Christmas Fever Oct 20th

So i feel like October has flown by. I already have Chrismas fever! however i think its because Christmas starts early here. two weeks ago decorations were on sale at La Sirena and about every night i feel im seeing more and more lights up. Christmas in the DR is their next BIG holiday so they start getting ready for it i guess in october ha. So i feel like its super close! i will hit my bday, christmas conference around that time, christmas and ill call home and then ill hit a year.. and i can only imagine those last 6 months will just fly. 

 

I mean... shoot. Im in week 5 of 6 in this transfer here in my new area. I love my new area. On sunday we had 4 investigators at church! and the best thing is we didnt sit next to them at church BECAUSE they sat next to members and the ward just welcomed them in. it was so awesome! Im seeing "success"i guess you could say but i also see is not me doing it. im just a middle man.. like a iniciator.. no a support/push. a witness. a witness that God loves His children. Im a witness that He calls and sends missionaries to strength and uplift them.

 

This last week we a conference with about 60 other missionaries (us 4 being the only hermanas). Elder cornish who is the president in the 70 of the caribbean and the mission president and their wives were there. 

 

Anyway, reeling back to the conference. President Nuckles shared my fav scripture (alma 26:12) and asked how it applied to missionary work. I replied saying that its not our work and really we cant do anything without His help. He was like its not your smile? or your charm? I said no. and its true... were only along in the process.. its the Spirit that testifies the truth of the words we say into their hearts. were only instruments.

 

 

 

Alright quickly, things that happened this week;

1. I hit 9 months (halfway mark)

2. Conference

3. a 5 year old told my comp (whos dominican) she looked like she was from hawaii and that i looked like i was from San Cristobal (aka the DR haha)

4. I got told i speak too fast... what? never thought that'd happen, especially from a Dominican.

5. I got asked, scratch that, i was announced as the first speaker yesterday in church. SURPRISE! always me... ha. however, the promise in doctrine and covenants is ture. In the moment most needed words will come. They came. a scripture popped in my head. a little nervous but calming at the same time. Nervous because i hadny prepared anything but calm because i felt the Spirit right beside me.

6. we went to the ruins today

 

okay sorry this email was scattered.. welcome to my brain ha. but im happy. im tired and i love you guys! i know God lives and loves you.

 

Have a great week!

 

Hermana Hildman

 

 

Columbus day Oct 13th

Happy Columbus day! (i only know that because of my calendar)

 

this week was good. i really like our area and i love my comp. I cant remember when i mentioned it but i am seeing obedience really is a key factor in mission life and really, life in general. 

 

my comp and i have been working hard and trying to be more obedient and relying more heavily on Heavenly Father. this last week it literally felt like we were being led from house to house, meeting people God led us to. Theres no such thing as coincidences.. (sorry i cant spell that word ha)

 

for example we can upon an apartment building with three doors and i ask my companion which one to knock? shes like i dont care. I look at them and feel like we should knock on the first one to the left. We knock, no one answers so we slide a card underneath with our names and number and the direction.. umm address of the church. we begin filling out another card to have ready when the door opens. a middle aged woman picks up the card and we start talking to her. it wasnt long and she opened up like COMPLETELY to us. about her life. about how hard it is, how her family is screwed up and shes been praying and praying for help...

 we share words of encouragement and comfort and just help in the best way we could. mainly listening to her. She shed tears but she felt very thankful we had stopped by. she asked us to come back and asked us when church was. we have an appointment with her tomorrow. 

Another experience that happened this week was when my companion and i were on our way home and stopped at a colmado (store) so she could have food for breakfast the next day. on our way home from the colmado a car pulls up next to us and holds a bag of eggs (yah they bag eggs here ha) and tells us we forgot them. my companion hadnt even realized the eggs werent in her bag. we thanked him and felt blessed of how nice people are here. well just yesterday we passed by the same colmado and the same car pulled up next to us. this time we hadnt forgotten anything lol. we began talking to us. he speaks english because he works at a call center and begins to ask a lot of questions and talk a lot in general. I basically taught him the restoration. about Joseph Smith, God in general, etc... I say I because it was english... which was weird because im so used to teaching it in spanish that i actually had to translate it from spanish to english in my head. never thought thatd happen lol. anyway he asked if it was a coincidence that we met and i told him i didnt think so. that really things happen for a reason.

 

i do truly believe that. That God, our Loving Father in Heaven is control and that He has a plan for us... and that "His ways are higher than our ways". That we really cant even begin to imagine how it all works.

 

God is real. God loves us. He hears our prayers. He answers our prayers, it's usually through other people He meets our needs but he takes care of us.

 

I am so exhaused and its crazy to think i'm only halfway through because i feel so old and achy... but its worth it. we we are obedient and work work, relying on God.. He guides us in the right way.

 

I have a quote on my desk I like that reads:

"when we focus our efforts on helping others, we're joyfully exhausted instead of irratingly tired."

 

this is God's work. He's in control. I love and trust Him. I'm not perfect but i'm striving to be.

 

I love you all! 

 

<3. Hna hildman 

Conference Week Oct 6th

I had a really good week (and took a lot of pictures.. you guys will have to check my blog for them. hermana.hildman.blogspot.com)

some highlights this week:

1.tried my first tubi. aka a weaving cap. all the dominicans wear them. i like to use them (only in the house of course) when its really hot. i like it too because it prevents kinks in your hair.. unlike just pulling it up with hair ties.

2. we made dumplins.. dominican style yummy.

 

3. had a really cool lesson with a new investigator named Elizabeth. She had a lot of questions and actually had read the pamphlet we gave her... shes really interested.

4. my comp hit 9 months... haha youll have to see the blog for those pics

       (stay tuned for this picture)

5. contacted a mute man.

6. made cinnamon rolls with hna beaukers for conference.

7. General conference.

8. ate lunch at bishops with his family.

9. oh a i tried a china. its technically an orange but instead of calling it naranja they call it china because if its called china its ready if its naranja its not ripe. also theyre green here. i like them though... but more in a juice... less work on eating it ha.

10. i got mail!.... always wonderful.

alright, so i feel a lot of people are going to talk about conference so ill be brief. i thought it was cool there were a few speakers who spoke in their native language. spanish was the coolest because then it didnt have to be translated. huge martinez if the the 70 who talked is the 2nd counsler for the carribean... aka my area lol.

i also discovered that richard g scott translates his owns talks into spanish so that was neat.

as for talks i liked, its harder to follow in spanish than in english.. go figure right? however, the overrall theme that i picked up on is that we live in hard times. were going to have rapids, however we have the tools to secure us, secure our safety so we can get passed it.

1.prayer

2.following the example of Christ

3.establishing strong families by doing things together

4.recognizing whats more important (fruit or prayers? see talk by l. tom perry)

5.going to the temple.

6.following the prophet. (d&c1:38)

7.listening to the holy ghost

8.loving others

9.strengthening your testimony

i love conference and feel so blessed to have had the change to watch it but more importantly i feel blessed knowing we have a living prophet today to guide us.

he really is a prophet of God. I have prayed and received a wtiness to my heart that he is Gods prophet. It wasnt anything big, i just wanted to know if he really was because i believed he was. One day (before the mission) after having prayed to know.. i was listening to a few lds talks. when i heard his voice... the spirit bore withness to me in my heart that he really is a prophet.

im no scholar or anything nor know a whole lot but i am tahnkful to know a few truths.

one being, i dont know nor do i need to know all things because God does. And just like it says in Isaiah 55:8-9, God's ways His thoughts, are higher than ours. He knows... whats best andw e can trust Him because He loves us because we are His children.

ive had it mentioned to me before that no one really knows fopr sure if theres a God or wahts going to happen untilo we die and find out. However, i feel if we have that kind of mindset were going to come face to face with God and either be like "i didnt know" or "i always believed.. but i never knew". to which i feel He would say in a loving fatherly way... "why didnt you just ask me?"

I'll admit... asking is much easier to do than receiving an asnwer, but i promise you that youll always receive an answer. sometimes its not in a way you expect, sometimes ita not a yes of no answer. but when we pray wanting to know with real intent.. God will answer us.

I love the scripture found in 1 Samuel 16:7 that says "..for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart".

God knows us. He knows our intentions, our dsires, our fears, our doubts, our weaknesses, our strengths... and He loves us all equally because we are all His.

At times that statement has troubled me. How could He love me the same as a murderer, a cheater, a robber? or how could He possibly love me the same as the prophet, Jesus, or Mary?

Because we are His children... all of us. It doesnt matter what weve done or will ever do... His love is always there. always. Hes only waiting to bless us. .. were the ones that push Him waway but He's only ever an arms length wawy because thats only as far as we CAN push Him.

I testify that God lives, loves us and sent His Son Jesus Christ to atone for us so we could return back to Him... if we want.

I love you all!

con amor,

Hermana Hildman.

First week in Villa Aura II

Alright so this has been like the weirdest week of my mission life.

monday (pday)- was super chill. it was hna buhrleys last day and we threw her a surprise little party with empanadas and ate some no bake cookies

tuesday- hna burhley and mayfield left for new adventures. burhley homeward bound and mayfield off to the yuka. we spent all day cleaning and packing and then went out for a few hours.

wednesday- we waited a long time to move to our new house (the elders old one). to pass time we slept, played cards, read, slept, ate, etc. Finally we got moved... well taken to our new house. Well, we were super saddened/upset when we got there. Remember how i mentioned we cleaned like all day? well we left our house BEAUTIFUL and came to a house that wa far from it.. however i feel so thankful that both the assistants and office elders were there to help and the old elders to help us clean it all. so wednesday we spent another day cleaning. (12 of us)

thursday-

we showed the elders our area so they knew members, recent converts, and investigators we were working with.

friday-

they showed us around their area.

Saturday- in the morning we went out with the elder to see our NEW HOUSE... well i say new house because i want it to be. it was super nice. the day we moved into our new house we were told we were gonna move no more than a week... so that wa nice.. they dont like us living above the guys who live below us so they want us out of there pronto so we should be moving sometime this coming week so a new place.

then the rest of the day we went out on our own and didnt get too lost.

Sunday- our first sunday. church was awesome. it was ran very punctual.. which is rare here in this country so that was cool. we had a meeting with the bishop and other leaders on how to help the ward and it was super cool. then the bishop and his wife went out with us for 2 lessons and it was great. We ended up visiting who needed our visits.

Anyway, so that was my week. out new area is HUGE... and full of hills. butt work out for sure. Its also full of some mixed feelings. Some are super excited to have us hermanas here but also some were attached to the elders... they havent had hermanas here in over 10 years.

so yah, im excited to work in this area though. We have a lot of area to cover and i hope a lot of work.

Work work work... its hard. however, i recenrly rediscovered a quote i have that says: "if it wouldnt be hard, it wouldnt be worth it".

its true. have to really show Heavenly Father how willing you are to help His children. He loves them and doesnt want just anyone toiling with them. He wants hardworking, obedient missionaries to teach His beloved children because only through those kind of missionaries can He teach them the Gospel. Those kind of missionaries teach with the Spirit, which is the key to missionary work, the key to teaching in the way God wants.

I know that this is God's work and that the only way to really have success in helping people come to Christ is relying on God to do so. I know im not a perfect missionary but i really do want to help people be happy and the Gospel is the greatest joy ive received and i want to share it.

I love you guys and i miss yah but the time is short until i see you again.

con amor,

hermana hildman

ps. General conference is next week! im so stoked!