After last week's disheartening letter, I was pretty worried about this week. Austin shared with us some pretty difficult things he was dealing with. The were tough situations even for us as 40+ year olds. We were sad that our son had to deal with such tough things, yet hopeful that he would be able to make it through this. I got his letter today while in line at WalMart. I read through the second paragraph and was in tears. My son not only made it through his trial, but he made it through with compassion, charity and a willingness to sacrifice for others. It is a little thing, but the fact that a 19 year old (okay, this happened 3 days before he turned 20) recognized the importance of a small detail to someone else and worked to make it happen for them is amazing. He made us proud with this little act of kindness.
Hey family,
Thank you so much for everything for my birthday! It was surely appreciated. I loved it! I had a great time opening it and seeing everything. I felt a little bad and spoiled, but thanks family. You know me that I don't need a whole lot, but thank you. I loved the shirts and also the stuffed animal. The only thing is we aren't allowed to have them because of the serious problem with Bed bugs. Soooo well see. I loved all the letters that you sent me also. I was really happy to read them all. I put up the happy birthday banner. I also wore the tie that day. It was really funny because we got up at 5:50 that morning to go to the church to play sports with the other Elders. We played soccer which was really fun. It was great because at like 6:35 I got a phone call from the sisters. I answered it and I hear HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! They sang to me in Spanish and it was so funny. They also read my a scripture, Alma 7:10. And replaced some words for me. I was laughing. Made me happy. They also gave me a birthday card that sings and you can blow out the candle. The whole district wrote in it. I love having sisters in my district because they are so much better and remember things better. haha. But yes it was a great birthday! I do not feel any older though.
So about this week and to answer your questions. This week was totally awesome. Zone Conference in specific was really amazing! I will start with that. So it was the Christmas Zone conference which was great. We started with listening to President Meredith and then a talk by Elder Holland. After, we had a Christmas lunch and game. I was with Elder O'Farrell (MTC companion) which was fun. I got to talk to him and he is doing really well! The food was super good and we had some presentations on how to use cars and how to take care of our clothes haha. After that, we had a game of presents. Remember that picture you showed me on Facebook before I left on my mission with all the Elders in a circle for Christmas. We got into a big circle and they put the presents in the middle that the members had provided. I don't know what the game was called, but you have one person pick a gift and open it. The next person then can pick a new one or the gift that the person before him got. We went around the circle until me. I opened up a gift that had a towel, some razors, cereal, all sorts of random stuff. I then decided to exchange mine for one that had a really nice study journal in it. My companion then opened his and found a Swiss Legend watch. All the Elders freaked out. It was such a nice watch. My companion was so happy because he doesn't have a watch and we have had problems with not being on time because he doesn't know what time it was. I was so happy for him to open that. He decided to keep it. The next Elder though was a big Samoan guy. He just quickly picked a gift, opened it and didn't even think before he exchanged it for the watch with my companion. He was devastated Sister Meredith, the mission president's wife, the assistant and some of the other senior couples were sad also because they knew that Elder Brogyay didn't have a watch. After the Samoan Elder, there was a Korean elder that did the same and stole the watch from the Samoan The Samoan just said, the watch won't even fit you, its big for people like me. The Korean just said, I don't care and took it. It was funny! It kept going like that until one Elder already had a nice watch and opened his gift to find a pan and a spatula. He decided to exchange and started looking at all of the gifts. I knew that I could get the watch if he exchanged with me because then I could exchange again. As the Elder came to me, he saw my bag and liked it and exchanged with me. It was a MIRACLE! I then went for the watch and I gave it back to my companion. My companion was so happy and gave me a hug. Everyone was so happy! It was a really special moment. It was made me happy to see him happy. We then went on with the game and of course another Elder stole the watch from my companion. He never got it back until the last Elder. The last Elder got to exchange with someone. He decided to exchange his for the watch and give it to my companion. It was so kind. Everyone was so happy. My companion was so happy again. I was also. After that, we thanked that Elder for giving the watch to my companion. The next day I got a call from President Meredith. I answered it and he was just calling because he heard what I did with the watch for my companion. He said that he was so touched because of it. He thanked me and told me I was a good Elder.
After the game we went back to the chapel. We then had a special musical number. It was our Zone. We sang "Come all ye Faithful!" I played the Organ and it was so good. It was great to play the organ again, it was sure hard without shoes though!
On Thursday we had a Zone Christmas Service Project where we went to a place where the company was providing food for those in need. We all went and unpacked all the food and then sorted it and then put them all in bags. We loved it! It was so much fun We were all singing Christmas songs as we worked. We made 400 bags of food.
As with the Area... We lost most of our investigators. One of them just got up and went back to mexico. Can't do anything about that. The others (2) we are moving along slowly, but surely. We are working hard with them though.
Thanks for the CD on faith. I listened to it all and it helped me so much. It strengthened my faith so much. I am putting together a district meeting this week on how to recognize the spirit and how to ask inspired questions. I really love my district and care about him a lot. I am striving to help them and help them grow their faith. I have learned so much this last week and I am working hard. I am also working hard to help my companion this week. I am going to be really striving to help him and help him increase his confidence.
I also had some other stuff going on with the lady in our district that couldn't be baptized because of her divorce. President Meredith called me a few times so that we could figure it out. According to everything, he finally decided to accept her because she cant do anything and so I will be doing the interview tomorrow.
I love you all! So Christmas for the call. We are figuring that out this week exactly. My companion has a time difference so we are figuring that out. I also was wondering if skype will be possible again. If dad has his computer or something we can. But next week I will confirm it.
Love you all! - Elder Hill
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