Happy Spring, It is a lovely spring day here in Cleveland. There is greenery and flowers starting to bloom everywhere. Oh how I love it. A record of 91 degrees. Woohhooo it has been really warm here. In the 80's all week. It has been an interesting week for sure. So besides being the first day of spring and it being our Pday we also got a new car. YAY us. It's okay if you did a little shout of joy too. Our old car sounded like it was going to die, I thought the tires were going to fall off on more than one occasion and it wasn't even that old. But our new car is a 2012 Chevy Cruz with about 50 miles on it. It is so nice. The church really does take good care of it's missionaries. So the cars have to be dedicated and the two elders that were assigned to our car were telling us that they thought it was weird "it's like giving a blessing to a car." Which is exactly what they were doing. They did look a little funny. Two grown men in a car blessing it :) No wonder people think Mormons are strange. Oh I love it here. So this week seemed to just fly right on by. The other day we had a member lesson, I think it was Sunday. But anyway so I was wearing that longer black and white pock-a-dot skirt anyway I got out of the car and i felt a little breeze where I don't normally( meaning the rear). So I put my hand back to see what it was. Turns out my skirt had huge holes all down the seem of one of the pleats. All of severance tower got a nice look at my garments. I was just showing everything off to the world, no big deal. It was great, but since we were on our way to the appointment I didn't have time to go change so I tried to keep it together until we got to Sister Bynum's apartment. There we asked for string and a needle. My companion made me stripe in the middle of the living room so she could so it. Sister B. found me a sheet to wrap around myself. So that was the time I taught the restoration in a sheet! It's a good thing I don't get embarrassed easily. There other day we were tracting down by one of our less actives and some guy yelled at us to see if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We quickly told him no and asked if he would like to hear a message we are sharing. His name is Oz we gave him a pass along card and in reply he was like "ah man, I really needed this, I got shot last night!" uhh ooh well that's not good. He said he found strength in Jesus though so that was good. But anyway so we were down tracting again on Sunday and we ran into his cousin George, but he refers to himself as Jesus because that is what his name means in Hebrew. He was weird, but we gave him a mormon.org card and he said he would look at the website. I went on exchanges with one of the sisters from South Euclid. Sister Spring she is from Texas. That was fun It was nice to see a different area.
So as far as missionary work is going. It is slow. Everyone here is happy, Jew and Catholic. They don't want to hear our message. But we go down to South Euclid and Cleveland Heights its where all the black poor people live and they have a much stronger faith in Christ. We have a new investigator and we are hoping to pick up another one tonight. Her name is Tamika. We found her contacting in the park, and she kept asking us if God could really hear her or if He cared. Good thing we had an answer for that! Oh there are so many people here that the Lord has prepared to receive us. We just have to make sure we are living our lives in order to be in the right place at the right time. We need to have the spirit with us so we know where we need to be! The work goes on, I really do love it. The gospel changes lives, and brings eternal happiness. We have been giving copies of the Book of Mormon away like crazy. We have already gone through a box of 40 this transfer. I encourage all of you to always carry a copy with you. Share with everyone, pray for opportunities to share what you know. It is such an amazing book and those who read it will find peace and know of God's love. You never know who God will place in your path. Every member a missionary! I wish I would have taken that more to heart when I was home! As for the VC it has been pretty slow but it is picking up. We only give about 1 tour a day, the tour is about 2 hours, but there have been a couple of days lately that we have given 2 a day. It's spring break for people out here so I am guessing it will start picking up shortly. I love taking people on tour. Really I love everything about Kirtland. Can we come back after I get home? There is so much I want you to see.
So my district is sooo amazing there are 8 of us. 4 Elders and 4 Sisters. We are the only companionship who don't hold a leadership position. We have the Zone Leaders and the training sisters and then of course our district leader, who tells us the most hilarious stories. But we spend time all over our area not just Mayfield heights. I live in Mayfield.Cleveland is not apart of our area. The Elders in our district serve in parts of East Cleve. But only a little section. I love downtown Cleveland. I really love everything about Ohio. Bah, this is the best mission ever.
Sister Hillman
3.25.2012
3.18.2012
March 13
NEW ADDRESS:
Sister Chelsey Hillman
7800 Kirtland-Chardon Rd
Kirtland, OH 44094!
Hello Family,
Well this week was even crazier than last week. My Pday is on Tuesday just so everyone knows that is when I will be replying, except next week it is on Wednesday because we have Zone Development Meeting. We have been extremely busy. We are at the visitor center 3 days of the week and in our area the other 4. We have half the time the Elders in our areas have so we have to work extra hard to meet the standards of excellence (mission goals) because we are expected to teach, tract, and find just as much as they. But it is nice. It makes the time go by fast, but that is not always a good thing! I live in an apartment. There are about 28 sisters in Kirtland right now and we all have different areas we are over and we alternate going to the sites, but we are all getting really close. Most of the sisters live on sites, or in the Hyrum Smith home which is up by the temple. And then there are four satellite areas, which is what Mayfield is. I don't know how big it is probably like 4500 people but we cover a few more neighborhoods like South Euclid, Pepper Pike, Cleveland Heights and what not. So I don't have an exact number. I'll try to get some pictures taken of my area and send them to you.
I hope I have lost weight. We have member meals every day we are in our area and they always feel they need to feed us dessert soo whelp I don't think I will be losing weight for long. Besides we have a candy dish at the VC and the senior couples like to cook goodies for us all the time. I love them. We have a car that we drive but we also do a lot of tracting and contacting on foot. My companion is from Joplin, Missouri. People always ask her about the tornadoes.
I do like my mission president, he seems really stern at first and is really really focused on deep obedience, we have had a lot of problems with it in the past I guess. But he is really secretly HILARIOUS. The new president seems nice. We got an email saying he was coming and a little bit about him and his family. It will be interesting to see how the change effects the mission. We also get a new VC director in January, but I don't know who that will be.
We went and contacted in downtown Cleveland on Friday for our Trainers meeting. It was an interesting experience. My companion and I placed 3 copies of the Book of Mormon, and we got a couple referrals who seemed interested in the message we have to share. I really like contacting. It makes me super nervous sometimes but really the worst someone can do is tell us no, and that's okay they will just have to answer to Heavenly Father at the judgement bar. We did try to tell them :) JK, they will hear it one day!
Our District leader is serving in East Cleveland right now and always has the funniest stories to tell us. He was talking to a old black man the other day and he kept telling the Elders that "I is what'm are." I love the Ghetto, you meet the craziest people there, but some of them really have been prepared for the word of the lord. Elder Stevens always says you know Christ isn't from Cleveland because he doesn't say "I is I is." He really does have the best stories for us though.
So do you remember me telling you about Charles? he was the guy from Oregon that I was chatting with on mormon.org in the MTC? Well I sent some Elders over to his apartment, Elder Denton and Elder Smith and they called me back on Thursday after their appointment with him and told me he wants to be baptized and that he was really receptive to all they had to teach him. They said he told them that he would never allow missionaries in his home but after the conversation with my companion and I on chat he decided he wanted to learn more. I don't remember what we said but it must have meant something to him. I am so excited for him.
A lot of people get on mormon.org to chat with us. Sometimes they are nice and really are interested in learning more about the church, but most of the time people just want to Bible bash with us. However we just tell them we are not hear to argue but bear testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that it is the word of god and we have it because Heavenly Father loves us. They don't usually know what to say to that, so they get off.
I had to talk in church on Sunday. Wow I really should not be allowed to speak in public. I had no idea what I was talking about so hopefully there was no false doctrine involved. But oh well it's not like someone can judge a testimony!
I know this letter doesn't really make sense and is completely random but that's how missionary work is!!! I love it here. It is starting to warm up so don't have to tract with heavy coats anymore. Love it. The gospel is true.
Sister Hillman
Sister Chelsey Hillman
7800 Kirtland-Chardon Rd
Kirtland, OH 44094!
Hello Family,
Well this week was even crazier than last week. My Pday is on Tuesday just so everyone knows that is when I will be replying, except next week it is on Wednesday because we have Zone Development Meeting. We have been extremely busy. We are at the visitor center 3 days of the week and in our area the other 4. We have half the time the Elders in our areas have so we have to work extra hard to meet the standards of excellence (mission goals) because we are expected to teach, tract, and find just as much as they. But it is nice. It makes the time go by fast, but that is not always a good thing! I live in an apartment. There are about 28 sisters in Kirtland right now and we all have different areas we are over and we alternate going to the sites, but we are all getting really close. Most of the sisters live on sites, or in the Hyrum Smith home which is up by the temple. And then there are four satellite areas, which is what Mayfield is. I don't know how big it is probably like 4500 people but we cover a few more neighborhoods like South Euclid, Pepper Pike, Cleveland Heights and what not. So I don't have an exact number. I'll try to get some pictures taken of my area and send them to you.
I hope I have lost weight. We have member meals every day we are in our area and they always feel they need to feed us dessert soo whelp I don't think I will be losing weight for long. Besides we have a candy dish at the VC and the senior couples like to cook goodies for us all the time. I love them. We have a car that we drive but we also do a lot of tracting and contacting on foot. My companion is from Joplin, Missouri. People always ask her about the tornadoes.
I do like my mission president, he seems really stern at first and is really really focused on deep obedience, we have had a lot of problems with it in the past I guess. But he is really secretly HILARIOUS. The new president seems nice. We got an email saying he was coming and a little bit about him and his family. It will be interesting to see how the change effects the mission. We also get a new VC director in January, but I don't know who that will be.
We went and contacted in downtown Cleveland on Friday for our Trainers meeting. It was an interesting experience. My companion and I placed 3 copies of the Book of Mormon, and we got a couple referrals who seemed interested in the message we have to share. I really like contacting. It makes me super nervous sometimes but really the worst someone can do is tell us no, and that's okay they will just have to answer to Heavenly Father at the judgement bar. We did try to tell them :) JK, they will hear it one day!
Our District leader is serving in East Cleveland right now and always has the funniest stories to tell us. He was talking to a old black man the other day and he kept telling the Elders that "I is what'm are." I love the Ghetto, you meet the craziest people there, but some of them really have been prepared for the word of the lord. Elder Stevens always says you know Christ isn't from Cleveland because he doesn't say "I is I is." He really does have the best stories for us though.
So do you remember me telling you about Charles? he was the guy from Oregon that I was chatting with on mormon.org in the MTC? Well I sent some Elders over to his apartment, Elder Denton and Elder Smith and they called me back on Thursday after their appointment with him and told me he wants to be baptized and that he was really receptive to all they had to teach him. They said he told them that he would never allow missionaries in his home but after the conversation with my companion and I on chat he decided he wanted to learn more. I don't remember what we said but it must have meant something to him. I am so excited for him.
A lot of people get on mormon.org to chat with us. Sometimes they are nice and really are interested in learning more about the church, but most of the time people just want to Bible bash with us. However we just tell them we are not hear to argue but bear testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that it is the word of god and we have it because Heavenly Father loves us. They don't usually know what to say to that, so they get off.
I had to talk in church on Sunday. Wow I really should not be allowed to speak in public. I had no idea what I was talking about so hopefully there was no false doctrine involved. But oh well it's not like someone can judge a testimony!
I know this letter doesn't really make sense and is completely random but that's how missionary work is!!! I love it here. It is starting to warm up so don't have to tract with heavy coats anymore. Love it. The gospel is true.
Sister Hillman
3.06.2012
March 6, 2012
Hello from The Ohio,
I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! Okay so A LOT has happened in the last two weeks that I have been unable to write! First off I was sooooo sad to leave the MTC. we had to say goodbye to a lot of people that you meet and since you see them everyday you get really close. But we had class all day Monday so we scrambled in order to get all of our stuff packed so we could leave the MTC at 4:00 Tuesday morning. It was early but there were still people awake to see us off there were about 50 Elders and Sisters leaving with us. The airport wasn't too busy so we got through security in enough time to have plenty of time to talk to our parents! Highlight of my month probably! People kept telling us that we would stick our once we left Provo and that we did. People were staring at us like we were crazy people. It was 6 o'clock in the morning and we were chipper I think we were even laughing, and dressed in Sunday best. I would have given anything to wear sweats! The plane ride was okay, we were told to start talking to people the moment we got on the plane. Unfortunately I was sitting next to an older couple who fell asleep about 10 minutes into the flight! It made for a long flight! We had a layover in Detroit, I was starving but we didn't have time to eat so that was a bummer. I'm not nice when I am hungry! Anyway the next flight was great. It was 20 minutes long and I sat by myself so yeah not so many missionary opportunities!
The president and APs met us at the airport, we headed to the mission home and we had a lot of meetings that pertain to our success as missionaries, we ate a super delicious meal, had more meetings and then interviews. We had the best night sleep ever!! The next day we had a quick breakfast and then we headed over to the Temple, where the Kirtland Stake patriarch Karl Anderson gave us a tour! You may have heard of him, we call him Mr. Kirtland because he knows almost everything about this wonderful place. He just wrote a book. Look into it! Anyway that was beautiful! So amazing. Then we headed over to the Newel K. Whitney store and had a little devotional in the school of the prophets! There we covenanted with the Lord on what our missions would be, and what we were willing to give up and sacrifice to be in His service. A little history and tidbit about Kirtland! 4 of the 5 times that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have appeared together have happened here. In Ohio 65 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were given. WofW, Call to build the temple, the rebuke, prophesy of the Civil War, Plan of Salvation, Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. Sooo much happened here. The keys for missionary work were restored here. All I am saying is that I am serving in the best mission ever! In section 38 the saints are commanded to go to the Ohio and there they will be endowed with power from on high. And so it was! Amazing. That's all.
Anyway after that we went to our first transfer meeting and there I got my new trainer. Sister Amanda Scott is her name. She is my missionary MOM. She is amazing and we both have a lot of humor so we are able to work off one another. We laugh a lot. This is her last transfer so she goes home in 6 weeks. So I will be given another trainer at that time as I am technically in training for 12. We are serving in an area called Mayfield which is about 10 miles from the sites! I am at sites 3 days of the week and then we are in our area 4 days. i don't know which one I like more. I really like giving tours and meeting a lot of new people, but I also like being in our area and working with the members. We are serving in an area that is very predominantly Jew soo when we tell people that we have a message about Christ they don't want to hear it so we get a lot of doors slammed in our faces. I think my favorite experience tracting thus far is on Sunday. It was fast Sunday and it was bitter cold, and I wasn't wearing tights for some weird reason. But anyway we knocked on one door and it smelled like BBQ, oh it smelled sooo divine. Anyway he opened the door and kind of chastised us for being on his doorstep, we told him we had a message and he informed us he was Agnostic. My companion jumped in and told him that her father was Atheist because he was an engineer. He called us or her father egotistical (we are not quite sure which one he was referring to) and then it was just kind of awkward so we were like "uuuuhhhh okay well Christ lives, bye!" Main point is even though it was cold and we were starving and everyone was saying no, I was loving it. It wasn't a sacrifice and I didn't want to be doing anything else!
But mostly the work here is slow, we have a long way to go but Kirtland will be built up again. It's in the scriptures read about it. I think Pres. Benson talked about it too. We are going to work so hard. We currently have one investigator with a baptismal date. He is a former Jew and still has a problem believing Christ is his savior but he believes in the Book of Mormon so that is good and a step forward! I have soo much to learn but I hope that it all comes in time!
Other than that nothing new is happening!
I am so glad you are having a good time in Ohio. It's a good place! That was a close one. dang snow storms. Sophie is a funny girl! What you don't sleep with suitcases. I do that all the time. What day did you say you were going home! Sounds like you guys accomplished a lot!
Anyway sorry I have to run! I hope I touched on everything! I love you all! Thanks for your support.
Peace,Sister Hillman
I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! Okay so A LOT has happened in the last two weeks that I have been unable to write! First off I was sooooo sad to leave the MTC. we had to say goodbye to a lot of people that you meet and since you see them everyday you get really close. But we had class all day Monday so we scrambled in order to get all of our stuff packed so we could leave the MTC at 4:00 Tuesday morning. It was early but there were still people awake to see us off there were about 50 Elders and Sisters leaving with us. The airport wasn't too busy so we got through security in enough time to have plenty of time to talk to our parents! Highlight of my month probably! People kept telling us that we would stick our once we left Provo and that we did. People were staring at us like we were crazy people. It was 6 o'clock in the morning and we were chipper I think we were even laughing, and dressed in Sunday best. I would have given anything to wear sweats! The plane ride was okay, we were told to start talking to people the moment we got on the plane. Unfortunately I was sitting next to an older couple who fell asleep about 10 minutes into the flight! It made for a long flight! We had a layover in Detroit, I was starving but we didn't have time to eat so that was a bummer. I'm not nice when I am hungry! Anyway the next flight was great. It was 20 minutes long and I sat by myself so yeah not so many missionary opportunities!
The president and APs met us at the airport, we headed to the mission home and we had a lot of meetings that pertain to our success as missionaries, we ate a super delicious meal, had more meetings and then interviews. We had the best night sleep ever!! The next day we had a quick breakfast and then we headed over to the Temple, where the Kirtland Stake patriarch Karl Anderson gave us a tour! You may have heard of him, we call him Mr. Kirtland because he knows almost everything about this wonderful place. He just wrote a book. Look into it! Anyway that was beautiful! So amazing. Then we headed over to the Newel K. Whitney store and had a little devotional in the school of the prophets! There we covenanted with the Lord on what our missions would be, and what we were willing to give up and sacrifice to be in His service. A little history and tidbit about Kirtland! 4 of the 5 times that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have appeared together have happened here. In Ohio 65 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were given. WofW, Call to build the temple, the rebuke, prophesy of the Civil War, Plan of Salvation, Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. Sooo much happened here. The keys for missionary work were restored here. All I am saying is that I am serving in the best mission ever! In section 38 the saints are commanded to go to the Ohio and there they will be endowed with power from on high. And so it was! Amazing. That's all.
Anyway after that we went to our first transfer meeting and there I got my new trainer. Sister Amanda Scott is her name. She is my missionary MOM. She is amazing and we both have a lot of humor so we are able to work off one another. We laugh a lot. This is her last transfer so she goes home in 6 weeks. So I will be given another trainer at that time as I am technically in training for 12. We are serving in an area called Mayfield which is about 10 miles from the sites! I am at sites 3 days of the week and then we are in our area 4 days. i don't know which one I like more. I really like giving tours and meeting a lot of new people, but I also like being in our area and working with the members. We are serving in an area that is very predominantly Jew soo when we tell people that we have a message about Christ they don't want to hear it so we get a lot of doors slammed in our faces. I think my favorite experience tracting thus far is on Sunday. It was fast Sunday and it was bitter cold, and I wasn't wearing tights for some weird reason. But anyway we knocked on one door and it smelled like BBQ, oh it smelled sooo divine. Anyway he opened the door and kind of chastised us for being on his doorstep, we told him we had a message and he informed us he was Agnostic. My companion jumped in and told him that her father was Atheist because he was an engineer. He called us or her father egotistical (we are not quite sure which one he was referring to) and then it was just kind of awkward so we were like "uuuuhhhh okay well Christ lives, bye!" Main point is even though it was cold and we were starving and everyone was saying no, I was loving it. It wasn't a sacrifice and I didn't want to be doing anything else!
But mostly the work here is slow, we have a long way to go but Kirtland will be built up again. It's in the scriptures read about it. I think Pres. Benson talked about it too. We are going to work so hard. We currently have one investigator with a baptismal date. He is a former Jew and still has a problem believing Christ is his savior but he believes in the Book of Mormon so that is good and a step forward! I have soo much to learn but I hope that it all comes in time!
Other than that nothing new is happening!
I am so glad you are having a good time in Ohio. It's a good place! That was a close one. dang snow storms. Sophie is a funny girl! What you don't sleep with suitcases. I do that all the time. What day did you say you were going home! Sounds like you guys accomplished a lot!
Anyway sorry I have to run! I hope I touched on everything! I love you all! Thanks for your support.
Peace,Sister Hillman
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