week 68

Hello friends and family! 

Today was transfer day! Elder Montoya went and got switched out to the English Program, and we recieved a relatively new Elder named Elder Smith who is coming from the English Program. His original assignment was to Mexico, but he went through the online MTC experience and is now reassigned here! Apart from his time in the online MTC, he hasn't spoken much Spanish, and so we are going to have fun learning it in this trio! Elder Smith is from Star Idaho and knows exactly where Caldwell is! The transfer went pretty smoothly and I didn't want to have to say goodbye to Elder Montoya because he guy I have gotten along with probably the best out of all my companions (from the United States) however Elder Smith is  very energetic and I know we'll get along great. 

This week I have focused a lot in reading the Book of Mormon and every morning I lose track of time reading in it. I have been paying attention to every reference to Christ and marking it. There has been something on every page so far, and it really shows that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and it's purpose is to bring people to him more that anything else. I am so grateful for it. I'm grateful for every single prophet who sacrificed their lives and endured so much suffering to protect and preserve the plates in ancient America and for all the sacrifices the early saints had to make to bring the Book of Mormon to the world. I invite anyone who is reading this who has not sincerely read the Book of Mormon to consider on the the amazing fact it is that we have writings translated to English from nearly 3 thousand years ago available to us that contain truths of God and Jesus Christ! Who wouldn't want to read that even if it is just out of curiosity? I know it is true because I have read it many times now, and I have learned so much about the Savior from each time. However much it means to you, my testimony is that it is REAL. Compiled by Mormon, buried by Moroni, translated by Joseph Smith, the plates are real and nothing on this earth can dissuade me from it because I have READ from it's pages in Spanish and English and I cannot deny that what it teaches is true. 

I hope that this little email was helpful in some way to someone and now it's time for me to go make friends with my new companion! Until next week!

Elder Hilton

 We did a service project with the ward this Saturday and I got to see some of the members in our ward for the first time! Some of them were a lot smaller than I thought 😅

week 67

Hello friends and family! My week overall has been great, and we have been able to find a couple of new people in our area even though it was our third time going through area book and calling all the numbers. Somehow, even with the same numbers we are always able to find new people!

I bet you all already know what the highlight of my week was... General Conference! I enjoyed every second of it and I took notes on a shared Google doc with my family. I loved the themes of preparedness, culture, and striving to be like Christ. I especially loved the talk about the Christlike attribute of patience and I felt like it was just for me. One little miracle that we expeienced yesterday was the impression my companion had to call a certain person that we are teaching. We were currently listening to the Sunday Afternoon session and we were about halfway through it. We could have waited until after to call her, but we decided to do it right then, and it so happened that she has juuust gotten home and had some free time! We sent her the link to watch the rest of conference live in Spanish, and she did it! Now, tomorrow we are going to talk with her about what she liked and questions she now has. 

There are a couple of other cool little stories I would like to tell, but my time is limited because we decided to be more adventurous today and so we went on a couple-hour hike and had a blast! 

I hope all of you also had a great week (and especially weekend) and that's it for me! Love you!

Elder Hilton

week 66

This week went very well and we all worked very hard on our contacting skills, revising EdApp as a reference and making achievable goals to better our contacts. Through that effort we were able to find two new families (one of 3 and the other of 4) to teach in one day! That morning we had prayed for God to help us find the families that were waiting to hear the message of the restored Gospel, and he answered our prayer! It strengthened our faith and motivated us to work even harder to find even more new friends. 

There was amazing devotional on Sunday. The conversion of the Nail family was shared and it was amazing. It all started with Elder Nail - my age - had entered the MTC and they met President and Sister Caplin who at the time were being trained as mission presidents. When they were introducing themselves, Elder Nail said his name and that he was from Texas and President Caplin asked if he was related to another man (I forgot his first name) and it was his Elder Nail's grandfather. It turns out that 39 years ago when President Caplin was 19 on his mission, he had baptized Elder Nail's grandfather and introduced the gospel to their family! 

In that devotional Elder Nail and his dad and President Caplin were all present, and Elder Nail's dad shared his conversion story - he was 17 at the time - and the spirit was so strong. The rest of the devotional we talked about the effects we will have on other people, even if we don't see it now. And I know that everything my companions and I do will have a ripple effect. Even if we don't think so, we have to remember that God works in mysterious ways and the smallest things can be the means of bringing about the greatest changes in the lives of other people. 

A little thought:

"Consider upon the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God"  

What else make you happy? I love music and yummy food and organizing, but nothing makes me happier than making others happy which I can do as a missioanry by teaching commandments that allow people to live happy lives!

Have a great week everyone! 

- Elder Hilton