Canada Loves Us

This last week has been pretty awesome.  We went on another exchange with the Mandarin Elders yesterday, so Elder L. and I got to pretend we knew what we were doing for a bit. (<-- sarcasm) Also, Elder L. can understand/can speak about 15% English so we pretty much just said whatever inspired us and switched conversations rapidly. We actually had quite a bit of success, too. We went tracting and gave away four Books of Mormon in one whole day! And most of the recipients seemed pretty interested, too. We also got a non-member to commit to come to Church in the first lesson we taught on the sidewalk while tracting, so hopefully we'll see something come of that. We also were let in by a very nice and very sad lady. The lesson went great and she said we could come back on Thursday. Elder L. and I also got UBER lost, and I don't use the word "uber" lightly. We thought we knew where we were going, but we were wrong... obviously. We found a golf course, a campsite, the personification of "the boonies", Edmonton, and a really cool looking house. We had a blast.

For those of you who have questions about our use of Facebook and technology and such:
We don't know when the missionaries are getting Facebook, so right now we're working with the members to have them send friendly messages to people they know. When we do get Facebook, it will be us mainly using it for something like a group chat with investigators and members to do lessons or answer questions. We're also going to be using Skype for lessons in the future.

One of the greatest uses of technology here is an app we use called "Area book". Area book is pretty much a digital version of the area book and daily planner. We can record lessons we have with people and have our plan of how we're gonna teach them all on the device. We also have an area book map that has our investigators' addresses from the Area Book app.

One thing that was said about the apps was that they are buggy (of course) and that there were people who were lost in the system that we couldn't find again. Most people weren't really happy with the app until Elder N. told us about how Heavenly Father gave us this technology to help us make the work progress faster, and whoever fell through the cracks would be found again when they are ready to hear the message.  It's pretty cool to see all the ways the Lord is hastening the work.

On another note, though, General Conference!!! Woo! Elder J. and I met up with Elder N. and Elder K. for General Conference at a member family's house. The family there had a lot of fun talking about the famous "STEAK CHALLENGE" and I think everyone in the house ganged up on me, so now I have to do the challenge... I am going to die.

For those of you who do not know about the famous "STEAK CHALLENGE", let me explain. You start off with a small ice-cream sandwich. After that, they throw you straight into the S.T.E.A.K.(I'm sure we could find a fun acronym for that.) The steak is usually from an animal that humans don't eat a lot, like a yak or a moose or something, and it's Huge!  They don't even own plates big enough for the steak. After that, you have another small ice-cream sandwich, and after that they give you a large slice of pie in a swimming pool of whipped cream and you have to eat all of the whipped cream, too. And finally, to finish, they give you a large, thick, hockeypuck-ish, ice-cream sandwich. I am going to die...

Okay, back to Conference! My favorite talk was actually in the priesthood session with Elder Eyring. He talked about Enoch, who was called by God to teach repentance to the people (a.k.a. Missionary.) He was troubled by that call because he thought he wasn't good enough. He talked about how the people hated him and he was slow of speech. He then asked God, "Wherefore am I thy servant?" (That actually might be a direct quote. Not sure though.) God told him to go and do the things which the Lord had commanded. He told him about how his words would be justified and he would bring many people back to Heavenly Father. I looked further in the scriptures and, sure enough, he becomes a totally awesome dude. The talk kind of spoke to me, I guess, because I have kind of been feeling inadequate--not a ton, but enough. We had Sharon drop us and Aaron kind of dropped us, too (he didn't come to conference and such.) We also haven't heard back from Jazelle in forever. But I know a lot of things now that have strengthened me a lot. I can testify to all of you that no matter what trial you have to go through, God will be with you. You just have to let Him.

I love y'all and I'll talk to ya next week.

P.S. We are going to play Extreme Croquet, whatever that is. All we know is that it's played in a big field/forest-y area and that every shot is a chip shot. (They are gonna kill me, haha.)

Zone Conference

We went to the temple this morning and didn't get to do our normal stuff until about noon today. We also had zone conference!!! It was awesome, too. We learned a lot about teaching simply and by the Spirit. "Cuz if they don't learn by the Spirit, then it ain't from God." D&C 50:17-20. Totally a direct quote.^*

Elder J. and I also got to teach Sharon again! I don't remember if I told ya about her yet, but that's pretty much what happened. We also get to watch General Conference with the F.s and we're bringing Aaron with us.
Oh, yeah! We're gonna get Facebook soon! So that'll be weird. I'll update y'all on that one.

Also, I'm also seeing the value of saving money here. Another Elder wasn't thrifty at all, recently, and had to eat Ramen for a week for every meal. I still have about 15 Canadian dollars after buying food for this next week, so I'm gonna work on that too, I guess. Though I have a hard time spending some coins, just because they're awesome. We have one and two dollar coins here. One dollar is a Looney, and two is a Twooney.

I love ya! Talk to ya next week!

^*Editor's Note: Not a direct quote. "Verily I say unto you, he that is ordained of me and sent forth to preach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of truth, doth he preach it by the Spirit of truth or some other way? And if it be by some other way it is not of God. And again, he that receiveth the word of truth, doth he receive it by the Spirit of truth or some other way? If it be some other way it is not of God."

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.

Final Push to the North

We're at the final push! The final advance! The "final destination"! The final.... something else that sounds final, I guess. Anyway, this is my last P-day before Canada happens. And I can't be more excited. I've been learning a ton, working a ton, eating a ton, sleeping a little, and having way more fun  than I ever thought I would. (And they told me it'd be a sacrifice.) Well, it's been a pretty awesome adventure so far.

Tuesday we had a devotional and we got to see the newest Church message for Easter. It's like that thing they did for Christmas, but we are almost the only ones, other than the apostles, that have seen it. It's awesome. I think it's called #PrinceOfPeace, but don't quote me on that. I guess you'll see it when it's released.

Elder K. from New Zealand prayed for snow... and then it snowed... a lot... but we did get to go to the temple again today. That's always fun.

In case you were wondering:

• All of the guys in my district are going to Canada, except for Elder P. who is going to Florida with the Sisters.
• My MTC companion is from Syracuse, Utah.
• I have consumed more chocolate milk than I am willing to admit.
• It has been awesome to go to the temple together with my district.  We've done endowment sessions twice now, and it's been really fun. There's also a cafeteria in the basement of the temple with really good food. 
• There are four Sisters in our district: Sister S. is the loud one of the group, her companion Sister C. is really excitable and quiet.  Sister C2 (aka Sister Savage--she's so savage) is always late for everything and she's really good at sports and beating people up, apparently.  Her companion is Sister J., the sweetest and most patient person here.

I love y'all and can't wait to get to Canada! See you then.

"A Giant Among Men"

In Training

Family moment while entering MTC

My adventure has been awesome so far.  I have never been in a place with so many like minded people.  My companion is Elder M. He is a really cool guy, and he lived in Utah too, but we are so very different from each other. He just came from doing some stuff in the Air Force, so he's really dedicated to tasks. He's really smart, and he's actually taller than me. In fact, I am only the third tallest in our district, which is super weird. We then have Elder K.  He is the best.  He's from New Zealand, is also taller than me, and he has an awesome personality. It's really fun to see him interact with stuff that is super American, like Twinkies, or the super sugary doughnuts in the MTC (which are amazingly unhealthy and I can't seem to ever finish one.)

We then have our district leader, Elder C., who is probably the smartest of the group. He's a lot more outspoken than he looks at first, but he's also an awesome person. And we have Elder P. who is companions with Elders K. and C.  He's kind of the sports guy of the group, but he always is a good sport about pretty much everything.

I'm really happy with my district and our progress in the first few days.  It's been a blast working with such awesome people. I couldn't have picked a better group I'd like to serve with.

I have learned a ton of amazing and not so amazing stuff here. One of the first things I've learned here is: medicine works.  Not really a fun lesson to learn, but I'd rather learn it now than later right? I got really sick the third day in and was struggling physically and mentally. But after medicine happened, it was like I finally found the cure for world hunger, or something not as dramatic, but just as applicable.

Another thing is: the food here is kinda like the weather. Sometimes it's super! And sometimes it's... not.  You never really know until it happens. Though I do have to say that I'm a huge fan of their fries here. I also had a really good Canadian cheese soup.

This lesson I learned was kind of hard for me. I'm not going to go too in depth, but I have been so blind to the Gospel!  Everything just makes way more sense now!  It's awesome!  We learned that the Holy Ghost can help us learn faster in the MTC, and it's so very true. Just practicing on each other has shown me just how far I've come in such a relatively short amount of time. And I am super excited about going even farther in preparing to serve in the "Great White North".

We taught our first practice investigator. Her name is Yui, and she is awesome. The whole time the Spirit was super strong, and Elder M. and I felt super awesome afterwards. We got her to the point where she said she will pray at the next lesson and pray about faith when reading Alma 32.

On Valentine's Day, we did service cleaning bathrooms, I got a moose and a ton of chocolate, I got to sing in a choir that was broadcast to every single other MTC in the world, and we got to hear a talk from M. Russell Ballard. All in all, it was an awesome day.

MTC District at Provo Temple

Looking back on how few days we've been here, it's crazy how close our district has gotten in just eight days. I got super buff at the gym on Wednesday, and also was super excited to go to the temple on Thursday.

Not counting the first Friday, this whole experience feels more like two days or less. And it's all been pretty much amazing. Thursday we finally got to go inside the temple and do an endowment session. And of course I learned some new stuff. But I think the really cool part is that we ate breakfast afterwards at the temple. Like inside the temple! Who even knew that was a thing? But hey I'm not complaining; it was some of the best bacon I've ever had.

I just want to let y'all know that this has been one of the best experiences of my life. I can hardly wait to get to Canada. YUKON HO!!!