July 27, 2015 - Hephzibah, Georgia

Elder Hinton and I have biked quite a bit more than we normally do this past week. We ended up riding 30-35 miles each day this week because everything is so spread out that driving in a car would be detrimental to the amount of miles we get each month. Don't worry water is my new best friend haha besides Christ. I also met someone tin our ward that used to live in Westminster on 104th in Colorado! Their names are Brother and Sister Spittle. They are great people and it was great meeting someone who understands how great the mountains are. You sure do miss seeing mountains when your surrounded by 100 foot tall trees. The people here are very unique and some people won't open the door for you because of the neighborhood they live in so it's interesting proclaiming the gospel screaming at a door. We have met a lot of soldiers from the Army that train at fort Gordon which is in Augusta. Every house here has a flag waving in front of their house down here, it's either an American flag or a Confederate flag haha.

I've really grown a lot this week and I stopped counting the days when I get home and surprisingly it's going by way faster haha. Funny how things work isn't it... I really appreciated the biking accessories, the pictures, and the letter. It was definitely given at a needed time and it really helped both of us out a lot! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Love,

Elder Mitchell Hill

#DOWORK #Hilllfamisdabest #buildingZion #bigmovesamepeople #keepitreal

July 13, 2015 - Hephzibah, Georgia

Hi Fam!!

Georgia is a lot different than Colorado and Utah I'll tell you that haha. The trees in Georgia are really cool, but along with the trees there are really annoying gnats that I don't think I'll get used to, but it's all good. So Elder Hinton and I are getting along great we both like staying healthy and keeping each other in shape so that's great. And since we like staying in shape we ride our bikes a lot and since we sweat a lot often times people will invite us in from the streets to get water and while we get water we chat about the gospel haha. So yes I did get my bike its a mongoose and I got to choose from 5 and I got the most sturdy one. So when I got the bike it looked great everything worked but the tire was a little flat and I assumed someone had a pump I could borrow so I was going to do it when I got into my area, but believe it or not people in Georgia rarely have bikes so I was riding on a flat tire for 4 days which made for a splendid leg workout. And yes mom I'm writing it all in my journal. My first day was quite the experience, the poverty in Georgia is astounding and people live in houses that you think couldn't be inhabited by humans but they are. My first day I was also amazed at how the dogs are down here cause they protect the territory so you have to be careful and so on my first day I had a scary experience with 5 black dogs. We were riding down a steep hill into a coldisack and these black dogs ran to the street and stopped when we got to the coldisack. So we were like alright , but then we knocked on this lady's house and a huge German shepherd came from the house and ran to us and I grabbed a stick and hit it. The owner was mad but after I did that the dog went away and she yelled at us cause she said he's not a biter but I think otherwise by the way she was coming at me haha. Then we still had to get up the hill past the dogs so we used our bikes as shields and got sticks and we shielded the dogs off until we got to the level road and went off as fast as we could Don't worry mom I'm fine lol.  I've already had so many stories that are crazy but I'm safe and doing well. I'm just amazed at what kids here grow up in and what they experience which makes me grateful for the way I was brought up. Cause I couldn't imagine living in some of these kids' houses. You see drugs all around and my strength has already helped me so much here. I'm glad the house sold I hope it all goes well! I've invited 5 people to baptism and they have all accepted so we have them on date which is cool.Before I end I'll tell you this story, later after we shielded the dogs we met these guys on the street walking and they pulled out a joint while we were riding next to them and talking about god and they were interested but they were just dazed from what they were smoking so they listened and we are supposed call them but we aren't sure if we should or not so we are praying on it. But hey thanks for everything I hope everything goes well and I miss yall!lol. I wish I could tell you more but I have other emails to get to.

Elder Hill Arrives in Georgia - 7/6/2015

This is just a short note to let you know that your missionary arrived in the Georgia Macon Mission safely.  Today is such a long day for them that I will be sending out only a group photo today.  You will receive an individual photo of your missionary with President and Sister Cottle on Wednesday.  Everyone was in good spirits and anxious for dinner since they had been up since about 3 am already.  Tomorrow they will find out where they are assigned and who their first companion in the field will be.  But for now…

Good night,

Sister Westbrook

Secretary

Georgia Macon Mission

Last Week in MTC

So much has happened here at the MTC and I hope I can remember it all. On Saturday the branch president game me a calling as the Sacrament table coordinator so on Sunday I was able to pass the sacrament and bless it on next Sunday. Sunday was really good, we were shown a talk by Elder Bednar that is only seen in the MTC called the Characteristics of Christ. Monday was the first day we were allowed in the cafeteria in 1M because of the general authorities here last week and the food has been good. It seems like I'm one of the few people here that eat healthy cause everyone else eats like 10 donuts a meal and stuffs their face with GMO's lol but the food is really good. I've been eating lots of fruit, water, salad, steak, and veggies. It was also the first day we are able to play basketball and I'm now known as the baller around here lol. There were people watching my team play whenever we played so you could say I'm known around here. On Tuesday we heard from Elder Sitaki from the Seventy and it's hard listening to his accent but it was good. I met my great some lady  with a sister Hill tag on and she said she was my great aunt. Since we did the choir so I believe she was the lady mom was talking about.Oh, and in the morning I did my laundry in between classes which was really sketchy cause you aren't supposed to do it on a day that isn't your pday but luckily I got it done.   Wednesday we were just doing classroom studies and teaching fake investigators and dunkin on kids in gym. On Thursday we had the longest day of our lives cause we had a in field orientation for 8 hours and my bottom was sore. Although last night we sang with some Tongans hymns in their language and it made the day. Another cool thing that happened was my companion got decorations for the forth of July and we made our room noticeable to everyone haha. It's kind of interesting everyone knows us and we are considered veterans even though we have only been here a week.