Hum Your Favorite Hymn

Hey family!

I have officially become a hummer.....This morning I was making the
famous Hill homemade brownies and found myself humming hymns. Also as
we walk down the streets, I hum. Uh oh I´m becoming one of those weird
sister missionaries :S. Speaking of brownies, can you send me the
recipe to make german pancakes? Random, I know, but as the brownies
were cooking, they smelled like german pancakes and thought it would
be a good idea to make them sometime. Also could you send me a picture
of Cade and Kaylee and the temple at their wedding? Since we´re always
talking about eternal families, I would like to show the investigators
the perfect example :) Mom, they other day I was showing a recent
convert a picture of the family and he said "That´s your mom?! I
thought it was your sister! Qué joven!" Whoa spanglish to the max.
Haha I thought you might like that comment.

This week was de diez. We did divisions with the hermanas in Congreso
and I went there with Hna Quispe, from Peru. It was lovely. We went to
ask permission of the mom of a boy that is preparing for baptism. He
lives with his grandma who is a member but the mom lives in another
area. At first, she didn´t think that he should get baptized, but in
the end the spirit was able to touch her heart and she gave the
permission and also wants to learn about the church and have the
missionaries teach her.

On Saturday, the four of us hermanas were able to give small tours of
the chapel in La Boca. It´s really cool....there is a missionary
couple from the US who are in charge of doing these tours called
vistors center in the chapel. They have an image of Christ, like they
big marble statue in the visitors center in Salt Lake, and a recording
of the words he says. After, we take them on a small tour and teach
the basics of the gospel. At first I was super nervous but it was a
cool experience to be able to testify of Christ for four hours
straight. This week we will be doing the same thing but in Almagro! In
La Boca, they recieved more than 50 references. Woohoo! SO many people
are SO prepared!

I´m not sure if I have already written about Estela? She is one of our
investigators who has been to church with us a few times. She had
polio when she was younger and is now in a wheelchair. Her husband,
Claudio is also in a wheelchair. They have two teenagers, Sandra and
Vicente. Anyway, she is so awesome. She has so many challenges but she
is always so happy. Right now she´s studying English and
computacion...computers? But anyway we are hoping to help her to be
baptized this Saturday. Right now she is working on receiving a
testimony of the Book of Mormon, but I know that she will receive an
answer and know that her family will be so blessed by following the
example of Jesus Christ and being baptized.

There is so much work to do! It´s great!

I have to go because we´re going to go to the Boca staduim and
hopefully see all the colorful houses.

LES AMO!!!!!

Hermanita Hill

HLJ

Familia,

¿Qué tal? Mamita I hope you had the best cumpleaños ever. I love you!

No we havent seen the colorful houses yet. We were going to go with our district the last two pdays but it hasnt worked out yet. Hopefully next week!

Cam cam, good luck with tryouts! Remember to have fun and as mom says "smile big!"

Guess what? William got baptized! Wow, de diez. After church, we set up an appointment with him, where we found out that he had been investigating the church for three months in Colombia, but never got baptized. We felt that we should invite him to be baptized that Saturday. He didnt give us an answer right away because he wanted to be sure. (I cant figure out where the apostrophe is on this computer and its driving me crazy). The next day we had another lesson with him and he said that he thought and prayed a lot about it and he felt he was ready to be baptized on Saturday. Woop woop! All I can say is thank you to those missionaries in Colombia who planted the seed. All we had to do was invite and then the spirit did the rest. He is so happy and the ward is helping out a ton to make him feel welcome. The same day was the baptism of Santiago Campos, whose family are members. He turned eight that same day. It made me think a lot about my baptism because his dad baptized him. I love seeing families together in the church! (Oh and I even played the piano for the service. Im sure mom is so proud ;))
About Olenka, Vidal, Kiara, and their families....sadly we had to stop teaching them because they werent progressing. Their parents want them to go to church, but arent willing to take them each week. So the only way they would be able to go is if the members take them every week, which makes it tricky. Also someone who lives with them started telling them false things about the church. We decided we need to dedicate our time to those who are prepared and will progress. Its tough because I love those kids, but maybe we were able to plant a seed...just like the missionaries did with William. Its crazy how hard you work with one person, with little results, but then a miracle comes around the corner. A lot of times we dont understand why things dont work out the way we want, but our loving Heavenly Father always provided another opportunity and will always bless us if we are doing all we can. 

The church is true.

I love you!

Hermana Hill

P.S. They are playing the beach boys right now! Not that I am listening. Its just that I cant plug my ears and type at the same time....

Santiago and his dad, Ezequiel.  So precious.

My cute comp with Hermana Elisa

Ohhh the ladies.  Elisa, Monica, Doris.  They are amazing
and help us a ton in the obra.

Bautismo de William!

Let's not forget about McDonalds

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Greetings earthlings!

 

Today Hermana Peralta and I were studying English and she learned the word "greetings." I told her that that word is usually only used if it´s for something formal like a speech, for Christmas cards, or aliens. She´s lucky to have a great teacher like me! Also she loves the song over the rainbow. She knows most of the words and was singing it but accidentally sang "somewhere over the rainbow, we are high....." Oops! Also the other day some people behind us were talking in English and we started talking to them. They´re from Holland and are studying Spanish here. I tried inviting them to church, but I sounded like English was my second language! And then Hermana Peralta was describing to them where the church is and said "walk 7 blocks, turn the corner, and then walk one more week." We struggle sometimes but are grateful for the spirit.

 

We are continuing to teach all of the cute kids and their families. Olenka, Vidal, and Kiara will be getting baptized this Sunday. It´s tricky with the parents because most of them have to work, and none of them are married, and need to get married before getting baptized. We have a lot of help and support from the ward members, especially those in the Primary. This Sunday Vitaly, a member from Russia, brought his friend Rodrigo to church. They are both 17 and Rodrigo is excited to learn more and Vitaly is excited to share the gospel with him! It´s really awesome. Two future missionaries sí o sí. Also a man named Wiliam came to church all by himself. He is from Colombia and has only been here for a little over two weeks. He received the missionary lessons in Colombia and has been to church a bunch of times, but never got baptized because he always moved around from place to place, but says he is looking for a change in his life. Also as we were walking to church this week a man yelled down from his apartment building and asked where the church was. We told him we were on our way and told him to join us. He ran down to the street as fast as he could. We found out he is a member and has been living here for 10 years but never knew where the church was. He is twenty and said he wants to prepare to serve a mission in a year. Woooow. Miracles are happening left and right. So many future Priesthood holders!

 

They always say that you can´t help but love the people you sacrifice for. It´s true. The more we work and study and put our all into helping others, the more we will love them. Can you imagine, then, how much Christ loves us? In 1 Nephi 20:13-14 (Isaiah 49) we learn that the Lord will NEVER forget us. And how could he? Just like we could never forget the ones we love, He could never ever forget about us because sacrifice ------->love. We are literally engraven in the palms of His hands. He loves YOU! No matter how hard the trial, or how forgotten you might feel, know that you are never abandoned.

 

And that´s my spiritual thought for the email. And I know it´s true!

 

<3 U

 

La Hermanita

Aylen (10) and her sister Mayori (15)

President Arnold's wife :)

President Arnold and Elder Nash and their wives.  President Arnold
is the area president of South America South.  A bunch of really
cool people came to visit our ward this Sunday! (P.S. Elder Nash
is from Centerville, do you know him?)

With Hna Peralta and Hna Elisa, one of the ward missionaries
who helps us a ton.