Merry Christmas, and Fry Bread for You!

This week was INCREDIBLE!

We gave drunk people cookies, went Christmas caroling in Navajo, brought tons of new faces to church, and best of all, we found ourselves a shima sani!

A brief history of shimas.
Picture a 92-year-old lady. Now imagine she is just over the 4 foot mark.
Now put wrinkles all over her, and a TON of heavy turquoise jewelry on her wrists, ears, etc.
She is wearing a little skirt, and strap on Nike shoes so she can run faster.
If you are doing this right, you see a little oompa loompa lady in you mind.
She has a hunch back, and a cane, and she has about 2 teeth. She mutters random Navajo and smacks you with her cane if you don't reply fast enough.
Now if you have properly imagined this woman, you will be having feelings of incredulous wonder.
How could one amazing lady be so small?
How is this woman still alive?
Why does she have such impeccable fashion?
Why do I have the irrepressible urge to hug this lady?
All very valid questions.

This week I taught in my first hooghan (circular 1-room home, dirt floor, wood stove, traditional to Navajos). It was TINY and there were 4 kids, their grandmother, and their shima sani, Rose, living inside! It was crammed full of things, and they had no electricity, so we went and sat on the bed, and had to use the light of the fire from the wood stove to see.  We taught Joseph, who is 10, and he wants to be baptized! So they came to church on Sunday for the first time!  Joseph's grandmother agreed to help Joseph to learn and be at church. She is a member herself, in fact, but hasn't been for some time.  We gave Rose, the shima sani, a plate of cookies and immediately her wrinkled eyes opened wide.  "Baa likani!! Baa likani! Ayoo shil ya'at'eeh! Ahehee' Ahehee'! Aoo'! Ahehee' shiyazh!!!"  (Cookie, cookie!! I love cookies! Thank you, thank you!! Thank you sons!")  Then she proceed to munch away with her two teeth, as she sat by the wood stove in her own little world, eating away.  

It was THE BEST THING that I have seen on my mission so far.

Being in that tiny hooghan was so humbling. The family was so nice, and happy, and humble.  Even though I am around those kinds of things every day, it really gave me a reality check.

I love this mission. This week I learned a lot more about how to use Jesus' sacrifice for us.

The Atonement is so real.
It is the only thing that can heal a broken soul. The sacrifice of Christ allows for us to choose to return to our God. It gives us the opportunity to be with our families and friends in the eternities.  We all know the scripture that says: "we are saved through the grace that is in Christ Jesus, but faith without works is dead", claiming that it is all about our actions!  And that is right. Without choosing to follow Christ's footsteps, we have no chance of receiving His blessings.  But it is too often that we focus on the "works" aspect, and don't give credit to the first half of the scripture. It is too often that we forget the grace of Jesus Christ, and the enabling power of His love. Without His gift, we would never be able to return to God. Without His Atonement, we would inevitably fall, and even with our own "works", we would be in no position to redeem our souls. The laws of Justice would not allow for our redemption. Only through the Atonement is salvation possible.

So let's focus on Christ and His gift to us.

A lot of people feel like their sin is too great to be covered by repentance in Christ's name.
But that is not ever true.  When a mom pays for her child's piano lessons, she pays the price, willingly and happily.  She wants her child to learn to play, to perfect the instrument!  But it is not the child's job to pay back his mother. Practicing the piano does not make up for the debt! But when the mother hears the notes being played, she is happy! She is excited to see her child make progress. When the child messes up, misses notes and ruins scales, the mother does not become angry and expect her child to stop playing. In fact, she expects mistakes. In order for her child to become perfect, he must make mistakes! 

It is the same with Christ. We do not owe Christ for the cost of His love. In fact, we can NEVER repay Him. But what we can do is USE His gift. He expects us to keep trying, and He will ALWAYS be by our sides as we continue to grow and learn. We should never feel like He has left us. In fact, only WE can leave HIM. Letting Christ into your life is a choice. You can either accept Him or not. It is as simple as that. He is never angry at us if we try, He will never abandon us. Only WE can abandon HIM. 

So play the piano! Make mistakes! Learn! Grow! Make every note count! 
Ask Christ to aid you on your way. God will strengthen you, and He will be with you. 

You do not understand His grace if you feel separated from Him. 

So I challenge you all to work to feel close to Him. Stop worrying about whether or not He feels close by, and rid yourself of anything that separates you from your Savior. If something is between you and your happiness, then turn away from it, and follow Christ. 
I promise you will IMMEDIATELY feel His love as you follow His commandments. 
You will be happy, and you will have more light. 

Merry Christmas, everyone. 
Love,
Elder Hilton.

Scripture case! A Navajo lady made it for me out of fleece :D

  

Natural Bridge hike on P-day!

The sisters have two investigators who had this little guy. I held Julian on the hike to Natural Bridge. He is hilarious!

6 people live in this tiny little hooghan. Dirt floor, no electricity, wood stove! The one on the left burnt down so they had to build a new one.

Christmas at the trailer consists of blasting hymns and shooting nerf blow darts everywhere.

Elder Livermont has a mean shot.

What we do with what little spare time we have.....
Elder Lind is a good artist!
I think we were all bitter that we couldn't see The Hobbit.

Shimas and Unicorns

Hey everyone!

This week was the fastest one yet!
I got to perform my first baptism too!

We had two big Christmas parties, one with the ward, and one with a couple zones of missionaries, and then the sisters and Elders from Fort Defiance went and sang at a huge Christmas bazaar at the museum. We have gone caroling and singing in Navajo a few times now, it's been so fun!

At Hashke's baptism was great. Her mom and grandmother were there, and they were so proud of her! We brought a bunch of investigators to the baptism as well, and they all really enjoyed it!

At church this Sunday, I was really surprised to see a ton of people there who I would NEVER expect at church! We have been working on this old shima for months and she finally came!! It was so amazing to see her randomly appear there! We also had 5 investigators there!

Mom and dad, that string trick book you sent me is AWESOME. I know a ton of cool ones now and all the Natives think I'm a pro >:))))

I've been learning a lot more Navajo and am starting to read and write better!

Overall, this week went by the fastest so far, because we really worked hard, and I focused on not worrying about home, and it FLEW by. The trick I found for myself is to really get involved with what is going on with the people we see. I love visiting them and feeling like they are my family! When I worry about them, and what we need to do to help everyone here, it is a lot more enjoyable. 

I am most excited for Brian, Arlinda, Audrey, and Kera. They have been our investigators for a few weeks and they come to church EVERY Sunday. Audrey (17) is so awesome, she asked us the other day about the Word of Wisdom. Apparently she had Googled it a couple weeks before and was already living it! Arlinda calls Elder Gwilliam and I her "shiyazh" or son's, and she is making us rugs!!! Rugs take hours and hours and hours and they are a really big part of the culture here! Brian is so fun, and there is always a HUGE grin on his face, he likes to joke around a ton. And Kera will give you a hard time but she is always just teasing you. These guys really do feel like my family. I am so happy to be here and serve them, and all the other people in Fort Defiance, Arizona. Keep this family in your prayers this week!

Thanks everyone for the letters, support, and good vibes.  I sent out a ton of Christmas presents so I hope they all get to you safely!  I'm starting to trust the mail less and less, the USPS here got robbed on the 7th! Luckily I didn't have anything in it. But still, what the heck!!

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and have an amazing week.

My challenge this week is to get off your smart phone and go out for a whole day noticing the people around you. Do something nice every chance you get, especially for people you don't know. Even a smile or a small conversation! If you are up to the challenge, then do it! And let me know how it went! Go one day without being selfish and just turn outward as Christ did and serve all day! Walk a day with Christ, and have God in your heart.  I promise if you do, it will be a fantastic day.
But that's only if you can deal with the iPhone withdrawls ;)

 

 

Love you all!

Until next week :)

 

 Sunset

 

Navajo Christmas Bazaar! Mom, you would go crazy for the stuff here. This guy had some amazing art.

Some of the coolest paintings I've seen!

This is me and Mrs. Navajo, she won out of everyone on the whole reservation!
They have to do a bunch of random stuff like play a Navajo flute, make fry bread, dance, etc.

  Baptism with Hashke!  She was so excited! The water in the font came out all green but nobody even cared, it was such a good day!

  Arlinda working at the loom

 So cool!

 

This is Arlinda!! She is so awesome! She is going to make me a rug :D

(Not sure wazzup with this, but Davis asked me to add these scriptures...)

 

Zechariah 5:1-2
1 Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.

2 And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.

Numbers 23:22

22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Make every day a walk with Christ!

Ya'at'eeh!

How are all of you! Haven't heard from everyone all week!
This week was great!  We dropped all our non progressing investigators and less-actives, and really focused on helping the people who we can honestly help progress. So we have seen a lot of awesome growth with our families we teach. It has been really rewarding! 

Christmas is coming! I am sending a lot of you letters and presents so watch out for that!

The reservation is crazy! So many insane stories this week that I don't know what to share!

Hashke gets baptized this Saturday! And we have Dennis on date for 5 weeks away, which is awesome because we have been teaching him since I got into Fort. The family I am most excited about is Brians family. Last night we went over to share dinner with them for Audrey's 18th birthday. She got us souvenirs from Las Vegas where she had been with family last week, and told us she felt bad because all of the things she wanted to get us, her mom told her they were "inappropriate", which was hilarious! So we all gathered together in their living room, and sat Indian style (no pun intended) on their woven rug, and ate Navajo Tacos, which are fry bread with chili and condiments on top. Its SUPER good, but your stomach will complain afterwards. Then we shared stories with each other and joked around a lot! I shared the story of one of my ancestors who was captured by Natives and had to run away during the night and hide inside a log. She eventually began to starve and had to eat a rabbit raw, until she could escape back to the pioneer trail, and make it home, only to find her husband had remarried. Haha thanks for telling me that story, Grandma! They got a kick out of it. Arlinda (the mom) told us all about the oppression of the Navajos growing up. How they were put into boarding schools, whipped, and told never to speak in their native tongue. When they did, they were told they were bad, and washed their mouth with soap. I couldn't believe some of the stories she told us!

After dinner, Audrey's parents turned out the lights and lit her birthday candles, then sang her a traditional Navajo song. The words were new, but the meaning translated to something along the lines of "God be with you, as you grow and become older". He sang in loud tones while he shook a traditional native shaker with feathers and beads on it. Wish you guys coulda heard it!!  Then at the end, Brian gave her a feather stick to bless herself, and then she blew out the candles and we feasted on cake!

Arlinda has been practicing some Navajo with us!
"Shi ei Elder Hilton yinishye!
Dine Bizaad bihoosh'aah, doo dine bizaad shil ya'at'eeh, ndi ei nanthl'eh.

"I am Elder Hilton! I am learning Navajo, and I like it, but it is hard!"

Well, not too much more to share from this week. But I really did have a hard time being discouraged. I think I started to fall into the trap of going through the motions, and not making every action meaningful. It's easy to do good things every day, because that is the point of a mission, but it is a constant struggle to make every day a walk with Christ. So that is what I had to remind myself in the middle of the week. I read my farewell talk, and some of the letters and notes from friends and family, and was really reminded of why I am out here. The work is so worth it, and I love the people. But I needed that reminder to make every note count.

So that is my challenge this week!
Start over with God, tell Him that this day is for Him!
Try living one day with Christ by your side, and see how it goes!
Give everything to Him, and acknowledge Him in every moment with you.
Try it! :)

Love you all, have an amazing week.
Diyin nihil holo doo.
Hagoone :)

Elder Hilton

 Checkout lines...the first of the month at Walmart is insane!  We wait in line for at least 35 minutes to check out!

 The tree we cut down.  TP garland!

My little Foster family! 

Kinda pretty with the snow. 

 Brians family.  Love these people!

Me with the Real Santa!  He told me so!

Roller Coaster Ride!

This week has been a roller coaster!

So Elder Gwilliam and I were just out at Thatsaburger (where we get free burgers and Navajo Tacos galore) and two disheveled Navajo walk up to us hesitantly. They introduce themselves as Rodney and Martha, a married couple from Mesa, Arizona. Then they go on to tell a crazy story. They had just finished hitchhiking from Mesa a few days ago, and they literally had only the clothing on their backs, and their phones (which didn't work on the rez). They asked if we were Elders from the church.  "Yes! We are!" I told them.  They immediately had a look of relief and told us that Martha had a house over in Black Rock Acres (an area close to the middle of Fort Defiance that has a LOT of gang activity and is very ghetto), and that if we had ANY food to spare, it would be amazing. 

"It's the day before Thanksgiving, and we have no food. I am traumatized," Martha explained to us, "We had $13.50 left and we were just spending $10 on our last chicken meal together here, we figured we may as well eat. We just don't know what to do."  Immediately, we took them to our truck, where we happened to have a TON of thanksgiving food we were giving to another family earlier that day. When we gave them the food, Martha was SO happy, and couldn't stop thanking us.
"We are going to get you a thanksgiving feast tomorrow," I told them, "we will bring you to one that we were invited to!"  When Martha heard this, she literally began to cry, telling us that she couldn't believe it.

It was extremely humbling to see these people who literally lost EVERYTHING in a matter of days become so grateful for some rice and beans, and a promise of a hot meal.  They took us to their home and we helped them chop wood to keep warm for a few nights.  The NHA (Navajo Housing Authority) had taken ALL of Martha's appliances in the home, so they literally had the clothing on their backs, a pillow and blanket on the carpet floor, a can opener, and a wood stove. So we brought them over an extra crock pot we had, and a pan to heat up rice and beans on the wood stove! They were so excited and grateful!! I can't imagine a better thanksgiving experience.

 

The next events with them that ensued consisted of Elder Gwilliam and I making visits to them, helping them get settled in a little better, bringing them care packages from ward members, and teaching lessons with them. The first lesson we had with them that night was incredible. They told us that they KNEW the Lord was blessing them. We told them that Christ was there strengthening them, and that God was truly watching over them. We taught them about the gospel and have told them what they need to start doing! Rodney turned out to be an inactive member of the LDS church, and Martha had been going to church in Mesa, but didn't ever get baptized. They both wanted to learn more! We taught Rodney how priesthood would bless him and his wife, and Martha about baptism and the blessings Christ will bring to her life if she follows His will. They were very happy to be learning about their savior.

Thanksgiving was crazy! I missed my family so much ALL day!!! It was really hard being away from them. But we got to eat at a member's home so it made it a little better. We played this REALLY nerdy board game called Avalon and everyone was arguing and getting heated and goofing around, so I felt RIGHT at home! It made the whole day so much better. I miss nerdy board games with my family!!

More about Elder Gwillaim, he is a chef. That's right, a chef. So I hit it lucky! He worked at a ton of places including Olive Garden, so I am a happy camper. Also he goes home in 3 months, so he is very experienced and knows his way around missionary work. I am learning a lot from him, and we are doing very well here at Fort! He is really relaxed and it makes it a lot easier to be happy and work hard here. We get along very well! He reminds me of a mix of Derek and Thomas. He is smart and goofy and fun to chill with like Derek, but crazy and spontaneous like Thomas. It's great!

This week we are finishing up lessons with Hashke! She is the 9-year-old girl who is working to be baptized! We will be baptizing her in a week or two, and I am so excited because it will be the first baptism I was involved with from beginning to end!

Also we are teaching a new family, Brother and Sister Deschine, and their daughter Audrey.
They are Navajo (of course).  Sister Deschine graduated from Harvard, so she is very intellectual. She doesn't want to give up her traditions and culture, but she invited us over showing large interest in the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. Brian is a drummer for traditional ceremonies, he is very involved with that. He sang us a Navajo prayer the first time we met and it was really really cool!! Audrey is a normal 16-year-old, she is a Junior in high school, and she has a ton of questions and always texts us to see if we are coming over for lessons! They are the first investigators I've had who show honest interest and follow up on all their commitments. We had a bible study with them the other night, and they REALLY enjoyed it! They thought Laman and Lemuel were hilarious! We were all so involved in the story that we read a couple chapters! They promised to keep reading, and they have! They came to church for the first time yesterday, and they enjoyed it! We invited them to the Harvey's tonight for dessert and games. Family night!

Just wanted to say to everyone:
We really do take everything for granted. That is cliche and overused, but come to the Reservation for one week and you will know exactly what I mean. These people are suffering. There are alcoholics, torn families, and horrifying stories everywhere. More commonly than not. 

Thank God for the things you have. Even a warm house where you don't have to chop wood to stay warm. Or running water. Or a family that is together. The list doesn't end.
Enjoy every moment with your family, cherish them.
Be happy, know that Jesus Christ died for you and that YOU are special.
If you don't know that for yourself, then kneel down and find out.

Love you all, and I miss you all.
Write me for Christmas, I love to hear from you :)

Have an amazing week,
Elder Hilton.

A Pendleton pure wool blanket and a cachina doll!  Instead of buying fancy clothes, the Navajo buy these expensive ($300) pendletons!  Warmest blankets of all time!  Cachina dolls are sacred and said to watch over the home.  Nice foggy weather.

Overcoming the Beast

This week was great!

I got a new companion, his name is Elder Gwilliam, he is WAY cool, and we get along really well. Plus he is a chef so I have that going for me. He is really relaxed, and he knows what he is doing because he only has 3 months left on his mission, so we get lots of work done! Over 40 lessons this week! We were booked back to back all week, it was crazy! 

This area has grown SO MUCH, we have 2 people on date to be baptized, Hashke and Georgina, and a few more coming soon, I feel!  Also we are getting a lot of less active families to come back to church and become reactivated!  The best this week was when we found a lady named Luella and brought her to church. She hadn't been in years! The members were SO nice to her, and she really felt welcome! She can't wait to come back!!!!

Never forget to be nice to people! At church, on the streets, school, work, ANYWHERE!
A smile and a hello can change everything for someone!  Especially if you take the time to get to know someone a little bit, you can change their day, week, or year! As far as church, a simple conversation can even change a life!! Watch out for others who seem alone or unfamiliar. TALK TO THEM. It is selfish not to. With everything that you have, it is ridiculous to stay in your little bubble and ignore the people around you that you have the power to help.

 

That's your challenge this week, is to pay attention to the people around you, smile at people, say hi, and get to know somebody.

Besides working super hard this week, I had to overcome the beast of homesickness. It snowed HARD here, and we got a nice amount of snow!  I liked it at first, but then I kept thinking about Idaho, and how Dallin and I would go snowboarding, and how we would go to McCall with grandma and grandpa, hot tubbing with friends, sledding, snow ball fights, everything! Then things got out of hand when I saw Christmas decorations at members' homes!

I thought of every Christmas from back to being a child, and all the experiences with my family. Christmas is my FAVORITE. Favorite holiday, and favorite time with family. It always seemed like family was just so much more close during that time, and we did so much together. And this week I realized that I would be missing that, and it was really hard to think about.
Every time I see snow, smell hot chocolate, or hear Christmas music, I just have this deep yearning to be with my family. I miss them so much!

I love my mission, and all the people here, and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. Even though it sucks to be away from family, it is worth it to be able to be here and serve these people!
I know that Christ is our savior, and I love Him.

Hope you are all doing well! Have an AWESOME Thanksgiving, and enjoy the company of your family and friends. Stay warm if it's snowy there too, and drink some hot chocolate for me! 

Thanks SO MUCH for the support, friendship, and letters. I love you guys!!

 

it's beginning to look a lot like...Thanksgiving....

this is the view from our trailer! we live right next to the church, where wild dogs and horses frequent the parking lot.

It actually looks really cool here with the snow!