October 24, 2016 - Augusta / Evans, GA

Hey Y'all!

 It has been a pretty good week, lots of progress with some of ours investigators and great spiritual moments!

On Tuesday, Elder Weston and I hopped on the bikes and headed to Sister Coopers neighborhood to go and try to see some investigators there. We felt prompted to ask Sister Cooper if we could invite an investigator if she'd like to come to Sister Coopers house and visit with her. Sister Cooper is such a sweet lady and she had a lot of housework on her hands and we asked if we could help her and she said yes! She was trying to make room for a new entertainment center, so we moved some of her shelves and chairs around, we vacuumed, and made room for the entertainment center. After we helped her get everything situated we moved one of her rocking chairs that her grandma had into a spot in her home she had always wanted it to be. She was overjoyed with happiness that we were able to help her with all the changes in her home. It made us feel really good because she was happy and we were so glad we were able to help her out! Later that afternoon we had planned to go pray with a member and tract in their area. The member wasn't home so we decided to still work around in that area. All of a sudden as we were driving down the street a faint memory popped in my head of knocking on a referrals door a few months ago and we hadn't even thought of them since. I described what I could remember about the house to Elder Weston and he stared at me confused and couldn't remember the person I was trying  tell him about. All I could remember was chalk on the sidewalk from the kids and a large door. We kept driving and it hit me like a ton of bricks and I screamed "That's it!!!" We pulled over and I was like this is the house. So we were like lets try it! We knocked and a lady opened the door and her name was Garnet. We talked to her for a solid hour and a hlaf about our beliefs and her beliefs as a Catholic. We saw so many similarities in their emphasis on the priesthood and how they revere prayer. We started talked about life after death and our beliefs as to what happens. She talked about a purgatory state where we go before we go to Heaven or Hell and we both talked about how we believe in the spirit world and how the idea is similar. We talked about what happens to that boy in Africa who never hears about Jesus Christ and dies without knowing him, does he go to hell because he wasn't baptized? We talked to her about our temples and how here on earth we can be baptized for someone who has passed on and she said that makes so much sense. It was a great lesson and we are looking forward to seeing her this upcoming week. After the lesson I was just thinking about how the Holy Ghost works and how it brought that person to my remembrance at the very moment I needed it and probably when she needed it too. We had Papusas for dinner at the Gomez' house and they were sooo good! Gotta love genuine Mexican food! 

On Wednesday, we had District Meeting in Evans and it was a good one! We learned alot about gratitude, our attitude, and goals. We listened to President Uchtdorf talk on Gratitude and he talked about how often times we are thankful to God after the trial we have is over, but we should also be grateful for the trial that we are currently in. God doesn't give us a trial we cant overcome so being grateful for the rain before the rainbow comes will help us look at trials as opportunities to grow rather than trying to hang on through the trial. He also talked about how life is full of everlasting beginnings not endings and our attitude will change the outcome of whatever trial we are experiencing which is so true. It's definitely easier said than done and its easy to get down on yourself, believe me I did it ALL the time but I'm slowly learning that there is a better way to handle those situations. We also talked about how goals are so necessary for getting better. Without goals we wouldn't be shooting for anything and it would be hard to gauge how well you are doing or what you need to do to improve. Goals show us what our desires are and help us feel good when we accomplish them or on the flip side help motivate us to do better. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot. Later that afternoon we went to Rosemary Luby's home and helped her finish her backyard. We had a lot she wanted us to get done. Elder Weston dug holes in the ground trying to get poles with cement slabs on them out of the ground. While I used a sledgehammer and smashed concrete slabs that she wanted thrown out. It was a lot of fun and there's nothing that makes you sweat or feel more manly than smashing cement with a sledge hammer haha! We ripped out a chain link fence and had to dig out a lot of her yard to get the oles out of the ground.The poles have been in the ground since the 70's and they were very hard to get out. Dirt in Georgia is clay, very hard clay so we put some water in the hole and let it soak, we were able to get the pole out and got super muddy. Again I wanted to get a picture but it wouldn't destroyed my camera ,but just know I was one muddy boy haha:) We hustled to dinner and changed in like .2 seconds jk but it sure felt that fast!

On Thursday, we stopped over at Rosemarys home and finished up the service for her and she was overjoyed and loved her "new" backyard because it looked like we remodeled her backyard! She was very thankful and we were able to read some of the Book of Mormon with her! She said it was very interesting and she said she'd read it when she has a few minutes! We were like "LETS GOOOOO!" We also found the largest, slimiest slug known to man and dont worry we did take a picture of that one because it was impressive! Later that night we had a slower night alot of people rejected us and our plans fell through but its okay there's always another door to try:)

On Friday, we planned a good majority of the day. We went over to the Andersons home and helped them put in a new rug for their front room. The highlight of the day was definitely going to Dan Ngyuen's home and having rice, collard greens, beans, and some fried chicken. Very southern and it was great! We had a very spiritual lesson with her after the dinner. We talked about how the Book of Mormon has blessed her in her life. She smiled and just told us about how much better her day goes when she reads the Book of Mormon and she has loved reading it as much as she can. She was talking about how much her life has changed over the past few months and she never would have thought she would be where she is at spiritually and she knows is because of the Book of Mormon and acting on faith. Dan is planning to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead on November 5th and we are soo excited for her progress. We left her with "The Testaments" movie and she said she was tingling on her back when we were telling her about how Christ ministered to the people in America after his Resurrection. It was an awesome lesson! Then following that we had lesson with Christian Luciano and Cynthia. Christian is a Sergeant in the Army and is very busy all the time and its been hard to talk to both of them. We talked about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and they agreed that if they found it to be true they wanted to be baptized! So we are excited for them too!

On Saturday, we woke up to a Brisk 47 degrees and it was the happiest day of my life!! Kidding but it made me sooo happy! We had windy game of Frisbee and lots of people came to play and its been a great way to help people feel comfortable with missionaries. That afternoon we helped an elderly man with some his yard and he talked to us about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln and all of the politics behind it. He was very knowledgeable and he had some civil war gear from his grandpa that was cool to look at. Then we tracted in a neighborhood where we approached the door and the man came to the door before we knocked on it and he knew someone from Waynesboro that I knew and he said he'd asked the member in Waynesboro for more information about the church! That night we had a lesson with the Meggins and it was super cool. We haven't

seen them in a while so it was great to catch up with him. He works in the stock market and he was a bit upset because he chose to back out of a deal to early and lost 25,000$. But it was a risky guess and he stayed conservative and missed it but he said its okay. Elder Weston and I drew pictures with their 4 year old son and in the end we shared a message with their family. I shared the story of Alma and Amulek and how they stoof up for their God even though they were forced to watch women and children burn and still kept the faith and when they were being tortured and being hit they still never doubted their belief in Christ. Then because of their immense amount of faith in Christ they were able to break the cords which bounds them and were freed and the people that hurt them were killed when the walls of the prison fell. Sister Meggins was prompted to ask a question to help her with a problem she was having and she definitely felt better after we gave her advice! 

On Sunday, Church was great and many members bore testimony on helping out with the hurricane relief in Hilton Head. The members said that the people who were affected thought that the "yellow shirts" were angels to us. They loved the members of the church and were grateful! Later that day we went to go see brother Griener and ran into a member of a very prominent church next door to us and we made plans to build Brother Greiner a ramp to his home. We had dinner with the Tippetts family and had a great visit with them! 

I LOVE Y'ALL and Have a great week!

-Elder Hill

#HAPPYBIRTHDAYMOM  #Lotsofservice  #fallisthebest

Great Elders!!

Longest Slug eva!!

Southern Cookin' !!

Dunk it!!

Free Throws!!

 

October 17, 2016 - Augusta / Evans, GA

Hey Y'all!

Another week here in the south comes and flies by! Especially since we have been having 70 degree weather all week and it sure did make Elder Hill happy:)

But this week was pretty memorable, made some mistakes, and made memories:)

Tuesday, we started the day off on bikes riding around, awkwardly waving at people in the cars because you cant tell if they are looking at you or not. Cars getting really close almost invading your personal bike bubble, and gripping to that white line and look at it as a tightrope you have to ride on. BUT we made it to our location and we tracted and visited some potentials in the area. No huge success, lots of people turning us away like we were the plague, but we taught a few people who were very appreciative of the service we render to the people here. We then later in the day went and provided some service for Rosemary Luby. If you remember that lady we walked in to last week we helped her spray her forest with poison Ivy spray and removed some large roots coming from, the forest into her backyard. Rosemary is one of the sweetest ladies I've every met and she treated us so nice! Right at the end of the service she said "thank you" probably 15 times before we left and with tears in her eyes she was in awe of two young men giving up two years of our lives to serving people and serving God. Very positive experience and we are hoping to introduce the Restoration this upcoming week and finish taking down a fence! We then drove up north to go see a lady named Jennifer Brumfield. This was my first time meeting Jennifer, she has been taught by missionaries in the past, but didn't like how bold the missionaries taught her was. She had many questions about baptism and we started off by reading Christs baptism in the book of Matthew and helped her understand the authority that John the Baptist had in baptizing Christ, and that being called of God is different than being called by men. We read with her 2 Nephi 31 with her and verse 7 really stood out to her where it says...

"Know ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the children of men that,according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father, and witness unto the Father that he would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments." The part where it says Christ had to humble himself before the Father hit her pretty hard. We explained that Christ, being perfect, didn't need to be baptized to return to live with Heavenly Father because he was perfect and sinless, but he did it so that he would be an example to all of us and show us that we NEED to be baptized to cleanse us of sin and sanctify us through the Holy Ghost. It was a great lesson and we all felt the spirit and she says she wants to be baptized after Halloween to renew herself, so we are excited to watch her testimony grow when we meet with her again. We ended the night off with a great English class talking about vocab words and similar words!

Wednesday, we went to the library for referral management time and learned a lot about the Atonement and the sacrifice by Christ. We later that day saw Brother Griener who has Lou Griggs disease and its hard for him to talk, but his testimony in Christ doesn't fade as his complication worsens, he knows the gospel is true. Talking with him always makes me grateful for all that I have and all that I've been blessed with and he is a really humble guy and I really feel for his situation. We tracted a lot that day and whenever you tract there are many things that can happen so you've always got to be on your toes, after getting rejected at the 1st door the next door we knocked on happened to be members who were very less active and they invited us right in. They don't want to be apart of the church anymore but they love what we do as missionaries and they took us in and chatted with us for a bit. Out of all the houses what are the chances we knock on two less active members wanting their names removed from the church. Maybe our visit will rekindle some feelings they had at the time of their conversion. We then tracted into this lady named Stacy who as soon as she opened her door I felt strongly about. We shared the Restoration with her and it just so happens that her aunt was coming into her home to stay with her that night and she is a member in Connecticut. So after she shared that with us we were like wow that's divine intervention, God works in mysterious ways so by us meeting her she will hopefully ask her aunt about the church and will turn to us for more investigation.We had bible class and ready in Mark 13 and learned a lot!

Thursday, we had ZTM in the morning and I gave a training on working with members and how we as missionaries can be more of a help and not a burden. IO talked about how bearing our testimony to members on something you've studied that day or how well they are doing in their calling will help us gain their trust which will help them feel comfortable in having us teach their friends or inviting us to have our investigators to come into their home. I wanted to put it to practice before ZTM so I could testify of what it can do and Bishop was looking burdened down at mutual and bore testimony to him of how well he does his calling and he really appreciated it and you could almost see his trust building in us. ZTM went really well and it was Elder Cannon's and Sister Dietz' last ZTM and so singing "God be with you til we meet again" was a tear jerker for them and for many of us in the room. I went on exchanges with Elder Dickson and had my eye appointment that day. Elder Dickson is such a great missionary and being how young he is you can tell he is truly dedicated to being here. You can tell he came out on his mission to seve the Lord and came on for the right reasons. So we could definitely get along in that way, he's really helped me look at how much my testimony has grown over the past year or so and look at how much happier I am having experienced all that I have experienced.

On Friday, we drove to Aiken, SC and exchanged back with Elder Weston and planned for a good majority of the day. Sister Porter dropped of some food for us so that's always a plus:) Planning sometimes is really hard for me just cause I see all the work to do in front of me and I just want to get it done, but Elder Weston is a diligent planner and its helped me have direction and purpose in the work which is what you need.

Saturday, funny story... so I learned a life lesson on this day... I learned that when you cook hard boiled eggs for 8 hours, it makes quite the mess, makes the apartment smell terrible, and you have to buy a new pot... So I was cooking some hard boiled eggs on Friday night and after working out and getting ready for bed I had forgotten about them and they were on a burner all night... So when we woke up on Saturday morning, we woke up to a STANKY apartment, a ruined pot, and eggs shells all over! The cleanup for the egg shells was nice and easy, but we aired out our apartment all day, put out bowls of vinegar to help get the smell out of the walls and sprayed fabreze everywhere! Cleaning it up I was just thinking of how bad it could've turned out, but it worked out in the end and it's all good! So moral of the story dont forget about stuff and cooking eggs for 8 hours can make for some VERY black eggs! It kind of worked to our advantage though because when we went to Frisbee,b ecause our shirts and shorts smelt like burnt eggs no one would guard us because we stank so bad that we both scored quite a bit haha:) Later that day, we had dinner at the Lawrys which was super good and great company! We had transfer calls that night and heard that Elder Weston and I would be staying here in Evans for another transfer together! So we will be together at least til the end of November and we are excited!!

Sunday, we had a great day at church, to be honest one of my favorite moments of the whole day was in ward council. The whole meeting had a purpose, it was spirit directed, and we got assignments made. All of us felt organized and could plan better for the upcoming months! Also because of the Teacher council meeting the missionaries were in the primary watching the kids, and we sang songs the primary kids would get stickers according to how well they sang. After it was over Sister Newell, said okay before the prayer go put all the stickers all over the missionaries. So picture 20 primary kids ambushing you with stickers...AHHHH! But we survived primary and made it out with only a few scrapes haha. But when we walked out with stickers all over our suits and face, it made for a great scene! I wish I got a picture but I didnt have my camera with me... So funny! Later that day we had dinner at the McKinneys and he was the guy who owned the trans am, he asked us if we could give him a blessing at the end of dinner and it was great being able to participate in the blessing!

Thanks y'all and I LOVE YOU!! Cant wait for another transfer here in Evans with Elder Weston! We will keep on keeping on!!

-Elder Hill

#PrimaryisAwesome  #dontburneggs

 

Happy Trails Elder Cannon!

Old Gun Factory in Augusta!

Yes!!

 

 

October 10, 2016 - Augusta / Evans, GA

Hey Y'all!

This week was quite eventful with hurricane Matthew hitting the coast of Florida, parts of Georgia and South Carolina. I'm sure you were watching the news and saw the destruction in Florida and to be honest I wasn't expecting the hurricane to cause that much damage in Florida. The Savannah zones were evacuated and went to Macon and worked in the areas surrounding there till the hurricane subsided. But Evans is pretty far in land and we didn't see much more than wind and rain. When it hit the coast we had MLC in Macon on Friday so we drove to Macon, had the meeting for the majority of the day, and drove back. The way back the wind and rain picked up quite a bit but it wasn't bad. The stake has asked for teams of 8-12 people from each ward to go and help with the relief effort and unless we are asked I don't think we will be able to help too much with that relief effort unless I get transferred to Savannah where it was damaged. In Evans we didn't really have any other affects other than it being really wet and chilly, so don't worry mom and Dad I'm safe:) I'm sure the missionaries down in Florida will have many service opportunities to help the people who dont have homes anymore.

On Monday night, We had some appointments fall through so instead of going somewhere different to try to see people we decided to walk around the neighborhood, it being 8:00and us not wanting to bother people with it being so dark. We started walking and we went and talked to this elderly lady who was exercising and we asked her if we could walk with her and talked to her about our church and her church. As she got to know us more she invited us to help her with some service that we set up for Thursday. She said that we were angels cause we walked her home and she was in awe that young people like us would help an old lady like her. We are excited to help her with some service and hopefully that service will lead to being able to teach her.

On Tuesday, we headed to North Augusta for District Meeting and exchanges. We had a great district meeting and learned more about teaching the people and not just teaching lessons. I learned a lot from all who was there. I went on exchanges with Elder Buckland back to Evans. We had a few appointments cancel that we were sure were going to work out, but at the last minute some appointments fell through and so we turned toward the backups. It was cool how the Spirit was prompting me to go see people that needed to be seen it was almost if God cleared our schedule up so that we could see these people. We stopped by a lady named Martini and as pulled up her daughter is going to be a swimmer in college pulled up and invited us to talk to her and her mom about the future and decisions they need to make. We talked about prayer and read Helaman 5:30 with her and helped understand how we recognize the spirit. We then went to go so an elderly lady we met a few weeks back. As we pulled up she was on her lawn chair with two other chairs in front of her. We got out of the van and asked her what the chairs were for and she said"you guys, I know y'all were gonna come today" I was in shock and I was like if that isn't God hand in the work I don't know what is. We taught the restoration and as we talked she told us about how she turned down a few preachers going door to door because she said" I want to study with the Mormons" I thought that was awesome and we are excited to work with Rachel. Keep her in your prayers. We ate dinner with the Gomez family and had papusa which is another thing I have to make yall when I get home from my mission soooo good!!

On Wednesday, we had to exchange back at 8:00 so we could make it back to Evans in time for Sister Dietz' last district meeting and to honor her mission we went to the Savannah river. It was the first day where it felt like you could have a coat on because of the pleasant cool breeze coming over the river. It was a memorable time looking back at her mission and how her parents were converted because a few missionaries endured to the end and acted on promptings. Way cool stuff! We tracted a lot during that day because a lot of appointments fell through and we met a lot of people who wanted nothing to do with us as well as people who were interested in knowing what we believe, but they didn't want those truths we believe to be apart of their own beliefs. As I've spent more and more time being a missionary and getting rejected and getting doors slammed in your face it doesn't diminish what I believe at all but more than that I just look at this opportunity that these people we meet pass up because they are "set in their ways" and don't want to change from being baptist, Presbyterian, baptist, Catholic, and baptist again.

On Thursday, the Fry's took us to Izumi's which is a Japaneze buffet where we tried all sorts of sushi and even octopus. It was such a fun time being with all the missionaries that serve here and talking with the Fry's. Brother Fry was trying to figure out if there was going to be a family of 8-10 people coming to stay in their home from being evacuated from the hurricane. Instead of using the church to house the 600+ evacuees coming from Florida the stake presidency asked various members if they'd being willing to house people. Over 50 people offered and they were prepared to house all those people. Later that day we went over to Rosemary's home and  she showed us around her property and talked with us. Because she didn't have the stuff we needed to help her with the service so we decided to come back the following week. We had dinner with the Shleton family where they told us about the devastation the hurricane was supposed to bring. So we were grateful for the information because without anyway to know what to prepare for you have to rely on members for information.

On Friday we set out to drive to Macon early in the morning to avoid any traffic from people being evacuated. Some missionaries were backed up in traffic for 6+ hours trying to make it to the meeting. On the way up it wasn't more than just rain and Macon is pretty far inland so during the meeting when you looked outside it was hard to believe that there was a hurricane approaching the coast. MLC was very insightful and we learned a lot about relationships with members, teaching people not lessons, and better ways to share the gospel with people. I always look forward to MLC because of the spirit there but also seeing old friends is fun too. Elder Memmott who I knew back in Waynesboro is going home on the 17th and I cant believe hes heading home. It just shows how fast time goes when you work hard. Anna Harrell and Chelsey came and surprised us after the meeting. She was a member from Columbus and it was great to catch up with the Godsquad:) We had to drive some people back to areas because we have a van. We started making the 3 hour drive back in the rain. 

On Saturday, it was raining when we woke up and Elder Weston and I had to go fill a baptismal font for a baptism that morning. So while the font was being filled I was able to play basketball for an hour or so which was very fun!! The baptism was for a boy named Matthew Newell. He was so special they even named a hurricane after him haha:) It was such a sweet baptism and while they were changing we watched "the coat" it is a true story about Heber J Grant https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/collection/kids/the-coat-1 . Such a great message and selfless service is what the world needs today! In the afternoon we contacted a few referrals given to us by some members and built a few bonds within those families. We are excited to work with those families.

On Sunday, I'll just say it was a rough Sunday to fast, not really sure why but hopefully I'm growing or something like that:) The highlight of church was hearing Dan bear testimony about how we can build our family on Christ and that as a team we can accomplish many things. I am so proud of Dan and the decisions shes made to become more like Jesus Christ. That afternoon we stopped by a lady named Trisha. We haven't been able to visit Trisha in a while because she's been traveling to Idaho to take care of her Dad who's health is failing. She had to catch up with a bunch of things around the home from being gona and you could tell she was just burdened down and sad. I asked if we could say a prayer and in that prayer I prayed to help comfort Trisha that she will know that her Dad loves her and she loves her Dad. After a few more blessing we opened our eyes and she had tears in her eyes. It was great moment for her and a moment I'll always remember. After that we were tracting and there was a tree frog on a door and I decided to poke it so when the door opened it wouldn't fly into her home. When I tried to grab it it peed on me and I walked our the rest of the day with frog pee on me because I startled it haha. Later that day, We ended our fast at the Tippetts! Super good! We chatted with Justin Carabello that night answered his questions and invited him to Trunk or Treat. He wants to know more about the church and we are excited to continue to build his faith!

I LOVE Y'ALL! And Yes I'm safe and happy!

-Elder Hill

#hurricaneMatthew

All of Elder Memmott's companions!

MLC October 2016

Paying Tribute to Sister Dietz' mission!

Pumpkin Crosses

Smokey and the Bandit!!