(No Subject)

Email received January 7, 2013

Hola familia!,

Hows everyone doing? did you pass the year new good (that´s a direct translation from Spanish, ¿pasaron el año nuevo bien?) New years here was interesting, but first off, changes. Elder Morinigo and I are together, and the other Elders that we live with are together too, so changes didn't really affect us. Most of the changes that happened were pretty small, a lot of people changed companions but stayed in the zone. But Cayden Brown joined the zone! We played soccer this morning then had lunch, now he´s sitting right next to me in the cyber. That will be a lot of fun I think. We normally play soccer as a zone on P-days then sometimes we do stuff together, then we always have district meetings on Tuesdays but the two districts in our zone have their meetings in the same chapel at the same time so we always get to see the people from the other district. It´s great, my zone is awesome!

So for new years we went to a huge bbq at the bishops house. They had every type of meet you can imagine and just tons of food. The problem is that the people here eat dinner at like 10:30 or 11 (tell Spencer they follow T-bone´s eating schedule), but the bishop was nice enough to let us eat at 9:00. Our rule is home by 10:00 if you´re in a lesson or something so it worked out good. We were supposed to keep our normal schedule but that´s almost impossible for the holidays. But it´s cool, we talked to the zone leaders and we were home around 10:30 I think so we were good. The streets were packed all night long and they were covered with people selling fireworks! Fireworks are a little more tame here. They don´t have big lights, they´re just loud, but it was still fun. They will sell fireworks to anyone too, even to like 6 year olds, and the kids think it´s super funny to throw them at us and yell at us to cover our ears (and it really is funny because the fireworks don´t do anything but the kids just love it). It´s really fun. There was this one firework though that was so loud that it set off a car alarm! But yeah so the next day, January 1st, there was literally nobody on the streets! Everybody was sleeping (most were sleeping off hang-overs). And on top of that it was a bit of a rainy day too! It was so weird to not hear or see anybody except for other missionaries going to district meeting. We tried going out and just visit a less active family but they were asleep. So we went with the other Elders to a member's house and they made us little smokeys and a lemon pie! It was the first pie I´ve had in Paraguay (I miss pie a lot).

The rest of this week was a little weird. Elder Morinigo was sick and and one of the other Elders we live with got some jungle virus (not contagious) this week so him and his companion had to go to the hospital. They´ve been there for a few days and I´m still not sure how he´s doing, but I think he´ll be okay. Oddly enough I´ve been pretty healthy. No major stomach aches or head aches (just the usual) so I´m glad I´ve been so blessed. So we weren't able to go out every day but on Tuesday I got a Liahona in English with the talks from the last general conference so I was able to read all of those talks. I learned a lot, it was pretty great. But my companion is interesting when it comes to how he cures himself! We went to this random lady who sells weeds and sticks and he bought some and put water in it and started drinking it! It didn´t work, but he told me he bought the wrong ones so we´re going back today to buy different weeds. As a joke I call it his brujeria (witchcraft) and he just laughs and says we´ve got to buy a different witchcraft. Haha also the bishop´s wife had all sorts of remedies for him (like putting this water-flour mix on his stomach) it´s funny. We went to this pharmacist and the Bishop´s wife said you just tell the guy your symptoms and he´s got something for you, but he only speaks guarani (so that means his medicine is a little sketchy) but that all of the missionaries should go to this guy because he hooks it up. They were getting my companion all of this stuff and they felt bad for me, so they bought me chocolate milk and cookies. But yeah we´ll see if the brujeria that we buy today will make him better, haha. It´s fun but I think that when I´m sick I´m not going to let anyone know.

So this week even though we couldn´t go out and work very much we still had 4 investigators in church! We had a family (not married yet) and that was great, then we had our investigator that´s progressing the most, Joni (Johnny), too. Johnny is awesome! He´s Antonia´s son and he´s 16 years old. He came to church last week and I didn´t think he really liked it, but I was praying the whole time that even if he didn´t understand some of the things that he would feel good and recognize his good feelings. When we went and visited him this Wednesday he had read the pamphlet we left him twice and he perfectly understood the importance of the priesthood and the restoration! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he´s been reading it faithfully. He´s super excited about the church. He got a little backpack that perfectly fits his Book of Mormon and pamphlets that we leave him and he carries that around! We asked him if he´s been praying to know specifically if this church is true and he told us that he´s been trying to be super specific. He prayed to know if Joseph smith was a prophet, if the angel Moroni really showed him the gold plates, if he translated them, super specific! He´s scheduled to get baptized on January 26th so I hope things keep going smoothly with him. We´ve got a couple of pretty great investigators, it´s really nice. Things are going pretty great in good ´ol Marambure B.

Well my time is almost up. With all of the time I had to study this week I learned a lot. Perhaps the most important thing that I realized is that I need to live up to my potential. For example I´ve got faith, and I would say that I use it too, but not as much as I could. One lady turned two dried sea-biscuits into a pot full of food because of her faith in Christ. I realized that I´m doing good, but I can be doing so much better in developing the Christ-like attributes (luckily there is a whole chapter about that in Preach My Gospel). I love you guys so much, keep studying and increasing in testimony and more importantly conversion (see Elder Bednar´s latest conference talk).

Con amor,
Elder Hulsey

P.S. I´ve hand written a couple of my friends but I can´t email them (rule from Pres. Madariaga). So if you could just forward their letters through dearelder that would be best then I will hand write them letters. Thanks.

(No Subject)

Email received December 31, 2012

Hola mí familia,

How is everyone this week? I got super lucky with my computer this week and the keyboard that i´m using is brand new and says exactly what each key is so it´s a lot easier to use. That´s cool that Spencer and Caleb are watching stand and deliver, it seems like just yesterday Andrew and I were watching that same movie, but we were´nt cool like them so we didn´t have girls come over and watch it with us. I can´t believe you guys bought new couches! I´m not going to recognize a thing when I get home (just kidding, congratulations).

So I got the other two packages (the ones to help me prepare for Christmas) the day after Christmas, haha, but the timing couldn´t have been better. I also got a package from the Otterstroms that day that had a pillow case, some treats, and some really nice notes. Cam Carter wrote his in Spanish and it was really fun reading it. He gave me some great advice about learning the language that has actually helped me a lot this week. But what I loved the most were the testimonies in the Christmas tree. I kept them all and I read some whenever I need a boost (also let uncle mike know that I found Elder Seaton. I ate lunch with him at zone conference a few weeks ago and he loves uncle mike. He also knows Andrew´s brother big Steven and I think he stayed the night at their house once, small world right). One of the testimonies was from grandma and it couldn´t have come at a better time. We´ve been working with an inactive guy whose wife is not a member. He´s down to come back to church but he recently was in a motorcycle accident so he can´t walk or get on a bus. They have two little girls and his wife wasn´t really interested in listening to us. But a little while ago we did some service for them during a visit and I think it really touched her heart so she let us start talking with her. I realized their situation was pretty similar to grandma and grandpa´s when grandma got baptized, so I decided to read grandma´s conversion story. After I read it I was still a little unsure about how I could use it to help this family, but then that day I got the package with grandma´s testimony in it and it was super clear to me how to share it. I felt super good about sharing the story and how I could use it to help them. The lesson was super powerful and spiritual, however she told us that she´s not ready to change, she really doesn´t like the idea of not worshipping the Virgin. But when we left I feel like we really planted a good seed and I honestly feel like one day they will be sealed in the temple. But that was hard, losing one of our best investigators. We also talked with another one of our greatest investigators, a family that was pretty interested, but they told us that they don´t want to change because they´re to afraid of what their family will say. People are funny because even if they know it´s true, sometimes they´re still not willing to change. There was this one couple a few weeks ago that straight up told us that they´re going to stop reading the Book of Mormon because they´re afraid it´s true!

 

So I still don´t know what´s going on with changes, we´ll find out tonight. Everyone thinks that my companion will go and that I´ll stay but we´ll see. I don´t mind either way, or even if we stay together another change. I like the area. It´s been different getting along with a Latin companion because he and I think very differently. For example here on holidays, people don´t eat dinner until like 10:00 at night. So last night we got invited to dinner at 10:00 and he was like sure that´d be great! Things like that happen a lot, but we always talk and pray and it always works out. I´ve learned a lot with him. My companion is super patient with me and he´s got some really great qualities about him too. Whenever I start thinking about something annoying that he´s doing I think, I guarantee it´s pretty annoying for him to have an American companion that barely speaks Spanish and I think about what I can do to help him.
 

On Sunday I gave my talk. It was funny because two weeks ago when they asked me they told me my topic was Christmas. When I missed it they did not tell me that I would have the opportunity to speak the next week, so I gave my same Christmas talk and tried to apply it more generally, I think it went okay. Also on Sunday we had an investigator in church! Johnny, he´s Antonia´s son and he´s 15 came pretty much straight from a quince (the big party for you´re 15th birthday) so it was quite a sacrifice. He and his mom are progressing, it´s great! we´ve also been teaching a girl named Mari (she looks just like Mariah Reber) and her boyfriend Abraham (and they don´t even live together! Rare find). They came to the ward Christmas party and even sang 2 karaoke songs! The problem is that Mari´s sister kicked us out twice so we have to get creative. Luckily there´s a member girl who's preparing for a mission, her call should be here any day now. and she lives really close and she and Mari are the same age.

 

Well it´s about time for me to go. I love you guys so much and espero que pasen el año nuevo excelentemente! Things are pretty great out here in the Paraguay. Keep on keeping on the right path and fighting the good fight. Remember that God wants us to succeed. We can be sure and take comfort that everything that happens to us, when we´re trying to live right, is for our good and often times is how God is preparing us for something else and helping us reach our full potential.

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hulsey