Week 34

Hope all is well in the States! Will pray for those in Alabama! Go out and serve them!

This week was crazy.--many many Blessings. It's March Madness in the Planalto Zone! Haha!
So this week we had four baptisms!! Woohoo. Nilda, Maria Eduarda, Paulo, and Jonathan. They are all awesome. We baptized Maria Eduarda's brother three weeks ago. It's the best feeling to work with families! Paulo and Jonathan come from families that we are helping return to church. Nilda is super sweet! She's gonna teach me how to crochet!

We had our Baptism together with the Ward Timon. Was an awesome meeting!

Thursday was different because we had an appointment with the eye doctor to help Elder Cantero get new glasses. Woohoo! It only took 7 hours lol!

Sacrament meeting in the branch was awesome--four confirmations! We had 86 people in attendance! It was like a record. We also had a lot of investigators there too. After church, we had a meeting with the Stake Presidency. It was super cool. We talked about how we can help the branch. The key to building a branch/ward is the Sacrament. The Sacrament is a sacred ordinance. It's when we partake of the bread and water in remembrance of our Savior and the sacrifice He did. We renew our baptismal covenants weekly. If we all truly understand the importance of this commandment, the members will always arrive on time, come to church, and prepare before-hand to partake. Like our phone batteries, we need to recharge our spiritual batteries every week.

Hope you all partake of the sacrament each week with more purpose.
Have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Hillam

Pictures!
Haircuts!
District meeting in Timon
Baptism of Jonathan and Maria Eduardo

Haircuts!

District Meeting in Timon

Baptism of Jonathon

Baptism of Maria Eduardo

Refreshments after the baptism

Eating Acai!!!

Howdy Folks! (Week 33)

How you all doing?

Sorry, don't have much time today because of Carnival-- a big holiday in Brazil. Everything's closed. We're really lucky to use the Lan house (internet cafe) today. Carnival isn't huge in our area, thankfully. Instead of going out at night, many missionaries will be doing their studies then, instead of the morning. The law of chastity and the Word of Wisdom (abstinence from tea, coffee, alcohol,) don't exist during Carnival.

Tuesday-Thursday I wasn't working in my area.
Tuesday I was working in the area of Esplanada. We were able to get a ride back to our area late Tuesday night with some members--Irma Inacia and Gabriel! They are awesome! The next morning we left our area at 7:00 am to go to Codó. Elder Lusk and Elder Campos are doing great work out there!

The mission is flying by so fast. I've never been so busy in my life. Twenty-four hours dedicated to the Lord every day; I learn so much. After every week, which feels as if it's only a day, I look back and can't imagine my life without that week because I learned so much.

Love you all so much! Will have a better email next week!

Elder Hillam

Photos

Cool bridge in Codó. Oh, man, I wanted to jump in and swim.

Pday wood shop!!

Week 32

Boa tarde!

This week flew! We had a baptism of Arthur! This young man is so smart! We had his baptism at 10 in the morning. It was a little crazy. The night before we were sleeping in a different area. So we woke up early, caught the first van, and then a bus, and returned to our area. The chapel is way long from where our area is (this is where we have baptisms). Long story short, we were able to call an Uber for our investigators so they could arrive to be baptized. Yayy!

Business trip!!!

So this week we also traveled to Codó. It's three hours away. We worked with Elder Lusk from California and Elder Campos from São Paulo. We left at seven in the morning and returned home the next day around four in the afternoon.  We were able to help them change some of their weaknesses into strengths, which was awesome to see happen.

Last night we had a cool experience. At this one appointment, there was a lady that wanted to learn more about the church. But really she just wanted to debate about religion. Her son later came to join the discussion. He was super interested. We taught about the Restoration of Christ's Gospel upon the earth and about the Book of Mormon. About every two minutes, he would say, “Wait wait, so this leads to this, and because of this we have this....” I have never had an investigator that understood everything like him. BUT, in the end, they wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon or an invite to pray to know if these things were true. Why? I mean he understood all of the doctrine, all of the principles as truths. But what he didn't have was the spirit--he wasn't ready or open to listening to the Holy Ghost. His heart was locked shut. We don't need to have complete knowledge to know if these things are true; we just need the spirit to testify to us that these things are true. It's not the doctrine that converts us--It's the Spirit. All of the people that we've helped to be baptized didn't even understand the doctrine as he did. But they were converted by the Spirit.

Thank you all so much for your e-mails and prayers. They are awesome!

Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Hillam

 Exchanges with the Elder Lusk and Elder Campos

Trip to Codó!

 Arthur's Baptism

 My Road Trip Friend!!

Trip to Codó!

Hey Friends! (Week 31)

Good Morning Family!

Joaquim was baptized! His family has been less-active for a long time. But through him, we were able to reactivate his entire family! Woohoo!

In Sunday School, Andresa (Joaquim's mother) shared her testimony about missionary work. She talked about how we were angels in her life! You never know how much you impact someone. We can all be angels in the lives of our family, friends, or even people on the streets. Become like the Savior--minister to others!

This week was super busy, as always. If you're not busy on the mission, then you have a big problem.

As Zone Leaders, we do exchanges with the district leaders. Exchanges are a great way to see how your missionaries are doing. So, our zone is really big; this week we did an exchange with the missionaries in Esplanada--It's in a different state. We met in between because of the distance. Tomorrow, we will travel to Codó to work with the missionaries there. It's a three-hour bus ride. I'm so pumped!!

I'm sure everyone's excited about the new revelation regarding missionaries being able to talk with family via voice calls, texting, video calls, etc. For me, sadly, nothing will really change because we don't have the technology available for us--but we will see in the future!!

Love you all so much!

Have an awesome week!

Elder Hillam

Pictures:

 We love to clean what missionaries never clean! 

 My district! 

 Found some people from back home that I know in this manual!

 Joaquim's baptism

 Joaquim's family 

 Thanks for the chocolate orange mom! I finally opened it

Tan lines woohoo. Elder Cantero always wears long sleeves because he has a tattoo. So he has gloves.

Howdy Folks!! (Week 30)

I hope all is well with you all!

So much has happened this week! Let's catch you all up!

So arrived here last Monday in Timon. My area is Cidade Novo, which is really far from where our apartment is--everything's really far. We're even allowed to look for an apartment in our area, which would be awesome! We don't have a chapel here, but we use a children's school for our Sunday meetings! It works great! But it's also a50-minute walk there, but yeah! For baptisms, we use the chapel in a different area.

The area is awesome!!  My companion is Elder Cantero from Paraguay; I live with two other missionaries:
        Elder Schlichting from Curitiba, Brazil
        Elder Ramos from Bolivia (but lives in Sâo Paulo now)

The first thing that we did when we arrived in the area was....... CLEAN. The house was terrible, no spirit there. Remember, missionary work starts with a clean house. Like the temple! So we cleaned all Monday and a big portion Tuesday.

Wednesday was Zone Conference! My first zone conference as a zone leader. We had an assignment to talk about companion exchanges. I related it to borrowing an object. I brought three pairs of shoes. Really old shoes, normal-- everyday shoes, and a new polished pair. In other words, bad, "normal", and polished/awesome. As leaders, we need to leave those we lead in an improved "polished state"--not the same, and definitely not worse. How would you feel if someone returned your car with a cracked windshield? On the other hand, how would you feel if someone returned your car--washed, polished, and with a full tank of gas? You would now have confidence and trust in them because now you know that you could lend them anything because they would return it in an even better condition. This analogy can be applied to so many aspects of our lives too. We have two years to serve as missionaries. I want to leave this mission better than I found it, --the people and the missionaries polished!

Anyways, Zone Conference was awesome!

I'm hoping to lose this layer of flab that I got in my last area. So we're running every day!

We haven't had a phone in the house this week! So, it has been a little challenging to talk with the zone! So, we've been sending smoke signals hahaha! It's been a fun challenge.
So we did a fast this week too! And I'm amazed at all the blessings and revelation I see instantly. We fast for 24 hours without food and water. Without food is a piece of cake; it's the water that is a little difficult, especially here! And, you always know that the days you are fasting, everybody's going to offer you food. Uhh, it was hard. But the spirit I felt, the revelation I received, and the miracles I saw were definitely worth it. I just need to fast 24/7 now. haha!
I recommend to all that are able, to fast with a purpose! Go to the Temple! Pray always! Read the Scriptures! Be obedient to all the commandments, and God will pour down miracles in your lives!

Love you all so much!

Have an awesome week!

 Elder Cantero eating the "bomb!"

Elder Cantero, myself, Elder Ramos, Elder Schlichting

Week 29

Hey Everybody!!

We had transfers today! So I hopped across the river to a different state. I was in Piaui and now I'm in Maranhão. So I'm now living in Timon, and my area is called Cidade Novo. I'm also a Zone Leader of the Planalto Stake, with my new companion Elder Cantero for Paraguay!! 

So yeah!

Due to transfers, I don't have much time to email! So sorry if I didn't respond to y'all this week! 

Was a busy week last week!  We saw so many Miracles. We found so many people and so many people went to church. But then we have transfers. Life of the missionary. 

Two weeks ago we lost energy (electricity). So we slept downstairs which get more wind-- hahaha it was fun!
But, this week we had a huge storm and everybody lost energy (electricity). So it was fun to teach lessons in candlelight!!! 

We ran out of water too. So I got pretty creative on using the gallon jugs for taking a shower. Some of you can understand what I was doing here with the picture.

Love,

Elder Hillam

 Gravity Vacuum for the shower!

Elder Cantero-- my new companion! 

We ate McDonald's for our Zone Leader Conference. 

Found Elder Moody! 

Week 28

Hello my Family and Friends!

Another crazy week! We always have so much work to do! We finally met our goal this week with the number of pesquisadors (investigators) in sacrament meeting.
We have been working with this one family for quite some time! Charles, Silvana, and their daughter Barbara. Charles used to live in Portugal!
Well they finally came to church! All three and on their own too! I was playing the piano this Sunday and was the best feeling when I saw them walk through the doors!

Speaking of piano, this week Elder Benites and I woke up even earlier to practice the piano. Everyday and Sunday it all went well! Love serving in many different ways. I played for the choir and it was ward conference!  Also played the hymns too! Thanks Sister Ernst for teaching me piano!!!!!

Elder Benites has one year and six months in the mission now! So he bought us all pizza!

It's raining everyday here! Woohoo! Doesn't stop us! The roads dont have a way to drain so we waded in the water to some of our appointments! People here think were insane cause were working in the rain. They think we will all get super sick! The people of Teresina love it when it rains (because it cools everything down), but their like cats when it does! Hahaha!

We always love pulling little pranks on each other! and the Zone Leaders got me good this time. President was talking with them yesterday and every situation lined perfectly up to prank me so well. Anyways, I almost packed my whole bags because I thought i would be transferred a week early and this and that! They also got a video of this too. Hahah! Well done my friends!

Revelation on the mission is insane. It's so cool how much revelation and inspiration we receive every week! Most of its all personal, but super super cool! Always be worthy to receive revelation that ya'll can be guided in your lives!

Oh also ate more cow intestines this week. Will be eating cow tail soon!  I'm pumped!
Love you all so much!

Ok thanks bye

Elder Hillam

Rain doesn't stop us!