These last 2 weeks were a little rough concerning work in the office. We ran into a few problems that created more stress for me as a secretary. We had all our computers formatted and everyone backed up what we thought we needed. A few (REALLY) important things weren´t backed up and it made President Bangerter feel terrible and get really worried. We are still working on recovering what was lost.
On Sunday we had 3 investigators confirmed to go to church and we were a little discouraged when we woke up Sunday morning and saw how stormy weather was forming. Usually when it´s raining investigators give excuses and won´t go to church. Around 7:30 am we left the house to walk to our area. The heavens started to dump cats and dogs, but nothing could stop us, so we held firm to our umbrellas and pushed through. Well, umbrellas didn´t do us much good because it was raining super hard and it was super windy. We were walking right on the coast during a storm and the funny thing is that there was a marathon going on too on the same path. The whole way we were surrounded by hundreds of soaked marathon runners. They were giving out these plastic water sacs for the runners and a lot of them were just thrown on the ground, still full of water. I stomped on an unopened one and it exploded and totally shot up and splashed into a dude´s face to my right. It was kind of funny because he didn´t care because he was already soaked to the bones. There were even those professional photographer guys with their big cameras taking pictures. As the runners ran the course, they waved at the cameras, giving thumbs up, etc. We just helplessly held our umbrellas (that were practically useless) and smiled. ´´just smile and wave boys... smile and wave.´´ - Madagascar Penguins. hahaha. I´m pretty sure that somewhere out there on the internet there are some pictures of this marathon with two drenched mormon missionaries! hahaha Our sacrifice paid off because when we got to our investigors house 2 of the 3 were ready to go and they came to church with us. We called Eddy (our special taxi man) and he drove us to church. Lucas and Luana (our investigators) liked church and make new friends. Luana told us her favorite part was the testimonies during fast and testimony meeting. I know she felt the spirit. I´m grateful to be teaching them.
We have 10 investgators with a baptismal date. Its not to hard to get people to accept dates. What complicates things is their individual commitment to reading, praying, and keeping God´s commandments. Every one of our investigators is different, making our work always interesting. We know for sure that Diego will be baptized. He has been to church 10 times and is just finishing up the process of marriage. After Diego, we have 5 other investigators that are close to baptism; Romilda, Luana, Lucas, Cailane, Clara.
This last week was transfer week as well and it was really busy like usual. Here we go, this is a summary of how tranfer week goes:
Sunday after church we get informed about the transfer. We prepare everything so we can buy all the bus passes that same night or Monday morning. Also on Monday morning we took Elder Carvalho to the airport and he caught his plane home. The rest of the day Monday we spent a lot of time between the office and the bus station helping missionaries. It was very busy and we didn´t get home until after midnight.
We woke up early Tuesday morning to go to the airport again, but this time we went with President Bangerter and his wife to pick up 9 new missionaries!! This is seriously the best part of being secretary. It is so awesome to see a group of newly arrived missionaries. There faces are priceless and it makes me reflect to when I arrived my first day in the airport. There were 5 sisters and 4 Elders. There was only one american, an Elder from Utah. After their day in the mission home receiving trainings and receiving their new companions, we sent them all off to their new areas. During all this running around in taxis I left my bag in Eddy´s taxi and told him to just keep it in his taxi until we meet again later that night. Eddy picked up some other missionaries and Elder Do Vale didn´t notice whose it was and accidently took it while helping some sisters board their bus. So my missionary bag got taken to a city 12 hours away called Porto Seguro! It had everything in it. My wallet, planner, camera, etc. I will get it back on September 12th when we have mission council. Thank goodness. So sadly this week i don´t have any pictures.
On Wednesday Elder Jenkins, Elder Prado, Elder Semedo, and Elder Pereira took LOTS of materials from the office and took a bus to a new area that President opened called Bom Jesus da Lapa. We had to go to the bus station to buy their passes. Then I returned to the office to work on finishing the departure folders and re-creating a letter that gets sent home to the stake presidents of the return missionaries. I stayed in the office working on that while my companion went to bus station to help the elders board their bus to Bom Jesus Da Lapa. When my comp. got back we went straight to president´s house to drop off those departure folders. Sister Bangerter gave us a whole batch of burned cookies that she made. She was going to throw them away, but they weren´t even burned bad at all so she offered them to us. They were delicious! A good american chocolate chip cookie tastes so good after so long without them....even if they´re a little crispy haha. Afterwards we went back to the office and i organized the crap out of it. It looks so much better. At home that night Elder Da Silva , my comp, and I couldn´t sleep so we stayed awake until who knows when. We talked about things from if Cain is still alive or not, to everything about superheroes (and everything between)
Thursday presented its own challenges. Thursday is the day of the transfer that missionaries going home catch their planes. There were 5 going home. My companion and I picked them up at their hotel in the morning and President assigned us to take two of them to the airport. The others had flights at later hours, so president had us take these two elders that had to catch planes in the morning. Everything was planned to happen so smoothly. It almost happened perfectly. One elder boarded his plane without problems and the other Elder didn´t go so smooth. His luggage was going to be sent to the wrong place. It would go to Curitiba with one stop in Campinas. He would just stay in Campinas because that is where he lives, but his luggage was being shipped all the way to Curitiba. We did everything we could and in the end everything was okay. It was extremely last minute, but it all worked out.
From Monday to Thursday we didn´t even go to our area because of Transfers. Friday we finally went to our area and taught! We taught two solid lessons. They went really well, and our investigators are doing awesome. Some have problems with coffee, but we are already helping them quit. We are super excited for them We are excited to have baptisms!
Saturday was P-DAY in the office. That afternoon we left to teach 3 lessons. We taught Romilda´s family, Joselito, and Diego. Our investigator´s are so awesome! Romilda is a happy person and super funny. whenever she cracks up laughing everyone laughs with her. Joselito is very interested in what we teach. He used to have a really rough life, then he ´´found Jesus´´ He has been baptized in 3 different churches but doesn´t go to any of them any more. His glasses are broken, but he still tries his best to read the Book of Mormon. He shows so many signs of faith that make us happy and excited to visit him each time. Get this. Saturday night we confirmed with Joselito if he would go to church or not, and he said he won´t be able to because of a project he is doing. He showed us how his roof got messed up from that gnarly storm last Sunday and explained how he really needed to repair the broken and shifted shingles. We also had invited his son-in-law and he accepted to come. He told us to pass by Sunday morning and he would come with us.
So early Sunday morning we passed by, clapped our hands, and Joselito came out and said his son-in-law is sleeping and won´t be going. Bummer. So we took a bus to get to church without any investigators with us. But get this, towards the end of sacrament meeting, i felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked behind me and guess who was there??? JOSELITO!! WHAT?!? He was the last person i expected to see at church today. I scooted down the pew and had him sit next to me. I was so happy to see him. He told us that he started to work at home, then stopped and thought, ´´No, today i will go to church´´. What an awesome surprise. After lunch we did contacts for 2 hours outside of the favela in a nicer neighborhood. Only 4 people gave positive responses saying we can come back another day. I noticed that when i do more contacts I feel more like a missionary. I love being a missionary. Everything we do is a good experience. My companion and I work hard and have a good time too. I love being here and seeing the beauty of Brazil.
I love you family!!
-Elder Hilton
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