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

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE

Helloooo Fam!

This week was such a weird week hahahaha I mean if I'm being honest, none of you can even comprehend what I experience on a daily basis until you come to Potosi yourself. We had some super awesome moments with investigators doused with some wannabe Utah mom action. Let me explain...

Weekly highlights:

1. President Interviews: we got to meet with President Morgan on Wednesday! What a guy! He's pretty awesome. Nothing too funny happened but it was a highlight! He asked us where we thought we should live... we told him that where we are right now is a good location or moving us closer to Farmington would be good as well. The new ward is great! All the people are super nice and there are a lot of younger families. 

2. What Coulda Been: sooo we picked up this cute family as investigators on Friday. We were pumped. I could just picture them all in white and I had the whole baptism planned out in my head lol anyways fast forward to Saturday... the mom texts us and said "What christianity are you?" and we're like, wait what? We don't even know what that means but we said "We're Christian. We're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" Mom: "You're not morman?" (yes she spelled it with an a.... more man) Us: "Well yeah that's just a nickname"  Mom: "Oh no! Not Mormon! I found a different chuch, thanks!" Okay bye. Maybe they'll come around...

3. Channel Your Inner Utah Mom: our ward had super Saturday on you guessed it...Saturday! I learned 2 things: 1. I could modge podge all day every day. Give me a picture and a block of wood and I can modge podge that baby. 2. I cannot make cinnamon ornaments all day every day. It was a #struggle. I had cinnamon all over me and all I wanted to do was make a DANG HEART ORNAMENT!!! I made one but it looks like a child did it but it's cool.

4. The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music: remember how Sister T, Elder Quinn, Elder Stoddard and I did a musical number last week at Zone Leader Training? Guess what? We did it again in good ole sacrament meeting! Everyone was like "it sounded so good!" and inside I'm thinking "you're lying" hahahaha nah it was good. I said I would never ever ever ever do a musical number in church. Missions do crazy things to you, and Sister Ray would be so proud of me ;) hahahaha

Investigator highlights:

1. Rose and Steve: we finally saw Rose and Steve last week. They don't hate us, but Rose is still thinking about if this is something she wants to do. She feels like she can't give up her Catholic ways and has realized she's more Catholic than she thought. I don't know what will happen with that...we're trying our best!

2. Hayden: I have never written about Hayden because I met him for the first time on Tuesday! He has been an investigator for a while and we finally got to meet with him. He is basically a member already we just have to finish teaching him the lessons! We also reset him a baptism date for January 8th!

3. Andrea: WE SET A BAPTISM DATE. NOVEMBER 28th BABY. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she said it all made sense. Then we talked about how baptism is one of those things we need to do on earth so we can make it back to Heavenly Father. Then we invited her to be baptized on Novemeber 28th. She was kind of taken back because it is so soon but we assured her that she can and will be ready. And she said okay! Then she prayed and asked if that was a good date :) Then... at church yesterday we had a munch n mingle hahaha and she brought a cobbler! How sweet. Elder Quinn (not knowing she was our investigator) asked her "how long have you been a member for?" and she goes "well I'm not a member...YET!" That's right girl but you're gonna be come November 28th eeeeep!

4. DD: say hello to our newest investigator! Her husband is a member and just moved here from Ohio. Sister Turpin and Sister Reed tracted into DD's sister which is how we found DD. She didn't want to be taught without her husband there so we waited until he got here! DD has a little girl in kindergarter who is super cute. #partmemberfamiliesforthewin anyway... we taught her the Restoration and watched the Restoration dvd. We invited DD to be baptized and she said yes, once she knows these things are true! 

5. Julie K: We got to give Julie her big print Book of Mormon finally! She was pumped... as she should be! She ripped it open and was all "you have to sign it! I mean, I've liked all the missionaries, but you two are my favorite!" mmhmmm thats right Julie... Hill and Turpin for life! We read a chapter with her and commited her to read the whole thing by her baptism date...next year. Divorce update: none. This is actually taking over our lives. (Not really but kinda) We are calling a lawyer who gives free consultations today so hopefully he can help us!!!

Man oh man. What a great time to be a missionary! Everyday I'm like "is this real life or...." and it is. Potosi is crazy but that's why I was sent here because I need humor in my life! And Potosi definitely gives me that! 

I hope you all have a great week and make some time each day to read your Book of Mormon! The BoM is the BoMb! My testimony of the Book of Mormon has definitely grown since being out here. I never used to make scripture study a priority, but now I can't imagine going a day without reading my scriptures! They are sooo awesome and we need to take advantage of them :)

I love you all!

with SwAg,

sista hill

MOVE THAT BOULDER

Hi! Happy NOVEMBER. What in the world?! Wasn't it like July two days ago? Time is just flying! 

This week Sister Turpin and I worked harder than Dad worked to find me an acceptable camera for my mission!!!!! (which was hard.... ps dad the camera works great!;)) Unfortunately, our numbers don't show it, but to quote one of the greatest movies aka The Best Two Years, "Numbers just don't matter." We worked and worked and that's all that matters :)

Alright email fans, IT'S TIME!  (By the way...I'm gonna miss BYU basketball but it's OK... mission lyfe>basketball) This week's highlights:

1. Sign me up for biggest loser: listen up..are you ready for this? This is super embarassing but I'm gonna tell you anyway.... this week I had to CUT MYSELF OUT OF A SKIRT. I repeat. I had to cut myself out of a skirt. In my defense, the zipper broke so that was also why I had to cut myself out of it. It was my cute black and white polka dot one! It was a little tight from the day I got it so I don't feel too bad about myself but still. Embarassing! 

2. Extreme coupon-er life is the life for me: we met this lady and she said, "I don't want to learn about religion but you can see my extreme couponing stockpile" and I'm all "EEEP YESSSSS" because Alex and I used to be diligent watchers of that show. So yes, I got to see an extreme coupon-ers stockpile in REAL LIFE. It was legit. #tendermercy #tearsofjoy

3. #no: okay so we had ZLT (meeting with our zone) on Friday and on Tuesday the zone leaders called and said "can you Sisters do a musical number?" and we said "we're not very musical but if we have to" but we told them Elder Quinn and Elder Stoddard were musical (hehe) so we all decided to do a musical number together. I played the piano and the other three sang Nearer My God to Thee. My piano talent comin in clutch. I'm so glad I perfected that ONE song in the hymnbook! LOL

4. My least favorite holiday: so halloween is not my favorite but it was actually pretty fun this year. We had to have our cars parked by 5:00 but could be out with a member until 9:30! Extended curfew yes! Anyway we hung out with Audre and went to Steak and Shake with the Elders then we watched the Joseph Smith movie with Audre. It was a fun Halloween for a missionary;)

5. Farmington WARD: the merge is official. Yesterday was our first Sunday as Farmington ward. It was weird! We went from 50 people to 190! It will be so good though! I am excited! Also we found out that we are staying here but Pres. Morgan might move us to a different apartment so we can be closer to Farmington. We will see him on Wednesday to talk about it. I'm excited to work with Elder Quinn and Stoddard! They're pretty cool so it will be fun!

Now about our investigators we saw this week:

1. Julie K: WE SET A BAPTISM DATE WITH JULIE!!!  Wait for it. Wait for it. OCTOBER 29, 2016. Are you guys pumped like I am?!!! Hahaha okay you might be saying "wait that is a year away." And that's right it is but keep in mind she's has to get a divorce, get married, and quit smoking before she can be baptized. But it's cool. We just needed a goal to work towards. Hopefully we can move that date up :) Poor Julie. She is so frustrated with this divorce that we have all dubbed THE BOULDER. But we talked about goals and how they show God that we desire something and promised her that even this boulder would be moved because God is a God of miracles. She wants to get baptized so bad. I just love her. 

2. Andrea: Andrea is the greatest. List all the qualities of the perfect investigator and I can pretty much guarantee that she has most of them. Last week when we taught her, we taught the Restoration. We didn't want to move on to the Plan of Salvation without making sure she understood the Restoration. So we talked more about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and we watched the Restoration DVD with her and she loved it and even compared herself to Joseph Smith :) We invited her to be baptized and she said YES!!! No date yet, but she wants to be baptized. Also she has already read to 1 Nephi 11. Who does that? Andrea does. She is my favorite and I can tell that once she knows for herself that everything is true, it won't take long for her to be baptized! 

This week I wanted to give some universal advice to all my people out there making big life decisions/trying to figure out what the next step in their life is... LISTEN UP because I know there's a lot of you :) Recently, I've been studying personal revelation and I've come across some scriptures that are soooooo good. Real quick, pull out your scriptures and turn to Doctrine and Covenants section 9. Okay side note- Joseph Smith is the man. Way too pumped to meet him on the other side. Anyway... verses 8 and 9 are where we are at. These scriptures talk about how we need to study things out in our minds first, then ask if it is right. I once heard a quote that said something like "it's easier for God to answer a yes or no question." It's sooo true! Very rarely is He going to answer questions like "tell me which school to go to" but rather "is this school right?" and then these scriptures tell us that if this thing is not right, you will have a stupor of thought, but if it is right, you will feel peace. I CAN TESTIFY THAT THIS IS TRUE! You know how I thought that going to another semester of school was right for me? Well I prayed and said "is this right?" and you know what? I had a stupor of thought! I was confused for such a long time but was too scared to admit that going to school wasn't what God needed me to be doing. It wasn't until I humbled myself and prayed about a mission that I finally felt peaceful. Sometimes doing God's will is terrifying. Sometimes you don't want to do it. But I know that doing God's will for us is the only way to find peace and true joy. So my invitation to all of you who are making decisions at this time... go read D &C 9:8-9 and follow the counsel it gives. And then act on the answer you receive and do Heavenly Father's will for you. It may not be easy but it will be worth it!!!

Coming out here is the best decision I have ever made. It's such a great thing to know that I am exactly where Heavenly Father needs me to be at this time. With that knowledge, nothing else matters. I am completely at peace with my life right now. 

I hope you all have the best week and try your hardest to hasten the work of salvation :) Ask the missionaries how you can help! Go and teach with them! Help them magnify their calling and in return they will help you!

I LOVE YOU ALL!

xoxo

sister hill