Sent off old companion and getting new one

Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:31:44

Okay, so I've never been so excited for general conference. The priesthood session starts at 9pm down here. Yes mom I would like you to send the stuff to play during conference if possible. The DVD version of "The Best Two Years" is what I'd like. We have a DVD player in the church and that's where we can watch it. I am going to put my comp on a bus for Resistencia in 4 hours and he is out of here. My new companion is coming from Formosa which is a 16 hour drive. He will be arriving tomorrow at 4am in the morning. I will be companion to the zone leader for the time in between. Okay so here is the new comp info. His name is E. Martinez. He is from Guadalajara, Mexico. He doesn't speak English at all so now I am going to learn the language much faster. I am super excited to meet him and begin working. He's a pretty hefty guy too so that's cool. He should be extremely jolly and friendly if the chubby stereotype serves him right. haha. It is going to be fun speaking only Spanish. We have a baptism coming up on the 19th of April if all goes well. The work continues here in Santa Clara. I've clapped just about every house and with my new comp we'll be clapping some more. I love the work and the people and am glad that I'm here. Love you all and hope all is well.

-Elder Hunsaker


Fotos:

1. Familia Porto. (This is the family with the father that can't sleep because he just thinks about the Book of Mormon a lot.)

2. We had a meal of empanadas with Familia Malveira for my comp's 2nd to last day.

3. We had another meal of empanadas with Familia Gomez for his very last day.

4. This one small part of my area in barrio nuevo garupá.

5. This is one of our less active members that is starting to reactivate.

Baptism of Evelin

Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:24:54

¡Hola todos!

In order to start this letter with a bang.....I have 90 pills left and about 3/4 of that liquid stuff!!!! Father yo espero que tu estes felíz ahora (Translation - Dad, are you happy now?). Okay, the baptism went really well. We had a delicious cake afterwards. Evelin is a 15 year old girl that has been going to church for the past 4 months and finally received permission to be baptized from our president. It has been extremely dry and hot for the past week. I want it to rain really bad. I haven't heard a single thing about the new mission president. My weight hasn't moved from where I was in the MTC. As for traditions going on in the mission, there are none. My comp is going to burn all of his extremely nasty yellow garments. YAY. My area is filled with tons of single mothers so finding and teaching men is quite a task. It is easy to find drunk men. We have another baptism planned for the 18th of April. Next week is transfer week. I won't be going anywhere because my companion will be going home. So I'll be right here in Santa Clara for another 6 weeks. Les amo.

Elder Hunsaker

photos:

1: I found a wonderful argie rubiks cube that falls apart if you turn it too much, haha.

2: The baptism of Evelin.

3: I found these in libertad and I decided buying them was a good idea.

4: This is pretty much what I've eaten every Thursday at President Lopez's house.

Visit to the "zoo"

Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:19:39

So we went to the zoo today. The zoo really isn't a zoo as much as a shelter for animals that poachers tried to traffic and for animals that have been hurt. We arrived at the zoológico/ecologico and this white girl comes up to us and asks where we're from. We said the states and she was like, "me too!" She is from Minnesota. We have no clue why she is living and working down here. The zoo was small and only consisted of a few different animals. The photos attached are of the jaguars. They are the same size as lions if not bigger. It made me think of that Abinadi picture with King Benjamin. Yes, Mother, I wash the mud off my pants before putting them in the washer. Those were not my suit pants. I only wear my suit to zone conference and other conferences. That adds up to about one or two times a month when I actually wear my suit. We as missionaries are not allowed to drink mate because of the manner in which people drink it. They use the drink and pass method and the amount of germs that are passed would probably kill us. That is the reason why we don't drink it. Supposedly Cambridge did a study on mate and said that it is good for the heart and circulation. They place the dried and crushed leaves of the mate in a special cup and use a special straw that is like a strainer and add water and drink. I haven't played any special musical numbers in church cause I don´t have time to practice.The people that write me: You, Darren(small letters), Hillary(decent letters), Danny(once maybe twice), Nate(once) Kaylee/kids(once) Tricia(weekly/occasional), Jen(Weekly/occasional), Friends(randomly), Ward members(nada). I don't believe Tricia should name her daughter Liberty. Jeep has a Liberty. The stake center is about 20 mins away from our building and is located in Posadas centro. There is only one zone that is allowed to go to the falls and there are 6 areas in that zone. The chances of me going there are slim. I am still hopeful though. The baptism is still going to be this Saturday. I hope to baptize a family sometime. Everything is well here. I love you all. Chau!

!Hola!

Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 16:35:17

So we have another baptism on the 15th of this month. We are teaching two really great families right now. The father of one family told us last night that he has trouble sleeping because he has continuous thoughts about the Book of Mormon flowing through his head. After he said that his wife asked us what we had said about the spirit. She said they had been feeling more peace and love in their home. We had them read in Galatians about the fruits of the spirit. We've been teaching them for a while and they haven't come to church yet. I know that they are extremely close to gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon and once they do they will want the things that accompany it. My comp almost has less weeks than I have years. How sick! It is fine with me if my blog stuff is public. You can edit whatever you want to within my letters and pictures. The vaccine for yellow fever is free so that all the people down here will receive it. For the most party everyone here has electricity however running water is something else. They have what I like to call stagnant water. It is kind of like running water but not. Most of the people have wells here. Tell dad I will let him know when I run out of pills. It takes about 1-2 months to ship things here the cheap way. We are allowed to watch "The Best Two Years" movie. So for my b-day I would enjoy such a thing in my possession. The kids here go to school for the same amount of time as we do in the states. However, the schedule for how the day goes is different. There are two different options they can go for 4 hours in the morning or for 4 hours in the afternoon. As for the rainy season. It will be here in April until who knows when. Luckily I have only had to speak twice in our sacrament meeting. I know elders that speak every Sunday and teach everything because the branch president isn't reliable. Yesterday I tried a piece of sugar cane. It isn't nearly as sweet as the finished product. Next p-day we are going to a zoo so I can see those rodents of unusual size. Everything is continually getting better. Love you all.

Elder Hunsaker



Photos:
1,2: English class. 3: Our pet snail that lives in our yard. 4: My nice muddy pants after some good rain. 5: My zone. 6: Some graffiti I think? 8: Me stealing the giant's mate. 9: Me trying to get a little more mate (I thought there would be enough in there but I was mistaken).

1,2: English class

2

3: Our pet snail that lives in our yard.

4: My nice muddy pants after some good rain.

5: My zone.

6: Some graffiti I think?

8: Me, stealing the giant's mate.

9: Me, trying to get a little more mate
(I thought there would be enough in there but I was mistaken).

Video of my area map (Espanol version)

This is a video of our area map. [Any of our Spanish-speaking family members care to translate for us, gringos]

Photos of Santa Clara, Misiones (First area)

1,2,3,4,6:This is what my area looks like.

5:This is the bamboo shower that we helped make. It needs a little more work now.

7: These are everywhere.

8:This is part of the family of President Lopez with mate.

9: My area in red. The green and yellow circle is where I live. The red and blue circle is where the church is. It takes 15-20mins to get to the first part of the area on the left and 1 hour for the first part of the area on the right. Hope you can understand how much I walk.

Love you all. Elder Hunsaker

Argentine versions of family members and friends

Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:38:01

Well things move along like usual. My companion is going home in four weeks and is semi excited. We have been told we all need to get the yellow fever vaccination. We've been looking for a place to receive that but nobody has had the vaccine. We devoted a whole day to clapping homes in order to find people. We have a bigger investigator pool now. It has been raining the last couple of days. The rainy season hasn't even hit. It is funny that you mention allergies because every week there is something new in bloom here. The people here like to sit outside in lawn chairs and drink mate the whole day. That is pretty much all they do. The kids are just starting school here so a little of that will change. I really couldn't tell you where the majority of these people's ancestors were from. I used my card because I had no money for the month because of the problem with my mission card. Things are cleared up with that now so everything should be fine. I used my card today so I can buy post cards to send to people. I haven't seen one post office here. I haven't purchased a backpack cause it is pointless to have one. My umbrella is holding up well so far. There hasn't been enough rain for me to use either of my boots. As far as avocados go I have only seen one tree. I have seen quite a few banana trees. Yes we have a washing machine that works fairly well. Last p-day we played soccer with a bunch of missionaries and native kids. It was really fun. I had a hard time not using my hands to block stuff. Oh well. Every p-day we go to the main city (Posadas) and use the cybers there and shop in libertad. I had my first hair cut today. The barber used a straight razor at the end to cut my side burns and my neck line. My farmers tan is becoming more defined. kinda sad I know. Yes I am taking the pills and the mosquitoes are still very much present in my life. I'll be making another trip to San Ignacio sometime. I have met the Argentine versions of the following people;Aunt Rene, Jackson, Kyle (the kid has red hair and looks similar), Candice (this little girl has the same attitude as Candice and the same tone of voice it is hilarious), Mom, Ann Gallante (this less active is exactly like Ann. When she notices us walking by she always says, !HOLA HERMONITOS¡ Mom i´m sure you´d be best friends).

Feliz cumpleaños a Connor, Ben, and Kennedy.

I love you all.
Elder Hunsaker