November 24, 2014

Ok so This week has been very awesome, but also  has had some pretty difficult things.  However, yesterday was amazing!!!  I am going to be sending pictures of the baptism to everyone today and also the view from my apartment.  Anyway, yeah, it is only me and Elder Cancino here in our apartment, and every day we are super busy!!  We actually have two people with baptismal dates for this Saturday which is awesome!!! But anyway I am going to try and recount these past weeks the best that I can.  Last week it felt like my spanish didn't really get much better but this week, yes.   We had the baptism and Elder Cancino did the Baptism and he almost fell in while going down the stairs..  I ended up not doing the confirmation, thank goodness, because I don’t know if I know the words for it.  Then this week I had a super rough night, where I felt so lost in conversations, and out of place here.  This was super difficult for me, but it is better now.  Yesterday was the bomb!!  I got to give my first talk in spanish and I actually went overtime,  which to me is a testimony of how  the gift of tongues actually works!!!!  Then later that night we committed someone to be baptized this Saturday which is super exciting!! So hopefully we will have 2 Saturday!!!   

My comp said, that we don't have hot water but I will look!!! (Seth told him that there is a switch in the head of the shower that would heat the water).  Oh and the other missionaries that came with me are in either of the two zones that are here in Bucaramunga. I  am so grateful for the money!!! And I told you it would be super expensive to send the Christmas packages.  You shouldn't have sent them, but I want you to  know I am super grateful to you mom!!!  You always make my day!!!! 

It is so great to hear about everyone’s lives back at home!!  Haha I forgot to mention that today we went to a bowling alley and that was fun and we also bought ourselves a Christmas tree and ornaments so I will send a picture of that too! 

Remember that I love you all and am so grateful for each one of you!! Thanks!!

Èlder Hilton

Looking outside our apartment

Today, we went out and bought us a little Christmas Tree.

November 17, 2014

This week hasn't been quite as exciting for me because I have learned a lot of things we need to work on but I'm trying my best!  So I have been eating bananas and bread and yogurt and oatmeal depending on the day and it seems to work great!  I havent cooked anything yet for breakfast but thats just because I still have to get used to the schedule and become more efficient in my mornings.  I need to warn you that I don't have much time today because we have an appointment in really soon so if I don't answer your questions its because we ran out of time and so yeah! I will answer them tomorrow!!

Anyway on the bus ride here no, I was not alone thank goodness!  I was with about 8 other missionaries so it was really cool!  The transition was good haha I don't really know what you mean by that but yeah my grip on English is slipping sorry!  We don't really ever heat water, we just wash with soap with cold water and the other missionaries don't really get sick or anything so it is all good!  And the people here say the water is good so I imagine that we could drink it but it is mission rules to drink water that goes through our bottles with filters or bottled water so we do that.  

My comp is pretty good!  He doesn't really talk much so a bunch of the things I have to learn for myself but I am trying to be more open with him about things.  He isnt disobedient and he wants to do the work so thats always a blessing!  We are always asking if we can do anything for our investigators so we are very busy! 

Thats so exciting to hear about the kids!! I can't wait until I can talk to them and see how they are doing!  The last couple of months have gone by so fast!! Christmas is coming!  I honestly miss snow a lot!  In the mall there is a Christmas display and it had a bunch of cotton for snow and it was kinda chevere.  Times about up so until next week!!

Élder Hilton

November 11, 2014 - Bucaramunga

So because I am in the field now my p days are on mondays so expect a letter every monday unless there are transfers but yeah I am going to reply to each email that you have sent separately. My new comp is Elder Cancino! He is from the Southern part of Mexico and is pretty cool.  He is super patient with me which is nice but we don't really talk a lot because It is super difficult but we try so that is good!  Haha he doesn't speak much English, at least not to me so its all been explaining in Spanish which is great!

I have adjusted pretty well to the new life and seem to have plenty of energy to do the work except for right when I get up.  Also the showers are ice cold because there isn't hot wáter here and that doesn't help in the mornings but it helps me test my will to do things because that is one of the hardest things for me. The Schedule isn't hard for me though.  The food here is good and the Ward feeds the missionaries for every Lunch so that is quite awesome because lunch is the biggest meal but I tell you what, I miss the food at pizza pie a ton! Not a day goes by that I don't think about it.  The breakfasts are difficult though because I literally don't know what to eat, so I have had oatmeal thingys in yogurt for a while. 

I am now in the Bucaramunga Bucarica área and its actually a pretty rich área but it is huge!! Lots of walking up and down a hill but thats alright! my feet and legs haven't really hurt yet which is a miracle but thats nice! and with the package.  It was about an 8 hour bus ride from Bogota to here but it was through the night so I could sleep.  Like I may have said the member help is amazing here for visits and all! We actually have two baptismal dates and we will be baptizing one this saturday and I believe I may have to do the confirmation so that is a bit nerve-wracking.

The language is coming! I can almost understand all of the investigators but there are a few people that its super difficult.  Speaking is so much harder for me though.

How is Duke?  Just about everyone has an animal here if not 5 or 6 and Its made me miss duke a ton!!

Christmas is only about a month and a half away!! and I think that stuff takes about 6 weeks to get here, at least letters!  But so far I have loved just about every day and when I haven't loved it I just need to wait a day and it'll change!  Its a bit hot here but its cooler than it could be! 

Anyway I'll send another letter.

 Love you all mom, dad, family and friends!!
 

Elder Hilton and Elder Cancino

October 31, 2014 - Last Week in the CCM

So this week I got my latino comp and his name is Élder Cedeño and he is from Ecuador.  This week has been pretty crazy hard with not knowing spanish but It has also been crazy amazing. Élder Lund was my comp (so the stockier one) and no he didn't get transferred into the field.  How it works is a group of North Americans come in and are comps with eachother for 4 weeks. Then for the last 2 we are comps with Latinos that come in and we all head into the field the same day which is Tuesday morning.

So yeah I go into the field Tuesday and in all honesty I'm super scared.  We went proselyting again and it was good but I couldn't understand much and I could say even less.  But I know I can do it because I am called to serve here.  So another thing that helped me to be motivated to be out here was one of the missionaries in our group got sent home.  He was really having a hard time so he prayed to get guidance and he was able to feel that he had things he needed to change in order to have the family he wanted in the future.  That was an amazing experience.  One of the Élders read a poem called Jesus felt it too or something like that.  It was pretty powerful.  The missionary that got sent home was one of my better friends out here in the field.  His personality is almost exactly like Will so it was pretty great to have him here but I know that he is going to do things the right way.

I think I am going to wait till in the field to do the dropbox thing because I am not sure if we can here and I don't have that much time to set one up so I will just wait a couple of days.  Everything sounds great at home!

Oh and mom I came up with some things that would be nice to get in a package but if its too difficult don't worry about it. I was just thinking pictures of family and friends would be nice and also mini pocket sized english hyms, and mini english and spanish childrens songs.  But the to ship out here is crazy expensive so if its too expensive don't worry about it. 

The Temple is my favorite part of the week and I am sad that I might not be able to go while in the field but keep going! There is a lot of work to do! 

Anyway I got to go but expect a few pictures! Love you All!

Elder Cedeno & Elder Hilton

2 Days From 1 Month - October 21, 2014

Ok, so to start out I would like to say that I am sorry that I couldn't write yesterday, it was a full day because we went on tour and didn't get back till late but hopefully you can forgive me.  Anyway tour was amazing! we got to go up to the top of this mountain and look down on the city and wow! This city is enormous!! I will try to add pictures but itsn't working right now.. But basically the city goes as far out as you can see from the top of this mountain and it goes super wide! We had to ride this gondola thing and this mountain was super steep!! There was this catholic church on the top and this whole community tourist trap type thing and in the shops there were cocain leaf tea things and they offered us some and that was a bit weird but oh well.  Then we went to this jersey shop and got jerseys and soccer pants! I got a sick manchester united shirt I think with my name and number on it and it was like 25 ish bucks if that!

Then last night we watched Ephraim's Rescue and I loved it!  It reminded me of home a lot though but thats good.  It seriously almost feels like life in Utah was just a dream!  Anyway Ephraim's Rescue reminded me of what I need to me more like in order to get the help that I desperately need.  When I think of why I'm out here and all of these people who need something to help them change their lives it makes me so much more motivated to do my best because I have that thing that can help them!

Today I get a new comp. This time he is latino!! So hopefully I will be learning tons from him! I really don't know what else to say ummmmmmmmm yeah thats the thing about having weird P-days but I'll send some pics! So there is going to be a bunch of picture emails so here we go!!

Week Three I Believe, October 17, 2014

So basically this week has been the bomb dot com! So actually it was only two days that were basically awesome, but anyway here we go!

Sundays here are the best! We have meetings all day but half of them are in English for the North Americans so I can understand them! And then later we have this meeting with the CCM President where we get super deep into the plan of salvation and I'm talking like an hour of discussion and we haven't gotten out of pre premortal life! It's awesome! There are so many things in the scriptures that I don't know much about!

Then two nights ago Élder Olsen was sleep talking and Élder Lund had this idea that we could talk to him in his sleep and it totally worked! We told him this girl was calling and she wanted to talk to him and he was like "Tell her I'm in Bogotá" In the CCM we get these chocolates with stickers in them and the stickers are somewhat of a currency here but we told Élder Olsen that another Élder had his stickers and that he had to run after them and so he started running in his sleep! Then I said that someone thought that he had stolen some of my stickers and that I didn't like that.  He replied "Élder Hilton.... is... a baby!" It was amazing how clear his words were and I would have thought he was asleep except with how much we were laughing there was no way that he could have not laughed along but needless to say it was amazing!

Ok so now to the truly amazing part, proselyting.  We went yesterday morning and it was quite the experience.  We were down in the south part of the town by a library and a TON of parks.  We started off with a prayer and then walked over this road on a bridge.  That took us to a dog park with no joke, at least 30 dogs.  There were some people just chilling there so we went up to talk to them... It was then that I realized that my Spanish is about as terrible as passing newspapers.. We were talking to this lady named Marta and she just kept laughing at our Spanish and she had a friend named Alejandra who knew a little bit of English but they were't very interested in our message.  There was a golden retriever there and it reminded me of Duke.  I actually had a dream about Duke and that golden retriever last night but thats completely unrelated.  So then we kept walking down through the parks and we came to this guy named Jorge who was catholic and a taxi driver but he drove at night so he had to get some sleep.  So we kept walking.  We walked on this dirt path that led to a neighborhood but I didn't feel like that was the right place to be so I suggested to go back.  We wouldn't find out untill on the bus ride home that that was actually a pretty bad neighborhood so yeah.. The Holy Spirit guides!  

Then we came back to the park where we saw the taxi driver and I noticed this guy on the far side of the park sitting on the bench and he seemed a bit sketch but I prayed that if we would be in any danger talking to him that I could know and so without any prompting not to talk to him we did. And can I say that that was the most special moment of my entire life.  We started out by just asking who he was and right after I felt like we needed to ask how his life was. So we did.  Then he just started gushing the Spanish and I was only able to pick out maybe 1 in 5 or 7 words but I understood exactly what he was saying.  It was amazing! I can't really do it justice but just know the the gift of tongues is real! He did most of the talking for 30 plus minutes.  Basically what I'm going to say about him is that he had mounds of problems in his life and early in the conversation we asked if he wanted to learn more and he said no but we let him talk about his life and all the things going on and Élder Lund felt impressed to introduce the Book of Mormon into his life.  We had him read the 1st and last two paragraphs of the introduction and if any of you don't know if the Book of Mormon is true or not read that and do as it suggests! We bore our testimonies that we truly know and have seen how amazing the blessings that come through the gospel are.  We then gave him the Book.  If there is anyone I met yesterday in Bogotá that needs the gospel, its him.  We prayed a couple of times with him and the Spirit there was the absolute most glorious thing in the world.  I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.  We got his contact info to give to the missionaries down there so hopefully he can get some help!  

Then we went back passed the library and big park and this guy came up to us.  He pulled out this book that is about religion but I can't remember what it was called but it was published in Chicago so he wanted to know if we knew anything about it.  He seemed very willing to learn!  So we introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he seemed overjoyed to learn more!  It was quite amazing!

I'm running low on time so I am sorry I couldnt write more about it but I just want you to know that this is the most amazing experience I have and quite possibly will ever have in my life!  The Church is true and I know I have angels looking out for me and that the Holy Ghost is guiding me!

Lots of Love, 

   Élder Hilton

2nd Real Email - October 7, 2014

Ok so the second week is down and luckily this week I have a bit better keyboard. Sorry again about last week.  

So this week was a lot different, I know more spanish and yet still seem to struggle a bit but the struggle is good.  One thing I want to focus on this week is General Conference.  Seriously if you haven't seen it yet this is quite possibly the best one of my life!  I was able to watch it in english and so that is a huge blessing!  This past week was a bit difficult for me but Saturday and Sunday changed all of that!  I know that what every single speaker said is true and if any of you are wondering why I am out here there is a talk that says it amazingly.  It is the last talk of the Conference so if you want to go to lds.org and go to General Conference October 2014 and then go to the Sunday afternoon session and it should be the last one but its by David A. Bednar just in case it isn't.  I feel like that whole conference was for me!

So I have recieved some questions wondering about where all of my comps are from so Élder Páz is from Venezuela and Élder Skinner is from Layton ish area but moved to Oklahoma recently.  They are now in  the field so I will be getting 2 more roommates.  Elder Lund is from Provo and I believe Élder Olsen is from Woods Cross area, at least he has Woods Cross shorts, and Élder La Rochelle is from Oregon.

Um Idk what else really to write. There are a few pictures just of my comps and stuff but we only get cameras on p days so thats why those are lacking.  I must say, this whole CCM experience is amazing! In our districts we are pretty much just like a family.  The Temple here is awesome! We get to go once a week and every week I am able to understand more! 

My CCM president is President Dyer from California and I couldn't have asked for a better leader.  He is funny, extremely spiritual, and really can keep a group of 80 plus missionaries under control! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be out here!

Kind of a funny thing here is that sometimes we get chocolates here and they have these sticker things with them and all of the missionaries collect them and trade them and so far I have some pretty cool ones! next week I'll try to take some pictures of some of the cooler ones. 

Thanks so much for all of the support and helping me to remember that life exists outside of the mission because it is really hard to remember in all honesty. We are so busy here and we get so much done that everything seems like a dream! But I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world right now!

Best of luck to you,

Élder Hilton

 

 

Week 1 Down and Gone - October 2, 2014

Ok so I realized today that I am actually very exhausted.  I feel like i'm gettng a sore throat but I was able to go to the temple today and that was fantastic!!

So I guess I should mention that my companion is Élder Lund and we get along pretty good!  All six of the missionaries in my dorm are way funny!  Oh and before I forget, all of you need to look up granadillas (at least I think they are spelled that way.. But anyway they are now my favorite fruit.  You have to peel off their shell type thing and then pull back the skin and it looks like an anenome and a bunch of fish eggs but its delicious.  You have to eat it by pretty much drinking the seeds and immediately swallowing. So its pretty much the greates!!! 

Oh and I am learning Spanish so quickly! We have already taught at least 3 lessons in Spanish! It's amazing how much the gift of tongues and being immersed in Spanish culture helps with learning! like seriously it feels like at least half of the people here don't speak English and I sort of love it.  I have decided to keep Spanish after my mission because it is seriously at least 20 times more beautiful than English.  I can't wait until I can speak it fluently.  When I went to the Temple today it was in Spanish and I kind of could understand it a bit!

On Sunday it was an extremely great day.  Maybe its because half of the meetings were in English.. Oh and i have decided that the shift keys are really hard to hit on these keyboards so i will not be capitalizing anything unless it is really necessary... But back to Sunday iIwas able to listen to some fantastic talks and discussions and the one that stood out the most was when President Dyer talked to us about the plan of salvation and we got super deep into it.  We talked about the purpose of life and we found out that it is to become like Heavenly Father.  I was thinking during this that being here has quite the risk, I mean if we fail we won't be able to live with our Heavenly Father again! but that made me think, what could be so worth it that we would risk living with our Father?  the blessings are real! oh and I think someone stole my toothpaste.  But I have a backup but yeah, or i just misplaced it haha. but other than elder stolen stuff's mishap at the airport there hasn't been anything too crazy happen.

And I had fried fat!! talk about great!! and the food is so delicious here! we have a steak about every day for lunch because lunches are the best and I've gotten a lot better at eating stuff I don't want to after eating the granadilla! I have found out that its a lot easier to eat stuff if you just swallow it! Because if you chew a granadilla it is truly nasty.. But also really the only cultury food that we eat is like soups and plantains.

We have really had a lot of help with learning the language and our lessons with our "investigator" have gotten tons better!! in 6 days of learning in the CCM I have learned about 5 tenses of verbs which is pretty impressive!! and that's not including the present tense.  Yeah Spanish is just beautiful!  Everything just rolls out of the mouth unlike English where it all gets stuffed up by my clumsy tongue.  

And on the 27th we were able to give Élder Páz a blessing and that was pretty awesome!  Sorry about the crazy way my writing is, I cant remember things well so once they click I have to write them down.  

I feel like this is actually a lot of stuff so if next week you want more let me know! Or if you want less I guess you can read less so ha!  

Oh and one last thing, because I tend to laugh a lot its Élder Skinner's goal to get me to pee my pants because I'm laughing so hard but so far it hasn't happened!

 

Granandilla

 

Arriving at the Colombia MTC September 24, 2014

Hey I arrived at the CCM last night about 10:30 and everything went well! The only problem that happened there was that one of the missionaries had his bag stolen.  I don´t have much time but everything is going well!  I was able to at least try to talk to this lady I was sitting by on the plane but I soon realized I have much to learn.  Anyway its good here and so far I really enjoy it! All of the other elderes are cool and I look forward to learning with them.

a couple more notes:

Hey so I made it here but I don´t have time to say much but I agree that having duke in my room is probably a good idea.  I want you to realize that its your good parenting that has brought me to serve here and it is the best thing I could possibly be doing right now. I am so grateful for everyone back home and all of the support so be sure to tell them thanks from me!  I´m glad to help whenever but it might be a bit difficult for the next two years! ;) Tell all of my brothers thanks for their great example and good advice.  Its sure helping!  Anyway thanks again and I´ll email next thursday!!

So I have a few minutes left so I just want to tell about when I was trying to explain what I was doing out here to a lady that I was sitting by on the plane.  It was a bit difficult to speak but it was good because I feel that she realized exactly how much I needed to be out here.  She was helping with customs stuff and she was kind of like a mother away from home.  So mom, just remember I am being looked out for because what I´m doing is good! ;) 

Anyway I gotta go!

 

Leaving for Colombia

6:15 am, we were leaving for the airport to send Elder Levi Hilton off to Columbia.  There were several other missionaries at the airport saying there good byes as well.  Was an experience to send off our misisonary.  Bittersweet.

The drive home was the when the emotions started to flow.  Reality began to set in as we realize that we will be empty nesters with the departure of Levi.  We came home to a very quiet home.  I ask Dave, (Levi's dad), if he thought it was a lot quieter with Levi gone.  He said not only quieter, but so clean.  We miss him horribly, but know he is doing the right thing.  May he be blessed and watched over.

Getting Set Apart as a Missionary

Our family met together Monday, September 22, 2014 for a final family photo, dinner at our favorite Pizza Pie Cafe (where Levi has been employed for the last year and a half), and for the setting apart of Elder Levi Hilton.  President Obray and Bishop Jenkins came to do the honors.  Afterwards, the family sat around and shared thoughts and feelings of missionary service with Levi.  We have quite a collection of missionary experience in our family, so it was quite a special evening.

My Missionary Farewell

Levi's missionary farewell was on September 14th.  This was a big day, as Dan & Maegan had come to be here for the farewell of Levi and Maegan's brother Toph.  Dan and Maegan decided to bless their baby Vaiola on this day as well.  So, it was an awesome day. 

Because we had bees hibernating in the corner of our house.  We decided to have everyone go to the stake center bowery for a pasta bar and trifle bar lunch.  It was a great time.