Cascos

¡Hola! ¿Cómo andan?

People always make fun of our helmets. The other day some guys walked past and said "Hola chicas, no se van a caer, pongarse cascos!" I didn´t understand them of course, but trusty Hna Jones filled me in later. Jaja...I think we look cool.

By the way people always love seeing pictures of all my family and friends. Whenever they ask where I´m from and I say Utah, they´re always like "ah, the fábrica"-which means factory. Because Utah is the factory of Mormons haha. And then they ask to see pictures and they always say "¡Que lindo!" Oh by the way McKenna, there is a 19 year old boy named Pipo that thinks you are pretttty cute. We´re trying to help him see the importance of going on a mission so I told him that you only like return missionaries haha. I love showing people pictures because there isn´t much I can talk about in Spanish but I can definitely talk about my family. In fact, I´m going to include a picture of me showing pictures to a man named Lorenzo that my companion sneakily took. He´s a less active member that I met yesterday and now we are tight. It was kind of weird because a few nights ago I kept waking up with a scripture in my head that I couldn´t get out and I don´t know why. When I woke up the next morning it was still there and I thought maybe there is someone I need to share it with. It was Matthew 28:11--"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden...." When we gave our spiritual thought to Lorenzo and his wife Luciana I decided to share that scripture and I asked Lorenzo if he would read it. He said he would and my companion and Luciana just started laughing because he has never read when the missionaries were over before. He said how much he loved that scripture and if he could pick one out of the Bible, that is the one he would pick.

Oh by the way, could you send me a picture of my baptism day perchance? I feel like that would be good to show investigators who are thinking about baptism.

Speaking of baptism, we went to visit a family of a girl who has a baptismal date coming up. When we came, they were just leaving. To her baptism. In some other church....? It was weird! We were like oookay, and later on we happened across the place where she was getting baptized! It was in this small little building with all this loud music playing.....weird.

Last week we did a lot of traveling because Hna Jones had to go to leadership training. It made for some long days but it was good to hear from President Gulbrandsen.

La flia Baldi is continuing to progress. We read part of Alma 32 with them and how baptism is an act of faith. They are so great, they always have so many questions and are so curious to learn more. This Sunday, Pablo wasn´t able to go to church because he got called into work, so we had to move the baptismal date to October 2 since he has to attend church (or watch conference) three times before getting baptized. It was kind of disappointing because that day we had about eight investigators tell us they were going to go to church that week, but only two ended up going. We even went around to pick people up but no one answered their doors when we came. But, one of the investigators that came was one we weren´t even expecting to come at all, so that was good!

One of my new favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is Alma 26. Have you ever noticed how much the Book of Mormon is about missionary work? It´s crazy! I am reading with new eyes now that I am here on the mission and am realizing just how important this work is and how much joy it can bring. I´ve been working on being fully invested in this work because right now I feel like I´m more in just survival mode.

Okay mom, let me answer your questions. Anyone can email me, but I can only email the family back. I prefer letters, but emails are also nice. Los dos! The colorful building is a school next to our apartment. There are so many cool old buildings. I want to take pictures of everything but there just isn´t the time! My area has a lot of really humble homes and there is trash everywhere, but yeah a lot of times I have to remind myself I´m in a foreign country. I´ll add some more pictures so you can get a better idea of what my area looks like. I use flia as an abbreviation for familia. Don´t worry, I have dodged the construction equipment thus far :) Haha I told my companion about that and she had a good laugh. We are hopefully getting my brakes fixed today! Oh and I bought an MP3 player so I can get music from other people. I should´ve just brought on of those in the first place like you said, instead of my ipod....

Sounds like you are all staying busy with your talks and all! I´m sure they are life changing. I can´t believe you are going to England! Please send me post cards. Dad, thanks for the BYU update. Ugh, I really probably would´ve cried if I watched that game haha. Hna Jones went to BYU so she has been getting updates from her family too. Let me know how the Utah game goes. GO COUGS!

Well familia, these emails are super long but I feel like there is so much to tell you! Thanks for everything, I love reading your emails every week. Keep on keepin´ on!

Love you!

Hna Hill

Let me blow ya mind

FAMILIA!!!

Where to start? Well, I arrived safely! I am in an area called Zárate. It is about 1 1/2 hours from the mission home. We are the furthest district away (in the North of course). My companion is just so great. Her name is Hna Jones and she is from Washington. It´s kind of a relief that I got an English speaking companion or else I would be sooo lost. She´s my little mom here. I follow her around like a puppy. (There are tons of dogs everywhere here btw). She´s really funny and she takes care of me. It´s true that when you come here you wonder if you learned the right language haha. I understood Spanish in the MTC just wonderfully! But holy moly, the Argentine accent is tough. Let´s just say I nod and smile a lot. Hna Jones and I joke around that I´m just there for the looks and she does all the talking. No worries though, I WILL learn this language!

So we had our district meeting on Wednesday and each person had to get up and introduce themselves and tell of a miracle that happened during the week. Hna Jones talked about how we taught la flia Franco, a less active family (the first night I got there) and she had been thinking and studying a lot about what she should teach them. She felt like it should be about temples. Long story, but that is exactly what the family needed. Hna Franco even started to tear up a little. They came to church this week and it was awesome.

Want to hear my miracle? Well, remember how I was really excited when I found out that we don´t have to ride bikes in this mission? Guess which area got bikes only three weeks ago? You got it! When Hna Jones told me that, I just laughed and thought oh boy this will be an adventure. But the miracle is....I haven´t died yet! In fact, it´s kind of enjoyable. I find myself riding along thinking to myself ´wow, I am riding down the streets of Argentina on this beautiful day, teaching people about the gospel.´ It´s pretty cool. Remember how I didn´t bring any skirts that are good with bikes though? Haha don´t worry, I bought some spandex to wear but....I still look pretty funny. Pero........está bien! I did have one funny moment on my bike when I ran into the back of Hna Jones. It´s not my fault my breaks are mal! But don´t worry, the random guy driving past at the time got a good laugh out of it.

The people here are so great. Everyone is so loving and willing to listen. It didn´t take me very long to get used to the kiss on the cheek thing. Except sometimes the men don´t know they aren´t supposed to do it to missionaries and that can get a little awkward. Haha it has only happened once and I hurried and turned my head so he ended up kissing the back of my head. Once we were riding our bikes and a man came up next to us and saying stuff (that I couldn´t understand of course) but my companion later told me that he was saying how he knew we were spies from the American government. Hahahaha I look the furthest thing from a spy....

My apartment is.....well, you know. Haha it´s good. The only problem is that it kind of smells like an outhouse. We live right above a DELICIOUS bread shop, which smells super good, so the smells balance each other out :) I blew the fuse with my hair dryer on Sunday. Ooopths. Don´t worry, we figured out how to fix it after many attempts. It involved using brooms.

Speaking of bread, the food here is ohhhh so good. I am going to get muy gorda. Let me tell you what we eat...pizza, pasta, empanadas, bread, meat, fruit, ice cream. Need I go on? Pretty much all my favorite foods in one place! And the members feed us a ton. We have lunch with a member family every day. And lunch is a huge meal. We don´t really have dinner but a lot of times people will feed us cake or mostly this really good chocolate milk that I´m pretty sure they make with whole milk. Yum.

Right now we are trying to get a lot of less actives back to church. I guess there are technically about 1,000 members, but only like 30 cometo church. No bueno! We don´t have a ward mission leader or a gospel docterine teacher, so we do both those things. We have a lot of work to do, but the ward is getting more into missionary work and so far a lot of people have started to go back. It´s going to be good.

Let me tell you about a family we are teaching that I am really excited about....la flia Baldi. It is a family with three daughters, ages 9, 3, and a few months. The wife, Graciela, is a less active member but she wants to come back to church and have her husband and daughter get baptized. On Saturday we had a ´noche de hogar´ with them and a family in the ward. It was so great! I was able to talk about Joseph Smith a little and recite the first vision and then at the end, I committed the husband, Pablo, and daughter, Oriena to get baptized on September 25! They came to church on Sunday as a family and we are having another family night tonight with another family from the ward. They are such a cute family and I´m excited that they are progressing.

What else...? The weather is perfect right now...mmm. I wish it stayed like this forever. I haven´t bought rainboots but I got a coat. Hna Jones thinks I can get some boots from some other Hnas from our mission. My mission president and wife are SO NICE. She is learning Spanish too, so she can relate to us. They are both very loving and caring.

It sounds like you are all doing well! Tell McKenna I felt bad I couldn´t call her back :( Apparently it eats a ton of minues off my calling card to call from a pay phone. My 500 minutes was only like an hour. I tried calling her back but it told me I didn´t have enough minutes. Sounds like the shower was a lot of fun! I can´t wait to see the little guy. Thanks for your emails! This is probably the best way to communicate.

Well this is super long and I have to go, but know that I am just happy and content and learning and I love you!

Hermanita Hill

Argentina!

Please check for Rachel's new address on her profile in order to send your letters or packages. :)

Next time I email you it will be from Argentina

Helloooooo!

I have some exciting news for you all!................I smashed the dips record!!!

Oh and by the way, I got travel plans.

TRAVEL PLANS!!!!!

Here they are:

9/5/11: Leave SLC at1:50 PM

Arrive in Atlanta at 7:40 PM

Leave Atlanta at 8:50 PM

9/6/11: Arrive in Buenos Aires at 8:00 AM

We are flying Delta if you were wondering.

I wish I had a better outline of this, I thought they would email me my flight plans that I could forward to you or something. No such luck. But it's looking like I'll plan on calling you before I leave SLC. I don't think I will have time in Atlanta. We will be leaving the MTC around 10 AM or so, so try to be available between 10:30 and 2 ish I guess! I don't know exactly when. I should call the home phone, right? But....ah! This is so crazy. Except I don't think it has really hit me yet. Just like it never hit me that I was going to the MTC. Not quite sure if it has yet haha. But I am getting more and more excited each day!

Oh, please send me a dearelder right when you get this and confirm stuff and what not. Thanks!

Next....THANK YOU for the packages! I really appreciate it and my zone appreciated the DELISH brownies. I forgot how good those babies are! I will be sending you a package with the straighener. Thanks for noticing that!

Also, thank you to my wonderful friends for the package! It brightened my day immensely :) I loved it all! I wish I could say more thank yous, but I just don't have the time. THANK YOU.

This week has been crazy and great. We had our "baptisms" this week and they turned out so great. We invited another district from our zone and it was a lot of fun. I'm sending you home one of the programs. We were prettttty proud of it.

Yesterday, Hna Shelley and I had a chance to demonstrate "How to begin teaching" to the new missionaries that came in. It was a pretty cool opportunity. We went into a room with about 250 newbies and an "investigator" we had never met and had to meet them, find things out about them, explain why we were there, how the gospel could help them, etc. I was super nervous but it turned out alright! It was weird because we did it all in English, which I am not used to.

So, I have been here eight weeks now and was kind of hoping I would get to hear from an Apostle at a Tuesday Devotional. I mean, all the speakers are fantastic....but you know what I mean. Well guess who came on Tuesday? Elder Holland! It was awesome. He is such a good speaker! He definitely helped me to see the things I need to work on, but he also reassured us that we are in the right place and God and Jesus Christ love us so much. It was good to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. Oh, also he mentioned that a missionary had passed away on Tuesday, but didn't give the details....did you hear anything about that?

BTW, the fire alarm went off again. Someone burnt their toast. We had to stay outside for 30 minutes......at least it was only 10 pm, not 2 am.......

I love you and I am grateful for everyone's continued support! Remember to send letters to my Argentina address from now on (should be on my blog somewhere). Peace out. See you in Arrrrrrrgentina!

Love,

Hna Hill

Pero....esta bien

Hey hey!

Another P-day, another email. Are you getting bored of me yet? This week has FLOWN. I can't believe I'm going to be leaving for Argentina a week from Monday! I am so stinkin excited....and equally nervous. We met with the Argentine consulate (sp?) the other day to finalize all of our Visa stuff. This is really happening! Ah! We could possibly get our travel plans today or tomorrow. So I will let you know as soon as possible. We are supposed to leave on September 5th...Labor Day. Kinda cool huh? Since we're going out to labor in the vinyard of the Lord and all.

This week I learned how to tie a tie and I am pretty good. Also, I spoke in church! It was one of those where you have to prepare a talk on a given subject and they call you up the minute before you speak. It went well though. It was on La Expiación. Luckily I had one of my teachers edit it for mistakes the day before. I gave my talk with Elder Stott who realized a couple days earlier that he written his talk on the wrong subject, but he thought chances were slim that he would be called up to speak. It was pretty funny. It made me think of the story when you got called up to speak, mom, and you didn't have your cuaderno. Haha I would not have been able to give a talk without my cuaderno!

Today our district practiced the song we will be singing on Sunday since we are leaving and next Sunday is fast and testimony meeting. We're singing the "As Sisters in Zion" and "Army of Helaman" medly. I love it. Totally reminds me of my EFY days.

This Saturday Hna Shelley and I are planning a "baptism" for our "investigator" Edmundo. We have to give talks and we are even going to make programs and bring cookies (Chips Ahoy from the bookstore). I can't wait until I am planning real baptisms!

It sounds like Camri's birthday was a ton of fun! Bah, I can't believe you are all going off to big girl school! College, High School, Jr. High....weird. McKenna, you better look for me while you're in Provo! I want to hear all about how your first days go!

On Tuesday we had a devotional by Elder Claudio Zivic of the Seventy. And guess where he and his wife are from? Argentina! And more specifically...Buenos Aires! So that was cool. He said some good quotes during his talk. One of my personal favorites was, "You can't change your physical height, but you can change your spiritual height." Ain't that the truth. You know, sometimes I wish I were taller, I wish I were a baller (name that song) (I actually don't know the name of that song, that's the only line I know in the whole thing). Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that sometimes we wish our circumstances in life were different. But there are so many things that can't be changed no matter what we do. So do you know what that means? We need to let it go. We need to quit worrying about the things in life that are not up to us, and start focusing on the things that we CAN do something about.

I'm late for cena. Pero......está bien.

Hasta Luego! (I don't know how to do upside down !'s)

Hermana Hill

"It's me! A mario!"

Hey! Here's another email for you.

It's been a really good and really fast week. It's hard for me to distinguish between days, everythings seems to run all together. At first, time went by so slow and now it seems to fly. Didn't I just write an email yesterday?

MOM AND DAD: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I just love you little love birds and I hope you had a great day. You're an inspiration to us all :)

On Sunday in Relief Society (with all the sisters at the MTC) Hna Shelley performed her musical number! It was amazing. She sang "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" to the tune of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and brought them together at the end. She is such a great singer.

It has been a week of goodbyes...two of the districts in our zone left and we didn't get any new districts this week, so our zone is super small, only three districts right now. Also, our roomies left at 3 am this morning. They are going to the Dominican Republic MTC because they will be serving in Puerto Rico. So sad to say goodbye to everyone but also really exciting. It makes me think of when I will be leaving (2 1/2 weeks) and makes me super nervous but also anxious and excited!

Alright, who's ready for some "stuff of the week"??? ME.

Song of the Week: "Holding Hands Around the World" (fromt the Children's song book). Sister Rosemary M. Wixom (Primary Gen Pres) spoke in Relief Society on Sunday and we sang that song for the opening number. The chorister was all excited and said that on the chorus, everyone should hold hands with the people sitting next to them. I look to my left and Elder Burton, Hna Shelley's accompaniest's companion was sitting next to me. Awkward! Don't worry, we didn't hold hands, we just exchanged some nervous laughter. Oh, missions.

Quote of the Week: "We're still 19."--some random Elder. Some Elders had somehow put on of the Elder's nametag on the men's bathroom sign hanging from the ceiling and he was jumping up and trying to get it down as everyone was laughing their heads off. As Hna Shelley and I walked past, the random Elder said that quote. Yes, yes you are still 19. 19 year old boys are funny.

Sad Story of the Week: My dips record was broken!!!! By 6. I have some work to do!

Fact of the Week: Hermana Shelley runs into people a lot. Like, she literally runs into people.

Something I Realized I Missed This Week: Mario Kart on Nintendo 64

Well there you have it! Basically everything you need to know about my time here at the MTC. For my Spanish update, it's going pretty well and we have actually made some native Elder friends, one from the Dominican Republic, one from Mexico, and one from Argentina. They're really great and it's good to talk to them and practice speaking Spanish. They are all learning English so we talk in Spanish and they responed in English. It's kind of hard talking to natives but it's good to practice. I need to get used to it pretty quick!

Wow I'm really lacking in spirituality this email. I will tell you about the Sunday Devotional. It was top notch. It was given by Brother Heaton. He talked a lot about how to define success and that success isn't only the outward manifestation of your work, but also the actual work you put in. He said that a lot of times you will work so hard and not get a baptism. Instead of getting disappointed and depressed, you should change your mentality and know you have put in all the work you could have and God is pleased with you. He talked about the word "perhaps" and how it is used a lot in the scriptures. We labor diligently that perhaps we can bring some soul unto Christ (Alma 29:9?). He said that when you have this perhaps mentality, when success such as a baptism comes, you can say "Wow, what a gift!" and if it doesn't, you can say "Well, there was no guarantee." And instead of thinking to yourself "I did it!" think "He did it and I got a front row seat."

This doesn't just apply to missionaries and baptism. This applies to all of you. Work hard and perhaps the Lord will bless you in the way you expect, and perhaps it will be in some other way. But I want to testify to you that blessings do come. God loves you and will give you so much. One of our substitute teachers talked about how, we can't give a bread crumb without receiving a loaf from our Heavenly Father.

I love you!

Hermana Hill

1 in 132,000

Alo!

Familia, thanks so much for the package! It brightened my day. Reese's Puffs! You know me all too well. Hermana Shelley and I really appreciated the pez as well. You are the greatest! Not a lot of time today but here are some updates:

Statistic of the Week: (see subject line) What do you think that represents? I will tell you. 1 missionary to every 132,000 people in the world. Whoa. I better get to work! We heard that statistic from our teacher, Hermano Marlor. I'm thinking that we might need some help with the missionary stuff. So keep doing all you can!

Song of the Week: Israel, Israel, God is Calling. We sang that the other day and it made me think of when dad would pound it out on the piano. I hope you keep practicing it, daddy-o!

Joke of the Week: Cual es la differencia entre una pera y una novia de un missionaro? Una pera es pera, pero una novia no espera. Jajajajaja! (excuse any spanish errors)

Quote of the Week: "You don't need to be perfect in everything, but you can be perfect in some things" --Cecil O. Samuelson

Word of the Week: "Infatigablamente" which means "unwearyingness." I love it. I was in the temple the other week and I was really tired. I randomly opened the Book of Mormon before our session and began reading Helaman 10. In v. 4-5 it talks about how great of a missionary Nephi was because of his unwearyingness. I decided to look up the word in Spanish when I got back to the MTC. And it is a pretty fun word to say! Whenever I am tired I think of it and I get a little boost.

Some cool things....Sister Hosking came into the MTC yesterday! It was so good to see her. Also, yesterday Elder Oakes pointed out that we have 25 DAYS until we head to Argentina. ARGENTINA, people. To SHARE THE GOSPEL. This is a big deal.

As far as Spanish goes, all is well. Most of the time I feel like I'm in a "Spanish straightjacket" as our teacher Hermano Leishman puts it. But I know with time it will come and I will be able to say the things that I want to. But for now I have to work on teaching with the spirit so even if my investigator can't understand my words, the will still be able to feel and recognize the spirit--the source of all truth.

Something I have thought a little about this week is how God sent ME on this mission. He sent me because of my unique personality and testimony and background. A lot of times I feel like I had to have gone through some huge trial or hardship that I had to overcome and have a crazy story I can tell to people about how I know the gospel is true. But I realized that I can instead strengthen myself a little bit everyday. Even though Alma had a huge conversion experience, he still needed to receive a testimony little by little for himself. Read Alma 5:45-46 to see how he gained his testimony. It's pretty interesting considering what he had been through earlier in his life. Sorry if I'm not explaining myself very well but there are some Elders speaking chinese or something really loudly and I'm really struggling to concentrate.

I love YOU. Yes, you.

Hermana Hil