Happy Mother's Day!

Hi everyone!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! And a special happy Mother's Day to my mom! She's always been there supporting me through everything ... love you Mom! And we were able to skype home for Mother's Day so that was exciting!

This week wasn't super eventful. We didn't have another baptism this week so the baptizing streak is over, but we're working on it!  We had a lesson with our new investigator, Joey, at the Portland Temple Visitor Center on Wednesday! It was sweet, he really enjoyed it. He is a dating a less-active girl in the Ward and he wants to learn more. They both came to church and he wants to keep meeting and reading the Book of Mormon!

Most of the week we spent contacting people and trying to find more people to teach. We have a few people that we are working with and wanting to help progress!  Other than that nothing too crazy going on. This week is transfers so I will find out where I am going for the last transfer of my mission.  It's crazy how fast the time has gone!

Here is a spiritual thought for the week:

In Alma 7:11-12 it is talking about Jesus Christ and what He will go through for us. It is one of my favorite scriptures because it's saying that because Christ suffered everything we will ever suffer, He is the one person that can help us overcome any trial, challenge, or pain in our lives.

"11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

This week I learned that succor comes from a Latin word which means "run to the help of". So in verse 12 it says that Jesus Christ is literally running to our aid. He is there and has an urgent need and desire to comfort us. What an amazing gift that it is! We have the divine Son of God running to our aid, all we have to do is turn toward Him and ask for help. 

Hope you all have a great week! Love and miss you all!

Elder Hill

Baptisms on baptisms on baptisms!

Hi everyone!

On Saturday Chad Ike got baptized! He was the one that Elder DeVries and I took to the Elder Ballard fireside back in March. The baptism was sweet! I was able to be one of the witnesses and I also gave the closing prayer! During the baptism they had Chad get up and bear his testimony and it was awesome. He is such a cool guy and has a strong faith in Jesus Christ that will bless him for the rest of his life.

Jacob LoGreco from my last area in Farmington was also baptized on Saturday! We had a ward activity so I wasn't able to go attend the baptism, but I was able to Skype in with my old companion Elder Merrell, and watch Jacob get baptized. So cool! He looked so happy and excited to be baptized. I am going to repost the story on how he was found from my Weekly Letter three months ago!

Excerpt from Feb. 6th: " ....a few months back me and Elder Miller started teaching a 12 year old named Jacob LoGreco. His grandma was a member and she had just passed away so we were starting to teach him and help him work towards baptism, but after a couple months of taking the lessons he wasn't taking it seriously and didn't care. He didn't want to come to church or read the Book of Mormon. So we told him that we couldn't come back and teach him anymore because he didn't want to keep his commitments.  He was a little upset, but he just said okay. Then on Thursday night, I was on a split with one of the youth in the ward, and I felt impressed to go see Jacob (it had been four weeks since I had seen him last). But I talked myself out of it because I didn't think it would be an effective use of time. I got the prompting again to go see Jacob and so I was just like fine we will stop by to just see how he is doing. We stopped by and Jacob was super excited to see us. We go in and he says, "I can't believe you guys are here! You will not believe what happened today." He said, "earlier today I was thinking about you guys for some reason, and so I decided to make a bet with God. I made a deal with God that if none of my friends could hangout today then I would go to church with you guys and get baptized. I don't know why I made that deal but I felt like I should. And today literally none of my friends could hangout. Not a single one! So I said okay God you win, I will get baptized. But, I didn't know how it would happen since you told me you weren't coming back anymore, but then 3 hours later you show up at the door!!"  You can imagine my excitement as he told me all this. I was freaking out, but I was also overwhelmed with gratitude that the Lord led us to his house."

So awesome right!? The Lord has a plan for everyone!

The rest of our week here went good! We took Alex to the Portland Temple Visitor Center and we talked to him about getting the priesthood and going to do baptisms in the temple. He was super excited and is working on getting the priesthood. He even got up in church on Sunday and bore his testimony!

On Thursday we went to the temple as a Zone which was great. In a month I'm going to be doing my departing temple trip, how crazy is that.

Saturday night Elder Brian and I put on a ward activity where we had a ping pong tournament at the institute building downtown! We had a good turnout and it was a lot of fun! I love serving in downtown Portland!

Okay, one last little miracle for the week. On Thursday evening we went to go see a less-active girl with our bishop. We had a lesson with her and her mom and it went really well! During the closing prayer I had the distinct impression to ask her if she had any friends that were going through a hard time that we could share a message with. After the prayer, I was about to ask her but before I could say anything Elder Brian asked her literally that exact same question word for word. She said, "yes there is actually! My friend is going through a hard time and he wants to learn more about the church." We set up a time to go to the temple visitor with them this week. I asked Elder Brian after the lesson when he thought of asking her that question. He said it was during the closing prayer. I was just like no way me too, word for word! It was a cool testimony to us that the Spirit will give us very specific promptings. We just need to be in tune with the Holy Ghost.

Everything is great here in Portland and the weather is even getting nice!

Have a great week!

Elder Hill

Handfull gets baptized!

Hi everyone!

Handfull got baptized this week!! It was so awesome! The baptism went great, so many people from the Ward came! Handfull was so excited and she was so happy afterward. She really wants to do all she can to follow Jesus Christ! Then the next day at church I had the opportunity to confirm her a member of the church and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost! The Spirit was strong and it was a great experience. It was a big testimony builder for me as I felt the Spirit and the love of God confirming that Handfull was doing what the Lord wanted and that He was very proud of her. She has made so many changes in her life and you can see the joy in her eyes. And I think that is really the miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It can transform anyone to have the countenance of Christ in them; and make them a better, happier person.

 Tyler, Handfull & Elder Brian at Handfull's baptism

 Elder DeVries baptized Handfull!

Handfull's Ward supporting her baptism ...

At the beginning of the week we went on two exchanges. From Tuesday to Wednesday I went with Elder Moore, one of our district leaders, to his area. And then from Wednesday to Thursday Elder Wilcock, the other district leader, came to our area with me. It's always good working with other missionaries and learning from one another. Elder Wilcock and I were able to have a lesson with one of our investigators who lives downtown and is a lawyer. He is a super smart guy and he was interested in hearing what we had to say. He was a very logical thinker and so it was difficult to help him see why we need faith. But after we testified of prayer and the Book of Mormon you could see his countenance change and the Spirit working in him.  He took what we had to say very seriously and he wanted to know for himself if it was true. So hopefully he will read the Book of Mormon and receive an answer!

On Friday, Elder Brian and I were looking for an apartment in a huge complex. We had walked around for 30 min and we couldn't find this apartment anywhere. During the whole time we were walking we talked to a lot of people and none of them wanted to talk to us at all. So we were getting pretty frustrated. After walking around forever we were finally able to find the apartment, but no one was home of course. We were both thinking alright Heavenly Father has us here for a reason we need to find out what it is. And then the door right next to us opens and a lady walks out. We start talking to her and she said she had some Mormon friends but didn't know what we believed really. We gave her a Book of Mormon and were able to get her number and setup a return appointment! Heavenly Father has a plan, even if it is a little frustrating to us! He knows what's best haha!

Hope you all have a great week! Love and miss you!

Elder Hill

 View of downtown Portland ...

Really old building in Portland!

It takes 3 hours to fill the baptismal font!?!

Hi everyone!

Another great week! We had Alex's baptism on Friday and it was awesome! Throughout the week we were meeting with him and getting him all prepared and ready to go for his baptism. It has been awesome to see his knowledge and testimony grow over these past couple of months of teaching him. He is such a great individual and has a magnetic spirit about him.

Friday was such a hectic day! So first off, I don't know what happened or what I ate but I woke up Friday morning with the stomach flu, and it was not fun. I was so upset because we had a jam packed day and Alex asked me to baptize him and I was just like there is no way I am going to let this ruin the day! Before the baptism we had lunch with a member and I just sat on the couch the whole time and rested and prayed that it would go away until the baptism was over. Thankfully I started to feel a little better. Lunch went a little long and we ended up getting to the church an hour and a half early to fill up the baptismal font, but we didn't realize that it takes 3 HOURS to fill up the font. Elder Brian and I looked at each other and were just like oh no. We turned on the water and then we found a hose in the bathroom next to the font and we were running water from that into the font as well. It wasn't filling fast enough! So we improvised and went to the kitchen and started filling up buckets of water and throwing them into the baptismal font! We were running back and forth from the kitchen like mad men trying to fill it in time! It was crazy! But we got it filled just in time! The baptism went great, and it was an amazing experience being able to baptize Alex! He was so happy and giddy afterwards it was incredible haha. You could feel the love of Heavenly Father so strong as he was baptized..... and then right after the baptism was over my stomach started killing me again (but Heavenly Father answered my prayer!) and I just went home and slept it off and I was fine the next day.

The rest of the week was solid. We had Zone Conference on Thursday and Elder Brian and I presented our Zone vision to everyone. President said our vision was the best one out of all the zones! And then we and the other Zone Leaders had to act out the first 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon in front of all the missionaries in the zone conference. It was hilarious! I played Laban haha.

 Mission Leadership Conference

We have been teaching a few other people too. We met this one guy at GNC named Austen. He works the register there and we taught him the whole first lesson at GNC, it was sweet! He is interested in learning more and we are going back there on Wednesday!

I am so thankful for all the experiences I have had and the people I have met here on my mission.  Just in these past 8 weeks of being in the YSA Ward, my testimony has grown so much. The Lord is blessing us and we are seeing so much success! We are going to be having another baptism this Saturday for Handfull Morris! It will be another great day! 

Have a great week!

Elder Hill

 Elder Miller at transfers ...

Elders Brian & Rockwood at transfers ...

Happy Easter!

Hi everyone!

Happy Easter! Hope everyone had an awesome Easter Sunday and thought about the reason why we celebrate Easter!

This week was super busy! It was the first week of the transfer so we had all of the logistical stuff that we needed to do, and a bunch of meetings to attend, but it was awesome!

On Tuesday and Wednesday we went to PCC and set up our booth and talked to people about the new Easter video that came out. We were actually able to talk to quite a few people so that was good.

On Friday we had Mission Leadership Conference all day and then afterward we were invited to a Family Home Evening that was going on in a family ward! We thought it was just going to be a couple people, but we showed up and there ended up being 12 people there and 4 non-members, it was sweet! We shared the Easter video with everyone and then we gave them all Book of Mormons! Two of them were YSA age and so we set-up return appointments to visit with them again. One of them is from Iraq and the other is from Persia! They were excited to read the Book of Mormon and learn more about it.

Saturday we went downtown again to go whiteboarding! There was a Saturday market going on and so we were able to go around talking to so many people. There were lots of people who wanted to write on the board so it was awesome! We handed out like 75 pass along cards to people with our number on the back! After that we had a lesson over the phone with our investigator, Alex. We hadn't been able to contact him for about a week so we were a little worried. But we called him and he was like, "what's up guys! So I'm still getting baptized this weekend right!? Can we move it to Friday instead of Saturday?" And we were just like heck yeah we can! So Alex is getting baptized this Friday which will be sweet! He is an awesome guy and he has made so many awesome changes in his life.

Sitting on top of the Institute building in downtown Portland

Then on Sunday we had a lesson with Handful. She was about to get called into work but she told them that she couldn't come in because she had to go to church! So she went to church and then we had a lesson with her after. During the lesson she looked at us with tears in her eyes and said that she read the Book of Mormon this week and that she felt very strongly in her heart that God wants her to join this church and get baptized. She said she is ready right now to be baptized and that she knows she needs to do it to follow God. She wanted to move her baptism date up to this weekend but she still needs to be taught some of the lessons so it's still on for the 29th! The work is going great here; the Lord is blessing us!!

Hope you have a great week!

Elder Hill

I guess you need Sisters ...

Hi everyone!

Transfers happened this week... Elder DeVries is getting transferred to Oregon City and I am staying in the YSA Ward! My new companion is Elder Brian, he's a cool guy. It's his first transfer as a Zone Leader so it will be fun! I'm super pumped to be able to stay in the YSA Ward!

So nothing too crazy happened this week.  We had to push Cameron's baptism back because he is still working on the Word of Wisdom, but we did have an awesome lesson with our investigator, Handful Morris.  She is from Libya and we have been teaching her for a couple weeks now. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she said that she is ready to commit to following God and wants to be baptized! So we set her date for April 29th! 

This week we went to Portland Community College and set up our booth for the new Easter video. We went with the Sister Missionaries serving in the other YSA Ward and so many more people came up and talked to us! It was crazy we found two new people to teach and so did the Sisters. People would come up and start asking questions and then we would show them the new Easter video, give them a Book of Mormon, and setup a return appointment to teach them. It was so sweet! I guess you need Sisters if you want people to talk to you.

 Portland Community College booth with Sister missionaries ...

Lunch with Sister Mercado & Sister Gutierrez

The YSA Ward is awesome, I love this area! Time is flying by, I only have 11 weeks left! So crazy!

I hope everyone has had a chance to watch the new Easter video. If you haven't, it's on Mormon.org and you should go check it out! The video talks all about peace and it makes me think of the scripture John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

In this verse, the Savior is talking to His apostles and He is telling them that the peace He offers is far different than the peace of the world. We think that we can find peace in money or worldly possessions, but lasting peace can only come through Jesus Christ. His love can bring peace to our soul, which is far better than any temporary pleasure. And how do we access this peace? By following Him. If we live His teachings, and put our trust in Him through prayer and faith, then we can receive a peace that is beyond anything ourselves or the world can create.

Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Hill

#PrinceOfPeace

Hi everyone!

What a party this week was! General Conference was so awesome! I loved all of the talks especially Elder Rasband and Elder Uchtdorf. I loved when Elder Rasband was talking about the Holy Ghost and how that the FIRST prompting we receive in any situation is pure inspiration from heaven. We should never postpone a prompting, which is something I have been trying to work on.

This week was sweet. The new Easter video called #PrinceOfPeace came out and so we have been going crazy with it. We have been handing out the pass along cards like candy. We went downtown Thursday and Friday with a whiteboard with the question, "what brings you peace?" We had people write down what brought them peace. It was cool to see the different things that brought everyone peace and then while talking we were able to transition into talking about what we do as missionaries. We were able to handout a couple Book of Mormons and dozens of pass along cards, it was awesome. There are definitely some strange people in downtown Portland, but everyone needs the gospel!

On Wednesday, we went to downtown Portland to do service with a Christian church. We made dozens of sandwiches with the members of their church. Then we took the sandwiches, hygiene kits, and clothing and walked around downtown handing them out to all the homeless people. It was a really cool experience being able to see the reactions of others and to do a small act of service for them!

The past couple of days have been crazy with our investigators. So first off cool story that happened.. Elder Joaquin Costa spoke in Sunday session of Conference about his conversion story and getting baptized. It was the perfect talk for one of our investigators, Cameron, but he wasn't able to watch conference. So after the session we called him up and tell him that we have to show him something. Cameron was almost baptized a couple months ago, but it didn't happen because he was trying to quit smoking but couldn't do it quite yet. So we met up with him and show him this talk. After the talk we asked him what he thought. He said he really liked it and he felt really happy. We asked him if he still wanted to be baptized. He said yes I do, but I am still struggling with smoking cigarettes.. He has been trying really hard to quit for a couple months now and it is the only thing holding him back from being baptized. He was saying how he really needed to quit, and then I had a prompting (and I knew I needed to act on the FIRST prompting). I felt prompted to say, "Cameron, as personal representatives of Jesus Christ we can promise you that if you give up smoking right now and go this whole week without smoking a cigarette, and then get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost on Saturday you will never have the urge to smoke again."..... the Spirit was there working on him. He replied, "Yes! I want that! I can do it!" And so we are now hoping and praying with all of our might that he will not smoke and he will be able to get baptized on Saturday! So awesome!

And then Chad (the investigator who met Elder Ballard) should be getting baptized in two weeks! He's doing great working with the Sister Missionaries.

We had another lesson with our investigator Alex who is doing awesome. He is getting baptized on the 22nd! He is super prepared and ready! And then we have Handful Morris who came and watched Conference with us and people from the Ward, and as she was riding home with a member she told the member that she loved Conference and that she isn't scared to join the church anymore and wants to be baptized!!

So many awesome miracles happening. The Church is true people. Jesus Christ lives. He is the Savior. He has been with me every step of the way these past 21 months and has brought me more joy than I have ever felt. If you follow Him you will be happy. Have a good week!

Elder Hill

 Park in Portland asking people what brings them peace ...

 With members of their YSA Ward ...

 Downtown Portland ...

This sign speaks for itself :)