Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me (Cementista)

Mortals,

Firstly, I found out recently that saying "el ibuprofano" ("the ibuprofen") sounds almost exactly the same as "el libro profano" ("the profane book"). Elder Mazzeo was extremely confused for a moment. Cuidense, hermanos.

This week was a bit complex. We had intercambios with the zone leaders, and Elder Valencia (a Spaniard) came to Cementista with me for a day. It just so happened that day that there was a killer cold-snap, and the temperature plummeted, but the elders who had changed areas (Elders Valencia and Mazzeo) hadn't prepared for that. That was a rough day, even for me, and I had all my clothing at my disposal. But we all survived, and nobody got sick or anything, which is great. One of the hermanas in Cementista even gave me and Elder Valencia thermal clothing, gloves, and caps, insisting that we take them even though we tried to refuse, saying we had that stuff in the pensión. But after thirty offers (that really isn't an exaggeration), it was impossible to refuse. She also gave us lunch, which came in the form of enormous hamburgers. That lady is demasiado bondadosa.

Then it was a bit depressing in the middle of the week because we had no investigators that were progressing para nada. That's a really sad feeling. It's not guilt, because it's not my choice, but it's sad, nonetheless. But then in the end of the week we actually got some investigators to fulfill their commitments, and we have two people that are almost certainly going to be baptized in the coming couple of weeks! Each time we met with them, Elder Mazzeo wafted the air toward his face as if he were smelling something, saying, "¿Usted huele eso? Es exito." And then we pass by a guy randomly watering his lawn at 10:00 at night. Bienvenidos a Barrio 12 de Julio, supongo.

Something happened with Elder Valencia that was interesting, too. We knocked a door, and an old Evangelist lady opened the door and we talked with her for a moment, presenting our introduction. But then she cut us off, asking in what name we baptize in the Church (obviously looking to dominate us in some way). We answered her saying that it is in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but she immediately told us that is wrong, and that it must be only in the name of Jesus Christ, because when God comes searching for His children He will call them by the name of Christ. Good point, but that's a mix-up of doctrines. She showed us the scripture Acts 2:38, which says it is in the name of Christ that we are baptized, but then Elder Valencia showed her (in her own Bible, because she thought ours was a false translation) Matthew 28:19, which lists all three names. She read it out loud until the part that lists the names, at which point she cut off and accused us of trying to confuse her. Lady, your own Bible is trying to confuse you. In reality, those two scriptures aren't contradictory, it's just that Peter doesn't say all the names, perhaps even just as an oratory element. We parted with her feeling like she "won", when in reality all that happened was that we avoided the conflict. That experience was a good example of something that I have seen so incredibly much in the mission: people are content with their personal religious understanding, and they don't comprehend that there must never be an end to learning in that field of study. It's exactly as it says in 2 Nephi 28:30:

"For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

That is the problem with being content, and exactly the reason I am not content with my knowledge of the workings of God. An infinite God has no end, neither do His works or words have any termination. Thus, any cessation of learning of Him will result in the fulfillment of this promise here, and to him that says, We have sufficient, from him will be taken away even that which he seemeth to have (Luke 8:18). I realized this week the reason for that: if you learn so much in the Gospel that you think you know it all, it means you no longer need God, and have elevated yourself to His station of omniscience, whether consciously or unconsciously. That is the definition of pride, and that means that after learning all of that, you learned absolutely nothing, and have fallen back to the evil of shunning the help of God. Thus, my invitation to all of you who will listen is an invitation directly from the Savior: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meekand lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29). Keep learning; if there is an end, God is not infinite, and this universe cannot exist without His Infinity. I testify that my God is limitless, and that His power, teachings, and glory have no end; there is no lack of things to learn. And if you do feel you have enough, repent, because that's the devil's voice. There are blessings for us all if we just keep bettering our understanding of His ways. For the glory of God is intelligence (DyC 93:36).

Until next week, friends,

Elder Hill

Fotos:

1. Elder Valencia
2. Mi hamburguesa gigante
3. En la Plaza Independencia en Mendoza Centro
4. Un conejito ahogando en dulce de leche
5. Ahora podemos tener paz
6. Vestido del invierno
7. Un anillo de casamiento que encontró Elder Mazzeo en la calle (el segundo en la semana)
8. Estoy perfectamente de acuerdo con esto. Bien dicho.
9. Guillermo (el hombre muy alto con la barba) antes de su bautismo en sábado; el vive en la calle, pero es muy inteligente, y ya tiene un testimonio muy fuerte que la Iglesia de Jesucristo es la única iglesia que tiene la plenitud de la verdad. Él es el investigador que todos los misioneros quieren. Pero, tristemente, su bautismo es de las Hermanas de Mendoza Centro, no de Cementista. Pero bueno, sentí el Espíritu muy fuerte cuando compartió su testimonio.

Instead of a kilo of bread.... (Cementista)

May 13th:  Thank you for the $50 in birthday money, but that is only enough here to buy a kilo of bread. ;-) (They use the same symbol here to mean pesos; forgive the joke.)

May 20th:  Just so you know how I used the $50 you gave me for my birthday, here is a picture of my booty (oh my gosh, right after writing that I almost died laughing). Two jerseys from the most popular teams in Argentina, a thermos for mate (which is VERY nice), and a beautifully polished egg of onyx. I used that money well, methinks. Thank you so much for these wonderful gifts.

Squishy Bubbles (In the Shower) (Cementista)

Friends and family,

I'll explain the subject line first of all, so you don't remain confused for too long. So, I heard about a gringo elder who was being trained by a latino, and the latino kept pestering the gringo to teach him curse words in English (like the mature teenager he was). Eventually, the gringo caved and taught him the worst word you can ever say in the entire English language: squ*shy b*bbles. So, obviously, the latino believed him and started saying that all over creation, because it means nothing in Spanish. (Well, it doesn't mean anything in English, either, but callate, I'm telling a story.) Then, in the next district meeting, the gringo told the other gringos in secret what he had done and they played along. One said, "¿Sabe qué sería peor? Decir 'squ*shy b*bbles in the sh*wer'", and the other gringos all cried out in surprise at the immense vulgarity. So the latino started saying that all over creation, too. "And thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell" (2 Nephi 28:21).

I lied. You're probably more confused now than before I explained. Pero ya fue, gringos. Madurar es para las frutas.

But for the more spiritual side of things, I am drawn now to the thought of worthiness for the Lord's work. The following scripture is a good place to begin: "And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted" (2 Nephi 4:19). Then I remember also that God qualifies those whom He calls. That has given me a heap of comfort recently, because this work I am doing is so incredibly expansive and heavy. But I know in Whom I have trusted. And this entire theme came to a focus because of the words of a song I listened to this morning:

When we grew up, our shadows grew up too.

But they're just old ghosts that we grew attached to.
The tragic flaw is that they hide the truth:
That you're enough.
I promise you're enough.
("You Are Enough", Sleeping At Last)

It is my unbreakable testimony that God is with me, and that I am serving in His work; if it were otherwise, I would not be able to do the things I do. I am so incredibly weak, but in His power I am made strong. A week ago, I wrote a note similar to that thought with a surge of the Spirit of gratitude and confidence: "And this is the greatest miracle of all: that I, a sinner, am allowed to be here; that the weak one has been given authority, and a crown and a scepter to govern, and a sickle to reap." None of this is me. He that supports me from one moment to another (Mosiah 2:21) is the source of this; I am only a tool, dead in comparison with His Life. But I know in Whom I have trusted.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?... As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31, 36-9).

I promise you're enough.

Con una sonrisa eterna,

Elder Hill

Fotos:

1. Super pancho
2. WWWWIIIIIIILLLLLLLLSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNN
3. Cómo cortar pan en Argentina (sí, Elder Mazzeo realmente hizo eso)
4. ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Manteca de maní!!!!!!!
5. Elder Mazzeo limpiando

Purged from his old sins (Cementista)

Friends and family, happy belated Mother's Day!

Alrighty, guys, buckle up for the jokes. ¿Qué significa "panqueque" en inglés? "Bread-what-what." ¿Por qué no podían los nefitas planchar su ropa? Porque Moroní escondió las planchas. Another funny thing was what Elder Mazzeo said when he saw a man in a wheelchair. He said, "Fa, che, ese hombre es un auto." I just about died of laughter. Also, just to prove how dumb I can be sometimes, I just barely got a joke that I heard years ago: Where does a general keep his armies? In his sleevies. Oh my gosh. That's terrible. It's also funny to me that I have already seen Endgame among the goods of the street vendors; that's so incredibly blatantly pirated that it's almost hard to believe.

Another funny experience was contacting a couple on the street. They accepted a pamphlet and we asked if they would like to learn more and they said they would, so we asked for their address. But they said they would just come over here to hear our message so we asked where they would meet us and they didn't give an answer so we asked if they really were interested and they said they were so we asked for their address but they didn't give it and said they would meet us here so we asked where "here" is and they didn't answer (and they wouldn't give us their phone number, either) so we just told them that we need their address to be able to teach them. At that point they finally just said that in that case they weren't interested. Wow. Just tell me no. I'm not going to be offended. We both laughed at that afterwards.

But as for the spiritual side of things, I realized something a couple weeks ago as I testified of it to an investigadora. I realized that the truth of the Gospel that I am teaching is the most sure thing in my life. God has not revealed the deep truth behind science and mathematics, but He has done exactly that for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I still want to be an astrónomo, but I will always be more sure of the words of God than of those textbooks, because I received the truth of the former directly from the Owner of all truth. And, coupled with that realization, I realized fully that the spiritual world utterly dwarfs the scientific. And that says a lot, considering I have come to know the immensity of the entire universe in all of its complexity, and there is still infinitely more in the spiritual realm of knowledge than that infinity. It blows my mind, which has become hard to do after so many mind-blows in my life. That's the Gospel for ya. It's a fractal: the closer you look, the more details you find, without end.

Then I also found a scripture that went straight to the core of my soul:

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-8).

Now, the kicker, verse 9:

"But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins."

Forgotten that he was forgiven... That is powerful. Those who do not have those attributes of Christ have forgotten that they are clean. It seems I have forgotten. That is something I need to work on: even just remembering my ability to obtain forgiveness and that I have already received so much pardon is powerful. I suppose that is because if we always remember our cleanness, we cannot forget our Savior, and we cannot help but do what He would do. And, ultimately, that is my invitation to you all for this week. Remember that you are clean.

And, as a member in my current ward says every time at parting, "Stay kind."

Con amor sempiterno,

   Vuestro amigo en el sur,

Elder Hill

Fotos:

Familia Gaitan: Guys, this is from the Liahona (in Spanish; I'm not certain about the English) from November 2018, page 120, and those women are in my ward!!! That young toddler is the sassiest little niña that I have ever seen. She even knows already how to roll her eyes, the little diva!

84: ¡Mi nueva camisa de Boca!

87: Monedas viejas que encontré en la calle el otro día

93: Mi cara de pereza en la pensión

A Camera Carried, a Soul Saved (Cementista)

Friends and family,

There is so much to talk about, so I'll skip the funny business this week.

This past Wednesday, I went on splits with the elder from La Favorita, Elder Soto (one of the elders with whom I arrived in the mission, actually; un Brasileno), and it is a really rough area and also my birthday, so we didn't do anything that day; it was like a second P-day. I'm completely kidding, and I'm obviously still full of jokes, so I apologize for the lie at the beginning. But here we go, for reals.

We were working, walking a lot as usual, and I ended up leaving a lot of my stuff in the house of a member to pick up later so I wouldn't have to carry it around. Despite the seriously ghetto nature of the area (which is not, in fact, my favorita, despite its name), I carried my camera for a reason I didn't understand. That seems inconsequential to any kind of story, but "the Lord works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform". Later, we ended up near Cerro de la Gloria, which I visited on my first day in Mendoza, and I wanted to take a picture of it from a distance because I happened to have my camera with me. Elder Soto heard my desire, and began leading me to a spot just outside the barrio where the vista is "de veinte". As we walked, I thought, "why am I doing this? I'm wasting the Lord's time just for a photo." But I strangely felt a calming of that fear, so I just continued on, still a bit unsure. Then, as we walked down a dirt road outside the barrio, surrounded by featureless earth except for one solitary house, there was a girl about my age seated on the curb at an intersection. We paid her no heed, already walking on the opposite side from her, but as we passed her she called to us, saying she had a question. We crossed to her, and she asked directly how she can overcome her addiction to smoking marijuana. That was unexpected, but we gave her a pamphlet of the word of wisdom and began discussing the infinite power of Jesus Christ to help her in her suffering and depression. I cited scriptures like Alma 7:11-12 and DyC 122, and the Spirit was present in Its glory. Then I felt the prompting to give her a Book of Mormon, so I removed one from my bag and then said something I had never said before: "You are suffering this because you do not know where to find the help you need, right? [She agreed.] I tell you now that this is the truth that you are missing, the Book of Mormon." I felt in that moment so strongly that it was the truth, and that through the restored Gospel that we were sharing she could be free, and by no other means. I even went on to explain to her how we were led to her in that moment in that place, and she broke out from her solemn face into a huge, legitimate smile. She then explained her side, that she had stopped smoking multiple times before, but had relapsed each time because other people offered her more. That day, she had one more cigarette, and she came to that forsaken corner of nowhere to smoke it. She felt horrible afterwards, as usual, and was sulking for a while. And then she looked up and saw us walking down that empty road, and she knew she had to call to us. And there we were, both groups of us having been led together by careful Orchestration, in a manner more clear than I have ever seen before. We ended with a prayer of thanks, and she picked up the cigarette she had extinguished, showed it to us, then tore it to pieces, and she left with a smile on her face. Then as I turned to leave, I saw Cerro de la Gloria, and the view was beautiful. I took a picture.

Sadly, I have very little time right now, so I will end there, with more to come next week.

All I can say more is that I know that God is beside me.

Love,

Elder Hill

Fotos:

1052: Birthday revelry, because

1047: More revelry

999: Trabajando en la lluvia por la primera vez

1007: Elder Soto, de ISIS

1017: Elder Soto

1035: Cerro de la Gloria

They Shall Narrowly Look Upon Thee (Cementista)

Friends and family, gringos all,

One of the hermanas asked me this week if I am from Venezuela. Gosh, that made me feel good about myself, a pure-blooded gringo.

Regarding that situation I mentioned last week, something happened that is wonderful: ¡the husband attended Church! We didn't invite him specifically, but he came, and he had a huge, legitimate smile on his face. He still seems unsure about all of it, but he is willing to listen to the lessons that we teach, so we'll see where that goes. That was a miracle for us.

This week was rough for me, because it's very hard a veces to feel worthy of such a hugely important work as the salvation of the souls of all mankind. That has weighed on my mind, and every small moment of idleness hurts because I know I could use it better, but I don't have the strength of will to change it. But then, on a day that was the hardest, I prayed for help and guidance, and a scripture came hazily to my mind. I looked it up by keywords in the Topical Guide (seriously, thank God for that wonderfully powerful index - ¡que lastima que no se tiene eso en español!), and found it in DyC 31:5. "Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you". That is such a powerful scripture, and I could feel it vibrate throughout my entire soul. Those words, though addressed in that section to someone else, were also pointed via God's omniscience straight to me, and I could hear His voice in it. It is absolutamente asombroso to think that Christ knew my heart so well even before my life began that He was able to say the exact words that He knew would reach me in the Spirit in the moment I needed it most. I am tearing up right now thinking of the awesome power of such a Being that is so powerful that He sets miracles in motion centuries before their realization. His foresight is so impeccable that He set forces in motion from the Grand Beginning that would all converge on me, just for me. "Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me."

Another thing that has occurred to me this week is how foolish I was to even think of postponing my mission to have short a period of rest before life starts crashing down again. Why is that foolish? Because this work of salvation IS the rest I have been seeking. That is what I did not have in high school, that I have ALWAYS lacked. God's way is so much better than mine, and that was my problem: I never tried to follow His. Ever since I started high school, I have tried to do everything myself, and I succeeded, but I put myself through so much unnecessary suffering. For that reason, I wanted rest in the first place, and then I ended up finding it ultimately in exactly the place where I knew to look all along, but didn't. It reminds me of what someone said in my mission preparation class months ago, that he was too afraid for a long time to ask God if he should serve a mission, because he already knew what the answer would be. Likewise, I have wandered so long in darkness, not asking to See because I was afraid of what would be required of me. But now my eyes are opened to an eternity that I could never have imagined in all my best dreams combined. And now I am ordained to a position that gives me the authority to work in the long-foretold gathering of Israel, and there is nowhere I would rather be. I have difficult days, but now I am beginning to see the devil for what he is, and, more especially, for what he is not. It reminds me of the scripture in Isaiah 14:12,16-17:

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!... They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof?"

And God is so good. "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them" (2 Kings 6:16).

This is my invitation to all of you: join the real forces of God and ask Him in complete sincerity to know His will. I am nowhere near perfect in this, but I am beginning to see, and that is a step in the right direction. Another thing I have learned in this mission is the power of the member-missionaries - I have seen the beautiful vision of the power of the Saints, and it is greater than the full-time missionaries have. Together, with sixteen millions of members, we could be the grandest army the world has ever seen - not an army to bring wars and contentions, but to bring the Good News to the world.

"We’ll go to the poor, like our Captain of old,
And visit the weary, the hungry, and cold;
We’ll cheer up their hearts with the news that he bore
And point them to Zion and life evermore" ("Ye Elders of Israel").

With so much love, your friend in the south,

Elder Hill

Another Companion (in Cementista)

Gringos,

A couple more funny things first. Regarding the language, I just realized this week that command form of verbs can be confusing; the command "callate" means "quiet yourself (familiar)", and "cayase" means "fall yourself (formal)" (it makes more sense in Spanish, I promise), but the only difference between the two in speaking is the "te/se". Great. That's fun.

It's also funny when we get to talking with someone and they say, "Soy ateo, gracias a Dios", which means, "I'm an atheist, thanks to God." Oh. Okay. Good for you, I guess. Then there was another experience we had in which we talked with a random woman who started teaching US what the Book of Mormon is, saying that an angel told Joseph Smith to write a book about his life and call it the Book of Mormon. Great. I'm glad I know the truth now. When we finally parted after a solid fifteen minutes of her not listening to anything we were saying, she still had a countenance that showed that she clearly believed she had won - that she had won an argument that never happened, because she wasn't listening. That's fine; I didn't want to argue, anyway.

Also, Jacob, I heard of an elder whose name you'd be jealous of: Kobe Juan Kenobi Gubernick. I mean, the last name is a mouthful, but the first three names remind me instantly and incessantly of you.

I had an interesting experience yesterday, and now I come to the point of the title of this email. We had lunch with a family in which the mother is a member and the father is not, despite having talked with missionaries multiple times before. That's fine; there's absolutely no problem with that for us. The lunch was wonderful, and afterwards we took advantage of the togetherness of the family to teach a bit about the Restoration of the Gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ. After our teaching, we asked the mother to share her thoughts on how she had come to know that these things are true, and she gave a good response. But then she continued on to talk about how a couple days ago she had finally realized that her husband would never join the Church, and that he was holding her back from an eternal family, which is all she has ever wanted. She even went on to declare boldly that if he didn't accept the Gospel she would look for another companion who would. Oof. All this was done in the presence of him, her daughters, and us. The entire time she was explaining, I could only think, "How is this my problem??" It's not that I didn't feel for her situation, but I felt utterly incompetent to help. She also explained that he didn't want to join the Church because the members are hypocrites; in reality, that is perfectly true. We preach a perfect Gospel, and yet do not keep it, which is verbatim the definition of hypocrisy. But, as we explained to him (extremely carefully and lovingly, because that really wasn't our field of expertise nor authority) that Jesus did not establish His Church nor minister for the righteous ones, but instead for those who are sick and sinners. Honestly, I am astounded at the tranquility and humility of the husband, because not once did he become angry or even anything other than peaceful. But, goodness, I was not comfortable there, for obvious reasons. That's the short version of a discussion that lasted ninety minutes, and I don't care to say more. We contributed appropriately and decently well, and we left on cheerful terms with the both of them, and everything was fine, but it looks like I have some serious praying to do for their welfare.

Now I want to mention something of which I have been thinking a lot recently: faith and works. Just about all I want to say is said in James 2, multiple times, that "faith without works is dead", and that is what I want to emphasize. Especially in these last days, it is not sufficient only to have faith in a dying world; we have to prove our faith with works so that there are actual fruits of our faith. Christ said, "by their fruits ye shall know them", and there are no fruits of faith without works of service. Faith is not enough to save us, and it never will be; it takes action in faith to bring the saving power of grace. And that is my spiritual thought and testimony for today.

Con amor,

Elder Hill

P.S. Honestly, after writing about that contentious experience, I feel like something is off in this letter, but I can't tell what to do to fix it. It will probably come to me later, when I have no access to a computer, so I'll just leave this as a declaration that this letter is unfinished in some way.

Fotos:

868: Fútbol con el Barrio

865: Más fútbol

809: Que dramático

781: Calle "Estado de Israel" - Rosalie, estoy pensando de ti