Mother's Day Phone Calls and Monday Letters and Photos!!!

Mother's Day Phone Calls
Yesterday morning very early we three way called Chris and Isabel again, just like on Christmas!!!  They sound wonderful and this time not even the least homesick.  Isabel is so ready to have a constant companion, the last couple of hers have gone home with health related issues and Chris thinks he is in Paradise.  It was fun to hear them converse, flipping back from Spanish to English and English to Spanish.  We talked about how fast time is moving for them right now as Isabel is half way done and in a couple of months Chris will be as well.  I think they both feel a little anxious about that right now.  I will ask again for everyone to pray for them...for their Safety, for their Health, for their ability to find those they were sent there to find and be able to teach them, and that they will have all the blessings our Father in Heaven sees that they need.  If nothing, these missions have taught this Mom to relinquish my kids to the Lord's hands!  At times Chris has been in some extremely unsafe situations and Isabel been very sick, but the Lord has taken care of them, he has protected and healed them.  I could not have done more or asked for more.  May the Lord keep them in the Hallow of His Hand and when the time is right bring them home safely to us and to each other. So here are the Monday Letters and Photos!!!

Isabella's Letter and Photos
hola so yesterday i spoke with my family that was great so great. it didnt make me home sick since they gave me good advice and told me to keep working only to please the lord. and even though i invited 9 families yesterday they had already said they would go and i promised them blessings and testified but when i picked them up, none came i am still okay because i pleased the lord i did all that i should have and could have and i know that even though bolivians are hard i wont be to blame. i cut my hair today. turned out okay. we had a finding activity we set a table and just started preaching and contacting and seeking the children of God it was fun rewarding and surprisingly easy i dont fear people anymore i know the gospel is true i could lay down my life for it and so when people answer the door and say no o shut the door or yell or mess with me and pretend to be possessed (because it has happened and i do have an appointment with that guy) it doesnt intimidate me at all before my mission i would be afraid but i knew i should do it anyway so i would out of diligence and obedience now i share it with love with power. the first door i knocked with my mish mom hna crossley was this biligerent old white guy who thretended to call the cops and i gulped and hna crossley said well could we help you with something and that only made him gnash his teeth more and then she comely said or do you know of anyone who would like to receive us and learn more of Christ? i was afraid but had a great example she said what a treasure but even he needs the gospel he just doesnt know it yet. now compare that with that guy who pretended to be the devil ha ha jaime is his name he said i cant hear you im the devil i said well if you are then i´ll have to beat you with this pamphlet he laughed and i was glad that he was indeed bluffing, he then said okay i´ll give you 15 min i said well hermano jaime you arent doing me a favor im doing you the favor so that you might find the path back to Christ, i think he was a bit stunned but listened and told me i could come back on saturday. my little helper karen who is only 16 and was the first in her family to be baptized was kinda afraid but super excited by the experience. karen and other young women have been taging along because i have been alone in my area but im going to have third daughter like everyone thought. hna palma my 1st and then hna martinez and i sadly dont know the name of this third little greenie. and although training is stressful at time im just glad im not going to be in a threesome YES!!!!!!! and the bishop in cala cala has been nice to me lately so thats great too. and time just flies and i get affraid for when they pull the plaque on me :( because i like this work and chris better think of ways (just as much as i am) to be able to go to many more missions. its hard but its rewarding all men need to come and all women please come there is so much work to get done in such a short time and we dont comprehend who we saw and promised we´d help here on earth to find the truth and the phone calls instead of making me home sick they made me i never want to leave this place sick ha ha i kept calling my mom hermana and my dad hermano and it was halarious because i speak like a bolivian and i wish you could all come and i think i might extend my mish one more month and then go home and then visit again bolivia, i love the stuborn little hat people too much ha ha leas amo mucho quidense Feliz dia de las madres.  also janice im very very proud of your missionary effort with that lady you met on you trip and invite the neighbor kids to a family home evening at your place:)

Activity to Find People

Same Activity

Eating at the Mission Home

Isabella's Creative Photography...if you look Close in the cement it says "Missionary Walk 2001"

Christopher's Letter\
have three minutes. I´m sorry that I´m not writing much this week.  I love you all. Please know that I love you all. So much. I really understand what Isabel said about not wanting to leave. It makes me want to be super far from you all as possible. Haha. I really like the mission. We need to be a mission based family after. Please invite at least one person to church that you all know in the week. Please. They need it and it will bless their life.  From the law of chastity to that the prophets right now are saying that you need to be debt free. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so real. Also, give, give, give all you can to others. I love you. I know that God lives, and that this is his work.
Sincerely, Elder Hill

Short Letters and Photos!!!

Isabella's Letter
sorry i wrote a lot to my pres this week but here are some pics this week and im still with no companion for the rest of the transfer but hopefully im not training again i want work really hard no more doctors or rests or melt downs or im going to finally have a meltdown of my own ha ha and i hope the package comes soon!  chris why did you send us excersice routines? what are you trying to say ? ha ha and do you guys have the address for joeson or gina?


bueno les amo mucho perdon and i hope the trip went well i printed your email havent read it yet and i hope everyones health is good. ciao

Hmn Martinez in pink next to me went home because of medical problems

My daughter in Sucre. The president let her come say Goodbye.
  She is the one that fainted  on me. She is going back to Chile

Mural represents the voice of the people.

These are the bathrooms in the schools.
  The worst part besides squatting down  is that there is a 5 inch gap between the door and the floor.
 Any kid could peek in!

This three year old plays his charango for a living.
I gave him 3 Bolivianos to take a picture with me!

hna florido

Christopher's Letter
 
Dear mom, dad, isabel.


I think that might be alright, but President hasn´t said anything about the phone call.  Um. Also, I live in paradise, and I hope that I am here forever.  I also love this job and I love you all. And I´m so happy that you talked about the church, mom, and that you won that award. And I´m sorry, dad, that you were sad about the mustang. I love that you are practicing spanish. I have to go. I love you bye!
Sinceremente,
Chris

Until Sunday....I will post about my Mother's Day Phone Calls!!!!  :0)

A Week in Paradise...

Hello everyone from Kansas City, Missouri!!! Sorry I am late posting but I have been about in the air today traveling for work!!!  Here are the Monday Letters!

Isabella's Letter
janice you look so good wow im so proud of you you keep it up my brother wrote a really long letter and i dont have any time left i love you both and cant wait to print off the leters you sent me im sorry but i will tellyou all next week les quiero chris im proud of all the success you are having and keep it up love

Christopher's Letter
This week has been a very good week, quite honestly. I think that I´m losing weight quickly, but some times I can´t tell which is frustrating.  Also, it´s likely that I will complete a year in the mission in Siguatepeque.  Frankly I´m not in a hurry to leave. Haha. It´s really beautiful here. We found two new families this week which was good, but our focus right now is to find LOTS. Families, families, families. We struggle in having
short lessons. 5, 10, 15 minutes. There are SO many people in every area and I feel the need to talk to everyone.

Friday before Easter, we had a really fun experience. We had just walked passed a house that was watching the movie The Testaments: One Fold, One Pastor... but ON TV! SO we tried to tell everyone. We walked by a "pulperia" (which is like a gasstation on the inside that sells everything BUT gas) that we had contacted and left the book of mormon. In the Pulperia, we saw that there was a television. We said
very exitingly, "Hey, change the channel to channel 6! They are showing a movie about when Christ came to the Americas! What the Book of Mormon talks about." So we were invited to watch it with him. While watching the movie, people came to the window to buy and I contacted all of them,"Hey did you know that Jesus visited the Americas? Because they´re showing a movie about it on Channel 6. This is actually what the book of mormon says! Did you know that?"  It was really fun, and we achieved 3 appointments, too. People really like the story of the book of mormon. The trick is the get them to understand that he has put his church again in the world. The secret is in the spirit, which comes from speaking your heart more than anything.
I also actually forgot that it was easter. Here they say the holy week and pascua. Which is easter. I just didn´t see eggs or chocolate this week. Haha. Maybe if I was in the city it would be different.

Also, I read a talk by Russel M Nelson this morning about being diligent with your money, not having debts and everything of the sort. I was thinking maybe that it´s better that you don´t visit me. and that I just come home. But I don´t know what you think. It would be better to save the money for rainy days if you know what I mean. A part of me would like to get married in Salt Lake, but at the same time Costa Rica would be nice because, well, family of Isabel would be there. Everyone could have a vacation. But shouldn´t we be careful with our money that God has given us? Prudent?  We'll talk. I only have.. 1 year and 3 months left.

Also, Dad, could you send me some exercises that I could do to work out my legs and thighs and other parts, too,? Effective excerises. I´m really trying hard to lose weight and actually get in shape.

Anyway, I love you. I hope you are all well. I´ll write you more on the details of phone calls. Love you all so much! Thank you for all that you do.

City Girl!!! Country Boy!!!

Isabella's Letter

so im so close to the temple i cant say this enough cochabamba is so normal i miss the craziness just a bit... ha ha not really im just glad i had five months in sucre and could really take in the culture and beliefs of the people im serving. again this week our numbers were low which really bumbs me only one investigator went to church but we spoke on sunday about missionary work and my mouth was just filled it was grand i even called them to repentence and shared moises 6: 59 its was great really one thing that i remember was that i said we are here to make it back home and as your own understanding of the attonment increases then so will your desire to share the gospel and i read mosiah 27 of alma the younger and it was a flawless speech and i know that is was the spirit of the lord that spoke through me. the bishop keeps giving us a hard time for not bringing people to church and then also wants us to come to ward council on sunday morning so the night before i had been so afflicted by his words that i looked at preach my gospel and opened right where it said that if missionaries ever had a conflict between picking up investigators or assiting to ward council we needed to go to pick up investigator and so we showed up that sunday and showed him preach my gospel and he hasnt said a word since YES! one thing that sucked was that we had 4 baptismal dates and one of them was really super duper excited but then when i called her she said dont come back that hurt to the core then at night when we called to give our weeks numbers the district leaders said oh we passed by ilma´s house she was really excited to see us and the dad agreed to meet with us to give us a chance to talk about her baptism that hurt even more like i am trully excited that the elders made progress but why havent we had that much success? the point being is i dont know how many times i have prayed to meet with her dad just have him open the door and have the spirit testify and its never happend and then all of the sudden they knock an their he is, and agrees to meet with them. it made me feel like a bad missionary. so i took a long time writing to the president today i think my problem lies in that there is and elder that came with me from sucre and i didnt like him then and now that he´s assistent i really dont like him so i think that i need to learn charity for him i dont know what im doing wrong. and we´ve been in the hospital bc of my compi today we are going gain wish me luck! and today i found granada!!! mom would envy me ha ha.

Cochabamba Temple

More Fruit???

Granada

Christopher's Letter
 
Hi!

I really miss you all so much. Every e'mail really touched me. Thank you so much for all of your love.  So, I´m in Siguatepeque which is paradise.... It´s one of the most beautiful places on earth. I just wish that they grew chocolate in place of coffee. Haha. They grow SO MUCH COFFEE here. Haha. So, this week I have walked about 10 miles everyday, and I´m losing weight quickly because we don´t eat with members. Yaaay!!! Less food, more fresh fruit. I´m going to find a cherimoya today! Whoo!

Oh! So I have to tell you that I love birds. I am going to have lots of birds (or at least one that sings).  There are so many beautiful birds here. And the bananas taste so amazing and I just... wow. I love where I am. The interesting thing is that we have to walk reeeeeally far to get to certain appointments. Like I said, we really walk about 10 miles every day. And I haven´t eaten dinner really in the last week. And I feel so much better physically, which is really nice. Also, people really do practice witchcraft here. We went to the market with a member that was visiting with us and we had to go to the eerie side of the mercado, which is like a grand labyrinth. She had to buy some medicine and we went to an herb shop and it was the worst, weirdest feeling ever. I felt like I was in an alley in England at night in the 1400´s. Really, really strange. I don´t even want to buy herbs from them, it was so strange.
So, here , we´re in a branch, which is novel in a way. And the Branch President is an amazing person. He taught me about tithing the other day, and confessed all of the miracles that happened in his life BEFORE he was a member yet paying tithing. And now he doesn´t work. He owns property and dedicates his life to the gospel. I am going to look into that. Owner of land. I don´t have lots of updates about the work because I ´ve just been getting to know everything and it´s all very different. I hope that God lets me stay here for 6 months.

So, don´t worry about me. Everything here is very, very calm. Very safe. I hope you like the fotos.

Love, Chris

Loves the Birds!

Christopher's New Comp....Elder Green!!!

Elder Valsquez (not companion, but another missionary)
They are doing service!

The Long and Winding Road

We received an email from Christopher today!  Please everyone pray for his safety and to know of our love for him.....maybe even more so you should pray for this crazy mother's mind and heart to be calm!!!  I keep telling myself that worry is like a rocking chair...it gets you no where!!!  Enjoy the letter.

Christopher's Letter

Dear Mom, Dad and Isabel;

This has been the longest three months of my life... that went by so fast in la flor del campo. I can't really tell you, because I feel impressed by the spirit to not say everything in detail that's happened. I will say that I lived in one of the most dangerous areas of the mission. Something happened this week that made it so I had to leave the area suddenly. My zone leaders called me on Sunday while we were eating lunch and said,"Elder Hill, you have changes of emergency. You need to pack everything and be in the office tomorrow (monday)at 11:00."

They didn't say where I was going, nor did I find out where my destination was exactly until the next day. I am now in a very small city called Siguatepeque (maybe you can look it up on a map). My new companion has two months in the mission, and I am now senor companion. Which reminds me that tomorrow I will complete 9 months in the mission. I hope to complete my first year in Siguatepeque.

From Tegucigalpa, it takes approximately 3-4 hours to arrive in Siguatepeque. The trip to arrive was absolutely beautiful and refreshing like spring water after being in the burning hot desert sun. Of all the varieties of resilliant green trees that attract the attention of your eyes, of the small houses with hollowed-out trees cut into shingles for roofs, of the sounds of small rivers and singing tropical parrots. Of everything that is cut, crafted and formed into a masterpiece by unknown artists I have never been in such awe and wonder.

I saw everything that you would imagine of the beautiful indigenous lands of early settlers, of beautiful crafts and simple people. For three hours, I talked with Elder Coreas about his life and conversion and watched in an honest splendor of the natural beauty that passed us. Honduras is rich with life and aspiration, where the tendencies of the mountains and the tropical rain forests breed and make splendor.

I can't tell you how grateful I am to be where I am. It's a small city of very peaceful people. It looks somewhat like the small towns in Idaho or Utah. It's simple. But it feels like home and resonates in my heart with subtle sound waves like the ocean. Know that I'm well and safe and God loves us. And nothing will touch what he holds in his hands. He's The Protector.

I think that I'm ready to go. I think I'm going to achieve much here. I hope that I can carry the same time here that I carried in the city. May God bless you all and may you love your God keeping the eye of your heart fixed on him.

A few things: I would like some organic deodurant that comes in a tube and is made of water and aloe vera. If you could send that when you can. Also, I really, really, really need money. I'm sorry to ask. I just... don't have any. So, if someone could help, please, I really need your help.

Sincerely, Chris
....
Isabel, I miss you so much, love. I was really happy to hear that you have your three sisters with you. My new companion is named Elder Coreas from El Salvador. He might be the most humble person in the entire world. I really love how calm he always is. We might be really happy to see each other just that we can cry
on each others' shoulders. Haha. Stress, right? We're here to suffer, I say all of the time. I was never ever stressed in La Flor, but I was so incredibly stressed physically and spiritually. I hope that we can go for the same ride that I saw today. I love you so much. You're my only love in this life. I couldn't listen to any talk
in conference without thinking of you. Also, please put much attention on the talk about the doctrine of the family in the Liahona of March. Something I learned is that if we don't teach about the exhaltation (familias eternas) we're not teaching about salvation, and if we're not teaching the true salvation, we're omittingly denying the love of Christ.

Te amo, buttface. :) !Te amo te amo te amo un dia voy a besarte!
Oh! I lost weight! Te amo!

PoPcOrN!!!

Here is Isabella's letter.  She sounds good and more herself again!!!  No letter from Christopher yet today!! :0(  I will post it later if one comes in.

Isabella's Letter

popcorn cant live without it!‏i live with two other sisters one is colombian she is so nuts and fun and gets crazier as the sleepiness sets in the other is this really tall quiet farmer from utah who is also really witty and then my companion who i think usto be a cheerleader type before her mission but she has so many problems with her health right now that she cries almost every day at companionship study and then asks me all that she should do and shouldnt do and i carry her books for her bc her back aches and its a bit tough sometimes but i have the two other sisters to play it off on which trully is a blessing. everynight we chat all four of us and then eat popcorn we make at home and laugh and make a huge mess and then i get pissed at them all in a funny not serious way and then run around gathering their crap, its fun. i am also gathering fruit from the trees and saving the seed... but how to smuggle it? hmmm this weeks numbers were low compared to whats attainable here in bolivia as a goal but so much better from las week and even though i feel pressure to baptize and meets the number goals as long as i see progress its all good.in my las area although i loved hna palma she was very hurt emotionally as a child and i had to do almost everything by myself because she was shy ans affraid and teaching her with lots of patience which isnt a quality that just emanates from me ha ha and then she has her meltdown when she knew i was leaving and that was so stressful but i couldnt break for the ward or the investigators or my companion and especially for the lord. after that storm and now this one im living with my companion possibly being sent home i just have to carryone i remember the necklace janice wears be still i want one that says all is well. i havent unloaded everything that has gone one here because it would just be too much and i already feel that my emails are like vent sessions sometimes. but hna ortega said sister you have gone through so much stuff here in the mission i think your going to be the wife of an apostle someday and the lord is teaching you how to deal with stress. maybe who knows right. i love my mission i love who i can see myself becoming i love that the lord is so patient with me that he is so patient with us all that he is trully a loving being, God is Love. and learning the area well and hopefully they leave me one more transfer in the area because i finally have got the right rythm. hna crossley trained me and i opened area in sucre and now again in cala cala and ive learned so much of the culture the traditions i move and flow like a bolivian and i just pray that i can be a tree of good fruit by the end of my mission. today i have 8 months in the mission and thats a bit scary. i love you all and i look forward to someday opening a site our own to make organic food available to more peeps.


les amo mucho could you also send me pic of chris?

Temples and Transfers!!!

Christopher's Letter
I love to see the temple, I´m going there someday. To feel the holy spirit, to ma'r'ry I-sa-bel. :)‏

I really liked Conference although I didn´t understand a lot while I was tending to investigators and trying to take notes. While I was writing notes, my mind couldn´t focus on what they were saying. Haha. Luckily, I watched Priesthood in English because we didn´t have any investigators during that session. To which, I´m very grateful and somewhat sad. Haha.  Presidente Flores gave us the task of having 10 people and I know we COULD HAVE HAD 10, if he had sacrificed our time well; however, we only had 8. Which is still very good.

I´m learning a lot in the mission: how to work so hard and be blessed by God with pure endurance; also how to sacrifice, how to plan, how to acheive my goals. I hope that I am a succesful person after the mission with my lack of schooling. I know that the Lord will bless whoever dedicates his time to him. There´s a scripture in Jacob 2 that says Antes de buscar riquezas, buscad el reino de Dios. Y despues de encontrar una esperanza en Cristo, obtendréis riquezas. I really want to be able to work and provide everything for my family in the future. I don´t want to be poor. Of which I say only in the way that I want take very good care of my family. My goal is to be a person of great success despite what may have passed in my life. I know that I will be said person if I put all I have in the service in the Lord.

I´m sending you photos of two people I baptized last week. I wish that you could all focus on spiritually preparing yourselves to participate in taking the sacrament. I promise that you will feel the remission of your sins more real than ever. Sadly, I only have 40 seconds.  So, I will say that I love you and write you more by hand.

I love you so much.

Elder Hill



I Love To See The Temple!  This is the temple being built in Honduras.



This is how I feel about sin.

I baptized Esperanza a week ago and Elder Soto baptized her sister a month ago!

Carlos got baptized last week!

Isabella's Letter
hi im in cochabqamba now in a ward called cala cala and cochabamba is sooooo much more normal than sucre sucre is nuts! people pooping in the street and killing pigs in the same street and showering with buckets every other day No More!!!! and im glad because its looks like and feels like colombia, and the poeple have a higher education and thats nice bc you dont have to explain words like glory or celestial. and our area is huge and the lord heard me and put me in a zone with more sisters and one is from colombia and the other from lehi and i taught her how to wash her clothes today. i truly miss the people that i learned to love whom i was serving and the ward that had a bishopric change and the members i loved i miss it but i dont miss the craziness. and hna palma is better now. you know i have always been told you are strong and i never really believed it not fully, i now do i have had so many stresses lately and i havent gone nuts. my new companion in cala cala is hna martinez shes from guatemala i cant download pics right now (could you send more memory cards im nervous to send you the ones i have but im running out of space) it wont read the memory card. her boyfriend served in honduras so its fun to talk to her about central america and get an idea of what chirs is living. she has a bad back though they didnt diagnose her before but its painful for her to walk or sit or stand for too long and i carry her scriptures and mine so ease her burden and she cant sleep at night all the way through and she also gets constipated and all people eat here is rice and potatoes which makes is worse to see her get up every morning and just pretend it doesnt hurt when i know it does is so inspiring. i see her and i see me when i first got here when i would miss chirs and have a painful period and would just get up and work because i felt bad to burden the work but i have to say she is so much more devoted i feel bc imagine having to climb up and down with a bad hip that send electricity down your leg. she cries sometimes when she goes to therapy and it takes two hours away from our proselyting time and then her hip still aches. i dont know why im living this with every companion, hna choque took care of my salmonella and i learned how to watch over someone ill bc of how kind she was, hna palma had her meltdowns periodically and know hna martinez with her hip pains poor thing, but one thing that has become clear to me during my mission is that God loves me and all my experiences are but a short while and if i endure them well i shall be exalted. so even though im bumped i havent baptized last month at all and the previous one either i know that i am being obedient i know that with the limited knowledge i have i am doing all that i can think i can do that will please the lord and thats all he asks of me. i loved conference of all 12 people we envited twice during the week only one came the one we couldnt find and didnt invite. and though we got sad that our brother didnt give the lords mouth piece priority every prayer this weekend has been answered and i feel my saviours love for me. my favorite talks were from dallin h oaks about desire leads to priority priority to decision making and decisions to personality and quintin cook aobut the importance of women a talk i feel was overdue for the people in bolivia and especially richard g scotts talk about eternal families and his wife. his life and his wife resembles chriss and my story.


les amo ciao