week 97, THE LAST ONE

This week was by far the fastest week ever! Little by little I have been recognizing less faces on Zoom Calls until the majority of people I know are all home and replaced by new missionaries. Today was transfers and because of some crazy logistics in our zone I had to go down to Woodbridge (about 45 minutes away) for all of Pday to be with Elder Weatherly who is awaiting his trainee, and so we had as much fun as we could playing pool and basketball all while I gave him tips on how to be an effective district leader/trainer, gave him some great training ideas for district council, and planned some fire lessons for tonight. I could tell he was sort of nervous but I have know doubt that he will do a fantastic job! 

This last Sunday was a very special one. I missed my mom a lot as we sat through the mother's day talks at sacrament meeting and then afterwards I said goodbye to all the faithful branch members that I had worked with for the last 4 months. There were lots of pictures taken and hands shaken and elbows bumped, etc. And we left that church building for the last time :( Also I found my Book of Mormon that I had lost the last time and that made me soooo happy. I have put so much energy into that book that I have used the majority of my mission, and although I was prepared to go home without it, I have it back with me and I can go home in peace! I love the Book of Mormon!!

I apologize for the lack of detail in this email, but transfers are dang busy and either way, I can tell most of you all about it in 2 days! See you all!

A beautiful quote from Elder Holland that I dedicate to my mom:

"How can mortal love be so strong that you voluntarily subject yourself to responsibility, vulnerability, anxiety, and heartache and just keep coming back for more of the same? What kind of mortal love can make you feel, once you have a child, that your life is never, ever your own again? Maternal love has to be divine. There is no other explanation for it. What mothers do is an essential element of Christ’s work ”

week 96

Hello everyone! This week was another interesting one filled with its ups and downs. The sad news: Our Friend Jacinto Sanchez who is to be baptized on May 8th moved to Richmond Virginia (over 2 hours away) on the day of his baptismal interview and even though he is so ready, it will be physically impossible for him to be baptized because he can't drive. We are working to find out his new address to pass him off to the missionaries down there, so they can get to know him and do the interview and baptize him.Everything else: 13 of our 34 lessons we had planned this week happened and each of them were great! We taught the Restoration many times and got to meet a few new people that started from mere conversations on Facebook. One guy I've been helping with English said he'd love to go meet at some restaurant but since that's against the rules I told him let's just do a videocall! He called me right then and there and I got to know him and his entire family - wife and 2 kids - and they are so amazing! He said he would love to meet me in person and tell me about more of his Honduran culture and hear about what we do as missionaries! If we are able to get an appointment somewhere in our area (because he lives in my old area) then I might actually get an in-person lesson for the first time since being reassigned before going home next week! I was reflecting about one of my past exchanges we did with a companionship and how humble one Elder was. He was a convert of the bare minimum when he left on his mission. He did the at-home MTC by himself and had no support and he arrived to the mission field and didn't know who Joseph Smith was. Since then he has read the Book of Mormon and gained his own testimony of it and learnt Joseph Smith incredible role of the prophet of the Restoration and during a lesson I heard his simple, heartfelt, humble testimony in broken Spanish and it was incredible. I was thinking of how I could share my testimony with that level of humility and eliminate any pride from my life and I was reminded of the inspiring words of my Mission President about pride and humility. Pride often slips into our lives as a counterfeit way to make ourselves feel justified when our performance or feelings are less than our spiritual capability.Humility, on the other hand, is a sign of spiritual strength. It causes us to think deeply about the things that really matter in life. It tempers harsh and judgmental thoughts and communications. Humility prompts us to rise above our own limitations so that we can lift and strengthen others. Truly humble servants of the Lord actively seek to know His divine principles and will so that they can reach toward Him by consistently adjusting their thoughts and personal behavior. They know that commandments and principles provide the sure way to heaven through the atonement of Jesus Christ.I love my Mission President. All three so far have had a profound impact on my life. I am grateful for my mission and I pray that we all learn to love obedience and that we all work to defeat pride in our lives and “let God prevail”. I love God’s commandments and want to fill every day with compassion and concern for the well-being of others. Let's all rise above any prideful rationalizations and worry ourselves less with our own small discomforts or insecurities. With that I hope you all have a great week and find someone to help! 

Love, Elder Hilton :)

week 95

Hello everyone! This week was another amazing one, and there were plenty of miracles that happened! Here are some highlights.

First off some follow up on Mario the mouse: we set up some Walmart sticky traps with tater tots in them, and the FIRST night we were woken up around 11 and sure enough there he was. We safely and humanely disposed of him and kept the other traps just in case, and 2 nights later we were woken up again around 11 by another mouse caught in the other trap (we got 4 traps) and now we think the house is mouse free but who knows!

This Sunday was incredible and the best part was when we made a new friend. I invited someone I have been talking with for only a few days on Facebook to come to church with me and he did! His name was Pedro and I didn't even know it was him til he came up to me afterwards and thanked me for my talk (Elder Douglas and I spoke to cover for some members who fell through) and then he even stayed for the second hour of church and within those two hours we became friends! Nearly every member of the branch said hi to him and "thanks for coming" and it was such a neat experience. This week we will for sure call him and explain a lot of the things he saw in church. Also Jacinto came to church again and he is SO humble. His comments in sunday school were so great and had everybody nodding and reflecting. I have no doubt that he will be baptized on May 8th. His sincere to desire to know the Savior is his motivation and because of that I spoke about the importance of coming unto Christ and how we do it. (I based my talk off of John A McCune's talk in April 2020 Gen. Conference because he used to be our old Stake President.)

Quick thought:

My mission president said this about how to become more like the Savior: 

When we spend significant amounts of time thinking about ourselves, our own comforts and states of being, we are missing the opportunity to pattern our lives after the Savior. He has invited us to leave such concerns behind, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." 

What comforts are we willing to sacrifice to follow Christ? 

I love you all

Elder Hilton

week 94

Hello Everyone! This week was again incredible! We had another district activity that was kind of far away, so I don't have a ton of time to write a detailed message this week. The activity was frisbee and soccer, and at the end we were all tired so we just sat and talked and played signed and honestly I think that was my favorite part. Here are some things that happened this week

1) we discovered we had mice in our apartment and despite our best efforts, mario the mouse has stolen 16 of our tots already. We keep trying to catch him, but he's nocturnal so he's got the advantage. The other casualties in the battle against mario are a pack of graham crackers and a stick of butter. But today we bought real traps so we'll see what happens tonight.

2) We went to church in person and met an older couple we had never seen before and it turns out that the moved from Baltimore and they are investigating the church and just came out of their own free will! We are going to start having lessons with them to help them learn what the church is all about. It was quite the miracle and we are having a lot of success in this new branch! Speaking of success, I want to share a quote from my mission President's son about it's relationship with happiness: 

 

“In 1543, Nicolas Copernicus published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres). Until then, most of the world had believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and that the sun revolved around the planet. But Copernicus famously argued that precisely the opposite was true—Earth revolved around the sun—a revelation that eventually changed the way humans saw the entire universe.

“Today, a similar fundamental shift in the field of psychology is underway. For untold generations, we have been led to believe that happiness orbited around success. That if we work hard enough, we will be successful, and only if we are successful will we become happy. Success was thought to be the fixed point of the work universe, with happiness revolving around it. Now, thanks to breakthroughs in the burgeoning field of positive psychology, we are learning that the opposite is true. When we are happy—when our mindset and mood are positive—we are smarter, more motivated, and thus more successful. Happiness is the center, and success revolves around it."

That is something I have seen already in my relatively short life, and I intend to keep applying that knowledge to make the world a happier place. Hopefully next week I'll have a it more time to tell about my week, but for now... Hasta Luego!

1) The mario-catching setup

2) The super pretty trees in the Virginia spring

3) Our district!

week 93

Hello! This week, probably like every other missionary's week on the planet was bendecido. General Conference was a great spiritual experience for my comapnion and I and we had a great time listening to each session and invitiing all our friends to participate. We found three new friends to teach this week and all of them had lost contact with the sister missionaries about 6 months to a year ago. Two of them are from Guatemala and speak an indigienous languange and spanish, and because of that they have some funny nuances in their way of speaking.  I'll let you know how is goes with each of them next week, but until then, here's a spiritual thought for the week:

I have learned that missions can be difficult and they require a great investment of yourself; not only your time, but your heart and mind. But as I push through the challenges and willingly embrace the work of salvation, I remember that right now this work is the greatest thing I could be doing with my life and I notice some things. 

I've noticed that as you apply yourself, suddenly things of the "Spirit" begin to take on more meaning. You start to depend on the Savior's matchless power more readily. You come to love those you are called to serve. You start to stretch toward the goals that the Lord knows you can reach, and you learn how to set even more meaningful goals for yourself. Speaking of goals, as I near the end of my mission, I have been setting several long term and short term goals, and in one of my studies I came across this quote

"In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us to become something" - Dallin H. Oaks

and so when I heard this next quote from Ahmad S. Corbitt in General Conference on Saturday, it stuck out to me a lot! "Setting goals is a great way to see forward to who you will become with faith". Goals are like the helm of the ship that Elder Bednar talked about that steer our great potential and faith in Jesus Christ towards eternal life!

I love General Conference and I could probably talk about it for the rest of P-day, but I've got to do some other things as well, so goodbye everyone!

With Love, 

Elder Hilton

eatingbhan while watching general conference. Yum!

I think my companion was hungry!🤣

week 92

Hello everyone! Today is transfers, and I'm leaving for Fairfax. The best part of it is that I'm staying with Elder Douglas and in the Cub Run branch, but we are moving into a new apartment! I'm excited for the change in view because until now I have lived in Manassas since June (10 months!) Moving was quite the process and it took up most of the time today and we've got three lessons to prepare for tonight, so this email's going to be pretty short. I just wanted to share something that my mission President said this last week that I really like. He was talking about out transfers and the importance of loving our companion. He said, "Clearly in Heavenly Father’s kingdom we need each other to progress. “Love” is the critical factor which enriches and accelerates that progression. Whole-hearted and thoughtful love which derives from deep within our soul is what allows us to become like the Savior and our Father in Heaven. How do we achieve this level of love while serving here as missionaries? The Savior himself provided the answer to the original missionaries of his time: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (John 14: 21) Our president taught us that obedience is key to love. But he also connected it very well to the importance of companions in life. He taught us that life was never meant to be a solitary endeavor. The Lord made it clear that we are not here upon the earth to merely spend time together, but that we are “to love [our] neighbor as [ourselves]. This requirement is second only to, and “like unto” the first commandment, to love the Lord with “all [our] heart, and with all [our] soul, and with all [our] mind.” (Matthew 22: 36-40)" And throw in Mosiah 2:41 and you have the key to happiness! So spouses, love your media naraja(better half), and siblings love your other siblings, and we will all be so happy and blessed!!! Have a great week everybody! :)))))

Elder Hilton

we were leaving our house and were so excited to give some service to a little old man who needed a jump.  Made my day.

A fun video call watching Mazzikay and Gizmo begging for the piece of bread my mom was giving them. Hahaha

a fun video call watching Mazzikay and Gizmo begging for the piece of bread my mom had in her hand.  Hahaha

week 91

Hello Everyone! 

This week was another great one, just plugging along at all the usual missionary work! We had another lesson with Liliana about temples and she watched the video with Elder Rasband and Elder Bednar in the Rome Italy temple and she was amazed. We explained even more afterwards about what we do in temples and why it's so important and the difference between those and just regular church buildings. She was shocked to learn that there was one in Maryland less than an hour away and she wants to visit it now! We also had lots of lessons with people who don't live in our area and then helped them get in contact with missionaries closer to them (in South Carolina, Peru and Mexico). 

We also had a Zone Conference this week instead of District Council, and guess what? It was all about the Book of Mormon! I had no idea but that was what my last email was all about! We gave a 20 min training in the conference about how the Book of Mormon answers questions of the soul and it went very well. My favorite part was the testimony meeting at the end, it was incredible because all the testimonies had to do with the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ!

Also this week I turned 21 months old on my mission! 🎉 

We had a district activity today and it was pretty far away, so I already don't have much time left, so here is a brief spiritual thought :)

 Something that I learned in this zone conference was that if you are doing your best each day, then you do not need to fear that you will fail. Why? For me it's all in the definition of the word fail. When you are disappointed in yourself and know you could have done better, that is a failure. However in Preach My Gospel we learn that

"When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you." (p. 12)

Also our mission President shared the following quote with us: “There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.” 

So, if you are sincerely trying your best you are succeeding! And I think we can all be a little more grateful for even the small advances that we experience. I am so grateful to be a missionary and love God's perfect plan of progression for all of us!

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Hilton

week 90

Hello everyone! 

I love the Book of Mormon! I'm not sure how many emails over the course of my mission have been about the Book of Mormon, but I have to talk about it because of how important it has become to me. Imagine how much it meant to Moroni! Imagine being Moroni - responsible for the care of a book which contains eternal truths essential for the salvation and eternal life of man, your father spend his entire life abridging it and your single most important duty is to protect those plates from a wicked society that would destroy them as fast as they would you. That's quite a responsibility. So we should take it seriously when Moroni, with all the energy, love, and understanding that he can offer us, seals his life’s work with the following plea and promise: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.” (Moroni 10:32-33)

On an individual basis, this is the whole point of the Book of Mormon . . . to help us act with faith and believe now and forever that His grace is sufficient to make us perfect, sanctified, and holy, without spot. This is the outcome that this book was written for and miraculously preserved for for thousands of years. This is the reason I am here sharing my testimony with the world and with you. Do you believe it? Are you putting Moroni’s full promise to the test in your life? I testify with all my heart and promise you that the Father’s covenant with you personally in this regard is real and eternal. Put it to the test! As you read the Book of Mormon paying special attention to the covenants God has made with Israel you will feel the power of those covenants and strengthen your desire to follow Christ. I promise you that and so does Moroni. 

As for a quick report of this week: 

This week in the branch it has been really slow but we have continued working really hard. We did not find any new people to teach, and for now since we don't have a working area book, we are really focusing on building positive relationships with members of the branch and sharing the gospel online through Facebook. I loved our MLC and the big focus on hope. If you are feeling down during the week, please read the section on "Hope" in gospel topics in the gospel library. It is incredible! 

I love you all! 

Elder Hilton 

my 20th birthday cake!

week 89

Happy March 8th everyone! This week was amazing in every aspect, we had exchanges with the AP's a very effective and fun district council, a district activity (because they are approved now!) and lots of spiritual lessons through Facebook and WhatsApp with our friends. But instead of recounting what happened during my week, I have made a goal to make my emails more spiritual and testimony focused, and so here is a thought for anyone struggling to share the Gospel. I hope you enjoy it.

We all have things we want to accomplish in life. It could be a mission or maybe it's finding a stable work or developing better family relationships. Whatever it might be,  when the road gets difficult sometimes we start questioning our capacity to accomplish it. We might think that we made a mistake too early on or that we know ourselves better than the Lord knows us. It might cause us to doubt or become fearful that we won't be able to see it through to the end. Maybe we just spend too much of our mental and emotional time  and energy telling ourselves that it’s just not possible or that there's got to be some other way.

But, the Lord did not send us here to fail, to be miserable, or to waste our time. Actually, the exact opposite. He sent us here to joyfully succeed and accomplish the great, though difficult, work of sharing the light of the gospel with those of His precious sons and daughters who are seeking after Him. And I know that it is this very work which will bring each of us closer to Him, if we fully embrace it.

So, when we are uncertain, we should turn to Him rather than focus on our weaknesses, insecurities, and doubts. In those moments, more than any other time, we need to trust Him. We can show that trust by reaching out to Him in our prayers and through being true to the covenants and commitments we have made to Him. I have learned that obedience builds trust in our relationship with God.

Our mission president shared this quote from President Harold B. Lee: “testimony is as elusive as a moonbeam; it’s as fragile as an orchid; you have to recapture it every morning of your life.” I have thought about this expression quite a bit and I love it because the moon, in and of itself is cold and lifeless, but through reflecting the light and energy of the sun, it iluminates parts of the  world that would otherwise stay dark.

Like the moon, we have been given the amazing opportunity to reflect the saving light and energy of the “Son” of God. Without that Light, our lives and the lives of our friends would be empty and devoid of purpose. But with that Light, we have a capacity well beyond our own to experience miracles and success. To access more of that Light, we need to be as firm and consistent in our duties just as the moon is. We have to show up every day and with all our determination recapture the beauty of sharing the Light with everyone.

If there are moments when it’s hard to believe in ourselves, we need to believe in Him and keep showing up. Even in the midst of our storms of uncertainty, we can know that He is there. His light will eventually dissipate the clouds that try to obscure the true perspective of our own eternal strength and potential.

The Lord has said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul understood from this that staying to fight the fight produces the very circumstances essential to our growth and the whole reason we are here, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Cor. 12:9-10)

I hope that every person reading this email can recapture every day the vision of who we truly are when we stand side-by-side with the Savior, and that you can reflect his light, and that we will let our strength be made perfect in Him as we fulfill every day the commitment we made when we were baptized. 

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, and he lights up my life. I hope that through this email I was able to reflect a small portion of that light to each of you. 

Love, Elder Hilton

week 88

Hello everyone! This week's email will be a bit shorter than the last, but that's ok because I'll just focus on the best parts.

This week we spent every open moment rebuilding our area book and calling people and organizing our contacts. We had GREAT lessons with lots of old and new friends. Luis and Paola are a couple who just met us last week and since the last visit they had read the introduction and the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and Luis had lots of good questions. He was confused because he thought that both of those were part of the ancient text that was translated but we helped him understand what they actually were and why they were so important. He was very interested in the fact the the Book of Mormon has an account of the ministry of Christ in the ancient Americas and he promised us he would read 3 Nefi 11. We are so excited for him!

We also had a lesson with Carmen, a recent convert baptized 2 months ago and she has such a strong testimony! She already referred her entire family in Peru and the missionaries are teaching them there, and she told us how she's going to marry a member of the church in a month (he already proposed) and go to the temple! She told us of her dreams of visiting all the temples in Utah it was honestly so inspiring coming from someone with so little time in the church.

We also had an incredible lesson with Rolando where  we talked about the importance of using the bible and Book of Mormon together and he understood it very well. He actually actually wants a copy of the bible witht the footnotes to the Book of Mormon in it, and we're going to get it to him this week.

We also taught Julio this week and unfortunately for the 4th week in a row he hadn't read anything at all in the Book of Mormon even though he promised us he would 2 times during the week. We ended up just reading with hi right there and applying what we read to our daily lives. We testified of the power of the Book of Mormon to help us come closer to Christ, and invited him to try again to read this week and let us know how it went.

We also had a lesson with a new person we found through Facebook and she seemed genuinely interested in the message we share so we set up frequent contact and I'm excited to see where it goes!

We also had another lesson with Liliana and the Relief society President in the branch and it went very well! She has been taught everything, and so this time we just taught about prophets and their importance in guiding the church, etc. and at the end we invited her to watch the video of Russel M Nelson about Gratefulness. If you are reading this and still haven't seen it, it doesn't even matter that you are now 4 months late GO WATCH IT it is too good. 15 minutes after our lesson with Liliana, she sent us a text telling us that she just finished watching it and she loved it! She says that she shared it on her page and with some of her friends because everyone needs to hear it. Then she told us that she followed the prophet. Talk about obeying the commandment in a very literal sense :)))

This week we also did a total of 8 hours of service, 4 hours at the food rescue task force and 4 hours at habitat for Humanity with Benji the crazy Nepali guy in charge.

Spiritual thought:

Something I learned from my mission President this week was about how the world is full of distractions. He told us how lots of people just seek self-fulfillment instead of making worthy sacrifices to our Heavenly Father. He said "It is so easy to be distracted by things, relationships, careers, education, information, and gadgets. The whirl and whiz of modern living can cause us to spin entirely out of control." I was taken aback a little bit by the fact that education was on that list of distractions but I realized that the problem is when our education becomes more important to us than our own devotion to God. After pondering about this deeply I have decided that to avoid that loophole of education becoming a distraction, I want to make my own knowledge and relationship to God the priority and focus of my education. Anyways, continuing onward with what my president said, 

"While we serve our missions - (this is me Elder Hilton here just letting you know that you can substitute that first phrase with whatever situation in life you are in) - there are distractions that are even more concerning. Fear, self-doubt, and loneliness can be great obstacles to achieving our divine destiny. These insecurities have the ability to cripple our spirits and may cause us to believe that we are incapable of finding happiness on our missions or throughout our lives. To a certain degree I have experienced all of that on my mission already. But I have also been able to find the remedy to all those feelings that come from the worldly distractions. And that remedy is more readily available than any other because it comes straight from Christ. I love the New Testament's comparison of Christ to water because water is ESSENTIAL. It relieves our thirst, it put out the fires of life's distractions, and in the long run, nothing can live without it! To finish off, I hope you - the person reading this email - will allow yourself a few moments of peaceful reflection about the wonders of your life and the incredible part you play in the plan of God.

Love, 

Elder Hilton

week 87

Hola mis queridos amigos! This week was quite the whirlwind staring off with transfers like always, but what made it really hard was that with all the changes our area book application deleted all 600 of our friends profiles. We tried everything to get them back, called every thinkable person that might be able to help, and all it led to was us sending in a long, detailed report to the Global Services Department in Salt Lake. The next day I got an email sayingg a case for my inquiry was created, and that we would be contacted shortly, but it's been a week now and we haven't heard anything! For those reading this that aren't familiar with the area book app, what happened to us is basically like losing every contact you've ever made on your phone. And since contacting people is all we do, it's like losing your job. We felt really lost for what to do at first, but it turned into lots of Facebook finding and starting conversations with people that are in the same groups as us. Meanwhile we have been creating profiles in area book for as many friends we can remember and reporting everything we can remember about past lessons with them. All we had was a whiteboard with around 25 names to go off of. So yeah, that was the start of our week! We had finished drawing the lines for the new district and re-drawing the lines for our other 2 districts in our zone and we hoped that once the lines showed up in area book, that our friends would show up too, but yesterday the lines finally came and we still had only 3 people in our areabook (all three of which were new people we found on Facebook this week). But apart from that huge setback, our week was fantastic!

Tuesday: 

Today something really sad happened that made me pretty angry. In the morning/afternoonish I recieve a text from Liliana, and older lady we are teaching. She asks me "Do the Sister missionaries ask for money?" (you have to remember that these hispanic people are so nice and trust us so much) "because some sisters are asking for money so send to someone who needs it in the Dominican Republic. Is this true or spam?". I Immediately said "No not us nor the hermanas will ever ask for money, it is definitely a trap. Send them a text that says you know they are not the hermanas." We immediately called the hermanas and asked them about their WhatsApp, and when they tried to enter is was blocked. Meanwhile Liliana sent me screenshots of their conversation and it was sickening how the person was using emoji's and mimicing the hermanas way of talking to ask for money. We called a few leaders, and Presidente Matos got in contact with the Police and President Bush got in contact with WhatsApp to get their account recovered. As soon as they got it back they called all of their contacts to see if they had recieved texts from them in the last few hours. Unfortunately many of them had and two of their friends actually paid the scammer. The hermanas felt terrible and we felt so bad for them. We called and thanked our friend Liliana for exposing the scammer and she felt really bad for the hermanas too. But the situation was resloved eventually and the work continues!

Wednesday:

The highlight of today was definitely District Council! Our district is so different after transfers and I am so proud of our district leader because he is doing such a great job. I'll put a picture in the bottom of all of us :)

All of our proselyting time today was spend calling members and Faebook finding (because we have no areabook:(

Elder Douglas played the Guitar for a bit after 9 today and he's really good! He also played the uke pretty well, and he's teaching me some good chords. It's going to be such a fun transfer!

Thursday:

I officially turn 20 months old in the mission! We made the buffalo ranch chicken in the crock pot again to celebrate so the house was smelling SO good. From 6:30 to 9 we had 5 lessons and every single one went through! It is so awesome being able to teach with such unity and know and trust that your companion will be able to pick up literally anywhere that you drop off. The lesson with Hermana Cover was especially espiritual as she told us of her mission and her current efforts to share the gospel and the rejection she recieves because of it. I was able to share a verse I had read that morning in 1 Pedro 4:13 to help her with those feelings of rejection. Then we talked about Alma and Amulek and the power of the testimony of the members and it was great.

Also the lesson with Alexander was incredible! We read another chapter in the Book of Mormon with him and answered all his questions. Then afterwards, he said that he was going to keep reading after the call to be in 2 Nefi 9 by tomorrow! 

Friday:

Today we were GOING to have service in the morning, but it started snowing so we couldn't drive. But then we realized it would only be a 15 ish minute walk, so we got permission and walked to the service! We were the only ones there though, so it wasn't quite as fun as normal, but hey, it's a heck of a lot better than being stuck in the house!

I'm running out of time again, so I'm going to skip to Sunday night because there was a MIRACLE that happened! On Firday Alexander had canceled, but we rescheduled it for tonight, an when we called, we started talking to Alexander, and then Nancy walked in and sat down in the camera next to him!!! After that we finished the Plan of Salvation, and talked about marraige and read some parts of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and got to know them and their goals better. It was such a good conversation and then we had to bring up the factt that they don't live in  our area and so other Elders would have to continue teaching him. When he asked why, Elder Streiff said that it was becasue of a separation in the church (a new branch was being created) but Alexander misinterpreted it and thought that we were separating from the church in Manassas and becoming Elders of a different church in Chantilly. I stepped in an explained that it wasn't a separation, but a growth that required a new building. I explained how the church is world-wide and we are still missionaries of the same, true church, and then he asked "can I go to the one you guys go to then?" and We tried explaining to him that no, he should go to the building that covers the area where he lives, but then he said that he lives in Centerville now and that the building in Chantilly is closer to his house!!!!!!! We all just sat there in silence realizing that we wouldn't have to pass him off to other Elders and then just celebrated a whole bunch! I am so EXCITED to see those two in person at church WOOHOOO!!!

A quick spiritual thought: 

This week one of our friends sadly said something along the lines of "If the true church of Jesus Christ was upon the earth, it would be so full of goodness that people would automatically flock to it, there would be no need for missionaries to proselytize.”

I thought about that quite a bit this week and have come to accept that his comment was just pretty naive and uninformed. Think about it, when the Savior was on the earth, even though he attracted some curious crowds from time to time, He did not find a massive following that could be sustained by itself. He himself had to call missionaries to go throughout the world to proselyte and find those who were ready to receive the gospel. And, ultimately, He was rejected and yielded his life to the angry misguided crowds.

Every day as missionaries (and members of Christ's church) we are called upon to suffer some degree of rejection for the Savior, Jesus Christ. That reality is not easy and it’s not pleasant. People are not generally “flocking” to our message. In those moments when it seems hard and unfair, we can remember the Savior’s promise to us, that “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 16: 24-25)

With lots of love,

Elder Hilton

week 86

Good Monday morning everyone! Here's a little bit of my week!

Tuesday:

Early in the morning we picked up Elder Streiff from his SLC excursion to sign his Visa papers, and on the way home we got a car wash. We didn't know the difference between all the options so we picked the cheapest one and they still cleaned everything from the mats to the inside windows, dash, and trunk! Then while we were waiting for the car to finish, we talked to the lady at the cashier inside and she was so impressed with our Spanish! When she learned that we were missionaries, she asked if we had any pamphlets or pass-along cards and we all patted ourselves down and of course we didn't and we felt pretty bad, but we promised her we'd come back for the next car wash with some. She gave us her phone number and everything! Back at home lots of other awesome stuff happened, but I'm going to skip to 8:30 pm to the lesson with Alexander. It was INCREDIBLE! We invited his wife Nancy and she was pretty reluctant, but out of respect for Alexander's invitation she decided to give us a few minutes of her time. Alexander had just finish 2 Nefi 2 in his personal BOM reading study and we were teaching the first half of the Plan of Salvation and it turned out AMAZING. Never have I ever taught those principles so clearly and simply and Nancy was nodding her head and by the end of the lesson she was participating so much and Alexander was answering her questions CITING THINGS FROM THE BOOK OF MORMON. We eventually ran out of time, and she wanted to hear the rest so we told her we could meet again Thursday of Friday night and she chose Thursday. I'm so excited for her

Wednesday:

I sadly did not have time to write in my Journal today, but I remember we had a spontaneous lesson with Pedro who's our age living in the States by himself for 5 years now with the rest of his family in Guatemala... His oldest sibling had passed away a while back and he struggles being positive because he has no job and has been trying to find one since last year. We shared with him Russel M Nelson's video of the healing power of Gratitude afterwards and we hope that helps him out.

We also found a new guy to teach who works in Restoration (construction) and he is a very funny and talkative guy. Seriously sometimes it just amazes me how open and awesome hispanics are. It's something from their culture that I hope to incorporate into my future family. But anyway I remember that we also had a lesson of the Word of Wisdom with Tomás and Lesli that night and when we went throught the things we avoid one by one Lesli gasped and covered her mouth and looked back and forth between us and Tomás and it was really funny. We actually laughed out loud and so did Tomás (he has been taught by us since june last year) and we proceeded to explain the blessings and it turned out to be a great lesson as always with them.

Thursday:

Today was LOADED. By 8 we were driving to the Centreville Stake Center to set up for the zone conference with the APs. It lasted 3.5 hours and it was absolutely incredible. We did a great job on our training hyping up our zone to find the Facebook miracles that are waiting for them and emphasizing the importance of the safeguards for technology. I realized that I was going to miss being the companion of Elder Streiff a lot because next week are transfers. Anyways, after the conference President thanked us for organizing and conducting it and gave us our zone's time for the interviews that would be tomorrow. Afterwards, we changed in the car into our service clothes and went straight to service at "Habitat for Humanity" until 5. By then we were sooooo hungry since we hadn't eaten since 7:30 that morning and so we stopped at Jersey Mikes on the way home and got some sandwiches. Tonight we did lots of things the most memorable of which was the lesson with Paola and Luis from Honduras and Ecuador and they are a hilarious couple (but unfortunately there was really bad signal the whole time...)

Friday:

Today we did service at the Prince William County Food Rescue Warehouse and it was soooo fun! They were out of cereal so we didn't build any boxes today but instead we helped with lots of other things mostly moving arround pallets, cleaning, organizing, preparing orders, helping load cars/trucksk, etc. I got to know Elder Garcia a little better and he seems really cool. He will actually be going to BYU in August, so we might see each other there! And speaking of BYU, I freaked out when I saw that Rozlyn ny younger sister got into BYU!!!!! I am so proud of her. 

For lunch we ate Chiptole and I got a fat burrito and it lasted me for lunch and dinner. Then we had about 20 minutes to plan our 7 lessons that night and we headed off to interviews. They went so well and I am so grateful for the leadership of such a loving, understanding man like President Duckworth. 

Saturday:

Today was the day we all recieved the TRANSFERS. They always get emailed to us around 9:30 pm and so it was hard to focus the whole day just because of the excitement (and nervousness) but despite all that it was still a very successful day. We had 10 lessons planned, but only 5 ended up going through each one of which was so good, especially the one with Liliana! We had Hermana Urbina with us in the lesson and she shared her conversion story (she used to be a member of the same church as Liliana) and it was so powerful. It was so positive and nice that afterwards Liliana sent us a text saying "Gracias por sus enseñanzas hermanos, fue muy bueno verlos y escucharlos hoy. Dios los bendiga 🙏💙"

Then, and 9:15 we get a call from the Sudley D Elderes and they were wanting to do the district prayer (something we do weekly where we all pray for the friends we are teaching as a district) and we said ok and added the whole district, and then during the middle of the prayer the transfers were sent and our phones all vibrated and we looked up at each other for a second and then back down just excited out of our minds. It seemed like an eternity later but after the prayer they zoomed to the pdf that was emailed to us, and I started recording to get their reactions on camera :) Elder Streiff's reaction was pure shock and it was really funny. In a nutshell this is what happened: Elder Krogh is going to where Elder Streiff came from with Elder Streiff's old companion (He actually predicted it it was insane) and Elder Streiff and I are staying here. We will also be recieving a 3rd companion Elder Douglas who I know for a fact is awesome because I sat next to him of the plane here to DC, I knew him in the MTC before I went to Costa Rica and he went to Argentina. I knew we were eventually going to be together, I just KNEW it!

Sunday: Un día muy tranquilo... We were super excited to go to church today because we had quite a few new friends who promised us they would go, but that morning the bishop cancelled all the meetings because of the ice that was in the parking lot... So we were mad. Well not mad, but disappointed I guess. but the day turned out great other than that. We are helping a recently baptized family's parents work towards going to the temple and they are sucha a fun family :) We also had a lesson where we taught baptism and it was very powerful. We had another lesson with Elizabeth and she accepted our invitation to come and see what participating in the sacrament is like because she had read about it in the bible, but none of the churches she had gone to have done it. We finished off with an amazing MLC call and it's always great to hear from President Duckworth. 

Today:

ITS TRANSFERS!!! We saw so many missionaries in all the picking up and dropping off that happened and it was the best thing ever to just talk to all of them and get to know them a little better. By the end of the day we came back with Elder Douglas and went shopping at Walmart and this old lady was determined to pay for our groceries, and we tried not to let her but she kept insisting and eventually won the battle :) We came home and unpacked and I called and talked to the family and Roz especially to congratulate her making it into BYU!! I hope we can take some classes together. 

Tiny spiritual thought: I read a verse in the New Testament this week that I loved! fyi we read the Reina Valera version in Spanish so it's a bit different but directly translated it says this: "You then, endure your afflictions as a faithful sodier of Jesus Christ" 2 Timoteo 2:3 To me that's so motivating to think of myself and my fellow members of the church as faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ it makes me just want to get up and MOVE! Speaking of which, my time is up and I gotta move! Have a great week everyone!

Elder Hilton

1) My missionary buddies!

2) Service!!! (the best one)

3)Rodrigo who was baptized yesterday by our district leader! I helped find him on Facebook about 2 months ago and I had the priveledge of conducting his baptismal interview!!!

week 85

Hello everyone! This week was another interesting one over here in DC! Here's a little bit of what happened:

Tuesday:

Today we had 2 member visits (through WhatsApp of course) and we tried to have Elder Krogh lead them to get him to use a bit more Spanish and it turned out well thank goodness. Later tonight we taught Tomas and Lesli - a couple that we were teaching 7 months ago when I was in this area the first time - and we talked about the Plan of Salvation and eternal marraige and it turned out very well! After the lesson, Tomas said he would be willing to chang his whole life around in order to live with his family forever. As a commitment, we invited them to read together "The Family A Proclamation to the World" that we would send them after the call. I'm excited to see what they learned from it!

Wednesday:

As the zone leaders, we were told we should attend the district councils of all the districts in our zone, so this week we went to the other district's council. Unfortunately, it turns out that that district leader was not holding down the fort that well, but we were able to help him with leading the meeting this time and it turned out ok. The best part was that we were able to build friendships and trust and motivate the people in our zone that we don't know as well. That's probably my favorite part of being a zone leader is meeting all the missionaries and having a big focus on motivating the zone!

Thursday:

We did service again at the the Habitat for Humanity with all the smoking workers and I left with a huge headache again :(

Today we did exchanges with one of the three APs, Elder Martin! He is a great guy and is amazing at icebreaker conversations and because of him we found a new friend that we have now had 2 lessons with!!! Because of the fact that we are already a trio, we figured that when AP Martin came, we should split into 2 different groups of two and because of that we could hypothetically do 12 lessons in three hours, however we only managed to schedule around 7 that night and only 4 happened. One was with Rolando and he had really good questions about sealing and asked us who President Nelson would be with after this life because he has been sealed to 2 people... We read a bit in Doctrine and Covenants to answer his question, and then gave his an assignment to listen to the  talk by Dallin H Oaks in Oct. 2019 called "Trust in God" and I think that will help him a lot. Rlando is a friend that we met a few months back and he has already FINISHED the Book of Mormon and knows it is true. However unfortunately his wife is not on the same page as him and has convinced him that he needs to read the bible now to be able to make an informed desicion on which church to be baptized in (she goes to a different one). He has already read the entire New Testament and he was telling us how now he just needs to finish the Old Testament but we managed to convince him that reading the Doctrine and Covenants would be of much more benefit because he would find answers to many of his questions while reading the Old Testament will likely cause more questions to arise whose answers are in the Doctrine and Covenants :) FYI if anyone needs to explain why the Old Testament can be confusing I refer you to 2 Corinthians 3:14. That "veil" was taken away in Christ for the belivers in Paul's day and today that "veil" is taken away by Christ through Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants. AWESOME! Anyways we suggested the 2021 Come follow me to Rolando because it is Doctrine and Covenants this year!!!

Friday:

Today we did my favorite service which is the Warehouse at the Prince William County Food rescue task force. It was so fun and we basically restacked pallets and drove around the powered pallet jacks, did an inventory of the entire warehouse and cleaned up a lot. At one point they needed us to take off these papers that were on eack pallet, except that all the pallets were so close to each other that is was impossible to walk between them, and it would take to long to take them all out, so what we did was "swim" over the top of the pallets evenly distributing our weight between the boxes to not squish them :) 

We also had our Book of Mormon institute class today and that was incredible as always. The Book of Mormon is awesome. Don't listen to anything anyone else says.

Saturday:

I forgot what happened because there was no time to write in my journal today... But I remember it being really productive with tons of contacts and we had a spontaneous lesson with Johnathan a guy our age who is well versed in the Bible! He's really cool. Also today I scheduled my first lesson with someone who I found on Facebook and started a conversation with! That lesson will be Monday night, so sadly you won't hear about that til next week.

Sunday:

Today was pretty crazy because we had Correlation at 8pm and then the Zoom MLC at 9 and then we had to drive Elder Streiff to the Fairfax Elder's apartment because he has to catch a flight that leaves at 6 am to SLC so that he can sign some papers for his Visa. He will be back Tuesday Morning. But the drive to the Fairfax Elders' apartment is 30 min away and so tonight we didn't go to bed until like 11:30

Today:

We deep cleaned the house in the morning and did the groceries and then we had a group activity at Signal Hill Park which was super fun! There were 4 sisters and 5 Elders in the activity and we played ultimate football, kicked a soccerball around, played basketball a bit and then they played Monopoly Deal on the one of the tennis courts while Elder Hyatt and I played tennis on the other one, except we were using pickleball paddles :) it was so fun, haha! Later we went to Walmart to get the rest of our groceries and I got a mini little canvas and some acrylic paint and I'm going to try to paint something really cool (basically a mix of the DC and Costa Rica Flag with my missionary nametag and its gonna be awesome) 

 Our service 

the biggest snowflakes I've ever seen in my life

Me next to Dan, the guy who trained us in the Warehouse (he's really cool)

Our pday group activity!

week 82

Hello everyone here are some things I want to talk about this week:

24th - Saturday 

Today was my mom's birthday! I love her so much because she is literally the awesome most spontaneousestestest fun-loving and thoughtful mom. Thanks for being you mom, I love you!!! 

26th

Today we had lots of lessons, but the one we had with Oscar was phenomenal! It was an English lesson with a spiritual thought at the end (although it really turned into a full detailed lesson on the Restoration) In the middle of it, Elder Streiff's phone battery got dangerously low and so we switched over to WhatsApp to finish up. I was mostly leading the lesson, and the Spirit was SO STRONG! There was lots of companionship unity and when Elder Krogh cited the first vision, Oscar's face was up next to the camera paying 110% attention and I knew the spirit was working through Elder Krogh's heavily accented words and through the bad connection and straight to his heart. We explained very thoroughly what the Book of Mormon is and he wanted a copy of his own. I felt that we had so much power in our teaching that I can't really put it into words. I just thank my Heavenly Father for the trust he has put in me to share his gospel and giving me the strength and guidance necessary to do it with power and convictioneven though sometime I feel like I am the least worthy of all the amazing missionaries out there. But this gospel is one of personal progression, not comparison, and I marvel every day at how much my desires have changed and how much joy I have felt in diligent, obedient missionary work. And today was one of those days where we saw some of the fruit of that diligent work. We had two more incredible lessons after the lesson with Oscar and both turned out very well. With Flor we only had time to share a short scripture (Juan 16:33) and share our thoughts on it, and after doing so, she was so grateful and expressed her gratitude saying it was exactly what she needed to hear. She is certain God sent us at this exact moment to remind her of what really mattered and then she recommitted herself to the study of the scriptures despite her busy schedule. That was another unforgettable exerience that made this day AWESOME! Also we ate tacos for dinner :))))))

27th - Wednesday

Today we did service again at this place called "Habitat for Humanity" and our job is basically to take all the stuff that people didn't buy and take it out back and destroy it until it fits well in the huge dumpster. It's fun but I leave with a bad headache every time because all the workers smoke and the place smells like a dump.

Later we had district counsel and that went well for the most part besides my headache and the fact that I fell asleep while the district leaders were roleplaying and Elder Daems got a picture of me. For dinner we ate some delicious homemade mac and cheese with chicken and Valentina sauce, but the recipe had lots of milk, cheese and butter so I only ate a little bit. (Stomach issues)

Tonight we had a couple lessons and the one with a certain woman with the last name of Martinez went kinda well, but as we explained what the Book of Mormon is, I immediately saw the doubt in her mind. I asked if she had questions and she said that the Bible says that it can't be added on to and I said well done, it says that in Revelations and you know what hermana, parts of the Book of Mormon were written BEFORE that verse was ever written! She sat up straight and nodded her head a bit, and said "ooook" then I took out Ezekiel 37 and showed how the Bible prophecies of the Book of Mormon and she was left without words. We finished of by explaining that the one who really testifies of truth is the Holy Ghost and she had to ask for herself to know if all this was true, and NOT rely on evidences. I said something like "Remember the Parable of Lazarus when Abraham explains to the rich man that if the profets and the scriptures don't convince his family to change their ways, then neither will miracles like raising someone from the dead. Hermana, if you don't kneel and ask you Father in Heaven with a sincere heart if this Book is his word, no amount of physical, actual evidence will convince you of its truth even though its right here in front of you." 

We left her with a powerful invitation to read the Book of Mormon and she said that she would!

  

28th - Thursday

Today was the first in-person Mission Leadership Council meeting (MLC) that I have ever been to. It was fantastic and I participated a lot.

The APs introduced a new 6 month mission-wide training plan that will be "personal/companionship study centered, district council supported" and will focus on elements of chapter 10 pf Preach my Gospel, and the missionaries themselves ae responsible for choosing the specific doctrinal points to teach each week in their roleplays. I was proud to watch my suggestion (getting missionaries to create their own plans so they are motivated to do it instead of being bogged down by homework-assignment-like tasks that fill up their studies) grow until we had developed it into something we were going to implement mission-wide. Then President trained us on divine intervention and coached us on encouraging obedience in our zones. Tonight we had a lesson with Rolando and he brought up some DEEP questions about marraige and sealing that we said we'd get back to him on..

29th - Friday

We did service for 4 hours this moring and it was really fun as always. After lunch I was feeling SUPER motivated for some reason and so I got my companions all excited for weekly planning and we went ahead and started it. It went pretty quickly and we made the Whiteboard look niiiice. 

30th - Saturday 

Today was a somewhat good day, a little awkward from what happened yesterday in weekly planning. I happened to see in of of Elder Streiff's emails during the Device audit that this was his quietest, least interesting companionship of his mission by far and that he's really struggling with the "greenie". So today I tried really hard to talk and laugh a lot and engage everyone a little more, but I think the fact I was trying made it even harder and less natural. I decided that just being normal and working harder and enjoying myself is the best approach. Today we got and email from one of the senior couples that we are going to get a snowstorm on Sunday and Monday and so we would need to get our groceries today. We took some time out of our busy day to do it, and so that's why today my email is so long! Woohoo!!!

Also today we had 6 lessons and the best one was with Liliana Paredes. She was already ready with her Book of Mormon and Bible and then ran off to get her earbuds so she could hear us better. We taught her the Restoration with a bit of focus on the Apostasy part and the difference between Restoration and Reformation. It seemed like she understood it well this time and when we read the last two paragraphs of the introduction of the Book of Mormon, she stopped us where it said "by the power of the Holy Ghost". She was so intrigued and she asked us how excatly the Spirit had manifested the truth of the book to us, individually. We each shared our testimonies and it was very spiritual. She had so many other incredible questions, like how can she study the Bibe and the Book of Mormon together, and we explained to her the footnote system and all the cross-references to the Bible.

31st - Sunday

Snow! This morning we woke up to snow just as predicted!!! It looks pretty but it also means that we didn't get to go to church in person. But it was the best most packable snow perfect for snowballs and snowmen.

I'm going to skip all the way to tonight to the second of ten lessons because it was with our friend last-named Martinez again. It was really frustrating because she said in the beginning that she "forgot" to even look for her Book of Mormon, and then eventually said over and over that she won't believe anything other that the Bible. 

We had a member with us and they got along well and that's why she opened up a bit and said IIf I'm honest I'm not going to read the Book of Mormon. And if I'm really honest, I don't even read the Bible. It's just that the thing is the Bible is the only thing that is true for me. For ME, yup the ONLY thing. Nothing else." Elder Streiff and I were both very frustrated because she all her excuses made no sense and she has so much potential!!! Talk about Book of Mormon prophecies being fulfilled right in front of your face! --> 2 Nephi 29:3

All in all, this week was chock full of so many things and if I had more time I would tell you more about it! The most important thing is that this week my testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration has grown so much. I'm so grateful that it happened and even though many people won't accept it, the Lord says "I will show unto them that fight against my word and against my people, who are of the house of Israel, that I am God, and that I have covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever." 

 And I have the privilege to to bring people into the house of Israel through the ordinance of baptism. How awesome is that??

I love you all and have a great week and if you happen to see that you have some spare time and you would really like to make an Elder happy, go ahead and send me an email because I love to see what's going on in your lives. Thank you!!!!