Week 27

Hello Family and Friends!


This week so awesome because I learned so much! We had a Baptism!!! A Maria José!
 She is awesome and has a super strong testimony!!

I also ate cow intestines and stomach this week. It was good!

This week I saw so many miracles. I really saw the Lord's hand in the work everyday! He truly is molding us to be our full potential! We just need to submit our will to Him!

One day while I was studying a member knocked on our window. But we are on the second floor! He works on roofs and was working on our neighbors! There's a picture! O Irmão Agosto!

We also made cinnamon rolls last pday! It worked!!

This coming Sunday I will play the piano for the choir! So pumped! Will have to wake up a little earlier to practice some this week! IT will be so sic!

Maria José is so special. She had a daughter that died when she was 23 years old. She misses her a lot. Before we knew this we were inspired to teach about the Plan of Salvation. God's plan for us! And that families can be together forever. She started to cry during the lesson. And that is when she told us what had happened.
After she was interviewed to be baptized she still didn't have the surety of the things that we were teaching. But that night she said she prayed so hard and received a beautiful answer!! Woohoo! Miracle!

The baptism of Maria José was perfect. Right before the baptism there was a great confusion of who was gonna pick her up. And right when we needed to use our phone, we ran out of minutes! Nooo. But everything was sorted out perfectly. Was a miracle!

Love the mission. Love the challenges everyday! The Worth of Souls is great in the sight of God!

Have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Hillam

 Cinnamon Rolls

Irmão agosto working on our neighbors roof

Choir Practice for next week

 Batismo da Maria Jose!

Another Crazy Week (Week 26)

Howdy Folks!

Another crazy week! Spent a lot of time this week out of my area again, haha.
So we found out that there's a basketball in one of the closets of the church, so we have been waking up early and hooping! Still got some game, lets go! Got a little sunburned today too!

Learning so much everyday in the mission. It's really sad that I already have six months in the mission. One quarter of my mission is already gone. Noooo!
This week we found some elects (people that can progress towards baptism)! Woohooo! So excited to work with them. And you know some times you have to help them become elect.

As missionaries we are always striving to become more Christlike. I have been working on becoming more humble and submitting my will to the Father. Cause ya'll know that I need that.!! Haha!

The people here in Brazil are so special. They are so talented in so many ways. Especially when it comes to cooking.


Love ya'll so much!!

Elder Hillam

These pictures were taken literally five minutes apart (after and before!)

Howdy family!! (Week 25)

Como vocês estão? Essa semana foi louco!

How yall doing? This week was crazy!

Happy New Year!! Last Monday (p-day) we had to return to our house at midday and stay the day! It can get really crazy here during new years. Sooo we ate pizza made cookies and ate more of the food in our fridge. We need to make a calendar of what things we need to eat in order so all this food doesn't spoil.

We went to bed at 10:30 cause were obedient missionaries but everybody woke up at 12:00 midnight exactly because of the fireworks. I've never heard anything like it. A solid 15 minutes of fireworks come from everywhere. It was like a giant machine gun for 15 minutes shooting motors. An experience to remember!

It wasn't until yesterday that I spent the whole day in my area. This week I was traveling to all the areas in my district, doing splits, and baptism interviews and solving problems. Didn't even sleep that much in my house. lol It was fun though!

We have Family Nights here. Every week a member will host a family home evening. A spiritual message, group game, and then food. I'm known here for the best games. We've played signs and the name game (if yall know what that is) They've been crazy. The name game got a little too competitive. lol

This area has been a little hard but I've been blessed to work with so many families. This week Aluisio and his wife Francisa will be baptized. Pray that this can happen!

Oh, and 2-hour church was great! But its now at 8:00 in the morning, so a little hard for investigators! But its awesome!

Oh and Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you had a big Peach Pie! 

Love you all! Thanks so much for the prayers!

Elder Hillam

New Year's Eve!

The District!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! (Week 24)

Hello Family and Friends!

I have no time today so really sorry if I haven't had the chance to talk to y'all!

Everything is awesome! This week was crazy!

So I have a new district that I'm working with and they are awesome!

Elder Santos from Belém Brazil
Elder Rosa from Chile
Elder Luna from Mexico
Elder Perreira from...? (I forgot)
and my companion Elder Benites from Santa Catarina

Christmas Eve was super fancy. We ate with Bishop! They have a Christmas Eve dinner with all the missionaries in the area--five championships! They've been doing it for 15 years. So it was awesome! Super Super cool. They are the best!

Christmas Day was P day! We went to my old area for lunch with some awesome members! Ate so much. And, we got so much food from the members! Right now we have three lasagnas and three cakes in our fridge, and so much more food. Oh, it was also pretty cool to talk to my family! It was pretty difficult to speak English--especially the first ten minutes.

Today (New Year's Eve), we have to return to our house at midday and stay there for the rest of the night. Brazil can get pretty hyped up.

We're teaching so many people right now! Probably the hardest part for me is managing all the things that I need to get done. So today will be a great day to get a bunch of planning done!

This mission is awesome! It's never easy but that's what makes it so awesome! We learn so much every day!

Love,
Elder Hillam

Brazil

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Day Lunch

Hello All! yall are the best! (Week 22)

Hello Family!

Thank you all so much for the emails and Christmas cards! They are awesome!

We had another crazy week!! Whoohooo. One of the hardest things about being a missionary is time. The time that you have from day to day, week to week, transfer to transfer and year to year! It's not enough!! Haha Time flys when you're on the Lord's errand!

This week we worked really hard to find the elects. God knows his elects, not us. But with his trust, we can find the people who are prepared to receive the Gospel. So with a lot of work, we found many elects this week! Woohoo

We have to bathrooms in our house. I fixed the shower head and now a lot more water comes out. So everybody wants to use our shower! haha Also this shower head is fancy. It can heat water really fast with electricity. But the problem is that its really easy to shock yourself. And I'm so tall that it happens all the time! Haha

Transfers! I will stay here with Elder Benites! Woohoo. This is good news because we already have some great Christmas dinner appointments. We will have two new missionaries in our house they arrive tonight! I felt like my mom the morning getting ready for company. Everything has to be super super clean. Even in places where only you would go or see. Haha. Thanks mom!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Serving the Lord is a great way to spend the Holidays!

Love Elder Hillam

Elder Bezerra goes home today or in other words, he died.

Elder Bezerra bought us pizza for our last night with him. Oh man, it was good!

The District!!

Hello my family!!! (Week 21)

Hope everything's going awesome!!

We had a crazy last two weeks. So keep your arms and feet tucked in and hold on!

So last week we had an Emergency Transfer!

We got a call from President early one morning. He said, Elder Aristimunho, pack your bags, you're going to altos (different area).

So I've been telling President about how good Elder Aristimuho is and that he's ready for whatever you give him. So I finished the training of Elder Aristimunho early, and now he's training and baptizing! So proud of him! So now I have a son and a grandson!

My new companion is Elder Benites! He's from way down south in Brazil. Santa Catarina. He's hilarious, a good teacher and a lot of fun to work with.

We also had Mission Tour and Christmas Conference!

Mission Tour we had President and Sister Bassett visit us. He's the 1st counselor in the area presidency of Brazil. They have been following me around in the mission. I first met them on the plane flight from Atlanta to São Paulo, they then came to the CTM to give a talk, and now they came to my mission! They took a picture with me and will send to Grandma Hillam I think. It was a fantastic training they gave.

Oh, President Lago was conducting the meeting and called on me to play the piano. So that was fun.

Also sang one by one with 2 sisters and another Elder! It went super well.

We then ate a ton of food!

Christmas Conference was the day after!

There was a ton of food! and activities. Each zone performed a play. All of them were super creative! We then ate more food!

Starting a diet now! All of my Cidade Leste friends (my last area) are telling me that I'm gaining a little weight. Uhh ohh hahaha

Was also able to see my trainer, Elder Moody! Woohoo. He had some super exciting news!

So his Grandpa served as a companion to Grandpa Hillam!! His Grandpa was also a Mission President in Portugal in the 90s. Super cool! I bet our grandpas were working behind the veil to make that one happen!

The work is going great! I'm teaching so many people, but whos learning so much is my self. I'm amazed with how much I've learned and changed through the atonement of Jesus Christ!

Thank you all for your emails! They are the best!

Conferência de Natal

Friends

My presents arrived!

Elder Wilkins

Elder Bennites

Elder Moody!!

Elder Silva!

Presents

Sister Lagos

Elder Moody

My son and my grandson

Leo!! The super cool neighbor in Cidade Leste. I had to return to interview some people before they could be baptized. We needed a ride back because our home was super far. So I called up my buddy Leo to see if he could give us a ride. Oh and Elder Moody was with us too!

Howdy Folks! (Week 19)

Another fantastic week here!

We had two baptisms this week!! Woohoo! Ana and Elvina!

Ana has been taught by the missionaries for a long time and has a huge family! We arrived at church late this Sunday with investigators and saw that she wasn't there! Sunday was so important because she was to be confirmed! But she wasn't there! So, we hopped in a car with a member and drove to her house to find that she was hosting about 30 people at her house to celebrate her baptism. So, she will be confirmed next week!

Elvina is awesome too. She has a son that's serving a mission in Argentina right now. She has a fantastic story!!

Elder Aristimuho and I are running every other day! Woohoo! Brings back memories of when I was running with Nathan Moore! Got to do something to balance out the members and the bakery nearby.

Hope all is well! Everything is going great here! English is getting so much harder every week.

Oh, I forgot that it was Thanksgiving this week!

I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Not only the redemptive part (the part where we can repent, feel light and burden-less) but also the Enabling power we can receive. I use this power every day, to work harder, keep going, teach better, speak Portuguese, etc. So study Christ's Atonement!

Got to go but love you all so much!

Y'all are the best

Elder Hillam
austin.hillam@myldsmail.net


Pictures:

Elder Hillam and Elder Aristamunho with the Bishop and his wife

Ana's and Elvina's baptism

Ana's and Elvina's baptism

Recent convert-- Joao! He's the best!