12-10-12

¡Hola a todos!

It's good to hear from you! I absolutely love hearing from home and about everything that is happening. Thanks for sending me a lot this week guys. :)

I'm extremely excited for Mikey and Copeland! They are doing the most incredible thing in my opinion. A mission is one of the most important things you can do in your life. Like they already know, they will be blessed so much as they serve lovingly and obediently. There are unfortunately a lot of missionaries that serve and then go home and revert back to who they were before. One of the greatest things about a mission though is that it changes the missionary for the better--turns them more into the person that God intends them to be. Thankfully, that doesn't mean you get boring or too serious, you just become stronger and more refined as a person.

Kurt is the man!  It doesn't surprise me to hear about how smart he is in Anatomy.  Anatomy is actually helping me here with Spanish because most bones, organs, and diseases are named based on the Latin/scientific name, so I'll often understand when someone talks about diseases and stuff and Elder Smith won't haha. That's probably the only area that I might slightly know more Spanish than him. I've been blessed with an amazing companion and I'm very grateful for what he has taught me and for all the good times we have had.

Changes are next week, so there is a possibility that I'll be in another sector next Monday. We'll see what happens though. Missionaries are staying in their sectors for a lot longer now (like 5-7 months average), so we both very well might be here next week, which is fine with me. :) We also have two missionaries in our district moving in with us after Christmas because their landlord is ending their contract. They're both great missionaries and it would be a lot of fun to live with them, so if that happens, I'm excited!

Probably the biggest thing from my time in Los Plátanos has happened. One of our investigators really wants to be baptized and set the baptismal date himself! His name is "B" and is the son of Hermana "S." Elder Smith and I have seen a remarkable change in his countanence with the Gospel. The Lord has really prepared him. I easily see him being active forever too, which makes me so happy. He is the fruit that I've been waiting to see in this sector. No one else has worked out yet, but Boris plans on being baptized on the 6th of January! He is amazing. :) We are still working with "A" and "A." We'll keep pressing forward with them, but it's probably not their time yet. Like you said Dad, it's all part of the missionary cycle. I just hope I'm here to see "B" get baptized! :)

Elder Smith and I are planning on going to the temple on Thursday this week. A mission rule here is that we can only go to the temple once per year, so this will have to hold me off for a while. It'll be interesting to have everything in Spanish haha.

There was a Christmas concert here this past weekend and Elder Archuleta sang in it. We didn't go though because we had appointments and no investigators or recent converts to take to the concert with us. Besides, there was a family history activity in the stake center and that was really helpful for me so I'm glad I went to that.

I'm glad everyone in the family is well. I can't wait to talk to everyone in a couple weeks!

I wish Lindsey good luck with her musical try-outs! I'll be praying for her. :)

I love you all very much. I miss you all but I am so happy that I'm here at the same time. I pray for you always and think of you often. This work is real and I love serving the Lord as one of his missionaries!

I love you!

Elder Hill

12-3-12

¡Hola!

I enjoyed the videos and email from home. Thank you for remembering me every week and keeping me in the loop. I hope you are all well and in good Christmas spirits.

This week was a pretty simple week. Elder Smith and I taught a bunch of lessons and had some good chances to serve others. We're still working with "B." He's really good and I think he could go really far if the missionaries stick with him. We also have been in more contact with "A." He came to a mutual activity with us and really liked it. I was surprised because the activity was that couple missionaries came to talk about the Perpetual Education Fund and it was a little more aimed towards members. We were going to take him to Stake Conference yesterday, but he slept in. I think a cultural thing here is that if someone is sleeping, you never wake them up. On the other hand, I can imagine what it would be like if two North American Mormon missionaries came and told you to wake up your son. You probably wouldn't be too interested haha. We're going to have to find out a way to get past that though because everyone sleeps in on Sundays you know? If "A" went to Stake Conference, he probably would have been very impressed. A girl that sings for EFY was there and sang a solo and then we had some really good talks from some people, including President and Hermana Wright. Oh I don't think I told you, but David (Elder) Archuleta is going to sing in a Christmas concert with the EFY girl at the temple here in our mission. He's famous here too haha.

I gave a blessing to a recent convert's father, which was really great. He suffered a stroke so he's fine in every way, except that he can't communicate his thoughts. So, he understood everything, but he couldn't ask us questions or anything without help. It was very frustrating for him. I really liked him though so I gave him the blessing. I think he we made his day and hopefully we'll go see him and his wife and daughter again because he and his wife aren't members.

We've been teaching "H," "J's" friend. When we taught him this week, he got really quiet, which surprised us. He said he wants us to keep teaching him so we'll see what happens. He's golden though. "J" really helped out in our last lesson too, so he definitely has support. It's funny though because they remind me of Kurt in some ways: they both think they're too cool. ;)

The Teletón happened this week. It is the Chilean version of the Jerry Lewis telethon. It's super big in South America. It's a huge charity that cares for disabled children and in order to support its programs, it raises money every year and a half. All the television actors get involved and help host and nearly all the television channels are of the Teletón. That was a big thing that happened this week.

One day, we went to see this one contact we made to see if we could help them in any way. When we got there, they were cleaning the front of their house, which was a mess. After being persistent, the mom let us in the gate and we helped her sweep and remove some garbage. They gave us sandwiches and flat Coke to say thank you haha. I don't think we'll be able to successfully teach them because the mom is really old and probably wouldn't understand, and the son is very odd and probably wouldn't understand either. However, it's all in the Lord's hands. He brought us to their house at the right moment to help them so He is definitely guiding His work.

That's all I have for this week. I'm having the time of my life serving the Lord!!!  You're always in my prayers--family, friends, and other missionaries. I love and miss you! :)

Until next week and con amor,

Elder Hill

P.S. I didn't get any good pictures this week. :( Sorry!