Week 61: 2 Tamales and a Book of Mormon Play!

Merry Abril 18th!

THE BOOK OF MORMON ACTIVITY WAS A SUCCESSSSSS!!!!!!!!! Thanks to the help of sooooo many people. Members, missionaries, family back home, and random citizen's trash, we were able to pull it off. This whole week was devoted to the activity. It was crazy. Man. It is a miracle that we were able to pull it all off. Miracle after miracle after miracle happened to help it happen, but en el fin de cuentas it happened!!!! The actual activity was Friday the 15th. Including actors we had a total of about 70 people show up. Which we were all very happy with. Preparations to make it happen included: running to stores, setting up lights, making a fog machine, decorating rooms, painting cardboard, making desert, cooking food, assigning costumes, making palm trees, setting everything up, making pillars, rehearsing with members, setting up chairs, building a boat, and so much more. Here is mas o menos what the week looked like:

Monday: We got to relax a little bit for our preparation day and we went to the zoo with our zone! It was a lot of fun. We watched the elephants eat, the bears fight, the lions roar, and a hippo poop. Hermana Medeiros and I found the cutest rings I have ever seen and we bought the same one! so now we have companionship unity rings! They are super cute. The weather was perfect for pictures because it was overcast so we took advantage of that  :) We had dinner with the Ordonez and we had papusas!! And they were sooo good! Her family is literally the best! They're so fun! And she taught us how to make them too so now I know how to make papusas. woop woop! all of our appointments fell through, so we went and invited some less actives to the activity.

Tuesday: We stopped by radio shack to get the right cords for the projectors and a music store to get adapters for the mics. pretty much a bunch of errands. We sorted through the costumes and painted cardboard to make pillars for Lehi's house. The whole building smelt like paint. We made more palm tree leaves. Hermano Pimentel took us to taste of china.... again!!! the buffet he takes us to every time he feeds us haha. After dinner we went back to the church and had practice. Miguel was hilarious! he has a one sentence line and he couldn't remember it so we wrote it on his scroll that he holds up for his part. The entire night he was pacing around the church practicing his one line. He is so funny. He was so nervous for his part!

Wednesday: we started off with errands again in the morning. We went to buy for less and bought Hermana Quiroz ingredients for beans. We couldn't find the meat that she wanted, so we went on a mad chase to find longanisa. We also had to open up the church for a funeral. It was for a 19 year old guy named Emilio. He committed suicide. Going to that funeral was super hard for me for reasons I won't go into. I watched the mom walk in and see her son in his casket. She broke down. I couldn't hold back my tears either. I watched so many people come in and cry. People I know and love and people I haven't ever met. It was really hard. It made me even more grateful for the plan of salvation. It was also a bit of a reality check for me. I am thankful for eternal families. We made a quick run to the mission office and I got to see Hermana James! She is training again in Stillwater. She will do good. We went back to the church and kept working on the play.  the YW helped us cut palm tree leaves and we took our dinner hour at 8. We ate super quickly so we could play volleyball the rest of our dinner hour. It was a blast to play with all the members! So much fun!

Thursday: Last day prepartions!!!!!!!!!!. President walkenhorst stopped by and dropped off the mission's mics and told us to guard them with our lives haha, no worries we didn't break any of them. Rosa and Miguel brought us flautas to the church since we didn't have time to leave. They are so nice. The ZL's were there helping us so Miguel went home and came back with more flautas for everyone. We had our last dress rehersel with everyone and barely made it home at 9:58 a full day of preparations. I have never been more tired.

Friday: SHOW TIME!!!! We ran some super last minute errands and had to return and get different cords, we tried to finish setting up for the activity and Hermana Medeiros and I made some dessert we had at a members house one time. She told us it was fruit (strawberries, apples, and grapes) mixed into sour cream and powdered sugar. it definitely didn't quite taste like hers but we had no other choice. and we were suppose to make enough for 100, but we miscalculated our ingredients and only made about 55.... so we spread them over the tables which helped our decorating... haha From about 4 to 10 I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off! I was trying to make sure everything was in order and ready to go. The activity started an hour late, but it was really good! Everyone loved it and the food was soooo good! Rosa and Reyna both made 100 tamales so 200 total and we were able to give everyone 2. We had about 70 people there so there were extra tamales for people to take home and it was just a super fun night! Everyone who came loved it and they were all praising us afterwards. I didn't think we were going to be able to pull it off, but somehow we did! The Lord definitely had his hand in it all!

Saturday: It took us all day to clean up. We folded everything and organized all the members things that they let us borrow into piles and helped take down lights and roll extension cords, i never knew it was possible to have so many extension cords with so few outlets. Miracle of the night was that we didn't blow a fuse and the gym didn't catch on fire.... but really. Hermano Garcia took us out to dinner.... where??? Taste of china round 2. Man. We finished up and headed home.

Sunday: we had a huge thunder storm. It kept us up all night and in the middle of it all I'm pretty sure we had an earthquake. crazy Oklahoma. We met the stake clerk at the church and updated the ward roster. That took a while, but we got it done. Hermano Romero (the mission leader) got called as the new 2nd councilor! he will be really good. Team fuego is baccckkk! I am so ready to put my feet on the pavement and start doing missionary work again! After dinner with the Guerreros, we went to try a referral, didn't answer so we decided to knock 2 doors and we ended up oyming a 3rd. We were able to give away 2 book of Mormons and get 2 return appointments!! It felt so good go be meeting new people and talking to people again. Missionary work is the best!!!

So transfers are this week and I have news............ Hermana Medeiros and I are staying together!!!! woooohooo!!! I am so happy. It will be a good transfer and we are going to work so hard. I am ready for the miracles to come. Elder Schwartz sadly is leaving. He will be dearly missed her in this area. He has done so much good here. Guess who is taking his spot..... .ELDER BARRY!!!!!! AHHH!!!!! when I found out I seriously was soooo excited!!! He is my mission brother! It is going to be really fun. I am pumped!  It will be so good for me and for the branch. There were so many changes this transfer. Hermana Medeiros and I are the only companionship who aren't changing. Everyone else in our zone is changing. So that will be fun.

Sorry there isn't much spiritual stuff in this email. I have learned more than anything that teamwork is so important. if you and your companion don't work as a team, nothing is going to get done. In everything that we do we need a team. The best team that we are always  a part of is, you, Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. They are team mates that will never let us down.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Hermana Hilton

Our zone at the Zoo!!!!

Trying on hats in the gift shop :)

THis is Hermana Ordonez. She taught me how to make papusas! soooo good.

So I forgot to put this in the big email. On Monday I bought a ring from the zoo right? Tuesday I lost it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had looked everywhere I could think of and nothing.... On Wednesday morning we went to a members house to try and find it. No luck. Then we tried Subway. again no luck. Then Hermana Medeiros goes. maybe you threw it away with your sandwich... So dumpster diving we went! I had thrown my sandwich away at the church and when we went back and looked in the subway bag there it was all nice and safe!! woohoo!!!!!  

This is Melissa from the north! She came down for the funeral and we got to go to the mission office with her. I love her so much! It was good to see you Melissa!

now that what I call a full trunk.

The beginning stages of setting up.

hahaha this is Elder Thomas. He got pretty tired and decided to take a quick power nap. So funny!!!!

Practicing one last time before the big performance

making our desert in my makeshift apron! haha

Performance night! this is all the stage crew waiting backstage for our entrance

Say hi to King Noah! He did an amazing job!

One of my all time favorite families!! the Yanez family.

its a miracle we didnt' start a fire...... gotcords?

Us and the zone leaders after a long day of take down!

Yup I got pretty pooped after taking everything down!

before taste of china..... round 2

setting up lights for the play! go Elder Schwartz!

do you think we have enough Tamales?? Thank goodness we did!!!

Shout out to Grandma Teresa. I miss you grandma and I think about you always. I can't wait until the day I can give you a big hug and know that we will never be separated again. I love you Grandma :)