Elder Hilton June 7, 2016-2018 : Week 21: Feliz Dia Dos Finados (day of the dead)

Last P-day:
Here in Bahia no-one really celebrates Halloween, so it seemed just like another normal day, except that is P-DAY!! WooHOooo! it was a super good one too. We emailed in the morning and i got lots of emails from friends and family. it made me really happy. afterwards we went to the centro with the sisters and took photos at some cool places(especially the awesome look-out point , high above the city) you could see all the city and the ocean stretching out forever. Then we went inside that huge catholic cathedral and took more photos. After p-day ended we went to Daniel (a recent convert) and he wasnt home. then set up an appointment with Roberta (who we still havent taught). We also stopped at supermercado Meira and bought food and cleaning supplies for our house and walked home.

Tuesday:
We spent all morning until lunch cleaning the house. We deep cleaned, the stove/oven, our desks, up under our beds, we took everything out of our room and scrubbed down all the walls, cleaned the ceiling fan, and the floor. Our room looks a lot better and it isnt as scary to enter it as it was. We had lunch with the owner of our house(they live on the first floor under us).
Alefi didnt meet us when he said he would, so we left to Cristina´s. She had bought 3 packets of tobacco/smoke material and she looked terrible. she didnt let us take it so we ended up just talking a little and sharing a message. Then we taught Alberto (an Italian) in his house; it wasnt very smooth, then stopped @ Wesley´s house but he wasnt home. Next we went to Cinthia´s house and E. Andrade practically wasted time there casually talking. next we stopped at Fernanda´s home. she wasnt home because she was at a different church.

Wednesday:
Feliz Dia Dos Finados!! We arrived to zone meeting in Vilela late because of ônibus schedules. I GOT MY CHRISTMAS PACKAGES! but i cant open them until christmas ;) Im starting to get into the chrismas spirit already haha! Today´s work was honestly not the most productive. Cristina didnt answer, we didnt even work in the Urbis like we had planned, and didnt do any verifications, but we did have a good conversation with gabriel´s mother and her friend about the gospel. after we walked down the street and seemingly out of nowhere we saw a man approach a woman ( i think his daughter) and start yelling at her, pushed her, and started hitting her and slapping her in the face. we just walked right by and watched it happen and couldnt do anything, but eventually people helped separate them. it made me sad that people do this and havent learned to respect women.

Thursday:
weekly planning and divisions. after weekly planning and lunch we went on divisions. i was with Fernando ( a return missionary) we stopped at 9 different people´s houses and didnt find anybody. we had some bad luck. we returned to the church and i found Alefi there ( a inactive member) i talked to him about the sacrament. The last two weeks of this transfer im really hoping to work harder and see some good things happen, possibly miracles.

Friday:
We stopped at Cristina´s and i made a 3 week goal calendar to help her stop smoking and be baptized!. Her goal is november 19th to be baptized.

Saturday:
My Sister´s birthday!!! HAPPY B-DAY ROZ!! We invited a bunch of people to church and made 7 new investigators! ( to make an investigator, we quickly teach a gospel prinicple to someone and write down their address and mark a day to pass by again) A good few of them actually seemed genuinley interested! Oh! today I GOT POOPED ON BY A BIRD!! i was talking to an old dude and inviting him to church and down it came. right on my shoulder. a little splattered onto Elder Andrade too! haha. i got it washed up afterwards. we also saw two guys get arrested right in front of our house.

Sunday:
in the hour of sacrament when people bare their testimonies, Antonia a 73 year old lady that we invited yesterday got up and hobbled to the microphone and ´´bore her testimony´´ she just said that she is grateful she was invited by us to attend church and that she feels at home here and likes what she has felt in our church. i was super impressed because this was the first time Antonia has ever been to the ´´mormon church´´ and she got up and spoke in front of everyone. we gave her a book of mormon and she said she will read it because she is very interested in it and loves to read anyway. Today lunch fell through but Marcos Longo saved us. his wife made us lunch at their house and it was delicious. marcos longo ( a longtime member of our ward) gave me a small portuguse bible! he is really cool. they have been to the USA 4 times. they have various family and friends that live in idaho and utah. they have good friends who live in Nampa, Idaho and also Idaho Falls who they visit and they also have a son who married an american girl and they live in Utah! ogden i think! its so crazy all of these connections! its a small world. he pulled out a big road map of western USA. Caldwell, meridian, boise, everything was on it. and i saw all the roads we´ve driven and all the cities and points of interest that i´ve already been to. tell me about homesickness! i felt super close to home in that moment! haha it was awesome

This week i realized what a beautiful world we live in. i love to take time to marvel at the wonder of The Creation and all of God´s beautiful things he has given us on this earth. and especially the gift of a family that god has given us. I also want to share a short part of my mother´s testimony that she recently shared with me. she said something that i really agreed with and caused to to stop and think. she wrote, ´´ Life isn't always easy but because I choose to follow the best I can my saviors example, I make it through the rough times with much ease and strength. I never question the gospel even when I dont understand everything and I think my life has been blessed because of my simple faith.´´

I feel the same way that we dont have to know everything about life and about the gospel to have a strong faith in it. having simple faith is enough too. We just need to continue studying and praying with faith and we will be strengthened with peace and calmness even when there are raging winds surrounding us. im so grateful to know this gospel and to be able to have the chance to share it with others! Boa semana para todos!! (good week to everyone!)

-Elder Hilton