Pitufina

Dear Family,

Thank you for your lovely emails! OMGsh (do people still say that?) I want to squeeze the tar out of Easton! (Who am I? :)) Also tell KaCee CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! How weird that everyone is all engaged and married and have criaturas and stuff. (Sometimes the people here call kids criaturas. jaja.) I hope you had fun/are having fun on your trip! Tell all the fam hola for me!

As always, no time. We are busy and happy. We received the flyers....fliers?....volantes.....for the temple open house! It´s been fun to hand them out and let people know about this AMAZING EVENT in the history of Argentina! I´ll have to mail you one so you can see what they look like, they're pretty legit. Yesterday we gave talks about the temple and the importance of inviting everyone not only to the open house, but also to church. Hna Sosa gave the class in Relief society and I gave the class in Young Women and we did practices of how to invite people to church next week. The Bishop and ward council organized a special Sunday for next week especially for investigators to explain why we have temples so that they will be able to understand when they go to the open house, and so they have the desire to become a member of the church to be able to enter and receive the blessings! Our ward is LEGIT: We´re hoping to have a lot of investigators in church next week. By they way, way to go for bringing investigators of your own to church! I´m sure the missionaries LOVE YOU.

Gotta run. Keep being awesome.

Hermana Hill

P.S. Hermana Bustios always calls me pitufina everytime I see her. Pitufina is the girl smurf. She says that if she painted me blue we would look exactly alike....

Look, I got them to smile!  I love this family.

Fe Sumamente Grande

Hey family!

I love you! Thank you for keeping me updated of what's going on in your lives. I am so grateful for you guys, seriously. En serio. Thank you for being such great examples and living the gospel. i love my family so stinkin much! Which is why I want to help people here to understand the blessings of an eternal family. I want to help them "get it". Do you realize how many people don't get it? A lot! The blessings I have received because of my family are more than I could even begin to count. 

Well last week Amelia was baptized! She is just the sweetest and is pretty much the grandma of everyone here in Almagro. Have I written you about her story? Nutshell: about three months ago she came to church all by herself. She lives alone because she is divorced and a while back her son was killed by robbers when he was about thirty. She knows that it was her son who guided her to the church. She has suffered a lot but is now very content to take this step and become a member of the church and one day be able to be with her son again. The blessings of the gospel are incredibe. Oh and guess who was one of the witnesses of the baptism? Victor :) 

Let me leave you with a quote that Presidente Gulbrandsen sent us in his letter to the missionaries this week:

Elder Bruce R. McKonkie was a member of the Twelve as I was growing up. I love his expression of faith in the Savior Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice:

“And now, as pertaining to this perfect Atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God—I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that He is the Son of the living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself, independent of any other person.

I am one of His witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in His hands and in His feet and shall wet His feet with my tears.

But I shall not know any better then than I know now that He is God’s Almighty Son, that He is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through His atoning blood and in no other way” (The Liahona, Apr. 2011, The Purifying Power of Gethsemane).

Can we also say this of our Savior? Are we growing closer to Him each day? Are we asking for more faith and then doing everything possible to act when the trials of our faith come? I know that if we do this, we will see miracles in our lives. 

I love you all a ton!

Hermanita Hill

Vuelta del mundo en Abasto.

Ummmm......Please tell me you've seen this.

Neverland.

Anto y Alex :)

This is how we get things done in Almagro if we want hot water.

El Obisbo y Amelia.  Precioso!

Us

¡Feliz día de Independencia!‏

Dear family,

So good to hear from you and see all the pics from Nauvoo! Sounds like you had such a great time. I love hearing about your experiences about the temple, it strengthens my desire to invite EVERYONE to be able to receive the blessings of the temple. Right now everyone is so focused on the temple because of the rededication that is coming up. We are seeing miracles here as people prepare themselves to enter the house of the Lord. I also love hearing about all the cousins who are serving! Holy cow, everyone is all over the place. I love it :)

This week has been chuck full of goodness. On Sunday, Victor was confirmed, received the priesthood, and received his first calling--ward missionary :) He is progressing at 100 km/hr and is just as happy as can be. He is always telling us about how different his life is right now and how much peace he feels. It is so great to know that he will be able to baptize his children! Experiences like this make everything worth it. Guess what? You're never going to believe it. Amelia is going to be baptized this Saturday! She has seen miracles with her health, especially with her eyesight, after going to church and knows it has come from the prayers of all the members. She wants to show her gratitude to her Heavenly Father by being baptized and making this sacred covenant with Him. I love seeing people HAPPY. I love seeing people change. 

In other news, we have had a lot of big days last week....independence day in the U.S. (4), my one year mark :S (6), and today is independence day here in Arhenteenuh and also last week was semana de la dulzura, where you give people candy for a kiss. Don't worry, we only received candy and not kisses. 

Well, as always, gotta run. I'll leave you with some of the pictures we took on our excursion last week. I love you a ton. Say your prayers. Read your scriptures. Go to church. Share the gospel. I promise that if you do, you will be happy. It really is as simple as that. 

Nos vemos! Un besito!

Hermana Hill

La casa rosada.  Kind of like the White House, but pink.

A fountain

Some cool edificios

El obilisco

Statue in Plaza de Mayo

Other statue in Plaza de Mayo

Did I mention that Victor works in a candy shop?

No bautizamos con agua...bautizamos con FE!

Dear family,

 

I love you a ton and hope you are having a great time in Nauvoo and that you are learning a lot and feeling the spirit a lot! Don´t have a lot of time because today we are going to explore Buenos Aires. Wish us luck, I hope we don´t get lost!

 

Guess what? Victor was baptized on Sunday! Wow, it was something special. His two kids were able to go to church with him and it was just so sweet. I don´t remember how much I have said about Victor, but he really is a miracle. We found him about four weeks ago when we went to an appointment that fell through. He was walking out the door as we were standing outside. We started talking to him and he said that he needed something more in his life. We set up an appointment with him for the next day, and when we went there, they said he doesn´t live there. We also tried calling him, but the phone number didn´t exist...classic. We were bummed but didn´t think much of it after that. We told the story to Adriana and Camila and it turns out they know him and a few days later, Camila saw him walking down the street. She started talking to him and asked for his address and phone number. We called him and set up an appointment and...the rest is history! He has two adorable kids, Alexander and Antonela. He said that he has a desire to change his life and be a better father for his kids. He has had to change a lot of things but knows feels so much more peace and happiness now. After his baptism, he bore his testimony, thanking everyone for helping him make this change, and telling his kids that he is going to be a better dad and spend more time with them. He talked about how hard it is sometimes to make this change, but he knows that his Heavenly Father will help him. As he talked we could feel the spirit so strongly. He began to tear up as he spoke. I have learned so much from him in these past few weeks. He has taught me how important it is to be humble. To recognize our faults and weaknesses, but to rely fully on the Lord and confide that he will help us as we make an effort to overcome whatever temptation comes our way.

 

I love baptisms.

 

I love you.

 

Here are some pictures :)

 

Love, Sister Hill

Leo--cutest little half-argentine, half-peruvian kid

After lunch with the flia Karmanov de Russia...have
I mentioned that people are from all over the place here?

Benjamin (he's going to serve in Vina del Mar), Gabriel, Alex, Antonela,
Victor, Nosotras, Marisol.  (I promise everyone is super happy, I don't
know why people here hardly ever smile for pictures)

Nosotros :)

This is called matambrre.  I'm not sure what kind of meat it is.  I'm not sure
I want to know.  All I know is that it is from a cow...When they first gave
it to me, I thought they said its called mata hambre.  Mata=kill, hambre=hunger.  Jaja.
Hna Sosa explained to me later what it is really called.  But it was actually super rico!