The YSA Life

Hi everyone!

I don't really know where to begin.... But I LOVE my new area and my new companion!! It is incredible! The Young Single Adult Ward is so fun it's ridiculous. We go to all of the activities and we literally just talk to and teach people that the members bring, and everyone is our age. It's so easy to relate to them and it feels like I'm back at college in Idaho just talking to people my age at FHE, church, and activities. The YSA life is the best! 

Elder Argyle is awesome too. He is from Randolph, Utah and we are very similar! He loves basketball, we get along super well, and he is a hard worker. This transfer will be so sweet. This week we went around visiting a lot of people and just getting me introduced. 

We also saw a few miracles. One of them happened when we were doing weekly planning. We were going through former investigators in our areabook, and I looked at one and felt prompted that we should call him. So we call him and he answers, and he says that he hasn't met with missionaries for two years. He said he was just down in Utah and he told his friend down there, who is a member, that if he gets an opportunity to meet with the missionaries again that he will do it, and then we called a couple days later. It was super cool. We had a great lesson with him and then he came to church!! He said he wants to work towards baptism! This week was also filled with lots of meetings. 

On Friday, we had a meeting all day with all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. We had breakfast at Presidents house and then we had a training and talked about the work going on in the mission and how we can move it forward. It was pretty cool! It's fun being a ZL but it's also stressful, Elder Argyle is helping me a lot though! We have to do lots of call-ins with companionships, go to leadership meetings, and other stuff. 

Spiritual Thought ... it's a good one this week!

On my mission I have thought a lot about faith and what the point is in having faith. There is something that I have struggled with in particular and that is... "What is the point of having faith if Gods Will is ultimately what will happen?" I have thought about this quite a bit, not only in missionary work but in my personal life as well..... When someone receives a priesthood blessing they are expecting and have faith that they will be healed, but a lot of the time that doesn't happen, the Will of God is otherwise and they are not healed. So what is the point in having faith? If God is going to do something whether we want it or not then what is the point? As I have contemplated and studied this, I have come to the conclusion that it is not necessarily the faith that Heavenly Father will heal them but that He could heal them is what truly matters. We need to have faith that God can make miracles happen, but it is up to Him whether or not they do. No matter what happens, we need to trust Him that it will be for our benefit, and we need to submit to His will. It is the focused faith in Christ, and the submission to His will that allows us to access the enabling power of the Atonement. We find greater strength, peace, comfort, and guidance as we have faith and trust in God, knowing that no matter what happens Heavenly Father knows best. Because if we don't have that faith, then we won't have access to that power. We won't be able to have that divine strength to carry us through those challenges. And those challenges will eventually cripple us if we don't have that divine strength produced from faith. 

"Many of the lessons we are to learn in mortality can only be received through the things we experience and sometimes suffer. And God expects and trusts us to face temporary mortal adversity with His help so we can learn what we need to learn and ultimately become what we are to become in eternity." -Elder Bednar 

I know as we have faith in Christ and do everything we can to increase that faith, then we can overcome any trials life throws at us :) 

I couldn't be happier than I am right now! Life is fantastic! I'm grateful to be a missionary!! Have a good week!! Love you all!! 

Love, Elder Hill

 Elder Hill found his very first home!

 He also found a sweet pair of sunglasses ... haha!

Elder Hill & Elder Argyle ...

Transfers & Zone Leaders

Well everyone this week there was a lot of big news!! 

First off I am being transferred! After being in Sandy River for three months I am being transferred to the Tanasbourne YSA (young single adult) Ward, and will be serving with Elder Argyle!! This YSA Ward covers 3 Stakes. It covers the Cedar Mill, Beaverton, and Hillsboro Stakes. Cedar Mill is just north of Beaverton.... 

And secondly, President Ballard assigned me to be a Zone Leader. Elder Argyle and I will be the Zone Leaders in the Cedar Mill Zone! There are 9 zones in the Mission and roughly 30 missionaries in each one (w/ 2 Zone Leaders to cover each zone), so there are around 250 missionaries in our Mission. Zone Leaders are responsible for the Zone and the 30ish missionaries that serve there, and are supposed to do exchanges, trainings, go to leadership meetings, and basically just help as much as they can. I'm nervous because it's a lot to handle, but I'm also super excited because I will be able to learn a ton! 

So this week I can't really remember all of what happened, but on Friday the Head of the Missionary Department, Elder Brent Nielson, came and spoke to us all day. It was awesome. He said and taught some really cool things. He said that a lot of the time when the apostles assign missionaries they are inspired to assign them to a mission president, not a mission. I didn't know this! I thought that was pretty interesting because I have been assigned to the Ballards for a reason, and he told us to find out that reason. Another really cool thing he talked about was the enabling power of the Atonement or Grace. For the longest time I didn't really understand what Grace was and now after studying and listening to Elder Nielson, I have a better understanding of what an amazing principle it really is. Grace is the divine means of help or strength given to us through the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace is the power that allows us to change, to become better. It gives us the strength to endure through the hardest of trials, it enables us to fulfill our potential and become the person God wants us to become. For me I have often found myself trying to overcome a challenge by simply relying on my own strength and willpower, but I have learned how much better life can be and how much happier I am as I rely on the Grace of our Savior. But how can we access this enabling power? The answer is in Mosiah 24:15: "And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."..... If we submit to the will of the Lord, if we endure trials with patience and willingness, understanding that God knows best, then we can access the enabling power or grace of Jesus Christ. Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." I know that as we put our trust in the Savior and rely on His Grace, our burdens can be made light. We don't have to endure things on our own through sheer grit. We can yoke ourselves to Christ and bear up our burdens with ease. 

I am grateful to have served in Sandy and I'm excited for this opportunity to serve in Cedar Mill! Hope you all have a great week and thanks for all the emails and support!! 

Love, Elder Hill

 Sister Torrie with Elder Hill

 Doing service with the Sister Missionaries

 Skibowl with the Elders

 Elders with Tristen & Ruth

 Elder Hill & the Stevens' Family

Elder Hill & the Smith Family

Elder Hill & Bro. Shaffer

I'm a little bit country ...

Hello everyone! 

Another week gone by, there's only one week left of the transfer. I've already been in Sandy for almost three months! This week was a little slower than last week with the work. The first couple of days we did a lot of service and let's just say that I am definitely living the country boy life. In the past week and a half, I have bucked hay 3 times, chopped or stacked wood 3 different times, planted and weeded corn, and have seen and played with almost any farm animal you can think of haha. It's been awesome but I still like the city better! 

Elder Kirk was really sick for a lot of the week with the flu so we weren't able to go out and do much. I had to stay in the apartment with him and so I was able to do a lot of studying and reflecting. I'm almost at my halfway point and it was interesting to look back and see the growth and development I've had from just one year! I was also able to study my patriarchal blessing more in depth, and it really is true how those blessings are literally scriptures for our own lives and can help us to know what paths to follow. 

On Saturday, we had a pretty memorable experience. We got a text from our Bishop saying that he had received a call from a man and he said that he needed missionaries to come by to talk to. So we get his address and go over there and this man, probably in his 60's, opens the door and was just so happy to see us he was in tears. He said that he saw some missionaries on the street a couple days ago (the Young Single Adult missionaries) and he got our Bishop's number from them. So we go in and start getting to know him and it turns out he is a convert of about three years. He was living in Missouri and his friend convinced him to move out here to Oregon. So he moves out here with his friend and they are living with a bunch of random people in this house, and then his friend abandoned him. He doesn't know where his friend went and now he has been living in this house for 8 months with 4 people who are addicted to meth (but he is clean and sober). He has disabilities so he doesn't have a job. All he has were the clothes he was wearing and a backpack. He doesn't have a bedroom, he sleeps in a recliner in the corner. It was the saddest thing in the world. He is the most humble man I have ever met and all he wanted was someone to help him feel safe. There is only one other person in the house who doesn't do drugs, and he said all the other people are terrifying. We gave him a blessing of comfort and safety and I had the opportunity to give him the blessing. The Spirit was so strong and he started crying through the whole thing which made Elder Kirk and I start crying. We then read Alma 7 with him and talked about the Atonement and how Christ knows everything he is going through. It was a really humbling experience. Any worries or problems that I thought I had were completely gone. It helped me realize how blessed I really am, and it helped magnify my perspective of why I am actually out here... And the cool thing is that he came to church with us yesterday and he loved it!

Thank you for all the emails and support!! I really appreciate it, it makes a difference:) 

Have a great week!! 

Elder Hill 

11 Months Down!!!

Hi everyone!

We had a pretty good week this week!  We had three of our investigators come to church yesterday so that was sweet. So there is a crazy story with one of our new investigators.  Her name is Denice Brown and she was taking the lessons about a half-year ago and was coming to church frequently. She was just about to get baptized, but her husband was really against it so she stopped coming to church but kept taking the lessons and working towards baptism.  Well, just four days before her baptism her husband had enough and said, "you have to choose between me or the church". We never want to breakup a marriage or family so she was counseled to stay with her husband and she decided to not be baptized.  But the crazy part is that just two days after he said that to her, he was diagnosed with colon cancer.  He was a vibrant, healthy man and then out of nowhere right after he said that he got cancer.  A couple months later (a week ago) he passed away. It was so sudden and devastating, but now she wants to start taking the lessons again and she came to church yesterday.  I just thought that was crazy because God doesn't make any mistakes and everything happens for a reason. It made me think of the scripture Alma 24:27: "thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people." God's purpose is to bring about the eternal life of His children and He will do whatever it takes to do that.  I know that her husband will have an opportunity to accept the gospel in the next life so that they can be together for eternity and the amazing thing is that Denice already understands that. 

We taught and met with a lot of awesome people this week! One of the coolest and humblest people we taught was a less-active man named Paul. He is a Vietnam veteran and was the gunman in a helicopter.  He has done and seen some crazy stuff.  He hasn't forgiven himself for some of the things he had to do and so that's why he doesn't come to church.  He started crying talking about it.   We talked about the Atonement and how it is infinite and covers everything.  He said nobody believed some of the stuff he had to do.  He said that Sylvester Stallone interviewed him for a movie once trying to get as much info as possible about the war for a movie and Stallone couldn't even believe the things he had to do.  But he came to church on Sunday with us. He is an awesome guy! 

This Sunday we got a new bishop and he is amazing! One of the best I have ever seen. Super excited for the ward!! 

This past week, I hit 11 months! Almost halfway there, it is flying by!! 

Thanks for all the love and support! Have a great week! 

Elder Hill 

 Tyler & Sister Torrie

Tyler & Elder Katieli 

 Tyler & Elder Hintz

Tyler & Elder Deer (haha!!)

Happy Memorial Day!

Hi everyone!

This week was interesting! Not a lot happened. It was a little slow with a lot of lessons cancelling and people being gone for the Memorial Day weekend. 

We had interesting thing happen on Tuesday.  We were driving down the highway and we saw one of our investigators sitting on the side of highway in the grass. He is a little different and has some mental illnesses. We were like what the heck lets go talk to him! So we pull over and we walk up to him and he just starts yelling and screaming and telling us to leave him alone, but we calmed him down.  He was ranting about how the government is violating his rights and that he is going to move to Canada. And then in the middle of his sentence he just stood up turned around and walked into the bushes behind him. Just literally walked straight into a bush ... it was so crazy!! We were like what the heck just happened??

A lot of people ask what is the hardest thing about being on a mission. There are so many different answers, but I think the main one is that the hardest thing is when you're teaching someone and they know that what you're sharing is true but they still don't want to be baptized or join the church. They say that they can feel that it is true and that they know the Book of Mormon is true but aren't willing to change their lives for it. It's so hard because you know how much it can bless their life and they just won't accept it... It reminds me of Lehi's dream when Lehi partakes of the fruit of the tree of life and the only thing he wants is for his family to do the same but they won't. Must've been frustrating for Lehi haha cause that has happened to us a couple times of times this transfer and it is the worst. But the area is still doing well and I love it in Mt. Hood! 

Thanks for all the love and support and for the emails! Happy Memorial Day!! We took some sweet pictures!! 

Elder Hill

 

God Works in Mysterious Ways!

Hi everyone!

So there were a lot of really cool and interesting things that happened this week! So first off I wanted to talk about how God works in crazy ways. About six weeks ago, we were having dinner with the Graves Family here in the Sandy River Ward, and we asked if they wanted us to go visit anyone, and at first they said no, but then at the last second Sister Graves said, "wait, I think you should go visit this less-active lady" so we said, "okay sounds good." A couple days later we visited this lady and we ended up meeting her granddaughter, Trina, who lives there and she is a non-member. She is actually really interested and so we started teaching her and have been teaching her for the past few weeks! Then a couple weeks later, we asked if she needed help with any service and Trina said, "yes I have some friends over in Damascus that need some help in their yard" (the blackberry vines people). So we've gone over there a couple of times to help and this last time we went over there they kept asking us questions and we taught them the first lesson! They want to come to church and take the discussions now! Sadly we have to give them to the Sisters serving in Damascus cause that's their area, but I just thought how crazy it was how God works. We never would have even met these people we did service for if Sister Graves didn't feel prompted to tell us to visit that less-active lady.. So cool!! 

On Wednesday we were meeting with our investigator Martha again, she is the older lady who thinks the Book of Mormon is super fascinating. So we were over there and as we were teaching her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is a knock on her door. Martha gets up to go get it and there is this older lady there and we are thinking, "oh cool it's probably her sister and we can teach her too!", we were dead wrong haha.. So she lets this lady in and she pulls up a chair and she is just glaring at us. We were just like what the heck is this lady's problem. So we get up and introduce ourselves and all she says is, "so you're the Mormon boys huh?" And we just said "yeah! Do you have friends that are Mormon?" And she says, "no. I'm a witness." (As in Jehovah Witness)..... We were just like, you have got to be kidding me right now haha. We tried to make conversation with her, but she wasn't really feeling it. Apparently she was offended that we were meeting with Martha or something because she said that she has been meeting with Martha every Wednesday for forever. But that's okay haha, we wrapped up our lesson the best we could but it was awkward.  You could cut the tension with a knife haha. But Martha said she still wants to keep meeting with us so that's good! 

Saturday Elder Kirk and I were able to attend the baptism of Linda Conley in Canby! Elder Kirk served in Canby 2nd Ward for six months when he first started his mission and he taught Linda for a while, but then she stopped taking the lessons for almost a year because she felt too much pressure or something. When Elder Prestgard and I were in Canby 2nd, we finally started teaching her again! And she was finally baptized on Saturday. It was so awesome to be able to go and see that, she was so happy afterwards it was awesome:) 

 Linda Conley's baptism!

Tyler & Linda after her baptism!

Things have been going well here in the Sandy River Ward! We have been having a lot of success teaching people. Brother Smith (our Ward Mission Leader) was so excited in Ward Council on Sunday because he brought up how we are leading the Stake (10 Wards/branches) in teaching missionary discussions. So that was pretty cool to hear! 

Thanks for all of the emails! And keep sending pictures, I like those!! 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Hill

Zone Meeting, Mt. Hood Stake 

Happy Birthday!

Hi everyone!

This week was busy! We have been teaching a lot of lessons and it's been good! My new companion, Elder Kirk, is from Emmit, Idaho. He has been out for 20 months, and we have been doing pretty well together. 

There were some crazy things that happened this week. So on Wednesday night we came home and we were planning and we get a call from some elders serving in the Ward next to us (they also live in the same apartment complex as us so they're just a couple doors down). And one of them told us to come over now, and he sounded serious so we booked it over there. Apparently the missionaries had gotten into a huge fight with each other and they broke a bunch of chairs and a bookshelf in the apartment. We were like, "oh crap! we have to do an exchange with them before they kill each other." So one of them came and stayed with me at our apartment and Elder Kirk stayed there. President Ballard drove out here and handled it the next day haha. It was nuts.

On Thursday, we did splits with the High Priests and I went with Brother Nash. We went to go visit a less-active lady and there were two doors to this duplex she lived in and Bro Nash didn't know which one was hers so we knocked on both. One didn't answer and the next door a guy opened it. His name was Jim and he looked like the definition of an Oregonian hippie. He said that the lady we were looking for lived next door but she wasn't there. So we started talking to him about his religious beliefs and we had a 45 min conversation with him and he had some interesting views. He said the Second Coming is going to be this year and that there will be "fire in the skies". Brother Nash thought it was funny, but he said that we could come back! So we will go visit him again... 

We have started teaching this lady named Martha, and she has never heard of the Book of Mormon, but she grew up reading the Bible. She keeps telling us how fascinating it is that Jesus Christ came to the Americas and that people sailed over here from Jerusalem. She always gets so excited talking about it, it's awesome. We have also been doing lots of service. This week we had to put in an irrigation system in a guys backyard and then we spent three days cutting down blackberry vines for some people. You're not in Oregon if you don't cut blackberries at least once a month for service.

Sister Torrie photo-bombed one of the pictures! 

"Doing service with all the blackberry vines.  We cut a hole through the middle of the bush."

And I turn 21 today! Our Ward Mission Leader asked us what we were doing for my birthday and I told him we are going clubbing and that he was invited haha. He said he is down....

Thank you so much for all of the birthday packages and cards and emails!! I really appreciate it and it means a lot to me:) 

"Opening presents this morning.  Elder Kirk got me a tie!"

"The Sisters and a couple of Elders got me some birthday gifts!"

Hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Hill