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!