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Email received April 29, 2013

Hola familia,

Como están todos! Alright so I don´t have too much time because I had to go to Asunción today and sign into the country (what a drag, but it was actually a lot of fun), and it´s a little late, but I´ll try to get a decent letter in igual. It was fun going to Asunción though and I got to see Elder Morinigo again which was super fun. He´s doing well and it was really cool getting to catch up with him and everyone that got here with me. Alright so Travis Maddox, I got your dearelder and it meant a lot to me, thanks and honestly don´t worry about the language. Being in a country where you´re forced to speak it makes you learn it. Just study during the language study time, be obedient so you have the Spirit, and love the people and you´ll do great. Also there´s an Elder in my zone from the Mendoza mission so I´ve been hounding him for information. He told me that it´s in a valley and that the members are awesome. It´s really well developed but it still has a few small villages. He said you are going to put on tons of weight because the members feed you tons of steak. I didn´t really know what you wanted me to ask him so just send me a list of questions and I´ll gladly get you all of the info I can. Get your visa stuff turned in as soon as possible because the sooner you get it turned in, the less time you´ll spend waiting for your visa in the Salt Lake mission (the two guys from my district in the MTC in your mission now had to wait a few months in Salt Lake). So also my package came this week, I haven´t opened it but it´s at my house. Elder Williamson and I are together another change and I´m happy about that. I´m the only comp that he´s been three changes with and this is the longest time he´s been in an area so that made me feel a little better that maybe I´m getting a little easier to get along with. So If you guys could tell all of my friends to feel free to email me that would be great, because I have two hours to email (unless I have to go to Asunción unexpectedly again). So Spencer there is also a kid in my zone (Elder Zilm, he´s sitting right next to me right now) and his brother is in your mission right now. I can pump him for whatever info you want and I will let you know, he´s also going to forward you some pics. So today I also ate lunch with Elder Osborne (Uncle Rick´s companion´s son). He´s a super friendly guy (and really tall too). He´s out in Luque right now. So for mother´s day I will be skyping home (that works out best for me) and I will be doing it on the Saturday before. I have to talk with Elder Williamson first (I´m currently on a division so I can´t ask him right now) about the time but I´ll let you know next week. Just plan for Saturday probably some time in the morning for you guys.

So this week was pretty dang awesome! Diego is progressing very well but he couldn´t come to church this week because his grandma got sick and couldn´t take him. Sebastiana wasn´t able to either but we´ll see why soon. I had a couple of really neat experiences this week. So one is that I realized even more how the Lord works in mysterious ways. Elder Williamson and I have been trying to work as hard as we can and be completely obedient. We also fasted for a miracle on Sunday but we didn´t have a single investigator in church. However a miracle did indeed happen on Sunday. Randomly the area president, President Giovani, decided to come and attend our sacrament meeting! He gave such a great talk and I received tons of amazing revelation about how to improve the area, but además, he went and really explained to the bishop how it´s the members job to fill our planner with meaningful activities (we´ve been having a hard time getting members excited about the work) so now I believe it will be a lot better working with the members because that´s really the key to success.
The other really cool experience happened in this contact this week. We got this reference from a member for this crazy lady that we had taught once (she was really crazy). We decided that we would contact it again anyways so that we could build the members´confidence in us. We clapped in front of the gate and this girl that we hadn´t met before came out. She looked like she had been crying and that she was having a really hard time. She told us that she didn´t have time and to go away basically. I could tell that she needed some serious spiritual help but everything we were trying to say she was just saying how busy she was and to leave. Finally I prayed to know what to say and I told her that we didn´t want to take any of her time or force her to do anything, we just are here to offer more peace. She then said that that´s exactly what she needs right now, peace. My comp asked her if she had ever prayed to ask for peace and she confessed that she hadn´t. She still wasn´t letting us in but she was at least talking with us. We offered to teach her how to pray but she wasn´t having any of it. We told her we would try to come back another time, but then I felt really impressed to ask her if we could pray right there with her. She said it would be okay and my comp asked if we could enter the gate to do it. She let us in and even said we could share a scripture! I knew exactly what scripture to share with her (the last verse in John 16 I think it was) and she opened up and told us all sorts of things in her life. She really wants to change and she said church last week would be impossible but this week she really wants to. We also set up a return appointment for tonight! It was such a cool experience because it was totally guided by the Spirit. I love when the Spirit speaks so clear to you and you just know how the Lord wants to help this person. It´s super important that we are always listening to the Spirit and worthy of it so that he can always be with us and trust us to follow his promptings. I hope you guys have an awesome week and that you work hard in all you do. I think I´ve probably sent this quote home like a hundred times but it´s one of my all time favorites "Do your duty that is best, leave unto the Lord the rest" (I don´t know if President Monson was quoting someone else when he said that, but I know that he´s said it). I love you all sooooo much and I can´t wait to talk with you in a few weeks.

Con amor,
Elder Zachary J. Hulsey (I guess I´d better start getting in the habbit of signing off like that seeing as there will be two of us Elder Hulsey´s here dentro de poco)

Email received April 22, 2013

Hola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

OH man I am so pumped for these mission calls!!!!!!!!! I got called on Thursday morning and the office elder that called me was way excited for you Spencer! So I actually already knew Travis was going to Argentina. It was the weirdest thing but on Wednesday I had a dream that someone opened their call to Argentina and then I got called and they told me Spencer is going to the DR and so then I started thinking and I could so easily picture Travis in Argentina. The Mendoza mission gets pretty cold (a guy in my last ward served there and 2 guys in the Mtc with me, also two guys in the mtc and my mtc teacher served in the DR, I think one is there right now, I also met a girl from the DR in the MTC, she was really nice), and the Mendoza mission is in a really nice part of Argentina. I want you guys to send me Travis´s email because our rule for the cyber just barely changed and we can now email friends and family and we have a bit more time so do it so I want to let him know a few more things about Argentina that i've learned. Gosh I´m just so excited right now! I had such a great week last week (by an amazing miracle we had 6 investigators in church!) and these mission calls just got me so pumped and really affirmed to me that I´m in the right mission. I love my paraguayos so much and this country too. So this week was the presidencial elections here so when I found out about Spencer´s call the first thing that popped in my head was that he is going to go and bring all of those republicans to the light (just a joke though because I´m a republican myself). So Spencer´s Spanish is going to be so much better than mine because rumor has it that the best and fastest Spanish spoken is in the DR! Don´t worry about the MTC because i´ve talked to several missionaries that went straight to other MTC´s and they always make it okay and love the MTC´s. The DR mtc used to be a hotel so its super nice and it´s right by a big university so they get to go and contact the people in the university! its super cool! also Travis just so you know they normally call about a week before you´re supposed to enter in to the Provo MTC to tell you that you´re actually going to the Argentine MTC so watch out for that. So if you want a little worldly preparation for your missions the music that is really popular in the DR is obviously regatón (This will be really popular among the people that Caleb will be serving as well) and some of the really popular artists are Daddy Yankee, Wisin y yandel, ñengo flow and pitbull (at least here in Paraguay they are always playing music so loud in the streets so I´ve been exposed to a lot, But I´m not listening to this kind of music don´t worry I´m still obedient, I got these names from Elder Menchaca, he loves regatón). In Argentina they listen to something called Cumbia Argentina and I only know one really big group and its called Nene Malo. In Paraguay they listen to something called Cumbia Paraguaya. I don´t know if I should recommend to any of you to look any of these groups up because a lot of these songs (at least the ones I´ve heard in the streets) don´t talk about really great things. But that´s actually one reason that I was thinking about how my mission is perfect for me and Spencer´s for him. Regatón is a lot like the music that he used to listen to and Cumbia Paraguaya is more like what I used to listen to. I´m not going to lie, I was a little jealous because Spencer´s Spanish is going to be so good, but it was really good motivation for me to study the language even more diligently. Also that day that they told me about Spencer´s call I just got so pumped about Paraguay for some reason! The mission is so great and it really doesn´t matter where you serve because the work is all the same and it´s all super difficult and it´s all super rewarding!

 

So we still haven´t heard anything about changes but we´ll find out today. Elder Williamson and I are down to stay together another change, we´ll just see what happens. We´ve been working with this little 10 year old named Diego and he is so awesome! He´s been teaching the lessons to his mom and all of his family and neighbors and he knows the doctrine surprisingly well! He understands things super well and he has this brother that´s been teasing him about talking with the Mormons and Diego just tells him straight up that he really wants to be baptized a Mormon! The kid is so dang awesome! Also he got 4 of his cousins to come to church and his sister in law and they´re all preparing to get baptized too! We´ve been working really hard and it´s been a little slow but we´re having some great success right now and finding some amazing people so it´s awesome!

Mom I was thinking about what you said about the Patriarchal blessings and it´s true. Also if you want to understand it in a completely new light try translating it into Spanish! I´ve been doing that lately for part of my language study and it´s shed some really cool light on a couple of things. Tell the boys not to worry about the Spanish because it comes, I promise. Yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting for a little over 10 minutes and the only notes I had were a couple of scriptures that I wanted to use. The language comes as you´re diligent in your studies and just try to talk. It´s rare now that someone tells me something that I just have no idea what they say or that I can´t communicate what I want to say. Spanish is really cool and it´s pretty easy to learn, don´t worry.

 

Well I really love you guys and I guess we´ll be talking in like 3 weeks or so (I can´t believe how fast the time is passing by). So this week I learned a lot about how the Lord can do all sorts of mighty miracles. There was this lady named Sebastiana that was so close to getting baptized like a little over a year but she did not want to get married. So a few weeks ago we were walking in front of her house and her friend called us over. She wanted a blessing with oil (this friends sister is a member so she knows all about it). We gave it to her and then talked with them for a little while. Sebastiana was super closed and kinda mean. She said she decided since she wasn't ready to comply with one of the commandments that she wouldn´t comply with any. We very nicely but very directly explained the error in her way of thinking. She kinda got angry then went inside and we taught her friend. Well then a little while later we went by to teach Sebastiana´s son (he´s got baptized when Sebastiana was going to get baptized) and Sebastiana was completely different. She told us she realized that she needs to start by just keeping some commandments and then it will be easier to keep the rest of them. She had had an accident that made her think a little more seriously about the gospel. She is now preparing for baptism! There are still a couple of big obstacles that we need to overcome with her but her desires are right and now it´s just in the hands of the Lord. I know that it wasn´t us that changed her at all because not once has she mentioned that anything that we´ve said has had any impact on her, but that the Lord has been communicating with her, and that´s exactly how it should be! This work requires humility but when Elder Bednar came to my mission he told us to get out of the way and let the Spirit work. If we humbly accept that we are just here to invite and help investigators feel and recognize the Spirit than the Lord will do just that and people will be converted (not just get baptized). I love this work so much and I know that it truly is the work of the Lord. Have a great week and don´t worry about me at all, I´m on the greatest adventure of my life and I´m loving it so much! Spencer, Travis, and Caleb will soon understand what I mean. You can´t express it very easily, but you just love it. It´s so hard and it really shows you what you are really made of. You come across many experiences where it seems like you have absolutely nothing but the Lord, and that´s really when you learn how to depend on Him. It´s in the incredibly difficult moments that happen where we really see the power of the Lord kick in, and you happen to be able to participate in that process a lot in the mission and it´s such a wonderful experience! Work hard and love it all because the time goes way to fast.

Con Chorros de Amor,

Elder Hulsey

(Chorros is a bit of Mexican slang for you Caleb)