Regocijad!

Dear Family,

JO JO JO Merrrrry Christmas! Ah it was so good to talk to you and see your bright smiling faces yesterday. Sorry I had such a hard time talking normal :S I´m glad you are all doing well. Thank you so much for your love and support! And to my friends as well….I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and thank you for the love and support and letters. I´m sorry I haven´t sent hardly any letters, there is never time to write. But just know that I appreciate you all! Oh and speaking of….just a reminder to all those who have exciting news such as mission calls, EMAIL ME RIGHT AWAY! thx

Okay so the baptisms. Wow. Miracles. And also a lot of adverstiy. So Ruben was a former investigator and we had tried to visit him before but he wasn´t home. So we got special permission to leave earlier in the morning to visit him. He was home and after talking for a little while we found out he still has interest in the gospel. I asked him if he would be baptized the next day and he got a huge grin on his face and said yes. We found out that two of his sisters, Milagros and Evelyn, had also been to church before and they both chose to be baptized as well. Miracles. Nicolas and Santiago are brothers and I already told you the story about them but they are amazing. Maxi and Joaquin are doing awesome. There weren´t very many people in sacrament meeting on Christmas, but Maxi and Joaquin got there early, even though they hadn´t slept at all the night before. A lot of the investigators and recent converts need us to call or pass by their house to wake them up, but these two brothers are always where they need to be without anyone telling them. I love the people here so much. I don´t ever want to leave Zárate!

I will send you lots of pictures. I love you a ton! Give Easton a big beso from his favorite tía :)

Hermana Hill

Nicolas and Santiago looking at the font before their baptism.
I love this picture.  They are little angels!

A frog entered our house and wanted to do some gospel/spanish study.

Baptism of Milagros, Ruben, & Evelyn :)

When we went to fill the font for Santi and Nico,  it was still full from the baptism
of  Maxi and Joaquin because the person who is in charge of emptying the font forgot.
So we took buckets and emptied about half of it and filled the rest with warm water.

Blanca Navidad :)

Hello!

Thanks for the emails! I did a few laugh out louds. Especially seeing dad in the ELF SUIT! Classic. Please tell me that is his for keeps? It was good hearing from the my funny sisters! McKenna, good job with your finals and I will look for Elder Skousen. Hannah, good job in swimming, and stay away from the creepy seniors at viewmont. Camri, ugh...ozzy. And poor Bella.....:S

As always, SO MUCH I WANT TO WRITE. But of course life is crazy. This week has been very satifying. We are definitely seeing the fruits of our labors! We had seven investigators at church this Sunday, which is the most we have had in Zárate. We also had the most people in the chapel that we have ever had--67. It doesn´t sound like a lot, but it was a huge blessing to have that many, believe it or not! I am beginning to learn how to lose myself in the work.

Let me tell you the story of Maxi and Joaquin a little. So Maxi was an antiguo investigador and we found his registro. He had met with the missionaries before and had been to church as well. We decided to see if he still had interest and find out why he wasn´t baptized before. It was one of the days when I was on divisions with a member, Julieta, when Hna Vargas and Gonzalez went to the hospital. We had some trouble finding his house, but were finally able to find it. There was a teenager sitting there smoking and he hurried and left. A girl came out and we asked for Maxi. Turns out he was the boy who we saw. He came out and we got to know him a little bit and talked about the gospel. After about five minutes I asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes. We invited him to a noche de hogar that night and he actaully went! We also started teaching his brother Joaquin. They are chicos muyyy especiales. Because they had both been to church many times before, and they had testimonies, they were able to be baptized quickly. Many miracles occurred in order for it to happen though. Maxi was able to quit smoking and he took out his piercing on his lip. At first their mom wouldn´t let Joaquin get baptized because she thought he was too young to make such a big decision. But Joaquin had a huge desire to get baptized. Although he doesn´t say much, he has a huge spirit and always has a smile. When his mom said no, he wouldn´t eat the rest of the day because he was devastated. We continued to plan for his baptism because we knew that his mom would have a change of heart. Which she did (amazingly). She was able to go to their baptism and it was such a spiritual experience. We had asked Maxi if he would share his testimony after he was baptized and he said no. Joaquin hesitantly said he would. After the baptism, he went up to the front, but got all shy and wouldn´t say anything. His mom started asking him questions, trying to prompt him like "how do you feel? do you feel clean? do you feel like Heavenly Father is happy with you?" He just got a big smile and nodded his head. Then Maxi started to bear his testimony and talk about how he felt during his baptism. It was like he couldn´t hold it in! He said that he was nervous right before, but he came up out of the water and felt a peace that he had never felt before. After the services, their mom, Adriana, even told us that she felt something she had never felt before and she even felt like sharing her testimony with her sons. I know that the spirit can change people! I believe that Adriana would be baptized if it wasn´t for her husband who is against it. But, I know she will have the opportunity because with God nothing is impossible! I was talking to Maxi a while ago and he said that many missionaries would come to his door before, but he would always say he wasn´t interested or he would hide. He said he didn´t know why he decided to talk to us when we went to his house. He said when he went to the noche de hogar, he stood outside the church for about fifteen minutes and wasn´t going to go in. But he heard us sing "noche de luz" (silent night), which he remembered from church and liked it, and he decided to go. We sang that song at his baptism. I know from this experience that people are being prepared by a loving Heavenly Father all the time. 

Wow I have to go. Hope that story made sense. 

I love you so much and wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope you remember our loving Savior. I have a compromiso for you all. This Christmas think of a gift that you can give to Christ. Pray to know something that you can give up in your life, something you can do better, some way to use your time for more things of the Lord. I know if you do this, you will be so blessed. I am going to do it too :) And if you feel like it, let me know how it goes. 

LES AMO!

Hermana Hill

Ezequiel y Lucas.  Aren't they just the cutest?

We bought some shoes for 12 pesos :)

Subimos el techo.

Las Chicas Super Poderosas

Familia!

 

No tengo tiempo! We just got done with doing tramites for Hermana Gonzalez and we need to get back to work.

 

Maxi and his brother Joaquin were baptized. It was amazing. I will give you more details next week.

 

I love you so much!

 

Christmas is so soon!

 

WOO!

 

The church is true! And it changes lives!

 

Hermanaza Hill

No puedo creerlo...

Familia!

 

¡Qué loca semana! Okay it seems like I´m always saying it has been a crazy week. But I feel like this week has been extra crazy! Let me just list a few things that have happened.

 

-I have a new companion. She´s super awesome. Like I said, she´s from Guatemala. She´s so cute and so happy and always says "¡no puedo creerlo!" She´s also a stylist so I can get a haircut, waxing, make up, etc done by this little chica. Jaja.

-The first day she got here, there was a huge rain/hail storm. We were super far from the house when it started and we got PELTED by giant ice rocks. It was fun though. Once in a lifetime opportunity :)

-We were in the middle of a lesson when the Secretary of the mission called and told us we need to get back to our house asap because another Hermana, Hna Gonzalez was going to come join us. She is a traveling missionary...she spends about a week with every companionship to help out and such because she´s re-copada.

-Hna Vargas had to go to the hospital in capital because she has a constractura cervical. Poor thing is like a robot, she can´t move her neck. So Hna Gonzalez went with her and I got to be a trainer for a day. A member accompanied me to all the lessons we had for the day. Her name is Julietta and is 19. She is a ward missionary in Zárate I and wants to be a missionary someday. She´s awesome. It´s with her that we found Maxi....

-We have a baptism this weekend! His name is Maxi Alderete. He had been investigating the church about a year ago, but his mom didn´t want him to get baptized. But we ended up visiting him and invited him to our noche de hogar on Friday. And he came!! And he came to church. He is fifteen years old and wants to change his life around. Right now he smokes but he said he is going to stop. And he had an earring on his lip but Hna Gonzalez got him to take it out and give it to her. Haha she´s awesome. And his mom said it is okay with her if he goes to church and gets baptized! The best part is, his sister is a member and she can help him to stay active.

-We also have a bunch more investigators but I don´t have time to write about them all.

-We went on divisions the other day and, again, I got to be a trainer. I went with a girl in our ward, Eliana, who is twenty, who is also really awesome.

-I feel so busy but I love it.

-Today I have been in Argentina for three months. Where does the time go??

-I feel like a ton more has happened but I can´t think of it all right now.

 

I can´t believe it about the crazy strom you had!!! Is everyone safe and sound? I sure hope so! How scary!! At least you got some good missionary experiences out of it :) Hahaha mom, I can´t believe you sent that text to the wrong person! I remember doing that a few times back in the day. Awk-ward.... Alfajores are delicious treats they have here in Argentina. Google it. And, yes, they do taste better on the roof. Hna Jones can testify to that :)

 

Well I love you. And I love the gospel. Don´t forget to do the little things each day. I know our testimonies grow by reading and praying every single day. Don´t forget! Make it a priority. Something I have been trying to remember to do is pray everyday to ask if the Book of Mormon is true. It has helped to strengthen my testimony. Right now I´m reading in 3 Nephi. I LOVE IT. It´s so interesting to see that right before something amazing is about to happen (the coming of Christ), there is so much opposition. The people were the most wicked and Satan had the hearts of many. But these were the people who were destroyed...those who remained faithful through it all were the ones who were able to witness the coming of Christ. Don´t ever give in to doubts, only go forward with faith.

 

I love you!

 

Tía Hill

 

P.S. Hermana Jones: Thank you for the email! I love the photos!!!! I almost died laughing when I saw the pink jump suit. Oh boyyy. Are we friends on facebook yet? Have you stalked me yet? It sounds like it has been crazy being home. Good luck with the whole adjustment! I know you can do it. Keep being a missionary, okay? Don´t worry, we are taking care of Zárate for you :) I wish I could write more but just know that I love you!

¡Vamos que se puede!

Hello and hi and hola!

Wow, it´s been quite the eventful week! We´ve been running around like crazy and traveling to San Fernando and back a few times, but it all came to a wonderful end with the baptism of Susana! We were worried earlier in the week because we weren´t able to teach her for a few days straight because she hadn´t been home. We thought she was avoiding us, but it turns out her daughter had been having some health problems, so she was with her a lot. We finally were able to find her and teach her and help her to have her baptism on Sunday! It was awesome. It´s amazing because we had only known her for two weeks. She knew very little, but her testimony is so strong. She knew she was making a correct decision because of the way she feels every time she goes to church, reads in the Book of Mormon, and has lessons with us. And that is all the knowledge you need! When the Holy Ghost testifies you just need to seguir, no más! Also, it was so great that Hermana Jones and I were able to share such an awesome experience on our last day together. That night, we went to her despedida and on the way home, the Elders called us to tell us about TRANSFERS! This is how it went: Elder Lane: "Hermana, have you been exactly obedient?" Me: "Yes...." EL: "Hermana Hill, you are going to be training next transfer." Me *small heart attack* "You´re lying!" EL: *Lots of laughing in the background* "You´re right. You´re going to stay in Zárate with Hermana Vargas!" Ja. Ja. Very funny. So here I am, sitting next to my cute new little Guatemalan companion! This is her first time being senior companion, but I can tell she´s going to be great. She is super nice and I am very excited! Let me tell you though, it was tough saying goodbye to mi mamá. It´s definitely going to be super different, but change always comes and I know I will learn a ton from each of my companions. 

It sounds like Thanksgiving was wonderful! For our Thanksgiving dinner, we ended up eating alfajores on the roof...long story. So, a little different than the usual! You´ll have to keep filling me in on all of your holiday adventures! I´m not sure what I´ll be doing on Christmas exactly, but I know that we have lunch at one of the member´s homes, so that will be good. It´s going to be super weird having Christmas in the middle of summer...kind of like when we went to Hawaii but a little different :) Oh! I was going to tell you! Tell grandpa that the daughter of one of his missionaries in Mexico is in my mission! Hermana Gonzalez. Her dad´s name is Daniel. I guess he was AP when grandpa got to the mission. And she said she´s even stayed at his house before. They live in Orem now. So yeah, cool story :)

Well gotta go! I will try to send pictures.

Love, Hermana Hill

Pictures

Sunset in Zarate

This is for Haley Loveland

Got myself some pantalones flojos!  Girls are always wearing pants like this.
But these are definitely the most colorful.

My helmet fell in a NASTY gutter full of moss, mud, poop, garbage, and who knows what.
So, Hermana Jones washed it for me and hung it out to dry.  She's the best.

Flowers in Argentina are really pretty.

We made lots of jugitos :).

Noche de Hogar...jaja.

Lucas, Oriana, Lara.  Cutest kids ever.

Pochocio

Dear Family,

Thank you for the wonderful emails and pictures! It was so fun to see what you´re all up to. I can´t believe how successful you all are...half marathons, swimming champs, and concert symphonists (I think I made up that word). Also cute Halloween costumes everyone! Also, those were some awesome pictures from England, ma! And Easton is the cutest! Kaylee, I can´t go to your blog, but feel free to email me your posts every now and then. I loved hearing all about that kid and seeing the pictures! Wow. Oh and isn´t Thanksgiving ths week? That cracks me up that Kaylee asked if they celebrate Thanksgiving in South America......still the same ole sista :) Oh and I was laughing at your boy meets world comments as well. And Cade´s jokes :)

So much I want to say! So many questions to answer! About Hna Shelley...she got transfered the transfer after she got here. Long story but she was in a triple for a while and then got transfered to the south where she is serving with Hna Jones´ last companion...who she trained. So in other words, this Hermana just barely got done getting trained and now she is training! I´ve heard she´s incredible, though. She´s from Chile. I´m sure they´ll be an awesome companionship. Oh and she had to go buy a bunch of warm clothes haha. Hna Jones is leaving next Monday and I´m super sad. But I know that´s just a part of the mission and we will both keep going forward and learning and having new experiences! As far as holidays go, they have a lot of random holidays all the time where the kids don´t have to go to school. Nothing too huge though. I can´t believe Christmas is coming up so soon! And it´s going to be smack dab in the heat of summer...weird.

Susana is awesome! She is like our little mom here in Argentina. Everytime we go there she gives us all this food and she´s just so funny. Also, pretty much every time she prays, she cries. At first when she started praying, she would only pray in her head with us, but in the last lesson we had, she prayed out loud and it was so sweet. She came to church this Sunday again, and they announced her baptism. Things are going really well, thank you for your prayers! I know this is the week she will need them most, because right now is when the most adversity will come. But she always says "I´m not getting off this horse!"

More good news: on Sunday Pablo Baldis received the Aaronic Priesthood! It´s so exciting to see how much their family is progressing. The church in South America is in dire need of priesthood holders. The large majority of our ward, and the church in general, is women. So it is awesome when there are complete families, with a father who holds the priesthood. Let me just take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to my wonderful dad who is a worthy priesthood holder and an amazing example to me! It´s just so apparent to me, especially being here, how much the gospel truly does bless people. I wish I could somehow let people know that more than I am. I try so hard to tell them how happy the gospel has made me, but the trick is getting them to believe me...or do the things they need to do to receive that happiness. I was talking to a woman at a kiosko the other day, Griselda. We started talking to her and getting to know her a little and found out that her daughter had died two years ago. You could just tell by looking at her how sad she was. We told her that Heavenly Father has a plan of happiness for us, but she didn´t seem to believe that anything could make her happy. She told us that we had no idea what it was like to lose a child. All I could say is that she is right...I didn´t know. But I know that Christ knows and that he could help her. We testified to her that she could feel hope and peace. Even after we left, I´m still not sure she believed us. And people never will believe us unless they are willing to experiment--try for themselves....pray, read the scriptures, go to church. This is what helps us develop a stronger relationship with Christ and feel his love in our lives every day.

So keep it up :)

Oh, we had our noche de hogar and the numbers were a little sparse, but more will come as we do it every week. I hope haha. We talked about missionary work, Libro de Mormon, watched an awesome movie about sharing the gospel, and had them write their testimonies in a LDM to give to someone. And ate popcorn. Also, keep thinking of ideas!!!! And let me know. Thanks :)

Love you all a whole lot!

Hermana Hill

Pictures

This is cow nerves.  I ate a bite.  They taste pretty much exactly
how they look...Thank you, Famlia Montaldo.

These are misperos.

Picking misperos at Hna Rive's

Eating misperos.  I eat them crouched over the garbage can  so I can spit out the
seeds, and also because they're really juicy and spray everywhere.  Jaja...

Chile!  Hna Salas is the one on the end. Hna Alfaro is from Vina del Mar!

Argentine mosquitos me aman.  Delicioso!

Mondogo

Hi Fam!

Right now I am in Capital because I had to do all my paperwork stuff to make sure I´m legal. Don´t worry, I am now in Argentina legally. And I also got to talk to the guy who did all my paperwork stuff a little about the church. Bonus!

Well here are the scriptures that I found about "when thou art converted, strengthen your brethren"
-Helaman 6:4-5
-Alma 36:23-25
-1 Nephi 8:12
-Mosiah 18:1-3

Those are my favs and I´m sure there are lots more examples. If you find some more good ones, let me know!

The interesting-thing-I-ate of the week is mondongo. Cow stomach. It wasn´t THAT bad, but it was just kind of slimey/rubbery. I guess they eat it in all different forms, but we had it in like a stew. I´m sure there will be more where that came from...

To answer your questions: Facturas are delicious pastries of many sorts. We had wash our clothes by hand and hang them on a line. It´s cute. We are three hours before Utah time. I was asking about Lawrence Corbridge because he wrote this awesome talk called the fourth missionary. It´s super long and I haven´t read it all but it´s really good. I got the package today!! Thank you so much, I´m so excited to give the pictures and stickers and CTR rings to everyone :) As far as Christmas goes, I don´t think I need anything! Just the knowledge that my family is sharing the gospel :)

We are going to start doing Noches de Hogar every Friday night. I would love to hear all of your great ideas! If anyone that is reading this right now has a good idea, send me an email, will ya?

On Thursday we had an interesting experience. We were just about to start weekly planning and we got this call from our Zone Leaders saying we needed to evacuate immediately and go to the mission office with what we would need for a few days because there is a nuclear plant in our area that was in danger of exploding. Hna Jones and I were frantically throwing stuff in our suitcases, running aimlessly around the house. I remember yelling "should I bring my Preach My Gospel??" And Hna Jones yelled back "No, someone else will have one you could use....but don´t worry, I´ve got the brownies!!!" as she threw them in a grocery bag. (She made brownies that morning). She called a remis (taxi) and we were out the door. Right when we got to the bus station, we got another call saying it was a false alarm, they were just doing some sort of practice and there was nothing to worry about. No wonder everyone else in Zárate seemed so calm....

Earlier in the week we did divisions again! This time Hermana Salas came to Zárate and I had to lead her to all our appointments and everything. It went pretty well! We taught a lot of great lessons and found new investigators to teach. The miracle of doing divisions was that Hermana Jones and Hermana Alfaro found 4 people to be baptized on Saturday! It was really cool to hear about.

Last night we had a great lesson with a lady named Susana. She came to church with Hna Montaldo and loved it. That night Hna Montaldo came with us to a lesson with her. She now has a baptismal date for the 27th. Please pray for her!

Now I will leave you with a list created by Hna Jones and I entitled "You Know You´re in Zárate If......."

• a rooster across the street wakes you up in the morning, during breakfast, and during studies
• you burn your garbage in the streets on a regular basis
• you water the street to keep the dust down with a bucket (instead of watering your grass)
• you crank your efy music to drown out the constant cumbia music next door starting at 9am everyday
• you are short a couple pesos and they tell you to pay the rest the next time you come in
• you sleep on top of your covers at night, even in the springtime
• everyone uses the same cup at the watercooler/dispenser
  
• little kids have free reign in Sacrament meeting, including going up on the stand
• the main boulevard is blocked off without warning so everyone drives down the wrong way
• men try to kiss you on a regular basis, at times succeeding
• you can buy juguitos (good version of otter pops) on every block
• small children are constantly shooting off firecrackers unsupervised

I love Zárate.

I love you all.

Love, Hermana Hill

Acts 18:9-11

Well hi!

Sounds like you all had a great Halloween, I can´t wait to see pictures! Great job on all your accomplishments, everyone! My family is so talented. Thanks for all the updates on life, I love hearing about it.

To answer some of your questions...we eat with the members pretty much every day for lunch. They make so much food! We usually eat cereal in the morning, or facturas which are delicious. We usually don´t eat dinner and just eat a little when we get home at night. Hna Jones leaves in three weeks. I can´t believe it! I will more than likely stay here in Zárate when she leaves unless something crazy happens, but I´m pretty positive I´ll stay here. I´m super nervous to have her leave and have to show my new companion the ropes because I still feel like I have no clue what I´m doing. Also, you think I was directionally challenged before? You should see me riding a bike in the streets of Argentina...yikes. But it´ll be a learning experience :) Especially because I´ll probably have a Spanish speaking companion. Oh boy!

Speaking of bikes, we have been having technical difficulties with ours lately so we´ve had to take turns riding on the back of the bike while the other one rides, while the other bike is getting fixed. It is a sight to see! All I can say is thank goodness for spandex. And I thought people stared at us before......Oh well, any publicity is good publicity right? I wish I had a picture.

It´s starting to get pretty hot here, it´s weird to me that it is winter for you. I´ve already started sleeping on top of my covers at night because our house is an oven. It´s going to be crazy hot in a few months! It´s nice though. I love summer.

Oh...about that family with five kids. Well we talked to the dad and he said he didn´t want to go to church. He feels like so many churches are trying to convert him and he has had enough. He said we are welcome to come talk to him and his family, but he doesn´t want to go. We came back a few more times and tried everything to help him see the importance of the gospel, but finally we decided we need to move on and find others who are ready. It was pretty tough because they are such a great family and I know the gospel would help them so much and they would contribute greatly to the church. I hope that someday they will realize what it is they are missing. This is the case with a lot of people we have been teaching. They are so close, but they don´t want to commit to anything....they feel obligated. Which is when the scripture Alma 42:27 comes to mind.

Our biggest success here in Zárate has been in helping bring menos activos back to church. And many of these people have been helping in the obra misional. It´s awesome because their testimonies are coming back to life and they want to share the gospel with others. We are having a lot of them accompany us in lessons with investigators and it´s great. It reminds me of the scripture in Luke (22:32?) that says "when thou art converted, strenghen they brethren." Our mission has been focusing a lot on árbols of conversion (trees) and how we should be having recent converts and less active members help us in the work because they will share with their friends, and their friends with their friends, and so on until you have this giant tree of converts. Right now our tree is pretty small but I know with time it will yield lots of fruit! I was studying about this concept this morning and found some good scriptures about it that I will have to share next week because I don´t remember the references :)

Who was Cade´s mission president again? Was it Lawrence Corbridge?

Well I love you all a lot and hope you continue enjoying life!

Love, Hermanita Hill

Pumpkin Head Harrrvey

Dear Family,

EASTON CADE BENNETT IS THE CUTEST!!!!! Thanks so much for the pictures, Kaylee. Awww, I wish I could hold him! Tell him I´m his favorite aunt, okay? He better know all about me! I´m glad everything went well. I´m sure you´re the best little parents ever. And I can´t believe my parents are grandparents! Blows my mind. Hopefully I can skype with you on Christmas and see him in "person."

LORENZO WENT TO CHURCH!!! It´s seriously a miracle. He hasn´t been for like at least ten years, and the last time we talked to him, he had no intention of going. But there we were, sitting in the chapel and in he walks...in this nice suit and everything! It was awesome, I wish I had a camera. I really was starting to think he would never come back. We visted him after church and he told us how on Saturday, he had a dream that his dad needed him to be baptized for him. So now he is going to become active again so he will be able to go to the temple! His wife also has a goal of going to the temple, so it´s just really great. Things like that are what makes all this work worth it.

On Friday, we did divisions with the Hermanas in Campana. They are both from Chile! I went to Campana with Hna Salas. It was a good experience! It was tricky with the language barrior though....I really saw just how much I don´t know. It´s definitely stressful not being able to express what I want to to people, but that´s how I´m learning to rely a lot more on the spirit. I´ve still got a lot to learn though! That´s a huge thing I´ve noticed being here on a mission...that I have a billion things I need to work on. As hard as it is, I realize it´s a good thing because I have this opportunity to work on making all those weaknesses strengths. A lot of times I want to have everything fixed all at once but I know it´s a process....a lifelong one. It´s all about repenting and mejorar-ing every day!

Want to know a scripture I read this morning that I like? Okay. Alma 62:41. I thought about how a lot of people become hardened in life because of difficult times they go through. A lot of people talk about that here, actually...how the world is becoming worse and worse and how hard life is and so on. But here´s the thing, when we go through hard times and stay humble and "soft" we can be molded into something really great instead of becoming calloused and gross.

Do I make sense? I feel like I´m at the point where I can´t speak in Spanish or English...meh.

Happy Halloween! Everyone tell me what you were for Halloween okay? And pictures are required.

Dad, good luck with your talk in the good ole Farmington Hills Ward! Yes, definitely give a shout out for me :)

I love you all a whole lot!

Read your scriptures, say your prayers, and go to church. And don´t ever stop. Promise? Good.

Love, Hermanita Hill

Misperos

WOW!

What an exciting week you all had!!! Kaylee and Cade: FELICITACIONES!!!!!!! Awww Easton Cade Bennet. I love him already. I can´t believe I´m an aunt! Hna Jones kept calling me Tía Hill all last week haha. I´m DYING to see pictures now. DYING. Literally. I hope all is still going well. Save me some diapers to change, will ya? Also congrats to Mark and Sarah! New nephew and cousin all on the same day. How cute.

And CARLI BAHM! Congrats gurlfriennn! I am so excited for you! Missions are pretty great, I must say. You will be such a blessing to the people you teach, I´m serious. Maybe I´ll write you a letter so I don't have to say all this mushy stuff for the whole world to see. But for now, just know that I think you´re awesome.

Sounds like Grandpa´s party is going to be hoppin! Make sure you share my testimony while you´re there too: The church is true :)

Well it has been kind of a loco week. Well...every week is loco actually. Let me start off with kind of a cool thing. Remember how that one night I kept waking up with Matthew 11:28 in my head and shared it with Lorenzo and he really liked it? Well the last time we visited him, he told us about his conversion story. Basically one day his Bible fell open to a scripture and he read it and it really touched his heart and made him want to change his life and come unto Christ. And guess what scripture it was? You got it. So that was pretty sweet. We´re still working on helping him have the desire to go back to church, but maybe that helped a little bit.

Last week we did a ton of searching for new investigators by visiting former investigators who had been to church before. We ended up finding 25 new investigators last week and were really excited because they all told us that they were going to go to church on Sunday. They even told us what time they were going to wake up, what time they were going to leave, how they were going to get there and everything. We called as many as we could in the morning and even went to pick them up. We were pumped. Guess how many ended up going? Cero. It was pretty disappointing. A lot of them were extended family members and neighbors and because one family wouldn´t go, the rest wouldn´t either. It was really frustrating. But then we got to church and a whole bunch of less active members that don´t usually go to church were there and it was awesome. And one of the high councilmen gave a talk about patience and having a positive attitude. Later that day we went to visit a lady who we randomly stopped to talk to one day on our way to another appointment. Turns out she and her family had been visited by the missionaries before and have been to church a bunch of times. She has five kids and they are awesome. They want to be baptized but she said she needs to talk to her husband about it, I guess he´s not quite sure about the whole thing. But we are going to go back to visit them today, with the husband. Wish us luck!

My new favorite fruit is misperos. There are a bunch of mispero trees around here. Sooo good. They don´t have that in the states do they?

Well I love you all... almost as much as I love misperos. Or maybe a little more. Have a wonderful week and if you ever feel the urge, send me stickers. Little kids love them. I have gotten to the heart of many a child through stickers. The kids here love Bob Esponja, so thanks to my friends who send me those. Oh and also they love Ben 10 (Ben Diez haha...) So yeah.

YOU ARE AWESOME!

Hermana Hill

iFeliz dia de la madre!

Holllla

Yesterday was Mother´s Day here in Argentina and I am going to send you the talk I gave. I was hoping Kaylee would have her kid that day but oh well. Tell her thank you for the pictures! She is the cutest and so is the room she has all decorated. I hope all goes well, she is in my prayers!

Well I survived my first transfer!!!!! I am staying here in Zárate and am officially killing Hermana Jones! I am grateful that I get to stay here longer and be with Hna Jones for her last transfer. We are going to work HARD (as always of course :)) I am excited.

Oh, I found my camera cord, no worries :) Apparently it doubles as my charger.

Okay here is my talk dedicated to my beautiful mother, the one and only Melita Robins Hill:

Hola, hermanos y hermanas. Estoy agradecida tener esta oportunidad de hablar hoy. Es mi primer disurso en Argentina...si hay errores es la culpa de mi compañera, Hna Jones, porque ella me ayudó a corregir mi castellano.
El tema de mi discurso hoy es "qué influencia tuvo mi madre en mi vida y como me ayudó su ejemplo para salir a una misión." Cuando recibí este tema, estuve muy animada porque me madre es un ejemplo maravilloso para bien en mi vida. Per es difícil saber dónde empezar. Hay una escritura en Alma que pienso que fue escrita sobre mi madre. Se encuentra en capítulo 7, versículos 23-24.....
Mi madre tiene todos los atributos en esta escritura. Ella tiene cinco hijas, entonces ella necesita mucha paciencia y diligencia. Ella muestra su fe por su ejemplo. Nunca tuve una duda que mi madre tiene un testimonio de este Evangelio y confia en el Señor. Ella ha crado una famlia feliz en la iglesia. Mi madre sabe que la felicidad y la pas verdaderas vienen al vivir principios correctos. No es facil simpre. Sus hijas no son perfectas, pero ella eiempre nos ayuda a tomar decisiones buenas y cuando nos equivocamos, nos ayuda a volver en la senda correcta.
Cuando yo tenía cinco años, my familia y yo fuimos a Disney en California por vacaciones. Hay una montaña rusa se llama Space Mountain. Me ancanta las montañas rusas y quería levantar mis brazos durante el paseo. Mi madre tenía miedo que me volara de me asiento si yo no agrarraba bien. Pers, yo tenía determinación. Entonces, mi madre decidió poner su mano en mi pierna durante el paseo para asegurar que yo permaneciera en mi asiento. Yo podía tener mi libertad, pero mi madre siempre estuvo allí para mi seguridad. Estoy agradecida por la preocupación mi madre tiene por mi bienestar.
El año pasado, yo estaba pensando en servir una misión. Fue una decisión muy difícil y yo dependía mucho en el apoyo de mi madre. Ella servió una misión en Chile y puede relacionarese con mis dificultades en tomar la decisión a servir. Muchas veces yo fui a mi madre en busca de consejo. Ella siempre escuchabab mis dudas y preocupaciones ye me ayudaba a sentir tranquila. Aunque ella servió una misión, ella siempre fue imparcial. Ella solo quería el mejor para su hija. Cuando decidí hacer mis papeles, ella me ayudó con cada paso.
En abril, recibí mi llamamiento. Yo quise abrir mi llamamiento sola y cuando vi las palabras "Argentina Buenos Aires Norte" estuve muy feliz. Estaba animada y ansiosa para servir en Sud America, en el país al lado del país dónde servió mi madre. Y estaba muy emocionada al tener la oportunidad de predicar el Evangelio en el mismo idioma que mi madre habló en su misión.
El servir una misión requiere mucha preparación. Sería casi imposible prepararme sin la ayuda de mi madre. Yo estaba estudiando en la universidad y en el verano estaba trabajando mucho. Mi madre también estaba muy ocupada, pero siempre encontró el tiempo para hacer las cosas que yo necesitaba. Fue un tiempo de mucho estrés, pero mi madre permaneció tranquila y hihzo todo lo que necesitaba hacer.
Todavía recibo mucho apoyo de mi madre. Recibo un email de ella cada semana con palabras de motivación y amor. En uno de los emails, incluyó una escritura en Mosíah 28:6-8. Esta escritura habla sobre los hijos de Mosíah. Ellos querían servir en una misión, pero Mosíah quería confirmación del Señor que eso estaba bien. El se preocupaba por sus hijos. Mi madre aplicó la situación a si misma y cambió unas palabras. Ella escribió........ Ella tiene fe que el Señor me protegerá.
Aunque la misión es algo muy importante, yo sé que hay una misión más grande después de los 18 meses aquí en Argentina. Quiero seguir el ejemplo de mi madre y tener una familia firme en el Evangelio de Jesucristo. Las madres tienen un papel muy importante en el hogar. En Principios del Evangelio, dice......(p. 238, par. 2)
Estoy agradecida por mi madre, y también todas las madres en este barrio. Yo he visto el amor que ustedes demuestran a sus hijos y también a Hna Jones y yo. Es una bendición tener muchas madres aquí en Zárate, que nos dan comida, un lugar de refugio de la lluvia, y muchos abrazos. Gracias por sus ejemplos de fe y diligencia. Sé que no es facil, pero sus esfuerzos son reconocidos. Continuen trabajando ye sé que ustedes serán bendecidas.

Testimonio


Well there you have it! I had to type fast so there are probably some typos.

Sorry I don´t have a ton of time to write all the details of the week, but things are continuing to go well! The biggest challenge is getting people to go to church. We´re searching hard for people who are being prepared for the gospel. I know they are out there! We just have to do everything possible to find them.

Oh read the talk "The Challenge to Become" by Elder Oakes. Hna Jones told me to read it and it is de diez. I have been trying to work on not just going through the motions and doing things, but becoming something better from the things I´m doing. Make sense? Anyway, Elder Oaks explains it much better than me. Read it :)

Now I will send you some pictures. K? K.

Love you all!

Hna Hill

Con amor, su rubia

Dearest Family:

How are you? Thank you for your great emails every week! Haha, dad, yes I´m grateful I don´t have big flying cockroaches everywhere. Luckily there has only been one so far! We´ll see what the summer brings. As always, thanks for the football updates. Poor Utah State.....maybe they´ll have some luck someday..... McKenna, good luck with your half marathon! Way to be. I don´t think I could even run a half mile anymore. Although, I did run the fastest mile I have ever run in the MTC. Those days are long gone...now I´m fat. Hannah and Camri, good luck with youth takeover! I was telling my companion about youth takeover just the other day. Good times. You´ll have to let me know how it goes. Kaylee, good luck with having a baby! Pahaha. Seriously though... Bah, like I said, send me a picture of the squirt right away!

In Argentina I am blonde. Isn´t that weird? People are always commenting on my blonde hair and call me a "rubia."

We have been helping with an English class every once in a while and it´s a lot of fun because I can actually speak! It´s great because they ask us about what we are doing here as missionaries and we are able to teach people about the church. There are classes for adults, teenagers, and younger kids. It´s funny because for a while, the teacher thought that our last names were our first names, so everyone called us Jones and Hill, thinking that was our first name.

Last week there was a ton of rain. A bunch of the streets were all flooded. We shared the scripture 3 Nephi 14:24-27 with a lot of the people we visited. The wise man built his house upon a rock!

This Sunday was DE DIEZ! (This is a saying in Argentina that means "of ten"....which means, like, "awesome!") It was the confirmation of Pablo and Oriana. It was also fast Sunday. During testimony meeting Oriana got up and bore her testimony. It was so great, she is the best. It has been amazing to see this family progress and see their desires to do the right thing. I am excited to teach them more about temples and how they can be sealed for eternity! I wish everyone could realize how important this is. Next week I have to speak in church! But I´m excited because it will be mother´s day here and the theme is....about my mom! And how she influenced my decision to serve a mission. Awwww. I´m going to need more than ten minutes!

I love you all!

Hermana Hill

Fishers of Men....and sometimes fish

FAMILY!!!!

So much to write about, so little time. Sorry for the shortened email last week. We had to go to capital to do all the stuff to make sure my companion is legal and then we got to cruise the streets since it was Pday. So much fun! We got to do some souvenir shopping and of course go to McDonald´s...which are everywhere around here. We were on a street called Calle Florida. It was packed with gente, it kind of looked like New York (from what I´ve seen in pictures of course). Anyway, it has been a crazy and awesome last couple weeks, I hope I remember everything I want to tell you!

First off....we moved! We are now the proud owners of a cute little white box we call our new home. I am so grateful...it´s nice and clean and the shower actually works! I forgot to tell you that in the last couple weeks at our old apartment, the gas went out for a few days so we had some ice cold showers. And then the gas went back on and the water went off for a few days. We ended up having to go to the church in the morning to wash our hair in the sink. Hahaha it made for some good pictures. Luckily the contract was up at that apartment so we have a brand spankin new house. We also have a new pet cockroach! Yum. I saw him while my companion was in the bathroom and when I saw it she thought someone was breaking into our house because of my reaction. Luckily Hna Jones is brave and took care of it. RIP, little (big) guy.

Second off....conference! I love conference! I can´t believe how fast it went by. I could´ve sat there forever watching it. We went to the stake center to watch it and most of the missionaries are English speaking so we had our own separate TV to watch it on in English, which I am very grateful for. I mean Spanish is great and all...but.....yeah. It was funny because during the last session, the power went out. We were so sad! So we said a prayer and then one of the Elders suggested that we call another district to see if they could put their phone up to the TV so we could at least listen. It was super bad quality and a Japanese man was speaking (the one with the crazy name) so we couldn´t understand anything. But then a little while later the power went back on! This, dear family, is a great example of having faith and then acting on it. We could´ve said a prayer and then just sat around, but instead, people made suggestions on how we could solve our problem. And then we were blessed to be able to watch the end of conference. It reminds me of that quote "Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you." Those Elders definitely taught me a great lesson! I think my favorite talk from conference was the one by Carl B. Cook. I loved when he said "Look Up, Step Up, Cheer Up." I think that will be my motto for a while. I also was able to make some goals of things I need to work on, for example memorizing a scripture every transfer. I encourage you to make some goals according to what you learned at conference also! Oh and yes, it was really cool when they talked about Buenos Aires and the Provo temple. None of the missionaries I was with knew about the whole Provo tabernacle thing so I told them about it and about how the picture of Christ wasn´t burned. Also, none of them knew what Angry Birds is...I had to explain it to them. It´s really hard to explain....

Last the best....BAPTISM!!!!!!!! Pablo and Oriana were baptized between sessions of conference on Sunday. It couldn´t have been a better day. There were also two other people who were baptized from other wards. So many people in white! It made me want have a baptism every day. I always thought that when missionaries said that it had nothing to do with them, they were just trying to be humble. But it´s so true. All we do as missionaries is invite and the rest is up to the person and the Lord. They were a family prepared for this and I am just grateful I got to see it happen.

Hermana Jones and I are going to go fishing today. Yes, fishing. Apparently there is a nice little river here in Zarate! Last night we visited Lorenzo and Luisa and told them we were going to go and they got us fishing poles all ready. All we have to do is buy some worms :)

Now that I have an MP3 player you can send me songs through email if you can figure it out! If you can, I would really appreciate the song "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul" Also, if you are able to, it would be cool if you could send me HLJ rings, small pictures of the Buenos Aires temple to give to families, a picture of my baptism, and I guess I didn´t bring my camera plug for computers. I have my SD card, but apparently not a lot of computers have spots to plug those into. So, not super important, but might be nice to have these things.

Biking is going well. My thighs are massive. But I think that´s mostly from all the food ;) I tell people how Hill is Cerro in spanish but they just get confused. Probably because I can´t explain it very well in Spanish haha. It´s funny though because there is a word in Spanish "gil" which is pronounced the same as Hill and it means "stupid"...how embarrassing! Mom, I´m glad you had a good time on your trip! Send me some veggies from the garden, will ya? Kaylee....send me pictures of your baby ASAP!!! I can´t believe he´s coming so soon!

Oh, and to all my friends who are reading my blog, you are allowed to email me (rachel.hill@myldsmail.net). I can´t email back but if anything important happens such as mission calls, marriages, 100% on a test, etc...I would like to know right away! Speaking of, congrats to Collette!!!!!! That is so great. Tell her she needs to send me an invite :)

Word of the day: Esposas. Which I found out last night is both the word for wives and...handcuffs. Jajaja

Sorry this is so stinkin long but I figure it makes up for my little one last week. Hope all is well! I love you!!!!

Hermana Hill