Second 9 - Letter 74 - Rio Vista, CA

Dear Rio Vista, We are going to TEAR you up!

Hello beautiful people that I love,

I hope you have all had a great week! I have had a great week! I made it safely here to Rio Vista. It is so beautiful here. We cover three small towns (Rio Vista, Isleton and Walnut Grove) and they are really charming. The towns are bordered by the Sacramento River so they are spectacular river side views all over. 

Even though it is beautiful here and I was excited for a change but it was hard for me to leave Santa Rosa. Things were really starting to bloom when I left but I know that I was no longer needed there. I also have full confidence in Hermana Bryant and her Greenie and know that they are going to do amazing things with that area! Before I left we had a great lesson with my favorite family, La Familia Maldonado. It was hard to say goodbye to them but they asked me if I could come back when they get sealed in the temple and of course I said yes. So that will be fun someday!

Well.... now my heart is in Rio Vista. I got here on Wednesday and I was able to meet the Branch Mission Leader and the Branch President that night! This branch is awesome. It is pretty strong and they are all very supportive! It is an English branch so we are trying to help them figure out how to better accommodate our lovely Spanish speaking friends but everything is great! 

Hermana Ellsworth is awesome! She is from Salt Lake City and she has been here in the area for one transfer. Her companion before me just finished her mission then I finish my mission and then Hermana Ellsworth finishes her mission so it is all a little bit crazy. Hermana Ellsworth and her last companion white washed into the area last transfer which means that they were both brand new to the area. However, the area is not brand new it has been an area for a little less than a year.. Right now things are a little slow. We do not really have investigators but we are so determined to find some! This week we have really enjoyed getting to know each other and helping me get to know the area. On Saturday we were able to contact 20 people, teach 3 lessons and invite one child of God to be baptized! It was incredible. I guess we do have one person to teach because we found a new investigator on Saturday! She is a young mother who is very religious and who is interested in learning more! 

Things are really going well. It is going to be a great transfer! We have a lot of work to do! I already love the branch and the people here. We have one very active family in the branch who speaks Spanish so we translate for them at church and we eat with them like three times a week. It is weird to be so close to one of my old areas. I have flashbacks a lot but I am trying to focus on Rio Vista. I know this is where I am supposed to be and it is going to be a great transfer! 

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!

Also just fyi we are having a fast here this Sunday for rain in California because it is getting really dry! So please keep that in your fasts and prayers!

Love you all,

Hermana Hillary :)

Second 9 - Letter 73 - Rio Vista, CA

Leave it all out on the court!

Hello everyone! So sorry that President Henderson spilt the beans a little bit but yes I am getting transferred! I did not want to believe it but I knew it was happening! I will be serving in Rio Vista. It is a small town. It is in the Fairfield zone (where I started my mission) and I went there on my first exchange. It will be fun to go back to close to where I started my mission. I will be serving with Hermana Ellsworth. She has been out one transfer less than me (so she goes home soon too). I have exchanged with her a few times and she is so sweet! I am so excited to serve with her. Rio Vista has an English ward and then kind of a Spanish group. I love newer areas so it will be great.

I am sad to be leaving Santa Rosa. It has been a magical ride here! This last week has been INCREDIBLE! I feel like I have given it my all and that I can truly say that I am leaving this area better than I found it!

So the events of this week.......

-Monday we taught Sergio and he just soaked everything up!

-Tuesday we had an amazing zone meeting all about the things that we learned at camp! We tried to make it special because camp was so special to us. So we put the tables in a big circle, drew a big mural of Redwoods on the chalkboard, brought a sleeping bag and propped it up the corner of the room, had a picture of the sacred grove on the door, went on a walk to our own sacred grove in a park and we watched the movie The Butterfly Circus (that President Alba showed us at camp). It was awesome and everyone loved it!

-We taught a young couple Nejamin and Gabriella that the English Elders gave to us! They are awesome and we had a great first lesson!

-We were able to help some of the Spanish elders teach one of their less active families that have been struggling and it was so much fun.

-We did some exploring in Sebastopol and ended up at Bodega Bay (which is in our area) and it was beautiful. We had a photo shoot there for a second.

-We tried to teach an awesome lesson to Marta but instead her grandson threw a hot wheels car at my forehead. It hurt super bad and for the sake of the child's life we left shortly after that!

-We taught an amazing lady named Griselda who we found last transfer but have never had the chance to teach. She is a stay at home mom and so sweet. She wanted us to teach her children how to pray. It was such an amazing experience the spirit was so so strong!

- Luis Maldonado (one of my favorite members of all time) is not moving for his work and he came to church yesterday!

These are the highlights but as always every day has its little miracles!

Also for those who were worried last week I am happy and I know that I have done all that I could and I can't let Satan tell me I am discouraged. I am determined to work harder than ever and leave all that I have out on the court.

I am excited for these next six weeks! They are going to be the best EVER! Rio Vista is not going to know what hit them.

I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your support!

Love you all!

Hermana Hillary

http://mormon.org.nz/erick

Here is another great video! ENJOY!

Second 9 - Letter 72 - Santa Rosa, CA

Arise and Be Great and Bank on God

Hello hello! Oh my goodness this week was incredible! I hope you all had an incredible week as well.

So the week started off with a miracle. So our area is huge but we really only usually just cover Santa Rosa. However, this week we decided to go to Sebastopol one of the near by cities that we also cover. We had a few referrals there so we tried them but no one was home and one of the addresses did not existed. We had only been in Sebastopol for about 20 minutes and we decided that we needed to do something else. We felt dumb throwing in the towel so soon so we chose to knock a random door. We knocked like three times and started walking away when someone came to the door. The man who answered the door is one of the biggest miracles I have ever met. His name is Sergio and he is a walking miracle. He has a tear in his spinal cord and basically should be dead. He has so much faith and is very religious. We had such a good conversation with him. He told us that the night before he had a dream about us (two women) coming to talk to him about God. Crazy but so cool! We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and we gave him his own copy. We set up to meet with him again tonight. When we were on our way home he called us and told us that he had already started reading the book of Mormon and he really liked it. We are so excited to teach him tonight. He is golden.

Then after that miracle we were off to Camp Liahona. It was AMAZING! I could tell you all about out but it would take me forever. It was such a privilege to be able to attend this conference. I have never felt so much love and received so much inspiration in my life. We talked about how we must arise and be great. It is up to us to chose to live up to the high expectations. We also talked about how the high expectations that have been set for our mission come from Heavenly Father and so He will bless us. He is waiting to pour down the blessings upon us. President Alba told us that we can always bank on God and we can always bank on His blessings.

We talked a lot about how we can achieve the 20 contacts a day and that we must look at it as more of a minimum then a huge target. One of the Elders said that we should look at as the blessings don't completely come until we do the 20. Hermana Bryant and I have been focusing more on getting our 20 contacts and we have seen so many miracles.

WE received so much wonderful council on how to be better leaders and how we must be real. I feel like being real is something that I was taught through the example of my parents and grandparents. I love that I am real and that I don't feel like I am better.

We also talked a lot about sacrifice and I am so thankful for the sacrifices that all of you make. one of the elders said that we cannot find ourselves until we have lost ourselves. I love this and I feel like on my mission I have truly lost myself in this work and found myself. I am such a different person and I love it.

Camp truly helped me realize that I can be a little better a little greater and as I do so I am going to receive so many blessings.

At camp I also saw an amazing miracle. While at camp my shoulder was really bothering me and so I had the impression that I needed to ask for a blessing. I asked Elder Eaton and Elder Carrillo (the assistants) to give me a blessing. As they put their hands on my head I already began to feel relief. In the blessing I was promised that the pain would leave me while at Camp Liahona so that I would be able to receive inspiration. It was also said that it all depended on my faith. I then exercised my faith and the promises came. My shoulder felt so much better and I was truly able to focus. This was such a testimony building experience to me that we truly must work towards the promises and they will come to pass.

So ya camp was great! It changed me! However, on Saturday night I had a huge break down just feeling like I have wanted my whole mission because I have not been doing all of these things and I do not have a lot of time to change. It was so frustrating to be feeling this way but I needed to reach tis low point to pick myself together and to know that I have been doing all that I can and I am just going to try even harder.

There is always room for improvement. Arise and Be Great!

I love you all so much! Also this Friday I will know where I will end my mission! Yikes!

Have a wonderful week!

Love you all,

Hermana Hillary

Also here is my favorite video! Enjoy!

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/origin?lang=eng

Second 9 - Letter 71 - Santa Rosa, CA

2014: Puerto Rican, Chinese New Year

Happy New Year! I hope that 2014 is treating all of you very well! This New Year is going to bring so many wonderful things! I was on exchanges in Healdsburg for both New Years Eve and New Years. We ended up doing a double exchange. So I was with Sister Henry from Tuesday to Wednesday and then I was with Sister Falute from Wednesday to Thursday. It was hard to be gone from my area and from my companion for that long but we saw so many miracles. We were able to see all of our investigators, we picked up two new investigators one on Facebook and then the daughter of Maria our investigator, and we ended up teaching a lot of lessons.

For New Year's Eve everything was normal we were just supposed to be careful. Sister Henry and I got invited to go to one of their investigators New Years Eve Party. They are a Hispanic family so it was fun because I was able to speak to them in Spanish and the food was so good. Then just as we were leaving I glanced at the TV and we saw the ball drop in Puerto Rico which was fun. Then on New Years Sister Falute and I went out to dinner to a Chinese Restaurant with their relief society president and it was so good and a lot of fun! So I have been saying that I had a Puerto Rican Chinese New Year!

So to end 2013 we taught a wonderful lesson to Maria. She is kind of hard to teach because she just loves to talk to us about all of her problems but we do not know how interested she is in the gospel right now. Her 14 year old daughter Lupita was there and she is a lot more interested and so we picked her up as a new investigator. She realizes that we have something different that can help her family. Time will tell with them but they are progressing little by little.

We also taught the Maldonados twice this week. They have been by far the biggest miracle that I have had here in Santa Rosa. They were really on the right path to full activation but then we found out that Luis (the dad) is moving to work in Southern California. He will work 7 days a week for 10 hours and he will only come to visit his family every 15 days. I am still a little upset about it all but I just hope that he is able to continue to read his scriptures and to pray.

Then to start 2014 we taught a great lesson to Victor and Zahira. They are seriously GOLDEN! They have so many questions! We had Susana, an amazing member with us and we were all able to help them understand more about Joseph Smith and the restoration. They could be baptized so soon but they have a few big things standing in their way but we are going to bust those things down and get them baptized soon.

We also taught Marta and the Elders were able to come with us to leave a blessing on her home. Oh how I love the priesthood! The blessing was beautiful and the feeling in her home was so different. We were able to teach a very powerful lesson to her and she said that she knows that these things are true. She could be baptized like any day she just needs to come to church.

The week ended with my favorite thing in the whole world: Mighty Hour of Prayer! I love being bale to pour out my soul to Heavenly Father for an entire hour. I received so much inspiration. It was heavenly!

That about sums up the week! The biggest news for this upcoming week is that from Wednesday to Friday we will be going to Camp Liahona for Missionary Leadership Council! It is going to be an incredible experience to be with the leaders of the mission for three days. WE are going to be planning goals and plans for the new year. Also Hermana Bryant got invited as a future leader! So it is going to be a blast!

Things are going well! I am so happy! I have decided that March 4th can either haunt me or help me. I chose to have it help me so my theme this year is to March Forth! I invite you all to March Forth. Look back to learn but then march forward. Don't Look Back! Enjoy every day of 2014! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Much love,

Hermana Hillary

For your enjoyment!

http://www.lds.org/pages/look-not-behind-thee?lang=eng