Week 19: Let Faith Triumph

Just another crazy, hot, humid, fun-filled week in the beautiful state of Oklahoma. A member told us yesterday that these past couple of weeks have been the most humid in history. Yup. Pretty nuts. Here is a rundown of this week!



Monday: We played flickerball as a zone, and I don't think I have ever ran so hard in my life! Said goodbye to a bunch of amazing people because transfers were this week.

Tuesday: The Morales family decided to take us to Golden Corral for dinner..... Elder Barry decided to go hard and he had 5 plates of food and probably about 3 plates of desert! He went nutzo on the chocolate fountain and filled up a bowl with chocolate and then drank it all with a straw.... NASTY!!!!! I couldn't believe how much he ate! 

Wednesday: Transfers. Elder Barry left for Enod, and we got a new elder! He is super cool! His name is Elder Hernandez. He was born in Mexico and he lives in Kansas. Crazy fact about him, he didn't go to the MTC! He came straight to the mission! I have never heard of that happening before. Pretty crazy!

Thursday: We went and visited a less active family, the Franco family. We talked to Hna. Franco and she is totally 100% back on board! She bore her testimony to us and it was so strong! She told us, "How can I expect God to give me what I want and help me, if I don't do what he asks me to do?" Bamb! Exactly! It was so cool to hear her say that and then talk about how she wants to be a good example for her husband and her kids. I was so happy to hear her say that. She also told us that she would teach us how to make the best flour tortillas I have ever had in my life! Woop woop!

Friday: Friday night we were walking around an apartment complex. There was this guy who was starting to walk outside and so we started talking to him. He got all nervous and was trying to hid the beer that was in his hand. (#comosiempre) As we started talking he ran inside to put away his beer. When he came back outside about 5 other guys came out! We talked to them and they were hilarious! We told them that we could come back and teach them. They got really quiet and said, "umm... we are a bunch of guys... I don't know if you guys would be comfortable..." HAHAHAHA It was sooooo funny!!! We now call that apartment the man cave! I can't wait to go back! 

 

 

Saturday: Hna Snowden's birthday!!!!! She is 20!! the big 2-0! We had a lot of fun and we ate sooooo much food!!! We had breakfast like normal, and then afterwards, the STLs knocked on our door and had another  breakfast for us!!! Double breakfast. Then for lunch we went to Hungry Frog. #best chicken fingers on the planet! Then at a members house they fed us cantaloupe. Then a member also had dinner for us and we ate super spicy tacos! After we were all done with the day and heading home Hna Snowden pulled over at Sonic and we got milkshakes.... I am never eating again!!!! 

 

Sunday: I always love sundays!  We got to meet with Maria Mendez! (An investigator) She is going through a wrough patch right now, so it was so awesome to get to talk to her and testify of happiness and peace that the gospel brings. We also set up a time to go on a temple tour with her! I am so excited for that! I think getting to see the temple and feel the spirit there is going to change so many things for her and help her out so much! I love that lady so much and want the best for her. 

So yeah it was an awesome week! I want to share with you all what I learned this morning in my studies. As I was getting ready this morning I popped in a CD with conference talks on it. I listened to one called "None Were With Him" by Jeffery R. Holland. wow... I don't even know how to describe how amazing that talk is. If you have time to listen to it do it! Here is the link: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/none-were-with-him?lang=eng If you don't have time to listen to it, make time please! It will help you I promise! I also was able to read in the book of mormon. I read in Mosiah 14:3-12. It fit so perfectly into the talk. Please read these verses. I know that because Christ suffered for us, we are never alone. He is always there. He will never forget us. During the hard times "Let Faith Triumph" 

I love you all so much!!!! Have a fantabulous week!

Herman Hilton

 

 

My little angel Genoveva! We got to visit her this month and it was wonderful! I love her so much! 

Week 18 June 22, 2015

Well today I just want to start of by saying that I love my family. I love them so much and I can't imagine a world without them. I am so grateful, and have never been more grateful, for the Plan of Salvation. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that I can be with my family forever. I am so grateful that Christ loves me enough to have died for me. He love everyone enough to give us all a second chance. I think that is the thing that I love the most about this gospel. No matter who we have been or what we have done in the past, we always have a second chance. A chance to improve. A chance to change. A chance to turn back to God.

This week has been one of the most spiritual weeks of my mission so far. I have had so many amazing opportunities to feel the spirit. To feel it in the room, to feel it work in others and to feel it work in me. I had the opportunity this week to go visit the temple and it was amazing!!!!!!!! I love the temple so much. I didn't get to go inside, but I got to walk around outside. I know that the temple is the house of the Lord. We also had one of the best/most spiritual District Meetings ever. I learned a lot about my Savior's love for me. Man it was such a good week! I testify that this gospel brings a happiness and peace that can't be found anywhere else.

Well some other super crazy things happened this week! Not as spiritual, but definitely worth talking about!

Monday: Elder Barry took me, Hna, Snowden, Melissa (a youth in our branch) and Elder Cummings to the Cheesecake Factory for Hna Snowden's birthday! It was so much fun. Hna Snowden and I shared the Teriyaki chicken. It was bomb!

Tuesday: I got to see the temple! That night we met with this lady named Flor that we found in a park last week and it was so amazing.  She is from Mexico and has a little boy. Super cute family! We taught her the restoration and she loved it. She told us that when we talked to her in the park she could feel something different, and she could feel it right now! We were like YESSS!! That is the spirit! I was so amazing! We left her with a baptismal date of the 25th of July. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and I am super excited to get to know her more.

Wednesday: Exchanges! I got to spend the whole day with crazy Hna Belteton. We had a lot of fun. I had to drive the car..... scariest thing of my life!!!! I felt like I had forgotten how to drive!

Thursday: Crazy story.... We were on our way to do our weekly service at Red Cross and we saw this car swerving in and out and around traffic. Then cop lights! It was a chase! We pulled over super duper fast. And about 10 seconds after the guy drove past us we heard gun shots! I had a mini heart attack... and just about pooped my pants! We also counted a total of 15 cop cars chasing the guy. CRAZY! I am safe and they eventually caught the guy.

Friday: Pretty normal, nothing too crazy

Saturday: The most amazing session of Stake Conference that I have ever been to! It was so good! The area 70 and converts come up and share parts of there stories and it was so inspiring.

Sunday: Father's day!!! Shout out to my Dad! I am so grateful for him and for everything that he has done, does now, and continually does for me! There is no way that I can express my love for him in an email, but he means the world to me. I LOVE YOU DAD!

So one last thing... We got Transfer Doctrine yesterday! annddd...... I am staying right where I am with Hermana Snowden!!! I am so happy! This will be my third transfer in this area and my third transfer with Hna Snowden. We are going to get so much done! I am so excited!!!!

I get to be with this crazy for 6 more weeks!!!!
This is a lady in our branch who is moving back to Guatemala for 7 months! I'm gonna miss her!

Week 17: I am a daughter of God

I don't have a lot of time this week, so I will give you the quick highlights.

Zone Conference: The main thing that I took from Zone Conference and the many events that followed, was that I know that I am a daughter of God. A literal daughter of Him. He loves me and I have eternal worth. In all honesty, I had kind of forgotten that. I had forgotten my eternal value as a daughter of God. I testify that we are all children of God with eternal worth. It doesn't matter who we have been in the past, God. Loves. Us. I know this now more than ever! If you don't know this for yourself, please get on your knees. God wants you to come to him, to talk to him because we are his children. He loves us with a kind of love that you can't even explain. I am so grateful that I know this and I plead that we can share this one simple fact with every. WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD

The elders got their car back on Friday!!!!!! Woohooo!!! That literally was the best day ever! When the mission office called the Elders, they literally fell to the ground and started crying. haha When Hna Snowden and I saw the car we ran to it and kissed it. It was such a happy moment. Man!

This week we had a mini missionary with us! A mini mission is when a member of the ward who is preparing to go on a mission comes out with us for a couple of days. They have to live all the mission rules with us and it is a blast! I had so much fun! Marisa Amado was our mini missionary. She has such a strong testimony and I learned a lot from her. We saw so many miracles with her! For example: We were knocking doors with Marisa and this random guy hollered at us. We went and talked to him. He was like, call me Blondie!!! haha so funny. But we talked to him and he told us he wanted to come to church! Awesome sause!

Trainer calls were this Saturday. We found out that Elder Cummings is going to be training, which means that Elder Barry is leaving! Elder Barry and I have been together since day 1, so it is going to be super sad to say goodbye. We have had a lot of fun together and he is going to do amazing work wherever he goes! We get Transfer calls next Sunday, so we will all have to wait and see where the Lord will send me next!!

I love you all so much!

Hermana Hilton

Shoutout to Elder Barry!

Got Water?

Week 16: The Lord is Merciful and Loving

This week has been a very very humbling week. There is a mormon message by Elder Uchtdorf Called the Will of God. I will attach the link and I encourage everyone to watch it. This has been just like this video. I have felt like the current bush who has been cut down.

Hermana Snowden and I have really been trying to set baptismal dates with all of our investigators and everyone we meet. Instead of setting them we have been cancelled on, pushed away, and just not a whole lot of success.  It has been hard

On top of that the Elders still don't have a car so we have had to pick them up and drive them to meetings and dinners and the bike shop. It is taking up a lot of our time and has really been teaching me patience. Overall the week has been frustrating and rebuking.

BUT The Lord is merciful and loving.

We decided that if none of our investigators are ready to progress we need to find new ones! So to do this we did some special finding. What we did is we said a very specific prayer and then took a map of our area and individually Hna Snowden and I each picked 10 streets. Then we compared our 10 streets and there was one that matched up! So we went out right to knock that street. The first door we knock we meet this super cool lady named Karen. She is from Guatemala. She let us into her house hesitantly, but we decided to teach her the restoration. When Hermana Snowden stated the first vision, she started to tear up. I could see her whole countenance change and light up with the light of Christ. The spirit in that moment was so strong, and no one could deny it. Karen told us in that moment that she could feel something really good and she said that she liked it. The spirit was incredible! At the end of the lesson she accepted a baptismal date of June 27th! (Sadly she didn't come to church on Sunday so we will have to move it back, but that is ok!)  It was an incredible lesson and I know that God's hand is in this work

God sometimes has to cut us down so that we can grow into what He wants us to be. We need to trust Him and rely on Him with every thing we do! I am so grateful that  God loves me enough to cut me down. I am eternally grateful for Him and his mercy and love!

I love you all so much! Happy 10th Birthday to Raimie Shae! Never forget to look for God's hand in your life because I promise you that it is there.

Hermana Hilton

Week 15: Dear Sweet Genoveva

This has been a fun, crazy, stressful, miracle filled week. I want to start of with a quote Hermana Snowden found. "If the time ever comes when we can't laugh at ourselves, that will be a sad time" -Gordon B. Hinkley

Thursday, we had Genoveva's baptism interview scheduled. After the interview we were going to take her and get out all of her lice. We were so mentally prepared to get the job done, and she showed up two hours late for the interview..... so we couldn't do it.

Friday we decided on the spur of the moment that we may as well do it and get the lice picking over with. We headed to her house and started. It took us 5 hours..... We sat a 9-year-old in a chair and combed all the lice out of her hair. It was soo gross. I have never seen lice so bad.. but she was a champ! She did sooo well. We did have to bribe her her with a million oreos and Shrek, but we did it! We got every little thing out and she looked beautiful! We showed her grandma after we had finished and she started crying. Genoveva told us, "My  head doesn't hurt anymore!!" The experience was crazy bad and crazy gross, but because of that it was all so worth it

Saturday, the baptism starts a 4. We got there at 2 to fill the font and set everything up. Lydia (her grandma)  calls us at 3 and says "we are still at work, and we can't bring Genoveva!" Crap!!! So Hna Snowden and I drive to Genoveva's while the elders fill the font. All of us are calling everyone to try and find a ride for her since we can't have people in our car. Hna Snowden and I get to her house and Genoveva is not ready. I search her entire house for something that she can wear while Hna Snowden calls literally everyone on our phone to try and find a ride for her.  Long story short, she made it to the church, her mom and grandma were able to make it and the service was beautiful. I got to help her out of the font after she was baptized, and that was one of the most precious moments ever. All I could see was this beautiful, perfect, little daughter of god. She was literally glowing! Her mom and grandma were crying through the whole thing, and it was beautiful. The spirit was so strong.

Sunday, confirmation day. we pull up to Genoveva's with the elders to wait for her ride to pick her up, her mom comes out saying we can't come we are going to work and Genoveva isn't here. She is at her aunts! Crap!!! so we have to find the aunts apartment across town. knocked 1000 doors at 8:30 am to find her. because her salvation was on the line! With the help of the Lord we found her and we got her to church only 40 minutes late. Luckily sacrament is last, so everything worked out. Seeing her up there getting the Gift of the Holy Ghost was wonderful. She was glowing once again! Afterwards, she ran down off the stand and jumped into my lap with the biggest smile ever. She then told me "I feel so happy right now!!!" Man, these are the moments that make all the long days, the disappointments, the rejection worth it. Moments like these.

This is (from left to right) Lydia, the grandma, Genoveva, and Esperanza, her mom

I love my Savior so much and I love being a missionary! I know that the Lord guides this work. He has helped us so much this week and he helps me so much all the time. Please take time this week to get on your knees and thank Him for everything. Stay beautiful everyone!
Hermana Hilton

PS. Thanks so so so so so so so much mom for the box!! It was so amazing! I love it all so much! You are the bomb and I love you so much!

Another picture with my dear sweet Genoveva

Service project that we did this week as a branch. We helped clean Brother Barney's house! It was a blast! 

This is me, Hna Snowden, Elder Day, and Elder Allen. We are the cool kids sporting the red cross! :)

Jose Luis Morano. Cool story with this guy. He is a less active in the Elders area. He called us up one day and told us that he wanted to ask us some questions. So we set up an appointment and talked to him for about an hour and a half in the chapel. It was really cool 

This is Brother Brad. He isn't a member of the church. He always comes up and talks to us when we are in a certain apartment complex. I have never ever ever in my whole entire life heard someone talk as fast as he has. It is crazy!  He is great!