A Week of Miracles!

Everyday has miracles, but one of the first miracles of the week was meeting with Adolphine, a less active from Ghana. We had one open slot for Wednesday and SHE asked US to meet with her on that day and she could fit in our one open slot. It was perfect!

The next miracle is Corra. We were street contacting around Polo Park (the mall) when we ran into her. She was so nice to talk to, and we invited her to come to church and she said yes. The best part is, she actually came!!!! Our friend Laura spoke and then another guy spoke about the Book of Mormon, and after the service I said to Corra, "Have you heard of the Book of Mormon before?"

To my surprise she responds, "Yeah, I have one right here," and she pulls one from her bag! (And yes, I still say bag not beg. Crazy Canadians.)

"How did you get that?" I asked, because we didn't give it to her. Apperantly her non-religious boyfriend bought it for her, and when we asked if we could teach her more about that book she said yes, and I think she is really excited to see us this week.

I had my first baptism this week as Hester was baptized! It was the greatest! The spirit was definitely there and she was so happy! When I asked Hester how she felt afterwords she said: "The darkness is gone... I feel like sunshine." I love it! My favorite part of the baptism was right after she came out of the water. The first thing she did was hug Elder Mohlman. At first his face was horrified, and then when he realized he couldn't escape he just went in for it and smiled. :D SO CUTE!

Then today, as Sister Wu and I went to Polo Park to get lunch, the person I ordered from says "Hi, Sister Hill".

"Hi," I said. "Are you a member?"

"Yeah. Are you a YSA sister?"

"Yeah..." Turns out she is less active because she works on Sundays, but she just gave us her phone number on a sticky note without us even asking and said "Text me." Sure thing!

P-Day is the greatest. Today we played dodgeball with the sisters and elders in our zone. It was so much fun...probably because Sister Wu and I planned it ;)

Man, I learn so much from every person that I meet. I am glad my purpose is to INVITE others to come unto Christ... People can say no, or ignore us, or do a variety of other things, but I love just talking to people and getting to know what they think, and then have them realize I'm not pushing anything on them I'm just inviting. They can do what they will, but we're giving them a chance to change if they want to.

My favorite two scriptures of the week are:

1. Alma 30:44. This week I was asked to speak at the Canada Winnipeg Mission fireside for two minutes about how I know God lives. I used the last half of this scripture as the basis for my remarks. I know God lives because I've experienced nature. I know God lives because I've studied the beauty and amazingness of the human body. But I know God lives more than anything by feeling the spirits of other human beings. Everyone, whether they can talk or not, is a testimony to me that God lives.

2. Alma 32:27. Gaining a testimony of anything begins with a desire to know and a soft heart to be willing to let that testimony grow.

I love you all, and I hope you smile this week!

Sister Hill

 

The orange glow of yesterday.

The NASTY 12 layer Oreo Sis Wu had me eat on a dare.

Sis Wu took me out to Chinese today, which was sweet of her, but the food was pretty nappy.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words...

I was informed this morning by President Thomas that Grandpa Archie Clyde Hill died on Friday. As he told me I began to cry but not for long. I know I will see him again, and I know he is my guardian angel watching out for me and the other Hill cousins on missions. I love him so much. He was such a loving man, and he made each grandchild feel like they were his favorite. I am glad I have President Thomas to be my grandpa for a while whilst I am away.

Well, my second P-day has come yet again. This week has been a harder one as I become more and more self-concious of what people think about me. A lady didn't even take the time to swallow the bread in her mouth as she showered Sis Wu and I with reasons that everyone with a religion is going to be punished and end in Hell. (She showered us with moist bread crumbs that spewed from her mouth too. MMMM...). I also met my first crazy for the first time. He seemed so excited to see us and asked us to sit outside a bar with him while he smoked (I don't know why on earth we consented)... He went on to tell us he had had three baptismal dates but they all fell through and now he is apart of wicca. He definitely didn't have a belief in Jesus but called him a great white wizard. When I tried to explain that Jesus Himself claimed He was the savior of the world and so either He was, or He was a crazy man, he immediately changed the subject to my shoes and told Sister Wu and I that we should wear our hair down. (Shudder... Don't even look at us that way man.) Weirdest 40 minutes ever.

Other than that and other weird street contacting experiences, Sister Wu and I have been giving a Mandarin speaking family to teach! Sister Wu and Sister Hull (who found them) taught them their first lesson while sister Pelletier and I tracted (my first time)... After debating it they decided that Sis Wu and I should just take it, since I can at least pretend I speak Mandarin (and understand a great deal more than Sis Hull). We (and when I say me I mean Sis Wu while I nod knowingly) will be teaching the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday.

Hester passed her baptismal interview with flying colors and will be getting baptized on Saturday! I am so happy for her. She has such a light.

Sis Rush, Crawford, Wu and I ate at Sister Ottewell's this week. It was SO funny, because Sis Ottewell was running Sister Rush around like a slave but she was in love with me. "Sister Hill, do you want more food dear?" "Sister Hill, do you want to take some chilly home? And why don't you take all of these vegetables too." In the mean time Sister Rush is being asked to put away all the chairs and getting attacked by Sis Ottewell's crazy cat Dutchess.... It's kind of sad... but also HILARIOUS.

I am learning a lot about faith this week.  I seem not to have very much of it at all at times, but I just wanted to share the following thoughts with you.  Sister Christensen, my hallmate, has been learning that faith is finding your deepest desires, turning them all over to God, and then acting as much as you can to meet those desires.  I would say that my mission is an act of faith.  I am an inadequate tool for sure, but as I try my hardest, I hope I see the blessings of that faith.... even if I don't see them for a while. "Pray like it all depends on God.  Live like it all depends on you." Sister Christensen

 

Funny Moment of the Week:

Sister Hill teaches English Class to this funny old Chinese couple.

Sis Hill: "Thank"

Woman: "Thank"

Man: "Sank"

Sis Hill: "TTTHHHHank"

Woman: Thank

Man: Tsank

Woman hits him in the arm and starts yelling at him to say "THHHH" instead of "TSSS"

"Th" bu (not) "TSS"!!!

TTTHHHanks for your love!

Walking Into the MTC

My MTC district

Classic MTC map pic with Sis McCrea and me.

My first view on the ground of Winnipeg.

Sister Hill, Sister Wu, and Sister Kunzler (aka KZ/my grandma/sister Wu's trainer. She went home on Friday)

My hipster/pros picture. Visit Mormon.org before you die people.

What Sister Wu and I sent to the ZLs when they asked if we were going to the YSA pool party tonight.

In Winnipeg

Soooo...

Life is so good!!! I would say awesome or cool but apparently those are Canada Winnipeg Mission swear words and Sis Wu always says "What did you just say?" whenever either of those slip out of my mouth. Unfortunately it seems as if those two words make up half of my vocabulary so life is getting rather difficult. I've tried to use several other replacement adjectives such as: superb, sublime, filled-with-awe (to replace awesome), good, great, grand, neat, and all of them sound terrible and don't express how I feel. Sometimes something is just cool, or a situation is awesome, not superb or grand or something superfluous of the like. I have yet to find my unique Sister Hill mission lingo. Apparently there is also mission wide lingo that people have started to say that drives Sister Wu crazy! Such examples include: "Ya you did!" and "HO (pause) LY! (pause)"

Who is this mysterious Sister Wu you ask? My trainer. She's 4'11' and full of spunk. And yes, she is Chinese, but she's Canadian born so she's definitely western. She keeps all of the rules, but knows how to be chill too. (Hallelujah! I was hoping I would get a trainer like her!) We take an hour for all meals and it makes life so much better. (Not that life is bad--it's excellent but breaks are nice). I even took a nap during lunch one day, but then I had five minutes to eat and I ended up scarfing down half a hot-dog bun and pickled beets for lunch. Yum! ;)

Sister Wu and I are serving in the Winnipeg YSA Ward with a couple of Elders. Guess who found out ten minutes before church they were teaching Gospel Principles? That's right. Wu-Hill. Guess who led the music and played the piano in RS? Wu-Hill. Ha. Ward Missionary Service begins. The ward is small but great. There are about 10 Phillipinos, 10 Canadians, Five Chinese, a Korean, 15 First Nations (which is Canadian for Native American), two women from Sri Lanka and two Americans (including me:)) OH and there was also a Nigerian man visiting.

I love Winnipeg. Can I just say that? I love this city. It was made for me! It is just the perfect mix of big and small, diverse yet calm, and right now at least the weather is great. But mostly I love the diversity! Sister Wu and I have had some great street contacting experiences with an incredible Sikh man, a couple Canadians, and a young man from Ghana! So good! It is incredible when people want to know more, you tell them about the restoration and they get this happy look on there face. You invite them to meet with missionaries like you and they accept!!! SO good!!!

The hardest part is not the missionary work itself. The hardest part is jumping in and trying to keep everyone that is already under Sister Wu's wing. Formers, members of the ward, possible investigators, not to mention the 100s of elders and sisters in the HUGE mission. (Two time Zones in the mission mind you).

One of the people is sweet sweet Hester from China. She had her baptism date set up before I got here (the 24th of August) and now Sister Wu and I are just teaching her the commandments so she can be ready. When teaching her yesterday I asked if she wanted to go back to China when she's done with school. She said no. "I want to stay in Canada... My God is here." *-* SO CUTE!!!!!!!

Other than that my favorite part of the lesson was when she gave sister Wu and I packets of green tea at the end... We kind of looked at her and said "Ok... Thanks"... We'll teach her about the Word of Wisdom tonight. Ha. :)

Thanks for the love y'all!

Sister Hill