Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope everyone ate a lot and got super fat.

For Thanksgiving in the morning, we went out and played in a Turkey Bowl with our less-active friend, Zack and some other people from the Ward. It was just dumping rain on us and it started hailing at one point, but we kept playing haha it was so fun. It was more of a mud bowl. Everyone was running and diving around in the mud, it was awesome. Later, we had our first dinner with the Nielsen family.  They have four younger kids and they are hilarious. It was fun! Then we went over to dinner with a Spanish family that had invited us over that week. It was a really cool experience. This family is from Puerto Rico and had only been in the USA for less than a year, so this was their first Thanksgiving. They wanted us to come over and have their first one with them. They live in a very small house and there was 10 people total. They didn't have a lot of food overall, but they did have a lot of rice, a small turkey, and some other sides and they were all so happy and excited! They got all dressed up and we were taking pictures and everything, it was really cool. 

We didn't have a lot of lessons because people were out of town, but we did have a really cool lesson with a girl who had been inactive for 10 years. She grew up a member, but became a hardcore drug addict and she was homeless for a long time. And then one day she just decided to call her dad and ask for his help. He drove six hours to pick her up and she started changing her life around. She now has a strong testimony and is an active member. It was cool to talk to her and see how she has changed.

We have still been working with RyLeigh and Tuesday and both are working towards baptism in December so hopefully that will workout!

I hit my 17 month mark this week! I'm starting to be one of the older missionaries now, so weird.... 

Spiritual Thought:

In Elders Quorum, they were talking about why we go through hard times and we started talking about how God is the perfect Pharmacist. He knows the exact healing balm that we need to become better. He has our trials and struggles perfectly calculated to what we need to become better. He has His divine strength and help calculated as well. He knows us perfectly and so He puts us in situations that allow us to live to our full potential, all while honoring our agency. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Hill

Portland Temple

Ouch!

What's up everyone!! 

This past week was a good one! So we have been teaching our investigator, Tuesday, and she is a Rockstar. We taught her the Word of Wisdom last week and when we were teaching her she was like, "why didn't you tell me this earlier so I could be doing it! I need those blessings!" She is so awesome and is still working towards baptism next month. Then we have our investigator, Ryleigh. We found her by knocking on a less-active lady's house and the lady let us right in and her daughter Ryleigh was there. Ryleigh is 12 years old and she is super spunky haha. We started teaching both of them and now Ryleigh wants to get baptized. So we set her date for Dec. 24th. She was excited to get baptized on Christmas Eve!

We had a weird experience with an inactive lady in the Ward. We go knock on her door and she opens it and was very nice to us. We were just talking to her at the door and then all of a sudden she looks behind us down the street at her neighbors house and says, "hold on stop talking". Then she just stares at the house for a little bit (there was nothing wrong with the house, there were a couple lights on inside but that's it.) and then she says, "I knew it". We asked her if everything was alright and she said, "they have my kids in there. I don't want them in there. Can we get in your car and drive by slowly?" (Both of her kids are around 25 years old and they weren't even living in the same city.) it was really weird. We told her that we couldn't give people rides and so then she just starts taking off jogging towards this house and starts looking in the windows. It was so weird! We were just like let's get outta her!!!

Last Friday, we were able to go to the temple and do an endowment session. It was awesome! I love going to the temple. There is a peace that is felt in the temple that you cannot find anywhere else on earth. It really helped me get a spiritual boost and receive answers to questions that I have. 

Then on Sunday, we had a recent Convert Fireside at the Temple Visitors Center, and I conducted the meeting again, I have never had so many opportunities to speak in front of big groups of people than I have had in the past 6 months haha. There were four recent converts that spoke and then President Newsome, the 1st counselor in the mission presidency, spoke. He talked about how he had a daughter pass away in an accident when she was 5 years old. He talked about how it has been the greatest struggle of his life and still is, but he then bore his testimony about the temple and how families are eternal and how knowing this has helped him so much. It was so powerful, everyone was crying. I love the temple and how our relationships here on earth can last on into eternity. 

Hope everyone has a great thanksgiving!! Love and miss you guys!

Elder Hill

 He took the stitches out himself and then the nail fell off, but it looks a lot better!

 Cloudy Oregon day ...

Some of Tyler's Zone at Zone Conference!

"I think I need a Bandaid!"

Hi everyone!

So this week was pretty crazy and good! I had to get three stitches and I went to a baptism!

So on Tuesday we had a Zone Conference (3 zones get together and have a training all day) and it was pretty fun. Elder Miller and I had to give a training to everyone on how to extend bold commitments, and it went really well! Even though we didn't have much time to prepare President Ballard said we crushed it😃

Then on Wednesday I almost chopped my finger off haha. We were out chopping down some branches for a member and we needed to start a burn pile. So I start chopping the small pieces of wood into smaller pieces with a hatchet. Everything was going great, I was cruising along and then I wasn't paying attention and I came down on the wood with the hatchet, but my index finger was in the way. I cut the fingernail in half and it cut into my finger a little ways. It didn't hurt at first, I was just like "oh man that doesn't feel right", and then it started bleeding a lot and then I said, "uhhh I think I need a bandaid". Eventually that evening, I went and got stitches and so now everything is okay, besides my finger looking really gross.

On the bright side on Saturday I went to a baptism in the my last area, the YSA Ward! It was for a guy named Scott that I taught once and became friends with. He is so awesome and at his baptism he got up and bore his testimony. It was sweet. He is already so solid and will be such a great member of the church!... and then later that day we went to the Portland Temple Visitor Center with one of our investigators, her name is Tuesday Buffinger. She is the nicest lady ever and is killing it with the Book of Mormon. She's almost read the whole thing. So The Visitor Center sisters toured us around the temple and Tuesday loved it. She wants to be baptized on Christmas Eve! So we set her baptismal date for then. She was like, "I'm free next Saturday, let's do it then!"  But she has to come to church a few times so we had to push it back a little haha. She is doing great.

 Sister missionaries with Tuesday at the Portland Temple

 Selfie with the YSA missionaries!

Things have been crazy here in Portland. President Ballard banned us all from going downtown because of all the crazy protesters. It's pretty relaxed out in our area though, nothing too crazy going on. 

Hope you all have a good week! Being a missionary is awesome, I love being able to share the gospel!

Elder Hill

Oregon drivers are crazy!!!

Hi everyone!

The weeks are all just a blur...

This week we saw some pretty crazy things. We were driving down a busy road and we saw way up in the intersection in front of us some guy swerve into a stoplight pole. It was crazy. Apparently he was drunk. We parked and walked up to the accident and asked if anyone needed a blessing and they said no everyone should be fine... and then the next day we were driving and saw a lady pull out in front of the person driving in front of us and they swerved and they ended up driving through a lady's fence into her backyard. Oregon drivers are crazy!

Other than seeing some weird accidents, we have been teaching this guy named Nelson. He is the one from Puerto Rico that we met at the park and he just moved here. He is a very humble man and really wants to know what is true and if there is a prophet on the earth right now. He said he would be baptized if he came to know what we taught him was true! He's awesome. 

Our teaching pool is pretty small right now.  We basically just started over this transfer and are trying to find new people to teach. And since President Ballard doesn't want us to tract, we have just been going to parks and talking to people. We also have been really trying to work with the members. The members of this ward are awesome!

Other than that, nothing too exciting happened this week. We had MLC (missionary leadership conference) and I bore my testimony in sacrament! 

Spiritual Thought  

Matthew 14:24-32: 

"24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased."

We have been sharing this story with a lot of the members. It is one of my favorites in the Bible because it demonstrates so many principles we can learn from. The one principle that I think about is focusing on Christ. When Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on the water, he is entirely focused on Jesus Christ, but as soon as he starts to worry about the storm going around him, he loses his focus and that's when he begins to sink. When going through life we are going to have many storms, but if we can keep our sights focused on Christ then we will be okay. As soon as we become distracted and lose that focus, then we will begin to falter. 

Have a great week everyone!!

Elder Hill

Can't beat Oregon in the fall ...

Watched the end of the World Series with Elder Miller and Zack ... go Cubs!