Dressed In White

     So I just want to tell you that L--- was baptized on Saturday!!! So that was super cool for me to experience. I was really excited when she told me that she wanted me to baptize and confirm her. It was truly a blessing from the Lord. We had a great service with 2 other people and so a lot of us were all dressed up in white. It was a beautiful scene. On Sunday we went by and talked about the temple and the holy ghost. We are really trying to help her continue on the path of true conversion. I don't want to hear 5 years from now that the missionaries are trying to get her to come back to church. She did tell me that she knows that this is what she knows God wanted her to do, so that is the best start you could ever have. A firm assurance that you're on the right path!

New Record!

     Well everyone! I beat my record for Lessons in a week again! I have to find something to do because my mind wanders a lot. I get so antsy in the apartment that the only thing I can seem to do is work and teach people. It's funny how I have come to love teaching people instead of just liming and doing nothing... except for on P-days... I love liming on those days! This past week went by so fast! I can't believe it! I was looking at my planner for last transfer... I had a total of 20 member lessons, 101 lessons w/out a member, and 36 recent convert/less active lessons. So a total of 157 lessons in about 42 days. Not too bad if you ask me! I hope it's God's will that we get some baptisms!

    A lady contacted us about 5 weeks ago, but the thing is she could only meet on Sunday afternoons and so we actually had forgotten the last few times to go by. But yesterday we called her and she said we could come by. She is a pentecostal and hasn't gone to church for "years" - she couldn't remember the last time she went, so it was a while ago. She has two daughters. The 3 of them are really smart. We had a lesson with them about the restoration. It only seemed like an hour but I looked at my watch and 3 hours had passed! It was a great lesson and the spirit was really strong. I can see a lot of good things happening with these 3 because they are willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! I see a lot of promise in them!
    The Book of Mormon really helps to clear up concerns and it is amazing to me knowing that the Book really does resolve all confusion and heartache.

                                                                "The Message of the Restoration"

2015 !

    How is everyone? Well, it's the first week of the new year...not counting but 15 weeks until I arrive back home... CRAZY! I just want to say that it was great talking to everyone on skype! I felt a lot more easy going because I was comforted by the thought that I will be sitting right by you all in 3 months. It will be great!
   So this past week was great. We had a total number of 30 lessons, 32 contacts, 60 at church and my highest amount of lessons in a day was 9... the highest of my mission so far! It felt really good. We did a lot of singing over the holiday, and we talked to a lot of people about the church's "Share The Gift" cards. 

   A few weeks ago I met a super cool guy for like 3 seconds because he was in a hurry. But I was quick on the draw and got his number. So on Tuesday I called him because everything fell through. He was like well I'm not busy tonight so I'll meet you at the bus stop at 6. I was like oh ya I've seen this a thousand times.. he's not coming. But we were there at 5:55pm and bam he was there. My jaw dropped and my first thought was... you are the very first person to keep an appointment time on my mission! I was completely blown away!  We taught him once about the atonement and being forgiven and he was like I know what you're teaching me is true. We taught him the resto and gave him a book of Mormon and he is now on chapter 6 in 1 Nephi.  I didn't tell him to read that much and so I was astonished to hear he read that much and that he was able to recite everything back to me with application. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! So hopefully he will be prepared for that day. We invited him to come to the movie night on Friday and he showed up. We watched 'Ephraim's Rescue' and he loved it. It brought on a lot of conversation about how the early church began.  I really want him to be faithful so that he can be a strong kingdom builder in the branch.  

Well that's about it for me this week. I love you all and hope you are doing good!

Love Elder Hill

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.

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!

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  ;-)

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!

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

    

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.

More about St. Lucia in the West Indies Mission

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