Week 19: homemade pizza's that made the fire alarm go off during my video call home!

This was the first week with my new companion Elder Flores! He is a great missionary and has his quirks like we all do, but I'll talk about that later. This week was great and we fiiiinally set a baptismal date with Alen! Alen is the cousin of Manfred that we have been working with this past month, and he is progressing a lot! He's the same age as me and he likes to listen to the Beatles.
Anyways, this week was a rollercoaster, and here are some of the interesting things that happened:
Tuesday
We woke up super early to haul Elder Barahona's suitcases about a mile to where an Uber was waiting to take us to the offices in San Jose. In San Jose, I saw Elder Remy (my MTC companion) and my new companion!!!!! His name is Elder Flores, he's from Mexico, and he's more than a foot shorter than me. Then, right before we had to leave, I went to pick up a few agendas and out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar face. Is was CLAYTON (my cousin)!!! I got to go say hi for a minute and it was super brief but fun:

and then that night I taught Elder Flores how to make pupusas!

Wednesday

Today we had our district meeting and it was super weird and way more serious because we lost Elder Thacker, López, and Barahona in the Transfers. Elder Flores was leading and it was much more formal than what I was used to, but at the end of the meeting we went to the piano and sang hymns from the children's hymnbook and that lightened things up a bit. Later in the day we went to Alen's house to give a lesson and invite him to be baptized. This was my first lesson with Elder Flores, and I really like the way he teaches. He is super powerful and direct, and isn't afraid of extending invitations like Elder Barahona and I sometimes were. In the end, Alen accepted the invitation to be baptized Nov 9th and confirmed Nov 10th!!!!!!

Thursday

Today was rough because we had plans to visit some people in Tobosi, but I couldn't remember how to get to their houses and I don't have the help of Elder Barahona anymore. I got off at the wrong bus stop, and we walked and walked and walked completely lost until I recognized a building and was able to find my way to their houses, but by then it was too late to actually have a lesson. So basically it was a mini adventure and the upside is that we got to know some new parts of Tobosi. At home we made quesadillas because Elder Flores missed them from Mexico and hadn't eaten one his entire mission! I forgot to take a picture of them

Friday

Today when we ate lunch with Hna Andrea she gave us a TON of pineapple. And it was the sweetest most delicious pineapple ever, but the problem is that you can only eat so much pineapple before your mouth starts saying please stop please pleeeease. But it was just too yummy. then Hna Andrea googled why pineapples hurt you mouth and in fact it's not because of the citric acid! Pineapple has this enzyme called bromelain that digests protein. So the reason pineapple hurts to eat is because bromelain is literally digesting the skin inside your mouth. Fun fact of the day

Later we went to Alen's house again and taught him (and his grandparents because they were there) the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Fortunately all three of them were super receptive and committed to living both commandments. 

Saturday

Today was kinda weird cuz something unplanned happened. We did our morning studies, ate lunch early because the Hermana had something come up, and then on the way home Elder Flores asked to use the phone to send President a message. That turned into a call, which I didn't hear because he kept distancing himself from me and speaking softly. I was already concerned about him and then he told me that we had to go to San Jose to meet with President right now. It wasn't until after this whole experience that I figured out that it's because he has depression. I'm glad that I know this now because now I can help him with it. We didn't have dinner planned so I bought him a burrito at this place called Monchis and wow that was the most delicious place I've ever eaten at. 

Sunday

Sacrament meeting was really good and I got to help Hno Poras (the guy with Parkinson's) play the piano. The highlight of the day was the ward family night activity that we went to. We watched the first book of Mormon video and discussed it and then played some games. One of them was the cookie-on-your-forehead games and Elder Flores actually got it!

Monday- Today we made homemade pizzas with the zone leaders and they turned out like this:

Quote of the Day:  Subway Experiment I guess it's more of a story of the day, but I want to look at it in a gospel aspect. Too often there is so much going on around us that we don’t stop to hear the Spirit talking to us. The Spirit is just like Joshua Bell… it is beautiful and amazing.  It will inspire and lift us when we are down, but we MUST stop and listen.  We must not be so busy that we can not see and feel the power and promptings that the Lord will give us in our lives.

Take some time today and make sure you stop and listen to the beautiful music the Lord is making in your life, and have a GREAT week!

Elder Hilton

Week 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Transfers!!!!

Today is my last day with Elder Barahona and tomorrow I will be companions with Elder Flores who is from Mexico. So far all the missionaries I've talked to have pretty much told me 'good luck with that' sooo I guess I'll see what that's about. I'm sure he's awesome.

This week one of the things I focused on was learning as many names of people and places as possible because I will have to be able to navigate our entire area (which is huge) on my own which is kinda intimidating but I'll figure it out :) My highlight of the week was divisions and this time I spent the day with Elder Trappett.

 We gave two lessons in my area, and one of those was with Alen - or at least it was supposed to be. We were planning on setting up a baptismal date for him, but he never showed up to his house so we gave an awesome lesson to his family instead. Then he showed up as we were leaving🤦🏼‍♂️. The rest of the day we contacted in my area for hours and hours and it was really hard work. Of course, ElderTrappett speaks English so I was able to learn a lot of things about him. One thing is that he loves running (and so do I) so the next morning we decided to get up extra early and go on a run and WOW can that guy run! Or maybe it's because I haven't ran in 3 months and have eaten rice and beans every one of those days. Anyway, we ran a few miles then got ready and started working in his area (because divisions were extended) and it was another hard day. 3 of the 4 appointments fell through and we spent almost the whole day under the sun contacting. It was pretty tough, but we found two people that said they could listen to us another day, so it was all worth it. Although I won't be teaching them (because it's not my area) I really hope they feel the truth of the lessons. Speaking of the lessons, my favorite one to give is the Plan of Salvation because there is always something they didn't know - most people are stumped when we ask them where they think we were before this life. Also people don't seem to recognize the importance of who we  are! Spirit children of God who loves us just like a dad loves his kids because we are his kids! I love helping people realize the importance of this because as Peter M Johnson said in G.C. "If we do not understand who we are, then it is difficult to recognize who we can become." And that is our goal as missionaries: to help people take their first steps towards their highest potential. And with the help of Christ's atonement, we ALL can do it! 

Quote of the day: "Along life's path we may lose faith in God, but He never loses faith in us."
 Garrit W Gong
Have a good week guys!
Elder Hilton

Some peoples walkway to their house!!!

Our dinner every. single. day!  And I love it!!!

Week 17

Next week I'm very likely going to have to say goodbye to Elder Barahona 😢 and hello to a new companion because we're going to have transfers. I'm super curious about who it's going to be and whether or not we'll get along, etc, but for now I'm going to enjoy this last week with Elder Barahona.

My highlight of the week this week was Sunday for a few reasons. First of all, it was testimony meeting (because of Conference last week) and that was so amazing again. Almost the entire ward bore their testimonies and each and every one was simple and sincere and in that moment the ward really felt like a family! It was a neat experience and it reminded me that sharing your testimony is one of the most powerful ways of inviting the Spirit and helping others feel the spirit. Speaking of bearing testimonies, I really love the story of Brigham Young. He didn't get baptized into the church until after over a year of learning about the restored gospel and this is what he said about his conversion (buckle up it's a long quote):
"If all the talent, tact, wisdom, and refinement of the world had been sent to me with the Book of Mormon, and had declared, in the most exalted of earthly eloquence, the truth of it, undertaking to prove it by learning and worldly wisdom, they would have been to me like smoke which arises only to vanish away. But then I saw a man without eloquence or talents for public speaking, who could only say, 'I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the Lord,' the Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminated my understanding, and a light, glory, and immortality were before me. I was encircled by them, filled with them, and I knew for myself that the testimony of the man was true"
I know for a fact that what he's saying here is true. Many times the testimonies of recent converts are incredibly powerful because, although they might not know as much as someone who has been in the Church their whole life, they are able to share their conviction of a gospel truth through a direct, simple, and sincere declaration of belief. Because of that, I know our testimonies don't need to be eloquent for them to be effective in helping strengthen people. What they DO need to be is shared. I invite you to bear your testimony at the next available opportunity and I promise it will help someone no matter how it might seem to you.

Uh oh I almost forgot to talk about the other part of today! Today was.........Elder Barahona's birthday!!!! We ate lunch ate Hna Andreas' house and she had a surprise cake for him! It was a huge coconut cake with this yummy carmelly stuff in the middle and MMMMM. She didn't have candles and insisted on using matches and so that's what she did. She put like 10 matches all right in the middle of the cake and after we sang, Elder B lit it up and it was a mini firework show! I'll send pictures of that if I have time. Anyways happy birthday Elder Barahona, He's officially 20 now!

This is my favorite quote of the week that I read this week, and it's because I'm trying my best to do what it says. Spanish is hard but the more I learn the better I can connect with and love the people:
"Try to truly feel and see everyone around you as a child of God, laugh with them. Rejoice with them. Weep with them. Respect them. Heal, lift, and strengthen them." - Dieter F. Utchdorf

I hope you all have an awesome week!
Elder Hilton

week 15 & 16

Hi guys, I forgot to bring my journal again, so this is probably going to be pretty scrambled... Oh well!
This week we worked a lot with members and I started taking charge of our part in the correlacion meetings and ward council meetings instead of my companion. Transfers are in 3 weeks and I have to be able to do everything on my own by then! 😌 I have been learning so much and i'm so grateful to have these years to work for the lord. I know there is importance in setting goals for improving ourselves in every way we can - spiritually, physically, socially and intellectually - and its cool to see what the church has done to help the youth do this with the help of their families. I know that in our families we can work with and strengthen each other to the point where no challenge will be too hard. I love Jeffrey R Holland's talks and I like to think of this quote of his in the context of families - the parenthesis are me - :
“If you work hard and prepare earnestly (with your families), it will be very difficult for you to
give in or give up or wear down. If you labor with faith in God (and in your families) and in
yourself and in your future , you will have built upon a rock. Then, when the winds blow
and the rains come—as surely they will—you shall not fall”
(Elder Jeffrey R. Holland).
One of my goals is to take more pictures because I haven't taken one in 3 weeks until this afternoon when we went to eat 'chino' :



The second picture is one of Manfred, a convert of six months. (He is probably my best friend here besides my companion.) I met him my first day in the field when I helped him give his fist priesthood blessing and that was so incredible. He offered to help me with spanish at any time and he is the only Costa Rican person I know that speaks english really well. I have a special connection with him and right now he's doing everything he can to earn the money to be able to go on a mission like us. He is a great example and I wish I could have the fearless faith and enthusiasm of that guy. (Oh also it was him that gave me his camera to take those wedding photos that one time.)

This p-day we have lots of plans (and as a result, less time typing and calling) so I hope this paragraph of an email helped someone!
Have a good week guys!

WEEK 16:

Hi This was the BEST WEEKEND EVER!!! As you all know, we had General Conference which for us missionaries is even better than Christmas! That's cuz it's TWO days long and we get to spend them with our mission family (the district:)! Every talk is like a present that takes 15ish minutes to open and inside is a ton of tools that can help the people we're teaching!
This conference was the most powerful I have ever heard in my life and it was something very special to be able to hear it in Spanish. It was better because of the fact that I was listening to things that apply to our investigators. A mini miracle was that there was something in every talk that applied to someone we are teaching! I was sad that nobody (of those we invited) could attend, but we have plans to use things we learned from conference in our lessons. Especially with Keilo. He has been doing very good with his little Book of Mormon homeworks that we give him, but we are going to change things up and have him listen to conference talks that apply to things he has been struggling with.
 We have many plans for this week and with the spirit that the conference has brought, we have a renewed desire to become more holy and work harder!

Do you guys remember who Manfred is? He's the recent convert (and my best friend) who is doing everything he can to be able to serve a mission. Right now he is recovering from a motorcycle accident so I think he could use a few prayers from you guys. I can already tell that he's going to be a fantastic missionary because he has already started his missionarywork in his own family. In fact a few weeks ago he baptized his own mom after she recieved the lessons from the Sister missionaries! The last two weeks we have been working with his cousin, Alen who really likes everything about the church, and on friday something really awesome happened! We traveled to Alen's house to give him a lesson and his whole family was there! At first I was a little nervous because Ive never taught in front of so many people (there were 8 or 9 adults i think) but it was definitely the best lesson we've ever had: every single person was super interested, there were no distractions, and they asked tons of questions! They even offered us food and asked when we were coming back! I hope all of Manfred's family are members before he leaves on his mission, and we're going to work our hardest with him to make that happen! And now that we have a lot of new conference talks we can use (and new phones to show them on) it'll be that much easier!!! (Speaking of the new smartphones, they're actually just less dumb phones because all they can do is talk text and open gospel library... not even the camera 😢)

Anyways I hope you all had a very uplifting weekend like we did. I have a testimony of the prophet President Nelson and I know that we are going in the right direction when we follow his counsel because it comes straight from the Lord. The church is under His direction so let's follow the the prophet!
Have a great week!