Catania, Sicily - 8/17/2011

I’ll try and take some more pictures for you guys of just places I go every day. We deep cleaned our apartment Monday. It was Ferie Agosto which is an Italian holiday which celebrates the ascension of Mary into heaven but everyone uses it as an excuse to get out of work and go to the beach. The streets are honestly empty and every store in closed, no joke. It was strange, the whole city was abandoned. So President makes that day a day where we just stay in our apartments and clean all day. Which we did. It was hard work but our apartment hasn't been more beautiful. So I'll send you guys next week some pics of my apartment, the streets I walk, random people, and parks and stuff. There’s a lot of way old stuff everywhere from like ancient roman times but it’s all just kinda normal now haha. I never thought that seeing an ancient aqueduct or part of a wall would just be normal.

Have a great week everyone and I love and miss you all. Vi voglio bene, Vi amo e ci sentiamo la setemana prossima

Con Amore,

Anziano Kyle Hill

Catania, Sicily - 8/10/2011

Hey everyone!

Well I'm still in Catania today which means I survived another transfer call! I'm staying in Catania another transfer, which indirectly means another two because my trainer leaves at the end of this one and goes back home to San Diego and I will have to stay here with someone else a transfer before I go. So that means I will be here till early November in Catania, maybe longer. It’s amazing to think that this month is Elliot and Carlton's (other missionaries from Newhall serving in Oklahoma & Argentina) one year mark in the mission. It feels like just yesterday those guys left. It reminds of those grueling 6 months I spent waiting after receiving my call =P It’s all been worth it though, because I’m loving this mission and if my call had come any sooner I might not be in Italy at this time, meeting these wonderful people. We have 2 baptisms on the 20th that for sure will go through and the sisters have one on the 27th. It’s quite marvelous how the work is prospering here. The first baptism is our friend Silvio I told you about the other day. He’s is doing awesome and we are celebrating his birthday this Monday. Then there's Ben. He’s another Filipino like Carlo. He’s way old and doesn't understand English or Italian very well so just like Carlo we have a Tagalog sister translate for us. He’s just like Carlo though and is very excited to be baptized. I'm so happy to see these people making this change in their lives and becoming disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we went to a totally awesome World War 2 museum here in Catania. It’s got everything! It’s actually built in a building that was destroyed during a bombing raid on Catania. As a matter of fact I'd like to tell you that here there are many buildings that look way old and exploded. You can still see damage here caused by the war. The museum had all kinds of way interesting facts about the war and what Italy did. I learned something new.... the Sicilians never accepted Mussolini as their leader and were forced to fight alongside the Nazis. And when America conquered Sicilia it was a liberation instead of an occupation. It was way cool to see videos and pictures from the war that showed streets in Catania that I walk down on a daily basis. 70 years ago the place where my apartment stands was a bomb crater. OH SNAP! We got to climb on big guns and stuff. It was a lot like Pearl Harbor. It also gave me a lot of Italian Patriotism which I'm not too sure is such a good thing. I started cheering for the Italians in some of the battles until I realized they were fighting Americans =S sorry America. You will always be number 1 in my heart! It was an accident.

So Aunt Ashley's married. I can’t believe it. It’s kinda weird to think about actually, I’ve got another Uncle Steve, well Uncle Steve the younger. ALSO I can’t believe you guys put my face on a pole. That's classic. One of the sister missionaries here, Sister Buma has a family that does the same thing and every week they send her pictures of her head in different places haha. I told her my family isn't weird enough to do that but alas, I was mistaken. Only 2 pictures from the wedding? Really? Come on; if I don’t get more I’m gonna be upset. And no one ever mailed me a wedding invitation. I feel so secluded =( I’m only on a mission, I’m still part of the family right?.... I guess I gotta wait and see if I get more pictures next week. The video of grandma surfing was HILARIOUS! We all had a good laugh out of that. Grandma Nancy is awesome though.

I miss all you guys and hope you guys are all staying safe and having fun. I love you all and can’t wait to hear from you guys again. Vi voglio bene! e Vi amo! Ci sentiamo e Addio!

Con Amore

Anziano Hill

Catania, Sicily - 8/3/2011

Caro Family and friends,

How are you all doing =) because I'm doing great! Today has been a week of miracles! MIRACLES I TELL YOU!!! Me and my companion have been DOMINATING the work here. We came up with this idea that we just need to kick butt so we set way ridiculous goals and well.... we're reaching them. We call it operation: CATANIA TOTAL DESTRUCTION AWESOMENESS. Of course we cannot credit this success to ourselves, for our strength is nothing and we know that we are but the dust of the earth compared to the might of the great God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in whom we put our trust and faith. We are planning on having 6 baptisms on the 20th... yes 6. That is mission record I think actually. We have taken a renewed diligence in our finding and teaching strategy and the Lord must be blessing us a lot. We are working a lot on our faith right now because if we don’t have faith for this success it will not happen, and there are many doubts but we are trying real hard to overcome them.

There is one man we met in the park just last Friday morning named Silvio. He was just sitting there reading a newspaper on a bench when we happenstanced upon him. We taught him real quickly about prayer and then did a prayer with him. We told him about an activity we were having at the church that night where we were watching "the testaments" and he said he would for sure come... which never happens. BUT he came there and we watched the film with him and some others and he really enjoyed it. We set up an appointment for the following Tuesday at the church again because there was a baptism of two 8 year old twin girls in the ward and we wanted him to see it and we wanted to teach him a little before the baptism. Just out of crazy luck we ran into him again at the park on Monday.... READING THE BOOK OF MORMON! We sat down with him and taught him about the restoration but we didn’t really have to because he had actually read the pamphlet and knew everything about it and best of all he accepted it and said it all just kinda makes sense!! FINALLY SOMEONE WHO'S EYES ARE OPEN! That was going wonderful when all the sudden one of our other investigators showed up randomly, and you'd think this is a good thing, but she’s a little strange and we got a little worried when she came that she would destroy all the progress we just made with Silvio. But Alas! Silvio stood firm in the faith after all her crazy Pentecostal and evangelical doctrine. Silvio even said after she left, "that lady doesn't get it, good luck with her" haha. We ended up giving her to the sister missionaries because she’s more suited for them. But back to Silvio. That day we set a baptismal date for the 20th =) WOO!!! After only knowing him for 3 days he believes it and wants to be baptized. We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and told him to read it and that we would see him at the baptism. Well being the awesome guy he is he came. The baptism (of the 8 yr old twins) was awesome. A ton of our investigators showed up along with the whole ward. It was just like a Sunday meeting again because literally all 100 members of our ward showed up to the baptism. It was wonderful and I got to be one of the witnesses for the baptism. So yeah. The work here in Catania is doing great. We are actually leading the mission I believe, right next to our neighboring city Messina who is also dominating, practicing the same strategy as us.

I'm happy and doing great. I’m glad to hear you guys are all having fun. I got a bunch of postcards from Hawaii =) thanks everyone. Normally I would be way bummed that I'm not there but I’m actually pretty happy because well.... I’m in Italy =) I got a letter from Scott too and a couple from my friends, who I would like to give some praise to because they are doing a good job at writing me. Every missionary tells me that by the end no one writes you but I tell them my family and friends are so awesome and they won’t give up on me! I cannot believe Ashley is finally getting married haha. It’s not that I never thought it would happen, I just never thought about it happening. It’s just so nuts hearing that she’s getting ready to move out of grandmas and stuff. MUCCA SACRA! Send me pictures, videos whatever you want. If it’s from family I can watch videos or look at pictures. Just attach them to emails.

I miss you all and wish you all the best. I've got a lot of letters and post cards to write today so I should get to work on those. VI VOGLIO BENE! MI MANCI e Vi amo

Con amore =)

-Anziano Hill

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