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