6-3-13




Four "generations" of missionaries: L-R: Seth's trainee, Seth, Seth's trainer, and Seth's trainer's trainer.  :-)

 
Hey guys!

This week has been tough, but we're progressing further in the Work. "R" has been put on the back burner for awhile.  :( Too much stuff has happened between all of us and she really just doesn't have a strong enough desire to overcome them. It's been sad, but I trust that the Lord is mindful and has it all in His hands. We managed to find three new investigators last week. One guy lives in our apartment complex and is really cool. He's 26 and has a good attitude. He was interested by the gospel because he never really had a strong religious background growng up besides somewhat of a Catholic raising from his parents. He agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. :) We're going to see him tonight. "O" and "A" are brothers who live in Santa Julia. We contacted their mom earlier in the week and then went back to see her. "O" answered the door (he's 16) and said that she wasn't home. So, we introduced ourselves and said that we would come back in a few more days. On Saturday, the grandmother answered and said that the mom wasn't home and that "O" and "A" were in bed. As we began walking away, "O" and "A" ran up to the gate to greet us, even though they looked like they literally just woke up haha. We taught them about the Restoration of the gospel and said that they were interested. We gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to read it.

I'm praying that everything goes well with them this week!

On Sunday, a missionary couple came to our ward to introduce themselves and orient us on a traveling visitor's center that we're going to do at the end of the month. It's supposed to be incredible and I'm excited to do it. During the orientation yesterday, I served as the translator for the Sister, and it was pretty fun haha.

We know a man who lives in our apartment complex named Alberto, who is about 75 years old and very nice. He is Catholic but he loves to have us over to talk with him. I try not to go over too often because he has said he's not going to change his religion, but we go every once in awhile. Anyway, we finally taught him part of lesson one, and we started talking about the Book of Mormon. I read part of the introdution, which grabbed his attention. He got really interested in it and asked us if he could buy one. He was even more impressed when we just gave it to him for free haha. He's been reading it every day he says and really likes it. I'm interested to find out what he thinks when he gets to 2 Nephi haha.

Everything is very good here. The mission is trying; the thing I want to do more than anything else is be obedient and work hard. Sometimes it gets complicated if my companion and I don't see eye to eye on something and it can be a little tough sometimes.

I love you all so much! I'm excited for school to be done and for the move. I'm actually interested to see how our adulthood is if we are so accostumed to being in an area for three years max haha. I'm happy Kurt is having an awesome time on all the fieldtrips. I love you, Mom, Dad, Kurt, Maddie and Lindsey. I miss you all so much. Thank you for EVERTHING you do for me and for your support and love. Know that I love you and will always do anything for you. :)

Thanks to all our friends and extended family for your support as well.  I appreciate it so much!

You're in my prayers as always! ¡Los quiero muchísimo!

Love,

Seth

5-20-13

Editor's Note: Amazingly, Seth is still in his first area of the mission and will not transfer this month.  Next month he will be at a year into the mission in the same area.  He is rising to the challenge, he is doing great, he is healthy, and he and his companion are finding people to teach and have two baptism dates scheduled.  For the past few weeks, Seth and his mom have been emailing back and forth (chatting) during Seth's email time so he hasn't written a long letter to post.  I guess we can forgive his mom for that.  :-)  Finally, because all family members could not be present on Mother's Day for the traditional phone call, Seth's mission president graciously allowed him to call/Skype a week later--on the 19th.  He looked GREAT!  This email was sent the following day: 

Hey everyone! So this email will be short since I had a chance to talk to you yesterday. This time around it didn't take me as long to get out of the daze that I seem to get after skyping you guys. It might have been because of the family that hosted my skype session with you guys, because they gave me some food during and after I skpyed you haha. They are a great family (their name is "Alegría" so they have to be awesome haha).  [Alegria means "joy" or "happiness."]

Hey no worries about me staying in my sector for another change. I hope you're not too worried! I figure that I only have one left here anyway so it'll all be good. I heard from Eric Neal today. He's great! I'll occasionally email other people too, it just takes my time away from you guys so it's a difficult balance haha.

I'll continue working hard and giving it my best! I'm so grateful for the blessings that the Lord has given us thanks to this beautiful work. I'm always praying for you and I think about you a ton. Thank you for your prayers, because the Lord has been answering them. :)

I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seth

P.S. Sorry that this email was pretty short!

P.P.S. I still can't believe Lindsey is taller than Maddie now!

4-15-13

The biggest highlight of the week was that we went on a temple tour with "C" and "Y". It went super well and the Spirit was definitely there. I'm grateful to have the temple so close by here. We're just working a ton and trying to find more investigators. It's so hard here! We found one more, but I don't know how far he'll go. He is very poor and has very little understanding of a lot of things. Santiago East is quite the mission! I'm grateful to be here though. I'm just pushing against all the struggles to find the miracles. I know the Lord is at the head of this Work. He truly knows us and is helping us at every step in our lives.

I love and miss you all SO much!

Love,

Elder Hill

4-8-13

Seventh change in Los Plátanos and called to be a District Leader.

I'm still in Los Plátanos for another change! Who knows how long I'll be here haha. I remember when Dad was telling me that I would be out of here after my third change if not my second haha.

Elder Close and I are well. We had some rough moments this past week, but I'm remembering what you all told me about this time being one of the toughest time in the mission so I'm being as patient as I know how to and it is definitely showing its rewards. Every little conflict that we have had, we have been able to bounce back. I'm thankful for the gospel and this missionary work and how it allows us to do that.  I'm learning so much.

"C" is doing extremely well. She appears to be good friends with people in the Young Single Adults and went to General Conference with us on Sunday. We're working with her mom right now (who has a baptismal date for the 21st!). She has come such a long way and I am so happy for her. Her biggest trial right now is smoking but we are working with her and praying very hard for her.

We are struggling so hard to find new investigators so please pray for that specifically for us.

Oh, and my zone got split due to the huge numbers of incoming missionaries. I am now the District Leader for six missionaries! I'm excited to help and serve that way. I was used to it because Elder Smith was a district leader and I actually missed that dimension of the work after he left. So I'm happy that I get to aid in that part of missionary work again.

How did you all like General Conference? I loved it! I was actually hoping that they would say that the time that missionaries served was extended to three years haha. I watch half the Conference in Spanish with "C" and with another missionary. It's not the same unfortunately, but it's not bad. I watched Elder Perry's talk (I think it was him, he spoke about obedience to the laws of the Gospel) in Spanish and I could see him getting so passionate in the background, but the interpreter was pretty neutral. That was a bummer, but it's still great how well the Church can instantly speak to the whole world at once, despite language barriers.

I finally got your package this week and loved it.  I ate the Teddy Grahams during Conference haha. :)

I ran out of time so I need to go. I love you all so much! Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. I always do the same.

Arto amor,

Elder Hill

4-1-13

Hey everybody!  Happy Easter!

First, I LOVED all the videos that you sent me this past week. I loved seeing everyone and seeing a lot of you. I was surprised to see Maddie with her glasses! But you are super gorgeous Maddie so no worries. :)  Lindsey, you look great and older. Maddie and Lindsey look older, Kurt just looks jackkked (you're welcome for the comment dude), and Mom and Dad just look younger than ever. ;)

I really miss you guys! I had a great week this week, although it's starting to get colder. Just think to yourselves, every day that's warmer for you, I'm just that much colder. ;) haha. It's a fun change though from the heat. I like drinking Ecco more now that it's colder.

Elder Close and I are doing well. He's slowly adjusting to Spanish. This companionship is teaching me a little more about patience in a different aspect I guess haha. We have a lot of fun though when we get all goofy so that's good. :)  Elder Close confirmed "C" yesterday! He was so nervous all week and when he gave her a blessing, he was shaking so much. "C" said her head was being shook the whole blessing haha, but she said it didn't bother her. There are just things that happen she says. She's a good sport. :) She's meeting a lot of the ward now! Her mom also wants to be baptized now because she has seen the blessings that the gospel has brought. Also, when we taught her about temples and baptisms for the dead, she was sold haha.

We taught some less actives that I didn't know before, so we're working with them. We also "broke up" with "F", but we're still on good terms. He said he thought about it and he didn't want to make too many promises that he said he wasn't going to keep always. So, we're done with him for now.

We had a fun activity on Saturday. We watched a play that a guy in our ward was in that was recorded as part of BYU's art program. He had special rights to show it so we invited investigators and watched it. No investigators showed up, but it was a good turn out still and "C" was there. It was so funny to watch our friend from our ward in the play because he had to hide his Chilean accent a little to make it more neutral. It was funny. :)

Nothing too interesting happened to me on Easter, but it was still a good day! I'm super excited for General Conference now!

I miss you all so much and pray for you constantly. I hope all is well at home!

Muchísimo amor,

Elder Hill

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