7-13-12

Hey everybody! Everything is going great here at the MTC! I'm as busy as ever as a Zone Leader but it has been a great blessing! I've gotten to know everyone in my zone and become good friends with them.

My companion and I gave a tour on Wednesday and showed the new missionaries what its like being a missionary, and it was a really great opportunity to be the ones to welcome them here. I have ran into a lot of friends from BYU, which is always fun. I have pictures with them and everything so you'll see all those when I get to the field.

Spanish is coming along wonderfully! It's still really hard to teach great lessons but my companion and I are striving for excellence here. Yesterday, we were both struggling during our lesson with one of our teachers. My companion's style of teaching is planning pretty thoroughly while mine is to create a simple outline and just go by feel (in a perfect world, we agree that that would probably be the best way to teach, but he has to remind me that we're not perfect Spanish speakers yet haha). So, during our lessons, we have a great lesson plan, but I guess I vary from the plan too much than is desirable to achieving the goals we have for each lesson. So, our teacher calls a time out and asks us to teach in English, which we have never done since entering the MTC. The English discussion was one of the most powerful lessons I have experienced. It was like we lasered in on exactly what we wanted out of this lesson for our teacher. I always feel the Spirit when we teach, but in English, wow. It was a great experience for my companion and I just so that we can know that we can teach in perfect unity and have the Spirit there. You know how in Alma the younger's conversion, Mormon says he and the sons of Mosiah "fell to the earth, for great was their astonishment," and later, Mormon wrote that Alma and the sons of Mosiah taught dissenting Nephites to their astonishment? Well, I felt like the Spirit was powerful enough in our discussion to have that effect on an investigator. We can't wait until we can teach the way we did yesterday in Spanish. In other news, I have received a lot of letters this week. Thank you! Even though I can't respond like I would like to, I always appreciate receiving letters so much. Thank you :)

I love being at the MTC! I'm excited to go to the field, but I'm making the best of my time here. I'm grateful to be a missionary! I have already experienced some great miracles as a direct result of my desire to serve the Lord! I love you family!

Elder Hill