Week 22--Logan Utah Emergency Transfers and Saunas

 Bonjour à tous! 

This week was a crazy one for sure!

On Monday I was transferred from living with Elder Hemenway and Johnson, to up the street, to live with Elder Larsen and Elder Weyand. They both speak French. It was fun! 

That lasted about 4 days when I got another phone call telling me I was getting transferred to North Ogden to be with Elder Castrillo and Elder Gervacio!

So on Saturday I packed my bags again and traveled down to North Ogden. Elders Gervacio and Castrillo are both reassigned from the Philippines. They are super fun to be with.

But it doesn't end there. On Sunday I found out that I will be moving to South Ogden on Wednesday and will be training a new Elder! I will actually be in a trio with Elder Copada, who is also reassigned from the Philippines. I think I will be training an Elder reassigned from the Congo like me! If so, that would be awesome!

This has been my first ever time serving in a family stake. I've been in YSA stakes up until now. It's definitely an adjustment for sure!

One of the stake presidents in our district has a sauna in his backyard. He lets the missionaries come and use it! So we and some other Elders squeezed in together and it was awesome!

I've been passed around from place to place, living out of my suitcase and just running with it! It keeps things interesting for sure!

Au revoir!

Elder Hillam

 Me and Elder Hemenway, saying goodbye 👋

Elder To'a, Elder Keene, Elder Gervacio, Elder Peterson, Elder Castrillo, and Elder Bedford in the sauna. (from left to right)

Week 21 -- Logan Utah--Brooke is getting baptized!

 Bonjour à tous! 

This week was crazy.

On Wednesday I got a call from my mission president,  President Hobbins saying that I needed to get my BMI measured at a clinic and that it needed to be under 30 in order to go to the Congo (its a CDC Covid guideline). And then a couple of minutes later I got the same message from my mission president in Congo, President Magré. I had no idea what my weight was because we don't have a scale, and missionaries in Utah usually don't lose weight 😅

So after I got that phone call I ate no food and drank no water, used the restroom as much as possible, and prayed for the best.

To my surprise, I was under 30! Amazing what some prayer and fasting can do :) 

Later that evening we had another lesson with Brooke! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and why getting baptized is so important. She is now going to be Baptized on Feb. 27th!!!

On Thursday, our landlord came in to replace our furnace filters. We were out of the house when it happened, and since we usually keep the house unlocked, we don't take a key with us. When we came back our house was locked and we didn't have a key! Luckily I had opened one of our windows, a little the night before so it was still unlocked, and I climbed through it so we could get back in!

On Thursday we had a lesson with Ryleigh, who was baptized last month. She is doing super great and it's amazing to see the change that the spirit brings into the lives of those who are baptized!

We continue to teach Kaden, and are helping him to find time to read the scriptures every day.

On Sunday at church, we met Nathan, who isn't a member but is interested in learning more!

And we also finally met Kaleo! He finally decided to come to church so we were able to talk to him for the first time! Kaleo is a Polynesian on the football team here at USU. We have been trying to get in contact with him for months. He is interested in learning more! 

So on Sunday evening, I got a phone call from Elder Barzee one of the AP's to tell me that I was getting emergency transferred back to the apartment I was living at before. Pretty weird! Before I moved and got new companions I lived in a house with my companion Elder Wight and two other Elders who happened to speak French. I will be in a trio with them now so I will be leaving my current area. So today I have been packing my stuff and carrying it up the street to their apartment. 

This next transfer the mission will be getting to Elders fresh out of the MTC who are also temporarily reassigned from the Republic of the Congo mission! So perhaps I might be training one them next week. We will see what happens!

Au revoir 

Elder Hillam

Week 20 -- Logan Utah

 Bonjour à tous!

This week was a pretty awesome week! As some of our restrictions have eased, we have been meeting with people in person more often which is nice!

On Monday evening we met Miranda, she is a roommate of a member we were meeting with and we invited her to join in on the message we were sharing. We were able to teach her about the restoration of the Gospel! We are meeting with her again this evening. 

We also were able to teach Brooke twice this week! Her faith is growing so much and she has been able to feel more peace from the Book of Mormon and the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We will be meeting with her again this week!

We had interviews this week! I was able to talk one on one to my mission president, President Hobbins. He always has really good insights and counsel on how I can improve. 

We got some more snow this week as well!

Au revoir! 

Elder Hillam

Week 19 Logan Utah

 Bonjour à tous 

This week was pretty fun! 

On Tuesday we walked up to campus and we interviewed a bunch of the students for a video we are making. We attached my lapel microphone I brought to the end of a wooden spoon and interviewed students with it! We are going to edit it together and throw it up on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

We also got to teach Brooke this week again as well! Last week we invited her to read the intro to the Book of Mormon and so when we asked her this week what she thought about it she responded with, "this might be a dumb question but what is the Gospel?" 

What a great question! We taught her all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It was a really good lesson and we invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon. She has been attending church and we will meet with her again this week.

Brooke grew up in Bountiful Utah, which is very surprising because she doesn't know anything about our faith and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Brooke had never been invited to church or church activities. It made me realize that there are people in our lives who we have yet to invite to give them the opportunity to learn more. Something I wish I did better before I left my mission. 

We also found out that we could go knock on doors of members with the approval of the Bishop, so we have been going through some of the apartment complexes in our stake and meeting with members and their non-member roommates. It's been really fun!

Elder Hillam