3-25-13

Heeeey!

What a week this has been for all of us! I'm so happy to hear about everyone and that Kurt received his Patriarchal Blessing yesterday! I hope you're enjoying the snow days. :) Mom, you must be bored now without having to do so much stuff for primary [she was just released as Primary President]! But I presume that you're putting all of that time now into getting the house ready to sell and getting everyone ready to move out. You all must be so excited.

"C" was baptized yesterday! It turned out to be a wonderful baptism and she was very happy. She asked me to baptize her so I did (although I wanted Elder Close to baptize her). I understand though that I have had much more contact with her and we've become good friends. Her mom told me that she has a testimony of the Church and that she's going to get baptized too! We just need to help her quit smoking and make sure that she has a testimony from the Holy Ghost. Today, the sister missionaries from my sector, "C," and other sister missionaries and elders got together and we hung out for a little bit and had a mini picnic. It was fun. :) "C" is also going to go to an activity with the Young Single Adults tonight, so she is assimilating herself into the ward well! I'm so happy about it.

"F" isn't progressing much so I'm going to speak to him pretty straight-forward and try to resolve any miscommunication that we have between us (and we have a lot because he has weird ideas and I don't speak perfect Spanish haha). We'll see where it goes this week. He didn't go to church yesterday either.

We still meet with "A" here and there. Mondays have seemed to be good times to meet with him lately. We're going to see him after I write you. Right now, I'm working on being his friend and kindly steering him towards the truth. I hope he gets baptized while I'm here, but I'm not sure. We're going to challenge him for baptism again tonight.

President Wright called an unplanned meeting with the new missionaries and their trainers. It was an amazing meeting. He talked about the Atonement and about integrity.

We've been going out with a lot of members lately, but now I'm seeing that it isn't just if we can get a member in the lesson, but that we can help create friendships between members and investigators. I've wondered why investigators aren't progressing even though they have met five or six members that we brought over, and now I've realized that a each member has come over only once. There's no way that the investigator can have a good relationship with that member unless he or she has more contact with them. We're going to bring a couple over to meet with an investigator that we have, and I hope that it goes better.

I'm getting excited for General Conference! I might watch it in Spanish this time because I'm planning on bringing a ton of people. :)

It's still hot here, but it's slowing turning to Fall. I don't need anything at this moment. I can buy thermals here, and if I really need another coat, I'll just buy it. I'm hoping that I receive your package tomorrow. :)

I love you all a TON!  I'm looking forward to Skyping all of you! The time will be here soon!

Con MUCHO amor,

Elder Hill

3-18-13

Hey everyone!

This week went really well for me. I hope the same was for you guys! "C" told us that she is ready and wants to be baptized. So, the offical offical date is the 24th. :)

"F" is still learning and understanding very little. He keeps coming to church though and doing the things that we ask him. So, if he keeps that up, he'll get there eventually. I think he thought that baptism was just a way of saying thanks to God but doesn't mean any more than that. He thinks that it is bad to pray out-loud, because Jesus talks about the hypocrites praying in His Sermon on the Mount, but he doesn't even know what hypocrite means haha. I didn't explain it too well, but I got a good definition from the dictionary that Dad sent me so we'll work with him on that.

We found another investigator named "M" and she has a baptismal date now. I hope she goes the distance, but she says right now that she can only meet with us once a week. We'll have to change that. She's nice and receptive though.

We talked with a man who asked me how we are so happy and full of energy all the time. I told him it was because we are following Jesus Christ. He than asked me if heaven exists and said yes. He told me that it was another planet and that we were going to "jump" to that planet and leave people like him behind. I asked him if we could teach him because he obviously needed help haha. But he said no so we ended it with that.

We have some other investigators, but they aren't progressing much. We're doing our best though! This gospel is too important for everyone to not keep working hard.

Tonight, we're going to teach "A" in a Family Home Evening. I'm planning on talking about the Great Apostasy in depth to help him understand how important a true church is and that it has been restored.

Elder Close is doing well. He's really struggling with Spanish. He's getting frustrated with it a lot too. Pray for him please. We get along really well. I care about him a lot and I want him to have a good time and do a lot with me. I think I'm too serious for his tastes (but you guys know me. I'm not that serious am I? Let me know in the next email haha).

I hope that Chad, Torie, and everyone had a good time in DC and a good trip home. I'm looking forward to be living closer to them. :)

It's crazy to hear about the ward split. I can't believe how the Church is growing. I just saw on lds.org that they updated the LDS version of the scriptures too. All of that kind of makes me feel old haha. I feel like I'm seeing changes that one sees as years accumulate. 

I love you guys so much! Everything is going great here. I love this mission and I love seeing how the Lord is blessing all of you. I'm still waiting on your package, but I'll let you know as soon as I get it. I got a letter from Ashton and from Sarah Black this week, which was really nice. :) Ashton is doing well! From what he wrote me, he's having a great time like I am.

That's all I have for this week. Oh, Mom, can you send me a picture of the wall in the family room that you decorated? A member in my ward wants to use it to get ideas on how to decorate her family room haha.

I love and miss you guys sooooo much! I'll talk to you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Hill

3-11-13

¡Hola chiquillos!

I hope you all had a great week! This week for me went very well. On Monday, we had the setting apart and farewell of Hernan, who went to Floridianopolis, Brazil on his mission. It was fairly emotional for me because I really like Hernan and we became good friends. I'm going to keep in touch with him a little bit. My new companion, Elder Close, is doing well! He didn't know much Spanish before the mission (or at least he doesn't remember any from high school haha), so, it's been a tough climb for him. I've been trying to be very patient and helpful. It was weird to go from a companion who was my example for Spanish to a companion who doesn't know much of it. I'm trying to teach him everything right though. Towards the end of the week, we had a surprise meeting with the new missionaries and some service with made us really busy with studying and planning, but we're doing well.

"F" came to church on Sunday! We went by his house in the morning, but decided not to yell because everyone was sleeping. We saw that the gate was opened and thought that that meant that he left, because he was already on his way to church when we saw him last Sunday. Turned out that he was asleep hmmm. We called him after the Sacrament and he showed up in twenty more minutes.  :)  We had some really good lessons with him this week and he's progressing a lot. Unfortunately, he has a lot of weird ideas about doctrine. For example, he didn't want to accept Jesus Christ because he thought he was only supposed to worship "God." We corrected him on that, but he has a lot of ideas like that.

"C" went to Valparaíso this weekend, so she missed church. We were going to see her tonight, but she just called me and cancelled the visit. :( She has a baptismal date for this Sunday, but I'm worried that it's going to fall again. I'm going to have to do something crazy this week to make it all work out haha.

We have other investigators, but they're not progressing much yet. We desperately need to find more, but I've really struggled with that my whole mission. I wish I had some cool musical or artistic ability to attract people to talk to me or make them more interested.

Today, we went to a big mall in the nicer part of Santiago called Las Condes. We ate lunch in the Hard Rock Café, and an extremely nice man came up to us and gave us money to pay for our lunch (and Hard Rock Café isn't cheap). John Collins, if you ever read this, thank you! It was fun to go around the mall and feel more at home (because the nicer parts of Santiago feel more American). Elder Close's camera also broke so we tried to get it fixed. We found a Nikon store kind of near the mall, but we didn't have time to check it out.

I wish I could be there while the Mickelson family is visiting! I love being here but I don't like missing out on family. I hope they had a good stay. I really liked the video that Maddie sent this week. I love and miss you guys so much!!!! Only a little more time until we can skype again. :) Thank you for sending that package! I'm waiting very patiently for the music haha. I can't believe all the changes and things that are going on at home! I hope everything is well and happy for you guys. Everyone looks older (except for Mom), but at the same time everyone looks the same. I love you all so much! :)

Mucho Amor,

Elder Hill

2-25-13

Hey everyone!!!

So, this week has been tough in the work. On the bright side, we have some new investigators and we are constantly finding more. Elder Smith and I are quite a team when it comes to teaching and contacting. He is an amazing companion. "C" and "Y" went to the beach at the last second so they weren't here for the whole week. That was really tough. They returned on Saturday and "C" went with us to church on Sunday. We talked to her about her baptismal date (because it is for the 3rd of March!) and she said that she is still good for right now. She says that she really likes church and feels very good there. She didn't read much or meet with us at all the past week, so spiritual confirmations have been scarce. It is SO important that investigators and the missionaries stay in good contact and meet often, otherwise, spiritual answers are tough to come by. That applies to everyone; we all need to be doing our part to have the Spirit in our lives.

Big news--Elder Smith was changed this morning. And I'm staying in Los Plátanos as a trainer! I'm super excited but a little anxious too. I'll meet my companion tomorrow when they arrive. I actually just found out who it was because my name showed up next to his when I entered in my weekly indicators online. His name is Elder Close, so I'm assuming that he's a "gringo" haha. I'm not sure if I would have been happier with a gringo or a latino, but now I know who he is and I'll move forward. I'm excited. :) Please pray for me very hard this change! I'm going directly from the only companion I've had in the field (and who trained me) to training a gringo. It'll work out great and I'll learn a ton. I'm definitely capable. Elder Cadden and Elder Measom are training too. I did divisions [splits] with a brand new Elder this week and I really enjoyed it, so maybe I'm made to train. Haha.

That is all the big news for the week. Pray for "C" and for Elder Close and for me! This is going to be an interesting week!

I love you all so much and I'll let you know how things are going next Monday!

Les quiero muchísimo,

Elder Hill