Oh Hi there,
I am officially NOT a greenie anymore:) I pass. I am done with 12 weeks of training! Happy are we! I actually got done with the program about 4 weeks ago, but now it's official! I get my TIWI card really soon which is my license to drive a mission vehicle. I don't even know if I know how to drive a car anymore, but I a getting really good at backing the driver, no accidents yet :)
It is sooo HOT and HUMID here. Oh my I felt like I was going to melt the other day...I don't think I have been properly dry since last Tuesday! It makes tracting really fun, we don't see a lot of success on those days, turns out people don't like to talk to sweaty missionaries who look like they just got done running a marathon, but whatever we still try!
This week has been a crazy one! Meetings like crazy, and the VC is getting busier everyday, we gave 4 tours yesterday, keep in mind they are about 2 hours long, and we closed at 6 because of the holiday! Our largest group was 18 people, but we are starting to get the tour buses coming! Hello Summer! We gave a tour to a non member family, who accepted the invitation to meet with missionaries, at the end the mom was asking us questions about things we said through out the tour, and how the Book of Mormon came to be. After we explained she said that it really did make sense to her and she liked the scriptures that she read from it! The Book of Mormon is true, and it changes lives, yes it does!
Last night we had a memorial day celebration for the Sorensen's, we had a little skit and ate some delicious food, then we presented our gift to them. We each signed a square for a quilt and then the senior sisters sewed it together! It turned out beautiful! It will be so sad to see them go, but we pray for the new mission president and he will lead us with the same dedication as President Sorenson!
Our area is blossoming, there is soo much work to do. I have a feeling they are going to keep me in Mayfield for a while, they like to keep missionaries there for more than 6 months, turns out you have to have some thick skin, or a stubborn attitude to serve in Mayfield,we get the door slammed in our face a lot, it can sometimes be a damper on your day, but we know that our message is true and we are merely planting seeds, there will always be next time! The other day we were out contacting in a Jewish neighborhood, and we stopped and talked to this grandma that was watching her grandkids play in the sprinkler. At first she wouldn't take anything from us, she asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses, which we're not. We told her we were Mormons, to which she replied "Oh ya'll know Romney? He is my man!" (all said with a nice southern accent). Turns out she is baptist, we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she told us she was going to learn what Mitt Romney believed because she LOVED him, and was going to read the book every night! It is so funny to see how people are reacting to the campaign, we got her number so we could follow up with her!
Brother Marx is doing well, he gets the priesthood soon, so that will be good he can baptize sister Marx when she finally realizes this is what she wants to do! She knows the gospel is true, just lacks her self assurance and faith. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and loves coming to church. Right now we are teachign a family of five and 2 other individually, we are hoping to pick up a family of 2(mother and daughter) and then 1 former. We were teaching a family of 9 and a part member family, but with the dissolving of the Mayfield ward are area got cut in half, and we had to transfer those investigators over to the Willowick Sisters!
Love ya lots,
Sister Hillman
5.29.2012
5.22.2012
May 22
Hello again,
Sounds like home life is going well. That is good to hear. Tell Idaho hello for me, I miss my mountains! I love the trees here but it seems that we are always lost because everywhere you look there are more trees! I don't know what is going to happen after transfers. I do know that Sister Hatch and I are staying in Mayfield (which is now Shaker Heights North) together for another transfer until she goes home in July! That will be nice. We have a lot of work to do so it's nice that we don't have to worry about changing things up just yet!! Check Rigby out, keeping the legacy going!!!! I really can't believe it has been 3 years! Wo is me. I'm an old fart! Seriously I feel older everyday, not more mature just older.
This week was a crazy one! There is simply not enough time to accomplish all that I want! I'll start with the crowning event! The Luau! It was such a success! So Sister Tokunaga, one of the training sisters, is from Hawaii and she helped us put it all together. I am now fluent in Hula. But the real entertainment came when our mission president decided that he could Hula as well! Oh my gosh I almost died, like seriously lost it on stage...soooo funny, I may have even peed a little :) Don't worry I have plenty of pictures :) and video. President Sorensen is one of the sternest people I know, so to see him hula it up in front of non members was priceless! One of our members has been trying to invite one of their neighbors to meet with us and they didn't really know how so we told them to invite them to the luau.They came and this family is one that has truly been prepared for the gospel, We are really excited to get to know them. We took everyone on a church tour after the show and it was cool to watch all of the faces of the investigators! There are so many different ways to find people!
This morning we did service at sites! We planted all of the flowers at the VC, thousands...ohh my poor elbows are sore but it looks sooo beautiful! It is starting to pick up now that summer has found it's way. I am sooo not prepared for the heat, I think I nearly melted the other day, 90 and humid. Not my thing. Giving tours is the best. I love taking people into the school of the prophets and just seeing their faces and countenances change due to the things that happened there! Kirtland is truly an amazing place. I didn't even realize the impact that it had on the church today, but woah, talk about faith. The Kirtland saints definitely had it!
We have missionary firesides every 3rd Sunday, and this week the fireside was all about the Holy Ghost and they had 7 Recent Converts come up and share their testimonies. Sometimes I wish I was a convert! The light in their eyes is so amazing and you can just tell how much they love the gospel and how much it has changed their lives!
We found 2 more potential investigators this week! Just get out and talk to everyone, that's how to do it. Working through members really is the most effective way but sometimes not possible, so we have been trying to talk to everyone we see (sometimes that involves running across the street waving a restoration pamphlet to talk to someone, jk I would never do that) but it really does pay off and Heavenly Father is putting prepared people in our path.
Sorry this is short. Got to run. Hope you have a good week! Keep your chin up, you are all in my prayers! The Gospel is SOOOO true!
Love ya,
Sister Hillman!
Sounds like home life is going well. That is good to hear. Tell Idaho hello for me, I miss my mountains! I love the trees here but it seems that we are always lost because everywhere you look there are more trees! I don't know what is going to happen after transfers. I do know that Sister Hatch and I are staying in Mayfield (which is now Shaker Heights North) together for another transfer until she goes home in July! That will be nice. We have a lot of work to do so it's nice that we don't have to worry about changing things up just yet!! Check Rigby out, keeping the legacy going!!!! I really can't believe it has been 3 years! Wo is me. I'm an old fart! Seriously I feel older everyday, not more mature just older.
This week was a crazy one! There is simply not enough time to accomplish all that I want! I'll start with the crowning event! The Luau! It was such a success! So Sister Tokunaga, one of the training sisters, is from Hawaii and she helped us put it all together. I am now fluent in Hula. But the real entertainment came when our mission president decided that he could Hula as well! Oh my gosh I almost died, like seriously lost it on stage...soooo funny, I may have even peed a little :) Don't worry I have plenty of pictures :) and video. President Sorensen is one of the sternest people I know, so to see him hula it up in front of non members was priceless! One of our members has been trying to invite one of their neighbors to meet with us and they didn't really know how so we told them to invite them to the luau.They came and this family is one that has truly been prepared for the gospel, We are really excited to get to know them. We took everyone on a church tour after the show and it was cool to watch all of the faces of the investigators! There are so many different ways to find people!
This morning we did service at sites! We planted all of the flowers at the VC, thousands...ohh my poor elbows are sore but it looks sooo beautiful! It is starting to pick up now that summer has found it's way. I am sooo not prepared for the heat, I think I nearly melted the other day, 90 and humid. Not my thing. Giving tours is the best. I love taking people into the school of the prophets and just seeing their faces and countenances change due to the things that happened there! Kirtland is truly an amazing place. I didn't even realize the impact that it had on the church today, but woah, talk about faith. The Kirtland saints definitely had it!
We have missionary firesides every 3rd Sunday, and this week the fireside was all about the Holy Ghost and they had 7 Recent Converts come up and share their testimonies. Sometimes I wish I was a convert! The light in their eyes is so amazing and you can just tell how much they love the gospel and how much it has changed their lives!
We found 2 more potential investigators this week! Just get out and talk to everyone, that's how to do it. Working through members really is the most effective way but sometimes not possible, so we have been trying to talk to everyone we see (sometimes that involves running across the street waving a restoration pamphlet to talk to someone, jk I would never do that) but it really does pay off and Heavenly Father is putting prepared people in our path.
Sorry this is short. Got to run. Hope you have a good week! Keep your chin up, you are all in my prayers! The Gospel is SOOOO true!
Love ya,
Sister Hillman!
5.16.2012
May 14
Oh hello again,
So it has only been two days and not much has happened here in the good land of Kirt! I had sites yesterday, we did have Pioneer School however. It is a place up in Painesville and it is with the Lake County Historical Society. Anyway we volunteer there every spring and fall. We dress up like Pioneers and teach little children how to make candle sticks, or I guess the correct term would be Taper Sticks. It is a lot of fun. They have a mansion there which they turned into a museum, so then elementary aged children get to come and see what it would have been like to live on the Western Reserve!
Transfers is next week and everyone is freaking out. Trainers were called yesterday. Luckily there are only two Kirtland sisters are coming out so the chances that I was going to train were very small! Everyone feels relieved that they didn't get called! But everyone is still speculating where they are going to end up though. We are expecting it to be a big transfer because all of us are done training and the Sisters I came out with will probably take over their areas. I already took over my area once so my guess is nothing will happen to me until Sister Hatch leaves!
This weekend we are having a Luau for our ward party/ missionary finding opportunity. Did I already tell you about this? Anyway the sister missionaries in my district are doing a dance as part of the cultural show, I am trying to learn the Hula. Oh man. A lot of the sisters were at the Edmans last night while we were practicing and they were all having a good laugh about my awesome moves....I have photographic proof, and believe me it is not pretty!
We had an amazing tour yesterday. We started out with 6 people and ended up with 1. How that happened I am not quite sure, apparently we need to work on our presentation :) JK no the temple was closing and they wanted to go up and take a tour, so they peaced out!
The Community of Christ church put on a dinner for us last night, for helping them with the garden. It was lovely, it was spaghetti and delicious brownies. Everyone was surprised when I didn't go back for seconds.
Yes we go out an run every morning at 6:30, we only get about a mile in but it's something right!? When people come into the VC and request something it is done with a referral card, so we have all of their information and are able to call and follow up, however not many of them accept missionaries, just the free gifts we offer (FFIC DVD, Book of Mormon, Restoration DVD, Together Forever etc.) a lot of the referrals we get are through the member cards that we call.
Well love ya lots!
Sister Hillman
So it has only been two days and not much has happened here in the good land of Kirt! I had sites yesterday, we did have Pioneer School however. It is a place up in Painesville and it is with the Lake County Historical Society. Anyway we volunteer there every spring and fall. We dress up like Pioneers and teach little children how to make candle sticks, or I guess the correct term would be Taper Sticks. It is a lot of fun. They have a mansion there which they turned into a museum, so then elementary aged children get to come and see what it would have been like to live on the Western Reserve!
Transfers is next week and everyone is freaking out. Trainers were called yesterday. Luckily there are only two Kirtland sisters are coming out so the chances that I was going to train were very small! Everyone feels relieved that they didn't get called! But everyone is still speculating where they are going to end up though. We are expecting it to be a big transfer because all of us are done training and the Sisters I came out with will probably take over their areas. I already took over my area once so my guess is nothing will happen to me until Sister Hatch leaves!
This weekend we are having a Luau for our ward party/ missionary finding opportunity. Did I already tell you about this? Anyway the sister missionaries in my district are doing a dance as part of the cultural show, I am trying to learn the Hula. Oh man. A lot of the sisters were at the Edmans last night while we were practicing and they were all having a good laugh about my awesome moves....I have photographic proof, and believe me it is not pretty!
We had an amazing tour yesterday. We started out with 6 people and ended up with 1. How that happened I am not quite sure, apparently we need to work on our presentation :) JK no the temple was closing and they wanted to go up and take a tour, so they peaced out!
The Community of Christ church put on a dinner for us last night, for helping them with the garden. It was lovely, it was spaghetti and delicious brownies. Everyone was surprised when I didn't go back for seconds.
Yes we go out an run every morning at 6:30, we only get about a mile in but it's something right!? When people come into the VC and request something it is done with a referral card, so we have all of their information and are able to call and follow up, however not many of them accept missionaries, just the free gifts we offer (FFIC DVD, Book of Mormon, Restoration DVD, Together Forever etc.) a lot of the referrals we get are through the member cards that we call.
Well love ya lots!
Sister Hillman
May 7
Hello Family,
Brother Marx is baptized!!! Oh my I wish you could have all been there and seen the power of Godliness manifest itself. The spirit was soo strong. Everything went so smoothly, he is a hydrophobic and was really anxious about going under the water but he said on the day of the baptism he was as calm as can be! We usually confirm converts in church on Sunday but since we had a special sacrament meeting they confirmed him font side. We asked him how he felt and he just said that he felt like his head was on fire. Baptism by fire and spirit? I think so! It was so amazing, I started crying as soon as he went under the water, I am such a girl. Which was bad because we had to give a presentation on the restoration like 2 seconds after that soooo...
Anyway so our ward was dissolved we are now in the Shaker Heights ward with 2 others sets of missionaries. We have a lot of residents in our ward and most of them graduated so we lost about half of our ward so they split it and put the members of our ward into two of the surrounding wards. Our area got cut right down the middle so we are still working out the boundaries. We don't know what will happen to our area, they may close it! I guess we will find out in two weeks at transfers :)
As for an update on the bugs. Everything in our apartment is clean. Seriously we have the cleanest apartment in the mission. We washed everything so we had a very busy Pday last week! We are known as the Bed Bug Sisters :) Ill send you pictures of bites on my legs. There is still some debate on whether they are fleas or bed bugs, we are hoping they are fleas! sounds weird but seriously so much better.
76 stakes!?! Wow that's kind of a big deal!! Temples are amazing. I miss going to the temple so much. It's just a good place to go to learn about what our Father has in store for us! The school of the Prophets is an amazing place, the words used to describe it are the same words used to describe the temple, so it was the first temple of this dispensation! I may have already told you that though! Then of course the temple was built in Kirtland so the school of the Prophets was no longer used!
It has been very hot and humid here this last weekend and then it down poured all day yesterday! Is Idaho still having Bi-polar weather!? I am working on the pictures I promise :) I'll be sending my card home soon, I need to be better about taking pictures with the people that I serve with!
Anyway...sorry I am out of time! I have to run, but I'll see you on Sunday!!! Love you all so much!
Sister Hillman
Brother Marx is baptized!!! Oh my I wish you could have all been there and seen the power of Godliness manifest itself. The spirit was soo strong. Everything went so smoothly, he is a hydrophobic and was really anxious about going under the water but he said on the day of the baptism he was as calm as can be! We usually confirm converts in church on Sunday but since we had a special sacrament meeting they confirmed him font side. We asked him how he felt and he just said that he felt like his head was on fire. Baptism by fire and spirit? I think so! It was so amazing, I started crying as soon as he went under the water, I am such a girl. Which was bad because we had to give a presentation on the restoration like 2 seconds after that soooo...
Anyway so our ward was dissolved we are now in the Shaker Heights ward with 2 others sets of missionaries. We have a lot of residents in our ward and most of them graduated so we lost about half of our ward so they split it and put the members of our ward into two of the surrounding wards. Our area got cut right down the middle so we are still working out the boundaries. We don't know what will happen to our area, they may close it! I guess we will find out in two weeks at transfers :)
As for an update on the bugs. Everything in our apartment is clean. Seriously we have the cleanest apartment in the mission. We washed everything so we had a very busy Pday last week! We are known as the Bed Bug Sisters :) Ill send you pictures of bites on my legs. There is still some debate on whether they are fleas or bed bugs, we are hoping they are fleas! sounds weird but seriously so much better.
76 stakes!?! Wow that's kind of a big deal!! Temples are amazing. I miss going to the temple so much. It's just a good place to go to learn about what our Father has in store for us! The school of the Prophets is an amazing place, the words used to describe it are the same words used to describe the temple, so it was the first temple of this dispensation! I may have already told you that though! Then of course the temple was built in Kirtland so the school of the Prophets was no longer used!
It has been very hot and humid here this last weekend and then it down poured all day yesterday! Is Idaho still having Bi-polar weather!? I am working on the pictures I promise :) I'll be sending my card home soon, I need to be better about taking pictures with the people that I serve with!
Anyway...sorry I am out of time! I have to run, but I'll see you on Sunday!!! Love you all so much!
Sister Hillman
5.06.2012
May 1
Hello Family,
I have 2 words for you this week. BED BUGS!!!!!! Ew those stinkers have made their way into our apartment and have eaten our legs. Don't worry I took pictures! Anyway this will be a short note due to the fact that we have to go fumigate our apartment, wash all of our clothes and clean everything that is in our apartment! Life is good! I will write a longer letter today that gives more details of my life and what is going on in Cleveland, we have some time while the poison we are spraying kills those buggies. Anyway I love you so much! Keep smiling, the gospel is true. Can't wait to skype with you! It will probably be sometime between 3 and 5 (my time) but really whenever works, we will just be going to a members house. Anyway, more details in the letter!
Love,
Sister Hillman
I have 2 words for you this week. BED BUGS!!!!!! Ew those stinkers have made their way into our apartment and have eaten our legs. Don't worry I took pictures! Anyway this will be a short note due to the fact that we have to go fumigate our apartment, wash all of our clothes and clean everything that is in our apartment! Life is good! I will write a longer letter today that gives more details of my life and what is going on in Cleveland, we have some time while the poison we are spraying kills those buggies. Anyway I love you so much! Keep smiling, the gospel is true. Can't wait to skype with you! It will probably be sometime between 3 and 5 (my time) but really whenever works, we will just be going to a members house. Anyway, more details in the letter!
Love,
Sister Hillman
April 24th
Oh hello again,
I can't believe it has already been a week. What the heck? Life here is good. We keep trekking along trying to spread the good news of the restored gospel. I have been trying to decide what my favorite part of the mission is. Proselyting or VC. I can't decide. Both have pros and cons. We have a baptismal date for May 2 for Brother Marx, and we committed 2 more to baptism this week! We also picked up 3 new investigators and are meeting with 2 referrals tonight, we are hoping to commit them to baptism as well. Mayfield has so much potential, I love it. It is one of the harder areas of the mission just because it hasn't seen success in a really long time. We plan to change that, and already we are seeing the Lord's hand in all we do, He is going before us and preparing the people to receive the message. We teach a lot of lessons. We only have about 2 hours of contacting/tracting a week so we try to do a lot of teaching when we find. The best way to do missionary work is through members. I have promised the Lord that I will be a better member missionary when I get home. That is good that the conference was one missionary work. We never know who we will touch. Let the YW know that Heavenly Father really does love them, the sooner they understand this principle the happier they will be. With love there comes a great power.
The VC is starting to get crazy. I love it. I love seeing peoples faces as the come into the school of the prophets and see the place where Heavenly Father and Jesus stood. It is truly a remarkable place. Brother Lesvardi came to talk to us, he is the head of all church resources and VC's. So we had an amazing training with him. My companion and I had the opportunity to take his wife on a tour, that was a cool experience. He wants us to become PMG missionaries while giving tours. It was good.
I fell asleep sitting up the other day. I was on chat and I was waiting for the guy to reply, I just kind of zoned out for a second focusing on what he was saying. The next thing I was aware of was Sister Larson laughing. The door to the call room was open and I looked up to see them all staring at me. Oh it was the best 2 minutes of sleep ever.
OKAY. Last but not least. Mother's day is in 3 weeks. We are allowed to skype so if, it's okay with Matt we can set up a time that we can skype on that Sunday. If not I will just give you a phone call. Whatever works best for you. I am okay with either. I just need to let the member know what one I will be doing.
Sister Hillman
I can't believe it has already been a week. What the heck? Life here is good. We keep trekking along trying to spread the good news of the restored gospel. I have been trying to decide what my favorite part of the mission is. Proselyting or VC. I can't decide. Both have pros and cons. We have a baptismal date for May 2 for Brother Marx, and we committed 2 more to baptism this week! We also picked up 3 new investigators and are meeting with 2 referrals tonight, we are hoping to commit them to baptism as well. Mayfield has so much potential, I love it. It is one of the harder areas of the mission just because it hasn't seen success in a really long time. We plan to change that, and already we are seeing the Lord's hand in all we do, He is going before us and preparing the people to receive the message. We teach a lot of lessons. We only have about 2 hours of contacting/tracting a week so we try to do a lot of teaching when we find. The best way to do missionary work is through members. I have promised the Lord that I will be a better member missionary when I get home. That is good that the conference was one missionary work. We never know who we will touch. Let the YW know that Heavenly Father really does love them, the sooner they understand this principle the happier they will be. With love there comes a great power.
The VC is starting to get crazy. I love it. I love seeing peoples faces as the come into the school of the prophets and see the place where Heavenly Father and Jesus stood. It is truly a remarkable place. Brother Lesvardi came to talk to us, he is the head of all church resources and VC's. So we had an amazing training with him. My companion and I had the opportunity to take his wife on a tour, that was a cool experience. He wants us to become PMG missionaries while giving tours. It was good.
I fell asleep sitting up the other day. I was on chat and I was waiting for the guy to reply, I just kind of zoned out for a second focusing on what he was saying. The next thing I was aware of was Sister Larson laughing. The door to the call room was open and I looked up to see them all staring at me. Oh it was the best 2 minutes of sleep ever.
OKAY. Last but not least. Mother's day is in 3 weeks. We are allowed to skype so if, it's okay with Matt we can set up a time that we can skype on that Sunday. If not I will just give you a phone call. Whatever works best for you. I am okay with either. I just need to let the member know what one I will be doing.
Sister Hillman
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