Happy December from Indiana

Hello everyone!

It's crazy to think that it's December and I am starting my 6th month as a missionary! This week has been a good one and I have a lot to talk about, so it might be another long one today!

On Tuesday, we had a great night! We visited with an old lady named Sue. She is really nice. She's 82, but I would have never guessed that! She looks like she's in her 60's. Anyway, she talked our leg off, fed us pumpkin pie, and then we shared a little bit about the restoration. She seems interested and her cousin's son lives in Utah and is in the bishopric of a ward, so she knows some things about the church. She offered us coffee and iced tea, and the member that was with us, Brother Garber, thought that was hilarious.

After her, we went next door to a less-active guy that we met at the Garber's yard sale months ago. His name is Ken and he was baptized in another ward in Indiana in the late 80's, but hasn't gone to church since he's been in Brazil. His wife Mona isn't a member and she showed some huge interest in the church! We were just chatting with them, and then she said, "Well tell us about your church!" before we could even say anything. He still has a solid testimony and they said they wanted to come out to church. That was an awesome lesson!

Thursday was a really good thanksgiving. We ate dinner at the Griffins who are a family in Terre Haute. We ate some great food and then headed to one of the middle schools and played football for about 2 1/2 hours. In fact one of their relatives took some videos and put them online at http://xancraven.smugmug.com/Family/Griffin-2013 if you want to check it out. Or you can just watch ESPN sometime this month and I'm sure they'll be showing some of the replays....

Speaking of websites, our mission has a facebook page! I've never seen it though, because we still aren't aloud on facebook.... but you can go ahead and check it out! I believe it's on facebook.com/indymission . Elder Rogers (my mission grandpa and one of the assistants, he's home now) told me that we had our 4 generation posterity picture on there and that I was in some other pictures, so you'll have to check it out!

Friday was another good day. In the evening, Brazil had a Christmas parade. Just about everyone in Clay County showed up to that, so Elder Wallace and I went and tried to talk to some of the people there. Everyone was busy watching the parade so we didn't have much luck there. About 20 minutes into the parade, Brenda called us. We were so excited because we weren't able to get in contact with her for a week! We hurried over there with a member, Brother Allen, to visit her. It turns out she had a tooth pulled and got a dry socket, so she hadn't been feeling very good. That was  a relief to us, because we were afraid she was ignoring us. (She wouldn't answer the door when her car was home, and she almost always answers when her car is home.) It seemed like kind of a blessing in disguise for that to happen to her, as awful as that sounds, because the dentist told her that she couldn't smoke with the dry socket or it would make it a lot worse. She's been doing really well with the smoking. Her daughter, Barbara, was there as well and she showed a lot of interest in the church. We told her about the Book of Mormon, and since Friday she's already read to 1 Nephi 1.

Saturday was another good day where we met with some less-active families and Brenda again. We only have a few more things we need to teach her, but they're pretty crucial lessons for her to live the standards set for baptism. I'd definitely appreciate it if you kept us and Brenda in  your prayers; we could use all of the help we could get!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for. First of all, I'm on a mission! This has been my dream for so long! If I ever get a negative attitude I think, "Holy cow! I'm on a mission! I've been waiting for this my whole life!" I'm really grateful for all of you, my family and friends. These last 5 months I've realized how much I took everything for granted. I don't know how I got so lucky to have so many people around me  who support me so much. And one of the greatest blessings I have is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a gospel of hope and I have that oppurtunity to share this peace and hope with those who need it so badly! I hope everyone has a great week, and I love all of you! Thanks for the support! :)

Love, 

Elder Tom Hill

P.S. I'll send some pictures in a minute if I have time.