Remembering The Savior This Time of Year is Wonderful!!

Wonderful Christmas conference, it was so wonderful to see everybody from the mission...crazy to think that it was the last time I'll see some of these amazing missionaries that I've had the privilege to work with these past months of my life.

We spent Christmas Eve at the home of an ex-Sister that served a part of her mission here in Tocantins because of a knee problem, then she went back to her mission in São Paulo and finished there!! She is wonderful, it was great to see her and spent Christmas there.

And of course seeing my beautiful family was the best Christmas present I could have asked for.

A hard week for proseliting work, since it seems like a ghost town when everybody goes out of town and leaves the city. But we had an absolute MIRACLE yesterday morning...

We had confirmed with about 10 people to be in sacrament meeting, and the members of the ward with cars are few, so we had our best hopes that at least a few of them would be there.

And on our way INTO the chapel, we saw a pink house on the other side of the street and remembered that a member had spoken with a woman who lives here. We hadn't had the chance to speak with her during the week. But I looked to Sister Gimenez and said "Sister, do you believe in miracles?"

We walked up to this lady's house, she warmly greeted us and happily let us in a grabbed a stool for us to sit...she said after sharing a bit of her story, "Your friend invited me to church, I already took a shower to go and I'm just going to change my clothes and then go to church!"

And we waited about 5 minutes for her to put on a dress, and she came out all fancy with her dress and high heels and we walked to church together with Silvia, our week's miracle.

Almeida and Kelly are a couple that we're teaching, we found them while looking for the Bishop's house (opening the area is sooooo fun when you don't even know where the bishop lives lolol) and they went to church for the first time yesterday, they LOVED it!!! They only stayed for sunday school & rs/elders quorum, but they felt the spirit so strongly especially since the lesson was about TEMPLES and Almeida (who works with neighborhood security) got suuuuper curious, we're going to their house on Tuesday and i'm super excited to talk with them about temples. They are truly special, I can't help but seeing them in white. :)

I'm so grateful for how the Atonement of Jesus Christ is changing me every day of my mission, I truly know that as we humble ourselves and come unto Christ and have faith in Him and in His eternal sacrifice, we will have the marvelous opportunity to live with our Father in Heaven someday with our families!

Amo meu Salvador, eu amo este evangelho e sei que as coisas que estou ensinando todos os dias aqui na missão são verdadeiras!! Sei que Jesus Cristo vive e dirigi a Sua Igreja aqui na Terra por meio do Presidente Thomas S. Monson!!

Sei que o Livro de Mórmon é a palavra de Deus e que podemos achar muitas respostas às perguntas de vida nele.

Thank you for all the support and prayers and love I receive from home.

Amo todos vocês 

Muito amor,

Sister Hill

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FELIZ NATAL  Merry Christmas everybodyyyyy, I've truly been feeling the doce, doce Christmas spirit these days. I LOVE CHRISTMAS I have never felt so emotional about Christmas in my life!

This week was good, as you know the mission field is all about SUNDAYS. You can work your tail off the entire week and then Sunday comes and really shows what your investigators want and if they're interested in following the gospel and want to be baptized, etc.

We went to Gurupi on Wednesday (my last area, it was super awesome to go back and see some good friends:) and lost a day of proselyting, so we finished up the week contacting and visiting our investigators with dates to be baptized...

Guilherme is a 12-year-old boy who lives with his dad here in Taquaralto as his parents are divorced, the last 2 times we went there he barely said 1 word the entire lesson. Every question we asked him he would wait for about 10 seconds and just shake or nod his head. Super hard for us as teachers to help him.

We prayed that Heavenly Father would help us to know how to help him prepare for his baptism that is coming up, and when we were going to his house we found his dad in the street and we went to Guilherme's and sat outside his house with him and started talking with him. And completely unexpectedly, he started talking...and he is SUPER smart, Heavenly Father totally blessed us with the knowledge that we needed to know what we had to do to help him.

He started asking about Laban and Laman and Lemuel as he read 1 Nephi 3, he's such a smart boy!! He'll be baptizedJanuary 2nd, we're super excited for him 

Saturday night was the ward Christmas party...we presented a musical number, I played guitar  and we sang Angels we have heard on high, in portuguese and english and spanish since in our house it's me, 1 braziian, my comp from Argentina and a sister from Peru :) i love this.

Right before the dinner, the YM leader came out with this HUGE wrapped present and brought it to the front of the cultural hall and then said it was for US sisters we were so shocked we didn't know how to react...and that night when we took it home and opened it it was full of FOOD the best present we have ever received.  such a blessing. #iloveTaquaralto

oh yeah and back to Sunday. an interesting experience... right after sacrament meeting a man came to the front of the door, saying that he came from Goiás, he has absolutely nothing and is living in the street and came to ask for food. The YM pres came and took him and put him in Gospel Principles with us, he sat in between Sis. Gimenez and our ward mission leader learning about Exaltation. I was observing how he was reacting, and he seemed to be adjusting to the situation that he came to the Church to ask for food and was being fed something much better.

He then went to Elders quorum...and after everybody came out of the classes I watched him to see how he was reacting (his name is Moses), everybody was shaking his hand and helping him out the door like he had made 10 new best friends. And he waited patiently and I believe that somebody took him to their home to feed him lunch.

He said that he loved it and will come back next week, and when we left he had a huge smile on his face and seemed content.

The Church is so perfect to me. It's so obvious to me that it's the organization that most helps on the humanitarian side of things. It's the TRUTH. And Christ helped people.

We are His hands.

I am so grateful for this Christmas season. I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to SERVE this season. I have a testimony of the fact that what the Lord wants from us this time of the year is our HEARTS. He doesn't want presents, He doesn't want decorations or pretty things. He wants the only thing that money can't buy. Our soul. Us giving everything we have to Him.

I know I testify of this a lot. But I'm grateful for how my mission is molding me to be who God needs me to be for the rest of my life.

I love my Savior and I am honored to be representing Him at this time of my life. 

I hope everybody has a wonderful Christmas season

Walking By Nothing But Faith

Finally I have some time to give the deets about my life now that I can breathe without having to rush through my thinking o.O I'm not too good with rushing through things like that.

Taquaralto is amaaaaaazing. It's part of Palmas, and I'm happy to be so much closer to the stake headquarters since I love seeing my friends from the first ward I served in in Palmas 1.  I am positive that I will LOVE this area, seriously. It was truly prepared for the work of the Lord!! The members here are awesome, the chapel is smack-dab in the middle of the city...the craziest thing is being close getting on a bus and contacting and telling people 'you see that big white point? that's our church!' the chapel here is beeeeeautiful, i have to take a picture this week sorry I haven't done that yet.

I love my companion Sister Gimenez!! My 2nd companion from Argentina :) but Sister Gimenez is from Rosario, a huge city close to Buenos Aires. I LOVE working with her because...she reminds me exactly of Diana Tartaglia  I have never met another missionary so much like my sweet friend Diana. So of course we're on fire working here, and she finishes her mission here in 5 weeks but we're working our tails off, I love the mission!!!!

The new calling is great, I'm excited because this week we're going to Gurupi where I was this past change, so I'll get to finally say the goodbyes I didn't get to say before. That will be super nice since I was transferred out of Gurupi so quickly o.O I truly feel like Nephi sometimes, really... "not knowing beforehand what I [will] do"... because we're here opening the area with just the Area Book, we don't know anybody and hardly know the area but it's fantastic because it gives us the amazing opportunity to just be guided by the Spirit!! I truly know that it is the Lord who guides and leads this work, there is no other way that we could be seeing all of the miracles that we see here every day in the mission. We are finding lots of wonderful people... 'elects', eleitos... that are accepting the Book of Mormon as the word of God and really want to change their lives and repent. It's all about the change. Lots of people say that they have faith. But faith is change, faith is doing something.

Like always I'm the sacrament meeting pianist [again]  i'm happy to use my gifts to strengthen the Lord's kingdom here. And yesterday the Bishop said that one of the sacrament meeting speakers didn't show up so he asked me to give a talk about anything, and I just followed the Spirit and spoke about prayer. I am grateful for the Spirit and how He guides me here. The mission is incredible because you really are in an environment and a mindset to be so close to the Savior and to Heavenly Father through the Spirit. I feel Him leading me and guiding me, telling me what to say and do... feelings that you really only feel in the temple!! Such an incredible thing to be here and experiencing all this, I thank Father in Heaven every day for trusting me enough with this sacred calling.

Christmas is coming!!!!!  I have never been so excited for Christmas in my life! It is such a wonderful experience to be here in the best time of year...to remember when Heavenly Father sent His own Son here to earth to have His own earthly experiences. I am so grateful for my Savior that He came! Ele sentiu as mesmas coisas que sentimos aqui na Terra. Sou tão grata por isso. E por Ele ser meu Salvador e Redentor.

Amo este evangelho e sei que é o único caminho para voltar viver com Deus novamente depois desta vida!!

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it is another testament of Jesus Christ.

I truly love my Savior and have never felt so close to Him in my entire life than I feel right now. 

Thank you for your love and support, I appreciate everything you do for me. 

]

Muito amor!!

Sister [Braz]Hill 

Craziest Unexpected Transfer

OI PESSOAL sorry this is super super short, I have exactly 5 minutes to be out of this internet café and get on a bus to be on my next crazy 24-hour mission adventure..

so i was transferred SURPRISE the assistants forgot to tell me. -_- so I got here in Palmas with a bag packed for 5 days when really I needed to have said goodbye to everybody in Gurupi and packed my suitcases to go to my next area, Taquaralto, which is in Palmas.

And I've been called as Sister Training Leader, which means I'll take care of all the sisters here in our mission in Tocantins! I feel a little unqualified but I know that the Lord makes everything possible because He takes care of me when I turn to Him for help.

This past week was super crazy, lots of miracles happened and I wish that I had more time to write about them but I don't, I promise I will write more next week!! I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support. Please pray that I can receive inspiration from God to know exactly how to handle my new calling here in the mission.

Staying strong in the last lap of the mission #3monthsleft

Amo todo mundo, até mais um pouco 

Sister Hill