Think of things you can do to share the gospel.

January 25, 2016

This week we received a lot of instruction. On Wednesday  there was a worldwide conference for missionaries. That was amazing. On Saturday Elder Cook came and visited us. That was good too.

Everything turned out well with the musical number The Day Dawn is Breaking. I enjoyed playing the piano.

Lately it´s been a little colder, especially in the mornings. I think that it barely reaches the mid 60s but I feel really cold. I´m already used to El Salvador heat.

On thing that I really enjoyed for the conference was a video they showed, https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-06-1031-ill-go-where-you-want-me-to-go?lang=eng. It´s about member missionary work. I honestly cried when I saw it. A common element in each one is that the members and the missionaries worked together. Before I came on the mission, I tried to share the gospel. I prayed for missionary opportunities, I gave away Book of Mormons, I invited my friends to church activities, etc, but I never invited my friends to listen to the missionaries. But now I realize that neither we, as missionaries,. can reach our full level of success with out the members nor can the members without us. We need to work together! Watch the video. And then think of things you can do to share the gospel.

I love you!

Elder Hilton 

We found a really prepared person, or rather he found us.

January 18, 2016

Hello family!

This week was a lot better. And we`ve got a really cool week ahead of us. Wednesday there will be a worldwide training for missionaries. And on Saturday Elder Cook with be talking with all the missionaries of El Salvador. Our mission was assigned to create a small choir for that event. I will be playing the piano. We will sing The Day Dawn is Breaking. I was able make a pretty cool arrangement for the piano.

Changes are the first week of February. We don´t know what will happen. It could be that one of us leaves or that we stay together. We don´t know.

We found a really prepared person, or rather he found us. His name is R. He came to church last week - alone. He talked to missionaries one time in the street two years ago and they invited him to church. He told them that "any moment" he would come and visit. Last week was that moment. He really liked church. He came again yesterday too. He doesn´t even drink coffee and almost everyone is addicted to that here. 

Thank you everything! I love you all!

I attached a picture from the christmas activity.

Elder Hilton

"Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

Hello family!

I glad you guys saw that videos I sent you. President V and President L are great examples for me and I have learned a lot from them. 

This week was a tough week. Everyone in Aguilares is partying right now. They have been partying ever since Christmas. The parties officially end on the 15th. Until then...people that are partying don´t want to hear about God.

The P family didn´t go to church again. This week we had some trouble finding them.

This week I´m ponderizing a scripture that I recently found. It´s in Doctrine and Convenants 123:17. "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

That scripture really helped me. Even though we had a hard week, we still are cheerful, because we are doing everything that lies in our power. Because we are doing everything we can, I have the utmost assurance that we will see the salvation of God and that his arm will be revealed.

I love you all!

Hymns truly are powerful.

January 4, 2016

Hello family!

I love you all! We are all doing well over here. I´m enjoying the mission. It´s almost more enjoyable now that at the beginning because at the the beginning I had to fight to leave my comfort zone but now my comfort zone has stretched I feel comfortable doing whatever I have to.

Elder P is a good companion. He´s adjusting well to the mission. He´s very humble, obedient, and diligent. I´ve been blessed with many good companions.

The P family continues to progress. They didn´t go to church yesterday though. They normally don´t have to work on Sundays but yesterday they did. We´ll see what we can do to help them with that.

When I saw the office elders at the Christmas activity they told me that President L tried invite me over for Christmas dinner. He called the office asking for me but then found out that I had already left so he invited them instead. It would have been great to go to that. I really do admire President L. I learned a lot from him. I´m glad I got the opportunity to get to know him. I also really admire Presidente V. He is a great mission president. I have also learned a lot from too. He has a Mormon message. You should watch it to meet him. President L also appears in a video called "Volver nuestro corazón: San Salvador, El Salvador." https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/work-of-salvation?lang=spa. Unfortunately you have to speak Spanish. 

When I was in Los Alpes we had a really cool lesson. There was a less active family, the M family. They had stopped going to church because they had gotten offended. They hadn´t gone to church for years. We had already visited them several times and nothing we did helped. So we decided to have a lesson where we just sang hymns, We sang:

Keep the Commandments

Truth Reflects Upon our Senses

Oh My Father

It was a powerful lesson. The next Sunday, they didn´t go. Then I had changes. But Elder B told me that the Sunday after I left, they went. They told him that the whole week they had been thinking about the hymns we sang. They decided that what the hymns said was true. See they came back. Hymns truly are powerful.

Well. that´s all for today.

I love you all!

Elder Hilton 

They have very strong desires to be baptized and to be obedient to all the commandments.

December 28, 2015

Hello family! It was great to talk to you last week.

We´re doing well. The P family keeps progressing. They have very strong desires to be baptized and to be obedient to all the commandments. For example, in church yesterday, one of the classes was about the Sabbath day. When visited them in the afternoon, they told us that how that had put that in practice. One thing they changed was that they didn´t buy anything and they didn´t turn on the TV. We hadn´t talked to them about the Sabbath day at all, they did that on their own.

Well, I pretty much told you everything on Friday. I´ll tell you more next week. I love you all!

Elder Hilton

But they now understand the way the gospel can bless their family so they are really excited to learn more.

Hello family!

Change of plans. I will now be skyping a 6:45 PM El Salvador time.

We found a new family of investigators: the P family, W and D. They were a referral from one of our investigators. They are really interested in the church. The actually had already been thinking about going to the church. They hadn´t gone just because they didn´t know anyone there. But now they have us and so they´re going. They are really interested because they´ve been having some family problems. But they now understand the way the gospel can bless their family so they are really excited to learn more.

I love you all! Talk to you on Friday!

Oh, and this time we will have a whole hour to talk.

Elder Hilton

The missionary life really is a good life.

Hello family!

1. New companion. Elder P. He´s from Guatemala. He´s very excited to start the mission. He´s very smart. I forgot to bring my camera today. Next week I´ll send pictures.

2. I got both packages! Thank you so much!

3. Stess level: very down.

4. Skype: I will call the 25 of December at 2 PM (El Salvador time). This will be my last phone call home.

5. Mom asked some hard questions this time. BYU: Well, I´m pretty sure that I want to go in the summer session. When does the summer session start? I don´t know if you guys knew this or not, but my release date is April 28. As for housing and classes...I don´t know. When does registering open for the summer session? It´s hard to think about that. My mind´s no longer geared to think about these type of things.

6. I love you all.

It´s great being with a new missionary. He´s full of energy and ideas. It´s just as if I were brand new too. But with more experience. The missionary life really is a good life.

Our area is doing well. Well had lots of investigators in church yesterday, among them the H family.

Elder Hilton