Short Monday Letters and Pictures from Bolivia

Isabella's Letter
Español


hola mi gente! tengo muchas cartas hoy. y muchas fotos gracias le amo y agradezco todo lo que me han escrito.

pero voy a tener que escribirles por cartas porque he gastado mucho tiempo leyendo y quiero mandarles fotos y finalcabo una foto dice mas que mil palabras gracias por las fotos en verdad un abrazo un beso. mami papi joeson jonathan gina natalie camila y pitu los quiero mucho

English

hi my peeps i got a lot of emails today and many pictures thanks i love you and am grateful that you have written me. i have spent alot of my time reading so i will have to write you by hand because i wanted to send you pics and pics say more than a thousand words.

Isabella's Pictures
 

Christopher's Letter

I just wanted to say that I love you so much and to be able to talk with you was amazing.  It did help to talk to Isabel, like after this mission I will actually have a life, which sometimes it seems like anything after the mission just doesn´t exist. Like one will just die after the mission. But that´s obviously not going to happen. You asked me if I needed anything.  And money would help. I don´t have a lot. When you can, anyway. I don´t want to impose too much. The other thing... I forget. I wanted something, but I can´t remember. I guess it doesn´t matter. I love you so much and miss you.
Vos hijo,

Elder Hill

Two side notes from the Mom, well maybe three:

1.  Please, please pray for them.  For their health, for their safety, for their success in sharing the gospel.  Both countries have political strife happening.  Men walk the streets with guns in Honduras and people there love fireworks because it masks the sounds of gunfire.  Isabel has been sick twice, there is no sanitation where she is.

2.  Pray for Bolivia there is talk of not allowing proselyting openly in the streets.  Their leader wants to change things.

3.  Chris is having a great deal of success with 3 recent baptisms.  Isabella and her whole zone is experiencing lots and lots of resistance...so she needs some extra prayers.

I love and miss these children it seems more every day.  One more Christmas and I can start planning their returns...a wedding...and grandbabies....okay, okay lets not get carried away...but I do think about it.  It gets me through a day sometimes and sometimes it brings me to tears....Crazy I know!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

The BEST Christmas Present we have ever given or received!!!

So today was the day....yes we got to call the missionaries! Dave and I figured out the cell phone plan and how to connect three phone calls! AMAZING...the technology we are blessed with. We called Elder Hill first and with a prayer in our heart called Hermana Florido...hoping no one would get disconnected. IT WORKED!!! So amazing to hear their love for each other in their emotional voices!!! Someone asked me today if it made my day to talk to them..was it the best gift....NO....the BEST gift was hearing them converse in English and Spanish. Their joy to be together for just a moment over a phone line is almost indescribable. They talked, we talked, grandma and grandpa talked. It was wonderful! The are both doing so well! Both have lost weight and are exhausted at night!!! We had a family prayer and then they were gone...Isabel to talk with her family and Christopher to baptize three people today!!! Yo te amo Ninos, Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Feliz Navidad

ISABEL'S LETTER


Good Morning
please oh please can we try to three way call i have also been thinking about getting an extra memory card and recording a little something and sending you video and chris video that he can watch on his camera. just a thought my comp thinks is pretty brilliant and i agree ha ha. thank you for writing me. i didnt know jen got surgery on her knee. i hope she is well. i took all the 100 out. thanks again. janna is so sweet send her oreos and a really pretty hair band she has been teased alot in her life especially by her mom and i would always put them on her and tell her she was beautiful and she was so self conscious at first and then slowly she started to own it. she has a wedding to go to when she gets off her mission in February and needs to accessorise. i love her and miss her so much please keep in touch with her she needs your love. also having served in sanjose cali i was able to send them some christmas cards well to my old investigators and guess what one of them is getting baptized january 15 and its such a joy i love them never did i think that i was capable of loving so many people. but the families here in bolivia all of them have been faltering and being sick this last week and still feeling weak this week has done a number on my self esteem as a missionary. as a missionary you learn more how to read a face. for example people open the door and the first reaction as they see you is disapointment or a huge smile and you have to not react to their emotions but be joyful always its kinda hard sometimes but rewarding when they see you on the street and they are so genuinely happy to see you. and unfortunatly some people this week have been asking is jose smith is a prophet of God and recieving bad dreams as an answer and other have given us notes that they dont want to see us anymore. two where lying to their parents saying they were going with us to church and really they were going drinking. one says she isnt reading the book of mormon because she doesnt understand it. so all that starts adding up ya know. and its not just our companionship the whole zone is seeing this happening in their zone. right now we have viegita (old lady) antonia who doesnt read is 75 years old and understands what the book of mormon is and who jose smith was and why she needs to be baptized. we have jessica who is 15 and really wants to be baptized and has been reading the book of mormon when she gets done with her chores she is so sweet and ready she even had a dream where she was reading the bookd of mormon and she says i felt so happy we asked her so what should you do now? she said with a smile get baptized! heres the prob her parents dont let her go to church on sunday because they put her to work those days. :( i so wanted to send you pics but i fotgot my usb. sorry i will. last night we went to a plaza to sing christmas carols and hymns and contact like crazy it was great you could really feel the christmas spirit. there was this old lady who began to sing. i dont know why but i am such a softy for old people and her broken singing voice singing about her savior filled me with love and joy. the lord did that for me i have been a bit down. and he just wants me to know i am loved and to hang in there. i love the mission field. please do write to your family janice with your testimony its a great time of year to do so. well i love you all call me at 4 i will be waiting. papi mami joeson gina jonathan llamenme a las 2 de las tarde el 25. los amo a todos
ps: traditions have to be baking you and my family bake so baking for christmas should be a tradition of the hill florido family also i am learing to sing better.
 
Feliz Navidad

CHRIS' LETTER

Hola mis padres,

Entonces!  So changes are this week and my companion was called to be
the assistant to the president!  Whoa! As he should be.  I think that he can
do it 100%.  Also, my new companion is named Elder Giron (Hee-ron!) and
is from Guatemala.  I´m staying in Monterrey for 6 weeks more at least.
I´m really, really excited for this change.  We should be having Baptisms
this week or the next and a lot in January.  Peope here work a lot (even Sunday)
here.  

And I was going to send you photos but this computer hates my camera and
doesn´t read anything when I plug it in.  I wish I could send them (and I wish
that I could see photos de Isabel - I miss her).  But all is well.  I´ll figure something
out and maybe the reader will work succesfully.

The last week has kind of been chaotic. We didn´t get as much done this week
as usual.  One of the Elders here is leaving to El Salvador, Elder Cena, which
translates as Elder Dinner.  Haha!  He´s the best and one of my favorite people
that I´ve ever met. We´re going to throw eggs at him today!  :)  

So, a tradition they have here is putting effigies in the street and begging for 
money this time of year.  They call it donating to the ancestors or something.
(Done por los ancianzos muertes o algo).  So.. I´m going to tell you 3 scary
things and 1 very exciting thing: (are you ready?  si?  Esta bien. Vamos.) 

1) During the week of Easter, it´s called Semana Santa, Holy Week, and during
Holy Week, people voluntarily crucify themselves.  Nails and all. I´m not joking.

2) People here like fireworks a lot because it gives them comort (I think) from
the discharge of a firearm breaking sound barriers... I can´t differentiate during
the night if people are celebrating or dying.  Haha.  Which is funny, and... you
know, scary.

3) Sometimes you find couples, se llama parejas, who aren´t married, right?
And that happens in the states, but here you find 80 year old men still having
children with 40 year old women.  THEY WERE FORTY WHEN THESE WOMEN
BORN!!!!  haha.  It´s ugly, but it´s happening.

* * *

Okay, so that is that.  The really good thing.
15 of January, Russel M. Nelson the Apostle is coming to speak to us and divide
my stake.  Wow.  

The cool thing on the side of that, is that my companion is probably going to be
driving him around town... Maybe.  

I haven´t received packages, but I love you and miss you.  Merry Christmas!


I can't wait to talk to them on Saturday!!! Felix Navidad!!!

Isabella's Letter...Sick but Okay!

HoOrAy!!! We finally heard from Isabel. We were worried because it is not like her to write to us weekly! Her Dad was going to call the mission home and Dave put their names on the prayer roll in the temple and just a little later we got emails. She has been sicknwith salmonella and a stomach infection. She has been in bed for three days and not able to eat much. Please keep our girl in your prayers!!!

Isabel's Letter

I love you both so very much. i love you too chris im sorry i gave you all a scare i love your story chris about the talk you gave i gave a similar talk two sundays ago i dont know from where but i said at the end and this is what i most remember sometimes like cain we ask are we our brother keeper christ with actions lovingly said yes. it was cool i dont know how else to describe it. i love that we have matching pj on the way thank you thank you it makes me feel closer to babychito i am not affraid that we will change or anything like that because in all reality what ever the lord sees fit to make of us it will be for the better i just miss you baby alot. i think of you always always im glad you are having fun with cacao and durian.i will learn to love the dolls they are a memory of vadis and richard who i truly feel respect for. i know you are going to miss them very much but they will be with you the lord is so merciful that way. onetime i prayed to see chris in my dreams bc i missed his face and i got to. the whole zone right now is seeing a baptismal drought the first month i got here my comp and i had 3 now all of our baptismal dates are dropping like they caught salmonella like i did. we read jacob 5 as a zone. thank you for your testimonies of faith it builds my faith this is his work and glory not mine and my duty is to preach his gospel. some will feel compelled to make the baptismal covenant with the lord and some wont and its not my fault bc im doing the best i can.  its good to hear of jared i miss the kiddo i will send pics next week promise. and thank you for the pics of xmas, are you still swimming? if not to lose some weight i can send you some salmonella ha ha jk. please let me know when you will call me my time the 25th and chris i know that you are serving the lord and what more could i ask from the man i will eventually start a family with and whats best is that we will be perpetual missionaries together i know it i love the work i just miss you and what would be better than having you for a comp!? NADA buena suerte . mom dad in roy les amo mucho i miss you so much i dont think that you know how much i consider you all family thank jared and jen and tell them all i love them

Cuando Hay Amor!! From Christopher

Come, come, ye saints.  No toil, pain or feer.  Do do do, doo do dooooo.

Hello.  This week I talked for the first time at church.  I talked about love.
Or Amor.  I was the first of my comp and I to speak.  The night before, I
was preparing my talk and decided to sing the first verse of
"Cuando Hay Amor" or "When there´s love at home."  And let me tell you
what happened.  During the sacrament hymn, I was pondering and reading
the hymn, as I was a little nervous to sing without music.  The thought came
to my mind, look up at the hymns that we were going to sing.  And in Honduras,
you sing 4 songs, one of them is sung inbetween the first and second speaker.
And the song that the 2nd counselor had chosen was "Cuando Hay Amor."
Haha.  Revelation!  It was pretty cool and confirmed to me that it was so perfect
to sing the first verse, give my talk and then all of us would sing the song.

I sang the first verse and said that I love music and how it brings the spirit into
a room.  I talked about how Christ told us that we need to love our neighbor as
overselves. And in Preach My Gospel, there is a section on love and charity.
And how the best way that we could love someone is by sharing with them the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  So I told them that my mother had told me before
the mission that I need to love whatever person that I´m teaching before they´ll
come to Church or do anything.  And then I told the story about you, mom, teaching
Michael T. to walk and how you promised him that you loved him and he wasn´t
going to fall.  I read Moroni 7:48 and James 15:14-16... that man hath no greater
love than this that he lie down his life for his friends.  And then I chastized with love or
regañé a todo that if they´re not sharing the gospel and not in a sense laying down
their lives and time for their neighbors, friends and family... they aren´t being the
best that they can be.  And so I invited my ward to give a little more this Christmas
season.  Haha. 

Anyway, other things, I´m not going to lie.   Not all is beautiful here.  I have seen
problems that would break your heart and families that are falling apart, but as
sad as all of this is, it is so incredibly beautiful to see the humility and willingness
of others to change. And more and more, you understand the scriptures more and
more and the way that Christ teaches.  It´s a process, but I almost think that with
all of the lessons that we teach I leave more edified, more enriched espiritualmente.
I mean spiritually. Ha.

I miss you all a lot.  Um... I bought a really beautiful, thin blanket that was made in
Guatemala.  Everyone has them here.  It is like a maroon with dears on it. :)
Like... deer antler!  Haha.  Just kidding.

I was going to send a picture of it, but there´s a problem with my camera.  You can´t
take photos off of it, wth the camera or with the card itself.  So, literally I can´t send
photos.  So... I´m not sure what to do about that right now. Don´t freak out and send money
though please.  I´m going to try the other card and some things.


Anyway, um... at my home i´m making noni juice by fermenting the fruit.  Also... I saw
a painting in someone´s living room the other day of a Durian and they had NO IDEA
what it was.  And my companion loves cacao.  A lot.  And so do others in my district.
They´re hooked.

I love ou all and I hope that I´ll figure out something to send fotos or at least be able to
print them out and send them. And also I can´t send anything because it is twice as
expensive to send things there, just so you know.  I would like to because there are
some really pretty wood works and things, but you´ll have to wait.  :(

Again, I love you mom and dad.  I miss you.  Maybe you should go to the hotsprings
for me.   
Sincerely, Elder Hill


We did not hear from Isabel today. That is kind of unusual so hopefully we will hear something soon!

Letters from Today

Izzy's Letter

im so glad to hear from you im really missing everthing this week it hasnt helped that members have been rude to me and my investigators that im really protective of and that our mission leader in the ward is flacky and instead of counting my blessings ive let it get me down. and my comp irritates me, and im working on charity bc its me not her. but its been wonderful to hear about xmas and thanksgiving and pie! and a new truck and chris blue clouds and tropical trees. whats amazing is that the work is progressing even though i have this constant irritation. maybe im just hormonal i dont know but this saturday we had a baptism of a 19 yr old young man named luis angel oh that was great such a highlight he was golden he taught himself. and the Lord is blessing us even with my uncharitable feelings towards my comp and some ward members i wonder what would happen if i was filled with christ like love for everyone. i miss you so much you and my family and chris last week i cried every day i think i missed him so bad. but it will all work out the lord will bubble wrap my if i put my life and moods in his hands thanks for your words. i ran out of time last time like i am right now again. but i will write chris soon. thank you for your words as well. my poor comp in cali is missing me too we cant wait till 2012 and sushi and pie! but of course we can wait. te amo chris take care


love you all

Chrissy Bear's Letter

Hello,

For the last twenty minutes, I´ve been trying to send photos. I couldn´t find the cable for my camera
earlier today and so right now I was using a memory card reader. The problem is that it any of the
readers that I´ve used aren´t working so I can´t send photos today. Sorry. And I don´t have a lot of
time left to write. Thank you though for writing so much. I´m sure it´s nice to have a new truck.
I hope that you´re not paying to much for it. Haha. Tell everyone I love them.

Yesterday we watched the prophet and his counselors talk (I hope that you did too). In all honesty, I didn´t understand everything, word for word, but I felt the spirit really, really strongly. Hearing the choir made me miss you all a lot. It made me miss going to conference and walking around Salt Lake with Isabel. I miss you all a lot right now, but I am working really hard. Yesterday was probably one of the most rewarding days of
the mission. There is a family that we started teaching in October who "rejected" us, but the thing is
that they´ve wanted to stay friends. Haha. However, one of the moms of this family, Bellinda, has kept her
commitments to read and she has always loved the idea that families can live together forever, but she
comes from a very hardcore catholic family. Anyway, the event that was rewarding... Yesterday, for
the first time, she came with her two kids Luis Carlos and Cathie, to the devotional for Christmas, which
means that for the first time she visited the church AND heard the prophet speak. How wonderful it
was to see her there and know that she felt the spirit. Yesterday, she fed us before that and made me
this guava juice that I really like. Just for me. Haha. We were strangers two months ago, and now with
this family and us there is a love so big, so warm that we desire to make each other just... happy.

Also, I have a new set of parents here who gave me a backpack handmade in Guatemala (because one
of the missionaries here didn´t have one so I sold mine to him. And then I jokingly traded my other bag
that I had bought to put my scriptures in to someone else for a bag that just didn´t serve me well. So they
gifted this to me.) It´s different but everyone here really likes it a lot.  Te amo. Ciao!

Last Monday Letters

Isabel's Letter

wow janice and dave! i am so glad that you are okay and as morbid as
it might sound i am so glad that richard has now passed our side of
the veil and is probably feeling light chipper and in love again with
grandma and is probably helping his family members to accept the
gospel in the spirit world. i am really glad. this week i have prayed
so much to just help the lord. i pray for that always where can i lift
a sad heart or help the needy. and opportunities abound.we have bumped
into a 17 yr girl who was threwing up and crying she was really drunk
my companion and i just looked at her and with out saying a word one
to another we walked up to her to offer her help her name is veronica
and she drank because she lost her mom and her grandma her only memory
of her mom is really sick and her dad sent her to live with her other
relatives instead of with her. what a heavy heart i exhorted her...
you know the way that i do. i told her that if i was sad to see her in
that pathetic state how much more saddness her hevenly father might
feel to see her when he created her. she now has a baptismal date and
two lessons. yesterday we went to visit viejita antonia and her
lightbulb had burnted out and she was wondering how she was going to
replace it with her bad leg and then we appeared and baught her
another one and replaced it she is so sweet and i am glad to minister
to my brotheren. there has been counltess chances to do service like
that and when i pray for things they come true and that is such a
blessing to have faith increase like that. thanks for putting money in
my account i ran out buying bread and milk for people, i will try to
be better at this sorry. and babichito i so am going to be involved
with missionary work till i die. i have things planned i will write
you soon i just dont have money :(

love you all take care i miss you!

Christopher's Letter

Hi Mom and Dad

Today I had a really nice ride here by taxi.  I saw lots of beautiful tropical trees, dairy cows with large horns walking by the river.
The sky is very blue, there are lots of pillow like clouds hovering like pure space craft.  And it was kind of like those times
that we would take rides with Jared.  It was really relaxing.

Right now I´m stressed and not stressed at all.  We didn´t receive money today, which is fine. I have sufficient for my needs.
My correspondance with Isabel is rather constipated.  Sometimes here we´re strangers, but I can speak Spanish!  And the
Patriarch calls us his niñetos, which is grandchild.  Haha.  I´ll have to send photos of him.  He´s amazing.  I could have sworn
that in past times, I saw his house in a dream.  His name is José Santos Torres.  He had the opportunity to meet the family
of my companion at Conference time.  How neat.  There´s also a member Hermando David Flores who is coming to Utah
for Christmas on the 9th.  He offered to take something there, but I´m not sure what to send.  Haha.  Maybe some Honduran
candy and snacks.

Oh! Mom, you can´t drink coke anymore.  My presidente prohibits it.  Haha.  So... you might want to stop!  Haha.

And... if you can put this in your thoughts and prayers for the future... I think that it would be neat for you both to consider
serving a mission together.  How neat would that be?  My parents, missionaries.  Wow.  Que bueno.

I hope that all is well.  I´m glad that you´re all alive and are enjoying the holidays.  Lots of people here like to put lights up
in their houses, even though every house here kind of looks like a a polly pocket prison.  Really pretty colors and decor, but
all have bars to keep themselves and their possesions safe.

All is well in the work.  We´re learning and progressing.  I love my companion.  ´He and the ward are my family de Honduras.

.Anyway, I love you all!  If you could also include the herbs that I have at the house (in the room upstairs I think in a box or
something), that´d be great.  But all I really want is some photos of you, the dogs and of Isabel´s parents and family of her
brother.  In all honesty.  Also!  One thing we really like to use is videos for the mision. If you want to send church dvds, that
would be SO awesome.  Or just send money, actually, because they cost like 50 cents to 4 dollars here.  That is actually
what I would like.  And also, I need a new backpack!  Lucky me.  Compras hacer (shopping to do).

Also, I get lots of compliments on my spanish.  Not to bragg, but I´m not dying here. Haha. Love you! Merry Christmas!

Miracles Surrounds Us at Home, in Bolivia, and in Honduras!!!

Dear Family and Friends,
What a week it has been.  Thank you for your thoughts and kindnesses in regards to my dad.  The funeral was nice and I think he would have been pleased.  on our way home on Sunday we hit ice just above Plymouth.  We spun off the road and rolled our truck.  God was watching over us.  He protected us in so many ways.  I know we were blessed for many reasons and one of them is because of the service of our missionaries.  We emailed them about the accident.  Chris got the email before he wrote back, but Isabel did not...so she still has to hear about it all.  I am going to post Dave's letter to them in between the two letters.  He really puts it well.  We walked away from the accident, our truck is a total loss.  How blessed we were.

Here is Isabel's Letter.

it has been such a sad week and such an amazing week. and im feeling guitly for all the money and resources that i have at some point in my life wasted. we were preaching to this young family and when we were about to leave this little old lady that looked like a cute old bird soaking up the sunshine on a rock with her pollera (skirt) and grey braids yelled in a sweet but weak voice "mamitas que van predicando?" sweeties what are you preaching? i saw her and immediately my heart was filled with love for the grandma i went over to her and sat down right next to her and felt like i should hold her hand while i shared the message of the restoration my comp was taken aback by how familiar i was getting with her. she told us she was sick and was sitting in the sun to feel better she has herpes and a bad leg she is like 80 and still gets ready in the morning to sell in the market her veggies to make a living. hermanita Antonia takes pain medication that sometimes makes her very sleepy and to see her get all her little rags to put her veggies out on the ground in hopes to sell at her age with her curbed back brings tears to my eyes. she told us about her 5 kids and how only the last two boys remember to visit her and how even though she has asked for forgiveness her other kids hate her because she left them in the care of her mother and she left to argentina to make a living with her husband who ended up telling her that she wasnt worth all the trouble and left her there by her self to fend for the 5 kids. her little broken heart has so much guilt and pain and loneliness. i spent most of my money buying her yogurt and bread and eggs we visit her once a day to give her a big hug and kiss and make sure she hasnt died. she came to church this sunday we invited her to be baptized and she said to be born again sounds beautiful i think im going to die soon i want to be right with God. she is no longer selling on sundays to come to church to be baptized. its been wonderful to help her heal her wounds and feed her belly and clean her. some elders think that the priesthood authority is more powerful than priesthood power. but its not the case in the relief society i know we have the priesthood power and we can offer prayers onbehalf of the hands that hang down and the bellies that growl and the back that are broke and trying. i know that the lord hears us and answers us all. this christmas i dont want anything but money and things to make others burdens light please. 1 dollar can give a little family some relief 4 apples a bag of milk and 6 pieces of bread. there is another lady that has been sick because her husband left her 5 years ago cutting by half her income and still leaving her with 4 mouths to feed and so as a mom as a women she has gone without food to feed her kids and now she is "sick" and really all that she has is severe malnutrition yesterday we felt prompted to take a pharmacist to visit her. she said i waited for you this morning to go to church and you didnt come.. i thought about what you said and i do need to show my faith by actions to get blessings. we were so heart broken to know that she was ready and we forgot. but here is the amazing part the pharmacist had been mission leader and had seen a foto of this sister a long time ago when other sister missionaries told him she was in need. when i looked on her table which is her kitchen it was empty and they hadnt eaten anything. he called out brach pres. and we gave her out promise to help her with rent, food that members gave us to give her and this thur. she will get 150 bolivianos to start her business again. what to her was too much and overwhelming to pay equal like 55 dollars. rent food and work... 55 dollars. the lord blessed her. and her kids. and us. i know that he answers prayers. i love you all but have to go. chirs i love you too i have been writing my journal like letters to you. i will send the letters i have written to you when i have money again. i love you so much and pray for your safety always. janice please send him my address. but i havent gotten any mail bcc it goes to the mission office in cochabamba. mami ponme en wellsfargo. janice i have gotten wierd email adresses from you so i think its spam have you written me


forgot to mention i had two more baptisms this weekend will tell you later bye les amo!

Dave's Letter to the Kids
Oh kids,
The Lord protects us. I'm sure you've noticed this already on your missions. Last night he protected us.

If you felt a "tremor in the force" to quote from the Star Wars movies, I'll tell you why. (Isabella be calm, "all is well.")

Last Tuesday afternoon Janice's dad passed away. Tuesday evening she drove up to Idaho Falls in the Truck. I came up on Wednesday afternoon with grandpa and grandma Finch. They were going up to see Courtney compete in the Miss Hillcrest pageant.

Jan was at Richard's house every night starting with Tuesday till Saturday. We came home on Sunday.

I went to the pageant. Jan was with her family working out funeral details.

The viewing was Friday evening. They made Richards body look so much better than the last time we saw him. We had taken the previous Friday off and spent the day with him. Janice got to spend some quality tender time with him. They teased and had other conversations.

Monday evening she called him and only had a brief conversation with him. The call was basically an exchanging of "I love you's."

Jan and her cousin gave the life sketch at the funeral. I sang a solo called "Together Again," an old Buck Owens song. Another fellow sang an opening song. The choir Rich was a member of sang the closing song. A fellow who was the branch president of the singles ward that Rich served with as a councilor with also spoke. The current Bishop also gave comments.

Rich touched everyones life for better. He had many, many friends. He will be missed.

He was buried on Saturday, November 20th. Exactly 21 years earlier jan's mom had died on that date.

Jan got through to the Honduras mission office on Wednesday. She requested to talk with Chris about this event. His mission president gave him permission to call. He call at an almost perfect time. We were at the funeral home. We had just been shown in to view Richard's body for the first time. That's when Jannie's cell phone rang. We got to visit with Chris. It was wonderful. I think the phone call was more consoling to his parents than the parents consoling the son. Chris said some profound things. I'll paraphrase. "I was sad and emotional at first, then I realized he was with grandma again. What a beautiful thing.". And "I've been missing Isabella for only four months, they've been apart for 21 years."

Thanks for your comforting words, prayers and feelings Christopher.

We left to come home in a blizzard. This was no biggie. We've done this in the past. We had the back seat packed with all the family pictures and Jan's share of her mother's porcelain dolls. We left traveling 40 mph on the freeway. We drove with 4 wheel drive engaged. This was bad. We saw numerous slide offs between Idaho Falls and Pocatello. Then the roads improved. You could see all the lines on the road the yellow, white and dotted white lines. I increased our speed some. We got to and over Malad pass without any problems. I'd slow and engage 4 wheel drive when the roads looked bad.

Just before Plymouth we hit some ice. Whew no issue. The truck swerved. I engaged 4 wheel drive. Then we hit a patch of more ice. The truck fish tailed. I corrected. The truck spun the opposite way and we were out of control. We were heading towards the side of the road Sid ways. I told Janice "we're in trouble!". I pleaded with Heavenly Father for help out loud as the truck slid down the side of the road. The truck turned over and landed on its head. It rolled over on the passenger side and broke out that window. None of the other windows broke out during all of this. We were both wearing our seat belts. We were both hanging upside down from the seat belts. I was able to release mine. We asked each other if we were ok and we both were. The truck was now on it's cab pointing perpendicularly towards the freeway. I said some more prayers. We were both a bit panicked. We tried to stay calm. The ambulance had been behind us and saw the whole thing. We were out in about five minutes. They checked us out. No problems. Some scrapes and bruises. They took us to the hospital to wait. I called grandpa finch. They came and picked us up. We went to where the truck was towed to get our belongings. None of the pictures nor porcelain dolls were damaged. On the truck no damage was to the hood nor the bed. The box where the people sit was wrinkled, but it held it's shape. Thanks be to the Lord and Ford.

Today we'll hear from the insurance company. We'll let you know what happens.

The Lord protects us. We think that's the lesson to learn from all of this.

Again we are ok. Please thank the Lord for protecting us.

We love you both,
Dad


Christopher's Letter
 

Buenas,

I hope that you are well after the funeral and an accident. Wow. To read that and then to read the story from Isabel is all really touching.

I miss you all. I am a little home sick to be honest. I miss you, mom and Dad. I miss Grandma and Grandpa. The sound of your voice.

It is kind of like the smell of "ripe" rain. Sometimes the memories of you are all lost in the work and the wind, but...there is nothing like being with family.

This week we brought (almost) two families to church. We had more attendence of new investigators than Monterrey has ever had.  15 souls, 11 of which could take the decision to be baptized (usually which has been 2 or 3 or 0). Mario, the dad of one of the families, said that he has intentions to stay in the class Gospel Principles.

Isabel, from the Fam. Flores, the other fam, said that she loved how we gave her a bible (book of mormon) and taught her the way to read and understand it. She said that when she went to Catholic church as a young girl, her mother or the paster of the church simply gave her a bible and a peace of paper with scripture to memorize and said,"You need to memorize this to be confirmed."...With no explanation. Her son Orlando told us that he felt at home especially in that the opinion of every person matters. In the class for Priesthood, he loved that everyone was participating. I hope that both of them find what they are searching for. They are both beautiful families. Both Family Flores, too (but different families). Mario and his wife work really, really hard in their resturaunt, and you can tell they both want to rest because they work so very, very hard. And they deserve rest.

The husband of Isabel left her when she had 30 years or something, with five kids, nothing to eat at all. And she told us that she threw her self on her bed and pleaded with the lord,"I have nothing. You need to give a job so that I can feed these kids." And 3 days later she found work. And ever since has worked. And now her kids support her, I think. People have hard lives here.

There is also a family here, Family Medina. 3 siblings of 24 to 33 years old that live with their mom. Bellinda is the oldest there, and is also married. The brother below her is 27, Jose Luis. And their sister Jizel lives with them with her boyfriend or something and their child. Anyway, we have taught this family a lot. I mean, a lot a lot. They love us a lot and always want us to come teach, but one day forever ago, jose luis told us that he wanted to just be friends, that we can share our testimonio and what we have learned, but just friends...Kind of weird. But here is something really interesting. They are siblings with Mario of Family Flores. he is the oldest. and yesterday we taught Bellinda, after we had eaten dinner with them. And we had a very spiritual experience of bearing testimony. And really, breaking down the walls as much as possible. She has doubts and has always asked things like,"Well, where is that in the Bible?" Which yesterday we were pleading with her, because recently we discovered that their dad had died two years ago and it has really hurt the family a lot, that she should have faith and for the sake that she could be with her dad again to pray about the book of mormon because when she receives the answer about it, then she knows that she can be with her dad again. And with tears running down her cheeks, she said yes. And with tears in my eyes, I bore testimony. And it was really special, because there is so much love and respect in between my comp and i and this family.

So we are working with 3 really awesome families right now, and I cant wait for them to receive their rest in their souls. That is one of my favorite things in the book of mormon to research. "Rest." I recommend researching it in the scriptures, Book of Mormon, D&C, Bible. It is really beautiful.

I love you all. I am really, really glad that you are all safe. Please dont do that again. Haha. It sounds like all went well with Grandpa.

Sincerely, Elder Hill
(this is an email to Isabel....some of which I am deleting...it is between them....but he tells a wonderful story I want to share.)

Babysweet,
...I am so happy that you are helping "the cute little people with cute little hats." What you wrote to my mom and everyone reminded me of this lady that has a tiny little house which is more like a garage in the states. She is very old and frail with black spots all over her skin. But she always wears a really nice dress and red knitted cardigan, with a handmade hat like someone might wear by the sea. One day I sat by her, as she was all alone. We talked about God a little, her light raspy voice telling me about God has always loved her. And I told her that I loved her and that God loves her. She told me that I was guapo (handsome) and she leaned her head into the fore of my shoulder and I put my arm around her. We just sat there for a while, Elder Christensen, this lady and me. She has never told us her name, because i think that she is somewhat incoherrent. But since then whenever she sees me, she waves and points her finger to the sky and then to her heart. And I dont really know in words how I would describe it, but I know that my redeemer lives and loves her.

... almost everything here brings utterance to the stories you told me about Colombia. This morning I washed
my garments and socks by hand for a few hours. I drink water and milk from a bag. And pinol. And San Concho or Sopa de reis. I eat fresh lyches and lemons and all kinds of things. There is an old man that sells fruits named Miguel Angel, who wears handmade cowboy hats of straw and leather. And everytime I see him, I think about your mom for some reason. He looks very native and he has 70 years. And he loves us. And we love him. And he loves to tell us about fruit and how he wants us to visit his tierra of fruit down the river. And I want to. The sad thing is that he is too afraid to not sell every day, because he has had to work so hard everyday of his life. But he loves God. And he wants us to baptize him, because he knows its right. WE have been teaching him to read so that he can read the BoM so that he can have a testimony of it. I love him, and know that we knew each other before this life.

I am always tired and always excited to work. This week also, I ate noni and fresh cacao smoothies everyday which was fun. the cool part was... it was a gift from someone in the ward who has a cacao farm... And they live like two houses down from us.

I work really hard until I cant anymore, and I am always tired. I am always excited to do the work. To be yours in the future is all I could ever hope for after this. that and I want to be mission leader when I get back. haha.

I love you sweetie. Take care. Know that I love you and that I know that you love me. see you soon, baby!

Isabella, Grandpa Hatch, & Christopher
June 2010

A Phone Call From my Bear!

As most of you probably already know, by father passed away two days ago.  I really really did not want to tell Chris in an email.  I have been telling him that Richard wasn't doing very well.  Anyway, I decided to call the mission office in Honduras and see if they would tell him.  An Elder answered the phone in Spanish and I just started talking English.  He instantly changed.  Such a warm and kind Elder, I am sure his mother misses him too!  So I explained what happened and could they please get a message to Chris.  He promised they would and that he would talk to the mission president as soon as he returned.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed...so hoping they would let me tell Chris.  Well anyway I called on Wednesday fairly early and by today at 4 or 5 we hadn't heard anything from him.  So I figured they would just relay the message.  We went to the funeral home to view Richard's body and make sure everything was like we would want it to be and right in the middle of it all....Christopher calls.

So so wonderful to hear his voice.  He said Mom when they told me I was a little emotional, but then I remembered that he was with Grandma Again....I felt so happy!!!  It is such a beautiful thing he said.  I had to smile because my thoughts have many times run down those very thoughts as well.  He told me I have missed Isabel for 4 months...I cannot imagine 20 years like Grandma and Grandpa have been a part.  I love, love this boy.  He sounds amazing, happy, excited, and it is amazing to me that he loves this work so very very much.  I am so grateful that he knows and that I know Families are Forever.  He ended with his best Russian accent telling me (Natasha you look beautiful in your new coat!  (his dad put him up to it of course!) Crazy kid...now I suppose Dave will mail him a picture of me in my new coat.

December is coming and I can't wait for those phone calls from the both of them.

3 Weeks in Sucre, Honduras Miracles, and Moms of the Elders Get to Meet!!!

Today has been an eventful day in our world of missionaries.  Early this morning we received the following email from Miss Izzy.

hola familia, everything in sucre is going great the weekly goal of
investigators in san jose california was 2 here in bolivia its 12 and
last week we had 14, we have 6 baptismal dates set. one girl named
scarlet has grown very close to me she said that when we spoke she
felt us lift her burdens with our words and that our hugs that first
meeting we had were healing to her. that was so humbling to hear. you
walk out the door in the morning wondering if you are making a
difference or not and then the lord prompts his children to encourage
you with their words. bolivia is interesting i have only seen two
western unions since ive been here and one was out of order. to use
the bathroom you have to pay and you skwat down and then you fill up a
jug and flush your mess your self, people pee on the streets with no
shame and boobs i think i´ve seen everyones by now no joke people have
no reserves about breast feeding the food made me sick the other day i
was going to the bathroom every 20 min the pres wife was scared and
couldnt understand why i was going through that with no fever or pain.
niether do i but i got over it with a blessing of health and some
treemate tea. also they dont accept debit cards or credit cards and no
one gives reciepts. to be honest i miss gringo food. and the hat i had
on was a school project the lurdes thought i would look pretty
wearing. but different parts of bolivia they wear different hats.
people here are facinated by my curly hair, like im doing a door
aproach and after 5 min of talking they interupt me and ask if my hair
is naturally that way its funny. also if i ask the price of something
my comp tells me no they gave you that price bc they know you are from
the usa let me ask prices. and there is an elder in the zone who says
hi im elder claybaugh and im from the usa and people let him in
because of that. ha ha people are have lots of time on there hands
and chores so we get to talk to alot of people and they all welcome
prayers and lessons of christ. there have only been a few of people
who were rude. there was a great experience the other day i called
this investigator named griciela and her son derek to confirm the
appointment. derek was out because he went to do his first comunion
they are very catholic and graciela has a young son that has down
syndrome and we play all the time well this time when i called she
broke up with us told us that she no longer wanted us to come over so
of course i asked her if she read the book of mormon the answer of
course was no i asked her if she prayed like we showed her again her
answer was no. when people dont do those things they break up with
us... but here is the amazing part. she said í want to return your
bible back (i dont know how many times we went over what the book of
mormon was she still didnt get it bc she didnt read it or pray) so i
said sure well go over to pick it up. she said okay. as we walked over
i prayed like ammon did pleading with the lord to save my sister and
all the walk over was in ernest prayer and i begged to have the right
words placed in my mouth as we knocked i asked it in the name of
jesus christ. when graciela opened the door the first thing she said
was well could i buy the bible from you? and i said actually graciela
its not our bible and you would know that its simly another testament
of christ if you had read it, she seemed emarrased and then i said
plus it was an excuse just to come and see you because the book is
yours. i dont know all that i said but before i knew it she allowed us
to come in and we talked more and testified of the books and the
savior and told her maybe the time wasnt now but soon she would come
to know the trithfulness of the book and his restored gospel and she
even prayed before we left. it was amazing to see the lord work on the
heart of his daughter and his servent. and even though we droped her
on her request i left with inmense peace knowing that she would
recieve the gospel soon. jana please send me the address of rogelio
and mabel griselda i need to write them tell them i love them and pray
for them every day, and who did you drop janna? i can still have you
jumped ha ha no actually im just curious. chris i love you baby work
hard mete tu hoz con toda tu fuerza. i will write everyone today and
it should get there in 10 days so be patient its easier for me to read
your mail and then write one email back in english.

A few hours later we received the following from Mr. Chris.
hola padres, como esta?
This week we´ve been working with a familly. Familia Flores. Ellos son... I mean they´re chosen.
Elogidos, se llama. There is a grandma who is named Isabel. Her son and his family. Orlando.
Noemi, his wife. Their kids Christian and Emily. So we contacted Isabel 2 or 3 weeks ago in the
street and she was receptive to our message. We passed by a couple of time but we never entered
into her house because there was never an hombre. However, last week on Sunday, we passed by
her house because one of our appointments fell through. We left with some new converts, family
who has two kids who want to serve missions but it´s hard to get them out of the house. The parents,
however are really, really ready to help. Especially the dad. Anyway, we went with the dad, his oldest
son Edwin and his girlfriend to visit this family. They received us. Herman Noemi was sick with
a migrane headache. We offered to give her a blessing after we explained the scripture in James
about sending the elders to bless those who are sick or afflicted. So we gave her a blessing, and the
spirit was really, really strong in this house. I honestly can´t remember what happened step by step
but Isabel told us that the night before she had a dream about us. In that dream, we were leaving her
and not waiting, that we had sometihng she needed but we weren´t waiting for her. And we left her in
her dream. But we taught abou the Restoration a little bit and then left two pages of a pamphlet to read.
The next time they kept their commitments to read. And this time we taught all of the restoration, asked
them to read the part in the book of mormon where christ comes. Before we left they asked us to give two
more blessings. We did and the spirit filled this house like water in a balloon. It was a blessing to be there.
All of them commited to come to Church and only the grandma came. But I only have two minutes so let me
smmarize a bit. She came and she was asking questions like,¨So, what do WE believe in... that Jose Smith
was a prophet?" like it was already HER church. Haha. Anyway, we taught last night and she read her part
that we had left a few nights before. Hermana Isabel was reading Saturday night in the Book of Mormon. HEr son had just left. He has problems with gangs, drinking and just got in a knife fight a few days ago. he also has some pretty serious cuts with stitches. But he had just left her house this night. She was reading, put the book down and began to pray to the father with her hand placed on the book,"Father, I want to know if this book is true return to me my son to where we went. Ten minutes later, she hears a knock on the door... It was her son.

Anyway, miracles are happening and it´s wonderful to be in the bosom of the lord´s work. I love you all. I´m grateful for this work and for your support. Isabel, te amo babysweet. I´ll got all of your letters. I love you so much and you look more beautiful and more happy than I hve ever seen you. I promise to live the life that will make us happy like we could only together and in the work of the lord. Tambien te necesito sus direciónes de Bolivia por favor. Also, in this package would you send me like 1 or 2 pounds of sea salt, pleace. They have bad salt here. Love you all. -Chris


Not to long after I read his letter I got a phone call on my cell phone or I should say that I missed it.  Well I didn't recognize the number so I hurried and called it back.  The lady on the other end of the phone said this is Diane Christensen and our sons are companions in Honduras.  I just got an email and they told me to call you.  It was a fun visit to talk about the "boys".  We are going to meet sometime for dinner.  She also said give me your email I have some pictures to share.  So here is what she shared with me.  It made my day!!!

Amazing Children...all of them in these pictures!!!  I miss mine as I am sure the other mothers of those children miss theirs!  Pray for them, for their continued miracles, their health, and safe return.

Tender Mercies and Miracles

I don't have a letter to post or pictures from the kids, but I wanted to share something that happened today at school.  I also wanted to record it here for Christopher and Isabel to read when they are home.  I want them to know of the blessings happening here at home because they are there serving.  Each day that I endure my missing kids...and I do miss them...I am also strengthened in becoming so aware that our Father in Heaven is so aware of each of us and our needs.  Anyway, if any of you know me well or even just know me you know that I WoRrY and wOrRy some more.  I come by it rightly...my mother was this way.  When the kids told us they were going on missions I worried about lots of things like missing them, them missing each other or losing each other, and of course as always money.  The Lord and I have an interesting relationship when it comes to money...not from His end though...He is always on the right path of the promise thing.  It is I who struggle to be strong and have faith in tithing, offerings, and yet again missionary payments.  Now also knowing Christopher as a teenager you would understand that saving money for a mission was not something he did or we did.  It just didn't seem possible in my mind....this is where that miracle comes in.  The miracle of change because of the atonement and the miracle of events and possiblities because well, the Lord follows through with all promises.

So Christopher and Isabel have been gone approximately 3 months, and I want to add so many people are helping keep them out there....the list is so long but Grandparents, Us, Isabel's Family, and wonderful ward members who are nameless and if you are one of them thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart.

In those three months tender mercies and miracles have occurred over and over.  Things like, I chose to take all of my quality teaching pay in one lump sum...it was deposited the day Chris called for help to recover from the white clothes and pen catastrophe.  The money was there to help him.  Chris' work put in a dollar for every hour he worked this year.  Out of the blue Dave has received two bonuses (never has happened before) for a project he is working on for work.  And then today....

I went to work as usual this morning with things on my mind.  The holidays are coming and of course I am trying to do the mothering thing and make sure no matter how far the kids are that they have something to open Christmas morning.  So things were traveling my mind like....I need to get our tithing paid, I need to also do monthly mission payment, mailing the packages is going to be costly....you know the WORRY thing.  I have really tried hard to be faithful and I in no way begrudge paying for these things...but I do worry about ends meeting most every day of my life...it is just my nature I think...I do this no matter how good or bad the financial times and budgets are at my house.  Anyways, I had just set down at my desk and was getting the computer running and just getting ready for my day when a fellow teacher of mine, who was once Jared's teacher, and I have spent so much time with students in her class, came up behind me and put her arms around me.  She told me that she loved me and she was always thinking of me.  She put an envelope in my hand and on the front was written for Chris's missionary fund.  I was speechless.  I opened the envelope and inside was a hundred dollars.  Later on one of my aide's received the same for her son as well. 

This particular teacher lost her husband two years ago this month.  I suspect this is what she does in his memory.  She is an amazing lady and I wish I could thank her in a more deserving way, but thank you Mrs. Cowlishaw.  Thank you for just being you and for listening to the promptings of our Heavenly Father.  You were part of a miracle today.

So Chris and Isabel when you read this, know that you were watched over on these missions and your families were too.  May we each listen to the promptings we are given so that we can be part of the Lord's tender mercies and miracles here on earth.

Thanks for listening to my rambles.  I just thought it was somethings important to share.  Love you all!!!

Janice

PS  My step-dad, my eternal dad, is in the hospital fighting cancer and is not doing so well...please keep him in your prayers.  Please pray for the Lord's will and Richard's comfort in whatever path we are asked to travel.

Pictures of Isabella and Bolivia!!!!

Today (as in Monday) we received this email and pictures from Isabella!!  Love the pictures!!

hola papa y mama en roy como estan? are you really sending us xmas packages? i thought it cost too much, i still havent been able to mail any letters bc the post office is way far and all the zone leaders plan really long and lame activities and we scarcely have time to wash a clothes by hand... i already complained ha ha we´ll see if things change. well remember how i bought like everything on the list of my calling papers and then some well im glad bc the markets are like really badly supplied here like yogurt eggs and soap  and  cookies are everywhere but american products are like way expensive. i do need some hair gel herbal essence makes this one called set me up. and thats all i can really think off. óh and crayons and coloring books not a ton but some you know how they have those party favors for kids at walmart if i could get some fun things for the kids that would be a great xmas present for me kids here are so poor and they play with junk. this week was great we met this girl named teresa who is only here till dec 24 so we have to teach her before she leaves who is 17  and read the restoration pamphlet and confessed that she wanted to be a nun when she was little and when her brother told her that she couldnt have a family if she did become a nun she was crushed and asked us if we were married and so we said no but soon! we taught her about heavenly fathers plan for us being centered around the family she was so thrilled she said i read your pamphlet and i love it what do i need to be a sister missionary. well this email has to be short sorry i will write more tonight and will try to mail soon.

She looks wonderful!!!  This last one is my favorite.  Well until next Monday!!!

Wise Men & Marriages in Honduras

We received this email from Christopher Bear today! Enjoy!

Wow! The girls are so big.  It´s crazy that when we return they´ll be a lot bigger, too.  I miss them a lot.

So, mom and dad, if Dad can, could he translate my letters and send them to the Family Florido. That would be awesome and then he can practice his Spanish too.  Which reminds me, mom, have you gone to the Spanish branch yet?  I get the feeling that you haven´t. 

Anyway, the area that I live in is called Monterrey.  The neighborhood is called Lomos de Nauvoo, because it was established by one of the apostles or seventy.  Hence, it´s called Nauvoo.  You can try to google map it.   Something like... Lomos De Nauvoo, Comayaguela, Tegicigalpa, Honduras.   I don´t know.  We don´t have mailing addresses here.  Granted the wise built his house upon the rock, but the wise men here have been drunk for some time.  There is no order to the way the houses are structured here for nothing!  I promise you this. I have a testimony even more so that Utah was built by a prophet with such order because, well, yeah.  Haha. 

So... It´s Monday.  The "taco" here is called a Balliada, which is really good.  You should google it.  Although I think that I told you this the last time.

Good news!  We´re marrying someone this week.  Johnny Bueso y Maria Lena Alvarado.   Si, hombre! (which is basically my most favorite thing to say here... that and "nombreee!!!")  Haha.  They´re going to get married Thursday or Jueves.  Hooray for that.  No more breaking the law of you know what!  

We actually baptized Johnny, last week.  He´s 33 years old and in just two weeks the change in just his eyes is heavenly.  There´s something that you can´t quite define with words, just with smiles and emotions.  It´s beautiful.  He´s truly my first convert baptism, because I asked him to get baptized and baptized him.  He has two kids with Maria, y she has two others that love him.  So, today... Oh, wait.  Crap.  I don´t have my camera.  That´s bad.  I was supposed to print pictures for him.  Anyway.  Don´t worry about that.

Our other baptisms were two teenagers of a friend who´s a member, Erick.  His friends are called Luis and Eduardo.  Both are awesome.  But let me tell you the story.   Erick used to be inactive for a long time.  My companion started to visit him before I got here.  When I got here, we visisted him all the time.  Then his friend.  And then his other friend.  And these two have actually received lessons from the missionaries, a year or so ago.  But we began to teach them Luis with Erick a lot in the last few weeks.  We passed by Erick´s once on a Sunday before church just to stop by.  But he had awoken with some kind of fungus on his skin like ringworm.  I asked him if he´d like a blessing, and long story short we gave him one.  He didn´t go to church that day, but he gave his mom a written testimony (because it was fast Sunday).  She didn´t read it, but the next day gave it to us.  In it, he said that he knew that Elder Hill and Elder Christensen were called and inspired by God.  Which was pretty amazing to read.  He said some other things, but!  To move on to other miracles:

With Luis, the first time that we prayed to know that the book of mormon is true, he thanked God for the two angels that had come into his life.  So humbling, so wonderful.  And so, this is what happened. We invited him to be baptized, like, 6 times.  Always he said no or I´m not prepared or whatever.  But we asked Erick one night before a lesson if he´d invite his friend to be baptized.  He felt nervous but said that he would.  During this lesson, at the beginning Luis was invited to be baptized by us, but again said no.  At the end of the lesson, Erick asked Luis to be baptized.  Luis looked down and was playing with the Book of Mormon with his hands.  he turned it around and placed his thumb at the bottom of the book where it says the name of the church, covering the part where it says, "of latter day saints" as it simply read,"the church of jesus christ."  he smiled at me, at my comp, at erick.  and said,"me bautizo."   !!!!  miracles.  And actually, I wasn´t there, but I can remember like I was.  Haha.  We did changes that night, sadly, but miraculously maybe.

The second thing was that two days later, when we did changes again and I wasn´t there,  Erick answered the door when my companion and Elder Dardon arrived, "Hey, Luis invited Eduardo to be baptized.  Can he get baptized the same day?"  And my companion said, "yeah, just call him."  And as friends they do this thing where they make a rrrrrriiiit or something, like a hiss mixed with a whistle.  And there was Eduardo waiting for us to arrive.  And that´s the miracle that members can have on their friends.  I promise that if you invite more people who aren´t members to church and testify of the miracles that you´ve had in your life, you´re going to see miracles.  You have more power than the missionaries.  And Dad, you should go out with the missionaries as much as possible.  What a blessing it will be on our house.

Anyway, I have to go.  For Christmas, you can send me 5 pounds of maca and goji berries.  They have cacao here.  :)   I love you so much.  

Christmas Packages

Dear Family & Friends,

I have looked in to sending packages to Chris and Isabella.  It is about 65.00 for a standard size 2 day shipping box here in the US.  Not overly big.  After talking to some family members it has been suggested that we all send what we are going to send them in one box and share shipping costs.  So I am happy to do that if you will get to me what you want sent to them within the next 10 days or so.  Cards, letters, small gifts, treats, whatever you can think of.  If you want to donate to the shipping...that is very appreciated (these missionaries are just a little pricey at times :0) ).  We need to get the packages shipped soon so that they recieve them.  Just a letter takes a couple of weeks to get there.  I would like to ship these no later than Friday, November 12th.  That will give them almost 6 weeks to get there.  If you want to mail stuff to me then send it to Janice Hill  5601 South 3850 West Roy, Utah 84067.  Of course you can always come see us as well.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers, contributions, thoughts, and letters for Chris and Isabel.  I know they appreciate all that you do.

Love,
Janice

3 Baptisms, Coke Bottles, & Life in Honduras

This evening we received this from the Bear. Please pray for his continued success and his safety!!!

Hey, how are you all?  I´m honestly really tired and not tired at all.  Sometimes life is like a haze and I´ve falted in not writing much. First off, I want to tell you that we´ve had some great success in the mission.  This weekend, I baptized 3 people.  2 young men of 16 and a man of 33 years who is trying to earn back the respect of his family.  All of which was a really beautiful experience and I´ll write about more in a bit.  Today we had a meeting with Presidente Flores, His Family, and my old district. It was our birthday of 1 month.  Haha.  At the end of today, Elder Hart told me, You´re Spanish is SO sick.  Haha.  It was funny but nice to hear. 

So I´ve lost some weight.  I don´t know how much.  Everynight our diet is different.  Usually we eat fried plantains, beans, rice, tortillas, and sometimes salsa or avocado, which is really expensive here by the way. Where I live in Honduras is really peaceful.  The area can be dangerous.  There are a lot of gangs in Honduras, a member of which we´re teaching right now, who is awesome and loves the book of mormon.

There are lots of banana, coconut, orange, lime and other fruit trees everyway.  Saturday I tried my first fresh cacao fruit, which is deliciously amazing.  Haha.

A lot of times at the houses of our investigatores, it smells like BO or pee, but never does it destract from the lesson.  Every now and then people give us fresh, crisp, hot to the touch tortillas with this sweet, fatty sour cream called montequilla, which is the word for butter in Spanish, which here butter is called margarina.  And the hospitality of the people here sometimes is unmatched.  However, the other day we were called false prophets by a young man who was burnt really bad when he was younger playing around with fire.  He said that we were going to go to the infierno.  Haha.  Scary.

I have only met one person who does not believe in God here, who was an old professor who was missing one leg. So everyone believes somewhat blindly in God, which is truly bittersweet, because they understand you but the restoration of the gospel doesn´t always hit home with people.  But it´s okay.  We still work really hard.

There are dogs EVERYWHERE and they poop EVERYWHERE.  Haha.  And there´s trash everywhere!  Which comes from this idea that you can return what the earth gave you to earth.  Which with fruit peels and skins makes sense because it composts, but coke bottles don´t.  At least don´t very rapidly.  Haha. Which reminds me!  People here are short, but like a few inches shorter than I am. And every day you see these people with giant bags of plastic coke bottles that are 3 times there size, like Santa Clause without his fat tummy. 

And we´re about to go teach right now.  You should look up some Honduranean things: mantequilla, balliadas. Anyway, my comp wants to go.  So I love you and here is a little bit of the mission.  I´ll write more later about the baptisms and send photos.  Tell Isabel I love her, and yeah.  Love you, Bye.

From Cochabamba to Sucre

This morning we received this email from Isabel. Please pray for her...for her success and for her safety.

Good Morning so i was only in cochabamba for two nights and now i am in sucre bolivia its kinda nuts i havent been in south america for so long and bolivia is poorer than costa rica and colombia so i wasnt expecting this... its all i ever wanted! the only thing is that here it gets cold and i didnt expect that either but right now luckly its spring right now. here there are tons on dogs on the street and just as much sheep and pigs eating the garbage on the street and some donkeys here and there. some places smell like egg because of the water and the trash it produces this gas like smell, regardless the view is amazing most people have unfinished houses and no glass windows so its a great view. the first night i was in jaihaico and had to move my bags 5 flights of stairs and i thought that was bad then i get to sucre and everything is up and down a hill... pretty legs here we come! my companion is bolivian!! hna choque yay i am so glad and she speaks quechua and i am learning just some basic things. and people here are short like at my shoulders and speak spanish very different so i find myself lowering myself and peering into their face really trying to understand what they are saying its funny no matter how much a am trying i stand out i can only imagine what this must be like for the north american elders that came the same day. the food is great well i really like it. it has more veggies and feels good in my stomach even when i am stuffed i dont feel like am going to die. so the first afternoon here i met valeria she is uneducated really poor sweet as can be but ultra shy we taught her like we would a 5 year old about prayers she still wouldnt do it on her own without our help. she has a fig tree and underneath it two sheep and yesterday when we stopped by there was only one and what was left of the other was the soaking skin and four little feet from the other sheep (my comp grabed them and started to play with them i laughed really hard and she said i grew up like this so these are toys to me which made me laugh harder) they killed it in the morning for the day of saints what in mexico is the day of the dead they prepare food that their dead would like to eat a nd they expect them every 31 of oct. and they make little porcelain faces and they make little bodies for them they call them thhanta wawas meaning bread children they make stair of bread to help them make their way up to heaven again and they pray specific prayers. here the little women with the braids and the colorful skirts and little hats are called cholitas which in san jose and mexico means gang member. it is kinda dangerous here first off there are no stop signs and hardly any traffic lights you ja walk every street and hope that everyone saw you. and then some men drink alot and well they give you the creeps one kid probably 13 walked close to us and i wanted to say hi how are you? instead there was something different about him and i just stared and but i didnt know what before i know it he reaches over to grab me.. there. i turned my body quickly and he only grabed my thigh but i got so heated in just a second i thought i´ll kill you (meaning i would grab him by the hair and punch him a couple of times) and then i thought you are wearing a missionary plaque and people didnt see him grab you and will think that you are beating a bolivian boy so i didnt. i did however yell who do you think you are you idiot. my comp says that that sadly has happened to her as well. the interesting thing is that president has sent us here because its safer than other places. and people have told me do carry two wallets and never my camera unless we are on prep day on mondays with elders which i will follow for sure. the other thing that was cool was that before leaving the states i got some crayons and some a Christmas coloring book and when i go to the tiny houses when i let the children pick one page to color and keep they think that im a teacher and they color it with such carefulness to be able to put it on their wall. and they take really good care of the crayons and i gave away the little mustang that you had sent me in my package and the little boys name is also david which i thought was perfect. luckily there is plenty of service you can do here because people have alot of chores, but even though the president tenorio says that we are to be successful here because there people have blood of belivers (like in the book of mormon) im finding some of the same things as in san jose california and on top of that there are always dogs right infront of out contacts! anyways i need to go. i love you all. familia no me han escrito pero janice si entonces por eso estoy ecribiendo en ingles
 
janice, david please fwrd this to the emails below.  love you!
 

Isabella's Visa Arrives, Leaving San Jose, and a Journey to Bolivia

Last Sunday night we received a phone call from Isabel.  She had received her visa.  She was excited, but also had a lot of mixed emotions.  She has loved her companion and they were having great success in San Jose.  Isabel made arrangements to call us the next day on her Pday when she could talk for a while.

On Monday she called us at 5PM.  She said she had gotten very excited, but it was also very difficult to tell the people and her companion good-bye.  I am so excited that her first experience in the mission field was so positive and successful.  She was scheduled to leave San Jose at 8:30 AM on Wednesday and arrive in Bolivia at 8:30 AM on Thursday.

On Wednesday Night she called us from the Miami airport.  She said it was strange to be alone and without a companion.  She again said how much she was missing Sister Crossley.  She did pray for help in Dallas and was blessed with a couple of Elders and another sister exiting a plane and seeing he they stopped and talked with her.  She tells us over and over how very blessed she has been.  She also told me how apparent it has become to her that we are all brothers and sisters.  We were hoping she would call once she arrived in Bolivia, but she wasn't able too.  Then today we received this email.  It kind of details her Journey to Bolivia.


hi janice hi david hi sweetie (as always i asked permision from my pres to wirte you and chris, my pres in sanjose said it was fine my pres in bolivia said i can only write by letters :( but we should be obedient so please forward this to chris) well i miss my companion from san jose and sanjose the trip was crazy it took a day and a half i was on 5 airplanes was in the middle seat everytme but the last, i threw up, am tired and know God is blessing me because even when i got here and i didnt want to do anything but sleep well i didnt want to have my temporary comps cancel their appointments so i showered and went out and God gave me strength. also the elders were amazed that i carried my back pack and a carry on with all my books that weighed like 30 pounds and a back pack of 16 pounds again God gave me strength. yesterday night we extended the baptismal date to a new investigator it was great nov 13 she will be baptized. well i got to go and email my parents love all

Don't send mail to the San Jose address anymore.  Her email is the same.  I am looking for her Bolivia address and will post it as soon as I find her mission book in her paper stuff.  You can send a letter via Dear Elder.com for free.  Just choose to send a letter by the pouch system to the Bolivia, Cochabamba Mission.

Holidays are not quite the same with out the kids here....but Happy Halloween Everyone!

Double Letter Monday and Coconuts!!!

From Isabel
hi thanks so much i couldnt see the pics you sent me :( what where they? i cant wait for the package!!!! thank you for the money i so badly needed it.i dont like using the credit card but was going to today. so thanks. i am so proud of you and david for planitng tulips (nice colors by the way) and sticking to the class. you are going to look so good and feel even better for 2012! YAY!!! i have no pics of the baby :( ...so real quick i wanted to tell you another story. so since we baptized two people our pool of progressing investigators went down, and honestly when we plan each week we measure the readiness of the people to recieve the gospel and if they arent keeping their commitments we "break up with them" and ask them to give us a call if there is ever anything we can do for them. because we only have 18 months to work hard and we have no time to waste like none i think if you do waste time "you gonna have som splaning to do" so we are always changing our teaching pool and we droped alot of people and we looked at eachother and though yup time to knock ALOT well my zone leader (joy! not) asked us what we were doing for the day we said alot of finding. he said really you dont have anyone to teach? knocking is a waste of time. so i asked (honestly i had the question i wasnt trying to be sassy or have attidude, but i guess i just look like im being a smart mouth) why would we be asked by our profet and apostles to knock atleast 1 hour a day then? well he got mad ans said well sis florido i think i would know a little about missions i just have more month here then you have weeks! (we'll forgive him he was on his man period) but it made me ponder alot. so i thought we are given commandments to bless us so we will knock and we have found this week many more pontentials that have the desire to learn and have been prepared to recieve the gospel. and we now have 4 more people with baptismal dates. and we have ricardo a family of 5! he has blood cloats one by his knee on by his lung and he has been given 1 month to live and is now on his 5th! so please pray for him. he wants to die knowing he is forgiven of his sins and wants to learn about our religion because he has been searching in others for a while and wants friends and a comunity for his family. but we feel he will live many more years because of his huge faith and the health blessing he recieved. Janice and Dave i love you very much dave i have been taking pics of mustangs for you. thanks again for everything. say hi to the family

Isabel also sent these pictures of Christopher in Honduras. He sent them to her last week.   She talked about them in her snail mail letter we got at the end of the week and I asked her to forward them.

From Christopher

Hola todo!

All is well here. I´m working really, really hard. I´m sorry that I´m not going to write a lot this time. I wrote a lot to my mission president and have had to cut all of my letters short. ´We´re working hard. I love you all. I will write more next week

Elder Hill and Hermana Florido Together at the MTC

Forgot to post this.  Christopher sent us this with his photos! 

The Catch Up on Hermana Florido

So our Isabella is still in San Jose.  Following are her emails and some pictures she sent us as well!

Sept. 20th

janice i love you too thanks for being intune with the spirit thank you for the package and thank david for the note and just thanks for writing but could you print it out and mail it to me during the week. it gives me courage and strength to read mail from home. yeah its been a bit hard this week but such a blessing i think that is what i will say when i meet my savior i will say "Dearest Lord, my Savior on high life was hard but i have labored a while i have thrust in my sickle and what a blessing it has been." a mission is the strangest thing that you could ever do you become a strange animal out here your instincts are always on " who is ready who is ready?" you are always supplicating "Lord help me" "Lord help them" "spirit guide me"and it is hard and lonely, you are always accompanied but you are always alone but you are not i cant explain it but every missionary feels this way and i know that part of my work out here is to understand Jesus while he was ministering here on earth could you imagine all the knowledge he had the spirit he carried and still people received him not. i cant ever ask in my prayers to be easily received and have everyone make my day because it feels like blasphemy b/c i know the Lord son of God himself was treated more poorly than i ever will be on my mission and so all i can ever ask in my prayers to have help to bear my burden well. plus i speak the language. i know a couple of things i know that i am doing what i promised i would do in the preexistence i know that i was born to a family living the values of the restored gospel because i needed that training to do what i am suposted to do now with the lamanites here who follow the wrong traditions of their fathers. i know that i learned spanish and english and was born into two cultures and spent time in your family and in mine because all these things combined are going to aid me now because this is his work and his glory and i cant explain how i know this but i just know that i was ment for this i was ment to preach the gospel and it is the best experience, and i would not take it back for anything you learn a little bit of how the lord feels he says over and over again my arms are stretched out still and they deny my. thats how you feel knocking on doors talking to people they dont understand how another church will save them because they dont pray daily read the scriptures daily they dont know that no other church has these life saving ordinances, no where else do they have the authorization to do them no other church has a living prophet. its hard when you explain the book of mormon and people look at you glazed eyed and say i dont need another bible thanks.. you just stand there and think his arms are stretched out still. i dont know if i make any sense in my letters but anyway. i love you but i have to go please help your missionaries in your area and thanks for all your prayers i love you and i love David .

Sept. 29th

thanks for letting me know that Chris is well. i prayed to know that he got there safe and woke up knowing he got there safe. NO! no news from bolivia :( which i really had my heart set on but i just need to stop being a brat and submit my will to that of my fathers. i also decided that i would email this to chris because i dont know how long it will be until he gets mail from me. this week p day was changed to tomorrow and we are basiclly spending the whole day at the temple which is great but i like emailing you all. so we decided to come and email so you know whats going on. it has been such a crazy week i cant believe that i have been here a month! and it feels like a week and a half. why is it crazy? well i will tell you. a cop gave us 40 bucks so that all the missionaries in our district could eat as we were all hoping we had enough in our blue cards and we went over by 2 bucks. also we had a lady get married so that she can get baptized oct 16!!! and after a whole days work the last door we knocked on the lady wanted to hear more of the gospel. Also a gentlemen came to church by himself and after two lessons has agreed to pray about the truthfulness of the gospel and upon getting a a positive answer to his prayer he will be baptized the 31 of oct. Also elder davis who is from layton was surprised by his nonmember father coming down to san jose to get baptized by him and confirmed by the Holy Ghost. also we get (as they say on the streets) Hella reverenced by all the gang bangers they know who we represent and they ask us for forgiveness when they curse and they ask us to be careful and they thank us for asking God to Bless them and some get mad when people shut the door in our face we had to tell them that its okay one said "God it makes me want to jump them when they do that Sh*t to you" we just tell her God himself came down and was persecuted so why are we any different. also my comp and i have been praying for the spirit and for miracles because God can part seas right? we know that Prophets wrote their miracles so that we could have faith in asking big things from God, well we want to part the seas too and find the elect, find the people with a willing heart and humble spirit and we have been knocking and doing our creepy friendly wave ha ha and talking to everyone even when they just roll their eyes at us and just trying very hard to be diligent (as diligent as you can be for an imperfect being that is still learning each day) and yes maybe bribing the children and flirting a little so little that Crystal probably wouldnt count it as flirting ha ha (got your letter chikis i Book of Mormon is on it way to you in English la muy gringa)and also to have a prayerful heart like in Helaman 3: 35 well it has been working we get to go into peoples houses and laugh with them and testify to them and we feel prompted to go one way and so we do or we feel prompted to do certain things and to bestow blessing upon them and it has been great. like i'll give you an example i prayed to know if i was being useful as a missionary if i was doing what my Heavenly Father wanted me to do i felt rebuked for somethings and appreciation for other things i felt in my heart without a doubt what i needed to do and what i was doing right. and then on top of that when i went to an appointment the family told us that what we had shared on sunday was exactly what they needed and when we left she told us again that we had answered all the questions that she had been having lately, i still dont know what those questions are but i know that becuase i had been doing my best the best way i knew how God used me as his mouth piece and helped his daughter. what she doesnt know is that she probably felt prompted to tell me that she had her questions answered by us to help reassure me that i am a useful missionary, and thats how God works if you pay attention if you are listening you see all the many things we does for us that our dull senses can perceive sometimes. I am very grateful that in the only true church which is this church that Christ himself directs i can get answers to my prayers and whats best is that i can extend this promise to others "pray to know if your church is the church of Christ and then pray again to ask if this is the His church, no other church can guarantee you will get an answer from God himself letting you know this is His Church" now when people say im not interested i dont take it as an answer because they dont even know what they are turning down so i tell them well can i come back and share the message and then you can let me know if you are or are not interested? then i feel like i did my part. i feel love for them concern all the day long for them. thank you for your prayers on my behalf next time you pray ask that God may soften the hearts of the people we contact. ill give you another example of how prayer works chirs wrote me and told me that he had prayed that we would get three new investigators, that week we got three new investigators, prayer works because God lives and saddly many people dont know how to pray and receive answers alot of others tell us that they pray daily and when we ask them to pray it this memorized prayer or simply God thanks for giving me health thats it. i am glad i know how to pray help others learn how to pray. Jonathan help people learn to pray! Joeson teach your girls how to pray, parents in roy, mami y papi pray as a couple and pray for eachother and thank the lord outloud for each other. Gina gracias por to email ya pronto te escribo. Crystal thanks for your letter and by the way everything about your dream was dead on, and you have heard me pray if you have any questions ask missionaries because prayer is powerful. oh could i please get some music? mewithoutyou, peter brianholt, anything uplifting and Godly like folk music. Chris baby good Luck! and by luck i mean Many Blessings, muchas cosas buenas de Dios!!! i pray for you all the time and i know that if you humble yourself and have prayerful heart God will work miracles through you! tell me about your comp. and the food and smell everything i loved your package and PICs they made me all so happy and remember be bold if they say no tell them you dont know what you are saying no to may i meekly share some thoughts....


I Love you ALLLLLL

October 4th

I am so glad that you are both going to do water aerobics i had been thinking about it lately so im glad that you are doing it! i cant wait for my surprise! also i cant remember when it was daves birthday the 2nd right? i loved the letter that he sent me i will write him back soon, there isnt anything that i need the only thing is that it has been very hot here and today im going to see if anyone in the ward can shorten my skirts. i go shopping all the time at target so if anyone ever wants to send me a gift, a giftcard for there would be awesome. also i know that painting you are talking about chris and i were seriously considering buying it for both of you while we were gone but we couldnt afford it at the end but its beautiful. janice and dave thanks for all the love and prayers that you have on my behalf i can feel them bearing me up two states away. im getting a little chunky monkey like my comp says so also if you could send me sugarfree treats that would be awesome. you know how long it took us to eat the oreos? two nights TWO NIGHTS!!! it was bad my comp is a oreo fein but still i ate several it was shameful. I miss Chris i am excited for him i wonder what he is up to what his apt is like what his pres is like. Im so excited for him but everyday i miss the bear butt. You know this week we committed someone to baptism! this saturday we have Rogelio Sanchez going to the waters of baptism! i will tell you more in another letter.


i love you both and thanks for the little car he will be going places with me:)

October 4th (2nd Letter)

Hola mi familia querida! how are all of you. so i will not be able to send you all pictures today because my companions usb cord doesnt work on my computer. so I have the greatest news to share! well this weekend was general confrence i hope we all watched it because God was talking to us his children through his prophet and apostles. and that was our door aproach this past week. we had maps to the building and invited people to come and hear the word of God through his only prophet. three people came! our goal was 6 so it was good. one important man came Rogelio Sanchez. he is from mexico his 5 foot tall he is so funny, humble as can be and has been searching for God for the longest time. he came to church by invitation of a member friend. Members do your part invite friends to come unto Christ! Rogelio said that he grew up in a very small town of very catholic people and that he saw missionaries before and he felt prompted to seek them several times but he was afraid of what others might say because many would tell him that "mormons" worshiped the devil they didnt believe in God or Christ. they hated the virgin Mary. i was astonished to hear how satan has worked so hard against the church of Christ by spreading lies among the people (its so amazing how similar it is in the book of mormon) and so he never did attend church or invite the missionaries in now he laments because he says i could have really used this light that you share with me today decades ago. when he was growing up his father was a drunk and beat his mother sometimes almost to death. his mother stayed with him because she couldnt afford to leave him with her 6 children. Rogelio being the oldest would get in between them all the time. his mom started to have business as a tailor and her business started to flourish well his dad didnt like this independence and Rogelio's aunt started to tell his father that his wife was cheating on him and would probably leave him. Rogelio cried last night as he told us of how much charity his mom had for his dad to take care of him always. he said that two years before his dad had gotten into a fight at the bar and someone stabbed him in the lower stomach causing all his insides to come out and that his mom would beg for money to give him the medical attention he needed. two years later he is better his alcholism getting worse and the beating getting worse and Rogelio's aunt saying that his mother was cheating on him. she had a little money saved and decided to leave before he killed her. Well rogelio told us that we came one night to his parents fighting and his dad shot his mother before his eyes, his youngest sibling only being a year and half in the living room crying. the others hiding. he held his mom she begged him to not hate his father because he was not in his right mind, she asked him to look after his siblings. rogelio was barely a young adult then and had to explain what happened to his siblings later that night he finds out that his father had fled but his uncle had caught up to him and being drunk as well shot him to avenge his sister and then shot himself. Rogelio feels remorse for not keeping the family together, guilt for not keeping his word to his mother and holding anger against his father, and saddness that all this time has passed and he still doesnt know how to be healed of the loss of loved family members and a broken home. we asked him if conference had helped him. he wiped his tears and said i was marveled because it did i felt like an innocent child after hearing the prophet. i feel joy and a perfect hope in my bosom after i speak to you both. i know i want to get baptized. we said Rogelio your mother and your father are still alive but in spirit alone. and they are learning about this plan of salvation and we are here to tell you that you are ready to be baptized so that eventually you can be baptized for them and rebuild your family again. he said he would be baptized this saturday. i met him a week after i came to San Jose, less than a month and he feels peace by praying and reading the scriptures and attending church. the second day we saw him we asked him do you know the book of mormon is ture?(now my mind was like why would you ask him that he probably hasnt read but my heart was guided by the holy ghost so i asked him anyway) and he answered yes i know that this book is true i have read the chapters that you asked me to read and i know that if this book is ture so is the church and i also know that Joseph Smith must have been a prophet of God. i asked him so you prayed to heavenly father to know? he said of course. Chris i pray for expericens like this for you. always pray in your heart before contacting peopl well i have to leave i have been emailing for too long i think i am breaking rules!


les quiero BYE!!!

October 11th

Hello im sending pictures today hope that you like, also i we had two baptisms this weekend and my companion and i taught them and we were so happy to be able to extend the love that Christ offered us to them we sung I Stand All Amazed and i couldnt get thruogh the hymn i kept crying it was wonderful the legacy that these people are leaving for their kids and future family

-the mustang is for David i thought of you when i see them now.
-my favorite family Griselda the one with the glases cant get married because her man wont marry her and ruin his legalization here in the USA
- my district you gotta love them except when you dont
-sweet tan line
-tiny little Rogelio trying on baptismal clothes

                                            -Mabel G. and Rogelio S. the newest members