Spiritual Giants

Well Hello everyone! You’re all probably surprised that I'm writing an email two weeks in a row!! I know, I know, I am surprised myself! But.., when you have things to talk about it seems to be easier to write! This past week has been busy(ish)! Let's just say it has been busy for still being mostly in quarantine. We have taken advantage of some of the restrictions that have been lifted. We have met or at least tried to meet everyone in person that we are "currently teaching" so that is awesome. 

Sooo let me just tell you a little bit about the people that we have met so far. The first person we met with in person was a man named Scott W. He is a deaf man so going into the lesson we were not sure how we were going to get anything across to him. We figured he would bring a translator with him. But as it turns out he didn’t... We both were like uhhhh?, well let's just go with it and see what happens. I mean c’mon what's the worst that could happen lol. So when we met him the way he planned on communicating with us was through pen and paper. Which is what we did. It was pretty cool how we taught this man the restoration the most simple way I have ever taught it. Just by simply writing a couple phrases down then pointing to pictures from the restoration pamphlet. It truly was a cool experience seeing this deaf man understand what we were teaching him with no talking what so ever. He accepted everything we said and committed to read from the BofM and also come to church when we open back up again!

On Wednesday evening we had a lesson with a woman named Nanette and a man named Josh. They are both in their mid 60's and are roommates. We just got to know them for a bit and then my comp and I had the plan to just read from the BofM with them. But.. they didn't have there BofM's with them and we didn’t just want to read to them  cause that would have been boring I'm sure. So me and my comp turn to each other and are like "uhhh well what the heck do we do know" haha. But I got a strong feeling that I needed to share my favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon which is Alma 32:21 which states "And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." After I shared that, that just kickstarted an awesome discussion we all had about faith. My companion then shared some of his favorite scriptures as well. At the end of the lesson, after we bore our testimonies and everything, Nanette turns to us and tell us that she has been praying for something like this and this was exactly what she needed to hear that evening. That hit me hard, I was overwhelmed by the spirit and it was such a cool experience. It made me so happy and I got to feel of that everlasting joy that the gospel brings. We are meeting with them this upcoming Wednesday and I can’t wait! They both are “spiritual giants"!

The week has gone by fairly fast but still decently slow haha. I'm super grateful to be in the area that I am now, and so grateful to be on a mission. I have learned so much this past year and can’t wait for what the next year has in store for me!

Hope you all had a great week and don’t forget to SEND IT FOR THE LORD

ELDER HILBURN

15768 Exploration Blvd, Noblesville IN

Elwood 2 Huntington 2 Nobelsville

Hey errrrbodddyyyyyy it's been quite a long time since I have talked to all y’all. So lots has happened since I wrote an email last haha. I think I'm going on five months without sending out an email and I'm sorry about that, ‘cause I know all of you really missed my letters... I could just tell. My famous lines are being used by other missionaries... acheemm acheeem... 

Anyway, so last time you heard I was in the small town of Elwood. Well to make a long story short, that is when quarantine hit. I was in that area for one more transfer through quarantine then I got transferred to a place up north called Huntington. It's just south of Fort Wayne. I was there for the past three months all during quarantine. It was rough to say the least. So not much to talk about for that area haha, Because... as of this last week I have been transferred to my new area which is called the Noblesville area. I'm now back down in Indy woo woo. I've missed being in Indianapolis. I thrive in the city. I didn’t really like the country haha but the people there were great. BUT, I gotta say this area is freaking dope. It's right by Fishers and Carmel, Indiana if any of you know where that is lol. Fishers is where our mission office is and Carmel is where our Mission President lives, so were super close to everyone. Also, its soooo nice to have like every store you could think of. I guess I took that for granted living back home because the last two areas I served in I didn't have like anything. They were just little po dunk towns. Now I'm back to a place where like everybody lives!! Haha its great. 

So to give y’all a little update on missionary restrictions at least in my mission. We are now allowed to go visit with people we are teaching/ less Actives, and members in person!! But.. it has to be a scheduled time that they know we are coming so we can’t just stop by like we used to do as normal missionaries. Also, we are not allowed to go into anyone's homes, so what that means is we can meet with them on their front porch or in their back yard or even just meet at a park! Also, we have to maintain the six feet rule and wear masks...which I think is stupid, I hate masks.. never mind about that I don’t need to go all political on y’all. 

So since that has happened, my new companion, Elder Kynaston, and I have been just trying to set up as many appointments as we can throughout our days so we can be out of our apartments as much as possible. Oh side note, we are white washing this area so neither of us know like anyone so that has been kind of difficult but we’re figuring it out! My companion came out three transfers ago right when quarantine hit so he doesn’t know what normal missionary work is even like. So it’s been hard for sure. In a way I am basically training him on everything so there has been a lot of stress on myself recently but I'm perseverving! 

There has been a lot going on this past week, we have a pretty dang solid teaching pool in this area. We have this one young guy who is a 17 year old who is on date to get baptized on his birthday because his parents won’t let him get baptized. But seriously he is awesome. His name is Jaydon and we had a mini book of mormon Study with him at a members back patio this last Saturday. We read Alma 11 with him and wow, I'm a missionary so like I should kinda know my stuff right, well this kid is so smart, I learned so much from that chapter that I probably would never have gotten out of it if I were just studying it alone. He brought up the greatest insights and I could just tell he is one of the elect. He will be a great member of the church! He is trying to invite his friends to join us to do a bible study with us! Who would have thought, our investigator is already giving us referrals!!! He’s so awesome!

Overall the week has been good and we kept decently busy! 

Hope y’all have a good week and don’t forget to SEND IT FOR THE LORD!

ps ^^^this is what I meant that other missionaries are stealing my line....

Elder Hilburn