Monday, June 24, 2013

Happy San Juan Day - June 24, 2013


Hola family and friends,

The fair is in town and it is pretty wild! They have set up a ferris wheel and there are a ton of games and food. It is pretty great. I am enjoying all the food, it is good! Giovanni and Esperanza have their pizza stand and their pizza is real good. Today is San Juan's big day. I don't know why, but that's how it is. Here in front of the Catholic church they have a couple stages up and there have been bands here all day long.

Other than the fair, things are going very well! I have really loved these last few weeks, but they have flown by! This past week has been such a great one. I have loved it so much. One, I got to go into the temple for the first time. It is so beautiful and what is more important is the spiritual meaning that it has. I loved it so much. We took a little old lady named Soledad who has been wanting to be able to go to the temple for such a long time and we had the opportunity to help her get there. It was such a great experience, one of my favorite experiences in the mission. She is probably like 75-80 years old. Her husband isn't a member and doesn't really believe in God. She is the only member of her family. She has a pretty cloudy cataract on one eye, a hunched little back, and walks pretty slowly. It was really neat because Monday night was kinda tough. Some members kinda chewed us out for being late to their family night, but we had to let Soledad that we were going to pass by her house to take her to the temple at 7 in the morning and we didn't have her phone number. So, we showed up a little late to the family night, and they chewed us out pretty well. Tuesday, morning we went to her house to take her to the temple and she was ready to go! Now, to get to the temple there is a little bit of a walk needed, probably 10 minutes walking normal pace. We got off the bus and started walking up to the temple. We started to talk to Soledad about all the times that she had been to the temple. She has been to the temple in Guatemala City 3 or 4 times and here 3 or 4 times. It was really nice to just take a relaxed walk to the temple just looking toward the temple, thinking about what we were going to do. We got up to the temple and asked for a wheelchair to make things a little bit faster. There are pictures of everything on dropbox. The other two sisters with us are from the stake. They helped us to organize this little temple trip with Soledad. It was such a wonderful experience. It is so nice to know that we have the Lord's house here on earth. I was reminded of the importance of being obedient. I loved it so much. It is such a beautiful temple inside and outside. I love it because it can been seen from all parts of Xela. It was a great experience.

This week we had some more baptisms! Carlos and Jenny, Giovanni's kids, got baptized! Giovanni and Esperanza got married as well. Giovanni was going to get baptized on Saturday as well, but ran into some problems so he couldn't get baptized in the end. However, this Saturday he is going to get baptized. We have basically been running all over to get them married and baptized and it has been really cool. They asked me to be Jenny's godfather! Haha I wasn't really sure what is entitled with being a godfather, but it's pretty sweet I guess. I guess that the godparents are the ones that take care of the kids if the parents aren't able to or die. They are supposed to always remember their godchild's birthday and buy her gifts, especially for her 15th birthday. I love this family so much and just hope that they can keep going. I am not sure if I wrote about the lesson that we had with Giovanni and Esperanza at the temple. We had it on the 14th on June, and just kinda made plans so that they could enter the temple in a year to get sealed. They still don't understand everything, but with time they will.

We are still working with Alejandra, but she has been kinda tough lately! We go by her house and things are good, but when Sunday comes we can't find her to take her to church. We are also still working with Marili's cute little parents. They were going to get married and baptized this Saturday, but a family member died this week and they had to go to the funeral on Sunday... So they couldn't come to church. We are working with a kid named Brandon, as well. He is really cool. I guess around a year and a half ago, an elder gave him a Book of Mormon, and he is now reading in 3 Nephi. I love reaping what others have sown! He is going to get baptized on Saturday as well. He is really sweet and has a great testimony of everything already. That's what we have going for us right now!

Thanks for everything that you do for me and my family!

Love,
Elder Hilton










 









 

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