Elder Hunsaker's Missionary Service in Argentina

Weeks Fly, Mormon Helping Hands, Testimony

2009-10-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

Howdy, 10-12-09
This week has definitely flown by me. It wasn’t filled with much success either. We placed a baptismal date with a less active member’s husband for the 22nd of November and for the next few days I was in the other area helping out. My comp got sick and with Elder Aguilar in a cast it was slightly difficult to work things out. My comp is all ready feeling better so this week should be different.
I think will be going to Monte Caseros this week to ship all the stuff from the old pench to Libres. That area was closed about 6 months ago. We will also be traveling to Curuzú Cuatiá to do a special district meeting for the elders of that district. I hope to be able to spend more time in my area than out of it.
Last Saturday we finished painting the school we cleaned about two weeks ago. It used to be green and pink and is now green and aqua green. I was thinking green and white would be nice but whatever. My comp thought red, white, and green would be a good color combination. He probably would have wanted a few eagles with snakes here and there. Haha.
Time is running short and my comp and I really want to baptize a family but things are tough. We spoke with three Brazilian men the other day. They spoke in Portuguese and we spoke in Spanish. I was pleasantly surprised to the fact that I could understand them fairly well. We talked for about an hour outside of the gas station they were eating in.
My companion continues to help Elder Hinostroza to build some muscles. When we started exercising he couldn't even do one pull up by himself. After two weeks of exercises he can do two whole pull ups by himself. He can do thirty or more with the help of Elder Ramos. Elder Ramos wants to make him into a man before he goes home in January.

It rained like crazy on Sunday and hardly anyone went to church. However, we had a really spiritual fast and testimony meeting. I’ve been thinking a lot about the atonement this weekend and how it works and all that stuff. I’ve gained a much better understanding of it and I’m even more grateful for it. I know that we are able to become clean and that justice will be satisfied because a perfect being suffered for things he had not done. I love our Lord and Savior with all my heart and know that he died for me. God will hold us accountable for those things that we do without repenting but he will be more than merciful when it comes to things we repented of. I love the gospel and wish more people would come unto Christ and receive the joy and peace that he gives freely. I love you all and we’ll speak soon. Chau

Elder Hunsaker

BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTOS

Zone Conference, Soccer, Helping Hands

2009-10-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hello fam,

Yesterday our zone was in Corrientes cap for zone conference. It was a really good conference. President spoke about the godhead and how Christ is both the father and the son. It was a very interesting topic he chose. I’ve thought about that ever since Clorinda where one of our investigators was an extreme evangelist and that was basically the only doctrine he couldn’t understand or want to understand. To him, God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were all just one person and that person was Christ. We talked with him for a long time trying to help him understand but he couldn’t understand. I wish president would have come with us to talk with him one time. I’m pretty sure president could baptize anyone. President used a good example of titles by talking about a cake that Sis. Del Castillo made. He said that she could be classified as the “mother” of the cake because she was its creator. The same thing goes for Christ. That isn’t the only reason why he is known as the father but it was just a good example so I decided to share it.

General conference was amazing. I missed part of the first Saturday session so that would explain why I didn’t know about the temple announcements. I’m kind of disappointed that dad didn’t go to the priesthood session. Heavenly Father definitely wants us to love more and serve more. We watched conference in the security room so that we could listen to it in English. Yes, Elder Holland’s talk was awesome and so was Elder Christofferson’s. Speaking of Elder Christofferson, one of his nephews is in this mission. Elder Erickson from my group is his trainer. He’s a really good kid. Elder Erickson said that he is non-stop when it comes to talking with people. He was happy to have a comp like Elder Christofferson so that he doesn’t die out before going home.

Last Thursday we had consejo (zone leader meeting) in Resistencia. President talked about preordination and pre-assignation. He taught us the difference between justification and sanctification. I decided that I should probably read more church books when I get home. President knows a lot of doctrine. He always tells us that when we are mission presidents that we will be able to have books outside of the missionary library. I finally took a picture with Pres. Del Castillo and Sister Del Castillo. I believe that this is the very first one that I’ve taken with just them. After consejo I picked up some cheez-it crackers from Wal-Mart that were delicious. It was a tough to choose between gold fish and cheez-it crackers.

I received news from Elder King. He said that his new area doesn’t have a cyber and that their super market is a glorified kiosk. He has to travel to Ibarreta every p-day to shop and to email his family. I’m glad that I wasn’t there for the summer. He might just fry before he goes home in January.

This Saturday we will be finishing the service that we started two Saturdays ago. We are going to paint the school we cleaned up in September. This is part of the annual service project that the church does. We will surely be putting back on those “helping hands” vests again.

Today we had the whole zone in Libres for p-day. We went out to a park that overlooks Uruguaiana. We played soccer in the rain and had a good time. Elder Aguilar seems to have dislocated a toe but we aren’t sure. He went to a clinic but he won’t get an assessment until 3pm because everyone was on break taking the siesta. Hopefully it is just a minor issue. Even though he’s all messed up we still had a fun time. He was our goalie and just sat in front of the goal and smacked the ball when it rolled within his reaching range. We made make-shift goal posts out of bamboo shoots and leaned them against palm trees.

Hope that all is well at home. It sounds like everyone is doing really well. Congratulations to Shawn, Steve, and Darren for completing the marathon. Good job! I love you all and we’ll see each other oh too soon. Nos vemos.

Elder Hunsaker

P.S. Elder Aguilar went to the doctor and will have a foot cast for 20 days. He isn’t supposed to walk until he gets the cast off. Hopefully we don’t have to send him to the office to wait it out but it might just happen. Sometimes the doctors here don’t give good advice. When I sprained my ankle really bad the doctor told me to chill in bed for 15 days without walking and just keep the ankle elevated. We see what the mission doctor says about it all. At least he and Elder Hinostroza were able to have a baptism before this occurred.
Photos
Me and the music man

Elder Aguilar and Elder Hinostroza´s first baptism in Libres

Playing the music man’s accordion

Dirty politics
(This guy lost to his cousin Ricardo Colombi)

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

2009-09-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-07T15:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Happy Birthday "Matthew Potter" And The Hideous Birthmark

2009-08-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Dear sweet family,
In case you didn’t notice, I didn’t write yesterday. The whole zone was in Resistencia for zone conference. We left Libres at 2pm and we arrived in Resistencia at 8:00pm. We did divisions with the elders from the office for the last hour and then we ate pizza with them and the assistants. It has been a while since I’ve eaten a pizza from a restaurant. The zone slept in the assistant’s pench. They have a lot of 3 man bunk beds for when the greenies come.
The conference was really fun. We talked about the basics of missionary work. Elder Zivic shared with us the statistics of the other missions in South America south area. He said that we have more new investigators, baptismal dates, and more Sunday assistance than almost all of the other missions and yet they baptize almost 2 times the amount that we do. It is definitely a worry that the mission and the area have. Something just doesn’t add up. President spoke with me about this in our interview last transfer. Elder Zivic said that we need to find the WHY and fix it.

My boy Elder Pruess, me, and my nephew Elder Stone (nephew because he calls me tío)

A tiny miracle occurred during conference. I was assigned a musical number for the conference. When I got there, the sustaining pedal on the electric piano wasn’t working at all. I messed with it for a while and nothing worked. During a 15min break I explained to Pres. Del Castillo that it wasn’t going to sound good at all and if he wanted me to play still or what. He said that he did and so I went to work trying to figure out what was wrong. I gave a quick pray and the solution came quickly. I wedged two hymn books below the two other pedals and PLUFF! The pedal worked and I was able to play without problems.
On my birthday we went to Mercedes to do a baptismal interview. While there my comp treated me to some ice cream from Grido. Later that day we were invited by the Dos Santos family for FHE. They had cake and brazilian hot dogs for us. It was really nice of them. Brother Dos Santos is the District president. They went to Brazil the other day and brought me some grape fanta as an early birthday present. The first grape soda I’ve had in almost 2 years.

The morning before conference we were getting up and one elder decided not to move at all so I decided to jump on him to get him up. I was still half asleep and so when I jumped, I slightly cleared him and smacked my head into the wall leaving a nice goose bump on my forehead. I later realized that I skinned my forehead a little bit against the wall which left me with a nice looking scab/birthmark. The swelling kind of went down for the conference but the skinned part of my forehead looked worse and worse. Luckily only 5 people asked me what happened. Elder Zivic and Pres. Del Castillo weren’t in that 5. One sister really thought it was a birthmark. Man that would be a hideous birthmark.

Well that pretty much sums up the wonderful week of Elder Hunsaker. I received the package and am very thankful. Thanks for the tie. Thanks to everyone who wrote me for my birthday and to those who didn’t there is still time to repent. I love you all. Take care. Chau
Elder Hunsaker

Photos
The bridge to Corrientes/Chaco

This is how I kept myself entertained during our trip. It works wonders with grumpy children.

“The Elder King” and I. ERSA is definitely the best colectivo. We love the ERSA,

EL FIN
(the end)

2009-08-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

Saludos,
Another transfer has come and gone. Our whole zone stayed the same so we don’t have any work to do bringing elders here. My comp is happy to be here one more at least. I’m glad he is staying because we are going to be doing a lot of work here and he is a worker. The transfers are just disappearing faster and faster for me. This last one just seemed like a long day. Jen told me that Jason Rounds has my days counted. I figure that he probably has an Elder Hunsaker shrine in his room with a calendar full of black “sharpie” x’s. At least someone is excited to see me. Speaking of going home, we had a service project out at the huerta (garden) last Thursday and that was a terrible reminder of home. Haha. I was extremely happy to find out that we would not be doing any weeding.☺

The Baptism of Maria del Carmen Linares went really well and she made it to church on Sunday to be confirmed a member of this wonderful church and recieve the Holy Ghost. She was definitely prepared by Heavenly Father before we were introduced to her. The Fernandez family that was there with us teaching is amazing. They did everything for her and for us. I wish it was always this easy to find and baptize. If only the Fernandez family were in every branch in our mission. Maria’s dad is our next goal. He is a really nice guy and will most likely make it to the waters of baptism in September.

-FUNNY STORY- After the baptism we were walking through the train yard and there was a train leaving right then. We were about to cross the tracks but it started moving so we followed along side of it. When we got out of the train yard I saw the railroad crossing barriers coming down to stop cars from crossing. As I was watching the train I saw a man on his moto get smacked in the head with the falling railroad barrier. It was hilarious. I would have felt bad if he hadn’t had his helmet on. Right after being struck by the arm he backed up a little ways from the tracks and made a U-turn. He probably turned around not only to avoid the train but also the embarrassment.
I hope that everyone is fine and dandy. We’ll see what next week has in store. Love you all. Here is a Little trivia for next week. How old was John the Baptist when he was ordained? Adios,
Elder Hunsaker

P.S. I will be really old in 5 days

-PHOTOS-

Eva and I

Elder King & Eva Peron

ART & STATUES

Good News from Libres

2009-08-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

Qué tal,

This week I think I'll start with the interesting news. On Saturday we had our interviews with president and he explained to me what is going to happen for the next zone conference. Apparently 7 zones are going to be together in the next zone conference because Elder Claudio Zivic of the seventy is coming to the mission and will be in our zone conferences. He doesn't want to do so many conferences so the 3 zones in Corrientes will be with the 3 zones in Resistencia and the Santa Fe zone. We will be going there a day early and staying the night with the assistents in their pench. It will certainly be an interesting trip. We will all be super tired when we get back to Libres.

Elder King and I are happy to announce the arrival of our first baptism this Saturday. We are also happy to announce the two baptisms we have planned for the coming week. We have our hopes set high for the month of August. I have my hopes high for the upcoming months also. The members here are working really well with us. The baptism this week is a friend of the Fernandez family. It is really a special thing when the Lord and members are the ones converting the people.

There really isn't that much else to say. We are doing well here in Libres and we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us down the road. We've been praying and fasting a lot. I am certain that the fasting has a lot to do with the success that we are having. I hope that we are still in your prayers. Right now we are starting a 40 day “purification fast” soon. We are going to be abstaining from common worldly things that we do, think, and say. It will be tough but we want to have the spirit with us more often than not. Hope all is well in casa. Love you all.

Chau,

Elder Hunsaker

Baptism of Debora, The Power of One

2009-07-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

BUENOS DÍAS,
Okay so the baptism last Thursday went through without any problems. The Debora is the birthday/baptism girl in the photos. She turned 9 on Thursday and decided to get baptized. Her mom was baptized into the church about 6-7 months ago and is active. She is our librarian and puts all the books out for the classes. Before she was called as the librarian she would get to church about 30 minutes late every Sunday. Since having her calling she is there in church every Sunday 30 minutes early. When President Hinckley said that every new convert and member needed a friend, a calling, and to be nourished by the good word of God, he was right. He was probably right because God told him so. We are hoping that her other two children will follow the example of their younger sister and be baptized.

After the Baptism we had a little party for her. She is a shy little girl so she wanted to have only a few people at her baptism. She invited a total of 3 sisters from the branch and her family. When she invited one sister she said that only she could go and not her kids. The cake was delicious and the mate cocido was tempting. The rule in the mission for mate is, NONE! The missionaries used to be able to drink mate cocido in their apartments just not with anyone. Mate cocido is made like normal tea. Sometimes they put milk in it as if it were coffee. Debora's little brother really enjoyed the cake and cocido. You can tell from the mess on his face. He is a really cute kid. The younger sister of Debora says that in 2 years when she is 8 she will get baptized and that she wants a bigger cake for her baptism.

Yesterday Elder King and I made a 2.5 hour trip to Curuzú Cuatía. We had to take part in their district meeting. Elder King talked about faith vs. fear which is what Pres. Del Castillo talked about in our zone leaders meeting (consejo). I talked to the elders about statistics in the mission and what would happen if the elders did ONE more thing. The power of one was a presentation that president did in “consejo”. He showed the statistics in the mission from Sept. 08 to Jun. 09 on a power point. After talking about those statistics he showed us what the statistics would be if every elder did ONE more thing. For example, one more lesson with member, one more new investigator, one more in church, one more with a baptismal date, one more lesson, one more baptism. We would complete all of our goals if this happened. It was a really good presentation. The elders in the district meeting are definitely going to do better this week. After the meeting we went to Gridos to eat some ice cream and then we headed back to Libres. I took some pictures of stuff in Curuzú.

In the coming weeks we will be seeing miracles. We have a baptism set for the 8th of August. We will be setting dates with seven investigators this week. We are planning on having a baptism every week of August. President Del Castillo has us working on "White August". He calls it that because the mission is going to duplicate baptisms from last August by having 96 baptisms this August. Elder King and I are hoping to help out in that by having seven in August. President asked for two baptisms from each companionship. I think heaven will be happy with the efforts of the mission.

Things are going great here in Libres. I hope to hear from everyone next week. I enjoy the news updates that everyone sends me. I’ll be praying for Lalani and the baby. Love you all. Adios.
Elder Hunsaker

2009-07-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

Hello family,

Last week was interesting with my comp in bed for most of it. He had some sort of illness and he's almost better. I just love being sick in Argentina and without my mommy. It is almost impossible not getting sick here. We'll see if I make it home alive and with how many worms. Haha.

Tomorrow we have the baptism of a recent convert's daughter that just decided to get baptized. She will make a wonderful addition to the primary. We are hoping that through her example her old brother and sister will be baptized also. Her older sister is not getting baptized because her next door neighbor told her that if is gets baptized she won’t be able to have a boyfriend, ever! People just love to give wonderfully false information about our church. I'll make sure to write a book of all the stuff I've heard.

I took some pictures of the pension so that you can all see my beautiful government dream home. We have 3 rooms, 1 bath, kitchen, dining/living/family room. Our back yard is nice and spacious. Elder King and Elder Rapp made it their “canchita de sueños” (field of dreams). They played soccer every morning during the summer. I have a nice weight set made of concrete. I'll be RIPPED by the time I leave this place (or not). We'll see how things go.

I don't know if I told everyone that I am living right next to Uruguaiana. In Uruguaiana there are two stakes and 24 missionaries. I think it is interesting in comparison to our 1 district and 4 missionaries. I'll take some photos from the coast and you can see what it looks like over there. I think I will be eating some pizza hut from Uruguaiana in the future. Members tend to go there frequently. I ate a hot dog from Brazil the other day. It was tasty. It reminded me of the state's hot dogs. Maybe I’ll get a member to bring me some grape soda from over there. Maybe I’ll continue to fantasize in my letter to my family . . . OK, I'm back. So yeah, Brazil is cool. Dave and I will definitely take a motorcycle tour of South America when I get back or get done day dreaming.

The Rojas family is really cool. The two of them are only 21 years old and so they are almost like normal friends. They are really cool and we are excited to continue helping them get to know the church and the restored gospel. It will be difficult to get them to church because of the newborn but I figure they'll get there in a little while. We believe that they will be receiving an answer shortly and that their baptism is a short way off. We watched the restoration video with them in our last visit. As we were leaving he asked us if we were going to leave something else to read in the Book of Mormon. He also scheduled our next visit with them. I really like this family and our members our awesome so I know they'll take good care of them before and after their baptism.

Ahora (now), question answering. I decided to donate my washing machine to the mission and my boy, Pruess. It has its official residence in Clorinda. Sadly the sister never made it to the temple nor did she make it to church very much either. When I took the combi away the branch kinda died out. I just felt like the combi was just taking away an opportunity for them to show Heavenly Father that they love him enough to make it to church by sacrifice. In the end no one was really using the combi to its full capacity so it had to end. I don't meet with the whole zone very much because two elders live an hour and a half away in Curuzú and two other elders live 2 hours away in Mercedes. Mercedes is where Gauchito Gil was born and raised. The people here are just like they were in Goya. My area takes in all of downtown. It is really nice to walk on more paved roads than dirt ones. We are talking to more people in the streets than any other method of proselyting. That is how we found the Rojas family. We have found a lot of nice people that way. There are a lot of nice big house in my area. There are more good men here than there were in my last area.

I hope that this letter will suffice. I love you all and we'll talk next week if you write me. Hasta luego.
Elder Hunsaker

Mucho Fotos'

2009-07-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Hola Fam,
Yesterday we had zone conference in Corrientes Capital. We left here at about 3am and we got back from zone conference at about 8:30pm. We watched the best two years in the combi on the way. The combi was a lot nicer than the one that we took in Clorinda. However, we do pay a ridiculous price for the combi here. In conference President spoke about prayer and it was really good. I learned a lot more about it. In consejo he talked about obedience and he said, "If you’re not obeying God, you’re obeying Satan". I thought that was an interesting statement. It’s true.
The other day we contacted a couple in the street and they are really nice. We stopped by on Saturday last week and we only found the husband. He told us that his wife was in the hospital because she had her baby that morning. We have lots of good feelings with this family and I’m happy that our members willing to help us. The couple lives right next to a member and her husband works with the man. We’re hoping for the best. Please pray that Elder King and I have success here in Libres.
I don't really have much else to say so I will now put on the pictures that you’ve been waiting for. I love you all and hope to keep hearing from you. Chau.
Elder Hunsaker

E’ Pruess and I eating alligator milanesa with the Britez family.
Alligator milanesa.
Aaron Britez.
Baby Britez I think here name was Mayra. I’ll have to look in my journal.
Sunset in Mercedes coming back from zone conf.
Sunset 2.
Alcaria Tour my favourite combi.

Me, E’ Cranford, E’ Tucker, and E’ Sulz (MTC group)
E’ Cranford, E’ Tucker, Me, and E’ Salmond (MTC)
Zone leaders at council.
Bowling
Bowling2
Mmmmm, good!
McDonald’s 2
McDonalds!
Indoor soccer with almost the zone leaders a some
Indoor soccer with Me, E’ Tucker, and E’ Cranford
Indoor soccer
La Cruz (The cross in Formosa Capital)
Good bye Clorinda.

No Time to Write

2009-07-08T22:43:00.000-07:00

I really don't have anytime today. My comp and I left Paso de los Libres at 1:30am this morning heading for Corrientes capital to spend p-day and then go to our meeting with president del Castillo and the other zone leaders. I finally made it to McDonalds here in Corrientes. The food was amazing. After that we went to play soccer with like 40 missionaries, and we went bowling in the new shopping mall right next to Walmart. McDonald's is definitely tasty after a long time of not seeing nor eating it right from the shop. Bowling was super fun. Tomorrow we have the meeting with Pres. I'll be sure to send a larger email next p-day. I love you all and hope for the best for everyone. Chau.

Elder Hunsaker

TRANSFERRED!!

2009-07-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, So, Yeah, I got TRANSFERRED! I had to leave Clorinda behind. It was really sad to leave everyone there. I really enjoyed my time in Clorinda. I am now in Paso de Los Libres, Corrientes. My new comp is Elder King. He and I are the zone leaders here in Paso. He is from Provo, UT. I don't know that much more about him yet. I left Clorinda at 4:30pm and got here at 6:00am so we haven't been awake very long to get to know one another. Apparently the branch we are in is awesome. I am really excited to work the members here. I've only heard good things from Elder King. He is really liking the area so that will be great. Elder Pruess and I had bought our tops finally. We were getting good at throwing them. He is a funny kid and will be missed. I guess I'll see him in December 2010. haha. I am kind of in shock so I can't remember anything that has gone on in the last week. I hope everyone is healthy and staying away from the swine flu. That is if that really exists.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Hunsaker

Newly Fixed Dirt Roads + Rain = Muddy Rivers

2009-06-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

Well, this week has flown by. The Britez family has added a new addition to their family. They had a daughter on Thursday the 18th. We passed by the next day but she was sleeping so we didn't take pictures. I will make sure to post the pictures next week. We are hoping that Antonio Britez will be receiving the Aaronic priesthood pretty soon and then later receive the Melchizedek so he can bless his baby girl. We are pretty happy for them and their growing family.

Once again the clouds came and dropped rain on us for two days and destroyed the newly fixed dirt roads. The roads were fixed recently because the Governor of Formosa came into town to open two schools. It is funny to see everyone rushing around fixing the town before he comes. It is sad that all their work on the roads was in vain.

Last Monday we ate lunch with a couple that have German and Italian blood. We ate a German dish and I thought that maybe dad might recognize the name. I hope this name is correct. Twidla or tuidla is what is called. It is ricotta cheese wrapped in a type of lasagna noodle with sugar. They then cover it in a red meat sauce. It was tasty and I hope dad can remember back that far. I'm sure he can't even remember what he ate yesterday. Maybe he can. You never know.

This upcoming Sunday are the Argentine elections. We will only be having sacrament meeting because it is mandatory for them to vote. They have from 8 in the morning to 6 at night to place their vote. I guess they do this every year and they only have sacrament meeting. Along with the elections come the annoying propaganda that they spread throughout the city. The candidates send trucks with huge speakers in the beds or cars with giant speakers mounted on top into the neighborhoods to play a recorded message three million times a day. Elder Tucker wants to smash the speakers every time he hears them. haha.

On Sunday Maria Nuez taught her first class at church. She taught the principles class and did really well for a first time teaching experience. If you can't remember who Maria is you just need to look at my email from 3 weeks ago.

Today was the last full P-day for Elder Redford. He goes home next week. We had a small asado and played paddle with a bunch of people. It was way fun.

Well that's all folks. Love you all and I'd like to hear from you all soon.

Chau,
Elder Hunsaker

General Authorities Visit for District Conference

2009-06-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Well today is an interesting day. We had our interviews and I was half way out of it during them. I think I'm just allergic to something here. It could be the huge amounts of dust that I breathe in everyday. Any way, I am hoping that this runny nose will go away before tomorrow. Maybe I could use some of that Exfuze juice.
We had our district conference this past Sunday. Pres. Eyring, Elder Perry, Elder Robbins, and some other elder who is the president of the Sunday School spoke in the conference via satellite. It was a really nice meeting. Elder Robbins spoke about SER(to be) and HACER(to do). He spoke of how the parents need to separate actions of their children from characteristics of their children. For example, when a child has good grades we should congratulate the child for being diligent in studying and for working hard and not for just congratulate him for good grades. The same thing applies to sports. We should congratulate the child for not getting upset at what the player on the other team said. This is exactly what is needed here.
My comp and I are trying to learn the games that the kids play here. They play with marbles, tops, little smacking cards, and sling shots. We have bought everything but the tops which we will soon buy. The kids play these games in the streets all the time and Elder Pruess and I want to win them sometime. We will be practicing over the next couple of weeks to try and be good enough to beat some of the kids in these games.
Nothing new and exciting has happened here. I hope all is well back home. Love you all. Chau.
Elder Hunsaker

P.S. In the pictures you will see a house made out of palm tree trunks. Our asado that we had a few days ago and the kids playing with the tops.

6-10-2009

2009-06-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

HOLA,

Well, this week has been pretty chill. My comp found a guy on Saturday during divisions with the zone leaders and the man came to church the next day. The funny thing about this is that my comp didn't recognize the guy when he arrived at church so I sent him to the zone leader's branch thinking he was their investigator. Elder Contreras stared me down and then told me that he was my investigator. I then made a note to tell Elder Pruess to remember the people he speaks to in the street.

We had a tiny miracle happen in the branch. A 40 year old man moved into our branch from Buenos Aires. He is a member of about 15 years. He will soon be my Elders Quorum president. He is a really nice guy. I think I've also found a Young Men's president. Right now I am playing Elder Hunsaker, the real estate agent. I am trying to make a deal between two people. We want to rent one house but the lady wants to sell so we found another house that wants to rent or sell. We are hoping to do a swap and rent the house from a new owner. The woman says yes to the swap but we still haven't spoken with the other half about the swap. I believe that it will go through and we will be into our new chapel in less than a month. I'm trying to keep myself as optimistic as possible.

This Sunday we will be having our district conference and I will have a break from our regular meetings. We will have some sort of broadcast from Salt Lake. I think one of the apostles will be speaking to all of the districts in the South America South Area. Hopefully the members make it there on time.

Nothing much has changed here in Clorinda since last Wednesday. I received the package that the Young Women sent me a while ago. I enjoyed the treats and the socks. Make sure to tell them thanks and I will try to get a letter off to them soon.

Love you all,
Elder Hunsaker

P.S. The church is still true and José Smith is still a prophet even with his name translated.

Baptism of María Antonia Nuñez

2009-06-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I decided to change font due to the fact that I had a few complaints sent in from last weeks letter. I hope that the drafters and old men enjoy this font. I will not use the last font again. I just thought it would be nice to use something new after writing in the same font every week for a year and a half. I guess I was mistaken in thinking that was a good idea. Haha. (All of this was written in a joking and non-offensive way)

After last weeks, letter it continued raining. I think the last measurement of rain that I heard was 315 ml. of rain here. Cold air came with the rain we received. Now it is clean and sunny but cold. I didn't think Clorinda was capable of such cold. My comp didn't bring a winter jacket with him so he wears his sweater, his hoodie, and his wind breaker. He will be buying a jacket today for sure.

The baptism of María Antonia Nuñez went over really well. It was cold and rain on Saturday. We filled up the baptismal font with nice warm brown water and watched a little cricket swim around in it for a little while. I don't know why the water came out so ugly but what are you going to do. María's neighborhood is Primero de Mayo and when it rains there are only rivers of water and rivers of mud where roads used to be. I called her to find out if she was coming when it was about time to start the service and she told me that she was coming but that she almost postponed it because she had a fever. She came and we held the service. There were a few minor problems but everything turned out well. Elder Pruess did the baptism and I did the confirmation. After the baptism was over Elder Pruess told me that cricket was still swimming around in the font when he baptized María.

On Sunday night, we were trying hard to find new investigators to make the mission goal of 12 each week. We had tried the whole week but we only had 4 when we started Sunday. After we got home from church at 6:45pm we got ready to go out and we gave a prayer. I asked Heavenly Father to not allow us to waste time that night. We went over our plans and left. We went to the first family that we had planned on visiting and watching a church movie with them. The weren't there so we went to the back up and that didn't work either. Then we went to a house we have passed by a few times and the people always greet us when we go by. We clapped and they let us in to their home. We came to find out that they are a fairly large family. 8 new investigators is what we needed and 8 new investigators is what we got. The only slight down side is that 7 of the 8 news are women. María told us that the man to woman ratio in Argentina is 1 man to every 14 women. Looking at the family we found on Sunday that statement seems to be correct. I am just thankful that Heavenly Father listens to us when we sincerely pray to him.

I love you all and we'll talk next week. Chau

Elder Hunsaker

P.S. I would like to know if I have a plaque in the church building?

Changing Of The Font & Never Seen So Much Rain

2009-05-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Muy buenos días,

I decided to change things up with a new font. I got tired of the old new roman. Well, María Antonia made it through her baptismal interview and will be baptized this Saturday. We keep telling one of the less active men that we are trying to baptize his future wife. He still has become completely active.

Last Saturday it rained and rained and rained and rained. We received about 8 inches of rain here in Clorinda and in Fornosa capital they received 11 inches and all of this happened in a 24 hour period. I have never seen so much rain in my life. I am sick and tired of seeing gray skies. At least our power stayed on during the whole ordeal. The roads here turned into rivers and Elder Pruess didn't have boots and found his way into three zanjas (sewage canals). I think his shoes are still drying out. I was astonished (Book of Mormon language) to see more rain on Monday night.

On Friday we pruned the bushes of the Steirensis family. While we were cutting, we found a dead bat. We used it to scare a few people and then we put it with the trimmings in a garbage bag. The two girls that want to get baptized are grandkids of this family. It was nice to do some normal service and get out of the monkey suit. Speaking of getting out of the monkey suit, Elder Redford will be in lovely Las Vegas on the 27th of July for a family reunion so he may be making a little visit with you (mom and dad). He may go to church with you as well. So let me know the info on church.

I was told the other day that I have a package in the office waiting for me. I should receive it in about a week. I think it is the package from the young women from the ward.

Recently we have been receiving a lot of references from members due to a piece of paper that has all sorts of questions on it to help the members think of friends and family. I might translate it so that the missionaries back home can use it if they'd like. It has all sorts of good questions. I hope that all of you are helping the missionaries in your wards to find people.

Well that's all folks. Love you all and talk to you later.

Elder Hunsaker

Coati, Grasshoppers and Church Talks, Oh My

2009-05-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hi, 5-20-09

News about transfers. . . There aren't any 'cause I'm still here in Clorinda. However, my zone leader Elder Salmond will be going to the Iguazu Falls. My MTC companion Elder Tucker will be coming here to the zone and taking Elder Salmond's spot. Elder Pruess is still here with me for one more transfer at least. I believe that I will only have one more companion in the end. Elder Redford is training again for his third time. That is it for transfers and I'm happy to be here still because I still need to find a chapel for these members.

We have been finding a good amount of nice families. We are working more in the “nicer area” in our area. I am hoping to find some good people that have jobs and know what responsibility is. It is a little bit harder to find but we have done all right so far. I met a man who's parents are from Germany and they only speak in German. He understands German but speaks Spanish. He is one of those blond hair, blue eyes. He and his wife sell Alpargatas and own a taxi service.

Yesterday we taught a family that has a pet coati. It is the South American raccoon. It has lived with them since birth. It sleeps in the house with them and is just like a dog. I was able to pet it before it made a mad dash for the tree. It likes to search the tree for bugs and spiders. Apparently it eats tarantulas when it finds them. It looks kind of like an anteater. My comp was happy to see it. I think I'd like to have one someday. . . or not.

On Monday night we had the normal branch family home evening but hardly anyone showed up to this one. We had a good time taking pictures afterward. The people here love taking pictures unlike in the states where everyone hides from the cameras. These are the daughters of a sister that just moved into our branch. She is having quite a few difficulties. Sister Gomez prepared a really good lesson on forgiveness. She will be receiving a church calling soon.

On Sunday we had a poor attendance at church. 20 people showed up and 16 made it to sacrament meeting. Of the 20 people that were there, there wasn't a single investigator. My speakers ditched out on church so we tried something new that Elder Pruess suggested. He said that his ward used to do this testimony/hymn meeting. The people come to the pulpit and share their thoughts on their favorite hymn and why it is their favorite and then we sing part of it or all of it. It really saved me. I had all ready taught the other two classes and didn't want to make up a talk on the spot. Everyone liked it and the spirit was there so I was happy with the turn out.

I found a size large grasshopper on the side of our door when I stuck my key in and it touched my finger. I scared me quite a bit. After getting the door open we went straight for the cameras. I got it off the door frame and into my hand. It was heavier than I thought it would be. I don't know why all the random bugs and lizards like to come to our house. We found another one of those lizards in our study room just running up and down the wall. I decided not to take a picture but I probably should have so that Nathan Andersen could have enjoyed it.

It rained all day yesterday. I put on my mud boots but my comp decided not too. I think he regretted it a little later that day. I finished the day with my pants covered in mud because my foot slipped and flung mud onto my left pant leg. I have had enough of the chocolate milk roads of Argentina. My pants went from gray to brown in two seconds. It's a good thing I have that washing machine.

It seems to me that every week something blows up or freaks out in our pench. This time our new shower started exploding and it sounded like a car was backfiring. The wires that connect it to the power were melting themselves together. My comp got a video of it the second time it happened. It scared him half to death. He decided to shower with cold water that day. The problem is now solved. We await the next problem.
I hope that all is well with everyone. Love you all and felíz 25 de mayo.

Chau
Elder Hunsaker

Chorrizos, Refried Beans or Spiders (Your Pick)

2009-05-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

Que tal, 5-13-09
It was fun to be able to talk to everyone on Saturday. I can only imagine how it will be when I get home and I can talk for as long as I want. I hope that all of the kids won their sports games. Nothing much has changed since Saturday. In church there were few people due to the slight drizzle of rain. We had two investigators in the meetings and that was nice. I am about to call a new Young Women’s presidency and maybe a gospel principles teacher because I get spread really thin during the meetings. It drives me nuts especially when my speakers don't show up and I get to go improv in sacrament meeting.
The other day we went over to visit a less active member that owns a carnicerìa (butcher shop). The better way of putting it would be that he lives in a carnicerìa because it is his home. When we got to his house, he was busy making chorrizos for Labor Day. My comp and I enjoyed watching him make them. His little daughter enjoyed playing with the huge chunks of meat before they were ground in his machine. His cat enjoyed drinking the liquids from the raw meat before it dried on the floor. We made a video of him making the chorrizos so I will be sure to show it in the future. When we left he sent us off with about 2 kilos of chorrizos. They were tasty but hard to eat after seeing where and how they were made. I thought of dad and what he always says about restaurants and their back kitchens....not even close to this.
On our way to an appointment we found this destroyed armadillo body in the road. There was an interesting smell hanging around that area. My comp wanted to put it in his bag and take it home but I decided otherwise. I told me that he would wait until it dries. Gross!
Today we played volleyball in a sand court. We got there late because we were teaching a member how to use a computer. We arrived about 45 minutes late to the court. By the time we got there Elder Redford had all ready done himself in. He had scalped himself about 15 minutes before we got there by running into the low fence that surrounds the court. I took a look at the accident scene and found the remains of Elder Redford's scalp and hair. Ouch! He is always doing things like this to himself. Como se dice, clumsy?

Maria Antonia will be baptized on the 30th of this month. I may or may not be here for it though. She told us that she has received her answer from God about the Book of Mormon and this church. We continue to teach her and finish up the teaching process. She's basically a member all ready because she defends the church when people say random things about it. Her friend at school said that we believe that Joseph Smith is God. Maria gave her friend one of the pamphlets that we had given her to show her that we believe in God the Father and that He isn't Joseph Smith. We might have two other baptisms of the daughters of a sister in the branch.
I have been eating good these days. I found a nice box of cookie crisp to change up my breakfast. I also made some delicious refried beans because I was able to find bacon here. That was a first for me. MMMMmmmm good. I just need to make some tortillas so I can eat some burritos.
When we left our house to go to Laguna Blanca last Saturday it was really foggy outside. I noticed that the sun changes to a white color as it comes through the fog and it looks cool. My comp found a spider outside of our house with a pretty web that had collected all of the mist from the fog that day. I think we still have a slight spider infestation here. I love you all and hope that I hear from you all next week.
Hasta Luego,
Elder Hunsaker

Labor Day = Mostly Drunks without the Labor

2009-05-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

Mba'elaporte,

This past week was filled with fiestas. Due to the fact that everyone celebrates Labor Day to the max. We were invited to 5 asados and we made time for each one. I will not be surprised if I have colon cancer after the mission. If I don't see meat for a few years I will be all right. In one of the events it was not only a Labor Day celebration but also a birthday party for our neighbor. They are really good friends with all of the missionaries because they always buy from their kiosko. This was the first up close and personal experience with drunks that my comp has had. My comp has now decided that drinking is just not a good idea. This was not our only encounter with drunks on Labor Day.
The evening of Labor Day we taught one of our investigators that is progressing. We taught about the pre-earth life and it was an extremely powerful lesson. The spirit was really strong in the house. Our investigator is the daughter of a less active sister in the branch that we are reactivating. It was a really good lesson and we made sure that our investigator knew what she was feeling. I really enjoy studying and talking about the pre-earth life with other missionaries. It is a very interesting topic.
After leaving our investigator's house we were stopped by some drunk guys. In the end, we had taken down each one of their directions (address) and invited them to church on Sunday. Not a single one showed up on Sunday. When we were trying to continue on our way home, we shook their hands and one of them decided to give me and my comp a hug. What a nice guy.
Sunday was a very nice fast and testimony meeting. We had a good turn out and a lot of the members bore their testimonies. I had to nudge my comp enough times so that he would get up and give his. He is a little timid when it comes to speaking. I hope that he gets over that or it will be a long two years for him. Love you all. Chau
Elder Hunsaker

Leo's "cumpleaños"

P.S. We actually found a new family to teach because of this party. The family is a really wonderful family.

Just another day in . . .

2009-04-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

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

RISKing Away Time, Electrical Problems and Sponges

2009-04-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

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

Water Tank Frogs, Pastelitos and Peanut Butter

2009-04-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

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.

Don't Skip These Crazy Pictures

2009-04-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2009-04-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

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

Blistered Toes and Sideways Rain

2009-03-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hola,

Well I am not exactly sure what happened last week with my letter. I wrote it and I thought that I had attached it. Oh well. I hope that this one makes it this week.

It sounds like everyone had a good time in Arizona without me. I am not nearly as jealous about the café rio, the guac, the salsa, and all the other tasty stuff that you all ate as I would be because I have finally found cilantro. One of the sisters in the branch went searching for me and now she has it growing in her garden. I will be chomping down on some tasty items in just a short while.

I have officially done all there is to do as a branch president. I have now done temple interviews. One of our sisters will be going through the temple to receive her endowment and I am pretty stoked for her. We are making empanadas so that those that want to go can go. If any of you would like to buy empanadas it will be 8 pesos or 2.30 dollars for a dozen and they will arrive in about 3 months all nice and moldy. We will see how it goes this week and that will decide the next three weeks.

Sunday we had a decent turn out at church for not having the combi to pick people up. The majority walked to church. I was happy to see my two assigned speakers come through the doors. One of the sisters made a promise with Heavenly Father that she would walk to church every week for some amount of time that she decided. I tried to have another sister drive her home but she refused to go home in a car.

Our Saturday lunch appointment gave us this fruit for dessert. I don´t remember what it is called but is really fun to eat. It has a texture like that of the kiwi. I was completely surprised to find a white inside when I cut into it. It was extremely juicy but lacked flavor. The cool thing about it was the skin because you can´t scrape into it with your spoon so it is safe eating from the time you cut it in half.

My toe had some sort of blister on it so I took care of it and took a picture. It may be a bunion forming but I don´t know because I just don´t know what a bunion is or isn´t? I also have no clue as to how you spell that word. I hope you enjoy the photo of my big toe.

I did divisions with Elder Stone the 7´2” giant. We went out in the morning because our power was out. While we were out there we took some pictures of the sky. We thought the day would be a nice one....we were wrong. It rained really hard around 3 pm in the afternoon. The rain was flying sideways because of how strong the wind was. I took a picture of a raindrop for all of you.

We had interviews yesterday and I can tell you all that I will still be in the mission. We are trying really hard right now to find a family to baptize in April. President del Castillo wants us to watch the Lamb of God with a family and then put a baptismal date right after watching it. So that is what our strategy is but we still need a family to try it out on.

I hope that everything continues to go well back home. I hope that our economy gets a little stronger so I can stop hearing about it from everyone down here. Man do they like to talk about the states and our problems and yet their problems never cross their minds. Congratulations to Kennedy for her baptism and to Danny for graduating. I love you all. Chau

Elder Hunsaker

Tossing Cookies and Avoiding Spiders

2009-03-11T21:31:00.001-07:00

Querida familia,

Bueno, I am just going to go ahead and start this one out with the bad news. This last Sunday my comp started tossing his cookies and let’s just say that wasn’t all. We made a nice quick trip downtown to buy some products that Hna. Del Castillo told us to buy. Then we got home and my comp just chilled in his bed until he had to visit his bucket or the bathroom. By the time church rolled around, he had stopped with the constant need of a bucket but still was in need of a bathroom. We went to church he was just fine. As priesthood started I made my very first visit to the bathroom and as priesthood ended I made my third. So we moved on to Sunday School and I moved into the bathroom for a few more visits. The bad thing about having problems during church in Clorinda is that I am in charge of a lot with my greeny by my side. Luckily the teachers of the classes showed up to our very small church meeting, 12 people in total. My speakers for sacrament meeting didn’t show up and only one of them advised me in advance. I decided to prepare a quick musical number and lengthen out my already prepared talk. Right before sacrament meeting I wrapped my arms around my porcelain buddy and left my lunch there. This could not have been a better day. I conducted the meeting, played the piano, did a musical number, gave a talk, and finished with a nice closing prayer. *Large breathy exhale* After our fun time at church the adventure continued in the pench. Now I was the one taking the medicine that we had bought for my comp. I was the one layed out on my bed. I was the one moaning in agony. I was the one making excessive amounts of bathroom visits. I was the one finishing the unfinished gatorade. Now I have no recollection of the past week. Maybe it had something to do with the prescribed medicine. Haha. What a wonderful life we live!

Well now that that legacy is over. We have had a fairly decent week. We met a really nice family yesterday and we taught them about the plan of salvation. We took care of business as usual and found a massive spider web in our front yard yesterday with a size large spider on it. We took a minute or two to watch it snatch up a fly and then suck the blood. The spider wrapped the fly in its webbing. It was almost like watching Discovery channel but this time I was Bear Grylls from “Man Vs. Wild”. My comp is still in the stage of being amazed by everything he sees. It is really fun to be around him.

Our area will be getting a lot bigger when they open up a bunch of new viviendas. The government says that they are about to give the homes to the people. I know quite a few people that are waiting for one and have been waiting for quite some time. Maybe I will be able to see some people in these viviendas. Maybe I will be able to be the first one to clap ‘em up. I might just a have a whole lot of firsts in this new part. Yeah for firsts!

Tomorrow we have our zone conference and will be making the routine trip to the Formosa Capital. Elder Lyndsey will be going home tomorrow and taking the pills with him. I will make sure to send you the info or if I haven’t already - good. We have a baptismal date for the 28th of this month. We will see how it goes. I love you all and hope that all continues to go well.

Hasta Luego,
Elder Hunsaker

Maria and Antonio Britez Baptism

2009-03-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

3- 4-09
Well it's been awhile,
So my companion performed his first baptism three days into the mission. I tried to get him to do the confirmation but he wussed out. Luckily I hadn't added his name to the baptismal record. The baptism turned out really well. We had a lot of people there with mostly just the family of Antonio Britez because they are almost all members. After the baptism, we were invited to the asado that they were going to have. So my Elder Pruess has his first baptism and asado in the same day, how lucky. He stuffed his face and then Elder Stone and I stuffed our faces with cake and steak. We took the pictures to make Elder Robertson jealous. Haha.

The night of transfers we were at the house of the Sister Quintana having an FHE. We were playing a really funny game. The goal of the game is to eat as much of the alfajor (cookie filled with dulce de leche) as possible. However, you have to roll 5 on the die and then put on a bunch of ridiculous clothing articles (Hat, gloves, tie, scarf, etc...). Elder Robertson ate quite a bit of the alfajor with the fork and the knife that you have to use. We had just finished when the zl's called with the transfers info.

While I was in the mission office I took a couple of pictures. I took one in front of the office. Before our dinner with president, the trainers were waiting in the back part of the mission home where they have the province maps. I decided to take some photos of myself and my first area. I thought I'd take some of all the provinces so that you can all understand things better. After I found my comp I took the traditional greenie trainer photo. It looks somewhat similar to the picture I took with Elder Patterson.

I have the branch council tonight because I couldn't have it last week with all of the changes. We will be talking about future elders and planning more meetings. I hope that everyone shows up. Sunday was a nice and calm day. We had a really nice testimony meeting and there were 34 people in church. We are still searching for a chapel in our area. The task is not an easy one. Our area just doesn't have large homes or anything like it. I know that things will get a whole lot better and easier if we can just get a chapel close by the members.

I love you all and hope for the best. Talk to you soon. My comp has a few photos of us cleaning the baptismal font. I tell about that story next week.

That's all folks!

Anciano Hunsaker

New Companion, Elder Pruess

2009-02-26T15:24:00.000-08:00

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.

2-18-09

2009-02-18T10:29:00.000-08:00

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

Baptism of Gabriela

2009-02-11T16:25:00.000-08:00

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

2-4-09

2009-02-04T14:13:00.001-08:00

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

Elder Hunsaker

1-28-09

2009-01-28T15:14:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-21T21:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

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

Photos - No captions

2008-12-31T20:11:00.000-08:00

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

2008-12-24T17:10:00.000-08:00

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

Branch President asking for a favor! $$$

2008-12-17T15:27:00.000-08:00

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 2^nd 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

Short video clip of a church building

2008-12-11T16:02:00.000-08:00

Laundry in a bucket

2008-12-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

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

New area in Clorinda, Formosa and being calling of branch president

2008-12-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-26T13:21:00.000-08:00

Well I was writing earlier but a storm passed through and took a few things with it. First thing it took was the internet and then it took the power. This will be a quicky. We have two baptisms now. Alejandro Cuevas will be baptized on the 12th of December. He didn´t show up on Sunday so that is that. We will continue with the baptism of his daughter Carla and Victoria Sotelo. This week really hasn't had much in the sense of excitement or anything new. I don´t know if I told you all about the family of three that we found. The son has had four years of English studies. He understands pretty much everything. It was fun teaching them. They are extremely Catholic and they feel comfortable where they are. When I hear that someone is comfortable I always start to think of how comfortable the Jews were when they crucified their Redeemer. It just makes me think that if He were to come now, many people would still deny Him and take His life. I love the gospel and this church. I have experienced many things here in the branch and in this area. I do believe that I will be on my way to a new place this coming Wednesday. I hope you all know that I know that this is the Lords work and that I´m here serving because of the love that God has for everyone of his children. I hope I will be able to reflect His love towards His children here. I´m thankful for all the support given from everyone back home.

I love you all. Chau.

Elder Hunsaker

R.S. Cooking Contest and Rockin' the Boat-Van

2008-11-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

Howdy! 11-19-08

I have some wonderful news that will be even more wonderful when it becomes a reality. The news is that we have three baptisms set up for the 29th of this month. We are hoping that all goes well and that we end this transfer with a bang. Haha. Alejandro and Carla Cuevas and Victoria Sotelo are the participants in the baptism. Victoria is the daughter of a less active woman that has recently reactivated herself. We found Alejandro and Carla in the clapping sort of way. I really hope that they are able to keep this commitment.

This past Friday the R.S. had a cooking contest. Pres. Martinez, Elder Cavero, and I were the judges. Yumm. We had fun tasting and judging. The food was scrumptious. They had a selection of sweet and salty foods. There was a winner for the two types of food. The requirements were; Minimal Preparation, Few ingredients, Presentation, Flavor, and Creativity. The Rogel won the dessert prize and the Bomba de Papas won the normal prize. Here are the dishes.

Alejandro and Carla live in these buildings. This post was slight destroyed before but now it doesn´t even touch the ground. The wires above are the only things keeping it from falling. Alejandro called the power company but the said they couldn´t do anything because the post and wires belong to the telephone company. I suppose that in a couple of weeks we will be hearing about some kid that was electricuted or smashed due to the lack of attention given to this problem.

Today we made a short trip to Lavalle to eat with the Calarco family again. However, this time we made a visit to the river. We took a few photos and then we saw “the van”. Everyone wanted to take a picture standing on top but there wasn’t anyone to take the picture. I decided that I would take the picture and enjoy whatever mishaps that might occur. Nothing happened in the end and we were able to come away with a few good pictures. I hope you enjoy them. The water is really brown. I picked up some sort of a river plant and when it snap in half it left a very interesting smell on my hand that is still there as I speak/write.

We had some southern winds that came through with some cold air this past Saturday. However, the weather is back to being warm as it should be for the upcoming summer months (21 of Dec. to ?? of Feb). Christmas will be different with the warm weather. I believe that this will be my last transfer here in Goya. It won´t be that great of a Christmas if I get transfered but I don´t know if I can handle 9 months here. We´ll see what happens. I love you all and hope that things go great with the upcoming holidays. Happy Birthday to Tanner on the 21st. I´m sure I won´t be seeing a turkey on the table for Thanksgiving. Chau.

Elder Hunsaker

Visit to Lavalle

2008-11-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

Hola family/friends,

This past conference was a different one. Elder Shane Bowen spoke for about 2 hours. He spoke about line of authority in the priesthood and about who we are. It was a really spiritual conference. I learned that he as a seventy doesn't have keys of the priesthood but that he works under the keys of the twelve apostles. He also asked us if we knew the juramento y el convenio...yeah I didn't understand that either until he said priesthood. It is the oath and covenant of the priesthood. I've studied it a few times now and I think that everyone that has the Melchezedek (give me a brake, I can hardly speak in english anymore thanks to my Spanish speaking companion) should probably do a quick little review on section 84:33-?.

My stomach was on a slight fritz during the conference and it wasn't fun to watch everyone eat real food while I sat with a banana and a sprite. I also received the package from the Vincent family. It was about time for that box to arrive. I received a box from my friend Kylie from Dearelder.com. It was full of all sorts of goodies. I am starting the American candy addiction for Elder Cavero. He is all ready hooked on phonics and the reese´s pieces. He'll probably end up coming to the states just for the sour patch kids.

Yesterday we had divisions with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Saldivar in his area. We had the fantastic Lavalle lunch appoimtent. There are about 35 members in Lavalle. It is a little town outside of Goya kinda like Glendale or Overton. The Calarco family lives there and has church in their house every Sunday. They are a funny family. The food was really tasty. It was like chili-mac from the mid-west. I only came to know of chili-mac as of yesterday when Hermana Byrhn said it to me when the food came out. Hermano Calarco is a little bit crazy. We jump from this tree with the swing beneath his feet. I have it on video and you can see it when I get home in a while. He let me try it too. I also met my first pineapple plant at the Calarco house. I never knew that they were red before they were brown. The bird's nest is just to show how excited Hermano Calarco gets when we come. He just wants to ? everything he has.

I saw one of the swallows the other day and I wasn't quite sure how to feel.

I´ll make sure to take pictures of the swallows when they arrive.

I love you all and hope to hear from you soon. Lots of love. Chau

Elder Hunsaker

P.s. I did see Hermana Peruch in the conference. She told me that she had 6 months left and wasn't sure how she felt. I let her know how I felt about that. Haha. It was fun to see her and another elder from the MTC.

Miracle in Belgrano

2008-11-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

I'm going to start this letter off with the best. This past Sunday we had 5 investigators in church and the total amount of people on Sunday was 38. That is a miracle for Belgrano.

Elder Cavero and I have been working more with the branch. We´ve got a lot of work to do so that the baptisms that are coming will be able to remain active. We now have a ward mission plan and we are working on a few other plans. We have the baptism of Alejandro and Carla Cuevas coming up on the 22nd of this month and another in December. We just need to maintain assistance.

We have our usual conference trip coming up this Friday. For the first time in the mission I will be able to see Hermana Peruch from my district in the MTC.

Last night I tried the 1 year 1 kilo challenge and from how this morning went I don't think I won. I tried to eat a whole kilo of ice cream last night and I am now dying from a terrible tummy ache.

Summer is finally here and I'm ready for winter again. It just isn't that fun to walk outside during the hottest part of the day. I feel bad for the sister that washes our clothes with the way Elder Cavero and I sweat. If mom thought that we had dirty shirt collars only after church at home she should see my shirt collars now.

This is all for this week. I hope that things continue to go well back home.

Love you all.
Elder Hunsaker

HOLA

2008-10-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

¡HOLA! 10-29-08

So this week has been a slow one. Our finding of new investigators is less than normal and nobody came to church this past Sunday. My companion and I spoke on Sunday and maybe that´s why no one came. Haha.

We finally cut the grass in the backyard with a borrowed edger from a member. It made me think of the “good ol´days” cutting down the weeds in the backyard at home. Another thing that made me think of those good days were the grapes that we have growing in our back yard. I think I´ll still be here when they are ready to be eaten. Dad, don´t be too jealous of my plants.

We have had rain about every other day and it is somewhat bothersome when you want investigators to go to church. Another thing that happens when it rains, is that the frogs decide to come in and join us in the pensión. My comp doesn´t like frogs all that much so I end up with the task of capturing these unwanted guests and tossing them out the front door or the second story window and onto the balcony. The other day we found one stuck to the window upstairs so I opened the window to get it off and it entered the house. After much effort I caught it and tossed it out the window. I then followed it on the balcony until it pulled a little terrorist move and jumped off the edge of the balcony to the ground below making a loud “SMACK” as it hit the ground. We didn´t find a body afterwards. It is believed that he is still out there waiting to come back in.

We have another zone conference this following week. President Shane Bowen of the area is coming. Along with conference I will be making a trip to Walmart again. I hope that the packages make an appearance in this zone conference if the zone leaders don´t bring them this weekend after their meeting with Pres.

Thursday night we had Bro. Scarpa come to the district to do a MLS training meeting with the presidencies of the branches. We learned all sorts of stuff about MLS. We are about to start printing off the papers for the tithing settlement interviews that are coming in December. I don´t think we´ll need much time for the interviews considering that we are in a branch.

We have a few baptismal dates pending still. We have set dates with the Escobar family, the Cuevas family, and with the Pereyra family. The Escobar family needs to come to church more than anything. The Cuevas family needs to lay off of the little boxes of wine. And the Pereyra family needs to get married. However, we just need them to be in church every Sunday for the rest of their lives. Is that too much to ask??? I don´t think so.

The branch will be having a Halloween dance this Friday at 7:30pm. You are all invited but you can´t wear masks. We´ll see how the turn out is for the dance. They do a mild celebration of Halloween. I haven´t heard anything about all saints day.

Avocado trees don´t seem to exist here in Goya. In Misiones there were avocado trees and the people did eat the fruit. I remember someone telling me that I was going to see a bunch of avocados and that nobody does anything with them so I would be able to eat them. Lies. Haha.

I hope that everyone is doing well. I love you all. Adios

Elder Hunsaker

Belgrano asado, feeding goats, rain storms

2008-10-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

10-22-08

Okay, so transfers have come and gone and left me here for 6 weeks more. Maybe I´ll finish the mission here. I´m thinking that I should probably ask for my membership papers and start a family here. Maybe I´ll start looking for a job and a house. Haha. I´m to be here another transfer because we are going to have at least 5 baptisms in November and that will make up for the 7 ½ months that I´ll be here.

Last week the branch had a mother´s day activity. 60 people came to activity including 13 investigators. Our investigator Ramon came and started helping right away. He cut wood for the Asado and even helped cook. He is awesome. In the photo he is on the left of Moratto. The two are good buddies.

The other day after the classes of piano, etc… we passed by these two kids that were fishing in the “sanja” (a ditch where all sorts of liquids flow). The one on the right took out an eel. Right when we were about to take the picture of the eel on the wire it fell off and the kid on the left picked it up for the photo. GROSS!

We didn´t have such a good turn out this past Sunday because of the district conference that was held. All of the branches came and the Duarte family from Bella Vista was there. They brought me a gift and a lemon pie. They too thought that I was for sure out of here. We took pictures and ate a little bit of the pie after the meeting. When all was finished, we went to the house of Pres. Ponce of the branch in centro to eat hamburgers. He recently opened up a hamburger service in his house (this is nothing new). While we were there eating I had to feed his goat thing. It kept making noise so that we would feed it. DARREN, the woman in the middle of this picture next to Olga dressed in white is Vicky Duarte. She is a return missionary. She put herself in the middle of the picture and got all ready for the picture so I could send it to you. She´s 26 and likes long walks on the beach, milanesa, mate, making desserts, giving gifts, and teaching institute. Don´t think that I forgot your mail bride. Haha. The sister on the far end wants Dad to find a rich old guy for her. I promised that Dad would. I love this family.

Things are going well here in Belgrano. My comp and I have started an exercise routine. My comp goes out on the roof and jumps his jump rope while I do push ups and use my ab roller. Maybe one day I will make my way out there to jump a few ropes.

The sisters in centro had a baptism last night and we went because our investigator was going to go. Alejandro our investigator came so we didn´t waste a trip and a night. On the way home from the baptism it began to rain like crazy. We were completely soaked from head to toe. My shoes had tons of water in them and you can see the reason why from the picture below. All in all it was a nice night.

That is all of the action from the past week. We will see what this upcoming week has in store for Belgrano. Thank you all for you support and keep on praying for me. Love you all and I await the mysterious package for Christmas. Adios

Elder Hunsaker

Week of October 12th

2008-10-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start out this letter by telling you all that this week has been a very very slow one. We have found lots of new investigators which is good. We had 3 people in church this past Sunday. We were going to have seven people in total but two weren't home in the morning when we passed by and two didn't come because they were up until 4am in the morning the night before.

We also have 6 people with baptismal dates pending. Ramon Montiel is the only one that still has his for sure. The only thing holding him back is that we need to marry him to his lady friend Augustina Pereyra. We have been teaching them both with their granddaughter and daughter. The Escobar family also has a date for their baptism and we just need to take the alcohol from the hands of the dad. He barely drinks so it shouldn't be all too difficult to stop the tiny habit. He seems fairly willing but a little lazy. We also need them to come to church.

Today we played fútbol or better yet, I watched everyone else play fútbol. Our investigator Alejandro came to play. We are teaching him and his daughter Carla. His wife doesn't want anything to do with us as of now. She is a “seminary” teacher in the Catholic Church. He will soon have a baptismal date if we can get him to church sometime soon.

This Sunday we have the district conference for Goya and Pres. Del Castillo will be coming. This is what happened 6 months ago on the weekend of Mothers day when I called home. This means that I have been here for a very very very long time. I really hope that I'm not here when I call home for Christmas. This time around Elder Civic of the area presidency won't be here. At least I don't think he'll be coming.

This next week, we have transfers. Two of the people in the zone are going home. The parents of elder Vincent have received a few calls from different people. He told me that someone called from Vegas and I'm guessing that that someone is mom and dad. His parents said that they would be bringing things down for people. I'm excited that I won´t have to wait three years to get something.

We had the fumigation guy come and go yesterday. In his goings my washcloth disappeared. I'm not 100% sure that it made it´s way into his hands or not. We´ll see if it shows up magically. I don't know why he would take a washcloth but hey, why not? Yesterday it rained “gatos y perros” (cats and dogs). It just wouldn't stop raining. Because of the fumigation we had to be out of the house during the siesta so we decided that being in the rain wasn't the best of ideas. We spent the time fixing a computer for Hna. Perez. She gave us chocolate milk and crackers. Time well spent!

We continue hoping for those baptisms and things are looking brighter. I hope that things are nice and bright back home. Love you all and we´ll talk next week.

Elder Hunsaker

PS I don't know who to vote for. I haven´t the slightest clue who half of these people are. If you can tell me by next week I can decide on something and send my ballot with the sister that is going home to AZ. If not, I will just pray and see how things go.

Week of October 5th

2008-10-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

I´d like to thank everyone for sending emails this week. I received a good amount. THANKS! I think I´ll go ahead and answer the most important question from mom. Some Reese´s pieces and Sour Patch kids would be wonderful in a package from home.

General conference was amazing. I really enjoyed the talk by Richard G. Scott during the priesthood session. I played conference bingo with Elder Vincent and Hermana Recinos in our little English room. I bought gum drops to play the game. A few kids joined us in the room and drew some ties and the face of the prophet with the papers mom sent me. I tried to color the tie of President Eyring but it was far too difficult so I gave the crayons and the paper to Tomi the grandkid of Hna. Perez. He was intrigued with how many colors I have in my scripture marking pencil. The amount of children in the room grew until there were more children than gum drops in my bag. That is when I decided to shew a few of them out with English words like, “go to your mom” or “shew fly don´t bother me”. It did the trick and saved the gum drops - well, most of them.

Today is the birthday of my companion and he is 21 years old now or in Spanish, he has 21 years. We went to eat at a restaurant for his bday. He is happy now.

Today has been pretty chilly. We stopped by the shop of Pres. Pintos and took some photos of his little mannequin. I thought it would be funny to place Elder Vincent´s head above the mannequin. When we started taking these pictures Pres. Pintos and his wife couldn´t stop laughing and they even brought a little girl mannequin to place beside him. Before anyone makes the joke, I am not the little girl mannequin that the president brought. Thank you my extremely sarcastic family for putting two and two together.

We want more people to attend our classes of piano, guitar, and English so we made invitations to the classes. We took these photos in hopes that someone would take interest in coming to the classes. I only have the pictures that we used and not the invite. I´m hoping that with this new and improved advertising scheme, we will have an increase of 50 percent in attendance. It is really simple to have a 50 percent increase when only 2 people come. I hope you enjoy the passionate piano player, the guitarist with his face melting solo, and the genius eNgLiSh teacher.

The investigator pool is at a decent level. We are always searching for more. We still have the same old troubles of getting the people into the church building. We have quite a few investigators that are understanding and I have the hope that they will come to church sometime soon.

I am healthy and doing fine. My language skills have improved with my Latino companion. I´ve learned a few sayings that are truly Argentine. Unfortunately I can´t say them in other places because they would be much much worse. Languages are very interesting. The other day I said something stupid to our branch president because I didn´t exactly understand what his wife said. I just laughed it off like Elder Wirthlin said to do. His talk was another favorite.

I love you all and hope that all is well and that none of you work/worked for AIG or whatever other bank that close. The people of Goya could always use some prayers to help humble themselves. Les amo mucho. Chau

Elder Hunsaker

Fun, fun and work, work

2008-10-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

I think I´ll start this letter of with answers to the large amount of questions. YES, I have finally recieved my debit card. Packages have to come to me in conference or interviews. If it is a normal letter it will come every p-day from the office. YES, we eat soup down here and the bread is really good. We eat everything with bread. I knew a lady that ate empanadas with bread. I´m sure there are a few people that eat bread with bread. The ice cream store has about 20 flavors. I´ll make a list of them and send it next week. As for the probiotics....I haven´t taken them for a little while and I´ve never felt better.

The zone conference was a little bit different this time around. It was much shorter and I learned a lot more. We went to walmart before it started so I was able to pick up a few skittles. I also found some ramen noodles. We took the famous cumbi ride again.

I tried filming a little bit but my camera told me in the end that there was an error. I lost the video that I took of the trip. We had our meal in the cumbi on the way home. Mom, the elder and sister on the right are from Peru. Elder Patton was there and so was Elder Martinez. It was fun to see them again.

Last Thursday we had the annual service project.

We helped clean up a kindergarten school house. We fixed walkways and cleared off the plants from the fences. We also found a snake that was minding his own business when we started to rip away his home.

I found this clown inside and it reminds me of Happy Gilmore. I thought I´d take a picture with it.

Everyone had those ridiculous vests on. AMAR ES SERVIR(To love is to serve). The heat has returned, as if you couldn´t tell from the sweat on my face. We had a whole days worth of rain this past Monday. I was nice except for all the mud everywhere.

I´ve heard a lot of stuff about the states and how we have some huge financial problem. I´d really like to know a little more about that. I really can´t trust what the news decides to show down here. I hope everyone still has a job. I love you all and hope to hear from more of you.

CHAU!

Elder Hunsaker

P.s. Presidente del Castillo absolutely cannot say my name. It is hilarious when he wants to ask me a question in zone conference.

Testimony of the Prophet, Joseph Smith

2008-09-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well I sat down at the computer and found that emails are a little bit sketchy today. I haven´t received anything from mom and that is an interesting thing because she always writes. Maybe this is one of those taking for granted lessons. So I guess this is a big THANK YOU to everyone that writes me. Please don´t stop. haha.

My companion and I are getting along great. My Spanish has improved even more. He is from San Fernando, Buenos Aires. His dad lives there and his mom lives in Tarrasa (Barcelona, Spain). He was baptized when he was 14 and is the only member of his family. He is a really good elder.

Zone conference is coming up this next week and it will be another fun trip to Corrientes. I really enjoy the trips in cumbi and colectivo.

There really isn't anything new and amazing here in Belgrano. We found a really great family the other day. The dad is awesome. He has a large bag filled with material from the Jehovah Witnesses. He is really accepting and has gone through a lot in his life.

I've come to realize that I´m happiest when I´m teaching people that want to listen. People that really are confused and want more light in their lives. We call them los escogidos (the chosen or prepared). Heavenly Father works with his children before we even meet them. I know God loves each and every one of us.

I've been studying in Doctrine and Covenants lately and it has really strengthened my testimony of José Smith(Joseph Smith). I know without a doubt that from the time of Christ and his apostles until 1820 there really hadn't been a prophet called and set apart from God. I've come to realize that Joseph Smith has brought forth so many "good fruits". I know and I testify that God has restored his church through Joseph Smith (Yo sé y testifico que Dios ha restuarado su iglesia por medio de José Smith). This church is true in whatever language that we speak. The doctrine of the church comes from God and this doctrine is not a changing doctrine. It is eternal and and it was taught in the beginning to Adam the first man and prophet. Christ still directs his church through his prophet and that is why this church is true. I love you all and hope that the spirit will testify with me of these things.

I love you all and hope to hear from soon. Chau!

Elder Hunsaker

Trees - From Cotton to Family History

2008-09-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well this week has flown by and I don´t know where it went. We got our list of members down to 212 and we fixed a bunch of addresses. We started the first part of our activity last night and filled out a few family trees with the members that came. We have seen an increase in help from the members. I think the majority of the members like us.

Transfers are coming up this following week. We will know what is going down on Tuesday night. I think that Elder Patton and I will be here for another transfer. Maybe President del Castillo will realize that my comp has been here for 6 months. I am rather confident in that Elder Patton will make sure President knows exactly how long he´s been here when we see him this Friday for interviews.

We went to see the “capilla del diablo”(the devils chapel) with our buddy Pedro the remis(taxi) driver. He really likes us. Too bad he lives in the area of the zone leaders and they will be the ones teaching him and his family. The chapel was a little less than what I had imagined but it was still fun to see it and hang with Pedro.

I still haven´t recieved anything in the mail. If it is here it should be coming with President. If it hasn´t arrived or is lost I will have to wait until zone conference. Hopefully there aren´t any problems with the items sent.

Saturday night we were walking down our sort of main street and a woman stopped her moto and motioned us over. We went and she asked if we were mormons. We told her yes and then she said she had recieved a pamphlet from some missionaries a little while back and would like to have the book of mormon. We gave her the book and set up and took her address. It was nice to be asked instead of asking. I am thankful for this little miracle. Can´t wait to teach her and her family.

I had divisions with Elder Vicent(our new zone leader) yesterday. We did service in the morning for an older woman. We moved a bunch of plants and removed a couple of things from her backyard. I tried to be nice to her dog and it tried to bite me. This thing is ridiculous. Just look at it. ONE EYE, YIKES!

I think that this should be the father and sons spot for 2010. These are cabins in Bella Vista. They are right next to the beach and are really wonderful. Maybe we should plan a family reunion here.

Brother Moratto had this bird last week when we went and ate. I don´t know what it is called but my companion sure likes it. Just look at his face. Haha.

The branch in centro had another talent show. I believe they are all “talented” out. Maybe they should do a night of family history. Hmmmm, Sounds like a pretty good idea.

Last pday I learned that cotton grows on trees. This tree has these huge pods that dry up, break open, and leave cotton every where. Kinda looks like corn.

That is about all that has happened this week. I love you all and hope you enjoy the photos of last pday playing futbol and this weeks visit to the chapel and whatever else. Chau

Elder Hunsaker

Teaching the gospel through Family History work

2008-08-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been planning our missionary activity with the ward mission leader. We have our invitations and we will be doing our parts to help people fill out their family tree sheets. We also made arrangements with a local cyber (internet shop) so our members can use it for two hours. It will be like having our own family history center. The members are pretty "into" doing the family history work. We did it with a few in their homes for family home evening. The wife of the branch president told us she wouldn't be entering the cemetery to look up dates of death. Her husband seemed amped to do it. haha. We had a really good satellite broadcast for our area. Elder Scott was in Buenos Aires for the broadcast to Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. They did a questions and answers type of thing. They dedicated 30 minutes to the people in the audience and then an hour for phone calls from the three countries. I didn't know that Elder Scott served in Uruguay. He speaks good Spanish. He and the area presidency answered the questions from all sorts of people. The broadcast was this last Saturday. The following day on Sunday we taught a young married couple. They had recently moved into the area and liked going to the plaza in centro. They had been contacted by the missionaries in centro about five times and we had set an appointment with them for Sunday. They are really amazing. It has been a while since we've taught people that understood everything we share with them. They told us yesterday that they may be moving back to the capital. We now pray every night that they stay. haha. I know that they will progress if we can teach them more. In answer to the Christmas question by mom, I would like some casino chips or dice to give as gifts to the people that I meet. I think it would be a nice gift/memory for my member friends. I will take a picture of my shoes and post it next week. The heat is coming back and it is obnoxious. Love you all. Hasta la vista.

Elder Hunsaker

Zone Conference - President del Castillo

2008-08-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Zone conference has come and gone. President del Castillo is a very good teacher. He spoke of how we need to increase the faith in the mission. He is a very direct kind of person and I’m sure there are lots of elders that don’t like him too much. Everyone was on the edge of their seats during conference. I really enjoyed the conference and it definitely boosted the energy of the zone and other zones. We also made our usual trip to Wal-Mart. However, this time I didn’t make a peanut butter purchase.

As far as package receiving goes, I haven’t received a thing. I would assume that the packages and letters are in the office waiting for interviews. The only time we get packages are zone conference and interviews. They do send letters with the colectivos every week but that is a little dangerous for packages.

My birthday has come and gone. During divisions the Duarte family in Bella Vista made me a cake and gave me a little stuffed bear. We also had chorripan to go along with the cake. We too have cell phones here but I don’t know how those birthday calls would go down with Pres. del Castillo. I also had a little birthday party with the Moratto family. We were going to have a fish BBQ but they couldn’t find any fish. We ended up having maipy. I’m not sure how to spell it but it is a native Guaraní dish. They make it with corn flour and all sorts of vegetables and meat. Simply delicious!

Hermano Moratto catches and sells birds. They have all sorts of animals in the house and out of the house. He is sort of a Doctor Dolittle. There are lots of cardinals here in Goya. My comp borrowed a little bird trap and caught a little blue bird. The little blue bird is nothing in comparison with the birds that Hermano Moratto catches. He catches parrots, red cardinals, yellow cardinals, little tiny birds, those blue birds like the one my comp caught, and many many more.

We had division with the zone leaders yesterday. During diviones we stopped by the sanctuary of “El Señor De La Buena Muerte”. It is one of the creepier things I’ve seen in the mission. In all reality, it isn’t that creepy. It would make a good lawn decoration for Halloween.

Mom, thanks for the sheet music this week. It should help, especially the blank staff music sheets. Thanks for keeping me in your prayers. We are doing well here in Goya. The branch will be running a lot better with updated member lists. In the remainder of the transfer we are going to be doing a lot with the members and their family history work. Pres. del Castillo told us to work with the members more. We decided that family history would be a good way to build better bonds with the members. We definitely need the members in order to have investigators that progress. We are hoping this will help us receive more references from the members.

I’ve come to realize that the work is slightly dead when you don’t have the members very organized. The missionary work is basically non-existent without a well running branch or ward. The members are what drive the work forward. They’re examples are much more effective than our knocking, or in my case, clapping. I hope that all of you are being good members and helping the missionaries whenever you can. I love the gospel and I want to be able to share it with everyone -even the Roman Catholic apostolic evangelists that tell me to go away.

I love you all and I want you to know that Michael Phelps is my hero. Thanks for all you do. Hope everything is going well in the lives of each one of you that reads this. Hasta luego!

Elder Hunsaker (Élder Janséquer)

Happy Birthday Elder Hunsaker!

2008-08-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the letters and for the Happy Birthday wishes. I still haven´t received anything in the mail but it should be here at zone conference this Friday. It will be the first zone conference for Presidente del Castillo. It also means another trip to the capital and WALMART. Peanut butter here I come.

I spoke with the mission doctor and I said that I have a sinus infection. He has me taking some antibiotics to get rid of it. Hopefully, it won´t return. My ankle is doing much better too.

My comp and I have been trying to straighten things up in the branch recently. He is the 2^nd counselor and I´m the secretary. We do the finances and we are going to try and update the list of members. We came to realize that the missionary work doesn´t run so well without a branch. We have been meeting with less active members and figuring out why they stopped coming to church. We have heard a few things. Sometimes it has to do with members offending each other. Other times it has to do with leaders offending members. We spoke with a woman that wasn´t accepted very well when people found out she had HIV. This goes to show what can happen when people just aren´t understanding and don´t study things out. A few members are really old and can´t physically make it all the time or ever. In any case we are helping these people to remember their covenants with God and letting them know that they are still needed and wanted. We have a total of 238 members on our list and only a turn out of 30 or less. We have had some success in finding investigators through these less active members which is a reason why we are going to continue searching out the members. We also saw success with one less active Melchizedek priesthood holder that came to church this past Sunday. It makes me really happy to see these people return to the arms of an always receiving Savior and his fold. It also makes me happy when our classes are full.

Today we spent our day fishing in Bella Vista with the elders here. We will be doing divisions tomorrow and then meeting up in the cumbi to go to zone conference Friday. Here are some photos of the day. On the way here our colectivo (bus) decided to die on us. We waited 20 minutes for our rescue colectivo. We went from blue seats to orange seats. Saying that makes me think of Jared and his Broncos. We fished with one of the members here. My comp and the other elders played rugby with the member while I played dead laying on a blanket in the sand taking my Argentine siesta. My comp caught a 10 inch fish and then released it. He was the only one to catch anything. Darren would love Bella Vista. I think anyone would love Bella Vista.

The other night a big storm passed through here. It brought lightning and thunder with it. My comp and I decided to take a few photos of the lighting. He was telling after that he has always wanted to do that. It was quite tough to get time to photo right. They turned out really well though.

Mom, thanks for the sheet music. Hopefully everything continues to go well in the lives of everyone. Wish I could be there to visit with Ben and Sierra. I also wish I could see the Olympics, oh well. Love you all. Chau Élder Hunsaker

2008-08-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

Well today was a fun p-day. We went fishing with the elders quorum in the Paraná. We didn´t catch anything but we had a good time. I learned how to fish without a pole. We had chorripan and enjoyed the morning. It was really nice to just relax even though fishing is one of my least favorite things to do.

This past week was a tough one. My comp and I were both slightly sick with a mild cold. The sicknesses here seem to pass in a large circle and then return. A lot of the members get sick frequently here too. It might have something to do with allergies but I don´t know. The sicknesses are hard to avoid when the diet isn´t the greatest and it is nearly impossible to improve it.

Here is a little information that may sound familiar. I twisted my ankle about three weeks ago playing fútbol. I didn´t have any problems with it and then I twisted it two weeks later. The second time I hurt it pretty bad but it didn´t swell or anything. I then twisted it for a third and final time. It swelled up almost immediately after and I couldn´t walk very well. I spoke with and Hma del Castillo and the mission doctor. I went to the hospital for an x-ray and everything is fine. I am now wearing a brace and will be for a little while. The doctor had me take an x-ray because it hurt really bad and because they are free.

When we came home from the hospital we found our buddy Kevin that now comes by our house every day with fresh baked churros with dulce de leche in the middle. We decided we would put him through college by purchasing his churros. He is a really funny kid. We are friends with all of the kids here. They are always coming up to us to shake our hands and say hello.

Because of this young man I have gone up 15lbs during my time here. The diet certainly helped with that too. Summer should burn everything off.

As a not for mom, my companion told me to tell you all about his “accident”. I wasn´t planning on saying anything but he insisted. I thank you for the words of wisdom.

We had a really nice district meeting yesterday. One of the sisters taught us about prayer. She taught it from preach my gospel. It had been a while since I had read that section. Everything in it is so true. It says that our prays should be more like a face to face discussion. I´ve never agreed with that more. It says we should give a complete account of our day. She gave such a good lesson. I wanted to get back to the pench just to practice what I had learned. Prays are so important and I love praying. Whenever I´m down, I can always share my thoughts with my padre celestial. Sometimes it is hard to express myself in castellano but I try my hardest to get it all out in castellano. I know that god answers prayers. I have received more strength from him right now than ever before. I hope that I can find more time to pray like I should.

Everything sounds good back home. I pray that it continues that way. I love you all and we´ll talk next week. Chau

Elder Hunsaker

p.s. I did receive the letter with the two packets of pills. It took a while because of the office members.

Playing jokes on the EQP

2008-07-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

I am starting to believe that mom is a slight pessimist. I send photos and she thinks that I won´t be sending a letter. I hope everyone enjoyed that letter that I did send. As to the questions asked in the email this week, Q: “Are you just sleeping in your sleeping bag?” A: Yes, I am sleeping in my sleeping bag because the blankets in the pensión are a little bit disturbing and because it is really cold. Q: “Besides your bathroom and bedroom what other rooms are up stairs?” A: There are a total of four bedrooms upstairs, 1. Our sleeping room, 2. His clothing room, 3. My clothing room, 4. An unused exercise room, and the bathroom of course. Q: “Does your bathroom have a bidet?” A: Yes it does and it works too.

That article that you sent me sounds a lot like the mission here in Goya. Transfers have come and gone. However, everything stayed the same. I´ll be with Elder Patton for 6 weeks more here in Belgrano. We are really excited to change our work tactics and put our efforts into more reactivation of less actives. We hope to find more investigators that way too. We have been clapping and clapping but nothing has really progressed in that manner. We have a very small pool of investigators right now but we are hoping for a baptism within that pool. There are a few prospective ones.

Last night the branch had their weekly meeting. In this meeting they share scriptures and then suggestions and oppinions. It is helping to strengthen the bonds between members here. It is working quite well. We assisted the meeting last night and had the opportunity to play a little joke on Hmo. Moratto the elders quorum pres. He was reading with his bifocals that look similar to my glasses so I decided to make a swap. He didn´t read anything for a little while but the time came to read and he scooped up my glasses and put them on. Immediately he took them off and looked at them but didn´t notice any difference and tried putting them on again. He took them off again and then tried cleaning them as if that would help. After the second cleaning process he look at my because I was laughing uncontrolably. He then noticed that I had his glasses on. I had had them on ever since I made the switch. We had everyone laughing last night. It is a good thing that Hmo. Moratto is just a big kid or he might have been mad.

My companion is like a 75 year old man with bladder problems and all sorts of other problems. We were walking home from lunch with Hma. Perez when he had a sudden urge. The urge became something more than an urge and he ended up wetting his pants in the middle of the road. The wet marks on his pants didn´t appear for a little while but then there they were like flowers in bloom. What a sad face and oh so so so embarrasing. It hurts me to walk with him now. And I thought that I had problems. The funny thing is, he thought that he didn´t have “problems”. Poor kid.

At the meeting I decided to take a few photos of the kids in the branch. There are a few photos from other occasions.

I have finally purchased my very first “Argy” deodorant. I just thought you´d like to see what it looks like. It is a little different in shape and everything. It is really interesting.

I have a few photos of stuff in my area.

Some graffiti or something. There are some birds that fly to California from here during the migrating season. I´ll be flying with them some season.

Don´t mention anything about Malvinas when you´re in Argentina. They aren´t very happy about it.

My area from atop the monoblok just like the ones on the other side of those houses.

And you thought I was serving a mission. I´m really just driving trucks all around Argentina and Brazil. Mwuahaha...

Another cathedral. They say that this is a replica of the basilica in rome or something.

Some art engraved in a wall in centro.

My comp could have used this a few days ago. Haha

I hope that everyone is doing well. Thanks for all the emails and the support. My birthday comes up this transfer and I get to celebrate with Elder Patton and a nice big bucket of icecream. I´d to hear from a few people but I won´t point fingers as to who. I just hope that the guilt with be bigger than any one of my fingers. I´ll make sure to take a photo of my shoes and we´ll see what´ll happen won´t we. Love you all and we´ll talk next week.

Elder Hunsaker

2008-07-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

I have finally met my new president and his family. They are nice and we'll see if I really like him. He is from Buenos Aires and talks just like them. Shhh this and Shhh that. That is how they speak there.

We had a finally asado with Elder Ramos today. He will be heading home in one week. However, he will be making a tour of the mission with his mom in one week also. He said he'd stop by with his mom so that she can make chilean empanadas. I hope she wants to cook.

Now you all know what my pensión looks like and how big it is in comparison with my last. At the moment our shower is broken so it's cold water or nothing for the next few days.

Transfers are this upcoming week. My comp thinks that we'll stay here together one more transfer. I'm not too sure that is going to happen. He has 3 months here and the area is really small.

This next month we should have a baptism here in the branch. We are also going to start having piano and English classes for the branch. Our next missionary/ward activity is going to be a Jeopardy activity with questions, photos, and sounds of church topics. It should be really fun. We will be inviting the other branches to make some small groups so we can have a little competition.

The cold weather has officially come back into Goya. It came with our new president on the day of interviews. It poured all night long and we had a huge thunder storm. I enjoyed it but my shiny shoes didn't.

Speaking of shoes, mine have cracks in the bottom of one pair. I hope that they stay sealed for the next 6 months if that be possible at all. So with that said I may be in the need of shoes sometime soon.

Y bueno, quiero compartir mi testimonio con ustedes porque siento que es necesario. Sé que Dios realmente vive y que nos cuida día tras día. Sé que tenemos muchas pruebas de nuestra fe para que tengamos mas fe. Yo testifico cada día que las familias pueden ser eternas y sé que es la verdad. Este evangelio bendice a todas las personas que lo viven. Les dejo mi testimonio en el nombre de nuestro salvador Jesuscristo. amen. I love you all a ton and thanks for being there.

Here is the translation

Well, let me share with you my testimony because I feel it is necessary. I know that God really cares that we live and every day. I know we have ample evidence of our faith if we are to have more faith. I testified every day that families can be eternal and I know that's the truth. This gospel blesses all who live. I leave my testimony in the name of our savior Jesus Christ. amen.

Until next week,
Elder Hunsaker

My name is Elder Hunsaker

2008-07-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

Mom if you wrote your letter in the open office program I can't open it. So if there were questions, I don't know. We have a few baptism dates set for the next two months. Hopefully the investigators can all make it to church so they can be baptized.

My companion has been sick with some stomach virus for the last 5 days. I tried offering him some of my pills but he declined the offer. Because of the sickness we haven't been out very much this week. Things should clear up soon. He spoke with the mission doctor yesterday.

The other day we went to have a book copied in copy master. The clerk that was working filled out a little work sheet for me. When he was filling it out he asked my name and I pointed to my badge and said, "Elder Hunsaker". He then wrote down my name as Jesucristo. My companion took full advantage of this by telling me how blasphemous I am. He wouldn't let it down until we picked up the stuff a few days later.

On another day we went to centro to take care of the finances for the branch and make the deposit. We took the colectivo home and passed by a group of 8-10 year olds. They all started screaming "polaco" as we passed by them. The colectivo stopped just a little ways past them with the back doors still open. The kids made their way to the bus and told us a few unkind things. One of them started yelling "cuatro ojos!" Then they all started. It was funny because I was the only one with glasses on the colectivo. Crazy kids.

I hope that everything is well with all that receive my emails. Love you all. Enjoy the photos. Hasta luego

Elder Hunsaker

Crazy Argentine Kids

2008-07-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

Bella Vista

Elder Rapp waiting at the terminal

He still doesn't have a heart (maybe he needs the gospel, Elders!)

Parade for the 9th

The True Tin Man

Elder Hunsaker's Missionary Service in Argentina

Weeks Fly, Mormon Helping Hands, Testimony

Zone Conference, Soccer, Helping Hands

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

Baptism of Marcos

Paso De Los Libres

Happy Birthday "Matthew Potter" And The Hideous Birthmark

Good News from Libres

Baptism of Debora, The Power of One

Mucho Fotos'

No Time to Write

TRANSFERRED!!

Newly Fixed Dirt Roads + Rain = Muddy Rivers

General Authorities Visit for District Conference

6-10-2009

Baptism of María Antonia Nuñez

Changing Of The Font & Never Seen So Much Rain

Coati, Grasshoppers and Church Talks, Oh My

Chorrizos, Refried Beans or Spiders (Your Pick)

Labor Day = Mostly Drunks without the Labor

Just another day in . . .

RISKing Away Time, Electrical Problems and Sponges

Water Tank Frogs, Pastelitos and Peanut Butter

Don't Skip These Crazy Pictures

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

Blistered Toes and Sideways Rain

Tossing Cookies and Avoiding Spiders

Maria and Antonio Britez Baptism

New Companion, Elder Pruess

2-18-09

Baptism of Gabriela

2-4-09

1-28-09

Lavaropa, oh my dear lavaropa!

Lots of Investigators and Lots of Rain

Photos - No captions

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Branch President asking for a favor! $$$

Short video clip of a church building

Laundry in a bucket

New area in Clorinda, Formosa and being calling of branch president

R.S. Cooking Contest and Rockin' the Boat-Van

Visit to Lavalle

Miracle in Belgrano

HOLA

Belgrano asado, feeding goats, rain storms

Week of October 12th

Week of October 5th

Fun, fun and work, work

Testimony of the Prophet, Joseph Smith

Trees - From Cotton to Family History

Teaching the gospel through Family History work

Zone Conference - President del Castillo

Happy Birthday Elder Hunsaker!

Playing jokes on the EQP

My name is Elder Hunsaker

Crazy Argentine Kids

More pictures - the card reader has arrived!