Best. Week. Ever ...

Hi everyone!

Craziest/best week!! Sorry this letter is long, so much happened.. We had a baptism!! Carissa was baptized on Saturday, but I will get to that later. 

Monday
Monday night we had FHE at the Holgate Center and it went great! Tons of people showed up and Elder Giles and I gave a lesson on how Heavenly Father answers prayers. Everyone participated and it went great.

Tuesday 

Tuesday we did some finding, had a couple lessons, and in the evening we had dinner with a non-member family! We helped this family move some stuff in prior weeks and they invited us over to have dinner at their house. It went well and we even were able to share a message about families and we gave them a Family Proclamation pamphlet. They have two kids in elementary school and the parents are awesome. They said that we are welcome back anytime, but the challenge will be getting them more interested in the church. They are an awesome family though!

Wednesday

Wednesday morning, I came out into the living room from doing studies and Elder Giles is sitting on the floor with a cat hahahaha. I was like, "dude where did you get a cat!?" And he said that he opened the door and it just walked right in, so what do we do!? What any normal person would do, we take a bunch of selfies with it obviously.....

  

  

 Later we visited a couple of less actives, and then we went tracting. It is not my favorite thing to do but you sometimes gotta do it.... a lot of it. There was this one lady who opened the door and said, "sorry we love everyone," and then she slammed the door. People don't even give us a chance. But we did go tracting on the river and found a spot to take some majestic pics... In the evening we had a lesson with Gilbert that went really well. The new church policy has been bugging him and so we watched Elder Christofferson's interview on it (if you have questions about the new policy go watch the interview on LDS.org!). We addressed his concerns and he says that he really wants to be Mormon, but just doesn't know if he can do it. So we are gonna keep working and praying for him. 

Thursday
Thursday we had Carissa's baptismal interview! One of the Zone Leaders did the interview with her and they were in there for like an hour which was weird because they usually don't take that long so we were worried that something was wrong, but he came out and said everything is great! Carissa was so excited!

Friday 

Friday we went over and visited a potential investigator, Amy. She is an older black woman and is super sweet and funny. She asked if we could give her a blessing and we said of course. So Elder Giles anointed and I sealed it and gave the blessing. It was the most interesting experience I have ever had giving a blessing. At the beginning of the blessing she was softly saying, "hallelujah, praise Jesus, thank you Jesus, hallelujah Jesus," over and over, and then as the blessing went on it progressively got louder. By the end of the blessing she was basically yelling, "HALLELUJAH JESUS, THANK YOU JESUS, HALLELUJAH, PRAISE JESUS." It was so hard to stay focused and finish the blessing because I couldn't hear myself think hahaha, but she said that she immediately felt better and she was so grateful. She said she wants to start meeting more and learn more, so we were super excited about that and are pumped to teach her!

Saturday

Saturday!! Carissa's baptism!! So Carissa wanted to get baptized in Forest Grove, which is out of our mission (Salem Mission) because she has a lot of family and friends over there, a close friend of hers was the one that baptized her... So we called President and he gave us permission to attend the baptism! It was such a great experience. After teaching her for four months, I have been able to get to know her really well and become great friends with her. Being with her through everything and seeing all the changes she made in her life to get to this point has been a really humbling experience for me. The Gospel quite literally changed her life, and I had never seen her so happy than she was on this day. The entire baptism I kept thinking of the scripture in D&C 18:16, "And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me"... My joy was pretty great today. 

Sunday 

Sunday was just as good as Saturday. So we were sitting in church, and there are tons of people there to witness Carissa get confirmed. And we get a text 5 minutes before the meeting is about to start from Brother Francis (he was the one confirming Carissa), and he says that he is having major back problems and can't make it to church. So we start freaking out and we tell our Ward Mission Leader who then tells Carissa. She looks at me and asks me if I will do it...... Let me just say that I almost peed my pants. I have given a lot of blessings since being out on my mission, but not in front of 100+ people!! I told her that I would love to do it. So I went and sat down and said the most sincere prayer I have ever said to calm my nerves and when it was time to do the Confirmation, I got up there and I wasn't nervous one bit. I was able to do the whole thing without any problems, and the coolest part was that someone even had it recorded and I got a copy of it. The Spirit was so strong and I can't express the way I felt but it was incredible. Being able to use my Priesthood to bless the lives of others has been the greatest blessing for me and I can't thank Heavenly Father enough for the opportunity I have to exercise the Priesthood. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be on a mission to have met the people in this area, especially Carissa. Being a part of someone's conversion is one of the best experiences ever.

Have a good week!

Elder Hill


Tyler's Highlights this Week!

*HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Always give thanks to your Heavenly Father for everything. Shout out to my dad for showing me an awesome scripture about being grateful, Mosiah 2:20-24

*Thank you to everyone who has sent cards or packages or wrote a note on the Christmas tree cactus:) I really appreciate it!

*The weather was beautiful this past week; it couldn't have come at a better time!

Transfer Calls!

Quick side note from Tyler's mom:

Tyler's Mission office is asking that all Christmas packages/letters for missionaries be sent to the Mission home by Dec. 5 and they will then be passed out to the missionaries at a Christmas party two weeks later.  They want to make sure all missionaries will be receiving a little something for Christmas :)  Thanks in advance for remembering Tyler during his first Christmas away from home!  He would really enjoy and appreciate hearing from all his friends :)  His Mission home address is:

Elder Tyler Hill

c/o The Oregon Portland Mission Office

1400 NW Compton Drive, Suite 250

Beaverton, OR 97006

Hi everyone!

It's already been six weeks since I started training! That's crazy! So we got transfer calls and I will be staying in Moreland for another transfer as DL and to finish training. This will be my fourth transfer and I will have stayed here for 6 months! I feel like it was yesterday that I had my first day here. I love being in this Ward and I am so grateful for all the members and investigators that I have become super close with and all of the friends I have made here in this area! 

Beautiful fall day in Oregon!

Not too much to report on this week ...

Monday
Monday night we had dinner over at Jacob Graham's house who I met up at BYU-i and became friends with. He lives in our Stake which was a really crazy but funny coincidence. There were four missionary companionships at this dinner so it was a party.

Tuesday 

Tuesday we helped the same lady from last week with the burned down house finish moving all her stuff and then we had a couple of lessons in the evening and then basketball.

Wednesday
Wednesday we had to drive to the mission office so Elder Giles could take some driving test so we hung out in Beaverton for a lot of the day. We then came back and met with Gayle's daughter, Tamra! She is starting look more into the Church and she really likes when we come over so hopefully we can start teaching her on a regular basis now. We had to give the car to some Sisters in Oregon City since they crashed their car, so we are back on bike now:/

Thursday 

Thursday we had our monthly Costco hot dogs with Bro Christiansen! Mormons must love Costco because every time we go there people are always saying hi to us and asking us if they can pay for our food, it's awesome. We might eat at Costco every day.

Later, we met with Gilbert and he said he is 99.5% there on getting baptized. He just needs an extra little push, and we have tried everything! So pray for Gilbert that he will have the desire to make that final commitment! In the evening we had FHE with the Tupou Family and they made us dinner! That family is awesome and it was a great lesson!

Friday

Friday we had District Meeting and then did service at the Stake Center for a lot of the day. We played basketball in the evening with Gilbert and the other investigators in the Stake.

Saturday
Saturday was super busy. We had five lessons!! It was supposed to pour all day and it didn't thank goodness because we had to bike all over the place. Heavenly Father is looking out for us!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Hill


Tyler's Highlights and Hints this Week! 

*WE HAVE A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY! Our investigator, Carissa is being baptized this Saturday and she is so excited. I didn't wanna say anything the past couple of weeks so I wouldn't jinx it, but it looks like it is 100% going to happen!! (Hopefully I'm not jinxing it) After teaching and working with her for about four months now, she said that she is ready and wants to take the next step, so we are super excited for her! I have come to love her and we have become really close! She said that I'm "like her brother who always has her back" and I might have the opportunity to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost which is super exciting! 

*Go watch the Mormon Message "Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time".. It's a good one.

Bikes Are From the Devil

Hi everyone!

How has it already been a week!? 

Monday
So Monday night we were biking to FHE and Elder Giles bike broke again 
so we had to walk all the way back home.... Again. Bikes are from the 
devil. 

Tuesday
Tuesday we spent all day with Gilbert helping an older lady move her 
stuff from her property to a storage unit. A couple years ago her 
house burned down and so she had been living in a trailer and now she 
is moving somewhere else. She had so much stuff and it took us about six 
hours and we didn't even finish she had so much stuff! But she was 
really grateful and she gave us all really big hugs and was really 
appreciative so it was good to help her out. Tuesday night we 
played basketball at the church and there were some non-members there 
that I think could have played for the Trail Blazers. It was crazy how 
good they were. 

Wednesday
Wednesday we had a couple of good lessons and we had dinner and a 
lesson with Carissa at the Francis's house! It was such a good time 
and a great lesson and we even played with their 1950's pinball 
machine. So that was pretty sweet. 

Thursday
Thursday a lot of plans fell through, but we did have a lesson with 
Gilbert and he said he is 99% there about getting baptized but he is 
still hanging on to his Catholic background. So we have been really 
trying to help him out with that, but he did say that if he gets 
baptized and I happen to get transferred that "Elder Hill has to come 
back and do it. I don't care where he is and when he gets moved, you 
better go find him because he is the only one that can do it and those are 
my demands!" So that was super cool, I really hope that he gets 
baptized soon and it would be such a cool opportunity to be able to do 
that! 

Tyler, Elder Ellis & Gilbert

Friday
Friday we started the day out doing service for this less-active lady 
in our Ward. We went over to her place and we were taking plants out 
of pots for her. This lady is about 88 years old but she is pretty 
swift and also kinda crazy. She was taking a plant out of a pot and 
she says, "do you know what this is?....... It's cannabis! Like 
marijuana!" and she starts chuckling to herself. It definitely was 
marijuana cause we could smell it from a mile away. So I guess we 
helped a less-active lady move her weed farm. After that adventure, we 
went over to the Holgate Center and taught a couple lessons to
Sister Scott and Sister Pierce. Then, the most exciting part of the 
week!! We got a car for a few days! Long story short, an Elder in our 
district went home and so his companion is in a trio for a few days 
and we get their car. So that's nice to have a car since it has been 
raining all day every day! 

Sunday
Sunday we went to six hours of church because we had to go to church 
with the missionary who's companion went home. President Ballard 
was speaking at his Ward so it was pretty cool to be able to go listen 
to him! After church we saw President Ballard driving on the road and 
we pulled up next to him at a red light and he waved at us. I was 
driving and Elder Giles and Elder Ellis were yelling at me to race 
him. So we pulled up in front and then he blew past us haha. It was 
pretty funny! 
 

Have a good week!

Elder Hill

Tyler's highlights this week!
*Transfers are this Saturday, but I'm 99% sure that I will stay here 
for another transfer. I will be in Moreland for six months! 

*I love this Ward and all the people here.  The Ward literally becomes 
your family out here.

 *It rains all day every day now :) 
 

Four Months Down!!!

Hi everyone! 

This week there isn't too much to report on. We had a lot of lessons cancel so that was really frustrating. We did do a lot of tracting/contacting and a lot of service throughout the week.  We met some pretty cool and interesting people ... along with getting yelled at a lot!

Tuesday I conducted my first district meeting and of course the APs decide to come, but it went well and was a good meeting! 

One of the biggest highlights of the week was Gilbert committed to be baptized!! We had a couple lessons with him throughout the week and our first lesson we felt prompted to go over the baptismal interview questions and we had the best lesson! We taught him the law of tithing, the Word of Wisdom, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ all in this one lesson. At the end he said he is going to get baptized and that he is going to pray on a date to be baptized! He also said that he is going to start coming to church every week. Our second lesson with him he said that he is still thinking about a date, but that he is excited about being baptized. He also told me the coolest thing. He said, "when you and Elder Parker showed up at my door and we started meeting together, I don't think I would have kept meeting with you guys if it was just Elder Parker and someone else. God knew that it had to be you that would help me change my life and that I would actually listen to you because we can relate so well. You're my little brother man!"... I thought that was the coolest thing because people always say that you're sent to a mission for a certain reason or you're sent to an area for a specific person, and it is totally true! I was sent to Portland and specifically the Moreland Ward to meet Gilbert and to help him! Pretty cool. 

Friday we spent a lot of the day helping a non-member move all of their stuff to a new place, and it was pouring rain all day so that was fun.. Not really, but it was good to help them out! 

Saturday was Halloween!! Portland is weird on Halloween. We saw so many people dressed in strange costumes walking on the streets and in stores, it was pretty funny. So myself, Elder Giles and some other missionaries wanted to go to Chipotle to get discounted burritos for wearing a costume (we were going to switch name tags so I was dressed as Elder Giles), but the Chipotle was closed. So we went to the food court right next to the Chipotle and everyone thought we were dressed up as missionaries and not actually missionaries haha. People would walk by and say, "Happy Halloween I like your ties!" or "nice costumes!"... We were just like no we are actually missionaries come back so we can talk to you!! It was funny.. Missionaries are supposed to be in by 6:30pm on Halloween, but we got permission to go to Gilbert's house and hangout. So we went over there and ain't a bunch of candy and hung out with him, and it was super fun! (He may or may not have had the World Series on in the other room so I could listen to it.) 

Sunday makes four months down!! We had three investigators come to church and Gilbert bore his testimony again!! He got up and was talking about his situation and he asked if everyone could pray for him to help take the next step and be baptized, and at the end he said, "I would love to be a Mormon!!" It was so awesome. After the meeting, so many members came up to him and hugged him and said they would pray for him and that they loved him. Best sacrament ever. 

Have a great week!

Elder Hill

Tyler's Highlights and Hints this Week!

*At one of our member dinners they let us make our own caramel apples covered in a bunch of candy, and it was awesome. 

*It is raining every day now and biking in it has been rough.  My foot keeps slipping off the pedal and I've almost ate it a couple times, but I haven't yet! 

*A couple weeks ago we were interviewed in the park about "lost souls" and the lady sent us the podcast so we could listen to our interview. She said that it is streaming in Canada now haha so that's kinda cool. 

*The amount of candy we have in our apartment from members and investigators is ridiculous!

*When we helped the non-member family move, they gave us a couch and a mini trampoline so now our apartment is decked out. 

*Just in case, you want to send me a letter or package for the holidays, here is my current address :) 

Elder Tyler Hill

1830 SE Linn St., Apt 5 

Portland, OR 97202