Email received January 27, 2014
Dear family,
Wow it sounds like a lot has happened lately. I really love this area. It is a way amazing but also truly humbling area. I am trying so hard to be a more humble person. i was reading a lot about the sons of Mosiah and also Nephi and Lehi the sons of Heleman. Mom I don't know if you remember this but i remember this time when we were very little and sitting on your bed reading from the book of mormon. I remember you reading the part about Nephi and Lehi in the prison. we were looking at the pictures of it, I don't know if you remember reading the book of Moromon with the pictures with us nightly, but i remember you telling me that Nephi and Lehi reminded you a lot of me and Zack. How amazing it is for me now to be a missionary like Nephi or Lehi and knowing that my older brother and best friend is doing the same thing. I really am honored to be a part of this work and there is nothing in the world i would give it up for. I am so grateful to have grown up in a home where the book of mormon was taught, where legal and more important eternal marriages are key. Here in the DR they don't really believe in legal marriages. Its just a piece of paper to them so whats the difference. The family truly is under attack. I was very happy yesterday though because i walked into a house in the poorest part of my area for a first lesson with some contacts we had and saw that they had framed their marriage certificate and hung it proudly on their wall. To me that gave me a lot of hope. They were poor but moral values to them were maybe more important than the food they needed that week so that they could get married. It does not matter the commandment god always provides a way for us to keep it. I know its true and i have truly seen the windows of heaven open up to me down here. Mom i will be honest with you i did not want to leave elder Mortensen or Bani. When i found out i would be going to the capital i was even less excited for some reason. I started moping about it for a little bit at a noche de hogar (family home evening) and i said a silent prayer in my heart to give me peace about leaving. The spirit chastised me pretty hard. I heard a very clear and direct voice ask me why i was so sad about leaving, i had done the work that the lord had called me to do in Bani and for elder Mortensen and now he needed me to buck up and get going on to buenos aires because he has a very important work for me here. I was very humbled by that to be honest. I know maybe that sounds all a little bit prideful but it really happened. I know i am here for a reason. I know i was called here for a reason. I am living currently 30 minutes away from my area for reasons i really don't want to go into to many details about to save you some scary feelings. Its up hill both ways and when i say hill I'm not talking about the grass mound in Aunt Diana's back yard but i mean hills. They are so steep and i don't know if i have ever been so tired in my life but its just simply not important. You really are blessed with strength beyond your own on a mission. The lord gives you daily exactly what you need. I don't know anything better than this. I was reading a conference talk given a little while ago by jeffery r holland in the which he said I don't think any youth has or could ever love their mission as much as i loved mine, to that statement i gladly contest. i love serving my mission more than anything in the world. i love these people more than anything else in the world. I have kinda become dominican as well. JAJA thanks for the compliment about working out its actually because I accidentally shrunk my shirts a little. The washing machines here are unforgiving. I have only wrecked one pair of pants in it though. Well i love you guys and i hope you have a great week. Keep working hard and doing whats right.
Con love,
Elder Spencer W. Hulsey
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Monday, January 27, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
RE: New Area
Email received January 20, 2013
Dear family,
I'm honestly very happy here in my new area called Buenos Aires. Its in the capital and its honestly the best area in the whole mission from what i have heard. Its very different from bani. Its a ward with a way cool bishop who is very excited about the work and is always willing to help us. The ward is very accepting and i have already made so many new friends here. I worry about elder Mortensen about every minute of everyday. JA i cant believe he wrote you but that was very nice of him to say. Really i look so much up to him and i learned so much from him. He is one of the most logical guys i have ever met. He was so funny too. They sent him way out to the Haitian border. Anyway everything worked out and i am totally fine. something kinda cool about this area is that it was where elder Gatherum started his mission. He was my first zone leader and had a really big influence on me. he was a great missionary and he just finished his mission on Wedsenday. Everybody in the ward still remembers him. One thing i already love about this ward is they are big into basketball. I'm very excited to get to play with them. My comps name is elder cragun and he has one transfer less than me and is in his first area still. he is a really hard worker and we will have a fun time together. I'm what we like to call his step dad. I live in a way nice house with 4 other companionships. I feel so bad for this one though. His name is Elder Ramos and he is a recent convert from Honduras and he is really struggling. His trainer is a good guy from Costa Rica and i know they will be able to work things out. He has a strong testimony and that is whats most important. He just needs a little time is all i think. Something funny he told me is that he cant understand the people here. They speak too fast and use too much slang i suppose. I guess he also believes Honduras speaks the most pure form of Spanish as well. JAJA he is funny. Anyway I like what I'm seeing back home. It sounds like a lot of missionaries will be leaving soon and for that me alegra. I am super pumped for Ashley. She will learn so much and be super blessed for her service. Tell Alyssa that the mission really is the best thing in the world. Don't pressure her into going but just say in my opinion she would be a fantastic missionary. I was thinking a moment about what you said about Satan's plan. really i think i always took pity on him because i guess i kinda thought he was at least trying to do the plan of god and maybe got really offended. But then i thought that in his plan there really would be no sacrifice made because there would be no need. He wouldn't need the father and the father would not have needed him in truth it was the biggest something for nothing plan ever created. he wanted all the glory with out paying the sacrifice or atoning for it. Christ entonces was a humble servant of our father who gave all the glory to him and paid the price for us in the end and now i am trying so hard to be his humble messenger to these people here in Buenos Aires. Yes the work is hard but the benefits are many. I have learned so much and i don't ever regret my choice in coming out here. I never ever could have known how much i really could love a people before i came here. I look at everyone the way Christ would. I know he loves them. I know he called me specifically here for a reason. I love this work and i love him. Me encanta el idioma y estoy aprendiendo cada dia. En verdad me encanta la musica cristiana aqui y probablmente voy a escucharla por el resto de mi vida. Os amo bastante y espero que todo este bien.
Con amor,
Elder hulsey
Dear family,
I'm honestly very happy here in my new area called Buenos Aires. Its in the capital and its honestly the best area in the whole mission from what i have heard. Its very different from bani. Its a ward with a way cool bishop who is very excited about the work and is always willing to help us. The ward is very accepting and i have already made so many new friends here. I worry about elder Mortensen about every minute of everyday. JA i cant believe he wrote you but that was very nice of him to say. Really i look so much up to him and i learned so much from him. He is one of the most logical guys i have ever met. He was so funny too. They sent him way out to the Haitian border. Anyway everything worked out and i am totally fine. something kinda cool about this area is that it was where elder Gatherum started his mission. He was my first zone leader and had a really big influence on me. he was a great missionary and he just finished his mission on Wedsenday. Everybody in the ward still remembers him. One thing i already love about this ward is they are big into basketball. I'm very excited to get to play with them. My comps name is elder cragun and he has one transfer less than me and is in his first area still. he is a really hard worker and we will have a fun time together. I'm what we like to call his step dad. I live in a way nice house with 4 other companionships. I feel so bad for this one though. His name is Elder Ramos and he is a recent convert from Honduras and he is really struggling. His trainer is a good guy from Costa Rica and i know they will be able to work things out. He has a strong testimony and that is whats most important. He just needs a little time is all i think. Something funny he told me is that he cant understand the people here. They speak too fast and use too much slang i suppose. I guess he also believes Honduras speaks the most pure form of Spanish as well. JAJA he is funny. Anyway I like what I'm seeing back home. It sounds like a lot of missionaries will be leaving soon and for that me alegra. I am super pumped for Ashley. She will learn so much and be super blessed for her service. Tell Alyssa that the mission really is the best thing in the world. Don't pressure her into going but just say in my opinion she would be a fantastic missionary. I was thinking a moment about what you said about Satan's plan. really i think i always took pity on him because i guess i kinda thought he was at least trying to do the plan of god and maybe got really offended. But then i thought that in his plan there really would be no sacrifice made because there would be no need. He wouldn't need the father and the father would not have needed him in truth it was the biggest something for nothing plan ever created. he wanted all the glory with out paying the sacrifice or atoning for it. Christ entonces was a humble servant of our father who gave all the glory to him and paid the price for us in the end and now i am trying so hard to be his humble messenger to these people here in Buenos Aires. Yes the work is hard but the benefits are many. I have learned so much and i don't ever regret my choice in coming out here. I never ever could have known how much i really could love a people before i came here. I look at everyone the way Christ would. I know he loves them. I know he called me specifically here for a reason. I love this work and i love him. Me encanta el idioma y estoy aprendiendo cada dia. En verdad me encanta la musica cristiana aqui y probablmente voy a escucharla por el resto de mi vida. Os amo bastante y espero que todo este bien.
Con amor,
Elder hulsey
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