Service and More Service

How is everyone doing!! I know I haven't written the last couple of weeks but it's all good because here I am!! So these past two weeks have been pretty filled to say the least. The teaching is surprisingly still pretty high volume but I have noticed a little bit of a slow-down just because it is getting into the winter months and it is a little harder to find people to teach because not too many people are just out and about. 

Two weeks ago we got to start this cool service opportunity where every Wednesday from 3 to 5 we get to go tutor little kids and help them read, write, etc. It’s pretty fun and reminds me of being with my little nephews so it gives me a little taste of home and I really like that. I get to tutor a kid named Josh and he is 11 years old and he comes from a rough family. He is a super nice kid and I really feel for him. I'm pretty sure he really likes me because most kids usually do haha. So that is a plus. It is really nice because it provides me a good break where I can just focus on helping out this one little kid. Even though missionary work is awesome too!! 

There is this less active man that we have been going over to visit a lot. I think I have talked about him a little bit but his name is Dale Canner and he is in his late 50's. He is a super cool dude. He is one of those guys who has literally one of everything. I kid you not. He’s my type of man. He knows just about every song I do and he loves any type of action sport. Which if you know me that's basically what I love to do, so it is pretty cool. He stopped going to church about 15 years or so ago. We are not fully sure why he did, he has never really explained it to us and we don’t really feel the need to ask. But he has expressed to us multiple times that he wants to come back to church and get back into activity. I can remember the first time we went over there, he told us that he was praying for help and that someone could come help him because he has a couple medical issues he has been dealing with. I know it was not a mistake that we showed up that day to come pay him a visit. Ever since then we have been meeting with him on a very regular basis. He also told us that he wants to get to the temple. We have been teaching him more and more about the temple to help prepare him to enter into the house of the Lord. Two weeks ago he had his first interview with the bishop to start his process to getting him there. I forgot to mention but every Sunday before church starts we head over to his house and walk to church with him. His house is about half a mile away from the church and he usually just rides over there in his wheelchair and we walk beside him. It is pretty fun and I really enjoy the time I get to serve Dale and walk beside him. We are continuing to meet with him and hope to get him to the temple very soon.

We also have another family that is from Ethiopia that speaks some crazy language that I have never heard of before. The father speaks good English and so does the son but the mother does not speak any English. They are a great family and are on date to get baptized. The mother has told us though that she does not want to get baptized until she reads the book of Mormon all the way through. That's pretty cool but I mean they know it's true so they should just get baptized Haha. Can’t push anyone though. The father, Eshet, knows it's all true and can’t wait to get baptized but we are just waiting for Tsedi, the mother to finish the book of Mormon and then we can get them baptized! They also love to feed us food every time we go over there. This is either a good thing or a bad thing... I can remember the very first time we went over there they fed us something that was absolutely nasty. It contained goat milk, barley, and cow oil. It was nasty. But other times they will feed us something that is actually super good which surprises me. It is all Ethiopian food so its stuff I am not used to but I guess it is culturing me. Here's the funny thing, so apparently whenever I would go over there they would give us food buy I would never finish it. So about two weeks ago we went over there and he made a joke how I never would finish their food but I would always tell them how it was so good. This confused him and from now on he likes to call me "Mr. Picky" It’s pretty hilarious when he says it because he just thinks he is the funniest man when he says it. But anyway I guess I am now Mr. Picky so watch out hahaha. 

I went on exchanges with one or the other Elders this last week and I gotta tell you all a funny thing. So you know how missionaries pray like 8 times a day. So Elder Pflueger, I kid you not, every time he prays he asks that, “he will be blessed with a hot wife when he gets home.”  No joke word for word that's what he says. So now I keep that in mind every time I pray. I mean it's a great idea like I'm out here being the holiest I will ever be so might as well ask for it now while Heavenly Father is pleased with me. Haha.

Anyway it was a good last couple of weeks and hope all of you are doing well!

Merry Christmas 

And….

Love you all and make sure you keep SENDING IT FOR THE LORD.

Elder Hilburn

 

Elder Hilburn with Elder Ashworth who is from Alpine

Elder Hilburn's Zone. Each Missionary is holding up how many months they have been serving.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well I know I haven't written a letter in the last two weeks but everything is going well! The week prior to thanksgiving wasn't all that exciting but it was still a full week of teaching! The teaching appointments are starting to slow down a lot more because of winter. I am used to having an appointment every hour of the day but now it isn't that crazy. We actually have time to do some finding which I mean is okay. I have to say I would much rather be having appointments all day and staying busy that way but this is also chill. I get to experience what the rest of my mission goes through and what their daily schedule is. We used to just find people and fill up our calendar and then come back and teach them a lesson then it kind of goes dead. Now we are trying to focus on our more solid investigators. We still have five people on date so that is great. Our most promising family is a family of three and they are from Ethiopia. Their names are Eshet who is the dad, Tsedi who is the mom and Elroe who is the son. They are probably the nicest people I have ever met. Every time that we go over there they always want to feed us something. Whether it is good or bad... there has been both let me tell yuh. We are hoping to get them baptized before the end of the year. So hopefully everything goes through and they get baptized!

We had a good thanksgiving! We went over to a members home and they fed us all of the Thanksgiving usual’s. They had some pretty solid apple pie. That was by far the best part. But it was good and we didn’t have to go out that day as it was our P-day so we just hung out at our apartment and relaxed. It was some very needed rest. 

This past Saturday was quite an event. We had another baptism which was exciting but it was very interesting... so to start off the people getting baptized were two little girls, ages 9 and 10. Let me preface this story with the fact that they are deathly afraid of water. But this was not told to us. Also me and my comp were not the ones baptizing. There 16 year old uncle was the one that wanted to baptize them. So that's what happened. The older sister went in to get baptized first. When the uncle dunked her she got water all up in her nose and when she came up she began to cry. Also, her feet popped up so she had to do it again. She was crying though.. but finally after the third try they got her baptized. Then the younger sister got in and was already scared to begin with because she saw her older sister crying. Anyway the uncle tried to dunk her and she also came up crying and didn’t get under all of the way. To make a long story short. It took 7 times to get the little sister baptized. It was a baptism I will never forget haha. It overall took about three hours! It was pretty crazy. But they got baptized so that was awesome!

Other than that not much else has happened just doing the lords work out here in Indiana! Love it and wouldn't want to be anywhere else! Love you all and hope you have a good week!

SEND IT FOR THE LORD

Elder Hilburn

 

This investigator and Elder Hilburn have a lot of the same hobby's in common

Latest baptism(The Crying Sisters)

My First Baptism!

Well I have just finished my first transfer so that is exciting! One down and many to go haha. But it's all good because I am now not the newest one in the mish. There will be newbies flying in today so that's pretty dope. They will be having the same feelings that I had when I first landed, like, "what am I doing here??" But it's all good I think after six weeks I have figured out why I am here haha. I better hope so. 

Just like usual we have been teaching quite a lot of people this past week. Still can't really remember them all just because there are so many! Which is a good thing. On Tuesday we had zone conference for my zone and the zone above my zone. We talked a lot about service and how we should conduct service and how we should find more service opportunities in our daily missionary lives. President also talked a lot about how we need to find service opportunities where we are not just trying to serve them to teach them. He told us that we should find service opportunities to serve people because we genuinely want to serve these people rather than just serving them because we want to maybe set up a return appointment to teach them. That was the main point from zone conference that we talked about what stuck with me the most. 

Later that night I had the opportunity to participate in my very first baptism! We got to baptize the family that we have been recently teaching, you know the family that we were offered beers at..., yeah that family. But anyway it was a great baptism and I was able to baptize the little boy whose name was Alex. He told me he was nervous to do it and I just reassuringly told him that I was nervous too! Don’t know if that helped him or not but at least we were on common ground haha. The rest of the week was a bit of a blur and don’t remember a whole lot but it was a good week!

Oh ya, except today we were able to visit the Indy 500 museum. Kind of a cool place. Pictures down below.

Hope all is well back at home and hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Hilburn

Indy 500 Race way museum 

Elder Hilburn's First Baptism!

Same Firemen Different week!

What is up y’all still out here in Indiana as usual just kickin’ it and preachin’ the gospel. This week has gone by pretty fast but like at the same time it has gone slow. It's a weird feeling. It is crazy to say though that my first transfer in the field is over in one week. I've already been out on my mission for just about two months but it feels like I have only been out for a couple of days. It is pretty radical. To be honest I can't really remember all that much that happened this week. It's all a blur just because of how many people we teach a day. 

We are still teaching a heck of a lot of people, and the baptism that was supposed to be like two weeks ago is actually happening tomorrow so that will be tight. It's the Wood family that I have previously talked about. They are a pretty interesting family, but you know, everyone is entitled to the gospel so more power to them.

We had the opportunity to go back the lady’s house(Where we got in trouble with the leaf burning) to do some more service for her so that was nice. We were there all day Saturday and cleaned up the rest of the leaves and DID NOT burn them... we just bagged them up and called it a day. It's always nice getting out of the collared shirt and tie and get into my normy clothes. 

Fun story,, so on Thursday we woke up to the sound of the fire alarm blaring in our ears and apparently there was a fire in the building. So we got up and went outside to the freezing cold and sat out there till the fire department showed up. Funny enough, the same firemen that reported to the so called "house fire" last week showed up to our apartment again. So these boys must really love us haha. It turned out to be a false alarm and luckily there was no fire. 

Other than that not much else exciting has happened just keeping the work moving forward.

Oh actually it finally snowed here. Today was the first day that we had some real snow!! It is wet snow and not very pretty. It's nothing like Utah snow that's for sure but it's still snow so there's that.

Well see yeah later everyone have a good week and share the gospel!

Elder Hilburn

 

Same Firemen as last week!?

Elder Hilburn's District being goofy

Indiana's First snow fall

Last Week Wuz the Police, this week Wuz the fire Department...

Well hello ladies and gentlemen it’s been a pretty solid week out here in the field. The week hasn't been too eventful. Had some pretty usual days out here just teaching nonstop every hour of the day which I know sounds weird for some people that know and who have been on missions. But yeah I literally teach every day of the hour and it's awesome. I have already learned so much from it and having the opportunity to teach so much. It has really grown my testimony for just the month that I have been out here for. Just seeing these people change from the very first day we met them is rewarding in its self-it’s pretty cool.

There's so many people I'm not even sure which person I should talk about but I guess I will just pick one. Kavonea is someone we have been teaching recently and we came across her walking around Westlake where she was smoking. We asked if she would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ and it has only gotten better from that point on that we first scheduled an appointment with her. She is about 24 and has two little kids. Her little son has severe autism and it is really hard on her. We have been meeting with her regularly, about two times a week. Me and my companion both have seen such a change in her it is just incredible. We asked her to be baptized on just the second meeting with her and she was ecstatic and expressed to us that she does want to be baptized so it's pretty cool. We have been continually meeting with her she is attending church so we hope to see her get baptized within the next month or so!

This last Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to what is called "specialized training" which is basically a orientation for all the greenies. It consisted all whole lot of preaching and listening to people talk all day long. I mean it was a good time but after the first three hours I kind of got a little bored and lost focus haha. But it was good overall. I got my "mission driver's license" haahah. So I have a little card that I have to login in to the car so it can track everything I do and can only go 6 mph over the speed limit. I gotta say its killing me. But.. there is this one road in our area that GPS does not recognize so we can go as fast as we want on that road it is pretty sick hahaha. On the subject of driving... the drivers here absolutely stink. They make Utah drivers look like outstanding drivers I kid you not. Here in Indiana when people see the yellow light they speed up and everyone runs red lights. Drivers here just are not good. They’re more oblivious then any Utah driver. No offense to all you Utards out there. My bad. No offense. 

Enough about the drivers. This week I got to go on exchanges and get out my area. So I got to relax for Halloween. I went on exchanges with the eagle creek elders and I went with Elder Plueger. He’s pretty dope and chill. He is yet another Utard but he’s cool. We really couldn't do much that day because it was Halloween but we still tried. In the morning we decided to go tracting on a little college campus that was in the area. We walked around for a bit and tried to talk to people but they kept giving us dirty looks. It wasn't till we got into the center of the campus to finally notice that the school is straight up a catholic school so we got out of there fast because it was a catholic school and it was a private school and we weren’t even allowed there so oops. After that we went to lunch then went to go visit some people. Our president didn't want us out from 6-9 so we were told to go visit a members house. So that's what we did. We went to this members home to just hangout. Now let me tell yuh this family is way into board games. They have hundreds of board games and a whole separate board game room with a custom table. So that's what we did... we played board games all night it was a pretty tight Halloween. That was how I spent my Halloween it was sick. Lemme know how you guys spent your 

Halloween hahaha. 

On Saturday we had the opportunity to do some service so I was blessed with the opportunity to wear regular clothes all day and it was amazing. I felt like myself again it was beautiful. This man that we have been meeting with is a less active and we have been trying to get him back to church. But he asked us if we would help him go out to his mom's house and help him do some yard work and help him move around some furniture inside the house. So of course we said heck yes we will come help you. We got over there and went into the house and oh my lemme tell you...I thought my dad had a lot of TV's in his house but I think this 75 year old woman has him beat. I kid you not there was a TV in every corner. And they were all at least 55 in TV's. They were all like brand new as well. My mind was blown. It was pretty hilarious. Anyway, we moved around some furniture for her to help accommodate her TV situation better. Haha. After we did that we went out into the backyard and began to rake up a whole crap ton of leaves. There was so many leaves guys its was crazy. (Side note: we were at these people's house literally all day) We didn't know what to do with all these leaves, there was so many we had built a huge pile it was taller than me. So we decided to burn the crap out of them and have a huge bonfire. Now in the back of my head I thought to myself "this might not be legal but we had burn days in California" So I just keep goin at it throwing more gasoline to the fire to burn these leaves to the ground. Well this huge bonfire was creating quite a consistent billow of smoke. This went on for about an hour or so before we heard the first set of sirens. Me and my comp looked at each other and just wondered if they were coming to us. 30 minutes went by and no fire fighters showed up. Then we heard the second set of sirens and then within ten minutes there were three firetrucks at the house. About eight fire fighters come ambushing around the back and tell us we can’t be doing this. I told the firefighter I was from California and he was like "then you of all people should know better" and I just laughed and he walked away lol. They had so many fire fighters on scene it was wild. They then pulled out there huge fire hoses and put out our hard work. Very eventful day to say the least. Pretty dope to be a missionary not gonna lie. 

It has been a pretty good week and I love the missionary life! I don’t have to worry about anything except bringing people to Christ. I love the gospel! See you all next week folks

SEND IT FOR THE LORD

Elder Hilburn

Brother Bronson Kelly In town on business From my ward in Alpine! Wow what a cool surprise!

prepping for a day of service

Well learned a good lesson not to burn leaves

Meet A Prophet This Week!

Well hello everyone it's been an interesting week here in Indy. Been a good week but a hard week as well. Challenge is for the better though haha. Started off with finding out that I would be going on splits and I  leading my area. I have only been in the field for about two and a half weeks so that was pretty nerve racking. I also was kinda just sent out there with no help and no one helped me to prepare. I guess that's just how they do it out here in Indy. So on Wednesday we went on splits and I was left leading my area with one of the zone leaders. I think it went pretty well but still not sure. It was a good push for me to realize that I can do it and that I am capable of doing it. Then on that same day I was asked if I could prepare a training for my district council that would be on Thursday. So I feel like everything was just handed to me all at one time and I had absolutely no time to think. Which was probably for the best because I think I probably do best when I don’t have much time think. But it was still scary haha. Althoug, I'm still here and I made it through the week. I live to see another week! Haha. 

On Saturday we went to teach a man that claimed he was a "prophet" that was sent down from God. He told us that he has been a prophet for the last 22 years and God talks to him on a regular basis. So we were like, well "do you want to meet again and talk about God and Jesus??" And he said yes so that was dope. I was really hyped because I thought it was funny how he thought he was a prophet. Anyway, we went to go meet with him and he started talking to us about how he became a prophet a d how God called him. He then went on and started prophesying to us about our lives. He told me that I will be getting married in the year 2021 in November or December. He also told me that I have already met my wife so waddup wife here I come I know who you are. Hahaah. He also said that my parents will live for a very long time. So Teri and Dave your gonna be around for a long time.  That was basically the highlight of the week I have to say. Other than that we had our days pretty full like usual which is good because it keeps me nice and busy. 

Today we had a quite interesting experience. Its P-Day so you know we just do all the things a missionary would do on a normal P-Day. But nooooo, not today. Today was very different. It all started our normal but quickly got interesting. So we were just at walmart and I was getting a haircut and my companion got a call from our dear friend that you guys all know as SCOTT. (Yes the man that cussed us out and threw bottles at us). He called us up and wanted to talk to us. He seemed to be very down on himself and was getting angry quickly. We tried to talk to him and get him to know that we are there for him and want to help him. We are on Facetime so we can see his face. Anyway he pulled out a knife from his kitchen and he expressed to us that he wanted to end his life. We didn't really know what to do so we said to him Scott we will come over to see you. He then hung up on us and we were freaked out so we felt that we needed to call 911. So that's what we did. We called them and they got a police unit and ambulance unit dispatched out to him. We drove over there to meet the police and see what was going on. They had about four police cars already there and one ambulance. They went in and got him out and had him and cuffs. They took him to the police station because he did have a warrant out for his arrest so he will probably be in jail for a little while. So oops. Not it's for the better. This way he will be able to detox in jail. 

Other than that my week was pretty normal. I love being a missionary and helping people every day. Love it out here in Indy!!

On another note I have my first baptism this Saturday for a little boy and a little girl so that is cool!

SEND IT FOR THE LORD

Elder Hilburn

 

Loving this beautiful place!

Ward Halloween Party

First Taste of REJECTION

Well I guess you could say this is my first full week but I have been in the field for two weeks so whatever you want to call it.  Well, my days are packed, every day. It seems like we have a lesson every hour of every day. It's pretty crazy out here in Indy. Everyone in this area is very open to hearing what two little kids have to say about Jesus Christ and I'm pretty surprised but that's good haha.

I can't even remember what I did yesterday so bear with me as I try to remember what I did this whole week. There is this family in our ward that doesn't really come to church all that often and the dad has lots of back problems so he always is in the hospital. He asked if we could give him a blessing so that's what we did. From that point on though I feel like we've been over there like 20 times. I don’t mean to brag but I think it's just because they like having the missionaries around or it's probably ‘cause they just like me but who knows, that's all speculation. But this family is very poor and lives in not a great  part of town but they are very nice people and three of their kids are baptism age and haven't been baptized. So we have been teaching the little kids the lessons and we just got them to set a date so they will be baptized on November 2nd which is pretty cool. This will be my first baptism so will be a cool experience for me as well. This last Saturday Brother Wood called us up (oh yeah their name is the Wood family so there's that) and told us that he was having a barbeque and he wanted us to come over. We told him that we had appointments but we would try to come. Sure enough all of our appointments fell through so we got to head over their house for a cook out haha. We spent probably a couple of hours there. Oops don’t know if you’re supposed to do that but hey there were non-members there that we could start teaching if we wanted so I think were in the clear haha. We taught the whole group a little lesson and it was good. The funny part was after the lesson the next door neighbor rammed in to the Wood's car and put a huge dent in it and that began a huge fight between the Woods and the next door neighbor. So me and my comp were just sitting back and watching the great show. I gotta say it was pretty dang funny. The best part was when the next door neighbor went and got two beers to give to the Woods as a peace offering. Just thought that was funny. So that was a pretty chill day.

Yesterday, which was Sunday we got to teach a man from Puerto Rico who’s name was HARRY who strongly believes in the TRINITY. He also knows his way around the bible very well so that was pretty scary. We went over to his house around 2 and had a "bible study" with him for about two hours. We then left on a good note and said goodbye and decided that we weren’t going back there. A little bit later my companion had the strong feeling that we needed to go back there and teach him the first lesson. I was like uhhhhhhh ok then. So that's what we did. We went back there and taught Harry about the restoration. I have no idea why we went back there because that was the hardest rejection we've had yet. He told us that the Book of Mormon is hindering us and it is useless. He told us that we would be able to convert more people if we just used the bible. There must have been a reason though for why we felt prompted to go back there and teach him. Who knows maybe in a couple years he'll pick up the copy that we left with him and read it and find out that it is true. But it was still a cool experience even though he rejected us very hard. He was still nice about it and we said a prayer together and we left. Who knows maybe it wasn't for him why we went over there. Maybe it was for his children and maybe someday they will see the Book of Mormon we left them. 

I had my first experience with eating some absolutely disgusting food. This family that we've been meeting with is from Ethiopia and their culture is a lot different. We went over there and just visited with them for a little but and then the wife comes out with a plate of what looks like nuts. But there was something on top that I'd never seen before and it looked like little balls of peanut butter. But oh man lemme tell you it was NOT PEANUT BUTTER. I ate it and about threw up. Afterwards they told us what the food was made out of and get this. It was a combination of barley, COW OIL, and GOAT MILK. this stuff was absolutely nasty. So thats my first experience with disgusting food. 

That was about all that happened this week. I know there was more that happened but I can hardly remember any of it haha. See you all next week my dudes. 

SEND IT FOR THE LORD

Elder Hilburn

 

One of the Many Nigerian people to teach in Indy

FIRST WEEK IN INDIANA!

What is up everyone this is Elder Hilburn here clocking in from Indianapolis Indiana!!! I finally made it here! The MTC was great! I loved it there and will miss the people there but I'm glad that I'm back in the real world. 

My journey to Indy took all dayyyy longgg. We left the MTC bright and early at 6:45 MST time and didn't get into Indy till 7:30 EST. So it was a long trek to say the least but it was worth it. When we got there we were greeted by our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Page, and the two AP's. My mission president is super cool and really laid back. He is always cracking jokes with us and acts like an 18 year old sometimes, but I love that. His wife Sister Page is super nice and is always looking for ways to help her missionaries out. The AP's are cool and since I already knew one of them that really helped me to get a little more comfortable with the whole being a missionary. From that point on we just went straight to the mission home. They had planned to take us to the temple and see it but it was already like 10 o clock before we even left the airport so we just went straight to the mission home. When we arrived they had food all ready for us and that was a freaking blessing because I hadn't eaten all day and literally thought I was going to die. The food was pretty solid and I liked it. The next morning we were all taken to the mission office where we had some initial training and then we were hooked up with our companions and sent off to our areas. My new companion’s name is Elder Driscoll and he's from somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Idaho. So that's cool lol. My new area is called Avon, Indiana and it covers basically the western outskirts of Indiana. It's an interesting area to say the least. There is basically only a couple places we go though, because that's where most of the work is. There is a place called Westlake apartments that has basically all of our investigators. It is a legit compound. The place is enormous. It looks like a government built complex that houses thousands of people. But yeah that's mainly where we are everyday because most of our investigator’s come from there. The area that I am in has a big population of Africans in it and a lot of them speak Yoruba. So, I have been learning a couple phrases in Yoruba because they say it is an Ice breaker and if you say something as simple as hello in their language they will want to talk to you. So I have been learning little phrases here and there. I even get a name tag in that language which is pretty tight. There are a lot of people that we are teaching. There's probably 15 people that were teaching on a consistent basis and there about 8 on date within these next two months. So the work is not slow around here what so ever. My area is supposed to be a full time car area but we are actually sharing our car with another set of elders so we get the car three days a week and they get it three days a week and then we share it on P day each week. We are currently just using the other missionaries bikes until we get our own. But this area like I said is only supposed to be for a car so the boundaries are fairly big so when were on the bike we have long treks to everywhere we go and can't say that it's all that fun. Even though I love bikes and love riding bikes, riding them on flat ground with no jumps what so ever gets old pretty quick.

There is a man that we have been teaching whose name is Scott. Oh man he is a big job to say the least. A little background on Scott, he is about 26 years old who lives with his mom in her one bedroom apartment. He has no job. He has a huge problem with drinking and smoking. He also has a very big problem with the law of chastity. Almost every time we go over there he is hammered it's pretty sad but he absolutely loves the gospel. He has already told us that he wants to get baptized but he just can't get over the drinking, smoking, and chastity problems. On Thursday we thought it would be a good idea to just get him out of his house. So we went and got him and we walked him down to Wendy's and we got lunch together. Keep in mind he is drunk at the time so we had to manage him like a little baby. We gave him a small lesson on the plan of salvation and then after we told him that he needs to get a job. He agreed. So we decided to take him all around the area where he lives and have him apply to any place he can to try and get a job. One of the places we went he started to fill out an application and the lady told him that he has a warrant out for his arrest and that she could not accept the application. So we then took him back to his apartment and left him. The next day we wanted to go back and see how he was doing and we wanted to take him to a baptism so he can see what it's like. Sure enough he was completely wasted but we took him anyway. Yes we took a drunk man to a baptism. Great idea right? He actually really enjoyed it and towards the end he became sober when the alcohol began to wear off. He was very happy and thankful that we had been helping him. We took him back to his home and said goodbye. Before we could say goodbye he started yelling at us because he thought we took his cigarettes. He was going through a withdrawal and he was taking it out on us. He began throwing things everywhere and cussing us out. It was sad to see this all happen and we were really close to calling the cops but we didn't. We said goodbye to him and that was it. We hope that his heart can be softened and we can be able to come back and he can try to overcome his weaknesses. Everyone pray for him! That's the story of the week! Haha

I also had the delightful opportunity to ride my bike in the pouring rain so that was just wonderful. I think that was the first time I asked myself "what am I doing here???"  But I know what I am doing is right and I'm glad I'm here. It has been a great learning experience and I'm am excited for what's the come. I love all you guys and hope you have a great week!

SEND IT FOR THE LORD

Elder Hilburn

 

An old buddy from home. Cameron Wade working in the cafeteria at the MTC

First Area! Trainer: Elder Driscol from Idaho

21 missionaries!

at the mission home with President and Sister Page

Riding Bikes in the rain!

Elder Hilburn thinks he is sponsored by Monster because they once sent him a hat

WHAT UP YA'LL? FIRST WEEK DOWN!

What is up my fellow people of the world!! I'm doing great here on the inside. It's been a whirlwind of a week to say the least. It all started off with getting dropped off at the compound. From there I was escorted by a host that I don't know who the guys name was but he got me all checked in and got me settled into my room. After that he walked me to one of the new buildings where I there got my nametags and then I was escorted to my classroom where I met the rest of my district. I was one of the first there so I didn't meet everyone right away. Soon about 30 minutes later everyone showed up and I met my companion who's name is Elder Wells. He's from the great state of Utah, in South Jordan specifically. The rest of my district is really cool and I like them all. From that point we met our afternoon teacher and her name was Sister Hill. She's really nice but she's really young. She looks like someone I went to high school with it's kinda odd. We had our first class then went to lunch, after that we went back to class to meet our afternoon teacher who's name was Brother Raty. He's pretty cool and easy to talk to so that's nice. That's about all I can remember from the first day and the rest of the day seemed to be a blur. Everyone in the dorm is pretty chill and its basically a fraternity. Just a bunch of dudes messing around and maybe doing some stupid stuff. Haha. But if you ain't havin fun then what's the point. Haha. The rest of the week is a little bit of a blur.

I did get to see Hunter which was pretty cool and it's nice to know someone other than the people you are basically forced to know, not that that is a bad thing. 

The food at the MTC kinda blows. It's just basic cafeteria food. Everyone has told me it's good but I sure don't like it's naaaaasssstttyyyyy. 

Tonight we had the opportunity to attend a devotional and the guest speaker was Elder Patrick Kearon and his wife. He is from England and he is super cool. He talks to us like it was his comedy show. He was super funny and I never was so engaged in a devotional in my life. Kinda a new experience for me haha. The main thing that stood out to me in the talk was when he said "happiness only happens when you choose it." Pretty good advice if you ask me. Other than that nothing else has happened that was exciting. If any of you accidentally happen to see me at the Provo temple next Tuesday, then I'll see you there lol. 

Love you all and hope you all have a great week. 

Elder Hilburn

Elder Hilburn and companion Elder Wells

Elder Hilburn's district at the MTC

Elder Hilburn and bud from Granite Bay Elder Jeppson

First trip to the Provo Temple

Second Week In the Books!

What is up everyone! This week has surprisingly gone by pretty fast. There is a saying here at the MTC that says, "the days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like days," and that definitely is true so far. This week was our first full week of TRC which is basically just teaching "investigators". Which I still think are all actors but who knows maybe some of them are real. So far that has gone pretty well. 

Everyone in my dorm room is super chill and like them all. The sad thing is the people I've gotten the closest too are the ones in the other district and most of them leave on Wednesday but it's alright. I have a good connection with the boys in my room so it's pretty chill. Still can't say that I like the food here because I definitely don't really like it. It's just nasty cafeteria food. 

This last Sunday we had a devotional and it was the first counselor to the MTC presidency and his wife that spoke. It was a great talk and I really enjoyed that. The Sunday schedule here though is quite jam packed. They don't give you any time to rest so definitely not like the Sunday schedule I am used to but it's ok I'm getting more used to it. 

I have finally adjusted the the sleeping schedule here. I finally am falling asleep on time and I find myself just waking up at 6 every morning without an alarm so that is kinda weird but good I guess. 

In our classes we are really focusing on how to teach. So that consists of a bunch of role playing and I'm not a huge fan of role playing. I can't fake it to someone who is obviously a missionary or volunteer. That is the one thing that I don't like because it just isn't real but I get it and I do think it is helping me a little bit in the fact that I need to be better about changing the subject from regular worldly talk to how to segway the conversation into a gospel oriented conversation. Yesterday which was Monday our teacher gave us the opportunity to go into to the quad, or whatever you call the outside of the campus area, and find other people to talk to and share a quick scripture with them and explain to them what it means to us. You would think that everyone would say yes to listening to what me and my companion had to say because we're at the MTC duh. Well your extremely mistaken. My companion and I walk over to two people who seem to be unloading some food for the cafeteria for the MTC. So we decide to go over there and ask if they need any help and if we could share a scripture with them. So we ask them and they say they don't need any help and that they are "on the clock so we don't have time to listen to your thought, sorry". I GOT REJECTED AT THE MTC. HAHAH well that's embarrassing, I guess I got a little taste of the real world but in the MTC haha. 

On monday night me and the rest of my roommates were saying goodbye to another elder that was leaving early the next morning and so we kind of had a little party that night. This place is a frat house for sure. Haha. I gotta say I never would of thought I would see ten dudes singing songs from tangled at the top of their lungs all night. It was pretty hilarious and maybe a little feminine. Hahaha but that's all we got so it was chill. 

Other than that not much else had happened here but I like it a lot and am excited to be in Indianapolis in less than a week!! My testimony has grown stronger in these last couple days then it ever has in my life. I just want to say that I love all you guys and hope you have a great rest of your week!!

Elder Hilburn

Elder Hilburn's roommates

Saying goodbye to a new friend