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)