Week 100: Last week with Elder Lee AND Week 101: AN AMAZING START!!

WEEK 100:  LAST WEEK WITH ELDER LEE
General  Conference Week!! This week was the last week of this 6 week transfer with Elder Lee. It was a great one. We followed up with our investigators during the week. I will only mention a few things that highlighted my week. I will start off with a funny story. We were in a place far away visiting Juliana on Thursday. We also had lunch with her that day. On the way back we were racing home on our bikes because we were late getting home. Elder Lee hit a speed bump, but didn´t see what was on the other side. Right after the speed bump there was a hole in the road filled with water, because it had just rained. He sped over the speed bump, then hit that hole. He lost control and swerved all over the place trying to keep his balance. I was just behind him and a little to the left so i avoided the hole. I laughed so hard at the sight. 

 Okay, other than funny bike stories, we followed up with Milena, a member of the 7th day adventist church. We taught her about the Restoration and she committed to read the pamphlet of the Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The appointment after her was with Patrick. Remember Patrick? He is the 21 year old son of that woman that I did a contact with in the hospital. Patrick is cool guy who is very curious to learn about what we teach. We went there with Flavia, a 24 yr old girl who is waiting for her mission call to arrive. We taught Patrick about the Book of Mormon and invited him to read 3 Nephi 11. Flavia was a huge help in the lesson because she always explains things well, and bears her awesome testimony. During our visit with him, I realized I lost my planner. I had it with me at Milena´s house, the last appointment we were at, so we backtracked to search for it. We never found it. Then it rained that night, so I knew that was the last of that planner. I was kind of bummed out, because my planners are like journals to me. I have kept every single planner since the begginning of my mission and this was the first one that I lost. A few days passed by and we went back to Patrick´s house to follow up. He hadn´t had time to read the chapter we left with him, so we shared a shorter lesson with a video on Mormon Channel. This was on Saturday before conference the first session. Here the Saturday morning session started at 1:00 pm. We had lunch marked with Sister Élia and we couldn´t be late or we would be late to General Conference. As we were finishing up our visit with Patrick his mom told us to stay to eat some of the chicken alfredo pasta she made. We tried to say no, because we couldn´t be late to our lunch appointment, then late to conference, but she kept insisting. I felt pretty much forced to eat her food, and I was still happy because anyone that knows me, knows how much I love  chicken alfredo pasta. So we quickly ate and quickly biked to our lunch appointment.  Lunch went overtime and since Sister Élia has internet and her daughter speaks english we watched both sessions in English on a smartphone with Elder Lee´s portable speaker. The first session was from 1:00pm to 3:00 pm and the second from 5:00pm to 7:pm. We weren´t able to watch the priesthood session since it was transmitted here from 9:00 to 11:00 pm.

Sunday we ate lunch at Flavia´s house with Juliana and Jay-Z, then walked to the chapel all together to watch General conference at the chapel.

 We went to a room behind the sacrament meeting room and watched it in English with the same setup with the smartphone and portable speaker. It was an amazing conference. I feel like every conference that I watch gets better and better. I learned so much and felt even more. I want to listen to all the talks again. Luckily we have technology and we can access the all the talks from General Conference on the church´s site and not have to wait for the Ensign to come out. I loved hearing all the testimonies of how God calls prophets and how Russell M. Nelson is the living Prophet called by God. It really strengthened my testimony and as much as I loved Thomas S. Monson, I sustain President Nelson as the Lord´s living prophet on the Earth. I enjoyed all the talks I listened to and I really felt the spirit!

Monday, Elder Lee´s last P-day, we went to use the computer and the power went out!  That´s why I am writing a week late about this week. While we were waiting for the power to come back, we received the transfer call. Elder Lee was transferred to Ilhéus to be a zone leader in an area that I had served in earlier in my mission! I learned that I would be staying and finishing my last transfer in my mission with AN AMERICAN!! With Elder Christofferson!! I was super surprised and happy! The rest of the afternoon we spent at home for Elder Lee to pack his bags. Then we met some members of the branch at the church around 5:00 om for Elder Lee to say goodbye. We went out for icecream with them then we visited a few other people for Elder Lee to give his farewells to. He would catch his bus Tuesday morning at 9:20 am

I had a great week. I feel adjusted to serving in a branch now. It is a testimony to me of the greatness of the potential growth in the church. We are working to bring more investigators to church. I will be starting my last transfer of my mission.. WHAT?!?!  It is nuts how fast it went by and I find myself pondering on where the time went. hahaha. I have reflected a lot on what has happened during my mission. What I have learned and how I have improved. I learned more about my weaknesses as well. I am excited to continue working hard until the end of my mission. I want to give it all i have to end with honor and feel like I did my best. I have heard stories of elders who gave up towards the end of their missions and became lazy and didn´t work. I DO NOT want to be that kind of Elder. I want to WORK HARD my last transfer! That is the goal.

Thanks for all your support and love back home! I love all of you!

-Elder Hilton

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WEEK 101: AN AMAZING START!!
Hey everyone!
How are you all doing?! I hope everyone had a great week! This week for me was CRAZY and AMAZING!! It was transfer week and I stayed here in Eunápolis and my companion Elder Lee was transferred to Ilhéus. This week was a blast and I am LOVING my area and new companion Elder Christofferson. I was so curious to find out if he is really related to D. Todd Christofferson and YES it is TRUE.  His grandpa´s brother is the apostle! Anyway We have the whole city for ourselves and we have BIKES!!! I feel more missionary than ever! It has been so fun but I am a little sore I must admit.

So Tuesday morning Elder Christofferson got here at about 7:45 and walked off the bus and I was there waiting for him with Elder Lee, my companion last transfer. We waited another 2 hours for Elder Lee's bus to arrive and him to head out to his new area. We then got a taxi and got to our house. Elder Christofferson didn't even unpack his bags and we headed out to work on our bikes! It is a blast to ride around again on a bike.

We had one of the coolest experiences of the week after lunch on Tuesday. So we were biking to a different part of the area and Elder Christofferson´s chain fell off. (2nd time in less than 2 hours) We stopped to fix it and this man had just gotten out of his parked car and looked over and asked if we wanted help. We said yes so he showed us a trick on how to do it and then said he could tighten some part so that it didn't fall off again. We were stopped in front of his house so he said, "come on in real quick and I can fix it up for ya." So we walked into his garage and he went in to get some tools and then his wife and his 12 year old daughter came out to talk to us. It was like one of those things you see in the church magazines. Like they offered us water and asked us all about our missions and what we do and stuff. They loved it and then offered us to eat lunch! We had just eaten so we politely declined but it was crazy. Like we had known them for less than 10 minutes. And then BEFORE we could even ask, they asked us to come back! That night!!! Obviously we didn't decline haha they marked the appointment with US! It was crazy. The dad, his name is Israel, he wanted us to meet his whole family. That night we went back and had an AMAZING time. So we showed up at 7 pm and they were waiting for us. We met the whole family, Israel (father of the family), Jucilene (wife), and their 3 daughters. Carol(20), Cristina(15), and Clara(12). We explained a little more about our work and then Israel told us why he helped us. He started to tell a story that like 10+ years ago, he was one day getting ready to build his house and then 3 Elders walked by and asked him what day he was going to start constructing and he told them it would be on a Sunday morning. They said that they were going to come and that they didn't need to be paid. He didn't belive them but they showed up on the day at 6 am and worked harder than the other guys he had hired! Then they disappeared and he never saw them again. (quick side note: Elder Christofferson and I think that those 3 missionaries were maybe the 3 nephites or something. Like seriously who else would be up at 6 am on a sunday doing cement work to build a stranger´s house. hahaha) So since that day he says he has respected our work a lot and when he saw us on the road he had the impression to help. So thanks to those missionaries helpíng someone YEARS ago, it opened the door for us! And that night we taught the wonderful message of the Restoration. It was incredible. The whole time they were focused on us and payed so much attention. Israel was taking notes on everything! Haha it was insane. So towards the end we moved to the floor haha. I was doing a drawing explaining the lesson and I got up to show it to the wife who was sitting on a pillow on the floor and when I went over the rest of the family did too. That left Elder Christofferson alone on the couch, so he was like, "well guess I will too." and he joined us on the floor. It was so cool because we were all sitting in a circle, and closer, and Elder Christofferson got to talk about the First Vision. It was so spiritual. It felt like the rest of the world around us just disappeared. Everyone in that room felt it. Elder Christofferson testified of the truthfulness of our message and then I did and we finished. They loved it and committed to praying and reading. Then they fed us a surprise dinner and we were off! When we left and got off their street, we were on our bikes and Elder Christofferson looked over to me and we said, "ELDER WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?!?!" Haha we laughed and got super happy. We are so grateful that Heavenly Father guides us to find his elect! But more on them later.

Wednesday we just had a busywork day with unpacking, cleaning up a little bit, getting ourselves organized and doing weekly planning because we couldn't on Thursday. We even bought materials and put up an improved map organized with color coded pins to help us be more organized. We are proud of our map!

Thursday we had a service project in the morning! It was fun and Elder Christofferson got to meet the branch president, President Almir, and Irmão Diego, who is the Elders Quorum President . It was a fun time and we helped a lady move. The best part was that the truck driver was this big funny guy who had quite an uncommon name. I thought it was fake but he was telling the truth. His name was JOSÉ SMITH!!!! It was hilarious when he told us and we didn't believe it. A guy, non-member, named Joseph Smith haha! It was funny.

Thursday we also found another amazing family. I told Elder Christofferson about a girl that I had contacted the last week of last transfer. We decided to head over there. We found the girl Iasmin and then we met her mom named Branca and the son named Icaro. So apparently we found out that last year in about October they had met the missionaries and that the mom had actually gotten pretty close to being baptized! Of course we were super excited about that. So then we taught the first lesson to the whole family and they loved it. It was cool because Branca remembered a lot of it! We really had a good lesson and they committed to going to church. Branca said that she had actually walked by the church on that same day and had the thought, "I need to start coming back here." And then who shows up at her house that night? We did!! Haha, isn't it amazing how God works?

Friday was a tougher day because everything fell through but that night we had a lesson with Israel and his family! We got to teach everyone except for the mom because she had to go run errands. But they fed us again, before the lesson this time, and then we had the lesson. We explained with more detail the Book of Mormon and it was awesome. They loved it, especially the two older daughters. They were super excited to read it and we had only brought one copy, (we forgot to take more haha) and they had to do rock-paper-scissors to decide who was going to read first haha. It was awesome and then we kind of shifted roles and they started to talk. Israel started to tell a story about his oldest daughter, Carol. He said that when she was 13 they discovered some weird lump on her stomach at a normal doctors appointment and then looked more into it. At this point in the story Carol interruped and asked to tell the story. So she took over and told the rest. She had surgery on this tumor and got it all out. But then the doctor told her dad they thought it was cancer. Israel didn't accept it. He kept saying that his daughter didn't have cancer but after time they got the results and it was cancer. So they had a meeting with the doctor and he said she would have to do chemo and a bunch of stuff and if not the cancer would spread. It was a super aggresive type and the doctor said it had to be done ASAP. Israel was still determined that Carol didn't have cancer and demanded that she didn't. The doctor gave her 9% chance to live. So they refused and wanted to do a test to see if she had tumors. A year after the surgery they did some type of scan thing to see the cancer and when they got the results she had nothing. The cancer was gone. The doctor said that if 10 years passed and she felt NOTHING that she was good! But he said that she wouldn't make it that long. It has been now 7 years and she is perfect! What a miracle right?! Now Israel throws an annual party to celebrate the miracle. I love that family! They couldn't go to church this sunday but next week they will!

Saturday we had another good day. We visited Branca and her family again with a member named Flavia who is waiting for her mission call and lives close to them. I gained a better testimony of the power of members because we taught the Book of Mormon and Iasmin had a lot of questions and doubts and Flavia just took over and explained her story and how she had the same first thoughts and stuff.It was so amazing and spiritual! And it helped! Because on Sunday Branca and her daughter came to church!

Saturday night we taught this guy named Patrick. He has been an investigator for a couple weeks. We had a nice little lesson with him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was awesome. I don't know why but I feel like he has a lot of potential! He is 20 and really just looking for the truth. I love how we find so many people who are in the same situation as Joseph Smith was!

Sunday was great and we had 4 investigators at church! I love this little branch! The attendence was 58 this week and apparently that is the highest they have had in a while. That evening at 5 we had branch council. The power had gone out and it got dark, so we had half the meeting in the light of cellphone flashlights! They are super excited to work with us to make their little group of saints grow!

I am thankful to be serving with Elder Christofferson. We had an amazing 1st week together and had many great experiences.  We have a good group of progressing investigators. I am excited to continue working hard until the end of my mission. We decided to do a video entry each day! So instead of writing in my journal, each day when we get home, we set up my camera and talk about our day! It is really fun and I found it more time efficient than writing! haha

We are working with the ward council to integrate our investigators better with the members. It is sad it is a 5 week transfer instead of 6, but Elder Christofferson and I have a vision of baptizing multiple people within this transfer. I want to finish strong and on fire. If this week and every week the rest of this transfer is like this past week, I will be really happy and we will see great fruits.

Well this is a long one so that is it! That was just a brief overview and some highlights of the fantastic week! I love you all and don't forget, Jesus Lives!!!

Love,

Elder McKay Hilton

On Sunday we taught the Primary! There is this little girl named Sophia that calls me zoiudo (big eyes in português) and she always is on my tail wanting to follow me around. haha.

 

Elder Christofferson and I (Nice t-shirt!)

cleaning our dishes in the bathroom because the kitchen sink broke.