Share the gospel online. It works.

June 20, 2015

Hola family,

This has been a good week. I´m beginning to see the true importance of social media missionary work. One of my duties is to manage the referrals for the mission. About once a week we receive a referral from mormon.org, referrals from people that went to the site and asked for the missionaries visited them. Those are the best referrals. Some of them wrote:

     "I would like to be a member of your church."

     "I am very interested in learning about your church and especially in being baptized."

Wow. That´s just so cool! Social media isn´t even authorized for our mission, but if it were...wow. But it´s not, and I think that part of the reason is that we´re not even using what we have. When I came to the office there were about 200 unassigned referrals from the past 2 years.The secretaries before me haven´t been taking care of them. But this week I finished assigning them all. Now that they´ve all been assigned, the mission needs to start using them. Anyways, share the gospel online. It works.

I was just reading in Jacob 5. I really liked verses 70-75. The Lord of the vineyard calls his servants and says to them: "Go to, and labor in the vineyard with your might...and if ye labor with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself...."

And so the servants go and labor "with their mights" and they did "obey the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard in all things."

And the vineyard started to grow and thrive and there was much fruit. And the servants and the Lord of the vineyard had much joy together.

One interesting thing I noticed was that the servants themselves didn´t gather the fruit. The Lord said, "ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself." All that was required of the servants was that they were diligent and obedient. Our personal abilities and talents are not what matters in this work. The Lord just requires that we work diligently and that we be obedient to the commandments that he has given us.

Well, I love you all! I attached a photo. It´s especially for Dad.

Elder Hilton

"The Music of the Gospel"

June 13, 2015

Hello family!

This week we weren´t quite as busy. We were still busy, but it was más tranquilo. I even wrote in my journal a few times this week. It´s really hard to find time to do that here.

We´ve started to get up early in the mornings in order to run a little bit. That´s been good.

We finally got the general conference Liahona. I´ve really enjoyed reading the talks.

I read the talk "The Music of the Gospel" again. I really like that one. It made me think about being a missionary. There are missionaries that learn the steps of being a missionary but never hear the music (the spirit). Those are the missionaries that don´t want to work, or that want to go home because "dancing without music is awkward and unfulfilling." Those who learn the steps but never learn to hear the music "will over time become uncomfortable with the dance and will either quit dancing or, almost as bad, keep dancing only because of the pressure they feel from others who are dancing around them." 

The other thing I took out of that talk is how we teach the gospel. "The challenge for all of us who seek to teach the gospel is to expand the curriculum beyond just the dance steps." Our investigators need to hear the music too. Some of our investigators never hear the music. Becuase of that, some don´t even try the dance. Others try the dance but then get uncomfortable and stop. So how can we teach them to hear the music too?

First of all, we need to be able to hear the music ourselves. We must have the spirit. We must be worthy and clean.

Then, we must teach the steps. We must do that "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, by love unfeigned, and by kindness." These are the attributes that invite the spirit. When we have these attributes, then they can hear the music.  

I don´t think I answered any of your questions that you guys asked me last week. Mom asked some questions about the picture of the boxes for changes. Those boxes were had Books of Mormon, pamphlets, DVDs, and varios other missionary articles. There were also so packages from moms. All the packages come to the ofice and we distribute them every 6 weeks at the change meetings. So yes, here in the office I´ll get my packages a lot quicker. The big garage is the garage of the chapel that you can see in the mormon message about the El Salvador temple dedication. That´s where we have the change meeting.

O is going to move soon. Since I´m in charge of the referrals, I´ll make sure that the missionaries where he is going teach him. K is going to get baptized soon.

I attached some pictures so you could get an idea of what our area looks like.

Well, I love you all!

Elder Hilton

Today has been a bit of a crazy day.

June 6, 2015

Hello family!

Sorry my letter is going to be a little short today. Like really short. Today has been a bit of a crazy day. There was a meeting this morning, and that kind of threw everything off. We already have to leave, so I only have a few minutes.

O is coming to church again. We kind of lost contact with him for a bit, but he´s back. And he wants to be baptized. As soon as possible. Good stuff.

Hope everything goes well with the move.

I love you all!!

Elder Hilton 

This week was changes week!

May 30, 2015

Hello family!

 

This week was changes week! That has a different meaning here in the office. Instead of the normal anxiety that normally accompanies changes, we were just really busy preparing for the changes. This week is the busiest week for us. We distribute all the materials for the mission at the change meetings. We keep all the materials in our house and bring all that the zones need to the stake center in Santa Lucía where we have the changes. I attached a few pictures of us doing that.

We have a new companion. His name is Elder. Elder L is training him to be the new migration secretary. Elder C is now in Aguilares. I am the general secretary. The only one. But I feel like I´ve got a hold of everything now. 

We have an investigator with a very secure baptism date. Her name is K. We´re teaching her entire family but she is the only one that wants to be baptised. At first she wasn´t so sure, but now she goes around telling everyone about here baptism. She even but a white dress for her baptism.

We´re very busy. Very busy. But it´s good. It´s better that way.

Well, I love you all!

Elder Hilton