I Swamed

Family and friends, greetings.

Exactly a month from today, I will be home. Das craezi.

Now, for a quick and quippy exchange Elder Stout and I had, from a normal, everyday conversation.

Elder Stout: "No, 'swamed' is the past tense [of 'swim']; 'swame' is just the pas-tense."

Me: "Last night we were discussing trans-dimensional chess boards, and it didn't hurt my head as much as this!"

This week something terrible happened on Tuesday. We discovered that at a gathering of missionaries the previous evening, one of them was afterward tested and found to have COVID-19. Nearly the entire zone was then ordered immediately into isolation for ten days, as nearly all of them had been present. We, the Rio Vista Elders 1 and 2, were, I think, two of the perhaps three unaffected companionships in the whole zone. Consequently, we are taking up lots of service this week that the others have had to drop due to their isolation. They are all doing well, though. The Rio Vista Hermanas are still somehow finding new people to teach and getting people to Church!

While planning for the day on Friday morning, I had a sudden stab of a strong desire to be home, and I felt so exhausted with the stresses of the mission field, like I was being smothered. But as we continued, I loosened up and the darkness faded. The rest of the day was just fine. I certainly needed the excitement of what happened the next evening, though. Read on.

On Saturday, we saw a miracle. A man my age to whom we are teaching English, named Ever, wasn't Ever (get it?) very interested in our spiritual thoughts in each lesson last transfer. He had said he wasn't a very religious person, so I guess we didn't end up putting all that much effort into teaching him about religion. That's sad, but I actually saw God's timing in it. Now, it has been two weeks since Elder Stout came and saved this area with me: in the first week, Ever began to look happier each time we talked about the Gospel with him, and his eyes began to light up; this past week, we began assigning him chapters to read for homework and he read intently every chapter we assigned him, even taking notes! We decided it was time to ask him on Saturday to be baptized... and he said he would like to be! We set the 28th of November as the goal for him, and he seemed really happy to have that set up! He had a bit of doubt, wanting to learn more first, but he agreed to work toward that day for now. This is Elder Stout's first time teaching someone who will be baptized soon, as they had nobody at this point in North Platte, where he was before. It also gave me a bit more drive to continue working hard for my last short time here. I can now see in retrospect that it was never God's plan to have Ever get to this point under Elders Linford and Murdock. God surely knows the proper times and the seasons of all things. He is good.

I am in capable hands, and I am loving life. God is good to me.

Con amor sin fin,

Élder Hill el Élder

Fotos: fuimos a caminar en el bosque y sacamos fotos (Élder Stout me sacó una cuando no estuve listo); también exploramos el centro y encontramos una tienda que tenía adentro esta exposición con Mike y Sully; además, "I ain't 'fraid of no ghost."