I Am In... -- 27 August 2012

Lafayette!!!

We live about 25 minutes from the Purdue campus. Lafayette is beautiful! My comp is Sister S. We have been double transferred in and also are white washing the area. (For those who don't speak missionary: The Elders were taken out, and Sister S. and I were put in, and told to get to work!) We are having a lot of fun trying to find everything, and getting to know the investigators and the ward! We have been so blessed and see miracles every day!

The ward is amazing! They know how to do missionary work! Already they are the ones setting up our schedule! Setting up less-actives for us to go see, helping us with our investigators, feeding us! They are wonderful, amazing people, and I can't wait to see how this next 6 weeks go!

Sister  S. is from Fullerton, CA. She went to BYU. She has one older sister, and two younger brothers. One of them is one day younger than Ash. (We were thinking of hooking your two up so that we can be sis-in-law through marriage!) :)

I love you all! I am safe! We have no time on the computers, and I still have to e-mail Pres. C.! I love you!

-Sister Hill

New Address:
 3111 New London Ct Apt #529
Lafayette, IN 47909

Transfers -- Monday, 20 August 2012

Well, it is official. I am leaving North Vernon. So when you send your letters this week, either send to the mission office:

1980 E 116th St, STE #200

Carmel, IN 46032

or wait until next Monday when I can get you my new address.

Actually while I am so sad to leave North Vernon, I am excited/nervous to start a new adventure! Sister Castleton is staying here in North Vernon and training one of the new Sisters coming in! (Honestly, I am glad I am not her right now. Training is super stressful, and I think I am way too selfish to do it!)

So moving on from that, I have a funny story! Yesterday in sacrament meeting, we had a couple giving their "farewell" talk. One of their daughters and her two children came to visit our ward. (They just moved out last month so we knew them and were excited to see them again.) Half-way through Sister Miller's talk, the little boy had been out in the foyer, and he came in the back door and walked right past us without pants or a diaper on! He walked up the aisle without a care in the world! When Sister Miller saw him she stopped cold, pointed at him and looked straight over at her daughter, like "WHAT IS HE DOING!?!?!" The whole congregation was busting a side trying to not laugh right out loud at this little boy's bum hanging out under his shirt! It was the most eventful sacrament meeting I have ever been in. It was super great!

We also stopped and talked to a couple of guys yesterday.  After we were talking for a few seconds we realized they were pretty drunk. Then they had another friend show up who was WASTED! It was interesting trying to talk to them after that. So we left. Hopefully there were seeds planted.

All in all we had an.....eventful Sunday. But you just can't beat the Sabbath day! Our lesson in Relief Society was on Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and how we can better do that. I sat there thinking: "Sunday is just like every other day, if not 10 times more busy!  How can we keep it holy?" Then I thought about something I have heard several times:  every day is the sabbath as a missionary, because we are dedicated to doing the Lord's work 24/7 for 18 months. That really helped. However yesterday, all I wanted to do was curl up on your bed and play Othello with Daddy. :) Until I can do that, though, we went out to work, and it ended up being a really good day!

So here is your "writing prompt" for this week: What do you do to Keep the Sabbath Day Holy? What can you re-commit to doing to make it truly the Lords day?

I love you all! Talk to you next week from......?

-Sister Hill

What A Week! -- 13 August 2012

So, on Saturday night (about 8:45) I went out to the mailbox, as it had not been checked for 2 days. Best. Mail-Day. Ever! 5 letters, all for me! One from Mom, Grandma Hill, Grandma Fish, My Bestest Friend Brittany (finally!), and one from her cousin, Elder Cosper! Letters from most of my favorite people! (You others already know who you are, (Landon)) Anyway, it was a great surprise!

This week has been really great!

Monday: We did a super deep clean of our apartment, because we have a little roommate that we didn't invite. When we went out shopping, we also bought a sticky trap to catch this little roommate. We also did a few outside jobs that we have been neglecting. My job was to weed. You know how I LOVE that job. I actually got a pretty blister on the side of my pointer finger, because several of those things did not want to come out of the ground! It was really satisfying to see what our driveway looked like when I was done, though.

We had dinner with Bishop Klingler and his great family that night, then they were doing several projects around the house that he got the whole family working on that day. It reminded me so much of Mom, when you finally get fed up with the house and the yard, and you wake us up ridiclously early for a Saturday, and demand that we spend an hour outside (you know what your grandma would say...)  Then we have to come in, pick up all of our poop, and then don't leave our rooms until they are spotless, which usually took until about 5.  Then we would have Arctic for dinner, and go see a movie.

So now that I have rambled for so long... We went and had a lesson, bringing one of his daughters with us.  When we got back, we pitched in and helped as much as we could before we had to go home for the night.

Jumping to Friday: Zone Conference! I think some of my fondest memeories of my mission will be when any part of the mission has gathered together to learn from one another, President and Sister Collins, and an Apostle. That's right! We had another Apostle visit and teach us. (Sister C. says I must be really naughty: The First Presidency has to keep sending apostles to check on me!) Elder Golden from the 70, and his wife came and taught us. It was super neat!

After Conference we went on exchanges! Yay for exchanges! I got to go to Bloomington for 24 hours with Sisters D. and E.! They are most fantastic Sisters and it was such a priveledge to work and learn from them! Sister D. has grown so much since the MTC! Of course she was trained by "The-Energizer-Bunny"  And Sister E. is just fantastic! She has also been comps with Sister C., so she wanted to know everything about how she/we are doing. So many things learned that I love implementing in our work!

So, I have a few comments and questions from the letters I received.

Mom: Is the Grand Caynon trip open to all, or is it just an anniversary trip?

Grandma Fish: I AM being well looked after! I have absolutly ZERO complaints about this North Vernon Ward! They are super fantastic! I will be sad to leave when that day comes.

Oh! Story along great ward lines!

Yesterday, we had dinner at the Klinglers (again), and this time we had an investigator couple (the Polleys) come with us. Two of our ward missionaries are the bishop's twin daughters who are here for the summer, and both of them have been awsome about coming with us to this couple's home. A few weeks ago we had dinner at the Polleys' home, so this time we asked the Klinglers to host. Bishop and Sister Klingler clicked SO well with them! Dinner lasted forever because everyone was talking and laughing so long! Then we had a lesson on the temples. We watched the movie the church put together, Between Heaven and Earth.  AMAZING!!!! You could just see Brother Polley's wheels turning in his head! Something clicked last night! They are both so close, yet so far away! I think they can see how close they are getting, and are getting a little nervous about what it means IF what we are teaching is true! AHHH!!!! So cool! I love missionary work!

I love you all at home, but I don't ever want to do anything else! (You may not see me again ;) )

Well family, I am out of time! I love you so much, and can't wait to hear from you again! Remember to pray for missionary opportunities! (You might even go visit the Montgomery's.  They might have something you can help with!)

Loves!

-Sister Hill 

Transfers -- 13 August 2012

Here are the dates for the next couple transfers:

August 22

October 3

November 14

And the one in December is a little up in the air right now because its supposed to be on the 26th but I don't know if that is going to happen for obvious reasons.

So in your letter you said that T's pics had come in, can you e-mail me a few as well?

I love you!

-Sister Hill

Letter -- 6 August 2012

Taylor has been on my mind all week. First I was thinking, "he is going to be set apart soon". Then "Oh my goodness he has been in the MTC for 24 hours already! How is he doing? What is he doing?! I am just positive he is loving every minute!"

I kinda felt bad that I didn't have a letter to him on his first day there, I know how much I love letters, but he is probably so caught up in the work that he could care less. I also realized that NOBODY has given me his address yet..............GUILT!................(but I don't say a word, not one word! (Name it!))

This has been a really good week in North Vernon. We have been on the bikes this week. Mom, remember when we started biking, and we would get off, and comment on how something needed to be added to the bike to make for a not so sore ride. Yeah... But it has been fun. It is a lot more fun than walking; however, on Saturday we biked, and it was SO humid!!!! I finally experienced Indiana "regular weather." I could barely breathe, and I was soaking after 2 minutes. We tracted for a little while then drove to CSL and biked around there trying some potentials and less-active members, then we had a lesson with one of our recent converts, and as we were sitting in their house, they had the AC going and because I was soaking wet I was shivering! Both Sister Castleton and I were sitting there thinking: "We hope we don't get pneumonia!" But it was fun.

We have a couple baptisms scheduled in the next few weeks. We are not really sure if either are going to be able to happen because of a couple things, but they are so close that it would be a bummer for them not to make it now. But in the Lord's time and in His way.

Can you believe transfers are coming up again? I am not sure what I want to happen. I love North Vernon, but I keep thinking that there is more I can learn in other places. Maybe that is my challenge, I need to find what I can learn here.

Another thing that I am really looking forward to is that General Conference is at the end of this next transfer! And because it is October, that also means its the General Relief Society session! Cant wait! Isn't that nuts that conference is in about 8 weeks?! Where did the time go?

We have another busy week ahead of us: Zone Conference is on Friday, and we will be going on exchanges Friday night to Saturday night! I love exchanges! This time I get to go up to Bloomington and stay with Sister Elmer and Sister Donaldson. Sister Castleton is staying here and Sister Berrett is going to be her Comp. I am excited to work in a trio for a day, to see what that is like. Plus Sister Elmer and I got a chance to get to know one another a little bit at Sisters training, and found out that we are kindred spirits! And I will get to work with Sister Donaldson again! This is going to be a good weekend!

Well that is it for now, we have a lot to do today to prepare for the rest of the week! (Hence why it is call "Preparation" Day. It does not say lazy day.)

I love you all! M&D Happy Anniversary! I love you so much! Thank you for honoring your temple covenants, and for choosing me as your daughter in the pre-mortal life! I love you!

-Sister Hill