12/6/13

Hey everyone!

So, this week has been awesome! There aren´t really any reasons in particular but it just has been awesome. This last weekend the missionaries from the MTC (Missionary Training Center) came and did some proselyting in our area and it was so much fun! They come every two weeks and it´s always the BEST when they come. What we do is, the missionaries get split up amongst the ward members and they go for about 4 hours and teach the less active members in the area and also let the missionaries knock on doors and find references for me and my companion. This time, me and my companion (Hna. Apolo from Ecuador) split with the other missionaries and I went with a church member and a girl from Kennewick, WA!!!! It was so exciting!!! It was like seeing a family member or something, lol. When they first got there, I said I was from Oregon and she´s like, ¨Hey! I´m from Washington! We´re like, cousins!¨ And then I asked what part of washington and she said Tricities and I was like, ¨We really ARE cousins!" It was super exciting, lol. This probably sounds silly, but when you spend all your time around Peruvians or Utahans (I have no idea what people from Utah are called, sorry, in my whole zone, I´m the only North American not from Utah, lol), it´s a little exciting when you find someone from your corner of the globe. 

Anyway, it was really awesome to help the missionaries teach and go out and work with the members. It really does change EVERYTHING when the members help the missionaries. The work is so much easier and so much more successfull when we work in unity, and not everything is left up to the missionaries. We definitely can´t do it alone. 

Also . . . the is the weirdest Christmas ever, lol. It´s hot outside and I have a craving for watermelon and corn on the cobb and hamburgers. It´s weird to see all the Christmas lights and everything up. It´s cool. Also, they have hot chocolate parties at night time . . . which I don´t know why they do, because it´s still hot outside sometimes and I want ice cream or something. Also, while we´re on that subject of weird traditions, I had a pretty bad cold this week (but I´m over it now and I´m perfectly healthy and everything is ok!) and my pencionista (the lady who feeds us breakfast) made me drink hot herbal tea and hot soup (did I mention it´s hot outside) and I couldn´t have any fruit because fruit is cold and I can´t have anything cold when I´m sick . . . it was great, haha. They definitely have some funny ideas here. Like a lady in our ward told my old companion (Hna. Ku, who went home because she was sick, but is back in the mission now! :) that she got her hernia because her mom tripped and fell while she was in her stomache. lol, I love it. Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the snow and the cold weather. I never thought I would say this, but I actually do miss the snow, lol. Love you guys so much and I Hope you have a great week! Remember to love and serve your family and your neighbors!  Love you guys so much!

Hna. Hulse

Climbing Cerros‏ 12/9/13

Hola Todo!

This week, I got my new companion fresh from the MTC and she´s from Ecuador! Her name is Hna. Apolo, and she´s super sweet and awesome. We are working really really hard to find new people to teach and invite them to come unto Christ! This is the first time in the mission that I´ve had a healthy companion who could go out an work all day . . .so far, haha . . . so we´ve been able to work a lot, but also, now it seems like people say NO a lot more . . .there really is opposition in all things. But I know that as long as we´re working hard and being obedient, we´ll be led to those who are prepared to receive the gospel. The Lord is preparing all people in their own timing, it´s just being led to those who are ready NOW that´s the hard part. 

We have giant ¨Cerros¨ or hills in our area, where the poorer people live, and the other day we received a reference from the missionaries at the MTC . .  ok, let me back up a little. The missionaries from the MTC come to our area to proselyte every 2 weeks, for a few hours on a saturday, to get practice before they enter the field full time. So we received a reference from these Elders who had a GREAT experience with this family and they gave me the reference and said, ¨You have to visit them! They want to know more and they want to be baptized!¨ So this week, we went out to visit them, and they live at the very top of a hill . . . which is actually a mountain. It´s about an hour hike through winding staircases and shanty towns. We´re sweating to death and trying to catch our breath (cause it´s like, 80 degrees) and knock on the door and a little boy answers, and we say, ¨Hola!!¨ and the parents are in the house . . . and we say, ¨Hi! We´re missionaries!¨ And . .. well, the parents weren´t exactly all that thrilled to see us. We got the door slammed in our face, and as we walked away, the kid was being punished for opening the door.  Now, I know you were all expecting to hear about how we found this family in the highest hill top and . . . I don´t know, some miracle happened . . . but it didn´t. Sometimes the mission is like that. Sometimes life is like that. We work REALLY really hard, and we expect this really great reward, especially when we´re doing the right thing, but we have to be patient. Patient with ourselves and patient with the Lord. It hurts when people don´t want to hear what we have to say, especially when we go so far and work so hard to bring it to them, and especially when we KNOW that they could be so much happier if they had what we are freely offering, but I just remember that everything is in the Lord´s hands. 

¨Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you´re gonna get.¨. . . That quote doesn´t really have anything to do with anything, but it popped in my head, and made me laugh because it´s dad´s favorite movie (my sarcastic hand is raised . . .(that one´s for you, Mandy Kallas)) . . . Do perenthesis work in grammar the same way they work in mathematics? Ok, sorry this last part got way off focuss, haha. 

Anyway, I love you all so much and I hope that you can have a little patience with yourself and with the Lord. I know that when we´re doing the right thing, we´ll receive blessings far greater than anything this world can offer us. Love you so much! 

Hna. Hulse

Hay esta la foto merry Christmas‏ 12/2/13

Zona Canto Chico! (Canto Chico Zone) and our awesome jerseys. 

¡Hola Todo!

So, I´m sitting here and time is ticking away and I don´t know what to talk about . . . haha . . . this week has been pretty uneventful . . . But this was the last week that I had to work alone in my area! So I´m so super excited to get my companion, and we´ll find out where people are going for transfers and who my companion will be in about 2 hours! I´m so super excited! 

I hope everyone had a good safe Thanksgiving and didn´t go crazy with black friday . . . which I hear is now Black Thursday . . . that´s sad. One thing that I definitely don´t miss and that I´m so greatful that I don´t have to worry about, is being excluded from the politics and mayhem of the world. I LOVED reading the news and it´s still one thing that I really miss. As missionaries, we don´t read newspapers or anything, so the only thing I really hear about is what other missionaries hear about from their friends and family through email (which, if any of you would like to write a little bit about what´s going on in the world, I definitely wouldn´t mind, lol). So anyway, it´s been weird being completely excluded from that, but also so incredibly awesome. It´s like a stress that I never knew was a stress and now that I don´t have it, it´s pretty awesome. In fact, the other day, as I was laying in bed, it took me a full 30 seconds to remember who was president of the United States. In that moment, I was like, ¨Whoa . . . I am definitely a missionary in Peru.¨ 

Anyway, I´m sorry this email is really uneventful . . . it´s just been one of those weeks. I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! Love you all so much and remember, that this month is not about receiving, it´s about giving! I hope you can all find a way to serve someone at least ONCE every day! 

Love you all!

Hna. Hulse