¡¡Felíz cumpleaños 21 mi hijo!! Happy Birthday 21st Elder Hill, Listen to your Inner Voice, Holy Ghost, Intuition OR ELSE!

LAST DISTRICT MEETING

I got transferred again. I´m in Tepotzotlan with E. Sandoval from Veracruz. He´s a cool missionary and I feel like I´ll learn a lot from him. He´s been a zone leader for 6 months so he knows his stuff. He wants to study mecatronica, whatever that is in English.

 My time in Lomas Lindas was short, but I got to know some of the investigators and that was good. Mario is super ready to be baptized and that will take place next Saturday. Vianey is happy that she was able to be baptized. Her sister is also interested in hearing more about the gospel.

We had stake conference, actually the first stake conference for the Alamedas stake, since it was divided just a few months ago. It was great. I felt the Spirit a lot and it was what I needed this week. There were talks about service, MISSIONARY WORK, love, and many other things that came up. It was great to be able to be inspired and uplifted from my leaders here in Mexico. During one of the hymns, the thought came to mind that maybe I wasn´t in Utah where the Church has years and years and years of experience and pretty much everything gets done right. However, Zion is in all the church, no matter the country. The Mexican people might still have a lot to go before they arrive to having stake centers on every other corner and temples all over the place, but they are doing the best they can with what they know right now. It has been great to be able to labor among them and to get to know them better.

Today I received an email from a friend who was telling me of an experience that she had a while back and how she didn´t know what WOULD HAVE happened if she WOULD HAVE listened and acted upon what she felt. I had a similar experience that I would like to share:
A few months ago we walked into our neighborhood and I saw a police car with lights and sirens going down a street where some members live. I thought we should go see if all was well, but I didn´t want to be a gossipy person and see what was going on. We stopped by the house for a few things and as we were leaving I heard an ambulance and I thought the same thing again as we were leaving the house (we lived one street behind them). My companion at the time had called me chismoso or gossipy once when we looked at an accident so I thought that I was just being my normal EMT self wanting to see what was going on. We didn´t go. Turns out that a neighbor had just hung herself and her husband found her moments after she had done it. She was still blue and warm. Since that day I can´t help to think "What WOULD HAVE happened had I listened?" Was it just me? Did I just want to be an EMT again? Was I scared of what my companion would say instead of what I felt? I have read many times of miracles wrought by missionaries who arrived in the right moment. Would we have been instruments in God´s hands to save this daughter of His?  I don´t know what WOULD HAVE happened, because I didn´t do it. The only way I can restore the damage now, is to listen and hearken the next time.

I´m trying to live my live with WHAT DID HAPPEN because I acted, instead of WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED because I didn´t. I think we´ve all had experiences in this.

I hope that we can all endure to the end and keep an eternal perspective. That we may stand up for the right even when we might stand alone. It´s easier to disobey when someone else does it, too. Why do you think peer pressure to do something wrong is so hard? Because they need someone to do it too, so that they can justify their actions. I love President Monson´s conference talk "Dare to Stand Alone" and the story he tells. Believe it or not, the same thing happens here in the mission, even among the missionaries. We are all here to improve. Let´s do it together.

Love you all. Have a fabulous week. And don´t forget to set the clocks back an hour. Or maybe leave them so that you can all get to church on time, and not on Mormon Standard Time. ;)

Love,

Elder Hill

Claudia and Toño, members from Lomas lindas and Pedro the taxista from Lomas Lindas who gave us a ride to the offices.

The last district meeting.

Sisters Ibaven and Perez.

Elders Hill Piotroski Lamping Valdez Chandler and Bautista. Not in order....

Oh Matthew, that IS GUT WRENCHING. I feel impressed to share with you a story...It happens to the best of people..
Twenty-three-year-old Tom Monson, relatively new bishop of the Sixth-Seventh Ward in the Temple View Stake, was uncharacteristically restless as the stake priesthood leadership meeting progressed. He had the distinct impression that he should leave the meeting immediately and drive to the Veterans’ Hospital high up on the Avenues of Salt Lake City. Before leaving home that night he had received a telephone call informing him that an older member of his ward was ill and had been admitted to the hospital for care. Could the bishop, the caller wondered, find a moment to go by the hospital sometime and give a blessing? The busy young leader explained that he was just on his way to a stake meeting but that he certainly would be pleased to go by the hospital as soon as the meeting was concluded.

Now the prompting was stronger than ever: “Leave the meeting and proceed to the hospital at once.” But the stake president himself was speaking at the pulpit! It would be most discourteous to stand in the middle of the presiding officer’s message, make one’s way over an entire row of brethren, and then exit the building altogether. Painfully he waited out the final moments of the stake president’s message, then bolted for the door even before the benediction had been pronounced.

Running the full length of the corridor on the fourth floor of the hospital, the young bishop saw a flurry of activity outside the designated room. A nurse stopped him and said, “Are you Bishop Monson?”

“Yes,” was the anxious reply.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “The patient was calling your name just before he passed away.”

Fighting back the tears, Thomas S. Monson turned and walked back into the night. He vowed then and there that he would never again fail to act upon a prompting from the Lord. He would acknowledge the impressions of the Spirit when they came, and he would follow wherever they led him, ever to be “on the Lord’s errand.”

You cannot understand President Thomas S. Monson, newly called Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, without understanding the repetition of such promptings in his life and the absolute loyalty with which he has kept that early promise to obey them. Indeed, his life seems something of a sacred manuscript upon which the Holy Ghost has written—and is still writing—one remarkable spiritual message after another. In this and so many other ways he is much like Nephi of old. He is “exceedingly young”—called as a bishop at twenty-two, a counselor in a stake presidency at twenty-seven, a mission president at thirty-one, an Apostle at thirty-six (the youngest in fifty-three years), and a counselor in the First Presidency at fifty-eight (the youngest in this century). He is also “large in stature,” a robust, buoyant, whirlwind of a man who might have been a superb basketball player in his youth had it not been required of him (as it was of so many others in the Great Depression and its aftermath) that from his twelfth year on he forgo the pleasure of extracurricular school activities in order to work at his father’s side in the printing trade.

But President Monson is most like young Nephi in his humility and in his faith. In all that he has so successfully accomplished, he has been resolute in his commitment to “go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded” (1 Ne. 3:7) regardless of the obstacles in the path. Furthermore, he has done it as Nephi himself did it—“led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” (1 Ne. 4:6.) Little wonder that such men as these are enlisted to “bring forth my Zion … for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost.” (1 Ne. 13:37.) In light of that promise, surely no stake patriarch has been more prophetic than was Brother Frank B. Woodbury that fifteenth day of March, 1944, when he placed his hands on 16-year-old Tom Monson’s head and began to speak:

“The Holy Ghost has been conferred upon you to be your inspiration and your guide, to direct you in your labors, and to bring to your mind the things that have passed and to show unto you things to come. …

“You shall be indeed a leader among your fellows. … You shall have the privilege of going into the world to proclaim the message of the gospel … and you shall have the spirit of discernment. …

“Seek the Lord in humility to guide and direct you, that you might know the proper course to pursue … in the high and holy callings unto which you shall be called. … ”

This was a talk Elder Holland gave when I was 21.

Te amo

http://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/02/president-thomas-s-monson-man-of-action-man-of-faith-always-on-the-lords-errand

"Hey Loma Linda!" Vianey, Missionary Badge, & Article of Faith #11 applies to everyone, even members of the church.

ELDER PIOTROKI VIANEY'S FAMILIA Y ELDER HILL (aka LOMA LINDAS ~ Beautiful Hill)

There are people who come up to me in church and they make a joke in English like, "Hey, you´re beautiful hills (lomas lindas)" or "Hey loma linda!" etc. Yesterday was my first meeting here and it was pretty good. It´s kind of ironic that we hear a talk about keeping the Sabbath day holy and 20 minutes later the family that we were going to eat with gives us money so that we could go buy food because she wasn´t able to make anything.... :) Article of Faith #11 applies to everyone, even members of the church. :) 

I met Mario this week. He´s a 29 year old lawyer and pretty much the future bishop, he just needs to find a good member and get married. He´s super cool and reads a lot about the church so he already knows everything to be baptized. He was going to get baptized this weekend, but he went out of town for a training meeting for work and his baptism will be the 9th of November. 

Vianey was baptized yesterday. Even though there were screaming, fighting, crying kids all during the baptismal service, the Spirit was strong and when she shared her testimony at the end it was really powerful. In the mission I´ve been able to see why some members of the Church wish they would be baptized again as an adult because it really does wash away all of our sins and there is a huge relief for all that we might have done being taken away. It´s beautiful.

Tuesday we had money to go buy food and since my companion had one of his wisdom teeth pulled a week and a half ago, we went to the store to buy something instead of eating on the street. I bought chicken nuggets and barbeque sauce. It´s been a while. Also, Sunday morning we went to go pick someone up to go to church and we saw a mini van on rocks (they don´t use blocks here to steal tires) and a group of people just looking at their car like, "I never thought it would happen to me." I would have taken a picture but that might have made them more upset. God is great, the food is good, and people really are crazy.

Marco Antonio, or "Polo" as everyone calls him, is a clown of some sort. He wears some sort of outfit (like Barney, Ronald McDonald or something like that) and films commercials or movies. I´m not really sure. Anyway, he´s doing well. He´s stopped doing all sorts of drugs and now he´s just left on the smoking part. He´s programmed to be baptized on the 17th of November, but, he didn´t go to church yesterday so we need to go see him. 

Oh, something kind of funny that happened was Saturday night. I dreamed a very strange dream in the which were several returned missionaries- from this mission, friends, family, etc-- and nobody had their name tag on. Everyone was telling me to take mine off and that I couldn´t wear it anymore. I looked at my name tag and told them that if I had it on then I must have been a missionary still. ... and then I woke up. So, at least for a little while more I´m still a missionary! It´s an honor and privilege to still be here and wear the little black badge. And it will be a privilege later to have it still painted on my heart. 

Well, that´s about all I can remember for now. It´s been a little more relaxed being a zone leader because I don´t have to spend so much time on the phone at night and I´ve been able to write in my journal a little more. 

I hope that y'all have a fabulous week! 

con cariño, 

Elder Hill 

Hola mi hijo...LDS médico

Why so high of blood pressure? And why was your spo2 at 88? I gotta go. Loves. Hope you feel better and tell everyone hey for me. 

Elder Hill

Thanks! Love you Sweetie! Say a prayer for Mama! Te amo!

Mamá because mama is breast. 

 Smarty pants! I am not on the Mac, so don't know how to do accents on regular  pc. Then say a prayer for mamá and that her mama’s are both w/o problems!

Fotos ~ Pix: Piotroski and I and the baptism pix

we went to a Chinese buffet today. 

Zone Leader, Tranfers to Loma Lindas, Cucarachas, y The Lord Works In Mysterious Ways!

Hey, so it turns out that poor Elder Lamping just can´t seem to hold on to his companions! On Tuesday Elder Garcia left to Argentina because his visa came so we were in trio-- Lamping, Valdez, and me-- until Friday in zone conference President Call told us that one of the three would be leaving but that he still didn´t have the decision made. He called us Saturday night and let us know that I would be leaving Valle de Tules and I would be going to Lomas Lindas as a Zone Leader. I was pretty sure that I was going to stay in Valle de Tules but then again ever since Tuesday I had been feeling like I was going to be leaving soon. I just felt like my connection with the area just wasn´t happening like it should be and I thought that I would be leaving. My new companion, Elder Ali Piotroski from Argentina, told me that when we had a conference a few weeks ago, he knew that I would be his next companion. The Lord works in mysterious ways. This should be exciting because it´s a big area and has really good members. The stake was just divided almost a year ago and the stake presidency is working hard in the area of the Work of Salvation. We have a meeting with President Call and the stake president tomorrow. 

Yesterday I was able to see Yenny Montaño again and I also bore my testimony in La Quebrada (we went to both wards with the whole trio thing), too. It was cool because when I was there Gabi left on her mission and I saw her leave. She has also returned and she´s so much more refined than when she left. I say refined because we don´t "change" as missionaries. We are still the same people, same name, same background, same stone in the river. What happens with time is the experiences that we have challenge us and we chip off the sharp edges and become smoother and more refined, but we´re still the same stones. The Gospel of Jesus Christ really changes lives, but only when we do what is required. It´s been great to reflect on all that I´ve been able to improve thanks to the mission, and even better things are to come. 

Going a little off topic.... we were in the house one morning and Elder Valdez says, "Hill! Hay cucarachas en el microondas!" I knew that there were cockroaches crawling around the microwave and one time I saw them inside, but there was one right in the number screen! Those things are seriously so hard to kill. It´s been a good few hours to be in a house that doesn´t have cockroaches. 

I´ll let you know how the area and all that is next week. Don´t really know anything right now. Good times ahead! 

Be good and don´t forget Whose you are! 

Elder Hill 

Conferencia General ~ General Conference y President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

General Conference was pretty much just amazing, as always. I can´t believe that it´s the last conference for me as a full time Elder, until maybe the mission with the wife. Elder Lamping had his first experience with the Spanish translators and it was pretty hard for him to be able to understand everything. It´s hard the first time but then you just get used to it. I feel kind of bad because he was super pumped up and then nobody we are teaching went, and it was hard to understand and to stay awake. :) 

On Sunday morning we went to pick up a few people and we ended up running into a few members who were helping a sick sister. We ended up helping her and then the people that we went to go pick up didn´t want to go or weren´t home and we went with a member in their VW bug. We were six adults and one little kid in the car and we drove what would probable be the equivalent from Bountiful to SLC. There is no front seat so my companion was just sitting on the floor board. That was pretty fun. 

It was just a great time to be with the District and with the rest of the members. It was really what I needed to be able to feed my spirit so that I can help everyone else. I can´t wait for the Liahona! 

I can´t really sum up 10 hours of conference. I hope that you all watched it and took notes. Remember, It´s the will of the Lord for us in these next 6 months. I loved what was said in all aspects. About the Priesthood, missionary/member work, visiting teaching, families, temples, etc. For 3 of the next six months I will be on the missionary end; the following three it will be my turn to apply all that I have learned here in the mission to continue helping everyone else I know to hear about the Restored Gospel. We are living in great times! 

One thing that I loved was something that President Uchtdorf said about doubting our doubts but never doubting our faith nor our testimony. I hope that it will be true to us all. Love you all. Keep up the fabulous work of being Saints or future Saints! 

 

Love, 

Elder Hill 

pics

my district during conference 

Sisters Ibaven, Rosa, and Perez. Elders Valdez, Garcia, Chandler, Bautista, Lamping, and Hill. Also, the picture that I sent a while back with Zeagler, me, and another elder is Elder Shumway from AZ. he goes home in 3 weeks.  

SMILE!!! sonreír

Sorry, I have NO time to write today. We spent like four and a half hours washing our clothes today because we don´t have anyone around to use a good washing machine. We walk like a mile or two to use someone´s machine but then we have to pull buckets of water out of a tank to fill the machine to wash, then wait, and fill it again to rinse, then hang it and do it for a total of 4 loads. Takes forever.

I put smile because in 2 Nephi 9:39 it talks about being spiritually minded. Spirtually Minded Is Life Eternal. I was thinking about it and it isn´t coincidence that it comes out like that. To really be focused on the spiritual things is what really makes us happy, or SMILE. Little things that God does to make the life better.... it´s amazing.

Silvia is an investigator that has been going to church for months and knows a member and really likes it all but hasn´t wanted to get baptized. We showed up to our appt on Tuesday and we started talking. She starts saying that she wants to buy her own scriptures and everything and then asks about the burning in the bosom thing. We explain it and then she told us why. Last week in the English class we talked baout how to bear your testimony in English. She kind of did it in the class but never said that "I believe this church is true" phrase. She just talked about prayer and general things. I left them the homework to translate their testimony and while she was translating her testimony into Englsih, she said that she felt the burning in the bosom and knew that the church was true. She talked to her mom about getting baptized and just told us that she´s waiting on her mom to be able to put the date, so that her mom can attend. It was really cool.

I did exchanges this week and while I was on exchanges, Elder Lamping and Elder Bautista taught Bety. She´s going to get baptized on October 12th, that is if her baby isn´t born before. She has been feeling a little sick lately and they gave her a blessing. When they finished giving the blessing she looked around and asked, "How many hands were on my head?" and they respond that just four. However, she responded saying that she felt more hands on her head and somebody with their hands on her shoulders, too. It was a pretty neat experience and she says that she´ll never forget it.

Yesterday we got called over to a group of drunk guys while we were walking. It happens a lot when one of them just wants to speak english. So, this guy just asked us if we wanted to drink, and of course we said no, but that we were looking for people to be taught. He replied, "I´m too drunk to be teached, but maybe next week!" I wanted to reply to him, "Maybe your just too drinked to be taught!" and see if he noticed, but I thought I´d better not. :) Where would the comedy come from without drunk people?

Anyway, love you all but I gotta go. No time left. We hope to find somehwere wlse to wash this week, but we´ll see about that.

Loves!

Elder Hill

Llamado a servir ~ Called to Serve! I Hope They Call me On a Mission, I am A Child of God y Sisters in Zion!

Gordon B. Hinckley: I love the youth of the Church. I have said again and again that I think we have never had a better generation than this. How grateful I am for your integrity, for your ambition to train your minds and your hands to do good work, for your love of the word of the Lord, and for your desire to walk in paths of virtue and truth and goodness.

Thomas S. Monson: To the youth, we plead with you to live clean lives, for the unclean life leads only to suffering, misery, and woe physically,—and spiritually it is the path to destruction. How glorious and near to the angels is youth that is clean; this youth has joy unspeakable here and eternal happiness hereafter. Sexual purity is youth’s most precious possession; it is the foundation of all righteousness.

Piernas Maravillosas, Marvelous Legs, "Mission Rolls" AND PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED!

ELDER MATT HILL WITH HIS COMPANION ELDER JOSH LAMPING

So, when Zeagler and I found out where we were going (to pure hills), he started telling members that he was going to have some "piernas maravillosas" or "marvelous legs". He´s a funny kid and it´s right.

ELDERS HILL y ZEAGLER WITH DISTRICT

LOL, ELDER MATT HILL SHINING ELDER BRANDON ZEAGLER'S SHOES!!

ELDER ZEAGLER Y ELDER HILL, still SO SERIOUS!

There have been a couple days when we are late for an appt or it´s raining, and we have to pretty much run up the hills and it´s tiring. The first week back here has been great and I´ve seen a lot of members that I met last year. There are a few from La Quebrada that I didn´t see yesterday in church, but I´m sure I´ll see them in the coming weeks. It´s been fun to be back, however, it´s a little deceiving because I feel like it should be May again and it´s nearly October. This is a good area to finish the mish because I´ll lose a little bit of my ´mission rolls´and all that, and the ward is good. 

Turns out that Elder Lamping have a lot in common, too! He´s Josh, and has a brother named Matthew. His mom is Wendy. He likes mountain biking and also worked a little in construction with his dad. Also, turns out that he played with Christopher Griggs back in the day and his grandma is one of their old neighbors. The world just seems so small. He´s a good kid and has a great spirit and love for the work. He´s usually teaching me how to keep up the good work. 

This week I have gotten to know a few of the investigators and members that we are teaching right now. Silvia is about my age and has been coming to church for a while and I don´t really know why she doesn´t get baptized because she wants to read D&C and everything, comes to church, comes to activities, and all. We have an appt tomorrow to see her. There are a few people that Elder Lamping hasn´t really been able to tell me about because when he met them for the first time, he didn´t really understand what they do or things like that. We have contacted a few people like Francisco and Maria. They were two different contacts that we did in the street looking for other people and they seem really nice. We have appts to contact them and teach them this week. We´ve been focusing a lot on ALWAYS asking for referrals, which is what it says in the back of PMG. This week we got 10 and we hope to get more this week. Antonio is a less active member and his wife, Maria, isn´t a member but seems to like the church a lot, but hasn´t gone in a while. Efrain is a guy who just loves to have us over and feed us dinner but he doesn´t want to commit to doing anything in the church. He doesn´t want to stop working. Our appt on Saturday we were going to drop him and not visit anymore, but as we were leaving his sister in law asked us how to read the BOM and then we realized that prayers are answered. We hope to be able to teach her about how to read it and all that tonight. There are a few other people that I honestly don´t remember right now. Don´t have a lot of time, but I´ll be sure to take better notes next week and let you know more. 

Time to just keep haulin´ along in the Valle de Tules and work hard. The district is really cool with Elders Chandler (knew him in Queretaro) and Bautista, Elders Valdez and Garcia, and Sisters Ibaven, Pérez, and Rosa. 

Be good! Love you all! 

Elder Hill  

Well, I was going to upload a picture or two but looks like this computer has a virus and erased my memory card. Patience is obviously a virtue I have yet to master. :) 

Thanks for looking into it all. If you could please just do that I would really appreciate it. Also, think about coming down in the summer instead of getting me. I think that it would be a lot easier. Gotta go. Love you. Forgot to write that we have cockroaches again, too. I was going to send a picture, but it´s gone so I´ll let you know what´s up later. 

Loves ya tons, 

Elder Hill 

¡Feliz Grito de la Independencia! !Happy September 16th! Weird Transfers!

¡Feliz Grito! ¡Viva México!!! "¡Vivan los héroes que nos dieron patria! ¡Viva la independencia nacional, viva el bicentenario de la Independencia, viva el centenario de la Revolución! ¡Viva México!"

Wow.... transfers were so weird this time! 

Elder Zeagler and I were to totally thinking that we wouldn´t have transfers because he was being trained and it´s not too common that they change that sort of companionship. What´s even more strange is that they take both Elders out and put Sisters in! I received a call from Pres. Call on Friday asking about the area (and it´s not the safest area out there) and when I told him that it wasn´t too safe for sisters he told me that he needed to find a lot of areas for Sisters. However, I didn´t think that they would be put in my area.  The Sisters are taking over the mission! There were a ton of sisters in the office today!  It´s all good though. I have been super stressed out since Saturday when they told us that because we had to let the people that we had been teaching know because we couldn´t just leave them there hangin’ and we went around with the ward mission leader to show him the area and all that jazz. Lots of filling out paperwork and getting the house clean so that the sisters could get there without problems. I started packing this morning at 9:30a and that was the hardest thing ever.

ELDER HILL AND ELDER ZEAGLER WITH ELDER ZEAGLER'S NEW COMPANION?

On Monday night we had an FHE lesson in Spanglish! The Bishop´s son and wife and a young couple came down from California to visit and see the grito for the 15th and the wives didn´t speak a whole lot of English. So, for the bishop to understand and an investigator that they brought, and the wives to understand, we spoke Spanglish. It was a lot harder than I thought trying to teach in English. It´s a whole different world. Also, the Bishop´s daughter in law was asked to speak in church on Sunday and the bishop just calls me up and says, "And now Elder Hill will help Sister Flores translate here message."...... I´m just like... What? It turned out being okay but I spaced out sometimes and forgot what she said and I had to ask her again. 

ELDER ZEAGLER CLEANING

Also, the question that usually comes up in any relationship came up last week. Elder Zeagler asked me, "When you first saw me, what did you think?" and I told him that when I saw him he was the only one with glasses and looked really serious and really lost and I thought, I hope it´s not him. (because, two serious people just doesn´t work too well) and he said, "When I first saw you I was like, yep´! I want to be with him because I know he speaks English!" It was funny and I was dead wrong about him being serious! Ha! He´s a funny kid! I´m sure I´ll miss him! 

We found a guy named Ricardo on Wednesday. We were leaving the private residence where he lives and he was standing in the door and just says, "Adios Elderes!" Now when that happens here you just stop dead in your tracks and go talk to the person ‘cause that doesn´t happen too much. Turns out that his brother is from La Quebrada and I know him! We met last year. So we started teaching him and all that and he´s pretty interested. The sisters have an appt tonight with him. It was interesting how we got to run into him because if things would have worked out how they were planned, we wouldn´t have been able to. Long story short, we went to eat but they wouldn´t let us in at the other entrance of the complex and they made us go to the other side. I was super frustrated because the renta cop was talking smack to me and I just decided to leave. I talked to the owner of the security company who gave us permission to go in whenever we want, and turns out that the sister wasn´t there so we went back out the way we came and there was Ricardo. He for some reason didn´t have work that day and he happened to be standing in his doorway with a movie paused.. Coincidence? I think not!! 

ELDER RICHARDSON AND ELDER HILL

Well, I gotta go. The whole Mexican 4th thing turned out okay. I actually slept that night which is really weird. I haven´t been sleeping well and on the night that probably made the most noise, I slept. Thanks for the stuff you sent with César. He´s a cool guy. I took advantage of the opportunity and left him with a few pamphlets from the Church and he said that he´d read them. We´ll see what happens. 

Have a nice week! Love you all! 

Gotta go because it´s late and we got work to do. 

So, If you could just confirm that for me about DCSO and all that, perfect. It would be a good part time job if they pay for post and paramedic. If you could just get the timelines good that´d be great. Also, I was thinking, It might be easier to come down during spring break so that des doesn´t get out of school and it will be easier to do other things when I ´m not a missionary.... etc. think about it. 

Loves,

Elder Hill 

fotos-Elder Zeagler at work dusting the couch cover and Elder Lamping

ELDER MATT HILL WITH ELDER JOSHUA LAMPING

from Draper! Totally forgot to let you know that he´s my new companion. I´ll tell you more about him next week. 

Sacrament and White Sheets....Symbolic

ELDER MATT HILL

So, I´m not sure if I´ll be able to write next Monday, it might be Tuesday. Next Sunday and Monday is the annual "grito" (on the night of the 15th) and the parades on the 16th for the Mexican 4th of July. Normally everything is shut down on that Day and nobody does anything but games and parades and everything. Others just get drunk, but I won´t go into much detail about that. So, just a heads up, you might not get a letter on Monday, but on Tuesday. It´s pretty crazy around this time of year because they always shoot off fireworks all hours of the night and day and a lot of people get drunk.... really drunk. I´ll let you know next week how it went. 

Elder Zeagler snapped this of Elder Hill! LOL!

ELDERS HILL Y ZEAGLER

We´re still not finding new people to teach but we´ve been teaching the members and it´s been good. We have been teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End) and two families have told us that it´s been an answer to their prayers, and we didn´t have any idea they needed it. It´s a good feeling to be able to help teach people sometimes as if they were an investigator as well. None of us is perfect and we all need the same teachings over and over because we tend to forget even the most important details. 

DAVID Y ELDER HILL

PAULINA Y FAMILIA Y ELDERS ZEAGLER Y HILL
she's studying here in Utah!

Yesterday in the Gospel Principles class we talked about the Sacrament. I was reminded of a couple times when I was volunteering in the ER I was asked to help move some patients who had passed away. The view of a deceased body while it´s on the gurney covered by a white sheet and the Sacraments while it´s on the table is a striking resemblance. It´s supposed to be symbolic and I remember how I was thinking about who that person may have been, what he do fro a living? What was his family like? The feeling was a feeling of reverence and I feel like sometimes I take that attitude away from the Sacrament. I should be thinking more about Christ and getting to know him. It´s just a thought that came to mind yesterday. 

We visited a family this week who has quite a few grand daughters. One of them was talking about bones and she turned to her sister with whom she was arguing and said, "If you didn´t have bones, you´d be all soggy!" It was just a funny moment. :) 

Well, keep going. I hope that all is well. If you are going to come down as a family it would be okay if Josh & Des came down but you´d have to rent a car because to go a whole bunch of white, English speaking people on the bus, well, that´s just nuts! We´ll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

Thanks for looking into everything for me. I´ll let you know later what´s going on. 

Loves,

Elder Hill 

WHAT'S GOOD Y THE TITLE OF LIBERTY

So, another NC phrase is "What´s good?" I hadn´t heard it since Queretaro because there was a family there who lived in Georgia and they said the same thing. It makes more sense than saying what´s up? but I won´t ever admit that to my companion! ;) He also says "good land." When it rains, they say that in NC their future wife gets cuter by the second, so he´s always hoping that it rains (and I´m hoping that it doesn´t.) 

We were walking to an appt the other day when some guy hands us like a little advertisement for the store that he works at. My companion says, "Thanks! Let me give you one, too!" and he pulls out a pamphlet about the Gospel of Jesus Christ..... The guy just looked at him like, ´okay...thanks.... you´re weird´and I just laughed. Then another day we did an FHE with a family and Raúl took us home in his taxi. Zeagler was hanging out the window on Friday night traffic telling people to read the Book of Mormon and people just thought he was crazy. I had to be a "agua fiestas" and tell him that it´s probably not thee best idea to do that. Some people might keep that image about the church forever! 

We´ve still been struggling to find new investigators. We´re going to work more with the ward leaders and try to strengthen them. The stake president went to our ward council meeting and said that there is a lot of discouragment and suppressiveness in the ward and that we all need to pick it up and smile more. It really helps. That´s what our job will be for the next little while. 

Elder Hill, (Whom has been compared on numerous occasions to Captain Moroni),
signed his name and mission dates on Capt. Moroni

I hope that things can get better. Keep praying, fasting, and being obedient. Blessings come. 

Loves! 

Elder Hill 

North Carolinian Phrases, Exchanges & Challenges

Wheat pancakes on Sunday morning with Elder Zeagler 

This week I´ve heard all sorts of North Carolinian phrases! "Dang it woman! Open your door!" (wouldn´t open up, but were home)-- "I´m going to beat you with a wet mop!" (we bought a mop today and he realized what his mom always said about how she´d beat him with a wet mop) -- "Dang it, Nancy! (a name written on the back of my chair), "Now we´re cookin´with grease!" (anything that is going good) -- "I´ve really fogged up this time!" (stepping out of the A/C to humid hottness of NC with glasses on)

It´s been pretty interesting to hear how different things can be even from a few thousand miles away. We´ve had a bit of a hard week just with not finding anyone new to teach and having Raúl´s baptism fall through. We don´t even know why, exactly. We went to see him on Friday but he wasn´t there, so I called him and asked him if everything was OK and he said that he wouldn´t be baptized this week. We still haven´t been able to see him. We´re doing what we can to work hard in the ward, to get all the members excited and build their testimonies because when we have a strong testimony, or we really love somthing, we want to share it with everyone. We´re trying to work with the leaders first but they´re not budging to well. Little by little.

The ward area is pretty small, but we have a membership of over 400 members. Only 100 +/- attend on a regular basis. This week we focused a lot on the less actives and I was surprised to see that a few went. Little by little we are "Going to the Rescue" as President Monson has counseled. I feel just as content with an inactive family returning as I do baptizing a new family. It´s something that I haven´t understood until this time in the mission.

We did exchanges with Elders Miramontes, Richardson, Calderón, and Holmes this week. A couple of Elders who were waiting for their visas (Miramontes and others in the mission) got the call on Tuesday night that they had finally recieved their visa and they left Wednesday night. After four months, they are finally in their officially assigned mission.

Well, I regret to inform you that nothing else too interesting happened this week. It´s still fun to see how Zeagler reacts to everything that to me is old. We´ll keep learning.

Love you all. I´ll try to make this week a litte more informative and interesting.

Loves,

Elder Hillbilly

(Ma)Oh that is funny!! ¡Te amó mi hijo! Mamá

MORE TRAINING BLOOPERS!

MORE TRAINING BLOOPERS

E. Zeagler and I continue to learn together. It`s been pretty fun lately because he`s like an energizer bunny who just doesn`t stop until he`s in bed, asleep. Every second he`s just like, "We have to find more people! We have to place more copies of The Book of Mormon! We need to talk to EVERYONE!" I just smile and say, "OK. Let`s go!" It`s been a while since I`ve had a companion who actually WANTED to do everything he could to find new people and be obedient. It would be pretty fabulous to finish the mission training. It`s just so much easier to do what`s right because they don`t have old missionary habits. Doing what Preach My Gospel says is the only thing they know so they can`t go against it. It`s also been pretty funny because I`m reliving the Spanish bloopers again. He`s said some pretty funny things this week. All of which I don`t  remember, nor would it make sense in English. 

Raul was supposed to be baptized this weekend but he wanted to wait one more week and he got pretty sick. As of right now, it`s planned for next Saturday. We`ll just have to see what happens. He`s a good guy, he just lacks a little. 

We started teaching Vicente, an older guy in his 60`s who the Elders started teaching a few months back. He`s been coming to church each week and everything, but he hasn`t been baptized yet because he still has some addictions that he has to get rid of. He, too, was supposed to be baptized this coming week, but he drank coffee again and won`t be able to. It`s good that he drank because we realized that he still isn`t converted and doesn`t really understand what SINNING and REPENTANCE are. It`s kind of despairing because each week in the Sunday school class he asks the same questions and is just looking for someone to justify his sins in his situation. It`s been a tough time teaching him, but that`s how we all grow. I hope that we can assist him in understanding what the Gospel really means. 

Hugo is a young man who went to church last week. He`s been a little depressed and not really knowing if God exists or not. When he was 8 mos old his Mom was hit by a car and killed, and she had just enough time to roll him off to the side of the road. His dad remarried and when Hugo was 10 years old, his step mom was killed in a bus accident. He feels guilty because both times they were with him. He began reading the BOM, but we haven`t seen him since last Wednesday. He didn`t go to church and we don`t know if we can go to his house because he said that his dad was a little crazy sometimes. I know that there IS a plan and that it can`t be frustrated. 

It`s been so crazy thinking that I only have 5 months left. I want to keep working so hard because time just doesn`t last. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. I know that I will never be able to serve 2 years like this again. Maybe later with the wifey and all, but it`s just not the same. Now is the time. Help the missionaries at home. I know that they`re already spoiled and all, but help them make their missions successful, please. :) 

Love you all. The house looks good and hopefully you can finish everything sooner than later. Tell everyone hello for me. 

Loves, Elder Hill 

pic- I was going to record a role play that we were doing but I accidentally hit the camera button. Zeagler says that it shows how our companionship is-- I`m goofing off and lost and he`s studying hard. 

Elder Ziggy & I´m officially gifted in the gift of the interpretation of tongues because I can understand Spanish, English, and North Carolinan!

Elder Matt Hill & Elder Brandon Zeagler

Well, I didn´t put the nickname, but a couple of people have called Elder Zeagler "Elder Ziggy" and it´s funny because he says that´s what they called him in NC. Speaking of that, I´m officially gifted in the gift of the interpretation of tongues because I can understand Spanish, English, and North Carolinan! There are sometimes that I just tell him to tell me in spanish because I just don´t understand what he´s saying. I tell him that it´s because he needs to speak spanish more to learn, but I just don´t get what he says sometimes. It´s pretty funny. He´s a good kid and everyone tells him that he has a "baby face!" Haha! We took a taxi today and the taxista told him in English that he has a baby face. After two years of stressing out and not sleeping, he´ll lose some hair and wrinkle his face a little. No worries. 

Paola was confirmed yesterday, so that was fabulous. She´s been getting to know the JAS (YSA) lately so she´s feeling more comfortable. Her brother, Raul, will be baptized this Saturday. He´s the one in the green suit from her baptism and her mom´s name is Maria de los Angeles. I saw on the blog that you didn´t have it. 

Saturday night we felt like we had to go down a certain street and we didn´t pass anyone the entire street until the end. A lady with some grocery bags walked by us and we just said hello. After she had passed, Zeagler said that he felt sick and thought that she was the one. So, we turned around and sped walk to catch up to her. We finally got there, presented ourselves and started talking. Long story short, we found out that she has been praying to know what to do with her family because she has problems with her husband. She started two years ago looking for God in her life and lately she´s felt an unquenchable thirst to get to know WHO God is. She´s not from our area, but she´s definitely one of those from D&C 123:12. I read that scripture to her on the street and she opened her eyes wide and at the end of everything said thanks for contacting her. 

Sunday night we were standing outside of our entrance to the street of our house (it´s a privada... whatever that is in English) and while I was reporting to the ZL´s, E. Zeagler was contacting people and even though they didn´t want anything, he just kept talking in his new spanish and testified. It´s fun to be with a new missionary. :) I´m learning how to trust more in God than in my own experience and knowledge. I was unconsciously praying for the opportunity to train a white man and I actually had a dream about it before transfers, so I wasn´t too surprised. 

This week we moved houses. We don´t live near as many drunk people and other problems, and we have a kitchen. I haven´t had a kitchen since La Quebrada, but hey, I take hot showers so I don´t have anything to complain about.

Well, keep working hard on the house. Sorry it´s been such a problem, but it will be worth it in the end. Just always keep God first and everything else will fall into place. Love you all! Keep the missionary work alive! Preach to everyone you know! When I get home I don´t want to go to the movie or even hear a cell phone until I´ve talked to everyone I need to talk to about the church! It´s going to be a while! I thought this week that I only have 4 transfers left, and like 5 months. It´s crazy, and I want to make the best of it. This is what Sis. Call wrote in her letter today..... 

 “What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle, and giving 110 percent all the time.”

Jesus could do missionary work in many different ways, but he allows us in this short time, to know Him, to develop talents and abilities, gain attributes and make changes.  It is a time to become more like Him, and realize for yourself that you can do and be more than you once could have imagined.
How do you feel when you see the converts you have come to love dressed in white before their baptism? They are the reason you are here.  They are the ones that help you be a better man or woman, to magnify your priesthood, to love unselfishly, and understand a little better the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Where do we get the energy to do all this?  Sometimes you feel so tired; sleeping hours seems like minutes, the hills, heat, rain, cold, shoes with pebbles in them, etc.  The answer is simple: Jesus Christ long ago did this for us.  He took our burdens and put them on His shoulders, He suffered for each of us.  Now we must do the same for others, and be the kind of missionary who is striving to become like Jesus Christ.  Abrazos……..Hermana Call

Love, 

Elder Hill 

Bienvenido! Trainer and new companion! A greenie TARHEEL!!!

6 August 2013

Dear Griggs Family,

This letter is to inform you that your son, Elder Matthew M. Hill, has been called to fill the assignment of Trainer in the Mexico Mexico City North Mission. He will have the responsibility to train, lift, inspire and elevate his new companion, Elder

Brandon Zaegler , to a level acceptable to the Lord.

“And if any man among you be strong…let him take with him him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness, that he may become strong also.” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:106 emphasis added)

I cannot over emphasize the impact a Trainer has on his companion. We congratulate you on having such a fine son and thank you for having helped prepare such an excellent missionary. Please continue to pray fervently for him so that he will continue to seek, find and follow the guiding influence of the Lord.

Sincerely,

President J. Dana Call Mexico Mexico City North Mission

MISIÓN MÉXICO CIUDAD DE MÉXICO NORTE Calle Mira Lirio # 69 Col. CumbriaCuautitlán Izcalli, Edo. de México 54740

Hermana Call y Presidente Call with new missionaries

Elder Zaegler and new greenies arriving in MCN
Welcome to Mexico Elder Zeagler! We are so happy you are arrived!

Here we have Elder Zeagler with his trainer Elder Hill.  Good luck to
the two of you.

Abrazos.......Hermana Call

UMMM this next photo looks too familiar!

this is the goodbye photo..but the one I wanted was from the blog..think it is this blog's profile pix

papa y mama; adiós, mi hijo de oro.....