Day of Service & Maria

¡Buenos!

Wow, I don´t even know where to start! This week has been wonderful again- I´ve learned a lot and grown a lot and worked a lot. Argentina is beautiful and starting to warm up! Woo! The trees have leaves (leaves have trees- for all of ya´ll who will get that joke) and the nights are clear (for the most part) and the sand storms are plentiful- yeah, that´s where we´ll start! sand storms!!!

Saturday was our stake´s day of service! It was wonderful! we put on the yellow "mormon helping hands" ponchos or, in Spanish: "manos mormones que ayudan" ;) it´s not quite as catchy in Spanish, but you know, it works! We went block by block and house by house to tell people to bring out garbage and plastic and things that don´t work or have no purpose so that we and the city could clean it up. There´s a lot of diseases cause of this stuff that just sits in yard and streets and houses, especially in the poor districts. We passed out cards that inform people of how to get rid of mosquitoes (which I hope they do, cause I counted my bug bites the other day on my legs: 50 picos de mosquito... yeah. NOT fun. and that´s WITH OFF spray.) It nice to get to know people, work with the members, and help as many people as we could! A lot of people were really happy to see us! And other people were really happy to have access to the garbage of others so that they can use it- woo recycling! I´m so grateful that we had an opportunity to serve in such a widespread way! Like I´ve talked about before, even a smile can make a difference in peoples lives, and service with a smile- holy moly! how contagious and awesome is that!?!?! It definitely made the day for many of us. Even in the sand storm that blew up, service was good to do. We walked through the streets with our eyes closed, not cause there was anything profane (well, I don´t think there was, I don´t really know swear words in castillano) but because of the sand. Our hair, ears, clothes were full of it by the end. But still, it was a lot of fun! It was great to laugh at ourselves and our situation- a bunch of crazy people and kids, going street to street with smiles cleaning up garbage.

There are so many things one can learn from this experience! first off, wise is the man that learns to serve! I´ve found that many of life´s secrets are unlocked when one does service with a smile, with a good attitude and good heart. They learn to look at the world in a light of beauty. Service brings hope to people, that there IS good in the world. and that we can make that good in the world. We understand the people around us better when we serve them. When we can view them in the light of love, and help them. We learn about ourselves. I can´t explain it in a way that gives justice to the good feeling of doing service. Really, the only way one can understand, is to try it! And keep trying it, and keep smiling, and keep serving. reflect on your opportunities to serve. learn from every bit of it. write your experiences so you can go back and think and reflect and smile some more and do more in the future. If you have a doubt, if you're sad, if you're mad, serve, love, pray for charity and for hope. every heart can change! I have a firm belief in that!

Hermana Saunders and I had a really great experience last night. After a hard day and not much success in finding the people we had planned on teaching and visiting, we found María :) We pass by her house almost every other day in the hopes of finding her, she´s amazing and kind and it´s wonderful to talk with her and her children and to learn from her. She didn´t have very much time, but we were still able to have a short lesson of sorts. She told us kindly and gently that she really respects us and loves to talk to us, but that she really believes in the Catholic religion and doesn´t want to change. Her mother is Mormon, and she has learned a lot from her, but doesn't want to take up our time cause she has already found God. A thought came to my mind to ask her about if she has read the bible, so I did. She responded that she has, more or less read parts of it, but that she wants to read more and loves it with all her heart. :) she likes to flip open to a random page, read a random verse, and learn all that she can from it, cause every verse is important. (haha I love doing that too sometimes, there is so much to learn!) After talking with her about the bible, we introduced the Book of Mormon. It´s another testament of Jesus Christ, and just like the bible, by reading it, one can come closer to Heavenly Father. We promised her that if she reads this book, and prays about it, and knows that it´s true, then there is a prophet on the earth today and the same church that existed in the days of Christ is here, restored! At least, by reading this book and talking to us, we can all grow closer to Christ, and at the most, if she want´s to and feels that it´s right, with no pressure from us and no negative feelings, she can join this church, be baptized in the authority and with the power of God, and so much more! María is so kind, after we shared this with her, she invited us to come to church with her sometime and to continue to visit with us, because she loves us and God and wants us to feel the way she feels in the church. She´s going to pray and study, because if this message that we´re sharing is true, she wants to know. This warms my heart so much! Cause that´s exactly why we´re here preaching the gospel- cause we have prayed and asked and pondered and read and we know with all our hearts that this church is true and want to share it with all the people around us! We can´t go to her church right now as missionaries, but I really look forward to talking to her and getting to know more about her and growing with her in love for Christ :) There is a lot more I can say about this, but I don´t really have time, sorry.... :S I´m so grateful for the opportunity that I have to help others feel the love of our Heavenly Father! I´m so grateful for this gospel and the Book of Mormon! I know that it´s true. I know that this message sounds crazy to a LOT of people, especially coming from a 19 year old blondie, but hey- I know in my head and my heart that it´s true! :) 

You´re all wonderful! Pray for opportunities to share the gospel, it´s so important! :) I know that God answers prayers! If any of you have a doubt, or worry, or youre happy, or sad or anything, I know that Heavenly Father will help you! :)

Argentina funny for the day: here, they don't say "kinda". to describe things with the equivalent of kinda, they use "medio" (medium). "You know Antonio? You know, the medium fat guy over there?" "I can´t hear about the gospel right now, I´m medium busy" "um, my schedule is medium complicated, I´ll call you". Yep. Maybe it´s not funny for ya´ll, but I get a chuckle out of it okay!? 

I´m officially out of time. Love you all so so much!!! Have a great week! Watch conference and tell me how it goes!!! You´re great!!! 

¡Caio!

Con Amor,

Hermana Hill

¡Primavera en my alma hay! Bautismo de Hector

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week was the end of my first transfer in the mission! I can´t even begin to believe it.... 6 weeks in argentina?! already?! It makes my heart race a little. I also "killed my mom"- the compañera who I had finished her mission! My mama de la mission, Hermana Naylor, is headin on back to utah. Transfers are like receiving your mission call again. you know you´ll be happy wherever you go, but the not knowing who you´ll be with for the next 6+ weeks 24/7, where you´ll be living, who you´ll be serving, is weird and crazy. I´m going to be staying in Villa Mitre 2! I love it! I´m so excited! There´s a lot of work to do here and I´m elated to do it. My new companion is Hermana Saunders! Ella es tan buena! I actually got to meet her back in Utah one time when we both found out that we were coming here. We had lunch at Argentine Corner. it was great :) and now we get to be companions! Yay!

This week was so so great. Our investigator Hector was baptized and confirmed this last weekend! He´s amazing. And a huge example. He decided early on that he wanted to get baptized, and it´s been amazing to watch his progress! He stopped smoking cold turkey, and want to hear a miracle? He said he doesn't even want cigarettes anymore- we fasted and prayed a lot, and our prayers were DEFINITELY answered. He says he´s a slow learner, but he makes sure he understands everything we teach, and more importantly, understands what the spirit tells him in his mind and heart. In so doing, he has had conviction to press forward and wants to keep doing it. I hope we can all have that kind of faith and hope and dedication. I could just go on and on about his example. One of his friends from work had a stroke, and his friend has no family, so Hector moved in with him to help him and take care of him. Hector sacrifices a lot, and when we tell him so, he immediately thinks of other people.

Also, general conference is coming up!! I´m so excited. I even made a count down... :) It´s great.  Hope you all watch it and are preparing yourselves to watch and listen to it. Go with questions to every church meeting! to every time you study the scriptures! to every time you pray! I know that if you do that, you will find answers to those questions, and even to questions that you didn't think you had!

I´m totally out of time, but I love you all tons and tons! May God bless you and keep you!


Love,

Hermana Hill

Another Beautiful Week and Baptism!!!!

Hola a todos!!! 

As the subject line states, we had a baptism!  It was so wonderful. It was of our dear Antonia, the sister of Maria! It was so great. She is so funny! And the spirit was really strong. Everyone was so so happy!

Hermana Naylor and I had an Other Side of Heaven moment with mosquitoes this week.  We were literally dancing outside the house of one of our investigators to try to keep them off; my legs are full of bites!  We learned our lesson, bug spray is now a morning and after lunch routine.

This week was testimony meeting!  Remember Rodrigo?  One of our investigators?  He's so great. For those of you who don’t remember, Rodrigo has a mental disability of some sort. He's so friendly and nice and smart and it's a joy to know him. He was able to come to church with us this week, and had fun sitting with all the members, and during the baptism, he sat by the bishop on the stand :) He bore his testimony this week and it was just awesome. He told us that he's grateful to have this ward, and to have so many people who say hi to him and smile at him.  He likes the feeling of unity and invited everyone to be even more united. He said he was grateful for his life and for his opportunity to learn about Jesus. What a great example Rodrigo is to us all!

The primary also did a play this week!  Our ward did Hansel And Gretel. It was so so cute! 

This week was so so great! I really don't have any time at all, so I copied and pasted what I wrote to my mission president, please excuse the fact that it's in Spanish, and bad Spanish at that... but anyway! I hope you can find someone to read it to you/translate it! so so sorry! haha I'll try not to let that happen again... :) 

This is Katie's English-speaking mother... I've done my best to translate this section of Katie's message, and intend to remind her that I do NOT speak Spanish.

This week our investigator Antonia was baptized!  The experience was nice.   But before this, we had a very interesting and almost sad lesson.  This is that I wrote in my journal afterward -"Today we went to the house of Antonia for a lesson.  Her niece was there, and we talked a lot about her religion (she is Baptist) and the Book of Mormon.  She asked Antonia a question, but Antonia, a girl in the church, could not answer.  For this reason, we told them that Antonia will not get baptized this Sunday, but continue to go to church and learn more to be prepared for baptism because it is a big thing.  She told us that she doesn’t know things - but she knows her stuff!   Yesterday at the home of Maria (her sister) the asked each of them the baptism interview questions and it went very well.  Her niece came, and we continue to talk to Antonia. I shared with her Mosiah 18, and told her that I know she is definitely ready, because she really has the love of Christ in her heart. She wants to share the message of the gospel with all her friends and family because it feels good.  She feels that the church is her family.  Satan does not want you to feel ready, and wants you to be afraid.  We talked for about an hour, and the spirit was very strong.  In the end, she asked us "Am I really ready?"  We said "Yes." She replied, “Good.   I'm going to be baptized on Sunday.  Juice girls?" It was perfect.   And  I feel pure joy that she will be baptized and that her heart is prepared and ready to be a called a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Antonia’s smile is one I cannot forget!  It was so funny that after a long time to explain things to her, was to "girls juice." My heart is filled with joy !!!!"

Sorry ya'll, that's all I have time for. Love you all!  Keep the faith, I know that this church is true and that the gospel of Jesus Christ will bring joy into our lives! 

¡ciao! May God bless you and keep you!

Love,

Hermana Hill

The play Hansel and Gretel by kids in our ward :) They were so good and had all their lines memorized! How cute! And the two main characters were Zoe and Cristian, two of our investigators! woo!

Our lunch :) made it myself! Sweet potato fries and milanesa nepolitana (chicken with delicious bread stuff on the outside and tomato pure and cheese and spices) YUM.

¡Hola a todos!

I can  hardly believe that another week has gone by! Bahía Blanca is just starting to burst into spring, and it´s gorgeous. The work here is progressing and we truly see miracles everyday. I wish I could send you all pictures! The computer isn´t working again this week... so expect tons and tons in the weeks to come. I´ve decided that the united states REALLY need dulce de leche. And milanesa. Every Monday, when we come to the city to send emails, we get churros that are filled with dulce de leche- it´s heaven! I can´t begin to explain how great it is!

A quick funny for the day- one of our investigators is an adorable and brilliant 11 year old. As we were sitting discussing the scriptures he tells us: "Jesus must be from Spain. He talks so fancy and is always using "vosotros" and such. Where is Jerusalem in Spain?" Okay, maybe you all won´t think that was as funny as we did, but it was just so darn cute! Also, I´m sure it makes more sense if you actually know Spanish.... dang. But ANYWAY- just know that funny things happen.... even if I´m really bad at making them sound funny in my letters...


One of our other investigators, Hector, is absolutely amazing. He told us the other week that he learns slowly, but that he still has bright hope and is excited to learn more about the gospel and be baptized. He wants to be baptized because even though he doesn´t understand everything, he feels good going to church and reading the Book of Mormon :) What faith and humility! He´s a really good example to all of us. He might not be able to understand everything yet, but he certainly is wise and definitely has been prepared to have the gospel enter his life right now.

Sorry that this letter is kinda scattered, I just have so much to tell you all!

For the past 4 weeks, we´ve had dogs follow us all the way to church! It´s hilarious, cause even if the investigators and members don´t come to church, their dogs will :) haha! I love it! Sometimes it´s freaky cause the guard dogs in various houses don´t like the pack of dogs and people coming to church with us every week, but these dogs also protect us and walk us home at night :) We even have a regular dog that comes to church with us every week. We named her Negrita- little black one (super creative, right?). It´s fantastic. but if I get fleas so help me...

For those of you that have asked, the language is coming along great!!! I can´t always understand, and I can´t always respond completely how I want to, but I KNOW that I have received a LOT of heavenly help with the language. And everyone says that my castillano is super good for a greenie! I mean, that´s not saying much, but it´s super comforting and kind that people tell me that! I´m so grateful!

One of the things that I have really loved that we recently started doing is singing in our lessons! Hymns and primary songs invite the spirit so strongly wherever we go! whether we have had a rough day, or a good day, humming and singing the hymns as we walk lifts our attitudes and turns our thoughts more to the joy of the gospel. That´s a huge blessing and super important, cause that´s why we´re here! The gospel is joy! And I´m so grateful to be here sharing that with the people of Argentina. There is so much peace and joy that comes from the message of this the restored gospel! Don´t forget to smile, and don´t ever forget to sing. Every day can and should be a day of joy! Sing until you feel good, that might sound annoying, but hey, do it for me. do it for yourself! Sing in a silly voice, sing with a weird accent, sing with all your heart! there is nothing more beautiful to me than someone who sings with their whole soul, even if they´re the most tone deaf person this world has yet seen. Righteous songs really are prayers to our Heavenly Father, and I know that they will bless your lives. Singing is wonderful! And singing with the purpose to bring your heart closer to God is something even more special. :)

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week! God Bless you and keep you! ¡¡¡¡Quidase mucho!!!!


¡Ciao! ¡Les amo mucho!


Hermana Hill

Peras, Maté, y..... ¡¡¡BAUTISMO!!!

It´s been yet another wonderful week in Argentina! I love it here so much. I love the people, the buildings, the food, the dogs, the sky, the language- everything. As the subject line stated, we had a baptism this week!!! It was so so wonderful! This week was the baptism of a lovely 9 year old named Zoe, I think I´ve told you about her before, but she really is a special girl. (lo siento, the pictures aren´t working on this computer, so I´ll be sure to send you some next week if i can!) Her testimony is so strong. She´s very inteligente. Y the spirit that she invites es tan fuerte tambien. (sorry for the spanish... I should just start writing this totally en spanglish, cause wow...) Anyway she´s awesome! After the baptism, we asked her if she would like to bear her testimony, or share her feelings, with the people there. she agreed promptly and shared the sweetest testimony of how she is grateful that she can follow the example of Christ, and start on the path to him, and how she is clean and can covenant with Heavenly Father. What an example she is for her family and all of us! A girl in our ward heard her testimony, and because of it, gave her little sister, who is also 9, permission to be baptized! She beforehand thought that she was too young to know how important baptism is, but these kids are so ready and so excited for this covenant! It was a miracle. They´re both very excited too! and it makes us all so happy! Especially because this will be a huge blessing to them both, to be able to help each other and comfort each other as covenant children of Heavenly Father. This week we have seen SO many miracles. I wish i had time to share them all in a way that would give them the explaining they deserve! but I want you all to know, miracles DO exist in this day and age. All we need is the faith to look for them and the faith to expect them to happen, trusting in the Lord and His will. Don´t be afraid to pray for them! Heavenly Father is waiting to pour out his blessings upon you :) If you don´t trust me, search it out for yourself- i know with all my heart that they are real! 

Really quickly, because I don´t have much time, I want to tell you about another miracle of this week! One of the members in our ward works a TON and can never come to church, and never has energy to read his scriptures. This 21 year old is going to kill himself with all his work, it´s ridiculous. Anyway, I had a little mini Book of Mormon in English that he said he wanted to try to read since he knows a lot of English and wants to learn more. (a miracle that I even had or bought that thing too- cause I have a billion other copies) We´ve stopped by his house many times and no one has been home. I´d almost given up trying. But I decided to put my Book of Mormon in my box anyway, just in case. we were in his neighborhood, and decided we´d try one more time. We were kinda worried about stopping by again, because we had already seen his dad (who is a HILARIOUS man and super kind. He isn´t a member, and hasn´t really talked to us, which is hard cause we want to help him with his worries etc). But we stopped by anyway. His dad answered the door, thoroughly shocked to see us again. We talked for a REALLY long time. Things have happened in his life recently that are truly miracles for him, he cried as he told us that he is just so happy and want´s to know how he can repay God for what he has done for him. We invited him to church, and he refused that cause he doesn't want to commit to anything. We assured him that it isn´t a commitment, but that it was okay if he didn´t feel ready. He agreed to read a pamphlet though! This is a man who for years hasn´t agreed to read or investigate anything! But he told us that because he needed it right now, he truly would read it. And I believe him. What a miracle that we thought to go back again! And a miracle that this was the exact time when he needed comfort! Heavenly Father truly knows his children.

One of our investigators made us doilies - you know, those lacy frilly things that classy folk tend to have under lamps and such? YES: so now, I have a bright blue doily under my scriptures. be jealous. my companion has one that´s bright pink. You wish you had one, I know. Sorry. I guess i ya´ll want to send me money I can ask her to make some more ;) But seriously, I really do love it :D haha, who would have thought! 

Also, pears here are amazing, and maté is delicious, and the Church is true. 

love you all! i´ll try to write more next week! God Bless you and Keep you!!! Choose the right. 

Love,
Hermana Hill

 

¡Hola a todos!

Brief update on the matter language of my last email- the people are actually saying a whole different word!!!! Seriously... It´s not `como esta´ at all! It´s actually `como anda` Like- how´s it going.... yep. but people still don´t say their s, that much is still true... haha it just helps when you know the words in the first place ;)

Where do I even begin!!! It has been a FANTASTIC week here in Bahía Blanca!!! Guess what!?!?!?! Our dear investigator, María, was baptized this last Saturday! It was beautiful. I couldn´t stop smiling the entire time! It´s an amazing thing, to watch someone you love make a covenant with Heavenly Father and open the door to the path that will lead them to a heavenly home and happiness forever. She is a huge example and a light for her family and neighbors. Many people came to see her take this step in her life, and afterwards we ate cookies and cake and cold pizza and drank maté (not the missionaries, but everyone else drank it. Not that it´s bad! It´s just a social drink and we don´t have the time to drink it) María was very happy and we´re all so happy for her! 

The weather here is NUTSO. Last week, when I sat here writing to you, I had my light skirt on and a short sleeve shirt. I sweated a ton as I walked around the city teaching. Now, I´m sitting here with wool socks, boots, two layers of thermal tights, shorts, heavy skirt, sweater, jacket, coat, hat, and gloves... I didn´t think it was possible to find a place with more bipolar weather than Utah, but it is!!! Welcome to Bahía Blanca :) our apartment also flooded a little from all the rain, and our power is out from all the wind... And I love it! My poor companion is sick though from running around in the rain and cold all day and from giving cheek kisses to all of our sick investigators (they´re not selfish, they´ll give you everything they´ve got, including a cold haha) So we´ve been chilling indoors for 2 days to try to help her feel better. After this excursion to the Centro to write you all, I´m taking her home and making her drink malta and soup and get to bed. It´s my turn to be the mother in our companionship!

Did I tell you last week that there are dogs everywhere? Cause there are. Everywhere. And sometimes, especially if the weather is bad, they run around in packs and it´s pretty freaky.

Oh! And I found two seashells in the street! (caracol en la calle). It was one of those tender mercies that just brighten your day.

To answer some of the questions of my mother: my area is Villa Mitre 2, it´s a little suburb like city just outside of Bahía Blanca (where I am right now to write to you all). I love it so much! I´m grateful for my good shoes and good rubber boots cause most of the streets are dirt and filled with water and ruts and craziness. I'm warm enough, that´s a huge blessing! The people here are super nice and I just am loving every second of it here! And, even if people don´t want to hear our message, they´re pretty darn polite about it. 

I need to talk to you all about the miracle of a smile. One of our investigators has had a REALLY hard life (okay, most if not all of our investigators have had really hard lives truly). We talked to her this week about the love that Heavenly Father has for us, and that through his plan for us, we can be with our families forever. We talked to her about how we know where we were before this life, and why we are here in this world, and where we go afterwards. She began to laugh and cry a little bit, and we were really confused. My companion asked her why she laughed, and after a pause, she said that she had never felt the love of Heavenly Father like when she is with us, when we tell her that God loves her with a smile on our faces. she said that when other people have told her that God loves her, she feels like it´s a conditional love. that she has to change who she is and pay for her sins so that God will love her, and this is something she doesn´t feel like she could do. But God´s love for everyone is unconditional. It´s for each person in this world. The amount that we feel doesn´t change the amount that there is for us! This life is that we might have joy everlasting! So smile. The message of our Savior is one of joy, so smile! Even if you´re not sharing a message of the gospel, or talking at all, smile, and share your joy! If you don´t have joy, smile, and others will smile back and give you some because you´re helping other people do the same. Think about how contagious that is! We also say hi to everyone in the street- that really catches some people off guard. Smile at people, at dogs, and the sky.. Am I sounding crazy yet? Good, cause maybe then ya´ll remember to smile ;)

I love you all! I hope you´re doing well!!! I love hearing from you and I´m sorry that I don´t have much time to write you each individually. You rock my socks, even from thousands of miles away. God bless you and keep you!

Love,

Hermana Hill

A note from the mom:  Katie is being an awesome missionary, as we can all tell.  I love how she bears her testimony with each letter, and how her joy and enthusiasm radiate from each word.  I've haven't been getting enough detail on her day-to-day, however.  Thankfully, she was kind enough to answer many of my questions her letter this week.  I also got a bit more information, and permission to "post this little update on my blog if you want."  

How do you like being an "official" missionary?  

I LOVE being an "official" missionary. It´s the bomb.com. The spirit is so strong, and I love the work. I love the chances that I have to help people. Literally all of my time is focused on that, which is such a huge blessing!!! 

From the pictures, it looks like you have another companionship in your apartment - is it just you and Sister Naylor, or are there 4 of you?

We share a house with 4 other missionaries, 6 girls in total (for a while there were 7 of us, with our TINY bathroom... yay!) 

How was church?  How many people were there?  What is the building like?  How far did you have to go to get there?

There are a lot of members, not as much as should be at church, but there are a lot! That is super cool. I don´t know exact numbers.  The chapel is just like the churches back home but with more tile and no dishes and way smaller. We have to fast walk for 30 min to get to our church, and it takes us one hour to fast walk across our entire area, if we´re going the direct route... it´s a lot! 

¡¡¡¡Hola Bahía Blanca!!!!

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Welcome to my first letter from the beautiful and magical land of Argentina! Please excuse my typing errors, the keyboards are different here and the computer tells me that every word is wrong cause it´s not in Spanish (or castillano, as the Argentines would say. They´re very adamant that they don´t speak español, and I´ll agree with them on that one...) Speaking of language, it´s coming along great! It´s really hard, I just cant let myself get nervous. If I stay confident I do fine. Easier said than done, but I know that It´s a huge blessing that I´m able to do that! Holy moly I´m so grateful!!!! At first (and still now) It was really really hard to understand the accent here! I´m getting way better though! Many people don´t pronounce their ´s´ so "¿Como Estas?" sounds like "¿Comm Enda?" and it´s that way with EVERY WORD... yeah, I´m grateful that I´ve got a companion that helps me translate =) she´s the best!!! Her name is Hermana Naylor, and like me, is from Utah. It really confuses people when we tell them that... some people even thought that if they wanted to be a member of the church they would have to move to the United States... nope! It´s for everyone everywhere. Hermana Naylor is also blonde! So we get honked and whistled at everywhere we go... yay Argentina! It´s weird, and sometimes freaky, but mostly just funny! I´m grateful that Hermana Naylor is good at laughing at things! There are so many things in this world and in our missions that just aren´t worth worrying about, and I´m glad to have her as a teacher to help me see the comical in every situation. she´s the bomb. She´s very kind and spiritual and I´ve already learned much from her. we laugh all the time too- she is silly, just like me, so we get along great!

I´m grateful to have good shoes. the part of the city that we are in is very poor, and most of the streets are dirt. haha the first night I came home caked in it! I love it. We flush our toilet with a stick in the wall, but we have a toilet!!! There are so so many blessings here. And I´ve seen so many miracles. I wish I could strap a camera to my forehead and let you all see and experience this too.

Oh man! I have so much to tell you all about!!! The food here is AWESOME. With a member we had lamb milanesa and potatoes and pan y dulce and soup that reminded me of the bean and ham soup that I eat at my cabin sometimes! It was just the bomb. And last night, we stopped by to say hello to the same member and she made us come in and gave us Ice cream, and I coughed a lot cause we had just got done running to an appointment who wasn´t there so she gave me cough medicine! So in other words, know that I´m REALLY being taken care of here!

I have received more kisses here than I think I´ve ever had in my life! Everyone you meet, people on the street even, after you talk, and if you know each other (or if the person is just really nice) you give kisses on the cheek! Typically one, but some of the old ladies here are especially excited to see us and give us two. they´re so sweet! We don't give men kisses cause of mission rules (and it makes sense too, cause we´re working for Heavenly Father and don´t want to get to friendly with anyone of the opposite gender if you know what I mean) But sometimes, and it´s hilarious when it happens, hombre´s ignore our outstretched hand and give us a beso. SO FUNNY! But I love how loving everyone is, and I know I´m going to miss the kisses when I return (at least, I think so...) 

Well, I only have 5 mins left, so I´ll share the most important part of all this, the miracles =) Our investigators are so so amazing. I learn so much from each of them. My first night here, we talked to like 4 people in the street who wanted to hear more about the gospel, who were friendly, and who loved to talk to us. It was certainly a miracle that we met them =) We walk around all day to get to all of our appointments, our area is huge, and there are so many people who want to hear the gospel. I just want to tell you about all of them cause I love them all so much, but I absolutely have to tell you about Rodrigo. He´s amazing. Rodrigo is a 18 year old boy who is SO nice! He has some type of mental disability that makes it so he´s more like 14ish, and he is just the coolest person you will ever meet. We´ve talked to him a few times and he came to church yesterday and wants to be baptized! I was struggling with español, excuse me, with castillano, and he just patted my arm and said "respíre, respíre, tranquila. be happy, you´re my best friend" (He speaks a little English and loves practicing with me, it´s the best! that translates to- breathe, breathe, tranquil- or something like that) I almost started crying. What a blessing he is!!! He´s so kind and always looking out for others. he always wants to hug and hold hands with everyone, and it breaks my heart to tell him no, but he always has a happy attitude about it and smiles real big and says "oh yes, porque usted trabaja por Dios" (oh yes, because you work for God). He´s so smart. and the insights that he shares about overcoming Satan and following Jesus Christ are so beautiful. Like I said, I wish I could talk about all of the sweet people that I know. The children here are just the most adorable! We´re teaching a little girl named Zoe who although she only has 9 years, she knows so much and is confident in it with firm faith. And she´s only been to church a few times but she has figured so much out and is just the best. She´s helping her mom stop smoking and takes good care of her little sisters. What an example!!!

I know with all my heart that this church is true. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth today. I´m so grateful for this knowledge! It has changed my life, and I wouldn´t be here if I didn´t know it with all of my heart. People are always surprised when we tell them that we pay to be here, but i wouldn´t trade this experience for anything. I love it! I love the people! I love my Savior. I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon, I know that it´s true! I hope you all have a wonderful wonderful week. God be with you! 

Lots of Love, ¡Chao!

Hermana Hill