Elder Tyler Hill: Let it Snow ...

Hi everyone!

So this past week was pretty interesting. So many things happened!

Thursday there was a crazy snow storm and it snowed the entire day. The snow would freeze over on the roads so it was a blanket of ice and snow everywhere. And since Oregon doesn't do anything for their roads when it snows, the missionaries aren't allowed to drive the cars so everyone had to walk. Well, we live a little ways out of our actual area that we cover so we ended up just walking to the church and playing basketball with a member and our investigator. So that was pretty fun.

Friday we had our monthly missionary leadership meeting with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders and it was intense. Our mission's performance has gone down a little bit and our numbers have not been so hot the past couple months so President Ballard and President Newsom dropped the hammer down on us! They told us that we need to step it up big time. They chastened us hardcore, but you could tell it was all out of love. It was a spiritual chastening haha.

Saturday evening we stopped by to see a part member family who recently had their grandmother pass away. The father is less-active and he has a 12-year-old son who is a non-member. The son was really struggling with his grandmother's passing so we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved it. We then asked him to say a prayer right then to ask God if it was true and he said one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard in my life. He told Heavenly Father that he was struggling with his grandma's passing and he really wanted to know if what we said was true and if she is alright. He told us he felt God was there listening and that he was happier after he prayed. The Spirit was super strong. The father said that we could start teaching him consistently!

On Sunday, I was able to go to a baptism back in the Moreland Ward (my first area)! A man named David was baptized after he had taken the lessons for like 20 years! I was able to teach him my whole six months I was there and I got to know him pretty well. It was incredible too see how he had changed over the past year. He was literally an entirely different person when I talked to him on Sunday. It was amazing to see how happy and at peace he was at his baptism, it was something that I had never seen in him a year ago. It's crazy how the gospel can totally change who we are and make us into someone so much better!

Sunday night we had a Crèche and Carol for our Stake and it was cool to go and talk to everyone there. We had multiple people from the Stake come up to Elder Miller and I and say how we did a great job at stake Conference last week teaching in front of everyone. One guy said he really, really felt the Spirit and that it helped him a lot. It was so cool!! That's what being a missionary is all about!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season! Such an awesome time of year. Go and #LightTheWorld!! Love and miss you guys!!

Elder Hill