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