LAST WEEK IN THE CCM!!!!!!!

Yet another crazy week here in the CCM! I can´t believe that my time here is already over. It has gone crazy fast! Tonight I said goodbye to all of my amazing teachers: Hermano Murillo, Hermano Sanchez, Hermano Borgel, Hermano Aguiniga, Hermana Lozano, Hermano Martinez, Hermana Resendiz, and Hermano Cayetano. I am going to miss them so much! They have really changed my life for the better and they all hold such a special place in my heart. Saying goodbye to all the Elders and Hermanas that I have gotten super close to has been super bittersweet too. Hermana Sorenson left at 5 o´clock this morning. It seems almost like a dream. Saying goodbye to the rest of my district at 2 o´clock in the morning is going to be so crazy!!!  I am so excited to go to Oklahoma! I can´t wait to get there and start talking to people!

This Friday all the missionaries that are leaving this week and a bunch of meetings. It was our in-field orientation day. We had meetings allll daayyyy loonggggg! but it was really good. It got me super pumped up for the field. We talked about having faith in ourselves, planning, setting goals, working with members and so much more. I didn´t realize how important the members of the church are in missionary work. As missionaries, we can not do our job to the fullest without the help of the members. Members at home PLEASE get involved in the missionary work in your ward. Get to know the missionaries. I promise that it will bless your life in ways you can´t imagine. Missionary work is amazing!




I had my last lessons with Gris and Germán this week. We taught Germán twice and Griss once. In our first lesson this week with Germán, he said that he no longer wanted to take the lessons. Man... That really ripped my heart out. I didn´t realize how much I loved him until he told us that. He said that he had not lived up to everything that he should be and that he was just wasting our time. It was crazy hard. But by the end of the lesson, with the help of the spirit, we were able to commit him to another lesson. In the next lesson we talked him through a lot of stuff and by the end of that second lesson he decided to keep his baptism date!!! I was so happy!!

I know that this gospel is here because the Lord loves us! I know that it is the only way that we can have true happiness. I can´t wait to share this knowledge that I have with the people in Oklahoma. I know that the Lord loves me and that he loves all of you. I love all of you so much!!!

OKLAHOMA HERE I COME!!!!!!!!

Hermana Hilton

Week 5!

I got my flight information! I fly out to Oklahoma City next Tuesday morning at 2:30 in the morning. Ahhh!! I am so excited!!! I can´t belive that my time here at the CCM is almost over. It has been so much fun and I have learned and grown so much.

This week, just like them all, has been a crazy adventure. My investigators, Griss and Germán are doing amazing! Germán is making really good progress. He is having a hard time with withdrawls, but he is so strong. The atonement of Christ is so real and it can help us with anything that we need help with, we just have to be willing to humble ourselves and turn to the Lord. I have seen this in Germán´s life and I have seen it in my own. Griss has been doing amazing too! She now has a baptismal date!! April 21st!! I am so happy for her. I don´t know what changed, but last week she was really ify about the whole church thing, and then all of a sudden there was a huge change in her countenance. She went to church with her mom this last Sunday and she has been living the word of wisdom. I can really see her faith growing and I am so excited for her to take the next step and be baptized. Griss is such an amazing woman. I am really going to miss her when I leave Mexico.

This Sunday was a crazy wild spiritual ride! In Relief Society I had the privilege of playing the piano for the opening and closing song. That wasn´t too nerve racking. We talked about thoughts. It is so important to remember that our thoughts are the most important things. Thoughts lead to feelings which lead to beliefs which lead to actions which leads back to thoughts. In relief society we also read through 2 Nephi 4 starting at verse 17. That is a crazy good scripture. Then in Sacrament meeting President talked about the same scriptures. I´m pretty sure that Heavenly Father was telling me to really look into those verses. There is so much truth in those words. Another thing about sacrament meeting.....  I had to give a talk... In spanish!!!!! It was so scary! but overall I think I did a pretty good job. I am getting more comfortable with the language. It is still crazy difficult, but I´m getting the hang of it. Then after an amazing Sacrament Meeting, we had a devotional and guess what I had to do in the devotional! Play the special musical number! for the past couple of weeks I have been working on the part, but I didn´t get much practice time in because of our crazy busy schedule. So I was so nervous. Right before I went up to preform with Hermana Bohn, I said a prayer, and I know that it was that prayer and the help of the Lord that got me through that song. It is just another testimony to me that the Lord cares what we do and cares about the things in our lives. and most importantly that he listens and answers our prayers. Prayer is a gift from God and we can NOT take if for granted. Please please please don´t take the ability tha twe have to talk with Heavenly Father whenever we want, whereever we want and about whatever we want for granted. Take the time to kneel down and talk with the Lord.

WE GOT A NEW DISTRICT THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!! They are so amazing!!! I love them so much already. There are six Elders and two Hermanas in the new district. This might sound weird, but when Elder Nielsen when home I felt like our "family" was broken. now that we have this new district and have the priesthood again, I feel like our "family" is whole again. I don´t have pictures this week, but next week I will definitely send you some of the new district. They are the bomb!!!

I am so grateful to be here in Mexcio and to be a missionary of this church. I wouldn´t change it for the world! I hope everything is going well back in the states, and next week I will be joining you there! I love you all so much! Thanks to everyone for the love and the support! I love you all!!

Hermana Hilton

my pretty nasty bruise from playing sky ball with some crazy elders!!

Arm wrestling match!!!  Guess who won?

One Month In!!!

To be completely honest with you guys, I don´t even know where to start for this week. So much has changed! I guess I will start with the biggest news. Our district is officially an all Hermanas district! Tuesday night after Pday Elder Neilsen told us that he is going home for a surgery. He left on Thursday morning. It was so hard to say goodbye and see him go home. We had become family. So since Elder Neilsen was gone, Elder Reis didn´t have a companion, so they did a transfer and he is now in a different district. We rarely get to see him anymore. It is so weird to not have then and not to have any Elders in our district.

Another fun fact is that we are the only district in our zone right now, so our whole district and our whole zone is completely Hermanas! Its pretty crazy. We get a new district tomorrow! I am so excited! there will be two new Hermanas and 6 new Elders.
The same night that Elder Neilsen told us that he was going home (Tuesday last week), a HUGE storm rolled in. I don´t think I have ever seen a storm so massive! The wind was crazy loud and the rain was horizontal and coming down hard. that went on for about 10 minutes and then it started hailing!! The hail was about the size of my thumbnail! It was crazy and so loud! Now to the cool part of the story. Hermana Prince is absolutely terrified of storms and everything that comes along with storms. So she was having a really really hard time. It got to the point where she was literally sitting in a chair, rocking back and forth, crying, and completely petrified. As I was trying to help her, the thought popped into my head, give her a priesthood blessing. So immediately I ran out of the room and gathered all the Elders from our district and from our stepbrother district. Getting those boys all in the same room is like herding cats! But finally we got them all together and they all stood around Hermana Prince to give her a blessing. Elder Reis gave the blessing and as soon as he started talking, the wind stopped and the hail stopped and the rain decreased dramatically. It was almost unreal. I had to open my eyes to make sure that this was really happening. I know that the power of the priesthood is real. I am so grateful for it and for the impact that it has had on my life.

On Friday our whole district did an English fast! it was crazy! Speaking only spanish allll day was so hard, but it was so helpful and constructive. Our teachers were so proud of us! Thank you Grandpa and Susan for the cinnamon rolls!!!!!! They were so delicious!! I shared them with our district after our English fast. We had one extra, so we decided to go hunt down Elder Reis and give it to him. We seriously searched almost every building in the CCM and we finally found him in the TALL building.
Hermana Limb and I are still teaching Germán and Griss. There have been ups and downs with them. Germán is doing amazing! His faith has increased so much. It is seriously one of the best things to see that happen. And guess what happened yesterday!!!!! He comitted to a baptism date!!! April 11th! I am so happy for him! he wants to change and get closer to Heavenly Father and he is taking the actions and the steps to make it possible for himself. Action is the most important thing! If we don´t act, nothing will happen. Griss on the other hand hasn´t been taking action and she hasn´t been progressing. We can´t figure out why she isn´t willing to take the steps needed to come closer to Christ. It is difficult, but I know she feels the spirit in the lessons and that is super important. As missionaries, and members of the church, it is our responsibility to live and act in a way that others can feel the spirit through us. The Holy Ghost is so important! do everything you can to invite the Holy Ghost into your lives. I know it will help with everything!
This Sunday was so amazing! Sunday´s here are so spiritually uplifting. In Relief Society we talked about the promises in the scriptures. there are so many!! As I have been reading the Book of Mormon, I have been trying to pay special attention to the promises that are in them. You would be so surprised how many are in there! Since we don´t have any preisthood in our zone, we combined with Zone 14 for Sacrament meeting. Hermana Limb and Hermana Ogden had to speak. they did so amazing! Zone 14´s branch president got up and said a few words at the end. He said something that has really stuck with me through the week. He said: "To have faith in Jesus Christ, is to have faith in myself." Powerful words. Sunday deviotional was the best thing ever!!! President Cates spoke and he was amazing. Not only was he an amazing speaker, but the words he said really motivated me to do better and to take advantage of my time here. It was one of the best meetings I have been in since I got here.

Some fun stories: At breakfast on Satuday, Hermana Limb went to shake up the milk before she poured it into her cereal and she didn´t realize that there wasn´t a lid on the carton! milk went EVERYWHERE!! haha it was sooo funny! The food here is really getting to me. it is the same stuff everyweek. But I always look forward to hamburger day and toquito day. One more quick story. We do a service project every Wednesday, and this week we all got pushbrooms and we swept the outside walls of all the buildings. It was the most odd service project that I have ever done.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MCKAY AND ZACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys are the best brothers ever!!!! I´m sad that I couldn´t be there with you guys! I can´t believe how big you are getting!! I love you so much!!!!

WEEK TWO!!!!!

what a week it has been! last pday was a blast! i pretty much played volleyball all day long haha then wednesdwaycame.... wednesday was hard. we had another lesson with jorge and in all honesty i had no idea what he said or what my companion, hermana limb, was saying. it was so discouraging. i felt like i would never learn the language and that it would be impossible for me to ever be able to understand people. i wanted to go home more than anything in that moment. later that afternoon a teacher came in and started talking to us. in his bad, broken english he told us that learning a new language is hard. dont stress over the language because it will come. just be perfectly obedient and give it your best shot, and the lord will help you with the rest. because that teachers words and because of the tender mercies of the lord, it me strengthened me to be able to just make it through the rest of that day. sometimes i feel like we litterally just have to make it to the next day. oh we also had a servcie activity that afternoon. we had the pleasure of mopping the outdoor cafeteria! woohoo! haha not... i came away with four really bad blisters that are still giving me troubles, but it was fun. by the end we all ended up getting into a huge waterfight!

thursday was quite a bit better than tuesday. We had another lesson with Jorge in the afternoon. about an hour before we were supposed to go teach Jorge, both hermana limb and i had a bad, unsettling feeling about the lesson. we decided that what we needed to do what do another lesson. holy stressfull!! what normally takes us about 6 hours to do, we had to get done in less than one hour. we pleaded with the lord in prayer to help us know what to do and what to say to jorge. after the prayer hermana limb had the idea of inviting a member to come to the lesson with us! it was truely an inspired idea from the lord. i dont think i have ever felt the spirit so strong as i did in that lesson. and whats amazing is that jorge officially agreed to be baptized in that lesson!! it is so amazing what can happen when you trust the lord and listen and follow the spirit. funny story about that lesson. so is spanish pecado is sin and pescado is fish.... so silly me told jorge that through jesus christ and his atonement we can be forgiven of all of our fish.... woops!!! haha luckily i caught myself and we laughed about if for a bit. haha


friday i was feeling amazing! it was a pretty crazy day schedule wise, and the whole district was pretty tired. by the end of the day hermana limb was so tired that she was giddy and crazy and loud and just completely out of control. on our way home to our casa she actually ended up falling onto the grass crylaughing because she was so wasted! haha it was so entertaining to see her like that!!! thats what the ccm can do to you haha

Saturday. I got to play tennis again!!! we found some elders who are actually pretty good at tennis played with themsaturday morning. it was really fun. there names are elder inskeep from blackfoot id and elder turner from california. it was so good to be on a tennis court again. we had a lot of class again on saturday. oh! i almost forgot. i was standing there talking to hermana smith and out of nowhere a big old bug flies straight into her eyeball!!!!!! she just calmly sits there as the bug is frolicking in her eyeball!! Im siting there freaking out! practically screaming!! it was the nastiest thing ever! ....well minis some of the meals we get here... one day i got this meat... well i think it was meat. but it was the weirdest looking meat ever. it had like carrots and celery and something else caked into it... eww.. just nasty.. 

sunday is always the best days here in the CCM. relief society. amazing! sunday school. amazing! devotional. amazing! video. amazing! sacrament meeting. amazing! i love sunday here so much. so in sacrament meeting our branch president gets up to make an announcement and he says since our sister trainers are leaving us to go serve in the feild, it is time to call new sister trainers. guess whose names he calls to be the sister trainers..... hermana hilton and hermana limb!!! so crazy!!! so i am offically a sister trainer! that pretty much means that we have the responsibilty to check up on all of the girls in the zone and make sure there are doing ok with all of the stress and emotional things that go on in the ccm. it is such an honor that presidente would think of us to be the sister trainers. i am so excited to meet the new girls that hopefully will come. as of now, we dont have any newbes coming in. but im sure there will be some coming eventually. another exciting thing that happened on sunday. since hermana limb comes with me to play tennis and volleyball, i agreed to go to choir with her. we showed up thinking that we would just be practicing a song, but with my luck, we were singing it for the whole ccm at the devotional that night. so yup, i am officially part of the ccm sisters choir. haha who knew right! As you know it was fast sunday this past sunday. that was amazing. the power of fasting is real. if you ever need any sort of help with anything. if you fast and pray with real and sincere intent, the lord will help you with what you need. he is so willing and so ready to pour out his blessings upon us, we just have to do our part and sincerely ask.


monday, back to the grind with studying. i actually had a lot of fun of monday. we got a new afternoon teacher, hermano murillo. he is so amazing!! i feel like he is the teacher that was meant to teach our district. i have only had one day in class with him, but i have already learned so much from him. we also got a new investigator, germán. he is 20 and loves soccer and boxing. he has troubles with drugs, but he is trying his hardest to quit but is still having a difficult time. in that first lesson with germán i felt such love for him because he is trying to change and make his life better. we teach him again on friday and i cant wait. i really hope that we can help him realize that god is always there to help him and to strengthen him.


tomorrow hermana limb and i are going to go solo español. which means that we can only talk in spanish and that people can only talk to us in spainsh. it is going to be crazy hard, but i know that it will help me so much with the language. im actually pretty excited!!


one more thing before i have to go. i wanted to say thanks to everyone who emails me. i am so sorry if i dont respond, but it is so good to hear from all of you. i wish i had more time so i could respond to everyone. also thanks for all the people who wrote in that journal. i read them everynight and they strengthen me so much. i am so grateful for the tender mercies of the lord. i love the ccm! and i love all of you! stay close to the lord!!


love you all!!
Hermana Hilton


A view from her casa

This is her schedule....busy girl!