October 15

Hello Dearest Family,

First off. Mom send my coat to the mission office. We are not home often enough to get UPS packages at our apartment. They will see that I get it if you send it to the office :) Thanks for getting that for me. It's going to be a nice thing to have here in a couple of weeks. It is starting to get CHILLY!!!!!!

Second. It sounds like you had a really fun stay in St. George there is a lot to do there, sounds like everyone had fun. Oh my I can't believe Gracie is talking that much. Oh I miss the kiddos so much. They are all going to be so grown up when I get home. It's interesting to watch the babies here grow up too. I bet the Magleby's are a tired bunch. They have been doing a lot of traveling these last few weeks!

It sounds like you are getting pretty busy. I expect these next few months will start to speed up as the holidays always do. Mom, how do I make time slow down? I am officially half way through and it makes me sick. And time is just speeding up. There is so much work that needs to be done. I am excited to see what the lord can make of me in these next few months. What are your plans for Christmas? Are you staying at home. We will be able to skype again, so just make sure you are in an area that you have access to a computer. If not a phone call will work too

I'm glad you had a great week. Ours was interesting. We tracted for 14 hours this week...holy cow. All of our appointments fell through, it was crazy. Satan is definitely working hard against us in this area. We found one new person to teach this week. Her name is Ernestein Williams but she goes by Pee Wee. She is amazing! Thursday night we went and helped at the relief society gathering, they had a class on extreme couponing, it was crazy. A lot of stuff she got for free. It is very time consuming though. Anyway. The reason they invited us was because there were some non-members there. Talk about a golden family. We were talking the the girl Amanda, she is 22. She was explaining that her family was looking for a church. They were methodist and moved here about 4 years ago, since then they hadn't found a church that they felt comfortable in. We jumped on that, and quickly moved into teaching mode. We invited them to church and they said they would try to make it. We got their address and phone number. We have high hopes for this family. There are 3 children still at home. A mother and father, plus older ones who have children of their own.

Something that I learned this week. God does love us and is very aware of us. We went tracting ALL DAY on Friday, with no success. I think we talked to like 5 people, all of whom were not interested! but on our way home from dinner, we got a call from our District Leader saying he had a referral for us. We were like saweet! She seems awesome too. So the Lord blesses those that serve him.

Ha. So funny story. We were out tracting the other day, we had like 5 minutes before dinner. We saw this older couple outside and asked if we could share a message with them. They asked what church we were from and the lady (Doris) got all excited and said "You're Mormons!!!" the next thing I know she gives us a big hug and is telling us how much she loves mormons. I can assure you this never happens. We kept talking and then all of the sudden she turns to Sister Feldt and plants a big kiss on her cheek and then does the same thing to me...whoa that definitely has never happened. It was funny. Sister Feldt didn't know what to do so we just kind of laughed it off. She loves mormons. We are taking her a Book of Mormon next week :) I love this place. It's soooo awesome:)

So Sis. Feldt has been out 6 months, and as for the driver it is always the senior companion, so I get to drive again! I am getting really comfortable with driving in big cities that's for sure! We normally do pday with the elders. we are cleaning our apartment today though so it's more work than play. Yes we go to the library to email :)

Thanks for everything. I hope you are all seeing the love that God has for each of you in your daily lives. If not take a step backwards, breath a little bit, slow down and open your eyes! It's there. The gospel is still true:)

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Hillman

Oct 8, 2012

Here is Chelsey’s new address:

3900 Seneca Ave. # H-4

Lorain, OH 44055

 

 

Hello Family,

Life in Lorain is good. Sister Feldt is not a VC sister so that has been an interesting change as well. We tract a lot because we are in finding mode. Happy are we. There are people to be found here, it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. We are trying to find a family to teach! There are 10 of us in the district. 2 sisters and 8 elders. They are all great. We are the only sisters in the Zone so they take good care of us!

Sorry this is going to be a short email. There is just not enough time in the day! I did get a letter written to Grandpa and Grandma so they should be getting that shortly. I'm not a very good letter writer so this has been a challenge for me. There are some people I have yet to reply too. Whoops!

Yes Sister Nelson stayed in Mayfield. She is going to do great things for the area. She is a great missionary. Her companion is Sister Arnesen. Who is one of the best, so I have no worries that Mayfield is in great hands! I haven't heard from the Marx but I am sure they are doing fine. John, is john, his happy, loving the gospel self. I love this work.

Conference was amazing. I can't believe they changed the age. I'm jealous I had to wait until I was 21. But then again I definitely wouldn't have been ready to serve at that time. It was definitely inspired. It is true what they say the youth of the church are getting stronger and stronger. I am excited to see how this will affect missionary work. I think it will open the door to a lot more people being able to serve.

I hope you have a great week! I love you all! Thanks for everything.

Love,

Sister Hillman

October 1

Hi Mom,

And 8 months later!

I'm glad that you are inspired to email on Monday's now! Yes my Pday has changed, and I was really hoping I would have a letter waiting for me when I got on here :) Well, I got shipped out full-proselyting! It broke my heart to leave Mayfield and Kirtland behind but I'm excited for this challenge. I'm still in recovery mode. I was called to serve in the area of Lorain. What a wonderful place! It is a very quaint town, and has a lot of potential, my favorite is a little town called Avon! My companions name is Sister Feldt. I'll get pictures and send you a letter for my new address! Not all of the sisters get a chance to go out full-pros, but a fair few do. It wasn't a huge transfer, just enough to shake up the mission a little bit. I serve right on Lake Erie it is so beautiful! I am in Cleveland Zone!

So I was able to watch the Broadcast. I think it was written just for me. I know everyone else thinks that too, and they are right! That's what I love about the gospel. Everyone can hear the exact same message and get completely different things out of it. And yes we attend all of the Block meetings every week! It's before and after church that our "fun" meetings are held. Sunday's are long days :)

Oh Mom, I love being out full proselyting, but it also scares me to death. Our schedules are wide open! We do A LOT of tracting and contacting, Lorain is slow in business, right now if you know what I mean. But I have plans to change that very soon :) Heavenly Father wants His children back!

 

It sounds like you are having a great week! I have 9.5 months left, CRAZY!!!!!!!!

What else is new? Hopefully bishop gets feeling better! Tell everyone to send me pics of their cute little ones!

I love you!

Love,

Sister Hillman

September 25

Dearest Family,

It sounds like life back home is super exciting and busy. Life gets that way :) Life is good. I can't believe Christmas is already in the air. Weird. It needs to stay away as long as possible.

 

What a week! It started out same as normal, but then it got crazy busy. So pioneer school is where we go and volunteer at Lake county historical society, we teach school children how they made candles on the frontier in the 1800's. They have a fun little program and they do other fun things but the Sisters are over candles. We get to dress up and everything. We had that on Wednesday and then had to go and finish our shift at the VC. Thursday we had Mission Conference, which was one of the most amazing experiences ever. It was Elder Perkins of the Seventy (an office that was established in Kirtland) that came to speak with us, we heard from president Vellinga as well. I wish you all could have been there, I learned so much about becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary. At lunch he came and sat at our table and he told us all about the things that went in to calling missionaries to their missions. He also had some good stories about the 12 and the first presidency, no big deal, he just gets to see them every other day. I just can't believe how lucky we are to be able to listen to a prophet of God, and sit and listen to General Authorities. So amazing. After that we went back to our area, taught John and Joan Shuster, and then headed to Kirtland to a stake dinner held at the Kiwanis club. It was a thank you for helping out with Strawberry days! Friday was the big day. We went over to a LA's house to visit her and talked to her about the love that god has for her. It turns out a lot of people don't believe that He loves them. But I KNOW He does. Then we headed over to the Church to clean and prep the church. JOHN IS BAPTIZED!!!!!!! It was us that planned it with the help of the WML, and everything wrong that could have gone wrong, did. It was so sad, Satan really didn't want this baptism to happen, but lo and behold it did. It was so amazing, there is something so amazing about seeing someone change and be baptized, it is the greatest. John smacked his head on the tile going down, that was tragic, whoops. Bro. Jensen baptized him. Don't worry I have pictures of all these people. But he was too happy to care. Saturday we officially moved out of our apartment. So our lease is up so they moved us to a house near the VC, it is such a nice house, it's nice and cozy :) But the Zone Leaders along with the office staff came and helped us move our things out, and then all of our furniture is going to the Kent sisters. Then we went to the VC and finished our shift. Sunday was invite a friend to church day and John's confirmation day, he was so excited for the Holy Ghost, so we prepped for that and then had a linger longer. Then we went over to Pres. Stacey's house and had a transition lesson, we handed our recent converts over to the ward to teach. Monday was sites and now it's Pday again! Woo, sorry I just like vomited all of that info on you, but that was my week! Good news though....Moses is back from Africa!

It has turned fall here in the ohio, the leaves are starting to change and it is going to be a beautiful fall. The weather is perfect, we are all wearing cardigans and scarves and boots, and its just the perfect crispness that reminds me of harvest, and football games :) Amy you are in for a treat! Hopefully it stays this way.

So I am officially leaving Mayfield, not only that but I am being out zoned, I am leaving Kirtland. When my district leader told me I was shocked, and just started to cry. I love Mayfield, I know that the Lord needs me elsewhere but still it makes me so sad to leave. The Marx are taking it pretty hard but they will be fine. I'll be fine, change is just rough sometimes. I am so scared of not being in Kirtland, there is a couple of areas I can go, a couple of them are still VC sisters, just not as often, and then some are full prose. It's crazy. Transfers are tomorrow so I'll find out where I am going at 11:30 tomorrow.

Sorry we have to run. I hope all is well! I love you all so much! I think of you often and you are always in my prayers.

Love,

Sister Hillman

September 18

Hello Family,

Oh how lovely this week has been, and this week is not getting any slower. Time is speeding up and there is just not time to teach everyone that I would like to. Transfers is coming up and so everyone here is getting anxious for the changes. I will most likely stay in a VC area. There are no Full Pros areas open. But we will see. I will find out Sunday what happens to me, at least if I am leaving or staying Mayfield, I won't find out where I go until Wednesday. Transfers are fun, scary, and exciting all at the same time.

 

Oh hey mom guess who came into the VC last Thursday? Vickie (sp?) Furnace (sp?), she asked me if I knew who Laroy Hillman was and I said that's my dad. And then she went off about how great of Visiting Teacher you were. Everyone thinks you are the best including me! It was fun to see. There were a lot of people from Idaho that day that we got to take on tour. There was one family that worked for Dome Technology. Small world. I love all the connections we can make on tour. I can't wait until Amy gets to come and visit these wonderful places, hopefully I am still here to take her on tour. Magleby Family you may want to bring rain boots and rain coats. It gets wet here! I am getting a package out today of all of the sites you can come visit. I hope you love it as much as I do!

This week is crazy busy. We have Pioneer school tomorrow. Mission Conference on Thursday. Baptism Friday/ Weekly Planning. Saturday we are moving out of out apartment and we work sites. Sunday is an area day, but we are having a Stake wide invite a friend to church day so we are gearing up for that. There will be a lot of people to talk to. We are excited to see how this helps to build up Kirtland. The work is exploding here. It has been so amazing to see. Miracles are everywhere on missions. Heavenly Father really does love us.

It sounds like things are just as crazy at home as they are here. That's a good thing. I was talking to an Elder that is going home next week, and he was talking about how he doesn't know what he is going to do when he doesn't have his whole day planned out. What will he do? He is slightly freaking out, but we assured him that he will be just as busy, just a different kind. 

The Brigham City temple gets dedicated this week! Woohoooo!!! That will be so nice for Brittany and Jon to be able to go more often. I miss the temple. Good thing we have the School of the Prophets to compensate for that.

Sorry this letter is lame, but I have to run. Just a lot of mission stuff going on this week. Hopefully there will be more to tell next week. I love you all so much. Have a great week everyone. Pray for missionary opportunities and you will get them. Much happiness comes from sharing you testimony. There are people out there looking for what we have.

Love,

Sister Hillman

p.s. I went back to bangs. I love the story about Andy that is cool, hopefully I will get to see them. I have 10 months left today :(

September 11, 2012

Well Hello There,

Hello from the beautiful, fall looking Ohio. It is starting to be absolutely gorgeous, fall is on it's way, we had to wear long sleeve cardigans the other day. The weather is absolutely perfect.

What a week! It was packed full of appointments, meetings, and VC work! I am still talking in my sleep, yes, but no more arguments with the toilet, so that is progress! Sister Nelson seems to be doing really well. I am about 87.6% positive that I am getting transferred from Mayfield. That hurts my heart. I love this area. I can't believe Sis. Nelson is almost done training. Transfers are in 2 weeks. Hopefully I stay in a VC area, but I could definitely get sent full pros as well. Sister Nelson will be happy to have a companion that will teach her something, hopefully she learned something in training :). We don't lose any sisters this transfer so that will be nice, but we are loosing 2 senior couples, that makes my heart hurt, we said good by to one couple this morning. I shed a little tear. 

We are stoked for John's baptism, as is he. He has his baptismal interview this week so hopefully all goes well. Racquel is doing amazing, she gets out of the hospital on Friday so it will be a lot easier to teach her and she will be able to come to church. We have been down to Cleveland 3 times to see her so it's killed us on miles. East Cleveland is in our zone, that is where our district leader serve. I love downtown, we really are not down there too often. That's the most I have been since I got here. We do go down to the institute building when we have Pday with the elders though so that is fun. There is a lot to do there.

Normally on chat we just talk to them once. We can set up return appointments but normally they are not interested in learning more or agree to meet with missionaries, we have taught a couple of people online that weren't quite ready to meet with "real missionaries" ( people don't think we are real missionaries on line, little do they know). Our little Icons even have badges. We talked to a sweet girl last night who wants to be baptized so that was fun, her name is Cat, she is 17 and is from Texas. She was hilarious, and is definitely prepared for the gospel. There is so much work in our area right now, we are finding like crazy and the Lord is definitely blessing us. 

And no I don't punch elders in the arm. We are only allowed to shake hands. Except when president gives us permission to hold hands...oh my this story is funny! Remind me about it when I get home!


Oh my. I can't believe that about the accident. I know Keely. That is soo sad. How are the other girls doing? Hopefully all goes well with Bishop Anhder, they will definitely all be in my prayers. The power of prayer is amazing.

It was good of you to go and help grandma, I am sure she really appreciates it! I love them. How is aunt Kathy doing? I need to be better about writing everyone. There is just not enough time. Pday goes a little too fast for my liking. 

We have had rainstorms like crazy, especially with the hurricane. I have a video of it. I'll be sending my SD card home soon. But we had a stake service project on Saturday, nearly 1000 people showed up with their helping hands shirts. It was awesome. The park service was overwhelmed, they said the largest group they had up to this point was 50. I think we surprised them a little bit. It was a lot of fun, but it was a very wet job, we were all soaked and caked with mud.

Life is good! Thanks for everything. I can't think of anything I need at this time. I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Hillman

September 5

Dear Family,
Sorry, our week has been a little crazy. So originally we thought we would be able to email on Monday  but we ran out of time. We had what is called "Zoned Out" it is where 3 of the 6 zones get together for a pday and take a tour of the Johnson Farm/ Home and play games all day. It was a lot of fun, but I am now so tired. All zones are suppose to have their own shirts but we did shirts for our district. The zones we were with were, Findlay, Akron, and Kirtland (that's us). The other 3 zones will go on the 10. Which is so sad, all the missionaries I know are in those zones (Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo). But yeah it was a lot of fun, and very spiritual. Ah! I have the best mission ever. Just so you know in a battle of lightning, I got out both of the Assistants and our Zone leaders, I'm still a champion!! What a great way to start the week. So sorry I didn't get the email out on said day.

It sounds like you are all keeping extremely busy. That's good. Like you said the Holidays will be here before you know it, and yes they have a Nativities exhibit, they are from all over the world and it is an exhibit for a lot of non-members to come through. can you say REFERRALS!??!!! We spend a lot of time in the chat room and call center at the VC these days. It seems to be slowing down immensely. It is kind of monotonous to be in there but we are having a lot of success spreading the gospel via technology. I am currently teaching 2 ladies who are just the best things ever. They both have accepted missionaries, and the one in Florida (Bev) is actually being taught by and Elder in my MTC district, you can imagine the shock I had when he answered the phone and said this is Elder Lee. He still sounds the same, but it's weird talking to people you know on the phone. Yes, I am probably a very awkward person now, but it's whatevs! The other one is Jane she is from Iowa, we had a delightful lesson for about 40 minutes last night about why eternal families are important and why the Book of Mormon is so central what we believe. They will both be baptize, Bev wants to marry a mormon man because she likes what she sees in Mitt Romney, everyone here loves him. Seriously we get into a lot of doors because of him. So I told her the steps she would have to take in order to find one of them :) She is a crack up!!

Mayfield is exploding with work right now. We have John's baptism on the 21, we taught him the Word of Wisdom, which he committed to live, and now we have a coffee maker in our trunk, oh joy, try explaining that to our mission president. He is so awesome, talk about a prepared soul. He asked for a calling the other day and so they are going to let him teach a gospel essentials class, and then possibly make him into a teacher after he is baptized.  We had a really cool experience the other day, and can I just say I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD. The powers of godliness are simply powerful and amazing. A few weeks ago one of our LA's brought a friend to church, who was pregnant, her name is Racquel, we asked how she liked church, said she loved it....yada yada. We set up an appointment which she flamed. We let it go, whatevs. Well on Saturday we get a call from Jeanettea (the LA) and asked if we could find someone to come and give Racquels baby a blessing. So apparently she had her baby and that's why she flamed us, definitely excusable. It was born early and had an infection. So we called the Elders in our ward and they went to give her a blessing. They asked if we could come back and talk to her on Sunday. Which we did. Note: She is in the Cleveland Clinic, downtown Cleveland, just so you know those roads are sooooooo confusing. Thank goodness for Winston (my GPS). Long story short, she felt the spirit so strongly during the blessing, and now we are meeting with her whole family. Her mom and brothers and sisters. All of which have committed to baptism. I will tell you more of this story at Christmas so remind me. The elders said it was one of the coolest experiences ever. She is such a cute little baby. The lord is blessing us here in Mayfield. Sadly I think this is my last transfer here! Sadly Margaret is not in our area, so we haven't seen her. And yes the Marx are planning on coming next year for conference.

Transfers are on the 26, so I won't know my schedule until after that. Hopefully I will still be at sites and not sent out full proselyting until after the new year. I hope I get to see the girls. There are 8 full proselyting Sisters. I knew some of the ones that left. Elder Green and Sister Lee are the ones I was the closest too. 3 more of our senior couples leave next week, transfers is rough.

Oh my. Sorry I just rambled on about Ohio. How is everyone back home?  Wow I feel like everyone is having babies or getting married! Did I tell you that Mal Foster is having a baby, a boy I believe! So fun. I'm not going to have friends when I get home. I just found out that my trainer is getting married too. What Sophie started 1st grade? Weird. Everyone is growing up so fast. I am glad it has cooled down a bit back home, I was afraid I was going to come home to a pile of ash. Which we could sell to the Ashery! :)

I love this place. I love everyone at home. I miss you all. Can't wait to talk to you in 111 days! The gospel is still true!

Love you!

Love,
Sister Hillman

August 28

Hello,
Sorry this will be a short email this week. Pday's so much to do so little time. We are headed out to Middlefield with the Marx today so we have to meet them at the church at 11. This week has been crazy busy. Which I love and hate at the same time. We don't get a lot of time to slow down and enjoy these limited days but that means that there is a lot of work for us.

To answer your questions mom. Sister Marx is doing great. No, they were going to try and come out, but since they both are unemployed as of right now they don't have the money. I'm hoping next year, so I can go with them. They want to go to a session at the Salt Lake Temple. I offered them a place to stay at your house. I hope that is alright? 

John is still super excited about his baptism, he gave his coffee maker away! Woot woot! The Elders in our ward had a dinner with him and taught him about 2 Nephi 31, that is one of the best chapters. He loved it, and said it made more sense to know the Why of what he was doing. Elders are amazing, they work wonders with those we teach when we don't have time to meet with them every week. So we are at the VC the same amount of time, 3 days a week. That may change closer to Christmas but probably not. We have A LOT of referrals to call,  and we also have chat, they are both amazing resources. There are 14 Areas that serve at the VC, there are only sisters, the zone leaders and a district leader in our Zone. It is getting a little cooler here and the leaves are changing, it's so beautiful. We had a much needed rainstorm this week. Oh how I love Ohio rain, it is sooo cool!  I think I am good with clothing. I will need a coat and they are starting to appear in the stores so I will look into getting one.

Temples are the best, and it all started in Kirtland! I am excited to see the Magleby family soon! It will be a much needed treat! I miss all of the kiddos and it sounds like I have very talented nieces and nephews!  It sounds like you are very busy! Keep up the good work!

I think of you all often and you are always in my prayers! I think you are all amazing, and thank you so much for your support! Love you.