Mar 25, 2013

Hey Family,

Today I am using the Senior couples cumputer because the Internet is down here. I have been transfered to Kagugu branch to finish my mission and I will be a normal missionary. I will miss the people in Kishushu they were awesome and we had a good time and they are such awesome people. Now the Lord needs me in Kagugu so thats were I will go. Elder Terry is the new Zone Leader and I was super excited for him he will do great. My new companion is from Zimbabwe and his name is Elder Mushonga he lives next to Elder Shinga. I will also live in a four man apartment with Elder Steffenhagen, and Elder Mwetu. Elder Cardon was sent back to Uganda to finish his mission. It was sad to see him go and the Kagugu branch will miss him. Also Elder Bitter is now Elder Terry's new companion. So this week was pretty intresting I said goodbye to some of the recent converts and most of the members I will see them around though until I go to Uganda. Also I was able to learn some of the area in Kagugu and some of the people here they are all great we have a pretty great family called Ernest and Pauline they have been married traditionally and he is going for CPA in accounting so he is a pretty smart guy and he has been coming to church regurally with his family. Also we had four baptisms this Sunday with Robert, Valance, Oliver, and Emmy I don't know them too well I was just transfered to the area, but it is still great that they were baptized. I will also be able to work with the Branch which is somehow struggling because it is still young their Branch President Jean Paul isn't married and he is still young in the church himself so it doesn't have much right now so we are striving to find those who will make a more imediate impact on the Branch and even still it will take some time for them to receive the Melchezedeck priesthood so I still have work to get done. We have a good number of investigators coming to church some we will be meeting with this next week and helping them progress towards baptism some seem really great so I am excited to see how they progress. So for the first few days this week I will be back in Kishushu because Elder Terry needs to go to Uganda for a Zone Leaders Training so I will be working with Elder Bitter until Elder Terry comes back which will be Wednesday night. It will be great to go back to my old area and see some of the people. Anyways it will be a great week the new apartment is wonderful it's clean and pretty big. I will show you pictures of it next week. It will also be great because we will have many people to teach and share the gospel with. I will be praying that we find a family to bring into the gospel to really help the church grow here. Well I am grateful to be in Rwanda and I know it is such a wonderful blessing to be here with these humble people. They look at the name tag and just stare the church is new here when it gets recognized it will grow we just need to find the right people to help it grow. Anyways love you all hope you had a great week!

Love, Elder Hildreth

Mar 18, 2013

Hey,

This last week went really great we had a wonderful Sabbath day yesterday I would guess mainly because the people baptized were confirmed this Sunday their were six of them. Yesterday was really interesting we had six confirmations and that took up most of the first hour of church then in priesthood we had four people receive the Priesthood and three more receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and then two more people were set apart for their callings. So yesterday we were super busy getting all of those ordinances done so it was really great just to see the priesthood in action yesterday. Also we had a most powerful baptism their is that family of Christophe, Claire, and Claudia. Christophe founded the church because of Mitt Romney and the spirit guiding him and he is a farm businessman. Claire was pretty hard but now she knows the church is true she has worked for Parliament and now owns her own lawyer business so they are a great family and as they were being baptized you could really feel a wonderful spirit about them and they are going to bring a huge impact on the church here in Rwanda. So yesterday was really great plus we had a women from Uganda named Tracy she is a member and she brought a few of her family members to church which was awesome. Yesterday went really great we felt a wonderful spirit about all of those being baptized and those who were confirmed. The ones who were confirmed are ready to serve missions and to help they all received callings as Branch missionaries at least the male ones so that was awesome. Well this week is transfer week and I will find out if I stay in this area or not I guess it is the last transfer sad, but wherever I go I will work to the best I can and work as hard as I can. Yeah we are teaching a few more people now hopefully we will have some great baptisms this next transfer and we hope that we get recognized by the government so we can go and find more of the elect. Next week we could have a few baptisms with Joseph and Martin they are friends of Isaac and are really great people they have been coming and one even lost his job so now he can be a church member. Actually that is pretty sad, but he is excited and really has a strong desire to follow Christ. This week has been great and I am looking forward to many more great weeks. I love this gospel I know it is true and I know that priesthood truly has been restored on the Earth and all of the principles and doctrines and what a blessing it is to know that in these time. Well It was a great week and I am looking forward to another great week.

  It is great to hear everyone is doing so well and having a great time I am blessed to have such a wonderful family. Have a great week love you all
Love Elder Hildreth  

Mar 11, 2013

Mar 4, 2013

Hey,

I am doing great this week we did pretty well we had a few people progressing. A few of the people we were going to baptize we pushed so next week is going to be a big day for the Zone potentially 20 people on our side we have about 6 or 7 hopefully. Nelson, Oliver, and Clementine were all confirmed this Sunday so that was good. We had a pretty decent week we really learned that through trials or tribulation if we take it the right way it can make us stronger and more qualified to become more like our Heavenly Father I know that sometimes he puts us through these experiences to help us grow and become better and I am grateful for trials that make us stronger as we work hard and are obedient he will be there to help us every step of the way. Our Investigators are doing well Lavine who is preparing to be baptized next week has been coming for awhile we actually contacted him and he has been coming ever since he is a body guard pretty cool guy. Also we have Deo Dohny, Jackie, and Chantel a family they are also preparing to be baptized this week really great. So our investigators are doing well we have seen a little drop in attendance this past week and I know that there is more work for us to continue to build Heavenly Fathers Kingdom. This Sunday we were able to see a few less actives come to church they have been lost for a some time and it was really good to see them actually these were people that I met in Uganda who were really great people and strong in the church. So things are moving forward and we are excited for this next week. We are just hoping everything runs as smoothly as it needs too. Well I am doing great I have a great companion and a wonderful Zone it is great to be a missionary at this time declaring the gospel to everyone and I know that we are blessed as we bring souls to Christ and our Joy wit h our Heavenly Father is full. I am grateful to serve here I love the people they have been so kind and wonderful and I will continue to push forward and do the best I can tell they say it's over. 

  I am glad to hear everyone is doing well I am so grateful for all of you and I hope you have a great week.

Love 

Elder Hildreth

Feb 25, 2013

Hey,

I had great experiences this week. We have been staying pretty busy as you know teaching and progressing all of the people so it has been going great. Yesterday we were able to have four baptisms with Nelson, Clementine, Yves, and Oliver. Yves and Oliver are the children to Cecil and they loved the gospel and have been coming to church for a long long time. They were all great and they will all build the church so that was really good. I had a pretty interesting interview this past week as I interviewed Pascasie's family for baptism the kids they did well, but when it came to sister Pascasie she had a very interesting story behind her and actually even the kids have an interesting story. It has to do with the genocide so I will have to tell you later. They were also able to tell me that the name "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" has a very special meaning like we know it does, but in K-Rwanda it has a very great meaning. So it was a good interview and all four of them passed. As a Zone last week we were able to have nine baptisms four from us four from Kigali 2 and one from Kigali 3 so were able to have a good amount of baptisms. Something else that happened this week was there was a pretty big storm it hailed and was pretty interesting we were in the church but as we went out some trees were knocked over and even some houses were damaged it was the biggest storm I have seen since I have been here. I am grateful to serve and to be on the Lords errand and I hope to continue to bring joy and peace to everyone I see. Still waiting for the church to be recognized here. We hope it happens soon.  Well I am doing great we are working down here and there is much more to do. 

Thanks for the wonderful email I hope you have a great week and that all goes well. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Hildreth

Feb 18, 2013

Hey,

The work is going on very wonderfully here. The church meeting went really well two of our investigators were confirmed and one received the Priesthood so that was really great. Also we had 80 people at Sacrament meeting and about 31+ were investigators. Some I have no idea where they come from.  It is somehow hard to keep track of them all. Most of those who are progressing come to church all the tiem.  Next week we should have some good baptisms with Clementine, Nelson, and Cecils two kids Yve and Oliver. So we are excited for that also we have a pretty busy week this week making sure that everyone will be ready for this week. Also another great achievement was Claire said she was ready to be baptized on the 16 of March she is Christophes wife and the story how he found the church and the spirit that led him is super amazing. That family will be a very strong family in the gospel. So Sunday went really well. The missionaries that are here love it too much ha it is really just a fantastic place. There are people who have a hard time keeping some commitments, but they are a little bit better. My companion Elder Terry is awesome and a really great friend now, he is a hard worker and ready to go. Also the others are great too. They send some of the most trusted missionaries here. So I know they are all wonderful. These next couple weeks will be really busy for me and the Elders that are here. I know that the a humble people can truly feel the spirit and I can feel and tell these people are very humble and that they can feel that spirit and have a huge desire to learn they know that this truly can strengthen them. Also I know their ancestors who have passed on are waiting for them to go to the Temple to do their work for them. They remind me a lot of the people who lived just after Christ came to the Americas humble and really accepting and no manner of Ites among them. No tribalism no I am better they are similar and it is just such a wonderful place to be. Oh and by the way this week was a cold one maybe if you were here you wouldn't think so, but I was freezing I even had to wear a sweater to sleep and go out in a sweater so that I wouldn't freeze pretty crazy.

  Glad to hear everyone is doing well and having a good time I am grateful to have such a wonderful family and friends and I hope all of you have such a wonderful week! Love you all

Elder Hildreth

Feb 11, 2013

Hey,

I am still doing wonderful here and I am loving it so much! This week we were able to see a good number of people baptized and progressing to baptism soon. We had 3 people baptized yesterday Isaac, Cecil, and Oliver. All of them have been coming to church for a long time and have been really excited and just waiting to be baptized. Isaac helps with translating all of the time which is awesome. Cecil is an older lady who I guess has been coming for a very long time, but no one knew she wasn't a member and when they found out she started getting the lessons and now she is baptized and her kids will follow very soon. So that was something really great this past week. Also at church we had a surprise Christophe, Claire, and Claudia all came they said they wouldn't be able too, but they did and it was really neat to see them. We are hoping that family will be baptized soon. Along with them we had many other investigators 29 of them. We just have so many people who feel the spirit and want to learn more. We also had 75 at church  so very many have been coming and it is really cool to see the church grow here and I believe it will continue to grow a ton. The Branch is now also starting to give callings and they are getting home teaching ready so that is another great and exciting thing coming up. It is really growing in the right way right now and it will continue to grow very well. So this week I was able to learn some Rwandan culture  really neat too. When someone has a child they gather the whole family around to name the baby so what ends up happening is everyone comes and then everyone has a chance to hold the baby look at the baby and say I call you ... and you say a name this is happening while the mom is away and the dad writes down the name and asks what does the name mean you tell him and then after everyone says a few names they decide what the name is going to be and if they choose your name you choose for the baby they give you some sort of present it is pretty neat. Just thought you would like to know some Rwandan Culture still getting to know it. Well being here there is a lot of work to do even without proselyting everyone brings their friends and the church just continues to grow. We are just hoping we can see all the people that come to church and just get these people prepared and ready for baptism, but we know there is a lot of work to be done. I am grateful for the spirit which is there and will always be with us as we are worthy and obedient to what the father has asked. I am grateful for the work and I love it so much the people here are so amazing and wonderful it is a blessing to be here. 

  I am glad to hear everyone is doing well and I hope you all have a wonderful week this week! Love you lots!

Elder Hildreth

Feb 4, 2013

Jan 28, 2013

Hey,

When I found out I was coming to Rwanda it shocked me as well. I know though that this is where the Lord needs me to be at this time. It was great to be an Assistant, but the Lord called me somewhere else and that is where I will go. Rwanda is a great place people just flock to the church. Right now we are waiting on the government to approve us for us to be recognized and so we have to be really careful with how we do the work because if people say they don't want us here the church won't be able to be here so we are working with people who just come to church and part member families and referrals basically. This last Sunday we had sixteen at church and a few were very new. There is one guy named Christophe he has been coming to church for awhile now and isn't yet baptized, but his family is very well off he is in the government and his wife is a lawyer so we are now teaching them and preparing them. It was crazy though how he found out about the church. He saw Romney on tv and wanted to learn more and at one point he almost gave up looking but decided he would check out this one place that the gate was open and it happened to be the church. So I was super excited to hear about that. So people they feel the spirit and they just come to church so that is a really cool thing. After what they have been in the gospel will really bless their lives. I am excited I am part of this. Their were two missionaries here in September Elder Whitworth and Elder Mabiala and now plus them there is Elder Terry, Elder Steffenhaggen, Elder Cardon and myself and they are wonderful missionaries. We got here on Wednesday and Elder Whitworth showed us the ropes so now we are going at it. The Chapel is very nice. I sent two pictures of chapels one is the South Sudan one and the other the Rwandan one. The Rwandan one is the bigger and nicer one. Not saying the South Sudan one is bad. Rwanda is the land of a thousand hills. Yeah there are tons. It is beautiful it is kept clean and nice their are humble homes still, but it is great. The language is somehow difficult so we have to get people to help us which the members are very willing to do. So it has been a wonderful experience so far and I am grateful to be serving here with these wonderful children. 

     I am glad to hear all is well hope you have a great week! Love you all

Elder Hildreth

Jan 21, 2013

Hey, This week was a very interesting week for myself. We were doing transfer news after getting back from Rwanda oh and by the way we worked on them this week the first week of the transfer and didn't even have it finished. So as we were working on transfers President pulled me aside and asked if I would be willing to be the Zone Leader in Rwanda and I accepted the missionaries there are good, but the Lord asked me to go and both President and myself felt I needed to go. So I will be going to Rwanda to do missionary work there Super excited!! We will see how that goes and as for the rest of this week we had new missionary training's which was really great we have some great new missionaries ready for the work and to do what they are asked. Also I went to the farewell of my trainer Elder Cook he is now home super crazy how time goes by so fast. Then we went to South Sudan what an interesting experience that was I will have to tell you about most of it when I get home, but we saw ten baptisms super spiritual and also went to church and there were 97 people at church. It will grow there when missionaries go. The people who were baptized were committed also ready to do what they need to. All of them came to church on time too except one because she had two really sick kids and she still came just a wee bit late so all the ones baptized were confirmed. Really great experience this week we saw many great things. The Elder replacing me is Elder Thabethe from South Africa and he is going to do great. Well this week we have Zone Leaders Council and I will be headed to Rwanda to go and do the work there. Back to what I love to do best! So it is time to work hard and bring some more souls to Christ! Yes I did get the package thank you so much! I will try to get those to some people I don't know how Ill do it though. Also I got the calendar super great! Thank you all so much great Christmas. By the way I should be fine without any more packages for the rest of my mission ha. Glad Kaden is home safe and glad it was a good time and I hope everyone has a great week Love you all! Elder Hildreth

Jan 14, 2013

Hey,

I am doing wonderful, as you all know I just got back from Rwanda it was awesome! It isn't anything like how you would think. Many people believe it is scary, but to the contrary it is safe super safe super clean and really nice. I thought I was in South Africa well even America they drive on the right side of the road a lot like us. They have a day set apart also when everyone cleans it is really cool. That is only part of the good the next is the people are amazing super ready for the gospel.  The only thing is that we weren't allowed to proselyte I guess yet, but that is going to change  soon we will be able to go and do work. Right now there are two missionaries and a couple soon to be four missionaries and two cou ples. Something also of significance since President Jackson came there was one branch with 26 people and now there are three branches. Yesterday at church there were 150 people there so it is ready I wouldn't be surprised if in two years there is a stake or even more. The people are way ready for the gospel. They have been having lots of baptisms and that is without really doing missionary work. So I believe it will explode. Sorry didn't take any pictures forgot my camera sorry hope you will forgive me. Also this week we had tons of training's first we went early early Tuesday morning to go to Mbale then to Bugembe and we finished in Jinja. Training's usually last the whole day and we are focusing on going back to the basics the mission kind of got away from it for awhile, but now we are focusing on the basics and thus we see the basics are small and simple things, but yet through these small things great things happen we are seeing it here in the Uganda Kampala Mission those who stick to the basics and do there best are obedient faithful and work hard great things happen that is for sure! It really has been a busy week just flew bye like nothing. I would really like to encourage all to serve it is such a blessing for couples and for those of age to serve. There is nothing like it and it really is awesome I have lov ed it and have been touched by those I have served around like President Jackson, Couple missionaries, Missionaries, and even the people here. It has been a great week and this week gets busy also with New missionaries coming in with old missionaries leaving and going to Juba (hopefully I don't forget my camera). This transfer is also a very short one with only three weeks so we will see how it goes.

   Thank you so much for the email it is so good to hear everyone is doing well even the baby being born super awesome! Can't believe it is Kadens time to come home crazy how time goes. Well have a great week love you!

Elder Hildreth

Jan 7, 2013

Hey,

I am doing great still doing well. Today we just went to a combined Zone activity with three Zones it was pretty fun played some soccer and some basketball. I enjoyed it a lot. This week we went and did some exchanges in Jinja, Iganga, and Mbale it was pretty fun going to my old area in Jinja and I worked with Elder Thabethe so that was good we really worked hard. Iganga was also pretty cool did some great things I worked with Elder Mazura it was good also. Last was Mbale and the person I was with was struck with malaria earlier in the week and he was down so I stayed with him and it was boring but he is now better and that is the good part of the story. This week we go to the same places for trainings and also we are going to Rwanda this week so we will see how that goes, but I am super excited. We stay in our own apartment it is a really nice one too. This week was a pretty busy week also we got back on friday and we found our we left our keys in Jinja so Sunday after church in Kajjansi we had to go and get the keys long driving week for us and next week is similar. We are always on the move. Had a good week and I am excited for the next few we will see how it goes. 

  I still haven't received the box yet sorry but it will come someday. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Hildreth