Letter -- 29 February 2012

Dearest Hill family!

Well, the countdown has begun.  This time next week I will have been in Indiana for 24 hrs!  I can't believe it has already been two weeks!  I don't know about you but the time has flown!  After my laundry is done I am going to start packing.

We need to be at the travel office by 4AM! on Tuesday morning!  It looks like we will be up at 3.  Ugh.  That is going to be a long day.  Our flight takes off at 7am.  We will land in Denver, CO @ 9AM then will leave Denver at 11:30 and touch down in Indianapolis at 4PM, where President and Sister Collins will be waiting for us.

It's going to be a bittersweet day.  I have loved the MTC, but it's time to go, but I am sure going to miss the sweet people I have met here.

OK.  News from the last week.  We have been teaching several "investigators" and so far we have loved them all.  I say "investigators" cause two of them are our teachers, just role playing, and the other two...We are not sure if they are members who are really good actors or if they really are real inactives/investigators.

The one lady we are teaching we are 98% positive she is a real investigator.  She is from Guatamala, has 5 grown children.  Her family is everything to her.  She is the most humble and Christlike woman you have ever met!  If she is a member, I am 100% positive she will be put directly into the highest glory in the Celestial Kingdom.  If she really isn't, HF is going to have a hard time sending her to the Terrestrial Kindom!  He'll be like..."If only you had gotten baptized!"  She is very acccepting of the gospel, but she is waiting for her husband.  We are not sure where he is at, since he is being taught separately by the Elders.

In other news.  Last night we had our Tuesday night devotional.  Well, let me back up.

At lunch yesterday Pres. Brown sat with our district at lunch.  We were like...."Yeah, that's right!  The MTC pres is sitting with us at lunch!"  Then he started quizzing us on our knowledge of the Book of Mormon.  Oh no!.....We did OK.  It made us think how not prepared we really are to go out and teach.

Anyway then he asked us if we were all planning to go to the fireside.  We said yes and he kind of got this mischievous smile on his face.  He said:  "Make sure you're early to get a good seat.  And bring your notebooks.  You will want to take notes."

Of course we asked who was speaking and he told us he can't tell us for security reasons but that it would be one of the Elders.   Ch-yea! Get there early!

Sis. D. and I sung in the choir so we had great seats!

So before every devotional or fireside the whole congregation sings 2-3 hymns to invite the spirit to the meeting before it has even begun.  So we are all singing (rather distractedly, as we are all watching the door that we know he is going to come through.)

All of a sudden Pres & Sister Brown walk through the door and onto the stand.  Here he comes!  (We all still don't know who it is yet.)  As he walked through the door there was a collective gasp and an almost cheer!  (We can't cheer, cause it would be like cheering in Sacrament if Pres. Monson walked through the door.)  We all immediately jumped out of our seats to show our love and support for the apostle of the Lord who had just walked through the door!  I was so cool! to be so close to him.  We have been listening to his talks all week and we all love him and to be one in two thousand that he was talking directly to was amazing!  We could just feel his spirit and his love!  I felt so incredibly blessed to be in the presence of someone who is regularly in the presence of our Heavenly Father!

Do you have any guesses as to who it was?! .........................ready for me to tell you?................How about now?...You sure you want to go with that Elder?  Going once? Going twice?

If you guessed Elder Jeffrey R. Holland...you were right!!!! AHHH!!!!  How cool is that?!?

He totally chewed us out!  :) In his way that makes you want to change and be better!  So cool!

Thank you for my bathrobe!  It makes showering a lot easier!  And Daddy, thank you for your talk!

Taylor:  P.S.  If you get your mission call and I hear about it from Mom....I will get on a plane and come home just to kick your butt!  I either want a letter or an e-mail from your e-mail address!  Or there will be BIG trouble!

Landon:  How are you doing?  School?  Friends?  I heard you threw a party?  That's cool!  Who are you arguing with now that I am gone?

Ash:  I am working on a letter for you so don't feel bad that I am not saying anything deep to you now.  :)

I love you guys and hope things are going well!  Play with Bella for me!

Love,  Sis Bri

P.S.  Please remember to put the dates on your letters!