Monday, April 6, 2015

Oklahoma here I am!!!! (week 7)

Holy cow!!!
Let me just start by saying, I love missionary work!!! It is so amazing!!!

Well I got up at 1am last Tuesday morning and packed up the rest of my stuff, said goodbye to the casa and headed out to the airport! I was so tired that it all kind of seems like a dream. We got to the airport and had about an hour wait to board the plane. During that we went around and looked at all the random shops around. Then we loaded onto the plane, and I literally slept pretty much the whole way over. I was so tired. We landed in Atlanta. Oh I forgot to mention that this whole time Hermana Limb was with me, so we didn't have to say goodbye yet. So we got to Atlanta and go figures, I lost my boarding pass.... We finally found a place that could print another one out for me. So we headed to our gates. Hermana Limb walked me to my gate and that's when we had to say goodbye.... Man that was so hard.. I felt like I was watching part of my heart walk away. I love that girl so much and I know that she is going to change so many lives in Virginia. I feel so lucky and blessed that I got to be her companion. So with a tear running down my face I boarded the plane to Oklahoma. Crazy story! as we were getting ready to go and the crew was doing the safety instructions, the lady talking over the intercom system passed out! So everyone was kinda freaking out. They took her off of the plane. They then told us that we were going to have to all get off the plane because they didn't have a full crew. So off we went. We waited for about two hours to reload the plane. During that time, I met Elder Barry. He was going to the Oklahoma mission too! he was at the Provo MTC. When they finally loaded us back onto the plane, I was telling the man I was sitting next to about what I do as a missionary. We then got talking about family and I told him that I only got to email my family once a week and call on rare occasions. His face was priceless!!! We had a really good conversation about the gospel and about his life. He was awesome!

Then I landed in Oklahoma! AHHH!!! I was so pumped!! President Walkenhorst and his wife were right there to welcome us with open arms and huge smiles! I instantly felt loved and welcomed.



We headed out to the church for dinner. They fed us the  best sandwiches I have ever had because I was sooo starving! We then had a training about the mission and about some of the rules and expectations. Fun fact: Only three missionaries came in this transfer! Me, Elder Barry, and another Elder whose name I don't even know how to pronounce... haha I got my bike there! It is so beautiful!! I love the color and everything about it! The APs then drove us back to the Mission president's house and that's where we slept that night.

We got up the next morning and went to transfer meeting! And that's where I met my trainer!!!! Her name is Hermana Snowden! She is from Utah. She is a dancer and was in a company before coming out on her mission. She is so amazing! We get along super well and she teaches me so much! Her testimony is so strong, and she LOVES missionary work!! I am so blessed to have a trainer that loves what she does and wants to do the best that she can. I could talk about Hermana Snowden forever, but I won't bore you and I want to tell you some other crazy stuff! So after meeting her we went outside and all the missionaries in the mission were there switching around stuff and saying hi to each other. There were soo many missionaries! I met a lot of really cool people. So after we loaded all of my stuff into the car we headed to our house. We life in this super cute, really tiny little house in Bethany. We unloaded my stuff and then hit the road and started working!

All the days kind of blur together. here is some of the stuff we have done. I have been meeting people like crazy! they are all so amazing! There is a really large Spanish population here, so we speak spanish all the time. It is amazing because I get to hear people speak it and use it all the time. the people here talk soooooooo fast!!! A lot of the time I have no idea what they are saying so sometimes I just smile when everyone is smiling and laugh when everyone else is laughing! haha It is getting better and I can understand more now, but every once in a while there will be those gem people who I literally have no idea what they are saying.  Everyone is super nice though! They feed us sooo much food! No matter what we are eating, everyone always serves tortillas. I have mastered the art of rolling my tortillas too! They use their tortillas as like a spoon. The food has been alright. Some nights it is delicious and other nights I have no idea what I am eating. It is always and adventure! No matter where we go or who we talk to though, the people are so kind and so loving. For the most part we work in apartments that honestly are pretty sketchy. Some of them are better than others, but for the most part I am glad that I am on the Lord's errand because if I wasn't I wouldn't ever go into those places. All the people are really kind though, which makes it a bit less scary. haha

Miracle story telling time! Even though I have only been out in the field for not even a full week, I am already seeing the hand of the Lord in my life. Here is just one example. So yesterday (Easter!!!) we went out in the morning to invite everyone to conference and try to get as many people as could come to come. We went to one of our investigators house, Lidia and Geniva. We invited them to come and they did!!! So they were there at conference with us! (random side note, we watched conference in English. Hallelujah. and we watched it in the chapel of our building) Conference itself was a miracle. I love General Conference so much! The messages were so good and the spirit was so strong! I can't wait to get to read all of them when they come out! anyways so after both sessions of conference we planned to go see a referral that we had. Her name is Nena. We went to her house and knocked on her door. She let us in!! and we taught her the first lesson! She was so open to what we had to teach her! I could really tell that the Lord had been preparing her to hear his gospel. We are going back next week and I can't wait! Nena is so amazing!!!!!! So after that we had about 30 minutes before we had to go back to the house, so we decided to do some knocking. We picked an apartment complex, and started. Right before we got out of the car, I had the thought to use specific prayer. So we did! We asked Heavenly Father to keep us safe and to help us place 3 book of mormons and also read the introduction with each of them. With the time that we had and the hour of the night, we knew that we would need the Lord's help to finish this. With excitement and faith in the Lord's power we headed out! And guess what happened! We only had to knock on five doors! in those five doors, three people opened and all three gladly accepted a book of mormon and we were able to read the introduction with all of them!! It was so crazy!! I know that we couldn't have done it without the Lords help. I know that He is with us always and that he is helping his work progress. I am so grateful for him and for every thing that he does for me.

I love Oklahoma and I love all of you!!!!!

Hermana Hilton

Here is my address.
3803 N Central Rd
Bethany, OK 73008

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