ENCONTRAMOS Mía!! (November 30, 2015)

Queridos-

For those of you who can read that title, you might be asking- who is Mía?! What kind of great investigator is she? Although we did find some great people this week, Mía has nothing to do with that... she´s a dog! in the middle of our English lesson this Wednesday, a boy from our ward runs in and tells us the terrible news that their dog escaped. We dropped everything and ran along the busy roads looking for this energetic escapee. With a prayer in our hearts, we entered the shops along the street and FINNALY- Hermana child and I found a man who knew what happened to her! A woman had grabbed her, took her home, and cleaned her up. What a nice lady! She was probably a little surprised when a group of 20 Mormons showed up at her doorstep to thank her for finding the precious pet... haha I´m so glad nothing happened to her! Especially considering that those are some pretty busy streets that she crossed. She´s also a beautiful black toy poodle, so the kids were afraid that someone had stolen her. Prayers are answered! It was cool to see everyone come together to help those kids.

On Monday we went to the contemporary art museum- AWESOME! There’s a huge golden sea lion outside made out of alfajor wrapper look alikes. And a chandelier made out of clothes pins. A moving bridge, a mattress room, and don’t forget the weird merman. Way fun!

We´re focusing on finding more people to teach right now. It´s great! and we´re seeing some great results, but it´s also hilarious to see how many people are afraid of a little Christmas card... we´ll work on our approaches ;)

Well, all is well in Zion. Sorry that this is so short, but love you all and i hope you have a great week! Read the scriptures! Pray often!!!!!!

Love,

Hermana Hill

"Are you guys Gypsies?" (November 23, 2015)

Buen Día Queridos!

So, I’ve only got 10 minutes to spit out the best letter I’ve got, ready, GO!

Taxis are one of my favorite places to share the gospel. ´We´re going to a church! Yay, so let’s talk about it´- the conversation flows just great. Yesterday, the taxi driver told us that he has read almost all of the book of Mormon that was given to him a month ago by a few other traveling missionaries. AND he knows members. AND he basically told us everything about the book of Mormon by memory "Ah! You´re Mormons! Like Moroni, he gave the gold plates to Joseph Smith to translate a record about the Jews who came to America 600 years before Christ. That´s your religion, right? I´m not getting you confused?" Missionaries be like: WAT... haha it was SO awesome!!! The thing that bites, he works by night and sleeps by day, so he didn´t want to give us his address and "let us down cause we´d never find him in a good moment". BUT he DID say that he wants to go to church and that he has contact because he talks to the cool members nearby. He lives in our area- WOO! But seriously, some of my best contacts happen when I have to take a taxi.

OTHER STORY: Sunday were elections AGAIN because last time the candidates didn't win by enough of a percentage or something. So, once again we couldn´t proselyte. But we DID go to a baptism in the neighboring ward! It was so amazing! One of the sons of a part member family was baptized. He´s like 10, and his 13 year old brother gave the sweetest closing prayer I’ve heard in a while. He thanked God that now him and his brother would be closer and more united than ever. :,) and he definitely joked earlier on that his brother would need to be dunked 5 times instead of one to get rid of all his sins hahaha.

Add that to the beautiful stake conference of that morning. 2 young people gave their testimonies- one had just got his mission call to south Argentina, the other had just returned from her mission to Colombia. I loved that they both mentioned that they had been preparing for their missions from their birth or youth. THANK YOU TO THE MANY PEOPLE WHO HELP US GET OUT HERE. The mission is the best experience of my whole life. I´m grateful for all the testimonies that strengthened my own, to get me her now. How could i ever say enough to help you know how grateful i am!? THANK you!!!

Also, for the record, we´re missionaries! Not gypsies. We have skirts too, and yes, we talk to random people in the street- I see how one could get confused. :) Don´t worry people, we´re here to share the gospel, not to rob. So many people don´t talk with us haha for these stinking misconceptions. No, we´re not: Spies, gypsies, debt collectors etc. Yes, we are: two girls who want to help you come closer to Christ. haha I love people and their first impressions of us, it´s different with every person we talk to, always haha.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Happy Birthday Gene!!!

Have a wonderful week everyone! May God bless you and keep you!

Love,

Hermana Hill

Happy Almost Thanksgiving! (November 16, 2015)

Hullo Mutha, Hullo Fatha, here I am at... POMPEYA!! Woo! 6 more weeks with my dear companion Hermana Child in this beautiful area.

This week we started to attend choir practice. The director is a professional piano teacher, and with her insistence, got permission from our mission pres. to have us sing with the talented stake choir. I HAVE MISSED MUSIC SO MUCH!!!! My iPod broke when I left my last area 2 months ago (what can you expect from a 10 year old, well used brick...) Hermana Child and I have tried (and failed) since to have music, but we will conquer! Our goal for p-day- find some kind of cheap music reproducer. There has been a notable difference in our hearts and spirits after having those rehearsals for the conference next week.

And speaking of music, a highlight of this week was the ward primary program. The church was decorated with red, blue, and yellow footprints, and a stand displayed the art and photos from al the year´s activities. We thought THAT was cute, but then we saw the kids. They were decked out with matching hair bows and suit ties. :) Our ward has 8 Valiant (is that what they’re called? the kids 8+) and only 2 tinny CTRs and how could you forget the 4 little sunbeam cuties? They invited us to sing "called to serve" with them- DREAM COME TRUE!

On Tuesday, walking to a member´s house to pick up our food for the next day, a thought flashed across my mind to knock a certain, well illuminated door. Out came a sporty, middle aged woman with a huge smile and invited us to pass through her gate. Our thoughts were: is she a member or something? We never are received like this! But as she began asking us where we are from and who we are we knew that she wasn’t familiar with us ¨Mormons¨. Her two boys came out- Agustin ("Justin" age 9) and Juan Ignacio "Juani" (age 11). We began to ask them a few questions to get to know them, and she invited us inside! (That rarely happens). Her kids are SO cute and very interested in our message. Agustin somehow managed to answer all of our gospel questions with movie references and his own genius inventions. Have you heard of resurrection? "Yeah, like Harry Potter, when Voldemort killed him and he came back to life" Where do we go when we die? "I saw in the Simpson’s once that you take flowers to the graves... but I don’t know where the dead person goes..." Yeah, this kid and I are already great friends.

I’ve been learning a lot of good lessons on patience. We set up appointments, and they aren’t there. Or then there are times when we can’t be there, and they were waiting. Man, it´s hard. But it’s crazy to see the way that it all works out. If we do our very best, all we can, God helps us work out the wrinkles and tears of our work. He helps the people forgive us, and helps us forgive ourselves. But one of the things that amazes me the most is that when I think that something went "wrong", many a times it went exactly how it was supposed to. When we found Romina and Agustin and Juani, we had planned on being in a family night with a member and her neighbor. It was canceled, but we found this great woman and her children that are eager to answer life´s questions. We will have more chances to talk with all of them :)

The whole world has been hit by the violence in France. We´re all praying that God comfort and bless those who have lost loved ones. I pray too that He comfort all who in this moment wonder where He is and why these terrible things happen. Stay close to our Father in Heaven! He is real and He loves us. I´m so grateful for the message that I have the blessing of sharing with the people here! For those of you who know it, share it! And for those of you who don’t- please ask. And everyone- don´t forget that there is SO much to be grateful for!!!

Love you all SO much! Have a WONDERFUL week!!! Thanks for all the love and letters of support- I appreciate you more than I could ever say!


Love,

Hermana Hill

Just another crazy week in Paradise! (November 9, 2015)

buen dia queridos!

It´s kinda hard to explain this week... it was crazy!!! Like, super weird things just happened all the time... I´ll save you from all the details, just know we´re safe and happy and the work goes on!!! So you don’t freak out with the lack of details, here´s a few: random unattended bonfires in the middle of the streets, finding a comic store on p-day and teaching the owner about the Restoration while standing by an Ewok and the elder wand, being followed by a homeless man (we hid and miraculously lost him), and we saw a popcorn truck that just stops on the side of the street, rings a bell, and hands out multi-flavored pochoclos among other assorted fun stuff! I love the mission :) Ooh! And it´s finally warm here!!! I got my first sun burn and first bug bite of the season! Bring on the summer!!!!

This week we were able to find a lot of families that haven´t gone to church in a long time. :D And they want so bad to change their lives! I´m excited to keep visiting them and learning from them and from the spirit! The members here are so great! They help us tons, and give too much food, and are always looking for ways to strengthen each other. We have like 3 family home evenings planned for this week! I´m supper stoked.

So one of my friends asked me this last week what my thoughts are about trials- and even though I’m late in getting back to him, I figured I´d write it in my weekly letter just in case one of you might benefit from it :) It´s something we talk about EVERY DAY in the mission. So many of us are looking for the WHY to all these crazy things that happen in life. I´ll try to put it in a few words... :) Part of the purpose of life is to be tried- to learn how to choose right from wrong and to learn and grow. We could compare it to a refiner´s fire. I love the parable that explains it. Just like a metal work of art, we must be molded and put under pressure, changed chemically and physically. It takes a lot of change to get a lump of metal to be a silver water pitcher! The master knows what He´s doing- we are carefully held in his powerful, capable hands. The metal is not "done" until it perfectly reflects the image of the Master. We´re here to become more like our perfect Father in Heaven, and receive his image in our countenance.



Sometimes we face trials due to our own decisions. If we do bad things (sin) hard things tend to come our way. There are consequences! ALWAYS. Our loving heavenly father gave us commandments to protect us from those natural consequences of bad decisions. Sometimes we face trials due to the bad/unrighteous decisions of others. There will be judgement for them now and in the end, but for those affected by their decisions, God loves them and wants to help them!!! He will give us no trial that is beyond our ability to endure. That doesn’t mean everything will have a happy ending. But if we endure it well- BOOM you can´t even imagine the blessings that you get now and in the future. He offers His Help. His Son died that his grace would heal us.

Dang, I could talk about this ALL DAY. And really, every one of the scriptures speaks of these things. READ THEM!!!! With all my heart, I pray that you read and love the scriptures. They ARE the words of God- how stinking cool is that?!?! It´s amazing!! And you all live in a modern world where you have the blessing of having them in your hands. Like the parable of Moses and the iron snake that he raised, that the people would look and be healed from the venomous snakes- LOOK! READ! PRAY!!! Stay strong. Nothing makes me happier than to hear that you are working to strengthen your testimonies! Remember, all things are made right by Christ and His Atoning Sacrifice. (Omni 1:26). If you wonder how, or you think it´s craziness on my part- just investigate! You´ll never know unless you look! :) Also, Doctrine and Covenants 59:23 and 84:82-85

Sorry that this was so long, but know that I love you all very much! I hope you have a WONDERFUL week. Learn lots. Be strong! May God bless you and keep you!!!!

Love,

Hermana Hill

Dulce Diesiseis! (And Happy Halloween!) (November 2, 2015)

Queridos!

This week we have seen many of the fruits of our labors!! 3 less active members came to church with us!!! And one of our investigators unexpectedly showed up to the Relief Society Knitting party-thing! It sounds crazy, but you have no idea how wonderful it was to see all these things happen.

Lorena is one of the three that came back to church. The day we found her, we had been working and walking all morning. She was the last person on our plans, we were super far from home and already really hungry for lunch. It crossed our minds to just go home early. But we decided: ´nah, for some reason we had put her in our plans, and one more person isn’t that much extra effort`. When she let us in and asked: "how did you find me?" I thought we were in for a verbal beat up... but a miracle happened instead. Tears began to pool in her eyes as she told us her story and testified that God knows exactly when to send us. She´s been passing through a lot. She´s prayed every night that God help her find the strength to return to church. All of her 6 children have decided to reject God in their lives (for now), and if she were to go to church, without all or any of them, it´d be like really accepting that they´ve left the way. To help her, she just needed a few friends, a few hugs, and a few scriptures. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Listen to that still small voice that´s telling you to reach out! IT´S WORTH IT. And you wouldn't believe all the miracles that she´s seeing in her family now.

This week I also got news that my investigator Luisa (from Barrio Pueyrredón) was baptized!!!! CONGRATS LUISA!!!! I´m so so happy for her!!!

Shout out to my new nephew Bohman Batty!!! I can’t get enough of the little picture mom sent me. What a handsome boy!!! I´m so stoked to get to hold him :) Welcome to the family, kid!

So you know, I´m going to be returning home on the 29th/30th of December- I can’t believe I've already been out here for 16 months today... We´re totally going to celebrate by eating ice cream on the beach and buying my comp new shoes. But I’m also stoked to be staying here for Christmas (NOTHING against my family and friends back home!!!) It´s just so special to be here, especially during Christmas- It´s the best to testify of our Saviors birth!!!! And our whole mission is going to have a Christmas get together too! I´m glad I don’t have to cut my mission 2 weeks short to be able to be home. I reiterate though that I love you guys SO SO much and that I look forward to skyping you! :) hope this is alright :)

It´s sad that they don’t celebrate Halloween here- just the English schools :) But we totally ate a bunch of Argentine candy to be the Americans that we are.

Also, in our mission, our daily schedule changed!! So now we leave at 8:30 am to preach and we study during the Siesta when everyone´s sleeping... WEIRD RIGHT?!? Lots of changes... I´m still trying to figure it all out!

Miracles are real. The church is TRUE. READ THE BOOK OF MORMON.

Love you! May God bless you and keep you!!!

Hermana Hill

La Cucaracha...(October 26, 2015)

Family of mine! (Familia Mia),

Hey ya´ll! Sorry, this is gonna be short, computers have decided to be lame, so I don’t have much time. It´s not that I don´t love you! It´s just that I had to save my pictures from the abyss of deletion. :) But my dear companion has given me permission to send you hers... she´s great- best of the best. Her letter will be at the end of mine :) so, here´s a couple highlights that my comp didn’t mention:

We found a cockroach in our house yesterday, it was the size of my index finger. Appetizing.

I cut my own hair this week! That was crazy!!! I now have bangs... for the first time since I was five... BANGS!


Like my comp said, we´re teaching Malvina!!! She rocks. She wants to change, but her past makes it really hard for her to trust. We´re going to pass by with members that have also been through a lot so that she can relate better. Not that we haven’t been through a lot, but it´s so important to have the help of the members! They´ll be here even when we leave, so it´s VITAL that we help them make friendships. The experiences of people are sometimes the strongest testimonies- don’t ever be afraid to share your experiences and testimonies!!! That´s one of the many reasons we go to church- to learn from what others have already learned. YOU are important. We go to church not only to learn and feel the spirit and renew our covenants, we go to edify and lift others too. So, why do we go to church? BECAUSE WE LOVE GOD.

Ok, here´s my comp:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

​Hey I have time to actually think of what to write Y´all this week, and I am hoping that it makes sense. You might be thinking or asking why I have a lot of time on my hands. Well, on Sunday (yesterday) everyone was voting and so our mission president made us all stay home cause it’s a little dangerous to be out in the streets, during voting. Lots of Riots, or protesting, I suppose. So after church on Sunday we just went straight home and as missionaries you can’t do much especially when you don’t have any electronics. So I plugged in our little heater and it took me about 20 min to find a pen that worked and then started to write this letter.

This week we have been teaching Malvina and her husband Ariel after about teaching her 3 times in the street she finally let us into her house, as we entered there was a nice whole in the floor you had to be careful. And this big black thing on her wall that’s used for witchcraft. But she just uses it to hold her bread cause it was a gift and she can’t throw it away. She has 3 kids under the age of 8. She believes in basically everything and Ariel is Evangelista. They don’t have a sink just a bucket full of water and while we were teaching them Ariel was making coffee with a nylon sock as the filter, used or not used. (I don’t know) The littlest girl kept asking me for stickers and annoying her mom so her mom told her to leave and gave her a cup of coffee to drink (not the smartest thing to give a 4 year old coffee). We started to teach them the 10 commandments and we only got to commandment 2 before they started getting after one another for not keeping these commandments. Then started to ask us if we had boyfriends or kids. And if everyone in the states has blue and green eyes. But this whole time 1 of their 3 dogs was chewing on one of the legs of my chair and I though it was going to eat my leg, then started to gag and I thought it was going to throw up all over my legs. Then Ariel was telling us that you just can’t throw away socks. While he was sowing a sock. BUT hey on the bright side Malvina said the closing prayer. :) It will take a lot of patience to teach this family but I am up for the challenge. :) They are awesome they just need a lot of help!

Hermana hill and I have done tons of contacting this week and knocking and clapping doors as usual. And we have decided: That you just can’t knock doors at any time or they will get mad. But you just continue and try and find those who are ready. But we have learned: You can’t knock around 11 or 12 cause they are eating or cooking lunch and you can’t knock 1 to 5 cause they are sleeping during the siesta and don’t want to talk. And 6 to 7 they will kinda listen to you. And from 8 to 9 they get mad and ask you why you are knocking doors when its dark and they tell us how dangerous it is.

It’s crazy how many rejections we get and we still work hard and when a miracle happens you just forget about all the rejects and just continue moving forward. And that you just are blown away with the miracles. :) With the miracles that happen I definitely couldn’t have done it alone. LIKE wow. THIS CHURCH is just so TRUE!!

con amor HERMANA child

(from hna hill:)

I love you all tons! Have a wonderful week! Sorry for the crazy letter! Pray, read the scriptures, go to church! LOVE YOU!!!

Hermana Hill

FELIZ DIA DE LA MADRE ARGENTINA! (October 19, 2015)

Aloha Familia!!!!!

No, sadly that wasn´t a reference to a warming climate in Argentina... I think we had one day this week that was nice, and it was BEAUTIFUL! I only wore a jacket and a scarf. The rest of these days.... boots, two pairs of tights, coat, umbrella, scarf, sweater, gloves... But who doesn´t love Antarctic winds? It just makes me feel closer to the penguins, so I´m good. I just hope to see a little of this Argentine Spring!


Mar del Plata is HUGE. I have never seen so many two story houses and cars and well-kept gardens... It´s absolutely beautiful! Every time that I want to stop and take a picture of these huge houses that I find, I find one that´s even bigger... Yet again, what has amazed me with all of this, is getting to know the poor that live among such richness. I´m grateful for the opportunity that the mission brings to walk the back streets and get to know the people. One of them is Malvina, a sweet woman bashed by the circumstances of her life, strong and still fighting. We´re working so hard with her right now to help her see her worth in the eyes of God. She has lost faith in praying for herself- she thinks God doesn’t love her. But she hasn’t given up praying for her kids and hoping that He will help her. She has more faith than she thinks she does! It´s so humbling to help her look at her life and examine the ways that the Lord has blessed her. She knows keeping the commandments keeps her safe. She recognizes that she would be WAY worse off without them- that´s a manifestation of the love of God- His teachings. The worth of souls is GREAT in the sight of God! And I could share hours about that. HE LOVES YOU! He doesn’t control you. He doesn’t want you to suffer. He gives us agency and we have to live with the agency of others. It´s hard, but it´s worth it.

Another quick thought: A lot of these houses we go into are HUGE and beautiful on the outside, and bare walls and empty shelves on the inside. Don’t judge a book by its cover. People need your smiles and your love more than you know.

Sorry, I´m definitely out of time this week, but I love you all tons! The work continues her in Argentina!! I love it here! My companion is the best!!!!

Speaking of my companion, she´s hilarious. I told her the other day that she rocks my socks. She responded "I don’t like rocks, cause they’re in my sock..." She insists on using her old broken shoes every day... We fill them up with tape and cardboard so that water doesn’t get in... haha

Have a wonderful week!!!!!! Work hard, remember who you are! (Sorry for the kinda lame email this week, it´s not cause i don’t love you!) ;)

Keep on rocking my socks!

Hermana Hill


PS: Happy Argentine Mother’s day mom!!! Thought about you a lot this week- I´m SO grateful for my mom and grandmas!!!!

Hermana Hill and the Chocolate Factory (October 12, 2015)

Hola lindos!!!

Sorry for writing a day late, yesterday was a big holiday here and NOT A SINGLE SHOP OPENED UP. Soooo, p-day is today!

Here´s the rundown of this awesome week:

Pompeya is awesome! The area is HUGE. I don’t think I’ll ever get to know all of it. I love my companion! She makes me laugh every second of the day out here. We found TONS of new people to teach this week! We had a lot of setbacks- people came to fix our house, we have to be in the house at 8 because it´s a little sketchy at night in the city (don’t worry mom and dad we´re safe haha, it just makes the work a little different), and a bunch of things just happened. But we worked hard with the time we had and miracles happened!

Favorite parts of the week:

A little old lady, 93 years old, shared her testimony this Sunday. I´m just going to quote her so that you can experience the comedy gold. Imagine it in a scratchy cute voice: "I know the word of wisdom is real! The missionaries taught me to stop drinking all those delicious alcoholic drinks and I did! And now I don’t have to take a single medicine. I loved those drinks... but I’m happy now" haha and: "I have to confess- I LOVE watching soccer games. The one last night was especially good. But I KNOW the scriptures are true and I love them, so after the game last night at 2 am I read my scriptures! It was great! Today is Sunday, and it´s a holy day. so even though I love soccer, I’m not going to watch it" I have never laughed so hard in a sacrament meeting! I’m so grateful for this lady and her example and for the way she made me laugh!!!

To explain the title, we toured the alfajor factory this week!!! BE JEALOUS. It was amazing. And we got free alfajores! And it was delicious. Our neighbor across the hall works there, so we got an exclusive behind the scenes tour.

Thought of the week:

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but I had a thought that really struck me this week when we were talking to a sweet old man named Don Natalio. Many people tell us: "I admire you for what you are doing and for taking time from your lives to help others! Way to go! I’m already lost, (or I’m fine), good luck finding people to teach!" But here´s the thing- that’s what everyone says!! We can’t help anyone if everyone thinks that they´re not worth helping! Or if they think that they´re a waste of time! We´re not here to help only the hopeless, but the message of Christ and his gospel is for EVERY ONE OF US, and everyone, myself included, needs to keep on learning and take this message into their hearts. LET THAT PERSON THAT WE TEACH BE YOU. Who knows? Maybe you´ll find something you needed. But you´ll never know until you try. You´ll never know if you need part of this message until you hear it! It’s within every one of us if we want to change or not. If we want to act or not. But the least you can do is TRY. no, the least you can do is HEAR! You don’t even have to act on our invitations if you don’t want to! But I promise that if we take the promise of Alma 32 and we plant and nourish the seed of the word with our actions, we WILL KNOW if the fruit is good for us. I hope we can all plant and nourish the seed of the gospel. Ask questions. Look for answers. And then look some more. We need more people who search, and less people who tell others to search.

I hope that made a little sense... it goes for every one of us. How is that seed doing in my heart? Am I nourishing it? Have I searched and pondered on how to help it grow? And now, is this fruit good for me? (See the talk of Elder Uchtdorf from the last conference)

Love you all!!! Things are wonderful here, and I hope they are for you all too, wherever you may be in the world. May God bless you and keep you!

Hermana Hill