6/30

Letter to the young men in our stake:
Knowing what I know now I wish I had better prepared myself to be a missionary by:

1. Consistent Daily Scripture Study. Even if you do it early in the morning before school or just before you go to bed at night. Even if you are falling asleep on your scriptures every time you try to study, it is so important to set a goal for yourself to finish the book of mormon and to read consistently everyday to be able to reach your goal. If you really don't have time some days, then read at least one page. I know that every single page of the book of mormom is inspired scripture and we can learn from it if we are open to the spirit. If you get into this habit now, it will bring safety for your soul. It will benefit you greatly for your mission and for the rest of your life.

2. Don't Waste Time. Fill your days doing and learning cool new things. Don't ever pass more than 15 minutes just sitting around doing nothing. Don't take hours to just listen to music or go on the internet. Instead of playing Halo for 3 hours straight, you could ask your mom if there's anything you can do around the house or ask your dad to teach you how to do something cool like changing the oil in the car or fixing your bike. I didn't gain anything from all of the pointless hours I spent listening to music or watching too many movies or video games. If you can't think of anything else to do, make sure you get outside and do some sports and exercise everyday. If you learn to use your time wisely right now it will help you for the rest of your life.

Letter 4/20

Dear mom and family,
It's great to hear you had a good time on Hawaii. That reminds me of what my driver said all the time when I did ups. Everyday when people would ask him how he was doing he would say "another day in paradise".
It sounds like you got to do some cool stuff. In the picture I sent I'm eating the pink pancakes that you told me to send a picture of. Martinique is so cool. We have the greatest apartment ever. We get to sleep out on the balcony because it is so big. I have never has so much food from the members as I have this first week. It is like a huge city here. It is way way more developed than in Guadeloupe. I imagine it is a lot like France here. There are lots of white people here too. The work is different. Street contacts were a lot harder and tracting was 0% effective but in the area book there are lots of referrals from members so that is a big difference. The members do more work here to help the missionaries. My companion is from Belgium. He is way cool. He actually speaks Dutch better than his French. I never get sunburned but I've started to have crazy eye problems. I think they are starting to get sensitive to all the sun and dust. Even when I go into the big stores they start to get really sore and dry. It's not allergies it's like when you're really tired and you feel like rubbing your eyes, its that feeling. I might go to the eye doctor but I think I will just start wearing sunglasses more. Sorry if my letter is short running out of time today. I love you guys!
Love
Elder hill

Letter 3/15

Dear Mom and family,
I am doing great! It brings back some good memories to be back in Capesterre. It's a little hard sometimes because my companion gets a little trunky because it's his last transfer. But I'm having a good time anyway. That's a bummer to be sick. I have been doing some good workouts and I get to run by the beach every morning so I've been feeling great. You just got to eat a ton of oranges.
That's cool Max got to go to youth conference. It sounds like he's kick'n butts. We play soccer almost every p-day out here it's pretty fun. The online classes were a drag. It seems like a long time ago that I did that. I cant wait to get the graduation pics from Hannah's graduation. I didn't know you were going to Hawaii. Is it for Hannah's graduation? I got kind of sunburned at the beginning but its more like nicely baked like you said. I never get any painful burns but sometimes my nose peels. I have been doing really good at having a positive attitude lately actually. It helped a lot to read President Monson's talk, "finding joy in the journey". There is a cool quote from it that says, "The ancient Roman philosopher Horace admonished, “Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been, you may say that you have lived happily.” So thanks for writing me-have a great week this week and do fhe and plenty of good things! love you guys!
love
elder hill

Letter 3/8

Dear mom and family,
It has been nothing but hot and very hot here. It is the hot season right now that is called the Carem.(not quite sure on that spelling) But it has been uber uber hot lately. I think I've become a bit of a wimp to the cold. I always get freezing in the grocery stores that have AC.
It is great to be back in Capesterre. There are some really cool members here. There is a family called the famille Bonbon and they remind me so much of our family, we are going to their house this evening to have FHE. I hope to baptize this transfer and I know we will reactivate some less actives.
There are english islands that are smaller so it's about the same there. There is an english side in Trinidad and Guyana and it is very successful there as well as in Suriname. It is kind of difficult sometimes but President Gamiette feels that everyone has the possibility to turn in the same numbers. Any more news on the Puerto Rico coming into our mission?
Adjectives about how i feel right now is: tired, pumped up, bloated, sweaty, itchy, content, happy, thoughtful, concerned.
I cant wait to be able to watch Mitchell's play in a year!
I was cracking up at that story about me losing my teeth. Tell Sophie to just say a prayer to not be scared about losing her teeth. I pray all the time to not be scared.

No, we do not go to the dentist here.

A funny story.... the other day there was a drunk 20 year old looking guy, and when we passed by him he stood up really fast and he turned around and he had a kitchen knife sticking out of his pants so we both just starting walking a little faster and then he said something to us and then he yelled "je suis pas mechant"(I am not mean) and he threw his beer bottle at us but it smashed on the ground. We got away safe but that's how a lot of people are like here, drunken.
Sorry if my emails weird we didn't have much time today. love you!
love
elder hill

Letter 2/15

Dear Mom and family,
It sounds like you had a great week. I haven't seen anything about the Olympics or the Super Bowl so I guess I'll have to wait a year.
So this last week my companion left for Martinique to do exchanges and I was with a new elder who is in his first transfer- Elder Helms. He is from Utah and he is cool. On Thursday night after we had a meeting at the church we went outside and it looked like it had been snowing and there were flakes floating down. So the other elders knew about it and told us it was a volcano that exploded on another island. It was predicted that it would explode so no one got hurt but the next day the Collings had everyone stay inside because there was so much ash all over the island. I guess the ash went all the way down to Dominica. Friday we didn't leave the apartment at all. The next day we got to work but we were wearing surgeon masks. There is still lots of ash blowing around but it's not too hindering. My companion now is Elder Kelley, he is really short and he is from Arkansas. Everything is going great and I don't need anything. I've got a lot of clothes that were left behind at the apartment I'm in right now. Love you! Have a good week!
love
elder hill

CHRISTMAS PICS! CLICK ON PIC TO ENLARGE