Week 23

Monday: District P-day. We had a water fight and this super cool park. It was so much fun. Elder Cummings ended up dumping a whole gallon of water on top of my head!! Ahh! but it was a blast. Then I went home with my STL Sister Hamm for exchanges! A day in English land! woop woop! We had dinner with this family and it was so much fun. They mom was gone, so she left everyone else to cook dinner. We had fajitas. When she came home, everything that went bad the kids blamed on the dad. It was way funny.

Tuesday: Exchanges continue. We visited a bunch of people and then went and painted for a lady in the English ward. She has really bad anxiety, so she stresses and overthinks everything. It was so funny. We got there and it literally took us 45 minutes to get started painting. The lady was super nice, just a little stress ball. To calm herself down she turned on Frank Sinatra and sang at the top of her lungs. So funny.

While I was on exchanges in English land, guess what happened in Spanish land!?!?!?!!? Hna Snowden and Hna Belteton when and visited Maria Mendez. As they were talking with her something clicked in her brain about how she needs the gift of the Holy Ghost for her baptism to be complete and she accepted a baptismal date!!! August 22nd!! When they told me I literally started crying. That was one of the happiest moments ever.

Wednesday: We got a referral from a member and we visited her today. Her name is Laura and she just lost a baby. She is going through a super hard time, but it is the perfect time for the gospels message of happiness and hope! She knows without a doubt that her baby is with God. Her faith in Christ is amazing and I already have so much love for her!

Thursday: Red cross, weekly planning, we taught mission prep. And then we had a lesson with Roberto!!!! He is a new investigator and he is so amazing. He has been prepared by the Lord. He is from Honduras. He took the missionary lessons in Honduras 2 years ago and then moved here to the states. He told us that he really wants to learn more about God and how he wants to learn everything the missionaries in Honduras taught him again. He asked us a bunch of awesome questions, and it was just amazing! He has a baptismal date for the 29th of August!!! I am super duper excited! He is super super cool!

Friday: Well I did a "photo shoot" with a crazy less active Maynor. It was a blast! And then we visited a bunch of people. Sad news..... Flor no longer wants to meet with us. She got a job and told us that she doesn't have time any more for the missionaries. It was super heartbreaking. It is hard to see people start to see the blessings of living the gospel, and then turn away from the very source that blesses them. I know that one day she will want to learn again.

Saturday: Well this day was crazy. We had a Stake breakfast. Esteban came and so did Laura and all of her kids! They had an awesome time and it was a lot of fun. After this activity we went and helped a member family clean out their back yard. I left with muddy fingernails and about 100 bug bites. Woohoo! Later that night we went to visit Roberto and invite him again to church. As we were there, Genoveva (the little girl who got baptised about 2 months ago) ran up to me and gave me a big hug and said, "I love you!" It was so sweet and so genuine, that I couldn't hold back a tear.  I love that little girl so much. She is the world to me.

Sunday: ROBERTO CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! and he looooovvvveeeedddd it! IT was amazing! he participated in sunday school and everything. It was super duper awesome! I can't wait to keep teaching him and seeing him progress. We talk about the elect a lot as missionaries, and Roberto is one of the elect!

I love you all so much and am super excited for this next week!

Peach out girl scout!
Hna Hilton


Exchanges!
Yeah... she stuffed a cupcake in my face, so I got her back!!!! Big time!!!! mwahhahaha

Week 22: I can ride my bike with no handle bars!

Monday:
We had family night with our Branch President's family. It was a ton of fun. They have a little 8-year-old boy, Ale, who is autistic, and he is the cutest thing ever. The whole time Presidente Amado was cracking jokes. His son started talking about how no one could ever steal money out of an ATM and Pres quickly shot that down and then proceeded to show us all YouTube videos about ATM theft. It was hilarious. But after we ate we had a wonderful lesson on the plan of salvation. It was awesome. I love president and his family. The Amado's are the bomb!

Tuesday:
Ahh! There were so many miracles, I don't even know where to start! I don't know if you guys remember Amparo. She is the investigator who invited us over to her husbands birthday party and we had a blast with her whole family. Anyways, we haven't seen her for a really long time because the last time that we talked with her she told us that she has been in another religion for her whole life and isn't ever going to change. At that point there wasn't really much that we could do. So we didn't go back until this Tuesday. We got there and started talking and she opened up to us a ton and told us that she doesn't know anymore if her church is true. This is HUGE!! What a miracle! We were able to teach her about Joseph Smith again and testify that she can have an answer of what church is true. The spirit was so strong and I couldn't believe my ears when she told me that. Ahh! so cool!
Then that night we had our monthly branch family night. About 5 minutes before it started we got a call from our investigator, Loami and she told us she was on her way, but was lost. My heart literally jumped out of my chest and Hermana Snowden and I just sat there and had a silent-screaming-because-we-are-on-the-phone freak out session. So Loami came to branch family night with her three kids and they all loved it! It was so amazing.

Wednesday:
This is quite a funny story. Hna Snowden and I were waiting outside in our car for the elders before a dinner appointment when this random sales guy comes up to our car. He was super excited and we couldn't figure out why... But quickly we found out that he was an RM working door to door sales for a company called ECO. haha! It was super funny. We talked to him for a while and he gave us a referral! Later that day we had to take our car in to the shop to get an oil change. When we came back the Firestone guy told us that someone came by and left a note on our car..... It was another referral from the ECO guys!!! haha We have met a total of three of them and they are giving us referrals like crazy. It is really funny.

Thursday:
We had to take our car back into the shop to get new tires.... So back to Firestone! We dropped off our car and then decided to go do our weekly planning at Brahms with our homeboy Timothy! (Timothy is a guy who works at Brahms that we see every time we go in there. He knows us as the missionaries and someday he is going to get baptized!!) So we spent about three hours planning for the next week in Brahms while our car was getting new tires. We had dinner with a member family that night. The Riesco's. Hna Riesco told us, "working in the cartel is a really good investment, just don't do drugs!" hahaha It was hilarious! We then went on and talked about 5 year retirement plans. It was so funny! I haven't laughed that much for a long time.

Friday:
Ahh!! Let me just start by saying that I love missionary work! It is so amazing! We visited Flor this night, and it was sooooooooooo amazing!!! We went to her appartment and just dove straight into the Doctrine of Christ. We talked all about what Christ did for us. And how we need to have faith, we need to repent, be baptized, recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost and keep on going. It was so amazing. When we were talking about faith, Flor started telling us all about how she had read in Alma about faith and how much she loved it and what she learned. There is nothing better as a missionary than seeing other poeple get excited about the Gospel. At the end of the lesson we set a baptismal date with her for the 22nd of August. She is super excited and told us that she is going to do everything possible that she can to be ready for her baptism.

Saturday:
We had lunch with one of my favorite families, the Alondso's! We had arrepas and they were bomb! Venezuelan food is the best. Hna Alondso's food is the best thing ever. When we got home we hopped on our bikes and biked the rest of the day. woohoo..... it was 100 and stinking 5 degrees outside and there we were, riding our bikes! It was miserably hot! We biked from about 4 till 9 at night. Between Hna Snowden and I we had the Great Salt Lake on our backs! It was gross!      ....and I'm pretty sure by butt is bruised from riding bikes.... and then Hna Snowden locked me in my closet.... and I couldn't get out.... and it was really scary........ hahahaha! But we are the best of friends and I love her so much! I just now have leverage to get her back hee hee hee!

Sunday:
We had church and it was wonderful. Nothing too crazy happened. I played the piano in sacrament and a super cool less active came to church. But after church we decided to bike again since we don't have too many miles left for the month. We went to Lydia and Genoveva's apartments. Genoveva was swimming and out of no where Lydia runs up and shows us her left hand! She ran off and got married!!!! What!?!?!!? I was in shock for the longest time and my brain couldn't comprehend that she is married! Her and her new husband bought a little house and are now living on there own. It will be super good for her. But yeah.. .Lydia is MARRIED! As we were leaving the apt complex this random guy stopped us and asked us if we were missionaries. Yeah we are! He told us that he was taking the lessons in Honduras and then moved here 2 years ago and hadn't been able to find them until now! How cool is that! His name is Carlos Roberto! I am super excited to go teach him!

Miracles are real everyone! The Lord helps us and guides us through every single day. I love seeing his hand in everything that we do and there is no where else I would rather be right now! Oklahoma is the best place ever!!!!!!!

I love you all so much and hope that you have the best week ever!
Hermana Hilton

Week 21: Good food, Loud music, and Good company

hola everyone! How are you all doing? Good? Good! Me too! Fiestas out the wazoo this week! It has been a ton of fun. There was a wedding, a quince, and an 80th birthday party. Let me tell you something I learned about Hisipanics this weekend, THEY KNOW HOW TO PARTY!!!!

On Friday a member in the branch, (Angel Moroni and Laquana) got married (yup, that's really his name). They invited us to go to their sealing and it was amazing. That is the second sealing that I have been too. They are so amazing! I think it is so cool that we have the ability to be sealed together forever with our families. But after the sealing, we went over to congratulate them and Angel went in for a hug!! Haha It was so funny because as he realized what he was doing he got super awkward. Hilarious! But we got a selfie with the bride at the temple! That night we went to their reception, and man... good food! loud music! good company! and a whole ton of fun! We left in enough time to get home by curfew, but we found out that the party went on till 2am! 

Then to top it off, on Saturday, a youth in our ward was having her quince and she invited us! My first Quince.... holy cow! They go big or go home! it was crazy! She had a carriage cake and they fed everyone a bounteous meal and there was a DJ (who is a member of our branch too!) It was so fun! again, good food, loud music, good company. There was a bunch of members and less actives there, so I got to meet a lot of less actives that I've never met before! It was the bomb!

After the Quince we went to Hno Gomez's 80th birthday party. There was again good food, loud music and good company. They also had a Mariachi band! It was so much fun!

We have had some amazing miracles with our investigators this week too. We found this lady named Loami. She is from Guatemala. She has three little kids and is super duper cute. She was outside her apartment playing with her kids when we found her. She has so much interest in the gospel and she told us that she just wants to keep learning more. Fun story about her. The first time that we gave her the Book of Mormon we invited her to read it. When we came back she was in Mosiah 14!!! I'm not positive how much she read, but I know she read a lot! She loves the Book of Mornom and she loves that fact that we have a prophet today. It has been so cool to see her progress and see her excitement for the gospel. The Lord really does prepare people. And the spirit is so real!!!

Hermana Snowden and I are still the bestest of friends here on the mission and we always have the best of times! We have so much fun together. I love her so much!  I love you all so much too! Say yes to Christ!!!

Hermana Hilton

PS Have fun in Norway!!!!!!

Selfie with the Bride!!!!!!!
Selfie with the DJ!! DJ Jose!

Week 20: "you're a chosen generation"

MERRY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 'MURICA!

The fourth was amazing! I had such a fun time! We went with the Zone Leaders down to Moore for a festival! It reminded me a lot of the Weiser Fiddle Festival. We got there at about 2 and were there till about 10:30. (President Walkenhorst gave us permission to stay out to 11!!! woohoo) We had a booth up at the festival and the whole time we just talked to people and passed out pamphlets and book of mormons. It was so cool! It was HOT!!! and the food looked sooo good but it was all too expensive. We met this lady (who gave me the inspiration for my email title) who called herself "rapping granny". And that is legitimately what she was. This old lady who raps gospel music! We asked her to rap for us and she started rapping!!!! It was hilarious!!! "You're a chosen generation, a chosen generation. You're a chosen generation, chosen for Salvation!" That was the whole thing. She just said that over and over for about 3 minutes. It was awesome! I have to say she was probably one of the coolest people I met that day!
The firework show that they put on was pretty amazing! I was just so happy that I actually got to see fireworks!!! I had a ton of fun and got to see and hang out with some of the coolest people!

The rest of the week was pretty normal and calm.

Monday: We had a family night with a family in the ward. Their little girls are so stinking cute!

Tuesday: We decided to fast this day. We have had a really hard time the past little bit because no one was home and no one was answering the doors. So we decided to fast today to get into homes and have lessons with people. It was so cool! Pretty much every single door that we knocked opened and all of our appointments went through (which hadn't been happening either). We got to meet with Esteban (LA), Mirium's friend (I), Lydia (LA), Loani (I), and Flor (I)!! IT was so amazing. All the lessons went amazing.

Wednesday: We went and visited Evangelina. She is this little old lady that lives in an assisted living home. The people there all know the misisonaries because we come over often enough. Let me tell you though, old people are hilarious!!!!

Thursday: We got into a little bit of bumper to bumper action on the way home, but no one was hurt so that is what is important! We also got to meet a less active for the first time! His name is Jesus Herrera. He is super funny! The whole time he just called us his little angels.

Friday: District meeting! Elder Cummings asked us to pray for trails...... What?! I know that it is a little crazy, but I know that I am going to learn so much from it and it will bless me so much!

Saturday: 4th of July! Moore Festival and Rapping Granny

Sunday: We presented our branch mission plan to the branch and it went amazing! IT was so awesome! I am so excited to see the growth come as we fulfill this branch plan! We also had a lesson with this lady Liliana. I was super duper nervous. When we first started talking to us she was super hostile. As we kept talking you could see her heart softening. It was so cool. By the end of the lesson we had given her a book of mormon and she already started reading it!!! We didn't even have to ask her to read it at the end of the lesson. She committed herself to read it! It was super duper cool!

Miracles are real and we see them everyday. We just have to have the eyes to see them.

Love you all!!!

Hermana Hilton