Zone Conference - President del Castillo

Zone conference has come and gone. President del Castillo is a very good teacher. He spoke of how we need to increase the faith in the mission. He is a very direct kind of person and I’m sure there are lots of elders that don’t like him too much. Everyone was on the edge of their seats during conference. I really enjoyed the conference and it definitely boosted the energy of the zone and other zones. We also made our usual trip to Wal-Mart. However, this time I didn’t make a peanut butter purchase.

As far as package receiving goes, I haven’t received a thing. I would assume that the packages and letters are in the office waiting for interviews. The only time we get packages are zone conference and interviews. They do send letters with the colectivos every week but that is a little dangerous for packages.

My birthday has come and gone. During divisions the Duarte family in Bella Vista made me a cake and gave me a little stuffed bear. We also had chorripan to go along with the cake. We too have cell phones here but I don’t know how those birthday calls would go down with Pres. del Castillo. I also had a little birthday party with the Moratto family. We were going to have a fish BBQ but they couldn’t find any fish. We ended up having maipy. I’m not sure how to spell it but it is a native Guaraní dish. They make it with corn flour and all sorts of vegetables and meat. Simply delicious!

Hermano Moratto catches and sells birds. They have all sorts of animals in the house and out of the house. He is sort of a Doctor Dolittle. There are lots of cardinals here in Goya. My comp borrowed a little bird trap and caught a little blue bird. The little blue bird is nothing in comparison with the birds that Hermano Moratto catches. He catches parrots, red cardinals, yellow cardinals, little tiny birds, those blue birds like the one my comp caught, and many many more.

We had division with the zone leaders yesterday. During diviones we stopped by the sanctuary of “El Señor De La Buena Muerte”. It is one of the creepier things I’ve seen in the mission. In all reality, it isn’t that creepy. It would make a good lawn decoration for Halloween.

Mom, thanks for the sheet music this week. It should help, especially the blank staff music sheets. Thanks for keeping me in your prayers. We are doing well here in Goya. The branch will be running a lot better with updated member lists. In the remainder of the transfer we are going to be doing a lot with the members and their family history work. Pres. del Castillo told us to work with the members more. We decided that family history would be a good way to build better bonds with the members. We definitely need the members in order to have investigators that progress. We are hoping this will help us receive more references from the members.

I’ve come to realize that the work is slightly dead when you don’t have the members very organized. The missionary work is basically non-existent without a well running branch or ward. The members are what drive the work forward. They’re examples are much more effective than our knocking, or in my case, clapping. I hope that all of you are being good members and helping the missionaries whenever you can. I love the gospel and I want to be able to share it with everyone -even the Roman Catholic apostolic evangelists that tell me to go away.

I love you all and I want you to know that Michael Phelps is my hero. Thanks for all you do. Hope everything is going well in the lives of each one of you that reads this. Hasta luego!

Elder Hunsaker (Élder Janséquer)