Baptisms, Transfers & SNOW ...

Hi everyone!

It was a pretty crazy week here in Oregon! There was a crazy snow storm and we got about a foot of snow!! Oregon is definitely not set-up to have snow storms so a lot of places shut down and no one was driving. We were locked down in our apartment for a couple days and then after three days President said we could drive if we felt the roads were good enough. After being stuck in the apartment we were ready to get out, so we took our little Corolla out and that was a mistake. When we were driving we hit a patch of ice and we were coming up behind a car and we just kept sliding on the ice and ran into the back of a Jeep. So that was a bummer. 

But on the bright side Tuesday Buffinger, our investigator, got baptized!! We had her baptism on Saturday and it was awesome! There were over 60 people at her baptism. The place was packed and it was so awesome to see so many people come support her. It was probably the best baptism I have been to on my mission! Tuesday is such an awesome person and I am so grateful to have been a part of her conversion. She has been such a great example of commitment of following the Savior.

Oh and transfers are today! Elder Miller is getting transferred to Milwaukie and I am getting Elder Merrell. He is from Pleasant Grove Utah and he is a pretty cool guy. He has been out 15 months and it's his first transfer being a Zone Leader. 

 Saying goodbye to Sister Cho ...

Elder Hintz is going home too ...

I'll keep it short today because we have lots of stuff to do, but I am so grateful to be a missionary. Being a part of someone's conversion story, like Tuesday, is such an incredible blessing and I can honestly say that there is nothing that has brought me more joy than helping others come closer to Christ. 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Hill

P-day football game!

Another Cold One!

Hi everyone!

This week was another cold one! There was a pretty big snow storm followed by freezing rain so we had to park our cars again for a couple days and walk everywhere. Oregon's weather is the weirdest. 

On Tuesday, we had a couple of solid lessons with our investigators and we also had an interesting lesson with a less-active lady. About two months ago we met with this lady and she was being super strange running around looking into people's houses thinking her kids were there (if you remember me writing about that). Well, we were walking in her neighborhood and her brother was driving by (he is a big Hawaiian guy) and he pulls over and says, "hey are you guys visiting my sister today? You should go visit her." Not wanting to argue with the big guy we said yeah we can do that even though we knew it wouldn't go well. So we went and visited her and it was crazy. It's hard to explain what happened, but she has a very strong paranoia with some stuff and when we were talking to her she kept going upstairs thinking someone was up there and then she would come down and yell at her dad for no reason and then go back upstairs. When she went upstairs again her dad was like, "she needs Jesus bad" Haha. It was nuts, so we just shared a scripture and left real quick.

We had a lesson with our investigator, Tuesday and it was awesome. She is getting baptized this Saturday and she is super pumped! We were gonna have Ward Conference, but we are having her baptism instead. The whole ward and the stake presidency will be there, and it's gonna be awesome! She read the whole Book of Mormon and is the most prepared person I have ever taught.

Thursday we were out in the boonies looking for a former investigator and we met this guy named Dave. He was an interesting fellow. He said that he had talked to Mormons before, but that he believes in aliens. He believes that aliens came down and injected us with DNA and that is how evolution happened. He also said that Jesus was a good Guy; that He is a Buddhist and that's why we have Buddhism. It was kinda funny, but he was a nice guy.

Other than that nothing too exciting happened this week. Oh, church was canceled on Sunday!! They canceled it because of the freezing rain and they didn't want anyone to drive in it. So it was weird not having church.

I was reading in the Old Testament this week and I wanted to share one of my favorite stories from there... This is in 2 Kings and it's when the King of Syria finds out he has been losing a lot of battles because of the prophetic influence of Elisha. So he sends a spy to find him....

"13 And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

14 Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.

15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

I like to think that as missionaries we are Elisha. Even when we may be faced with great adversity and it seems we are heavily outnumbered, "they that be with us are more than they that be with them" .... always remember that!

Elder Hill

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody! 

Can't believe 2016 is already over. I hit my 18 month mark last week and 2017 is the year that I go home which is weird to think about!

On Tuesday we had our Zone Meeting and me and Elder Miller were in charge of putting it all together and doing the training. It went pretty well. Our Zone is doing great with baptizing, so that's good! We also had interviews with President Ballard and in mine he told me that I'm going home soon and I was like, "what I have six months left!" And he just said, "yeah you're about to go home so what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind.  What do you want to be remembered for?" It was weird hearing President say I'm going home, but he gave me some good advice.

Our investigator, Tuesday, is getting baptized a week from this Saturday. She is doing great and is super pumped to get baptized. Now she is trying to get her kids to come to church as well and get baptized haha. She's awesome!

On Wednesday we had some lessons cancel and so we just went and started visiting random people, and we felt like we should go visit less-active people way out in the country. We felt prompted to go stop by one family, the Scott's. When we stopped by they opened the door and said, "oh my goodness Elders!. you are just who we needed to see! Both of our daughters really need blessings and I can't believe you showed up today!!" One of their daughters was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and she was going into treatment and we were able to give her a blessing. The other daughter was having really bad anxiety so we gave her a blessing as well. They were all super grateful and they said it was exactly what they needed. It was cool to look back and see how we were guided to their house when we weren't planning to be there at all. 

On Friday, we had a special Zone Meeting training given by a guy in one of the wards in our Stake. This guy is a Master Chief in the Navy which is the highest possible rank you can achieve. He went from the bottom position in the Navy to Master Chief in 13 years which is the fastest it has ever been done. He was in charge of the operation of killing Bin Laden and many other terrorists. He is the intelligence guy for most SEAL Team Six operations. He had some of the craziest stories ever and is insanely smart. He has seen and done some crazy things! He gave us a training on how to work with our investigators and use the Spirit to discern things. He has a really strong testimony and it was cool how he related his insane stories to gospel topics. It was awesome.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day we had dinner at our Ward mission leaders house and we played games with them. It was pretty fun! 

Hope everyone has a great week and looks forward with faith to 2017. There is a cool New Years Mormon Message called "Look Not Behind Thee." It just talks about how we need to learn from the past and not look back. There are so many opportunities that God has in store for us and that He is willing to give us if we just move forward and put our trust in Him. Believe that what Heavenly Father has in store for you is better than what you have right now!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Hill

Christmas means Skyping with the family!!!

Hello! 

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas, cause we did!

It was great to Skype home and talk to the family and it's crazy that I'm gonna be home with them in 6 months!

Thank you to everyone who sent cards or packages. I really appreciate everything that was sent! On Christmas, we opened our gifts in the morning and then had breakfast at the Long family's house. We had church in the early afternoon and our investigator, Tuesday came! She loved it and is going to get baptized in a couple weeks. Then we went back to the Long's house and had dinner with them! They're an awesome family.

Christmas Eve we were with the Nielsens. We ate dinner with them, had a white elephant exchange, and played games!  Nothing else too exciting happened this week...

Christmas Eve with the Nielsen family

I am grateful to be serving at this time. I was definitely wishing I could be home with family and friends, but I know that this where I am supposed to be and this is where the Lord needs me to be at this time. I am thankful for the birth of our Savior and how God gave us the gift of His Son so that we could return back to Him. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He is a real living, glorified being. I hope you all continue to think about Christ even after this Christmas season!

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Love and miss you all!!

Elder Hill

Ran into a friend from BYUi ...

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

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

 Transfers ...

 Mission lineage (left to right): Elder Whitten, Elder Giles, Tyler, Elder Parker

Tyler's good friend from BYUi - Sis. Downing finished her mission and was going home!

17 months down ... what???

Hello everyone!

So this past week I hit my 17 month mark which is so weird!  Me and a sister missionary and that came into the mission field at the same time I did, were talking at a district meeting and she said, "we are the oldest missionaries in the room right now." And I was like dang she's right, but yet I still feel like a greenie haha.

So this past week was pretty rad. It was transfer week and Elder Miller and I are staying together here in the Farmington Ward! We are both pretty excited and we are pumped to have a couple baptisms this transfer.

 Another visit to the airplane in the forest!

So I wanna first start with a crazy experience we had at Stake Conference this past weekend.... On Saturday night it was the Adult Session of Stake Conference, so there were about 300+ members there along with the stake presidency, the mission presidency, and Elder Robert Call who is a member of the Seventy. And missionaries could only go if they brought an investigator with them so we took our investigator, Tuesday with us! We were sitting there in the conference with Tuesday in about the 7th row and the conference is going great. There were some awesome talks given, and then Elder Call, who is the last speaker, gets up to give his talk. He starts talking for a little bit and then he says, "they had no idea that I was going to do this, but Elder Hill and Elder Miller come up here and join me." .... The look on our faces must've been priceless because me and Elder Miller looked at each other and we were just like oh crap. We had no idea that this was happening. We were both freaking out! So we go up there to the pulpit and Elder Call pulls us aside and he tells us to teach the first missionary lesson in five minutes to the congregation. And let me tell ya for the first 10 seconds looking out into the congregation of hundreds of people with your mission presidency, stake presidency, and a Seventy sitting right behind you, it was freakin scary!! But we just went for it, and the fear soon left as we got into teaching. I can tell you that if it wasn't for the Spirit leading and guiding our thoughts and words, then we would have sucked haha. But we taught the Restoration to everyone and we killed it!  After the conference, we went and introduced Tuesday to Elder Call and President Ballard and Elder Call said we did great! President and Sister Ballard said that they were very proud of us haha. It was a pretty cool experience. 

Elders with Pres. & Sister Ballard and Tuesday

On Thursday, Gilbert (investigator from my first area) drove to our area and took us out to Buffalo Wild Wings. It was sweet. He says he is still meeting with the missionaries haha and that he is STILL thinking about getting baptized. 

Things have been goin' good in our area! We are teaching a few people and should be having a couple baptisms this upcoming transfer! 

If you didn't know, the Church is doing a Christmas Initiative this year on how we can be more Christlike! So on Mormon.org they have 25 ways over 25 days to be more Christlike and there is something you can do everyday! I invite you all to go check it out and do the challenge and post it on social media!!

Have a great week! Love and miss you guys!

Elder Hill

 District meeting ...

Walking through the flooded park ... check out the bench!