(no subject)

Email received July 8, 2013

¡Hola familia!

Well it seems like Paraguayan winter is about over (it usually lasts about a month so it makes sense), so now we´re back to the sun. Luckily you all know me and know that I love the sun more than the cold, and the work here is so much nicer in when it´s warm so I´m excited. The only hard part is staying awake during the lessons we have in the siesta, haha but I think I´ll figure something out. This week was great. The new bishop that we have is awesome! He´s got tons of excitement for the work, and tons of excitement to do it right (meaning getting the members to do it). It´s really nice because he´s one of the few Bishops here that I´ve met that is willing to sacrafice a little now to get the work going how it should. I really hope I get to stay another change here in Piro´Y, but we´ll see here in about a week. A**** was able to get things mostly straightned out, he´s just got to wait a little longer to get everything completely straightened out, we´ll see when he will be able to be baptized. The familia C**** is so awesome! We had some great lessons with them this last week and the hermana , W****, says she´s completely convinced that this is the true church where she wants her family. They are set to be baptized a week from tomorrow but we´re going to ask them tonight if they´d rather just get baptized this Saturday! The hermana was super nice because our new mission president randomly just showed up to our sacrament meeting on Sunday entonces aprovechamos and we introduced him to the familia C**** and the hermana was just telling President how great we are and how patient and loving we are, SCORE! Haha. So I had this dream the other night that you came down Mom and met this family and it was super cool.

The 4th of July was fun. We went into Asunción and had hamburgers with freedom fries and got to meet the new President and his family. They seem really great. His son Preston is leaving on his mission to Chile the day Travis leaves for his mission and he´s pretty excited. He went up and gave a talk in Spanish for this little conference, he did awesome. Also here with him are his daughter that´s 16 and his son that´s 11, they seem excited to be here. It was weird hearing little kids speaking in English and talking like Americans with American personalities. The 11 year old kid, I think his name is Brian or something like that, reminds me a lot of Adam so that was pretty neat. President Mcmullin is a little hard to read, but he seems to like hard work and obedience so I hope we get along well. It´s quite the process becoming a mission president and it seems like a super hard calling, but I bet it would be super rewarding too. His wife seems super friendly too. 

I hope Spencer can keep his eye on the mission and not do anything stupid in St. George (haha I only say that because I also had this dream that me and him and the gang all went and did something stupid and he wasn´t sure he would be able to leave on his mission anymore due to court dates and such). But really I´m learning a lot recently about how each of us are important in this work. It´s not just a coincidence that we´re members of the church, or bearers of the priesthood, or alive at this time. We were all chosen before to come here at this time. I was elected before to be one of the few holders of the holy priesthood and to use it here in Paraguay to bless the lives of others. I´m not just here because I happened to be in the church and at mission age, and I sent in my papers and they didn´t know what to do so they just stuck me in the Paraguay Asunción North mission, and now President didn´t know what to do so he just put me in Piro´Y. I don´t believe that. I believe that God knows me, and that He´s got a plan for me. He knows I´m here and it´s where He wants me. There are people here for me to help, and I´m not just someone whose been thrown into the system and is just another body to fill a space. We had a great meeting with our new bishop yesterday and he told us that he wants to be working with specific people and names. I believe that´s what the Lord does as well. He knows our names, they´re engraven upon his palms. I know He loves me and He knows me, I also know that He knows and loves each and every one of you, and He has a special use and purpose for each one of us right now. We´re not just bodies in the system, we´re specific people with specific purposes and needs and wants. It´s hard to fathom just how deep and profound God´s wisdom and knowledge and most importantly love is, but it´s real and that´s what matters. I hope you all have an awesome semana!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey 

(no subject)

Email received July 1, 2013

¡HOLA buenísima familia mía!

 

Wow that´s pretty funny about the whole water thing. We´re only supposed to drink water that we buy in these giant 20 liter bottles, and the trucks that carry them are supposed to pass by our house every week to bring us new ones. The problem is that a lot of times the trucks don´t pass then you just have to say a prayer as you drink the water. I´ve only been sick a few times from it though so I think here in capiatá at least it´s pretty fine. Boy this week was pretty crazy, but super awesome! So the familia C**** is awesome! They came to church and the hermana said she´s ready to get baptized when we are! We put her and her son with a fecha for the 16th of July, my companions last day, so that they can prepare a little longer and also hopefully so that the husband might be able to be baptized with them. We´re not pushing it too hard with him one because he´s hardly ever home and two because they´re right now thinking about separating so we´re just going to let things play out how they will. But I love that family so much, they have helped me a ton. I consider the hermana C**** my Paraguayan mom (she´s got nothing on my real mom, but she´s still pretty awesome). We´re in the middle of what could be a big problem with A**** right now. As far as his progression he´s doing awesome! He went to the church every night last week for different activities and he even sang in the choir with us for ward conference on Sunday (which brings up some other crazy news I´ll tell you in a little bit). The problem is that he just told us last night that he has to go to court on Tuesday and is facing 5 to 10 years in prison! Dang! But luckily the Hermana C**** is a lawyer so we took A**** to her house last night and she helped us out a lot so depending on how his hearing goes tomorrow we´ll see if he can be baptized. He says if everything goes well he´ll baptize himself on Wednesday, haha, so we´re just praying that everything goes well there. As far as getting to know the new president we´re actually doing that this Thursday, so I will get to do something fun for the 4th of July. Caleb Reber is lucky because in the MTC on the 4th of July they let all of the missionaries got to the field and watch the fireworks (or so I was told when I was there). I´m glad girls camp was a success. Oh yeah yesterday I got to watch that broadcast about missionary work, ¡AMAZING! I loved it so much, it got me super excited. I felt bad for one of the hermanas in my district because we had to watch it in Spanish and she got here about 3 or 4 weeks ago so she understood about 45% of it (which if you ask me is pretty good for 3 or 4 weeks), but I´m sure she felt the Spirit egual. Mostly I just felt really good about being right here right now in the service of the Lord. I´m completely convinced that he wants me here right now, so I´m just going to be as obedient as I can and work as hard as I can. I´m proud of my companion because he´s still hanging in there even though he´s about to go home, but I´m not going to lie it gets pretty exhausting sometimes. Luckily like I´ve already said I´ve learned that I don´t have to stress what might happen, I just have to continually pray for help and miracles and everything works out fine. I was almost positive that I would get to stay here in this area another change which would´ve been awesome because I love it a lot, but now I´m not so sure. In ward conference they called a new bishop, and they officially combined our ward Piro´Y with the rama Capiatá. It makes things a little tricky because the Elders in the rama capiatá live with us but they aren´t in our zone. So now that the rama capiatá is in our ward but the area is still out of our zone, we can´t visit half of our members! But we´re getting it all straightened out. The reason that I´m now thinking that I might be going is because the group of missionaries going home this change is about 25 missionaries, and the group coming in is about half that size. The replacements for this group leaving will be coming in the end of August, so for a whole change I think they are going to have to combine areas until august. So that was making me think that they might now just combine Capiatá and Piro´Y and Elder Menchaca would stay and be in charge of the mega area because he has less time here than I do. I don´t have to worry about anything, I would just be a little sad to leave is all. I´ve done a lot of growing up here, but having changes is also fun and there´s new adventures awaiting, así que I´m just ready for anything. Changes are on the 17th so me falta todavía. So being with Elder Landers I´ve found myself thinking about what kind of person I want to be after the mission, and what I want to study and all that. But Last week I realized that I don´t have to and probably shouldn´t be thinking about that. I really want to focus more on what kind of difference I can make here in Paraguay. Paraguay needs a lot of help in a lot of ways, especially in the church. The organization gets pretty wrong some times, so now I´m going to really try and focus on making a difference here in Paraguay. Leave everything here. Give my whole heart, might, mind, and strength to the people I´m growing to love so much. I was reading a talk about Pride in the Priesthood by President Uchtdorf this week (now that I´m learning a language that guy has become one of my heroes and gives me tons of motivation to master the Spanish language) and he said something that really caught my attention. He said being humble and putting off our pride does not mean thinking less of ourselves, it means thinking less about ourselves. I love that a lot. If I´m thinking about myself than how am I going to be able to be filled with charity and make a difference here? I´ve found that there is great joy to be had in letting myself get lost in this wonderful work and quite worrying about myself and my fears, wants, all of that and start focusing on those of others. Service is a cool thing. I know that this is the only true church with Priesthood authority, thus having the only authorized prophet. I know that that prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I´ve read it. I´ve learned by the Holy Ghost that it´s true. No one can take these things away from me and they mean more to me than anything else. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and that He loves me and wants me to be a joint-heir with HIm. I don´t fully understand why He loves me so much because I have a lot of weaknesses and I stumble and fall quite often, but what I know is that He lives and loves me. I know the promises of the Lord are real, and I know that the gifts of the Spirit are two (I conducted a whole meeting in a foreign language, that´s not something I could do on my own). Elder Otterstrom wrote me and stated it best when he simple said "I love my mission", there´s really not much more that can be said. I love you and hope you have a wonderful week.

 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Zachary J. Hulsey