Crazy stuff a happenin´‏ 10/28/13

Hey everyone!

Sorry it´s been so long since I´ve sent a general email, it´s hard picking and choosing every week who I have time to write, but that´s the mission life. 

So, my companion has been really sick . . . (and I have permission to tell you this, haha) and it´s gotten pretty serious, so yesterday afternoon, we left to go stay with the Mission President and his wife for a few days . . . it´s really weird, haha. They don´t live in our mission boundaries (our mission is pretty ghetto) so we´re living in like, a completely different world right now, and I thought I would get super homesick being here, but honestly, I just feel super out of place and ready to get back to our dumpy room, by the noisy market and sleep on our creeky beds and get back to work. I mean, I didn´t think I´d get to walk on carpet again until I got back home . . . or play a piano, or use feather pillows or use an Ipad (yesterday we hung out on a sofa and watched the Bible Videos (biblevideos.lds.org) on the president´s ipad) or sit on a sofa or . . .yeah . . . the list goes on. Even though they only live 30 minutes away, it´s like a completely different world. It´s like we´re not even in Peru. It´s weird. 

 Our zone leaders (Eld Florian, from Peru and Eld Fristrup from Utah) are helping us with some appointments that we had, and they got 2 baptismal dates set with this family that we´ve been working with, and we are SO excited! I´m a little jealous we couldn´t be there for it, but everything happens for a reason. 

Ok, so within each companionship of missionaries we have weekly and monthly goals, and each district has a set of goals and then each zone has a set of goals, and they´re all different according to which area, district and zone you´re in . . . . claro como chocolate? (clear as mud?) Anyway, within the entire mission, we have a Standard of Excellence, and every month we all try to reach this standard, which, in short, you have to have like, a lot of baptisms and people progressing and some of them have to be families and older men . . . anyway, you´re probably all super confused, so to get to the point, this month, my companion and I are gonna reach the Standard of Excellence and we´re stoked. So yeah, we´re gonna keep praying and working hard and hopefully my companion gets better soon so we can get back to work soon. 

Anyway, I really hope all of you are doing great! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support, it means so much to me. Always remember that God loves you and has a plan for every single one of us. Not a single person is forgotten or unknown by our Heavenly Father. Sometimes it might feel that way, but we have to remember that WE are the ones that turn from Him, so all we have to do is seek Him, and He will welcome us with open arms and provide the comfort and peace that we need. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Hna. Hulse

hey you! 10/14/13

Hola Todo!

This week has been LOCO! The Elders aren´t´allowed to teach young or single women, so we´ve been working in 3 different areas besides our own, to teach, and we´ve hardly had time to work in our own area. It´s a little frustrating, because there´s SO much work to be done and SO many people in our area who want us to teach them, but we just don´t have the time! Hopefully with this next transfer, we´ll get more sister missionaries in our area and we can get more work done! So this last weekend we had 2 baptisms, there´s a baptism this satruday and 5 more baptisms the saturday after, so October has been crazy but so awesome! We are super excited to see how much the work of the Lord is growing. We see miracles every day and it´s just amazing. My favorite part about missionary work is when I get to bare testimony of a gospel truth and I can feel the Spirit bareing testimony of my words and I can see understanding and clarity and inspiration and knowledge in the faces of the investigadors. It´s the best thing in the world! I´m sorry this has to be short, but thank you, everyone for all your support and love and prayers. I really appreciate it SO much. Remember that God loves each and every single one of you! 

Love you all!

Hna. Hulse

10/2/13

Hola todo! 

So, this Tuesday I got a new companion, and it turned out that my zone leaders weren´t joking this whole time they´ve been telling me I would probably be training . . . so yeah, less than two months in the mission field, and still not done with my own training, I got a missionary fresh from the MTC! Her name is Hna. Valdiviezo and she´s from Florida! She´s super awesome and works SUPER hard, even when she´s not feeling 100%. We´ve been having a lot of success this week and it´s just been awesome. It was really cool because a week ago Saturday, we had an activity where all the missionaries from the MTC came to our area and went with ward members to go visit other less active members of the ward. Well, she got sent to our area, and I remember thinking, ¨She´s gonna be my companion¨ And she is! Crazy, right? So anyway, this activity we had was amazing because the Sunday after, we had SO many less active members come to church. People that we had been visiting and working with for weeks FINALLY came to church and I KNOW it was because we had help from other ward members. Then, after the activity, we had so many people, mostly youth members, come up to us and ask if they could go teach with us during the week. It was so awesome! It is amazing the difference it makes when the ward members get involved. They help missionaries so much, and it´s so important that people feel welcomed and accepted into their own ward. Missionaries can´t do that . . .only the ward members can. So this week, ask yourself what you can do to help fellowship those you know who are missing from the congregation every week and how you can help the missionaries with those that they´re teaching, because they can ALWAYS use it. Thank you so much for all of your love and support. I really appreciate all of the prayers and all of the other support that I´ve received. It really does mean SO much to me. I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week! 

Love,

Hna. Hulse