Email received November 11, 2013
Hola familia,
Man what a great week. I´ve been so incredibly busy but it´s been super nice being busy because there is always something to do and you never have to stand around trying to figure something out to do. We have been blessed with so many awesome investigators. We had the primary program on sunday and it was a big success (and I still can´t get through that blasted program without shedding at least a tear or two, it always brings out my allergies). It was super cool because the Primary has been helping us with some kids of re-activating members and the kids had parts in the Primary program. It was super cool and we´ve been having a lot of really nice success in the area. It´s been super cool here because like I said we´re busy and a lot of the stuff that we have to do takes place in places outside of our area but the Lord can see that we´re just doing our best and then He really takes care of the rest. I had a lot of really cool experiences this week, Im just going to share a couple of them though because we don´t have too much time. So on Friday I had an interview with President Mcmullin and it was pretty sweet. So he´s notorious for scheduling 15 minute interviews then having them end after a half hour. So everyone before me had been interviewed for quite a while so I was expecting that he´d have a lot to tell me once I got in there, but it was actually kinda just a Shiblon experience. I got in and said the prayer and he asked me how I was doing and really before I could answer he told me he already knew how I was doing. He said I´ve got that twinkle in my eye that I have found my nitch and am just loving the mission. He said I just look like I´m super happy and having the time of my life. I told him he got that about right. Then he talked for about a minute just how it feels super good knowing that you´re doing all you can and being able to see the results from it because that doesn´t always happen. Then he said if there´s nothing else we´ll end with a prayer. All in all it lasted about 3 minutes max but coming out of that interview I felt so good. I felt like Shiblon and before I always imagined that he felt bad that his dad didn´t take too much time talking to him and counseling him but then I realized that it actually feels really good knowing that people don´t have to worry about you and that they can trust you to just work hard. One other kinda funny story that happened just today actually was I was waiting for a bus and I had a 2000 guaraní bill in my hand (that´s how much bus fare is) and this guy came up to me and he was obviously pretty fried and he was just saying "money money money" and getting in everyones faces. I told him I didn´t have any to give him so he grabbed the bill that was in my hand and tried taking it from me but I was still holding it and I was asking him to let go because I needed my bus-fare. Well we continued playing tug-a-war for a little when finally with his other hand he pulled out a little card with the virgin mary on it and flashed it to me. Inside it made me chuckle but I held it in. You´ve got to understand that this guy was really out of it and didn´t actually cause any threat so that ´s why I wasn´t afraid to try and keep my money, plus I really needed my bus fare. So finally I just told him that I would give him some coins and he let go of my money. But as I handed him the coins I thought it would also be a good idea to teach him the greater life lesson so I told him that that wasn´t the most effective way to ask for money. Then he took my coins and ran off. haha it was pretty funny. The many things that happen down here that just make you laugh. So this week I also feel like I´ve received pretty clear revelation that I should go to Utah State when I get home, so I´m pretty much decided on that now. It´s kinda like the same way I felt about Snow the year before i left home. I still have no idea what I want to study but those are just details that work themselves out. but as far as the support goes out here mom I´m actually not allowed to chat back and forth so it´s fine. I don´t like receiving too many packages because I can actually find most things here that I really need so it´s fine. One thing I would like just a little more of are pictures that you guys could send to me. I really like seeing pictures and you can just send those through email if you´d like. If you don´t have any start taking them. But life is good out here for your little paraguayíto. We´ve got Elder Christofferson coming tomorrow so that should be super fun and I´m way pumped. Pray for me and my investigators, I think I´ve really been under-utilizing the power of prayer these last few months of my mission. I hope you have a great week.
Con amor,
Elder Hulsey
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Monday, November 11, 2013
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
(No Subject)
Email received November 4, 2013
Hola apreciada familia,
That´s great that halloween was a smashing success. Elder Beus and I successfully pulled off dressing as each other, he has the pictures on his camera and we´re actually on division right now so I´ll try to get those to you next week. This week was tough because due to a handful of things we had like no time to work in our area, but the time we did have you used the best we could and the Lord helped us a ton. We had 6 investigators in church! We were super scared because it was super rainy all day Saturday but by the time Sunday rolled around it was the most perfect weather. Elder Beus is 19 but he came out straight from of high school. I really like the 18 year old missionaries. A lot of them are pretty shy but they have amazing testimonies and they`ve brought such a cool spirit into the mission that it´s just incredible. We have so many hermanas in the mission and continue getting more but The Lord loves Paraguay because He´s been sending the best hermanas. I had always heard bad things about the hermana misisonaries before the mission and before I had any in my district or zone but so far all of the hermanas that I´ve been able to work with are amazing missionaries and do amazing work each week so I´ve got no complaints about them. We´re planning a big baptism for the 19th of November where we´re going to need some serious miracles happening so that everything goes through, but I`ve got faith that it all can. In jopara (that´s guaraní for "mixed" which they use to describe their language here because hardly anyone can actually speak pure guaraní so they mix it with a ton of spanish) what we´re planning is a bautismo guazú. It should be pretty fun. So this week we had tons of service opportunities which was super fun. One of them we got to do on Halloween so that was super nice, getting to shake things up a little bit. Then at the end of the night on halloween we went over to this house and started talking to a lady that we had been fore-warned about was super into her church and wouldn´t like to share with us. Since Elder Beus and I were wearing each others plaques we had a great conversation starter in explaining why, how it was a holiday in the states and this was a tradition kinda thing. She loved that and invited us in to talk a little about some of our other traditions and holidays and then she started explaining some of the ones they have here in Paraguay. Eventually she started talking about some of the bad traditions of Paraguay like drinking and smoking and how no body goes to church anymore or reads the scriptures. That was a great lead-in for us to start talking about the gospel and we ended up having a really spiritual lesson and the lady even accepted the baptismal invitation and an invitation to come to church (except in the end she didn´t actually come, but I suppose that´s why we have next week right). So then to finish the night off we came home and as we prepared for bed we had juice and dulce de leche on bread rolls and watched the scariest church movie we have (the one where Martin Harris loses the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon). It was a pretty fun night. yeah so as far as package stuff goes maybe thrown in some beef jerky, I kinda miss it, but other than that just whatever you want, I´m not hurting too bad for anything but pens. Well I´m pretty much out of things to say. I´m sorry if my letters are super boring, my life here is actually quite the opposite of boring there just is so much going on that I don´t even have time to process it all then put it in an email home. Just know that I´m super safe and super happy. Oh I just remembered one of the coolest things. So this less-active young man named alejandro that re-activated after one tiny visit from us and tons of sweet fellow-shipping from the ward went up and bore his testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting! He talked about the day before he went and did baptisms for the dead for the first time in his life and how it was super special. He talked about how he knows that this church is true. Since he´s been back he´s brought with him a less-active aunt and mom and siblings that still need to be baptized and he continues inviting all of his friends to come to church and talk with the missionaries. He had dropped out of school but he started his studies again so that when he turns 18 in three years he can leave on his mission! He was also just called as the teachers quorum president! When I first got here there was 1 active young man and last Sunday there were two benches full of them all in white shirts and ties. It is super powerful and the spirit radiating from them was indescribably strong. They´re all still crazy paraguayan teenage boys but they´re different because they hold the priesthood of God and they are part of a quorum, that´s a super special thing that I feel like I didn´t really understand just how special and powerful that was before. I love this work and I know it´s true and the Lord´s. I hope this week passes well for all of you!
Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
P.S. Mom your spanglish went right past me the first time I read through the email then as I re-read it I totally noticed it and felt super embarrassed that I didn´t catch it the first time.
That´s great that halloween was a smashing success. Elder Beus and I successfully pulled off dressing as each other, he has the pictures on his camera and we´re actually on division right now so I´ll try to get those to you next week. This week was tough because due to a handful of things we had like no time to work in our area, but the time we did have you used the best we could and the Lord helped us a ton. We had 6 investigators in church! We were super scared because it was super rainy all day Saturday but by the time Sunday rolled around it was the most perfect weather. Elder Beus is 19 but he came out straight from of high school. I really like the 18 year old missionaries. A lot of them are pretty shy but they have amazing testimonies and they`ve brought such a cool spirit into the mission that it´s just incredible. We have so many hermanas in the mission and continue getting more but The Lord loves Paraguay because He´s been sending the best hermanas. I had always heard bad things about the hermana misisonaries before the mission and before I had any in my district or zone but so far all of the hermanas that I´ve been able to work with are amazing missionaries and do amazing work each week so I´ve got no complaints about them. We´re planning a big baptism for the 19th of November where we´re going to need some serious miracles happening so that everything goes through, but I`ve got faith that it all can. In jopara (that´s guaraní for "mixed" which they use to describe their language here because hardly anyone can actually speak pure guaraní so they mix it with a ton of spanish) what we´re planning is a bautismo guazú. It should be pretty fun. So this week we had tons of service opportunities which was super fun. One of them we got to do on Halloween so that was super nice, getting to shake things up a little bit. Then at the end of the night on halloween we went over to this house and started talking to a lady that we had been fore-warned about was super into her church and wouldn´t like to share with us. Since Elder Beus and I were wearing each others plaques we had a great conversation starter in explaining why, how it was a holiday in the states and this was a tradition kinda thing. She loved that and invited us in to talk a little about some of our other traditions and holidays and then she started explaining some of the ones they have here in Paraguay. Eventually she started talking about some of the bad traditions of Paraguay like drinking and smoking and how no body goes to church anymore or reads the scriptures. That was a great lead-in for us to start talking about the gospel and we ended up having a really spiritual lesson and the lady even accepted the baptismal invitation and an invitation to come to church (except in the end she didn´t actually come, but I suppose that´s why we have next week right). So then to finish the night off we came home and as we prepared for bed we had juice and dulce de leche on bread rolls and watched the scariest church movie we have (the one where Martin Harris loses the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon). It was a pretty fun night. yeah so as far as package stuff goes maybe thrown in some beef jerky, I kinda miss it, but other than that just whatever you want, I´m not hurting too bad for anything but pens. Well I´m pretty much out of things to say. I´m sorry if my letters are super boring, my life here is actually quite the opposite of boring there just is so much going on that I don´t even have time to process it all then put it in an email home. Just know that I´m super safe and super happy. Oh I just remembered one of the coolest things. So this less-active young man named alejandro that re-activated after one tiny visit from us and tons of sweet fellow-shipping from the ward went up and bore his testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting! He talked about the day before he went and did baptisms for the dead for the first time in his life and how it was super special. He talked about how he knows that this church is true. Since he´s been back he´s brought with him a less-active aunt and mom and siblings that still need to be baptized and he continues inviting all of his friends to come to church and talk with the missionaries. He had dropped out of school but he started his studies again so that when he turns 18 in three years he can leave on his mission! He was also just called as the teachers quorum president! When I first got here there was 1 active young man and last Sunday there were two benches full of them all in white shirts and ties. It is super powerful and the spirit radiating from them was indescribably strong. They´re all still crazy paraguayan teenage boys but they´re different because they hold the priesthood of God and they are part of a quorum, that´s a super special thing that I feel like I didn´t really understand just how special and powerful that was before. I love this work and I know it´s true and the Lord´s. I hope this week passes well for all of you!
Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey
P.S. Mom your spanglish went right past me the first time I read through the email then as I re-read it I totally noticed it and felt super embarrassed that I didn´t catch it the first time.
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