Pictures are Worth a 1000 Words!!!

To Mom

Hi!
You are so good at counting the days till I come home. Haha. Why is that?
A picture is worth a thousand words.

SO... you have four thousand words.
I love you!

Dad's Letter (you will have to see if Dave will translate it for you or try Google or Bing translate)

Yo pienso salir con los misioneros todos los dias cuando regrese. No hay tiempo que perder. Dígales que pienso salir. Diga al Obispo que quiero trabajar. Y diga al Presidente de la Rama que allí quiero trabajar también. No quiero dejar de trabajar. Ayudemos a las personas a venir a Cristo. Su Expiación es real y debemos invitarles. Papi, tiene que ser amigos con más de nuestros vecinos y tiene que conocer más personas. Yo creo que el Señor prepara a nuestros amigos, compañeros de trabajo y otros conocidos que sepamos. Él está alli siempre. Me angustio porque depués de la misión no tendré esta autoridad, pero no quiero no trabajar. ¿Me entiende? Es complicado, pero se puede.

Ayer tuve una experiencia bonita. Una familia investigadora que ha venido a la iglesia por como un mes que vive fuera de nuestra área me llamó la atención. Sentí la impresión que tenía que bautizarse, que el Señor les llamaba. Entonces, después de la reunión sacramental, al final de la clase de investigadores, invité a todos los investigadores presentes que seguirieran el ejemplo de Jesucristo y se bautizaran. Esta familia, la familia Rodriguez, aceptó el compromiso. No les habíamos enseñado una vez, pero sentí que estában listos y, sí, estában listos. Les visitamos en la noche y invitamos a ellos y sus hijos al bautismo nuevamente y todos aceptaron. Es hermoso ver el cambio en la vida de las personas.

También, un logro como Asistente, en la misión logramos 123 bautismos, 17 familias y 26 hombres mayores de 18. Esta fue excelente. Nos arrancamos de los numeros bajo de 100. Sentimos un gran animo por elevar nuestra fe. Hemos trabajado mucho por ayudar a los misioneros que se arrepientan y que sean obedientes. Les hemos enseñado sobre el valor de invitar a todas las personas a venir a Cristo por medio del bautismo enseñándoles como dar testimonio sinercero y varias otras cosas. Y me he cansado haciéndolo también. Hoy en la mañana, a las 5.30, me levanté y me arrodillé para orar, pero instantaneamente, me dormí! Jaja! Y my compañero no me dijo nada. Solo se fue a hacer ejercicio. Y cuando me desperté eran las 6 am ya. Jaja. Tan cansado está el cuerpo, pero el espíritu muy feliz.

Buen, papi. Te amo mucho.
Hasta lunes.
Oh, y hoy cumplí 22 meses. Pasa rápido el tiempo, verdad?

Bueno. ¡Nos vemos!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, mom!

How are you? I am fine. Look. You might kill me because I forgot my camera. And so did my companion. I am really sorry. Do you know what I miss? Going to get a drink with you. Do you remember the "let´s go get a drink" days? I do. But I think it would be better to kick the soda drinking habit.

Those let´s get a drink moments were actually really important moments when you taught me, did you know that? Once we were driving and as we passed the church, I was talking to you about what I wanted to do in life or something (I don´t remember exactly what) and you said to me,"You will accomplish nothing in your life without Jesus Christ in your life." And that phrase haunted me as a teenager... Because it is true. And it made me think and wonder.

 Another time I was somewhat troubled about problems in the world or something, and I remember you bought me a doctor pepper and you asked me if I knew if the church was true. And I felt the spirit and felt uncomfortable. And I knew it was true. Even to the point of a swollen throat and tears I was at. I knew it. But I could´t come to terms with the reality of His love.

You have always been an example in testifying of Jesus Christ and the church. And because of those moments, you will be more than blessed in the world to come. The Spirit has marked them in my mind and I will always remember your testimony of Him. Thank you so much for that. 72 days.

I love you so much.
Happy Birthday
And Happy Mother´s Day.
Elder Hill

A Letter To Dad!

Dave Received this on Friday Night.

Dear Dad,

Thank you for writing about your mission. It makes me feel good knowing about your mission.
It is something I need to hear and really want to hear more. I would rather listen to you talk about
your mission than to tell you about mine. I´ll learn a lot. I would love it if you would write more
stories down. I have never heard them before, but would love to bind a small book about your
experiences, and with yours, maybe I could combine mine. Maybe those of Ted and Grandpa
we could make a book for them, now that they have served missions. It would be a fun
genealogy project to do.

I don´t know what I was doing with all my life in my teenage years. It was a very difficult time.
I would love with all my heart to go on the same father son activities that we would have gone on, and do Family Home Evenings, do visiting home teaching. I would even love to work on your mustang with you. :)

Today at 6:00 we are going to have the baptism of a family, la familia Enriques Sosa. A member,
Linda Raudales, who just moved to Utah to study in BYU, presented us to her friend Dalis Sosa.
When we arrived at her house we said,"Hey, is your husband here?" ... Because we always have
to have someone of the same sex present, right? And she said,"No, he´s not here (in her mom´s
house, where we were at.) He´s in our house."

And we were really bummed out because we expected to teach a family of a father and a mother.
But then she said,"hey, but we can go to my house. I live right around the corner." Which made
us really happy. She had received the missionaries before, right? But her husband never listened
to the missionaries. This time when we arrived at their house, he accepted our visit. And they
both changed their life and have shared with us things like now they don´t get angry with one another.

Armando, the husband with tears in his eyes, yesterday, after his baptismal interview said,"I feel like, in that room, with that missionary, I just took a load off of my shoulders... I feel so light. I want this change to be permanent."

I have learned that we can impact the life of a person through Christ, even in 5 minutes or one visit or over the course of one month. The secret, I have learned, is the testimony of a person. My testimony. My repentance. My baptism. My spiritual experiences. When we share them with others, it will change them. Like anyone that might have been with Christ in person at one point or another, was changed. I invite you to teach someone with your testimony.

I love you a lot.
I respect you as the Patriarch of our family.

Sincerely,
Elder Hill

Pictures From Sister Flores (mission president's wife)

I found these on facebook on Friday.....LOVE, LOVE them! They are from President and Sister Flores.  Happy Mother's Day.....tomorrow we get to Skype and see the handsome boy!

BUSY & CHANGES

So I have been slow in posting.  Chris didn't write last week until Friday and then we heard from him again on Monday.  Here are the letters!  Oh...and yes....we will be skyping with the cute boy and see his cute face on Sunday....best Mother's Day ever...I am sure it will be!!!

FRIDAY'S LETTER

This has been a a really busy week. Zone Conferences, Evaluation of the new missionaries and their trainers, and the Meeting to Capicate New Trainers. I haven´t taken a break and next week we receive the new missionaries,have to train them and then we have Transfers and we have to send a bunch of missionaries home. Yay!

And a family we are teaching compromited to getting baptism. Love you bye.

Thank you for everything.
I love you.

MONDAY'S LETTERS

That is the neatest thing that Zach Christensen is getting married. I think he is a jerk for not letting me see his wedding. Haha. Tell him that. This week we are having changes. My new companion will be Elder Yela from Guatemala. He will be my last companion. This is my last area and my last assignment.

I have my flight information. I will be arriving in Utah August 2nd at 11:15 PM. After Elder Ahlborn, the secretary gave it to me, that night I had a dream about being in the airport with those from my group. I remember calling you guys and that´s all I remember.

When I arrive I will have a Honduran treat for you! And... yeah. I love you all very much. These are
two weeks of work. Pray that we might acheive 200 baptisms in the mission. We are doing al we can
to motivate the missionaries to have faith to do it. I am so excited for these my last two changes.

I am sorry mom that you didn´t get your wish and I really liked the story about your dream, dad. I love you a lot. Is there any chance that you could find about getting my teeth fixed when I get back and what are the best options with braces or whatever technology exists. Um. I need money, too. I don´t want to bother, but I need money.

With love,
Elder Hill

 

AND MONDAY'S 2nd LETTER ABOUT MOTHER'S DAY

 

I forgot about that. I will have to call you about that. Don´t worry. I will call you during the week, okay? I am going to try to talk by skype. My church is from 9-12. Haha. So... I don´t know what we´ll do. But let me talk to the medics about Skype and then I will give you a call and we´ll arrange it. Okay? Okay.

 

Love you bye.