Amanda's Letter

June 21, 2014

Dear Family,

So I leave to Mendoza after church tomorrow and won´t get back to Wednesday so President told me I could use a half hour and he made me promise that I would at least use a couple to tell you I am fine and happy!

I absolutely love San Luis which sounds weird because I am right in the middle of one of the most European provinces in Argentina. Everyone is white, there are no ascequias (open sewer), hardly any dogs on the streets, no garbage, I haven´t seen any robings yet, and only one dead animal on the side of the street. I live in the middle of centro, like outside my door is a Peruvian farmers market and the giant screen that the government puts up for the Mundial. You think I am kidding but look at the pictures!

It also feels like a European mission. We were at a bus stop  and the first person I tried to talk to took my Mormon.org card from my hand crumpled it up and threw it on the ground and walked to the back of the group of people. Not a single person let us in their house for my first two days here. But we had three miracle lessons yesterday and contacted a way good referral from the bishop this morning. I remember my first week in San Rafael. It sounds rough, but so far I haven´t minded it. It is so easy to distinguish who wants to listen and who doesn´t. I honestly haven´t minded it so far. I am really lucky that I have an amazing companion. We get along really well. The other sisters in my apartment are hilarious and love to cook. They are both from El Salvador and I love Papusa so I am happy! And I am working with two of my favorite Elders in the mission in my ward. They really work, and even though we are all ending soon every single of us really wants to not only be here but give it everything we got. You better be excited to read my family letters this week. I can just foresee all the miracles. OH I am so EXCITED!!! 

I love San Luis!

I love this work!

I love my life!!

And being the first day of summer I guess this letter would be incomplete without.... HAGS!!

Hermana Hill

The crossroads with the Holy Ghost

Dear Fam,

We have an awesome group going up to Zonda with us today so that will be way fun. Will send pictures for sure next week. 

You would think that by now I would know what to write in family letters but I got nothin. 

This week I have thought a lot about agency. How Satan's plan from the very beginning was to take away our ability to choose. As we follow Gods plan we are given more and more choice. Perhaps it is the culture, but I feel like the classic parenting style here is taking away freedom so the only option is choosing good, but somehow children manage to choose wrong. The absolute strongest families I have seen are those who have taught their children all they could and leave them at the crossroads with the Holy Ghost. And when I came to that realization I changed slightly how I teach. It is crucial to ensure that investigators know how the spirit feels and then let the gentile Spirit guide their footsteps instead of my forceful hand. I just wish they could see the blessing that comes from living within guidelines of our Father in Heaven. 

The mission is so strange you can be so incredibly happy and then within two hours can be filled with so much sadness. For example, yesterday at church was Fast Sunday and we called down the blessings for our investigators to come to church. Tons of less actives came but no one was home when we went to pick them up (sadness). So we went to Relief Society and Sunday School with no investigators but G. ended up coming to bless her child and brought her whole family to come and watch.(Happiness) I was so happy as Hno. Q. stood up to bless this precious little baby after the sacrament. The spirit was strong and L. (the youngest of the Kim Family) got up and bore her testimony and from the podium invited her family to get up as well. I just couldn´t handle all the tender mercies as God showed me the progression of so many as they stood to bare their testimonies. (pure joy) Hno. Q. left church to pick up Emmanuel who was attending another church at the time, he is so awesome.(bliss) I left church on a spiritual high and knew that this family too had felt the spirit and were so prepared for the restored gospel.

 Just a couple hours later we got off a micro that we had barley caught after a controversial birthday lunch where the newly activated member and her devout Evangelical son-in-law didn´t see eye to eye on religion, and broke our fast eating super vinegary cow intestines. We had a leadership meeting that wasn´t as efficient as I would have hoped and I left frustrated and late to our next appointment. We got to the house and we were greeted with open doors but with the sad news that his wife had just barely left and the sad knowledge that even though we had prepared a spirit-filled lesson we could not enter the house to teach it. We left and decided to see if we could walk faster then the bus that only passes once every hour and had just dropped us off. As I walked the long road back to civilization with profound and not so profound thoughts filling my mind. The happiness seemed to be reduced by the surrounding darkness. Each footstep was heavy and forced and hurt from my feet who reminded me I couldn´t keep wearing my whole-y shoes, or my back that wasn´t exactly happy with the extra gospel principal books I was lugging around.  When we finally reached city limits and could walk side by side by my companion it was a wake up call that I wasn´t alone nor could I assume that I was the only one who was about ready to burst with thoughts. Hna. Barney and I had an amazing conversation that was interrupted constantly as we talked to those around us, but by the time we reached home I was so incredibly grateful for the infinite and eternal truth I knew, my family that has gone before, and those I have by my side. And in that moment I was so grateful for all those before me who in that crucial moment at cross roads listened to the still small voice of the Holy Ghost and amidst the darkness, chose light. 

The Gospel is True.

Life is wonderful!

Hermana Hill