It's been pretty crazy.

July 11, 2015

Hello family!

Well, transfers week is almost over. It´s been pretty crazy. The challenge of this week is balancing our time between our responsibilities in the office and the area. But from here on out things should be pretty calm until the next transfers.

Time, in the mission, seems to go about 2 times faster. But in the office it seems to go about 3 times faster. We never really know how much time we´ll be in the office, but I´m guessing that I´ll be in here for 5 changes. Wait, just a quick note about changes. The real name for them is transfers, but in Spanish it´s translated as "cambios" which literally means "changes" in English. So we call them changes. It´s a bit of a translation error but it´s stuck. We know it´s not the real word but it´s what we say. Anyways, in a normal area you always get really anxious around changes because you don´t know if you have them or not. But here there´s no surprise. You have to train someone to take your place before leaving so you get a whole 6 weeks heads up.

We´ve starting teaching K´s sister B again. Before she used to recieve the missionaries but she stopped. But she started again and she wants to be baptized. Her biggest chalenge is that her Dad does not want her to be baptized. But hopefully he´ll soften his heart and let her.

More family history stuff. President V wants me to teach him family history. He's actually going to come to the office a little bit later today so that I can help him. That should be fun.

I love you all!

Elder Hilton

Our office work is picking up a little bit.

July 4, 2015

Dear family,

Our office work is picking up a little bit. We´re getting ready for transfers next week. The week of transfers is the busiest week for us. The change meeting is on Wednesday. On Monday and Tuesday we´ll be getting all ready for that, arranging transportation, sorting materials, taking everything we need to the chapel in Santa Lucía, helping take care of the new missionaries, etc. On Wednesday we have the meeting in the morning, then after that we´ll race over to the office and get to work. My item of highest priority is making what we call the tarjetero. It´s a little card that has contact information for the mission. I need to update that every change. On change week we just do our best to keep up.

I got my package this week! Thanks so much. It was perfect. I love the new music, the fruit snacks, japanese money, Jambalaya, todo. Thanks for Meet the Mormons too. It´s great. We had already seen it as a mission and President wants us to be able to start using it as a finding opportunity. We´ve already put it to good use.

We´ve worked up to running 3 miles in the morning. We do it in half an hour. It´s not that much, and it´s not that fast, but it´s a start. In our defence, it is pretty hilly. It really does make us feel better though. Even though we get up earlier to do it, we have more energy in the day for it. And it helps me breathe better. 

That´s so cool that you guys have been able to each other and some old friends again! Everyone´s growing up.

I love you all!

Elder Hilton

A baptism!

June 2, 2015

Congratulations Aimee! So happy for you.

K got baptized! I attached pictures. She´s was really excited. She wants to prepare to serve a mission in a year. Unfortunately her family isn´t interested in the gospel right now, but the ward is doing a lot to provide support for her. In the picture we were a bit sunburned because we had a service project that morning.

This week we didn´t have much to do in the office. Last change, I felt like I could barely keep up with all the work we had. Now I don´t feel like that. Now I´m ahead of everything. Before we would leave from the office around 5 each day and I wouldn´t even finish with everything. Now I finish with my office work around 12. I´m not entirely sure what changed, but oh well. We´re leaving much earlier from the office now. We get much more time to work in the area which is good.

O already moved.

On weekends we eat lunch with our bishop. Usually while we´re eating his wife who´s really interested in family history asks me a bunch of questions about familysearch. So I help her a lot with her family history. That´s about all we´re doing with family history right now.

We still go running in the mornings. I attached a photo of our area that we took while running.

Well, I love you all!

Elder Hilton

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