Elder Tyler Hill: 11 Months Down!!!

Hi everyone!

We had a pretty good week this week! We had three of our investigators come to church yesterday so that was sweet. So there is a crazy story with one of our new investigators. Her name is Denice Brown and she was taking the lessons about a half-year ago and was coming to church frequently. She was just about to get baptized, but her husband was really against it so she stopped coming to church but kept taking the lessons and working towards baptism. Well, just four days before her baptism her husband had enough and said, "you have to choose between me or the church". We never want to breakup a marriage or family so she was counseled to stay with her husband and she decided to not be baptized. But the crazy part is that just two days after he said that to her, he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He was a vibrant, healthy man and then out of nowhere right after he said that he got cancer. A couple months later (a week ago) he passed away. It was so sudden and devastating, but now she wants to start taking the lessons again and she came to church yesterday. I just thought that was crazy because God doesn't make any mistakes and everything happens for a reason. It made me think of the scripture Alma 24:27: "thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people." God's purpose is to bring about the eternal life of His children and He will do whatever it takes to do that. I know that her husband will have an opportunity to accept the gospel in the next life so that they can be together for eternity and the amazing thing is that Denice already understands that.

We taught and met with a lot of awesome people this week! One of the coolest and humblest people we taught was a less-active man named Paul. He is a Vietnam veteran and was the gunman in a helicopter. He has done and seen some crazy stuff. He hasn't forgiven himself for some of the things he had to do and so that's why he doesn't come to church. He started crying talking about it. We talked about the Atonement and how it is infinite and covers everything. He said nobody believed some of the stuff he had to do. He said that Sylvester Stallone interviewed him for a movie once trying to get as much info as possible about the war for a movie and Stallone couldn't even believe the things he had to do. But he came to church on Sunday with us. He is an awesome guy!

This Sunday we got a new bishop and he is amazing! One of the best I have ever seen. Super excited for the ward!!

This past week, I hit 11 months! Almost halfway there, it is flying by!!

Thanks for all the love and support! Have a great week!

Elder Hill