Week 34

Hello from Graham!

This week was really good! :)  We had a very successful week, and I would attribute that to when we were on exchanges!  Sister Parry and Sister Judd were here in our area and they were able to have 14 other lessons and set up 6 return appointments, which constitutes 6 new investigators!  It was great to come back to our area and hear what success they had as they worked together. :)  

We are even seeing a lot more progress with our investigator, Krista.  Right now, she is living with her boyfriend but we are starting to see a change in her as she learns more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  She realizes that her boyfriend is not treating her the way that she feels like she needs to be treated and she is getting sick of it.  Sister Parry and I also feel like she is starting to gain a testimony of the things she is learning, so we are super excited to continue to teach her! :)  

We are also seeing a huge change with our investigator Amber.  Gina Vickers is her mom and we have been teaching her a little bit.  The first time that we went over there, Amber was really quiet and very rarely talked to us.  She seemed very shut off to us, but as we have been serving her and inviting her to ward activities, her heart is being softened and she is starting to change! She even asked us the other day about what time church starts because she wants to come!  It has been great to see how service and following the Spirit really help soften people's hearts.

So great story... We decided that we wanted to go visit one of our Less-active members that we didn't know on Thursday.  When we stopped by, a lady answered the door and just started chatting with us.  She ended up asking us if we could come by another time because she was busy.  We told her that we could come back the following day and we scheduled that appointment.  Her name is Shannon and when she told us her name, I knew it wasn't the less-active that we were trying to see.  When we went back the next day, we talked with her for about 1 hour and learned that she wasn't a member and that she wanted to learn more.  It was so cool to find an investigator when our intentions were to visit a less-active member.

Another cool story... We were planning one night and felt like we needed to go see Sister Ramirez.  She is a less-active member who is really struggling with family situations right now.  Well when we went over to see her, we were able to help her a ton.  She was really struggling and was really depressed but we were able to help her as we taught her about the Savior's Atonement.  It was such a neat experience to know that we were led by the Spirit to go see her.

Christmas was great!  I can't believe that it is already over and that I will be home for next Christmas.  It doesn't seem real to me that I only have that much left of my mission... It's going to fly by!

Pictures.... I am going to send them in a separate email but there's some of Christmas, our mission Christmas activity, a little skiff of snow that we got on the 19th, and a pretty sunset from about a week or so ago.

That's about it for the week!  Next week is transfers (again!) and I can't believe it! They just keep passing by way too fast!  Hope everyone has a Happy New Year and that you set some great New Year's resolutions!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 33

Merry Christmas everyone!

This week was pretty good!  We worked really hard and were able to meet a bunch of Less-active members that we didn't know.  Friday, we also had a wonderful Christmas Activity with the mission.  We did a white elephant exchange (I ended up with sticky notes, colored pencils, and mechanical pencils (a great present I must say) by the end of the game), then we went into the chapel and listened to a bunch of musical numbers.  They all were so, so pretty!  I wasn't able to throw something together fast enough so I had the opportunity to just sit and listen... not always something I get to do. Then President and Sister Eaton spoke a little bit, we sang a bunch of Christmas hymns, and then we watched "The Nativity" with the volume off and "Breath of Heaven" by Amy Grant playing.  It was such a neat thing to watch!  The spirit was so strong and it was so peaceful.  By the way, if you want to watch it, you can find it on Youtube.  

President and Sister Eaton also gave all of us a little present with a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD and they gave us a picture of the Savior.  Sister Eaton told us about this picture when she spoke and explained why they were giving it to us.  President and Sister Eaton were able to go to some training that was with Elder Ballard and this is what Elder Ballard said about the picture of the Savior, "I carry with me a picture of the Savior, and when I'm at the extremity and wonder if I'm going to get across the goal, I just look at Him.  And all of a sudden, I can do whatever I have to do.  Keep Him close."  I know that Elder Ballard's statement about that picture is true.  I have only had that picture for a couple of days but I have carried it everywhere and it truly has helped me when I don't feel like I can do what I have to do.  I am so thankful for this Christmas season and for the time that we have to celebrate our Savior's Birth.  I am so thankful that I am out here on my mission serving Jesus Christ at the time of His birth.  I can't wait to see what other special experiences I have on Christmas and I am so grateful for that.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!  I love each on of you and am so proud to have you as my family and friends!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 32

Hello from Graham, Washington!

This week was so good! :)  We were able to have a lot of lessons and have many miracles throughout the week!  Not a ton of note-worthy things happened but it still was amazing!  

We had some crazy experiences while we were tracting this week!  1) I hove now found a way to stay warm regardless of how many layers I put on in the morning... Hot Hands warmers in my shoes!  It has been awesoem especially when we have been knocking on doors because I stay warm and I don't freeze.  2)  We knocked on a couple doors that had Sister Parry and I laughing after we left.  One door we knocked on was opened by a Catholic lady.  She was kind of rude while we were talking to her and she wasn't interested.  When we were leaving, as she was shutting the door, I yelled "Merry Christmas!"  She had shut the door all the way but she quickly opened it back up and said, "Thanks for saying Merry Christmas.  I am so sick of all this 'Happy Holidays' crap!" and then she shut the door.  Both Sister Parry and I were laughing so hard because it was just so random and silly.  3) We then knocked on another door and we heard footsteps come to the door after we knocked.  All of the sudden, we heard from the other side of the door, "We're not interested."  I then asked, "Is there anything we can do for you?"  The female on the other side said, "We're not interested."  I then said, "Merry Christmas" and we were on our way to the next door.  It was so funny because that drives me nuts when they don't answer the door and just yell through it but it didn't bother me that day.

This week we were also privileged to have Elder Corbridge (from the Seventy) and his wife come speak to us on Tuesday.  It was so amazing!  I learned so many things and was so blessed to have been able to have that opportunity.  I will say that I have never felt so mentally and emotionally exhausted from being in a meeting all day before.  I was completely drained of energy the next couple days because there was such an amazing spiritual outpouring that day.  He truly is called of God.

One of the amazing miracles that we were blessed to have started out on Friday night while we were planning.  Sister Parry was looking through the area book and came across some old progress records that were dated back in August.  Sister Parry was looking at one of them and saw that a girl named Brittney was on that specific sheet.  I knew that she wasn't being taught by Sister Mosbrucker and Sister Gardner, so we text Elder Wilson and asked him about her.  He knew exactly who she was and where she lived.  We asked him if him and Elder Moody were teaching her and he told us no.  We decided to plan her in to go see her on Saturday.  Saturday afternoon came and we went to go see Brittney.  We decided to take her door as a door approach since she didn't know either of us.  When she answered the door, we started talking to her to get a feel of where she was at and what she believed.  She then mentioned that she had been meeting with the "boy missionaries" and then we started to ask her about what she had learned from them.  She had a lot of positive things to say about the Elders and about the Church.  We then asked her if we could share a message with her and she said that we could and invited us in.  Brittney has such a special spirit about her.  She is 20 and has Asbergers. She was so open and had so many wonderful questions.  She knows that she is loved by Heavenly Father but she doesn't understand why she deserves that love.  It was so rewarding to testify that He really does love her and to try and help her understand.  The Spirit was so strong as we were teaching her.  Once we got back in the car, Sister Parry and I talked about what happened while we were teaching Brittney.  We both felt like we weren't so much focused on helping her enter the waters of baptism, but that we were more focused on helping her make those steps to enter the temple and to receive eternal life.  It was such a neat experience and my feelings about it are so hard to explain.  I am so thankful for that opportunity to be there teaching Brittney and to feel our Savior's love so much more.

I am so thankful for the rewarding opportunity that I have to serve a mission and to testify of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  I know that through Him we can be cleansed from sin and that we can return to live with Him and Heavenly Father for eternity.

Thanks for everything you do for me!  I love and appreciate you all so much!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 31! :)

Hello from FREEZING Washington!

This week was amazing!  We had so many miracles even when I was not super excited to be outside in this freezing weather!  It's been super cold here, like high's only in the 20's.  Not a fan.  We were able to find 4 new investigators this week by tracting and teaching formers!  It was such an awesome experience to see tracting actually work!  We talked to a bunch of really nice people this week, even if they ended up saying that they weren't interested in learning more.  We even have some really good laughs as we go tracting too!  One night, we were tracting and Sister Parry clothes-lined herself with a rope that was holding a tarp on a car!  It was so funny!  I didn't see the rope until right before she clothes-lined herself and I didn't get it out of my mouth fast enough.  It was so funny!  I love laughing! 

We also were able to stop by two of our former investigators (Krista and Melissa) and they were super nice as well!  We were able to set up return appointments with them for this week and we also committed Krista to baptism on January 4th! :)  I am so excited to see how she will progress.  She and her son seemed really involved with the Restoration when we taught them.  Her son was trying to understand why there are so many churches and it was fun to see Krista thinking and trying to help her son understand what we were teaching.  She was trying to explain it in a way that her son could understand and that really helped me know that she was understanding what we were teaching her.

We were able to have a lesson with one of our potential investigators.  Her name is Tanya and she is awesome!  Her husband is related to Joseph Smith!  It's so weird to think that they are not members!  They would be amazing in the Gospel!  We were able to talk to her a lot about the Priesthood because she had a ton of questions about it!  It was such an awesome lesson!

We also have been teaching Amelia.  Her family are members but she recently turned 8 and her parents asked us to make sure she is prepared for her baptism that is on Saturday.  I have to say, Amelia soaks everything up!  Sister Parry and I taught her the 10 Commandments last week, using our hands, and she loved it!  She always remembered them when I would quiz her as we were learning them.  She loves learning and I have enjoyed being able to teach her.  It's so fun to teach little kids!

Yesterday was awesome!  We were able to go watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and enjoy the stake's activity that went with it.  We also were able to get one of our investigators, Amber, and her daughter, Madi, to come to it.  I think that Amber had a really good time but it will be interesting to ask her about it when we go teach her again this week. I really hope she had fun and that she felt the Spirit.

Also.... a little side note for those of you who have sent letters to me lately.... All of my letters have been being forwarded to the old house that I lived in so I just got a handful of them from the Sisters that took our spot in that house yesterday.  I will try to get replies sent out to everyone but if not, know that I will write you back next week.  Thank you so much for all of you love and prayers.

Pictures.... All of the Sisters at the Thanksgiving activity, my tree and cards, Sister Parry and I, and Mt. Rainier on a really clear day.

It's been great to really work on establishing stronger faith and to see the results from it this week!  I know that this Gospel is the restored truth on earth today.  I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each one of us personally and that They want us to return to live with Them.  I know that this is where I am supposed to be at this time in my life and I am so thankful for this privilege that I have to serve Him.  I am so thankful for the things I am learning while I am on my mission and for the things that push me to become better!  Know that all of you are in my prayers and that I think of you often!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 30

Hey!

This week has been really good!  I have really enjoyed Sister Catie Parry as my new companion! :D  She is from Oklahoma and she has been out for almost 5 months!  I have now moved up to Senior Companion status at my 7 month mark. :D  I am actually alright with that :)  She has been teaching me so much and I hope I have been teaching her something too.  I have really enjoyed being companions with her the last couple days.  I will be honest that I wasn't super thrilled to be companions with Sister Parry at first because her and I do missionary work so differently.  I have never really liked using tracting as a way to find new investigators (I haven't really seen it as been super successful) but that's one thing that Sister Parry really loves to do.  This week I definitely had to swallow my pride and do some tracting even though I didn't really want to.  This time, tracting actually worked!  It definitely has been a week of miracles!  We were able to find a new investigator on Thanksgiving.  Her name is Pat and she is a widow.  She grew up Presbyterian, joined the Catholic church and is now back as a Presbyterian.  She was so happy to talk to us and really enjoyed our visit.  We have a return appointment set up for December 11th with her! :)  She seems really open to learning more and I think she will be fun to teach!  I can't wait to see how she ends up progressing!  

We have also been able to find some really great potential investigators.  We found one lady last night who isn't a member and she is already using familysearch.org to work on her family history.  She wasn't super interested in learning more but we both felt like she will eventually join the church.  This lady even made us some hot chocolate to take on the road with us.  This week we have just been able to find a lot of people who are willing to talk with us and are super nice to us. :)  Definitely a week of miracles!

Thanksgiving was great!  In the morning we drove up to the Auburn Stake Center and we were able to play basketball, volleyball, and card games with some of the other missionaries and President and Sister Eaton.  It was super fun! :)  I went and played volleyball and I don't think my wrists have ever gotten as red as they did on Thanksgiving (they were red almost all the way up to my elbows).  It was great to be able to vary our schedule a little bit for the holidays :)  We then came home and did our weekly planning, went out for a couple hours, and then came home and had thanksgiving dinner with the Johnson's,  It was funny because the night before Thanksgiving, the Johnson's oven broke (the bottom heating unit went out) so we had turkey sandwiches for Thanksgiving dinner.  The Johnson's had gone over to their daughter's house for lunch and they brought home some turkey and rolls for us to have since their oven wasn't working.  It was super good!  Now we will get to have Thanksgiving with the Johnson's another time when we don't have a dinner appointment! :D 

I forgot my camera cord so I will have to attach a picture of Sister Parry and I next week (oops).  Nothing else to really report!  Things are going well here in Graham and I'm super excited to keep working here! :D

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 28

Hello from Graham!

This week was really good :)  We had an awesome ward activity to invite non-members and less-actives to on Friday.  We planned a Fiesta with the Spanish Elders and were able to learn about a different culture.  It was super fun!  There were tons of people there and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  We were able to try some authentic Mexican food and we had a lot of fun with a couple Pinatas! :)  I'll have to attach pictures next week (forgot my camera cord at home).  

Friday, before the ward activity, Sister Mosbrucker and I had a super cool experience.  We had planned in to go see a Less-active in the ward that we didn't know, but when we got to her house, it was being remodeled so no one was living there.  We ended up pulling down the road and were sitting in front of a house as we were looking to see who was close to the place that we were at.  All of the sudden, this older lady was next to our car.  We rolled down the window and she said, "Oh I thought you were my kids just sitting in your car."  We ended up telling her that we were missionaries and we were just looking for someone else to visit.  Somehow, she ended up telling us that she had been baking pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  I LOVE pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  While we were talking to her about baking, she asked us if we wanted a loaf of her bread.  We told her, "It's up to you."  She then invited us into her house to come get a loaf.  We ended up sitting down and talking to her.  We learned that her name is Annie and that she studies from the New World Translation of the Bible.  She participates in a Bible study with a friend who is Jehovah's Witness.  When we told her that we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she looked a little bit confused.  We then proceeded to tell her that we were Mormon.  She then said, "I have always wanted to talk to Mormons before, but I have never had the chance to!"  It made me so excited to hear that!  We have to call her today to set up an appointment because she didn't know what her schedule was like for this week.  I feel like she is so prepared to learn more about the Gospel so I am praying that everything goes well with her.  It's so true that Heavenly Father will help us find those who are ready to hear the gospel or He will lead them to us! :)

Thanks for all our your prayers and all of the help and support that all of you give me!  I love you!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 27 :)

Hey everyone!

This week was really good! :)  We had some really good lessons with some of the Less-active members of the ward and we were able to have a pretty good lesson with one of our former investigators.  We were able to go to Joyce's home and teach her.  Sister Logan (one of the senior missionaries in the Elk Plain ward) was able to come with us and help us know how to teach Joyce better.  From that lesson, we were able to determine that Joyce is not yet willing to pray to know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and that Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration.  It really broke my heart to see her not willing to progress in the gospel but I know that eventually her heart will be softened enough that she will come to know of the happiness that the gospel can bring into her life.  I'm hoping that it is sooner rather than later but you never know what Heavenly Father has in store for those people that we teach.  We are still working hard at trying to use all of our resources to find new investigators but it's been a little bit difficult.  This week will be so great with working to find those individuals who are prepared to learn about and accept the gospel!  I can't wait! :)  I am hoping that we can really start singing more in lessons and possibly be able to find others to teach as we do that. :)

On Friday, we had ZONE CONFERENCE!  I always LOVE zone conference because we have the opportunity to learn from President and Sister Eaton.  I learn so much from them so I always look forward to when we have zone conference.  It was absolutely amazing and I learned so much that I can start applying in my every day life!  We also were able to learn from our Stake President, President Almond.  He is great!  He talked to us about how prayer is our "open-door policy" (like when you have the opportunity for college to go into class and ask the professor any questions that you want to help you on an upcoming test) and how Heavenly Father is the Professor.  He talked a lot about how even though prayer is that "open-door policy," we need to be willing to be still and listen to what Heavenly Father has to say to us because He knows what is going to be on the test and He will always let us know if we 1) ask Him and 2) Be still and listen.  It was such an eye-opener for me and it made my testimony grow.  I am so thankful for this opportunity and privilege to be here and to be learning so many things about the gospel and developing so many life skills.

Other than that, the week was about the same with how the work was going.  I am so excited for this week and can't wait to be a part of it.  It's definitely going to be busy.  We have exchanges tomorrow, a meeting on Thursday, a ward activity (Latino Night) on Friday, breakfast with President Almond (all the missionaries in the Stake and their Bishops) on Saturday morning, and then we are singing in Church and teaching Gospel Essentials on Sunday!  It's going to be great!

Thanks for all of your prayers and all the support.  I appreciate it so much!  Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Mosiah 2:41

Week 26

Hey everyone!

This week was not nearly as exciting as last week.  Just normal missionary work.  Unfortunately, we dropped all of our investigators that we have this week because they haven't been progressing and we haven't been able to get in contact with them for over 1 month.  That's a little tough for me but it's how missionary work goes.  This week was sort of fun though because we had another set of Sister Missionaries staying in our house with us for a couple nights... Let's just say we played volleyball for exercise in the morning :D  

Halloween wasn't too bad.  We had to be in our house by 6 so we did our weekly planning and then we played Halloween Bingo and Spoons before we went to bed.

That's about it for the week though!  Thanks for the prayers and support!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 25...The best week and the worst nightmare

Hey Everyone!

So this week was crazy!  Not a ton of new things with the work but there were a lot of crazy experiences that were not related to missionary work whatsoever.  I guess I will start with how the work has been and then explain everything else.

So the work..... this week we were able to visit a ton of Less-Actives (the majority of them were actually in-actives) so that was super good! :)  All of them were super nice and willing to visit with us!  We also were able to get in contact with Jessica and invited her to the ward trunk-or-treat and chili cook-off this coming up Wednesday.  We also went and visited one of our former investigators, Joyce, and had a super good lesson with her!  We think we know how to get her to church!  Sister Mosbrucker and I need to SING in sacrament meeting!  I am so excited and so nervous all at the same time!  We just have to put it in action now! :) Can't wait!

Now to the crazy experiences!  So Monday and Tuesday were just normal days and then Wednesday happened.  So Wednesday, we went to go visit a member.  We had never been to her house before this visit.  When we drove up the road, we ended up passing her house because it was on the corner and we couldn't park right in front of her house quick enough.  Sister Mosbrucker decided to park in front of the next house up the road and we would just walk back.  30 minutes later..... as we are walking out to the car, the Relief Society President was calling so I answered the phone and start talking to her.  Sister Mosbrucker goes to start the car and notices that there is a paper taped to our windshield so she takes it off of the windshield and gets back in the car.  She reads it and then just starts laughing!  After I got off the phone, she handed the note to me and this is what it said: "keep parking here and you will have to buy a new car. from: the *&%$@# who lives at this house."  It made us both laugh super hard because we weren't even parked on his property and he was so upset that we were parked in front of his house.  Now we just know not to park there next time :)

Thursday was normal.  The only exciting thing was it was my 6 month mark out on my mission! :)  It's going super fast!

Friday was pretty normal until that night.  We went to go visit a less-active family (the Zoch family) and parked in between the Zoch's home and their neighbor's house on the road.  We went inside and start talking to Sister Zoch and her kids and then Brother Zoch got home and we started to talk to him.  While we were talking, someone knocked on the door so both of their kids jumped up to go answer it.  All of the sudden we hear someone yelling, "You are so immature and your parents are so inconsiderate...."  It went on for a little bit longer before Brother Zoch walked over to the door.  It ended up being their neighbor (the one that we sort of parked in front of her house) and she just kept yelling at Brother Zoch.  She kept saying, "Get that car off of my property!  I want those wheels off my grass! etc., etc., etc."  It went on for a good 10 minutes or so.  Brother Zoch wasn't really helping either though.... He was sort of egging her on to keep yelling. Sister Mosbrucker and I realized that she was talking about our car so we told Sister Zoch that we would go move it.  She told us to wait until their neighbor went back inside and then Brother Zoch would walk out with us so we wouldn't get an ear-full.  So finally the neighbor leaves and we get ready to go move our car when the Zoch's daughter saw that their neighbor had her car facing our car.  We honestly thought that she was going to hit our car because we weren't moving it fast enough.  We ran outside and tried to apologize to her that we had parked there but she wouldn't listen.  She was on the phone with the police and gave them our license plate number and everything but then they realized that we were parked on city property (there's a strip of grass between the road and the sidewalk that is city property and that's where our tires were parked at).  So we moved our car and went back inside and had a great lesson with them! :)  It was super funny because Brother Zoch had apparently recorded her yelling at him (she's been doing that for about 6 years or so) and so we kept playing the recording all throughout the lesson!  We all were just busting up laughing because it was so funny and such a dumb thing to be upset about.  We were totally exhausted that day, because of how busy it was, so we went home, planned for the next day, and went to bed.

Saturday morning started out normal :)  We finished studies and were getting ready to head out to work.  The sisters that we live with left before we did and not 2 minutes after they walked out the door, they called.  We thought that they had forgotten something and wanted us to bring it to them.  Sister Mosbrucker asked them what they forgot and Sister Goaslind said, "Ummm.... we have a problem.... our mailbox is destroyed!"  Sister Mosbrucker and I were shocked!  I was in the process of putting some more layers on when we heard this and Sister Mosbrucker said, "Get some shoes on!"  We ran down our driveway and our mailbox was completely unfolded (keep in mind, it's a metal mailbox) on the opposite side of our driveway!  We didn't know what to do so we called our Zone Leaders and they drove over to our house to see it.  Sister Goaslind called her Zone Leaders and they came over as well.  One of our neighbors across the street opened her window and told us what had happened.  Someone was drag racing (or drunk) at 1:00 am and hit our mailbox, a street sign, a rock, and uprooted a tree.  Our neighbors had drove down the road to see the damage and get the license plate number to let the police know.  They ran the license plate number over to us while we were standing outside.  Our Zone Leaders were able to find a wooden pole and put that in the hole that was now empty for a new mailbox.  They ran to Walmart and got us a cheap mailbox to use and some reflective stuff and number stickers for the mailbox.  It was such a crazy day!

That's about it for the week!  Hope everything is going well for you!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 24

Hey!

Nothing much to report this week.  All of our investigators were sick or super busy all week and we were dropped by one of our investigators too.  Still just working as hard as we can regardless.  We were able to go to a baptism on Saturday.  It was for the Elder's investigator, Tammy.  That was super fun!  That was probably the most exciting thing that happened this week.  Sister Mosbrucker's back started hurting super bad (like she was having a hard time walking) after the baptism so we headed home and were in our apartment the rest of the night.  Then last night, it started to act up again so we went in early again.  Always interesting when that happens.  Hopefully this week is much more productive.

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 23

Hey!

This week was really good :) We were able to find some new investigators (party time!) and have a super busy week! :) We were on the move all day, every day this week! Love it! :) I love when we are super busy!

First thing's first.... Transfers..... I am staying in Graham with Sister Mosbrucker! :) Super excited especially since the work is finally starting to pick up! :)

We had dinner on Wednesday with Part-Member Family and we were able to really connect with them and set up a return appointment for this week :) They are so nice! Todd is less-active ad his wife, Hope, is not a member. I am super excited to see what happens with those two!

Elder Thomson and Elder Wilson gave us a referral this week too that the Elders had been teaching a couple months ago. They thought that we would be able to connect better with Christa because she's a single mom. We met with her and she asked us to come back this Thursday.

We also found a new investigator on Tuesday last week. His name is Elijah but I don't know too much about him because I was on exchanges when Sister Mosbrucker and Sister Verhoef found him. I do know that he's studying to do something with working on cars but that's about all that I know about him. We have a church tour set up with him on Saturday though and I am so excited! :)

This week I was also able to go on exchanges with Sister Dudek and Sister Carlin!  I really have loved exchanges!  It's been a little bit short-lived though because Sister Mosbrucker just was released as Sister-Trainer Leader so I won't be going on a lot of exchanges anymore.  But I am super excited because Sister Wolfe, one of the sisters we live with, is our new Sister-Trainer Leader! :)  It will be a great transfer! :)

In other news, we might be moving houses..... We are working to move into our ward boundaries since we live outside of our ward and stake boundaries.  We are hoping to move into one of the member's homes at the end of this week so I will keep you updated! :)

One random thing for the week... We found a dead bird on our patio (don't worry we didn't touch it) so we thought it would be fun to have a burial for him. :)  This tells you how crazy all of us sisters are!

Pictures....

1. Graham Zone (sorry this one is blurry..... don't know what happened)

2. Exchanges with Sister Dudek

3. Exchanges with Sister Carlin

4. Burial for Tweeter

That's about it for the week!  Thanks so much for all of you love and prayers!  I truly appreciate it!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 22

Hey everyone!

So totally not an exciting week this week.  It was super slow when it comes to teaching.  We were able to see a lot of people, but we weren't able to get a lot of lessons in.  We haven't been able to get in contact with Jessica all week so that stinks a little bit.  We don't really know what to do with her because she needs to come to church for her to make any progress.  Oh well, we are definitely going to keep trying this next week.  I also went on an exchange with Sister Parry while Sister Mosbrucker had to go to a meeting.  It was super fun!

On the other hand, General Conference was AMAZING!  I learned so, so much!  I took a ton of notes... 1/2 of one of my purple notebooks full!  It truly was an inspiring conference!  I invite every one of you to apply the things that you were able to learn from General Conference in some way this week.  I loved what President Uchtdorf said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith!"  His talk was probably my favorite!

Hope everything is going well back home!  I love and miss all of you but I know that this is where I am supposed to be at this time in my life.  I am loving being on a mission and am so grateful to be doing this in my life!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

3Nephi 5:13

Week 21

Hey!

This week wasn't too exciting.... We unfortunately had to drop our investigator Joyce.... She wasn't willing to pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it is true because she thinks she doesn't need anything else but the Bible.  That was very difficult to do.  It was so hard to see her be so unwilling to further her knowledge about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  It made my heart ache to know that she doesn't believe that we are children of God... I want her to have that knowledge because it's helped me so, so much!  Oh well though.... hopefully we at least planted a seed that will start growing eventually.

This week we also had a church tour with our other investigator, Jessica.  That was super fun!  It was the first church tour that I have ever given before and it was so neat!  I was hoping that Jessica would come to church on Sunday but unfortunately she didn't :(  We are continually working with her to get her to come because I think she and her kids would really enjoy it if they did come.

This week we also had Interviews with President Eaton!  I loved being able to see them again!  I have missed being able to see them every week so it was nice to see President and Sister Eaton again.  And once again I was able to go on exchanges with Sister Evans-Bottoms.  She is great!

I loved the Relief Society Broadcast on Saturday!  There were some great messages about being covenant keepers and how that can be a blessing to our families.  I learned so much and can't wait for the Ensign to come out so I can read them again!  Conference this weekend is going to fantastic!

This morning, a member in our ward took us down to the Northwest Wildlife Trek.  It's just like a zoo but it's with all of the Northwest animals.  It was so cool and so much fun. :)

Well, that's about it for now :) Hopefully this week will continue to be successful :)

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 20! ...Time is flying!

Hey Hey Everyone!

Man, this week was a crazy busy week.  I LOVED it! :)  I always love when we are super busy and have lots to do... sometimes I wonder if that is such a great thing or not because it also makes me very stressed sometimes.  This week we were able to make a lot of contact with some Less-actives and our two investigators. :)  TWO investigators!!!! We are slowing moving up in the world of investigators! This week we were able to contact a referral that a member gave us and she was able to become a new investigator.  Her name is Joyce and she LOVES the Bible... No Joke!  She was having a hard time finding anything in the Book of Mormon that looked familiar to her.  Sister Wolfe and I (we were on exchanges) left her with the commitment to read 3 Nephi 12-14 and compare it to Matthew 5-7 like it says you can do.  She Bible bashes just a little bit, but we don't know if she's doing it to prove us wrong or if she really wants to understand.  We have a lesson with her tonight at 6:00 so we are hoping that the lesson goes well and that we can help her understand.  Crossing our fingers!

We also were able to get in contact with a less-active member of the ward and she is awesome!  Her name is Cassandra and she is so nice!  She has had some difficult trials in her life and isn't coming to church because of some things that happened there.  I've come to think that she is just punishing herself since she isn't partaking of the Sacrament every week instead of punishing everyone else like I think she wants to do.  We did talk to her about the Relief Society Broadcast and she said she really wanted to come so that makes us excited!  :)  We told her we would sit by her and help her feel welcome.  I'm super excited for Saturday and the chance that we have to go to the broadcast!

We also had a lesson with our investigator Jessica on Saturday!  It was so awesome to be able to get to know her better and talk with her about prayer.  She told us that she's been going to a lot of different churches, trying to find one that has a lot of activities and stuff for her kids to do and is family oriented.... our church to a "T"!  We have a church tour set up with her on Wednesday (first church tour I have ever given) and I am super excited!  

The only other super exciting thing that happened this week was that our car got broken into.... We had a meeting (PEC) at 7:30 am and by 9:00 they had broken in. They smashed the passenger window and took everything out of the glove box.... so frustrating sometimes.... but that was an adventure!  We were in church for maybe 30 minutes and then we were outside dealing with our car the rest of the time.  It was POURING rain the whole time we were out there so we were soaked!  This actually has happened a little more frequently than we would like..... last Sunday (9/15) 3 members had their cars broken into.  Ours has been the worst though because they've just messed with the locks on the other cars, but apparently it's quite a big deal in our parking lot.  All throughout church, Priesthood Brethren are patrolling the parking lot because it's happening so frequently.  The response that we got with our car being broke into was crazy!  Tons of people were out helping us and patrolling the parking lot.  Elder Wilson and Elder Thomson (our Zone Leaders that are in our ward) were great help with knowing what to do.  I am so thankful that we have such awesome Zone Leaders and ward members and their willingness to help us with anything!

I'm attaching lots of pictures from the week and some pretty good ones of Mt. Rainier!  I am also sending some of each exchange I have done this transfer.  Enjoy!

I think that's about it for the week!  Much more exciting than the last few weeks! :) Loving my mission and all the things I am learning and experiencing!

Love you!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 19

This week was pretty good :) Nothing super exciting happened in our area but we are working hard at getting some new investigators. We are mostly working with less-actives and Part-Member Families to get people to teach right now. It is slowly starting to work out. We are still working with Jessica but we weren't able to get in contact with her this week. :(  Not fun but hopefully we will have some success with her this week.  We were able to do a couple exchanges this week also. Those were super fun! I really learned a lot from the exchange with the Sunrise sisters. I was with Sister Lloyd in her area and she seems like such a solid missionary! Even though she has only been out 4 months longer than I have, she sure seems like she has it together and she totally knows what she needs to be doing at every turn! We had such a great day together and we both learned so much!

I know that being out here on my mission is where I need to be at this time in my life.  I know that the Savior lives and loves each one of us.  I know that fullness of the gospel has been restored to this earth.  I know that Joseph Smith was the Prophet of the Restoration and that Thomas S. Monson is the living Prophet on earth now.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and that it truly does testify of Christ.  I know that we can all be missionaries even just by our daily examples.  I am so thankful for this privilege to serve the Lord with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength!  I would not be the person that I am today without this wonderful experience!  Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers!

I love you!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills 

Photos: Sister Mosbrucker and Sister Hills

Week 18

Hey!

Nothing too exciting has happened down here in Graham yet. I am loving being with Sister Mosbrucker for my companion! I have already learned so much from her and it's only been 1 week! This is going to be a great transfer! We are working hard to find new investigators and are also working to contact a bunch of the Part-Member Families in our ward to get some people to teach. On Friday, Sister Parry and I found a new investigator while Sister Mosbrucker was at a Training meeting up at the mission home. Our investigator's name is Jessica and we are continuing to work with her and hopefully she will make some progress.  She wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she had to work.  We really don't have anyone else to teach except for Jessica at the moment but we have been and will continue to work really hard at finding more people to teach! :D

Hope everything is going well back home and everywhere else in the world :)  Thanks for everything!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 17 :) Good bye Lake Sawyer :(.... Hello Graham! :D

Hey Everyone!

Sorry this is going to be a shorter email but I don't have a ton of time to write.  Last week was such a blur.... I don't really remember what happened last week.  I do remember that at District Meeting last Tuesday, Elder Platero (our DL) added up the total lessons that we had the week before and we were at 86 lessons for the week!  Elder Platero then challenged all of us to get 100 lessons as a district this past week.  Well, Monday night comes and we all did a conference call together to figure out how many lessons we had for the week.  We had 104 LESSONS last week as a district!  It was such a fun and cool experience to try and get that many lessons and it seemed to unify all of us even more as a district.  Friday, we also we able to "kidnap" Sister Higgins and take her with us for a couple hours.  It was so much fun to be with her and it was also such a testimony builder about having members present at lessons with investigators.  We were able to have 3 lessons with Sister Higgins present and we were able to find 2 new investigators.  It was really nice to have Sister Higgins with us as well because when Sister Hopkins and I didn't know how to answer some of their questions or didn't know what to say, Sister Higgins was able to jump right in and help answer their questions.  If you ever get a chance to go out with the missionaries, I would recommend going with them!  It is such a fun and neat experience! :)

As you can tell from the subject line, I GOT TRANSFERRED yesterday! :D  It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone in Lake Sawyer but I am so excited for this new adventure.  I was sent down to Graham to serve for these next 6 weeks!  My new companion is Sister Tarryn Mosbrucker.  She's 22 and has been out on her mission for 14 months.  She is a Sister Trainer Leader (the sister equivalent of a Zone Leader) so I will be going on a TON of exchanges this transfer!  I am so excited! :D  Graham is south of Puyallup and Mt. Rainier is in our Zone!  Hopefully we will be able to go hiking on P-day a bunch! :)

Mom, I got your package you sent with the cookies yesterday.  I don't know when you sent it but now you can figure out how long it took for me to get it.  I will attach pictures next week and I will write a letter for you this week but it probably won't get in the mail until Monday.

That's about it for the week.  I will have a bunch more to tell you next week!

Love all of you!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 16

This week was pretty good :) We were able to see quite a few people, get a couple new investigators, contact a bunch of referrals that we received, went to the Clark Lake Baptism, and managed to lock our car keys in our trunk! :) Lots of crazy events for the week.

Let's see..... New investigators: Debbie Bartch and Anna McClure. Sister Hopkins and Sister Cox were able to visit with her (for like the first time in 2 months) on Wednesday. We were on exchanges but they were able to see her and set up a return appointment with her for this Wednesday. Anna McClure was a referral that we had received from Brother Naylor about a week ago. When we stopped by to contact her last week, she wasn't home but we were able to talk to her daughter Alex. Alex told us that her mom would be home anytime after 3:30. We decided when we went to go see her on Friday, we would see if Brother Naylor would want to come with us since they know each other a little bit and Brother Naylor said he would like to come with us when we go back. Anna is such a nice lady. She is Catholic but because her pastor retired, she doesn't feel like her church is offering anything to her. She, along with her kids, doesn't have a reason or desire to go anymore because the pastor retired. We are super excited to be able to teach her and she is coming to church on September 1st! :) We are so excited for her!

We also were able to contact a bunch of the referrals we had received. Most of them weren't super interested to learn more about the church but that doesn't mean we are giving up on them. :) We will put them in our potentials list and try back in a couple months :)

On Saturday, Sister Hopkins and I were able to go to a baptism for another set of missionaries in the Zone.  It was awesome!  I could really feel the Spirit there and I was so happy for Jacob and Evelyn. They both looked so happy and so excited to start a "new life" as a member of the church.  Sister Hopkins and I also got some good laughs from this cute little girl who would bring us some of her raisins and then would take them out of our hands and eat them. I would then ask her, "Where did they go?" She then would point to her mouth, silently saying, "They went in here and I ate them." She would continue to bring them back to Sister Hopkins and I until they were all gone. It was just so funny to watch because she was such a cute little girl. That definitely has been one of the hardest things for me while I have been out here, not being able to hold little kids, but I actually adjusted to it quite fast and it's totally worth not holding them right now! :)

We, or should I say Sister Hopkins, also managed to lock our car keys in our trunk on Friday. We were headed over to visit one of our former investigators that we haven't been able to get in touch with for the last month or so because she has been at her aunt's house a lot. We decided that if she wasn't home, we were going to tract her road a little bit, so we got into the back to get some copies of the Book of Mormon to hand out. When Elizabeth wasn't home, we decided we wanted to put our Quads in the car so we wouldn't have to carry them down the road a ways. I'm waiting for Sister Hopkins to unlock the car when I hear her say, "Uh oh." I was confused for a couple seconds and then I was like, "No you didn't!?" She rummaged around in her bag for a little bit and couldn't find them. We started to walk up to the Graney's house (it was right around the corner) and we called Elder Bryant. He said that he was at dinner and so he didn't think that he would be able to help us for a couple hours. While we waited, we were pretty close to a Part-Member family that we had been wanting to visit for about a week so we decided to walk to their house. We stopped by the Relief Society President's house to see if she wanted to come with us. While we were there, the Office Elders called us and said they were just leaving Maple Valley so they would be to our car shortly. We knew we wouldn't be able to get back to our car before they got there, so we called Sister Graney to see if she could drive us down to our car if we walked to her house. She said that she could do that. While we were walking to her house, a silver truck passed by and honked. I just thought that it was some guys checking us out (because that is normally what is going on when someone honks at us) and then Sister Hopkins said, "That would be funny if that was Elder Bryant and the Office Elders because they were wearing white shirts." We got to Sister Graney's house and hopped in her car. While we were driving down the road that our car was on, we see this silver truck driving towards us with a white Corolla following it. I realized that it was our car, so we tried to chase them down. It was such a great story! And the best part was, within those 2 hours that we didn't have a car, we were able to get 4 other lessons and 1 member present lesson. We found out that day how productive walking really can be if you make sure to talk with everyone you see.

So yesterday, we woke up and while we were laying in bed, trying to wake up, we heard this really loud voice coming from outside (and no, we are not hearing voices in our heads).  We couldn't hear everything that the voice was saying but we always seemed to pick up the word "water."  Sister Hopkins and I looked at each other and said, "Are they having a MASS BAPTISM over at the lake?!"  I was like, "Who are these missionaries that found so many converts??"  I found out later that both of us were picturing the "Waters of Mormon" painting that we always see.  As we were trying to figure out what was going on, we both suddenly remembered that there was a triathlon going on that morning and apparently the swimming part of the triathlon was at the lake.  It was the weirdest thing ever!

Saturday was our 4 month mark so we went to Jack in the Box on Saturday to celebrate! :)  It was so good!  Yesterday was National Banana Split Day so we went over to Sister Higgins' house for banana splits that were super yummy! :)

Pictures... Click Day, exchanges (with Sister Pearson), messing with my camera settings (I was very proud of most of these pictures), riding a tiny little bike because our car got taken away :) (just kidding!) 

I think that was about it for the week!

Love you!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 15

Hey Hey!

This week was kind of a slower week but it still wasn't bad at all.  We really focused this week on getting referrals from members so we had quite a few lessons with members (sort of without meaning to).  We weren't planning on having a lot of member lessons but we had quite a few opportunities to see members come up throughout the week.  On Wednesday, we went to go contact a referral that we had received (her name is Anna) and we ended up talking to Anna's daughter, Alex.  Alex was baptized not too long ago so it was fun to get to know her and be able to ask her about what she liked about the church that sort of enticed her to become a member.  We are going to go see Anna again sometime this week and hopefully be able to start teaching her and her family.

Also this week, we went and contacted another referral that we had received.  Brother and Sister Balls gave us this referral for their next-door neighbor.  When we went over there, we could see someone in the kitchen but there was some Christian music playing and so they didn't hear us knocking at the door.  We saw the lady inside leave the kitchen and then heard the side door open.  We were thinking, "Why is she coming out that way?"  Then her son, Hayden, was walking past us so we started to talk to him.  His mom heard him talking and started walking outside to see who he was talking to when she saw us in the window and screamed.  Apparently we scared her because she wasn't expecting us to be there.  We were able to visit with her and get to know her a little bit.  Her name is Rhianna and she, as well as her family, are Seventh Day Adventists.  I didn't know too much about that religion so as we were talking, we were trying to think of things that we had sort of in common and what was different.  I really enjoyed learning about their religion and getting to know them.  Then Rhianna's husband got home (his name is Jason), and we sang "I Am a Child of God" for them and said a prayer with them.  After we had prayed, Rhianna looked at both of us for a second and then she asked, "Would the two of you like to stay for dinner?"  We were able to stay for dinner and get to know them even better.  It was a real testimony builder about how music softens people's hearts and helps them be more willing to listen to what you have to say.

This week we had Zone Conference!  It was super, super awesome!  I learned so much and can't wait to put it into practice!  The Spirit was so strong.  I learned about ways to deal with stress (I have been having quite a few headaches lately that I think is from tension from stress), that I need to be my best self when I am talking with people, being able to discern the needs and concerns that people may have, etc., etc., etc.  I took a bunch of notes too! :)  It's crazy how the longer I am out here and the more I interact with President Eaton and his family, the more I love them.  Every time  I talk to them, my love for them grows.  I definitely am able to see how important Charity is while serving a mission.  We also found out on Thursday that we are able to only go to the temple once a year... :( That's definitely a little bit sad because I was looking forward to going roughly every other transfer.  It just means that I will be more excited to go when we do get to go!  And I know I will be going to the temple a ton after I get home.

We also got a new car this week!  It's a white 2013 Corolla and it is AWESOME!  It's so cool because you are able to sync it with you phone so you can answer it while you drive!  We got a new car because on July 4th, someone backed into our car while it was parked.  Don't worry, we weren't in the car :)  So they switched out our car so they could go get it fixed.  Unfortunately, the new Corolla is only temporary. :(

We also made omelets for breakfast yesterday and I finally got it to fold over really well so I had to take a picture and show you Mom!

That's about all that has happened this week that's exciting.  Hopefully next week will be a little bit more on the exciting part when it comes to teaching lessons.  I am so thankful for all that you do for me, as well as for the love, support, and prayers.

I love you!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 14....I think...

Hey Everyone!

This week was amazing! :)  We had 2 investigators come to church yesterday and then we found 4 NEW INVESTIGATORS! :D  It was such an awesome week.  Tuesday we had exchanges.  Sister Cox came here to Lake Sawyer with me and Sister Hopkins went up to Renton with Sister Pearson (Sister Cox's companion).  Sister Cox was here in Lake Sawyer the transfer before I got here, so it was old stomping ground for her.  I learned so much from Sister Cox and am so thankful for the time that I was able to spend with her.  On Tuesday, we were able to tract into a guy named Steve.  We just started talking to him and Sister Cox asked him if he had any questions for us.  He couldn't really think of any but he did mention that he had just found out that 4 of his family members had passed away within the last 2 years and no one bothered to tell him about their funerals.  We were able to teach him a little bit about the Plan of Salvation and were able to testify to him that he would be able to see his family members again.  It was such a neat and fun experience to be able to share that with him at a time when he really needed it.

On Wednesday, we were going to go visit Sam (an investigator that is living with a family in our ward as a foster child) and share a message with him, but he wasn't home.  A couple of his neighbors were outside in their yards so we decided to go see if they needed any help with anything.  The first person we talked to was really nice but wasn't super interested in learning more about the Church.  We then walked across the street to go talk to a lady that was outside trimming her trees.  We walked up to her and asked her if she wanted any help.  Sort of sarcastically, she said, "Sure."  We put our bags and stuff down to go help her and then she was like, "I really think I am okay though."  We asked if she was sure and she said, "Yeah."  We kept talking to her and found out that her name is Lisa and that her 21-year-old daughter, Christina, is a member of the Church.  She told us that Christina started going to church when she was in 2nd grade.  Once she turned 18, she was baptized and is going to school at BYU-Idaho now.  We sat and visited with Lisa for a little bit and during our conversation, she mentioned that she has 2 sons (one of them has special needs) that haven't been baptized yet and she was worried that they wouldn't make it to heaven because they haven't been baptized, but then she changed the subject and just moved on.  We continued to talk to her and then we said a prayer with her.  When we finished saying the prayer, Sister Cox said, "While we were praying, I felt like I needed to tell you this:  You son who has special needs will make it to heaven because he is one of Heavenly Father's special angels, so he doesn't need to be baptized because of his specific circumstances."  Lisa said thanks for visiting with her, but I caught a glimpse of her face and she had tears in her eyes.  When we got back to the car, Sister Cox said, "Go back, and go back often!"  It was such a testimony builder to see her eyes wet with tears as Sister Cox was testifying about how her son would make it to heaven.  I could really feel the Spirit at that moment and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Lisa could feel the Spirit testifying to her as well.  I think Lisa is so prepared to learn more about the Gospel and will hopefully continue to want to meet with us.

We were able to go on Splits with Sister Eaton (the Mission President's wife) on Wednesday!  That was such a fun experience!  Benefits to serving in the Mission President's ward! :D As we were walking up to the door, Sister Eaton was telling us that she didn't really know how to tract.  When we knocked on the first door, a guy came out and said, "Sorry, I was just exercising and doing some push-ups."  He was trying to explain what kind of push-ups he was doing, so he just decided to show us.  Then before you knew it, Sister Eaton was doing push-ups too!  And in a bright red pencil skirt at that!  It was such a funny thing to see, but it makes me love her so much more because she knew just to be herself.  We established that the guy's name is Raymond and HE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY! :D  We were able to teach him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and a little bit about the Restoration as well.  It was so good and he is planning on coming to the Ward Fellowship Dinner on Wednesday night.  He seems really open to learning so I can't wait to teach him more.

Seneva had such a great time at the Temple doing Baptisms for the Dead on Saturday!  We were able to get half of our Recent Converts at the Temple that night so that was awesome! :D  I wished we would have been able to go but at the same time I am glad that they were able to experience it with other members of the Ward. :D

Mom, I did get Alli and AJ's box for my birthday!  I loved it! :)  I had talked about it in my letter I sent with my camera cards so that's why you haven't heard anything about it yet.  Apparently I didn't put enough postage on the envelope before I sent it so it just got in the mail on Saturday with the right amount of postage, so look for it this week :) I did get the card in your birthday box as well :)  Thank you so much for that!  The apricot jam arrived safely and unbroken!  I have been having butter and apricot jam toast for quite a few days since I got it :)  The mother's cookies were super delish!  A couple of them were broke a little bit but the majority of them were just fine.  The Pita Chips were really good :)  I'm slowly eating them :) I am going to keep that red cardigan :)  It works really well with my dress :)  The other red cardigan I was talking about was the one that looks a little bit like a blazer.  It's long and has a little collar like a blazer does.  Thanks a bunch for everything!

That's about it for the week! :) I love all of you and am so thankful for all that you do for me!  Keep me updated about what's going on in life!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills