New companion, Elder Ramos, enjoying my last weeks in Argentina

Dear you all, 9-28-09

Last Wednesday my companion got transferred to Ibarreta, Formosa. He was sad to leave but what are you going to do. My new comp is Elder Ramos. He's from New Jersey. His dad is from El Salvador and his mom is from Mexico. We get along really well and he's a really good kid. He goes home in January. So Libres will send yet another elder home. He was baptized when he was 12 with his mom, brothers and sisters. His parents have been divorced for a while but his family is strong in the gospel.

Time is ticking down for me and I'm trying to work as hard as possible. I'm hoping to see miracles with the members here. I think it's funny that now that there is so little time, I enjoy the mission more than ever.

I don't know if I'll know what to do when I get home. I'll have a new bishop and ward and who knows what else. It is certainly going to be interesting. There are way too many changes going right now. I think the next change I should hear is that Mom and Dad are moving into a new house. That would be a miracle.

Our investigator pool is a little dry right now. We are praying and fasting to find those that are prepared to receive us. I truly hope that the Lord sees us worthy of his blessings.

General Conference has us all excited. We talk to everyone about it. We are hoping to have lots of non-members there for some of the sessions. We handed out invitations to the members so that they could invite their friends. It will be nice to listen to conference in English this time around.

This Thursday we will be going to Resistencia to our regular meeting with the zone leaders and President. Next week we have conference and some time in this transfer we have to make a trip to Monte Caseros to pick up the things that were left there when it was closed three transfers ago. My comp said that Monte Caseros is the only place in the whole mission where you can see Uruguay so I'm pretty stoked about that trip.

Bueno, love you all and expect to hear from you before I come home. CHAU

Elder Hunsaker

Baptism of Marcos

To whom it may concern, Sept 21, 09

So on Saturday we had the baptism of Marcos Quiroga. We finaly completed the Quiroga family. Elder Rapp baptized the mom but none of the kids wanted to be baptized then. But now they do. Romualdo lost his baptismal date and I doubt we will be putting another one with him. It seems to me that he was more interested in $$$ than in true religion. We are hoping that his thoughts do not affect those of his daughter. I had felt something before going there and I basically knew exactly what he was going to tell us. So I stopped him and told him what he was about to say. We will see what happens in the future with this fellow.

Yesterday we both gave talks and it was probably the last time that E’ King would talk here so he was crying and everything. It was a nice time at church even though we didn’t have a single investigator there. I’m hoping to pick things up this week and we’ll see what transfers send me. I really want to have another latin companion.

Pres. del Castillo had the whole mission doing 10 visits with members this past week to teach them the restoration and then make a list of friends that could be taught in the homes of the members. We teach the lesson, write down the names, pray for guidance, and then we place a date for when the member will have the selected person or family in their house for us to teach. I know we will see lots of success mostly because of who the members are here in Libres.

Last week it rain a lot here and in Brazil and so the river rose up about 9 meters. The brand new costanera was completely covered in water. The uruguay river is a lot wider now. I hope to be able to take a picture from the bridge so you can see it better. Luckily the rain stopped by Sunday so it was a nice clear day. Today was perfect weather for soccer so that’s what we did.

I hope everyone is doing fine back home. Love you all. Adios

Elder Hunsaker

FOTOS

Paso De Los Libres

Dear Family, 9-7-09

So today has just been filled with news and my email account is now filled with megabytes. I am really excited and happy for Darren and also sad about the 8^th and Franklin chapel. All of the pictures I received were great. I love the picture of dad snatching worthless cinder block bricks from the 8^th and Franklin rubble. He’s crazy. He did however take nice pictures of the demolition. It would appear to me that I will not be giving my homecoming talk in that building. I’m still in shock from the whole “Darren is getting married” news. I'm super excited to get to talk with Emily’s abuelos (grandparents). I’m for sure going to drink some mate with those guys and talk about politics and Boca or River (huge soccer teams) if that’s how they roll. Haha.

The baptism that we were planning for this week fell through when he didn’t make it to church on Sunday. I went to his house in remis to see what was up and he wasn’t feeling so well. He had a really painful tooth ache. I can understand that one by the way his teeth are. It was definitely a good excuse for not going to church. He is for sure going to get baptized; it is only a matter of when.

Tomorrow we will be making a trip to Mercedes to do a special district meeting for the elders there. My comp will probably get sick from the bus ride like he always does. It doesn’t really help that he is all ready sick now. This kid gets sick more than dad and I thought that was impossible. Hopefully I “die” before he actually dies. Keep him in your prayers if you would.

Our branch here is truly amazing. On Sunday our branch president did interviews and extended callings to about 6 people. Now the Relief Society has a full presidency with secretary. The Young Women have a president and 1^st counselor. The Primary has a president and two counselors. I have never seen so many people in church in any of my prior branches. On Sunday there were 50 people in church and the week before that we had 62 people there. I play the piano every week like always but at least they have a chorister that knows how to lead the music. Paso de los Libres is awesome.

We almost got our goal of 96 baptisms in the mission. We got to 92 baptisms in August. In November the mission needs 154 baptisms to duplicate the baptisms from the year before. Pres. Del Castillo is following the prophetic words of Pres. Hinckley when he said we could double the amount of convert baptisms in the church. Elder Zivic said that Pres. Del Castillo was one of the few mission presidents to raise his hand rapidly when they asked if doubling baptisms could be accomplished. They discussed the topic in the meeting that the area presidency had with all of the mission presidents. I believe it can be done and we’ve done it here in Libres.

That is pretty much it for now. I hope that things continue to go well for everyone. Tricia told me that Steve and Nate were thinking about coming to get me. I think it would be fun and all but I would rather return after I have been released. I found out that everyone in my group will be flying home in the same plane. It’s going to be a blast. I love you all and we’ll talk soon.

Macanudo, chau!

Elder Hunsaker

FOTOS

This is the welcome to Libres sign at the rail road station.

We eat tasty chicken burgers here about once a week.

MIRINDA orange soda

The sky

I found this freaky weird bug on my study table. I hope Nathan likes it.

This is Hugo Navarro’s finger after it went through a saw at the butcher shop, OUCH!

My comp just couldn’t stop laughing when he saw this truck.

Morning sky.