Letter 6/21

Dear mama,
There are so many holidays here its like every week.
I need to get a calendar that has all the important
dates at home on it, maybe you could send me one!
Also theres a trick to sending packages. Just buy
the prepaid usps padded envelopes and they treat it
like a normal letter and you can just shove as much
stuff as you can in it and send it. That's a huge
bumma you cant swim. It kills me staring at the ocean
everyday. This week was good. A member Marseil Passap
got a friend to take the lessons from us and now she's
going to be baptized on the 4th of July, hopefully that
will keep my mind off everyone doing fireworks back home.
Everything else is progressing at the normal caribbean
speed.  The people are nice. Sometimes there are some
kind of mean hobos or chiggers. Everyone tells me I am
shy because I don't talk that much. I'm not having a hard
time speaking at all. I just cant understand anyone that
good still. But I can understand my companion just fine.
Also there are alot of drugs here and I see guys everyday
just walking around with a dooby in their mouth. That's
why there's so many crazy hobos here. There's too much
alchohol and drugs.  I'm doing fine. Whatever candy you
send would be great; thank you! love you!
-elder hill

Letter 6/6

Sorry I know I've been writing pretty crappy
emails since I've been out here. P-days are
craaazy! We just got back from the prefecture.
That is where you go to become legal. There's
all these crazy people there from other islands
and they do everything wrong so they can't get
in and then they start getting mad. Everytime
I've gone there there's been some crazy yelling
guy.  I'm going to try and write about a normal
day in the life out here. Everyday we wake up
and sometimes I do excersize but sometimes I
just sit in the kitchen and stare into space
because I'm so tired. I usually eat bread and
jam for breakfast or nutella. Also they have
cereal but its not that good with the box milk
they have here.  Our apartment is really cool.
There is a kitchen and one other room. The
bathroom is in our bedroom and it's just this
little room in the corner. The toilet is in
there and theres a drain in the floor because
the shower is in there too. It's the coolest
bathroom ever! A couple weeks ago I opened the
door and this huge centipede started crawling
in then elder silvester grabbed his shoe and
totally annhialated it. Then we left it out
there and all these ants started eating it.
I havent seen anymore so the other centipedes
must have seen the rotting carcas and stayed
away. There's so many insects! We have
cockroaches and frogs and lizards all the
time, and there's a mouse.  There's a holiday
like every other week here and it's really hard
to go out working. Yesterday was fete de mamans,
mothers day, and I bore my testimony at church.
I dont think anyone understood me but I was
trying to say how grateful I was for my mom.
We eat alot of grilled cheese sandwiches and
pb and j sandwiches for lunch. They have all
of the french food here so I eat that alot
too. Alot of pasta and alot of rice. There's
these things called lardons that dad can
probably tell you about but thats what we
eat alot in pasta. Also every fruit and
vegetable out here tastes so much better!
We get stuff every once and a while from our
neighbors. There's this thing called a bread
fruit and it kinda tastes like potatoes. we
ate that the other day it was pretty good. A
drink thats really popular here is malt drinks.
It's just non alcoholic beer and i tried one
the other day and it was so gross, but everyone
loves it here. I drink alot of juice because
its so amazing here. My favorite is the local
pineapple juice. I think I already told you
about bokits. There's bokit stands everywhere.
It's just a scone cut open on one side and they
put eggs and ham in it, they're alright. There's
so many crazy drinks out here. Ask dad if they
had a drink in france called l'ordinaire. It's
really popular out here,it's pretty much black
licorice flavored soda, its kind of good.  We
have only a few investigators since we started
with nothing in this area. Yesterday we had an
investigator tell us she wants to be baptized.
It was the best thing ever when she told us she
knew joseph smith was a prophet. She kept saying
'c'est la verite' it was awesome. I dont know
how long it will be till shes baptized though
cuz she has to get married. She is awesome though.
There house is pretty close to the church.
They have a couple of young kids. There's a
bunch of chickens running around and they always
come on the porch while were teaching and she
shoos them away then she tells us 'ils font caca'
it's hilarious. And they have a huge pig and one
time I was sitting in my chair and I looked over
and there was a pot of pig slop sitting there it
was so nasty there was all these maggots crawling
in it. I love it there though! She's awesome and
her kids are funny.  There's also a recent convert
we see often who has a bunch of really crazy kids
who attack us all the time and pull our ties and
punch us in the crotch.  We can never fix appointments
for the evening so we always have to go the boulevard.
The boulevard is about a mile long stretch of
sidewalk next to the ocean. It's a coral beach
so theres not a bunch of people out there cuz
there's no sand, but a lot of people take walks
there so we pass out cards and invite people to
church alot there. I dont really like it out there
though because no one ever wants to talk to us out
there because they're prominading with their
girlfriends. but on one end there is a small beach
where theres always surfers its so cool. And they
turn on these huge stadium lights at night and
there's sometimes some guys night surfing.  Everyone
drives really crazy and they always yell 'mormons'
at us its hilarious. They dont yell it angry like
but they have french accents so its really funny.
Alot of people will yell creole at us and then my
companion yells creole back and they all start
cracking up. The people are really nice but we
dont get very many people who want to listen at
all. Most people just talk to us about our mission
they're just curious what were doing but they dont
want to hear anything about the church. We also get
a lot of people who try to bible bash its so dumb.
We usually just say we have an appointment to go
to and leave. Also there's these gangster guys
here but theyre just kind of wanna be gangsters.
They all ride around on loud motor scooters and
they also wear fanny packs hanging around their
necks. They really dont look as tough as they
think they do its kind of funny.
I'll write some more next week but I gotta go
for now. I'll try and write you next week han ban!
I love you! I  miss you guys but I'm loving it! bye!
-elder sonny hill

Letter 5/25

Yes, everyone in the fam can email me. so tell em too! the pink bananas tasted the same. i forgot my camera this time so i will send some pictures next week and my companion has his camera so ill send a few off his. i can speak alright but its still pretty hard to get what people are even saying because of the accent and the speed when they talk. the address to send letters to is:

Elder Hill c/o Elder and Sister Collings, Chez M. Govindin Frank,
Plaissance 97122 Baie-Mahault, Guadeloupe.

So everyone in the family can email me but all my friends have to write. I remembered brocks birthday was coming up! happy birthday dude! i love you so much brocky dude! guess what theres these kids your age here in the ward and they remind me so much of you. and theyre surfer dudes. and yesterday we were karate fighting them! happy birthday dude and dont shoot yr eye out with that airsoft gun! the weather is fine im totally used to it. it is pretty hot some days but i hardly notice. we have one of the biggest areas in the zone but we dont have a car or bikes so we walk all day. it doesnt bother me but i am out in the sun all day. the work is alright here, its pretty hard to get people to come to church though. thats so cool about griffin! tell him congrats from me. thats way funny about the birds, we always have a story like that at our house. what is the update on the houses. tell grandma and grandpa that they can email me. ill be prayin for grandpas surgery to go well. love you! ill try to send some pics in another email. bye!

New pasty white missionaries fresh from Provo, Utah

Elder Hill with Pres. Robison and Sis. Robison

5/11 Arrival in Trinidad

We received an email from the mission president that they have arrived safely and if you check out the blog at www.westindiesmission.blogspot.com you will see that he is being well taken care of. He called from the airport and he sounded very happy to be on his way. He was feeling a bit nervous about starting his mission. He said the humidity in Atlanta was so weird to him and that it would be even more humid where he will be(concern, concern) and I said well, "no more chapped lips"! He expressed his love for the MTC and that is was hard to say goodbye to his cousin Greg. We had an undercover ward member get him a last minute package(mesquito net & watch) to the MTC and he was laughing about that. It is a miracle he was walking by the parking lot when they came to deliver it or he probably wouldn't have gotten it. The MTC cops were involved and it was a little crazy but it was meant to be. He talked to Sophie and said "hey, baby Sophe!" and she started acting really silly. When she got off I said, "what did he say"? and she said I couldn't understand him, I think he was speaking Spanish.

Letter 5/9

Dear Family,
Yesterday we got our flight plans. I have a 3.40 hour flight to Atlanta and then a 6 hour flight to Trinidad. I'm so excited! I'm not nervous at all. I got an email from one of the Elders who already left to the field and he said everyone starts out in Guadeloupe because it is easier to become legal there. He also said that the food is really good. Sometimes everything at the MTC looks unappetizing and I make myselft a peanut butter and banana sandwich. It sounds like French Guyana is really cool I hope I get to go there-it is in the jungle. I have loved the MTC and I have learned so much but I am ready to go! I miss being able to see the boys play baseball-it sounds like everyone is doing great. I love you family, and thanks for the snacks!