Hermana Hilton 2015-2016: Week 35: "be of good cheer and do not fear"

It has been another super amazing week. I know I say this almost every week, but I have no idea where to start. And I know that I say this every week also, but this was the best week ever! Seriously. Every week as a missionary is amazing and full of so many tender mercies of the Lord. I love it.

Well here is the miracle rundown of the week :)

Monday: We were out knocking doors at about 8 pm and we found Nidia! We talked to her for about 30 minutes at the doorstep and she finally let us it! She is pentacostal and she invited us to her church (reversed roles for a second there haha) We said we would love to come, but that she should try out our church too! So we are going to do church exchanges! I am so excited. Nidia is 23 and super super nice and cool. We all got along super well and I am super pumped to go to pentacostal church this week!

Tuesday: After a crazy afternoon of service at Habitat for Humanity, we had a miracle filled night! The biggest miracle I would have to say was the lesson that we had with Bartolo. We taught him about Joseph Smith and the priesthood (the Restoration of the church) He love love loved it! We had a member with us, Hna Fox, and she was so perfect. The spirit was so strong and by the end of the lesson Bartolo was testifying to us that the church is true. so so cool. Before this lesson we had a dinner with a recent convert, Luis, and all of his nonmember friends (all crazy hispanic guys) holy cow it was a blast!!! These four guys cooked for all of us and holy cow! I have never had such amazing food! It was crazy spicy, but crazy good! halfway through the meal we started talking about all of the crazy things we have eaten. They then tried to convince me that I was eating lengua... (cow tongue) I freaked out for a second and then figured out that they were joking haha .....but they said that next time there were really going to make it and that I had to try it... poo... I am scared. But it was so much fun to joke around and have a great time with Luis and all of his friends

Wednesday: Pretty normal day. Biggest miracle. English class!! We havce so many people coming to english class and it is awesome! A huge huge success. It is also super fun and funny to watch all these people try to learn English. I have realized that English is the dumbest language ever and I am so glad that I don't have to try to learn it!

Thursday: Chocolate-chip waffles with strawberries and powdered sugar and syrup for dinner...... oh goodness can I say, instant stomach ache!!! After this crazy dinner we headed over to our Spanish Group Leader's house, Bro Johnson and his family. Man it was such an awesome experience! To get to know this awesome family and connect with all of them on a more personal basis was really awesome. I love them all so much and they are all freaking gorgeous!!

Friday: Double dinner..... oh man. I am talking a lot about food this week, but hey food is important right! We went to a less actives house to do some service. She has the two craziest girls I have ever met! Genesis and Belle. oh man, it was nuts, but we did some service and then she fed us. We had tacos and dang they were sooo good. then we headed straight over to El Vaquero (a mexican restaurant) for our planned dinner with a member. I ordered Carne Asada and man it was sooo good! I have never been soo full in my live though! The plate was huge! After dinner we had a lesson with Bartolo. We taught him the plan of salvation. wow... I don't even know how to express what went down in that lesson. I can honestly say that because of that lesson with Bartolo, I know that the Plan of Salvation is real. I think that lesson is my favorite one to teach. I love it so much.

Saturday: We taught one of our other investigators Carmela. It was super crazy. We walked in and sat down to start and she pretty much taught us the whole lesson!!! We taught....well she taught us the law of chastity and the 10 commandments! super duper cool. Then after that we headed over for the baptism of one of the Elders investigators. Wow. It was so good. Baptisms are so cool and I love going to them so much. To watch people make these changes in their lives is something really awesome and special. and guess what else.... Bartolo showed up!!! he was about 40 minutes late, so he pretty much missed all of it, but he came! That is huge people!

Sunday : And guess what else happened today! Chruch... and guess who came!! Bartolo!!!!! and he love love loved it! it was super duper awesome. When you go to church and try to look at it from the eyes of an investigator, everything takes on a new light. I was able to do that for a second. and it was awesome.

As you can see this week has been amazing. My testimony is growing so much. I want to share with you guys lastly the amazing experience that I had Wednesday night / Thursday morning. As amazing as this week has been, sometimes you get pretty discouraged as a missionary. I know I might make it sound like everything is pretty much all butterflies, rainbows, and pink ponies, but there are definitely many many thunderstorms, ravens and flat tires. Wednesday night I was definitely feeling those thunderstorms and flat tires. So without knowing what else to do I knelt down to pray to my Father in Heaven. As I prayed I poured out my soul to Him. Tears were shed, but because God loves me he quickly wiped them off of my face. I don't know how else to put the things that I felt and learned better than that. He was there with me. He knows me. In this time of prayer and pondering I realized that the reason the hard times, the thunderstorms, come is because I let fear control me. I let the fears that I have dominate. When I realized that, I promised the Lord right then and there that I would turn all of my fears over to Him. I am human, I have a lot of faults and a lot of things that I need to turn over to him. My fears is what the Lord told me I needed to give up that night. So I promised the Lord that I would do it. But I also told Him that I would need his help. I can't do it without him. The next morning in my studies I came across Doctrine and Covenants 86:6 It says:

"Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come."

A direct answer to my prayers. The Lord is going to be with me. I can do this. I know that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He leads this church. He love us. I know it and I love sharing it with others. Now if you have read to the end of this, I am pretty proud! That is a lot of reading :) Now go do something good for someone else!!!

I love you all!
Hermana Hilton

These are the two crazy little girls that we did service for! Genesis and Belle! Super cute!