Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope everyone ate a lot and got super fat.

For Thanksgiving in the morning, we went out and played in a Turkey Bowl with our less-active friend, Zack and some other people from the Ward. It was just dumping rain on us and it started hailing at one point, but we kept playing haha it was so fun. It was more of a mud bowl. Everyone was running and diving around in the mud, it was awesome. Later, we had our first dinner with the Nielsen family.  They have four younger kids and they are hilarious. It was fun! Then we went over to dinner with a Spanish family that had invited us over that week. It was a really cool experience. This family is from Puerto Rico and had only been in the USA for less than a year, so this was their first Thanksgiving. They wanted us to come over and have their first one with them. They live in a very small house and there was 10 people total. They didn't have a lot of food overall, but they did have a lot of rice, a small turkey, and some other sides and they were all so happy and excited! They got all dressed up and we were taking pictures and everything, it was really cool. 

We didn't have a lot of lessons because people were out of town, but we did have a really cool lesson with a girl who had been inactive for 10 years. She grew up a member, but became a hardcore drug addict and she was homeless for a long time. And then one day she just decided to call her dad and ask for his help. He drove six hours to pick her up and she started changing her life around. She now has a strong testimony and is an active member. It was cool to talk to her and see how she has changed.

We have still been working with RyLeigh and Tuesday and both are working towards baptism in December so hopefully that will workout!

I hit my 17 month mark this week! I'm starting to be one of the older missionaries now, so weird.... 

Spiritual Thought:

In Elders Quorum, they were talking about why we go through hard times and we started talking about how God is the perfect Pharmacist. He knows the exact healing balm that we need to become better. He has our trials and struggles perfectly calculated to what we need to become better. He has His divine strength and help calculated as well. He knows us perfectly and so He puts us in situations that allow us to live to our full potential, all while honoring our agency. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Hill

Portland Temple

Ouch!

What's up everyone!! 

This past week was a good one! So we have been teaching our investigator, Tuesday, and she is a Rockstar. We taught her the Word of Wisdom last week and when we were teaching her she was like, "why didn't you tell me this earlier so I could be doing it! I need those blessings!" She is so awesome and is still working towards baptism next month. Then we have our investigator, Ryleigh. We found her by knocking on a less-active lady's house and the lady let us right in and her daughter Ryleigh was there. Ryleigh is 12 years old and she is super spunky haha. We started teaching both of them and now Ryleigh wants to get baptized. So we set her date for Dec. 24th. She was excited to get baptized on Christmas Eve!

We had a weird experience with an inactive lady in the Ward. We go knock on her door and she opens it and was very nice to us. We were just talking to her at the door and then all of a sudden she looks behind us down the street at her neighbors house and says, "hold on stop talking". Then she just stares at the house for a little bit (there was nothing wrong with the house, there were a couple lights on inside but that's it.) and then she says, "I knew it". We asked her if everything was alright and she said, "they have my kids in there. I don't want them in there. Can we get in your car and drive by slowly?" (Both of her kids are around 25 years old and they weren't even living in the same city.) it was really weird. We told her that we couldn't give people rides and so then she just starts taking off jogging towards this house and starts looking in the windows. It was so weird! We were just like let's get outta her!!!

Last Friday, we were able to go to the temple and do an endowment session. It was awesome! I love going to the temple. There is a peace that is felt in the temple that you cannot find anywhere else on earth. It really helped me get a spiritual boost and receive answers to questions that I have. 

Then on Sunday, we had a recent Convert Fireside at the Temple Visitors Center, and I conducted the meeting again, I have never had so many opportunities to speak in front of big groups of people than I have had in the past 6 months haha. There were four recent converts that spoke and then President Newsome, the 1st counselor in the mission presidency, spoke. He talked about how he had a daughter pass away in an accident when she was 5 years old. He talked about how it has been the greatest struggle of his life and still is, but he then bore his testimony about the temple and how families are eternal and how knowing this has helped him so much. It was so powerful, everyone was crying. I love the temple and how our relationships here on earth can last on into eternity. 

Hope everyone has a great thanksgiving!! Love and miss you guys!

Elder Hill

 He took the stitches out himself and then the nail fell off, but it looks a lot better!

 Cloudy Oregon day ...

Some of Tyler's Zone at Zone Conference!

"I think I need a Bandaid!"

Hi everyone!

So this week was pretty crazy and good! I had to get three stitches and I went to a baptism!

So on Tuesday we had a Zone Conference (3 zones get together and have a training all day) and it was pretty fun. Elder Miller and I had to give a training to everyone on how to extend bold commitments, and it went really well! Even though we didn't have much time to prepare President Ballard said we crushed it😃

Then on Wednesday I almost chopped my finger off haha. We were out chopping down some branches for a member and we needed to start a burn pile. So I start chopping the small pieces of wood into smaller pieces with a hatchet. Everything was going great, I was cruising along and then I wasn't paying attention and I came down on the wood with the hatchet, but my index finger was in the way. I cut the fingernail in half and it cut into my finger a little ways. It didn't hurt at first, I was just like "oh man that doesn't feel right", and then it started bleeding a lot and then I said, "uhhh I think I need a bandaid". Eventually that evening, I went and got stitches and so now everything is okay, besides my finger looking really gross.

On the bright side on Saturday I went to a baptism in the my last area, the YSA Ward! It was for a guy named Scott that I taught once and became friends with. He is so awesome and at his baptism he got up and bore his testimony. It was sweet. He is already so solid and will be such a great member of the church!... and then later that day we went to the Portland Temple Visitor Center with one of our investigators, her name is Tuesday Buffinger. She is the nicest lady ever and is killing it with the Book of Mormon. She's almost read the whole thing. So The Visitor Center sisters toured us around the temple and Tuesday loved it. She wants to be baptized on Christmas Eve! So we set her baptismal date for then. She was like, "I'm free next Saturday, let's do it then!"  But she has to come to church a few times so we had to push it back a little haha. She is doing great.

 Sister missionaries with Tuesday at the Portland Temple

 Selfie with the YSA missionaries!

Things have been crazy here in Portland. President Ballard banned us all from going downtown because of all the crazy protesters. It's pretty relaxed out in our area though, nothing too crazy going on. 

Hope you all have a good week! Being a missionary is awesome, I love being able to share the gospel!

Elder Hill

Oregon drivers are crazy!!!

Hi everyone!

The weeks are all just a blur...

This week we saw some pretty crazy things. We were driving down a busy road and we saw way up in the intersection in front of us some guy swerve into a stoplight pole. It was crazy. Apparently he was drunk. We parked and walked up to the accident and asked if anyone needed a blessing and they said no everyone should be fine... and then the next day we were driving and saw a lady pull out in front of the person driving in front of us and they swerved and they ended up driving through a lady's fence into her backyard. Oregon drivers are crazy!

Other than seeing some weird accidents, we have been teaching this guy named Nelson. He is the one from Puerto Rico that we met at the park and he just moved here. He is a very humble man and really wants to know what is true and if there is a prophet on the earth right now. He said he would be baptized if he came to know what we taught him was true! He's awesome. 

Our teaching pool is pretty small right now.  We basically just started over this transfer and are trying to find new people to teach. And since President Ballard doesn't want us to tract, we have just been going to parks and talking to people. We also have been really trying to work with the members. The members of this ward are awesome!

Other than that, nothing too exciting happened this week. We had MLC (missionary leadership conference) and I bore my testimony in sacrament! 

Spiritual Thought  

Matthew 14:24-32: 

"24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased."

We have been sharing this story with a lot of the members. It is one of my favorites in the Bible because it demonstrates so many principles we can learn from. The one principle that I think about is focusing on Christ. When Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on the water, he is entirely focused on Jesus Christ, but as soon as he starts to worry about the storm going around him, he loses his focus and that's when he begins to sink. When going through life we are going to have many storms, but if we can keep our sights focused on Christ then we will be okay. As soon as we become distracted and lose that focus, then we will begin to falter. 

Have a great week everyone!!

Elder Hill

Can't beat Oregon in the fall ...

Watched the end of the World Series with Elder Miller and Zack ... go Cubs!

Happy Halloween!

HELLO EVERYONE! 

Happy Halloween!! So I have two weeks to catch up on. So much has happened.....

Well two weeks ago when I was in the YSA Ward still, we went to the temple with one of our investigators and it was awesome. He should be getting baptized soon!! And then a few days later one of the members in the Ward, Jordan Pregil, went on a mini-mission with Elder Craft and I. That's where he is basically a full- time missionary with us. He was with us for three days straight, 24/7 and slept at our apartment and everything. It was awesome. We are pretty good buddies so it was super fun and he said it was the best weekend he has ever had.  He has only been a member for 8 months!

At the Portland Temple with their investigator, Ben

Saturday, we got transfer calls! I was transferred to the Farmington Ward with Elder Miller! It's in the Beaverton Oregon West Zone and we are the Zone Leaders over that Zone now. This past week has been pretty sweet! Elder Miller is one of my good friends in the mission so we have been having a lot of fun! He is from SLC and he loves sports and the same stuff I do...... The area is huge, it reminds me of Canby. Half of the area is in the city and then it goes way out in the country. 

 Tyler & Elder Miller

 At the transfer meeting ...

Tyler & Sister Barney

This last week we were visiting a lot of members and getting to know them. We are trying to find things to do since we can't tract anymore. We have gone to a lot of parks and contacted people and have found a few people to teach that way. A cool experience we had was when we were at a park trying to talk to people and we were really struggling to find anyone who was remotely interested. So we sat down on a bench and prayed that someone would walk by our bench that would simply have a conversation with us. After our prayer ended, we started talking to the next guy who walked by and it turns out he was from Puerto Rico and was meeting with missionaries over there but he lost contact with them when he moved here to the states. He said he lost his Book of Mormon so we gave him one and got all his contact information and he wants to start taking the lessons again. It was sweet!

Everything else is going good! All the missionaries in our Zone are cool! We had a couple District meetings this past week so we got to know each other a little bit. I'm excited for this transfer! It should be fun. I hit my 16 month mark tomorrow which is crazy!

Tyler & Elder Miller on a random porch swing :)

Hope everyone has fun trick-or-treating. We are going downtown for P-day and Halloween!

Have a great week! Love you all!!

Elder Hill

Another crazy week!

Hi everyone!

Another crazy week! So much is happening, but I wanna start off with a story...

So some pretty crazy/scary stuff happened to one of our missionaries in the Zone... On Monday, the Rock Creek Elders left their apartment to go to an appointment. They came out of the appointment after 20 minutes to find that in one of their helmets there was a bag of Sour Patch Kids candy. They weren't sure where it came from and they were kinda skeptical if they should eat it or not, but they hadn't eaten dinner yet so one of the Elders (we will call him Elder F) decides to eat a couple. Everything is fine and they start heading back to their apartment. They get back to the apartment and Elder F starts acting a little funny. His companion didn't think anything of it, he just thought he was a weird kid. Elder F takes out the bag of Sour Patch Kids and decides to eat about 10 more. About 20 minutes later Elder F passes out. His companion, at that point, calls the mission nurse and calls 911. They rush him to the hospital and have to put him on a bunch of IVs and what not. The doctor said that the candy was laced with THC or marijuana and that eating two of them would get someone really high. Elder F. ate 12 of them! He was completely passed out for about 6 hours until they drained his stomach and released him from the hospital..... but the scary part is that we found out later that the bag of candy was actually stolen from the Westview Elders who live in the same apartment complex as the Rock Creek Elders. One of the Westview Elders recognized the bag and also that the candy was oddly cut in half just like his was, but he hadn't been able to find his bag of candy for the past few days. So someone stole this bag of candy from the Westview Elders apartment, laced it with THC, and then gave it to the Rock Creek Elders.... Portland is weird. Everything is okay now though, Elder F is doing well and he is just fine! Just some weird stuff going on! 

On a brighter note, we have a couple of investigators with baptisms coming up! Ben is getting baptized on November 12th and Tyler is getting baptized on November 26th! It's so awesome to be able to teach them and see how the gospel makes them so much happier. You can see their countenance change, and their minds are cleared. It's such a cool experience to be a part of that. We have been working with both of them for quite a while so it's great to see how far they have come! I love being able to help people change their lives and be happier.

Oh! and I forgot to mention, Elder Ballard came to visit again on Saturday. No big deal. Grandpa Ballard just coming for another visit, it was my third time seeing him on my mission.... We are so lucky to be able to have an Apostle come speak to us so often! I learn so much, and every time he comes it is the most spiritual meeting ever. There is one thing that he always does when he speaks. He always says "Go to Gethsemane and think about what the Savior did for you." He would talk about how no matter what you are going through, if you are having a hard day, if you are burdened, if you are depressed, if you can't go any further... pause and think about Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Think about what He felt, what He went through, for YOU. If you do that you will IMMEDIATELY find the strength and motivation to keep going. It was an amazing experience hearing from Elder Ballard and shaking his hand again! 

I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that He is real. Sometimes we may wonder if Christ was an actual or person or if this is some fanciful story, but it's not. Jesus Christ is real. He lived and died for each of us, so that we may be reconciled to God through Him and that is the only way in which we can return back to our Heavenly Father, is through His son Jesus Christ. Think about the reality of the Savior for you and your life, and how you can make that relationship more real and meaningful.

Hope you all have a great week! Enjoy the nice weather! 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Hill

 District Meeting at Skyline Memorial

Zone service project at a middle school ...

"If you love Jesus, make some noise!!!"

Hey everyone!! 

So this past week was pretty interesting.... we had MLC (missionary leadership council) on Friday, and President Ballard has made the decision that we are no longer allowed to go tracting (door knocking) anymore. He wants to have us focus on the members and working with them because that is where all of our baptisms are coming from. Tracting is pretty ineffective in Portland, but now we can't do it at all anymore. So crazy! Everyone was freaking out cause that's what missionaries are known for is knocking doors. It will be interesting to see what happens! 

The reason for my heading... earlier this week we had a lesson with two girls that we had met, Leslie and Jenny. They are both super friendly and really outgoing, and they are both really involved in their church they go to. We had a pretty good lesson with them and we invited them to come to church with us on Sunday, and they said, "yeah maybe, but we have church on Sunday too! Do you wanna come with us?" So we made a deal that we would go to church with them if they came to church with us! So at 10am Sunday morning we roll up to the Calvary Christian Church in our full on suits and missionary attire haha. People were giving us funny looks, and we had multiple people ask us (in a nice way) "what are you guys doing here?" We would just tell them that Leslie and Jenny invited us!

The service was pretty interesting. They had a band and some singers and one of the guys on stage was like, "if you love Jesus make some noise!!" We love Jesus so we were yelling "yeeeaaaah!!!"... The first 30 minutes was the band playing some songs and the crowd singing along, and then the next thirty minutes was the pastor giving his sermon. It was pretty cool, he just taught out of the Bible. After the service we were mingling with all the members talking to them and stuff, and we actually ended up getting a lady's phone number that we could go do service for haha. As we were talking to the lady we could see the pastor behind her, staring us down. So we go over and start talking to the pastor! He was a nice guy but we could tell he wasn't too fond of us. Overall, it was an interesting and fun experience!!

We had six investigators at church! Leslie, Jenny, Ben, Nate, Joran, and Zach all came! We couldn't even keep track of all of them.  We were trying to introduce people to all of them. Ben and Nate are two interesting guys that we are starting to teach. They showed up to church in these long Chinese robes that have some symbols on them. The symbols mean "new beginnings" so they wore them since it was their first time at church. It was really interesting. Right before sacrament meeting was about to end they both got up and stood by the door and bowed toward the pulpit and then walked out, but then they came back for Sunday School so that was good!

Things are going great out here in Portland. It rained every single day last week..yippie.

Hope you are all doing great! Love and miss you guys!!

Elder Hill

P-day Activities ....

Famous ice cream place!