Dearest Family!!
Last week I felt like I had
absolutely nothing to write and now I feel like have at least a trilogies worth
of stories. But last Monday I promised that I would spend some of the next
Monday repenting and writing hand written letters so I will try to make it
shorter.
First off, have fun in Peru
Dad, Cam, Seth, and Mads. Happy Birthday Emily!!! I am still upset that you
decided to come visit the family when I wasn't home. But I love you lots... Cam
I cannot believe you turn 14 today!! You are so old!! And Aaron your birthday
is in just 4 days!! Do you have 4 kids yet or still 3 and 8/9ths.
This week was one miracle after
another. Our ward has this program called the 5,5,5. And supposedly it will get
the point where we are teaching 15 less active families. Oh and I actually I
did the math this week. 60.8% of the ward is inactive and 73% of the Hispanic
people are inactive. Anywho, we are teaching the A. family. Her husband is a
non-member, and she has two children are non-members and the other 3 children
are just inactive. The lesson we had on Tuesday was one of the most spiritual
lessons I have had on my mission. Toward the end I shared the experience of
reading the Book of Mormon in two weeks my freshman year of college and
testified of the power of change it had in my life and truthfulness of the
Book. Hermana A. took the precious Book of Mormon in her hand and look me in
the eye and said. "I want that change." After realizing that the
Libro De Mormon was about 100 pages longer than the Book of Mormon we came to
the conclusion that she would read 30 pages a day to finish the Book in 3
weeks. This indeed was a miracle but even more my Companion that doesn't really
like to speak in lessons spoke up and promised that if she would read 30 pages
a day we would too. I then committed both Hermana A. and Sister Seaborn the
Libro De Mormon in 3 weeks.
Oh man where do I even
begin.... So for my hour of personal study I read the Book of Mormon out loud.
The 2nd half of Companionship study I read it out loud and then the hour of
language study I read out loud. And though it has only been a couple 5 days it
has made the world of difference particularly in my companion. At first she
told me that Hna. A wouldn't follow through with her commitment and so she wasn't
as dedicated to reading. We have visited Hna. A. a lot and our first
visit back I told her excitedly that I was on page 82 and asked her how it was
going. She then smiled at me and said 3 pages. I then tried to follow prez.
Hollands Counsel and she cleared up my "devastation" by saying.
"No hna. Estoy en pajina 85. 3 mas de tu." It was beautiful! She then
started explaining dreams she was having and started shooting off questions.
My companion then realized she
needed to catch up. And how she has changed.... My first day with her she
informed me that we would never go tracting. Guess who went tracting on
Saturday!! Instead of previous questions and comments she started to ask
me how and why I was so motivated, and yesterday we had a solid heart to heart
and she let it slip that she was starting to love her mission! She is starting
to say stuff in lessons and it is beautiful how tangible the change is in our
companionship. The Book of Mormon is true and there is a power within the pages
of that Book that cannot be found anywhere else! Oh goodness!!
Man... Quickly.... So we have a
giant list of less actives. We have been stopping by people on that list all
week. On Friday we stopped by the C. and when a woman answered the door we
explained we were the new missionaries in the ward and we were just introducing
ourselves to members on the ward list. She asked us if we wanted to come in
side. We accepted and began to talk to her. We did pleasantries for a while and
ever since a couple weeks ago I have tried to set the stage by focusing really
hard on different "how to begin teaching" points. I asked a question
about Christ and him being the center of our lives and she responded and wide
eyed I found out that this was not the less active we had thought but now a new
investigator that is ready to listen. When I asked her why she let us in so
quickly she responded, "My husband died two years ago and today I was so
sad and prayed to God to send me someone to talk to. When you knocked at my
door I saw God in your eyes and let you in." After going back to the car I
realized that the C. that used to live there were actually active and we should
have never really stopped at her house. I love this work. I love the Book of
Mormon. And the best part is that it is just going to get better cause we have
hundreds of pages to still read!!
Love you lots! Thanks for the
prayers they mean the world to me! Thanks for the emails!
The gospel is true.
Life is wonderful!
Hna Hill
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