Sassari, Sardinia - 2/21/2012

Ciao tutti

       Well I gotta make this e-mail quick because I’m in Olbia and I gotta catch a train for Cagliari in a bit and then a plane to Roma (so no jumping on boats this time haha) And I won't have much time there. I'll be spending the night but I have to be at a conference right in the morning and then I leave right after. So that’s kinda gonna be my crazy week. I have gotten emails from many people recently and so no one should worry whether or not I received them. I'm very thankful for all the emails I get =) you guys are all very supportive and it’s really appreciated.

        So a quick update on our Bolivian Investigators. We met with Adhemar again Saturday and had probably one of the best lessons of my mission. We go to meet his whole family who are so nice. The lesson started with just him and we answered a couple of his questions. Then he pulled out his bible and started to read 1 Cor. 13:8-10 (as we know in our church that this chapter is perhaps one of the most beautiful chapters on charity in all the scriptures) well the Jehovah Witnesses taught him something else with these scriptures. Selecting only verses 8-10 they told him that it means that "after that which is perfect is come" according to them to be Jesus Christ "then that which is in part shall be done away" which they say means that after Jesus comes all gifts of prophesy and gifts of God are to cease. So he read that scripture to us and wanted to know our opinion. We quickly made him aware that first you need to read the whole chapter to receive the full context of that scripture learning that it's not talking of Jesus Christ but about ourselves perfecting our love and instead of those things in part being eliminated they receive a fullness. I told him that if we are God's children and he loves us, then why in the world would he ditch us, after Jesus Christ left the earth, to fend for ourselves. I told him that I can't believe in a God that loves his children but then takes all spiritual gifts away from them. At this moment Adhemar began to start crying. He told us that this scripture has disturbed him for years because he has had incredibly spiritual experiences of praying for things (for example finding lost livestock) and having dreams of places where these animals were and finding them there. More than once but many times. It made him confused and worried that his gift wasn't a gift but a curse and so when we gave him our interpretation of the scripture a light came into his eyes and he started to cry. At that moment I bore testimony of how blessed he was and that we were all children of God and he knows and loves us all individually and I started crying too haha. I'm such a baby. But the spirit(Holy Ghost) was so strong. After that moment our relationship changed immediately. He had us stay for lunch with his whole family and his mother in-law became a new investigator. His kids and wife will probably become investigators after the next visit. They are so nice and such a tight family. It reminded me of all you guys’ back home. I was really glad for that experience. It was run all by the spirit. Not only the investigator was edified by the lesson but so were me and my companion. I need more lessons like that =)

         Other than that not much else is going on. Maddelena and Maurizo still come to church every week but they are just really hard to meet with. By the end of this week we should have baptismal dates with them I think. 

        So that’s about it for this week I gotta go. I love you all have a great week and I'll talk to you next Wednesday =)

     

             Con Amore

                    Anziano Hill

Sassari, Sardinia - 2/15/2012

Ciao Tutti,

         To start off I wanna share an awesome thing that happened to us just this Monday. After knocking doors for about 4 hours and not really having much luck we decided to head back home because it was getting late. While waiting at the bus stop I was telling Anziano Lacey a story about some forest fires and forgot the word in Italian for "forest fire" so I got up and walked over to a guy waiting by us and asked him about it. He told me the word and I told him "thank you, I'm still learning Italian" and he told me that he was learning Italian too haha. I then asked him where he was from and he said Bolivia. He trains horses and has been here in Sassari with his family for 5 years working. He took the same bus as us so we continued our conversation on the bus. We than went on to talk about religion and he told us that he has read the whole entire Bible. He grew up in the Catholic church but did not agree with many of their doctrines. While here in Italy he started studying with the Jehovah Witnesses, but lucky for us he had issues with their doctrines also. So he basically got off the bus at his house and told us to come back the next day. OH YEAH! He was so nice too. We stopped by his house yesterday morning and taught a super powerful first lesson. Probably one of the best in my whole mission. We also brought him a bunch of materials in Spanish. He is going to talk to his wife and see if we can come back around Saturday. The problem is his wife and kids are all studying with the J.W.'s.  So we have some work to do but the spirit is good at taking care of that stuff. It's amazing though how this worked out. He is probably one of the best investigators we have found for a while. I'm very excited to see him again. He is such a nice guy and we are already like best friends.

         So other than that little miracle this week has been rough. The weather has been nutz here with more snow and more shut down public transportation. Not only that but this Sunday they CANCELED CHURCH!! Italians are a bunch of babies when it comes to the weather haha There are millions of people in Utah and Idaho who go to church through thousands of feet of snow!  I’m just kidding though we actually have a great branch here. The only lame thing was that our branch president decided to call everyone to tell them that church was cancelled, EXCEPT US. We got all ready to go when we got a call from the Olbia Anziani who asked what we were gonna do since church was cancelled and we said " WHAT!?!? church is cancelled?" Turns out they got cancelled too and indirectly heard through one of their members that ours was before anybody had done us the courtesy. So we commenced calling all of the members here and after 4 different people, one of them finally answered and made us aware that church was indeed cancelled. =P So no investigators in church this week. 

          Sorry I wrote Mike a letter and no one else. I figured he was a reliable source for some of the information I wanted and I am excited about his college applications to BYU. Today I will write everyone else so you can all feel wanted haha. And a note for next week. I will be E-mailing you Tuesday not Wednesday because I will be traveling to Rome next week for a big conference where Elder Texiera of the Quorum of the Seventy will be talking to us. Also I am still waiting on bank account info because my card keeps telling me to contact my bank (which I cannot do) so please get on that as soon as possible and get back to me. I really hope everything goes well with Brother Powell and let him know he’s in my prayers. To answer some questions you asked mom. No baptismal dates yet but I'll let you know first thing. The Muslim lady didn’t end up being very interested. oh well. I think they are almost harder to convert than Mormons haha. Oh and Kristin's letters are really starting to scare me a little because she sounds all teenagerish now and a lot less little girl. Well I guess she had to grow up someday. 

         I miss you all and love you all also! Have a great week and I'll hear from you guys next Tuesday okay? Be excellent to each other! and party on dudes. Vi voglio bene, ci sentiamo, e arrevederci!  

                     Con Amore,  Anziano Kyle Hill

Sassari, Sardinia - 2/8/2012

Ciao Tutti,

          Un'altro e-mail!! CHE FORTUNATI SIETE VOI!!!!! So this week has been.... well different and interesting. As many of you have probably seen on the news Italy is undergoing some fairly strange weather conditions and yes... also Sassari. Starting Sunday night and continuing all day Monday we experienced blizzard like conditions. Weather that Sassari has not experienced since the time it was a Province under the Roman Empire. This storm made those last little snowflakes from last month look like a baby drizzle. The Sassarese people were quite convinced that it was the end of the world and didn't leave their homes. Therefore all public transportation was shut down and we couldn't get anywhere. It was a mess but at the end of the day we had some fun and made a snowman or in Italiano (un pupazzo di neve) The snow is clearing up today and things are looking a lot better but it's still totally freezing. That’s about the all the adventures this week.

          As for the work, things are going great. There was a baptism this Sunday of the branch president’s 8 year old daughter Chiara. It was a great opportunity for some of our investigators to see a baptism. We are planning two baptisms for the 3rd of March for Maddelena and Maurizio. Also a ton of inactive members came to the Baptism.. The whole family of the wife of the branch president are inactive members. Some 20 people. It was the first time many of them have come to church in a long time. I hope the spirit there was felt by them and they are re-encouraged to come back to church. Inactivity always makes me sad. So far I've seen it come from two sources. 1. Missionaries who force people under the font with-out the person really having a strong testimony. 2. members who stop doing 3 basic things: coming to church, reading the scriptures daily, and praying daily. Some people think that once they reach a certain point with their testimony that they are good to go but alas, tis not so. If we do not keep working to keep our testimony we will lose it and inevitably fall away. It's very sad to see strong members of the church go through difficult trials and fall away. And the truth is it can happen to even the very best of us. We all must keep working or its game over. Life is a constant progression. You never reach a point where you've reached the top and if you feel that you have, it means you are slowing slipping away into apostasy.  This is all just my opinion based on my own experience, for what it's worth.       

            Okay so I guess that’s all I really have to write you guys this week. Not much else is going on. And yes I do have my stupid vertical uncool drivers license now haha. I got it a couple weeks ago, so no worries there. I miss you all and loved the e-mails this week, especially Matthews. haha Make sure he knows that green is my favorite color so I appreciate all the effort spent in making that color. I wish the triplets best of luck with the baptism too! I want pictures please. =) I love and miss you all. Have a great week and stay awesome! 

       Con Amore,

                Anziano Kyle Hill

Sassari, Sardinia - 2/1/2012

Caro Famiglia e Amici,

               Well it’s been a good week. The work is going well and everything seems to be settling in with Anziano Lacey. He's a funny kid. Loves making movies and stuff. He talks about movies a lot.  He's probably seen every film known to man I'm pretty sure. We tear it up here with the work also. It's gonna be a good transfer I think. We could very well have 2 baptisms this transfer =) I'm very excited. Maddelena and Maurizio. They are all so involved in the church that Anziano Lacey thought they were members already when he came to church for the first time this Sunday. We had branch conference this Sunday also. The district council came and we had some excellent lessons. In priesthood we talked about scheduling out time and putting the Lord first, and I thought to myself how this lesson really doesn't apply to us missionaries because when it comes to scheduling we don't have to worry about prioritizing spending time with our families, going to work, or having fun because our schedule is already made for us haha. Teach, proselyte, eat, learn, and sleep, and on Wednesdays "prepare" haha. So we never have scheduling dilemmas. But it was a good lesson for the rest of the Branch. Maybe it will get them all psyched about missionary work. 

            Sunday night we got to have a beautiful experience. A member of our branch F.llo Moro (perhaps one of the first members in Sardegna) sings in a chamber choir that was celebrating its 90th anniversary so they had a concert in an old catholic church in centro. There were 4 groups that preformed and his group sang last. It was beautiful. And I don't know how often you find yourselves in 14th century Catholic churches but the acoustics are beautiful. And I love chamber choir music; O Magnum Mysterium and Ave Maria by Franz Biebl were my favorites of the night. It was really amazing. I love this place. I will start learning Latin after this mission I'm pretty sure. It is such a beautiful language and Italian is the closest language to it so that might help out.

               What else...... I got another letter from you guys. I get letters pretty regularly now so I guess I can say that they are arriving. I wanted maybe to give Mike's a specific shout-out though because that picture was one of the craziest things I have ever seen but I will let you know that I understood it perfectly the second I saw it. I understood the meaning of every symbol but I also understood the one that said "do not tell anyone about any of this" so your secret message is safe with me. Thank you so much for all your letters I really appreciate them. Keep'em coming. I pray for you all every day and hope you have a great week. I miss you all and love you all. Stay fantastic. 

               Con Amore,

                          Anziano Kyle Hill

          

Sassari, Sardinia - 1/25/2012

Caro Famiglia,

Hey. What’s up? I am doing fantastic! As for big news this week we got transfer calls. I am staying in Sassari (no surprise) Anziano Harris is going to Messina in Sicilia. If you remember I have been there before so I know what he's going into. I don't know if he’s quite ready for Sicilia, he still complains when people feed him too much food so he’s really gonna have to learn how to stop being such a baby haha. Funny story real quick. We were at a members house a couple weeks ago and they fed us a lot of food (not more than I had had before but more than Anziano Harris was used to) So when we reached the last plate which was some giant slices of fruit cake =P the members left the room for a sec and Anziano Harris stuffed the fruit cake into his pocket! That dirty little cheater!! I was so mad at him. After we left he threw the fruit cake off the bridge on the way to our house. I told him he won't be able to pull that off in Sicilia so he'll really have to man up. My new companion will be Anziano Lacey. I know him pretty well already because he's coming from Olbia which is 2 hours away so he’s in my district. We were actually together when transfer calls came because there was a baptism in Olbia we attended so when they called Anziano Gatchel (the AP) told me my new companion was probably standing right next to me haha. Anziano Lacey is from Apple Valley CA so not too far from us. Actually our whole district is almost all Californians Anziano Vitali, the zone leader in Olbia, is from around Chino Hills area. The only out cast is Anziano Bradshaw from Orlando FL but he rocks anyways. So that’s what’s going on here.

Funny thing. I heard Mitt Romney lost SC here in Italy. It was in the news weirdly enough. They follow the American politics more than their own I think. I got the package too! WOO!! and a couple letters from Scott, Kristin, Hannah, Eliza, and a couple from you, mom. It’s been a good couple weeks for mail. Keep up the good work.

Something neat this week. If you want to know what I did last Tuesday and Friday read Jacob chapter 5. Sardegna being in the same climate zone as Palestine grows the same kinds of plants. Therefore Olive Orchards and Vineyards are very common. In fact F.llo Carboni in our branch has many Olive trees and this week we pruned, dunged, trenched, grafted, and in the end burnt branches. It was hard work but also very rewarding because if you know me burning things is always a pleasure. I'm not sure how much of the lost house of Israel we gathered but we sure burnt a lot of them haha. As for the literal work we are doing to gather Israel F.llo Marras brought his fiancé to church and she is now a new investigator. That stud knows how to get missionary work done. He met her in some sort of interpretive dance class or something like that. She’s from Cordoba Argentina and way cool. We are gonna have some really good next months I think. There is a lot of potential in some of the people we are teaching. GO MISSIONARY WORK! WOO!!

Well I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week and stay awesome. Remember to be excellent to each other and party on dudes. Mi mancate, Vi voglio bene, e ci sentiamo!

Con Amore, Anziano Hill

Sassari, Sardinia - 1/18/2012

Dear Family,

I have amazing news for all of you. If you look at the attached photo you will see that I received the last puzzle pieces and completed the puzzle. Isn't that great!! I loved it too. You guys are all so wonderful. I've gotten a couple letters from members of the ward too that are fantastico! I'm still waiting on a ward mission leader as awesome as Brother Aina is. The Newhall 1^st ward Missionaries are getting a walk in the park haha just messin, I bet the work has its up and downs everywhere. Speaking of our ward so Bishop Larkins challenged you to read the Book of Mormon in 6 months? Snap. We were challenged here on the mission a while ago to read the Book of Mormon in the time it took for it to be translated. 64 days =P I spent many long days plowing my way through it but I did it so if I can do it in 2 months you guys can do it in 6 easy. And last but not least I want to apologize for my lame attitude last week. I'm much better now but I was very selfish that day and forgot to acknowledge a couple very important days. HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO MOM AND KRISTIN AND AUNT KRISTIN! I hope you guys have another year of wonderfulness and magic and all that jazz haha.

So as for cool things going on here we had a neat experience the other day. We had just gotten home from Cagliari and we called up an inactive member who I have never seen before in all my time being here named Sorella Nurra and she told us to come on over to meet her at a friend’s house. So we ran over there and sure enough we were able to teach a member lesson there and pick up her friend Akim as a new investigator. It was one of the last things we expected, especially because Akim is a Muslim from Morocco but she was very interested in our message and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon in Arabic (good thing we have a ton of those oddly enough) So that’s what happened there and we will be meeting her later on in the week. Cool huh? And Sorella Nurra, even though she never comes to church was a major help to us. It's interesting how referrals can come through anyone, even the people you least expect.

Well I'll end my letter here for this week. Thanks for all the stuff you guys do for me and all the support and prayers. I miss you all and hope you all have a great week. Mi Mancate, Vi voglio bene e ci sentiamo.

Con amore, Anziano Kyle Hill