Transferred

Dearest Family,

You’ll never believe where I am!!!!! 

Guess.................

MATOSINHOS!!!!!!! I’m in PORTO!!!!!! I’m so stoked!!! I don’t have much time to write and tell you all about the week but it was awesome!! We started out the week great just chilled and worked really hard with our 3 marks for baptisms. It was actually a really crazy week. As the week progressed we had a lot of things to do but by the end we only had 1 of the 3 get baptized. Nuno was baptized!!!! It was so awesome!! Literally this whole transfer was building up to his baptism! He’s such a cool guy!! Sadly the other 2 kiñd of had freak-outs and one didn’t show up to his baptism and the other one went back to his same old doubts... But anyway I got a call from Sister Fluckiger this past week asking me to deliver a letter to a member in our branch so obviously I thought I was staying in Olhao. So all week I was super happy and enjoying the idea of staying but OH NO was I wrong...Elder Rich got a call on Sunday right after church saying that he was leaving at 6 30 that night. He left and then we went to a dinner appointment with Nuno and that’s when the phone call came. Sister Bryner is training in the blessed city of Olhao and I was told I was going to be leaving and going to Matosinhos! I had no idea where that was until Sister Bryner said Porto!! So I packed my bags and spent 9 hours traveling and now I’m sitting in Porto writing before we head to Matosinhos! I’m so excited! I’m really sad to leave all of the investigators and members in Olhao but I’m looking forward to this new adventure. Oh and also...my companion is native.... she’s from Cape Verde...Yay!!! This will be really interesting and super fun!!!! Family, the work continues and I’m so excited for this new adventure, I couldn’t have asked for better. I’m serving in Porto and serving with a Native. The Lord knows me so perfectly and knows the desires of my heart. Sister Andrad will help my Portuguese so much and I feel at peace with this next transfer. Will there be difficulties, yes, but will I be able to handle it, OF COURSE! I love you all so much. Thank you for writing me. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to be here!! Porto...wow. Its beautiful and there are so many people!! I can’t wait to get started this week!

Love you all!

Sister Hillam

Chocolate Thing We Made

Nuno!!!

4 Months

Wow! Thank you everyone for writing me this week and telling me all the exciting news! We have transfers this next week so I don't know what will happen but just so you guys know if something happens it'll be hard for me to write.

 So this week was a little interesting...up's and down's and really spinning all the way around...

Last Tuesday we taught Eduardo (who ended up not getting baptized) and he gave us all of his smoking stuff and said he was done! Such a great lesson. We taught about tithing and fasting and he said he would pray about it, but he's taking the steps forward! That night we had our English Class, which is always great to speak English

Wednesday we met with another one of our baptismal marks and found out he's going to need a special interview as well. So he ended up not getting baptized either. But he has a strong testimony about the gospel and believes everything we say. We invited him to our family night that night and he was basically teaching all of us about prayer. Such a solid guy!! He acts like a member but sadly we have to wait to baptize him.

Thursday was interesting...I got called to play the piano for women's conference and guess what songs I had to play...Battle Hymn of the Republic which is extremely difficult, and As Sister In Zion and another song that I've never heard of. That was all a shock for me...I am so grateful for piano lessons. So we went to the chapel to practice while we waited for one of our appointments, which didn't show. I had a little extra time to practice, which was a blessing for me.

Friday...HAPPY 4th MONTH SISTER HILLAM! Yes thank you! I've survived the mission for a solid 4 months now! WOOT! haha Sister Bryner made me some Oreo Ice Cream which was stellar! It was also one of the weirdest days on the mission. We went to our investigators house that we haven't taught in close to a month. He works everyday for 12 hours so it's almost impossible to see him and his girlfriend. We went over on his day off and they showed us how Portuguese people dance, which was amazing!

Saturday we had the women’s conference in Faro that was fun! I got to play only 2 of the 3 songs! Luckily I didn't have to play Battle Hymn of the Republic but I did play these songs in the Portuguese Hymn book, 26 and 200 the other one was 180 I can't remember them exactly. Then during the Branch President motions for me. He wanted all the sisters to sing I'm trying to be like Jesus in Portuguese, which was a little surprising, but really fun! I love music so much! Yesterday we were walking close to the chapel and we ran into Amaricans!! He had served here 13 years ago in 2001 and he was visiting for the week. His dad was with him and he will be a mission president in one of the Provo missions. We got to talk to them for a little bit and it was good to talk to Amaricans again! He knew Nato so we called Nato up and they had a nice reunion with each other and come to find out this guy Elder Hodgman baptized our branch president! Such a small world.

This week was challenging but may I just say that it was worth it. I love the scripture in Alma 26:29-30. That's exactly what happens to us, but it's worth it to see one person's life change. This transfer has not been easy but so worth it. We have tons of investigators that are ready for baptism. This past week has been a trial of my faith. The people that we had for baptism didn't happen but the Lord has a different plan. Doctrine and Covenants 58:4. Tribulation is a refiner of faith. Such a strong testimony of this. Our plans didn't work out, but the Lord's plan is perfect, and He knows everything. I love this work, and I know the language will come. Thank you for the prayers, and everything. I feel your strength. I love you all so much, and pray for your success every day. 

Sister Hillam

Happy Late Easter!

Dearest Family!

Wow what a great conference!! So I could only really listen to like 4 talks in English and the rest in Portuguese, but guess what!! I understood all the songs!! WOOT! What a success!! But really, one of the few talks I heard in English was Elder Hollands. Oh how I love him! He’s my favorite and I’m not even afraid to say it! I love his stories and his passion with every talk!! Literally I could listen to him talk for hours and never get bored. I loved Easter. 

We had Zone conference this week and right afterwards divisions! It was quite the day too! It was April Fools day so the Zone leaders got in a fight in front of all the missionaries, and then all of us missionaries left the room and stood outside for 5 minutes. It was super funny!! This month we’re focusing on humility and really baptizing a lot. President wants 30 baptisms every week. It’s crazy! But we have a lot of investigators that we want to baptize here soon! Divisions with Sister Cullimor were exciting. haha we didn’t get back to Olhao till late and the next day there was a strike on the trains, so we had to wait for Sister Bryner to come by bus which took longer. That was pretty exciting! That’s the first time I’ve heard of a strike on trains!

This past week we’ve been trying to work with this Brazilian named Roberto. We actually marked him to be baptized yesterday but he didn’t receive an answer like Joseph Smith. It’s actually really funny his reasoning. But we met with him on Thursday and we had a lesson planned but I didn’t feel like it was the right thing for him so I dropped it. I got out the keys to our apartment and had us all stand. Our chapel has 3 doors before you get inside. So I explained the 3 kingdoms of Heaven. Roberto understood and we explained that to get into the Celestial Kingdom, he needed the keys, one of which is baptism. Literally it was perfect and he understood it great!!! We met him the next day and we marked him for Sunday. We explained the temple and how he can be sealed with his mom and family for eternity. He wants it so bad so we marked him for Sunday and he said he’d pray for an answer. Well we followed up and he wants to have angels give him an answer and what not. He ended up not getting baptized but he’s super awesome and he’ll probably be baptized this month. It’s a work in progress!

We got a call from the assistants about out recent convert. The words weren’t said right in the blessing so we had to redue it. So for a whole day we were stressing to get Alexandre at the Chapel and the president of the branch to be there and also have a time that worked while still having the assistants call us. Literally such a stressful day and we weren’t really sure if it was all going to work out. We prayed for a miracle and the ordinance was performed!! Such a miracle!!! 

One of my investigators got baptized on Sunday! His name is Luis and we found him on the street and taught him 3 lessons before we found out he was in the Elder’s area. But he got baptized on Sunday!!! It was such a good thing for him!! I love him so much! His family is very catholic and is upset that he’s not catholic any more but he has such a strong testimony of the gospel. 

And then we had conference, which was great to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I love Christ so much. This mission is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but how can this compare to taking on the world? Christ went through so much for us. I love you all SO MUCH! I’ll be celebrating my 4th month on the mission on the 17th, just incase you were all wondering.

 Love you all! Happy Late Easter

Sister Hillam