Hey friends and Family

Hey-Lo everybody, I'm Elder Hill.

So- This week was very much slower than previous weeks.... pretty much the slowest of the whole mission.. we still had 7 new investigators, taught a few new families.. got back in contact with an old one.. but only taught 10 lessons.. and I was not feeling too well so, just overall inneffective. and frustrating.. However, I do still love the Lord and know the church is true! So that's wonderful. I just need extra prayers. Everyone remember me. please.. I'll remember you. haha

Anyhow.. let's see... things this week that happened..

- Our napali friends whose nicknames are cocoa and little one... were caught hiding in front of the walgreens putting makeup and fake nails on yesterday... we thought that was strange.. and as we walked to their apartment complex, we saw their mother searching for them.. so we told them they had better get home.. haha.. they had makeup all over them.. very funny little kids. I don't know how we are such good friends with them.. their family wouldn't meet with us.. haha (a while ago the little one tried to order the 'finding faith in christ' dvd from the number on the card we gave her.. and accidentally called 911, had to explain THAT to her parents.. hahaha...)

- this homeless guy in the park has all the stoners convinced that we are feds.. which isn't super good, pretty funny though?... we actually taught a lesson to one or two of his buddies...

- Sis Wie and Grandma made 'vietnames dinner'... it consisted of fried pig ear, some chewy stuff, squishy fish, "the slimey vegetable" and rice... .... pig ear... eek... tasted like ... ... yuck.. BUT! On the bright side we came home to fresh spring rolls yesterday, and we love those.. Grandma is great.

- Last transfer they didn't announce who was transferred to the whole zone.. they did a silent transfer in which each individual companionship got a call if they were transferred.. so naturally, i told our district leader we got whitewashed.. he was shocked to see us at zone meeting.. haha.. good times.. I'm terrible I know..

OK so on to bigger and brighter things.. This week I studied a lot.. I usually study a bunch- but this week i studied a lot. (Lot>bunch) Aaand I read the book of Daniel last night... It was awesome the stories of meshack shadrach and abed--nego NOT being burned in the fiery furnace.. and Daniel and the lion's den.. and.. lots of latter-day prophecy... Such awesome faith by these people.. to hold to their God in the moment of truth.. Testing whether or not they truelly believe.. and in both circumstances they come off conquerer... The Bible has really become one of my favorite things to study.. We use it all the time in the foreign community, that's all we have.. I've come to love and admire the apostle paul.. and Peter the apostle as well.. If I can find some way to have the vigor of those men.. It could be goooood. haha... I read the trial of Paul in front of King Agrippa yesterday (Acts 26:13-27)(I could be off..)... It's so cool.. how similar it was to Joseph Smith's experience, how the simple testimony changes so many hearts.. we all need to heed this and stand up for our belief.. God is good.. gotta love Him.

Well, the work was hard this week.. the work was slow.. Its tough, but we did get to have some progress in our area. I got to see Ipha from my last ward, teach her brother who lives in my area now.. he'll be attending Burien ward, but we might snatch the teaching for him. I'm excited, I'm just working while I can! I love this work, I love the gospel.. trials are hard but I'm striving to overcome them :) Everybody write me.. and I promise blessings.

I love you all, read your scriptures! Study them! Live them!... They are such a blessing. You have to know what's in them.. I miss ya tons.. see ya l8er!

-EELDERR HILL

Hey E'erybody

What a week.. Thanks for everyone's contributions through prayer and panic. :) You know who you are.

So this last week was crazy, with all kinds of random excitement, but I want to focus mostly on the spiritualllly awesome side.. OK?

-Elder Fullmer taught a lesson with sister Wie as his companion in the waiting room of the doctor's place... The lady was hisitant but took the book of mormon and said she would read it... so that was cool?

-I got to take my District leader to SeaTac, show him how to find foreign people. Usually a Burmese contact goes something like this "Hey, We're missionaries, we teach about jesus [hand them a card] are you christian?" they say "Ya?" and i ask "where are you from?" they say "Burma"... I say "Where do you live, can we come teach your family?"... they show us where they live, and their family loves us so much.. Needless to say, he was shocked at how easy it was to get into their house.. often times children ran after us and yelled for us to come to their house..

-Also with Elder Spencer, (DL), we were talking to a guy from Burma, and little napali children (we are very familiar with them now.) came up behind the guy and just made sad faces, so I nonshalauntly hand them a card, and then reach into my bad (the entire time keeping a conversation going) and hand them a soda.,.. They love us.

-Had such an awesome lesson with hebrework, Sisay Mosisu had very profound statements for him.. he was asking lots of 'bash worthy' questions.. that I didn't want to slam down.. so Sisay simply said in his broken english... "no more question.", "You read that book, You ask them questions from reading, and you'll know." .... Sisay was a guy that Elder Jackson was teaching in his first transfer in seatac, so he's pretty fresh into the church.. He's from Ethiopia, and he's like a great loveable teddy bear.

-Recently, PMG DVDs have been the rage in study, so I've seen all of them naturally.. and actually learned a lot. When we devote time to do ALL the stuff we are supposed to.. Things just work out better.. You feel the spirit more, you find answers to prayer faster, you have greater charity... So we're still working on it, but progress has been made... haha.. also- we have nothing else to watch, so it's like movie night allll the time..

-Transfers happened (thus emailing on tuesday)... I'm still in SeaTac, probably be in this zone forever.. haha It's a good zone, I like it.. I'm hoping that we can all stick around together for a while.

Mostly I've just really grown a lot.. and learned a lot from Elder Perry.. who came on friday..

he talked about how his father was a worthy member of the church... 10 of the 12 had inactive or non member fathers.. Amazing right? I'm so happy that my dad was a great example for me.. I'll strive to live up to that.

He also talked about how service goes further than the mission... He told a story about building a church building in Japan.. Long story, find it somewhere on the internet... haha

Anyhow it was just a powerful feeling when he came in. To be THAT close to an apostle of the Lord, is spectacular. He's a super funny guy, just overall amazing. I loved it.

The work is well, I'm doing my best family and friends... don't believe any rumors that are circulating. I'm doing fine, I'm working. I love the Lord and I love this work. The Scriptures are so great..... On sunday I was called from the pulpit to give a talk on baptism.... I'm just so happy that I've studied the scriptures and I was able to overcome the short notice, share my feelings.. I've been so blessed! I am learning a lot.. Keep praying for me, I need it. :)

Love you all! -ELder Hill

p.s. boy I love these ekg boxes.

Hola!

This last week was a trying one.. Zone conference, sick, super finding... frustration..

Anyhow- We have Elder Perry of the Quorum of the twelve coming on friday so that will be amazing. I love when general authorities come and speak to us.. usually rebuking us but I accept it and feel the spirit.. :) chastening is a good sign... when you read through the scriptures.. people usually become their best selves after the chastening.. And I'm striving to be my best self.. so That's a start.

The work was good this week.. We've taken a step back from attacking all of our Burmese families, really thought about what will move them forward.. We neeeeed member help, and priesthood leadership to start a Burmese group in our ward. So- We attacked that, we visited the members that are ward missionaries, and searched for our Burmese male priesthood potentials. ... I prayed hard, and we found Tha Peng! He speaks Hakha Chin.. which is my favorite (Mostly cause the original Burmese spoke that..) ... he has a great family.. he felt the spirit.. language barrier is the problem still.. or as they say "Ranguage is Probrem".. hahahah... ... -- hopefully there are no sensative Burmese people reading this... : /

OK- So there were some good moments, we tried to get into a part-member family this week, they were really good people.... it appears they weren't aware of their dog's doings in the house however.. As we sat down on the couch to give a lesson, Elder Fullmer turned to me a few minutes later and said "...I'm sitting in dog urine..".. I immediately shushed him and moved on with the lesson-- Missionaries have the obligation to put up with any crap, afterall, if we offend them.. it's bad. very bad. ANYHOW... we headed to another appointment and halfway there, it smelled SO BAD, Elder Fullmer had the great idea to rub hand sanatizer all over it, which made it 10X worse.. so we headed home. (I apologize for the run on sentences, I don't have time to proofread) ANyhow.. I came upstairs to see if Sis. Wie had done our darks yet- she had- and asked why I needed those pants done.. I just casually say "Oh, Superman got dog urine on his pants"... she stops and says "WHAT? he have accident?"(Imagine this in a vietnamese accent)... so I was like.. "yeah, he accidently got urine on his pants"... she imediately goes off about Dog urine.. telling us "I have little dog a long time ago, one day, he get piss off and pee e'erywhere!"... hehehehe.... she's not a fan of dog pee, and she made him wash his pants in the sink before going in the washer, and she wouldn't wash anything else with them.. hahahaha... Also- another note about sister wie, she makes the best Spaghetti I ever had. period.. and she put steak in my salad.. so she's awesome.

OK- On to spiritual stuff.. The work is so great here. My body tends to betray me a little... grr.. but I'm working hard to find those Elect sons and daughters of God.. Last night I was able to attend Teray's Patriarchal Blessing... .. It was such a huge blessing to hear him so excited about this gospel, and tell a little bit about his conversion and his devotion to the work. He's so excited about the Temple... his faith is unwavering. I love him.. It's amazing how some people can grow and learn so fast. Being the first to contact him in Seattle.. It's so humbling to see what the Lord has accomplished through a weak soul like me. I'm doing my best to continue..

Last night we had a lesson with a man from Etheopia named Hebrework.. His wife is divorcing him, he is really struggling.. When we contacted him in the park, I taught directly from the bible (which has become my forte) as that is what he knows and loves.. he said to us before we left "If you have something better, please tell me."... that's the sign of a prepared soul.. I'm humbled to have been able to contact him, and have one of the more successful lessons with him in his home. He said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray. I promised him through patience, obedience and prayer he would know the truth of this message. :)

My heart is so full of charity, joy, humility.. It's so wonderful to be out here at this time. I'm doing my best to find those I need to and keep working despite trial and affliction. The Lord is my light, I WILL go where he wants me to go :) EVERYONE KEEP PRAYING AND STUDYING SCRIPTURES... GO FORWARD NOT BACKWARD! (D&C 128:22)

I love you all Elder Hill.

HEY E'ERYBODY!

Isn't Life great?

This week marked 7 months in the mission.. holy crap it's gone so fast.

Well, The work is going really well.. as usual I have a few ridiculous moments prior to the seriousity.

*Sister Wie has a propane Wok on her back porch, she made some steak and shrimp... absoulutely to die for, we also had the Burien Elders over so got to hangout for a few minutes... soo good.

*We called Burien from our phone to invite them to dinner, it was on speaker phone and Elder Weed answered like a girl... Sister Wie dubbed him 'the queer one'... hehehe...

*We watched the joseph smith story with a napali family... Not planned.. We were actually supposed to teach a Burmese family, who ditched us and the Little napali children bartered their parents' time for a 'limited edition' card. hahaha... super funny... they made us watch one of their movies too.. now I know how it feels to watch arbitrary scenes with gibberish noises.

*Elder Fullmer has been trying to distinguish between people who are 'high/drunk' and 'not'... and the only ones he was sure enough to mention were autistic.. and the same person 2 times. haha... gotta love it..

*We were teaching Christ Hai's family, her dad is now in town, and we were teaching about the restoration... come to find out Paw Paw (the 10 year old) has the first vision memorized..

Well- The work is going well.. I didn't get to do as much as I would have preferred, still struggling a little with health issues, but we still got almost 20 lessons, which is much above average, and had 11 new investigators.. which is unheard of? usually? we've done that a lot.. haha anyhow.. The Lord is helping me so much, I really can feel it.

My studies have been refocused on the Preach My Gospel lessons and the Book of Mormon... I read teaching of the prophet Joseph smith.. which was awesome.. but it wasn't exactly relevant to our lessons so I digress. . . .

Had an amazing lesson in church, about 'having a vision'... from Proverbs 29:18.. I believe (I could be wrong.. memory not so good.) ... anyhow, I thought it was awesome. It's so important to really have that vision of who you want to be, and start to 'fake it till you make it'. If you want to be a more Christ like person.... BE more christ like. As we make goals, exhert our greatest efforts.. the Lord completes us in our trials :) I love Him.

Well- Overall.. Miracles happen... there are examples in my life as well as in the scriptures (Ether 12, Hebrews 11)... Look for them, pray for them, search for them! .. Seek and ye SHALL find. :) I love this work and I'm doing my best. the work will move forward.

I love you all! Write me tons! (Most importantly, read your scriptures and PRAY ALWAYS..that ye may come off conquerer)

-Elder Hill

SOMOS MISIONARES!

Hello again family and friends... Tis' another week in SeaTac...

A few wonderful memories from the weekk...

-The McDonalds drive through lady's name is Maria, and we gave her a pass along card... she also gave us some memoral quotes such as "... Wow, you guys come here in the morning AND at night??" and.. "See ya tomorrow!".... slightly embarrassing.. slightly touching to the heart...

-Elder Fullmer got a package from his Mother, and she didn't write a note... pretty funny.. pretty sad.. haha

-Our Investigator children have a shrine of all the different passalong cards pinned on the wall.. I'll try and snatch a picture..

-One of the kids quoted Joseph Smith's first vision.. not verbatim.. but impressively..

-Sister Wie speaks french... now I want you to imagine this.. She's Vietnamese, with an awesome Vietnamese accent.. now imagine french coming from that accent.. and in Buddhist terms, you've reached Nirvana.. (Nirvana came from Seattle you know..)

-Brother Smith came downstairs a few nights ago.. told us something Sister Wie was crackin open (A jack fruit?) made the whole upstairs smell like baby poop... it was true.

-! OH ! Sister Wie gave us some yellow Water melon... so wierd.. taste like Red, BUT IT'S YELLOW... very asian

-.... Sister Floydd made us dinner yesterday, and gave us "all you can eat cupcakes"... holy cow is all I can say. I'm going to be so fat.

-OH and-- wait.. probably not appropriate, ask later. haha

......

Ok- Some more serious notes.. and stories and testimonies of mine own...

The Work is well. I'm still shall we say 'under the weather'?... which means periodical naps, moaning, complaining about not getting enough mail (.. C'mon guys..) haha... and then of course studying adn praying.. much needed study and prayer.. it was good. We were still productive and got 4 people to church! Our families still love us, and we found another Burmese family (That actually speaks Burmese) to teach! Life is good.. ALSO- I got a sweet Shirt from the Karen people, they literally made it themselves, by hand.. with wood and string.. or something.. and They said they would make me a man skirt so life is good..--Oh- RIght, this is the serious portion.. haha, OK.. Well, some of the cool moments, Christ Hai prayed in english that her parents would let her get baptized, at the end of our lesson. and as she was interpreting for me, she mouthed "ASK IF I CAN BE BAPTIZED" haha.. It's so crazy how well they are doing. They ASK for scripture chapters to read, and they are so sensitive to the spirit. :) Beautiful.. D&C 18 is legit.

On another note..

Last night I got to accompany one of the reactivated/recentconverts, that I worked with in Burien, to recieve their Patriarchal Blessing... WOW AMAZING.. To be able to see them swing from one end of the spectrum to here.. is spectacular.. They told me they wanted me at their sealing, so I'm stoked :)... such a beautiful pure spirit as they spoke of their potential and strengths.. :) legit.. also, The Patriarch, Patriarch Nelson, gives a sweet lesson on the Blessings prior to-- I loved it. Life is good

Nothing is more touching than someone from your previous area saying they miss you. I'm so humbled to be in the situation I am in. I'm so excited to make more connections here in SeaTac.. Life is good! I love the Lord.. especially when I'm feeling sick and frustrated. I'm doing my best. Keep writing me everyone.. I love hearing from everyone. :)

-Love always, Elder Hill

p.s. Yes, All the Burmese children DO call me Sensei.. :)