Sassari, Sardinia - 4/18/2012

Dearest Family and friends,
          Well what can I tell you about this last week? Oh, first before I forget I should mention I really love the letters Kristin sends me every week but her hand writing is near impossible for me to read (I guess she takes after her big brother, haha). So ask her nicely if she could write a little neater for my sake.
         So this week was a week of awesomeness. Maurizio continues to express a desire to serve a mission and is really working hard towards his baptismal date. We are very excited for him. Also we had a lot of investigators in church this Sunday including Adhemar, Maddelena and Enoch. The gospel principles lesson was a little crazy though because we talked about the spirit world and Enoch and Adhemar both explained that they don't believe in spirits! WOAH! Somebody missed something in the Plan of Salvation lesson. So we gotta take a step backwards with them =P  Maddalena however defended us which was a surprise which means she closer to baptism than I thought. I guess she does have a bit of testimony =) that was real neat.  Another neat experience was that yesterday while teaching Margarita (Adhemar's niece,  after watching the restoration film with her we asked her  if she prayed and asked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She responded by saying yes and that she had received an answer just in the way we explained and that she believes it all. So now we plan to set a baptismal date with her this upcoming week.  So when I Email you guys next week I'll be sure to let you all know what has happened.
       So the work here is going abastanza bene. The zone conference in Cagliari went great too. I was able to have an interview with President Kelly too. He asked me whether I wanted to stay here or go to a new area.  It was the last day before transfers and I told him what I would like(to stay) and he granted my wishes. He's so nice and such an inspired man. He told me that I am the "comedian of the mission" now.   I'm not sure if that’s good or bad but he told me that I'm the most lively and happy missionary in the field right now haha. He told me to keep it up because apparently my good spirits keep people going =) that was real nice of him to say. I told him I try to do what I can, I have tried to sorta maintain an attitude of laughing off the difficult times and awkward situations. I found there is always something to laugh about and it's what keeps me going because the work here is real hard at times and a little discouraging. =P but whatever, things are going awesome here right now so I don't even need to pretend to be happy. Did you guys know that I have learned how to play piano during the mission? Some branches have few members and no one who can play the piano so I have had to pick up my old piano lessons and now I can play quite a few church hymns =) plus other cool things =)
     Well have a great week everyone and I miss you all. Keep up the good work at all the amazing things you are doing and especially Scott at beating that JV backstroke record. YOU CAN DO IT!! Don't let him do anything stupid ok? Haha I'm also amazed at how much he writes me, Way to go Scott! Mike needs to write me more. He’s being a slacker haha. Love you all e ci sentiamo più tardi!
                Vi voglio tanto bene,  Anziano Kyle Hill
p.s. I’m still here in Sassari still with Anziano Lacey =) so yeah =)

Sassari, Sardinia - 4/11/2012

Cari famiglia ed amici,
             Looks like you all have been having just the most awesome time this week. I loved all the photos you sent. Saw that Mike and Scott are still playing minecraft haha. I guess that game can never get boring. Neither do the Fenn kids, huh?  I miss all my little cousins so much. I am just so bad at writing letters. I hope everyone can forgive me. If I can push myself hard enough you guys will all have letters soon enough.
              So I assume that you would all like to know what we do here in Italy for Easter. Well they like to dress up in robes and costumes and walk down the streets in groups of thousands of people playing sad music and holding giant statues of crosses with Jesus on them and other giant statues of Mary. As for what we ate on Easter first; they make these giant chocolate eggs (as you will see in the picture I sent you) that are amazing and have a little gift in the middle. We ate a huge lunch of lasagna and after the lasagna we ate lamb. I have actually eaten a lot of lamb here in Sardegna. It's a common dish I just feel bad for the poor little sheep =( even if they taste delicious. That was essentially it for Easter.
              Our investigators are all doing great especially Maurizio. We plan on setting a baptismal date with him tonight at a lesson we have planned at the branch president’s house. I'm pretty excited for him. We get transfer calls this Saturday so we'll see if I'll be leaving or not. I'm not sure I'm leaving though so we'll see what goes down =) We have zone conference In Cagliari this Friday also so I'll talk to president about it before he makes the final choice, lucky us. I'm sending you a couple photos of the beautiful Sardegna and a cool little bridge in Olbia that goes out to this cool abandoned island where the elders there found some investigators a couple months ago.
             I miss you all and hope you all have a fantastic week. Ci sentiamo e vi voglio troppo bene!
Con amore,   Anziano Kyle Hill

Sassari, Sardinia - 4/4/2012

Hello everyone,
       Another e-mail and another week =) I would like to start by mentioning how much those pictures of Kristin scared me. She is getting way too old and more teenager like and not like a little girl I remember =P I don't want to believe it haha. I hope you're having fun painting the front room red. While you're at it maybe you could paint mine green again. And there has been nothing mentioned about the letter I sent to Scott about 2-3 weeks ago. Let me know if he got it or not.(He did)
      So about this week...a lot has happened. Maybe a couple weeks ago I told you about this 21 year old punk we're teaching named Maurizio. Well we kinda thought he just talked to us because he liked hanging out with Americans however this week that all kinda changed. He came to conference both for Saturday Morning Session and funny enough randomly showed up for priesthood but that was good for him I think. During Priesthood Session he asks me about "the laying on of hands" something he heard during conference and was interested in. I told him about the priesthood and how we do blessings, ordinances and baptism and even showed him our baptismal font. He's got some trials and hardships in his life and some things to overcome but he expressed an open desire to be baptized and even to... get ready for this...... SERVE A MISSION!..... yeah, I guess you don't really know him but if you met him you wouldn't think that he's the kinda kid who would want to serve a mission so this is big for us =) We are taught here in Europe that the #1 type of investigator we should find should be our replacement in the mission field and this is how we can make the church grow here in Italy. This is a big step in his life and I don't think it will be easy for him but we'll be there every step of the way and I'm sure he'll be a better missionary than I am one day =) also Adhemar is progressing a ton. Him and his whole family. We have started to teach his wife's cousin and her daughter. We hope to soon also be teaching his son. We still have to work our way into teaching the wife and the oldest daughter because they are pretty tight with the Jehovah Witnesses.
Basically the work is going amazing here right now and we are teaching many lessons and finding a lot of new people to teach. Not quite sure why but I have never seen the work better here. This is actually some of the best I've seen things in my whole mission. I know I've been here in Sassari a long time but I think I'm going to ask the Mission President if I can stay another transfer because I really love the relationship I have developed with these people we are teaching right now and I just feel happy here.
     That's a brief description of what’s going on here, it would take a long email to describe it all so I'll keep it at this. Enoch, Maddalena, and many others are also progressing =). We had an awesome P-day last week with the Assistants and another awesome one today. Saturday before conference we spent all day in a beautiful city named Alghero with the Mangoni family (He's the one who's a crazy fan of grandpa Garth) They showed us all of these beautiful beaches and look outs all around the sea cliffs and mountains there. You should Google it. I'll send some pic's next week. Oh and as for conference I was able to see all the sessions. If I could pick some theme's #1 the family and strengthening families (especially liked Elder Ballards talk I think Sunday evening) #2 not envying or letting pride into our hearts and trying our best to reactivate those left behind. I'm bummed that last year while I was in the MTC I didn't get the chance to sing in conference that would have rocked.
      As for Easter I will be eating at the home an English course student =) and potential investigator. Her name is Lorenza and her husband comes to English course every once in a while also. As for Easter I have no idea what they eat and I'll let you know next week haha. And as for traditional things just think of every major catholic thing to do with this week and it’s a holiday or a huge ceremony here in Italy.
     So that’s about if for now. I'll talk to you all next week and stay awesome  =) love you all and love the mail. Vi voglio troppo bene, mi mancate, e ci sentiamo
        Con un saco di amore,     Anziano Kyle

Sassari, Sardinia - 3/28/2012

Dear family and friends,
         Once again emailing you from Olbia and just like last time my time is cut. We wanna go play soccer again at the beach and we gotta be back in Sassari tonight for an elder’s quorum activity. The assistants are over here with the car so we are trying to take advantage of that while we can. So that will answers a few of your questions about why this email is about to be very short.
          As for our investigators. Everyone is totally rocking and growing ALOT. Adhemar after a fantastic lesson yesterday showed us some of us old pictures and stuff of his farm in Bolivia on his facebook page. Then he found my page and wanted to add me as a friend. And this might explain why I haven't gotten any friend requests from people I'm teaching out here because apparently my safety settings on my facebook don't let anybody send me friend requests and if I want to add them I would have to go find them and do it myself. If you could fix my privacy settings asap that would be awesome because that would explain why it's so hard for anybody that I meet to find me there. (FYI: I did try to fix it but it must be some sort of block being generated by Italy, because on this end it looks like anyone can friend him or send him a message. Hmmm…)
Ok so yeah Adhemar is rocking and we have started to teach his niece and his neighbors too =) the work couldn't be going any better over there. Then there's Enoch who has a baptismal date and is still being an ace. He's been to church twice and is already best buds with all the members. It's going real well here.
        So that’s about it. I hope you all have a great week. I loved the pics of the cousins. Got an Email from Aunt Kristin and a while ago a couple from everyone I think.  Don't worry I love all the Emails you guys send me and I'm sure I'm getting them all so no worries there either. I love you all and hope you all have a great week. Keep being awesome. I sent Scott a letter earlier last week so keep an eye out for that. Miss you all.
            Con amore.  Anziano Kyle Hill

Sassari, Sardinia - 3/21/2012

Carissimi Amici,
          I have no idea how to start this letter for some reason so I'm just gonna jump right into it by answering the questions you asked. Your postage seems to be getting here just fine. Looks like you've been cheating the system or maybe the post office hasn't really been checking if you put on the right amount of stamps.. It is getting a bit warmer here now so yes I guess one could say its becoming spring. The Island is beautiful during the spring. Everything blooms and it all turns green and stuff. And the sea here is a beautiful crystal clear blue. This Island is a paradise. I'm with the same companion Anziano Lacey still. He’s a great kid and we get along real well. I'm not sure how much he likes me though, that’s another story, I mess with him a lot like I do with everyone but in the end we all can have a good laugh.
         So you want to know a little about the members here in Sassari huh? There are some members that are amazing and I love them to death and then there are some members that make it tough, just like every church congregation. I love them all though. I have some funny stories too but for the fact that they may or may not read my blog we can save it for when I telephone you on mother’s day =). They are so helpful to us though. This Sunday we were at the Carboni's house for lunch and Fratello Carboni put some ricotta cheese on his pasta that they stored in a vanilla gelato box. Anziano Lacey apparently didn't quite know what ricotta was and thought that Fratello Carboni was putting vanilla ice-cream on his pasta so he asked Fratello Carboni "Does pasta taste good with gelato? I've never tried that." At that moment F.llo Carboni almost died of laughter, and then we all explained to Anziano Lacey what ricotta was. It was classic.
         I could honestly tell you a million stories of funny or amazing stuff that happens when we are walking around, I write them all down in my journal. We can all read them together when I get home okay? It will be easier that way. And our soccer game in Olbia was fun but the grass was all wet so we were slipping all over the place. I must have pulled the splits like 4 times. It actually probably wasn't the smartest thing to do as missionaries because there was a high probability of injury. Meno male no one got hurt too bad.
          As for our investigators all is going very well. Enoch has a baptismal date for the 14th and came to church this Sunday for the first time, that was amazing. Then Adhemar and Maddelena are both incredibly close to a baptismal date also. Adhemar after finishing 2nd Nephi skipped to Mormon just to find out what happens in the end haha. THEY ALL DIE!! It’s really a tragedy the whole thing. We have found some other new investigators that seem very promising. We'll see how it goes and I'll have more info for you guys on it next week.
         I miss you all, and have a great week everyone. I love the e-mails and letters. The guy on the computer next to me smells weird but he's reading an article on Mitt Romney strange enough haha looks like he took another primary in Illinois? Haha once again it’s so funny how into this stuff the Italians are when I’m not even sure they understand what the Rep. Primary is or how our election process works. Love you all. e ci sentiamo più tardi ok?
               Con amore,   Anziano Hill

Sassari, Sardinia - 3/14/2012

Caro famiglia,
             Forse scrivo tutto questo email in Italiano affinché potete vedere quanto Italiano ho imparato fra un anno. Si, e giusto che sono stato qua per un anno questa settimana. Mi sembra ieri quando me avete lasciato al MTC ma anche sembra un sacco di tempo fa. Non posso immaginare che fra un'altro anno sarò con voi di nuovo. é veramente una cosa stranissimo. Cosa faccio quando torno? Mi fa paura haha. Adesso non penso su questa roba. C'è troppo di fare.  (Perhaps I write this email in Italian so you can see how I learned Italian in a year. Yes, and right that have been here for a year this week. It seems like yesterday when you left me at the MTC but also seems a long time ago. I can not imagine that in another year I'll be with you again. is really a strange thing. What do I do when I get back? It scares me haha. Now I do not think about this stuff. There is too much to do.)
              OK, I'll do the rest of this in English so I don't confuse you guys. So this week is my one year mark. Totally crazy huh? You guys miss me yet? Haha only one more year till you all get to see me again. Thanks for the little pictures mom. I'm glad you liked all my photos too, my blog looks awesome. Sardegna is such a beautiful place, it’s a bummer that I'm probably gonna leave it in a month or so. But this whole country is beautiful. I am honestly really lucky to be serving here. Although there are some places like Palermo and Napoli that make you feel like you're in the middle of downtown Tijuana but that's just the culture and you learn to love the people here so you end up not really caring.
           So what can I tell you guys this week? Today I'm in Olbia again for P-day. We are gonna play some soccer today. This week went well and we saw a ton of progression with some of our investigators. We have started meeting with our African friend Enoch again and have set a baptismal date with him =) He's got a lot of difficulty to overcome so keep him in your prayers. Also this week we talked to Adhemar about baptism and he is going to pray about it. He is rocking the Libro di Mormon. Already almost done with 2nd Nephi! We plan on baptizing him soon also. Other than that nothing too crazy has happened. For some reason I cannot think of anything that happened this week so I'm sorry if this E-mail ends up being a little short. It's actually frustrating me now that I can't remember anything. I need to bring my journal now when I do these things. I write every detail of every day in that thing haha. I just had to buy a new one yesterday because I filled up my second journal. So yeah I now have 3 books worth of journal writing. I figure if I don't write it down right when I get home then I will forget it just like is happening right now. I can't wait for you guys to read it when I get back.
            So I guess I'll leave it at that for now. I really wish I could think of more to write I’m sorry if this seems brief. I love you guys and miss you all. FRA UN'ANNO!!
            Con amore,  Anziano Kyle Hill