty good. But the cool part was that when I opened that scripture I saw a random one in my scritptures that I had highlighted. I read it just to see what it was and then I read the whole section it was in. It was exactly what I needed even though it had nothing to do with chapter 11. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

 

Well I love you guys a ton. I pray for you every day. Happy birthday this week mom. If you were here they would throw you a huge asada with all of the deep fried meat you could handle, and then they would make you eat more. Im so glad that your my mom. I got this really weird rash on my foot this week. I decided that I would look in that bag full of random medicines and stuff and I started thinking "what would mom tell me to use right now". I went with the A and D ointment, I think its helping. But that bag that you packed me with all of the random stuff has saved me a couple of times already. Thanks for everything guys, Ill keep an eye out for that package (Also its super expensive to send a package and I know that you have to pay for Spencers mission now too, so a birthday package and a Christmas package should be fine. And they told me that packages shouldnt have a declared value of more than 90 dollars or we have to pay to pick them up). I love you all and keep living the Gospel the right way. I promise that its the easier way and the way that will lead to the most happiness.

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey