Happy Birthday Kallie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KALLIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know it was yesterday but I just wanted to let you know how much I love you! I hope your day was just full of love and fun times with your family :)

Transfers are postponed until after president does his interviews with us so that means I’m staying in Matosinhos for another couple of weeks!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Hello Família!!!!!

What a week!!!! So let’s start out by saying, I ate so much food this week it’s not even funny!! Our ward mission leader invited us over on Saturday to a churrasquearia and it was phenomenal!!!! They are from Brazil and we ate and then talked and then ate some more, and then had dessert. Sadly no pão de queijo but we had tons of meat, which was even better! And then yesterday we had bacalhua with a family right after church and that night was Elizabete´s (recent converts) birthday so we ate at her house and had so much food and sugar it was just amazing! Our members are just amazing and they love to feed us! So family, please say that you’re feeding the missionaries! 

We met with Ildo pretty much everyday and we taught the 10 commandments and he told us he wanted to memorize them! He wanted us to write them down and test him on them! How more elect can you get?! But yeah, he’s amazing! He’ll be baptized on the 8th of August!! He loves when we come by because he always feels so much better. He knows it’s true and he’s so excited to be baptized!! 

I love the mission so much!!!! I can’t wait for president to get here tomorrow!! We had zone meeting this week and they were talking all about him. They had a meeting with Elder Texeira and president and they all had positive things to say about him. I am so excited to have him come!! He has 3 things that he wants us to do 1. Be obedient with exactness. 2. Work hard. 3. Love the people. I started crying because those are the 3 things that I wrote down was my purpose for the mission. President is truly an inspired man. Those 3 points are some of the most important things to me on the mission. I’ve seen what happens when we are obedient, we work hard, and we love the people. The Lord trusts you to take care of the work. I see that in Matosinhos everyday. But anyway the zone meeting was amazing!! I actually met my 3rd cousin Elder Walker!! His great grandparents are the Rasmussen’s!!! So that was fun! Family reunion in PORTUGAL! It’s a small world after all! After zone meeting miracles literally poured on us.

We met a lady named Adelaide and we’ve seen her lots of times but this time was different. We got her to pray with us on the street and she started to cry. She felt the spirit so strong and then yesterday we passed by her house to give her the Book of Mormon and asked her to pray again. She was so eager to pray and in her prayer, she asked to know which church was true!! Yea, She’s going to be baptized for sure! I can’t tell you how perfect the timing of the Lord is. We have been trying all transfer to talk and see her and she was put into our path when she needed us the most. The Lord loves every single one of us. And after the first time we talked to her, I ran into a pole. Literally I started crying and all I could think of was how mom ran into a pole and then we both just started crying because of how funny it was! It was so embarrassing! We were on a spiritual high from Adelaide and then I ran into a pole! Solid work Sister Hillam!

I don’t even remember what day but we passed by this house of a person we contacted on the street. We’ve tried to see him for about a month now and instead of seeing him, we met his friend Beatriz! She was a Jehovah’s witness but doesn’t believe in that anymore, and she actually knows a lot about our doctrine!! But anyway we passed by Paulo´s house and HE WAS THERE!!!!! (And so was she but that’s normal). We had a quick lesson with them and during the lesson, he started to cry. His life has been nuts. He fell off the deep end because his wife divorced him and took the kids and his money and left him with nothing. He started getting into drugs and alcohol, and now he’s trying to turn his life around. He wanted to come to church so bad yesterday but he had work. He wants to come to church really bad because he felt the difference the spirit made that night. We marked to see him today! I’m so excited to see him!!!

Family I wish I could tell you all that happens during a week but there isn’t enough time to describe the blessings and miracles that the Lord gives us. I’m so humbled that He trusts me to do His work. He has placed these people in our path and I’m so grateful that He has the confidence in me. It says in my Patriarchal Blessing that `The Lord has full confidence in me. ` I never understood that phrase until now. He knew I could speak Portuguese and could fulfill my purpose. I can’t believe 7 months have already gone by. I have less than a year and I don’t want it to end. The mission is the humblest, and hardest thing ever but I love it so much!!!! I am truly humbled to be here in Matosihos helping His children. Family, I love this work. I can’t wait to get started with President Amorim. He says that we’re going to work harder than we’ve ever worked before...BRING IT ON!!!!! I’m stoked!!!! I love you all so much!!!

Sister Hillam