Well its the 1st of August in North
Augusta!! So I was transferred Tuesday to North Augusta in the Martinez/
Evans area! I'm still a zone leader but instead of covering 5 districts
like back in Columbus I only cover 3. It is the nicest area I've been
in in about a year! It really feels like Utah or somewhere out west. Its
just so clean and the houses you would find out in Utah are the houses
you'd find here in North Augusta. It's crazy that I'm back in Augusta
and serving in an area only 30 minutes from Waynesboro. I was in Augusta
a year ago and now I'm back! I'm serving here with Elder Vance Weston
who lived in Bear Lake, Utah right above Logan and he lived on a ranch.
We both came out together and its been a blast serving together! I'm
glad that the 3rd hour was good and that you liked the picture! It
sounds like y'all are doing great and I hope Kristy keeps on getting
better, I'll for sure keep on praying:) Have fun in Montana and tell
Grandma and Grandpa Hill hi for me!
On Tuesday, it was transfers and I woke up at 5:00
to finish my packing and such. It was so hard to leave Columbus! I have
got so close to this area and I will surely miss it. Our air
conditioning went out in the night and it got up to 105 degrees in the
apartment with humidity. It was soooo hot. We woke up and we were both
dripping in sweat and it was too late in night to call maintenance and
all the little fixes we tried weren't working so we slept in the front
room on the couch and it was more or less a rough night. But we got to
transfer meeting and said hi to all the old friends. I found out that I
would be going to North Augusta with Elder Weston! I was sooo excited!!
I'm still a zone leader and I've heard from lots of missionaries that
I'd love the area. I was super excited and couldn't wait to start
working there! On the way back we drove through my old area
Milledgeville and it was great to see it again! Our apartment is sooo
nice and as soon as we got into Evans/ Martinez, GA I knew I was going
to like it! It's sooo clean and its unlike the rest of Georgia, and it
really took some adjusting to seeing the atmosphere like you would see
out west. We got settled in and we had English class later that night,
the missionary that I replaced was a Spanish missionary and he is a big
help in that class. We were asked to help people who knew little English
how to speak it and I had to brush back up on my Spanish. I'm thinking
about getting a Spanish name tag because of how many people we have been
teaching English/ Spanish here.
On Wednesday,
we did some service for an investigator and we put grout on her patio
and cleaned up her yard a bit. She had bamboo in her backyard and it
made me think that I was in China or somewhere other than Georgia. We
also met up with a less active member who didn't accept missionaries into
his home for a long time and we were able to eat lunch with them.
Sister Dickerson made us cookies and I was intending on eating one
because you know I'm trying to stay fit for college basketball, BUT then
she told us that she got the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies
from a friend who paid 2,000$ for this recipe! I was caught off guard
and I was like who would pay that much for a recipe?? She then went on
to tell us that it was Mrs. Fields recipe for her signature cookies. So
that can give you a jist of how well off this area is. By the way I have
the recipe:) We tried a few other people later on and had a great 1st
day!
On Thursday, we went to the library for
referral management time and in that time I watched the pioneer day
concert by the Mormon Tabernacle choir. It was super good and here is
the link to it https://www.
After
that we visited with an investigator and I swear in my lifetime that I
have met her before but I guess she was just someone I needed to meet.
She has been investigating for a long time but she just needs permission
from her parents to get baptized. It is much like the situation from
Columbus with Sarah Mickle. Madison is doing seminary by herself and
doing personal progress by herself. I just thought it was interesting
that I helped someone in Columbus with that and now I am in that same
situation here in Evans. We had a super solid lesson with a lady named
Trisha. She had a question about the 3 kingdoms of glory and how 1
Corinthians 15:40
relates to it. She just was concerned because shes been to churches
where the church has "THEIR" verse of scripture that backs up doctrine.
So she wanted us to answer that and we used 2 Corinthians 12:2 and where
it takes about the third heaven and how it would makes sense that there
would be a 1st and 2nd and 3rd heaven. She was very intrigued and we
hope to put her on date this week.
On Friday, we had a full day of planning! We got set up for the upcoming transfer and got things squared away.
On
Saturday, we had a fun time playing ultimate Frisbee with some of the
ward members and investigators. It was really humid but very fun! We met
some very cool less active members and later on in the night we were
tracting and we had probably 10 people reject us and slam the door. This
one guy opened the door and just said "no" and I was being persistent
because they didn't even give us a chance and they base everything they
know about the church through rumors and things that aren't true. So I
said" What did we do?" He said "you believe that you can become Gods and
we will never become God's!!!" At this point hes pretty close to both
of us. I said very simply. "In anything we do in life don't we want to
get 10/10?" He said "yeah" I said "Is God perfect?" He said yes then I
went on to say " knowing that we want to always be as perfect as we can
be in this life would it be safe to say that we are working in this life
to be as close to perfect as we can to God in this life? He was like...
I guess. We shared the Restoration and got a return appointment, so we
will see where that goes.
On Sunday,
I felt like I was back home in church because of the fact we had to
open up the gym and there were lots of people there! Its very comforting
to be in a ward like one you would find out west. Church was awesome
and during 3rd hour we taught a visitor from Honduras( In Spanglish) The
gospel of Jesus Christ which was pretty cool! So...after church we had
an appointment with this guy named Mike ... So do you remember or recall
Calvary Chapel? So Mike is also from Calvary Chapel and the spirit in
his home was exactly the same as in Columbus with that pastor and the
church. Elder Ballard and Elder Weston met him and he gave us one chance
to share a message and this was that chance. He told them that anything
in our church could not bless him at all... So we went into the
Restoration and he had issues with the whole thing and every word we
said just to disagree. 1. "He believes that we don't have to get baptized
to get into heaven" and so we brought up John 3:5 and said that when
Christ was talking about being born of the water that he was talking
about being born and that all we do is accept Christ into your heart and
your saved. I've never heard a scripture be contorted like. That point
is the very point that Christ was making to Nicodemus that we need to be
baptized by the proper authority AND receive the gift of the holy ghost
or you cannot enter into the kingdom of God.. 2. "God sent himself to
die for us so that he would know what we would feel and that he left his
spirit for us... and when he died he pinned the law to the cross so we
dont have to follow the law of Moses and after we have accepted Christ
into our heart no matter what we are saved... My answer to that was why
would you repent if you know you're going to be saved? He said to
express our love... I said" No I think its more than just expressing
love but its a change of heart and changing for the good. With that kind
of mindset you'd become idle and complacent and that is something the
Satan wants you to think. We talked alot about doctrine but left with
the spirit where we both bore heartfelt testimony and he bore his and
left. Its sad to see people think they've found it and wont accept
anything else. We visited with members and biked later on that night.
Crazy thing is, is that Elder Weston was hit the same night I did a year
ago and we ended up biking together that same night.
I
know this church is true and that Joseph Smith was prophet and that
through Christ we can accomplish anything if we have faith, have hope,
and live like his son.
I LOVE Y'ALL
-Elder Hill
#AugustainAgusta #Protectthefaith
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