Floods, Temple Open Houses, and Progression!

This was the best week of my mission so far. Sunday was the best day so far! After 4 months of hard work, it all paid off.

We have been working on organizing a HUGE temple trip for months. This weekend it finally happened! 23 people from our teaching pool attended! Those are less active members, investigators, and recent converts! None of these people had been inside a temple before, and they had the chance to drive to Gilbert, AZ and see the open house! From the other missionaries in the area, more people attended, and our ward got 50 people to attend overall!!
When they got to the senior center that we were given to stay at for the night, the pipes all broke, and the rooms flooded with water! After an 8-hour car ride to Gilbert, these people were exhausted, and now they had to go swimming at 11:00pm! Even though a few mishaps occurred, everyone came back with good reports of the trip.
On Sunday, I think because of the trip, there were over 180 people in attendance! That is a new record for over a year!

The best part of the day, and my mission, was during church. We have been working with Ty for 4 months, since I got here. We've tried to drop him 5 times because he wouldn't progress, but every time we would go over with the intent notify him that we would be done visiting him, he has a new amazing experience, and has progressed again! God wouldn't let us lose Ty. And I'm glad too. He showed up to church!! To truly appreciate how AWESOME this is, you would have had to meet this guy from the beginning. I have seen MONUMENTAL progression in his life. I have seen, from day one, the night and day change in this guy. He was dark and full of sin when we first met him. He didn't believe in God, or in anything good! And now he prays, he recognizes the spirit, he tells us that when he follows the commandments, he is happy, and it is SO cool, because he is being truthful! He SMILES! If you knew Ty, you would appreciate that this is a huge step. Yesterday, he attended church and felt the spirit really strongly. He is coming to terms with God and himself.
We set a date for him to be baptized in 4 weeks! He is so excited to have a clean, fresh start. I felt pure joy and elation as he told us this, and as I have seen his transformation.
I know that if I was sent to Fort Defiance, Arizona for a reason, then it was for Ty. Keep this guy in your prayers!

So much progress has been made here since I arrived. In the missionary work, the ward involvement, and my personal progress! I love learning and experiencing new things every day.
I love my God, and my savior Jesus Christ for trusting me with this life.

Have an amazing week everyone!
Don't forget to recognize the tiny blessings in your life, because they are HUGE!
Smile every day, and thank God for something new, because He gives us 100 gifts a day. Try to recognize just one of them!

Love you all,
Elder Hilton

 We celebrated Elder Linds one year mark by burning his shirt!  My comp goes home in 2 weeks!

 

Joseph, who is getting baptized, lives in this old worn-down trading post.

Akon, the rap music artist, filmed a segment of his music video "ghetto" in Rio Puerco.
That's the neighborhood I serve in every day.
I am a boss. 

 

 

We drive this road every day, I have grown to love the dead scenery.

 

Sunset in Fort Defiance, AZ.

Fire Dancing and Dead Gnomes

Well hello there!

This week was pretty awesome.

We got dinner every night, we had a blast driving around the boonies of Arizona, danced with natives in and around a fire, an old shima smacked me again because my Navajo wasn't quick enough for her, and I DIDN'T get sick for once! :D

The huge temple trip we are organizing happens this Friday and Saturday, to the Gilbert, AZ temple open house! We have over 25 less active members, recent converts, and investigators attending! Months of planning and teaching are about to be paid off! :)

We found a lot of people to teach this week, and are helping many people with their struggles and faith. It is so rewarding to see people progress, it makes giving up family/friends/life for 2 years worth it!

I was having a rough time this week, so one day I prayed and asked God to just show me His hand. I wasn't testing if He was there, I was asking with honest faith to be helped out a little bit that day. I had read in John, that Elias was a man of lust and sin (fallbacks) just as we are, yet he prayed in faith and stopped the rain. So I knew I could ask God to give me a little boost.

That day was AMAZING. One of the best on the mission so far. He answered me OVER and OVER again. We were led to some people who were SO ready to be taught, and it wasn't just coincidence. Everything was more positive and enjoyable that day. We set a baptism date with Ty also, who I've been teaching since I got here in Fort Defiance almost 4 months ago! We also found a woman who's brother passed away years ago, and she blamed God. She told us that she had been ready to return to her faith, but was too nervous. She said that it was an answer to her prayers that we came by, and she is ready to come back to God, and start over with church! God's love was SO powerful that day, and it was such an OBVIOUS answer to my prayer. I'm glad that He is willing to answer us even when our struggles and trials may be tiny.

Here is my challenge this week!
Get down on your knees, and ask God to help you with something!
Even if it's something little, that has been bothering you.
Or if it's something BIG!
He will answer if you ask in faith, work to follow His will, and watch for His hand.

Love you all!
Hagoone,
Elder Hilton

 Fire Dancing!

Allison sent me a Gnome, and the other Elders killed it!

Rat Chaa'a vs. Food Poisoning

This week was crazy.

On Monday, we went and explored some ancient Navajo ruins!
They were way up the hills, and secluded back in a small rocky canyon. (NOTE:  IF YOU CLICK ON THE PICS, THEY WILL ENLARGE AND YOU CAN SCROLL THROUGH THEM.  CLICK ANYWHERE AND THEY WILL DISAPPEAR)

ruins were way up this beautiful remote canyon

going underground >:) the entrance was tiny and claustrophobic! 

  

 looking out the entrance...

cave lyfe

 Once you get to the hidden entrance, you have to go 15 feet underground by worming your way through this claustrophobic tunnel. It's easy to get stuck too!  On the walls near the entrance are old clay paintings. Hand prints, grasshoppers, and humans are all over the rocks. 

2 grasshoppers, these are a big part of the Navajo creation story. I wonder how old these are!

hand paintings on the ruin walls! 

Once you climb down, you enter in a tiny underground chamber with a little hole in the far wall. You climb through it and then you are in a maze of small rooms, it was SO cool!! 

 

 

Elder Lind and I taking selfies in the rat dust 

 

little entrances into other ruin rooms

 



There was rat poo all over the floors though (explaining the masks in our pictures), and this leads to my next epic event of the week...

 

That night we went and ate Mexican food, and I had 100 pounds of green chili.
So on Tuesday, I threw up 8 times either because of Mad Rat Disease, or severe food poisoning!
Either way, I was in bed all day, and I lost 8 pounds :)  Won't go into further detail of that day. 

Later in the week, we really cracked back down on missionary work! It's still Gwilliams "4 weeks to sexy", so we are doing Insanity every morning, and trying to eat healthy still. It's pretty hard to do that when every Navajo offers you fry bread and pop every hour! Hahaha I love it here.
During the day, we have really worked on finding new people to teach, because a lot of our current investigators are slacking off and it's time to move on.

Saturday was a GREAT day. Everything just seemed to flow in place, and it was just a happy, spiritual day. Every event was perfect, and the weather was amazing, it felt like Summer. I needed a day like that! 

Overall, I learned this week that patience helps us grow. When we are patient, God will bless us with trials. When we are patient through trials, we learn. When we learn, we have hope, and when we have hope, the spirit is with us. This whole life is to prove to God that we can be His, and not Our Own. So even though bearing trails is HARD, isn't it amazing? We get the chance to show God and our Savior how much we love them, if we are patient and diligent!
So here is my weekly challenge.

You know that one person that just drives you nuts? That class you can't stand to be in? That thing that is bothering you so much?

Well.
Be patient, pray for help, and acknowledge to God that it is hard.
Show Him that you are willing to do His will, and just work through it!
I promise that if you do that, you will immediately be blessed!
Love you guys!
-Elder Hilton 

giant bird nest at the caves...would hate to have this thing fly over me

Marriage, Adoption, Diets, and Lies.

Great week!

On P-Day we went to Canyon Deschelley!  It's a famous canyon here that attracts a lot of tourism.
Brian and Arlinda drove us up, so we spent the day with them.  On the drive we noticed a wedding band on Arlinda's finger, and they spilled and told us they were being married this Friday! We are so excited for them! There is a zone training that day though, so we can't go to the wedding :/
The rest of the day consisted of hiking steep cliff side switchbacks, spelunking through tunnels, and exploring old native ruins!  At the end of the trip, Arlinda told us she was adopting us into the 'to ahani' clan. So now I have a clan and I'm all official.

On another note, Joseph, our new investigator who lives with his big family in the tiny hooghan, is learning so quickly! He is on chapter 14 of the Book of Mormon already! And he absorbs everything we teach. It's funny, because he asks a ton of questions, but they are WAY better questions than anyone else I've taught yet, and he's only 10. He asks things like, "where did God come from?", and "if you are a child and you die, what do you look like as a spirit?".  During one lesson, we explained how all the good spirits will rest in spirit paradise for a time after this life. Joseph thought for a while, then said with surety: "That's where my mom must be right now."  It is so humbling to see this 10-year-old boy taking care of his 3 other siblings. He has this brightness and intelligence about him that is so rare to find, even off the reservation, and he is still a kid! At one point, I felt so bad for the 4 kids, they live with their grandmother and great grandmother, and they don't receive the best care, to put it nicely. God must really be watching over these kids.

On a personal note, everyone at the trailer started a new diet here!  It's called the Transform Diet, and it basically means you can only eat
1/2 cup of oats
1 Tbsp flax seed
1 scoop protein powder

blended up every morning for breakfast, then you can only eat certain foods the rest of the day, and you have to drink a gallon of distilled water every day.  We work out at the Wellness Center and have all started lifting then running every morning.  Gwilliam is on his last transfer so this is our 6-weeks-to-sexy! Haha and we have a bet with the Sisters that the first one to cave and eat dessert, candy, pop, or fast food, has to cook dinner for all of us!

Super cool experience:

Elder G and I were looking through records of old investigators, so we knocked this house on Saturday. A nice lady answered and we asked her if she knew Rose. She said, "No, but my name is Henrietta and I'm a mormon!" We were confused because we have never seen her at church! So we asked if we could come in and share a short message.  It turns out that her brother had passed away over 10 years ago and she had stopped coming to church since. "I used to know all my scriptures," she said, "I went to seminary and everything!"  She explained that she had been thinking a lot about returning to church lately. 
"Okay, so we will see you tomorrow at 9:00 o'clock!" we told her.
She was a little surprised, but said, "I guess so!"
So she came the next day to church, and we introduced her to bishop and the relief society president. She loved it! She even offered to feed Elder Gwilliam and I dinner this week if we promised to come and share a message with her!
Such a cool experience!  Sometimes God can take our human stupidity and make us effective without us even knowing it >:)

It's funny because a lot of the time, kids here will lie for their moms and say that they are gone, when in reality the mom is hiding inside the house. It happened to us 3 times this week! The 3rd time, I was sick of it.
"Hey, is your mom here?"
"No, she's at the laundry again."
**Her car was right by us on the driveway. **
So I said, "Oh, okay! Can you go ask her when she will be back?"
"Okay!" The girl said, and ran inside to ask her mom.
HILARIOUS!!!

Anyways, that is it for my week. Love you all and keep Jesus on your side. Actually, keep yourself on Jesus' side!

Diyin nil holo doo.

Elder Hilton

Christmas Day Service, Yeah!!

We built this roof for a single shima who is less active. we have been working with her for months and she would never come to church, and since last month she randomly appeared at church one day (we were about to give up on her), and she has been there every day since! so we got to help her with this roof project on Christmas! :)

 The green part is the addition we built.

 Not bad, eh?

 Our Christmas Mariachi band.  Im the small one on the couch.

 Shima shenanigans!  Don't ask...

Nice warm Pendleton I splurged on for myself.

 I'll miss this guy!  Elder Livermont got transferred!

 Brian and Arlindas family. 

Brian is going to buy a sheep so we can butcher before Elder Gwilliam leaves in 5 weeks! They told me they wanted to give me the honor of slitting the throat. Great.

 

Arlinda wasn't too happy to be photographed. As the sign reads, it is unlawful to photograph Navajo people in their natural habitat. Naturally, she was displeased with me when I pulled out the Nikon.



I wish the photos could do it justice! check out canyon deschelley on google images! It's a big sight to see here, brings a lot of tourists.



 Nizhoni Ruin

 super cool caves everywhere in the cliff walls

 awesome path

White House ruins

Canyon Deschelley hike with the Deschine family on P-day! 

 



Elder Gwilliam and I thought this looked like the scene on Lord of the Rings where the Hobbits hide from the Nazghuls. Enjoy this artistic rendition. 



 



The ruins are way up on the face of the cliff. So neat looking!
Wonder how they got in and out of the house quickly for hunting runs...

 

Happy New Year!

This week was fantastic!
Christmas was a real treat being able to see my family!

On Christmas, we were able to help old Sister Curley build a porch roof, and we took presents around to families and kids who didn't have anything. Also we were fed 2 giant meals by members. So it was a great day. After 3 months of being away from home, it is AWESOME being able to see your family again. It's great to be able to write letters and emails, but nothing beats talking with them face to face.

We are working really hard on finding new people lately, and we have found some great new investigators. Some of the people we have been teaching have slacked off and we have dropped a few for now, so we need new people to teach!
We went and knocked on one door, and the family sat inside and said "seriously? mom, the Mormons are here, don't answer the door." And proceeded to use some great language and descriptions about us, while we stood there and laughed.
That was just a mild excerpt of the week.

So transfers have come and gone! Elder Livermont, the other elder in the Window Rock ward, is leaving! It's sad to see him go, he really grew on me! But I am lucky and I get to stay here in Fort for another transfer! Elder Gwilliam, my companion, is on his last transfer here! So after 6 weeks, he is going home! Crazy! It's weird to see people going home, when I have 21 months to go! Makes you miss your family and friends a little bit.

Anyway, have a good week everyone, and think a little more about Christ.
Happy New Year!

-Elder Hilton

 

Note From Mom: 

We got to Skype with Elder H for nearly 2 hours!!!  It was SO WONDERFUL to see him, hear him, laugh and cry with him!  You should hear him speak Navajo...it's pretty dang rad!!!  He has been working hard and makes us so proud of him!  Being a Missionary is super hard for many reasons.  Seeing our son and brother out there doing really difficult things and learning to overcome all kinds of obstacles is pretty tough, BUT THE BLESSINGS ARE REAL!  We see the blessings in him!  We all know how awesome this young man is, right?  He is even MORE awesome now.  His testimony, faith, fervor, focus, and energy, are all on fire!  He is alive in Christ, and it shows like never before! 

We are so very proud of you, Elder Hilton!