YOU CAN CALL ME MOMMA HILL

Hey!

This week was super weird! Haha but it was so good at the same time. 

Alrighty.. here's what dreams are made of aka what happened this week:

1. MOMMA HILL: okay Wednesday was like the most nerve racking day of my life. I mean I was getting my brand new greenie. Helloooo I was gonna be nervous! We drove to St. Louis in the morning and got to the church around 9. After our trainer meeting, we got to go have a meeting with the new missionaries! There were only 4 of us sisters training (one of which was Sister Hulme my MTC comp!) so there weren't very many new sisters! Sister Morgan asked me which one I thought was my "baby" and I said "the one in the pink sweater." Then after our meeting we went into the chapel. The new missionaries went up to the pulpit to say where they are serving and who their trainer is. I was sitting there sweating and getting so nervous..... IT'S INTENSE OKAY. Sister  Knight (the one in the pink sweater) went up and said "Farmington 2nd with Sister Hill" and I was like "yasssss yayyyyy eeeeppppp!!! I was pumped. Sister Knight is pre trained. Like seriously she is teaching me how to be a missionary!!! She is from Logan, Utah and just graduated high school in May. It will be a fun 3 months!

Teaching Highlights:

1. Dennis: Dennis is such a stud. We taught him all the lessons in 11 days.  New record! He is still on track for baptism on December 20. THIS BAPTISM IS SUCH A BLESSING AND REWARD FOR OUR HARD WORK! 

2. Andrea: she is still planning on being baptized on January 3 which is awesome. We read the talk "Therefore they hushed their fears" with her and she really really really really liked it #thasssrightgurl

3. Hayden: he has been coming to church recently which is good! We talked with him about his baptism and set another date for January 10. No one can figure out if Hayden's intent is pure or not, so we are trying to figure that out. He says all the right things, but who knows if he is really committed to being baptized. We are teaching him again tonight so hopefully we can start to figure that out!

This week. Oh this week. haha...... ahhhhhh.... we have been doing so much finding this week and it feels like no one is accepting our message. It can be so rough at times to stay happy and positive and act like it's all okay! In reality, it is all okay but I wish people would just listen to us! haha also I had my bff ripped away from me this week which has been harder than I thought. I am forever grateful that Heavenly Father placed Sister Turpin in my life. She is one of my best friends and has become like a sister to me. I will miss her everyday (until we are STLs together in St. Louis ;))! Heavenly Father places people in our lives for a reason. If you stop and look at everyone in your life, you will realize how blessed you are to have them. I can't imagine not knowing any of these people I have met because of my mission! Each person I have met has truly truly blessed my life.

I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

sister hill

PAT A PAN

The theme song this week is PAT A PAN by David Archuleta which you can find on his christmas album, which Dad was so kind to send to us because he's the best! Thanks Dad. It's been on repeat all week long. Also we got transfer calls this week...stay tuned to find out where I'm going...

THIS WEEK WAS SO GOOD AH SO GOOD.

Weekly highlights:

1. Pickle Springs: last p-day together Sis. Turpin, Audre, and a member, Nathan meandered over to Pickle Springs. It's a huge woodsy area with a trail and all these big rocks. It was super fun except it got dark really fast so we were hiking in the dark and got lost so we said a prayer and then miraculously found our car. #prayerworks

2. Get thee hence Satan: Sis. Goeller told us this really sketchy story about when she told this axeman to "get thee hence Satan" It was crazy. She also told me to leave my calendar open from dec 26 -dec 29 so my new companion and I can help her clean off her patio. lol okay.

3. THANKSGIVING!!!!!: we spent Thanksgiving at the Vinson's home and had such a great day. I felt right at home because Bro. Vinson reminds me so much of dad! Like he just makes jokes and says stuff and his wife gets after him! Yep sounds like dad ;) Also the most important thing is that I had the best sweet potatoes I've ever had before in my whole life. No joke. They were heavenly. Then we also went over to the Moores later that night for dessert. 

4. Fatty mc fat fat fatty: so we had taco night with the elders at our ward mission leaders house. Guess how many tacos the elders ate? TWENTY EACH I'M NOT EVEN JOKING. And they're so skinny. Someone explain that to me!

5. TRANSFER DOCTRINE: I was legit sick on Saturday because I was so nervous to get transfer calls! I had heard that only 6 elders were coming out so I already knew I wasn't going to train but I was scared who my companion was going to be, so our fearless District Leader, Elder Peterson, calls and he's like "okay Sis. Hill you're staying in Potosi (yes!) and you are training!" HAHAHAHAHA I thought he was joking. He's not. So yep I'm getting a greenie! So pumped! And Sis. T is going to Danville which is literally the furthest area away from Potosi. Sad. I'm gonna miss her soooooo much! 

Teaching:

1. Andrea: so we are probably going to push her baptism date back until the first of the year. She has been SO busy with work and holiday stuff and we have barely seen her this last week. We don't want to rush her... and January 3 is a great day for a baptism ;) We taught her about the priesthood and auxiliaries in the church this week. As always, she's the perfect investigator!

2. Dennis: okay everyone you might want to sit down. DENNIS IS GETTING BAPTIZED DECEMBER 20 GET PUMPED GET PUMPED. After we set the date, we got in the car, jammed to pat a pan and squealed like little girls. Best feeling ever. We started teaching him last Friday and tomorrow we are teaching him the last lesson. We have taught him everything in a week and a half. He came to church yesterday and liked it! He is so excited for his baptism and Sis. Moore is even more excited, as she should be! She has been waiting for this for forever! Last night we were talking to her and she told us that they will probably get sealed on May 30, 2017 (their anniversary) and invited us so hey mom... wanna roadtrip with me to their sealing?! No way am I going to miss that. Dennis' story is truly a miracle and he and people like him are why I love being a missionary. We were teaching him the Plan of Salvation and I was just sitting there and the spirit was so strong and I just thanked Heavenly Father for helping me get here. This is where I need to be right now. Helping save these people and finding the one. Being a missionary is the greatest and I wish everyone could experience the joy I get to feel everyday. #BLESSED #BLESSED #BLESSED

I love this work. I love these people. I just love being a missionary. I've been reflecting this week on that Mormon Message by Elder Holland when he talks about coming to a fork in the road. He tells a story about he and his son and how they came to a fork in the road when they were driving and they prayed about which road to take. They felt impressed to take the left road and they did, only to find that it was the wrong road. His son asked him why they felt impressed to take the wrong road and Elder Holland told him that sometimes, the easiest way for God to get us on the right path is to have us go down the wrong path for a little while until we quickly realize it's wrong. I have related this over and over again to my decision to come on a mission. I felt impressed to buy an apartment contract and sign up for classes, only to come to find out that God needed me on a mission. I've often wondered why He didn't just tell me to go on a mission in the first place, but I have realized that if He would've done that, I might have been apprehensive. He took me down the wrong road so that I could quickly realize that it was wrong and then I could go down the right road in confidence. Let's all remember that God is our LOVING Heavenly Father and knows what He's doing. I hope that we can all have the confidence, trust, and humility to turn around and go down the right road when we come to find that the road we are on is not the right one.

God is good and He loves YOU! Don't forget that. 

Have a great week and wish me luck with my new companion! Say a prayer for her :)

xoxo,

sister hill

SAVING SOULS ONE XBOX AT A TIME

Hey this week was SO AWESOME. I think I say that every week but guys... this week... it was pretty sweet. 

This week's highlights (I'm like sitting here so excited to write about these!!!):

1. DENDEN-FITY-SEVEN: okay so there is this lady in our ward, Sister Moore. Her husband, Dennis (nicknamed den den fity seven) is not a member but we go over to their house for lunch every Tuesday. So he has been around missionaries a lot and always listens to our message we share with them. Anyway, he has never been religious and Sister Moore has been wanting him to take the lessons but hasn't been pressuring him. Anyway, we are super close with him. He is like Grandpa Jake's twin. I'm serious. I feel like I'm talking to Grandpa when I talk to him. And he has the same sense of humor Grandpa does. It's just too perfect. So we already had a good relationship with him and wanted to teach him sooo bad (obviously) but didn't want to force it if he wasn't ready. WELL. Last Tuesday we shared our spiritual message and the spirit was really strong and Sis. Moore just asked Dennis if he wanted to learn more...and he said YES! I was internally screaming. So we taught him the restoration on Friday using a lot of object lessons and compared the gospel to Lix (our favorite ice cream place :) He understood it all, we taught him how to pray, and committed him to read the Book of Mormon introduction and pray about it. He even said he wanted us to teach him twice this week. He is sooo prepared and now is his time. 

2. Thanksgiving at a nursing home: that's right we had Thanksgiving with Joy at the nursing home. It was pretty good. There was this 16 year old server boy who was in charge of our drinks and he kept flirting with Sister Turpin! Uh I was like bro... you're 16 and we're missionaries, go do your drink duties. Gotta keep your comps safe and out of dangerous situations.

3. It snowed...but it's back up to 50 today so that's good!

Teaching highlights:

1. DD aka LOVE FROM AN XBOX: listen up all you haters who say true love can't be found online....... our investigators are a perfect example that you can in fact find true love online and not just on a dating website. On xbox! They seriously met on xbox! (Steven, her husband is a member, so because of xbox, the gospel was brought to her :)) So sweet! So we had an appointment with DD and when we got there they were playing world of warcraft with each other. Their house is also video game themed. You know how everyone has their love language? Yeah well Steven and DD's is video games. So we casually sat there for 10 mins while they finished their game. Then we taught her the Plan of Salvation and committed her to be baptized on December 27! Poor DD though... she thought we were going to baptize her in a river like it shows in the Joseph Smith movie! We assured her she'll have warm water :)

2. Allyssa and Gavin: so we met them like a month ago while, you guessed it, tracting! They are engaged and have two daughters ages 3 and 1 and they are really young!...but they are cute and want to get married before May (do you see our missionary wheels turning... married in May, baptized in May ;) Allyssa grew up going to different churches and Gavin didn't but they have been looking for a church. We taught the Restoration and invited them to pray about the Book of Mormon and to read the intro. They have a lot of good questions and seem eager to learn. We are excited about them...they're a family! ahhhhhhhh families are prime. We are teaching them again on Wednesday and hopefully it goes well!

3. Julie K: we taught her how to better read the Book of Mormon and how she can apply it to her life. She also promised us she would come to church in November and she only has one Sunday left so she said she would be there this coming Sunday!

4. Andrea: she told us that she finally got an answer about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and that she knows they are both true. That's right girl! We taught her the commandments and she said she would live them all and she also told us that she got her answer about the Book of Mormon while reading 4 Nephi in a car dealership. hahahaha you know what... God works in mysterious ways. November 29 is still her baptism date and I'm sooo pumped. 

I cannot  believe Thanksgiving is this week! I've been thinking about what I'm grateful for and my mission and my Savior are at the top of my list. Everyone I've met on my mission (MTC peeps, Potosi peeps, everyone) has become like my family and I can't imagine life without them! (okay someone give me some crackers to go with all this cheese ) but seriously! I'm also grateful for all of my family and friends back home. I haven't forgotten you :) when you stop and think about it, this life really is just so good. And a knowledge of the Gospel and of the Savior is what makes it that good. 

I love you all and hope you have a fun Thanksgiving! You best believe imma wear my stretchiest skirt on Thursday ;)

XOXO,

SISTER HILL

OUR JOURNEY TO THE TOP

FAMMMM. Okay this week was 10/10. No lie. 

Here's the 411 on what went down...

Weekly Highlights:

1. "Wait, for real?": so we had stake conference this weekend! It was super good. We had to go to Cape Girardeau on Saturday night for the adult session. President and Sister Morgan were there which was awesome. Anyway... we walk in and sit down and I see President point to me and I'm thinking why are you pointing to me? (And Elder Rhodes from the Seventy was there too (minor detail;)) Anyway...after the first speaker, President Baird gets up and says "Elder Rhodes would like to invite Sister Hill to come up and bear her testimony." What. I just sat there. And then without even thinking I said out loud "Wait, for real?" hahahahaha and everyone started laughing and then I walked up there and bore my testimony at stake conference. President assured me that he is still my friend.

2. Jetti has an accident: we were visiting a less-active last night and her dog Jetti started pacing so the less-active gets up and is all "ohhh this is serious business" and runs out the door with the dog. Well...while they were gone, I noticed something on the ground. Poop. Dog poop. The dog had pooped. And it smelled!...so that was funny.

3. Our journey to the top: picture this...three girls, one city, one really rainy day. Here's the deal.... we had planned this fun p-day for today. We were going to go meet the Webster Grove sisters and go up the arch in St. Louis because duh, bucket list item! So we had it all planned out and Audre was coming with us so we put the directions into the GPS but the GPS didn't take into account all the construction they are doing around the arch so it took us to the arch, we just couldn't get to the entrance. So we parked and then ended up walking basically through the entire city of St. Louis (okay slight exaggeration but you get the point) to get to the arch. AND IT WAS RAINING SO HARD and my umbrella broke and Audre's beanie kept falling off (shout out to Audre I love you so much girl!) Once we got inside I looked real scary but all that matters is that I finally got to ride in the arch and go to the top #goals and it ended up being a really fun p-day yay!

Teaching highlights:

1. Josie: we picked her up as a new investigator!!! We tracted into her about a month ago and then we had exchanges this week and Sister Walker and I went and tried her and she was home! She is soooo solid. She really doesn't have any Christian background but she has 2 little daughters and a husband and she said religion is something she'd like her family to have. We taught the Restoration and talked about Christ and the Book of Mormon. Everything we taught, we taught simply since she has no real religious background. We showed her the "Because He Lives" video and as she was watching it she goes "ooo I'm gettin the chills!" yessssss #spirit the spirit was so strong. We taught her how to pray and she said the closing prayer. She told us to come back this week and hugged us as we left awwwww I love her.

2. Andrea: we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and read 2 Nephi 31. She really liked it and agreed with everything. Andrea is literally the perfect investigator. She is such a blessing to us! Literally everything we teach she's like "oh yeah that's not a problem" or "oh yeah that really makes sense!" She is still on date for November 28! It's basically going to be a holiday so you all should mark your calendars! 

We are really making an effort to FIND MORE. It's rough. Tracting isn't super effective but we can't really street contact here so tracting is all we have. But with that said, you never know when a golden contact is going to open the door so we keep doing it :)

Something that I have been studying this week is Jacob 5. Such a good chapter! One thing that I have learned from it is that the Lord is with me in the work. He hasn't sent me out to the vineyard aka Potosi to labor on my own. He is laboring right alongside me. And that's how it is for all of us. The Lord is right there besides each of us always. 

I hope you all have a great week and remember to count your blessings because Thanksgiving is coming up!!! I'm gonna wear my stretchiest skirt...so pumped so pumped.

Well I love you all. Don't forget that!

xoxo,

sister hill