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Email received November 26, 2012

Hola Familia!

 

¿Gosh how the heck are you? Sorry that my last letter sounded a little down, I just couldn´t think of anything really exciting that happened during the week, but this week was way good, so many great stories (I´m only going to be able to share a couple). But I´m glad to hear thanksgiving was fun. Thanksgiving here was weird because it was just a normal day, but we did have a great lunch with one of my favorite families (they´re both returned missionaries and they have a son that´s a returned missionary and they have two kids on missions right now, so they really hook the missionaries up). It was fun because the other Elders in our house and the Elders whose area touches ours came too, so there were 6 of us. Then we went out and worked, but We found this way cool guy named Seferino and we taught him. Also Seferino had a huge pet Turkey, the first one I've seen in Paraguay so I thought it was very appropriate that I saw it on Thanksgiving. As far as changes go, they happen every 6 weeks (so last week was the first week of this change). The way it works is you are almost for sure with your trainer for 2 changes, but a lot of times you are with them for 3. This change will end the first week of January so unless they do special changes for some reason I will for sure be here through Christmas which is awesome! I love Luque so much. I still don´t know how Christmas will work out but I do know that we will be doing skype. I believe you guys have to add me as a contact on skype, I just set up my account. Just add me and then we can talk on Christmas. I haven´t received my packages yet but I have to go to Asunción on Wednesday for zone conference so I will see if they´re there. I did get my halloween card and a letter from aunt Linda and Josh and Jamie today though, thank you very much! There has been a ton of rain this week and the nights have been pleasantly cool, but this week will probably be super hot and humid because of all of the rain, oh well. Better hot than cold right? They tell me that it gets super cold for a couple of weeks in like June and July so around then I would love some sweaters. Paraguayans are so funny because they are ALWAYS complaining about the weather. We were eating lunch the other day and the lady was going off about how sunny it was and how awful that is, then it started to rain and she was complaining about how it´s raining and there´s no sun, pretty funny. But hey Sergio and Nedia came to church on Sunday so they got confirmed! I´ll send home the picture of their baptism.

 

So one pretty funny thing that happened this week. We were out tracting and we clapped this door and this older man let us in. He asked us where we were from, then started telling us about how he´s mad because his wife left him because he drinks and she went to Argentina, but he swears he´s not violent (and he was saying all of this with a huge smile on his face and in a very cheerful voice, I believe he was drunk as a skunk). Then he asked us where we´re from and told us the same story about his wife about 30 times more. We finally left and went down the street to another house. We were in the middle of teaching a family when all of a sudden our drunken friend walked through the gate, took one of this family´s chairs, and joined in and started helping us teach the lesson. It was so funny and the family was just laughing so it´s all good. There are a lot of pretty funny people in Paraguay.

 

Well my times about up, but I want to share with you guys something that´s kinda been like my theme for my mission so far. It´s pretty daunting to think about doing this for 2 years, to be completely obedient for two years and walk around for two years, but dad before I left you told me to read a talk by Elder Christofferson called give us this day our daily bread. I printed that out at home but didn´t read that until my first or second week here in Paraguay and that has helped me so much. The theme is that we don´t have to worry about being strong enough for 2 years, we just have to worry about being strong enough for one day. For example one day I woke up at 6 29 (like I do every morning) and I thought "well I got up today but how in the world am I supposed to get up this early every day for the next 2 years!" It seemed like an impossible task and then I started thinking and I realized that if I worry about that then it might just be impossible, but I don´t have to worry like that. Every night now I ask the Lord to give me strength that I can wake up tomorrow on time, I don´t worry about waking up any other day than tomorrow. As I work each day and try to be diligent and obedient I only worry about it for that day. This applies to everything, take no thought for the morrow (3 Nephi 13 I think). This is such a true principle. Obviously we need to plan and figure things out for the future, but we don´t have to get overwhelmed thinking about how daunting a task is. I´ve learned so much about patience and chipping away at a big task a little bit at a time (like eating meals. I know that sounds funny but they give us such huge portions here and a lot of times there seems like no way to finish, but I just eat a little bit and keep working at it and eventually the food is all gone). Patience really is a blessing. I love you guys so much and hope you have a great week. I love Paraguay and I love being a missionary. I´m happy, don´t worry. Keep living the gospel the right way. and tell caleb reber congrats on starting his papers.

Con Amor

Elder Hulsey

PS I hope that Caleb Hulsey´s birthday was a success, I can´t believe he´s already 1. He´s only got 17 more birthdays until he´s out on his mission that doesn´t seem very far away with how fast time seems to be moving lately (haha sorry mom).

 

[Zack refers to 3 Nephi chapter 13 of the Book of Mormon in which Jesus Christ visits the Nephites after His resurrection and teaches them, among other things, the same things He taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Compare 3 Nephi 13 with Matthew 6.]

So close!

Email received November 19, 2012

Hola Familia!

 

How is everybody doing (I STILL don´t know how to do a question mark on this computer). This week was pretty dang awesome, sounds like it was great back home too. I´m so proud of Sam Harris, he´ll do great in England. The people will love him, it´s kinda impossible not too, he´s such a nice kid. Tell Spencer not to be too bummed about not doing much this thanksgiving break because next year he´ll probably be pretty dang busy. To be completely honest I haven't been getting trunky at all for the holidays because its so dang hot that it doesn't feel like holidays should even be coming. Everyone in Paraguay is freaking out about the 21st of December and the world ending and everything. Some of the Elders are thinking that we wont be able to go out and work on the 21st or maybe even the 20th because the people are going to be nuts, but well see. So I just had lunch at this pizza place and rumor has it that the guys Italian, I wish i knew how to speak the language. But it was cool because Elder Jenson and his comp came up to Luque to eat with us and buy stuff from the bishop (He makes hats and all sorts of cool things. I definitely think I will be dropping some serious dough at his little store, the stuff is so cool). So it was cool seeing him, he´s doing well. As for Sergio and Nedia, they got baptized on Saturday! Elder Morinigo got in the water with them, the problem is they didn´t show up on Sunday to get confirmed. But we happened to find Sergio´s uncle in church on Sunday (he´s part of the other ward that meets in our building) and he said that he´ll go and pump him up about coming to church. Hopefully we can confirm them next week. Also this week I got to do a division with the zone leader. He´s Paraguayo and his name is Elder Escriva. He is super amazing! He goes him in December (He only got baptized like 4 or 5 years ago). He and his brother are the only members of the church in their family and the rest of them are super anti. His parents told him that he can´t live at home when he comes back, but over the course of the last 2 years they´ve changed their minds about that. He taught me a lot of really important things and got me so pumped up to go out and work hard.

 

I haven´t really bought any souvenirs yet but I keep seeing things that I really want to buy, but I never have my money. But one of these days I´m just going to make Morinigo go with me and we´ll go buy all sorts of things. I almost bought a sweet red white and blue apui tie, but I´ll just wait until next week. Like I said the bishop does all sorts of cool things with leather and crocodile and snake skin, so there shouldn´t be any problems getting cool things. Also there are a couple of well known (among the missionaries) Paraguayans who make the really cool leather scripture cases and things, so I´m going to look into getting myself some of those for Christmas. P-day today was pretty fun. We played basketball and it started raining super hard, so we went in the church and started telling stories. Its always fun when we can talk with the other Elders.

 

So last Monday I learned a super important lesson about meaningful service. So the past little while Elder Morinigo and I haven´t been fighting or anything, we just haven´t been super close and we never talked or anything. The days were so long and boring. But on Monday during P-day he likes to take a nap, so I usually study or play with my yo-yo or something during that time. But last Monday I decided that I was going to write down the words to one of the EFY songs that he loves to listen to in the apartment. He loves it so much when I write down the words to songs so he can sing along and learn how to pronounce them, he´s always asking me to do that. So while he was napping I did that and it turned everything around. He made me dinner that night and we have been joking and getting along super great! We get a long like friends now and the days are fun. He shared with me his biggest dreams and his life plans and everything. I learned that it doesn´t have to be anything big, it took me like 10 minutes max to write down the words to the song, but since I thought about it and did something just to be nice, it made all of the difference. That's why people cant tell you meaningful acts of service to do for someone, because if they're meaningful then it means that you´ve paid attention and are doing something that is special and thoughtful. I was filled with so much love and it has really made the difference.

 

Well I´m sorry this email isn´t that great, I can´t think of too much stuff that happened this week (but I know as soon as I get home I´m going to think of all sorts of things that I wanted to tell you guys about). But I sure love you and I´m so proud of you. I laughed when I read that Eli was saying maybe next time for the prayers because I can´t tell you how many people tell us "Otra Día" because it´s how the Paraguayans reject us (they´re too nice to say no, but I always ask them what day and they get a super confused look on their face like "doesn´t this American know that means we´re not interested" its pretty funny). Keep choosing the right and keep helping Spencer prepare to join me out here in the campo. I´ll keep praying for each of you.

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey

 

P.S. If you guys come pick me up, I already know a few places we´re going to visit, Igua su falls and Ciudad del Este (this city has the third biggest shopping center in the world).