Elder Tyler Hill

Hello everyone!

It was a pretty good first week of the transfer! Lots of cool things have been happening. We have been working with one of our investigators, Zach, and he has changed his life so much. He had been in jail a couple of different times, he used to drink a ton and party a lot, and now he has quit all of that. He is working on quitting smoking now. He has been reading a chapter of the Book of Mormon every day and he hasn't missed a single week of church the past two months! It's incredible to see him change and to see how his countenance is totally different. He has more light in his eyes and he is so much happier now. He wants to be baptized but has to wait a while for certain reasons, but he is doing awesome. He said the opening prayer in one of our lessons and he said, "I want you to know God that I know the Book of Mormon is true and that this your true church on the earth. And that Joseph Smith is your prophet and so is Thomas S. Monson. I believe it is all true.".. It was so awesome!...

On Sunday, we had a new member fireside at the temple visitors center. There were a few recent converts who spoke and the missionaries brought their investigators and other people. The Zone Leaders are in charge of putting the meeting together so we got to set it all up and I had to conduct which was kinda fun. The meeting was really cool! Being able to hear the recent converts testimonies and conversion stories was awesome. Zach came with us and after the meeting we walked around the temple, and he loved it! He wants to do his family history work now and have his ancestors baptized.

Zach & Tyler at the Portand Oregon Temple

Interesting story: On Wednesday we were out tracting and the second door we knock on this guy opens it. He says, "hey gentlemen would you like to come in or should we talk out here?" Elder Craft and I look at each other and we were just like yeah we would love to come in! So we go in, sit down, and this guy is just super nice and everything. We thought he was a member cause this never happens haha! So I was looking everywhere for a sign a that this guy was a member but there was none, and then I saw an entire bookshelf of religious books and different bible books and stuff. I was just thinking 'oh no'. The only people who let us in and have this many religious books are bible bashers (people who try to prove us wrong by quoting the bible and just arguing). So we are chatting with him and he is playing dumb a little bit. He asks if we are Mormons and if we are on our mission and all this stuff and then he starts pointing out different points of doctrine that we believe that he thinks aren't right. So of course he starts quoting scriptures from the bible and talking about how we aren't true Christians, and he just starts getting worse and worse. He eventually said, "I'm just going to be blunt, you two are both liars. You are brainwashed into believing all these ridiculous lies. Joseph Smith was a lunatic and a liar. So I suggest you stop going around lying to everyone you see.... If you actually want to go to heaven then you are going to have to break away from this blasphemy religion you are brainwashed into following."... Ouch.. Elder Craft and I held our own pretty good. We basically proved all of his theories about Mormons wrong by quoting the bible, and I just said, "look, have you ever read the Book of Mormon? Do you even know what it is about?.... Exactly! You can't claim it is a lie when you know nothing about it. And, do you honestly think that I would leave my family, friends, and entire life behind for two whole years to come tell a lie? Or because I am brainwashed?... I can promise you that I am not brainwashed. I have diligently studied and prayed to know if this true. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God by the power of the Holy Ghost and you can come to know the same thing if you simply open up your heart."...... It was pretty intense. We told him we had to leave, but we left on a good note talking about Christ.... Gotta love bible bashers. It always strengthens my testimony though! If you receive a confirmation from the spirit that something is true then there is nothing that can prove that wrong.

Hope you have a great week!!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Hill