Email received February 25, 2014
Querida familia,
Wow what a crazy week. This was the last week of the transfer and it turns out Elder Cragun will be leaving tomorrow. I’m a bit bummed to be honest-he is a very hard worker. I won’t find out my next comp or if I will be training again until tonight. I’m grateful to be here in Buenos Aires and I really love this ward. One thing is for sure- they love playing basketball and this Thursday is independence day down here in the DR so we have planned a big ward basketball game for the early morning. The bishop is a really good player and his sons are very good as well but he is adamant that in his old age he can still whoop up on them. I actually have an ingrown toenail right now that I just got treated and it’s still tender so I will be taking it a bit easy in the game.
Wow! I can’t believe Maren is already doing missionary work. It’s really true that just being a friend to someone really is just the start. She is very sweet. This week we found a really cool investigator named Heidi. She actually contacted us on Tuesday morning I think and asked about the English we have been teaching at the church. She asked if she could come even if she wasn’t a member and we told her absolutely and gave her our number and told her to call us if she was interested in hearing a message or just needed service or anything. She laughed and said that we talk funny but she would love to talk about God anytime. We got the chance to teach her and she read the folleto(pamphlet) for the restauracion(restoration) and marked it up all nice and had amazing questions. We were blessed to be able to answer them clearly enough and she really understood. She showed up to church yesterday and loved it. She said she has gone to a lot of churches but there was something different about ours, she felt different. We explained it’s the spirit, the same spirit she feels when we talk with her and she is reading and it’s telling her that it’s all true. She loved the Book of Mormon and asked if she could go to institute to get even more help understanding it. The institute teacher and her husband are both recently returned missionaries and said she is more than welcome to come to the class or their house with any questions about the book. The work is really progressing. Things with Sara are going well. You know me. I get easily frustrated when I feel that things are clear and people don’t understand but I am trying to learn humility and remember all God has ever worked with is imperfect people and he deals with it so I need to humble myself and do so as well. We pray for her everyday and we are seeing progress with her father now as well. We have a family prayer with them every night. It’s hard because we live so far away but it’s worth running home late at night to be on time and help them feel the spirit a bit more. So anyway the girls definitely hiss here and blow kisses a lot. All you can do is ignore them. We were teaching a menos active (less active) at a member’s house and the door was opened and we sing a hymn to start every lesson and a girl outside heard me sing and started blowing me tons of kisses and hissing at me and telling me how bueno I am and so we closed the door and I think the menos activo tried to put a curse on her with a chicken or something but I didn’t understand so well. I really do love this place so much. Best of luck to Meg and Maren. Tell them I am praying for them and I hope the very best. I know they will do great.
Thanks for everything i love you all so much.
Elder Hulsey
This blog contains the emails and letters Elder Spencer Hulsey sends home while he is serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
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Thursday, February 27, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Email received February 17, 2014
Dear family,
Thanks so much for all the prayers for Sara and her family. We have had excellent lessons with their family and Mari and Sara show up to church each week but there is still just something missing so we are postponing the baptism just a little bit more. Elder Cragun and I made a cake for them though and are showing as much love as we can to them. I really love Elder Cragun. I don’t know how much time we will have together though because the transfer is almost over. I can’t believe I already have 6 weeks here in Buenos Aires. Don’t worry about the fan club- they just see the name tag and the white boy and go for it. I haven’t had problems other than cat calls and well last night and my first week here I got proposed to but don’t worry I’m totally fine. It’s just kinda funny to us now. I remember this one time playing baseball with Eli almost right before I left and him telling me, “ Spence I love you, thanks for playin’ ball with me. Can we play tomorrow too?” I remember that moment a lot now and I am excited for the day I can play some ball with him again. I do have very fond memories with each of you. The Dominicans really are just like family to me now. I love them so much and I know I have so much to do here. I know I have bad times here but I don’t remember them to well. I just love it in truth. No hay otro lugar en lo que yo querreria estar (There is no other place I would rather be). It sounds like you guys had a great stake conference. This ward is so amazing doing the work with us. We are trying to give it to Mari’s husband hard and we feel that family history could be an excellent way to do it. He does really love the family and I think it would be good to show him what we really believe as far as eternal families. I know that the spirit of Elijah has been poured out over the face of the earth. I know that maybe if nothing else could this can touch his heart and soften it. It’s such a blessing to have a temple so close to us here in the DR. We have shown the family so many pictures of the temple and I really have the firm hope that someday they can walk in there to be sealed. That really is the goal. I can’t even think of anything that would make me happier at this point. It’s easy sometimes to get down on ourselves in the mission. But I know I need to have hope for a brighter tomorrow. Everybody has the potential of godhood someday. Even the bum on the street you normally wouldn’t give a second glance to is a child of god and has such a wonderful potential for something so much better than what he has been asked to pass through here. What a blessing we have as members and missionaries of this church to spread that message-to bring and establish the peace of Jesus Christ. Uncle Rick wrote something on my Halloween card that had a bigger effect on me than he probably thought when he wrote it. It simply says “Bring the Peace”. I thought it was suiting. There is very little peace here but it’s not important. I was called by God to serve here and help bring that sacred peace that can only be found through obedience to the laws and ordinances of this church. I’m very firm in the faith here. My apartment is super fun. We are building a new one right now and I got the chance to see it and it looks like it will be pretty nice-two bathrooms por lo menos(at least). We have an interview every two to three transfers and we visit the temple every 6 months so I will be going in march. We also do have zone conferences but they are rare here. I love you all and thanks for thinking about me and praying for me. I really feel your love and prayers here all the time.
Love,
Elder Hulsey
Thanks so much for all the prayers for Sara and her family. We have had excellent lessons with their family and Mari and Sara show up to church each week but there is still just something missing so we are postponing the baptism just a little bit more. Elder Cragun and I made a cake for them though and are showing as much love as we can to them. I really love Elder Cragun. I don’t know how much time we will have together though because the transfer is almost over. I can’t believe I already have 6 weeks here in Buenos Aires. Don’t worry about the fan club- they just see the name tag and the white boy and go for it. I haven’t had problems other than cat calls and well last night and my first week here I got proposed to but don’t worry I’m totally fine. It’s just kinda funny to us now. I remember this one time playing baseball with Eli almost right before I left and him telling me, “ Spence I love you, thanks for playin’ ball with me. Can we play tomorrow too?” I remember that moment a lot now and I am excited for the day I can play some ball with him again. I do have very fond memories with each of you. The Dominicans really are just like family to me now. I love them so much and I know I have so much to do here. I know I have bad times here but I don’t remember them to well. I just love it in truth. No hay otro lugar en lo que yo querreria estar (There is no other place I would rather be). It sounds like you guys had a great stake conference. This ward is so amazing doing the work with us. We are trying to give it to Mari’s husband hard and we feel that family history could be an excellent way to do it. He does really love the family and I think it would be good to show him what we really believe as far as eternal families. I know that the spirit of Elijah has been poured out over the face of the earth. I know that maybe if nothing else could this can touch his heart and soften it. It’s such a blessing to have a temple so close to us here in the DR. We have shown the family so many pictures of the temple and I really have the firm hope that someday they can walk in there to be sealed. That really is the goal. I can’t even think of anything that would make me happier at this point. It’s easy sometimes to get down on ourselves in the mission. But I know I need to have hope for a brighter tomorrow. Everybody has the potential of godhood someday. Even the bum on the street you normally wouldn’t give a second glance to is a child of god and has such a wonderful potential for something so much better than what he has been asked to pass through here. What a blessing we have as members and missionaries of this church to spread that message-to bring and establish the peace of Jesus Christ. Uncle Rick wrote something on my Halloween card that had a bigger effect on me than he probably thought when he wrote it. It simply says “Bring the Peace”. I thought it was suiting. There is very little peace here but it’s not important. I was called by God to serve here and help bring that sacred peace that can only be found through obedience to the laws and ordinances of this church. I’m very firm in the faith here. My apartment is super fun. We are building a new one right now and I got the chance to see it and it looks like it will be pretty nice-two bathrooms por lo menos(at least). We have an interview every two to three transfers and we visit the temple every 6 months so I will be going in march. We also do have zone conferences but they are rare here. I love you all and thanks for thinking about me and praying for me. I really feel your love and prayers here all the time.
Love,
Elder Hulsey
Monday, February 10, 2014
(no subject)
Email received February 10, 2014
My Dear Family,
So first off Sara was unable to get baptized this last week. We had her all set but during the interview some things came up and we felt it best to have her wait for two more weeks. It’s actually a good thing though. This way her mom can hopefully get baptized too with her. Her mom really has so much faith and does know it’s true but her husband or rather man she has been living with for the past thirty years doesn’t want to get legally married. We gave them a Proclamation copy and had him read it out loud with the family and even though he denied it I know he felt it was true. The spirit was super strong and Mari y Sara were crying quite a bit in the lesson. After Mari shook my hand and told me thanks so much for all your patience with us and all I could really think was I should be the one thanking her. I know it’s not easy to have two young Americans come to your house trying to speak Spanish and explain to you what you should do for salvation but I am so grateful she opened up the door and more importantly her heart. I was very grateful for the bishop of our ward as well who after sacrament meeting yesterday visited with Sara and offered her some good counsel and encouragement. He is a fantastic bishop in truth. Elder Ramos is doing better. He told me a few things about the Dominican Republic he heard back in Honduras and he is kinda freaked out about the country. You know how Latins can be. They are very quick to believe the first bad thing they hear and assume it all to be true. He told me he is terrified to leave the capital someday and I told him I started my mission down in the south and that he doesn’t need to be afraid. You really are protected from all the bad things as long as you just do what’s right. Wow I can’t believe Eli is already four! I love showing his pictures to the Dominicans because they absolutely love his blonde hair and blue eyes. I remember there was this one little boy in Bani who was super smart and had about 2 years but talked super well. He also had really blue eyes and blondish hair (not Eli blonde) and when he saw that picture of Eli he said oh he looks just like me. I laughed and laughed and was really reminded in that moment that that little boy was my little brother too and god had given me the chance to teach his family the gospel of Jesus Christ. Being a missionary is really the coolest thing in the world to me for that reason. Give Eli a big hug for me and wish him a super feliz cumpleanos. Any way it sounds like everything is going great up there in the old Utah. I haven’t heard from Elder Mortensen, we can’t write the other elders in our mission but I know he is doing just fine. He is a great missionary and I’m so grateful for the chance I had to get to know him and help him start his mission. They do celebrate Valentine’s day here. The Dominican Republic es el mejor lugar en el mundo entero y estoy bien animado para vivir aqui por 18 meces mas. (the DR really is the best place in the entire world and I am so happy to be able to work here for another 18 months). I really can’t see myself doing anything else besides this.
I love you all,
My Dear Family,
So first off Sara was unable to get baptized this last week. We had her all set but during the interview some things came up and we felt it best to have her wait for two more weeks. It’s actually a good thing though. This way her mom can hopefully get baptized too with her. Her mom really has so much faith and does know it’s true but her husband or rather man she has been living with for the past thirty years doesn’t want to get legally married. We gave them a Proclamation copy and had him read it out loud with the family and even though he denied it I know he felt it was true. The spirit was super strong and Mari y Sara were crying quite a bit in the lesson. After Mari shook my hand and told me thanks so much for all your patience with us and all I could really think was I should be the one thanking her. I know it’s not easy to have two young Americans come to your house trying to speak Spanish and explain to you what you should do for salvation but I am so grateful she opened up the door and more importantly her heart. I was very grateful for the bishop of our ward as well who after sacrament meeting yesterday visited with Sara and offered her some good counsel and encouragement. He is a fantastic bishop in truth. Elder Ramos is doing better. He told me a few things about the Dominican Republic he heard back in Honduras and he is kinda freaked out about the country. You know how Latins can be. They are very quick to believe the first bad thing they hear and assume it all to be true. He told me he is terrified to leave the capital someday and I told him I started my mission down in the south and that he doesn’t need to be afraid. You really are protected from all the bad things as long as you just do what’s right. Wow I can’t believe Eli is already four! I love showing his pictures to the Dominicans because they absolutely love his blonde hair and blue eyes. I remember there was this one little boy in Bani who was super smart and had about 2 years but talked super well. He also had really blue eyes and blondish hair (not Eli blonde) and when he saw that picture of Eli he said oh he looks just like me. I laughed and laughed and was really reminded in that moment that that little boy was my little brother too and god had given me the chance to teach his family the gospel of Jesus Christ. Being a missionary is really the coolest thing in the world to me for that reason. Give Eli a big hug for me and wish him a super feliz cumpleanos. Any way it sounds like everything is going great up there in the old Utah. I haven’t heard from Elder Mortensen, we can’t write the other elders in our mission but I know he is doing just fine. He is a great missionary and I’m so grateful for the chance I had to get to know him and help him start his mission. They do celebrate Valentine’s day here. The Dominican Republic es el mejor lugar en el mundo entero y estoy bien animado para vivir aqui por 18 meces mas. (the DR really is the best place in the entire world and I am so happy to be able to work here for another 18 months). I really can’t see myself doing anything else besides this.
I love you all,
Elder Spèncer Hulsey
Monday, February 3, 2014
No Subject
Email received February 3, 2014
Dear family,
Wow i cant believe it has been 6 months tampoco(either). by the way excuse the spelling in this email because the keyboard i am using is super broken. Anyway i love my new area. Im still not allowed to eat with anybody due to rules of the country. Its actually not just a rule of the missiion but the area seventy for the caribe(carribean) said missionaries in the dr shouldn’t be eating with members or investigators. It’s all for safety reasons. I have been blessed with a lot of health and strength during my mission. I actually burned a tie on my sixth month mark with my house. It’s so weird living with so many missionaries. Three companionships are a lot and I’m one of the older missionaries time wise in the house. The only one with more time with me is elder Diaz, the Costa Rican and he only has two more weeks on me. He is a super hard worker. His comp is really struggling though. We pray for elder Ramos every day to start adjusting more to the mission life. He has a good testimony he just needs to adjust is all. It can be hard we all know. Anyway if all goes well this Saturday I will have a baptism. Her name is Sara and I hope you guys keep her in your prayers this week especially. She is amazing and really does have a testimony but this week before baptism is always so hard. Her mom really wants to get baptized too but her dad said he doesn’t believe and doesn’t want to get married to her and she doesn’t have enough money to leave him. We gave it to him hard on the family yesterday. We read the Proclamation together and I knew he felt the spirit. He still told me he didn’t believe in all this but he respected our views on the family. All I could say was that realmente no estamos aqui para convincir le que estas cosas son verdaderas pero estamos aqui para invitar le. Por favor hermano hacer una oracion y pedir su padre celestial en el nombre de jesus si este es el camino que el quiere que tome. Si su familia puede ser eterna.(really we are not here to convince you that these things are true. We are only here to invite you to find out for yourself. Please brother, offer a prayer and ask your Father in Heaven in the name of Jesus if this is the path that he want you to take-for your family to be eternal). And after testified that I know families are forever. I really have learned that a lot here on the mission. I love the concept of families. I know there is no such thing as a perfect family. I know we didn’t have one but we really do have a happy family. I really love all of you guys and I am forever grateful to our heavenly father for the opportunity I have to be with you guys forever. I know I gave up two years with you guys to help others feel this same way. I can’t explain to you how happy I am to teach about forever families. I’m very grateful for these past 6 months I have had here. I will always be grateful for them. I can’t wait for these next 18 months. It’s sad to me that I am already a fourth of the way done. It’s weird how fast it is all going. I remember in my setting apart President Eddy said that the angles will guide me home. Really I think he meant that the angles will probably be the only ones with the strength to drag me out of this place. I can’t picture myself anywhere else besides here. I really love these people so much and I can’t believe how much I have learned from them and I am so excited to get to learn even more.
Yo espero que todo este bien alla. estoy muy agradecido por cada uno de ustedes.
Con mucho amor y un abrazo,
Elder Hulsey
Dear family,
Wow i cant believe it has been 6 months tampoco(either). by the way excuse the spelling in this email because the keyboard i am using is super broken. Anyway i love my new area. Im still not allowed to eat with anybody due to rules of the country. Its actually not just a rule of the missiion but the area seventy for the caribe(carribean) said missionaries in the dr shouldn’t be eating with members or investigators. It’s all for safety reasons. I have been blessed with a lot of health and strength during my mission. I actually burned a tie on my sixth month mark with my house. It’s so weird living with so many missionaries. Three companionships are a lot and I’m one of the older missionaries time wise in the house. The only one with more time with me is elder Diaz, the Costa Rican and he only has two more weeks on me. He is a super hard worker. His comp is really struggling though. We pray for elder Ramos every day to start adjusting more to the mission life. He has a good testimony he just needs to adjust is all. It can be hard we all know. Anyway if all goes well this Saturday I will have a baptism. Her name is Sara and I hope you guys keep her in your prayers this week especially. She is amazing and really does have a testimony but this week before baptism is always so hard. Her mom really wants to get baptized too but her dad said he doesn’t believe and doesn’t want to get married to her and she doesn’t have enough money to leave him. We gave it to him hard on the family yesterday. We read the Proclamation together and I knew he felt the spirit. He still told me he didn’t believe in all this but he respected our views on the family. All I could say was that realmente no estamos aqui para convincir le que estas cosas son verdaderas pero estamos aqui para invitar le. Por favor hermano hacer una oracion y pedir su padre celestial en el nombre de jesus si este es el camino que el quiere que tome. Si su familia puede ser eterna.(really we are not here to convince you that these things are true. We are only here to invite you to find out for yourself. Please brother, offer a prayer and ask your Father in Heaven in the name of Jesus if this is the path that he want you to take-for your family to be eternal). And after testified that I know families are forever. I really have learned that a lot here on the mission. I love the concept of families. I know there is no such thing as a perfect family. I know we didn’t have one but we really do have a happy family. I really love all of you guys and I am forever grateful to our heavenly father for the opportunity I have to be with you guys forever. I know I gave up two years with you guys to help others feel this same way. I can’t explain to you how happy I am to teach about forever families. I’m very grateful for these past 6 months I have had here. I will always be grateful for them. I can’t wait for these next 18 months. It’s sad to me that I am already a fourth of the way done. It’s weird how fast it is all going. I remember in my setting apart President Eddy said that the angles will guide me home. Really I think he meant that the angles will probably be the only ones with the strength to drag me out of this place. I can’t picture myself anywhere else besides here. I really love these people so much and I can’t believe how much I have learned from them and I am so excited to get to learn even more.
Yo espero que todo este bien alla. estoy muy agradecido por cada uno de ustedes.
Con mucho amor y un abrazo,
Elder Hulsey
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