"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5:13

Saturday, December 27, 2014

The Gift of Christmas


Singing Christmas Carols at the Local Mall




Christmas Dinner with all of the Missionaries in St. Lucia

Christmas Skype Home

This video is the message the missionaries are sharing throughout the world.



Saturday, December 20, 2014

Voice of the Spirit

     So here is the most amazing thing an investigator said to me on my mission thus far... It was actually a text Tuesday morning. We had taught her the night before about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon! I challenged her to read the tract and get on her knees and ask God if it was true. She said she would. In return I told her that I was going to call her and see how it went. Well it was like 10:20pm and her phone was turned off. I kept my faith though that she kept her commitment. I went to bed and woke up to a text from her, saying "Hey Elder Hill, I did what you told me to last night and I received an answer from God." Whoa! I called her immediately and she answered. She told me that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith saw God! She mentioned that it was the best sleep she had had in her entire life! It was soo amazing to hear. Then Saturday when she was at the Celebration she leaned over to me and said " I quit my job, so I can come to church tomorrow and get baptized on the 10th of Jan." My jaw freaking dropped! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! My goodness she is great! She is by far one of the most unbelievable people I have ever taught. Quitting a job so that you can follow Heavenly Father! Oh GOSH!! I was soo happy! 

     Sunday she came to church!!! She told us that she loved it, except she doesn't like the music we sing! She likes the clap hands church's music. Revival music.. haha I showed her the scripture in Helaman 5:30 saying that the voice of the spirit is of perfect mildness and pierces to the very soul. It's not a voice of thunder or of great tumultuous noise. She got the hint that we can't feel the spirit as strong when we sing and dance at church. It was good for her to understand. I told her to give it a few more times and she'll love the way she feels!





Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Worth of Soles!

These pictures speak a thousand words!




Guyana - Nov 2014 



St Lucia



Thank goodness he found some new ones!
(Not cheap...but less expensive than sending him some)

Love the Socks  ;-)



Monday, December 15, 2014

Celebrating 25 Years

   Well everyone, this past week actually just flew by for me!  It was good because I am finding that the more time that is idle time (like in studies or during lunch or at night time) I start getting really trunky!  Not homesick...but Trunky!  It's so ridiculous! 

   My testimony has grown of asking people for referrals.  I have been asking everyone and it has been working miracles!  We have gained a lot of new investigators which is amazing.  No dead wood anymore!  It feels great!  We truly need to talk with everyone about the Gospel.  Time is wasting... I actually want to just go talk with people right now!













   I had Zone Conference on Tuesday.  President Mehr taught a lot about the Atonement, due to the Christmas season.  The Church launched a special video that is being shown all throughout the world which is inspiring everyone to be better and Remember "The Gift".  It's a great video... if you haven't already seen it, I suggest you do soon!

  Saturday we had 'Celebration 2015' - a talent show celebrating the Church being established for 25 years in the Caribbean.  It was great. The performers did a great job and what made it better was to have an investigator there.  It was the BEST! It made me smile from ear to ear!










Tuesday, December 9, 2014

ST. LUCIA!

Guyana
Elder Strong and Elder Hill leaving Guyana
     
St. Lucia














     The area is Pretty cool! I live in the Mountains behind the Capital Castries. It's so beautiful! The Island is overall not as hot as Guyana was. There is a constant breeze blowing through which helps. Just look at our last name and you now know what the area is. HILLS!!! and not even hills it's like hiking to the top of Nebo every day... I love it but I'm sweating more than I was in Guyana! The first few days are always the hardest so I got through them and I'm sure it will be easy sailing now! The culture is crazy! Everyone speaks Haitian Creole (aka Patois). So you'll walk up to someone and say hello and all they know is Creole. So that was hard to get used to, but we found a lot of people that speak English. They have a really thick accent so it's harder to understand than anywhere else I've been. I thought the accent was tough in Guyana... nothing compared to St. Lucia! The food is exactly what it was in Grenada. Lots of breadfruit and banana. I was able to get a lot of work done in a half week. I am enjoying it and can't wait until we start seeing the line of baptisms. We finished the week with 47 contacts and 28 Lessons!

Elder Lawenitotoka and Elder Hill

    







Friday, December 5, 2014

Snapshot of St. Lucia

Though the official language of St. Lucia is English, Saint Lucian Creole French is spoken by the majority of the population. About 70% of the population belongs to the Roman Catholic church, though several other Protestant churches are present on the island as well. Music and dancing are both important to the culture of St. Lucia. St. Lucia’s Carnival and annual Jazz Festival are both popular cultural events. Calypso, soca, reggae, and dancehall music are also popular. Cricket is the country’s most popular sport, though soccer is also played. The national dish of St. Lucia is fish served with green banana. Soups and stews are popular, as are Indian-style curry dishes. Rice and peas, potatoes, and other ingredients and spices are regularly used in cooking.







Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Leaving South America...

Hey everyone!

    I'm flying out of the Country on Wednesday! President Mehr called Saturday morning around 8:00 am so it was really unexpected. He called and told Elder Smith first who would be replacing me, then Elder Smith handed over the phone and said Pres. wants to talk to you. I was like oh buddy... wha-gwan with me now! So he said Elder Hill "I'm going to send you to a beautiful Island... It's called St. Lucia! ..... I was like what the crap! Not what I was expecting but ok... He told me that I will be serving with Elder Lawenitotoka from Fiji.
     I'm going to be in the Castries branch in the hills... so a lot of hiking and walking up the mountain... but that's all good cause I'm getting fat from all the roti and curry I've been fed in the past like week because I've been telling people I'm leaving!!! I should have been doing that like 3 months ago... Dinner appointments are the best!







I do want to tell all of you about a cool experience I had with prayer this past week while I was on a trade off with a missionary:

    I was feeling down.. almost like I was supposed to find someone in this certain area but I didn't know where they were... so after much contacting and walking up and down the street, I decided to get off my bike and pray. I said "Father help me find this person that will accept our message, I will contact the first person I see as long as they are prepared!"  I turned around on a prompting and it was a young girl. I was like well after I'm done with this house I will go talk to her. 

    I finished up with the contact and walked back to my bike and she was gone.... Ah man! So I got on my bike and started to ride down the street looking for her. I looked into one house and saw her because she was wearing a weird color dress I couldn't forget. I realized that as my opportunity and went for it. Well I walked to her house down the little path over 2 x 4's laid on the ground as a path so they wouldn't get their feet all muddy. Her mom met me at the door and invited us in with her cousin and 6 daughters! I knew that this was the family I had prayed for! They are Prepared!!! We finished the lesson and I invited them to be baptized on the 27th of December. They all accepted with the understanding that they need to receive and answer first. They are simply one of the coolest families I've taught. 
   Elder Smith and I have been able to go back since then and follow up on the commitments I had left. They had prayed and read the Resto Tract... What! They remembered everything that was taught! We went by the next day or so and followed up on the Book of Mormons we placed with them and they read and prayed about it! I was so excited because they started teaching me about Moroni and how he showed Joseph Smith where the plates were and how Mormon abridged them... I was completely blown away with all of the stuff they had done over the space of like a day.
   We invited them to church and this was their reply..." Of course were coming to church... we have to go and be faithful so we can get baptized!" Oh my goodness these people are the family I have been looking for my entire mission! They all came to church on Sunday, early and sat and listened to the entire block! They are so amazing! They are keeping all of their commitments! Ahh It is truly such an amazing experience that I have been praying for. I won't be here for their baptism, which kinda sucks... but man I will always remember that!

Prayer is real! I am really starting to understand that God really does listen to our prayers and hears our cries! I'm grateful that he does listen and understands what we are going through! I'm grateful for the Atonement that Jesus Christ performed and how we can be cleansed and sanctified through this perfect gift that was given. I'm grateful for the service I'm giving. Guyana will have a special place in my heart, and I can't wait to share my love with God's children in St. Lucia!

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!







FAREWELL  GUYANA <3





Sunday, November 30, 2014

Thanksgiving Dinner...Yuummm!!


A wonderful Thanksgiving dinner was provided for all of the missionaries at a member's home in the branch. Also, a big Thank You to Sister Dhanraj for the great pictures!








Elder and Sister Poulson
Elder and Sister Dhanraj




Sunday, November 23, 2014

The Rains Came Down And The Floods Came Up!

    Well this past week was pretty great for me. It felt to me that we were able to get a lot more done than we had in the past few weeks. It was also a very rainy and gloomy week but the work pressed on! A tropical storm hit Thursday and we got soaked! Thursday morning I was awakened by Elder Poulson calling us at 6:25am (5 minutes early) to check up and see if our apartment had flooded due to heavy rain all night long. I said back to him in my best morning voice, "I don't know let me check." So I walked outside and no water was in our apartment. So I was like nah. I hung up the phone and slept for like 2 more minutes. Elder Smith walked outside and was like ahh crap! So water was in the kitchen. We took and unplugged everything. Water was filling up fast. It was coming under the door. So an explanation for you...we have a 4 inch concrete ledge to keep most water out.. but the water was coming up over it. So we got the wet dry vac... I know we are lucky to have one of those. And we scooped probably 500000000000 buckets full of water out of our house. We spent all day doing that then we went to eat at Quisnos subs. Just like America! It was pretty great.


    












   I want to talk about a family that I'm really loving right now. They are great. Sis. E---- has been a member longer than me and is a really nice lady. She has been less-active for about 10 years but she is great because she came to the church about two weeks ago and expressed to Pres Mckenzie and Brother Daniels that she wants to change and start coming back to church because she can see a difference in her life. She has a few children. The ones we are now teaching have baptismal dates for the 13th of December. I will sadly not be here for them but that doesn't matter. I'm just grateful for the chance I have been given to see them progress and accept the gospel into their lives. 

    We have been getting a lot of new investigators and they're doing really well. We have been making a constant effort of updating the Area Book so that the next missionaries will know who we are teaching and where they live and how to contact them. That was our struggle when we came in and it's not going to be like that when I leave. I really want to leave the area better than when I discovered it. As far as transfers go, I don't have any info yet.... I get my call on fri or sat so we'll see how that goes!

    My testimony continues to grow. I have a new and added testimony of the Plan of Salvation. I was given the opportunity to help a brother out in Gospel Principles yesterday. The class was able to clearly understand the 3 kingdoms and I was able to as well. I love when I have those ahh haa moments and then it just makes sense. It was a great experience to have.

Well Family I love you and hope you are all doing great!
Elder Hill


Sunday, November 16, 2014

Trinidad - Mission Leadership Conference



  This past week was such a spiritual Roller Coaster for me! It was so great to fly to Trinidad for a Mission Leadership Conference for 3 days. It was fun seeing elders I haven't seen for awhile. We were edified and instructed by my leaders and taught more of the Doctrine, and found out ways that I can effectively use my time to help the missionaries around me in my zone and how we can balance our efforts to sustain and achieve real growth! (reactivation, retention, and convert baptisms).

   We learned a lot about Alma 26:5 “Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted.” We are the workers of the Lords vineyard. The sheaves in this analogy represent newly baptized members of the Church. The garners are the holy temples. Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained: “Clearly, when we baptize, our eyes should gaze beyond the baptismal font to the holy temple. The great garner into which the sheaves should be gathered is the holy temple.” It is a place of safety and protection for the people who accept the covenants of the gospel. I know that the temple is so so important and that we can't be exalted with out it. I miss the temple so much but I know that as I teach the people here about it, they will be more excited and willing to stick with their covenants. 

I'm grateful for the spirit I felt throughout the conference. It was simply amazing! I loved it!