Christmas skype with Elder H.

Christmas Day group shot

Family he lived with on his first Island

A house on a truck

His first lobster

Things have been tough……..

Elder Carringtons mom posted this picture

So this is the email we received from Elder Hilliard today. I was home sick from church, it was a good thing because his emails came just after sacrament started.

Hey everyone!  Thanks for all the love and support that you guys have given me.  You all have helped me to remember so much about why I am here and what I need to be focusing on.  You all are so great and I hope your past week was good and I hope you have a good Christmas.

So this past week has been good here in Kiribati.  The people are so great.  They try all they can to help me.  The language is still tough and I don't have much energy so it has been hard to focus on learning the language.  I know that as I start eating I will be able to focus more and be able to really start learning the language.  We have been able to do some good work here in my short time.  The work here just moves so fast, so many of the people are just so ready to here and accept the gospel.  We had two baptisms this past Saturday.  Veronica and Prensenta.  They are great people who have had to overcome so much to get where they are.  They had many very spiritual experiences and my trainer and the zone leader that was there said that it was the most spiritual baptism that they have been to here.  I am so glad to have been a part of it and I really do love doing the Lord's work.  Even when I don't understand what is going on I feel the spirit so strongly and I love it. 

Thanks to all of you.  I love you all.  You all have done so much to help me and I am so grateful.  I will try to get pictures to you some how, but I really do not trust these internet cafe computers with my pictures.  I will see what I can do though.  Anyway, have a good week and try not to worry about me too much!

Love

Elder Hilliard

What do you eat for breakfast? When does your day start?

I drink orange juice for breakfast and dinner every day.  My day starts for study around 8 and proselyting around 11 or 12.

SO are you in a regular church house and wards and stuff?

Kind of.  Normal in the sense that we have a meeting house but the building is very different from back home.  Much of it is outside and the only rooms with air conditioning are the bishop's offices.  Oh yeah, I had to give a talk yesterday.  That was so weird.  I had no idea what to say, and I don't know how to find scriptures in Kiribati very well.

How are things with your companion. Why are you not eating?

My companion is fine.  He loves it here.  He isn't completely native yet but I am fine with that.  On Christmas the senior couples are throwing us a party and we get cheese burgers somehow.  I am with all my stuff which is why Tarawa is kind of nice.  My area on Tarawa is call Bikenibeu 2nd.  And I actually like the taste of most of the food, its just solid food makes my stomach hurt right now, but it is starting to get better

Have you given out any of the CTR rings and crayons or are you saving them?

Yeah, I left all of that on Nikunau, but I thinks the kids there will get more enjoyment out of the stuff than the kids here anyway.  Heck the adults had fun with the toys so I think they will really appreciate all the stuff.  And the adults will use some of the crayons to mark their scriptures.

Oh whats also fun here is our semi-automatic washing machine.  We use a bucket to fill it with water.  Then we put like two sets of garments in.  But in soap.  Wash for 15 minutes.  Dump the water.  Refill it and wash for another 15 minutes.  Dump the water then put the clothes on a clothes line.  So much fun.

How far is the beach?

We walk out of our house and across the street and there is the lagoon.  The sea beach is about a 5 minute walk.

Well I have to get off now, I have loved talking with you and I am starting to feel much better.  I love you and hope you have a good Christmas.

Love

Elder Hilliard

First picture from mission field

Really can not tell you how excited I was to see this picture just randomly show up on Facebook. Elder Hilliard and his companion Elder Carrington are looking good.

Elder Hilliards last week at the MTC

Last day with brother packer.  The sister is Sister Tuilotolava

Zone picture

Well, this has been a pretty good week.  We said goodbye to all of our usual teachers already.  They both had plans for thanksgiving.  Brother Packer wan't very emotional about it, we even sang "till we meet".  Brother Birrell on the other hand.  He wouldn't let us sing "till we meet" and his eyes were still a little watery.  I'm glad to have had such great teachers.  The next major event wan't until yesterday.  Thanksgiving.  It was a good day.  After breakfast, we started off the day with a devotional.  And our speaker was Dallin H. Oaks.  That was pretty cool in and of itself but then a bunch of his kids and grand-kids performed during the devotional.  There was a piano, 3 violins, a couple of violas, 2 cellos, and a classical guitar all playing at once.  One of the violinists, (I'm guessing his daughter) was freaking amazing.  This particular family was the Oaks-Baker family.  They played Love is Spoken Here, and a few other songs.  Then Dallin H. Oaks talk was about the importance of music to the work of the Lord.  It was such a great devotional.  After the devotional we had a devotional review, which is pretty normal except we got our whole zone together for one big devotional this time.  The spirit was so strong hearing everyone share their and experience and what they are thankful for.

After this, we had lunch.  This was the best lunch I've had in the MTC.  Because it was thanksgiving dinner.  They gave us real turkey, that was actually cooked.  They gave us real mashed potatoes and real stuffing.  I had 3 plates of food it was so good, and refreshing and REAL.  But I think the biggest thing, and my favorite thing was that because we were the "Polynesian" branch, we got a couple of real Polynesian foods.  We got this weird drink that was made with oranges and it had quite a bit of the orange in it, but it tasted pretty good.  The other thing we had was a fresh roll covered in coconut cream.  That was one of the best desserts I have ever had.  After that we had another devotional that pretty much everyone slept through because of the food.  All I really remember was that it was about the humanitarian work in the church and that I have already seen most of the videos.

Then we watched 17 miracles.  That movie was actually really good.  The actors weren't very cheesy, and the stories were well told.  The spirit was strong.  And I really loved hearing the song at the end "Oh Savior, Redeemer of My Soul", sung by my first seminary teacher, in fact, I think this was the last song he sang to us before we changed teachers.  It was such a great experience I don't think I will ever forget how I felt during that movie.  Once we finished up with that movie, we did some service.  We made meal bags that would be sent to hungry kids and families around the world. At the end of the service we made more than 350,000 meals.  The most that the MTC has ever done at Thanksgiving.  I'm so thankful to have been a part of it.

Then after this we went to one final devotional.  We had a talent show and a bunch of stuff like that.  The talent show was just a small section, first was someone performing on the organ.  Next was a Yodeler who was actually really good despite how annoying yodeling is.  After that was rubber ducky (why?).  Then a jazz piano jam which was okay.  And then, our whole zone sang.  We sang love is spoken here.  The spirit was so strong and a bunch of people came up to us at the end to say that ours was the best act.  But was really cool happened at the end of this final devotional.  Our closing hymn was "I believe in Christ".  We all started the song sitting down, but we all ended the song standing up.  The spirit was incredibly strong.

Before I end this email I want to leave you with something I learned from the devotional on Tuesday.  In the talk, Lion King was quoted.  "Simba, you have forgotten who you are and so you have forgotten me.  Simba, remember who you are".

I love this quote and it really hit me hard.

Well that is all I have to say for now.  Talk to you all tomorrow.  

Love

Elder Hilliard

PS Remember who you are

Garrick's  zone

 Elder Yuan

 His Badge

Here he is with his companion and some others in his district.

Another week in the MTC for Elder Hilliard, really not much to report.  Not mentioned before was the fact that Elder Hilliard actually sang in a choir and for Neal A. Anderson. He got his first hair cut in the MTC and it looks pretty good.

GARRICK'S FIRST FULL WEEK

Hey guys, my first week here has been great.  My companion is good, the food is actually pretty good, and I am learning the language. Apparently we are learning the language faster than normal so that is good.  So my schedule is 3 blocks of class time, one of which we don't have a teacher so that we can study and prepare for lessons.  the only times we are not in class is an hour for each meal (breakfast lunch and dinner), gym time for about an hour and a half, sleeping, and 45 minutes in the morning for getting ready.  6:30 AM to 10:30 PM.   On Sunday though, we have sacrament meeting, priesthood and district meeting. and then choir practice and a devotional after devotional there is a movie and I watched a talk by Elder Bednar called character of Christ. It was very inspirational and I learned a lot.  On Tuesday this week I got to sing in the choir for elder Neil L. Anderson.  His talk was great and I learned a lot. And the event was broadcasted to all of the MTC's around the world.  We also found an old worn out note book with 10s of pages of useful scriptures that my companion and I are going to copy down.

 I am excited to serve and can't wait to get out there. We get our own room now my companion and I because they decided to put the samoan speakers with the rest of their district.

Thank you guys for all your love and support.  I will attach some pictures.

Love, Elder Hilliard.

Elder Hilliard was called to serve in the Marshall Islands Majuro Kiribati region.He will be serving for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He entered the MTC on October 21st, 2015 and will serve approximately 2 years. He has been told the mission is somewhat primitive. THe Islands are located in the middle of the south Pacific Ocean. This mission should prove to be a growing and challenging experience for Elder Hilliard.