I'm Older

Elder A. and me!

Hey y'all! The end of Winter is nigh up here! We were driving around (because we have a car) and I noticed that there are actually a ton of lakes in our area. They're everywhere! It's just hard to see them with all the snow that happened. Also, I get my licence this week! We drive a RAV4, but Elder J. is the only one of us allowed to drive right now.  It turns out that International Driving Permits don't actually mean anything up here anymore, so all of us trainees have to wait until the end of the week to get our licenses.

I ate something called "Donair". It's a kind of meat thing that they put in a pita with a special sweet garlic sauce and some lettuce, onions, and such. It was super good. You should look it up. I'm not sure exactly what meat it is, but it's good.

Also, the people who do the steak challenge really want me to try it. I probably won't--I don't think my stomach would ever be able to survive it. But Elder J. did it, so maybe I'll be able to.

We have a service thing that we do every Wednesday. Pretty much we go to a retirement home and help out with the games and serving food and just hanging out with the members there. It's pretty great.  We just get to hang out with a bunch of old people for a couple of hours. We've also helped some people move furniture quite a bit. We tried to help some people with shoveling their snow, but they turned us down.

Also, I did get to do something for my birthday! We went to our dinner that night and they had an ice cream cake with my name on it! They also gave us an air freshener thing as an inside joke. It was awesome. I'll probably get the birthday package today, too.

St. Patrick's Day wasn't really a big thing here, but we did have a St. Patty's day party on Wednesday at the retirement home. We got to wear a bunch of stupid hats and play bingo and such. I got to call out the bingo cards.

I also went on another exchange with an elder. He's actually one of the Mandarin Chinese-speaking missionaries, so we got to do language study in the morning. I'm bad at Chinese.  We mostly went knocking on doors all day but we didn't have a ton of success until after dinner. We decided to do a little more tracting at around 7:30, and at the second door we knocked on, the guy was super interested!  We had a super good lesson with him. He didn't have a ton of time to talk with us, but he said he'd love to have us back later. I won't be there, but I'm excited for him to hear of the awesomeness that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

All of our investigators cancelled at the last minute this last week, so we didn't have any more lessons. But, we did a ton of tracting and studying. Here's hoping for a lesson filled week!

Love y'all! I'll talk to you next week!

Putting the Shoulder to the Wheel

I'd like to take a moment and appreciate all of those loving comments about how great the weather is in Utah. Thanks. 😄 Although, the "winter wonderland" theme is kind of growing on me. In fact, it hasn't actually been that cold, especially today. It was about 4 degrees Celsius this morning! Also, I haven't bought a coat because I haven't needed one yet. As odd as that sounds, it's actually been pretty nice up here. There's a ton of snow, sure, but it's the wind you've got to deal with, I've found.

I did actually meet one of our investigators that I hadn't met before, and he's awesome. He's also a huge Nintendo fan, so we got along pretty great. But the coolest part of it was when we set up a baptism date for him! April 8th! Now all we need to do is help him feel the Spirit in his life, even when we aren't there, so he'll be able to keep that commitment.

Also, a funny story about that one lady we taught while tracting. Right when we were done with the lesson and were walking back to the car, we remembered that we didn't actually get her name! We did get her phone number, though, and later got her name. We haven't met with her again yet, but she seems super open to learning more. One thing she said during the lesson that surprised me was her story about when she asked the pastor/priest of the church that she goes to, why doesn't she know a lot about Jesus? His response was that the reason why she doesn't know was because she goes to that particular church... Does that sound like a red flag to anyone else? Yeah, me too.

One cool thing that happened recently was that we had exchanges! Exchanges are fun, and I got to do two this last week! Pretty much what happens is we drive out to some McDonald's out in the middle of our areas, and either I or Elder J. will switch cars and go with one of them for the day, and the companion that stays gets the other companion. The first time (Wednesday), I stayed in Leduc where I was with Elder A. He was really fun. We got to teach a bit more about the restoration, and he also made me a pancake surprise in the morning! It was a very spicy surprise. Don't put hot sauce in pancakes. Just don't...

The second exchange was with Elder N. He is pretty much the "Sherlock Holmes" of figuring out people. I swear, he knows more about me now than I do.

Every single moment out here seems like a spiritual one, unless you count us going to McDonald's that one time. I guess one thing that stood out was when we were asked by some returned missionaries to go to lunch with them and a recent convert. So we did! They ended up taking us to a small burger joint named Ryan's, which was apparently their favorite place to eat while in Leduc.

But it wasn't the food that was the coolest part (Licorice shake excluded.) Rather, it was listening to the stories of people that had already been here and gone back home again. We learned a ton from them. But, the coolest thing that I saw was how strong their testimonies still were, even though both of them had already been home from a few months to a year.

So, testimonies that we grow can be eternal. I keep hearing about how this is the most spiritual time of my life, and so far that has been right. But, I don't want this to be the peak. I heard a quote from Gordon B. Hinckley. I don't remember exactly how it went, but he talked about how the stronger his testimony grows, the quieter the Holy Ghost gets. So, even the president of the Church at the time had to be continually striving to listen to the prompting of the Spirit.

No matter what happens here, I know that I can always have these spiritual moments in my life. I know that the Book of Mormon is the most true book on the Earth, and that if we continue to read it and invite the Holy Ghost into our lives, then we can all have these spiritual moments throughout our entire lives.

Canada is Awesome!

I made it, and man, is it awesome around here!  Canada is awesome, even though I was a little surprised to see the Canadian maple leaf on almost everything, from the golden arches of McDonald's to the O in IHOP.  It's freakin' everywhere.

My first area here is a town called Leduc (pronounced like Le-Duke) but we also have a few other towns around us that we oversee.  My companion's name is Elder J. and he's awesome.  He is the most stereotypical missionary you'll ever see, but he's been a great trainer.  He's from Rigby, Idaho, has been out almost a year, and he's also the district leader.  The best thing I've learned from Elder J. so far is faith. He has a truck full of the stuff.

Elder J., Elder Hill, and President and Sister Pattison

We live in a "cozy" apartment by ourselves and we mostly knock on people's doors, trying to find investigators.  We have a few investigators, but only one of them is progressing.  I haven't met any of them yet because everyone is getting sick and it's been snowing.  It's pretty freakin' cold.  It's nothing I can't handle, but it still feels like a new ice age around here.  I guess it's called the Great White North for a reason, eh?

We did have a cool experience yesterday.  We were tracting (knocking on doors) and, after about house number 300 of the week, we were getting kind of discouraged.  But, we kept on keeping on and knocked on one last door.  A lady opened the door and we told her about how she can live with her family forever.  She just kind of looked at us and said, "Okay.  Come on in, then."  We couldn't believe it!  So, shaking off our stupor, we gratefully left the freezing outside and taught her and her two babies about the Plan of Salvation.  It was a welcome miracle after our slightly depressing morning.

We also have the best members up here.  One couple, Brother and Sister F. (the ones that most definitely sent my mom a Facebook friend request and some pictures) have helped us out by feeding us a ton of food.  Like a ton!  They are awesome though.  Brother F. has a fun sense of humor.  They gave us some "Kinder" eggs (big chocolate eggs with prizes in them).  Of course Brother F. thought it would be funny to get the pink ones, hoping for a girly prize.  So, sure enough, we've got some Barbies on our desks now.  We also met Brother and Sister T.  Brother T. is the best story teller ever.  He told us many "pearls of wisdom" as he calls them.

The coolest thing I've seen in Canada so far is probably the members of our ward. We've been fed pretty much every day and it's been great to meet so many awesome people.  Also, there are a ton of other Hills here. I haven't met any of them, but everyone keeps asking me if I'm related to like 20 other people.

"Life is too funny to take seriously, unless communing with God." - Brother T.