Duck + Rooster = Dooster!

Hi everyone!

New transfer! It was my first week with Elder Garfield and it was awesome. Elder Garfield is from Henderson, Nevada and he went to BYU-I for a year before his mission. He is hilarious, and we get along super well! This week was the best we have had in Canby! We taught 18 lessons and found four new investigators. 

Saying goodbye to Elder Prestgard!

Monday

Monday we had FHE with one of the families in our Ward and they invited an investigator and her family over.  It went well and they seemed to really like it. 

Tuesday

Tuesday we did service almost all day. We chopped some more wood, worked at the adult center, and helped a member cut their blackberry vines. Blackberry vines are the worst! They have huge thorns and we came out of their looking like a cat had clawed our arms to death haha. The member was an older guy and she really appreciated it! In the evening, we had a really good lesson with an investigator who has been taking the lessons for four years!  We are trying to figure out what to say or teach that will help her because she is ready to be baptized! She just has to take that next step. 

Wednesday

Wednesday we had some lessons with less-active members and they went really well! We are really trying to help get them to church. We also worked at the food bank again and that's always fun. We go there with the Zone Leaders and sort canned foods. 

Thursday

Thursday, Gilbert came down to Canby to visit! He took us out to lunch, and the first thing he says is,"okay first things first, I'm working on the baptism little bro. I am getting there, it just takes time and God knows what's best." I'm glad he is still thinking about it at least! He says he wants to come down and continue taking lessons down here with me and Elder Garfield haha. We said he has missionaries up there to teach him, but he said he wants to take more lessons down here in Canby. So we will see haha. So good to see him!! We also had five lessons on Thursday! We met with an investigator, a recent convert, and then three less-active members. In one of the lessons, we talked a lot about prayer and we shared part of the Bible Dictionary definition and it was awesome.  The mom (Sister Lombard) said that the lesson really answered her prayers and helped her a lot. 

Lunch with Gilbert!

Friday

Friday we met with a former investigator named Kim.  We met her last week and she told us to come over. We walked in and she had a bunch of little snacks and drinks laid out along with her scriptures, it was awesome! We taught her the Restoration and it was solid. We taught simply and powerfully and the Spirit was strong! We are going back on Thursday to teach her again with a member. Later in the day, we helped a member saw some branches off their tree which was kinda fun. 

Saturday

Saturday we did some more service for a less-active member, helping them clean up their barn. We tracted for a couple hours, and we got nothin. It was the worst. We only handed out one BoM and no one was interested at all!

Sunday

Sunday our Ward had a regional conference broadcasted to our building and Elder Renlund spoke so that was pretty cool! We had a really good lesson with an investigator at a member's house about the BoM. She says it is just a matter of time until she is baptized. So many people are so close, they just need an extra little push!! So we had an hour of finding to do before dinner time and we drove out to the boonies to where dinner was and we decided we were going to tract the whole next street. Keep in mind, tracting has not been successful at all since I have been on my mission, so we were not expecting a lot. We took three BoM's and two pamphlets and set a goal to give them out before dinner. And it was crazy! The first two doors we knocked on we taught both of them a lesson about the BoM.  They took the Book of Mormon and a pamphlet, and said they would read it and that we could come back in a week after they had read some of it. TWO DOORS IN A ROW. We were walking off the porch and Elder Garfield was like, "what the heck is going on, this is insane." The funny thing is that we were going to skip both of those doors. One of them had a really long driveway that took forever to walk down, but we said let's just do it anyway, and then the other door was super, super sketchy. It was an old tiny little house that had a sign that said, "Insane Asylum".  We were debating whether to knock or not but we just went for it. We knocked on the door and we heard a like a weird laughing noise, and we thought we were going to be kidnapped... Saratov Approach all over again, but a lady opened the door and she was really interested. Never has that happened before with two doors in a row, but the Lord knows who is prepared. Then the next door after that took a BoM, but they weren't too interested. We ran out of supplies after our first three doors! It was incredible and such a blessing! 

Have a great week!

Elder Hill

Tyler's Highlights & Hints this Week!

-Happy Valentine's Day!! 

-When we were tracting there were some weird rooster-duck things on this ladies porch. They looked so weird so we took a pic by them! Haha 

Duck + Rooster = Dooster

-Thank you for all of the emails! I really appreciate them and they mean a lot and receiving letters is like Christmas so don't be afraid to send them:) My address is still the same!! You guys are the best!

-Scriptural thought:  Mormon 5:23 "Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that he hath all power." Sometimes we tend to forget Who is guiding our lives. I really like this scripture because it is a good reminder that God is in charge and that He has a specific plan for each of us. He knows us perfectly and has power to bless us more than we can imagine. He can help us more than we could ever help ourselves. We just have to trust and believe.

Transfers & Divine Intervention

Hi everyone!

So P-Days have been super busy with sports and activities lately so I'm sorry if I haven't emailed you back, but I promise I will! I love getting emails no matter how long or short so keep sending them please! I really appreciate it:) 

Tuesday

Tuesday we went and chopped wood for an older non-member lady, and the craziest thing happened. We were using a log splitter and usually the logs split very easily, but the log this time had some knots in it so when the splitter went down it didn't split right away. It was going down on the log and causing a ton of tension and we were just thinking "uh oh". Elder Prestgard and I were both only a foot away from the splitter and finally the log split and one of the pieces went flying from under the machine and it went shooting right in between us!  It was literally the only place that the log could have gone without hitting us (and it was a pretty huge/dense piece of wood). It was a miracle that one of us didn't get drilled by the log, thank goodness for divine intervention!

Tuesday night we had a lesson with the Johnson's on the Plan of Salvation. We used some cutouts as visual aids to teach it, but I also wanted them to have a written out copy that they could keep. So I drew it out on a piece of paper beforehand and gave it to them at the end of the lesson. We went back over a few days later to see how they were doing and they had framed the drawing I gave them and hung it on the wall! It was awesome!! They said they felt like they should frame it.  We were so happy to see it hanging up! 

Wednesday

Wednesday we did some service at the food bank and in the evening we had a couple lessons with less-active members that were good. 

Thursday

Thursday we had exchanges with the Canyon Creek Elders. Elder Miller came to Canby with me and my companion went with Elder Garver to Mollala. Elder Miller and I had some solid lessons during the day and since Elder Miller was going to be here with me and the Zone Leaders wanted to pull a little prank on him (the ZLs cover the other half of Canby so we see them all the time). So Elder Miller is a pretty confident guy and there is a member in the ZLs Ward that loves to mess with missionaries, his name is Carlos. He is Hispanic and you wouldn't think he is a member by the way he looks, but he is a solid member, and he has a brother-in-law that lives with them who also goes along with the pranks, he goes by Chunky. Anyways, so Carlos tells me to bring Elder Miller over at 7 (I have already met Carlos and Chunky a couple times) and he is going to pretend he is an investigator. So I make a story about how we tracted into Carlos and that he told us to come back tonight at 7. We go and knock on his door and Chunky answers and let's us in. We go in and we sit on the couch, and then we hear someone in the bathroom saying, "who was at the door babe!?" and Carlos comes out in just his boxers!  He is a big hairy dude, talking in a feminine voice and he says, "oh it's those cute church guys". He starts talking to us and he comes and sits down right next to Elder Miller and starts flirting with him and asking him questions. Keep in mind he is literally in just his boxers. I had to try so hard not to laugh, and every time I look at Chunky he just smiles at me and tries not to laugh. Elder Miller was getting so uncomfortable, his expressions were priceless. Eventually Carlos just starts busting up laughing and says, "I can't do this anymore!" The ZLs come out from the back room and are dying laughing. Elder Miller goes, "you're members aren't you!?" Hahaha it was so funny but terrible at the same time. Gotta love missionary pranks. 

Tyler, Elder Prestgard & Zone Leaders at BWW's 

Friday

Friday I had to go down and do a baptismal interview in Mollala for a 10-year-old girl who was getting baptized so that was cool.  She was very excited to be baptized. 

Saturday

Saturday we went and cut blackberry vines for a member and those things are the worst! They cut you up so bad!! Saturday we also had our last District meeting and so we kinda all brought some goofy things to wear to take a picture with. 

Sunday

Sunday was transfer calls!! So I will be staying in Canby as the District Leader, but Elder Prestgard is leaving:( and I am getting Elder Garfield! He has been out four months. I have been around him before, and he is pretty cool so I am excited. Now I have to take over the area and I feel like I still just got here and don't know the people very well, but it should fun. I have to say that I have really enjoyed being District Leader because of the opportunities that you get to help and serve others especially doing baptismal interviews. Being able to see the people and talk to them about their baptism is the best. Seeing their excitement for their baptism and how the Gospel has changed their lives is so awesome. 

It's starting to warm up here, thank goodness! 

Have a good week! 

Elder Hill

It's All True People!!!

Hello everyone!

Nothing super exciting happened this week ...

We had some lessons throughout the week, but nothing that really stood out.  We had plans and other things fall through. We did some service serving food one evening and there was one night when we were planning with our Ward Mission Leader.  He was talking about how we have to have the faith to call down miracles from heaven because as missionaries we are entitled to that. So Elder Prestgard and I thought about it and the next day we got in the car, and we prayed to have a miracle that we would be led to someone's house that is prepared. So we went and drove to one of the potential investigators we had and they weren't home so we started driving to a street to go tracting and as we were driving I had the impression to take a left down this dirt road. So I did!  It led to an old house just by itself in the middle of nowhere so we go and knock on it and a lady answers. She said that she is Christian and she loves Jesus Christ and that she wants us to share our message with her whole family. So we are going back to her house on Tuesday to teach them! 

On Thursday night, we were driving home at 9:15pm and we get a call from the Sisters. We answer the phone and they just start yelling and screaming and freaking out. They had gotten home and went to unlock their apartment and it was already opened and all the lights were on. They look inside and there was just a single bucket sitting in the middle of the floor so they ran to their car, locked the doors and called us. We called the Zone Leaders and went over there and no one was in the apartment. It was apparently just the Office Elders dropping off cleaning supplies earlier in the day hahaha. Poor sisters were scared to death haha. 

We had Stake Conference this weekend and Elder Hansen from the Seventy came and spoke. It was really good. He got up and said, "I was going to share some things with you today, but since the meeting started the Spirit has led me in a totally different direction." He didn't look down once at any notes or anything. He went on to give a really good talk on repentance for 45 min. I wish I could do that. It was so cool. 

Last p-day we went and played disc golf with a member and now we are going to play real golf today so I don't have a lot of time. That's why this is so short, sorry! 

Have a great week!

Elder Hill

Tyler's Hints and Highlights this Week!

*It was Elder Prestgard's birthday on Saturday! A member made him a cake and I may or may not have shoved his face in it! Haha

*Jesus Christ is either the Son of God or He is not. Joseph Smith either saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ or he did not. The Book of Mormon is true or it is not and if it is not, then the Church and everything else goes with it. It is all black and white. We have to find out for ourselves." It's all true people!! 

Poop Scoopers & Rescue Missions

Hi everyone!

Monday

Monday we had a lesson with the Johnson's, and it went really well! We taught them the first discussion and they said they believed everything we taught them. We invited them to be baptized and Connie, the mom, said she wanted to. Jerry and Jeremy said they wanted to go to church and check it out first before they jump into baptism. 

Tuesday

Tuesday we did some service for an older couple in the Ward; the couple that owns like 12 dogs. They needed help cleaning up their backyard and also asked us to clean up their dog poop. So that was enjoyable. Then we played Pinochle and had a couple lessons later with ward members. 

Wednesday

Wednesday we went with Bill on a rescue mission to downtown Portland to save the Johnson's car that was still broken down over there. We pushed the car out of a parking garage down a block and onto a car dolly. The Johnson's were so grateful and appreciative that we all went to help them out, it was awesome. 

Thursday

Thursday we had Zone Conference all day. Our Zone and two other Zones met at the Stake Center and President Ballard and the Zone Leaders gave us counsel and training. President said that last month was the most baptisms in one month the Oregon Portland Mission has seen in 17 years! After Conference we had a lesson with a lady named Becky Joe. She was more curious than interested and she said she believes in "energy". We were born from an energy source, we live on earth, and then we return to that same energy source. We told her about the Plan of Salvation and how we have a Heavenly Father who has given us a plan to be happy. She thought it was interesting, but said she is happy with her beliefs. It was an interesting conversation. 

Friday

Friday there was a Worldwide Missionary Broadcast that our Zone watched at the Stake Center. It was really good. We had FHE with two youth in the Ward who brought their friends. It was hard at first to get them all focused throughout lesson, but then we showed them the video, "Because of Him" and everyone was silent during and after the video. The Spirit was really strong! 

Sunday

Sunday, Connie and Jerry came to church!! And they loved it! It was their first time coming and they said it was so comfortable and peaceful, unlike any other church they have ever been to. They asked us to come over on Tuesday to give them the next lesson! They said they want to start coming every week!! 

Have a great week!

Elder Hill

Pictures of the inside of Tyler's apartment!

View outside Tyler's front door!

Elder Prestgard at the front door of their apartment!

Tyler's Hints & Highlights this Week!

*The sun was out all day on Friday and it was warm. Best. Day. Ever. 

*Found the "Lone Elder Store" out in the middle of nowhere. How ironic. 

 

 *"Faith is a principle of action and power. Faith in Christ is a principle of action. Faith in the Atonement is a principle of power." 

*The work is picking up slowly, but surely!

Blessings, Snow Days & Pinochle Brawls

Hi everyone!

Monday
Monday we went up to Mt. Hood with Bill, he's a member who is coming back to church and getting ready to go through the temple. He loves missionaries and so he took us and another companionship up to the mountain to go sledding and see Timberline Lodge. It was so sweet, there was like three feet of snow! 

Wednesday

Wednesday I went on an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Shaw, and it was awesome. He's from Mesa, AZ! I went to their area which covers the other half of Canby. We did some tracting and then we had a lesson with Fabian, an investigator. He and his brother used to be in a gang and his brother was killed, but now Fabian has a wife and a family and is planning on getting baptized in February. Pretty cool!!

Thursday

Thursday we had a few lessons and we went on splits in the evening. I went with Cody who is a senior in high school. It was his first time going out with a missionary and we went and had a lesson with a less active guy. We had a really good lesson on the Book of Mormon and when it was over we got in the car and Cody goes, "that was so freaking cool!" Haha he will be a good missionary.

Friday

Friday we did service for most of the day. We went to the Canby adult center and we helped prepare lunch for all the elderly people and then we served it and helped them clean up. It was fun! We had a couple lessons later and one was with a less-active lady named Stephanie. She has been struggling with church and paying her tithing recently so we had a lesson about those things and I told her an experience I had about tithing. The next day we get a call from her and she goes, "Elder Hill! I want you to know something, your story gave me the strength to go pay my tithing in full! Last night I finally paid a full tithe. So thank you so much!!"... So awesome when you get calls like that!

Saturday

Saturday morning our whole Zone and another Zone (so like 40 missionaries) did service cleaning up a park, It was fun seeing all the other missionaries. After that, we tracted for like three straight hours and we got nothin! That is the worst..... but after that we received a call from our investigator family, the Johnsons. They asked us to come over because they had been going through some really hard things and they felt like they should call us. So we go over there and we find out that Connie, the mom, found out a couple days ago that she has cancer in her lymph nodes (lymphoma) and on the way home from her doctor's appointment their car broke down in Portland. They had been trying to find someone to help them tow the car back down to Canby because they couldn't afford to pay someone to tow it or fix it. They had tried everything and Connie was overwhelmed and broke down. We had talked to them about priesthood blessings before and she asked, "could you guys give me one of those blessings that you do?" We said of course. So Elder Prestgard anointed and I gave the blessing. The Spirit was really strong and Connie and Jerry (the dad) were very emotional through the whole thing. At the end of the blessing, Connie was crying and through her tears says, "that was the most incredible feeling I have ever experienced before in my life. I have never felt like this before. It feels like something was literally lifted off of me." We told her that everything would workout. It's pretty awesome when you can be an instrument in the Lord's hands like that! It was a really cool experience!

Thanks for all the support! I really appreciate it!

Elder Hill

Tyler's highlights this week!

*During Pinochle this week, two old ladies started yelling at each other and getting into it because they thought the other one was cheating haha. It was pretty funny, Elder Prestgard and I were trying not to laugh.

*A lady in the Ward asked us to be in the choir so now we are in the choir I guess haha. Should be interesting!

Country Life & Care Centers

Hi everyone!

Monday

Monday for p-day our whole Zone went to the Stake Center and played 
basketball and volleyball so that was fun. Some of the Sisters are 
pretty good! In the evening, we had dinner with the Bishop and they 
live in the woods in the middle of nowhere. It took us like thirty 
minutes to get there ... country life! 

Tuesday
Tuesday we went and did our weekly service at the adult center playing 
Pinochle. Those old folks get competitive hahaha. We had FHE with the 
Knowlden Family and we had a lesson on the Book of Mormon and then played Apples 
to Apples. 

Wednesday
Wednesday we had a lesson with a less-active named Stephanie who is a 
dog breeder. She owns like 12 dogs and they run all around her yard 
and house. We also had interviews with the Mission President. We talked 
about our area and the things we are doing and he said we are doing 
everything right we just have to keep sowing and eventually we will 
harvest in the Lord's time. Wednesday night we had a lesson with our 
investigator, Shelly Rump. She has been meeting with missionaries for 
years.  Her husband is a member and she said she wants a sign she 
should get baptized. We had a good lesson and we are meeting with her 
again next week. 

Thursday
Thursday we met with Margo and Bruce who are both less-actives living 
in a care center. Bruce is like 85 and he loves telling stories haha. 
We went tracting all day and everyone in this town has either talked 
to missionaries or is not interested at all. But something cool 
happened ... during personal study, I was reading about how God will place 
people in your path and we are put in certain places for a reason. So 
we went to go see a former investigator and they weren't home and I 
told Elder Prestgard about what I studied and that there was someone 
around here for us to find so that's why we are here. We went a couple 
houses down and knocked on a door and we talked to a guy named Mark 
and we got a return appointment! And then we saw a girl walking on the 
street by the house and we started talking to her and she was actually 
a member. She said she hadn't been visited by anyone in a long time 
and we got her number. So that was a pretty cool experience. We had a 
couple of lessons with less-active members in the evening. 

Friday
Friday we went down to Mollala and I had to do four baptismal 
interviews. Since there was a family getting baptized the next day, we 
had to get them all done in time and it took about 2.5 hours to get 
through all of them. It was long morning, but they all went great. And 
they were baptized the next day! 

Saturday
Saturday was just full of meetings. We had a Stake meeting, District 
meeting, then went to that family's baptism. And then Sunday was 
church meetings and tracting. 

Have a great week!

Elder Hill

Tyler's Highlights this week!

*Our Mission had 35 baptisms in the month of December which is the 
most in a month for our mission in seven years. 

*We had 28 baptisms in November and 35 in December and President said 
if we keep this up we will be the top baptizing mission in the 
northwest next month. Great things are happening!!!

The Canby Ward!!!

Hi everyone! 

So here's a little bit of information about my new area:

The Canby 2nd Ward is huge. They have 250 active members, 80 primary kids, 20ish young men and 20ish young women. It's crazy!! Compared to the 60 active members, 7 primary kids, and 5 youth total that was in Moreland. The town of Canby is pretty small. We cover the south half of the town and then all of the country for like 8 miles south of it. Canby 1st Ward covers the north. It's definitely a culture shock being out here. We will go visit people and drive like 20 minutes. But having a car is pretty sweet. The work in the area has been a little slow and there was only one baptism in the Ward the past calendar year. The members are awesome though, and very nice. 

Cows ...

Out in the country ...

Mt. Hood in the background ...

And, my new companion:

Elder Prestgard! He is awesome. We came out at the same time, but he was in a different district in the MTC. He is 18 and from Orem, Utah. He loves sports and likes to play basketball. He is a little shy and nervous, but is one of the nicest people I know! He has been in this area for three months. We get along well! This week we spent a lot of time going around and trying to get me acquainted with different members and other people that we are teaching. The people here are awesome. When it snowed Sunday, the Stake President called the Bishops and said that church was cancelled. But it was already 9am (which is when church starts) so we only had sacrament meeting. However, we had two investigators come to church. We were the only area in the entire mission that had investigators at church... because we are the only area that actually had church haha. And I did get up and bear my testimony! 

Highlights from the week: 

*New Year's Eve! We went over to the Reeds, from the Canby 1st Ward and played games with their family and all the other missionaries.

With the Sister missionaries at the Reed's house on New Year's Eve ...

Check out the "photo-bombers" in the window :)

*New Year's Day was my 6 month mark! I'm already 1/4 done which is nuts. Elder Prestgard and I burned ties in our backyard. (You burn a tie when you're 1/4 done, a white shirt 1/2, a pair of slacks 3/4, and a suit 4/4 at the end of each quarter of your mission)

*It SNOWED Sunday morning!! They say it usually doesn't snow, but it snowed quite a bit in the morning and they grounded all the cars in the mission. They cancelled church everywhere in our mission because of it haha.

SNOW!!!

*For service we go to a care center and we play Pinochle with some people. That game is so hard, but they are teaching me and it's pretty fun. 

*People here are so nice when we go tracting. Unlike Moreland, they don't slam the door and yell at you. It's weird.

My New Address: 

240 SE 3rd Ave. 

Canby, Oregon  97013

Happy New Year!! Go check out the Mormon message, "Look Not Behind Thee" it's pretty cool! Great opportunity for us to set goals and make plans to better ourselves for this coming year.

Have a great week!!!

Elder Hill