jan 26, 2010

Zachary Hill to me

show details 7:50 PM (1 hour ago)

hey mom
the new area is pretty sweet. other churches here are really strong, and people actually go to church, so it's a little tougher in some areas, but i really enjoy it. we've been teaching a lot of people lately. they all are doing well. this sunday we had 21 people at church, so we're already seeing an improvement. it's pretty nuts having so few people there. it's really quiet. my comp and i have to do lots of things, like bless the sacrament and teach lessons just because there are so few people. we still have a few weeks til we have our first baptism out here, but things are looking really exciting. we got our bikes not to long ago so it's making things a lots easier. i'm glad to hear that you all are doing well and that nyssa is preparing for her mission. how exciting. tell everyone at home i love them, and know that i love you too. talk to you next week ma :D
love, elder hill

Zachary Hill to me

show details 8:03 PM (55 minutes ago)

hey dad, i'm sorry i didnt reply to your email last week. but my new area is pretty awesome. i\m really excited to be here. how long were you out when you were with your third companion? i realized i know almost nothing about your mission, and now that i'm serving one, the things you told me before make a lot more sense and i can relate. as for my experience, this is the best time for me so far. my companion right now is really knowledgable, so i'm learning a lot of good things from him. plus, sibu in general is just an awesome place. the city i'm in, sibu jaya, is like 40 min away from sibu, so we dont see too many other missionaries very often. it's mostly just the two of us, so it's kind of strange sometimes, but i've really been enjoying my time out here. the people are great. i'm sorry to hear about your tooth. luckily for me, although they dont sell much of anything in sibu jaya since it's so small, they do sell nice tooth care products. so my mouth has been nice and minty fresh lately. i'm really excited for nyss. she's going to have such a good time. i know it's hard for her to have those debates with nano, but there are plenty of people who will want to debate out in the field. once she gets used to it, it will be easier to over come. i've seen enough out here to know that if someone prays sincerely, they will receive an answer. it's as simple as that. thanks for the letters dad. i appreciate them and everything you do for me. have a good week.
love, elder hill

Jan 19th, '10

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Zac to me

show details 7:26 PM (2 hours ago)

hey mom. this is zac. the mail service the church uses is really not
being very good right now. that probably explains why i dont receive
some emails. anyways, i got the most recent one you sent. so i replied
and i told you everything about my week. and then i went to send it,
and it said my session had times out and erased everything that i had
written you. the letter was pretty long too. so i'm a little annoyed
at present, and that iis why i will be using gmail today. i apologize,
because i cant remember everything that i had said in the letter that
got erased. ill try my best to reduplicate it. so i started out
something like "we've been teaching everyone." and it's true. but the
problem is that people here are a lot stronger in their religion than
other places. so we've been having to change our strategy to combat a
bit of stubbornness. some people just refuse to change, which results
in a quick drop. so we've been teaching and finding quite a bit. it's
been really good. although it's been tough, and can see an explosion
of success in the near future. so i guess i'll try to recount the
experiences i've had throughout the week. well, one day while we were
contacting in some flats, we saw this kid playing his guitar. so we
sat and talked to him for like 5 minutes. while we were talking to
him, another guy came up to us and was like "are you the mormons?" we
were confused because no one knows about the mormons. we told him we
were and he was like "ive been looking for you, can you come to my
house?" i guess he had been taught by previous missionaries in the
city 40 min from here. he had been confused between islam and
christianity. so we taught him for a bit. hopefully he'll listen to
what we told him. after that, we were walking home. these two people
on a moto pulled up next to us and asked where we were going. which
isnt too uncommon. so we talked to them for a bit and they invited us
to their house. yesterday, we had our first lesson with them and they
were pretty good. they seemed to kind of get what we were saying. i
hope they pray. they said they feel good about us. the weird thing is,
one of them has a sibling who claims to have power and that he can
talk to God. the kid has a friend who also claims to have power and
that he can go to hell and talk to people there. it all seems pretty
silly to me, but they are convinced. so we're going to ask the kid to
ask God what he thinks about our church. that should be interesting.
the two kids call themselves zeus and hades, which is one of the
reasons i think it's silly. dont they realized neither zeus nor hades
have anything to do with christianity? we had a good chuckle about
that when we left. but i'mfairly excited about that family. also, we
have a family on baptismal date. they are really good. they are
friends with one of the members who lives out here. they listen to
everything we have to say and they went to church with not even an
issue. so they should be baptized early in february after they have
been to church 3 times. it's pretty crazy being in just a group tho.
we had 18 people at church, including us missionaries. i got to bless
the sacrament, and give a talk. life is sweet here in malaysia. we
expect some good growth in the near future. anyways, i'm sorry i didnt
write much. the other letter took up all my time and it got erased. so
please show this to dad. this letter will have to suffice for the
week. i love you and dad and everyone who reads this. and even those
who dont. anyways talk to you next week. love, elder hill

Re: ‏

From:	Zachary Hill (zrhill@xxxxxxxl.xxx)
Sent:	Tue 1/12/10 10:06 PM
To:	quiltingqueen57@xxxxxxx.xxx

hey mom and dad.
i figured i'd still write you even tho i havent gotten a letter yet. haha. things have
been going really well. the new area i'm in is awesome. my companion is crazy, but he's
 a good missionary and fun to be around. we've been doing lots of good work, but i
really dont know much about it still since i've only been there for like a week. right
now i'm in singapore renewing my visa, which is pretty fun. we played beach volleyball
 which brought me back to the good old days. singapore is so much different from
malaysia, especially the little town that i live in now. i'm kind of starting to
see while people like little towns. i'm kind of used to it now, and all the business
and people and craziness of singapore kind of scares me! haha. but i'm sure i'll be
all right. i'll go back to malaysia tomorrow, and that's when the magic happens.
we're planning on filling the building up with investigators, so hopefully everything
 goes according to plans, or close to it! this week was awesome. we meet so many new
people, and it was awesome to be able to testify to so many people about what we know
 to be true. the crazy thing is that for me, every time i share with people, i also
get a witness that what i'm saying is true. one of the best things that has happened
to me out on the mission is how much stronger my testimony has gotten. i know this
work is true, and i'm glad to be a part of it. anyways, i dont have much else to say,
 so hopefully i'll have some interesting things going on this week. talk to you later
 mom and dad. i love you.
love, elder hill

[we both had sent emails the day previous to this one, but he'd not gotten either of them.]

first transfer

Re: ‏

From:	Zachary Hill (zrhill@xxxxxxx.xxx)
Sent:	Wed 1/06/10 12:37 AM
To:	quiltingqueen57@xxxxxxx.xxx

hey ma
i really have no idea where my tassel is. it should just be somewhere in that closet.
 i'm sorry i cant be more help. well, the part member family was doing well. they are
 still really excited to see us.. but it turns out that i got transferred on monday,
so i'll have to leave their progress to my old companion. hopefully he'll still let
me know how they're doing. anyways, the place i'm in is called sibu jaya. it's a
pretty cool little town. i explained a little bit about it in the letter i sent to
dad, so you might just want to read his as well. anyways, speaking of that, hopefully
 you didnt send any pictures to my address in kuching. if you did, i'll still be able
 to get them, it'll just take longer. you can just send it to the singapore address
you have for me. this area is really sweet tho. there's just two of us, because it's
a brand new area. it's just a group, as opposed to a branch. my companion tells me
there's like 20 members or so living out here, so there's a lot of work to do. we're
hoping to make the work explode out here. i'm glad your christmas was great. the pic
you sent me is awesome. anyways, i'm sorry i didnt write this earlier, but we've
been cleaning up the new house that we had to move in up here. i'll talk to you next
week ma. love you.
love, elder hill

Re: RE: hey zac‏

From:	Zachary Hill (zrhill@xxxxxxx.xxx)
	This message may be a phishing scam. Learn more
Sent:	Wed 1/06/10 12:25 AM
To:	wodenowl@xxxxxxx.xxx

hey dad
i'm glad your life has been calmer. as for me, mine has been pretty crazy for the past
few days. so basically, i got transferred on monday. still in sarawak, but now i'm in
a city called sibu. i had to take a bus from kuching which was like 7 hours. so i got
to sibu and met my companion and saw a few guys i knew from the mtc. i stayed at their
house for a few days and just today we finally moved out to our area, which is in a
place called sibu jaya, like 40 min away from the city of sibu. they were still
negotiating the contract for the house when i got here, because we're opening up a
new area. we don't even have a church building yet! it's pretty much the coolest
thing ever. so we spent most of the day cleaning the house, because the people who
lived there left it in a pretty big mess. but sibu jaya is awesome. the only
investigators we have are from the little contacting we did yesterday, so it's
pretty crazy. i'm sorry if this is really jumpy. it's really hard to describe things
over email, but i'm really excited to have this experience. the city is isolated
enough, that i'm pretty sure almost no white people go here. so everyone that sees
us just stares, and is so surprised when we can speak malay. we have a thing this
weekend called mission tour, so all the elders in sibu and kuching get to meet
together and hear from a general authority. i'm looking forward to that. and then
next tuesday i'll be in singapore for a few days for a visa run. but things are
going so well. we got a ton of referrals from the people that my companion used to
teach in the city of sibu, so that's who we'll start out with in trying to teach.
the people here are really receptive so far, and i hope that doesnt change. it's a
little sad to not see any of  the members and investigators i got to know any more,
but i really have high hopes for life here in sibu. i'm still a little unsure about
what else is going on because i havent really worked too much in sibu jaya yet, but
i will hopefully have lots to say next week. life on the mission is good. i'm glad
life is still good at home. keep those french students on their toes. ive already
lost much of my french unfortunately, so tell them that if they dont use it, they'll
lose it! haha. anyways, it's really good to hear from you dad. i'll talk to you next
week.
love, elder hill