Elder Hilton June 7, 2016-2018 : Week 36: 1st week in Califónia, Itabuna

Monday morning we played basketball with President Bangerter and he gave me permission to do whatever i want this p-day, including entering the big malls! so we went and i bought an awesome Bahia soccer jersey!

On tuesday I went to the mission home to be trained. All the missionaries training a new missionary had to go to this training. we had a good breakfast. then we had some training before the new missionaries came. We greeted all the new missionaries walking in with President Bangerter from the airport. I watched all the training, and then we had a huge lunch. I remember 8 months ago when i was on the other side as a new missionary haha. Then i left back to my area to get all packed up. I left that night to Itabuna. My ônibus left at 10:45 pm and arrived in Itabuna at 6:00 am exactly. I waited alone for a few hours in the ónibus station until a group of Elders came. i met my new companion and we took a taxi to our area. Our house is great! its the biggest house i've stayed in and it's only us two elders! I accustomed super fast to it!

Our house is the one on the top floor

Wednesday all day, we cut our hair bought, some food and visited some members and taught some investigators.

Thursday We had weekly planning and a good lunch with Raimunda Bitencourt. We taught a family today, the Querino family. We taught the Restoration and invited them to read and pray.

Friday: My district consists of us and two sisters; Sister Snow (again) and Sister Biano. We had district meeting today and sister biano gave a training on Christlike attributes. it was really good. Today we taught ZéCarlos and his wife the Restoration. We also taught the Querino family the Plan of Salvation. They had all prayed about the last message and all received an answer. We also met Fernando today, He is 11 years old. his whole family is inactive, but he is going to church and we are going to teach him and baptize him!

Saturday: Today a member gave us money, and we ate at SUBWAY!! after lunch we taught a recent convert and read Mosiah 5 with her. We also taught Marcello about 1 Nephi 8, about Lehi´s dream and made a list. we were able to get 20 references from him. At night we taught Robson, Anderson, and their mom, (the Querino family) about the Book of Mormon. We invited them to church and only Robson and anderson went. their mom was busy taking care of a sick family member but said she will go next sunday! on sunday we had church like normal and taught 4 lesson with Eric (a member) The highlight was with the

Querino family. we invited them to be baptized and some accepted and other said they want to pray and think about it first! we are super excited for them!

Now a little bit about my new companion. He is 21 years old and from Recife. Now i will talk a little about his life. i can say these things because he has already talked openly about it with me and with other members. So his mom died when he was 7 yrs old. His dad beat her a lot and she developed cancer. He continued beating her until she died. Then he sold the house, and everything and moved out. His dad is a big loser, that just wastes all his time and money drinking. That's what Elder Da Silva told me. Elder Da Silva has one brother that's serving a mission right now and two other that are drug dealers and do Candomblê. Before his mission ELder Da Silva was a jiu jitsu instructor, as well as a soldier and a police. He has some crazy stories. He has already seen his friends die right in front of him after being shot, etc. He is a cool guy ,and knowing that he knows really well how to fight and defend makes me feel safe on the streets. hahahaha. he has lost a lot of weight so he looks scrawny, but i'm sure he is tough. haha. He has been on his mission field for 6 weeks!