Happy Birthday!

Hi everyone!

This week was busy! We have been teaching a lot of lessons and it's been good! My new companion, Elder Kirk, is from Emmit, Idaho. He has been out for 20 months, and we have been doing pretty well together. 

There were some crazy things that happened this week. So on Wednesday night we came home and we were planning and we get a call from some elders serving in the Ward next to us (they also live in the same apartment complex as us so they're just a couple doors down). And one of them told us to come over now, and he sounded serious so we booked it over there. Apparently the missionaries had gotten into a huge fight with each other and they broke a bunch of chairs and a bookshelf in the apartment. We were like, "oh crap! we have to do an exchange with them before they kill each other." So one of them came and stayed with me at our apartment and Elder Kirk stayed there. President Ballard drove out here and handled it the next day haha. It was nuts.

On Thursday, we did splits with the High Priests and I went with Brother Nash. We went to go visit a less-active lady and there were two doors to this duplex she lived in and Bro Nash didn't know which one was hers so we knocked on both. One didn't answer and the next door a guy opened it. His name was Jim and he looked like the definition of an Oregonian hippie. He said that the lady we were looking for lived next door but she wasn't there. So we started talking to him about his religious beliefs and we had a 45 min conversation with him and he had some interesting views. He said the Second Coming is going to be this year and that there will be "fire in the skies". Brother Nash thought it was funny, but he said that we could come back! So we will go visit him again... 

We have started teaching this lady named Martha, and she has never heard of the Book of Mormon, but she grew up reading the Bible. She keeps telling us how fascinating it is that Jesus Christ came to the Americas and that people sailed over here from Jerusalem. She always gets so excited talking about it, it's awesome. We have also been doing lots of service. This week we had to put in an irrigation system in a guys backyard and then we spent three days cutting down blackberry vines for some people. You're not in Oregon if you don't cut blackberries at least once a month for service.

Sister Torrie photo-bombed one of the pictures! 

"Doing service with all the blackberry vines.  We cut a hole through the middle of the bush."

And I turn 21 today! Our Ward Mission Leader asked us what we were doing for my birthday and I told him we are going clubbing and that he was invited haha. He said he is down....

Thank you so much for all of the birthday packages and cards and emails!! I really appreciate it and it means a lot to me:) 

"Opening presents this morning.  Elder Kirk got me a tie!"

"The Sisters and a couple of Elders got me some birthday gifts!"

Hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Hill