President Bangerter is still worried to death about those lost files and I have researched and bought multiple programs to attempt a successful recovery, but not much positive has happened yet. Only some things were successfully recovered. The majority of the things we needed to recover were found by scanning the hard drive, but they don´t open correctly because the files are all corrupted. It is a constant battle trying to figure out what to do without these files we need. President even gave us permission to enter Facebook to get in contact with old secretaries to ask them for suggestions. President was hoping that maybe one of the old secretaries had saved the files on a flashdrive or another computer. I was able to talk with a few old secretaries, but without much luck in finding the files. I am doing okay, because I am doing all I can to help, but President is still devastated.
Wednesday was the last district meeting with Elder Costa e Silva. I will probably be the district leader after he leaves. I´ve been with Elder Costa e Silva for 4 transfers, so you can imagine how it will be different without him. Elder Cantuário and I get along real well, so we will do great. For lunch we went to Esterlita´s house and she prepared the normal rice, beans, spaghetti.... but surprised us with something I will probably never eat again... OX LIVER! That´s right, ox liver. It looked like a normal meat cut, but when I ate it, it was VERY different. The texture was horrible, and I don´t even need to mention the taste... it was not very pleasing. I hope I never have to eat it again.
Thursday was a special day. IT´S THANKSGIVING. Even though nothing happens here because no one celebrates thanksgiving in Brazil, we decided to take our opportunity to have a good time. Elder Briggs took us to Pizza Hut for lunch and bought us 4 pizzas. We went with two other Elders too. Like american family tradition, Elder Briggs had each of us say something that we are grateful for before we ate. Then we chowed down PIZZA!!! . One pizza was a yummy chicken, another was Hawaiian, the 3rd was a supreme, and the 4th was a loaded TURKEY pizza! That´s right... turkey on a pizza. We really had the thanksgiving spirit in our pizza. After we are we went to the office, then to the bus station. From there we went to our area to our appointment. On our way, Eddy stopped at the Aliança Hospital to take pictures with us next to the Christmas decorations.
Our appointment was with Romilda and her family. We shared a message and she made us a good dinner. This was my Thanksgiving day! I thought it was pretty great. The holiday spirit is a lot different being here in Brazil because there aren´t as many decorations, and it´s not cold outside, but it has been memorable.
Last week my mom invited me to take some time on Thanksgiving day to write down at the end of my day some things I´m grateful for and them share them with her today. First of all, I´m thankful for that inspired invitation, because without it I probably wouldn´t have thought of doing that. I thought of sharing with everyone what I came up with. Here we go.
1. Heavenly Father sending his son Jesus Christ to show us the way and atone for us.
2. The Plan of Salvation; being able to repent.
3. The restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. Modern revelation; the miracle of the Book of Mormon
5. Prophets, apostles, authority and power of God (priesthood) here on the Earth
6. Having an awesome , talented, blessed family
7. Serving a mission in Brazil
8. A healthy body with the ability to do many things
9. technology, education, beautiful NATURE, good food, TENNIS
10. Good Parents, my friends, good books, music
These are just a few things that I´m grateful for. When you really stop just for a little and think of all the things that exist that bring us happiness, we realize how grateful we should be. Serving a mission has truly helped me be more thankful for many things. Realizing God´s hand in our lives and in everything can make us happier people. We can feel more trust in Him and in His plan.
There is a quote from President Donaldson that sticks in my mind. He says " the key to know God is to struggle and so yes, even after 1 year and 6 months I´m still struggling. I still have a lot of weaknesses that I will still have to overcome in the future, but the biggest thing that I´ve learned to love is to sacrifice because once you do, you come to know God. That in itself is worth coming on a mission. I know that your whole mission, you´re not going to be facing discouragement. You are going to be laughing and having fun. You are going to be finding people and seeing miracles. You are going to have discouragement, but if you didn´t have this discouragement you wouldn´t be able to appreciate those high moments that you have. Missionary work requires everything that you have. It requires most importantly your true heart and everything that is in it. This will help you understand exactly what Heavenly Father wants from you, how you can help your family, and the people around you.
I wouldn´t trade this experience for anything. There has been a lot of things that have happened at home since I left and a lot of things people have gone through. It is sometimes hard to be away, but I´ve learned to trust Heavenly Father and I´ve been able to share that with other people. So, it´s worth it. I love you family.
Before you know it, Christmas will be here. It´s just right around the corner. Happy Holidays! I can almost count on my fingers and toes the days left until we get to talk over the computers. I´m excited! Have a great week!
-Elder Hilton
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