This week was full of twists and turns. Although many obstacles appeared during our week that kept us from the results we wanted, we had a good week. I will start from last p-day (monday). After emailing we met up with Ingrid and Ana Lucia from our branch to eat ice cream at a place called “Chiquinho”. It was a type of celebration since Ana Lucia would be leaving to the MTC in São Paulo Wednesday morning.
It was DUMPING rain on our way from the LAN House to the ice cream place. It was quite the challenge arriving there without getting wet. We ended up waiting out the worse part then booked it the rest of the way. After we left and went to Subway to eat Lunch. Mmmm good ol trusty Subway! I have never eaten so many times at Subway than on my mission! We did some shopping for some house material on our way home, then dropped the things off and went to work. We wanted to visit Alefe to follow up on a Book of Mormon reading that we left a while back, but he wasn't home, so we ended up going to Gilson´s house (a recent convert). He wasn't home from work still so we shared a message with his brother Thiago, as well as his mom.
Tuesday the 13th we had our day FULLY planned of people to visit, but something happened that destroyed almost all our plans. We were at lunch at Sister Cida's house (an awesome place… they have a POOL!!!) when we got a call from President Almir (branch president) saying that we would need to go open the chapel for a Seminary Coordinator Leader.
It was marked at an inconvenient time, but we still agreed to help because no one else was able to be there to let him in. We got there on time and we waited for an hour and a half and he never arrived so we left. Our Branch President works at a Lounge Bar located close to the chapel so we went to tell him that this Seminary coordinator never showed up. A bit later he ended up arriving so we helped him in and talking with him. He was here to support and reconstruct the Seminary program in our branch since a lot of the seminary leaders / teachers from our branch left for their missions (Alan, Ana Lucia, and soon Ingrid and Flavia). This guy´s name is Wesley. He has been a bishop in a Ward in the State of Espírito Santo for 11 years! Yep 11 YEARS!! I was impressed with how happy and energetic he was. He apologized for delaying and gave us a chocolate to say sorry. Hahaha. Afterwards we ran to the bus station to catch a bus to Gerson´s house to teach his daughters, Stefany and Giovana. We taught them about to Book of Mormon. Giovana was baptized last week, and we are helping prepare Stefany for her baptism. We hope she gets baptized either on March 24th, or the 31st. She is just timid and is still unsure about some things. We want to do all we can to help her.
Wednesday, March 14th! We had lunch with Sister Hélia and her daughter Laura.
Then we prepared ourselves for Zone Conference. We boarded our bus at 7 pm and got to Porto Seguro around 8:30ish. We walked from the bus station to the Elders´ house to stay the night there. They live close to the chapel which was really nice.
Thursday, March 15th, Happy Birthday Zacharoni! Congrats on your 17th birthday! I can't believe how old you are. I remember when i was 17 like it was yesterday, and now I'm turning 20!?!?! I hope you had a great birthday. We woke up early and headed to the chapel for a leadership meeting at 7 am then we had Zone Conference. It was my first time leading a zone conference! President and Sister Bangerter and Elder Davis gave the zone some trainings along with Elder Lee and I as Zone Leaders. After lunch we helped out with things around the chapel while President Bangerter did interviews. At 5:30 pm Elder Lee and I got a bus back to Eunápolis. Elder Davis (an assistant to president) came with us to work with us in our area for that night and the following day. We taught a 14 year old boy named Thawan. We retaught him the restoration and invited him to pray about what we taught him, because he still had some doubts if he believes it or not. We were there a long time teaching him, it was late, and we still had to follow up with our zone since it was Thursday so we headed back home. We ordered 2 pizzas and Guaraná to celebrate my birthday early. They were on a promotion for R$15 each pizza! That's only 5 dollars! WINNER!!
Friday March 16th, was a normal day, but it was fun having Elder Davis with us. Elder Lee is from Seattle Washington, and Elder Davis is from Springville Utah so we had good ol american conversations. Friday was my birthday as well as the day that Elder Lee hit his 1 year and 4 month mark. Elder Davis pulled a mean trick on Elder Lee. Elder Lee had made lemon juice in the morning and while Elder Lee was taking a shower, Elder Davis mixed some Guaraná pop into his lemon juice. When Elder Lee drank it and noticed something was off, he asked Elder Davis what he did. Elder Lee found out and became quite upset. He made a goal when he was 13 years old to not drink pop anymore for his own personal reasons, and he had been faithful to that goal since then. So that pop that he drank broke the streak of time that he hasn't drank pop since he was 13. I felt bad for him, but Elder Davis thought it was funny. The rest of the day we visited some investigators. Towards 6pm Elder Davis went to the bus station to catch a bus back to Salvador ( a 12 hours bus ride!). We continued on to Gerson´s house to follow up with Stefany and Giovana. They had read a part of what we left with them in the Book of Mormon, and we talked to them about what they learned and invited them to continue reading. Stefany was still feeling shaky in her decision to be baptized, so we plan focusing more on her.
Funny story! We were heading to lunch and President Bangerter called us. He said he and Sister Bangerter were on their way from Porto Seguro to Eunápolis and they would arrive in about 30 minutes. We got to lunch and Elder Lee got really stressed, and anxious because he thought President would interview us in our house. The problem was that our house was a little messy from not having time to organize it since the zone conference and having Elder Davis over. Elder Lee was so worried about it that he couldn't eat properly. I tried to tell him not to worry about it, but it was to no avail. He was worried sick. So President arrived and we were still at lunch but we were finished eating. He decided to meet us where we were at lunch. When they arrived, Sister Viana offered him and Sister Bangerter lunch. They ate and then when it was time to leave a message, President Bangerter he directioned the conversation to Sister Viana´s Catholic friend named Laura who was at lunch with us. He ended up teaching her a summary of the message of the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon. It was SO spiritual! She loved the message and committed to reading the Book of Mormon. As we were leaving Sister Bangerter got some chocolates out of her car and gave them to me, then we all sang Happy Birthday in 4 different languages out in the middle of the road. hahaha. Afterwards we walked to Alefe but he was leaving his house so we didn´t get to teach him. Then we taught a boy named Guilherme and his family the Restoration and they committed to going to church. Ingrid´s mission farewell party was at 7pm and as it was starting the power went out in the whole city. We had planned to leave early to visit a super good investigator named Carlos, but we ended up not leaving because of the danger of walking through the city in complete darkness. Most of the farewell party / devotional was in the dark, only lit up by cell phone lights. Towards the end the power returned! Everyone celebrated and was happy.
Sunday morning we went to Guilherme´s house and other investigators´ houses to bring them to church, but no one came. Everyone was still sleeping or gave excuses. It was pretty sad walking back to church without any people with us. Not even Carlos, who committed to going, showed up. That afternoon after lunch with Brother Cabuia we tried visiting all the people that didn't show up to church. We didn't have the best luck. It was a long day. That night we arrived so tired that Elder Lee fell dead asleep on his bed, I didn't want to bother him, so I followed up with the whole zone´s numbers and previsions by myself. I went to bed exhausted, but excited for p-day the next day.
This week I was reading an article called “The Fourth Missionary”. It is so applicable for anyone´s life whether you are a missionary or not. I especially encourage anyone preparing for a mission to read it. It will help you see beforehand what kind of missionary you have the potential to be. It is something I wish I would have read before or at least earlier in my mission. It is REALLY good! Well that´s all folks! This next week should be a blast. I am excited to live it and see what I can learn from it. I love you family!
Love,
Elder McKay Hilton
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Week 99:
Hi everyone!
Monday was not much of a p-day for us. We woke up, exercised, cleaned the house, then went to the internet cafe to send our excel sheet, write a letter to president and read his messages. Then we had to quickly eat lunch to be able to get our bus to Mucuri on time. It is a 6 hour bus ride to get there. The bus left around 2:30 pm. We had planned to get to Mucuri around 9 pm, then have a division all day Tuesday, but we ran into a small problem. The first bus we took goes to a city called Teixeira de Freitas, the sister´s area in our zone. From there we would have to take another bus to Mucuri, but the only problem was that there were no more buses making that trip. We ended up coordinating with the sisters and going to a family night in their area. Afterwards everyone was hungry so we ate at an awesome place called “HOUSE BURGER”. Then we had to stay the night in Teixeira de Freitas and get the earliest bus at 5 am to Mucuri.
We got to the Elders´ house around 8 am and planned our division. I was with Elder Sobral and Elder Lee went with our District Leader Elder De La O. Lunch was with an old member of the church called Brother Dener. He lives so far away we had to take a 20 minutes bus ride to get there. He lives on an incredible piece of property. He has a nice comfortable house with lots of land. It is a 5 minute walk from his house to the beach, and he owns all the land up to the beach. After we eat lunch he goes off to take a nap and lets us stay and do whatever until we have to catch the bus that passes by his house at 2 pm. So we just explored around his giant backyard and took pictures by the beach until it was time to leave.
Once we got back, we got to work. I LOVED working with Elder Sobral. I was the secretary when he arrived in the mission so i met him in the airport his first day. It was good working with him and meeting his investigators. I gave him lots of tips for his planning and his teaching. I had the privilege to teach some really good investigators and see some amazing locations in Mucuri with Elder Sobral. First we taught Thiago, Bruno and Thais. Thiago and Bruno are brothers, and Thais is Thiago´s girlfriend. We taught them the Restoration and they really enjoyed it and participated a lot in the lesson. We all felt the spirit and they wanted to learn more. They were sad that I wouldn't be coming back soon. Next we visited an old lady named Rosinha who is preparing to be baptized on March 31st. She was so little and sweet. Before we even taught anything so expressed to us how excited she is to be baptized on the 31st and how she wants to prepare! Next we visited a 32 year old dude named Selton. He is works in radio broadcasting as a radio host. We taught him there in his very office where he works. It was a really neat experience. I taught him the restoration and about the Book of Mormon and cleared up some doubts that he had. It was a fun visit because he was an intelligent guy who knows his stuff. Also every now and then during the lesson we would have to pause us to make an announcement on the radio. It was funny to hear his “announcer / advertiser” voice and it was cool to see first hand how his radio station functions behind the scenes. He accepted to read the parts of the Book of Mormon that we left him.
Our next visit was with a 16 year old boy named Uanderson. He is returning to activity in the church and we shared with him the message about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is a very cool boy that I see a lot of potential in. He just needs to remember why he was baptized and continue to follow the path. That was our last visit of our day and we returned home quickly. The whole day we used bikes and I thought it was awesome because we could zip from appointment to appointment without much delay and wasting so much energy. It was the first time in my whole mission that I worked as a missionary with a bike. I found it to be very efficient.
Now here is a funny story. So the Elders in Mucuri forgot to pay their water bill so the water was cut. We got home and I was not looking forward to sleeping without taking a shower after a hot day of work, then waking up at 4 am to catch a bus back to my area in Eunápolis. We went out in the road around 10:30 pm to look at the water gauge register on other houses to see if other people´s water was cut as well. We came to a conclusion that maybe the whole road was cut because a lot of other houses´s water gauge weren't moving, indicating that they shouldn't have water. But we weren't sure so we asked our next door neighbor to verify. She told us that she didn't know, then said to us that she had water, and we could take showers in her house if we wanted to. We were so happy! Elder Sobral wanted me to cut his hair first so I did, then we walked over and entered in the garage the neighbors left unlocked for us. It was like 11 pm and we took showers in our neighbor's house! It was pretty funny how it happened, and we found ourselves laughing a lot about it all, but to the neighbor, an old lady, it was no biggie.
We only got about 4 hours of sleep because we had to wake up early to get the 5:30 am bus back to Teixeira, then home to Eunápolis. Elder Sobral and I woke up even earlier wednesday morning at 4:15 am to bike to a cool part of his area and try to see the sunrise. After doing that we biked quickly back home to drop off the bikes then walk to the bus station in time. The other Elders were already at the bus station waiting for us and we had to literally run to the bus station to not miss it. We were both carrying my suitcase between us and running! We got there and Elder Sobral realized his wallet wasn't in his bag and that his bag was unzipped. It had fallen out while we were running! We gave our bags to our companions and ran back in the direction to our house to backtrace our steps. He found, his wallet, a pack of cookies and his phone charger all in different parts of the road.
Once again we returned to the bus station running. We were able to buy our tickets and travel safely. We arrived around 8:15 in Teixeira de Freitas and got another bus to Eunápolis. We got home at 12:00 and ate lunch. Around 4pm the power in the whole city went out. It turned out that the power went out in multiple cities and even several other states in northeastern Brazil. We still did our work and walked to our appointment in the dark. I had never seen a night so dark with so many stars in the night for so long. I was fascinated by it. In the road we were able to find Carlos and remark a day to teach him. Then we walked in the pitch dark to a distant neighborhood to share a message with Darsciane. She had prepared cake and juice that we ate by candlelight. Haha.
Thursday the 22nd we had our weekly planning. I called president and talked to him about how our division was on Tuesday, then asked him about the possibility of us getting bikes for our area to be more efficient, etc. We had a conversation about the pros and cons about bikes, then he made a decision. He said we can either buy new bikes on our own means and we would have to donate them to the mission since they aren´t reimbursable. Apparently bikes aren´t authorized for missions in Brazil, but the mission president can approve their use in certain circumstances. Then he told us that their are 2 broken bikes that aren't in use from another area in our zone and we bring them to our area and fix them from our own pocket and use them. We decided to do that. I was so happy! Bikes are so great. Then we had lunch at the new Elder´s quorum president´s house (Diego). In the afternoon we found Carlos, but he didn´t have time so we marked another visit. A few weeks ago I did a contact with a lady named Rosangela at the Hospital. She told us we can visit her and her family. She told us her 22 year old son Patrick would like us because he has already investigated multiple churches. We found her house and only Patrick was there. He found our message of the Restoration to be very interested and he said he is very curious. We invited him to read Joseph Smith´s testimony and pray about it. We plan on teaching him about the Book of Mormon next. From there we ran to a family night at Sister Gracieli´s house. We had invited Bruna and her two daughters Stefany and Giovana. They came! I shared the message at the family night and we left after to find the Elders that were arriving in our area with our bikes. We met them in the road then walked back to our house. They stayed with us that night to have district meeting the next day.
Friday the 23rd we had district meeting with those Elders from Baianão in the morning. On the way to the chapel we dropped off the bikes at a shop to get fixed. After district meeting all of us ate lunch at the District President Smarçaro´s house. From 2 pm to 6 pm we had to do a favor for our Branch President and stay in the chapel and wait for a telephone guy to arrive. This guy was supposed to install a fixed line in the bishopric room but he never arrived. I felt like it was a waste of our time, but NO ONE else was available to help out so our branch president had to ask us to do it. Around 6:30 we left the chapel and went to teach Stefany, and her older sister. We took a bus and taught them the plan of salvation. Then a miracle happened. The week before we had left her a goal to be baptized on the 24th and she barely accepted it. She is very timid and was doubting a lot. But today I stood up after the lesson and reminded her of her goal as I gave her some invitations that I printed. She looked at them and began to think of who she could invite. She was happy and accepted it with no doubts or hesitation! We confirmed to have to baptism at 3pm on Saturday. We left their house that night and made a bunch of calls to advisel the branch about the baptism as we walked the LONG walk home (there were no more buses). We got home exhausted but we had to get permission to stay out longer than we are allowed to because we still had to mount the baptismal font and leave it to fill up overnight. We got done with all that around 11:30 pm.
Saturday the 24 we stopped at some investigator´s house´s to teach but no one was home. The baptism was marked for 3 pm but it started around 5 pm. Stefany was baptized and it all went smoothly. A few members and young women were there to support her. We stayed at the chapel after and made hotdogs for the small institute class.
Sunday Stefany was confirmed and we spend the afternoon visiting some of our investigators. Not many of them were home but we were able to share some messages. Sunday at 5 pm the bus left to the temple. Lots of members from the Porto Seguro district sacrificed a lot to go.
This week was a testimony of faith to me. Some things happened that tested my patience, but I continued having faith. Faith in myself, my investigators and my zone that I try to follow up on. My companion Elder Lee is great. He is a timid person and pretty quiet, but he has his strengths as well. We trust each other and work in unity. I love planning with him and working in our area.
I know that the field is white. We are here to harvest! I want to do all I can these last 6 weeks of my mission to help the work progress. I only have this opportunity once in my like to be a full time missionary in Brazil. I have learned so much from my mission and I pray that I will use what I have learned during my mission throughout the rest of my life. I love the Lord and i am thankful for all He has done in my life. I know he is in the details of every one of our lives and he love us.
I love the mission, I love being a missionary and I love all you. I am grateful to have such good family and friends. I love you all so much, I am grateful for everything you help me with and teach me.
Love,
Elder Hilton
