Back to the basics in... English Class!!! (July 13, 2015)

Hola familia!!!

We have had a STINKING AWESOME WEEK! Sadly, We were only able to work for about three days of this week... we caught some kind of a stomach virus... ewe... it was super sad. We feel 100% now and we were able to work all day Sunday! Nevertheless, it was still a great week, because in those days that we could work, wonderful things happened.

A sweet member called us this past week to invite us to attend her English class as North American guests. We had prepared a message about families and family history, but they already had it all planned out! They asked us tons of great questions to which we responded in English (it was SO hard to speak!) Their questions were wonderful! We didn’t think we would be able to share very much of what we believe with the class, but with their wonderful questions we could! We shared about a range of things, family history, why we´re called Mormons (book of Mormon), where is the church and what time, what kind of activities do you do are there etc. then, one girl said "Dale, no entendí nada, podemos hablar en castellano?" ("come on, i didn’t understand anything, can we speak Spanish) another student said in English (haha) "Why not?" So they began to ask us in Spanish! Booya. One man even asked "what is the difference between your church and the rest?" Good question! We were able to explain the restoration to them! And we turned the time over to our handy dandy member in the room to explain a few other things too, like the book of Mormon and why our ancestors are important to us :) BEST LESSON WITH MEMBER EVER. haha or one of the best that is. We made them oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and they gave us chocolates- win win. And we took a huge group pic and everything- it was so much fun!!! And now they don’t think that we´re just 2 crazy girls in nice clothes wandering the streets bothering people! Hopefully we can talk to them again soon :)

We had many lessons this week, and I was able to learn tons about the fears of the investigators/people that we talk with to change. They often feel that if they go to church, they´ll have to commit to God and everybody that they’re going to be good people and try to change their life. I hope we helped them understand that while yes- the goal is that we can all change our lives! And that’s not a bad thing, or to say that they’re horrible people, we all can be better, no? But going to church for the first time can be whatever you need it to be. Maybe its just to see how it is. To see how you feel there, and to learn. To see if it´ll help you or hurt you. It´s between you and God. I hope so much that they understand that, and have the courage to just see if it´s something they want in their lives!

Love you all tons! Have a wonderful week!!! Spread smiles!!!! Don't eat 3 day old meat empanadas!!!!

Love,

Hermana Hill

Shankie Doodlay SOY! (July 6, 2015)

Hola, Buenas Tardes!


This week was flipin' awesome! Especially with my wonderful companion, and the hard working members of the Pueyrredón ward. This week includes the Finales del Copa America (American Cup? Soccer Tournament) On the 4th. We sported the colors of the USA, NOT Chile, just so you know. But so that we didn’t die, those colors were kept on the inside of our coats, and outside, we rocked the Sky blue and Gold with scarves and ribbons and earrings and whatever patriotic argentine thing we could find. The world wept here when Chile won. It´s just that us Argentines like letting others enjoy the 1st place so we can rock the second. Bad joke. We´re still bitter. Especialmente para perder a CHILE (especially to lose to Chile). Ouch. Add that to the fact that the streets were VACANT for 4 hours on Saturday, and the missionaries (us) without many people to talk to. BUT! Never fear, because we Yankees had a 4th of July miracle!!! We found 2 new investigators during the game- WHAT?! This is almost half of the new investigators that we had found in all of the week! One was a man named Fernandez, a 40 year old hipster that agreed to talk with us for a few minutes while he smoked, but no longer cause then he´d miss the game. But, even after he had finished 2 cigarettes he kept talking with us. and it was a wonderful lesson! We have another appointment to meet with him and his family this week!

The second contact was a woman named Norma. Whoa- another not so coincidence. Norma had just left to get some snacks for the game (seriously, everyone and their dogs were watching it) when we found her. She really needed to talk to someone, i´m so happy that we got to talk to her too. Her 9 year old son died a while back, and so she is desperately trying to figure out how God could possibly love her and what is going on with life. It hit a real heart string for me, well, extra hard, because I immediately thought of joey my little brother. We were more than happy to be able to share with her the plan of salvation! She was very grateful too, and apologized for her tears. I wanted to respond "ARE YOU KIDDING! Don´t be sorry for talking to us and crying!!! We look EVERY day for people who are like you and need comfort!!!! And if we hadn´t found you in this moment, we´d just be sharing the gospel with dogs cause they’re the only living beings in the streets right now! And this message is so important!!! And I know I only just met you but I love you so much and hope you have a happier life!!!!! I hope we can talk to you again because I KNOW this message will help you!" I think I shared a shorter, less scary, calmer version of that with her, but just know, missionaries ALWAYS have time to help. We LIVE for moments like that.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Read and enjoy your scriptures! Love you all!

Hermana Hill

"Feliz Día Papá!"

Buen Dia!

First off: HAPPY FATHERS DAY YESTERDAY to all the dads out there that I couldn’t send a note to. I hope you all had a wonderful day! Thanks for all you do! I ALMOST spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday (I was the backup plan if someone didn´t show up), and I prepared a good long speech to all you dads. Sadly, I wasn´t able to share it in Argentina, so here´s a super short version for you lovely Americans! (Sorry it´s short, I´m really out of time :/ also, it´s a messy translation... but ANYWAY... )

Many times, we missionaries explain to the people that God is our father and a good father, and that he loves them. But to many, the concept seems strange. The being most powerful in the universe created us-

Okay, I´ll believe that.

But that he loves us individually and personally, that our lives are important to him and that he wants to help us-

It sounds like a fairy tale.

We can start to recognize the truth of these things, that he loves us and helps us, when we learn of Jesus Christ.

To help us learn more about them- Jesus and God- we of course have the scriptures, and prophets and prayers, but there´s something more that everyone has and is born with- Fathers and brothers. Thank you for your examples! Every action of service and love, every part of the not-so-simple work of fathers helps us to learn about our Father in Heaven. You are testimonies of Him, and can help the world return to Him. How great is your role as fathers!

Of course, there are many in this world who don´t have fathers in their lives, or there are others who don´t have the chance to be fathers- but thank you, all of you who reach out to be fathers to the fatherless!
I´m grateful to be able to witness and share that the grace of God, and the power of His son reach out to every little being, and that his justice and mercy are upon all of us. Thank you to all of you who work to ease the burdens of others and be fathers!!!

Sheesh I wish I could finish ^that thought, but I hope you all know how much you´re all needed and appreciated!

One little funny moment to tie up this letter-

After a long afternoon of trying to find people to teach, we met a woman who really lifted our moods. At first she was surprised to find 2 girls on her front step, but after talking a bit, she began to accept everything... like, so much it was a little crazy. "We´re here to help people know if this message is true, would you like to know if it´s true?"

"YES!"

"Wow! great! Will you read this and pray to know if it’s true?"

"YES!!!"

"Wow! congrats, seriously you have tons of faith! Will you join us to go to church tomorrow?"

"YES!!! I would LOVE to! What time?"

And so it continued... we were laughing with joy and amazement! We set up plans to pass by to help her get to church, but when we called her the next morning, she nervously asked who we were, then hung up the phone... yeah, the poor thing was surely very surprised! Maybe in that night she began to realize that she had just agreed to something really big and got a little scared- we´ll go back and help her and explain things this week... I hope we didn´t scare her, her poor little 85 year old heart. But we did get a good laugh! Even though we´re worried about her... yeah... maybe it wasn’t such a funny story but oh well... there you go...

Love you all so much! Sorry for not being able to send more great experiences! But the work goes forth and the fun goes on here in Pueyrredón! Read your scriptures, pray, go to church!

Love,



Hermana Hill

"I´m not fat, just poofy!" HELLOOOO WINTER!!! (June 15, 2015)

Hola Familia! Hola a Todos! Y, Hola a FRIO...

Your latest weather update: double-layered fleece-lined tights are now necessary. Don´t even think about going out without gloves and a hat. Are you wearing enough scarves? Yep. It´s cold.

A TON has happened this week! I think Alma 29 sums up quite nicely "O that I were an angel, and I could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people! ...But I am a man, and do sin in my wish. For I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me..." And oh that I were an angel and could share ALL of these great experiences and things that I´m learning with all of you. But, like alma goes on to say, luckily ALL of us get to receive help and revelation from our Heavenly Father- So one day we´ll all hang out and just share everything, okay? Okay. In the meantime, I´m VERY happy to be here in Bahía Blanca doing what I am. Mom, Dad, Grandma, don´t worry, I´m fat and happy.

The scripture also applies in another way to this week, ‘cause it was kinda a tough one in the side of finding people who make time to listen. But that is not at all to say that we didn´t find some, and we definitely have seen many miracles this week. The girl Camila that I told you about last week is doing well! She´s sharing what she is learning with her family, and she cried when we gave her the Book of Mormon. She teaches me so much about gratitude and humility, and about appreciating the small things that mean much. The poor thing was on bed rest this week by doctor’s orders to keep her baby healthy, but we´re all praying that everything goes well and she can come to church the next week.

We also taught a wonderful lesson to a young couple from Viedma. The husband, Mariano, is a percussionist- and we all geeked out for a while when he showed the Hindu "Tabla" drums that he found in some guys attic. Although at first he was a little nervous to talk about religion, music helped us break the ice and helped us to be friends first. It also helped to teach! The analogy came to our minds of the "piano of the gospel" or of religion. The majority of religions and people are all broken up, and maybe we even just play the same five notes. But when we open our hearts and begin to learn about other cultures and religions, we can find other notes to compliment the original five. Even if we love the five with all our heart, maybe there´s a whole keyboard to be found, and it´s worth it to look for it and learn to play. If you don´t like the music it makes, OF COURSE you can go back to the original five. We believe that there is one religion, one organization that has all of the keyboard. But here´s the thing, if we don´t listen, we´ll never know. If we don´t ask God, we´ll never know. We have to open our hearts to the rest of the keyboard. Open our hearts to the Holy Ghost and learn about these things. We missionaries are here to give sorta the "music appreciation" class. Teach the people and help them experiment for themselves. If they don´t like it, they can go back to the way they were before! If they do, they can continue to grow. I hope that analogy made sense... But all in all, what it comes down to, is that God answers prayer- even if it takes time, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense at first. And I know that God want’s us to be able to find the whole keyboard- the whole truth of everything he has for us. This is His wish, and this is His work. So if you´re looking yourself, or if you´re helping someone else look, you can rest assured that God will help you in this quest.

Love you all very much! I hope you have a wonderful week! Remember to read the scriptures and pray and have family home evening! God bless you and keep you!

Love,

Hermana Hill

Pueyrredón is PueyrreZION (June 8, 2015)

Buen Dia to my lovely Seres Queridos,

Time flies!!! Especially when you’re with the super Hermana Saunders in the super area of Pueyrredón. The area is very diverse, but mainly on the upper-side of the social scale. There are people that have DISHWASHERS and cars and then, cross the railroad tracks and there are people that live in houses of "chapa" (sheet metal). It´s always a humbling experience!

This week was a week of miracles! First, I have to tell you of Camila. On Saturday, after finishing up a wonderful lunch with Sole and her aunt (her aunt is from a pueblo that doesn´t have the church- it was wonderful to share with her! And meet her!). We were very late for our next appointment and had to take a bus. It took forever to get there, and we had to take a different route to our lesson.

On the sidewalk, we saw a girl sitting alone and I even ashamedly thought to myself "If we weren’t heading to a lesson right now I would TOTALLY sit and talk with her". Apparently the girl (Camila) listened to the Holy Ghost more than I did, because upon seeing us, immediately said: "I know you two."

We talked a bit, but both Hermana Saunders and I thought to ourselves that surely she had met two other blonde missionaries, at some point and got us confused. We set up an appointment to visit her and got to know her a bit, and I HAD to ask: "where did you say that we met before?"

"In the street Nicochea, about 6 months ago. How could I forget your faces? You found me in a moment very difficult. I´m very content that you´re going to pass by on Tuesday!"

It clicked for us- we had met this girl more than 8 months ago in Villa Mitre when we served there together. We explained to her that we had separated and gone to many different places all over Argentina for the time that we hadn´t seen her, and that RECENTLY we had reunited to work together here. She recognized US- not one or the other, so we had to be together. Upon hearing this, she said "I don´t believe in coincidences- it´s for something that you found me"

If we hadn´t have been a little late, and taken that bus, and walked in that way to our appointment, who knows if we would have seen her! And although we don´t remember her, she remembers us, and that doesn’t happen too often! I have faith that great things will happen with Camila. But even if I´m not here to see them pass, I know that this was a miracle. Even if it was only so that we could have a moment to know and remember that God is aware of us, I´m so glad that it happened! I know that miracles happen.

This week we also went with one of our investigators to make an appointment to be married!!! It won’t be until October, but seeing the joy and excitement of her and her boyfriend brings us so much happiness!!! She´s excited to be baptized thereafter and be able to go to the temple to be sealed. We ate celebratory facturas after that happy moment :)

I´m out of time, but I read a few talks this week that I REALLY hope you all read and study!!! They’re wonderful!

Elder Bednar- https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/come-and-see?lang=eng

Elder Christofferson- https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/08/why-we-share-the-gospel?lang=eng

Elder Neil Anderson - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/its-a-miracle?lang=eng

Sorry for all the links, but I hope you can get the chance to read at least one of them.

I´m so grateful to be here in Pueyrredón! Great things are happening, and the joy that the gospel brings IS REAL. Love you all! Hope you have a great week!!! 

May God bless you and keep you,

Hermana Hill

REUNITED! (June 1, 2015)

Okay, SO MANY GREAT THINGS HAPPENED THIS WEEK!

First off, Transfers happened! Hermana Mancuello finished her mission and is heading back to BA and Paraguay. Our companions are going to be companions, and now I... wait for it.... wait for it.... AM SERVING IN DOWNTOWN BAHÍA BLANCA with, wait for it... wait for it... HERMANA SAUNDERS!!!! My wonderful companion and I are companions again!!! For those of you that don´t remember, it was Hermana Saunders that finished my training in Villa Mitre 2. We were only together for 1 short transfer, but now we´re here again, serving in the area that´s called the Pueredon ward. Literally in the middle of Bahía. It´s going to be a big change to work here instead of in the little pueblos like before. But I´m more than stoked to be here in my beloved Bahía Blanca, with the fantastic Hermana Saunders. We´re ready to take on the world.

Okay, I don´t have any time at all, but this week we also had our Zone conference with Presidente Parreño. We’re going to miss him tons! But of course it will be GREAT to serve with Presidente Cifuentes. President Parreño leaves the 30th of June. I have learned so so much from him and his wife!!! And this conference was especially powerful because we talked about using with wisdom the time we have been given by God to work here (ch. 8 preach my gospel). I know that God loves each and every one of us! He has given us tools to be able to efficiently do His work here. I hope we can each study and use them wisely!

Here’s my letter to my president, sorry once again that it´s in Spanish, and bad Spanish at that because it was written quickly... yep.... it´s not that I don´t love you all! I promise ;)

Hola Presidente!!!!

Muchas muchas gracias por el conferencia de zona que tuvimos en Santa Rosa, aprendimos mucho y fue buenisimo para aplicar las cosas a nuestro area de Toay. Usamos la encuesta muchisimo y hemos podido encontrar por lo menos 2 investigadores que realmente van a progressar, y muchisimos contactos mas que estan cerca de ser nuevos o tener sus fechas otra vez. Trabajamos duro hasta el ultimo momento, y me siento muy contenta con salir la area habiendo dejado muchos buenos investigadores y menos activos progresando para que las otras hermanas pueden cosechar el buen fruto de Toay.  De verdad, estoy muy animada con los cambios! Siento que va a ser muy bueno por Toay a enfocarse en apoyar un compañerismo de misioneras. Y Hna baird y Hna Castleman tienen mucho animo y amor- este bario va a continuar de crecer. Enfocamos mucho en enseñar los miembros de la caridad y hicimos la encuesta. Ellos estan mas penientes de los oportunidades misionales en sus vidas. Aunque este semana no llegamos a tener muchos referencias por la enquesta, sentimos bien que intentemos con todo el corazon, y los miembros vieron y sentieron nuestro animo. Invitamos a ellos a orar para saber a quienes podemos hacer la encuesta. Ojala que muchos lo hacen y piensen en muchas personas con quienes las hermans pueden compartir la encuesta y por esto, el evangelio. Siento que Toay esta progressando, por lo menos en mas animo. Va a ser bueno por ellos a enfocarsen en hacer todo por este uno compañerismo, y juntas con ellos las hermanas van a encontrar, enseñar, reactivar, bautizar, y retener. Vimos algunos frutos de nuestro labor este semana porque una menos activa con quien estamos trabajando fue a la iglesia con sus hijos! Su mamá lloró con gozo, y con todos regocijemos. fue lindo para ver el barrio venir juntos en este manera. La obra de salvacion es lo que cambia todo. Un bario que esta disanimado esta asi porque no estan haciendo su deber- el servicio en la obra de salvacion.

Estoy MUY animada para servir en Pueredon! Siento super entusiasmada para servir con Hna Saunders otra vez y SÉ que con la fuerza del Señor que vamos a bautizar acá por la salvacion de las almas y glorificacion de Dios. Estoy trabajando para ayudar los miembros entender que bautismo no es un numbero, y no lo hacemos por esto. EL PRESION DE BAUTIZAR VIENE DE DIOS y bautizamos porque las almas nos importan, no porque queremos gloria mundano.

Keep the faith, read your scriptures, go to church, pray, and share what you know! Love you all very much. May God bless you and keep you this week and always.

Love,

Sister Hill

Hermano Lucero has a Farm...

Hola a Todos!!! AND FELIZ DIA DE LA INDEPENDENCIA!!!!




There are almost too many adventures to write about this week! So let’s get to it...


Monday we visited the cemetery of Toay, all the graves are above the ground and there are even "houses" where families put their caskets all together. It was nice to be able to visit a few of the people we know. The grounds keeper showed us symbols on a few of the graves and asked us if we know their meaning. Most of them, not a clue! But we assume the skull and crossbones mean pirates... hey, you never know! The coolest part was that we got to share about the plan of salvation with the man that works there.

Friday, we visited Hermano Lucero and his farm in the middle of rolling hills of grazing ground :) It’s just a 45 min walk from the center of town. (Yes, Toay is that small...) We enjoyed his horse and pigs and chickens and dogs, and it felt amazing really to be in the clean air and the quiet campo.

That night we had a super ward activity- TALENT SHOW BASED ON THE BOOK OF MORMON! Not very many prepared talents, so it was kind of a "Sister Missionary Show" but luckily we were able to incorporate the kids so that they could show their skills too. They colored and showed off their art, played "heart and soul" with us on the piano, and in our play about Ammon and King Lamoni they got to be sheep and servants :) It ended up being a SUPER fun night!!! We were overjoyed too because the family that the other Hermanas are teaching came, and so did a family of less actives that we visit! And a HUGE blessing was that they came to church on Sunday too!


I love you all tons and tons! I hope you all are sharing the gospel and reading the scriptures- get involved! I love the conference talk "Soy yo Señor?" um... don’t know what it is in English... but remembering that we CAN change. (“Lord, Is It I?” given by President Uchtdorf October 2014 – see link https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/lord-is-it-i?lang=eng). We don’t have to be miserable creatures that are stuck in routine of guilt and mistakes. The atonement of the Savior is for EVERY ONE OF US. For those that say "I’m better than everyone" and for those that say "I’m worse than everyone"- both sayings are to negate that His atonement reaches every person. "I’m weak, but I CAN be made strong in Christ."

Love you all!!! Have a great week!!!! God bless you and keep you!

Hermana Hill