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