The Reason (in Cementista)

Friends and family,

That picture with the Bushmans makes me incredibly happy, and that black hole image makes me giddy. Thank you very much for the letter!

A couple more funny things. One day I saw a man sweeping a balcony that was tiny and quite high, and I mentioned it to Elder Mazzeo, saying, "él estaba barriendo allí", but he heard "pariendo", which has basically the same pronunciation but means "birthing", not "sweeping". Isn't Spanish great? Also, Elder Mazzeo says two phrases that are really funny, but are only funny in Spanish. The first is, "No es lo mismo 'me baño en el río' que 'me río en el baño'", which means, "'I bathe in the river' is not the same as 'I laugh in the bath'". The second is, "No es lo mismo 'el Cura tiene SIDA' que 'SIDA tiene cura'", which means, "'The priest has AIDS' is not the same as 'AIDS has a cure'". I think it's wonderful that puns can be so powerful in Spanish. I love it.

Speaking of AIDS. We ran into two borrachos (drunkards) in the same morning (emphasis on the morning), which was interesting. The first one chased after us after we ignored him, running on his bare feet to put his long, unkempt, caveman hair much closer than I wanted. He demanded of us why we wouldn't give him the word of God when he asked for it (which he hadn't), but when we offered him a pamphlet he refused and just awkwardly wandered away. The second we encountered on the same walk, only a couple hundred meters (those are kinda like yards, you gringos) further. He was seated on a curb with a backpack, and was not noticably drunk from a distance, so we heeded his summons only to hear his sop story about being kicked out of his girlfriend's house and also having AIDS - that's where that comes back in - for which he had a huge bag of medications. Basically, we just left a pamphlet with him, read Alma 7:11-12 and testified of the power of Christ to relieve his suffering, and left. Overall, that was just a weird start to my day.

Oh, and Rosalie, when Elder Mazzeo saw your picture and heard you're unmarried, he started making plans. So you have another backup in case your rich Sheik falls through. Just so you know.

The last experience I want to mention this week is something that happened on Saturday that was more wonderful than expected. There was a baptism of a young boy of eight years from a less-active family, but for it to count toward the mission in the numbers he would have to have been nine years old, so it was a ward baptism. That's great and all, but investigators are more exciting. But it became more interesting with the person who baptized him: Brandon is a Priest, seventeen years old, who had not gone to church for a full year. He was selected to perform the baptism by the youth president of the ward, and it was approved by the Bishop, so thus it was. He studied the words of the ordinance beforehand, and ended up pulling it off flawlessly (despite never having done that before), which I was very proud of, and he looked so happy to be there. And this is where the miracle starts. Afterwards, Elder Mazzeo was talking with him and said, "you know it's not a coincidence that you were chosen to baptize him, right? You need to come back to church", etc., to which Brandon actually replied, "yeah, I was just thinking about that." He proceeded to say that because of that experience he now wants to serve a mission and especially to go to church to prepare himself for that. My mind is completely blown by that! Just a simple - and, frankly, weird - choice of baptizer led to a huge change in the heart of the same, that could eventually lead to many others joining the fold of the Good Shepherd. That is a witness to me that God is really guiding this work, because it is His truth in the Earth, and His true Church, established again by His hand. Those white clothes Brandon used for the baptism were actually mine, and that was their first use in a baptism; I cannot imagine a better first use than that, because it could be that that one even might lead to a cascade of goodness and of knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is so beautiful to me.

I also would like totalk a bit about that scripture I mentioned earlier, Alma 7:11-12. The text of it says the following:
And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succorhis people according to their infirmities.

So many people do not understand the sacrifice of Christ as they should; many people think that He only overcame death and sin, but that His sacrifice does not meet the ends of other forms of suffering. But I am here to tell all who will listen that if that were true, God would be a liar. Such a redeeming sacrifice as that cannot ever be complete without also paying for every result of the fall of Adam and Eve, which includes all things in which we sin, all things we suffer resulting from sins of others, and all infirmity and weakness (which are results of the Fall just as is death). All of those things are the power of the devil, and if anyone ever says that Christ did not overcome all sufferings of every form depreciates the power of God, and literally turns Satan into the winner. Christ won the entire battle Himself, and if any of Satan's effect is left free, unmet by God's power, Satan wins, and literally everyone that has ever existed is lost to perdition, cast out into the pit by eternal justice. Thus, God becomes a liar, as He is not omnipotent as He said; and as He ceases to be God, all of reality literally unravels, the materials of this universe no longer knowing Whom to obey, and all spirits falling away into a real limbo, which is an actual hell. Do you see why it was so important that Christ pay for our pains, too? It seems such a small thing to us, but it has eternal consequences that are more grand than we can comprehend. I testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has no bounds, and it covers every sin, death, pain, sickness, weakness, and pain; if not... we would never have had a chance to return to Him in the first place, and He would be made a liar anew. It is not so, and I know that God lives, and that He is infinite in His power to spare us by way of the power of His Son; the justice of God is so beautifully met and matched by the power of grace, and I know it is boundless.

All this has revolutionized my life. It makes me think of the song The Reason, which says, "I found a reason for me to change who I used to be, a reason to start over new; and the reason is You." I am so grateful for the kindness God has shown me in giving me more understanding of His Gospel, because there is nothing in this universe more important to me. And if you know me and my adoration of the mysteries of Creation, you know that that is the highest praise that I personally can give.

With eternal love and everlasting awe,

   Your friend in Argentina,

Elder Hill

Fotos:

674: Mi mamá (no me pregunten, por favor)

673: "Vi una columna de luz..."

670: Mi gemelo

669: Elder Diaz

685: Una araña grande

701: Nosotros con Brandon y Santino (el niño que se bautizó)

760: Que dramático

733: Un fuego de gas cerca de nuestra pensión (como 4m x 4m x 8m)

691: Estoy borracho

698: Perrito con ojos interesantes y incomunes

¡¡¡CONFERENCIA!!! (in Cementista)

Friends and family,

This week has been a roller-coaster. Firstly, I want to get the funny things out of the way. I figured out a pun (of which I've already made a few in Spanish, which I'm very proud of): Por medio de la Expiación de Cristo, podemos ser limpios de nuestros pescados. "Pescados" is in place of the word "pecados". Just put it into Google Translate; I'm too lazy to explain the whole thing. It's hilarious, I promise. There's also a little boy we're teaching named Santino who will be baptized when he turns 8 this week. I was teaching some principle about the restoration of the Gospel, and then Elder Mazzeo asked him if he understood what I said, and he replied, "Uhhh, no entendí porque él estaba hablando en un otro idioma," which means "I didn't understand because he was speaking another language." We died laughing. A similar thing happened when we were beginning a lesson with a woman we had just contacted who had allowed us in for a lesson. Elder Mazzeo asked who she wanted to say the opening prayer, and she said (in Spanish), "Not him (pointing to me), because I don't understand English very well." We laughed and explained that I can speak Spanish too. Great times. Esas son las cosas que pasan cuando pasen las cosas.

Conference was wonderful, and I found immense value in every discourse I heard. It was all like one enormous trove of gold that I had chanced upon, and I received so much joy because of it. Elder Mazzeo, however, did not have such a great time. He awoke very late on Saturday morning, which is basically fine because the first session starts at 1300 here, but it wasn't fine when he proceeded to vomit mucus and blood. I don't know much about medical themes, but I know enough to discern that that really isn't good. We contacted the mission president's wife (the medical contact of the mission) and got a bit of advice, then went off to Conference in the Stake Center in Mendoza Centro. We saw the second half of the first session, but he felt worse in between sessions and ended up curled up in pain on the floor of a classroom throughout the entire second session, which naturally meant I missed that session as well. But hey, I got some nice scripture reading in, so it wasn't all bad. He felt better after that session and was able to watch the Priesthood session at 2100 (yes, it really does happen that late; it's rough). He seems to be okay now, or at least almost okay, so I think that whatever it was is passing, and we're not too worried about it for now. But yes, Conference was immensely valuable for me, and I am so glad I got to watch what I did. I'll read the other discourses later.

Now I want to mention a family that we found that was baptized but they have not attended Church in decades, ever since right after their baptisms. We discovered that the father of the family passed away only two months ago, so we led a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. They accepted it well, but later in the lesson the miracles began. We were only teaching the mother and her daughter (about 60 and 40, respectively), but it was so incredibly powerful. We talked about baptisms for the dead and how it rounds out God's plan in perfect justice, allowing everyone to know about the Gospel before being judged by its law. From there we ended up talking about Temples and the sealing that can be done there to make our family eternal, just like how we are the eternal family of God. You have to understand here that both of those topics, baptisms for the dead and temple sealings, are rare to be mentioned in the first lesson. As I was describing the spirit world and started talking about the work of the missionaries there making baptisms for the dead possible, I was thinking in my head, "What am I doing? This isn't normal." But what followed was one of the greatest miracles I have seen on my mission in another person. As we spoke of those things, the Spirit flodded the room, despite the little kids running around and the other daughter smoking on the other side of the room. And then Elder Mazzeo asked the mother if she wanted to follow the covenant path to be sealed in the Temple to her husband, and she said she does want that, and I could feel a deep desire in her. Who am I to judge the miracles of God and stratify them by their miraculousness? All miracles are equally abnormal and marvelous; but to my finite mind, that was the greatest show of power that I have seen in an investigator. They were so beautifully prepared to hear the message we shared, and I have high hopes for them. I am seriously, unendingly grateful for that miracle, for miracle it is. By definition, I will not get a baptism out of that family, because they were already baptized, but I honestly could not possibly care less. I saw the hand of God bring the Gospel straight into their softened hearts, and I cannot deny His work is directed by Him personally, and the salvation of their souls is infinitely, infinitely more important than a number that I could brag about. I'll make a promise to you right now: once I get home, I will not tell you how many baptisms I had, because that means zilch to me. To give a number to the work of God would be to depreciate the glory of His infinite mercy to these people. That is my thought about that; I am trying to be more respectful of the things that are sacred, and the glorious work of the Lord is sacred; and as for these people, every one of them individually is incomprehensibly more important even than that. The missionary work across the world is special, yes, but these are literal children of the Most High, and that is something that an abstraction like missionary work cannot ever claim. That is why I want to be a missionary for the rest of my life; I will continue a good work and save actual souls of actual people, always seeking those who have been prepared to hear the good news of the Gospel.

That is my message this week, and I want you all to know at the last that I love you all immensely. Thank you for your continued support from all the way over there.

Con amor eterno de Argentina,

Elder Hill

Fotos:

619: It's me, el "cerro blanco".

639: Last P-day, playing pool - Élderes Johnson y Hill (left and right, respectively) on the right side. Elder Mazzeo and I won.

650: Movie night with the boys, watching the Priesthood session of Conference.

He to whom much is forgiven (in Cementista)

Friends and family,

For a bit more detail on my situation in my new area, I am in Cementista, which is a sketchy suburb of Mendoza City itself, and I love the area, despite the fact that Cementista is enormous and we go by foot. The capilla is a half-hour away by foot. Oof. But it's a great time, and I am still growing so much here. Elder Mazzeo is great too, and I have learned more of the language from him, which is a definite benefit of being with an Argentino. As for the situation with packages, I am not certain how those would work, because I would still have to go by bus for over an hour to the mission offices in Godoy Cruz; thus, I really don't know what to tell you. I suppose it's possible, but I don't know. Also, I found out this week that the Temple land is in my area! I don't know yet exactly where, but the Temple will be in MY AREA!!! I can't explain how excited I am for that.

We had an awesome experience this week with a man who hasn't attended church in a long time. We were reading in 3 Nefi 18 around verse 16, which says that we need to follow the example of Jesus and pray in churches (and, in extension by the context of our lesson, it says that he needs to attend church again). When he read that, he told us that he felt as though Jesus, whose words those are in that verse, was talking directly to him, and he knew instantly that he needs to attend church again. That was miraculous, and his faith is so powerful. I felt the Spirit radiating from him. Another wonderful time was when we were talking with a man who is not a member, but who is interested to hear our message. He listened more attentively that just about any other person I have ever seen in any circumstance, and I could see the Spirit start to fill his countenance as we talked about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he said he will read it, and also that he will do it joyfully because he loves reading books like that. He has a stunningly clear understanding of how to understand things by the Spirit and the power of God, and I am impressed by his desire to learn.

Two more experiences were particularly notable: one of the investigadoras was baptized this past Friday by her fiancé, which was so joyous - she is so incredibly happy, and is especially excited to go to the Temple. The other instance was when we taught the lesson on the Restoration again, and the two of them accepted a baptismal date! By some weird chance, that couple has the family name Bustos, just like the two brothers Bustos in Pellegrini who also accepted baptismal dates. I can't begin to explain the deeply good feeling that accompanies both of those events, both fraught with faith.

In termination of this letter, I want to say just how overjoyed I am to be here. I have never grown so much as I have here. Before my mission I thought I had felt peace, but I can attest firmly to the fact that this mission has blown out of the water every feeling of peace that I have ever felt before. And that is solely because of the overwhelming feeling of willingness to serve. And like it says in Luke 7:47, to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little; and, by implied opposite, to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. Looking back on who I was in the past, it is clear that the Lord has forgiven me of so incredibly much, and I will love and praise Him forever because of it. As another scripture says, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." I felt free before my mission, but looking back on it I feel like I was a slave. Because of all the immense blessings and growth I have experienced, I have seen the Heavens and the Eternities opened to my view like never before, and I am even more unable than before to reject the veracity of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is perfect, and I have never seen anything more beautiful. I fully plan for this to be my life for the rest of forever, and I will be free because of it.

Con amor de Argentina,

Elder Hill

P.S.  So you know, I will not be able to call in the mornings in this area because we have to ride a bus all the way into el Centro to get to a cyberlab. I'll try to call at other times, as opportunity permits.

Traslados (Transfers -- to Cementista)

Friends and family, salaam,

This has been an interesting week, with Elder Avila having been bedridden with stomach and head pain all morning for five days in a row, and unable to do all that much for the rest of the day. But I even saw a miracle in that, because all the lessons we had planned fell through, and they wouldn't have been good anyway because Elder Avila was too distracted by pain. So, I actually consider that a blessing, at least in light of the other rough circumstances. But then we also have our normal transfers, y yo me voy. They took me away from my dad, and that's so sad for us both. But now I have Elder Mazzeo as my companion, and I think that will be a blessing because he is an Argentino, so I will learn to understand the local accent better and continue growing accustomed to the culture.

But sadly, the scheduling was messed up by my journey to Cementista, Mendoza (my new area), and I have absolutely no more time to do anything here in the computer lab. I'll add a picture of my new companion, but anything more will have to wait until next week.

Just know that I love you all so much; para siempre Dios esté con vosotros.

Con mucho amor de Cementista, Ciudad de Mendoza,

Elder Hill

I've left Kansas (in Pellegrini)

Okaybe, friends and family, this will be short and sweet, and full of miracles. Buckle up.

So, on Thursday we had what is called a Tormenta Blanca, which is a "white storm", which is where all the missionaries in the Zone come to one area - mine, this time - to work and tract; and with those eight missionaries we managed to get a heap of references and six new investigators! We've only had time to try to visit a couple of them, as of yet, but they weren't there; but still, SIX?! And that in an area in which we had had no success in any way previously! Then, on top of that, outside of the Tormenta, Elder Avila and I found five more, making 11 new investigators this week! Miracle!

The next day we saw another miracle. We went all the way out into the middle of nowhere to visit a finca (a farm house) that is 13 km from our pensión. We got two flat tires on the way there, and we got another miracle of that happening right where there was a bicicletería, where they fixed it up for free. So we searched for the house, but nobody was there when we found it. We went back and inquired of a passing man which house belonged to that family, and he directed us to one house further than we had gone. We went back (about a kilometer to return) and found the house, and there were people there! We talked for a bit witht he two young men there, brothers whose parents used to go to church, and then we were allowed to share a message. We discussed the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and as we taught I could see light entering their eyes, and to cut a long story short they believed everything that we taught them, and even accepted a baptism date for the 30th of March! The Spirit was so strong, and I know that Christ was there with us; just like we are promised, we were gathered together in His name, and He was there in our midst. I felt so distant from the city that I'm certain I wasn't in Kansas anymore, but I still felt at home.

Next miracle. Two night ago, we returned to our pensión at about 8:00 at night, intending to finish weekly planning, but then felt like we should leave and do something outside instead. It wasn't what we had planned to do, but we prayed and felt the same thing. We went to search for a reference we had received from the Tormenta, but had to ask for directions from a man who was just out on his porch. We got to talking, and he allowed us to enter and share a message. We began sharing the Restoration with him and his wife, and the Spirit grew so powerful that she eventually began crying. Again, to cut a long story short, which I could rant about for hours that I don't have, they are golden, and they are so willing to learn and to read the Book of Mormon. The miracle: we deviated from our plan and ended up finding prepared children of God because of it. Guys, follow promptings. They're so important.

Final big miracle. On Tuesday we found while tracting a teenager named Agustín who is interested. He allowed us in, we talked about God's Plan of Salvation, left him a pamphlet to read and pray about, but didn't think much about it. Then yesterday we visited again and discussed the last lesson and got to know his expectations of us a bit better, and he directly told us that he intends to learn from us specifically what he needs to do to follow the Savior and keep the commandments. He has never even been in a religion before, but he is so quick of learning, and more willing to learn and change than I have ever seen from anyone before, in any sense or situation, especially the Gospel.

So, to conclude, I want to testify that I have never known more strongly that this is the true church of the true and living God. All of this is so beautifully wrapped into one perfect whhole of truth, and my understanding and vision of the truth has grown exponentially even just since I left. I've been thinking a lot about the song Viva La Vida by Coldplay, and one part of the chorus sticks out to me: "Be my mirror, my sword and shield, my missionaries in a foreign field." And while I am here, and for the rest of my life afterwards, I will always strive to be His mirror image, His sword of justice and shield of truth, and His missionary in the foreign field of the world (because with so many turning away from Him, the whole world is now foreign to God).

I apologize for the rushed feeling of this whole letter; I have actually been pushing my time since I started writing this. But of all the things I can tell you, this is the most important: Jesus Christ lives, and He actually cares about every one of you. That, in and of itself, is a miracle: the Creator, the Bosom of Eternity, cares about you all individually. It's beautiful how perfect everything is in this universe, and how wise His eternal Plan.

Con mucho amor de Argentina,

Elder Hill

Fotos (no tengo tiempo para explicarlas):

¡Estoy Argentinizando! (in Pellegrini)

(There were scheduling problems all over the place yesterday, so my companion the zone leader is giving me time today, too. Thus, my message is a day late. I'm not dead.)

Friends and family,

That verb, "argentinizar", is a local word that means "to Argentinize", just like "Americanize" in our vocabulary. I never thought of that before, and I think it's really funny. But anyway, I have to mention again the ongoing miracle in my life of my surprising ability to speak and understand Spanish; what I have accomplished is so incredibly far beyond my natural ability, and I cannot attribute it to anything but a Higher power. However, I am definitely still dealing with culture shock, and the severity varies daily. On the best days, I feel like I can understand and speak anything I want, and that Spanish is as natural as English; on the worst days, I feel an actual mental pain at every single Spanish word I hear or speak; but it is all slowly passing. I'll try to be patient with that; I'm obviously not giving up in any way. And guys, the people here speak so fast it sometimes feels like I'm in a society filled entirely with Jacob Hill, but Spanish; I hope that gives y'all more accurate imagery of how it feels.

But hey, I had a scary realization this week: I am already a tenth of the way done with my mission. This has been a painful couple of months, but somehow it has all gone by in the blink of an eye, and it reminds me of the fact that two years, believe it or not, REALLY is not that long. A little over a hundred weeks, and I'm already starting my eleventh. I'll try to get my head in the game, because I get the feeling that my growing isn't anywhere close to finished. I'll buckle up, because it'll be a fast, rough ride.

Now, one more challenge I've dealt with recently: the music rule. The Missionary Handbook only states that the music should not drive away the Spirit, and I selected the music I brought accordingly; but now I'm here, and it turns out that the interpretation of that rule by the Mission President (and, therefore, the law for our mission) is that, except on P-day (I'll take that small victory), we can only listen to hymns by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, other peaceful arrangements of hymns, and similarly peaceful instrumental music. That made me angry for a while, because, frankly, it seems like the interpretation of a zealot; that's how I felt. I decided to do the right thing and ask the Higher authority what He thought, and I got an interesting answer, almost immediately: the hymns have been ordained for use in the building of Zion. While the other songs I have are good songs that bring the Spirit, I realized clearly that they are not meant for this work, and thus do not bring the right Spirit. I have already felt it with a couple of the songs that used to bring the Spirit before: when I break that rule, it doesn't bring the Spirit anymore, because they are not meant to be played here. Seriously, there are still parts of my mind that are trying to start open warfare against that rule, because music is such an enormously gargantuan part of my life, but I have felt peace for choosing obedience. I still hate it, but I can see happiness in the future if I obey it now, so I'll do my best. It's a weird feeling. But obedience brings blessings, and exact obedience brings miracles, right? I can already feel that that's exactly right. It reminds me of what someone said in Mission Prep class before I left, that he had been scared to pray to know if he should serve a mission because he already knew what the answer would be; likewise, I already knew what the answer would be, and it was definitely the answer the kids in the Primary classes would have given: obey. Always.

Now for a couple of milagros. Elder Avila felt on Tuesday that he should call his family again for a reason he didn't know (not a selfish reason), but he asked me what I thought. I felt it was wrong, so I replied with a negative. He nodded, and we moved on. We went to a lesson, etc., and then returned to the capilla about two hours afterwards; he said he still felt like he should call them, but still didn't know why. He called them and discovered something: even in that small timeframe, his mother had had a fall and resulting ankle problem while running, and was in the hospital to care for it. That was astonishing, because I had felt a bit abnormally strongly that it wasn't right before, but the second time it felt good; and if he had called the first time, he would never have known about the accident. I won't even try to go into what would have happened had he actually called earlier, because I obviously can't know. I'll take it for what it is - a miracle. A small one, yes, but a miracle is a miracle, and miracles are impossible.

Second milagro. We were searching for the house of a member who had not been to church in a long time, and the search took us to a dirt path branching off the main road, lined with multiple tiny adobe shacks, all inhabited. They were basically the poorest abodes I have ever seen personally, but it was impressive that they seemed like normal families, just living their lives happily. It was humbling. But the member didn't answer the door, so we walked back. We talked with a woman who lived along the way about the Gospel, but she turned us away after a lengthy discussion about why she is angry with God for abandoning her, and that the purpose of life is to suffer, etc., etc. We tried to help, but she turned us down; so we just went to the next house and asked if we could share something, and we were greeted with the very common, "soy católica", but we were eventually allowed in, regardless. We answered some questions they had about the purpose of life by teaching about the Plan of Salvation, and bit by bit the woman who greeted us opened up. She never said anything, spécifically, but I saw it in her face that she believed what we were saying; and when we gave her a pamphlet of the Plan, she took it, gazed at it reverently for a moment, and put it caringly back on the table. That was so simple, but so powerful; it was the first time I have seen the Gospel actively touch someone's life in my presence. It reminded me of why I am here, and why I am loving this work, even if it hurts like the dickens right now. I'm here because this is true, and I'm here because it has become the resonant frequency of my soul, amplifying itself by its own power in my life, and it is more beautiful, perfect, and powerful than anything I could ever have imagined by myself.

Now, a thought about the Gift of Tongues that I have so often mentioned: it is not just for missionaries. None of the gifts of the Spirit are only for missionaries. They are promised to all of the disciples of Jesus Christ that earnestly seek to follow Him, and we are even promised that we can develop more, if we seek after them diligently, with real intent to share those gifts with others as Christ did in His life here. We can all be such unimaginably beautiful instruments in His hands, and we can all be so powerful, if we just follow Him. I really don't have any more time, but this testimony suffices me: all true disciples of the Redeemer have His power, not even only to those who hold the Priesthood; all of us can have the power to do all things He did through faith and through the gifts of the Spirit, which are given to those who actively seek Him. But be sure to ask God for them in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is as a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed (James 1:6).

Con amor abundante,

Elder Hill

Fotos:

• Hamburguesas reales (con horrible calidad de foto, sé)
• Yo, andando en bici
• En bici otra vez
• La calle Diagonal Pellegrini
• Los Élderes de Pellegrini, y los misioneros futuros de Pellegrini
• Tomando mate
• Un tenedor muy rudo

You Are the Moon (in Pellegrini)

Greetings, gringos!

I wanted to mention something I heard in the devotional with Elder Renlund that I thought was funny (also, pictures from that event are attached, finally). Sister Renlund said that during her mission she wouldn't give the men the time of day. Then she corrected herself and said she would give them the time of day, but not a date. I thought it was hilarious.

Anyway, there is not much to say about this week, because we were traveling back from San Rafael and then for the rest of the days we were mostly just cleaning the area book, which took huge heaping loads of time. And yet, even so, we have so little time that it's almost hilarious to me. Oh, but one interesting thing happened this week: we knocked on a door and waited for a long time, then when someone finally came out it was an old, big man, one eye a milky white (in short, very imposing), who came out in a rage and yelled at us to leave because we were "Mormones" (even though we're not), and there was only one God. Elder Avila started saying, "Sí, hay solo uno Dios, y Él vive," but he would have none of that, and he looked like he was about to hit him. We left, thanking him for his time (to which he spat, obviously), but overall it was a great experience. Honestly, I'm not disheartened by that. One thing I've come to know very powerfully is that, if there really is a God of justice in this universe, everything will be dealt with in perfect rectitude, eventually; thus, I need not worry about anything that anyone else does wrong, because everything will be paid back exactly, every last penny of every debt, in one way or another. I have come to take a lot of comfort in that.

I've found two things now that I like in the Gospel better in Spanish than in English. The first is that we can be cleansed from sin through the Atonement of Christ; in Spanish, it says, "podemos ser limpios...", and that is so much more powerful than the English, because "ser" refers to the nature of things, and thus we aren't just becoming clean temporarily, we are becoming clean, accepting cleanliness into our nature. The other thing I like is what it says in Moroni 10:5, that we can know the truth of all things. In Spanish, that verse says "podréis conocer la verdad de todas las cosas", and "conocer" means "to know", but in a more familiar way, like you know a person, or know a map. Thus, the meaning of that verse is not that we can just know the facts of truth, it's a promise that we can know the truth inside and out, like a friend. I like those so much more than the ambiguity of English.

I want to end my short letter with a song. It's called "You Are the Moon" by The Hush Sound, and it talks about how beautiful people really are, though they don't see it. It starts with the Moon rising from the horizon and seeing its reflection on the ocean, broken and scattered by waves. It says: "All the light that you possess is skewed by lakes and seas; the shattered surface, so imperfect, is all that you believe. I will bring a mirror so silver, so exact, so precise and so pristine, a perfect pane of glass. I will set the mirror up to face the blackened sky; you will see your beauty every moment that you rise." And thus it concludes. I just want to remind you all that God is trying to show you all how beautiful you are by showing you our Brother, Jesus Christ, as an example of what we are. If we really are children of God, en serio, then we are so much more beautiful than we can even comprehend. This is my witness to you all today, and I mean it with all my heart.

Thank you all for your support to me in the forms of letters, encouragement, kindness, etc.; it means the world, especially now that I'm on the other side of the world. Dios esté con ustedes.

Con amor de Argentina,

Elder Hill

Fotos:

Élder Prosser (un asistente del Presidente) y yo

(de izquierda a derecha) Yo, Élder Thornton, Élder Vazquez, Élder Kummer, en San Rafael

Este hielo es muy interesante