4/28/14

Hey everyone!

This week has been awesome! We have been working really hard and tyring to have more lessons and find more people to teach. Last week we found 19 new investigators! (our goal as a mission is 17 in a week, and the closest I`ve ever come to it was 13) So we were really excited for that! This week, we had a new focus: lessons. Our goal was to have 40 lessons this week, and we DID IT! The Lord was really helping us a ton this week (well, he always helps us, but we just were super blessed this week). 40 lessons seems like a huge thing, but there are many other missionaries in the field who have already reached this goal a million times, so it`s nothing really special, but I am happy that I finally was able to reach it. I feel like I`m finally reaching that point of being the effecient hard-working senior companion missionary. I still have a lot to improve but with only 8 months of my mission left, It`s about time I got to that point of being an exemplary missionary. (I don`t know if that`s a word, but yeah). 

So, I want to tell you guys about lesson number 40. It was 8 o`clocksundaynight, with one hour left of the day and 39 lessons, we were praying hard that we could find someone to teach. Then I remembered a contact that we had talked to on the street, and we just so happened to be by her house, so we went and knocked on the door, and she answered and let us in , so we were super excited! (Her name is Felicia, and she`s about 65 and lives alone with her mother who`s in her 80s). We came in, and immediately, the smell of urine stung our eyes and noses. Not to mention the fact that it was completely dark (except for another room int he back and the light from the street that let in a little light). The lightbulb had gone out, and she didn`t have one to replace it, so she had been sitting in the dark eating her dinner. So she invites us to sit down, and my companion is in a chair next to the table, and I sat down on the corner of a sofa (there was clothes and things piled up all around). We sat down and as we were talking, I heard things moving next to me, bags rustlying and things falling, and I asked ¨Felicia, do you have a cat?¨ and she sayd, ¨Oh no, those are rats¨  . . . ERMAGERSH!!!!!!! lol!!!! Ok, now I`m laughing, but when I was there, I was trying not to cry, lol. As our eyes adjusted to the dark, we saw cockroaches crawling over everything and we saw at least 7 giant rats! And I do not even want to think about how many rats and cockroaches were around me . . . I`m pretty sure I was sitting in their nest. So we had a ten minute lesson, and then told her we`d be back the next day to help her. So we left smelling like pee and covered in rat parasites and cockroach poo . . . and wouldn`t you know it, we got back to the apartment, and there was no water to take a shower (that happens everyonce in a while, welcome to south america) . . . so yeah. We went through a package of babywipes and now we`re all clean and happy and still a little jumpy when we see something move out of the corner of our eye, but everything`s good now. I`m so glad that we were able to find her and that we`ll be able to help her. She was so sweet, and her questions were so genuine and she really is looking for help. Today we`ll be going back in the day time with the relief society president so that we can start to help her. 

Anyway, I hope my mom doesn`t have a heart attack reading that, but just know that I would not trade anything in the entire world to be here on my mission, even if, at times, it feels like I`m on an episode of fear factor. What doesn`t kill yah, makes yah stronger, as my family always says, lol. I love being here and doing the Lord`s work. This really is the happiest time of my life. I love you all so much and I hope that you have a great week!

Love you!

Hna. Hulse

4/21/14

Hey everyone!

This week has been super awesome! We had an activity at the church and my family that I`ve been working with for a long time, Antonio Ferro and his daughter Ruth (Pamela`s family, whose going to serve her mission in Oregon) came to the activity! It was exciting, and they had a good time . . . but they didn`t come to church on sunday. Oh, by the way, I hope everyone had a great Easter! Easter here is kind of lame . . . I thought the culture in the US was kind of lame when it came to Easter, but here it`s even worse, haha. All week long and all day long, they have their customs of fasting and carrying a giant cross up a hill on friday, and at night, most of them are on the streets getting drunk. We didn`t sleep at ALL on thursday night because of the parties going on. But yeah, I hope everyone was able to not only remember the real meaning of Easter (because a lot of people here remember it) but learn it, live it, and apply it every day. Christ gave His life for us. He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for everysingle one of us and Atoned for our sins there. He died on the cross, but on the third day, he rose again! Through Him we can be made completely clean of our sins, and through Him, we can live again and return to live with our families for eternity, but only through living and applying the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ every single day of our lives. 

I love you guys so much! Sorry this email is a little short, I`ll try to do better next week. Love you all!!!

Hna. Hulse

4/14/14

Hey everyone!

This week has been super crazy. But first things first: transfers! Whenever we have transfers the zone leaders love to make it a big deal (we don`t receive phone calls or anything, on pday, the zone leaders get the list, and we all read it together). But the thing they love to do, instead of reading it normally, is act like we`re on Survivor or American Idol or something and it`s a big pain, haha. So yeah, they`re crazy, but anyway, me and my companion stayed together here in Beautiful Horizon and we`re SUPER excited and happy! This is the first time in my whole mission that I haven`t had to do the 12 Weeks training program. I finally am with a companion who is trained and we have more time to work and it`s awesome! 

So this saturday, this lady, Rosario, got baptized who had attended our church 10 years ago, when her children got baptized, but she was living with her husband, but wasn`t married, and couldn`t be baptized because of that. So she kind of distanced herself from the church, and was a little resentful torwards it because she wasn`t allowed to get baptized. So when we first came to the area, we taught her and she was super cold to us and really didn`t want anything to do with us. We tried to teach her for about a month, but she really didn`t want to listen to us. But then, last month, she showed up to church. We don`t know what changed, but we know that the Lord was working on her, and now, a month later, she`s baptized and she`s like a completely different person. She`s so happy and she has a light shining in her eyes! 

Anyway, I`m super excited to be here and to be serving with my companion Hna. Valdivia. I know that the Lord has a work for us to do here in Bello Horizonte, and I know that there are people here that are waiting for US to help them find the eternal happiness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I`m so grateful for the knowledge that I have of this gospel. I wish every single one of the friends and family could know for themselves, too. It`s so simple, all you have to do is read a portion of the Book of Mormon, and pray to God directly to ask if it`s true. There are no tricks,  and no one trying to convince people or put down other religions. It`s purely asking God directly, and if we`re listening, we`ll feel it in our hearts and receive it by the power of the Holy Ghost. It`s so simple . . . yet there are SO many who are unwilling to do it, just like the children of isreal with the serpent and staff. All they had to do was look and be healed, but because it was too easy, they wouldn`t do it. It amazes me how hard hearted they were. But how often do we sometimes doubt the miracles of God because of their simplicity or how often do we doubt whether or not it`s the right path just because of ¨the easiness of the way¨? I pray every night that every single one of the people we are teaching and that every single one of my dear friends and family members who have not experienced the joyfullness of the RESTORED gospel of Jesus Christ, can have the desire to read the book of mormon and pray to know if it`s true and that they can recognize the answer they receive. 

I love you all so much and I hope that you can all have a GREAT week. I can`t wait to hear from you next week!

I can´t see which pictures I chose to send . . .but one of them should be of Hno. Flavio, or Waiki, as I call him, haha (it means brother in Ketchua . . . I don´t know how to spell ketchua . . . I think I have ketchup on my mind). He´s the one with the cool shades. He was the last one to be baptized after 40 years of prayers from his family. This november he´s going to be sealed in the temple to his family! (my companion isn´t in the picture because . . .I didn´t have one, lol)

The other one is with the Uceda family. Cesar was a less active member of the church until he chose to come back and bring his family with him! His wife, Pamela got baptized and their daughter Alison, and this october, they´ll be going to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity! 

The other picture . . .is . . . I don´t remember what I chose to send and I can´t see it . . . but anyway, I´m in it and that´s what´s important. Sorry it took me so stinkin´ long to send more photos. I´m not quite sure what order these pictures are in, but the one with the tucan is when we were walking along the street, and it was just THERE . . . not really, they don´t have tucans in peru. We were at a zoo . . . but I was in the cage with it, so that was kind of cool, and I got to pet it, too! So the other ones are of a baptism with a sister named Modesta. This guy in our ward, his mom got baptized, so it was exciting. We taught her, but I don´t feel like we really did anything because she was so ready and she had so much support from her family and the ward. Also there are some more of the same baptism. I love you all!  Bye!
Love,

Hna. Hulse

4/7/14

Hey everyone!

This email is gonna be a little short because I let time slip away and put it off until the last email. This week was super great. After a lot of fasting and a lot of prayers, Pamela`s dad, Antonio Ferro and her sister, Ruth, came to general conference. We were so happy that they came and especially Pamela, to see her family there in the chappel, before her mission, it was awesome. Some people might think that it`s a small thing to come to church one time, but this is one of the greatest miracles I`ve seen on my mission, and it`s evidence of the fact that this man is changing and repenting and little by little, they will recognize the truthfulness of the gospel and be able to fully participate in the blessings of having an eternal family, and it all starts with coming to church. 

This afternoon, we are going to have transfers and I`m SO nervous! I love my area and I love my companion and I have NO idea what`s going to happen, but I know that whatever does happen, it`s for a very important reason and it`s what the Lord needs. 

I love you all so much and I hope you had a great weekend watching general conference in English! If you didn`t get to watch it, it´s all on youtube.com on the mormon channel, or LDS.org. Watch it, read it, love it! 

Love you all!

Hna. Hulse