Week 98: 4th week in Eunapolis & Week 99: 5th Week in Eunapolis

Week 98:

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

Week 97: The Heist: That´s Too Coincidental to be a Coincidence

This week was actually quite an eventful "action packed" one. It started off with a great surprise. We had our p-day on Monday. We talked to our families, sent our zone´s weekly results to the assistants, and wrote a letter to President. Then we passed by the market to buy some fruits. We went to Sister Salles stand to see if she had any good bananas for us to buy to make a simple smoothy at home.  She saw us and said, "Oh Elders, i know how it is. Missionaries don´t have any money. My daughter is leaving for her mission on March 21st and I understand your needs. You like bananas? Here take these. (handing us a full sack of bananas) Do you like this other type? Take these (handing over another sack full of another type of bananas). Elder Lee, you have a cold? Here make some lemon juice with these (handing over a sack full of lemons)." I commented on how big the mangos were that she had, then she said, "oh Elder, you like mangos?? Here, take some, (filling up a sack of Mangos and handing it to us)."  Then to top it off she gave us half a watermelon. All this for free! We offered to pay her, but she refused. I thought that was really nice of her, so i considered it as a "birthday present". hahaha. We made a good banana smoothy, then spent the afternoon preparing for mission council that would take place on Wednesday.

 At 6:00 pm we had a family night at our branch president´s humble house that we helped him move into last monday. I had done a contact with their neighbors (Rute and Alana) and invited them to participate in this family night. We sang hymns, prayed, taught the Restoration, then sang more, and and finished the family night. We slept that night, totally unaware of what was about to happen that night. My companion had caught a cold so he went to bed quickly. I stayed up cleaning the house, and organizing myself for the week. I wrote some things in my journal and then went to bed.

We slept well, but i woke up earlier than my alarm. It was bright out and I looked at my watch and saw it was only 5:30 am. It smelled like smoke outside, but I just assumed it was someone burning something in a field like normal. We did our daily morning routines, then taught an investigator named Milena before going to lunch at Sister Gracieli´s house. We got there and while we were eating lunch they asked us if we knew what had happened the night before. We had no idea. They told us and we were shocked. They showed us videos and pictures. Let´s just say I feel lucky we were safe and not hurt. So this is what happened. Monday night, after midnight there has occured a major incident here in the city. The world wide security company called Prosegur. They do a lot of business with cash. They work with banks, for large events, and many other things dealing with lots of money. There is a local headquarter located here in the center and there are always those big armored yellow trucks driving around, going in and out. So last night that place was robbed. It was blown up. They blew it sky high, killing everyone inside, shattering glass and windows of nearby stores from the shock of the explosion, and they ended up stealing a quantity of money equal to 15 million dollars. They had set off a number of other distractions in the city to distract the police. They set fire to a car in another street, they blew up one of those big yellow armored trucks, they let their guns fire off in the air in various locations to distract as well. It seemed to be very well planned out and must have been because they got away and no one knows who did it. But the scary thing was that we live so close. This all happened in the center, and WE LIVE THERE! Where the explosion happened is literally a 3 minute walk from our house. So after lunch we walked through the center to get to the hospital for my check up, and we saw all the confusion. There was news reporters, broken glass everywhere and we saw the blown up, burnt Prosegur building. I discretely snapped some pictures on our crappy cellphone, because i didn´t have my camera. Close to the hospital we found the burnt down car. It was all pretty crazy. The hospital wait was longer than we expected and i ended up remarking to return two weeks later.

While we were in the hospital we received news from Salvador. We were informed that President talked to Elder David A. Bednar and got permission to let all the zone leaders and people that were coming to salvador for our mission council on Wednesday, to stay for the live devotional / training that would take place on Friday there in Salvador in OUR MISSION!! So we had the choice to go to salvador, participate in mission council, and stay until friday to be able to participate in the Elder Bednar event. So we we left Tuesday night at 7:30 pm to salvador. It was a 12 hours bus ride to Salvador and we arrived around 8:00 am. President Bangerter picked us up and took us to the mission home. We had mission council with all the staff, zone leaders and sister leader trainers all day. It went really well. We had lots of good experiences and trainings. I wish i could share them ALL! Before catching our bus back to Salvador I raided my old house in Rio Vermelho and stole back all the stuff I had forgotten in that house.  We were the only zone leaders that left wednesday night back to our area because we had a baptismal interview marked for thursday night and a baptism marked for saturday morning. We got back to Eunápolis at 8:00 am  after another 12 hour bus ride. Although I hardly slept it was a cool ride, because we were seated in the top floor of a double decker bus in the front looking out a window that looks like a drivers seat view.

 It is  funny, because it turns out that on Thursday the interview didn´t even happen, things didn´t work out for a few reasons, and we resolved by having our investigators be interviewed saturday morning before their baptism. So guess what that means?? we could have stayed for this Elder Bednar devotional!!! But everything happens for a reason.  I was kind of sad that I wasn´t able to make it to the meeting with Elder Bednar. My companion and I really prayed and thought if we should go, or if we should stay so our Baptism didn´t fall through. It´s funny, because we saw so many blessings because of our efforts. We encountered 3 new people, and they are interested. The first person was a guy named Clayton. We were on our way to a different appointment, but this lady stopped us and told us her son Thyago was baptized in our church a while ago and is less active. She told us where he lives and told us to go talk to him, because he is "off the path". Thyago´s friends where there and we ended up teaching everyone. Clayton was one of them. He is a 19 year old dude and seemed intereseted. He commited to reading and praying. Next we were walking and I did a contact with a man named Carlos at a construction store while i was buying super glue for my shoe. He is a 20 year old guy who seems really mature for his age. I marked to visit him the next day on Friday and left him a restoration pamphlet for him to read in preparation for our visit. Just so you know hardly ANYONE reads them. They always confess that they didn´t read anything when we ask them about it in our visits.

On Friday we watched the Elder Bednar transmition. Watching from the Internet was as spiritual as if I were there. We learned a lot of things and I am grateful for technology allowing us to participate as we were able to. Even though we didn´t get to watch it live, there in Salvador, I am very grateful for how everything played out. Lord really blesses those who sacrifice. Here is an example. After the transmition and lunch we went to follow up with Carlos. We arrived at  his family runned construcion store and we went to the floor above where he lives. He told us he read the whole pamphlet. When i asked him what he understood, he told us everything exactly correct about the restoration. We were so suprised. He was very attentive during the lesson. We notice he was a knowledgeable guy and he accepted to give the closing prayer! Man, I just smiled and smiled during his whole prayer! I think a tear almost escaped my eye during his so very sincere prayer. I don´t think Carlos noticed, but to us his prayer was THE PERFECT PRAYER. It was a sincere conversation with God. He expressed his feelings, and related himselft to being like Joseph Smith. He asked in his prayer to help him find a church with a true living prophet, 12 aposltes, and authority. He went on describing how he feels like Joseph Smith felt when he was looking for a church to join, etc. His prayer was just amazing! It was probably the highlight of my whole week. That night we went to the church to prepare for the baptism. We cleaned up the font and left it to fill up overnight.

In the end, Giovana was baptized on Saturday and it was a success. Her sister Stefany passed the interview and was supposed to be baptized together with her sister, but she backed up last minute. Their dad and stepmom are both recent converts and are going through some VERY difficult situations. There were definitley obstacles as always, but with President Smarçaro´s council to their parents we were able to baptize Giovana. Its a long story, and i think it should be kept confidential so i won´t share more details.

 After the baptism Ana Lucia had her missionary farewell party! Lots of tears were shed by the people there and it was a good time. Sunday morning we left early to pick up investigators. It was raining and no one we invited went to church. We took the long walk back to the church in the rain and had our meetings in church. Sunday afternoon we did some visits with Brother Cabuia. At 8:00 pm Ana Lucia was set apart at the church. It was a special moment and I was reminded of when i was set apart as a missionary.

Today for p-day I received so many positive emails from family and friends telling me happy birthday. I loved every email, message, picture, and video that was send to me. It was a kind of emotional p-day. I feel like everyone is so surprised that i am now 20 years old! I am suprised myself to be honest. I still feel as if i were 17. hahahaha I feel grateful for all of you supporting and loving me. I am so thankful for your thoughts and good wishes for me. I feel your love! Thanks SOOO MUCH.

So what did I learn this week?  I learned so many things from the mission council meeting, and the Elder Bednar training / devotional. One thing I loved was this:

Sister Bednar said that every day Elder Bednar starts the day with three questions!

Do you feel happy?
Do you feel healthy?
Do you feel wonderful?

We should feel happy - optimistic - wonderful and healthy. I hope every day we can wake up like this. The visit of Elder Bednar was such a blessing.  It is as if we have received a visit from the Apostle Paul and had him with us to train us. It is such a rare privilege that most will never receive. I am grateful for everything that I learned and experienced this week. So many things happened that some would consider coincidences, but I know that everything happens for a reason. I am excited for my birthday on Friday even though probably nothing will happen. Just being here alive, and not being blown up in that whole terrible heist is enough for me. Thanks for all the emails and things you´ve shared with me! I love you fam!

-Elder Hilton

Week 96!!!!! 2nd week in Eunápolis

Last Monday we helped the Branch president move. Then had our pday at the church playing pingpong and lunch, then we played minigolf.

At 6 pm we went with sister graciele to an english class where we met her 3 friends that are studying english with her. One is a doctor, one is a lawyer, and another is the english professor. We practiced some english with them, then quickly got into a conversation about what we do as missionaries. We were short on time and they wanted to learn more so we marked to visit them on Wednesday night again.

Tuesday we visited some of our investigators. We are teaching Alefe and he should be getting baptized soon. Gerson is a recent convert and we are now teaching 2 of his daughters at his house. We take a bus to get to their house because they live so far away. We take a bus there then walk an hour and 20 minutes to get back home at night. They have both been to church multiple time and they accepted the baptismal invite. Their goal is for march 10th. but if their dad wants to baptize them, they will have to wait an extra week because he needs to recieve the priesthood.

Thursday, we taught lots of people. The highlights were following up with Alefe and remarking his baptismal date and teaching Gerson´s daughters (Estefani and Giovana) the gospel of Jesus Christ together with the Ten Comandments using the fingers to help them remember.  From there we had to walk home because theres were no more buses at that hour of the night. Its a long walk and i found my feet hurting when we got home. hahaha.
Friday we made a list of references with a member and visited a recent convert.  We´re going to follow up on those references this week. 
Saturday we worked with another young women who will soon leave for her mission.

We invited many of our investigators to church and challenged them with goals for baptism.
Sunday, we had a cool Sacrament meeting. After church, we had a branch council meeting with all the leaders of the branch. We made lots of goals for our Branch and planned to coordinate with people sunday morning, to go and pick up people for church.

In the end, I had a great week despite all the challenges we face serving in a branch. I am still learning my way around this huge area. We have the WHOLE city to ourselves. It is going well and I feel like my companion and I are going to do great things here. I am excited for this week as we will have mission council meeting in Salvador on Wednesday and a special transmition from Elder David A. Bednar. He will be in Salvador on Friday and the missionaries there will get to personally participate, meanwhile the rest of us in other parts of Bahia will watch in by transmition. I am excited for this privelege. It is a great time to be a missionary! That is my week! That´s all folks!!

With love,
Elder Hilton

there is my companion Elder Lee and I.

pictures from last weeks email. 

Alan´s Missionary Farewell Party

Week 89: Welcome to Eunápolis

Man oh man! So many things have happened this last week. First things first, I was transferred On sunday i said goodbye to some people in the Rio Vermelho ward. Last monday I had a meeting with President Bangerter and the Staff in the office. It went over time and i consequently missed my bus that goes directly to Eunápolis. So i had to take a bus from Salvador to Itabuna, then from Itabuna to Eunápolis.

I arrived at noon on tuesday and after a while of waiting alone, i called the secretaries to have them notify Elder Lee (my new companion) that i arrived. After about 35 minutes Elder Lee arrived with Alan (the ward mission leader), and Gracieli drove us to drop off my bags at our house, then drove us to her house to have lunch with her. There my flu really hit me and I was feeling really sick. That day we visited Pedro Henrique, a 10 year old boy, who was preparing to be baptized on Friday. Then we visited Alefe, a 24 year old man with a young family, whose goal was to be baptized on Saturday. Then we went to one of our investigators church with him. The Universal Church. . It was a crazy experience of watching people "expulse demons" from people. 

Wednesday morning we pulled a suprise prank for Ana Lucia. I brought her mission call from Salvador and we surprised her with it at Gracieli´s house. It was well planned out and turned out awesome. She was called to serve in the São Paulo West Mission. After lunch we did verfications  and taught some people. On thursday we had a division with the Elders from Baianão.  I worked doing verifications with Elder Santos. Thursday night we visited Laura´s mom and ate pizza. Friday I met the District President and his wife.  We had a baptism! Pedro Henrique was baptized by President Smarçaro.

On Saturday Alefe was supposed to be baptized, but he didn´t show up. We went to his house with the Elder´s quorum president and Alefe´s wife said he left to the farm and wouldn´t return until Sunday night. It was strange because we had talked to him the day before and confirmed everything. Something must have happened and we plan on meeting with him soon to be able to figure out what happened and reschedule his baptism. After the baptism Alan had his mission farewell party / 25th birthday at the church.  It was a special moment for everyone. I can tell everyone will miss him. He will leave this Wednesday, the 28th. Sunday Pedro Henrique was confirmed and received the Holy Ghost.

Sunday night we taught a man that lives super far away, Afterwards we met up with Alan, because he was set apart and will be staying with us until he leaves for his mission on wednesday. For Pday, we did a service project that lasted all morning. We helped the branch president move.  Then we met up with some members to eat lunch at the church and hangout with Alan for the last time before he leaves on his mission. We played a round of minigolf at a hotel that let us play. it was really fun.

That was a SUPER summarized explanation of my week. I promise to send more pictures next week. I have already taken so many! Things are going well. I am adjusting to living in a new city, with a new companion, and different house, and all those things. I am getting to know our investigators. Being a zone leader will be great. I will have the opportunity to help other missionaries with their areas and investigators. It is going to be a lot of work, but I am excited to see miracles happen. I know that this is the Lord´s work and being a missionary is a wonderful opportunity. There are 4 youth in our small branch here that will be leaving soon to serve full time missions. They are inspiring to everyone and have helped me remember the time when i was preparing for my mission. I know that Jesus Christ is real and that he loves us. He is the reason we are all here on this wonderful Earth with our families. I love you fam!

Week 87: Unexpected trip

HAPPY VALENTINE´S !!! This is the last week of this transfer! It went by so fast! It was also the official week of Carnival. Our area is located close to where some of the main events of carnival take place so this were pretty difficult concerning working. We work more in Alta do Ondina and all the big Carnavil stuff happened just around the bend in Ondina and Barra. Literally all our investigators said to come back only after carnival. Bummer, but now it is over and things are going better. People are ready to repent and learn more of Jesus Christ. hahaha. So Tuesday was the official carnival day. We didn´t get much results in our area. We just did some door knocking and contacts. Wednesday was Valentine´s day! It was also our last district meeting. We had it at home. It was really good. I gave a training on some things that President has taught me last week at council meeting on taking investigators to church.

Being a missionary IS NOT DIFFICULT! It can be a challenge, but it is nothing unbearable. In fact - Nowadays we have everything to help us - resources, materials, plans, members and more! It's a fun job - blessed and guided. We just need to work - and in the process we develop great talents.  This requires skill in organizing and pondering - and we have learned how to do it - IT IS NOT DIFFICULT. We simply need to do the basic and fundamental things - and the Spirit does the rest! Imagine the growth! The mission provides all this!

I am GRATEFUL this week for the privilege of being a missionary. The Holy Spirit guides the true servants of Christ - the missionaries here in the Salvador South mission. Our new goal is to stop by some houses on Sunday morning and bring them to church. This will require diligence and lots of faith. I plan on putting this in practice... starting next transfer. Why next transfer and not NOW?? This is where that unexpected trip comes into picture. Let me explain

On Friday I decided to take care of a problem that has been irritating me for a few weeks. That is my right foot. My big toe has had an ingrown nail for a while, and I had tried to take care of it myself. Soaking it in water, applying cream, etc. After a few weeks and no results I decided to go to the doctor to get it fixed. Also since it was swollen and purple, i thought i should go in.  So Friday morning Elder Cantuário, Elder Prince, and I went to the Aliança Hospital and I was treated. The Doctor, Doctor Marcos Porto was really nice. He has been to the United States twice and has studied english for fun and for work, so he spoke quite a bit of English. He spoke lots of English with me and it was pretty funny. I felt strange speaking in English, so i would direct our conversations back to Portuguese and he would always go back to English. Anyway he numbed up my toe real well and then cut off a part of my nail on my right big toe. The worst part was the needle to get numb. After that, I felt absolutely nothing! hahaha. He showed me the huge part of my nail he cut out and let me keep it! hahaha, gross i know! He cleaned up my foot then wrapped up my big toe really well. It is HUGE! Then he hooked me up with some special soap to clean it daily, gauze, tape, and a wrap. He told me the numbness should go away in about 2 hours. He printed out some papers and I was out!  Eddy Carlos took us straight to lunch and from there I stayed with Mike in the office. Around 5:30 Elder Prince and Elder Cantuário arrived in the office and will stay with me here, because Mike had to leave.

Today is Saturday. For p-day, I will just email because I can´t leave to do anything because of my foot. Today President is going to meet with the assistants to figure out transfers. I might find out where I´m going today! I will definitely know my Sunday. I hope everyone has a great week! thanks for all the love and support!

-Elder McKay Hilton

Week 86: 3 LEFT

What would you do with something that you loved so much, but only had a limited time to do it. What if you only had 3 more months to do that thing you love so much. Every moment would be precious. That is how I feel. This week I hit my 1 year and 9 month mark. I only have 3 more months in my mission here in Bahia, Brazil. Every moment matters, every person I teach, testimony I bear, and step I take. I realize that I will have a lot of time (decades) to think about how I spent this short time on my mission. I think when any missionary sees their mission in this perspective, their mission becomes more sacred and special. All we do as representatives of Christ matters. Everything counts and in the end we want to look back on this time and be proud of who we were and how we served.

This week wasn´t the most interesting one, but it was a bit different. On Monday, We woke up early and got Elder Palma from the bus station. Him and I went to the office and got an Uber for the other guys. I prepared some things for Elder Prince to renew Elder Palma´s VISA and they went to the Shopping Sumaré and the airport without me. A while later I got a call saying that they were missing an important document (RNE). I had to take an Uber all the way to the airport to give them the document. They renewed Elder Palma´s and Elder Kilidjian´s VISA and we ate Bob´s Burgers afterwards. Back at the office there were lots of people. Some sisters came by along with other missionaries to grab some things. We spent Tuesday preparing for the mission council meeting. Everyone was a little anxious for this months council meeting for a few reasons. The biggest was because there were few baptisms in January. Next was because President didn´t invite any sisters to participate. Only zone leader elders.   It was very good and spiritual.  That night I took Elder Dos Santos to the hospital to have him do his check up from his surgery. He is doing well. In about 15 more days, he should be able to do his normal missionary work.

February 8th is the official day that carnaval starts here in Bahia. I will explain more later. In the morning I got a call from President Bangerter and he told me that Elder Dos Santos would be my companion temporarily until the end of the transfer. He explained how it would be and what we should do. The only problem is that our area is only hills and stairs and Elder Dos Santos is not supposed to do that. Wednesday we just did some simple secretary work; prepare IMOS picture cards, scan documents, send some emails, and take phonecalls, etc. At night I didn´t leave with Elder Dos Santos because I didn´t want to risk anything. Carnaval can be dangerous here! Next Tuesday will be the real Carnaval  with more cultural carnaval like stuff. Feb. 8th is just more partying, alcohol, loud music, etc.

On Friday, I had a good personal study and companion study. Afterwards we picked up my shoes that I had fixed and we found a store that Elder Dos Santos wanted to find to buy new shoes. It was closed! Then we had lunch at Bro. Cely´s house. LASAGNA!! We worked all day in our area until 6:30. Around 7:00 we returned to the office to have him rest. For p-day on saturday we did the normal, email family and eat subway because our lunch fell through. I got a call tonight from President telling me that Elder Dos Santos will go back to his area (Lauro de Freitas) tonight. So much for that plan he had set with us. We will send him in an Uber to his area tonight.

This next week will be the last week of the transfer. I asked president if he knows where I will be transferred to. He told me that he has thought a bit about it, but still doesn´t know. He will let me know later in the week. He told me he will but me where I am needed. He said that he needs more missionaries like me and expressed how me really trusts me. He said he will put me with someone that needs my good example so i can show them how to work. I am really excited to give it my all these last 2 transfers of my mission. I can´t wait to know where I will go to finish my mission! hahaha. That´s a wrap! How was your week?? tell me about it! :)

Until next week!

-Elder McKay Hilton

Week 85: Festa de Iemanjá!

Hey everyone! How are things going? Here is great. This week we have had some interesting experiences. An Elder from Lauro de Freitas had a hernia surgery and is staying at our house. He can´t do anything and just needs to rest. So we Elder Prince, Elder Cantuário, and I have been taking turns staying at home (or the office) with him. One stays with him and the other two work in our area. Things are pretty slow in our area because Carnaval is arriving and people are already beginning to party or travel.  So this week was pretty normal. We did what was possible in our area. We are still having a hard time finding people to teach; new people who are interested. I did a contact with a woman who seemed to be really interested, but she lives in a different area.

On Monday Elder Prince and I had a family night with Romilda. It was supposed to be with a friend of hers but she never showed up, so we just had it with Romilda´s family.
Tuesday was a normal day of work. Wednesday was pretty cool and funny. We had district meeting in the morning. I was just finishing up my training and President Bangerter showed up out of nowhere and got up and gave another 30 min training on exactly what I had just trained. It was pretty funny. The scripture cases and bags came in too and we got that all organized. Thursday was my day to stay with Elder Dos Santos, so nothing super productive happened. I just did a little project for President Bangerter that he asked me to do, print out lots of paper cards, and cut them out for his stake conference meetings.

I was so excited for Friday to come around. Here in Bahia, every year on February 2nd  there is a faith/culture/tradition of a different religion. It is actually a tradition from two different religions mixed together, Catholic and Candomblê. It started out with only 25 fisherman, but now it is one of the biggest traditions / parties other than Carnaval. In the morning everyone dresses in white and goes to Rio Vermelho (a part of our area). They put various "offerings/presents" in the water for the Ocean queen / water goddess. It is generally flowers that they put in the water. Then at night there are CROWDS of people in Rio Vermelho for parties and music in the street.

So this was our day. You ready?? We changed our day to work in our area all day without going to the office from Wednesday to Friday. Since we are taking care of Elder Dos Santos who had the hernia surgery, it was Elder Cantuário´s turn to stay home. So Elder Prince and I left to work. We had TERRIBLE luck. At 10 am we walked through the crowds to get to our area. It took 40 minutes to get there. Everyone was putting their flowers in the water. As we got to our area Elder Cantuário called and needed us to go back to the office to open it up. He did not have the keys. We had only done a few contacts and hadn´t even taught a single lesson, but we walked back and opened the office so he could pay some rental bills and other bills that needed to be send to president for their approval to be paid. Elder Cantuário paid and then left.  Then after a bit, we went to lunch. We walked all the way to the other Elder´s area for lunch. We were towards the end of Vale das Pedrinhas and guess who called? Elder Cantuário. Now we got frustrated. Elder Cantuário needed us to go back to the office to resend and email to some missionaries concerning light bills. So we turned around and walked back to where we just were at. We missed our lunch appointment so we stopped at Subway on the way to the office. We did that favor for Elder Cantuário and had the Elders that made it to the lunch appointment bring us lunch that we missed in tupperwares. While we were waiting for them to arrive President showed up in the office o grab some material (awkward... because we weren´t supposed to be there). We explained why we were there on the day we weren´t supposed to go to the office. More bad news.... He told us that he forgot to approve the payments on IMOS so nothing was paid for. So all we did was in vain. All that running around and losing time to work in our area for nothing. After we ate, we went back to our area. Everything fell through. No one was home that we marked with. Luana´s friends that we were going to visit with her were not home. So we knocked a few doors and we were able to teach 2 new people. Then we had dinner at Romilda´s house and left a message. It was about 8:45 pm when we left.

Here was the interesting part of Friday. HOLY SMOKES. There were so many people on the coast in Rio Vermelho!! It was NUTS!!! I have never seen so many concentrated crowds of people in one area. It was pretty much like carnaval. Tons of people, loud live music, dancing, and drinking. The crowds came in waves.

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To get through / enter the main part with the most people (which also happened to be how we walk home every night) we had to pass through a gate where the police scanned down every person with a metal detector like thing. We passed through and we were in! SO MANY PEOPLE. I wanted to record it, but i didn´t even take my camera out because it was too crazy. The glass tattoo shop was turned into a club and we had to hop down off the borders of the sidewalks onto the grass next to the beach just to get through some parts that were so full of people that it was all stopped. We finally made it through the worst part and headed to the Praça de Maraquita. It was PACKED!

We were getting through and one guy with a pretty woman at his side stopped us and asked Elder Prince in English, "Where are you from?" He responded, the United States. Then the dude told Elder Prince that he is pretty and asked him for a kiss. We just looked away and took off. hahaha. We quickly walked home. We were the only people walking the opposite direction away from the party in Rio Vermelho. Everyone was flocking towards the party there. It was only 9:15 pm when we got home. Imagine that place at 11:00 pm or after midnight. Must be pretty crazy. It was quite the experience that I won´t forget. There is more to come just in a week with Carnaval just around the corner.

For P-Day today, I am staying in the office to email my family and plan a few things. I want to say congratulations to my little brother for getting his Eagle Scout award. I am so proud of him and everyone that sacrificed time and effort in helping him. That is a huge achievement that requires lots of dedication. I also want to say congratulations to Anderson Reded. This young man is incredible. I had the privelege to meet him, teach, and baptize him one year ago. Since then, he ha been active in the church and qualified to enter the holy temple. He went for his first time this week. Nice job Anderson!!

Thanks to everyone who reads these emails and supports me. I appreciate your prayers for the missionaries and your love. I know that Christ loves us and is our greatest advocate. I am grateful for everything that he has done for us and everything he still does. He is our greatest example! I love you all!

-Elder Hilton