Holaaaaa I love you all soo much

Well this week semed to go by faster than usual. I feel like I just emailed you guys. My comp was all like "Its P-day already?"and Im all like I know its crazy"... but then again I know its P-day because my body tells me haha... 

this week was Hermana Adam's first week in the field. She is the new hermana in our house. She is from Washington.. near Everett... Its weird to think I was her 6 weeks ago. I remember how Sundays were so exhausting but now i can understand more and Im not AS tired lol... Its crazy to see how far I have grown since last transer... in spanish and the Gospel.. I mean I am nothing close to perfect but I feel successful and that I am actually making a difference.

Yesterday in Parra we had for the first time ever... Sunday school for the youth! Usually its combined but they called Lysandro as the teacher for the youth and it went really well. My first sunday in Parra there was about 4-5 people and yesterday we had 20-21!!!! And we almost have a whole family reactivated! a WHOLE family... oh my goodness. It was really cool and then they shared their testimonies and its so cool to see they actually KNOW this is true... they just needed some push and encouragement. We're trying to strengthen the families here and their faith.

Oh man, this week or maybe it last week... anyway.. recently we discovered we have a whole another area within our area... our area is hugeeee. The elders quorum president showed us around and we met a lot of people... inactive members and had a lesson with one guy and then met with him again.. and he was watching conference in his colmato! and then we were teaching and i didnt know how to express what i wanted to say and he knows some english and was like say it in english... but then again taht was kinda hard too and i was super repetitive.. ha.. in our district meeting this last week my comp and i had a practice and our district leader said to do it in english for the new hermana and my comp had a really hard time... haha... i mean i didnt struggle as bad but she was like... i dont know how to say that it in english lol.. she is afraid she wont be able to teach the gospel in english... but she will be she just has been doing it in spanish for the last year is all. Anyway, that guy that we taught in kinda in english he came to church yesterday and brought two friends... i think he might just come back again... i really hope so.

some people just need an invite. 

Anyway, If you want to hear more about my week you can always follow my comps blog too. Hermana Jacey Preisler... shes pretty good about writing about the people... I am still learning this whole writing thing... lol.

Well I love Dominican Life... my comp and i made a dominican meal this last week and it turned out pretty good. Only thing is Dominican cooking is really bad haha... a lot of oil but we drained a lot of the oil out so it was super super dominican haha... it was like this egg thing. you can eat it with rice.. but i am not a huge fan of rice ha.. oh and we banana bread last week. i may have said that last week.. it turned out pretty good. it was dominican too cause i got a dominican to write what he could remember for the receipe in the CCM haha.

oh man... well life is good. I honestly do forget i am white... until i walk down the street and get all this attention. While i have been sitting here in email a guy was talking at me in broken english saying: "She is really beautful" "welcome to my country"... oh man... 

but anway I love you all. 

God lives and loves us and if we really want to be happy we can search Him out and He will help us. It still takes work on our part but i promise that its worth it. 

Keep the faith... you have. and press forward!

I love you!

Hermana Hildman

My first transfer

dun dun dun...

I am staying here with my comp! hooray!

Hna matteson is leaving and her comp is training so we'll have a new baby in the house! crazy! hopefully i can help her with adjusting to missionary life some.

I don't know why we cant have a "normal" week... We're like always going to Bani or something... but that's alright. 

I want to apologize in advance, this email is gonna be shorter than usual. But I love you guys! 

So conference was this last weekend and I hope you all watched it... and I imagine it was awesome!!! we got to see the last part of the last session on the last day... and it was in spanish but i did get some out of it.

So if you guys want feel free to mail me some quotes.. you guys can send me actual letters if you want. like in an envelope just with a global forever stamp and bam... ill get it. :)

anyway... our week went very good. Our thursday did not go at all as we had planned it but that is fine by me because i believe we taught the people Heavenly Father wanted us to teach that day. We met this girl named marisol and taught with her neighbor and came back 3 days later and taught her family and it was really cool. My spanish really surprises me sometimes... like i dont know a ton but Heavenly Father helps me teach/testify simply and in what words i do know... and the people can understand because i am not drowning them with words..because well.. i dont know a lot. And plus.... The Spirit is there. The Spirit is what converts us... Its not me. I just help them feel the Spirit and know/feel that God loves them.

Friday we had a great activity in Parra and a lot people showed up and two of the members up there helped us make popcorna and it was really fun... it felt like our ward stuff in the states when we all come together and it was just fun. it was simple but you could feel the Spirit... and just feel good. 

I love you guys. I miss you guys a lottt... but I realized this week that I want this Gospel sooooooooo bad for you guys and if I want it THIS bad i can only imagine the people here who are dying to have it for themselves and their family even though they dont know they're quite searching for it... i know Heavenly Father is watching over you guys. And i know through my efforts here He is blessing you! Ahh man...

I want you all to be so happy and to know that God loves you so much and although life is hard... The Gospel brings light, strength and hope... 

Dont lose the faith you already have... add onto it.. pray,especially read the scriptures... there is so much strength in them... and if you put time aside for them you will be surprised by how much more time you will have.

oh man. i love you guys! keep praying! 

And if you feel like praying for anyone... would you mind praying for Deilyn and Fernando... they are struggling with their families and need strength.. and pray for Carmen that she can keep praying and be able to get married so she can get baptized.. she wants it so bad!

I love you!

con mi amor, Hermana Hildman

I am on week 6!!!

Oh my goodness... i am on my last week of this transfer! so crazy. I should hopefully be staying here with my comp but anything could happen... so ill let you guys know next week. our district leader was saying that i could train a dominican and im like uhhhhh... and my comp said i could do it but that itd be a quiet transfer lol.

I dont know that MUCH spanish... but whatever happens i know the Lord is in it and He trusts that I can do whatever He has called me to do with His help. 

Alright so this week, for some reason it seemed harder for me than the previous weeks physically and spiritually but it was good. We played softball as a mutual activity and that was fun. my companion and I got kinda sun burnt but not too bad haha. Today we played baseball at the beach! My comp is trying to convert me to be an Escocido which is one of the baseball teams here. the two main ones are lions and tigers. lions are the escodios and are read and the tigers are blue... i cant remember thier actual name but she has actually never watched a baseball game in her life... oh bless her heart. I explained to her some basic rules about baseball today lol. Anyway.. i havent chosen a DR team yet... 

this week we got to do some service and as you guys know... I LOVE SERVICE!!! We helped wash dishes for a lady in our ward and do laundry with one of our investigators, Carmen... I dont know if I have told you a lot about Carmen... but she is so awesome. I love her and want to be more like her... So it was all on the Lord's time because we "just happened"to stop by when she was doing laundry... and i say just happened in quotes because I dont think it was by chance.... but her washer machine has just broke and she was doing laundry for 6 people... so needless to stay there was a lot of clothes so we helped wash, rinse and hang them by hand for her and it was so fun! we sang and just had a good ole time. Carmen, oh my, in the eyes of the world... she has NOTHING... but she really has so MUCH... so much faith, love and such a sweet beautiful family. She has 4 kids: Maria who is 12, Luis Mario who is 11, Marisol whos is 8 and Darbin who is 4. She teaches her kids so much  and the girls hold these "dramas"for us when were over. theyre so cute. they had a drama about helping people and then they just had one about like the basic concepts of the gospel.. like praying always, reading the scriptures, going to church... such a cute family. the only thing holding them back from baptism is marriage... which is a big issue here because its not in the culture to get married because its spendy and then once you have kids you have to pay extra for each kid you have... and this family doesnt have much but they are saving what they can for marriage... but before even marriage... her "husband"isnt a citizen of this country. His parents didnt declare his birth when he was born... and its free to do. His mother abandoned him and his dad is a wanderer so trying to find them now has been a wild goose chase because we need one of his parents to be there to declare him. So we fasted yesterday because we needed some Heavenly help and today... Carmen called us! And Her "husband", Bajijio, his dad was at their house this morning! So we told her to go get him declared... to run over there lol. So hope to hear it went well and can work on throwing her a bola!!! i think thats how you spell it... but a wedding!! ahhi i am so excited. they are so cute!!

Anyway, I am beginning to love the mission more... but it is so hard... agh... i dont want to murmur... so i wont. but its not easy, its so worth it. i am seeing peoples life change for the better and seeing them become happier through living the Gospel....

The language is still coming little by little... the gift of tongues is real, as well as the interpretation of tongues. Its not immediate  and it takes a lot of work on our part but the spanish i do know and understand is because of Heavenly Father's help. When I teach and testify, Heavenly Father doesnt give me words I dont already know... I ahve to work and learn them but he does help me better conjugate and speak more smoothly and on track. Sometimes when I start talk I start talking about something I was not planning on sharing but I just go with it because its making sense... and i am conjugating right for the most part... i am helped along the way by my comp and members but i truly believe i am helping share something these people need in my little broken spanish.

just the other day, I couldnt understand all of what was being said but a scripture popped in my head... Alma 32:27... i believe is what is is... i dont know ha... at the time it was in my head and i shared it and my comp afterwards was like wow... thats exactly waht they needed... and i just followed the Spirit.

Man Seminary really helps prepare for missions... scripture masteries are so awesome. and they are so true..,.

ay... this church is true. Saying that... I am not saying that all other churches are wrong but they only have parts. 

I love that this church... really pushes to find out for YOURSELF... Like I am out here, proselytying.. teaching the gospel but I am not condeming or yelling at people to repent and stuff... i mean record we all need to repent... but really... everyone has their agency and believe waht they want. I just know this is the chruch church and true gospel and that through it we can receive so much joy and I just want everyone to have the chance to experience it... I want them to find out for themself if this is true.

Ask God. Ask Him. He is your Father in Heaven, and He loves you.. Pray and ask him... Have faith and go to work and show that you have faith... Miracles come because of our faith...

And faith without works is dead.. James 2:17... Have faith... pray.. believe...

I love you guys so much! 

this week has been harder for me. I miss you guys a lot... but I love that companion shared with me that I am here because I want everyone here to be able to be with their families forever because i want to be with my family together... i may miss my family al ot... but this short time is worth it in the sense of eternity. life is short... so so short. and I want to do all I can in this life to be able to have so much joy in the life to come.

I have to go. But I love you guys!!

Hermana Hildman



Mailing options

If you would like to write to McKenzie there are two options. One is directly to her in the Dominican and is about .93 cents per ounce or via pouch mail through Salt Lake.  If you choose pouch mail it can only be one sheet of paper and folded into thirds sealed with scotch tape and apply U.S. postage and address the outside as follows;

Elder McKenzie Lynn Hildman
Dominican Republic West Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

The address to mail letters or cards directly to her is as follows;
Elder McKenzie Lynn Hildman
C/Hatuey #73, Urb. Los Cacicazgos
Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana

Thank you

5 semana!

Hola mi familia y amigos!

This week has been really out of ordinary. Tuesday we visited a lot of people shortly and invited them to the conference this last weekend. We had to end our day short though because we had to leave for Bani and we stayed the night with the sisters there. I learned how to make Tostones which is the plantanos chips things. they are really good... but super healthy ha. We made those and fried salami... Dominican cooking. haha its dangerous though so much popping oil yikes. Anyway we left the next morning for the capital to go to the temple and we managed to shove our whole zone into like a 8 passenger van. 21 people.. ah yikes. it was a like a huge snuggling pool... but not really ha. anyway we went to the temple and it was amazing. first time all in spanish so that was interesting but it was good. Met a girl there that I had been talking to before the mission so that was cool. We then had Wendy´s!!! after the temple and came home. Thursday we went to Las Flores and visited a lot of inactive members and had good lessons. They just have a hard time getting to church because of their health but they have so  much faith.

     Okay... Friday. Friday started out a little rough because the night before we were told Deilyn couldnt get baptized and we were devasted because he was so ready and was working so hard. However we called pte..(presidente) well my comp did and he okay´d it. So that was wonderful but then things just kept getting worse... We lost the church keys and spent forever looking for them because we needed to lock the church because it was all prepped for Deilyns baptism and then the zone leaders called us and said he had sent the baptism registry papers with a gua gua ( a bus thing )and we spent our whole lunch chasing this guy down and I was ¨hangry¨because we were fasting and then the guy way overcharged us and ugh... so i downed my lunch very unhappily but we met up with Emilkin our awesome member missionary guy. This kid is seriously amazing... bless his little heart. He really is like the glue of our branch. 

      Anyway, we headed over to Deilyns familiy to invite them to Deilyns baptism and they said Deilyn was home and that he was up the hill getting his hair cut for his baptism... ahh so precious!!! it really helped to lift my spirits to see him so excited. 

      Deilyn a little later had his baptism interview with the district leader a little later at the church and asked if he could run home and go pick up his mom so he jumped on his motor and went and picked her up. it was so sweet to have her there. I had said the opening prayer, my comp gave a talk on baptism then we had a musical number. We sang Nearer my God to Thee in spanish.. I sang the first verse (SOLO!!!... crazy haha) and then my comp did the second verse then the 4 of us sisters sang the 3rd verse,. 

     Emilkin baptized Deilyn, and we totally forgot to tell him to bring a towel... so we gave him a another jumpsuit to dry off with. After the service Deilyns mom said she would be interested in learning more about the church which is so cool. Deilyn is seriously so awesome! I love him! He really is like Nephi in the Book of Mormon. His brothers are involved in some not very good things but Deilyn is such a huge example and prays and relies so much on Heavenly Father. I wish I had more time to share a lot of the miracles Deilyn has had because of his faith.

      I like a verse in the Book of Mormon, Ether 12 verse 6 and it says ¨You receive no witness after the trial of your faith¨

       Miracles come AFTER our faith. 

Deilyn is in the middle

Anyway, I love you all. My week has been interesting to say the least. being stuffed in gua guas and drowning forever in spanish but its so worth it. This Gospel is true and it brings so much happiness. Anyone who is searching and wanting to know if its true can ask God, our loving Heavenly Father directly... prayer is amazing. You can receive an answer through prayer.

I testify that you can. I love you! Remember Faith is key... but most importantly faith in Jesus Christ is the Most imporant key.. Show your faith through your works.

I love you all!!!

James 2, verse 17

Hermana Hildman

Deilyns baptism his mom on the right

Happy St Patrick’s day

so i kind of wanted to tell you how my week went.

mon' one of our investigators Carmen and her ´spouse´ agreed to a date to get legally married. and we actually had our first lesson with her ¨spouse¨... hooray´

Tuesday' we went out the elders quorum pres and met some new people. one girl was a teacher and i could like understand all she was saying because she was speaking really clear which was sooo awesome. 

wed'... my first zone conference... woah... that was an experience.. it was good... but we were there at the conference for 8 hours... ugh.. so much time lol.

thursday was an awesome day... we had a really cool lesson with our investigator Deilyn. i came up with the idea in the morning... and when i say i came up with the idea i dont think it was mine because it worked out sooo good. we had him start out in this room and we blindfolded him and said he first started out this way in the dark searching for God and the truth and therefore tried to find this rope. he found the rope... being the word of God... and it led to a door. the door representing baptism... then opened the door and walked in the hallway.. persevering... and then came to another door being temple covenants and then when he opened the door it was all lit up and he walked a little more and we had the room represent the celestial kingdom. he really liked the activity because he has a hard time understanding. and he said that when he was in the last room and took off the blindfold he said he know we were still there and that we were still in teh church but that it didnt feel like it and that he felt so good. it was so cool. and he is getting baptized this friday!!!! ahh i am so excited.

oh and thursday the power went out while i was doing laundry so i ended up doing it all by hand.. that was an adventure haha. 

friday' we decided to go out to eat and got sandwiches and i tried tostones which are like plantaine chips they are really good. we went up to parra with a girl from young womens and she is awesome. she is such a missionary and she was such a great addition to our lessons. she is only 15 and is so awesome.

oh and we got to do a little bit of service with peeling gualdoli... which is like peas.. that was fun. i love service.

okay saturday i turned 2!!!... two months out here... crazy. I woke up and went out to the kitchen and the other sisters had got up early and made me pancakes and cute little cards. it was so cute. i felt super special.

we went to barra (the other sisters area) and helped at their youth activity. the elders came too. there were a lot of kids and we played a lot of games. 

then sunday like a ton of the kids from barra came to church. so that was way coold. my comp had a talk in the pueblo about tithing and i had a talk in parra about pride vs humility... woah.. it was short and i shared a lot of sciptures ha... oh and the pueblo ps is like where the actual church is.. and most the members are. we also hold another short service in parra and that is where i gave my talk.oh and one of our investigator families came to church it was so awesome. the dad is an inactive member but the rest arent members. and they are so sweet. i love them. the one daughter janelca this last week we stopped by and asked if they had prayed to see if the church was true and she said she did and she felt so good and thought it was so cool that God answered her prayer.. she was like have you prayed to know its true lol... she loved church on sunday. 

Anyway,

church is true... like really. it is perfect. it helps us live the Gospel  which brings happiness now and to come... happiness that lasts FOREVER. Doing wahts right brings happiness that lasts. I am reminded of a scirpture in alma 41 verse ten that reads ¨Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. behold, i say unto you, wickedness never was happiness¨.

I like this scripture and I really feel it applies so much today. The world tries to convince us that smoking, doing drugs, drinking, partying, making fun of others, etc is fun... and at the time it is.. or seems like it is.. BUT it doesnt last. it doesnt last because ¨wickedness never was happiness¨... its deceived as happiness and is short lived. 

I testify that things of God, helping others, following His commandments and living the Gospel is what brings true, everlasting happiness. 

Tough times will come... but they will come a mist the happy... and if you do whats right you will come up on top... and happy. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior and Redeemer of the world, amen.

With love,

Hermana Hildman

The church is perfect, despite that the members are not

Oh man I have soo much to tell you guys! 

I´ll start off with things about Ocoa.
1. Dominoes is such a super intense game here haha... we asked the dad of one of our invesitgaroes Dailyn to teach us and they get all into it and slam them on the table and oh man... haha.

2. Yesterday we were walking to Parra and there was a baseball game going on and there was a donkey just chilling in right field... like what.. haha

3. Everyone keeps dying in Parra... I swear.. I dont know why... 

4. Oh man... the women here... and breast feeding... so not like the states... they just wip it out and im all like woah woah... culture shock there lol.

anyway.

This last week I had my first zone conference in Bani.. and I bought a blanket yay and a bunch of other things... one including dominoes pizza. oh yummy. 

We are getting more creative with our lunches. Lunch is the biggest meal here so us sisters switch off with the other sisters who cook for that day. But we have had like Ramen.. meat.. and spaghettie but were getting creative. Especially because we´re so limited to meat here.Anyway. Its kinda fun. We just throw whatever seasonings we have in the cupboard in it like real chefs haha.

Anyway, My spanish is coming along little by little. my comp kinda forgets I dont understand all that much yet and I just look at here and im like ¨ayúdame... which means help me lol. And When I tell the investigatores I have only been out like a week... theyre all like woah... so thats good. I am trying to keep learning it. REading in the book of mormon helps a lot.

This last week we finally got 

For whatever reason her email cut off right there. I am sure it is a glitch as it happened last week as well