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