25 February 2009 SHORT EMAIL
I believe that I will be doing a little bit of emailing tomorrow so this will be quick. Transfers came and now I am training. At this very moment I am in Resistencia, Chaco. I am just waiting for the dinner with Pres. del Castillo and my nuevito(newby). Elder Robertson is here in Resistencia with a latino comp. I don't know what I will do if they give me a gringo. I will have to do everything in the branch. I will write tomorrow when my comp writes. Love you all. Chau.
Hola, 2-26-09
Well, it all started Tuesday night with the transfer information. The zone leaders called and told my comp that he would not be here for our baptism of the Britez family this weekend. He was then devastated. He wasn't too happy about that one. I was told that I was going to be training. I was afraid when they told me that I would be training. I didn't want to deal with that and the branch especially if it was a gringo.
I went with Elder Robertson to Resistencia at 10:45am. We arrived in Resistencia at 3:30pm. He went to his new area and I went to the office to wait for the dinner appointment with Pres. Del Castillo. We had a training meeting at 7pm and then we ate at 8pm. We met our greenies at 9pm and we made our way to the assistants’ pensión at 10:30pm. We finally fell asleep at about 11:30pm or 12am. We then had to wake up at 4:30am and get to the terminal to catch the 5:30 colectivo to Formosa. We finally arrived in Clorinda at about 10:20am. My comp is exhausted from his lengthy trip. He hasn't showered since Monday morning. Oh boy do I remember those days. Right after dropping his bags at the pension, we had our district meeting to attend. He will hopefully receive a shower in about 2 hours!
My companion is Elder Pruess from South Ogden, UT. He doesn't exactly speak castellano. He will need to learn quickly because he will be directing some of the meetings at church. He worked in construction with his dad before he came to the mission. He hasn't entered into any studies yet. He is a really good elder. Hopefully it doesn't take too much time for him to adapt to the language. We'll try teaching tonight. WOO HOO!
My comp was pleasantly surprised to find out that we have a baptism this weekend. Antonio and Sonya Britez are a young couple that was taught once by the elders in the other branch but they live in our area. We started teaching them and finished the teaching process. It was a nice gift for us because they all ready had a baptismal date when we started teaching them. They had assisted the other branch with Antonio´s sister. It is a good thing that we have this family because the Duarte family moved from our branch boundaries last week.
I will be sure to send pictures of my trip next week when I write. I love you all and hope for the best for each of you. Hasta la próxima. Until next time. Chau.
Elder Hunsaker
P.S. We ate chicken cordón bleu for dinner. Mmmm. We had ice cream too. Sister Del Castillo was the cook and she did a great job.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
2-18-09
Hola Buenas Tardes, 2-18-09
It is a wonderful sunny day here in Clorinda, Formosa. The rain has stopped finally and my white shirts don't have a mildewish smell to them anymore. You just can't dry clothing very well with 100% humidity. My pants are now back to their original and different colors and not just mud brown. I have never seen my shoes in such a terribly muddy condition. I took the sunset picture right next to our pensión. The road was covered in water so it looked really pretty.
This past week, my comp and I worked and worked and worked. We found 32 new investigators. Out of the thirty, we are teaching a brother of a member and his family. They already have a baptismal date for the 28th of February because they had been going to church in the other branch. The missionaries there put that date with them even though they live in our area. We are now teaching them and they are awesome. Antonio and Sonya Britez are the coolest. Antonio got in a motorcycle accident a little while back. He got in the wreck because of alcohol. So he promised his wife he wouldn't drink anymore. Talk about being prepared for the gospel. They are a really wonderful couple. It is really good that we have them because one of my two Melchizedek Priesthood holders and his family are moving into the other branch this week. We will miss the Duarte family and their reliability.
Sunday was an interesting day. We have 25 people in church and I was in a district meeting for the first two hours of church. Our ex-Jehovah´s Witness investigator Juan Bautista (John Baptist) came and enjoyed himself. He will definitely be receiving his baptismal date. He knows he isn't doing the right thing living with a woman and not being married to her. They have been together for 13 years. She is Catholic and told us that she is idolatrous. Juan has shown her through the Bible all the things she needs to change. He is really fun to teach because he knows so much. He still calls Jehovah - God but we'll get there soon enough. He just needs to know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true.
Tonight I will be having our branch council. I have now acquired binders with manuals, calendars, and all sorts of stuff for my leaders. We will soon be planning machines!!! I hope that they can keep up. They are going to be learning a lot about planning things in advance. No more last minute garbage. By the time we are finished, they will know what they are going to eat on April 12th 2020, well, maybe not that far ahead. I hope this takes flight.
Today we played some paddle ball. We got all nice and sweaty and then got back into our proselyting clothes. I might as well have played in my proselyting clothes with how wet they were after I put them back on. Check out my crazy nasty farmers tan. SICK!
My comp hasn't abused any animals this week. Wait I think I lied. Elder Robertson did destroy a few hundred spiders or so. However, I don't know if that counts as animal abuse if nobody likes them.
That is all that has happened since last week. I hope that everyone is doing well.
Love you all.
Adios.
Elder Hunsaker
It is a wonderful sunny day here in Clorinda, Formosa. The rain has stopped finally and my white shirts don't have a mildewish smell to them anymore. You just can't dry clothing very well with 100% humidity. My pants are now back to their original and different colors and not just mud brown. I have never seen my shoes in such a terribly muddy condition. I took the sunset picture right next to our pensión. The road was covered in water so it looked really pretty.
This past week, my comp and I worked and worked and worked. We found 32 new investigators. Out of the thirty, we are teaching a brother of a member and his family. They already have a baptismal date for the 28th of February because they had been going to church in the other branch. The missionaries there put that date with them even though they live in our area. We are now teaching them and they are awesome. Antonio and Sonya Britez are the coolest. Antonio got in a motorcycle accident a little while back. He got in the wreck because of alcohol. So he promised his wife he wouldn't drink anymore. Talk about being prepared for the gospel. They are a really wonderful couple. It is really good that we have them because one of my two Melchizedek Priesthood holders and his family are moving into the other branch this week. We will miss the Duarte family and their reliability.
Sunday was an interesting day. We have 25 people in church and I was in a district meeting for the first two hours of church. Our ex-Jehovah´s Witness investigator Juan Bautista (John Baptist) came and enjoyed himself. He will definitely be receiving his baptismal date. He knows he isn't doing the right thing living with a woman and not being married to her. They have been together for 13 years. She is Catholic and told us that she is idolatrous. Juan has shown her through the Bible all the things she needs to change. He is really fun to teach because he knows so much. He still calls Jehovah - God but we'll get there soon enough. He just needs to know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true.
Tonight I will be having our branch council. I have now acquired binders with manuals, calendars, and all sorts of stuff for my leaders. We will soon be planning machines!!! I hope that they can keep up. They are going to be learning a lot about planning things in advance. No more last minute garbage. By the time we are finished, they will know what they are going to eat on April 12th 2020, well, maybe not that far ahead. I hope this takes flight.
Today we played some paddle ball. We got all nice and sweaty and then got back into our proselyting clothes. I might as well have played in my proselyting clothes with how wet they were after I put them back on. Check out my crazy nasty farmers tan. SICK!
My comp hasn't abused any animals this week. Wait I think I lied. Elder Robertson did destroy a few hundred spiders or so. However, I don't know if that counts as animal abuse if nobody likes them.
That is all that has happened since last week. I hope that everyone is doing well.
Love you all.
Adios.
Elder Hunsaker
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Baptism of Gabriela
Hello a todos, 2-11-09
The weather here has been the same for the last couple of weeks. It just rains and keeps raining. Because of the rain our power went off for about 10 hours. It went out at about 10pm and came back on at about 8am. It was extremely hard to get to sleep with the thick hot air. My comp tried sleeping on the ground and then just ended up writing in his journal for most of the night. Some how I was able to sleep most of the night.
Our district has a temple date planned for all of the branches. They will be going to the temple in Asunción which is about 30-50 minutes away from here. I would like to go but I can't. I have a sister who wants to go and receive her endowments. Everyone that wants to go needs to pay 20 pesos. No one has money so we will be making empanadas and selling them to raise money for the temple trip. This is the closest that I have been to a temple in the last year. Maybe one day the missionaries from here will be able to go to the temple in Paraguay.
Last Saturday we had the baptism of Gabriela. It went over really well. She was really nervous about going under the water. The baptismal service went nice and smooth. We did a special musical number for the service and it was awesome. I played an arrangement of “Come Thou Fount” and E´ Robertson, E´ Redford, and E´ Stone sang using the words from the hymn, Joseph Smith's First Prayer.
I do have a funny story for everyone. Two nights ago my comp made chocolate chip pancakes for us to eat. We weren't able to finish them so we tossed the remains outside for the neighborhood dogs. Happy Valentines day to everyone. Valentines day isn't celebrated here like it is in the states. I love you all. Talk to you next week.
Elder Hunsaker
The weather here has been the same for the last couple of weeks. It just rains and keeps raining. Because of the rain our power went off for about 10 hours. It went out at about 10pm and came back on at about 8am. It was extremely hard to get to sleep with the thick hot air. My comp tried sleeping on the ground and then just ended up writing in his journal for most of the night. Some how I was able to sleep most of the night.
Our district has a temple date planned for all of the branches. They will be going to the temple in Asunción which is about 30-50 minutes away from here. I would like to go but I can't. I have a sister who wants to go and receive her endowments. Everyone that wants to go needs to pay 20 pesos. No one has money so we will be making empanadas and selling them to raise money for the temple trip. This is the closest that I have been to a temple in the last year. Maybe one day the missionaries from here will be able to go to the temple in Paraguay.
Last Saturday we had the baptism of Gabriela. It went over really well. She was really nervous about going under the water. The baptismal service went nice and smooth. We did a special musical number for the service and it was awesome. I played an arrangement of “Come Thou Fount” and E´ Robertson, E´ Redford, and E´ Stone sang using the words from the hymn, Joseph Smith's First Prayer.
I do have a funny story for everyone. Two nights ago my comp made chocolate chip pancakes for us to eat. We weren't able to finish them so we tossed the remains outside for the neighborhood dogs. Happy Valentines day to everyone. Valentines day isn't celebrated here like it is in the states. I love you all. Talk to you next week.
Elder Hunsaker
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
2-4-09
Well, hello,
This last week has flown by and I am here in the cyber again. We had zone conference this past Thursday and it was really good. We got to eat the tasty lomitos arabe. It is kinda like a pita filled with steak ,chicken,sauce and tasty stuff. I got two packages from the Musgrove family with some good snacks and some mac and cheese. I got some pictures from them that made me a little trunky.
On Sunday, we were able to spilt up our classes a little bit better. The young women were all together in their classroom. We handed out all of the progress books to the girls. I am really excited to have things a little bit more organized. My Sunday School teacher came and taught her gospel doctrine class. I taught the principles class. We had 37 people in the sacrament meeting and it was a really good testimony meeting. Six of our investigators came to church.Gabriela will be having her interview this Thursday. We will see what happens this Saturday.
This past Saturday I directed a baptismal service for the Primavera branch that is situated in a Toba colony about an hour away from Clorinda. The Elders in Laguna Blanca were the missionaries that taught the kids. I went out there with Elder Contreras to do the interviews. It was really fun to meet these people. They are some of the native tribes around here. They speak Toba and almost don´t understand Spanish. I tried to learn a little bit but they couldn´t understand Spanish nor English. After the baptisms, we had to find a way home. Elder Contreras put all of his tack into flagging down a remis on the highway.
Speaking of languages, I am trying to learn a little bit of Guaraní. Lots of people speak this language because we are so close the Paraguay. Mom, you need to ask Brandon Hall if he ever heard of the ward Porto Elsa or Porto Pablina. I can´t remember the exact name of the ward in Paraguay but I have some members that came from that ward.
Last night I was doing divisions with Elder Salmond (ZL) and we were out in the middle of nowhere when a huge storm came through and left us soaking wet. We ran 7 blocks to get to a member´s house but we didn´t run fast enough. As we were running lots of the people there started laughing at the funny gringos running for dear life. One little girl screamed at us that it was going to rain and that we were basically gonners. We finally reached the member´s house and we were able to teach the boyfriend of the member while we sat there waiting for the rain to stop.
Today we played a game that is like Risk but it is called T.E.G. I won once and my comp won the second time. It was fun but it took a lot of time to play. I don´t know if we will be repeating it next Wednesday. I hope that all is well back home. I love you all and I´ll be on next week like always. Chau
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
