Week 73: A week in pictures :)

Ok I am going to try to do something a little bit different and tell yall about my week using pictures. We will see how it goes.  But first we got Transfer Doctrine this week! There is a lot of changes happening in the mission with the new mission president. But as far as me. I am staying here in the South to finish up my mission! I am so happy. Hermana Applegate will also be staying with me BUT Hermana Hernandez is going to join the crew and we are going to be in a trio! I've got a lot of mixed feelings about it, but I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. I don't know where she is going to sleep or study or put her clothes in our tiny apartment (I'm 99% sure we have the smallest apartment in the mission) but we will figure it all out. Elder Barry and Elder Barrett are staying together. So we are just adding Hermana Hernandez to the branch. It will be good. Some other transfer news. Hermana Medeiros is training! She she is getting a brand new missionary in Texas! I am so excited for her. that means I am going to be a "grandma". I'm so pumped for her. Elder Moe got the boot and is heading up to the North. After about 10 and a half months serving together it will be sad to say bye, but he will do amazing in the North.

So Monday! We had a lot of fun on P-day and went shopping. I can't remember if I don't you but our district all got matching shirts and we went crazy at sports! It was tons and tons of fun. elder barry got so sweaty and he started scooting around on the floor. If you look carefully you can see the sweat trail on the floor. His new nickname is Garry from Sponge bob.

On Tuesday we met our new mission president. President Mansell. He is a great man. We each got to meet him individually and then he talked to us. He has a lot of high expectations for this mission. He shared something that really hit me hard. He told us about the process that it takes to be called as a mission president. He said he was called into an interview with an apostale and he was asked three questions 

1. are you worthy?

2. are you able?

3. are you willing?

I think those are all questions that we should ask ourselves daily. Especially when we get callings in the church. If we can answer possitivly to each of those, the Lord will bless us immensely. 

something else he said was "If you don't think God is in the details of your life, YOUR CRAZY!"

We spent most of our day with President Mansell and his family. It was a really neat experience. I have so much to learn from him. 

On a random side note, he played tennis for BYU and so I am trying to play a match with him! 

 Wednesday was a blast! We had service at food bank and I helped this super duper nice guatamalen family. If felt like we had been life-long friends, but it was the first time that I met them. Then we taught Ashley and Irvin the plan of salvation. Irvin is so funny the whole time he just asked, "then why do we have ghosts?? I know ghosts are real because I watch Ghost Adventures, so where are they in the plan?" Oh man I died. this kid. We tried our best to help him understand. Then after the lesson we went to the farwell party for Johnathan Espinosa. He is going into the marines. It was so much fun. We got to socialize with a lot of people and take all kinds of pictures will all kinds of little kids! here are the Ochoa's two kids :) 

Thursday we helped Yesika Cordier set up a yard sale. I didn't know people could have so much stuff..... It was crazy..... But we had a lot of fun going through all of their clothes and setting out kids toys. We had dinner with Rosa and Miguel like we do every thursday, except for this time Miguel tried to help cook the food. He cooked us corn on the cob smothered in mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese. he was sooooo proud of is crazy corn. To end off the day we had a lesson with the Garcia family. They are a less active family that we have been working with for a while. Their son, Alex is 9 and isn't baptized. So we decided to set a baptismal date with him. After a super powerful lesson on the plan of salvation Alex said he wanted to be baptized and we set the goal for August 6th! We also talked to his dad Cesar about renewing his priesthood power so that he can do the baptism. Cesar got really excited and the family is on fire! we are praying so hard that they will be able to keep up the progression. I love them so much! 

Friday!!! I'm running out of time but I will get in as much as I can! Elder Barry's mom send us these super sick shirts!!! I love it so much!!!! We got in with Reyna and we had a heart to heart with her. She admitted to drinking and smoking again and broke down into tears. She said that when she isn't at church that she really just wants to go but that it is super hard for her to come. She told us that for the past little bit she has been really really angry with God. She realized though that distancing herself from Him wasn't solving any of her problems. She asked us if we could go visit the temple again. She said, I need to feel peace again. It's awesome to know that we have somewhere we can go when we need to feel peace. keep Reyna in your prayers. I love her so much it hurts. 

oh and this is a random guy we saw..... okalhomians are so weird. haha 

Saturday we spend a big chunck of our day helping out at Hermana Escobar's house again! It was so much fun I got to know Paola her granddaughter pretty well. We had a lot of fun picking up a bunch of trash out of the lawn while everyone else was inside tearing down more drywall. At one point Elder Barrett and I were dragging a big tree we had chopped down from the front yard to the back yard. We were getting pretty close when Elder Barrett dropped the tree which caused the whole thing to land on my ankle! My foot was stuck under the tree and I couldn't get it out for a while. I have a pretty good battle wound from it. After service I went on exchanges with Sister Call. We had a lot of fun talking to everyone we saw! 

and last but not least, Sunday! We had quite a few people at church. Reyna came for sacrament, so I was super duper happy about that! So ready for a major fail. I am sitting behind the piano playing prelude and looking at everyone when one of the members tells Irvin to go sit with the people that pass the sacrament so that he can pass the sacrament. And I'm thinking in my head, "wait what?? Irvin can't pass the sacrament because he doesn't have the priesthood yet... or does he have it... no I don't think he does... Do I stop playing the piano and go talk to someone...... uh oh....." As I was thinking Uh oh the meeting started. We sang the first hymn and then during the prayer I scooted over to the first counciler and asked quickly if Irvin had the priesthood. He said yup, so Irvin passed the sacrament. We talked to Irvin afterwards and asked when he got the priesthood. He had no idea what we were talking about. We said, you know when they put their hands on your head for the second time. he gave us a strange look and then said.... they never did that.  Uh oh.... So we ran off to the branch presidents office and asked him about it again and we looked on the church website to be sure and it turns out that Irvin doesn't have the priesthood yet! woops!!! It was super funny. The good thing is that it was an honest mistake and Irvin had no idea that he shouldn't have done it. On the bright side Irvin really enjoyed passing the sacrament to everyone so maybe it will motivate him to get the priesthood so that he can actually do it. haha  

This is Hermano Cabello and his mom!

When you can't wake up your companion and decide to use a boat horn

Week 72: Merry 4th of July!!

Monday: (like June 27th) for p-day we went to the zoo. It was fun minus the fact that it was soooooooo hot!!! Hot enough that most of the animals were inside, or hiding in the shade or water. You know that when it is too hot for the elephants to be outside, it's HOT!  We had a family night with the DeLeon's. little Adriana, who is 11 gave the lesson on Obedience. She did way good. Then we had dinner at a members home. I will leave out the name, but family, friends, I have never been more angry at ***** my entire life. I wanted to reach over and rip her head off. I won't bore yall with details, but that night I came home and I was so angry that I had a hard time praying. I just lashed out to the Lord and told him everything. Then I felt the Lord's hand on my shoulder telling me everything was going to be ok. That's when the tears started coming. I knew that this anger wasn't good. It wasn't Christ-like at all. But as I was praying I knew that Christ understood exactly what I was feeling. After finishing my prayer and not being able to sleep and not knowing what else to do I decided to open up the Book of Mormon. I just flipped open and Helaman 10:3-5 opened up.

3 And it came to pass as he was thus pondering -- being much cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites, their secret works of darkness, and their murderings, and their plunderings, and all manner of iniquities -- and it came to pas as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a voice came unto him saying:
4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, (Hna Hilton) for those things which thou hast done; for I have behold how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but has sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to the word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

This was an answer to my prayers. It was what I needed to hear at that time. Thanks to a loving Heavenly Father we can receive answers to our prayers and comfort to our souls.

Tuesday: We got to see a loooooot of less active members. That is what we are focused on right now. The members that need a little bit of help and love. We visited Hermana Escobar and then were biking over to our dinner appointment with Hermana Applegate's tire popped!!! Yup.... so we walked the rests of the way. Luckily the elders had Nerry coming out with them so they gave us the car, otherwise we would have spent the rest of the evening walking home about 8 miles. woop woop! thanks elderen!

Wednesday: We had our first lesson with Irvin since he got back from Mexico. It was really good. We talked to him about reading. He told us that he hasn't been doing it, but that he would start reading again. We had Junior come and Irvin was sooo happy to see him. It was a sweet reunion.

Thursday: We got a new mission President. As of Thursday President Walkenhorst was released and Presient Mansell got here. We got to briefly meet President Mansell as he walked into the mission office while we were there. They are big tennis fans, so I think we will get along :) We taught Ashley and Irvin at their house that evening and we talked about the Doctrine of Christ. Ashley said she doesn't know if she is sure about baptism. I think her hold us is that she doesn't want to give up the coffee. Their parents came in the last five minutes of the lesson but we had to head out.

Friday: So In my studies Friday morning I found a bunch of really really good quotes. I want to share them with yall.
"Every man eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand."
"I am enough because I am His."
Both very very true points that I have come to learn this week. With what happened on Monday and other things that have happened this week with members and investigators and other missionaries I have had to look at that wall of faith and decide what to do. It has been a really trying experience all week and honestly it is still going. It is something that is always going. I am daily facing that wall of faith and deciding to give my will over to the Lord. I found a quote in the 12-step book it says, "This submission to the Lord is hard doctrine. It requires us to rededicate ourselves to His will at the start of each day and sometimes every hour or even from moment to moment. As we are willing to do so, we find the grace, or enabling power, to do what we could not do for ourselves."

Saturday: We spent 4 hours of our morning doing service for Hermana Escobar. Her daughter bought a house, but the house was in a fire. So the kitchen and the front room were burnt. They bought the house and are remodeling in little by little. We went over and helped her. Our job was to knock down a wall and strip all the walls and ceiling of everything. Man was it an adventure! we had a lot of fun :) There were a couple times when someone should have gotten seriously hurt, but thankfully we all made it out alive. Saul at one point was trying to cut a floorboard with a machete knife!!! We were pulling off burnt sheet rock and burnt insulation out of everywhere!

Sunday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRVIN!!! Irvin turned 16 today. The sad thing is that I forgot.... I did remember on monday though, so we went over and told him Happy birthday. Everyone was on vacations, so a lot of people didn't come to church, but guess who did???? THE GOMEZ FAMILY!!! the whole family came. Even with the holiday weekend and even with Irvin's birthday. They loved testimony meeting. When they all walked in my heart jumped. I was so excited!

Monday: MERRY 4TH OF JULY AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY GOMEZ!!! So yup today was the 4th of July it was pretty uneventful this year. President Mansell told us we have to be home at normal times, so 9pm We had p-day which was a blast! We couldn't email so us and the elders and two other sisters went to old-navy! we had waaaay to much fun. We all bought matching shirts and rolled up to sports all wearing them. It was way funny. They were super cheap too! we had dinner at a members house and it was one of the fanciest dinners of my life. Then we taught the Gomez's the word of wisdom. It went well. They are so prepared. The kids are still trying to figure out if they want to get baptized but the parents are all in! Then we headed home. We planned for the next day and decided to go on a night stroll to see if we could see any fireworks. We saw a total of 3! woop woop! but yup that was our 4th.

Well yall. I just want to say that I know this church is true. I love the gospel and more than anything I love living it. It has brought me so much joy.

Last monday we went to the zoo. It was a blast! 

We aer still biking every other day! I think this day it was about 100 degrees outside with crazy crazy crazy crazy humidity. I've never been so sweaty in my entire life!

 

On Saturday we did service for hermana Escobar. This is the house that was burnt that they are trying to save. And yes that is saul in the ceiling 

 

For the 4th we went to old navy as a district and all got matching t-shirts! we rocked p-day sports!!! #datcrew

 

The Chavez family prepared us a super fancy 4th of July dinner. We had a lot of fun spending a little bit of time with them 

 

An adventure trying to find the fireworks!! We say a total of three! woop woop happy fourth of July!

 

Week 71: full chapels and fireman

Monday: We had a training by our zone leaders and it was really good. We talked about dinner messages. So like when we go to members houses and the feed us and we give a message. They are so so so important. We learned how to improve our dinner messages and they gave us new ideas it was fun. For zone p-day we played sports and it got really intense! It was a blast. Elder Barry forgot his shoes and played without shoes. At the end of the day he had a huge blister on the bottom of his big toe that was bleeding everywhere... it was nasty.

Tuesday: We had language study with Hermana Quiroz. She is this older lady in the branch that helps us a lot with our Spanish. I love her with all my heart. So we went over there like we always do, and she told us that she went the the doctor on Saturday.... She has been going deaf and has a lot of other problems. Anyways she sat us down and started telling us what the doctor told her. Pretty much she is having congestive heart failure. Her heart is so tense that a vain popped and her heart is pumping blood into her lungs. I couldn't hold back the tears. I just broke down and cried. Right there with her. Hermana Quiroz wrapped me in her arms and just hugged me and I cried. She told me to not worry. She said she knows that the Lord has a plan for her. She has a mission to fulfill and if that mission is on the other side of the veil, she is ok with it. I have never met a more faithful women. I know no matter what happens she is in the Lords hands.

Wednesday: We had an amazing lesson with Maria Parra (who is less active) and her husband Fransisco (who is an investigator). We watched the restauration video with them. The spirit was so strong. We talked about it afterwards and they loved it. Maria told us that she feels like she has a person on each shoulder. One telling her to stay where she is at and one saying to go back to church. We kept talking and then I invited them to pray to know if they should keep going to the church they are in or come back to the mormon church. With an astonished face this is what she said, "That was the exact question in my head...." the spirit is powerful. When we left she gave us a hug and with a tear in her eye said, "You don't know the help yall gave me."

Thursday: We saw the Gomez parents! So like the parents of Irvin. They were so excited for us to come over. We went with hermana Ordonez. They got along really well. We taught them the plan of salvation and at the end of the lesson invited them both to be baptized on July 23rd! Yesika was super excited. She told us that she knows that the plan of salvation is true and that this church will help her family. To hear your investigator testify of that is one of the most amazing things ever. Aldolfo was a little more hesitant but he said he feels good. Yesika said a super sincere prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help them know if they should be baptized on July 23rd! She even said the date in the prayer!!!!!!!!!

Friday: We had our branch Father's day activity and it was sooo much fun. I just table hopped the whole time and talked to everyone. It was a blast. Yesika and Aldolfo came!!! They had so much fun. when we left the members had all started dancing and the Gomez's got out there and danced too! They had a lot of fun and got to know a lot of members. It was their second time in the church building.

Saturday: I think this was the craziest day of my life.... buckle up. We were in studies when our brand new smoke/CO alarm went off. The apartment wasn't in flames so we assumed it was the CO. We turned the alarm off and then had to head out because we had appointments. So off we went. Gabriela took us and we saw Reyna. We read in the book of mormon with her and as we were walking out I spotted ciggarettes on her shelf.... she saw that I saw them and tried to hide them... dang it... so we found out Reyna is smoking again. Then Gabriela took us to another apt which was amazing! and then we got dropped off at our third apt. We read the book of mormon with the Rodriguez family and wow the spirit was strong. We headed out of there and started walking when this random member from Wichita Falls picks us up and drives us to our next apointment so we didn't have to walk in the super hot and humid weather. We went  through the rest of the day and headed home at about 7 becuase we don't know what is going on with our apt still. So yup we call our leaders and they tell ust hat we have to call 911...... So we called 911. five minutes later that was a fire truck, a fire marshel, an ambulence, and an EMSA truck at our apartment. They cleared the apartment and there was nothing wrong! It was super crazy though because we had gone throughout the whole day playing phone tag with a million people. Our leaders were super super worried for us and then it turned out to be nothing. Because of everything that went down we didn't get to eat dinner so the elders being the good saints that they are brought us Jimmy Johns that was the best sandwich of my life. Oh and on other thing. We got a selfie with the firemen! YES!!!

Sunday: SOOOOOO many people came to church!!! I was sooo happy! oh man. Ready for the list? Gabriela and Raul! the Diaz family! The Chavez family(HUGE surprise there!) The Garcia family! The Rodriguez family! the DeLeon family! the Ramirez family!! aaaaaaaaaaand IRVIN and ASHLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a happy happy day for us at church.

Yup well that was the week. I have about 10 more minutes and then we have to head out to the zoo. I just want you all to know that this church is true. I love being a missionary! There is nothing better!

Leave it up to oklahoma church signs!!!!

Stole Jorge Ramirez's hat! hehe I love this guy!

 

Got to see Melissa from the north!!!!

 

Saying goodbye to Reymundo. Thanks for all your hard work! you will be missed!

 

saying goodbye to President Walkenhorst. He goes home this Thursday. This man has changed my life and I will always love and miss you! 

 

Yesika and Aldolfo at the fathers day activity

 

The Gomez's dancing :)

 

Us calling 911 to figure out what to do with our apartment!

 

the firemen came in clutch to tell us that everything is ok. #SELFIE

 

Elders saved our lives and brought us Jimmy Johns! Thanks guys!

 

Week 70: Shout out to Dad!!!

Well I really hope everyone had a wonderful Fathers day. Especially you dad! You are the best dad on the planet! you really are. I hope you had the most wonderful day ever. Shout out to all the dads!

If I had to describe this week in three words I would say, buffets, temple, and less-active-miracles

Monday: We went father's day shopping and Elder Barry needed new shirts because all of his are ripping so we shopped all day! well all of pday. Then we had dinner with the Alcantara's. They are a family from the Dominican Republic. Super super cool family. And they took us out to eat to..... Golden Corral! oh man. So we went to go get our plate of food and guess who is there!?? Latasha from the North! she is this sassy lady that we did service for in the north. It was so crazy to see her there. She recognized both Elder Barry and I. We had a sweet little reunion and then went back to stuffing our faces.

Tuesday: We had an awesome lesson with Leticia in the morning. She said she was going to pray about the Book of Mormon. She is pretty catholic, but has a pure curiosity about Mormons. We met with Reyna! It had been forever and it was soo good to see her again. So she told us that she had been praying to know what to do when we knocked on her door. #prayersareanswered We talked to her and she told us that that evening she was going to talk to her boyfriend. The one she used to live with. She told us that she has two options. #1 live with him again (which means break the law of chastity) and stay her in Oklahoma, or #2 Move to Atlanta to take a job over there. The only problem is that the job is at a bar. She would be a bartender. We explained to her that she needs to remember to put God first in her life and the rest would work out. I think the hardest thing was not knowing what option was better. We told her to go to heavenly Father. We said a prayer and then parted ways. As of today we haven't been able to contact Reyna. So I am praying that she made the right choice. I love her so much that hearing her struggles made me cry.

Wednesday: We scored a free pizza from Dominoes for lunch!! YES! and Wednesday evening our Relief Society President took us out with her to go visit a bunch of sisters in the branch that aren't coming to church. It was very very insightful for us to go with her and help her. We learned that we need to teach her and probably the whole relief society how to do visiting teaching. It was a huge eye opener for me.

Thursday: We had an awesome awesome awesome lesson with the Gomez family. Well just the parents. They are the parents of Irvin who was baptized about a month and a half ago. The last time we visited with them we asked them to read 3 Nephi 12. They said they did it! YES! and when we asked them to read the next one the mom, Yesika asked, can we start from the beginning? Then the dad, Aldolfo said, yeah we want to read the whole thing together. I freaked out inside!!!!! and tried to calmly say of course!!! Their kids get back on the 25th. I am so excited because now that the parents are on board the whole family is going to be on board! I am so pumped.

Friday: Miracle! A super less active member, hno Cabello called us and asked us if we were free tonight. We said we will be! And we went over. We had an awesome lesson with him. he also fed us tacos, so I was happy :) Then we headed over to Yukon because we were sleeping over there because...... JAVIER GONZALES WAS GOING THROUGH THE TEMPLE IN THE MORNING!!!

Saturday! Went to the temple and got to see all my Stillwater people! Javier Gonzales is preparing to leave for his mission to Arcadia, California mission in July. The best part of all of it is that after he received his endowment he was sealed to his parents. I can't explain the spirit that entered the room when that ordinance took place. I never realized how real eternal families are until that point. I am so grateful for an eternal family. But I got to see the Gonzales family, the Fox family, Hermano Johnson, and all the missionaries that served in the group. After the temple they took everyone to Fuze the nicest buffet I have been to in my entire life. It was mind blowing! I said a bittersweet goodbye to everyone from Stillwater. Hermana James included. I love them all so much.  So we went back to the south and Hermana Applegate donated blood. I wasn't going to step close to that needle, so I helped man the front desk and greeted people as they came in. then we went to the one and only Taste of China!!! buffet round number 3! Yup

Sunday: We were able to visit with two members that I have never met before! the Jurado family and hermano Jose Bautsita. When we visited the Jurado's hermana was in tears the whole time. You could just tell that she had been craving the spirit and when she was able to feel it again she cried. Jose Bautsita was hilarious! He is this funny old bald man from Mexico. and we talked and talked and talked. His friend was at his house when we came by and he is actually super interested to learn about the gospel. Oh I forgot to mention that I gave a talk in church on Sunday. It went well.

So on Thursday we had Zone conference. President trained about obedience and the blessings that come from it. There are so many. He shared a quote that has changed how I see obedience. I want to share it with yall.

"Obedience to God can be the very highest expression of independence. Just think of giving to him the one thing, the one gift, that he would never take. Think of giving him the one thing that he would never wrest form you.... obedience -- that which God will never take by force -- He will accept when freely given. And He will then return to you freedom that you can hardly dream of -- the freedom to feel and to know. The freedom to do, and the freedom to BE, at least a thousand fold more than we were." -- Boyd K. Packer

I know this is true. At the end of each zone conference all the missionaries who are leaving the mission before the next zone conference are called up to give their testimony. My stomach dropped to the floor when they called my name. It was a weird moment. I am so grateful for this time I have had to serve and I am even more grateful that I still have a little while longer to do the work of the Lord. There is nothing better than this. nothing harder, but nothing more rewarding. I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father that has supported me and helped me through everything. and I am even more grateful that he send me the best earthly father on the planet! Thanks dad for all that you do for me. I love you so much!!!

Hermana Hilton

Brother Johnson and part of the Gonzales family

The Gonzales family. Now an eternal family 

The missionary crew that came to the temple

Me and Hermana James!!

driving up to the temple with part of the stilly crew!!!!

I barely managed to get over and take a quick picture with my comp as she was donating blood. Then I ran back to the front desk because I can't do needles or blood!

Week 69: myspacebuttondoesn'twork.....

Well it has been quite the week.On Sunday I was a little sad because I felt like we hadn't really gotten anything done or seen many miracles. I was filling out my miracle calendar (I have just a normal calendar and every day I write down the miracle that we saw from that day) because I was about a week and a half behind. As I was doing that I realized how wonderfully amazing the Lord is. Things had happened and I didn't pay much attention to them,but when I was looking back I realized how many miracles we really did see. Most of them related to getting to see less actives that we hadn't seen in fiveever!

We got to see Reyna! We talked to her on Wednesday after about 2 and a half weeks of zero contact. Oh man. It was so good to see her again. She told us about how she was going to take a second job working at a bar.... oh no...... But that when her and her daughter went to go see how it would be she quickly decided that it was not the place for her. I was singing the hallelujah chorus! she also told us that she has been reading conference talks to help her feel the spirit more in her life. I really hope and pray that she will keep going so that she can go through the temple before I leave. She does need to get her butt to church though. She hasn't been in over a month. This week we are planning on having a heart to heart with her and tell her what she needs to do. I am praying my heart out that it will go well and that I will get to see her go through the temple.

We also got in contact with the Garcia family! they are they cute young family from Aguas Calientes. The last time I was able to get into their home was with Hermana Hunt.... so at least 3 and a half months ago! Their little girl Sofia is so big! she is now 6 months old and growing fast.

So you guys will enjoy this story. On Saturday we had 4 dinners. 4!!!!!!!! and they were all back to back!!!!!! We went to go read the Book of Mormon with a family, the Rodriguez family and they were cooking their dinner (this was 3:30) so they invited us to eat with them. We had spaghetti with shrimp (I skillfully avoided the shrimp) and meat and cheese stuffed chili peppers. I was really scared of the stuffed chili peppers, but I ate one and it was actually pretty good! (oh and you have t talk into consideration that I had a fairly large lunch at noon) So they drove us to the next place which was a baby shower. ....so more food! I had dinner number two there. they had a huge schpeal of food! I wasn't planning on eating until they dished me up a huge plate!!! That was at 4:45. At 6 we had the original dinner planned with the Gonzales family. We went to Brahms and I thought I was going to explode!!!! Hermano Gonzales insisted that we all get ice cream too... oh man. So thinking that there is no way I could possibly be any fuller our Young Mens president tells us about a investigators birthday party. We didn't have any set appointments so we decided to go. and guess what there was...... more food!!! oh man. This was at about 7:45. Man. We had a huge plate of beans meet and rice. and they also pulled out desert! tres leches! oh man. Hermana Applegate and I got home and just layed on the floor for a good while because neither of us could breathe! so yup that concluded the 4 dinners in one night story...... no wonder i'm gaining weight here!

Ok. funny little kid story. Ready? On Sunday night we were walking around an apartment complex when this little girl comes up to us and asks us what we were doing. We explain to her that we are missionaries and we talk about God. She asks us who god is and we tell her that He is her Father. She the gets a puzzled look on her face and asks, "does that mean we are all brothers and sisters?" I giggle a little and answer yes! then she gets this really gross look on her face and quickly says, "That's why I will never have a boyfriend!" haha We both burst into laughter at that point! So priceless. Oh one more little kid story. We were teaching Reyna and her little grandkids show up. they sit with us for a little and joined us for the closing prayer. As we were walking out the youngest daughter said, "goodbye God helpers!" I grinned. I wish everyone could be as receptive and humble and teachable as kids are. This world would be such a better place.

We got to go see Irvin's parents. this week! that was amazing! They are doing well and really enjoying the break from all of their kids. We went over there to read with them. When we asked them to go get the Book of Mormon the mom asked if she could have another one because (ready????) Irvin took his book of Mormon to Mexico!!!!!!!!!! That made me so happy. He loves this gospel and he didn't forget the Book of Mormon. The only contact we have with Irvin right now is through his parents. So it was good to know that he is doing well.

Well I just want to end by saying that I know this gospel is true. Being a missionary is the hardest thing I have ever done. I have never been through anything as challenging, as difficult, as heartbreaking as this. But at the same time I have never felt so much love, so much joy, so close to my Savior. I wouldn't change that for the world. I am still very imperfect human being, but I know who I am and who I can become. I know my Savior. There is an African proverb that says, "If there is no demon within, the demon outside can do us no harm." Christ is the one that gives us the strength to overcome our demons.

I love you all!!! hasta luego!
Hermana Hilton

This is (from left to right) Miguel! Reymundo! Rosa! Me! Hermana Applegate! this was Reymundos last dinner with us so we took some pictures to say goodbye. 

When you are trying to learn a new verb conjugation but give up...... 

So this week we got a new vacuum and we vacuumed the whole apartment..... this is what came out of the vacuum after we did it... it is the size of a large bunny! Hermana Applegate named it Pumpkin haha

The beautiful Oklahoma sky. It never ceases to take my breath away. 

Week 68: Miracles of the week!

Miracles of the week!!!

Monday: We went to go visit Reyna, but she wasn't home. Luli her roomate answered the door and let us in! huge miracle there because normally she is super cold when we go over. We were able to talk to her and even watch Hope of God's Light with her. Also on Monday evening we got in with Rosa De La Cruz! We had a pretty good lesson where we straight up told her that we are there because we love her. That is what motivates us. Love for god and love for her. She cried. The sad thing was that she was drunk while we were teaching her, so I pray that she can remember something that was said.

Tuesday: An overall good day. We got to see a lot of less actives. We had a freak rain storm in the middle of the day were it rained super super hard. It was crazy. I was so thankful that we were with Hermana Ordonez otherwise we would have been soaked from head to toe! The Lord watches over his missionaries.

Wednesday: Transfers! I said goodbye to Hermana Medeiros and sent her off to Texas. and Hermana Applegate is here with me now!!! I am so excited. a little bit of background information on Hna Applegate. #1 she is amazing! she is from Salt Lake City Utah. She is one of five children. This is the coolest part she is fluent in Spanish!!! she learned her Spanish in Chile. Her Junior year of high school she was a foreign exchange student in Chile. so pretty much she is going to be teaching me how to speak Spanish. I am so excited too because we will be able to jump all the way into the missionary work. There won't be the struggle of not understanding the language for her. I am so excited to work hard with her.

Thursday: We had district meeting on thursday. It messed with my brain so much because normally we have it on Fridays! funny story. at the end of district meeting Hermana Applegate fell backwards on her chair!!! Her legs went straight up in the air!! she was a champ about it though. We have been laughing about it since. Thursday evening we went to go try an investigator, Iris Garcia. She wasn't home, but her husband was. I still am trying to decide if he was bashing or if he really wanted to know about the gospel. He asked alot of probing questions but luckily Hna applegate was able to answer a lot of them! We worked together as a team and he said at the end that he really wants to read the book of Mormon. #missionaccomplished

Friday: We helped out allllllllll day long at the sake's youth conference. we were assigned a groupe of about 20 youth and we walked them through the day. It was fun to go through all the classes with them and to learn with them. There were some kids from our branch that were in our group and I got to know them more which was really fun!

Saturday: Hermana Applegate's first day of full biking! Poor girl her bum hurts so bad from all the biking and her legs are sore, but she is a champ and just keeps going.

Sunday: So we go to church like always right? And everything goes well. We go into the chapel after church and find a spiral notebook that someone left. Not knowing what to do we put it on a shelf. About 2 minutes before we were about to leave Hermano Espinosa (our branch mission leader) calls us. He asks us if we know where it is. We say yes and grab it so that we can give it to him. So we go home and do the rest of our normal Sunday evening things. we have dinner. and then head out for an appointment. The family wasn't home and not knowing what to do we decided to call hermano Espinosa and see if we could get his notebook back to him. We called and he invited us to go visit some people with him. We gladly accepted. We visited a member and then he took us to a nonmembers home and introduced us to them. They are work friends of his. He introduced us and we started straight into a lesson. I was mind blown the whole time and it was so amazing to see member missionary work in action. Because Hermano Espinosa and this family already had a relationship the listed differently than they would have if we would have just knocked on their door. We taught an amazing restoration lesson and the family has great potential. they said they would read the Book of Mormon too! So the reason that this is such a huge miracles is because all week we had been really struggling to get lessons in. All of them were falling through. So when we were able to teach a lesson with a member there and it was something we didn't plan for at all, we both knew that the hand of the Lord was in it. all because Hermano Espinosa left his notebook in the chapel.

Its been a good week. I am super excited for the one to come. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Last day with Hermana Medeiros!! I love you girl!!!!!!!

me and both of my "daughters" 

more transfer fun!! this are the two elders that I came out with! 

 

The new spanish crew!!!!! Welcome Hermana Applegate and Elder Barret!

 

Hermana Applegate's first day biking! 

 

Yup :) We are having fun already 

 

service project at stake youth conference

 

this was our youth conference group we had so much fun spending the day with these crazy kids.