Tell them you'll never, EVER go along!

Dear Family!

So much exciting news in one email! Thank you for always keeping me posted on what´s going on in the motherland. Tell Easton happy birthday and give him a big huge beso for me, will ya? It boggles my mind that this kid is one year old and I still haven´t met him yet! The best things come to those who wait...amiright? Well, no time. Here are some pics!

Julieta got baptized! Her grandpa, Sergio, baptized her. Her mom, Gisela, is a less active member. As her daughter was baptized, she felt the spirit very strongly and tears came to her eyes. I love the spirit. Maria de los Angeles is her aunt...which is funny because she´s like her same age. She´s super awesome and loves going to church with her niece and sharing the gospel with all of her friends. Jeramías is Juli´s brother and he´s so cute. On the day of her baptism he just cried and cried saying "me quiero bautizar!" (I want to get baptized!) Finally, his grandpa gave him a tithing slip and told him it was his baptismal paper. He stopped crying after that and took the slip around with him everywhere he went!

Familia Luna!  I love them!

Well I was going to send you a bunch more pictures but the computer is being SOOO  SLOWWWW and you know how that gets. 

Jacob 5:72 :) (Doesn´t just apply to the mission, you know!)

I love you and sorry this was so short!

Hermana Hill

Ask the missionaries! They can help you!

FAMILY!!!

I am just so full of joy! I feel like conference was just quite the gift from above. When I heard the news about the new age requirement for missionaries, the first person that came to my mind was little Kenners! I remember that you had the desire to serve, and I wondered what you thought at that moment. I kept saying to my companion, "I hope my sister emails me and tells me what she thinks about all this!" And lo and behold, I get an email from you. I am so happy that you are preparing to serve! I just want to tell you how grateful I have been to be a missionary in this short time (it really seems SOOOO short). I have learned so many incredible things that have blessed my life. I have had the craziest moments of my life, the saddest ones, the ones where you feel the most helpless and inadecuate. I have had moments where I have felt so much love toward a child of our Heavenly Father and have felt that I would do anything to help them be happy. I have met people that have tried my patience, who have completely rejected the message of hope that I have brought just for them. I have seen families and lives that have been ruined by bad decisions. Many of them don´t want to change, or don´t believe that they can. That´s the part that breaks your heart. So then you ask, why do I love my mission so much? The answer is: because there are those chosen people that DO change!  There are people that have waited their whole life for someone to come up to them and tell them that we have something for them that will bring them more joy than they have ever imagined...and they actually believe you! And they make the necessary tweaks...tweeks? in their life to achieve the happiness that is promised to those who obey the commandments. They start the process of conversion, that Elder Bednar spoke about. This conversion is hard for them, as it is for us all, and sometimes they fall. Sometimes as a missionary you find those people who have fallen, people who had so much joy when the missionaries taught them for the first time and had lost that feeling that they had once felt at the beginning of that process. And then you help them remember. And they come back. As a missionary, as you help those in this roller coaster ride of conversion, you become even more converted yourself. You learn small lessons every day that your Heavenly Father has carefully prepared for you, just as you carefully prepare lessons for your investigators. You realize how much He must love you, considering how much you love these people that you are here to help and serve. The mission is not a walk in the park, it´s more like the dirty dash (hahaha...I saw those pictures, they were pretty funny). It´s full of obstacles and lots of hard work (and lots of fun, too, of course :)) But the feeling of satisfaction is one of a kind! I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us and that He will show us the roads we should take in our lives to achieve true happiness and best help our brothers and sisters. I also learned a really big lesson as I made the decision-- that many times He lets us choose between a lot of good things. McKenna, I know that as you continue to pray and fast, (Omni 1:26 <3) He will guide you and you will know the course you should take. I love you a ton and know you will be an amazing servant of the Lord no matter where you go or what you decide! 

That goes for my other little sissys too, that are getting so BIG. (As in, old. I don´t think you´re fat.)

Dad, I´m so glad you mentioned that song Brightly Beams our Father´s Mercy. When we watched conference we only got to watch half of the first session in english, so I listened to the vast majority in spanish. It was still awesome though! But anyway, about that song...it really stuck out to me when Pres. Packer talked about it and this morning I read the words to it (in spanish) and was thinking about the significance and Hna Rentería and I sang it together for our hymn of the day. And then I get your email, and you also talked about it! Inspiración! It really is a goodie...goody?

Welp....longest email of my life. I was going to tell you about some other talks I really liked and some stuff that I learned but, time´s a tickin and there is food to buy and clothes to wash. But hey, no time to rest when you´ve got stuff to do!....that was deep. 

I luff you.

Hermanita Hill

Subway: comé rico y sano

Dear Family,

We just ate a terriyaki chicken sandwich from Subway. They have subways here if you were wondering :) Okay to answer your questions before I forget: I have no idea what holiday they were celebrating last Monday...they have a random holiday like every week. It was actually a new one that they just invented I think, but I forgot to ask what it was. Oh and just to warn you the 15th is also a holiday so just in case you don´t get an email that day, don´t worry! About the flooding, I guess a few times a year, depending on the year, they get SUPER bad flooding because they get these big, nasty winds that blow all the water from La Plata into Tigre. Did you know that Tigre was once a giant river? So yeah we´re talkin lots of water, like waist high in some areas....let´s just say I learned a whole knew meaning for the phrase "gird up your loins." They said it has been worse in years past but they´re working on the drainage system. So that´s good. They said it might happen again, you just never know. On Sundy, Zamira was baptized! She is so cute and SO smart. She is such a fast learner and says the cutest prayers. I love teaching this family because every time we pray, they say "Vamos a hacer amen!" And they all get all excited and fold their arms. And then sometimes Daniel, who is five, says the prayer and he clasps his hands in front of his face and he just rambles and asks for the most random things in his prayers, but they are so full of heart haha. I thought little kids praying in english was cute, but that was until I heard Daniel pray. Cuteness to the maximum! Well that´s the summary for the week. I´m so pumped for General Conference. I think this time we´ll be able to watch it in english, which is always pretty nice. I love making goals and looking for how I can become better as I listen to the talks. I encourage you all to do so, to take a little time to evaluate the ole life and see how Heavenly Father´s servants   can answer our questions, and help us achieve our deepest desires. I love you all a billion and am glad to hear you are doing well. I am so grateful for you. En serio.

Hermana Hiiiiilllll.

Adrian and Zamira!

Love them all!

Daniel, Marcos, and Zamira cantando

Hamaca

Dear Family,

So sorry for not emailing yesterday! It was a holiday and everywhere was closed so we got permission to write today. I´m still alive and kickin, don´t worry :) Not a lot of time,as always, but just wanted to give you a few updates. Cristina got baptized! It was beautiful. Adrian was actually a less active member but started going back to church, got married, baptized his wife, and next Sunday Cristina´s daughter, Zamira, is going to get baptized because she turned eight yesterday. And they are preparing to get sealed in the temple in a year. Doesn´t get much better than that! I´m so going to be there for their sealing, sí o sí. What else has happened...oh yeah we had some pretty sick flooding of the river! That was fun. And a lot of other stuff that there´s no time to write about.To answer your question, yeah, I´m thinkin that I´m going to spend the rest of my time here, which is really weird to think about so I try not to :) You really never know though, anything can happen. Man I never want to leave, I love Tigre so much! It sounds like the temple dedication in BC was awesome! That´s so cool that temples are being dedicated left and right. Well Iove you all a ton and I know that living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the right way to live. It is more and more evident to me every day of my mission. Thank you all for everything, I love you un montón!

Love, 

Hermana Hill

P.S. Could you send me a new debit card? mine got warped somehow and the ATMs don´t accept it so I can´t get cash out :(

We had interviews with Pres. and he told me that they are planning on sending all the missionaries that need to go back to school home on the 31st of December just to give you a heads up.

Nahuel!

Chillin' with the sisters on Pday...Hna Shelley just got
transferred to my zone!

Cristina!

Going to the registro civil and we´re gonna get ma-a-arried!

Fam!

Not a lot of time, but I´ve got some good news! A little better than the BYU game probably....(good thing I wasn´t there watching that, eh? I know I´m here on a mission for a reason! haha) Well, here it is: Adrian and Cristina got married! It was lovely and they are just progressing so much and Cristina and Zamira (Christina´s daughter) are super excited for their baptisms. Also, Nahuel got baptized! And his family is preparing to follow his example. It was a great week and I love you!

Oh and p.s. we had transfers but I am staying! With Hermana Rentería! We´re super stoked.

The district

The happy couple!

Bienvenidos al...cielo.

Dearest family whom I love so much,

What an AMAZING week. I´m so glad you were able to see some of the highlights of the cultural event that was here. We were able to be there and participate and even marched out on the field singing "Called to Serve" Well, in spanish of course. It was just incredible. Leonardo and his grandma went and they are already super excited for him to go on a mission and being there really impacted them and helped them see the importance of missionary work. I love them. The day before, on Friday, we went to a special fireside with Elder Christofferson, Elder Ballard, and President Eyring with all the missionaries serving in Buenos Aires. They are incredible. I know they are men of God and I learned so much and I heard them speak. Many of the words they spoke were just what I needed to hear. President Eyring is just the smiley-est man ever! The whole time he just had a big grin on his face and you just know he loves working for the Lord. On Sunday we had the rededication. There were three sessions and in the one we went to President Eyring wasn´t on the program but was prompted to bear his testimony. He talked about how what an incredible experience and amazing opportunity that we have to be a part of this event in Argentina, but said that the most important memory we can keep with us are those moments when we have felt the love of the Savior. The most valuble thing we have is our testimony of Jesus Christ. We must think about the moment when we will see Him after this life. Will we not only recognize him, but also truly love Him? My head is just full of all the thoughts that have come into my mind this last week and thinking about how I can better teach and serve the people around me. I love being here. I love you all a ton. 

¡Hasta luegito!

Hermana Hill

Put a smile on your face, make the world a better place

Hey Heeeeyyyy!

Thanks for your letters! I´m glad you´re having fun! I love you! (ps what is my subject line from? I can´t remember)

So...don´t have time to write but this week we sent our mission president the miracles we have seen through the temple open house, so let me just forward that right on to you all :)

Miracles of the Temple:

Leonardo y Lucia

Leonardo (11) lives with his grandmother, Lucia. They started receiving the missionary lessons in the middle of August. We were helping them to prepare for baptism, but Lucia was hesident to accept a baptismal date and give permission for Leonardo to be baptized because she believed that they needed to prepare themselves for at least a year. They attended church and enjoyed it, but still had the same mindset. When Tigre went to the temple together as a branch, they both went out of curiosity. Leonardo was impacted by the baptismal font, and left the temple wanting to be baptized for his grandpa, Lucia´s husband, in the temple. He knew that he would first need to be baptized in order to also be baptized for his grandpa. After hearing his desire, Lucia allowed him to be baptized. Although there was much adversity leading up to that special day, Leonardo was baptized on September 1st, and confirmed the next day. He will be able to see the rededication of the temple on the ninth. Lucia is also preparing for her baptism on September 16th, and even bore her testimony and shared her gratitude over the pulpit on the day of Leonardo`s confirmation. She told of an experience that she had with her daughter, Ines, (Leonardo`s mom) fourteen years ago. Ines had talked to missionaries and wanted to go to church, but Lucia, because of her strong catholic background, did not let her go. Lucia recognizes now that she should have helped Ines to become a member of a church and has even more of a dedication to help Leonardo be a strong member. She knows they are pioneers that will help their family not only in the future, but also in the past, through the blessings of the temple.

Cristina y Adrian:

Adrian, a less active member, took Cristina, his girlfriend, and her three children to the temple open house. Cristina is investigating the church and will be baptized on September 23rd. They will be getting married on September 14th, and are preparing to go to the temple a year after Cristina´s baptism to be sealed as an eternal family. 


Milagros:

Milagros (13) is an investigator who went with us to the temple open house with her cousin, Mailen (13), who is a recent convert. She mentioned that in the sealing room, as she looked in the reflection of the two mirrors, she saw her mom, who died when she was young. She now has desired to be baptized for her in the temple.

We are very excited to participate in the temple rededication and the events leading up to it. I love being a missionary, and even more at this amazing time in Argentina. We have seen the blessings, as well as the adversity that comes with something of this magnitude, but we couldn´t be more grateful to be here!

I love you all a ton, thanks for your love and support!

Hna Cerro

P.S. Dad, my companion totally saw Scott Bacula. In person. I told her that you look like him. Or maybe he looks like you...

We lost electricity for a while.  Our friend, Jorge,
showing us the source of the problem.

Leonardo y Federico!  Que fuertes.

With his grandma, Lucia :).