Baptisms, Basketball, & Bread

Isabel's Letter
fernanda and david were baptized this week!

buenos dias familia thanks for your emails and just letting me know how you all are doing, i love you. i have asked the president to stay another transfer the president said he can extend my mish till the 29th of feb without permission but that he has to ask for permission from a general authority to have me here till the end of the transfer which would be april 10 and usually we do a family home evening at the mish home the monday of that week when we leave and tuesday we go to the temple and have the final interview and then i ship out either wed or thur. but none of this is totally for sure until i have my flight information which i wont have until the two weeks or three prior. i want to arrive to the salt lake airport and then give my homecoming talk in the roy ward since they have supported me so much, and i am forever indebted. this week my new companion was ill for most of the week we went out only like 4 times the whole week it was kinda sucky but we still got everything done for the baptism. theres not a whole lot to tell this week except viva el rock! thats my converts´ favorite phrase when he didnt know what to respond during the discussions. anyway i am having a really great time and i am so blessed president just agreed to let me stay aperantly he usually tells the sisters to go home study and get married. any i love you all take care! chris congrats on the family! i am so happy for you

Chris' Letter

I am!!!... Peludo. (Hairy.)

Dear mom and dad,

This week we didnt baptize that family! They had to work the day of their baptism!
Haha. It is funny how things go. It is very probable that in two weeks I am going
to another area. We had interviews the week before last and I dont remember
what he told me honestly, but he asked my companion in his interview if he was ready
to receive a new missionary and to another Elder in my district, he said,"Elder, you are
trained to be district leader, right? Are you prepared if your distrit leader has changes?"

SO. It is pretty (I wrote pretture... who knows what that means) sure that I am leaving in
two weeks. Who knows where I will go? I would like to go to a pueblo again. A change of
scenary. Campesinos (Hicks. Haha. No, really it means "field people or people from the field")

In this week, I have had lots of thoughts of personality, or who I am,
and what will life be like after the mission. People change in the mission.
Not who we are, rather who we have become. I like how it is said in
Spanish. "llegar a ser" which means become, but litteraly means
"arrive to be." So the mission is a means by whcih we arrive to be
a new creature. The same person refined and reborn in the work of
the Lord. I dont know if that makes sense.

My changes are:
1) respect for authority
2) a comprehension of obedience
3) I have lost 37 pounds
4) I understand the atonement and
how to take advantage of it.

Today we as a district are going to play basketball and make "Pan de Pan."
Bread of Bread. It is kind of like carrot bread, but without carrots, made of
white bread, "semitas," and... other types of bread. And you mix it all with
sugar, eggs and other ingredients. I dont really know how to make it. The
sisters are going to make it. Haha. I think that Isabel would like it, because
she likes to bake. The other day I saw pumpkin pie mix and it made me want
to make pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes, like she made us once.

I will send you pictures.

Love you.

Elder Hill

...

I hope that you get to stay like you want to. The mission is the best.
Congradulations on your baptisms! They look crazy but like a lot of
fun your investigadors. Love you. Have fun.

Hey! You should show me a typical food from Bolivia that I could make
here. It would be a good activity as a district.

Onward, Ever Onward!!!

Isabella's Letter

sorry i cant write i was writting to the president, this week we have two baptisms fernanda and david. fer is shy and 13 and david outgoing and wants to be a magician his favorite topic is final judgement and has introduce us to all his friends they have baptismal dates now. anyway i love you all take care. oh and thats hna nevarez my chill pal shes from washington and is awesome we tell eachother todo so cool to have her. love ya hna florido

Christopher's Letter

Hi.

Hi, mom! Hi, dad! Hi, Isabel! Hi, everyone.

This week has been crazy. We only taught 6 lessons! However, we were planning on having a baptisms of the Zambrano family, but things were nuts. We were running from the church to their house to the house of members and back the house of the Zambrano family and the Gaitán family, trying to arrange baptismal interviews and get baptismal clothes and the week seemed quite hectic. In the end, we only had 4 baptisms of the Gaitán family and one of the children of the Zambrano
family. This week we expect to excite the Zambrano family to get baptized. They really like the church, but the thing is they work SO hard.

 

You have no idea how people fight for what they have... even if it´s just 4 walls, a floor and rice and beans. Brother Zambrano is a watchman for a goverment contracted company. He is 55 years old and has 10 children living in a house half the size of the garage and it´s made of wood. Sister Zambrano
is 35 years old (a 20 year difference!), who is overweight and extremely stressed; however, she loves her children very much. But you have to catch her in the right moment to talk to her. Always I have noticed the difference when we come home from church with him. She is more relaxed and happy
and with much ease we can converse and get to know each other.

The 10 kids spands a whole generation or even 2 decades of which are inbetween 6 months and 20 years old! Only 2 children have a true interest in the church. One of those is called Joel, who is 12 years old and when I first met him, he honestly desired anything BUT talking with us. Nevertheless,
the miracle is that he is the most active in the church right now; even so that he, after being baptized and confirmed this week, went visiting with the Young Men to less active "Young Men." Children are the purest (and most strange) of heart.

Here people make about 1 dollar an hour. It´s less than the minimum wage, which is about 250 dollars a month. However, the workers of a place like Wal-Mart would earn said 250 dollars, but their work schedule begins from 7 AM and ends at 10 or 11 PM. An 3 room apartment with one bathroom here costs 3,500 limpiras, which is about 190 dollars a month. Figure, making 250 dollars a month and havingto pay 190 for where you live, which leaves you with 60 dollars to buy food and clothing.
... for a wfie and 10 children. Haha. It´s difficult.

But the membership in the Church of Jesus Christ takes away the burdens of the people. In the Church, we are Something. We are accepted for who we are and our talents, if we wish, are put to work immediately. Which is one of the things that Sister Zambrano loves: The Relief Society and its activities.

One of the things I love about the mission is that we are all equal. As missionaries, we are not poor or rich, or anything of prejudgement. I love Equality. Things are changing, I know. I don´t know who I am, but I have learned to live and love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I imagine I am still Me; however, the changes have been many in the mission. Love is forever, but the changes must be so that we might come closer to perfection. God prepares the way. We must seek the Change. In the MTC, Elder Bender gave a talk saying that it doesn´t matter that we do good things, rather it is who or what we  are becoming. We all can do good, but who are we at the end of having done good. 

I have had fear of falling away from the church after the mission. I am trying to hard to have the purest change of heart in all things that I might truly come unto Christ. I don´t want to fall, rather, I want to be an inmovable mountain of spiritual strength for everyone else.

I love you all, but I have to go now.
I miss your faces.
I complete eighteen months this coming Saturday.
The curtains are coming to a close.

6 Weeks & Hooola!!!

Isabella's Letter & Pictures

first off im finishing my mission did you know? have i not talked about it enough? i have 6 weeks left. and i am giving bolivia all i have left which is alot of excitment and cheer sometimes i get a bit gloomy to leave but i dont focus on that and we found a whole family whose mom is a less active and desperatly wants to quit drinking they are so wonderful and humble and just longing for a positive change and even though they drink and its a problem that affects all of their lifes you can feel the love they have one for another. unfortunetly they werent strong enough this week to make it to church but thats where we come in and we will nurture them and strengthen them until they can walk on their own. i still havent taken pictures of them but will soon bc my camera doesnt have anymore virus. yay but now the lens is making strange noises but thats okay i still have my comps camera. i couldnt send you pics of the mine last time like a month ago but that pday was so epic here they are. my comp wasnt with me bc she didnt feel well enough to slide down and so i went with the elders it was so fun we sled s good way down and even though my butt hurt it was worth it no other sister wanted to come with me though. also i told the president last time i saw him during xmas time that in my humble opinion hna nevares had stayed way too much time in cochabamba and that she would most likely love my area i dont know from where i got the spunk but i winked at him and said so what do you think president maybe? and guess what this week i am getting my new companion and bestie hna nevaress im ending well. and though i am very sad that my comp cherres is leaving me bc we became very close i know she is moving to better and bigger things she is going to villamoscu and thats a tough area she is usto dirt roads and polite people who let you in and now this is the polishing part of the mission creating a need for the rich people to listen to her.

 

anyway i just looked at the time i have to go. i love you all and am so happy for the baptism of troy and the packages still havent come yet but they will hopefully not by the end of my mish though ha ha. love hna florido

 

 

Christopher's Letter and Pictures

 

Dear Mom and Dad,

It is so wonderful to see those pictures and hear of that story.  I hope that you are both keeping record of it in your journal. For the first time in my life that I remember, you are actually participating in the salvation of other souls! Haha. It brings me great joy. I hope that you help him stay in the church. It is
really, really beautiful. And there is nothing else of value in this world than serve one another and bring others unto the knowledge the Good Pastor. He knows and loves us.

I have had a really difficult and excellent week. We had a wedding. Once again, the Sacrament has brought me peace and fixed my soul. I testify that the Atonement is true and powerful. I recommend that you study the Atonement, Justice and Mercy in the topical guide and study for the scriptures. They make a big difference in my day to day life.

 

Look. So, mom, you need that story.

The name of the man is Gustavo Caceres. All of his family are members of the Church and have been pioneers here in Honduras since long ago.  His wife is the Pres. of Relief Society. He has received the missionaries for more than 27 years and never has treated them very well. We began visiting him and we see that the Lord knows the way to a persons heart, if we will let him, he will come in and fill us with joy. And we will know without a doubt that it is of God. That is what happened with Gustavo. Little by little, we completed with his commitments and I remember when he said for the first
time in prayer, after having attended church with his family for the second or third time,"Father in Heaven, I know that I have felt thy spirit tonight..." And we find a tall, powerful, punctual man was braught to tears many time by the Holy Ghost and he courageously answered the call, despite the pressure of his other family who hate the church. He was baptized by his oldest son who is a returned missionary.

"I am the Good Pastor and I know my sheep, and my sheep know my voice."
John 10:14

I know that this is the church of God. I testify with much love. But I have to go. I used 8 minutes extra to write this. I love you so much.

I got my package. Thanks for everything! I loved it. I also am going to need
money to buy a new suit, because mine is ripped in the pants and a few places.
They cost here like 150 dollars. Sorry, but thanks!

I love you, Dad. I love you, Mom. I look forward to doing Family Home Evening with you when I get home.  And helping all that we know to come unto Christ. The mission has just begun. I want to come home on the plane, but may we return someday to Honduras.

Con amor,
Elder Hill

 

 

It Isn't Snowing Here, But We'll Have A White Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  I haven't posted in a week or two.  Sorry!  I have been an emotional Mom...I miss these children of mine so very much and I so want the very best for them now and when they come home...so hard to be patient, but I will keep trying.  Best Christmas present ever was talking to these two and spending time with our Jared. I am going to make one more Mom plea before I post letters and pictures.  Please keep Christopher and Isabella in your prayers.  For many reasons, they are both coming to the end of their missions, they are grieving the ending and anticipating the future with many concerns also we just learned that the Peace Corps has pulled out of Honduras due to increased violence in the country.  Truth be known, Chris and Isabel have sacrificed a great deal in their lives to serve the Lord including their physical well being.  However, I know that they are safe because they are in the Lord's hands and he has and will continue to protect them, but our asking never hurts!  Happy New Year to each of you and my the Lord continue to bless each of you in the the new year!

Christopher's Letters and Pictures

Buenas!

So, we had a baptism this week! Oh... And we had emergency changes. Oh... And I´m training again. And he had his first baptism! Yeah! I´m having lots of fun. The 31st we are going to baptize a family of seven! And this week we are going to try to baptize a family of two! Yeah! Or at least that´s our plan.

 

My companion is Elder Castro, from Honduras, a missionary who received his call to serve in Mexico; however, he has yet to finalize the papers to leave Honduras. So, in two weeks and a half, he will Be in Mexico. And I will have a new companion again. Now I´ve had companions from Guatemala, From El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. I only need to have two companions, one from Panama and one from Costa Rica to complete the Central American puzzle... of companions.

Today we cleaned the house in the morning and it´s really, really clean. And my clothes are soaking in laundry soap to wash them by hand. And... yeah. My life is a lot more calm.

Thank you for the money! This mission costs a lot more than $400 a month, right? Right. I don´t
think I´ll be able to pay you back $10,000, with... $5,000 extra that you have spent on me. I could
have gone to school with that amount of money. This is a lot like school, but better.

I don´t really know what to say, today... I am happy. I miss you all. I miss Isabel. But I don´t really feel it much. I haven´t forgotten about you. The Lord blesses us a lot in that aspect. We miss you, but we don´t literally feel it. 

I love you! Merry Christmas!

Today's Letter

I don´t know what to say. I wish that I would have listened more than talked on the phone.
But I love you all so much. I feel far away from you all. I know that you love me. This
Christmas has been quite beautiful. Gustavo is going to get baptized and the life of him
and his family will never be the same. In one year, they´ll be able to go to the temple.
And that makes me happy. I define happiness differently than I used to.

We had emergency changes again. My compaion Elder Castro went to Mexico today,
My new companion is FROM Mexico, Elder Juarez. He´s 23 and I like him. We get a long well at least for
now. Now I have from Mexico to Nicaragua (without Belize). Haha. I haven´t received
my packages yet. The sad thing is that my companion doesn´t know how to make mexican
food! He told me lots about the food there, and he doesn´t know how to make it. Haha.

I will send you pictues of the baptism next week. Send me pictures of the baptism of Troy.
It makes me so happy that you are having missionary experiences. I hope that you can
have more of them and that you might search for people for the missionaries to teach.
It is the only thing that will make us happier. Serving each other with charity and missionary work.

I´ll see you soon. Feliz año nuevo. We´ll see what 2012 has to say.

With love,
elder hill

Isabella's Letters and Pictures

sorry again im short on time we had three baptisms this weekend and i spent money sorry, on cake and xmas presents these kids are all alone and well i would have none of that, please call the 24 at 12 my time if thats okay! talk to you soon!
hna florido

Today's Letter

This Christmas was very fun we played white elephant, with the elders which really are like kids with name tags sometimes, and we went to the plaza and sang, these are pictures my comp took but the others of us singing and throwing cake at eachother are in my camera. i got to talk to everyone and i will admit that makes me responsible for talking on the phone like two hours when i was only supposed to use 40 min. hay y ahora? they cant send me home but i still feel some guilt... but not too much i spoke to natalie, it was so nice to talk to mom and see she is still the same and dad responded like he always does, jonathan was chill and cool and joeson talked about his job and the mish and made fun of how i talk now and janice about cake, chris about his testimony which was very special and about us, chris your spanish is great, david your spanish is way way good going to the spanish ward has helped. when we went to sucre to spend time together as missionaries with the president, we had to do a skit and i had the idea of being mini missionaries and having a christmas dinner and we could have certain roles like the dear john who received his letter, the teachers pet, the gringo who still was learning the language, the emotional sister and the indiferent sister with attitude and a rule keeper and it was really funny the president was laughing really hard and elder murphy who played the teachers pet who badly wanted to be assistent was told at the end by the president elder you will never move up, so funny and i was the emotional sister and the skit was about a dinner that we couldnt eat, pig! and we threw it out of the window but the window was closed, we had fun then we also saw the 17 miracles a great movie. watch it. take care

hna florido

 

Prayer Answered!

Christopher's Letter
I want you all to know that I love you a lot.

This has been a really hard week. We've had lots of succes this week. We had 8 investigadores in
the Sacrament Meeting, 3 families. But for me, it's been really hard. My companion and I have lots
of problems. I couldn't even begin to describe them. It's like living with someone that hates you,
which is tough. The good part is that God is rewarding us for our efforts. Tender mercies of the Lord.

I had a really special experience that I'd like to share with you. When I had just gotten to Country,
we had 0 investigators. Haha. Zero. When we had our first planning, we knelt down and I prayed
and I prayed for the Dominguez family. I didn't even know who they were, but we prayed for them
on a daily basis and asked everyone,"do you know where the Dominguez family lives?"

In that first week we received 3 to 5 references of families that we didn't know. One was called the Sambrano family.  We tried to visit them a few times, but we became busy with other families that were going to get baptized and so they were forgotten. In the last two weeks, we have been visiting with the Sambrano family finally. And here all families have two last names. This family is Sambrano Dominguez. I didn't know until now that I truly had received an answer to my prayers until this week. The wife of this family said, after having gone to church, "I will be honest with you... I have never liked any church before, but this one pleased me. I promise that you will have me in church again the next week."

I still don't know anything about the calls on Christmas. I would rather talk with you on the phone so
that we could talk with Isabel as well, but we'll see. I also haven't gotten my package, but that is okay.

Also, we are going to have another baptism to complete a family this week and we are going to a pueblo called Ojajona to marry them! Yay! So, if you want you can search for Ojajona, Honduras on Google and look at where we're going. It would be really excellent if you doposited money so that I could buy some things there for everyone. Sorry. I don't like asking for moeny. The money that you gave me went to paying bills.

I'm glad that Grandpa is better. Tell them I love them.
I love you all.
Chris

 

I so love and miss this boy!!!  No word from Isabel today.  I did hear that her family heard from her...so maybe next week!  Please pray for my kids!  That is what I want most for Christmas is for them to be Safe, Happy, Successful, and to Know that they are LOVED!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Pancakes and Love!

Isabella's Letter

this pday we are going to the mine yay! its going to be pitch black and small. here in potosi they believe the mine has a god who they call el tio the uncle and its the devil they think he´s the owner of the mine. and so i will take pictures. this morning i woke up really early and went with my companion to make pancakes we were the heros of all the north American missionaries they turned out fantastic. because a sister was going home. sad. and we whipped cream and added canned strawberries. they were yummy. this week we worked so hard, this week was also week of transfers and i asked the president to keep my comp here and he agreed i am so glad. we get along very well and people sometimes think we are sisters and on mondays we clean the house and dance and laugh and our unity shows in our lessons and its so fun to just contact people on the street and give them correct principles to govern their lives and my comp has adopted many of the things i do very well and i have taken the things she does too. this week was a bit harsh, the bishop thinks the world of us and trusts us very much and i teach Sunday school for the teens and they laugh and cry and are ashamed at times and commit to read and share the gospel its truly edifying. what was harsh this week is that we met a great young man, alvaro who helped us teach his mother how to pray in quechua and accepted to be prepared to be baptized and then the next day wanted to avoid any contact with us it was very strange, then we had a young girl darla open up to us about the abuse in her house and then the next time her younger sister was sent by her mom to censor everything she said and then this same week we found that same little girl in the house of a witch in our area. very creepy. everytime we are to teach her something interrupts and chases the spirit away so we decided to read outloud the scriptures and to sing hymns and all that creepy stuff started to dissipate. and then the family we are working with asked for more time to be baptized. and we had no investigators in church this sunday. but! rocios father our recent convert who is less active had a nice sweater and took us in his taxi to church and was very easily persuaded to come in and the kids at the end just gave the best lesson, they began to say father you need to come every week now we loved having you there. that was very rewarding. and whats best is that we have the lord on our side and we just need more humility more obedience more faith and more prayer and eveything will turn out fine we found alvaros mom in the street and with the best hand gestures i told her i was sad alvaro didnt want to hear us anymore and she said she would talk to him. and her best friend is an old investigator of the elders and they speak quechua and spanish this wed im going to begin clases with them. whats nice about life is that its fixable everything has a solution and there is always tomorrow. and when there is no tomorrow then we are in heaven chilling and learning or repenting and Gods plan is that we progress. anyways take care

hna florido

 

Christopher's Letters

Love you!

 

Pictures from the last two weeks.  Weddings and Baptisms!

 

I want you to know that I love you.
This week has been a good week and a difficult week.
I cant say all of the reasons why. We have
had some really exciting experiences.

We have a new rule that we can
only write for 30 minutes, so I will
begin to write you by hand more
starting today. Sorry. Thats just
the way it is.

Right now, we dont have any information
if we can use skype.

I love you.
Elder Hill.

...

Te amo...

 

 

Baptisms!

Isabella's Letter

this week we only had 4 lessons which really bumbed me, my comp keeps feeling ill but we also went to sucre for a talk from elder useda thats from lima peru and he spoke about obidience and i felt i had many things i needed to do better and on top of that we werent leaving the house much to teach and i felt like the people werent going to progress but i decided to repent and pray and i spoke with the lord for a long time and then we went on saturday to invite one of our investigators who wanted to be baptized but her father wouldnt sign her permission well we found her and her dad and we convinced him that she should get baptized and she said she wanted to get baptized that same day and it was such a joy to see the lord take care of everything even thou we had many inconveniences with the keys the water the heater and such nothing got us down. also janice i did say i would go to salt lake for many reasons some of which you mentioned. i will be set apart there,

have to go Hna Florido

 

Christopher's Letter & Photos

Hey!

So, this morning we went to the temple and it
was just so beautiful. Right now it is four o clock!
Wow! It is late. This week we are planning on
having 5 baptisms (2 families), which will be miracles,
all of them.

I hope that Grandpa feels better. That is really strange.
I dont know what to say. Tell them that I love them.

I hope that as much of a burden is the snow and doing
Christmas Tree Jubilee that it might be enjoyed. Here
there isnt even snow here. I miss the snow and clean
air. I am a little sick from the polution of the city. I have
a lung or sinus infection always. Haha. I love Honduras.

I love you, mom. I love you, dad. I miss you. I hope that
you give Elder Christensen a big hug, and that you all go
well dressed. He has impacted my life more than you know.
I hope that you would gift him something. Ha! I remember what.
Gift him one of those prepared dried sausages that they
sell during Christmas and write on it "The day you were called
to be the asistant to President." Maybe he will remember.
We ate a bunch of this sausage that his parents had sent him,
and we felt sick afterwards. Me because I ate too much and
him because he was called to be Asistant.

Oh, and you asked me if you wanted to come get me or if I

wanted to go home. The rules are that it is better if I leave
directly from Honduras. So, I think that I will just go home
and get married. :)

Among other things that I would like for Christmas:
Vanilla extract that doesnt have corn syrup.
In other words, Organic Vanilla Extract.

Here are lots of photos. I love you all.

WIth love,
Elder Hill

 

Bishop Henri Castillo

Familia Andino

Familia Andion and Sister Jesenia

Temple

The Temple is Almost Done!