Happy Thanksgiving!‏ 11/25/13

Hooooolaaaaa!

Ok, I know I said Happy Thanksgiving like, 10 times last week, but it´s because I totally knew my family would be celebrating it early and I could read their minds, NOT because I have no sense of time and have no idea what´s going on in the world and that I got the week mixed up, haha. So, HAPPY THANKSGIVING for everyone else!

This week has been AWESOME! First, on thursday, we had a training with the president and his wife, and it was great, but the best thing . . . the entire mission is on a diet! hahaha! Sis. Erickson, the president´s wife, gave us a training on how to eat healthier . . . which was a little frustrating, because we know how to eat healthier and we WANT to eat healthier, but it´s kind of hard when you´re not in control of your food. As missionaries, we always eat with the members of the church.  Here in Peru, their main meal is lunch and they eat about 1 or 2pm. Every meal has a big bowl of soup, a main dish and a dessert. The main dish ALWAYS consists of a mountain of rice a few potatoes, and then some chicken or something. We eat zero fruits or vegetables 90 percent of the time. So yeah . . . the weight I was loosing (probably due to stress or something) is gradually coming back . . . but that´s gonna change, because now it´s a RULE for the mission that we serve ourselves or they have to use a half measuring cup to scoop our food. The members are also going to be trained in healthy eating, so yeah . .. I´m excited.

Anyway, enough of that, I don´t know why I went on about that for so long. The best thing this week was when Eld. Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles came and spoke to JUST our mission! He was supposed to go to Venazuela, but something happened and he couldn´t, and so he asked Eld. Uceda, an area 70, where he should go, and he said, Go visit the Lima North Mission because they´re the best! And he did! (Eld. Uceda´s wife served in our mission, so they´re a little biased). So we got to hear from him and his wife and Eld. Rasband (of the 70) and his wife and it was SO awesome. The last few months we´ve been hearing nothing but new training on working with the members. About how missionary work has completely changed. The members and the missionaries are now equal partners in doing the work of salvation. It´s no longer the missionaries´ job to find, teach and baptize. It´s now the work of EVERY person in the church to teach, baptize, confirm, retain, reactivate, and prepare all people to be partakers of salvation. It´s so exciting and awesome and I can´t urge you all enough to go to your bishop AND the missionaries and ask ¨What can I do to help you?¨ and then be willing to follow through and do it! Invite your friends and loved ones to meet with the missionaries. If you´re not a member of the church, go visit one sunday and talk with the missionaries to see what all of this is about. This gospel is so precious and wonderful and right now, as you´re reading this message, you feel good inside for a reason! This gospel is for every single person, and we need to remember that our very purpose on this earth is to learn and grow and one day be exalted and receive greater blessings. We really are pilgrims on this earth. This is not our home. Why then should we let our loved ones perish on the trail, if we know they haven´t made it home yet? Go to church. Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. Have family home evening and family prayer. And just as important as these basic elements are, SHARE the gospel. 

Being on my mission has taught me something very important, and that is how much I absolutely love my family, and how much I wish all of my friends and family could experience the great joy that living the gospel has brought me and my family. I love you all so much and hope that this week can be a fully productive and satisfying week. Don´t let time slip by you! Be happy and remember who you are, and if you don´t know who you are, turn to God in prayer, and He will remind you. Love you all!!

Hna. Hulse

11/18/13

Hoooooolaaaaaa!!!! 

This week has been awesome and crazy and wonderful and scary and stressful and AWESOME! First, monday night, my zone leaders called and asked me to give a 30 minute training at the zone meeting . . . it was crazy. I was SO scared! But I did it, and I survived and it was good, haha. It´s weird how I used to be terrified to have to give a 2 minute talk in sacrament (in spanish) and I´d have to write out every single word and it was terrible . ..  now I´m giving 30 minute trainings and teaching and conversing with people all on my own . . . it´s like, one day I woke up and all of a sudden I could speak spanish more or less. It´s cool how the Lord really does work changes in us and blesses us, and we can´t even really see it happening until we´re put to the test, and we look back and see how far we´ve come. 

So all week long I´ve had to search for members to go teach with me until I get a companion the first week of december. I mean, I have two companions from the other Area, but as for my area Santa Fe, I´m the only representative, so if I don´t find a church member to go teach with me, I can´t really teach in my area. It´s been a little frustrating, with members not just canceling, but forgetting to call and tell me that they need to cancel and just don´t show up, and things like that, but I´ve usually been able to find someone to teach with me when I need to. 

This week we had two baptisms, and one was Flavio´s. He´s the bishop´s father, he´s about 70 years old and almost ALL of his family are members. All of his children are active members and returned missionaries and he´s the only one who wasn´t baptized. His wife is an active member and volunteers in the Temple. She also is our pencionista (the lady who makes us breakfast) so we´d see him every single day,and so when I first came here, as soon as we´d walk in, he´d practically run out of the room. Then he had a major surgery (he had a brain tumor) and they thought he had died. He litterally woke up in a morgue. During the time he had a very profound dream, and he felt like God was giving him a second chance to change his life, so little by little he started talking to us and came to church, and we taught him, and now he´s baptized! It was so amazing to see this change take place in him. He has such a strong testimony and it was one of the most beautiful things to see His three sons and his grandson who´s leaving on a mission, confirm him as a member of Christ´s church and to bestow upon him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful week . . . oh hey! Thanksgiving is this week! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope everyone remembers to count their blessings! Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD on the 19th :)

I love you all so much! Thanks for all your support and love. You´re in my prayers! Love yoooouuuu!!!

H´ Hulse

Flavio on the day of his baptism! Companions Hna. Olaechea and Hna. Murdock.

11/4/13

Hey everyone!

So . . . my companion went home .  . . again. I was really really sad to see her go and I still miss her a lot because she was an awesome missionary, but I´m glad she´s going back to get the help that she needs. So, we had an emergency exchange, and it´s been absolutely crazy, haha. My companions are Hna. Murdock from Utah, and Hna Olaechea from Argentina. They´re from the area right next to mine . . . SO . . . we are working in both areas . . . so we have two areas, two wards, to district leaders . . . it´s weird. Every night I call and report to my district leader and they report to their´s and it´s just so weird. I had to go on splits with a member just so I could attend my ward . . . it´s really crazy. I have to find someone from the ward to go with me almost every day to teach in my area, otherwise, we end up having to chose between the two areas . . . it´s rough, but I know the Lord will bless us so that His work will continue to move forward, even though we´re one missionary short. 

This last saturday, one of my investigadors, Elvia, was baptized. She´s 17 and her parents are members and she wants to serve a mission, and I´m so super excited for her! She´s super awesome and at her baptizm, she brought about 6 friends who aren´t members of the church, and almost all of her family was there and she just had a TON of support. It was awesome. Members stay members when they have the support of the ward and their family. Not only do they stay members, but they go on to do great things, like, serving a mission and going to the temple! So, my challenge for you, think of someone you haven´t seen at church in a long time, and go visit them. Invite them to church and sit with them when they come. When you join the church, you join a FAMILY, and that´s how we should treat each other :)

Thanks so much for all your love and support. I hope you have a GREAT week! Love you all!

Hna. Hulse