Week 45

 I cant believe how fast this transfer has gone by. It really was a great week. I arrived in Salvador on Monday and my VISA got renewed without problems. Then on Thursday was the mission tour with President Claudio RM Costa. I really liked what he taught us. He is a great man. I loved his conversion story. It shows us that once we know the church is true, we shouldnt delay to get baptized. The first time he entered the church building was for his baptism! haha. I thought it was an awesome story. This week i am going to share that story with a few people including Lorena. Lorena could have been baptized this last Saturday. She passed the interview on Friday but her mom didnt sign the paper. It is complicated. She said she believes that her daughter is only going to church and participating in all the activities and choir because of us Elders.  She said she wont let Lorena be baptized until Im transferred. She thinks that Lorena likes me or something and thats the reason she is interested in the church. I know that is totally false. I talked to Lorena and she said that she has already prayed and she knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the church is true and really wants to be baptized. She has already made lot of friends in the church and wants to be part of the church officially. So hearing that her mom wont let her be baptized was a bummer. Just after i leave.  But our other investigators are doing well too, just not as close to baptism as Lorena.

    Elder G. Souza is an awesome companion. He is very enthusiastic and outgoing. Its fun to work with him and teach. Nothing is happening between us that is inhibiting our work. I hope that he has learned a few things from me this transfer and will continue to apply those things in the future.

    I know that the commandments that God gives us are out of love. I´ve learned that watchfulness to the commandment is happiness. If we break a commandment, its clear that we need to repent. I know that repentence isnt a burden, it´s a blessing and a privelege.  We need to place our trust in God. He knows best for us. He knows that if we follow His son Christ and live his gospel we will be blessed eternally. We should never lose the desire to live the Gospel fully. Satan is an enemy of God. We cant let him to decieve us. We need to place ALL our trust in God. I know that there are tools for us to suceed in this mortal journal. God didnt leave us alone.  He gave us prophets, prayer, and scriptures. I loved what Gary B. Sabin said in this last general conference about our spiritual sleeping bags. UNROLL YOUR SPIRITUAL SLEEPING BAGS! and get in them and stay in them! dont stay out of them or you will get cold and uncomfortable. It´s something simple and only requires little time, but sometimes we dont do it. BE ALL IN! read your scriptures and pray and listen to the prophet!  if we do this we have nothing to fear. Fear isnt what God wants us to feel. We shouldnt fear, we just need to live right and do those small simple things that help us daily. There is no fear to have in Jesus Christ if you believe and keep the commandments. I love the little saying that Pres. Monson said, ´´choosing the harder right is better that the easier wrong. There are plenty of little things that we do in our lives that make the biggest difference. And in our mission tour that we had on Thursday with President Claudio RM Costa he outlined three things that help us and our families. Its a portuguese analogy so i will translate

N- noite familiar (family night)
O- oração familiar (family prayer)
É- estudo das escrituras familiar (study the scriptures in family)

    I know that these things are true and inspired that each one of our families can do to strengthen us. Im grateful that my family has had a good habit of this. I have learned a lot from it. I love the Gospel and being a member of the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In other words for you people who dont know what that is... I love being a MORMON!! i truly want to invite all people who havent heard about the messages that we have (especially the Restoration) to hear it! or for those who know about the ´´mormons´´ but have lots of questions and doubts to ASK! Ask your mormon friends or visit the church. or research, but research in the right places. (the church´s websites). I know that you will be blessed and enlightened. and for all of us active members I encourage us to keep studying the Book of Mormon. It must be super important, because that was one of the only things that the prophet said in general conference. I know that the book of mormon is true. I love its stories and know that they are so very applicable in our modern lives.

    I love all you guys! all my family and friends! i wish you all a great week!

-Elder Hilton

Week 44: EASTER!

The chocolate HOUSE!!!!

The Ugly Itabuna river

We are likely going to have another baptism this saturday. the one that we had last saturday went really well. I baptized Anderson. It was really cool to see that his parents and grandparents showed up. and also lots (if not all) of the youth showed up to support him. This next Saturday, Lorena will likely be baptized. She is 17 years old and is progressing a lot! I'm really liking Elder G. Souza as my companion. We work well together and i feel productive. We had lots of cool teaching experiences this week. i'm excited to find more people and teach even more.

This week on Tuesday the sisters called in the morning and they needed help. We dedicated their home because they haven't been doing so well in it. Later in the week we helped them move into a different house. we helped them move from 8:00 until 11:00 it was a lot of lifting and work, but we got it done! On Sunday after church around 12:45 I got a call from the secretary Elder High saying that my bus will be leaving to Salvador at 2:00 pm. I had very little time to pack up everything i needed and pay a taxi to take me to the Bus Station.  I had to go to Salvador to renew my visa.

I left at 2:00 and due to traffic in Salvador i arrived late at 11:30 pm. After waiting for a while i thought the Elders had forgotten about me. I was getting ready to sleep overnight in the bus station, but then finally at 12 the elders showed up and we went to their house to sleep. The next day we woke up and played basketball with a bunch of other elders at the same church building that i attended when i served in Salvador. It was really fun to go back and visit my old area. I love Salvador! Then i renewed my VISA which took a lot of time. We ate in the airport at a place called Bob´s Burgers. it was really good. Even better was that President Bangerter gave Elder Estevam his credit card to pay for it all. To get all this VISA business done we spent more than 250 R$ on taxis! WOAH! Afterwards we stayed in the mission office until we needed to leave to catch our buses to Itabuna. My bus left at 10:50 and arrived at 6 on the point! This transfer ends on the 30th of April so its already coming to a close. This thursday we are having a meeting with President Claudio RM Costa (the 70 leader of Brazil). It should be a great spiritual meeting.

  i know that this is the true church of christ. im grateful for this wonderful easter season that we have to remember Christ. agora vou falar em portugues. quero compartilhar meu testemunho de que sei que Deus vive e que ele nos ama. Eu sei que ele enviou seu filho Jesus Cristo para viver e morrer e ressuscitar para cada um de nós. Sou grato por tudo o que Cristo fez por mim. Estou super grato que a verdadeira igreja de Jesus Cristo foi restaurada através de Joseph Smith. I love all you. Have a great week!

just hanging out in the mission office.  I love it here!!  It's air conditioned!!!!!!

This was us emailing our families at the mission office.  We had way too much fun!

Week 43: A Very Productive Week

   California is on fire. We have a young man named Anderson being prepared to be baptized this Saturday. Also a 17 year old young women for the following Saturday. they are both super ´´golden´´. Lorena had already been talking with her mom about being baptized before we taught the 3rd lesson and invited her to be baptized. When she told us about her desires, we quickly repented of not inviting her to be baptized earlier and set a date as a goal. Her mom made light of the situation and said she doesn't know what she is doing, that she is going crazy and wants to kill herself, etc, but she was being serious. She really wants to be baptized. Yesterday we got to know her family. Her mom turned out to be a really nice person and accepted our invitation to have a Family Night in her house. We are really excited to teach her family. Our ward finally had a ward council meeting with our new bishop and i was glad we got to participate a bit.

   Elder G. Souza and i are getting along well and are loving the hard work. This week we had a really good week of teaching with members. we were able to teach 14 lessons with member present and it helped us a lot. Anderson, our recent convert, spend 3 whole days with us and was a huge help. I know that members and missionaries are meant to work together and a lot more gets accomplished this way.

    I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. He is my leader and my guide to comfort and peace. He is the one who leads me through all my battles whether i recognize He is there or not. He is at the front lines fighting at my side. That is one thing i learned on the mission. Christ is never behind us or in front of us, He is always at our side. This Easter season i hope i can recognize him more often throughout my work and my planning. Im grateful for a loving family who supports me and has taught me to love my Savior in all aspects of my life.

Letter from my grandparents and the Caldwell 16th ward youth!!

Emailing my mom in the LAN house

Week 42: Week of General Conference

 California, Itabuna is doing well. We have a good group that we are teaching and recently we found a 15 yr old young man that has been going to seminary and went to church once and to our delight he watched the 2 sessions of general conference yesterday. he expressed his desire to be baptized and we told him that we can help him do that. We are going to be teaching him this week and prepare him for baptism.
     We have been working   smoothly and teaching well. On thursday we saw a cat get hit by a car and go into shock, bleeding, and die. all right in front of us. it was pretty nasty, but interesting because i have never seen a cat shake so crazily as that one did. Saturday was an amazing 1st day of conference. I watched it alone in English in a different room. Even though i can understand the portugues, i like hearing the prophet and apostles real voices. I loved all the talks given. We taught some investigators between sessions as well.
    Elder G. Souza is a good man and a great missionary.

 i see a lot of potential in him. he told he that he was with elder Andrade before and it was a little rough with him. i know what its like because i was with elder andrade too. ELder G. souza seems like a guy that can be easily influenced, so i know it is my responsiblity, even though im younger, to be an excellent example to him. when elder Da Silva left and he arrived, i continued to work as i did with elder da silva and elder g. souza noticed that my work ethic is good. he complimented me and told me on saturday that he is very grateful to have an obedient companion and that this has already been the best transfer on his mission. i was a little shocked hearing this, but thanked him for the compliment and told him that in THIS area we WORK and i wont accept laziness. I told him We are going to exercise, clean the house, and WORK! Im grateful for elder Da Silva helping me develop this attitude and vision in the work. I hope i can be a good example of an excellent missionary and i will try my best.

    I know that families can be eternal if we follow the commandments and keep our covenants. Im grateful for the plan of happiness that god created for us, as well as the essential role that Jesus Christ plays in it.  I know this church is true and that Christ is our Leader and example. Im grateful for everything that i learned during general conference. i loved all the talks but especially Jeffery R. Holland´s about music and how all of God´s children are a part of the heavenly choir. I hope everyone had an awesome conference weekend and left feeling more inspired and uplifted.

-Elder Hilton

elder da silva leaving

my new companion is elder g. souza. he is from São Paulo. we walked a lot in the rain and mud the first day of work after he arrived

Elder G. Souza is 23 years old and doesn't speak English.  Only a teeny teeny teeny bit.  He has been on his mission for 1 year and 2 months

Some good food.  The reason I need to EXERCISE!

 he sings all the time...singing is good, but he is literally always singing. he sings on the road, at home, in the  bathroom (of course), and even in the public transportation. haha

i watched some sessions in portugues in the sacrament meeting room and some sessions in a class room with a TV playing conference in English