Enduring to the Very, Very, Very, Very End!!!

Folks!! My dearest friends and family...

The last email as a missionary of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This past week has been... hard! My body is exhausted, nobody wanted to hear us, but we kept going kept going kept going... when I was tired my sweet companions (we're in trio) helped me, when they were tired I lifted them...

I can testify that I know the Savior has been at my side the past week. Because when I pleaded for heavenly help I felt physical and spiritual strength that can come from nowhere but from on high.

Our 2 elects... Karine (18 years old) and Eduardo (9 years old) were baptized on Saturday and on Sunday confirmed members of Jesus Christ's perfect church. I know angels rejoiced. Because their testimonies of the Book of Mormon give me so much HOPE.

Yesterday was bittersweet, my last Sunday in a Brazilian ward as a missionary, as a representative of my Savior... I played the piano as always.  But I played with all my heart. I dedicated it to the Lord. And I felt heavenly power as the congregation sang the intermediary hymn standing up. I love the Spirit. 

Today: pack the suitcases

Tomorrow: last district meeting, get on the bus to Brasília

Wednesday: arrive in Brasília!!

Thursday: Lunch and interviews with President Lundgren

Friday: get on a plane to São Paulo , and then another plane  to Atlanta, Georgia 

Saturday: get on a plane to Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Sei que esta é a igreja de meu Salvador, não tenho dúvida disso. Alguém que não consegue entender isso não conhece Ele como eu conheço. Eu conheço Ele não por visto mas pelo amor que eu sinto que Ele tem por mim. Sei que Ele me ama, sei que meu Pai Celestial me ama e me amou suficiente para me mandar para Brasil para que eu pudesse me tornar mas como meu Salvador.

Nunca poderia agradecer suficiente pelo que Ele fez por mim... pela Expiação infinita Dele. O amo tanto. E o amarei para sempre. 

Amo esta obra. Sei que é de Deus. Sei que é perfeita. Sei que o Livro de Mórmon é a pedra angular de nossa religião. Sei que os céus não estão fechados, que Deus fala com um profeta vivo face a face hoje em dia, que é Presidente Thomas S. Monson.

Amo meu Salavdor. Amo meu Pai Celestial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr5Kzy4FF1g&list=RDzSKu4ca8PaI&index=4

Tchau, meu querido Brasil 

Sister Hill 

Last Week's Letter (just arrived)

Oiii pessoal,

This past week was loooong but good, we finished the exchanges in Gurupi...it was super nice to spend some special time with people there that I really care about. And asking for end-of-mission advice. 

Karynny is doing wonderfully...for 18 years old she really is mature, she has a new light in her eyes that she didn't have before, she said how sad she is that we'll be leaving after we just met each other...but I know that she will help the ward missionary work, she is awesome. We're excited for her baptism on Saturday.

Adão didn't go to church on Sunday and we couldn't find him at home yesterday, we don't know what happened... :/ but if everything works out, he'll be baptized on Sunday after sacrament meeting.

I know that this next week will be crucial for my spiritual growth as I finish my mission... next Monday (last p-day) the suitcases will be packed and I'll be on a bus to Brasília, next week will be spent there. I'm anxious... but determined to work until the very very END. I can't waste a single minute.

This week I've been pondering a talk by Sister Linda S. Reeves that was given in the October 2015 General Conference, it really hit home with me...such a war cry to everything that is good, everything that is of God. Read it if you have a chance. 

This is it, folks...next email is my last! I hope everybody has a wonderful week, thank you for your prayers and support. Amo todos vocês. 

17 Day Countdown!!!!!!!!!

Oiiiii gente,

This week was loonnggggg and we worked our tails off but we made it to the end... and yes I'm late in writing because this weekend was CARNAVAL and holy cow it's hard to find an internet cafe open during Carnaval...

but yeah so I'm good and alive and working and working and workinggg harder than ever before. As President Eyring says in the video Missionary Work and the Atonement, "my body begs for rest." But I'm going 

This week we ate lunch at a recent convert's house Agda, and her sister (Karynny) was there... and after lunch right before everybody was leaving I felt impressed to talk to her about the church and baptism, and we made a goal for the 13th of February... I'm so, SO grateful for the Spirit and how He literally guides me and directs me here in the mission field. On Sunday her sister had already gone out of town, and when I was playing the piano on the stand I was looking to see if she came and I didn't see her... and then after a little while I saw her on the pew with Agda's kids... she took them to church by herself. She's only 18, and she's super quiet but when you get her talking about the things of the gospel she opens up. I'm super proud of her, I don't know if she'll be baptized this Saturday like we planned because we're on exchanges here in Gurupi right now (4 hours away from our area) but next Saturday for sure!!!

Adão is a man we found last week, he was a street contact that was sitting in front of his house, and we didn't feel anything too strongly about him but we did about his neighbor... when we went to visit his neighbor Solande she turned out to not want anything to do with changing or coming unto Christ, and we thought 'let's go one more time to see if Adão's home' and he was home! We taught him about the Restoration and gave him the Book of Mormon, and he committed to come to church on Sunday.

But as this is Tocantins I always doubt if anybody will really go, right...

And Sunday morning he was there!! Said he had read the Book of Mormon and prayed to know if it's true, he's still waiting his response... but we went back this week and everything is set for him to be baptized on the 20th!!

If everything works out right, on the 20th we'll get to see Karynny, Adão and Rogério (our Sunday miracle) will be baptized!

Rogério, our miracle, a young guy who went to church in Palmas 3 in the center of Palmas and met with the Elders, and when they said that there's the church here in Taquaralto he got super excited!! We had tried to visit him 2 times (as his house is suuuuper fa away), and he was never home. And he doesn't have any telephone contact info. So we forgot about him.

And Sunday he showed up in church and stayed for the whole 3 hours!! I gave him the Book of Mormon after gospel principles, i'm excited for our next app. Friday morning.

The Lord has truly led us to the elects  No it isn't easy, and it isn't quick... because as Elder Holland says, "Salvation was never easy."

Persistence. And patience.

17 days left, gente.

Yesterday President came to Tocantins, it was so wonderful to talk with him about how much I have changed these past few months and how my mission truly has changed my life.

Too trunky... "See you in Brasília in 2 weeks."

Aslkdjflakjweoiruweproiualsdjfk. #mixedfeelings

But so yeah I'm in Gurupi right now, we'll get back to Taquaralto Friday morning...and then will begin my last week and a half in the mission field. Too crazy!!

Os amo muitooooo, muito mesmo... os vejo daqui a pouco. Vai voar, já sei.

Muito amor,

Sister Hill  (<-- the Tocantins sun)

Thiago's Baptism

Oi para todos,

Thiago this week was super hard because at the beginning of the week we heard that he didn't want to be baptized anymore...and I was doing STL exchanges with Sister Amaral (old comp) here in Taquaralto and we walked the entire city to get to his school to find him, the Lord truly performs miracles and after what I felt was a huge fight with the adversary Thiago was baptized on Saturday  

When I told him that his name in english is 'James' he decided that since he's changed as a person he should change his name too, and now he goes around telling everybody that his name is James. Thiago is too funny. :) It was a beautiful baptismal service, his mom is super happy 

I have truly felt Heavenly Father's blessings poured upon me this week... no it hasn't been an easy week, but I know that your prayers are what keep me going. I know that these last few weeks will be the hardest and I've never felt so tired but I'm still going, still going... and I won't stop until I get off the plane in Salt Lake City International.

I love you all, thank you for supporting me in this time, I feel the power of your prayers and I know now more than ever that Heavenly Father is taking care of me here.

Muito amor e abraços,

Sister Hill 

GOD IS A REAL BEING!!

Oi para todos,

This was such a wonderful, spiritual week for me. My first week with my dearest Sister Ortiz!! Sister Ortiz is from El Salvador, she's very special to me because we knew each other in the CTM and always tried to communicate...in our mixed-up 3 languages hahaha. She is such a sweetheart, we're going home the same week, so this is both of ours' last transfer.

This week we worked super super hard, finding lots of new investigators and preparing Thiago for his baptism...we felt thatthis Sunday wasn't right, so we decided to remark his baptismal date for the 30th which is this Saturday. We think he'll be much more prepared...he chose Bishop Viana to baptize him, I know it will be such a beautiful beautiful service on Saturday!!

I love their family so so so so much, I feel at home when I'm with them  The Lord seriously blesses me with a brazilian mother in each area, I am so so so grateful!!

It has been raining crazyyyy here, Tocantins weather in the 'winter' is like Utah weather... bipolar.  

This weekend I read a pretty amazing talk from Elder Holland in the 2016 Liahona titled 'Knowing the Godhead', if you have a chance please read it, I absolutely loved it.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2016/01/knowing-the-godhead?lang=eng

I think the paragraph that shook me was this:

[God] is a real being, an actual person, a literal Father of flesh and bone who speaks and sees and feels, who knows all His children’s names and all their needs, who hears all their prayers, and who wants all His children in His Church.

I testify of Elder Holland's words, that God truly does have a body of flesh and bone, I know that He is my Father, I know that He hears me and loves me and will always take care of me. I know that He blesses me when I keep His commandments.

I have never had a stronger love for my Father in Heaven than I have today. 

I hate email because there are some things that can only be expressed when I bear my testimony because I feel the Spirit!!! But I know that this work is the work of the Lord!! I know that through Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ restored His true Church here to the Earth. And I know this because every day as I study and pray about the Book of Mormon God tells me through His Holy Spirit that everything I say when I open my mouth is true.

I have never felt closer to my Savior than here. Because I feel Him and His angels at my side as I preach His word.

I love every one of you, thank you for your support. 

Sister Hill

We Are All Cockroaches

Oi gente!!

This week Sister Fernandes was my companion and it was just us 2 here in our area, kind of crazy because all of our work we were doing in name of the 2 companionships...but it was wonderful, I learned so much with this sweet sister that I love tons and tons.

I finished her training this week, so we say that I'm her 'stepmother' ;) haha it was so crazy watching The District over again, it's been soooo longgggg since I've watched it but it was amazing and I learned so much this week.

Thiago is a special 15-year-old boy, son of a recent-convert family...he went to church for the first time yesterday and will be baptized this Sunday, I'm so excited for him!! Please pray that everything works out. He is reading the Book of Mormon and receiving answers about who he is and his destiny as a son of God. He is such a good kid, I'm proud of him. He wanted to leave early before YMs yesterday but I didn't let him, I made him stay the entire time, and he finally left with a smile on his face because he knows that I wasn't gonna let him leave early haha. This week we gotta rush through the rest of the lessons but it's all gonna work out because with faith we can move mountains!!!!

This week I have been deeply studying a talk from last General Conference...and this talk has touched me so, so hard, I don't think I've ever been so deeply hit by a conference talk before.

It's called 'Remembering in Whom We Have Trusted' by Elder Allen D. Haynie, it is so so so so wonderful I cried through the whole thing because I felt like he was literally speaking to me.

I love what he says about repentance:

"I testify that the Savior will never turn away from us when we humbly seek Him in order to repent; will never consider us to be a lost cause; will never say, “Oh no, not you again”; will never reject us because of a failure to understand how hard it is to avoid sin. He understands it all perfectly, including the sense of sorrow, shame, and frustration that is the inevitable consequence of sin."

I can also testify that I know that the Savior's Atonement is real and it made repentance possible so that we could become as our Heavenly Father is, I know that it's true!! I know that the Atonement can literally change us if we seek to know our Savior better and seek to know the enabling power as well as the healing power of the Atonement.

Oh it is wonderful that He should care for me enough to die for me

Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

I'm grateful for my mission.

Jesus Christ has changed me through my mission.

I love you all, thank you for supporting me in what has been the best thing for my life and eternity. 

Sister Hill

p.s. the sisters in Gurupi (my last area) surprised me with this t-shirt yesterday at the bus station that they made about our transfer there. we're all cockroaches hahahah cause there were always huge cockroaches running around in our house. :)

Luciana's Baptism

Yesterday we had Luciana's baptism, it was such a wonderful thing because in just a little over 2 weeks she has been preparing and preparing, she is so amazing and we had so much faith in her and even more than that, she believed in herself and truly used the Atonement of Jesus Christ in her life.

Truly seeing the change in her was such a testimony to me of Heavenly Father's love for us.

Sister Gimenez leaves me today  and at the beginning of this transfer we had so many goals to baptize tons of people, even though we were opening the area together... and I'll be honest, 2 Sundays ago when I was playing the piano in sacrament meeting during the sacrament I couldn't help but cry because we were doing everything in our power to bring our investigators to church and we had 0 people in church that week.

But yesterday, reflecting on everything we passed through together these past 5 weeks, I felt that Luciana was our miracle.

ONE soul.

This week I've been pondering Alma 29 over and over and over again... because it got to a point that we had walked a ways to visit an investigator who flaked out on our appointment (about the billionth time that this happens #southamerica) and as we were walking to the other side of town I just looked up at the sky and asked 'Why don't they get it'.

Alma 29:1-2:

 1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

 2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth. 

I believe that in this moment, this is how I was feeling.

But Alma continues, in verse 9:

this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.  

For us this transfer, Luciana was that 'some soul'. And seeing her pass through the repentance process was something wonderful to me. So wonderful to me.

Sister Gimenez has been an amazing example to me, and here in 3 hours we'll be at the bus station sending her off to Brasília which makes me super sad, Sister Pariona (Peruvian) will be leaving me too as she has also finished her mission... and as I'm sad that they'll be leaving me I know that the next month and a half will be wonderful as this is my last transfer of the mission  For now, I'll be here with Sister Fernandes (brazilian<3) and we'll be working together this last week until next week when we pick up our new companions.

As I've been reflecting these days, I've been reflecting on how much I've changed and how I'm still changing every day that I spend here in the mission... and I've never felt so grateful for anything in my entire life than I feel about my mission. I'm so grateful for how my Savior has refined me, molded me, used me as an instrument in His hands to do amazing things that I never thought I was capable of doing... and more than that I've become a person that I never thought I was capable of becoming.

I thank my Heavenly Father every night in prayers for this incredible experience that HAS NOT BEEN EASY but has the best thing that I've ever done in my life.

These next 7 weeks are gonna be awesome.

I love you, THANK YOU for the support and the prayers and everything that every one of you has done for me to help me. Amo cada um de vocês com um amor imenso.

Até mais um pouco 

Sister Hill