Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
FELIZ NAVIDAD!
The weather outside is frightful but the AC is so delightful. Since there´s no place to go. I´d
wish it´d snow, yes let´s go, let it snow. I think it is wonderful that even Vegas has snow. We have hot humid air because it rained yesterday. It is so different being in a hot place for christmas.
Yesterday I finished a one more interview for tithing settlements. The reason why I only did one yesterday was due to the rain. One sister came because she didn´t want to stand me up like she did the week before. She came into the building completely soaked from head to toe. We didn´t have towels in the chapel so she dried herself off with the paper towels in the bathroom. I felt so bad for her. I really wished she would have stayed home. She told me that the rain started when she was in the bus. She walk two blocks from the bus stop and was soaked.
It is very interesting being the one that marks if they are whole tithe payers or partial or non tithe payers. I get to read scriptures with them and talk about tithing. One sister told me of an experience that she had with tithing. She said that when she was new in the church she didn´t pay her tithing. She told me about how she started to pay her tithing. She said that one day she was at home with her kids and they didn´t have a single thing to eat and were in bad shape. The
missionaries called her and invited her to go to a meeting that night. She told them no because she was upset and because she didn´t want to abandon her kids with nothing to eat. The missionaries insisted and so she went to the meeting. After the meeting the elders told he to go with them to their home. When they got home they handed an envelope to her and told her not to open it until she got home. She ran home thinking that their was money inside of the envelope. When she got home she found that their wasn´t money in there but rather a pamphlet that spoke about tithing. She threw the envelope and the pamphlet on the ground and laid on her bed thinking of what she wanted to do to those two elders. While she was on the bed the spirit told her she should read the pamphlet. She read the pamphlet and decided to test heavenly father like it said in the booklet. She told me that the first month paying tithing she had enough money for everything and had a little left over to help someone else. She has a very strong testimony on tithing and is a really cool lady. It was fun to hear stories like this one from the other members that I interviewed.
I´ve been forgetting to tell you all that there are tons of mango trees here and with the tree comes the fruit. I have eaten my fair share of mangos in my time here. They have all sorts of fruits here in clorinda. The people like to make smoothies with pineapple, oranges, mangos, bananas, and whatever else they can find. I still have tried a watermelon but I will be eating one before the season ends.
Our branch did a little nativity play for us the other day. It was funny. They made the costumes from the school uniforms that they use here.
Right outside of our pensión there are a ton of spiders and I decided that you all should see them. One was coming from the group and almost landed on me. I hate these things and they are everywhere.
I have a lot more photos that I will just send separately because I don´t want to use openoffice anymore. I don´t like it at all. I hope that everyone has a good christmas tomorrow and I´ll hear from you soon. Les amo. Chau
Elder Hunsaker
wish it´d snow, yes let´s go, let it snow. I think it is wonderful that even Vegas has snow. We have hot humid air because it rained yesterday. It is so different being in a hot place for christmas.
Yesterday I finished a one more interview for tithing settlements. The reason why I only did one yesterday was due to the rain. One sister came because she didn´t want to stand me up like she did the week before. She came into the building completely soaked from head to toe. We didn´t have towels in the chapel so she dried herself off with the paper towels in the bathroom. I felt so bad for her. I really wished she would have stayed home. She told me that the rain started when she was in the bus. She walk two blocks from the bus stop and was soaked.
It is very interesting being the one that marks if they are whole tithe payers or partial or non tithe payers. I get to read scriptures with them and talk about tithing. One sister told me of an experience that she had with tithing. She said that when she was new in the church she didn´t pay her tithing. She told me about how she started to pay her tithing. She said that one day she was at home with her kids and they didn´t have a single thing to eat and were in bad shape. The
missionaries called her and invited her to go to a meeting that night. She told them no because she was upset and because she didn´t want to abandon her kids with nothing to eat. The missionaries insisted and so she went to the meeting. After the meeting the elders told he to go with them to their home. When they got home they handed an envelope to her and told her not to open it until she got home. She ran home thinking that their was money inside of the envelope. When she got home she found that their wasn´t money in there but rather a pamphlet that spoke about tithing. She threw the envelope and the pamphlet on the ground and laid on her bed thinking of what she wanted to do to those two elders. While she was on the bed the spirit told her she should read the pamphlet. She read the pamphlet and decided to test heavenly father like it said in the booklet. She told me that the first month paying tithing she had enough money for everything and had a little left over to help someone else. She has a very strong testimony on tithing and is a really cool lady. It was fun to hear stories like this one from the other members that I interviewed.
I´ve been forgetting to tell you all that there are tons of mango trees here and with the tree comes the fruit. I have eaten my fair share of mangos in my time here. They have all sorts of fruits here in clorinda. The people like to make smoothies with pineapple, oranges, mangos, bananas, and whatever else they can find. I still have tried a watermelon but I will be eating one before the season ends.
Our branch did a little nativity play for us the other day. It was funny. They made the costumes from the school uniforms that they use here.
Right outside of our pensión there are a ton of spiders and I decided that you all should see them. One was coming from the group and almost landed on me. I hate these things and they are everywhere.
I have a lot more photos that I will just send separately because I don´t want to use openoffice anymore. I don´t like it at all. I hope that everyone has a good christmas tomorrow and I´ll hear from you soon. Les amo. Chau
Elder Hunsaker
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Branch President asking for a favor! $$$
Hola Todos, 12-17-08
Well this has been a pretty good week. We had our district conference last Sunday and it went really well. I am trying to get the interviews planned with a few of the members that assist. This Saturday I have a good 2 hours set up with interviews. I´m thinking I may have a few callings to extend in some of those interviews.
This past Sunday,Virgilio Duarte received the Melchizedek priesthood. He was baptized with his wife about 4 months ago. He is a really great guy but lacks a lot of experience and I don´t believe he will be the branch president anytime soon. I´m thinking that he will be a great EQ president of himself and himself. His wife is the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society. It was fun to have a part in the process of advancing in the priesthood.
I don´t know if I explained much about my companion in the previous letter. He is Elder Robertson, 20 years old, from Green River, Utah. He has that whole Roy Hafen accent going on for him. He has been out in the mission for 10 or 11 months. He says that Green River produces a lot of watermelons and that sparked my interest in his town.
I´ve decide that doing the clothes stomping during my shower is not the way to go if you want to clean your clothes. I would like to ask a favor from ten people (or a favor of 5 dollars from 20 people). The FAVOR is ten dollars so I can add a lavaropa (washing machine) to the pench. It would be a wonderful time and water saving addition. I am completely satisfied if one hundred people want to donate 1.50 dollars to the LAVAROPA donation corp. ¡POR FAVOR!
I will have a few photos for next week. Clorinda is a pretty calm place to be. Nothing really happens here and there really isn´t anything to do. Last night we made tortillas for a family. Even the neighbors came over to try some tortillas. Everyone loved them and we are planning on doing pancakes the next time.
The people here in Clorinda are fairly open to receiving us. With the majority of the people we can just ask to go in their yard without an explanation and they let us. The people just don´t have the highest understanding of things. They are really nice though.
We have our zone conference this Friday so I will be able to see a little bit more of Formosa capital. I may see some of the elders I knew in the MTC.
There is a man he named Jesué who makes watches with alligator skin. I will be sure to buy some and take a few pictures for Danny. They are pretty cool. He tried doing a scripture case from alligator skin but it just didn´t turn out so well.
I hope that you all have a wonderful day and week. I´ll talk to you next week. Love you all.
¡¡¡¡HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELL!!!! I will try to be better at this.
Elder Hunsaker
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Laundry in a bucket
Well, as you can see from the pictures I am living right on the border of Paraguay. Asunción is about 30 minutes from here and the members can attend the temple for a total of 6 pesos. It is really cheap and yet we don't have any endowed members. I am working on that one right now.
It rained yesterday and drop the temperature down a few degrees. The streets turned to mud and that was fun especially now that I have to wash my clothes in a bucket while I shower. haha. My comp just stomps on his clothes while they are in the bucket. I'm not sure it does the job well enough. Maybe I'll just buy a little washing machine for 350 pesos. I think it would be well worth it for the time that I will spend here in this area washing my clothes by hand or foot. I'm sure I could sell it to someone when I leave in 9 months.
This Sunday we have district conference and I will be playing the piano for the choir that will sing. The choir is quite a funny little group of people. There is one guy that doesn't know he is tone deaf and likes to sing real loud. The rest just try to get along with the piano and the rhythm.
I have done my first little interview with our only attending priest. He wants to get his Duty to God award so I am now working with him on it. We have a laurel that was recently baptized that is about to finish her young women's award "thingy". I will be recognizing her in sacrament meeting in two weeks. I never thought I'd be doing Bishop Beards job.
The people here are a lot more friendly. They let you into their house really fast. We just say baptism and all of them want it...well almost all. One 19 year old boy asked if he could be baptized this Sunday after only asking him if the missionaries had spoken of baptism before. It worries be a little bit when the people are that accepting. I told him with a little preparation and a lot of church attendance he could be baptized.
We passed by on of our investigators the other day only to find her slightly drunk. When told her we couldn't teach her in the state she was in, she put out her hand and asked for forgiveness. She continued to do that for about 5 minutes. I shook the woman's hand about 10 times. I completely hate alcohol and what it does to people. It is in abundance here and anyone can buy it. They sell wine in little cardboard cartons. There only 2.60 pesos and there is no control. It is ridiculous how much the men drink.
That is all for this week. Things are going well. We have an air conditioning unit in our bedroom so the heat doesn't effect me at night. My companion Elder Robertson from Green River, Utah loves the machine and puts it on timer so that it is pumping when we get home. He has be out in the mission for about 10 months. He speaks some Spanish but isn't completely there. He reminds me of Jared. He is a funny fellow. The other day we went to a less active to talk with her. She had some grapes growing on the side of her house in the same fashion as in Belgrano. I asked her if they were ripe and she cut some off to try them. My comp tried them and told her they weren't ripe. He then threw them above the grapes to get rid of them. When they landed above the plant they fell through and the woman thought that they just fell from the plant. She picked them up and said that maybe those ones were ripe and made me try them. I couldn't help but laugh when she brought them over to me to try for the second time. If this wasn't funny, it is just one of those things you have to be there for.
That is all for this week. Love you all. Chau
Elder Hunsaker
It rained yesterday and drop the temperature down a few degrees. The streets turned to mud and that was fun especially now that I have to wash my clothes in a bucket while I shower. haha. My comp just stomps on his clothes while they are in the bucket. I'm not sure it does the job well enough. Maybe I'll just buy a little washing machine for 350 pesos. I think it would be well worth it for the time that I will spend here in this area washing my clothes by hand or foot. I'm sure I could sell it to someone when I leave in 9 months.
This Sunday we have district conference and I will be playing the piano for the choir that will sing. The choir is quite a funny little group of people. There is one guy that doesn't know he is tone deaf and likes to sing real loud. The rest just try to get along with the piano and the rhythm.
I have done my first little interview with our only attending priest. He wants to get his Duty to God award so I am now working with him on it. We have a laurel that was recently baptized that is about to finish her young women's award "thingy". I will be recognizing her in sacrament meeting in two weeks. I never thought I'd be doing Bishop Beards job.
The people here are a lot more friendly. They let you into their house really fast. We just say baptism and all of them want it...well almost all. One 19 year old boy asked if he could be baptized this Sunday after only asking him if the missionaries had spoken of baptism before. It worries be a little bit when the people are that accepting. I told him with a little preparation and a lot of church attendance he could be baptized.
We passed by on of our investigators the other day only to find her slightly drunk. When told her we couldn't teach her in the state she was in, she put out her hand and asked for forgiveness. She continued to do that for about 5 minutes. I shook the woman's hand about 10 times. I completely hate alcohol and what it does to people. It is in abundance here and anyone can buy it. They sell wine in little cardboard cartons. There only 2.60 pesos and there is no control. It is ridiculous how much the men drink.
That is all for this week. Things are going well. We have an air conditioning unit in our bedroom so the heat doesn't effect me at night. My companion Elder Robertson from Green River, Utah loves the machine and puts it on timer so that it is pumping when we get home. He has be out in the mission for about 10 months. He speaks some Spanish but isn't completely there. He reminds me of Jared. He is a funny fellow. The other day we went to a less active to talk with her. She had some grapes growing on the side of her house in the same fashion as in Belgrano. I asked her if they were ripe and she cut some off to try them. My comp tried them and told her they weren't ripe. He then threw them above the grapes to get rid of them. When they landed above the plant they fell through and the woman thought that they just fell from the plant. She picked them up and said that maybe those ones were ripe and made me try them. I couldn't help but laugh when she brought them over to me to try for the second time. If this wasn't funny, it is just one of those things you have to be there for.
That is all for this week. Love you all. Chau
Elder Hunsaker
Thursday, December 4, 2008
New area in Clorinda, Formosa and being calling of branch president
Dear family, 12-04-08
I have finally made my way to Clorinda, Formosa. My area is about 15 minutes away from Paraguay. My branch is supposedly a branch of women and I am their Branch President. I found out that I would be the branch president when I arrived in the terminal in Formosa capital. I don´t even have a clue as of what to do. I will be starting the tithing settlements because the last two elders didn´t do anything with those. My mind is slightly wasted after traveling for so long so I hope that you all can understand this letter.
Here are the Cuevas and Lopez/Sotelo families the night of transfers. The first photo contains; Me, Alejandro, and Carla. The second photo contains; Victoria, Me, Emilce, and Leila. I have a video of Leila talking to all of my nieces and nephews. She reminds me of an Argentine version of Kennedy and Kauri.
In my trip here I passed through Corrientes capital and saw Elder Patton in the terminal. I was able to take a few pictures of Corrientes and the bridge to Chaco. After crossing the bridge I saw this sign and enjoyed it. In my traveling I passed through Corrientes, Chaco, and ended in Formosa. I felt welcome in Formosa after seeing the welcome sign. If only I knew the home means Formosa song (mom would have sung it for sure). The border patrol sign say that Formosa receives me (Formosa lo recibe).
THE CRUZ(cross)
Before receiving the call about transfers I was debating if I could take another transfer in Belgrano. I wanted to stay in Belgrano and help the branch out a little bit more. I would have had a nice Christmas there but oh well. It was a wonderfully long 7 ½ months (meses).
I will now be reading the church manuals day and night because I haven´t the slightest clue as to how to run a branch as branch president. We´ll see how this goes. I know that I will need the Lord more than ever if I am to succeed in this position. I believe that this calls for a little bit of humility. Thank you all for everything. I love you all and hope that you will pray for me a lot more now. Chau
Elder Hunsaker
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