Spider Bite

As told from mom's point of view:

Nothing like walking in from church and just happening to answer a phone call from  a Texas area code and having it be Cam saying so mom I got bit by a brown recluse spider and am at the ER. What's our insurance information.  

Antibiotics did wonders and full recovery was made. Then 2 weeks later and a week before he came home he got over 22 fly bites on his legs and back to the ER he went. More antibiotics and he didn't share that story until after he got home. 

Timeline

Hello!

Things have been good in Texas this week! We have two more people to teach who are really doing amazing. One of them this week accepted a baptismal date for may 26th and it's pretty darn great! He is the friend of a member here in the ward and actually knows the Bishop extremely well. He is really excited about it. Things are awesome with him.

We had a crazy course of events with one of our investigators who was going to be baptized this Saturday. It'll be pushed back unfortunately but she is ready to go and we are so happy for her. She got extremely Ill yesterday and did make it to church. It was really hard to handle but everything turned out really good. 

We have another investigator who is really interested how the Book of Mormon builds up the Bible so much and she wished there was a time line showing the two. So Elder Fox and I are making a time line of the Bible and Book of Mormon that show their relation and such, and it's turning out really cool! We are really excited for it. 

We had zone conference and it was a typical meeting, nothing crazy wowing. It was weird though cause everyone I was close with was saying goodbye to me and I realized I wouldn't see most of them again before I go. So it was really nice to see all the friends I've made and be able to talk with them and see them once more as a missionary. In the picture I will congratulate the winner who can find me in the picture hahaha, I am quite sneaky, it's like a missionary version of where's Waldo!

Hope everyone had an amazing Mothers Day! I sure did!

Love you all!

Elder Hiatt

Baptism

Hey Yall!

What a lovely week it has been.

Monday was super funny, sister covey was going home that day so it was her last p day and also her birthday. Well they sent us a picture during The transfer of a super stereotypical photo in flowers and so we decided for a birthday present the other elders and us took one as well to mock them and then I went to Walmart and printed it off and framed it, it was hilarious. Everyone thought it was golden. We then had a funeral because when missionaries go home you have to have a funeral. It was all a fun day.

Tuesday was transfer day and when elder fox got here I was pretty skeptical. He told me he wanted me to take charge of the area and help him learn the people and everyone but that he wanted to equally contribute in lessons and teaching. He is humble as heck and we've had some amazing talks together where I've been truly edified by him. We are an awesome team. But I had him unpack and get settled in Tuesday. We also went and finally got into contact with an investigator who is set to be baptized but like ceased contacting us! She answered her door and we found out that we had both been trying to call each other all week but our phones have stopped sending calls and texts to each other. So we set of Facebook messenger and now we are back in business! It was fantastic. 

Wednesday that happened was we got to eat dinner with this family that was awesome. They're a semi active family that has a pretty run down house but surprisingly really well kept inside. It was cozy. Their little granddaughters named Meredith from the movie brave and she is adorable. She HATES church people and strangers so didn't expect to get much interaction with her. But as we were eating she came right up to me and started talking to me in little girl English (she is like, no more than two I'm sure) and we started talking, after I finished eating she came and sat in my lap in the big arm chair and brought a coloring book and crayons and wanted me to sit and color with her so she and I colored for about 45 minutes. She would give me a color and point to what section I should color and that's how we did it. The family was amazed and was all, "how on earth did you get her to do that? She never likes strangers! Not anyone from church!" So I am apparently a friendly person or something hahaha, I had her and then their little dog squirrel who also hates other people come and plop down on my other side and I colored, pet squirrel, and enjoyed it hahaha. It was awesome. 

Thursday was a weekly planning day. Much planning ensued and it went extremely well. We afterwards went to the church to meet Clarence and try on baptismal suits for him. We found one that fit well and then practiced how the baptism will go. He is such a humble guy and he is so happy. We then had a lesson with a lady named Judy who without being asked has read all of ether and then decided to read all of 1 Nephi and she had a ton of questions about it. It was superb, we got to talk about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible coincide and showed a timeline of events that corresponded. She ate it up and said she wanted to find out its true to either be baptized or not. So she's going well! We also saw some of our young investigators which was good but they're difficult to reign in. Teenagers can't seem to focus ever. So we were there a long time but finally got somewhat of a lesson in. We got to have some deer spaghetti (deer meat instead of hamburger meat) and it was super good. 

Friday we had lessons with Betty and the Lockridges. Betty is golden and we talked about tithing with her, she had no issues with it. Her roommate came over and he's super tough to understand wit how old he is and so he rambled on for 45 minutes and I picked up probably 10% of what he was saying hahaha. It was so odd Elder Fox taught the rest of tithing well though so Betty got a good lesson. She is so excited to be baptized and is telling everyone and their dog they need to open their heart and meet with us to see the truth for themselves, she's on fire! The Lockridges went super well top. We had a lesson plan but bagged it and taught the plan of Salvation after hearing him ask some key questions the plan of Salvation could answer. So we did and it couldn't have gone better. I swear I've never seen such success before and I think it's because I finally figured out how to do missionary work. Elder fox is loving it and says I'm basically training him again and I just laugh at that. 

Saturday was bomb. Clarence had his baptism and TONS of his family came. It was a really great service and I was honored to do the baptizing. It felt great to be able to do it, we then had our ward mission leader take us to a gas station where we got these like, Buffalo chicken things that look like taquitos on the roller heaters at gas stations. Then get some Ranch and it was honestly freaking good. We then did some studying and went over to our ward mission leader again for dinner. We had to clean out the font that morning and it was ghetto as heck hahaha cleaner, a toilet brush, paper towels, and a pitcher to rinse stuff off. It got it good and clean though.

Sunday we had 3 investigators at church and one was Betty, Clarence got confirmed, and it was just a great Sunday, I always love taking the sacrament. I feel like I can't live without it. 

So it was a great week. Cannot complain in the slightest.

Love yall!

Elder Hiatt

Walmart Pecan Pies & Investigators

Hey Yall!

This week as yet another great one!

We were finally able to meet with this older couple we met a couple weeks back that were quite interested. They initially had ordered a Book of Mormon and then they got busy as heck. So finally we get to meet with them! They were excited about it. We prepared super hard for it and that night headed over there. It was funny cause we often tell people we will do anything we can to help them. So Lorie (the wife) asked us if we could get her 2 fifty cent pecan pies from Walmart. We stopped and totally got her some. Her husband thought it was hilarious. We went through the restoration with them and midway through Mike (the husband) told us that for 40 years he's been actively studying every religion he can find in search for the truth. He asked us how you can know who's a prophet. Like really know? Cause he knows prophets are a must and they have to be called of God but how do you know if one is called of God? As we went through the rest of the lesson answering his questions and such he and his wife were super excited. We heard later that week from Lorie "I've never seen Mike so excited about something. We can't wait to see yall again!" It's awesome. They're doing super well. They had a new Tea Cup Pomeranian and it peed on my dang tie but luckily it had literally no smell and no color so it didn't stain.

We then had Tuesday packed with lessons and they went so well. Clarence has a date for May 5th now and Betty for May 12th and a new investigator that went super well. They all came to church Sunday too!! Things are going awesome.

So my mission president just texted me as I was writing this and told me a former mission president from the missionary board of the church is going to be coming out with Elder Judkins and I Wednesday after I conduct a combined district meeting with another district. I'm like freaking out prayers for me being led by the spirit would be gratefully appreciated.

Life is going good here in Texas though. Can't complain. 

Love to yall! 

Elder Hiatt

Last Transfer!

Hey mom!

No worries on the package, my companion gets so many I forgot I was getting one. And it's good it's been a chill week. I wish I had a chill week. But it was a really good week. Our investigators are doing awesome. Some didn't show up at church which was obnoxious because we set three baptismal dates this week! Now they just gotta get coming to church, we should hopefully have two more on date this week too. I love them, I've never had a relationship with people like these people. It's such a joy and it all is just from being obedient and going and trying to help them anyway I can. I could care less if they get baptized. I just want to do what the lord wants for them at that time, even if it's just sit and be there and let them know there is someone praying for them and someone that cares. 

And dang! The dates already chosen huh? Hopefully I go home on June 13th for sure. I am excited as heck! I don't know if I could wait longer hahaha. 

I got to hold an awesome snake this week and also had a hilarious video capturing me being a retard at My ward mission leaders house. The ward has been DYING laughing at it and I think I've made an impression. I'll send the video, and just keep it within the family for now if you would, but I gotta show ya. 

We ran a 5k as a zone with the mission president and I'm pooped from it. I did pretty good though. I got 7th or 8th or something. It was awesome. I use to be so much faster though, kinda sad about that but knee surgery will get ya if you don't run for the next 4 years.

Life is going good though. Can't complain too bad. Just being excited for the last transfer to begin! I am excited as heck to get home. It's so close. I am working hard and finishing strong but definitely am excited to get back. 

I love ya Mom!

Love cam

The Lord Provides

Hey Yall!

This week was a great week. We went one exchanges with the zone leaders and it went much better than I had thought it would. We taught like 8 lessons that day. It was pretty cool. We also had a lot of meals fall from heaven this week. Our dinner calendar got snagged by the relief society president (I don't know why clipboards magically disappear into their bag but they do WAY TOO OFTEN) and so we didn't have dinners at all scheduled this whole week. But we had one each day. A member  saw a walking around one day and stopped and took us with him to a seafood grill where we had some fried catfish that was
quite good, we then with the zone leaders got a random dinner invite and ended up having some amazing Mexican food that I ate way too much of. It came back with a vengeance! We then got invited to lunch by the same dude who took us to get catfish to have street tacos at this place and it was also amazing. Beef fajita meet is the best just for everyone's info when they get street tacos. The thing is, if you ever wonder if your Mexican food is authentic? I shall say again, it came back with vengeance. Real Mexican food is so good but it's a reward risk type thing here. We then got taken to a super good burger place called bottle cap alley. At the end of that dinner I was doing magic tricks for people tying it into the parable of the talents and life half the restaurant was watching, it was super fun. Utilize your talents for missionary work people! We just were provided for miraculously is the message here and it was great.

We had an investigator who has been wanting to be baptized and been being taught for 4 months come to church for the first time last Sunday! I love the dude and it was so good to have him there. I feel like we begged the lord make than ever to soften his wife's heart and
to strengthen his to come. It was answered! Such a blessing.

It was a good week though, I've been pondering lately the worth of souls as it seems to be the theme of a lot lately of meetings I'm at. I think if we could understand a figment of our own worth, it'd allow us to understand the worth of those around us. For you can only love
your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Discovering our worth can be a process though, a process nonetheless I think would be good to go down. I also have been really taking president Nelson's talk seriously and hope everyone does as well to learn how to receive personal revelation. It's is key to these last days. Just go back and study
those talks, all of them. This conference is a turning point for the church in literally hastening the work. Don't skimp out now, the Savior is coming and I can testify  that living gospel standards, repenting to do so, and putting God first really does work. I fought
exactness my whole mission but you can do it "without compulsory means" as doctrine and covenants says. And when you do it in purity and love, you're life changes. Mine has.

I love you all!
Love Elder Hiatt

Shoe Shine

Hey Yall! 

Hope your week was good with the awesome opportunity to see general conference! I tried out writing down questions and seeing if they would be answered and it was really cool to be able to both have talks answer specifically as well as have the spirit inspire answers to me. It was a great weekend.

This week was not a crazy eventful one. Doing some sweet yoyo tricks, teaching some sermons at the prison like nursing home, and helping investigators progress! At the nursing home most of the people are nuts so we decided it didn't much matter what we prepared to give a sermon on so long as it was about Christ so we discussed Christ coming to America. It's amazing how so many people are so accepting and rejoice at the truth when they aren't locked off in heart and mind beforehand. It went super well. 

We had a great lesson with a guy named Clarence too. I have been praying earnestly for the gift of charity for people, and when we were teaching this lesson Clarence at the end said, "man we just met, but I feel like I know you and you've know me for years." 

Letting people know you pray for them and you truly care really is a powerful thing. 

Being a district leader seems to be good. I think I'm doing well? Missionaries say so so I'll go with that.

We shined some shoes I had not shined my whole mission and the difference is astonishing.

But ya! Was a good week. 

Love yall!

Elder Hiatt