Thank you all for the birthday wishes and the pictures!!!! It made
me cry to hear from you. I wish you could all spend my birthday here with me on
the Madeira! It doesn’t even seem real. My birthday shouldn’t be here
yet! Time is just flying and it seems like yesterday that I was starting
the mission. I only have 7 months and a little left. There is still so much to do!
It’s November 2nd and November is just going to go by even
faster.
Literally, I felt like every part of me was being stretched this
week. Emotionally, physically, spiritually, and just anywhere you could
possible imagine. This next week is going to be the same but I can’t be more
grateful for these experiences because now I know that I’m capable of handling
so much more than I could imagine!! President talked to us about testifying so
that they can’t deny our words. Listening to the spirit and testifying is
actually very exhausting. But afterwards it feels so good!!
President has initiated a thing called the Listão (giant list) and
we are to go to the member’s house and write down all the people that families
know that aren’t members. This week we executed part 2 of the list. We started
teaching those people and through the members we taught. It’s an amazing way of
teaching with members but this week we had 4 lessons with the members and their
non-member friends and they accepted to hear the discussions!!! It was
incredible! So we started teaching a guy named Vitor (he’s a cousin to the
district presidents wife) and Natalia (cousin to a sister in the branch) we
ended up teaching both half the first lesson and the second lesson!! It was
incredible and I know the President was inspired to start this list!! President
Ventura (District President) actually wrote a letter to President Amorim about
it and then we ended up in the week letter to the missionaries! I’m so grateful
for the example of the members and being able to work with them!!
We met a Belgium lady a few weeks ago named Chris and I LOVE HER!!
(She reads the blog mom) We went over this past week and made bread with her
and it was AWESOME!!! She’s super crafty and makes the cutest things! We
watched Elder Holland´s talk `Behold Thy Mother` with her and it was really
good. We love going over and talk to her a little bit in English. Flemish is a
beautiful language!!!
We met with Laura and
had a lesson to plan her baptism and get all those arrangements done. President
recently made a cool baptismal invite and gave us some and we handed her one
and she went silent. We asked her what was up and she just said, `Wow this is
real. ` It hit her that she was actually getting baptized. She went on to say
that she didn’t want to disappoint her family if she gets baptized and then she
said she didn’t want to disappoint us if she didn’t. We asked her how she felt
at church and she said she feels different and good so we testified that that
was the spirit. So, we decided to fast together for her to know what to do. I
would do anything for her. Prior to ending the night before (halloween) we
watched Meet the Mormons and it hit on every single thing she talked
about. Everything in the movie was
an answer and on top of that every testimony on Sunday was about baptism! I
felt her answer for her!! So if you all could pray for her that would be
amazing! I know prayers are answered. I also know our family is big so that
would mean lots of prayers for Laura! I know Satan is getting to her, and that
He’s working really hard on her because she is one of the elect children of our
Heavenly Father. I just want to be
there for her every minute of every day. Every week my love for Laura just
grows. I love her so much!!! There isn’t a thing that I wouldn’t do for that
girl. I know she can feel what I feel because of the spirit. I know this will
bring happiness in her life. I will always love her and do what I can to help
her. The Lord will bless her.
I love the work. Yes there are days that I’m REALLY glad they are
over but those days always leave when you have that one good day! Feels like
you’re on cloud nine. I love the Madeira and couldn’t have asked for a better
place to serve. Time goes by faster than I thought, and yes I regret every time
I said the time is going by slow and it’ll never end because you get to this
point and you can’t stop. I love that I’m called to serve here!! The more I get
to know the people the more and more I love these people!! Thank you all again
for the letters and pictures! It really meant a lot to still kind of celebrate
a birthday with you all.
Com Amor,
Sister Hillam
P.S. I will try and send picture later!
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