Messina, Sicily - 7/27/2011

Ciao e come state!

We baptized a guy last Saturday! yeah!!! it was awesome!! I am attaching fotos of it. Carlo is the one in the middle and he was baptized by brother mana. It was really an amazing experience to see Carlo grow and come to understand the truthfulness of the gospel. Even though he couldn’t really understand a word we were saying and we always taught him through sister manas translation to tagalog, the spirit still testified the truth to him. I didn’t matter what language we watched the restoration in, whether it was English, Italian or Tagalog he cried every time. The spirit is so great because it’s a universal language that everyone understands. And the blessings are innumerable. The spirit was very strong at the baptism too. Setting up was a little crazy though because we couldn’t get the hot water working and the font was filling up to slow so we had to use buckets to fill up the font haha. that was exciting. But everything went well and Carlo is happier than ever. His wife and kid back in the Philippines in manila are now meeting with the missionaries there. =)

Other than that not much too talk about this week. Just like last week I’m in Messina again. Messina is a lot nicer than Catania in the way that there is no humidity here, therefore it’s not as hot =) It reminds me a lot of Ventura actually because it’s a bunch of citrus orchards right next to the ocean and it’s real nice. Monday for ddm we celebrated Christmas in July (it was the sisters idea) but that was actually way fun. after we did training and stuff we exchanged gifts haha. I got cookies haha not to bad. We had a ping pong ward activity last Saturday. That was lame though because there was this one member fratello bruno who was just laying everyone to waste and wouldn’t give any one a chance =P. Today we finally get to play some calcio (I think Calcio is Italian Football)! I've been waiting my whole mission for this! we hare playing with the anziani from Messina, Catania, Reggio, and a couple of the members here.

The work here is going great. It’s a little slow but we're working on it. We have been doing exchanges for the last few weeks so we haven’t had much time in Catania, but things will start to pick back up soon. It’s all about aligning my will with the Lord’s will I’ve decided. I could serve with all my might and strength and I would look like a good missionary but it would profit me nothing. My mind and heart must surrender to the Lord’s will and I can’t do good but inside fight it. It’s the only smart thing to do. and in the end it’s easier.

I hope you guys are all doing just excellent and I miss you all, but not so much that I’m always preoccupied about home haha. Stay outta trouble and be excellent to each other.

Vi voglio bene e Ci sentiamo

con amore,

anziano hill

Messina, Sicily - 7/20/2011

Hello!

So I got both packages last Sunday from the Baes. Thank you so much =) you guys are lifesavers! I loved the pics and the letters. Scott had a few questions I’d like to answer. There is no way in the world he could beat me at speed (a card game we play). My companion is way cool and I've had the same one since I got here. So far no one new. I'll probably be with him til about September when he goes home. In Catania we have only one Ward and a branch but for the entire mission there's 3 stakes and maybe 30 wards. And here's the phrases he wanted translated:

1. AIUTAMI!! C'è un coccodrillo nei miei pantaloni!!

2. Sono un americano peloso

3. Michele è un italiano pelosissimo

4. Ho una sorella molta seccante chi piangere troppo spesso ma la amo.

(Not sure what Scott was thinking about when he asked his brother to translate this stuff. If you want to know what it is, you can put it in google translate)

Haha that was fun to translate. if you guys have any other phrases you want to know go ahead and send them to me =)

So Carlo gets baptized this Saturday at 7, I am very excited. other than that the work has been the same. We had zone conference yesterday and president interviews. The zone conference was great but once again we had an alarm problem. The little man who is the building maintenance guy came and pulled me and anz medina outta the conference to yell at us and then president Kelly out of the conference to yell at him. The maintenance guy, Aci, is not a very nice man and is a little weird. I hope we prepared president enough for him because he was with him for about half an hour...... Other than that the conference was great. We learned a lot about how to better ourselves as missionaries and not be discouraged and to set high goals. I got to spend a lot of time talking to president and his wife because we got to drive them to the airport after the conference. They are so awesome and I'm so glad to be serving with them. President and Sister Kelly are very nice and understanding. They are always looking for opportunities to help us and better us as missionaries.

I spent this last weekend in Messina with anziano botalla for an exchange. Botalla is a native Italian from Torino up north and he’s been out the same amount of time as me so were both pretty new except he never had to learn a new language so he’s a little bit of a step ahead of me. He speaks English pretty well but when we are together we really only talks in italiano. It helps me so much to be with him because I am forced to speak more therefore I learn much better and he can help me quite a bit. I found myself forgetting a couple words in English this week like exchange, and always. =P I hope I don’t forget it all before I get home or you guys will have to help me out a bit. I'm picking up a bit of an accent too haha. ohh boy it will be fun when I talk to you guys on Christmas.

Well that’s about it for this week. I'm fine and happy. I'm learning the language and starting to love this mission more and more. I hope you all are having fun in Hawaii!! I’m jealous a little but not really because... well.......... I’m in Italy haha. I can’t wait to take you all back here one day and for you guys to meet people and see some of the stuff here. Have a fun week everyone and I miss you all and love you and I'm okay, even though the volcano erupts it doesn't come anywhere near me so no worries. Vi voglio bene e ci sentiamo

Con Amore,

Anziano Hill

Catania, Sicily - 7/13/2011

ciao!

Holy cow I’ve been out here for 2 months! and on my mission for 4! time flies like crazy! it makes me sad though =( Makes me realize how wonderful this opportunity is but in reality how short it is too. Nothing too crazy happened this week other than I lived a dream. I CLIMBED A VOLCANO!!!!!!!!!!!! AND IT ERUPTED TWO DAYS LATER!!!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sending you all some really cool postcards I got up there. It’s a huge Mountain and we aren't allowed to go to the top but we climbed other craters and things and had a lot of fun. I even fell down the volcano and slid down a 60 ft slope!! I cut my leg up real nice but it was totally worth it because it was a volcano and now I will always remember it from the scars! 2 days later we were in our apartment and I went outside to check on my clothes (We don’t have a dryer so we have to hang them up outside) and they were covered in black dirt and I was so angry because I thought someone on the floor above us had been nice enough to dump dirt off their balcony onto my drying clothes but my companion quickly explained with excitement that its raining ash! That's ETNA on my clothes! The volcano erupted and it rained ash for about 30 minutes. It’s everywhere still and Etna’s still smoking. It must have been a nice little eruption. But yes it was way awesome however I did not see any lava. I am yet to see lava and then my volcano dream will be complete. =)

As for our investigators everything is the same really. Carlo is getting baptized on the 23rd and will be my first one =) I’m very excited. He’s great. I broke our phone on accident but we got that all fixed, just caused a little difficulty this week but nothing too crazy. This morning I got to wait in line for a couple hours at the immigration office or the "questura" in italiano. It’s like a giant DMV with all its grumpy cold employs huge lines of angry people no air conditioning and it’s full of people who don't speak English or Italian from all over the world. We waited about 4 hours just to get one form, print my fingers, and then found out I have to go to another place tomorrow morning to finish the rest of the process. we waited 4 hours to receive one minute of information. Not fun at all. And I'll probably have to do it again tomorrow =P I’m so excited.

Well that was my week. Looks like you're all having a blast in Hawaii. We are going the summer after I get back right? I hope so! I miss you all and can't wait to hear more from you =) I’m sending some pics of Mt. Etna, a cool gecko we caught and our hand made American flag. Hope you are all safe and having fun. You guys are in my prayers and I miss you all. Have a great week.

-Con Amore

Anziano Hill

Catania, Sicily - 7/6/2011

Hello

Well this week has had its ups and its downs if I might say so. On the good side the work is going excellent. We are receiving so many investigators. More than I ever imagined possible here. Our finding is really paying off. Oh the fruits of hard work and diligence! Yet within all things there must be opposition! While my spiritual works are paying of my temporal things wreak havoc. A sneaky little pen possessed by an evil spirit found its way into my laundry basket and then into the washing machine with my whites thus destroying 4 of my wonderful shirts. Next our possessed washing machine decided to bleach wash my darks, and now my socks are all red. I honestly knelt on the ground and screamed towards the sky "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" So well. I need another package haha. I'm sorry if this sounds like alot. I will make sure this never happens again =( I suck at laundry, but other than that everything’s good.

So I’m glad to hear that you are all doing great. A missions a tough thing. You gotta walk everywhere, its 95 degrees and humid as heck so it feels like 10000000, you can’t understand a word anyone says, nobody wants to listen to you, and people try to mug you in alleyways on a daily. BUT for some reason we go out and keep working with a smile on our faces pressin forward in this great and marvelous work knowing that there’s someone out there who needs to hear your message despite all the other stuff you gotta put up with. Not to mention the impending ominous doom created by a giant looming sleeping volcano that has destroyed your city on countless occasions. Hmmmm..... Maybe I could use that and preach the whole repentance or impending destruction thing that Jeremiah and Isaiah tried with Israel. Worth a shot.

So looks like girls camp was a blast, and the pioneer trek and Newport! Man it sounds like you guys are having so much fun; just know you are never having as much fun as I am right now. haha. We had transfer calls this week and I’m going to stay here in Catania another 6 weeks with Anziano Medina, we work well together. Everybody transfers through Catania so everyone whose going will be with us these next two days so its gonna be a little crazy. ummm what else to say. I love you and wish you all the best of luck with whatever you’re up to. Have fun at Carpentaria and Hawaii n stuff =). Miss you all. Buona Giornata e Ci Vediamo

Con Amore

Anziano Hill.

Catania, Sicily - 6/29/2011

Hello

Well this week has had its ups and its downs if I might say so. On the good side the work is going excellent. We are receiving so many investigators. More than I ever imagined possible here. Our finding is really paying off. Oh the fruits of hard work and diligence! Yet within all things there must be opposition! While my spiritual works are paying of my temporal things wreak havoc. A sneaky little pen possessed by an evil spirit found its way into my laundry basket and then into the washing machine with my whites thus destroying 4 of my wonderful shirts. Next our possessed washing machine decided to bleach wash my darks, and now my socks are all red. I honestly knelt on the ground and screamed towards the sky "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" So well. I need another package haha. I'm sorry if this sounds like alot. I will make sure this never happens again =( I suck at laundry, but other than that everything’s good.

So I’m glad to hear that you are all doing great. A missions a tough thing. You gotta walk everywhere, its 95 degrees and humid as heck so it feels like 10000000, you can’t understand a word anyone says, nobody wants to listen to you, and people try to mug you in alleyways on a daily. BUT for some reason we go out and keep working with a smile on our faces pressin forward in this great and marvelous work knowing that there’s someone out there who needs to hear your message despite all the other stuff you gotta put up with. Not to mention the impending ominous doom created by a giant looming sleeping volcano that has destroyed your city on countless occasions. Hmmmm..... Maybe I could use that and preach the whole repentance or impending destruction thing that Jeremiah and Isaiah tried with Israel. Worth a shot.

So looks like girls camp was a blast, and the pioneer trek and Newport! Man it sounds like you guys are having so much fun; just know you are never having as much fun as I am right now. haha. We had transfer calls this week and I’m going to stay here in Catania another 6 weeks with Anziano Medina, we work well together. Everybody transfers through Catania so everyone whose going will be with us these next two days so its gonna be a little crazy. ummm what else to say. I love you and wish you all the best of luck with whatever you’re up to. Have fun at Carpentaria and Hawaii n stuff =). Miss you all. Buona Giornata e Ci Vediamo

Con Amore

Anziano Hill.