July 4th Already????

Don’t have much time to write this week so it’ll be really short! I was in Lisbon yesterday and today to do residency to be legal in the country so we just got back like 15 minutes ago. P-day ends here soon but this week was great!! IT went by so fast though...what happened???

So this past week we had divisions with the Sister Training Leaders and it was so much fun!!! We saw so many milagres and found 2 families that we can teach! We visited and called them this week and we’ll get in more contact with them this next week because we did a lot with our ward to help prosilitize with them. We also found 2 less active members during the day and it was super crazy that we found them! It was a really great day! I realized how bad I need to learn my area and know where I am on the map...ha-ha but it was really fun and the Sisters were so fun to work with. I have a couple of quotes from Mulan to fit the mission:

`You don’t meet a sister like that every dynasty. `

`Eleito! He was right in front of you, and you didn’t contact him!! How could you miss him?! `

`My baby’s all grown up and savin´ Portugal! `

When the members invite you over for dinner...`would you like to stay for dinner? Would you like to stay forever??` 

Just something funny I thought of this week!! I saw Meet the Mormons in Portuguese! That was pretty exciting! I love our ward. They help us so much! They are so willing to help and if they can’t they always mark another day with us. Really the members are so amazing. They’re been prosiliting so much to help the work, and I know that we will be blessed because of the work they do. Sorry this letter is so short but I really don’t have time to write the daily but I have a funny story...

On Saturday night at like 1 in the morning fireworks started going off in Matosinhos...I had no idea what was going on! Literally I thought a war had started in my area!! I got out of bed and could not figure our what was going on. I looked out the window and I literally couldn’t process what was happening. It freaked me out so bad! And then I thought I was in the States and that it was the 4th of July...I was so confused....

Then we left for Lisbon and just got back a littler bit ago! I love this work so much! I can’t wait to start another week of working! The weeks go by so fast!! I want it to slow down a little bit!!! May is almost over and it seems like it just started. I love this work so much! Thank you all for your prayers for me. I feel the strength of them during the work. I love you all so much!! Keep up the good work!!!

Sister Hillam

Divisions

She was a missionary during grandpa!

Re-enactment

Found the drink!

Porto to Lisbon again

Residency with the same people I sat with on the long plane ride

Trip to Lisbon

Querida Familia!

I celebrated 5 months on the mission!!! Oh my goodness...What happened?!? The time seemed to have flown by! Next month I will have 1 year left on the mission...

Last P-day when we were on our way back to Matosinhos we got to talk to this couple. I was talking to Carlos and come to find out he’s a member! Guess where he was baptized?! OLHAO!!!! I couldn’t believe it! He was baptized 15 years ago and his girlfriend is pregnant and wants to be baptized in the church as well! Oh the joy I felt when I heard he was baptized in Olhao and that they wanted to be married and she wanted to be baptized! They live in the area of the Elders. I’m so excited about this!!

Terca we got a call from one of our investigators whose daughter was sick with pneumonia. She asked is she could receive a blessing so after district meeting we took Elder Neighbor and Elder Cox to their house and gave her a blessing. Lydia (the mom) was crying the whole time. It was good for her to see the power of the priesthood. But then right after that Sister Andrade and I needed to leave and catch a metro to Porto and then the bus to Lisbon. She needed to renew her passport and an identification card before it expired. So, we road for 4 hours on the bus to Lisbon. When we arrived we found out that we would be staying with 2 other sisters! Sister Smith is from Idaho!! She graduated from Bonneville so we had lots to talk about!! It was so good to talk to another Idahoan!! She’s been out since October so about 7 months now. It was so good to talk about the mountains and snow again!

Quarta we spent the morning in the consulate from Cape Verde so that Sister Andrade could renew everything. It was fun to talk to the people there and talk with her about customs and this like that. We then caught the bus to Porto and sat for another 4 hours back to Porto. While on the bus ride home, Sister Andrade had the biggest impression that her family was ready to hear the gospel. So we found the address to the office in Cape Verde. She was so excited to feel that her family is ready!! We finally got back to our house around 6, and the Elders called us to say that we were going to meet with our ward mission leader. He didn’t show up but come to find out another Elder called us. He ended his mission in January and he was in town with his Fiancé and wanted numbers of the members. His name is Elder Oliveira and his fiancé was a missionary in Portugal like 6 months ago! Kind of funny haha she’s American!

Quinta we invited Elder Oliveira to join us in teaching our eternigator. He was the one of the many missionaries that taught her. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes!! We marked her for next weekend!! It was awesome! This month there is a huge party to celebrate the Saint of Matosinhos so the ward is doing Proselitismo with us! This whole month, everyday, the missionaries go and contact as many people and invite them to the church and then the members give them a tour. It’s actually really cool that the members do this with us.

Sexta we proselitismo with the ward all day! We contacted loooots of people and the groups that were the most interested were actually the youth. We had groups of youth listen and learn more. Really cool!!

Sabado More proselitismo with the ward and that night we had a ward family night. I love my ward so much!!!

Domingo was my 5-month mark!! Happy 5 months Sister Hillam! We taught a couple from Cape Verde who want to be married. We gave them a Book of Mormon. Ildo was married before and has a son that is 14. The mom died and he and his girlfriend have been trying to get him to live with them in Portugal. There’s a problem with papers and legal issues but they said that because of us they felt stronger to carry on through the process. They are such an elect couple. We visited a family in our ward and they had a sticker of Fatima. Sister Andrade asked is she could destroy it and Irmao said, `You know what the scriptures say, `Não Matarás.` (Do not kill) sooo funny! Everyone was laughing because he was so serious! 

It was a great week for us to work with the members. This week I focused on Obedience and Faith. I read my patriarchal blessing a lot this week and these 2 principles are all over the place there. In my life I can see that faith and obedience are 2 qualities that mean so much to me. On the mission I’ve realized that I get really upset when we don’t leave the house on time or even a little bit before, I love being obedient to the rules because I know that I can stand blameless before my leaders and know that I’m following the rules with exactness. I love Filipenses 4´ 13. Literally I feel that when we are being obedient and faithful that’s when we receive more of Christ’s help. I love you all so much!! I hope you all enjoyed your vacations!! Love you all!!

Sister Hillam

Elder Neighbor and Elder Cox

Frogs!

Matosinhos

Twinners 

Dinner at a recent convert's house!

We liked the statues... so why not take a pic!?

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mothers Day

Oh my goodness it was so great to see all of you!!! The kids are growing up so fast!!! I don’t even know how to feel about all of it! I loved hearing all of your voices. Wow I love you all so much! You all looked great and it sounds like life is finally starting to settle down just a little! Yesterday was such a good day! I don’t even know Ivy and Luke. It’s weird to see them because I only have pictures in my picture book that you gave me. It’ll be weird to see them in December! Anyway this past week on P-day we visited a tower in Porto, which was way fun! We had P-day with president and ate fransicinhas and they were so good!!! Basically like 3 types of meat, with bread and an egg smothered in sauce. So Good. I just love Porto and the North!! 

Tuesday we had district meeting and we’ve decided that we’re the Olympians trying to baptize everyone in Matosinhos. It’s really fun to talk about the success that we’re having as a district! It’s also fun to run on the beach everyday and see surfers and what not! But really after the mission, I plan on taking a cruise to Matosinhos!! 

On the 7th I celebrated my half birthday with rain!! The day was literally beautiful. It was perfect temperature and there were no clouds in the sky. But then we went into this family’s house and we looked out the window and it was pouring rain. Awesome! I had my fluffy light coat and we still needed to walk to the other side of our area. One family let us borrow their umbrellas, but still we got soaked! haha I loved it! Sister Andrade didn’t. 

Here in Matosinhos we have a huge party happening for a month! It’s to celebrate the saint that the city is named after. There are roller coasters, tons of food, and lots of shops to buy Portuguese things. We’re going to walk around there for P-day!! I’m pretty excited! 

So on Friday our investigator Elisabete called us and decided that she wanted to fast about cigarettes! She said that on Sunday she would give us her cigarettes and that she was done smoking. She’s been an eternigator for 2 years and we’re hoping to baptize her this week! She’s such a sweet heart!! 

Saturday we got permission to go to the Women’s conference in Amial. It was exactly what I needed. It was beautiful! Before the meeting started I actually ran into a lady named Sister Marino. She was a missionary for grandpa when he was a mission president. Her name was Sister Day. She walked into the building saw my nametag and said, `you aren’t from THE Hillam´s, like President of the mission Hillam are you? ` So cute! We got to talk for a good 10 minutes about things. Wow, she told me an experience that helped me so much and put me into tears. She had an interview with grandpa and she asked him to send her to a mission English speaking because she wasn’t understanding the language (sounds reeeeeeally familiar) and he turned to her and said,`Voce Pode.` (In his thick Brazilian accent) and then she turned to me and said, Sister Hillam, voce pode.` I just cried. I felt grandpa right there saying that to me. This experience is very dear to me. She told some other stories of how great of a president grandpa was and wow. He was amazing! The things he did to turn the missionaries around and the mission. Wow. 

Sunday Elisabete gave us her cigarettes and I think she was so glad to give them to us! This is the first time she’s agreed to do anything to help her stop! I’m excited to get her baptized!! Then we went to lunch at one of the member’s houses and that’s when I got to talk to a Miguel Ricci about Jordan and his cousin. Then I got to talk to you guys which was  so fun!! I loved every minute of it!! You guys rock! Thanks for all of you being on and taking the time to talk so we could wish mom a Happy Mother’s Day! The family is only together for a short period of time when a missionary is on the mission. I was so happy to be able to talk to all of you! Thank you so much!! 

I love this mission so much. What a blessing this is. I love these people so much and I can’t wait to baptize them all! Thank you all so much for your prayers and everything you do for me. I’m so blessed to have 3 older brothers and parents that always pushed me to be better. Love you so much!

Sister Hillam

Mulan...Our quote for the week!

Sem honra! Sem honra para ti! Sem Honra para tua

Singing in the Rain

Dearest Familia,

WOW. What a week! Matosinhos is beautiful!!! I’m in love with it already!!! We live right close to everything we need. Literally all grocery stores are within 5 minutes of our house. It’s fantastic! The city is absolutely beautiful. Our house is tiny but we don’t live in it other than to sleep, obviously. But this city has quickly become very dear to me! The ward is amazing and Sunday was mother’s day here and everyone in the ward loves the sisters! Also, I speak only Portuguese with Sister Andrade, and I can tell you this is exactly what I needed because I’m picking up the language much faster than before and conjugating is now becoming super easy for me. SUCH A MIRACLE!! 

MOM- I WILL SKYPE NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!

This past week it rained everyday and I loved every minute of it!!! Man the city is so beautiful when it rains. It reminded me of one of the apostle’s talk about the umbrella and the rain. Sometimes we have to remove the umbrella and let the blessings rain down on us. I always think about this when we’re walking in the rain. I have a different perspective of rain now. Man I love rain so much!!! Anyway, this week I met a ton of people that I don’t remember so forgive me for not giving specific names (We have 5 elisabete´s, so I don’t remember who is who). On Tuesday we went to a recent convert, Elisabete´s, house and I have no idea her situation or anything but I shared this scripture John 16:33 and she started to cry. The spirit helps us so much to know the lives of others. I love living so close to the spirit. 

On Thursday we had to have weekly planning which was awesome to see how much growth is happening in Matosinhos! I’m so excited to serve here! Fun fact: Sister Andrade will have 6 months in this area after this transfer so it’s pretty sure that she will leave and I will take over the area again.

Anyway, all of our appointments fell through so we were walking down the street when Sister Andrade stopped and opened a door to a few houses. Another Elisabete lived there and we taught the first lesson and marked her and her son Andre for baptism! So elect! She’s been hard to see since but she’s been talking to us everyday so she has a desire to get baptized!!! Such a great lesson with her!

On Friday we had our Zone Meeting and I’m in the Porto North zone! Literally I went from the very south to the very north of the mission!! Our zone is stellar! The missionaries here are so amazing! Our district has 2 of the 3 greenies that entered the field ha-ha I hear them speak and I’m so glad I’m not in their shoes...But something that I loved that was said at Zone meeting was the Fé is F-Fazer and É is Esperança (translation faith is- do (fazer) and hope (Esperança)) We focused on prayer and the importance of prayer. Our Zone leader is really spiritual and I’m so grateful for this zone and area. I feel this is exactly where I need to be. After our long zone meeting, we saw this family Elisandra and Ildo. They are so elect!! They want to know more about our message. Everyone here is just so awesome!! We plan to see them this week and mark them for baptism this month. 

Yesterday after church we had to quickly leave and catch a metro to Amial to have interviews with president. I love president so much!! I asked for a blessing and he gave me a blessing and it’s exactly what I needed. I want you all to know that I love this work. I do have really high goals for myself and I want to do so much for this work. I’m giving my all everyday. I love the people and this country so much! I can’t believe how fast this time flies by!! Already 4 and a half months on the mission, and I already feel like a completely different person. Thank you so much for your examples in my life!! Love you so much!!!!

Sister Hillam

My new address is:

Rua Brito Capelo 

490 2* Frente

Matosinhos, Porto 4450-067

Portugal

 yes that´s a cruise boat in Matosihnos!!!

Such a good pastry!

Burger King! Sadly, no Wendy's.

Cat tamer! Literally this cat was attracted to me!

Happy Mother's Day Sister Flukiger!

Sister Andrade and I

District in Matosihnos

Elder Christ- little less than a year

Elder Humprey- greenie

Me

Elder Neighbor- District Leader- 10 months

Sister Andrade- little less than a year

Elder Cox- Greenie