Always Be a Missionary

If everyone could be reconciled with God through the atonement of Christ, we would all be filled with such great joy.

I´ve been converted into a permanent missionary and I´ll always invite people to listen to the missionaries. 

I´ll surround myself with people, envirments, music and influences that allow me to continue to live in rightousness even though I might continue to make mistakes as I have done for 20 years. 

I love you guys, I´ll see you soon. I´ll be in church on the 18th to see you all :)

Elder Hilton

Last Week of Full Work

I can say that the base of my conversion are the personal experiences I've had feeling God´s love, knowing that I´m his son. A special one. And reading the Book of Mormon and learning so much. Feeling hunger and thirst to know more and understand. The experiences I've felt the presence of God in the temple and in other holy places. 

I love being a missionary and I´ll always be one. I´ll do all I can to keep this fire alive, driving me to do all a missionary does. The best thing we can do as missionaries is find investigators, help the members to be good friends with them and teach them every day. Be constant with them. When that situation happens, many people come to be converted in the gospel. Its always been a gospel of love and friendship. We need others to live it. Especially at first. In order to feel the Savior´s love, a lot of times we need to feel it through other people. Through our love, service and diligence with others. My area is pretty good. I haven't had time to go to it a lot this week but there's a PF family and the daughter is going to be baptized on the 3rd! I´m really happy for this awesome family. I know it was their time to come back. 

This is going to be my last full week of work. Next Saturday will be the 3rd. The new missionaries come on the 6th, the missionaries that go home will be coming to the city on the 7th, my Dad gets here the 8th and the 9th all the missionaries in my group go home and I have to be closely involved in all of those activities, leaving me no time to work in my area. I have to give it my all this week! Every day as my last. I love this work and the gospel. I know that God´s plan will be fulfilled in all who are faithful. I love Christ and his perfect atonement made to redeem us from death and suffering. The Book of Mormon is the source of this knowledge which brings so much joy to me. 

Love you guys.
Elder Hilton

The Determining Factor

There´s only 3 weeks left of full proselyting (the fourth week we have transfers and in the offices there´s absolutely no time to proselyte in this last week) so if our investigators go to church tomorrow, there's a possibility of them getting baptized in my time left on the mission. If they don't come to church, my goal will be to prepare more people to come in order for the next missionaries that will replace me to baptize them. If they do come to church, my goal will be to prepare them for baptism. We´ll see what happens.

 I´m starting to understand the great importance of this work. Its completing many promises that the Lord has made with lots of old prophets. Enos, Mormon, Moroni, Jacob and many more. They all had faith and prayed that the Lamanites be restored and repent and now its happening.

This week me and my comp went on a 3 day long trip to Beni. There´s three cities in Beni. Trinidad, Riberalta and Guayaramerín. We went to all three so we have 3 pictures getting out of the planes of all three places.

In one of the pictures the little girl in the back posed hahahahaha

Love you guys!

Trunky

When thinking upon the spiritual events that have occurred during the course of my youth, I feel peace, joy and virtue. I desire to continue living in such a way that I can always have these feelings with me. I recognize that even one thought, one decision, one desire can strip me of all that makes me happy. I need to be anchored on the source of all virtue, power and protection: my Savior.

Me and my comp with the board of the whole mission behind us

I can feel a difference in my energy level as a missionary in the offices with little time left on the mission. I´m striving even though at times I sense feelings of fatigue. My desire is to teach the gospel in such a way that the people that hear me can understand what they need to do in order to acquire peace in their lives. 

We found a house where 4 sisters live together. Three of them have their husbands. All of them are interested and said that they will go to church. That will determine if there is a possibility of me being present at the time of their baptism or not. I have a lot of hope for them to get to that point conversion during my last few weeks here.

Love you guys,

Elder Hilton

A week of administration

It hurts to have to neglect my area for a whole week, but this week, we had to completely focus on the administration in the offices. It´s always like that every transfer. I have goals and plans and desires for my area but a lot of the time there's no time to get them done. 

This week we received the new missionaries (6 north americans, one from Chile, one from Peru, a sister from Brazil and a sister from panamá)

Taking the missionaries that ended their missions to the airport was a preview of whats going to happen to my group in one more transfer. We had some problems with the overweight luggage of one elder and I got a little stressed out. It kind of ruined the moment of saying goodbye to him due to my stress and worries. 

I´m really happy about my mission and I hope that many more miracles occur before I end.  Thanks for all your support and love, I know I´ll continue to receive it when I get home.

Love, 

Elder Hilton

Ask for miracles

I told my comp several times this week ¨I´m so trunky¨ 
But in the weekly planning inventory he told me that I´m not trunky because I still haven´t lost my vision of the work or my diligence.

That´s what I´m going to work at, not losing my diligence or my vision of my goals. I was going through my journal of all the mission and the most exiting stories that there are have to do with praying for miracles. 

Several times in the mission I've been able to pray for a miracle and promise that I´d write it down. In the night I've been able to think about the day and recognize several miracles. Big and small.
I did so once more yesterday with my companion Elder Valencia (From Perú) and something happened that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the prayer of faith. We now have several investigators that are going to come to church and one with a baptismal date.

My biggest goal for the rest of the mission is to baptize 3 families. I really hope it happens and know that it can if I work hard each day to gain it. As they said in the conference, we can´t pray to strip someone of their agency, but I can work hard to find the right people, the people that have been prepared, I can pray to be guided to say the right words and be guided by the spirit in word and action. 

I really want to come home with a purified heart. With a new attitude. With a desire to serve in my heart. That's the change I strive to see in myself and in my converts. 

Love you guys. 
See you in 8 weeks. 

Elder Hilton

Our Savior´s Love

I loved General Conference.
I loved how they talked about the Plan of Salvation and how everyone can recognize the truths of it.
It got me excited to talk to people about Christ as is taught in the Book of Mormon.
An apostle once said that due to the restauration, we know more about Jesus Christ than anyone.
David A. Bednar said that we need to know Christ to be saved. 
By reading the book of Mormon, accepting what it teaches and living it, we come to know him perfectly. If we come to know him, we come to know his Father... And this is eternal life: to know the Father. 

The restored gospel makes it possible for us to live all that is required to become like our Savior. 
Jesus Christ once said ´be perfect´ and the testimony that Nefi leaves in the Book of Mormon is that the Lord will not give us any commandments without preparing the way for us to get them done. We have the potential to become even as our Savior.

As we feel his love in our loves and show our love toward him, we become true diciples. We become full of his love and are transformed in sources of his love and help. It is a goal that requires you to leave your comfort. Talk to people you normally wouldn´t talk to, do things you normally would feel uncomfortable doing. But thats the beginning of growth. 

I´m starting to see in my life that my weaknesses are too much and too strong for me to handle on my own. I need to rely on my Savior in order to be strong. We all do.

I love my family and am excited to see them once more. I´m planning a meeting with all my friends that have gone on missions so we can share some experiences and hear eachother talk in our native languages. 

Thanks for you support love and prayers.
With all respect and love
Elder Hilton

How to Be Busy and Love Others

The administration makes you naturally want to just make everything work out as we have it planned. But a good administrator is one that knows how to adapt to the needs of each individual and deal with it with patience and love. It provides a great opportunity to serve in a loving way. 

Sometimes we plan visits and we can´t get to them because of that. This week an Elder went home early because they discovered cancer in his abdomen, and a sister has an emergency transfer due to asthma. All those types of emergencies are to be delt with as soon as they appear and that makes it hard sometimes to get to the visits.

 But the good part is that we were able to invite some people to the General Conference and theyre going to come. One of our investigators came with us to visit his neighboor. 

My desire is to be completely prepared for a life of service in the gospel with an attitude of patience and love towards others. That´s why I´m grateful for this experience in the offices. It´ll be up to me to take advantage of this experience to learn and grow.

The Book of Mormon is the reason why I´m doing what I´m doing. This book has me convinced of the truthfulness of the existence of God, His Son Jesus Christ, the restoration of the church, and all it entails. 

Love you guys,
Elder Hilton

Work Hard, Get Up Early, Work Hard, Repeat

One of the things I love but that gets me so tired is being able to get the Elders to the airport. I did it two weeks ago, I did it last week and I'm going to do it this week. A lot of times, Elders go home for health, for passport problems or other issues that aren't related with sins. Its fun to get up early and do these things because no other elder can do so. But at the same time it makes me so tired all day. 
I love working close to the president and learning from him. 
My companion is the secretary of the finances and he has such a big vocabulary (Hes from Peru) so I'm learning a lot more spanish.
Im getting fat because Im eating a ton of burger king hahaha

Love you guys

Elder Hilton

Secretary of the Mission

They called us for the cambios and we were sure that I was going to stay and that Elder Moreno was going to go. (I had the hope of training a new missionary) but they called and told us that Elder Moreno was going to stay (Hes going to be there for a year) and that I had to come to be the secretary of the mission!

Its been the craziest responsibility ever. We had to take all the missionaries that were going home to the airport to help them to get through all the processing and we were up all night! So I just slept last night after a really long time of no sleep. We got to be present in the last dinner with president and the last testimony meeting with the missionaries that were leaving so it was really special. The food was really good haha! 

I'm going to learn a LOT these last 3 months to be more responsible, more organized and more confident. I have the goal to help at least 2 more families to know the gospel so I´m going to have to learn to balance my time between the office and the field. I'm going to be focused and work as HARD as I can to finish off the mission. Then when I get home, I´m going to keep working hard to prepare myself to create a family. That's the whole purpose of this gospel, to create happy families. That what I hope for. 

Love you guys

Elder Hilton

A Sad Week

I got sad a lot this week. We saw a lot of people reject the gospel or hear slander from other people or get drunk and a lot of other things. There's so much wickedness in this world.

But we did a cool activity of cake. We got the members to deliver cake to their neighbors and invite them to hear us. Were going to do it again this week because a few new people came to church because of it this week and now there's more investigators. And these investigators are different than the ones we find because of the friendship that they have with the members. They feel the support and love of the members and progress a LOT better. 

Here's my home made animal style fries that I made hahaha

For the time I'm going to end with my testimony of the Book of Mormon. Because of this Book I know that Christ is real and that God exists. I know their plan for me and the steps I must take in order to achieve this plan. If it weren't for this book I would probably doubt the very existence of God. There's so many people that doubt the existence of God but if they read the Book of Mormon they wouldn't doubt it. 

Elder Hilton

The Areas Plan

Good afternoon, were the missionaries and were looking for parents.

This week we searched hard to find parents. Were realizing that something happens with frequency. We find a mom and hope to teach her husband later on, but he never has time or doesnt want to learn. Were changing the strategy to get directly to the husband.

I was so proud of one of our converts this week (he is now the ward secretary and has the higher priesthood) when he bore his testimony in sacrament meeting and gave the class in the second hour. Hes so firm and strong in the gospel and out of all of our converts hes one of the most converted. He comes to all the activities and is always willing to come with us on visits. His name is Ronald Lopez.

I loved this sunday a plan that the bishop shared with of from the sano area (sudamerica noroeste) that has to do with three aspects: the youth, self sufficiency, and ordinances. It really inspired me and motivated me to help all the members to understand the plan and take part in it. These plans provide an excellent oportunity to put our will in line with the revelations that our liders recieve for us. That exposes us to a greater influence of the spirit. 

I love this gospel and know that all those who humble themselves before God and desire to be part of his work can see many miracles in their lives. 

Love you guys,
Elder Hilton

This Life is So Short

If I didn't have the Savior to hold on to, what would I do?

I'm super thankful for the  gospel and the plan of salvation. Without it, I don't know how I would feel.

This week was awesome! We got to go out with a ton of the priesthood leaders and have a lot of lessons with members. 

We found a lot of new families and were excited to help them to know the gospel and help them to take the decision to live according to it. We want to help them to come to church this week. 

Love you guys.

Se Casaron!

This was such a big wedding! They have a funny tradition here where the bride and groom dance in the middle of everyone the waltz and everyone just watches. Everyone's just sitting down watching and then people can come up and dance with the bride or the groom. It was so cool but I would never want to do that cuz I don't like dancing in front of everyone!!! Anyway it was really good to see them get married. It made me feel good inside, like it was something right, something good. So many people here just get together without getting married and have kids and everything.

We didn't get to the expected number of anything this week but I realized that we need to start focusing on the quality of the lessons instead of the number. We went out with some members this week and got into some houses and had at least one quality lesson so I'm excited to keep working this way.

One of the most memorable moments of this week was when I realized that I don't have love for the people like He does and in order for them to feel His love through my words and actions, He´d need to lend me His love. So I've been praying hard to borrow His love this week and I feel like when I talk to people and smile and do all I can to love them, they´re feeling more and more that this love isn't mine. I think that the most important 2 things of this work is that the members can have this kind of love for the investigators and that we can declare the truth with simplicity in order for the spirit to testify of what we say.

Love you guys have an awesome week

Love Elder Hilton

We need more people to teach

Jorge Luis is going to get married this Friday and baptized the next Saturday!

This week we realized that we need more people to come to church.
We need to look for ways to get the people more interested in the message and more willing to recieve us in their house.
I'm determined to work hard each and every day that is left on the mission. I say that mostly because I talked to president this week and he gave me a lot of good advice.

I love the gospel because each time we read the Book of Mormon and the other Scriptures, they make more sense! Its like doing a snowboarding trick after a long time and all of a sudden I can do it perfectly. 

Have a good week!!!!
Elder Hilton

Keep On Striving Excelence

This was the week that we were sure my comp was going to leave here and head out to another area. But to our great surprise, he stayed!!!!! I'm really glad he did because Elder Moreno has been probably the best comp that I have had when it comes to working well as a team. Whenever there's a problem we always try to work it out and it always gets worked out. 

This week we had a lot of high expectations and low results. We were hoping for like 3 or 4 families to come to church and none of them went hahaha! But I´m not going to let that get me down or make me feel like my expectations are too high. I just need to keep striving excelence.

Jorge Luis is going to get married then baptized on the 19th and the 20th! Hes the boyfriend of a member and he has been going to church for almost a year but none of the Elders wanted to teach him or baptize him becuase he lived in another area that didnt belong to the ward. But the mission president came and we talked to him about it and got permission to start teaching him. Hes going to move into the ward boundries soon so theres not going to be any problems. 

I know that its super important to read the Book of Mormon and believe what it teaches. I know that its important to be humble before the Lord and accept his will. I know that its hard to do a lot of the time because of fear, doubt and a lot of other factors, but if we do it, He´ll guide us to a happier life.

Have a good week! :D 

Elder Hilton

You Can´t Get Tired!!!

The more people we invite, the higher chance we have of getting at least someone to come on Sunday! And if someone comes to church, they progress!

We´ve been working hard but the members have been having a lot of trials. People are sick, passing away and it makes it impossible for their ´centro de fortaleza´ to work. We´re seeing the results of NOT using the ¨centros¨ because even though we went over to their house with members and read the Book of Mormon with them, prayed with them and so much more, they didn´t come to church. Its not the same! We need them in order for it to work as it has in the past. But we aren´t going to give up. We´re going to need to do a huge effort to get more member families excited about the work and start up more centros. I feel like that's whats going to bring in the most success. When we have success in the centros, it creates a triangle of blessed and happy people: us, the members and the converts. 

We got to meet the new president! His name is Presidente Cabezas. He is really awesome and has a great vision, new goals and a good attitude that I hope will help our wards and stakes to feel the desire to work side by side with us. We have all day every day to work, and with each member we would only need like an hour each day and we´d have such a great probability of helping a lot of families to receive the gospel. We just need a good attitude, a lot of faith and work! 

Tomorrow we have transfers! I really hope to stay here, but I´m willing to serve wherever it may be. I feel the slight pull to get a little lazy and start falling back into the comfort of mediocrity, but that's not what my spirit desires. I want excellence and that only comes with hard work.

I know that this gospel brings peace, joy and many blessings. 
I know that these blessings are available to all who search diligently in the scriptures and pray with humility and learn to hear the promptings of the spirit. All who have the disire to live a life harmonious with His will, can if they do so.

Thanks for your support, love and prayers

Elder Hilton

Going uphill again!

We were able to find 3 new families that seem like they could progress really fast! We have to hope to help them to accept the gospel in its fullness and change their lifestyle to do so. They've already begun to read the Book of Mormon and find answers to their questions. Some have gone to ward activities and others to church on Sunday. I´m really looking forward to seeing each one of them progress and find more peace in their lives. 
Ronald Lopez has been called as the ward secretary! Máximo blessed the sacrament, and they're both going with the ward high priest to prepare to receive the Melquisedéc priesthood (That's how its spelled in Spanish, I forgot how it is in English). We´ve seen that all the converts have had trials and some are still having trials, but were doing all we can to help them and to get to members excited to help them as well. We´ve seen that they're able to overcome their trials and get pumped to keep living the gospel despite all that happens.

This week I learned in my studies that when someone starts to prosper in their life, they have two options, the options to keep reading and humbling themselves before the Lord and praying with a sincere heart, or get prideful and stop doing those basic things because of the comfort and riches. Sadly, a lot of people take the second decision and something really sad happens: When someone stops reading and praying, the light that allowed them to understand the gospel disappears and they enter into darkness and no longer understand the gospel. That gives room for the enemy to deceive them and make them believe false things about the church, the ordinances and the doctrines. 

These lies drive them away from the truth and pulls them towards the evil. Whats good becomes bad and whats bad becomes good in their eyes and they fall away. That's the saddest thing that can happen. I would hate to have that to happen to anyone. That's why I´ll invite you all to continue reading and praying. Don´t allow your prosperity, comfort and riches keep you from humbling yourselves before the Lord in sincere prayer. I promise that if you keep reading and praying every day, you'll be guided through all the tricks, deceit and lies of the enemy in a straight line to the eternal happiness. 

I love this gospel and know its true, I desire that each family can be united in it and experience the peace and happiness that He can provide. I'm super excited to get back to work to see if these families progress. 

Elder Hilton

Time to Search

This week was a wake up call that we need to start contacting with the members a whole lot more. All the people that got baptized were able to do so due to the support and love of the members. We´ve been doing something called ´centros de fortaleza´ where we contact with the member and if one of their neighbors accepts, we take them to the house of the member and teach them there. They receive the support, testimony and friendship of the member and progress so well. But before we would just do it all by ourselves and it didn't work as well. I know that if we learn to love just as the Savior did, people will feel His love through our words and actions and that's what people need in order to progress in the gospel. This week we´re going to do a huge effort to find new people to teach. I really hope to find another family that can progress and accept the gospel.

Another thing that we need to do with urgently is make sure that the new members are getting the support they need. I hate to see the new members with doubts and difficulties. We havent seen a lot of that yet but I want to do all I can to support them when the hard times come, because they always do, and they are for our good, but its going to be easier if they have the love and support of the members and the ward missionaires.

These wards in Bolivia arent like the wards we have in Idaho. Theres not the same system of callings and order. It exists but they dont put it in practice as much as Ive seen it done over there. Im starting to see more and more that this system of order and callings and stuff exists for a reason and if they were put in practice, I would feel so much better knowing that the members would be recieving the help they need to be retained in the gospel. We cant be saved on our own. We need our Savior Jesus Christ, and we need the other saviors that offer support, help, testimonies, service, etc. We have the potencial to act as intruments in his hands, to act as saviors. 

I love this gospel, I cant wait to put it in practice in my own family, read the Book of Mormon with my own children. This gospel is so important for each and every person, and this is the time to learn it and live it.

Love you guys

Elder Hilton

THE BEST and most tiring week

This week was AWESOME because we did some really cool things to help the converts. We did a dinner with the leaders and the converts and played a game that some girls taught me when I was in college. You put a bunch of funny questions on slips of paper, and you take turns pulling them out and answering them. Questions like If you were an animal, which one would you be? and silly stuff like that. It was a lot of fun and they all loved it. It helped them to get involved in the social life of a member and realize that you can have fun and be a good person. 

I loved seeing the baptism of this family and this young woman. The best part of it all was hearing their testimonies. Maria: the young woman, shared a POWERFUL testimony. She had been studying a TON because her testimony included a lot of segments from the pamphlets we use and she shared a scripture in her testimony as well. The best part of it was when she talked about the Franco family.

 (I don't know if you remember me mentioning the Centros de fortaleza which are the houses of the families that go contacting with us. The Franco family is one of them and we contacted Maria with them and every appointment we had with her was in the Franco family's house, so they helped her a TON) 

She expressed her love and gratitude towards this family and cried. That is the best part of this work for me, The feelings of love that are formed between the converts and the members. My dream is to be in the Celestial Kingdom with these converts and the members that helped us teach them. I understand that in order for that to happen, they need to be faithful until the end, and that's why I'm super anxious for the ward missionaries to start working HARD to keep these converts on the path. Repentance is more than just a change of bad habits, its also a change of social life and starting to do all the things that the prophets teach us to do, the mormon traditions. 

Anyway, I love taking part of this work and seeing so many people change their hearts and feel the joy that comes from living a righteous life.

I love you guys!

Elder Hilton