Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Just another day in . . .

Buenos Días,

This past week was a fairly slow one. We went to Laguna Blanca to visit with the less actives there. The reason for the visit is that an evangelical pastor there is visiting the members active, less active, and investigators. He is showing them some sort of anti-Mormon video. President del Castillo wants us to go there and visit for the next three weeks. Apparently the video talks about all of the benefits that the members in the states receive that the people here don't. I don't know exactly what the whole situation is but we'll be visiting members for the next 3 weeks or so. This past Saturday I was in the Toba colony with the District President. He bought chipa for my comp and I. We enjoyed some tasty pomelo juice (grapefruit).

On Sunday, we had a much better turn out. Elder Pruess gave his first complete talk. He was assigned to talk about the atonement and did a good job. During his talk, two of the sisters in the meeting couldn't contain themselves and starting laughing during his talk from something he said. It was funny to watch the two sisters place the hymn books in front of their faces to cover themselves from the view of Elder Pruess. You should have seen how much those two hymn books were shaking as the sisters kept laughing. One of the sisters got up and left for a few minutes because she couldn't handle it. I asked my comp later if he had seen the two sisters. He told me that he hadn't because he had his head down the whole time just reading what he wrote. I think it is good thing that he didn't look up.

Yesterday as we were out “tracting” we found a coati (South American version of the raccoon) in someone's yard. We are planning on returning later to speak with the family a little more and take some photos. The kid that lives there told us it is their pet and that they had bought it from some Paraguayan salesman that came by their house. What don’t the Paraguayans sell.

We continue to work towards some baptisms but our investigators just aren’t making it there. We have one hopeful at this moment and two others that are near hopeful. I really hope that the members start helping us out a lot more. We handed out a bunch of reference papers with questions on them to help the members think of their friends. I believe that we will see some success from the papers.

Zone conference was really good. President talked all about the last week of Christ's life and I learned a ton. I didn't know that President del Castillo was in the area presidency of South America South. I also found another a story in the Liahona that he wrote. That puts him to a total of 2 articles in the Liahona.

We had a really good turn out to our weekly branch family home evening. We held it in the house of a sister that can't go to church for health reasons. She thoroughly enjoyed having the members in her house to share some time together. I gave the lesson and another sister came up with the activity which had to do with scripture searching. If you lost the scripture search, you had to pick a candy out of a mound of flour with your teeth. It was fun to watch them get flour on their faces.

As for the conference call this next Saturday it would be best to do it around 1pm our time. I can't do it later because we have a zone activity a little later. I also need a way to call home. I wasn't able to get a hold of a calling card this time around and they don't exist here in Clorinda. I hope that you can find a solution for that problem. Love you all and we’ll be talking soon. Chau

Con amor,
Elder Hunsaker













Wednesday, April 22, 2009

RISKing Away Time, Electrical Problems and Sponges

Buenos Días, 4-22-09

Here in Clorinda things haven't changed very much since Friday. The temperature is the only thing that has changed. Right now it is cool and humid. We had a little bit of rain last night but nothing really happened.

Today we just took it easy and played RISK in the chapel and that was about it. We played for quite a while and then everyone got tired of the time consuming game. We got frustrated and made dumb choices and then Elder Salmond won. I was disappointed with the loss but I'll be all right.

We had another fun experience in the pench. We came home after lunch Monday to find that our power was not working right. We called the electrician but he couldn't come until Tuesday morning. I was happy to be starting the divisions and going to the area of the zone leaders. Elder Salmond had to sleep in the dark and my comp took a very cold shower in the morning. I came home to find out that the electrician had busted a hole in the wall to put in new wiring and solve the problem. Now we have power but our from porch light doesn't work anymore and one of our lights inside the pench doesn't work either. My companion told me that the light in our study room blew up when they turned on the power and that the shower was sparking while Elder Salmond used it. I hope that the home doesn't burn down. We now have a new control switch instead of the old 50's looking one. I will have to take pictures of the mess next Wednesday.

Tomorrow we have the normal zone conference and we will be eating the always tasty lomito arabe. I will take a photo of it so that you can all be jealous of the deliciousness. It should be a good conference. We will see if there are any new changes in the mission. We'll find out if we will receive a little more money in our accounts every month. It is nice to know that they want to give me a little more of my money. My comp has been struggling with the money issue ever since he bought himself some shorts and a few alligator wallets and watches. He certainly likes to acquire things.

I love you all and I hope that more happens in the following week so that I can add some good stories. This Saturday I will be in Laguna Blanca to help the elders there. I figure that it will be a good source of stories. Hasta la próxima.

Elder Hunsaker

FOTOS

Here is our little pet lizard that is always on our pench walls.



Here is the giant bee that helps pollinate the other sponge making plants.



It kind of looks like a cucumber and it is really heavy before it dries out.




This thing really scrubs. It has an interesting smell for the first couple of uses.


The “growable” sponge

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Water Tank Frogs, Pastelitos and Peanut Butter

Howdy, 4-15-09
This morning was a particularly fun one. My comp had finished showering and it was my turn. We had our water pump on and we were filling the tank on top of the house. I started showering and right when I had soap all over me the water cut out. I was hoping that it was my comp just using water in another part of the house but it wasn't. In the end I had to put my clothes on and go check things out. We looked at our water reserve tank in the ground and we found a bunch of stuff growing inside the tank. Our neighbor saw us and came over to help. According to the grapevine (thanks synonym finder) we aren't even connected to the reserve tank in the ground. We are unswervingly (synonym finder) connected to the city's water network and the city decided to cut the water until 1pm today. I decided that I should probably wash off the dry soap suds so we went over to the district leader's pench.
P.S. We also found a little frog that made his home in our water tank.






We have finally started to rent the combi again so that we actually have people in church on Sunday. This past Sunday there were 28 in the sacrament meeting and 34 in the classes before. I called a second counselor for the relief society. I expect (synonym) that it will help that organization. I am now on the hunt (synonym) for a Young Women's president and I will probably rummage around (synonym) for a few counselors.
Today the internet stopped working for a while. If you get this today it is because the internet started working again. If not then you know the answer. I don´t understand why Clorinda hast to make things so difficult.
This Saturday is the temple trip. However, it looks to me as though nobody will be going. The sister that was going to get her endowment wants to wait until June. A few of the sisters decided to do the same and many of the members didn't come to the interviews. I told the district presidency that we would have ten and now it looks like we will have 0. Who knows what will come to pass (synonym) tomorrow. The sisters are going to continue making pastelitos and empanadas until they go to the temple and until they go to Formosa for their patriarchal blessings. I´m delighted (synonym) that they are at least planning something. Haha!






Our investigator pool is dwindling away. We had a good group of families but they have all told us that they don´t have time for us. I guess they'll figure things out when they have all the time in the world. Our goal for the month was one family and we were really close but nada.
The other day Elder Stone discovered that he could make homemade peanut butter. So today we had a PB & J party to celebrate his discovery. The peanut butter reminded me of the peanut butter that dad always buys at the health food stores. It was a little on the salty side but still delectable (synonym). Elder Stone's next project is reese's peanut butter cups.




Everything continues to go fairly well here. The weather is changing slowly from really really really hot to just really hot. I hope that all is well back home. I hear rather (synonym) a lot about that Obama character and Cuba. I hope to hear a little less about that from everyone here if at all possible. I love you all and wish (synonym) to hear from you. Adios
Elder Hunsaker

Mas Fotos Con Explicaciones
This is our new study area. If you can´t tell, my comp is learning Spanish.



We found these kids fishing in the zanja (wash way or ditch). They would pull snails out of it first and then smash them open and use them as bait. They caught 5 little tiny fish that look like catfish.





This is the neighborhood swimming pool. The water company owns it and probably makes bank from this place during the summer. It has basketball courts and sand volleyball courts. I can already see the flyers for the 2010 Hunsaker reunion.



Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Don't Skip These Crazy Pictures

The internet went out yesterday and so today is the day for internet use. 4-09-09 I also forgot to mention that this is semana santa (holy week). I don't remember the Catholics celebrating this in the states.

Hello,

Well we received some news that wasn't worth hearing this past week. The Church has a new rule that says that in order to have a chapel or rent a building it now needs to be 5 kilometers away from the chapel downtown. The old rule was 3 kilometers and now they have changed it and it doesn't make me too happy. We had just found that house that we could have rented. We were so excited but now the Lord is just testing the members to see how strong they are. I worry that they may not be strong enough for this blow.

The conference was spectacular. We were able to watch it all. My comp understood the hymns that were in English but that is about it. We weren't as blessed to watch it in English like we have been before. Elder Pruess will just have to read it in the Liahona later on. During the second session Saturday, a strong storm passed through and almost took out the power. We lost about 20 mins of conference due to the storm. Everyone was praying right when the signal went down and we were able to watch almost all of the session.

Elder Derek Atkinson sent me an email telling me that he has now finished his mission. He served in Bahia Blanca Argentina. He tells me that we'll hang out soon. Haha. He left in February of 07 and I can't believe how the time has flown by like this. Last night we received the news about transfers and nothing has changed in the whole zone. All the same elders will be here for 6 more weeks. The sister missionaries that came with me will be going home in about 3 weeks and that is just wrong. When is mother's day? I ask because I will be calling in little over a month.

I believe that we will have a total of 10 members going to the temple this trip. We hope to have a bunch more for the trip in June. This week the sisters have changed their products from empanadas to pastelitos. The pastelitos are a dessert kind of thing. They put some kind of filling in the middle of the empanada shells and fold them up and deep fry them like everything else. My comp wants everything he eats to be deep fried. Haha. Speaking of food, today we ate an asado with one of our investigators. It was sooooo good. He cut off a piece of complete fat and tossed it on my comp´s plate. The look on the face of E' Pruess was priceless. The other day we found some pomelos that were extra large. Seeing how my comp loves the pomelos so much, we asked for two. Boy, were they big. By the time we got home my arm had become sore just from carrying the thing.









Well that is pretty much all that has happened since last week. I love you all. Chau!

Elder Hunsaker

Here are a few random pictures with explanations.


DISFRUTENLAS or ENJOY THEM We had recently left from zone meeting when we found this huge lady bug.



He is a wood pecker just to annoy dad. I heard it pecking our tree while I was reading.



This right here is our member referral contest between the branches. As you can see my branch wasn´t too pumped up to help out in the missionary work.




This comes from the Bolivia mission. A member served there and said that this is on one side of a temple that is near Lake Titicaca. This is above one of the entrances to the temple ruins there. There are two other entrances to the temple. The other two entrances have the symbols of the stars and the moon above them. Slightly interesting, huh….. The member says that Pres. Kimball described what this means. You can try and find something about it. If you find anything you need to let me know.



As we were returning from our district meeting today we found this lechón (baby pig) roasting up. We wanted to join the family for this semana santa (holy week) asado.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

We're Going Live in 3, 2, 1 . . . McD's Commercial

Hola, 4-1-09
Hey so this week has been full of ups and downs. We were having a tough week in the work and I wasn't feeling all that excited. However, things changed after our fast and testimony meeting that was full of ten people. We left the meeting on foot and were headed home when we decided to stop by the house of the district president. We stopped by but he wasn't there so we talked with his son for a second. He showed up shortly after. We spoke with him about the whole chapel situation. How we had tried everything and looked everywhere. He showed us a magazine that has all sorts of things that are for sell. We went straight to the page with homes on it. We found three homes for sale in our area. We looked at the directions and found the one that was in the best location. We ended up calling the owner and we went with Pres and his wife to the house to take a look at it. It turns out that the owner is one of our former investigators. The house is perfect in every aspect. Our district president wants to buy the house so that the church can rent it. The price of the house is 20,000 pesos which is a bit but Pres says that he can have that much in about two months. I believe the Lord has blessed us with this opportunity. I am convinced that because of the fasting and the prayers that the members did is the real reason why we found this home. We fasted too but I'm sure they fasted better. We continue to pray that this will all work out for the good of the branch. I would ask you all to pray that we may have a chapel in our area.
Today we had our radio show for 30 minutes. More like we paid for a 30 minute spot on the radio. We invited everyone to General Conference this weekend. We also shared the Proclamation to the World and the living Christ. We all spoke for three minute periods and then we had music breaks. Then we continue with another three minute run. It went over really well. I think we will be doing it again on Friday and playing a few sound clips from previous conferences. I want to use the talk that Elder Holland gave about our belief in Christ. We'll see what happens.




Last week I made mention of the cilantro that we found. I will now make mention of the salsa that we devoured. It was extremely tasty. We were given a special kind of pepper that they have here that is really spicy but nobody eats it. We threw that in and it was even better. The home made tortilla chips were a project. We tried all sorts of ways to get the chips just right. We made them from flour tortillas so it was a little bit different but it still tasted good.

Brother Ibañez made our day and night when he brought us McDonald's that he bought in Asunción that day. He heated it up and it just disappeared. I didn't think the big mac would really taste like a real one, it did. We were extremely HAPPY☺ after that MEAL. He was the one that gave us those spicy peppers. MMMmmm…. MMmm…. Mm… I'm lovin' it!





I don't want anyone to ask people to give money to my branch members. They will sell empanadas and they will be fine. There aren't that many going so we should be fine. I paid for the products so they could start and I think that is enough. Please do not ask people for money.
I love you all and hope you enjoyed the news this week. Keep praying that we get a chapel. Love, Elder Hunsaker