Conference and Transfers

Hello family!

This has been an awesome week! Conference was the perfect way to end
it! Maybe it's just because I'm a missionary, but I think it was the
best conference I've ever heard. Anyway, I'll talk about that more in
a bit!

I'll start with the biggest news! We got transfer calls last night and
I am staying here in Brazil. That made me happy because I feel like
there is a lot of work I can do here, and I'm excited to see it
progress. (It also made me happy because NCAA Cross Country Nationals
and Pre-Nationals are in East Terre Haute in November and December and
our Bishop said he could get us in to volunteer there. Awesome,
right??) Elder Easter is leaving and both of us are training new
missionaries. So on Wednesday we will go to transfer meetings and I
will meet my first born in the wilderness. I'm excited to train, but
also nervous. It's a lot of responsibility, but I know the Lord will
help me out!

Conference was incredible! I feel like Saturday's sessions were
focused on missionary work! I loved Elder Perry's talk about members
being key to the work. Something we've been trying to do with members
is to help them create their own family mission plans with specific
goals of people they will talk to, numbers of people they want to
invite to church and activities, and gospel discussions they will have
with coworkers, friends and family. I'd invite you to do the same
thing! If there is a plan, we can accomplish so much more than if we
just go into something blindly. This is especially true with
missionary work! President Monson announced that there are 15 million
members in the world now and 80,000 missionaries. I want to change
that a little bit. There are 15 million missionaries in the world now
and 80,000 of us are focusing on it 24/7. That changes perspective a
little bit. Imagine how much missionary work could be done with 15
million people all trying to share the gospel! Pretty incredible.

Just like any week there were some set backs and frustrations. We
invited three people to come watch General Conference with us, and
they were all pretty excited to come, but none of them came and didn't
answer our calls when we tried to call them. It was a little
frustrating, but that's just a minor setback. The work is starting to
get rolling here in this area, and good things will start happening
these next few months.

I hope everything's going well back home! I've heard some people tell
me things about conference already, but I'd love to hear everyone's
insights. I know the men and women that addressed were inspired and
that those messages can greatly bless our lives and the whole world. I
know President Monson's our prophet upon the earth today, and that the
other apostles really are the Lord's apostles and are guided and
inspired by Him.

I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! Being a missionary
rocks! (<--- exclamation point!) :)

Love,
Elder Tom Hill