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