5-20-13 Jordon

Well, another week down. I don't think I have much to talk about today, so let's jump right in.

 

Meds. Yes, I did finally get my medication on Wednesday. The copay was $15, charged to my card. If it's not showing up, I don't know why. The prescription that went through was 2 tablets of 20 mg Adderall (not XR) taken in every morning. I tried that on Thrursday morning, and then after taking it it occured to me that I haven't taken adderall for about five years now, so it probably would have been a good idea to ease myself into it rather than take the full 40 on the first day. This thought was confirmed about a half hour later by an odd sensation and a small amount of pressure in my head. hehe.

After that first day, though, I went down to 20 mg. for the rest of the week to see if that would be better. It seemed to help to an extent, but I still was getting distracted quite a bit starting about half-way through the day. On Sunday, for example, the two speakers in Sacrament Meeting didn't know Spanish, so there was a translator. You'd probably expect that I would get more from the talks because they were in English, right? Well, for some reason, I was distracted by how the talks were being presented and couldn't really focus on what was being said. I was able to zero in on some parts, but for the most part my thoughts kept me occupied. Today, I decided to try upping the dosage to 30 mg. (1 and 1/2 tablets) We'll see how well it works. Right now I appear to have that sensation again, and my leg wont stop bouncing, but the sensation isn't as strong, and there doesn't seem to be that pressure. I think I might just need to get used to the meds again.

 

As for missionary work, we haven't really seen much success recently. We did an analysis of what we could improve on to help us out and came up with a few things; the two most prevalent being better quality OYMs and helping the members with member missionary work. We shall see how this plays out.

 

Interesting thing happened this week. We had a lesson set with a lady named Monica on Monday evening. When we went to our appointment, we knocked on the door and asked for Monica, but the lady that answered the door, whose name was Laura, said that she didn't know anyone by that name. So, we asked if we could teach her instead. It went well, and we're now teaching her and her family. I could have sworn that the address in my planner for Monica said #24, but last night I realized that it said # 21. Oops. At least we found someone else to teach.

 

So, remember how a while back I thought I saw Leif walking down the street. Well, since then there have been a couple other cameo appearances: Alex Beard and Devin Moulten. Am I actually seeing these people, or are my eyes deciving me. I always only see them while driving past, so I never get the chance to talk to them to find out if it's really them.

 

On a slightly less happy note, we recieved a text on Thursday, May 17, stating that the beloved Sister Francis Monson had passed away. I hope President Monson is doing alright.

Wow, I guess I had more to say than I thought. I hope you all are still doing fine.

Until next week,

Con Amor,

-Elder Jordon Hill-

5-20-13 DJ

Hola Everybody!

So this week has been interesting.  New Companion, New Area, New Everything pretty much. I mentioned this all last week, but it´s good to review sometimes. Anyway, the area is pretty good. My companion loves to work, and the Members are awesome. We had some trouble finding new investigators, but it´s been good.

At the end of the week we found a new investigator named Eva. She wants to follow the example of Christ, but she is afraid of what her Husband will think. He really doesn´t have any interest in listening to us (he skipped listening to us to iron his shirts in the bedroom...) but she is super ready for the Gospel in her life. We felt the spirit strong during her whole lesson and super strong when she said the closing prayer. It was great!

That´s about it for now, Adios!

-Elder Hill

PS: attached are some pictures of my new area. Enjoy!

 

                                         If you look closely on the road, there's a horse and wagon and
                                         2 bikers pulling carts.

                                                       Our House (& the church)

 

5-13-13 Jordon

Well, having had skype calls yesterday, I don't know how much news I can muster, but I'll give it a try.

 

Transfers:

I'm still here in Tempe. Elder Harder left to become a Zone Leader in Mesa Zone with Elder Niederhauser, and in exchange, I received Elder Spaulding as my new companion. (pictures 1 & 2) He's a great guy. My description of him is that he's excentric about the work. He's kinda crazy, but I like him. This seems like it's going to be a good transfer.

 

 

Interesting observation: It appears that all my companions thus far have either entered into or advanced in leadership. Elder Oscarson became a Zone Leader (a couple tansfers later, but he did.), Elder Gutierrez became a District Leader, Elder Niederhouser became a Zone Leader, and now Elder Harder went from District leader to Zone Leader. So, I guess Elder Spaulding has something to look forward to.

 

Bad news: the other day I dropped my camera. The screen still works, but all the camera sees is black, so any pictures it takes are black. I can still see my previously taken pictures though, so that's good.

 

Tempe Cascade Update

Yesterday after Skype Calls, we went looking for a less active family in our ward, who, according to our records, lives in a trailor park near the church building. The same trailor park we had the police call on us in. We located the trailor they supposedly live in, and guess who we find there...the maintenence guy that doesn't like us. All we were looking for was to know if the family lives in that house or not, but he didn't care. All he kept saying was that we were trespassing that he was going to call the police if we didn't leave. In the last encounter, the police officer had me write down the addresses of the trailors we go visit. We wrote down four numbers, including this trailor we were standing at this time, but he had no recolection of this fourth number. We're going to investigate further. Stay tuned to find out what happens next.

 

Yesterday, I had asked for you to talk to Becky about getting me a TV Turnoffer. If I remember right, it requires a bit of programming before it can be used. If at all possible, could I get it pre-programmed? or if it requires any soddering, pre-built would be very much appreciated. I hope this isn't too much of a request.

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*A note to those reading the blog*

For those not informed on the background of this request: there are times when we get in to a families house to teach them, and we ask for them to turn off the TV, but all they do is turn down the volume. We try asking again, but they just turn it down more. This normally wouldn't be so much of a problem, but the picture moving in the corner of my eye is quite distracting. So, I've requested that my cousin send me a device that will turn off the TV for them. That's not mean is it.

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A while back I got bored during my language study and decided to translate a few things. These are the results.

 

La Promesa de los Boy Scouts

A mi honra, haré mi mejor para cumplir con mi deber a dios y mi país y para obedecer la Ley de los Boy Scouts, para ayudar a otras personas a cada momento, para mantenerme fuerte físicamente, despierto mentalmente, y recto moralmente.

 

La Ley de los Boy Scouts

Un Boy Scout es: confiable, leal, útil, amigable, cortés, bueno, obediente, alegre, económico, valiente, limpio, y reverente. (y hambriento.

 

(no tengo mas tiempo ahorita. entonces voy a escribir mas de este la proxima semana.)

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Well, thats it for this week. remember that daily phrase spanish calendar you sent me? I think the phrase for yesterday fits very well. "Nadie es más especial que su propia madre." (No one is more special than one's own mother.) Happy Mother's Day!!!

 

Con Amor,

-Elder Jordon Hill-

5-13-13 DJ

Hola Everybody!

So Elder Butterfield is gone and I´ve been changed to a new area with a new companion! His name is Elder Crookston. 

 

 

My area is the San Pablo Branch in the Villa de los Flores Stake. It´s about as far as I can get from Martin Carrera while still staying in the mission. It´s also like a complete reverse from Martin Carrera. While Martin Carrera was near everything, San Pablo is near nothing. On the plus side the members here are Fantastic! We also had a baptism yesterday for some investigators of Elder Crookston and his last companion. 

Speaking of my new companion, Elder Crookston is from New Mexico and has been on the mission for about 6 weeks less than me. So this will be an interesting Change with both of us being on the new side, but we are both looking forward to it and making plans to have great success with the people of San Pablo.

That about covers it. Hasta la proxima semana!

-Elder D Hill

5-6-13 Jordon

Hola familia.

 

Well, another transfer come and gone. We have our transfer meeting on Wednesday. There's just one problem, I don't know if I'm leaving or staying, yet. Something happened that we didn't get our transfer calls Sunday night as usual and instead we were told that we'd get them tonight, after p-day. So, it's hard to know what to prepare for. I don't know what to buy for food, or whether I should pack or not.

 

As for Mother's Day, yes, we do get to call home then, as well, but we haven't been able to set up anything yet because we have transfers right before it. So, be prepared to get a phone call or email to set something up in a few days. I'm really looking forward to it. For the moment, I'm in church from 12:30-3:30, so that works out well. We'll see how well it works out after transfers.

 

Anyway, the work keeps moving. We aren't having much success as far as progressing investigators are concerned. A lot of our investigators just don't seem to want to change. We're trying to give a reason to those who we think will continue, otherwise we're dropping them and moving on. We found a few new investigators and several potentials this past week. We had a lesson this one family that went really well, and they accepted a date for the 18th of May, on the first lesson. That's very unusual. So, we are super stoked. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to make contact with them since. We'll keep trying though.

 

So, remember that kid I mentioned last week? This week, he seemed to be a bit more subdued; anytime he wanted to get up and move around he walked rather than ran. For sacrament meeting we brought a few kids books for him to look at, and that seemed to work out fairly well. I wonder what he'd do with a rubix cube. Hmmmm.

 

So, I've taken a small interest in magic since coming on my mission. It might be the lack of ordinary playing cards propelling me to try to figure these out, but I've managed to work out the 10 card trick DJ does (and a few variations) and also Three Card Montey using pass along cards. (Although, I can't quite remember how the story for Three Card Montey goes. Help please?) I'm trying to remember how the clock trick works, but I'm stuck. Any suggestions for tricks to try, I have 14 different cards with the same back.

 

That covers it for this week. I will definately make sure to coordinate with someone about Mother's day. I'll "see" you then.

 

Con Amor,

-Elder Jordon Hill-

5-6-13 DJ

Hola Everyone!

First thing, we had a baptizm this week!

His name is Ariel and he is the boyfriend of Jazmin (the girl from 2 weeks ago). He is actually a pretty awesome guy. Very intelligent and is making a definite effort to better his relationship with the Lord.

Second, My companion, Elder Butterfield, goes home next week. His 2 years are up. His parents decided to come and get him instead of waiting for him to fly home. So they will be here this Thursday, and President Tervort said he would release Elder Butterfield to have them as his companions. This means that I`m getting changed early! I don`t have any idea who my new companions are or where I will be. I supposedly find out tomorrow night.

Third, my Zone Leaders decided it would be a good idea to have an Obligatory Morning hike this morning at 6. The idea was to motivate us and to help us come togeather as a zone. I did get some good pictures though, I got one of the sunrise

 

Then the Zone Leaders made their entrance into the meeting.

 

 and just for fun, here is another you might like.

That`s the news from Mexico, Nos Vemos!

-Elder D Hill