Mission Tour!!! (Week 45)

We had a crazy week this week! As always.....


We had two baptisms!! Whoo hooo! The baptisms of Fladison-Mateus and Lucas. They are brothers. They were baptized by their Uncle, Allyson, who we baptized like two months ago. Allyson has been teaching and helping them go to church! He is awesome!

We had a Mission Tour with Elder Aidukaitis. Mission Tour is when a general authority visits your mission and gives a training. Elder Aidukaitis is the Area President of Brazil.

Tuesday I had a special privilege to attend a leadership meeting with Elder Aidukaitis. This was a meeting that was held exclusively for the zone leaders, sister training leaders and assistants. So really was an incredible opportunity to participate in!

Wednesday we had Mission Tour. This was another incredible experience. Elder Aidukaitis didn't really prepare a training. Because that's just not how he rolls. I think he just prepares super spiritually. He had a booklet that showed all of the statistics of the mission, as well as a survey that all the missionaries took a couple weeks ago. But basically, we all sat in a big U With a chair and a desk for Elder Aidukaitis in the middle. He let us all ask questions. We all learned together. Really it was incredible.
We all returned home that night like Lehi did in 1 Nephi 1:7:

And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen.

As we were preparing the font Saturday morning for the baptism, we saw two huge iguanas. We were super lucky that I had my camera with me! Enjoy the pictures and videos. I was smarter this time as I did not get whipped!

This coming Sunday we will not have sacrament meeting. All of the members with an active temple recommend will go to the Stake Center to watch the dedication of the Fortaleza Temple. We are all super excited!  This will help the recent converts be able to take part.

It was an awesome week! I hope all is going well with everyone!
Have a great week!

Love Elder Hillam

Mission Tour with Elder Aidukaitus

Elder Aidukaitus, Pres. and Sister Lagos, and some of the missionaries from our mission

Mission Tour

Stopped for a nice cold drink of Cajuina!

Iguanas during Mission Tour

Baptisms of Fladison-Mateus and Lucas

Baptized by their Uncle

Acai after Baptisms

More Iguanas!

WooHoo!!! (Week 44)

Howdy!!


Another busy fun week! Woohoo!

We had two more baptisms! Lian and José. So Lian is from the same family as last week! We baptized his brother, cousin, and grandma. We will be working hard to complete this wonderful family!!

José. So I have known José for quite some time. His best friend/brother is Renato. We baptized Renato about 9 weeks ago I think. Renato has been a fantastic missionary. Jose is blind. He has been blind for 3 years due to a paint accident. So reading and learning is obviously a difficulty. He has also overcome his addiction to cigars. Renato has been diligently reading the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets to him. Which I never even asked of him to do this. I will always remember when José asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon so when someone was nearby they could read it to him. It's been a fantastic experience working with José.  The spirit was super strong during the baptism. Just imagine going through all this unable to see. Sitting and hearing Lian´s baptism before and everything.

Oh and we always have to have a cake for the baptism. If the members can't come, then we will make a cake. So Jose wanted an orange cake and Lian wanted Chocolate. So yeah first we made the orange cake Friday night for the baptism Saturday. The cake came out of the oven beautifully. But we didn't grease the pan enough, so when we flipped it, half of the cake was sticking to the bottom of the pan. It all broke up together. But then I began to think. "Wait, let's think about this... Who asked for the orange cake?"  We LOVE YOU JOSE. The cake was a delight!


The rest of the week was great as well. We visited the Esplanda district as well as the Esplanada area.
We accidentally had two lunches on Sunday. Miscommunication lol.
We spent all Sunday contacting references that we received on the computer! We walked to areas that have never ever had missionaries.


Have a great week yall!
Love
Elder Hillam

Esplanada District

Jose and Lian!

Happy Mother's Day!! (Week 43)

It was great to talk to my mother, as well as my family yesterday! So thankful for their daily prayers.

Walbert is a less active since 2005. As we were walking in the middle of nowhere for the longest time, we came across a house. There was a family sitting out in front. One man (Walbert) called out to us. "What ward or branch are ya'll from?" Stunned, we turned and said that we are from the Cidade Nova Ward. We had a tender lesson. I will never forget the moment when we handed him a new Book of Mormon--his Mother was in tears. His mother had been praying for this moment for years. We invited Walbert to go to Stake Conference. That same week he bought a suit, white shirt and tie, pants and dress shoes and went to the conference. Saturday, he drove out to the baptism. Yesterday, we found him at the door of the church greeting all of the members, who he doesn't even know, enter. His mother (who isn't even a member) thanks us regularly. Mothers are so special. I am so thankful for my mother and all she does for me, as well as the rest of the family.

Had a wonderful week this week! Two baptisms as well! Italo and João. They are cousins. We baptized their Grandma a few weeks ago! They are awesome. Their other brother will be baptized this next weekend. Italo and João are excited to help us in the missionary work. One of the most rewarding parts of the mission is watching recent converts help others come unto Christ, like Renato. We baptized Renato about 7 weeks ago. Renato has been helping his friend/brother, José be baptized as well. José lives with Renato. José is also blind. It has been an amazing experience watching Renato help his blind brother come to church, teach his brother the lesson, and read the Book of Mormon with him.

This week we had the opportunity to work with the missionaries of Esplanada, as well as the missionaries in Timon. The assistants also had an opportunity to work with us on Friday.
We are always seeking revelation to help our missionaries in the zone.

The mission is the best!

Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hillam

Irma Inacia

District Timon

Divisions with the Assistants

Baptism of João and Italo

Walbert

Açaí, after baptism tradition

Hello!! (Week 42)

Hello my family and friends! Was a busy week with Elder Vilas Boas.

Let's gooo!!:


So Wednesday we had Zone Conference. I was assigned to give a training according to the needs of the zone from last month. As I received this assignment from our leadership meeting on Monday. Immediately I knew and saw in my head what I needed to train.
The training was on focusing on our purpose. I compared it to a gasoline engine vs an electric powered car. The fundamental purpose of a car is to transport from a point A to point B. As missionaries, we have one fundamental purpose as well. To bring others unto Christ through the covenant of Baptism.  The gas powered car works, but is super complicated. So many things have to happen just to get to make the purpose happen. Gasoline, spark plugs, carburetor, pistons, timing belts, crankshafts, filters, oils, transmission..... With the electric car, there is only a battery and a motor. All of the force is being put into the "purpose".
We then related this example to many parts of our work. We were working really hard last month in the zone. But we weren't working in the right area; we needed to focus on the purpose. I also used this example to explain many other things in our work, which was super cool. We then did a practice with the sisters which worked right into the example.

It turned out super good! Everyone understood and will remember the training. It kind of felt like I was back in my engineering class, giving a training on our product. Lol, thanks to Dr. Sweigart for preparing me for the mission :)


It's been a ton of fun with Elder Vilas Boas. We have been working really hard to create a new teaching group. Love you all! Have a great week!

Love
Elder Hillam

Elder Vilas Boas

Divisão com o Elder Câmara (tallest Elder with the shortest)

Zone Conference

Zone Conference Training

Zone Conference

Leadership Council Meeting

Whipped by an Iguana (Week 41)

Hello all!!! This week was crazy awesome! As always! Unfortunately, due to transfers, I don't have a lot of time today.

Transfers:
Will stay here in Timon as a Zone Leader
Elder Groom got transferred to Parnaíba
My new Companion is Elder Vilas Boas from São Paulo!

Zone Conference is this Wednesday
Elder Aidukaits (Area President of Brazil) will visit the mission this next month!

Past Week:

Was awesome to talk with all of ya'll at the Wedding! Super cool! Parabéns Marlie! Send me lots of pictures, please!!!!

There was a 4-foot Camilion (iguana) that whipped me with his huge tail. Don't try to touch huge lizards!

We had four baptisms!!!!
Irma Ana (she has 74 years), Maria da Natividade and her two sons Rodrigo and Joao Pedro

Allyson (18 years old, one of our recent converts that was baptized 5 weeks ago) is gonna be a future missionary! He's been going on visits with us, has the Aaronic Priesthood and will receive the Melchizedek Priesthood this next week. We even let him perform the baptisms of Rodrigo and Joao, as we have been teaching that family with him!! So proud of him!

We had Stake Conference! We rented a bus to pick up all of the members and our investigators. It was awesome!!!! The bus took us to the center of Timon, where we watched the broadcast from Teresina.

Also traveled to Codó and Esplanada...


So much more to tell you all next week! Will catch up!
Will caption my pictures next week too!


Love you all!!!

Elder Hillam

Traveling to Stake Conference

Cake to Celebrate Marlie and Parker's wedding