October 19, 2008 (to Mom from São Leopoldo)

Note:  We received a lot of new photos from Elder Hill.  You can view them here.

Hi Mom!

One of the boxes got here! The problem is that I’m in a different city until tomorrow waiting for my new companion so I cant even get it. But Renan called me and told me it came. So that’s a relief. At least one has come. What’s in it?

That’s way sweet about Jacob’s call! Wow and February is long time away. I’m surprised they’re making him wait that long. That’s crazy.

This week was weird. Well, just yesterday.  Elder A’s parents came to get him and his mom reminds me SO much of you so I got pretty homesick. It wasn’t too bad though. His mom is a way nice lady. She kept giving me hugs.

I found out I can email video’s through gmail and its pretty fast so Ill email you some videos.

It has been really bad weather here actually. rainy rainy. Today is really hot though. The weather changes here really fast just like there.

We don’t eat that much other than lunch. WE don’t go hungry, we just don’t have time. Renan’s mom usually makes us bread and chocolate milk almost every night so that’s always nice. She’s a way nice lady too. She helps us SO much and she’s not even a member.

WE take pictures of food cause we almost always just eat rice, beans, and chicken. So when it’s different we celebrate. Hahaha

Who were the missionaries that taught you? Just curious. And who baptized you?

Yeah Sister A said she used to cry every night cause she missed him so much. Haha it was sad. I hope you don’t cry.

I love you!

Elder Hill

October 13, 2008 (to Dad from São Leopoldo)

Hi Dad,

Mom told me it snowed. It was really hot here this past week so its weird to think that it snowed there. The whole completely different seasons thing is weird. Haha sounds like the bbq went well. I’m sure that made Chris happy.

If you could get my faceplate and stick it with all my stuff that would be cool. For some reason I keep thinking about it. Not sure why.

Yeah we had two baptisms this Saturday. One was a girl name Nicole, she’s 11. And the other was Murilo and he’s eight. They both went really well. Hopefully they can stay firm throughout their lives and maybe even serve missions too. That would be awesome. I want to baptise a missionary. Haha

We had a way cool experience this week! Yesterday actually. WE got a referral from this member and we hadn’t had time to visit it and we saw her in the street Sunday and she was kinda mad that we hadn’t visited her neighbor so we were like ´yeah well go there for SURE tomorrow. Don’t worry.´ So we went there and the lady asked A TON of questions. Like that’s pretty much all she did. But since our church is perfect, we had answers for all of them At the end she said something like ´what do I have to do to enter your church? Do you guys have to teach me more before I can be baptised? I really like what I have heard and I like how my neighbor lives her life and how much patience she has and I really want to join your church. My husband feels the same way too.´ It was awesome! First visit and she told US she was going to be baptised. We didn’t ask or anything. It was so awesome. Her husband wasn’t there so we weren’t able to talk to him yet but it sounds like they’ll be baptised soon.  They’re already legally married and everything. Which is WAY rare. It’s actually the first couple I’ve met that’s legally married. It was a cool experience.

I think that’s it. I love you!

Elder Hill

Renan

Renan is a way cool kid. I want you to meet him someday. I told him when I get home and after he gets home from his mission I’ll save up and buy his plane ticket to the states.  But I guess its REALLY hard for Brasillians to get a Visa.  He was telling us about all sorts of laws. It’s crazy.

Language

I saw the cards you sent Renan. The pictures turned out really good but the translation was pretty bad. It was understandable but it was weird. Oh about translations. My website translates into Portugal Portuguese not Brasillian Potuguese.  Just thought I’d let you know. I guess it’s a big difference.

Ensign

We get the ensign two-ish months late i think. So yeah I guess I’ll have conference then. I didn’t even think about that. But it’ll be in about three or four months.

October 5, 2008 (to Mom from São Leopoldo)

Hi Mom,

Conference was strange here. This will answer your question about in what ways I think I’ve changed. It was cool but I felt really bad that I wasn’t able to sustain the prophet and the leaders of the church. Haha may sound like something really small but before the mission, I wouldn’t have even thought twice about it. And I fell weird that I wasn’t able to take the sacrament too. I don’t know. I just feel different. But conference was sweet. We were only able to watch the Sunday morning session which was good. I don’t remember who talked about this (have it in my notes. Oh yeah, I took notes. That’s definitely a change) but he talked about how to answer critics to the church. I really liked his talk. Taught me a lot.

I forgot to ask Renan. Just curious, wanna know how to pronounce his same? Henuh. Different huh?

Thanks for sanding more brownies! I was starting to crave them so I bought some cake mix and tried to make some adjustments to make them more ´brownie like´. Yeah, didn’t work. So thanks.

I’m almost 100 percent positive that Ill be transferred December 2nd. If not I would seriously be so surprised. But I guess we’ll see. Ill know the DAY before, If I’ll be getting transferred. I’m not sure why they do it like that. And then I won’t even know where I’m going until I get there.

People say it’s REALLY hard to learn Spanish after Portuguese because of how similar they are. It makes it hard to think in just one of the languages. I’ll understand a lot of Spanish but Spanish people will have a hard time understanding me. Pronunciation of Portuguese is really weird. But I think Ill try to take Spanish. I think it would be cool.

Another big thing I think I’ve learned is how to adapt. We always have to adapt to situations and change was really hard for me before the mission but it’s not that big of a deal now. I’ve only been out for five months so not that many big things have changed. Just some little things. Even though I speak the language alright, I have a really hard time talking to people and just opening my mouth. That has been harder than I thought. But the language itself is easier than I thought it would be. I don’t really have a personality yet in Portuguese. Kinda weird but I don’t know how to explain it.

I hope I’ll have a Brazilian comp next. I don’t want an American. Ill never learn the language right.

I love you!

Elder Hill

Items to Send

From: Betty Pearson <betty@ourldsfamily.com
To: ldsmmbrazilso@ourldsfamily.com
Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2008 6:41:48 PM
Subject: [LDSmmBrazilSo] pkg ideas

I’ve had a request to send out my list of package ideas for a missionary.

Here is a list of ideas on what to send to a missionary. These are suggestions only–I’m sure you can add or subtract to this list.

FOOD items to send:

Spaghetti, taco, chili packets
Gravy packets
Beef Jerky (cannot be sent to some countries)
Lipton dry soup
Kool-Aid, Tang, Crystal Lite packaged drinks
Hot chocolate
Jell-O, instant pudding pkg.’s
Fruit Roll-ups
Instant oatmeal
CANDY–the big favorite. Make sure it is kept in the original package,
and something that can easily be shared with others. Try not to send items that will melt.

NON-FOOD Items:
Good quality anti-fungal foot POWDER (Micatin, Tinactin, Gold Bond)
good quality socks, such as Gold Toe from JC Penney, Thorlo, Missionary Mall Walk Sock, white or black,
They use white socks on P-days.
T-shirt (with appropriate logos for a missionary)
Bandaids and other First Aid items
small pocket-sized notebooks
pens, colored pens, pencils, small pencil sharpener, and scripture
marking pencils.
post cards, stationery, paper, envelopes
religious stickers, 3×5 cards, markers, small religious pictures
available at Deseret Book)

On personal care products, small sizes are best. It saves you postage
money, and missionaries dislike big sizes because of transfers…they are hard to fit in a suitcase!
Shampoo
Deodorant
Toothbrush
Pocket comb, travel brush for Sister missionaries, pocket mirror and
Toothpaste
Shaving Cream
Mascara for Sister missionaries, facial cleanser
Pocket or Purse Kleenex
Mini flash light, mini screw driver, bike repair tools
Gloves, neck scarves for those serving in cold areas.
Sweaters
Ties (conservative in design and color).
Chap Stick
Small bottle of lotion
Trouser socks for Sister missionaries (wear longer than the Knee-hi’s)
Postage stamps (if serving in the U.S.)
LDS Jewelry (tie tacs for Elders, CTR necklaces for Sisters, etc.)

September 29, 2008 (to Dad from São Leopoldo)

Hi Dad,

My birthday was seriously way good. We went to this one families house and they put up balloons and everything. It was really nice of them. Then we went to Renan’s house and his mom made a cake and dinner for us. Then the day after, our lunch appointment gave me a cake too. So I got three cakes! We ate sooo much. I thought I was going to throw up but it was way good. People here cook so good.

That’s cool to hear about your job.

Is this the highest BYU has been ranked in a way long time? How are the Pats doing without Brady? Is he out for the season or just for a while? How’s Favre doing? The BILLS are 4-0? Hahaha never would have seen that coming. IS their QB Losman still? He started picking things up at the end of the season so I’m just wondering if that’s why they’re doing so good. Cause their defense was terrible last season.

Yeah grandma told me Unclue DeMont was planning on getting ordained. That’s way cool.

Our referrals were pretty much all wrong address so it was frustrating. But we could have two baptisms pretty soon. One of our ex investigators came to church Sunday and said that her son is turning eight next sunday and she wants us to baptise him.

I’ve only talked to my mission president three or four times but hes a really nice guy. He reminds me a lot of President Pike. That type of really calm and gentle personality, you know? But we aren’t able to talk to him too much. I like him though.

I think that’s about it this week. I love you!

Elder Hill

September 28, 2008 (to Mom from São Leopoldo)

Hi Mom!

Thanks for sending more packages! They are always fun to get. My favorite thing in the first package I got here was brownie mix (just in case you’re wondering. hint…hint…) We made them with a family here the day after I got them.

I got the picture book and it was awesome! It turned out really good. I’ve been showing it to everybody here and they like it too. Especially that picture of me and Jordan.

Conference here is going to be different here. We’re only able to watch the Sunday morning session of conference if we have investigators and we’re not able to watch the priesthood session at all. I think we’ll be able to get some investigators there so we’ll be able to watch the Sunday morning session. It’ll be in Portuguese too so that will be interesting. The language is coming still. People say that during months 6-10ish or something like that is when you learn the most and I just started month six. I understand pretty much everything people say to me but speaking is still a little tough. I can communicate perfectly fine but sometimes I get myself in a hole cause I don’t know a word. The verb rules are really complicated but oh well. I like the language a lot. It’s pretty cool. I don’t think I’ll have an accent when I come home but Ill probably mix in some Portuguese or sound weird cause now I have to translate into English instead of the other way around.

It’s almost guaranteed that I’ll be transferred December 2. It will be REALLY hard to leave especially so close to Christmas. There’s a family here that I would really like to spend Christmas with but I won’t be able to. It will be cool to get to know another area though.

Soccer. Hmmm. Yeah I don’t know yet. It’s pretty much my only ´in´ with talking to people. I’m sure by the time I get home I’ll love it.

Thanks again for the package for my birthday! I got it two days after my birthday so it was perfect. I love you!

Elder Hill

PowerPoint from Renan

Click on the link below to download a PowerPoint file created by a member in Elder Hill’s area.

Rio Grande do Sul

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