Baptism of Marcos

To whom it may concern, Sept 21, 09

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

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

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

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

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

Elder Hunsaker

FOTOS

Paso De Los Libres

Dear Family, 9-7-09

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

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

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

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

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

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

Macanudo, chau!

Elder Hunsaker

FOTOS

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

We eat tasty chicken burgers here about once a week.

MIRINDA orange soda

The sky

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

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

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

Morning sky.

Happy Birthday "Matthew Potter" And The Hideous Birthmark

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)

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

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