Week 11: Exchanges, Fiestas, and General Authorities

This week has been a week of learning and stretching for me. I want to start this email off by telling you that I love you all and I love my Savior. I am so grateful for his sacrifice for me. He gave his life so that I can be with my family forever. I am eternally grateful for that one specific event. There is an Elder here who's father passed away unexpectedly three days ago. I was able to talk to him for a little bit this week and his testimony of the temple and eternal marriages and eternal families was so strong! After I talked with him and thought about what he said, I had this overwhelming sense of peace that I will see all the people I love, especially my family, after this life. And this is possible because Christ was willing to die for me. For my family. For you. Without this act of love, we would have no hope. Life would be so difficult. But because Christ loves me, he died for me. This week I am especially grateful for this knowledge that I have.

So onto this week! Highlights. I went on my first exchange this week! (for those of you who don't know, this is when we switch companions for 24 hours.) So I went to an English area and was with Sister Young. We went and helped this lady, Cassie, pack because she is moving. She was a super sweet, fun lady! I instantly felt a connection with her. She has had a rough life, but is pushing onward and keeping her head high. Hearing her stories really strengthened my testimony. So we helped pack up her house and then she feed us good old american tacos! They were so good! Ground beef, taco seasoning, lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, and fried tortillas. Doesn't get much more Americanized than that. We shared a little message with her and her family, and then headed back to the apartment to exchange back. It was a super fun day!

So I believe I have told you guys about Amparo. She is this super awesome lady from Aguascalientes, Mexico. We found her while we were knocking some houses one day. We have had two lessons with her and she has loved everything that we have talked about. Sunday was her husbands birthday so we decided to make brownies and take them over. We went over and she invited us back to eat and get to know her family! Ahh!!! I was so excited! So we came back after we finished up with an appointment. Her family is so awesome! They were all super duper nice and had a ton of questions for us. We taught them a mini restoration lesson. The coolest part was that Amparo was teaching and testifying to her family! I really got to see her testimony grow in that moment. And we got to get to know her awesome family!!! With eveything that happened on Sunday, I have to say that it was one of the best days of my mission so far! I am so excited to see what happens with this family and continue to get to know them.

On Monday, so yesterday, we had a general authority come visit the mission! Elder Corbridge. We met with him pretty much all day. We had a lot of training and I learned so much from him. He talked/trained a lot on how to have power teaching.  One thing that I really liked that he talked about was how in the scriptures it says that when Christ taught people, they were astonished. He read to us multiple scriptures about how Christ's teachings astonished people. He then told us, "You can astonish people. You can have the same power in your teaching as Christ did. You can astonish people." wow..... I want to have that power to astonish people. I know that this is what I am going to be working on this coming week. I am so grateful for the leadership that we have in this gospel. I know that the prophets are called of God.

That's all for now folks!

Hermana Hilton

She was so excited to FINALLY play a cello!  She has been going to withdrawals.

PURE JOY!!! Her hair is all wavy from the humidity in OK.

Amparo and her awesome family.  She is the one second from the left.