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 

Week 13

How's it going?  This past week was definitely better than the week before!  We were able to build our teaching pool back up slowly! :)  After Seneva was baptized, it seemed like our entire teaching pool when down the drain.  We couldn't get in contact with anyone because they were either out of town, sick, dropped us, or didn't want to see us the entire week.  It was a little bit of a bummer but this week was definitely better!  We found a couple new potential investigators, and one new investigator. :)  That is always big for us since finding people can sometimes be really rough for us.  We have been slowly getting more opportunities to serve as well :)  We've had some people from the ward call us and ask us if we can help with some projects that they need to get done :)  I always love doing service!  I always feel so good helping other people and I am always so happy after we do it! :)

This week, we didn't get a ton of lessons but a good amount of the people that we have been teaching are still kind of hard to get a hold of.  We are still working to meet with them when they can meet with us but we also received a TON of referrals this past week so we are trying to get into contact with all of them this week, so who knows... maybe next week we will have a lot more people we are teaching!  Crossing our fingers!

Week 12

Hey Everyone!

I wish I had better news from this past week but unfortunately, this week was a rough one.  We just had a really hard time getting in contact with anyone... It was like everyone that we had contact with last week dropped off of the face of the planet this week.  We also had a couple investigators drop us because they didn't feel like it was the right time for them.  That was really tough for me because I love this work and I LOVE this gospel!  I just want everyone to be able to come closer to Christ and feel of His love for each one of us, and that can't really happen unless we can get in contact with people.

On a good note though, Saturday we were able to get into contact with Burgundy, whom we haven't seen for about 1 month since she's been going back to work.  It was so good to see her and be able to invite her to church, but unfortunately, her and her family were going to be out of town yesterday so she wasn't able to make it to church yesterday.  Yesterday we also were able to see one of our investigators, Serafin Sanchez, who moved up to the Crestwood ward (so technically he isn't our investigator anymore).  We went to dinner at his ex-wife's house and she was able to invite him to come to dinner as well.  It's so sad that they are divorced because they get along so well with each other.  We gave Elder Garrard and his companion Serafin's address so they will be contacting him soon hopefully. :)

I also got stung by a bee last Sunday!  That was a crazy experience!  We were just getting in the car to go to our dinner appointment and all of the sudden my leg started to itch just a bit.  I thought it was just my skirt pulling on my hair so I adjusted my skirt and then it started to burn really bad.  I was thinking, "What the heck is going on?"  As Sister Hopkins was getting into the car after backing me up, I saw a Wasp on my skirt.... NOT COOL!  It was so sore the whole time we were driving down to Sister Graney's house for dinner.  But I can now say that Frankincense and Lavender Essential Oils works really well on bee stings!  We put some on my sting and 5 minutes later, you couldn't even tell that I had gotten stung! :D  Best thing ever!

Pictures... Not too many this week but there is one of my district from last transfer and one of a HUGE ant hill!  It was probably up to my knees when I stood by it!

I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve here in Washington!  I am loving the work, even when it is slow, and I am learning so much about myself and the Gospel!  I am so thankful for all the prayers, support, and love that I feel every day!  I have truly been blessed to have the family and friends that I do have!  I love all of you SO SO much!  This week, pray for a missionary experience and see what Heavenly Father has in store for you!  Email me with your experience and I promise that it will be such a neat experience for everyone!

Love you!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Transfers... Week 11 :)

**Sorry about the late post...we were out of town with little/no internet service**

Hey everyone!

So transfers..... I'M STILL IN LAKE SAWYER!  Yesterday, Sister Hopkins and I were freaking out because of transfers.... I don't think I like them.... I always get so nervous (which I really shouldn't because I'm going to be sent wherever I need to be) but it was good :)  The Zone Leaders thought it would be funny to call us and act like we both were getting transferred before he told us that we were staying.... NOT FUNNY!  I am so excited to be here in Lake Sawyer for another transfer!  I was really hoping I would stay so now I'm super happy! :) This is going to be the best transfer ever!

Saturday, we had a BAPTISM!!!! :) Actually 2!  Seneva and Izeyla both got baptized on Saturday.  It was such an awesome baptism.  They both were so ready and so excited!  The Spirit was so strong and it just felt right.  Sister Hopkins and I did a special musical number (we didn't do as good as we were hoping) but everyone said that the musical number was beautiful.  It was crazy how everything was working out perfectly leading up to their baptism this time. :)  Everything just was going right.  But of course, after all the good comes the bad..... So now I have that to look forward to... not!

This week we were also able to start teaching Lois Bushman.  We ended up teaching her some of the Restoration and she was really enjoying it. :)  I can't wait to go back and teach her again.  This week was also pretty slow because basically everyone was sick (and I mean everyone!).  We didn't really get to visit anyone else but this week we are definitely working harder to go see everyone that we can :)  We are going to make this such a great transfer!

Oh!  And I tried deer meat for the first time this week :)  Actually pretty good :D

Pictures...

There is one of Seneva and Izeyla's baptism on Saturday, one of a deer that we saw while we were tracting, we had a barbeque and birthday cake over at the Higgins' home and invited their neighbor, Lilah, who isn't a member (Lilah and I share the same birthday), I finally got to use those birthday candles you sent me Mom, and there is one of my District this last transfer (L-R: Hermana Womack, Hermana Hansen, Sister Hopkins, Me, Elder Jenkins, Elder Martin, Elder Nebeker, and Elder Garrard)

That's about all the updates.  Thanks for your love and prayers.  I definitely feel them throughout the day!  Can you believe that tomorrow is my 3 MONTH MARK????? Crazy!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills

Week 10

Hello Everyone!

This week was actually really good :) We were able to go and visit with a few people.  We were blessed this week for Elizabeth to be released from the hospital!  We were able to stop by and see her on Wednesday, and she seemed to be feeling a lot better :)  She and her mom were planning a spur-of-the-moment vacation while we were there and they both were super excited to go!  I think this trial really was a blessing in disguise because Elizabeth's mom, Melissa, has really opened up to us a lot more and is more willing to visit and chat with us.  She was so grateful that we checked up on Elizabeth every few days while she was in the hospital and she appreciated all that we did for her (or was willing to do) while they were at the hospital.

We were also able to go visit with Seneva and Izeyla a couple times this week.  They are such sweet girls and are super excited for their baptism this weekend.  It was funny because when we found out that they wouldn't be able to be baptized this past weekend, I was so heartbroken for them because I knew how much they really wanted to be baptized this past weekend.  Sister Hopkins and I put off going over to their house for like 2 hours because we didn't know how to tell them.  They were so disappointed that they couldn't be baptized yet, but I think it has given Seneva a little bit of a boost to make it to her baptism this coming up weekend.  As of right now, we are planning on doing the baptism at 1:00 pm on July 20th but we were going to ask her if we could do it at 3:30 pm so the Ward Mission Leader (Brother Graney) can come.  I told her that every time we go over to her house this week (which we are planning on going every single day), I am going to ask her about if she's still keeping the Word of Wisdom so that she doesn't slip up.

This week we were also able to run into Burgundy's babysitter, Gavin (I believe I have told you about Burgundy a couple times.  We haven't been able to get in contact with her for a couple weeks because she's always at work).  This time we were going over to see if we could catch Burgundy at home and Gavin was there.  He told us that he would let her know that we stopped by and then we left to go see someone else.  After we went and saw the other person we were going to go see, Sister Hopkins said, "I think we need to go stop by and officially introduce ourselves to Burgundy's babysitter and maybe give him a copy of the Book of Mormon."  We drove back over there and knocked on the door again.  Gavin came to the door again and Sister Hopkins said, "Hey!  We forgot to give you this book when we were here earlier."  We then proceeded to explain a little bit about the Book of Mormon and he was actually quite excited to read it.  We don't know if he lives in our ward boundaries or not but it was a fun/neat experience to give out a copy of the Book of Mormon to someone who we run into when Burgundy isn't home.

We found a new investigator this week as well. :)  On Saturday, we were able to meet Rose.  She has grown up Catholic but isn't super religious now.  She was so willing to read the Book of Mormon and when we told her about when Christ comes to the Nephites, she said, "I've never thought about that before" (about how He would appear to more that just the Jews).  We also were asking her about if she wanted to do a church tour and she asked, "Do you have services on Sunday?  What time do they start?"  She was really anxious to start going back to church again.  She didn't come to church yesterday but she didn't think that this Sunday worked for her to come (I think she said she had something to do).

Guess what!  The Mission President and his wife call Sister Hopkins and I on July 12th during our studies and sang "Happy Birthday" to me!  It was so fun and super sweet of them!

Also, to let you know, we have transfers again this coming Monday (July 22nd).  They are doing a 5 week transfer this time so I can't believe that transfers are already here!  I'm really hoping and praying that I stay her for at least 1 more transfer!  I really would like to see Elizabeth get baptized and be able to finish teaching her too.  Next week I should have news of whether I am getting transferred or not. ^~^  Anything you send this week, just send it to the mission office so I get it if I get transferred.

This week, Brother and Sister Graney were out of town so we had fun and decorated their front door with balloons the day that they got home!

Besides my Birthday, these were some of the most exciting things that has happened this week.  This week, we are working on getting more members to our lessons and we already have a good start!  2 set appointments with members present!

Love each and every one of you!

Love,

Sister Megan Hills