Photos!!!

Love is a Universal Language

Well first off i want to apologize... i made a HUGE list of stuff i was going to share and i cannot find it.

sad sad day.

so i will try my best to remember what i wrote.

to start off my companion is from melba idaho. her name is hna priesler. she knows michael jenkins! what are the odds. and she went to West one year. and stuff. i love her so much. she is like 5´3´´ but she doesnt feel that short to me which is weird because i am HUGE in this country haha.. everyone here tells me i am ¨muy grande¨¨ and im all like yah... ¨¨estoy muy alta¨¨ haha.. one girl told me i needed a big bed haha. its funny.

Ocoa is the area i am at and it is in the mountains and it is sooo beautiful here. we do walk through some rivers so i am glad i found hna francis´s blog before i left about crocs... which is ironic because i replaced her here... whattttt... so crazy. its so pretty. i love it. i do get cold at night though so i have made a mkade shift blanket out of my cardigans and scarfs at night... haha look at me be so handy.. haha chiste... anyway i am so spoiled here. our house is huge. we have electricity, running water, a microwave.. like woah.

oh, ps. i have hitched hiked here... not to scare you. but its was super nice because we were going to Parra which is up the mountain and we got a ride up and down... like that never happens I guess... oh man. so nice. 

We have a donkey that lives next door and those creatures are noisy... `ps

One of our investigators looks like Uncle Derek... but like a younger, darker version haha. His name is Dailyn and is so awesome. He believes in the church and is going to all these activities and i invited him to be baptized (in spanish... what) and he said he would prepare but doesnt know he´ll be ready. but at the rate he is going.. he will be ready. he said when he commits to something he fully commits and i undestand that. but he keeps excercising his faith and he recognizes God´s hand in his life its so awesome. 

My spanish is coming along. The other day a guy asked if were were from Argentina... and we were like no we´re Americans lol. So i mean I guess that´s good right. I didn´t talk all that much so i think he was speaking more about my companions but he did say you guys and just just one of us... so theres hope. maybe ill sound like a latina soon woo hoo. 

We went to a waterfall today with the zone and that was fun. i got to hold a bat... a real one. i felt kinda bad but it was super cool. i hope to send you all these cool pics soon. oh and my bug spray is so awesome against mosquitos but there are these flies.. i think thats what it is anyway... my leg got attacked which is okay... like they dont itch but it was weird..

funny experience and tender mercy... so we get hard cover book of mormons to carry while we are out and my companion asked me to turn to mosiah 18 and it wasnt there... i am missing 50 pages in the middle and have mosiah 1 through 11 twice in my book... oh man i am glad i found that out now before i started to decorate my book and mark it and stuff holy moly. what a blessing. 

Oh man oh man... God is so real and loves us. I haven´t been out in the field very long.. not even quite a week and I cannot deny that this church is true... because I know it is. I have felt the Spirit so strong. This week we were teaching a family about the Restoration and (mind you I dont really know these people) and i felt this strong love for them... like i love all our investigators... and im like shooot i dont even know these people.. but God knows them and loves them sooo much and is so excited that i am here teaching His children. anyway... we were teaching this family and i taught right along with my companion and testified and i literally felt like i was glowing... like on fire. and the words i were saying were not my words... the mom started to cry and hugged me afterwards and thanked me adn it was so neat.  hna preisler and i were walking back and were like on cloud nine... we were like there is no way you can deny the truth of the church.

oh man guys.. i love  you so much. this church is true. i feel like i have been out forever. my companion and the other two sisters i live with all get along and click and its great. i am learning so much... like ¨veo veo¨ which is like eye spy.. and i love the children.

really like what my title of the email says... love is universal. no matter what. i may not be able to speak very well in either spanish or english but love is in all languages. and i seriously love these people. they dont have very much but they give all that they do have. just like waht it says in moroni 7, verse 47 charity is the pure love of Christ and these people live it.

i pray for you.

Dios le ama. 

Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador.

Hna,. Hildman

Last week in MTC!!!

Soooo.... I actually made a small list that I wanted to remember to tell you guys this week. What what?

 

One thing:

Dora the Explorer is Explora Dora and she teaches English... or so I am told haha. So that's cool.

 

2. My p-days will be changing to Mondays.. so my next P-day will be the first monday in March.

 

3. I can do the snap thing with my fingers now.. Its really big here and I guess in latin culture. It's not super loud yet but I can do it. soo yah. hopefully you understand what I am talking about.

 

4. Last friday we went to el campo. And my companions didn't know ANY english... so that was interesting haha. They knew how to say: "hello", "How are you?" and "kiss my hiney" haha... but I did understand a lot of what was being taught so that was good. They had me try to teach about repentance and about one of the ten commandments.. and they said I did good but it was super super basic.
But you got to start somewhere right?

Anyway, I miss you guys sooo much.

 

I go out in the field again tomorrow and then Saturday is my last like "school day" then sunday... is sunday and then Monday is our "disorientation day" haha... then I leave Tuesday for the mission field. Wish me luck!

 

I am so glad to see how the Lord blesses you. I still pray for you guys... every day.

 

One quote/thought I would like to leave with you guys is the quote I have been thinking about:

 

"Don't think less of yourself, think of yourself less"

 

You are worth it... and loved beyond belief.

 

Being a missionary is hard because you are away from home/family/comforts of home and you are being put under pressure that youre not used to.. like learning a language and with companions allll the time and its not easy. So it's easy to get in the rut of woe me and man no body likes me no one cares about me... etc etc.

 

But, thinking more of others ultimately makes you more happy.

 

I can't think of the scripture exactly.. I think it's in D&C 18... verse 15? Talking about those who bring but one soul unto God great is their joy... sorry I am paraphrasing. you should look it up. But really. When we are in the service of others (Mosiah 2:17)... we are in the Service of God and God wants to bless us and He DOES...

 

I see it everyday.

You can too.

Look for the little tender mercies and and think of yourself less and help other people.

 

The gospel is true. God loves you. Jesus Christ loves you.

 

I love you!

 

I pray for you!

 

 

Hermana Hildman

Count Down

Hola mi familia y amigos!

 

I only have one more P-day left here in the MTC... that is insane! but a blessing too.

 

I have definitely been blessed here in the CCM... but its been a struggle too. RM's always talk about how missions are hard and really truly deeply... they are. period. and I am not even in the field yet.

 

I have never been so spiritually and emotionally exerted as I have been here. oh and sleep... yah I try to get as much as I can ha...

 

anyway.

This week has gone good. Unfortunatly my days blur and I dont necesarily remember all that I have done this week on the top of my head but I'll list what I remember.

 

We went contacting on Thursday at the Univesrsity and I really enjoyed it. We three girls got hit on by a bunch of the boys but whatever... such is life. I shrugged it off. We talked with one girl for a little bit and walked by later and she was really reading the folleto (pamphlet) we gave her. and one guy just came up to us and started talking to us and telling us he loved talking to us missionaries and wanted us to come by when he had more time and teach and it was really neat.

the people here are sooo nice. I love it.

 

Umm... we went to the store this last week for the last time and I forgot my ID so that was a little stressful.. I am always stressed at the store. its so packed, so much spanish and not enough time to get all thats on our list... i hate it. but whatver. oh back to the ID thing so I had to go to the ATM and get pesos to pay for my items.

 

Umm the other districts left this last week. We got another group of Americans and some latinos. I am glad we got more latinos instead of more haitains so we can practice our spanish more.

 

Oh shoot my time is almost done... yikes.

 

Okay... well tomorrow we go on splits with the missionaries so that's gonna be an exciting experience.

Today like right after email we're gonna "tie dye"... but like in reverse. Tie dye is hard to find here... so we bought colored shirts and are gonna like tie dye them... but with bleach. so that should be fun. :)

 

Umm...

 

Spanish is coming along.

I have a lot of work to do but I am trying my best.

 

I love you guys and miss you bunches!

 

yo se que la iglesia is verdadera.

yo se que Jose smith fue un profeta.

se que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero.

Yo no se muchas cosas pero yo se que nuestro Padre Celesial nos ama.

 

en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

 

 

Love you guys!

 

<3, Hermana Hildman

 

ps. sorry for the short email.

Half way through the MTC

Oh my holy cow,

 

haha....

 

I am halfway through with the CCM... like its crazy to think that but also like "about time".

 

I am sooooo glad to hear the Seahawks won. I heard they won a couple days ago but I didn't realize how much of a blow out it was until today... holy moly. that is ridiculous but so awsome.

 

The CCM is well nothing too exciting... ha my days blur together. I get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, personal study, companion study, then class, then lunch, then class, then service and excercise time, then dinner, then class, planning, prayer, bed time.

 

We currently have two investigators. Cleirra in the morning and Victor at night and we have taught the latinos a few times at night.

 

I teach with one of my companions and my other companion teaches with Elder York. My companion I teach with is Hermana Stanton and she is super smart when it comes to spanish. She gets frustrated easily and think she doesn't know anything but she knows soooo much and her pronunician is amazing. my sentences are pretty basic and super slow and sound like a white girl... oh wait. I am a white girl ha.

 

Entonces,

I do love spanish. It is pretty. I just wish I understood more but then again I have only been here 3 weeks... like what? I didn't know this much spanish in 3 weeks when I took it at school. I have only been here 3 weeks and I am talking/teaching people in spanish.

 

Tomorrow we're going to the univeresity again to do some contacting and talk to REAL people again and that should hopefully be better than it was last week. Last week went well but it still is imidating because we really don't know of what other people are saying. I think it was Sister Given who made the reference to the Madagascar movie that we're kinda like the penguins... we just smile and wave.. haha.. but we more like smile and nod. For all we know they could have said we were polyamists and what not and we wouldnt have known... however, we do have this amazing thing called the Spirit and I hope it would help us in knowing something was up.

 

The Spirit is the teacher for sure. When I think back for myself when I was taught by the sister missionaries I don't remember a whole bunche of what they taught. I remember they gave me some scriptures and what not but I mainly remembered how I FELT. The Holy Ghost testifies of truth. It makes you feel calm and at peace. I love the Holy Ghost.

 

When all else fails in our lessons we just try to testify in spanish the best way we know how.

 

 

here in the DR it has been raining a lot. I think they said we're in the rainy season now. As we were walking back from the temple it had just rained and the smell is weird. The best way to describe it is Corn nuts... so in other words.. not my favorite smell haha. but its all good. It is way pretty here. And I love being able to see the temple from my room. It seriously takes like 5 min to walk in the parking lot to get there. :)

 

 

Well I love you guys mucho!

 

I didn't mean to discourage you guys from asking me questions, you so can and plus we just got new computers so I should be to print them all.

 

 

I love you. I know this church is true and even though I am having a harder time adjusting to missionary life I am doing the best I can. "Life is hard and then we die" as one of my bisops used to say haha... but really what is so great about the gospel is we learn that there is so much more to look foward to after this life. I mean.. I am not discreting life, we are here for a reason I am just saying try not to focus so much on the unfair things and enjoy the time we have here and look forward to the future..

 

 

You're in my prayers, keep me in your prayers for the gift of tongues.

 

Love you!

 

Hermana Hildman

 

CORRECTION

Good Morning,
 I was reviewing the blog homepage and realized the email address posted was incorrect.  I have since fixed it and hopefully those of you who have been writing McKenzie on that other address will now hear something back.  I have let her know and that she should now be receiving more mail as well. :)  

2 week and a few 1st

¡Hola mi familia y amigos!

 

I love and miss you all!

 

CCM life is actually gone a lot faster this last week. On sunday, we were all talkling about fast it has gone and that it didnt feel like it had been a week aflready. entonces.... (sooooo)... thats good!

 

I have an enter button this time while typing, ANOTHER PLUS! haha

 

We went to the store for the first time yesterday so that was a fun experience. We finally got to leave these walls! woahhh. And we walked through the super awesome park that is across from the street. its really cool. they have a TON of excercise equipment and swings and all kinds of neat things over there and its super bright and pretty. The store felt kinda like a Walmart/mall... like it was really huge but not set up like any store I have EVER been to... and I mean, I worked in grocery so that through me for a loop ha.

 

I mean its not super hectic but definiately interesting and in front by the check out stands there are like...  booths. They made me think of the booths for like car rentals but they were like vendors and one was a frozen yogurt shop. so that was interesting. and the store is PACKED... ridiculous and everythings is super cheap. I think 1 US dollar is like 43 pesos? or something... I don't entirely remember. It throughs me though because I'll pick something up and it will say like 225 and my american mind is like ahhh $200?!?! but that isn't all that much in American money... :)

 

the money is kinda weird. like 20 pesos is a bill made out of this pink plastic. hundreds and 200 hundreds are bills and then ten pesos down are coins. I have a few 1 pesos now and I don't really know what I can get from them... lol. a candy? who knows.

 

Food here is pretty fine. I am kinda tired of rice though... so thats not good. Not that it tastes bad or anything it justs gives me a balloon belly and it doesnt really have nutrients lol. so I am trying to wean myself off it.

 

I tried something new this last week... I don't remember what its called... I think Yaca? It was bascially like a play-do. Like, it literally tasted like that. but whatever.. I ate it. ha. I kinda like food... its a problem.

 

Umm... well my time is getting short! NOOOOO...

 

OH some of you were confused by my dearelder comment. I recommend using the dear elder if you have like a TON of questions for me... because the printer doesnt really work so I try to answer all of your questions in the 45 min- 1 hour I have to answer them.

 

but you dont have to use dearelder... its no biggie.. but if you do make sure its sent to the MTC.

 

 

Umm... my last thoughts?

 

The Dominican Republic is beautiful.

 

I love the people already. My companions are awesome. I have been so blessed thus far and the Lord seems to blessing all of you as well which blesses me with comfort and ahh... calms my heart. Missionary life is hard but its so worth it.

 

If you have any questions regarding faith... PRAY... for real.. and then "do your research"... read the scriptures..

 

Prayer is two way. Heavenly Father usually answers us through scriptures or other people but he answers us!

 

I know it! I love prayer.... I love el Evangelio.

Yo se que la iglesia de Jesuscristo de los santos de los ultimos dias is verdadera. yo se que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero y es la palabra de Dios. yo se que con nuestro Padre Celesital podemos hacer todas cosas.

en el nombre de Jesuscristo, amen.

 

 

Keep the faith!

Haz lo justo!

I love you all! :))

 

Hermana Hildman