Hujan Panas

Zachary Hill to me

show details 8:35 PM (4 minutes ago)

hey dad
i just had a fever for like two days, but nothing bad. all the ibans here tell me it's because i went out in "hujan panas" which is when it rains and the sun is shining. they think that when it's like that, spirits come out and make people sick. we went to teach this lady the other day, and they were explaining some traditions the people have. if someone in the family dies, they believe that the spirit of that person comes by the house of their relatives during hujan panas. also, if a woman is pregnant, there are many things she cant do, like kill a chicken. after she has the baby, no one can go into the house besides family, and she has to keep herself warm. normally they put on warm clothes, turn the fans off and start a fire. i think i would die if i tried that in this weather! but i tell you, traditions like that make some fun people. just talking with these people is so fun sometimes. i havent had anything like your mission story just yet. maybe someday. but even if it's not as obvious as yours, i know the lord helps us. we just run into people sometimes who are really prepared to listen to us, and it's awesome. anyways, i'm sorry this is so short, but we've got an activity planned for today. we are going to visit some people whose ancesters were head hunters, and the still have the skulls. so hopefully i get a pic or two. anyways, take care dad. keep yourself healthy.
love, zac
ps. i do have one request. i know i shouldve listened to you before my mission and taken a picture of a girl with me, but i was young and stupid back then. anyways, i have come to see your wisdon, and was wondering if maybe you could email my prom pic with alex? that would be really good. i could just put it onto my memory card and take it to a picture store here and have it printed out so it wont take forever to come or cost you anything. thanks. later! :D

Zachary Hill to me

show details 8:08 PM (33 minutes ago)

hey ma.
that's pretty nuts that we have a new bishop. valentines day here was pretty lame too. i spent the whole day with a dude! but i survived it. it also happened to be a very special day here for a good portion of the people here in malaysia- chinese new year! gong xi fa cai! what a horrible holiday. bombs going off til like two in the morning at our chinese neighbors house. we did get invited to a few places tho. they fed us all kinds of goodies, like cuttle fish and squid. mmm. i'm not gonna lie, the dinner description you gave had me drooling. the people here all talk about how they couldnt live without rice, and that even if they ate a huge steak it wouldnt fil them up. theyre pretty nuts sometimes. all the people here also think that americans have never eaten rice. and that america is covered with ice all year round. i really see how silly stereo types are now that they are against me! haha. we have so much fun with it tho. people always tell me how cold me hometown is, so i play along and talk about how there's snow above my head. that sure freaks them out.

but so here, i'd like to explain a little bit about the people here. they have what's called a kampung, which is like their hometown. although they live away from kampung, their lives revolve around it, and they go back for any deaths, marriages, holidays, etc. even chinese new year i guess. most of the people who own businesses here are chinese, so they give long holidays for chinese new year. since the people have lots of time off, it's back to kampung. so a lot of our investigators gave us the slip. but it was good. it gave us time to knock a few flats and pick up new investigators. what joy!

yeah i was sick a bit last week. kind of feverish, but nothing to keep me at home. i went straight to bed after we got home two days in a row, but i feel in perfect health now. i had some medicine from america that i took, so no worries. if anything gets serious tho, they send us to singapore, because hospitals here are pretty silly. it's been a little tough to get some investigators to church, but you can tell the good ones because they come to church every week. we've got a member moving in from town, so that will move our active adult member total up to like 4. so hopefully we'll get some good member help soon. i never really realized how tough it was without member help until i didnt have any! but life is good here in malaysia. i love the people. they love us. we're gonna have more members soon, so we're excited for the future. march is sure lookin good! anyways, i'll keep you up to date with things that are going on. oh, so at iban kampungs, they live in a place called a long house, that has a bunch of doors in one building. so we're gonna go visit one of those today for p day because they have some skulls hanging from the head hunter days. i should have some cool pictures after that, so i'll send some your way. also, i got the pictures you sent me of the fam yesterday. thanks so much. you are the best ma! i gotta go.
love, elder hill

feb 8

Zachary Hill to me

show details 7:08 PM (1 hour ago)

hey dad. how's it going? that's pretty cool that nyss got to go to the temple. i still remember whan we all went with richard, that was pretty sweet. quite a while ago now. that's pretty cool about the french club. do people actually try to speak french? i was surprized when i went with you and no one spoke french. crazy people. my french is pretty bad now. i couldnt even remember how to say merci the other day! it all comes out malay. i love malay tho. such a good language. i'm sorry about your fish tho. are they still alive? did you get your tank fixed? things are doing well here for me. i've been sick for the first time this past week, so that was pretty fun. all the people we saw kept trying to feed me medicine. that's just the way these people are. they're pretty good. there are lots of flats here. there are blocks with 80 doors, and there are blocks a-t. some dont have anyone in them, but there's still a ton of people. so one day we knocked an entire block. lucky blcok n. there were a few people who say they wouldnt even change churches if christ came down and told them to. what can you do with that? we mostly just thank them and leave. we got a good family out of that block tho, so we're excited for them. the husband actually comes home from work every day, so we're really hoping things work out. a mission is very exciting. so do you have any sweet experiences from your mission you'd like to share? anyways, im gonna skedaddle. take care dad.
love, elder hill

Zachary Hill to me

show details 7:18 PM (1 hour ago)

hey ma. that's crazy about the weather over there. it's been pretty hot over here. i can't believe how hot it gets when the sun is out in the middle of the day. whew! sweat like it's no ones business. things here are good. unfortunately, it's quickly becoming chinese new year, and all our investigators are giving us the slip! just for a few weeks tho. but, they should be good for march. we're still picking up new investigators all the time, which is nice. i told dad about a family that we got, who seem pretty good. they havent been to church in years, which is good because then we have to fight less blind stubborness. the lady was excited to have us come over, because here daughters are not yet christian, so she wants us to teach them. little did she know, we'd teach her and her husband too. haha. what a sneak i am. we can always find people who are interested, never fear mom. there will always be people. some just take a lot of work. we've had this indonesian lasy we've been talking to, who is kind of crazy, but she seems pretty interested and always invites us over. she believes a lot of crazy things, but she could be a good member. so we're trying to get her to pray right now, even though all her friends are telling her that our church is apostate. we know if she prays sincerely, she'll get an answer and then we'll have something to work with. anyways, i'll tell you more next week. love you ma.
elder hill

feb 1, 2010

hey dad
i really hope you received an email last week, because i sent a huge
one to you. i told you about everything i did that week. if you
didn't, i tell you it wasn't my fault! haha. well, we haven't heard
too much about the situation here in malaysia. everytihng that is
going down is pretty much in west malaysia so it hasn't really
affected us here in east much. people just tell us to be careful and
they tell us in west there have been churches that have been bombed. i
dont know how much you've heard about it, but i guess it's because of
a controversy over the word "allah." in malay there is no other word
for god, and the muslims get angry because they feel like christians
disrespect Allah. the issue came to a vote, and it was passed that
christians could continue using the word, so there was a backlash. i
guess some people in west had to stay inside, but we're still safe.
it's crazy to face politics as a missionary, because i have no idea
what is going on in the world. people always ask where we're from, and
when we tell them america, they just go "barak obama!" it's so funny.
and then they ask what we think of him, but i dont know anything. i
might just tell people i'm from france, because no one knows where
that is anyway. so we had a pretty good week last week. well, there
were some tough things that happened i guess, but mostly good. we've
been working with all our investigators, and most of them are doing
really well. you may have heard me talk about this lady named kitty
that we have been teaching. she's so good. she is really prepared to
hear what we talk about. she's been to church twice, and pretty much
ready to be baptized, but she's a little nervous to be by herself so
we're going to postpone it a week so she can be baptized with another
person. we should have quite a few coming up, but we need to wait a
little bit to see how things go. one day, all our appointments fell
through, and even our back up appointments. it was like 830 at night,
and we knew it was too early to go home. we didnt yet have bikes at
that point, so we didnt want to go super far and have to just walk
back. so we started to contact around where we lived, which normally
night contacting goes no where because people are scared of two big
white guys when its dark out. anyways, we go straight for this one
house, and the guy is a stud. he let us in and he's really receptive.
he's been to america before, so he likes to talk to us in english a
bit. so we met him that first time, and last week, we met him for a
second time. he really seemed excited to hear about the book of mormon
and on thursday he invited us back, and he said he would bring some
family members, so we're really excited for that coming up. we've got
some members who are giving us referals, which is always helpful. that
should go well. sacrament is pretty strange, but it's so much more
peaceful with just a handful of people. anyways, we just meet in a
terace house until we have enough people to merit the renting of a
building for church. and some people dont want anything to do with us
until we have an actual building. it's a little sad, but you can
really see who is prepared and who isnt. anyways, the hard thing this
week was that we have a family who seemed pretty good. a mother and a
few children that love to have us come over. the husband works far
away and comes back once a month. so he came back, and has banned her
from going to church. he says once we have an actual building for
church, he'll let them go again, but you never know if he'll keep his
word. so that's a few baptisms we'll have to wait for. it's always
hard to see things like that, but you just have to keep going.
everything else here is going great. we get rained on almost everyday
now, and that's just the way i like it. so i was originally going to
send this just in myldsmail, but i decided i'd send it twice just so i
could make sure you get it. take care dad and know that i love you.
let me know how things are going back home. later.
love, elder hill

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Zachary Hill to me

show details 6:54 PM (2 hours ago)

hey mom. i havent gotten the pictures yet, but they should be in singapore right now. normally, they wait until someone from the same city goes back to singapore, and they can just pick up the mail for free. so i should get it in the upcoming weeks. plus, you never know how long it will actually take to get to singapore. i just got the christmas card you sent me last week! haha. what a fun experience this is. i can't even tell you how much i love malaysia. i have had so many experiences that just make me laugh, that i can't even describe them all. i wish you guys could all experience it, but i'm sure you'd have to experience it as a missionary to have one like mine. i'm not sure how much i'd like coming here as a tourist, but getting to know all the people is so much fun. especially being able to talk to them. but yeah, malaysia is always pretty warm. it's nice. i think i wouldve died if i got sent to russia or dare i say canada! brrr! but yeah, there are some pretty sweet jungles around here. way more than in kuching because i was just surrounded by city. i'm sorry i've been so bad about sending pictures. i'll try to remember to take some. there's this raging river we have to cross to get some places. it's pretty crazy. also, there's a really really tall bridge we ride over to get to some members. when i get to the top, i feel like i'm gonna pass out, but it sure is fun to ride down. the family we had isnt ready to be baptized yet, and wont be for a while. i explained a little more in depth in dad's email (i really hope you both read both emails i send, because i say different things) anyways, the husband has currently forbidden them to come to church until further notice. so we'll wait to see what goes on. we still have some good people, and are expecting a good turnout for february. the people here seem to really like us. we get invited over for food a lot more than i did in kuching, so it's pretty nuts. malaysia sure has some delicious curry, but i think it would be better with no bones and no skin on the chicken. either way, you just gotten eat what's given to you, know what i'm saying? i wish i would've realized that when i was younger. i'm sorry i was so picky back in the day ma. anyways, i'm sorry this one's short. i should probably get. i'm gonna try to write better emails, so we'll see how it goes. i love you ma. take care of yourself.
love, elder hill

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