Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! Dang I can't believe Christmas is almost here!...

So when I came to Portland I was told that it never snows here, only rains a lot. Whoever told me that, I think they lied. This whole week it has been freezing! And it snowed Wednesday, Thursday, and then Saturday! It's so weird because there will be a lot of snow, but then it will just melt a little and then freeze over and everything is ice. We couldn't drive Wednesday or Thursday and it was a good thing because when we drove on Friday, we saw two different cars next to our apartment complex that had rolled and flipped off the road. It was nuts... so we were walking for a couple days just trying to talk to people so it wasn't too bad!

On Tuesday, I went on an exchange with Elder Fitzwater in our Zone. He has only been out a little over a month and it was good to talk and work with him. I was in his area and we had a couple of really good lessons! He has the "greenie fire" and wants to work hard; he is learning and getting the hang of it. A cool story - We went and knocked on someone's door and a lady answered. I started talking to her and teaching her a little bit and after about 5 minutes she let us in and we had an awesome lesson with her. She opened up to us and bore her testimony to us about how Jesus Christ has helped her in her life. It was sweet. We set-up a return appointment with her and her family and she was super excited. After the lesson, we walked out and Elder Fitzwater was like, "how did you do that!? That was so cool I've never had that happen before!" haha I told him that it will come with time, but it definitely wasn't me that did that, it's the Spirit. I told him that you have to understand that we really can't do anything if we don't have the Spirit leading and guiding us.

On Friday, we had our mission Christmas party! The whole mission got together and we had a big lunch and hung out. There were some musical numbers, a hilarious skit, and then President and Sister Ballard bore their testimonies and talked to us for a bit. It was fun to see everyone and it was really cool to be able to think back to a year ago last Christmas party and where I was and how things have changed.

Saturday, we went and visited a non-member family because we heard they had a daughter that just had a heart surgery. The family has some pretty close Mormon friends and so they let us right in and we shared a message with them and we gave their daughter a blessing that she might recover. The family loved it and they are open to learning more!

On Sunday, we had dinner at the Nys family. They have a daughter who is 17 years old and she had her wisdom teeth taken out the day before. So we went over there for dinner and she was perfectly fine and acting normal, usually she is a very smart person. Then 15 minutes later she took her meds and let me tell ya I haven't seen anyone get so high from taking pain killers! We were at dinner and she was talking about the most ridiculous things. She was talking about people being constipated, she was talking about the Illuminati conspiracy theories and then about Tom Brady winning a super bowl, and so many other weird things. It was the funniest dinner ever. That family is really cool and we are close with them so it wasn't  too weird or anything haha.
With Christmas coming up, don't forget the reason of why we celebrate Christmas! Think of one thing that you can do this Christmas to come closer to Christ... I am so grateful for my Savior and if there is one thing that I have learned the past 18 months, it's that Jesus Christ is real. Sometimes we think of Christ and the atonement as some abstract thing that is out in the world somewhere, but Christ and His atonement are as real as you and me. Jesus Christ is there for us and His power is a very real thing. It can help us in our lives and carry us through the trials we face. I am thankful to bear His name on my chest!

Love you all, have a good Christmas!!

Elder Hill

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