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
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