1-28-09

HOLA, 1-28-09

So I did the same this week with the pictures. Last pday we went and played basquet with Lucas the son of the combi driver and his friends. Elder Stone is the giant greeny of Elder Redford. He is 6´7” and played for a college team. He worked my comp over. He was stuffing the ball in his face the whole game. Elder Stone towers over everyone here. We played inside of this huge warehouse that belongs to the Armed forces here. One of the kids is a member of the club but we still got kicked out as we were trying to start the second round. It was funny being kicked out of some place for being a missionary.
The little girl is Tahlia the daughter of the awesome Duarte family. The food is what we ate last Thursday. It is polenta and I don´t like it very much when they don´t put much sauce on it or anything. We made polenta last week because we had nothing else. My comp almost puked afterward. Haha.
We had 33 people in church. I was able to sustain and set apart all the people I had previously called. I also added a 1st counselor to the Young Women’s presidency. Things should start to improve around here. We had our branch council and set up visiting teachers. The following council we will set up the families for each couple. I know that once they start visiting, the numbers will increase and we can start improving more things.
We are still trying to clean up the ward list. We have taken out over 30 people that do not live here anymore. We have about 1/3 of the list left to visit and correct. There are more names that we need to take off the list but we are waiting on info like, dates of death, directions, phone numbers, etc... I should be finished with this by the end of February.
In February we hope to have 4-6 baptisms. Gabriela will be baptized on the 7th , Pedro will be baptized on the 14th, and Lucia and Daiana will be baptized on the 21st. If we are lucky the Espinoza family with come to church and we will put a date with them too. They are a really cool family. The dad is like 300 pounds or more. I´m not quite sure how he will be baptized but I believe that we will get to that point. Maybe we will put a chair in the font and just lean him back.
Today my comp and I will be celebrating his year and my 15 months with all the zone. We have a member bringing Pizza Hut pizza from Asunción and a little Mountain Dew if he remembers. We will be eating and playing my board game LIFE. It should be lots of fun.
I had something special to say but I don´t remember what it was. I guess it wasn´t that special. I am doing well here. It rained again yesterday and with that came some hail.

Love you all, Elder Hunsaker

Lavaropa, oh my dear lavaropa!

Hola,

So I got really tired of trying to separate the pictures in this letter. I absolutely cannot stand open office. It just makes it so difficult to send pictures and write about them. I finally took the pictures of my lavaropa. When I use it I feel just like the lady on the side of it. Just thinking about the 1 año/year guarantee makes feel good too. Too bad I won´t be here to benefit from it.











It was made known to me that I will be hitting my 15 quince mark. Down here all the girls get excited when they reach 15(quince). Their parents go into huge debts just to throw a gigantic party for everyone. I will be throwing a huge party for my quince. My comp and I will likely eat large amounts of ice cream and go to work. My comp just hit his year mark and will be doing the kilo challenge. I think he´ll be able to make it through it.
Well this last Sunday was kinda a bummer. We had 8 people in church because it rained and some people thought the combi wouldn´t do it´s route. They were wrong and lazy. The church does something miraculous when it rains down here. When it rains the church disappears and no one goes. Either that or they think it becomes less true when it is raining I haven´t quite figured it out. I have seen this phenomenon during my mission and I am slightly tired of it. Because of the shortage of members, my comp and I had to give talks off the top of our heads. I just love the responsibility that we find down here.
We may have a baptism this Saturday if our investigator isn´t doubting still. She just doesn´t want to join and then fall away or do something wrong. We told her all about the Holy Ghost and that she will have the help of the members. She spoke with the district president for her interview and they were talking for about an hour. She will be getting baptized it is just a thing of when.
I have now called a Young Womens President, a first counselor in the Primary, a Sunday School teacher, and a branch Mission Leader. We will see if I can fill in a few more spots. I am slightly worried about my Relief Society presidency. The president is starting to have some health issues and is becoming less active. The first counselor has a lot of family problems and is a member of three years and doesn´t understand exactly how God tests us. I just worry for the success of this branch if I can´t find responsible faithful leaders.
I know that the Lord will bless me if I do what He asks. I know that fear and doubt never come from the side of God. Only our opposition puts those thoughts and feeling in our minds. I hope to be able to find a house for our meetings in our area so that I can stop paying for the combi every week and so we can start to have a more active branch with activities and all that good stuff.
It is slightly difficult to find a place when their homes are all small and they are all the same. My area is filled with viviendas. Viviendas are government housing that the gov. gives away to whoever. It´s like a lottery. It really just cripples these people because it allows them to slide through their lives without a single day of real work. They aren´t too fond of the whole notion of WORK.



I hope that we will be able to instill some work ethics in our members here so that the church can actually grow. I love you all and hope all is well with changes in the states. Everyone tells us about our new President about 5 times a day.

Sinceramente,

Elder Hunsaker

Lots of Investigators and Lots of Rain

Everyone,
Well another week as passed by in a second. We just had the good ol' transfers and as I was expecting, nothing happened here. From Thursday of last week until now, my companion and I have found a total 30 new investigators. I worry that they will disappear as fast as we found them. We have two baptism dates. Gabriela Medina will be baptized on the 24 of this month. Pedro Valenzuela will be baptized on the 14 of February. We are hoping for two more baptisms in February.

Last Sunday was a bummer in assistance. We only had 30 in church. We had three investigators there. We almost had 5 but they had to leave before sacrament meeting started. The reason why that had to leave was because I sent them home. The two investigators came to church with a less active member and let's just say that they weren't going to be able to learn or feel the spirit. I had to call a taxi and send them back to their homes. We had explained to one about the word of wisdom. I guess it just didn't take when we explained it. The investigator lost the baptism date and we'll just see if it returns.

I've now started to have our branch council meetings. I'm trying to get my organizations filled with leaders and I am working on having something called home and visiting teachers. Maybe someday the members here will understand what record keeping is. I am asking for assistance sheets and trying to implement what the church has written in the manual that I read like a bible. Things are looking up.

I hope that everything is going well back home. We were walking home from an appointment two nights ago when it started pouring rain. We got home completely soaked. I took of my shoes and poured out even more water. My new missionary planner is now water logged and wrinkly and all fat now. Oh well.

I love you all and I'll make sure to write again next week. I WILL TAKE A PICTURE OF THE WASHING MACHINE that works oh so nicely.

CHAU,

Elder Hunsaker