Weeks keeping on flying by and the work is continuing to move along here in Evans! Haha I laughed when I saw your "Hi Y'all Mitch"... you're startin to git the southern feel:) haha.
This past week has been another scorcher with record setting heat. If I were to describe how hot it is, is it would be like doing missionary work in a sauna. Georgia doesnt really cool down until November and even then you might find the heat back up to 90 degrees, but I'm definitely looking forward to feeling cold again:)
On Tuesday, we had interviews with President Grayson and I really enjoyed the conversation that we had! One thing that we did talk about was the different ways we feel the spirit. I told him that I wonder why as a missionary you dont receive burning sensations all the time from the Holy Ghost like you may have at home, but instead of a burning its more of a confirming"YES!" feeling rather than a fire in your heart. I think it has something to do with the fact that you experience and listen to the Spirit so much that "you get used to it" over time. Like for example if you're in extremely cold weather over time your fingers go numb and you dont really know you are cold until you get out of the cold. It might be something like that but it was just an interesting topic to talk about with him. Later that day we had English class and it was very good. We taught 7 people how to use the word "want" in English! One cool thing that we do in the class is we sing "I am a Child of God with them and it helps them understand how words flow in English and the lyrics to the song are simple and it shows how much God loves us.
On Wednesday, a lot of the day was preparing for ZTM the next day and trying to figure things out within the zone. I watched this talk at our time to check our referrals and I thought you might enjoy it. https://www.lds.org/genera
On Thursday, we prepared for ZTM in the morning. The North Augusta zone is alot different than in Columbus. In Columbus we had close to 45 missionaries in the zone and so there were always uneasy, nervous feelings for your training's, but in North Augusta we have about 20 missionaries and its definitely a more personal meeting. Which makes it kind of nice because sometimes missionaries are afraid of saying something wrong or are scared to pose their idea in front of everyone, but with a smaller group people feel more comfortable. I gave my training on what it means in Jacob 1:8 by "suffering His cross" and putting on the whole Armour of God. It went very well, I played the primary song "He sent His Son" and we all felt the spirit from that song. It was interesting, we were talking about "suffering Christ cross" and what that means for us. I think it means that we help bear the name of Christ and help him bear the cross if bring to the immortality and eternal life of man. That with complete, willing obedience we can help him bear the weight on his shoulders. I think it also means that we all bear our own cross and no one knows how your cross feels but Christ, and if we expect our trials to be easy then we will let them trap us in, but if we trust in God and run at the storm instead of letting it chase us we can overcome anything life throws at us. After ZTM we had an amazing day where we the Lords hand in the work. We first met with Jeff and Gabe Smith. Jeff has been ready to be baptized for over a month now but his situation at work doesnt allow him to go to church on Sundays and so without him being able to come to church he cant get baptized. We fasted with him last Sunday and even though there wasnt an immediate change with work that it doesn't mean it wont happen cause we have to understand we have to align Gods timing with our timing. We taught about the priesthood and how to magnify the priesthood and I know its only a matter of time before something will change with his work. After that appointment, I had one of the most spiritual and humble lessons on mission. We taught this girl named Dan. She is from Vietnam and on Sunday I kept getting a prompting to go and ask her if she wanted to know more about the church after gospel principles class. At the lesson she said" Elder Hill I'm so grateful you approached me because I had been praying for answers to my questions about life and I know that what this church believes will help and I was too scared to ask you guys." Dan had been living in a rough situation but had recently moved in with a member and was very impressed how the members treated each other. She loves the focus of families and the spirit their home has. We taught her the Restoration and with tears in her eyes accepted to be baptized and she said" I haven't read the Book of Mormon, but I believe it is true..." She is so prepared and ready to embrace the gospel. We are planning to meet with her this week for another lesson!To make the day even better, we had dinner with the Fry's and at dinner he told us about his war experiences.
So that picture of me with the goat last week was at the property of brother Criswell and Brother Fry told us a story from Brother Criswells time in the army that blew my mind. Brother Criswell is a linguist and in the army he was the top guy and went on a lot of missions to help interpret for the U.S embassy's and this one mission he parachuted from a helicopter, with a radio on his back, teleprompter on his chest, he listened in on the transmissions from the Iraqi forces and translated their calls, told the soldiers how to re position themselves, in two minutes. So instead of the soldiers being in a huge firefight over the course of a few weeks, they landed on top of them and invaded a large city. But it was a pretty neat story and Brother Criswell is a beast!
Later that night we met with the Carabello family and it was my first time meeting them. Melissa (the mom) was talking to us about meeting with us over a meal with her sons but couldn't get a hold of her son and just as we were leaving Justin (her son) pulled up and set up a time to come by and eat dinner with them!
On Friday, we had what called a "car fast" or you could say we got in trouble from the car inspector at ZTM and he said we couldn't use the car that day. The van we have is brand new and there was grass on the floor and he got upset, so friday we were on bikes. It was one of the most sweaty and tiring bikes rides of mission. Elder Weston and an eye appointment 8 miles away in one direction, up and down hills on a busy road. There were 6 big hills and I felt like I did my bicycling merit badge in one day. We got there in 20 minutes and people were telling us"That was a crazy bike ride you guys had" WE rolled over snakes and went down hills going 30 miles an hour with semi trucks on our handle bars. Don't worry y'all I survived. We biked all over and we were exhausted when we came back. We had to bike to service and to dinner on the same road we rode on to go to Elder Westons eye appointment. We had a funny moment... So there are 2 other elders in this area and both sets of us had to bike to dinner and on the way back home we were in the left turn lane, lined up on a busy rode and it looked like attack of the Mormons:) You just had to be there:)
Saturday,Elder Weston and I went to go help Braden Tippett with his Eagle Project. Braden was making a trail in camp Helaman. Its a camp that the stake President has for the public. It has signs for the camp sites that say like "Teancums site" or like "Joesph Smiths trail" its great and we were going to make a new trail. Braden chose the hardest trail and asked us to get a wheel barrell and bring down gravel from the parking lot to the trail. I felt like I was back in pioneer days building a temple and we came out drenched in sweat. Crossing small streams and going down mountainous hill sides. We had dinner with the Carabellos and we had great conversation! Justin is an professional MMA fighter so I kept my distance haha:) just kidding hes a great guy. Her daughter is such a sweet girl and she wants to be just like Jesus Christ, like at lunch she sits with kids with down syndrome and eats with them, or she would pledge allegiance to God and not the flag because she thinks thats what God would want. I'm so excited for this family and it is looking good!
Sunday, at 8:00 bishop asked us to speak in sacrament for 5-8 minutes on a Christlike attribute and had about 15 minutes to prepare. It went well and I talked about humility and how humility isn't a weakness but a sign of spiritual strength. I used Ether 12:27 and really talked about the necessity of going through trials and how doing small and simple things help us remain humble. After church we had to help bishop go give money to a man who had been calling us all weekend for help and because of this mans sincerity we helped him out. It was kind of a sketchy situation but it all worked out and hopefully he gets back on his feet.
I Love Y'all and the church is true
-Elder Hill
#Sweatisgoodforya #work
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| Another Church! |
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| Ballers! |
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| Working the Trail! |
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| Still working the Trail! |
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