10/25/12-

From Jordon -

I managed to track down Sister Hill. Although to get all of us together will be kinda hard since she left for the field on monday. sorry dad. She went to some island where they speak French and some language that starts with a "t" (I think, or maybe it was the Island that started with a "T")

But look what I found. another Elder Hill. He's English Speaking, not sure where he's going. Probably won't find out. I just happened to sit infront of him during the Fireside this past Sunday.

This is my district. No, Mom, My district has not been cut down. actually it grew since we started. (starting from the left) We have Hermana Wright, Hermana Spittler, Elder Berg, myself, Elder Louth, Hermana Rittenhouse, Elder Pinegar, Elder Grant, Hermana Lambert, and Elder Christensen. Hermana Rittenhouse joined us a week in. she was all set to go in to the field, but 2 days before she was supposed to leave, Her mission president decided to switch her from English speaking to spanish speaking. Interesting, no?

This is Hermana Spittler, Elder Spittler (her brother), myself, and Elder Hill (my brother). the funny thing was that we all reported the same day, and Elder Spittler and Elder Hill were in the same district, as well. My district has a Hill and a Spittler, (DJ's) district had a Hill and a Spittler. I use "had" because Elder Spittler got transfered to the Belize(?) MTC about a week ago.

And here's a tower of markers because I still have space. We found that we had a ton of markers so Elder Louth decided to stack them up in a tower.


I'm out of time for today. I'll right a letter with more.
I love you all.

10/18/12-
From Jordon -

Hola, Familia.

There appears to be about a day's difference for Dear Elders.  They seem to come a day after they're sent.  I'm curious to know the travel time for other things.  My letters to you or your letters/packages to me.  And yes, the package did arrive.  It got here either Friday or Saturday.  Sour Skittles!!!  Yay!  Thank you, Mom.  I appreciate the list of birthdays and address book. Tambien.

Elder Louth is from Marriott-Slaterville, Utah.  He's going to the California Ventura, Spanish-speaking mission.  And his expected departure date is Nov. 26th, the day before mine!

My room is ont he second floor in 13M.  It's in the back of campus.  I'll send a picture of the map next week.  My district room/classroom is ont he 4th floor of 18M, one floor below Elder [DJ] Hill's classroom.  During our class time, they teach us a little bit of Spanish, a little about teaching, and then we teach and "investigator".  It's basically that the teachers (we have two of them) pretend to be investigators and we teach them.  Its kinda hard because we have to teach them in Spanish.  So, not only do we need to know the doctrine, we need to know the language as well.  But it's alright.  so long as we have the Spirit with us, we're fine.

Dad:  Yes, I get to read my leters as soon as I get them.  So, send them as often as you'd like.  Just keep in mind that I can't answer your questions until P-Day.  So, If you ask me a question on Friday, I can't answer until Thursday comes again.

I think I forgot to mention this last week, but last Tuesday, guess who came to speak to us for the evening devotional!  David A Bednar! [An apostle.]  I saw him in person!  I tried to go shake his hand, but security wouldn't let me.  I suspected as much, but it couldn't hurt to try. 

I like gym time, and last night was rather interesting.  Last night I went outside to the field to play futbol (soccer), and it was slippery.  For whatever reason, no one could stay on their feet...except me. : )  I don't think the grass was even that wet.  I do know the reason why I wasn't slipping.  My shoes have many little points on the bottom, providing more traction.  However, Elder Mitchell, of District E, has a different explanation.  He says that the reason I was the only one not slipping was that I had summoned the goblins of October to come and slick up the ground for everywhere I was not.  The problem Ihad is that my goblins were slipping up my own team as well.  They're mischievious that way.  Hopefully, they'll be more well-behaved tomorrow by only slipping up my opponents. : )

Yo pienso que este es todo.  I'll write more next week.

Nos vemas,

Con amor,

Elder J. Hill

From DJ -
Hola Everyone!

This week has been great! we are staying busy as always. our zone is down to 2 districts so we've been doing as much as possible as a zone together. last week we were all in the same endowment session. it was great.

Just so nobody is concerned the Spanish is coming along well. I know enough that if I was sent to Mexico today, I'd be able to make the Mexicans laugh, and they'd know what I meant to say. it's awesome being able to go to the Temple once a week. also I'm giving fair warning that my English has been suffering due to focusing so much on Spanish. so I'm sorry if my spelling is horrible or if some sneaks in (if it comes up 'y' in Spanish is the same as '&' in English).

I discovered something interesting yesterday, I don't know who I am. well I sort of do. but yesterday morning I wrote my name and realized it didn't fit me anymore, it just didn't feel right. I started to look back at how much I've changed since getting here. even my face looks different, although I can't tell you how on that one.  What I do know is that I'm Elder Hill. I just need to figure out what that means now.

On to other things. now that I have a card reader I can send pictures back. so here is the description of my pictures:

  This is Elder Rice (my first companion), me, Elder Dow and Elder Lehikainen (from when I was in the triple.  Elder Rice got moved up to a different district because he was much better at Spanish than the rest of us.[News from a previous letter].  [Elders Dow and Lehikainen were just moved to Peru].

  My district before the Bolivian Elders left for Peru.

  This is my new district.  They merged two districts to make one.

  This is Elder Talmage, my new companion.  No relation to the late apostle that we know of.

I'm about out of time so if you have any questions for next time send them to me and I'll see what I can do.

Nos Vemos!
-Elder Hill

[Note:  This letter was combined from three letters sent in one day.]

From Jordon -

All: Hola everyone.
I've taken a few pictures.

Picture 1 - In my room, I've claimed the shelf above the light as my origami shelf. As you can see, I do a lot of studying. (Don't worry, I do actually study when I'm supposed to.) ;)

Picture 2 - This mi companion Elder Louth. He's a great companion. He's a tad laid back, which gets to me sometimes, but he and I work fairly well together.

Picture 3 - Yes I do get to see Elder [DJ] Hill from time to time, as well as the Elder Hill in the room next door. There's a Sister Hill around here too, but she's not Spanish speaking, so she's harder to get a picture with.

 I have more to write about, but several distractions kept me from writing more here, so you can expect a letter from me with more. Talk to you later.

From DJ -

OK, lots to talk about and only so much time to write.

first, Hi Everyone!
second, Everything is great. we had some crazy stuff happen in the last 48 hours.  first half of my district left for the Peru MTC yesterday morning. bringing our district down to 5 people. our sister district also went down to 5 people. last night our districts were merged. according to our Branch President this is the first time thats ever happened to him.  since there would have been 2 triple companionships companions were reassigned a little. I'm no longer in a trio. My new companion is now Elder Talmage (Not THE Elder Talmage and there seems to be some confusion if he's related or not to that Elder Talmage). so I'm up to my fourth companion since entering the MTC when most missionaries only have 1. It's Crazy.
ok there were some questions I've received in Dear Elders I'm going to answer here. I'm not listing the questions, You'll just have to guess what they are.
1) my schedule varies from day to day but it's basically as follows(this is  my thursday):

6:30 get up
7:00 personal study
8:10 breakfast
8:40 class
11:40 language study
12:50 lunch
1:35 additional study
2:10 prep for Gym
2:20 Gym Time
3:10 Prep for next activity
3:40 Additional Study
4:15 TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning - It's a computer program that helps you learn the language)
5:15 Daily Planning Session
5:45 Dinner
6:30 Class
9:30 Back in Residence
10:15 Quiet Time
10:30 Lights Out

That's what I mean by going non stop all day.

2) my class time consists of a couple of different things, not all of which are every time.
Language Instruction - this is what you;'d expect, it's being taught the language.
Coaching Missionary Study - this is working on the Language or Gospel knowledge or both. but it's time that the teacher can coach and help you individually or as companionships.
Progressing Investigator - we work with an "investigator" (that looks suspiciously like our teachers) it's effectively showing us what it'll be like in the field.
TRC - Training Resource Center - we go in and meet with a volunteer at the TRC (only in spanish) and we teach them. the volunteers are members, non-members, or members pretending to be non-members. it's fun
(I typically have TRC on Monday or Tuesday late afternoons so I don't think I'm going to be seeing Bro Blackhurst)
Companion Study - This is one is exactly as it sounds. what specifically is studied is based on the plans made my the companionship.

3) Elder Dow is going to Peru and Elder Lehikainen is going to Mexico Veracruz on their missions.  Elder Talmage is also going to Mexico Mexico City Northwest with me.

4) I get mail after Lunch (for regular letters) and after Dinner (for Dear Elders) if we have any time after the meals I can read it then otherwise it has to wait until there's time. also all letters sent via DearElder.com on the weekend come on Monday. I assume regular mail still comes on saturday though.

anyway I'm out of time. Adios!
-Elder Hill

From Jordon -
hola,

yes, my room is messy, but if you remove all the boxes, it gets a lot cleaner.

Typically, I can only write on Thursdays, but due to general conference this past weekend, they allowed us to write this weekend too. So, if you haven't gotten the 2nd letter yet, it should be there soon.

My Spanish is coming along nicely. no worries if you want to see what true Spanglish is, you should see some of my journal entries. the 2 I like most start with "Hoy was bueno." y "Hoy was muy interesting."

Tell Tim I'm sorry that I can't help him with his trains.

as for golf, I really don't care if I'm winning or not. I like hearing from home and finding out what people are up to. I appreciate hearing about the ********s. I will be sure to keep them in my prayers. However, it has been requested requested that parents not send down-heartening information. it distracts us from the work.

I agree, it kinda does feel as if I'm away at camp. Home sickness hasn't set in yet.

I think that's it for today. If I have anything else to say, I'll send it in a letter. Talk to you next week.

FROM DJ -
Alright, I survived another week.
I was in a bit more of a hurry last week so there are some things I never mentioned.
The Lord saw fit to help me with losing weight.  my room is on the 4th (top)floor of the residence hall and my classroom is on the 5th(top) floor of another building. with no elevators.  on top of this my companions are very much jocks and are big into physical fitness.  so I don't have much choice.
Dear Elder works. Don't hesitate to give that out to people. with all the studying of the gospel and Spanish It's nice to take a 3 minute break to read a letter.

Over the last couple of weeks I've learned to rely on the Lord more than ever.  A realization I had was "I'm going to a Spanish speaking mission to teach me to rely more on the Spirit instead of my own words."  I have a new favorite scripture that I discovered during scripture study this week. I was starting to wonder if I was up to the immense work that was being placed upon me. first a scripture mastery came to mind. Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths."  this helped but I was still a little concerned.  my new favorite scripture is the other one I discovered while searching for what the reference on the scripture mastery was.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

If I'm doing what's right and what the Lord has asked me to do my weaknesses bring humility and the Lord will strengthen my week points and help me overcome any weakness to do his work.

I'll send pictures later. this computer doesn't want to recognize my camera.

-Elder David Hill Jr.

10/4/12 - JORDON
Sorry it's been so long since I've talked to you. Our P-Day is on Thursday, but the first one was skipped because of orientation stuff. As it was, I had to ration some of my clothes. I'm glad to hear that my labcoat came in, although to be honest, I had forgotten about it. hehe. Things have been going fine here. When I got here, for whatever reason, I kinda pictured that it might be like a suped up version of EFY. I was soon stripped of that vision. The schedule each day goes something like this: Get up and get ready for the day, go to breakfast, study, eat lunch, study, learn spanish, study, teach an "investigator", study, eat dinner, study, plan for tomorrow, get ready for and go to bed. It varies from day to day, but most days have something like that. On sunday, we have a church service consisting of the four, now five, districts that make up our zone. Tuesday we have a devotional in the evening in which a general authority comes and speaks to us, and Thursday we have P-Day, which consists of getting up, going to the temple, doing laundry, and a bit of language study.


yes Elder (DJ) Hill and I do see each other from time to time, but not very often, we're in different zones, and on different schedules.

I'm out of time now so I'll talk to you later.

ADDRESSES:

While they are in the MTC (up to Nov 25th), you can use DearElder.com.  This is a free service and will deliver your letter to them the same day (next day if you're writing really late in the evening).  Afterwards, you can still use them, but they require money on your account to cover postage.

For letters or packages during the time at the MTC:

Elder DJ Hill

MTC Mailbox # 320
MEX-MCNW 1127
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Elder Jordon Hill

MTC Box 305-1127

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT  84604

Letters and Packages sent after Nov 27th through Sept 29, 2014:

Elder Jordon Hill

Arizona Tempe Mission

5332 E. Baseline Road #1009
Mesa, AZ  85206

Elder Jose Luis Escobar Maya (See November Posts for DJ's Temporary Address)
Apartado Postal 118-184
Gustavo A. Madero
Mexico, D.F. C.P 07051
     To get the package to DJ, put his name (Elder DJ Hill) in or next to the return address.  The mission president will see he gets it.  NOTE:  packages can take from 1 week to 2 months to get to him.  Please plan accordingly.

10/3/12 - From DJ: 

I'm not dead Yet. just always busy. my first day I got here, got my little packet of stuff (including nametag), dropped my luggage off in my new room and went to my classroom. An hour after I arrived, Class was in session and we were learning spanish.  it's been non stop ever since.  I can't cover everything that happened this week(feels like a month) since I only get 30 minutes of e-mail time (and I spent 10 minutes of it reading your e-mails) but it's been crazy.  up at 6:30am, get to the classroom by 7 for personal study, and one thing after another until 9:30 pm (with meals in there somewhere).  on Wednesday night (a week ago now) as a workshop we did our first meeting with investigators. basically this was we had an investigator in the room. a pair of elders would start off then about half way through we would all work as a giant companionship (of about 40 or so Elders). I talked with the last guy we had after we were done.  He was really a nonmember and he had been a scoutmaster for 13 years at one point. we (and a few other elders) got talking but he seemed to single me out. whether this was because I was a bit older than these other missionaries or because of my 7 years as a scout leader I'm not sure.  but we seemed to have a general connection.

My first companion was Elder Rice.  I'd send a picture but My camera is back in my room at the moment so that will have to wait. normally MTC companionships last the length of your time at the MTC unless theres a reason to split them up. well Elder Rice took a Language evaluation and was bumped up to the next higher class. meaning he was transfered. different district, different branch, different residence even.  so I was put into a triple companionship with my other 2 roommates Elder Dow and Elder Lehikainen (pronounced LeKain, it's finnish) and we've been a triple for about 2 days now.  it's going well overall.

my branch presidency is awesome.  President Wilkins (the Branch President) reminds me alot of Art Bingham.  the personalities are almost Identicle and it doesn't help that he's a tall skinny guy as well.  the first councelor I don't know very well yet, but I love our second councelor Bro Monson.  President Monson is his uncle.  He's also Crazy like our family is if not worse :) .  I'll have to save talking about them more til later, I'm down to my last few minutes.

Down to 1:20 left. I do see Elder Jordon Hill from time to time.  we don't have any time to spend together. his class is a floor down from mine.  his p-day is tomorrow.

gotta run,

-Elder David (DJ) Hill

 

 

 

JORDON

DJ

SEPT 29, 2012 - It's been a grueling and emotional week.  While both excited and nervous to serve the Lord, both DJ and Jordon managed to pack all their takeable belongings into two suitcases and a backpack.  Of course, their rooms are anything but clean!  We took the trip out to Utah with all the excitement of a long-awaited vacation.  We stayed with friends in Pleasant Grove while getting the last few things the guys needed.  On Tuesday we went up to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) to take pictures there and at the temple.  These are two of the photos we took.  Wednesday was the hardest.  We pulled into the parking lot across from the MTC around 12:30.  Reporting time:  12:45.  That gave us 15 minutes for joking, hugging, good-byes, etc.  At 12:46 we pulled into a parking spot at the MTC where two young men came over to help our guys with their things.  One was going to the same mission as DJ, the other was from the city Jordon will be going to.  Awesome!  With last hugs, we watched our two young men heading up the walk to begin their very own adventures. This will be a log of those adventures.