Pictures 9/26

it took everything in me not to buy this calendar

lemonade stand contacting. We have a few chapel tours because of it :)) don't mind my other chin in the first picture i literally have no idea how it got there. (Yes I do, ice cream has been permanently on sale since I've been here) 

September 26, 2016

Hiiii

Btw sister McDonald is from California.... but yeah other than that all utahns!! It's cool though. Sister McDonald and I already have a bunch of plans to visit. Also we served in 3 of the same areas so we're gonna come back together some time :) 

First of all dad, I keep forgetting to tell you, I met this OSU football player twice on campus who apparently is REALLY good, REALLY famous, seems REALLY old, is REALLY big, and is REALLY actually a baby 18 yr old. His name is Jonathan and he thinks sister Alius has really pretty eyes so I guess that basically makes me famous right? So yeah. Fun fact. 

Also let me tell you a fun story from today. Jabari (the one who moved to Nebraska) accidentally butt dialed us so we called him back. Anyway he was like oh sorry that must have been an accident so we asked how everything is going and he said he is still planning on being baptized on Oct 15th! It was so cool. We went on reminiscing about when he came to church with us for the first time and how he "fell in love with the church" those were his words. Ahhhh I'm so excited for him so keep him in your prayerseroos. 

Keep Kandyce in your prayers as well! We get to go see her do baptisms next week yay! But she is going through a hard time mentally and emotionally and could use any prayers at all! She is so wonderful. We did family history with her and her face just absolutely lit up and she was able to search for information about her family. I think the coolest part was when she got to request the ordinances for her grandma. The other member with us said "kandyce I think your grandma is so happy right now that you get to do this for her" we later found out that her grandma had passed away on that date a few years ago and that was a large part of the reason that kandyce is going through a hard time, but she was so uplifted and edified by doing genealogy. What a blessing :)

Lauren came to church yesterday!! Yasssss!! There was a triple baptism for OSU on Saturday so Lauren got to see all of them confirmed, and one of the Chinese ones, Frank, lives in her building!! It was awesome. Another member came up to us later and told us she went to high school with Lauren. So things are looking bright! She had some questions about the Melchizedek priesthood that was used to give the gift of the Holy Ghost so we are going to teach her more about that tomorrow :) we also taught her the word of wisdom last week and he was like " yeah I was aware of that. I think it's so awesome!!" Like whahht?? So we asked her if she would live the word of wisdom and she's like "oh yeah I don't use any of those anyway" like double whahhhht? It was awesome!! Dooods I love Lauren. She's so cool. 

We had a great lesson with Lewis this week that was so awesome. We taught the restoration and sister Gibson asked if he has ever heard of prophets before and he goes "yes!" And points to his children's Book of Mormon "Lehi was prophet!" We go on and we keep teaching and talking with him and he all of a sudden just starts summing up the first 5 chapters of the children's Book of Mormon to us in his crazy broken English and then just says " nephi has a lot of confidence and that makes him want to do good while his brothers do not. I need to have more confidence like Nephi and I can do more good" (in a much less grammatically correct way) and then he told us how God has given him more confidence. It was so cool. We had him say the closing prayer and it was soooooo good. Like, incredible. Lewis is seriously perfect. I can't wait until I am Chinese because the Chinese are literally the most flawless humans in the world. 

We've been struggling to find more solid investigators this past week. Like, fake number on fake numbers and all of our return appointments falling through so that is what we fasted for this last week. Basically what I am saying is to get pumped to hear about all our new solid friends next week :) 

I love what you all said about youth standards night. It reminds me of a parable Christ gave in John 10. He talks about how he is the door and when he enters in by the door the sheep hear his voice and follow him, and how if any man enters in not by the door the sheep do not hear them and know they are a robber/ thief. Well I love verse 10 which says

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" 

There are so many thiefs in the world that come to steal our agency, to kill our confidence, and to destroy our happiness but as long as we are true sheep or true disciples of Christ we will know. We will know which voice to listen to that will not only bring us life but that we may have it more abundantly. Life was meant to be enjoyed and Christ is the door that lasting joy! He is the good shepherd :) 

I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful week! 

~Sister Hill

Pictures 9/19

Awkward. I literally only have 1 picture. This is a text forwarded
from the elders convert Ziqian who got baptized last week and helped
us teach Lewis a few days after. Hahaha Ziqian was so nervous. But he
did so great! There is literally nothing better than teaching Chinese
people about God, repentance, and baptism. Their testimonies grow so
simply and so perfectly. When can I be Chinese?

September 19, 2016

Hiiiii

Ok some updates and question answering....

My new companion is awesome! Her name is sister Gibson, she is from
West Jordan and she is so adorable :) she like rocks at being a
missionary too. So yeah, it's been great!  My toe is doing better sort
of. The infection has sure gone down haha. Thanks for the toe Doctor
advice, when dr Kiehl did his little at home surgery with my foot he
did cut all the way town my toenail so hopefully that should help! I
think he's going to cut out granuloma #2 tomorrow. Yeah, it's been a
trip but it'll be Kathryn. And by Kathryn I mean aight. Dumb
autocorrect. Everyone keeps offering to buy me new shoes
because I look like a fool and they think my shoe got ripped off or
bit off or something hahah.

This week has been awesome!!

I want to start off with a few funny stories:

#1 On the bus I met a guy from the Dominican Republic so I'm telling
him about how a lot of my family speaks Spanish because of missions
and like going to tell him about missions and how awesome they are and
how awesome Jesus is but this Chinese guy pops out of nowhere and gets
all in my face and is like "YOU SPEAK SPANISH??" And I'm like "no, I
only speak a tiny bit, but members of my family do" and he's like
"where did you learn Spanish??" And I'm like "no seriously I don't
speak Spanish" and he continues to question me about my Spanish
background and meanwhile my Dominican friend puts his headphones back
in so I lost that opportunity but I start teaching the guy from China
about baptism and how great it is and how we can have our past
mistakes washed away and how we don't have to feel guilt if we follow
Jesus Christ and all that and I invite him to be baptized and he says
"NO! My parents teach me to don't make mistakes and then you don't
have to be guilty" hahaha so there you have it. Just don't make any
mistakes ever :) it went it my quote book, it was kind of a you had to
be there moment,.

#2 Awkwardest OSU contact ever.

 *on the bus. No one by me. But there is a guy backward kiddy corner
to me who has a beard and mustache. And is wearing a shirt with like
40 silhouette beard/mustaches.

Sister Hill: "I like your shirt. It... *not really sure what to say
about it* ....matches your face"
*guy totally thinks I'm hitting on him so I turn away because now I
can't talk to him and cry internally*

*awkward couple more stops before he gets off*
*starts getting off*
Bearded guy: "have a good night!"
*cry some more*

You also had to be there for that one. Sister Alius never let me live it down.

We had stake conference this week which was so fun! We were able to
find Lewis a ride so he got to come enjoy! Poor kid really doesn't
understand English very good and was struggling to stay awake because
of late night home working but afterwords he said he felt very good.
He got to meet president Daines too! It was great :) he got to tell
president Daines that he's getting baptized on October "twenty two"

Gracie came to church for 2nd ward and literally everything about
church was completely themed for her and she really enjoyed it. We
didn't have to worry about her at all afterwords because she was just
off making her own friends it was so awesome. Her biggest thing is the
lifestyle changes she has to make and we think she is kind of afraid
of the idea of committing to be Mormon for the rest of her life. We
are in kind of a make or break phase for her and it's so hard because
I just love her so much and know that Christ keeps his promises when
he says we will be happiest when we follow the commandments, but of
course in the end it is her choice! God is so good, he never takes
away our agency.

Lauren is doing awesome as well. She wasn't able to make it to church
because she was in the hospital, but we were able to send her a
wonderful scripture to help! Ether 12:27 :) she enjoys the Book of
Mormon! But this will be a hard change for her too. Hard changes are
the most rewarding :)

We have been reading books from the New Testament as a mission and it
has been so awesome!!! I just finished Matthew. There is something so
sacred about reading accounts of the Saviors life. About his miracles,
about his compassion, about his mercy, about the sacrifices he made
for each of us to find lasting joy. I know that Jesus Christ truly is
the Savior of the world and I invite each of you to find out what that
means to you personally! Man, i love him :)

I love you all too!
Have a blessed week,
~Sister Hill

Pictures 9/14

the first awkward "get ice cream with you new companion" :)

granddaughter #2, granddaughter #3, daughter #1, meh.

temple day=the best!!

September 14, 2016

HIIIIII framly

To answer questions: I have he debit card, my toe is doing better.
Like, a lot better. Dr Kiehl still wants me to stay off it and elevate
it for a few more days. I've been aight but I really just want to go
out all day. Also I'm on a couple antibiotics that are really messing
me up haha. But the infections is shrinking!

Ok so I really have so much to tell you but today has been crazy and
this is go into be so short but MAN I have so much to tell you.

Lauren is working towards a baptismal date of oct 22nd! She loves the
Book of Mormon so much! But is still trying to decide if it's
true.....

Gracie didn't come to church this week :/ but we are seeing her on Thursday!

We met this flawless guy named wenshou who is perfect. We taught him
about God and baptism and he said "so, like because water is pure,
when we go in the water we come back out a better new person? And it
cleanse our soul?" And that's not at all how we worded it to him and
he is so excited about baptism. We taught him how to pray for the
first time and after he said " the God made my heart hurt less" (he
just went through a bad break up) so yay he's gettinbaptized too!

So is Trey. He brought a friend from out of town to our fist lesson
and they both loved it. He is on date for October 15th!

We went to the temple! It was cool, my question was how I can best
keep myself fully consecrated these last few weeks. In the celestial
room I felt prompted to open to John 3 and John 15 (not knowing at all
what they were about besides John 3:16) Oddly enough I accidentally
opened to 1 John 3, and it basically said the same message as John 15
which is about how we need to give our life to Christ. It was really
upLifting and inspiring! I also just had so much joy I really didn't
know what to do with myself. God is real :)

Pictures 9/7

THEY HAD AN INFANT TARANTULA AT PETCO.

we tried SO hard to get a good district photo.

September 7, 2016: MISSION ADVENTURESS!

This one deserves a separate email hahaha. I NEED PRAYERS! My ingrown
toenail they "fixed" in January or whatever came back with crazy
vengeance. I will likely be put on antibiotics for it and and I'm not
allowed to walk at all today :/ dr Kiehl is doing everything he can
but he said last time he went through all this with a missionary he
ended up having to go home. BUT 1) that guy weighed a lot more than me
2) I got a blessing that basically said I'll be able to stay and 3) if
all else fails dr Kiehl said he'd have me use a scooter before he
sends me home. Moral of the story I really am fine but prayers would
be nice :) here's some funny photos about it.

the presoak

dr Kiehl did his own little surgery minus the numbing haha but I
had some weird thing growing (can't remember what it's call. It sounds
like granola though. Granuola?) anyone he had to cut that all out as
well as cut down the whole side of my nail. Here's a nice picture
sister Alius took of me hahahah.

I get to wear these beauts anywhere from 2 weeks to the rest of my mission.

September 7, 2016: IT'S A GIRL!!!

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii IM TRAINING WOOT WOOT!!!
Which means I am likely dying on campus!
Holler back!!

In other news......

Ok so Gracie is literally perfect. She came to church this week and
they have everyone get up an I troduce themselves after sacrament
meeting and she says "hi. I'm Gracie. I've been an on and off Mormon
for a few years. So yeah. IM BACK!" Haha and she just was making
friends left and right and loved it. We had a little lesson with her
afterwards that went awesome! Last time she told us how she has
concerns with basically all the typical anti things and we told her
about the gospel topic essays and even though she hadn't read them yet
she basically knew her concerns would be resolved which is pretty
cool! We asked her if those got resolved if there was anything else
holding her back from baptism and she immediately says "yes. So I feel
like if k get baptized in the Mormon church I will want to marry
someone who is Mormon too because I would want that for my family but
I'm too old to get married to a Mormon because I'm 23" hahahaha
doesn't she sound like a Mormon already?? She's so cute. It was way
cool though because we had a single 27 yr old way cool member with us
and we were all able to testify that this gospel is EXACTLY what
prepares us to have happy and successful families. It was awesome. So
she is praying about baptism :)

Lauren is doing well too! She has enjoyed reading the Book of Mormon
but is a little skeptical. She has sort of the "this is good but I
still need to see if it's the path for me" type mindset. I wasn't at
her last lesson but that's what sister Alius told me. We still have
high hopes for her!

Ok so there are tons of foreign people on OSU. So we have been doing
an English class for the last 3 weeks and it's so much fun! We have 3
people from China that have been baptized since I got to OSU which is
awesome! So it's like an American culture class and sister Alius and I
got to teach this week on small talk. It was lots of fun, we did speed
small talk and gave a bunch of different scenarios they had to start a
conversation in. It was the best. I forgot to tell you, my apartment
place is referred to as "little China" because it's where aLl the
Chinese people lives. Also some Indian people. Moral of the story it's
like 2% white.

In other news Ryan is back in jail. Please pray for him!! It was for
something dumb.

Also Kandyce, who just got baptized, is like the best member
missionary ever. Last week she brought her friends Deja and Jabari to
fhe and Jabari looks at us and says "how do I join this church?" So we
taught them the restoration and it was awesome! Jabari came to church
and LOVED it. He has tried so many churches and he recognized
something was different. The people were different, the spirit was
different, the doctrine was different, and it felt right. He has loved
the Book of Mormon so far and he is on date to be baptized October
15th! Of course, he moves to Nebraska this week :/ but he is SO solid
and excited to meet with the missionaries there. Haha it was so sad
though he was like "will you guys be able to come to my baptism?"
Anyway I'm really excited to hear about it though :)

When I decide to get up and get my scriptures/ journal I will send a
spiritual thought :)

Love you!!
~Sister Hill