Week 23

 Feliz Navidad!! 

Merry Christmas!! 

This past week and a half has been extra special! A lot of celebrations for Christmas! 

We had a celebration as a mission which was just so amazing. There was a presentation of the nativity, lots of music, and I got to sing a really pretty rendition of O come, o come emmanuel with Hermana Christian! It was super scary, but also really fun. My companion played a piece on the violin, and I forgot how much I miss pretty music! Music really invites the spirit in a unique way. We ate a really yummy dinner and after the mission president and his wife gave us all gifts! But it was awesome because it was all things for our apartment that I needed desperately, a perfect gift for missionaries. And to finish the conference our president gave a powerful talk about the song “Joy to the World” and how it really is talking about the Second Coming. And that right now we are preparing the world for him to come again. Then after the mission provided a van to take us back to our apartments. We were in a van full of probably 16 missionaries and we sang Christmas songs the whole drive back. It was so much fun! I miss car rides at night time with music so that was super fun for me! 
This Sunday we had 5 friends at church! Which was a miracle! Luis from the other week came, with his brother!! Afterwards we had an awesome conversation about the sacrament and the Priesthood. Another friend that came, named Jessica, we haven’t seen or spoke to in 3 or 4 months and she randomly sent us a text this past week and we invited her to come to church, and she came! And afterwards she came up to us and said that she loved it and wants to come every single week. It was so special because she was so grateful and so happy that when she was telling me about how much she liked it I think she gave me a hug after every sentence, I’ve never hugged someone so much haha. And in the evening we had a super special devotional en Olmue. They showed the video of the birth of Christ and there was someone narrating it and in between scenes, we (the choir) sang songs. It was so powerful to sing in a big choir and to feel the spirit super strong! I just felt an overwhelming gratitude for the knowledge we have and the covenants we have made with God. And the reality of Jesus Christ and his life, and what his life and example means to us! I love Christmas time!! 
Ok people always tell crazy stories of miracles that happen on their missions. And out here I feel like I never have these crazy stories until I look back on my week and I realize, wow I really am experiencing these crazy miracles. We had an experience like that this week. On Monday we received a message from Xiomara that she was on her way to Limache from Santiago. She was going to come and open her store for 2 days and pack things to sell in Santiago while her dad is out of town. And she forgot the key to the garage. And to make a long story short, a whole bunch of miracles happened all right in a row within like 15 minutes. We found someone that broke the lock to the garage with a saw, and her house was locked, but there was a window unlocked at the back of her house that I climbed through so she could enter her house, her dad had stolen the keys to open her store, but she had the impression to look in the nightstand in her dads room, and she found the key to her store. Her dad had also dug through her things in her room and stole all the money that she had made from the store, but he didn’t find her stash of cash that she had for emergencies. She then realized that she had to replace the lock that we broke and she found another old padlock to replace it, and we found the key to this ancient padlock. And when she opened her store, immediately there were a ton of people buying a lot of things. And she earned enough money to make the journey back to Santiago. But it was crazy because we were faced with basically “life or death” situations and basically immediately God showed us the solution. And all the solutions were all miracles all right in a row. It was so crazy. The most stressful thing in my life. But everything worked out! Then after we bought chinese food and ate it and watched an episode of the chosen! 
Last night we spent the evening with Hermana Ester. She made us a super yummy dinner and we just chatted about the gospel until late at night! It was so fun! And today we are going to eat lunch and dinner with members and hang out at a members house! I'm super excited and grateful to be here celebrating Christmas in Chile! 

Merry Christmas!!

Hermana Hilton


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