(No Subject)

Email received May 27, 2013

 

¡Hola familia!

 

Hows life in the good US of A? This week was pretty sweet. Zone conference was a little bitter sweet because it was very spiritually uplifting and I learned a ton, but it was super sad to say goodbye to President and Hermana Madariaga. I really love them and I can really tell that they love me and all of the missionaries, it´s weird to me how they can care so much for us, I imagine it´s probably similar to being a parent just on a smaller scale, which is even a smaller scale of Heavenly Father´s love for us. President talked a lot about repentance and I didn´t even realize that I barely understand repentance until after that. It was cool (and on the plus side I still have a few more opportunities to see president and his wife before they go, but we will not be having any more interviews with him unfortunately). So today I got to go to Asunción because tomorrow we are having a special double mission conference and Elder Maynes from the Seventies is coming to speak with us and they decided to form a choir and word leaked out that I was in high school choir. The assistants called me and made me sing to them over the phone for an audition and I guess they were hurting for basses because they still asked me to join. I´m pretty excited because I realized that I should have done a lot better before the mission at looking for and developing my talents so that I can use them to bless the lives of others and I´m not saying I´m a talented singer by any stretch but I at least know how to follow along with the music and now I get to sing in a special choir. I´m pretty excited for this conference, it should be pretty uplifting.

 

So yesterday I had the great opportunity to attend a little while in a Pentecostal church (I have no idea if that´s and English word or not, sorry). Elder Williamson and I were walking down this street and a preacher came walking out of a church meeting and told us to come in. We were hesitating but then he grabbed our arms and pulled us in! He marched us right to the front of the congregation and made this lady get out of her seat so we could sit in the front row. Then they had us stand up and face the crowd and they all clapped for us! It was a pretty interesting experience. They do a lot of yelling amens and hallelujahs and they had us do a few other things too, I don´t want to talk bad about any other religions but it really just affirmed to me that our church really is true. We don´t have to yell or scream or anything to feel the spirit, we can just testify of truth and feel it. Haha but I didn´t realize it but I had been walking around with a copy of the Book of Mormon in my hand all day and when the guy marched us to the front I still had it, so at least it got some exposure in the other church.

 

So Juliana did not get baptized this week, a few of Diego´s cousins almost got baptized but they didn´t pass their interviews. We might still be able to baptize them this Saturday, we´ll just see how this week goes I suppose. But I´m still hopeful and we have some pretty awesome investigators. The better I get at the language the easier it is to develop relationships with investigators and members. There´s this one lady named hermana Toledo, her husband is the Patriarch and they take care of us pretty well. She reminds me a lot of Grandma so I love going over there. We also have this AWESOME family named la familia Cristalo, i don´t know if I already told you about them but they are super awesome. They actually do all of their reading and everything! It makes me really excited to be a missionary. The new house is pretty awesome. It´s a lot bigger and nicer and right in the middle of Capiatá. My sleeping patterns have really changed on the mission because I now fall asleep really easily but wake up like 3 or 4 times a night, but I think I prefer it that way because it´s easier to wake up in the morning. I also got really used to sleeping even when there´s a party and heavy traffic right by my window when I was in Luque so now it´s not a problem here in Capiatá. I´m a little nervous about changes next week because the way President was talking about them in zone conference makes me feel like literally anything could happen. On Monday I will know if I am staying in this mission, going to the south mission, or going to the new Argentina mission! It´s stressing everyone out, but I actually just feel really peaceful about it because I know that wherever I serve it´s where the Lord wants me. President said he had to change missions halfway through his mission and it was sad at first but then he got to know some really amazing people so it was a blessing. I know the Lord is preparing people for me to teach and meet and I can´t wait to see what the Lord has in store for me. I love you guys so much and I hope you can finish the week strong. I can´t believe I left before school started and now the school year is over... CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be smart and be strong,

con amor,

Elder Hulsey 1

 

These are the sweet scripture cases I got for my Spanish scriptures. The mission nurse took a picture of me when I was carrying in some nice winter blankets at zone conference. Also I did not speak at it and I don´t think I am in any need of any more winter clothes, but thanks anyways!

 

(No Subject)

Email received May 20, 2013

 

Hola Familia!

 

Gosh I was just barely picturing Spencer in the DR and Emma driving (two pretty crazy but super sweet things!) and I realized I´ve kinda been gone a while, but it really doesn´t feel like it. I still try telling people I´m new but they tell me I´ve been here long enough to not be new (I talked to one of my zone leaders right before he went home and he said he still felt brand new, so I guess this feeling doesn´t really go away, but luckily it´s not that I´m nervous or lost and confused or anything,I just feel like I barely got off the plane and poof, now we´re 9 months down the road!) It´s kinda weird that things keep happening at home even when I´m not there. I´m glad Grandma is okay, let her know that even the best fall down sometimes. Happy birthday last week Emma, in a few years I can sing happy birthday to you in Spanish, Guaraní, and English (we do that at every zone conference, speaking of which we have one tomorrow and I´m super stoked for it!). So this week was pretty dang crazy, but we still had some success. First off Diego got baptized! It was on Saturday and that day and Sunday just happened to be the only days of the week where it wasn´t raining (coincidence, I think not). And what was even better was that Diego´s mom and sister and cousins all came to the baptism and confirmation in church the next day! They also all said that they also want to be baptized! There were some serious miracles that took place down here in the Paraguay with lots of prayers behind them. I thought I prayed pretty well before my mission but I noticed that now I´m pretty much always praying for something, whether it´s saying thanks for a miracle that just happened or asking for another one (usually both), but I honestly think that that´s how it´s supposed to be. Mom I´ve often thought about how you would want to bring all of the little Paraguayan kids home with you if you were here and I´m not going to lie, there have been a couple that I´ve wanted to send home. You have to love the people but realize that the absolute best thing that you could do for them is bring them the gospel and teach them how to live it. I always have to think about that when I see little kids or families struggling because really that is what the Lord has sent me here to do and that´s the best thing for them.

 

So one funny story that happened this week. We´ve been teaching this girl named Juliana, she´s Diegos sister-in-law. She´s come to church a couple of times now and is getting ready for baptism, but yesterday we went and visited her and she told us she doesn´t want to get baptized anymore. Elder Williamson and I got super scared and we asked her why. At first she said she wasn´t sure so we started trying to help her all of the reasons why she had wanted to be baptized. She finally told us that Diego told her that she had to get baptized in just her underwear and she didn´t feel very comfortable doing that! Haha Diego that little jokester! It was pretty funny and we explained to her that she will be wearing clothes when she gets baptized and that she has nothing to worry about, then she was all excited about baptism again. Haha. She should be getting baptized in a 2 weeks but we sure need some miracles there too.

 

Like I said this week was pretty tough because it rained Monday to Thursday (I don´t remember if it rained Friday) and the work really slows down in the rain. Then on Friday we moved into our new apartment (it´s a much nicer place than where we were living and all of us seem a lot happier for it). So that pretty much shot our day then we had Diego´s baptismal interview that night than it took all morning Saturday filling the font and doing a few other things in the new house so we just didn´t have a lot of time to work. I was pretty stressed out about everything but luckily Elder Williamson has a pretty good ability to not stress too much about things until we need to so he´s always telling me to just relax and not worry so much. So then on Sunday when we reported our numbers I realized they were still actually pretty normal for us so all the stress was in vain. That´s one of the biggest reasons I feel like I was called to Paraguay, it is a very stress-free country (the most common word here is tranquilo for crying out loud!) and I am definitely learning how to work hard without the stress, but it is a process. Also I may have been called here to introduce me to the wonderful ketchup they have here. I´m turning into Spencer because I put ketchup on all sorts of stuff now, the ketchup here is just so good (Elder Williamson puts dipping sauces to a whole new level. He puts barbecue sauce on everything, even his pancakes!).

 

Well I love you guys and hope that you have awesome weeks and that you can finish up the school year strong. It keeps getting colder and colder here so it´s so funny to me that you guys are entering into the heat, but luckily we´re getting our winter blankets tomorrow at zone conference so I´m set. Be strong and be smart and remember I love you and pray for you often.

 

con amor,

Elder Hulsey numero uno

 

Here´s little Dieguito at his baptisimal service. Also we were walking the other day to the cyber to send out some pictures of our new house to the Hna. Madariaga and these guys called us over to help them with this tree. They were just joking because they thought a couple of Yankees wouldn´t know the first thing about chopping down a tree but they didn´t know which Yankee they were messing with. I took the axe and surprised them all by knowing how to hack away at the tree! It was pretty funny and they were yelling at my comp to take pictures and since we were on our way to send some pictures he actually had his camera so he took one.