He's in Chile 8-21-12

Dear family,

I'm in Santiago! Everything has been fine so far. On my second flight, my MTC companion and I sat on both sides of another non-member named Laura. She was from France but was traveling around. We had a really good conversation. She was atheist but was very kind and open to what we had to say - I think she was more impressed with us than we were to her openness. We also talked to this other woman before the plane took off who also came to Santiago. Her name was Clara and she was from Germany but her boyfriend lives in Santiago. She's going to live in my mission boundaries hopefully. She was atheist too but it was so interesting to see how many connections Laura and Clara have with the church. They both were fascinated and impressed with us I think. They both left the airport with pass-along cards and hopefully a new-found relationship with the church. I gave out more pass-along cards to others and my MTC companion gave away a Book of Mormon, so I think we had a very productive trip. I saw part of Santiago when I traveled from the airport to the temple/CCM and it's interesting how similar but different it is from the US. It's fun being immersed though so far. One of the first people I talked to off the plane was a worker who asked about my plaqueta and why we were called "Elders". We told her we were Mormons and the lightbulb clicked in her mind. Her accent was so suave that I hope to talk like that eventually. My trainers name is Elder Smith -he's obviously not a Chileno but I'm excited to work with him. He's very nice and is a hard worker. I think I'll do very well being his companion. My mission president is incredible as well. I'm happy to be here. I'll talk to you later! By the way, happy birthday Maddie!!! :)

Love,
Elder Hill

[To see the full picture you will have to click on it]

8-19-12

¡Hola! ¿Qué hay de nuevo? Well, this has been a big week, and an even bigger one is coming up! First of all, thank you Uncle Tyler, Aunt Amy, Kalista, Kara, and Teagan for your package! That will definitely hold me over on the 13-hour flight (and I love pretzel M&Ms so that made me really happy)! Thank you Mom and Dad for sending me those things I requested and the cookies! Like I've said before, I am a spoiled missionary. :)  On Friday I had In-Field Orientation to help me be ready for Santiago. It was really good! I'm feeling very prepared right now. 

Quick update on Spanish: I can understand any RM's Spanish and a lot of native speakers, the native speakers' accents sometimes throw me off though. I've been told that Chilean Spanish is the fastest Spanish out there so it'll be challenging for a little while. 

I leave the MTC 10:00 Monday morning and arrive in Santiago at 8:10 Tuesday morning. 

The MTC has been quite a trip. I have been pushed, stretched, and pulled. I've learned a different way of life. I'm sure the mission field will be even more of those things, but I am so grateful to have had experiences here. I feel prepared and I feel like a missionary. I love the Gospel, I know that Christ lives. I know the church of Jesus Christ was restored through the Lord's chosen prophet, Joseph Smith. I know the scriptures are true. I know that the priesthood is real and provides God's authority on the earth, and with it and the revealed knowledge of temples and eternal families, everyone can be saved and exalted in the kingdom of God. And I know that the Lord Himself has testified these truths to me. It's such a blessing and privilege to be one of His missionaries!

Love,
Elder Hill

8-10-12

Hi everyone! This week has been really good! I'm still making more progress in Spanish and with teaching, but even with another week, I don't feel like I'll be prepared enough for Santiago haha.

My companions and I taught a man this past week named José, and it was an incredible learning experience. I've learned how the Gospel, when applied, can change lives.

I received my travel itinerary yesterday and I'm am so excited! I'm flying on the 20th with my two companions and a few other Elders I haven't met (I think they're in beginning language districts).

Mom, thank you for the cupcakes, they are so good! After I eat two or three, I let my zone eat the rest because they're so rich haha. I am definitely one of the most spoiled missionaries here. :)

I feel like there is so much to share about what is going on, but at the same time, nothing is going on except that I'm working hard to be un gran misionero. Zone Leader business is going well, everyone in our zone works hard, is super friendly, and has a powerful testimony of the Gospel.

Elder Driggs [Seth's college roommate] is here!!! I was hosting and saw his car drive past me. I ran down the sidewalk to make sure I was his host haha. He's doing really well right now. He is overwhelmed like every missionary during their first few days, plus, Korean is a lot harder than other languages and he doesn't understand his teachers at all. I went to see him last night and I'm going to try to see him during lunch time--basically as much as I can before I leave. His companion is good and seems really nice too. Elder Driggs looks and acts like a missionary! It was funny because one of the first things he said to me after he got out of the car was that I look "30 years older." That was kind of how I saw everyone here eight weeks ago too. It's amazing how time flies.

I love you my family. I'm continually updated with how things are going at home. Know that even though I haven't written everyone individually too much over the past two months, I think about you all and you're always in my prayers. Keep doing well K, M, and L. I love you so much! Hopefully my mission president in the field will give me more time than 30 minutes to Email and then we can all have great individual conversations. :)

¡Yo sé que el Evangelio es verdadero y que Cristo vive!

¡Hasta la proxima semana!

Love,
Elder Hill

8-3-12

Hola!

Espero que todas las cosas sean bien con ustedes!!! Que pasa? Everything is going great here. This week, my district and I really committed ourselves to speaking Spanish this whole week, and now I can say from experience that the gift of tongues is real. Even the native speaking districts are pretty impressed! I can understand my teachers nearly perfectly, but probably only because they don't have very strong accents haha. My teaching has improved tons! I can have pretty natural gospel discussions and create open dialogue between myself and investigators. But we'll see once I get to Chile, I'm sure I'm still in for a rude awakening haha. Last night, we were switching up our companionships and teaching ten minute lessons without any preparation. One time, one of my teachers was an investigator for my companion and another friend. He made up the funniest story and kept rambling on and on about it until he had taken up all but two minutes for the two to teach. It was a good time. My teacher said he has had investigators like that in South America, but I'm just praying and hoping that the Lord is preparing others who are truly ready to hear the Gospel. :) My teachers are terrific and I've grown to love them a lot.

I saw Elder Gingrich a couple days ago! He's doing well; I think he's enjoying being thrown into the deep end of the pool language-wise. ;)

I'm beginning to feel like I'm coming to the end of my time at the MTC. I received a notice that says I'm going to be a host for new missionaries this coming Wednesday, which is the job for the "MTC-matured" missionaries haha. I know I still have a couple weeks to go, but since I'm actually comfortable here now, they probably need to get me to Chile haha.

I've been playing "futbol" (it's not soccor in the MTC) a lot here. I'm hopefully getting better... A few days ago someone accidently head-butted me in the jaw so now I have a funny looking bruise on my lip. What's funny about that is one of my teachers was playing futbol earlier this week too and got a black eye, so we kind of match!

The Spirit is so strong here, I definitely know that this is the Lord's Church and I'm engaged in His work. I pray that my desire to serve will bless others' lives for eternity. Thank you for supporting me. :) I love you so much! (Les amo tanto!)

Love,

Elder Hill

7-27-12

Hola! I hope all is well! 

Everything still feels timeless to me here, I honestly can't tell you how many weeks I've been here. I am part of a trio companionship again--the original three are back together.  Our district has gone from nine people to five in the past few weeks.  Elder xxxxxx doesn't believe that Dad is almost a colonel because he thinks I'm too nice and not aggressive enough to be the son of a USAFA graduate haha. 

Teaching is still going well! I've become much more confident with speaking, even though I still make a lot of mistakes and I speak so slow compared to native speakers. One time this week when I was teaching one of our investigators, I was speaking to her and then I got to a point were I read something from Preach My Gospel to help me explain better. She started laughing because she said that once I started reading I was perfectly understandable and I sounded like a actually knew Spanish! At least I can read Spanish well haha. I'll just rely completely on the scriptures and Preach My Gospel and I'll be good. Last week at the TRC, My companion and I taught a 60ish year old man from Argentina and he said he was baptized only the week before! We were so excited to talk to him because he had such a strong testimony and was so sincere and patient with our Spanish. I love the TRC because everything is very genuine. The TRC is nice too because teaching my other investigators becomes routine somewhat. Variety is nice. :) I LOVED hearing from M and L! Thank you for your letters and for telling me about what you're doing! I hope camps have been good and I'm happy to hear EFY and Youth Conference were fantastic! K, how was Warped Tour?? I'm waiting for that autographed picture. ;) 

 

I received the package you sent! I love it! Be jealous K. ;) I think it'll last me the rest of the time here but we'll see haha. The socks are super comfortable! I liked the sticky notes too. :)

 

You are definitely not sending too many letters. I love to receive tons of letters and they don't take away from my other time. I promise. :) Keep them coming! I receive DearElders everyday Monday-Friday at four.

 

One of my companions mentioned today that in a couple weeks we will probably receive our travel itineraries. I'm excited to go to Chile, and I'm really really excited for that chemical reaction between my language and my testimony that Dad talked about. My teacher gave us an example of a discussion last night and he was incredible. He turned every question and doubt we had as investigators into something to help the Spirit be present and teach us. I can't wait to get to that point in my teaching!

 

The Provo temple was opened today after being cleaned and it was so nice to be there. I'm learning new things every time I go and they're helping me so much!

 

That's pretty much my week in a nutshell. I love you all so much and I think about you often, but I'm focused on the work so no worries about me being distracted. :) A little scripture to read and think about: Moroni 10: 32-33 is my favorite explanation of the Gospel and is such a powerful testimony of the Savior! Keep coming unto Christ everyone. :)

 

Con Amor,

Elder Hill

 

Que tengan una semana maravillosa!

7-20-12

Hey! How is everyone? This past week has been pretty uneventful. I'm just working very hard and continuing to make progress. The way the schedule should really be divided here is that the first three days are about a week each, then there's a week that's called week two through seven haha, and then the last one to two weeks is like limbo I've heard. Right now, time is suspended in a way. I can't believe I've been here a month. It will be even odder when I write home to say I've been in the mission field for a year. I'm applying Elder Uchtdorf's First Presidency message though: I'm always in the middle of my mission.

My discussions with investigators have improved ten fold from the first week here. I can convey my thoughts pretty well now. I am also reading Preach My Gospel and my scriptures in Spanish (Book of Mormon at least -- other books of scripture are still a little cryptic haha). I think I make Spanish sound easier than it really is (I'm working so hard), but honestly, I'm amazed by how far I've come.

Yesterday, my companion and I had a discussion with an investigator named Marisela. The Holy Ghost was so strong and He was inspiring our questions and was inspring how we applied scripture to her. It was a wonderful experience.

The MTC is like the mission field emotionally -- we get so bogged down sometimes and then we experience spiritual highs that re-inspire us haha. It's great here though, I'm in a really good groove, I absolutely love my teachers, I've gotten close to a lot of missionaries here, and I'm always feeling more and more prepared for Chile. My district has lost three members to foreign MTCs and the field, and it's about to lose one more within the week. It's odd to imagine how small the district will be, but there are some districts in my zone were there are only two Elders. 

I feel very prepared. I can tell though that the Lord is already putting me through spiritual, emotional, and mental boot camp haha. I welcome the stretching because I know the Lord has big plans for me, and even more so, for the people I will be teaching. I need to be prepared for them because they deserve to have the best possible missionaries to bring the truth of the Restored Gospel to them.

Love,

Elder Hill

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