There are more pictures of Sister Alisa Hill on the mission blog, the address is:

http://belgiumbrusselsnetherlandsmission.blogspot.com/

I also have a link a little farther down on the right hand side of the blog.
We are so proud of our Missionary.

Merry Christmas.

Safe Arrival

Hello,

I just wanted to notify you of the safe arrival of Sister Hill in Brussels today. Though their flight was delayed, they arrived safe and were greeted by a excited welcome party. They had dinner and interviews with President Brubaker and opened up their call letters to see where their first area would be. Sister Hill will be serving in Den Haag with Sister Sharp. You can write to her at the following address:

Apeldoornselaan 105

2573 LD ‘S-Gravenhage

Nederland

I’ve also attached a picture of Sister Hill with President and Sister Brubaker. Please feel free to email me at this address with any further questions. I love to help.

Elder Marshall

Mission Secretary

87 Boulevard Brand Whitlock

1200 Brussels

BELGIUM

Letter #7

Hey, where to begin? I really don't know. Hm.. The lady from Peru (sat next to the airplane.), I gave her the Book of Mormon. She said she was really excited to read it and that she would. I didn't even have to ask her! IT was Awesome! I also marked 3rd Nephi 11 and Moroni's promise in there for her. The Mission home is beautiful. Yeah I definitely was tired that night.. I think I almost slept an hour on the plane. We got there, 6 hours later than we were originally supposed to so we didn't do any tracting in the central square, but we just got our calls, ate lunch and went to bed. We were supposed to go meet our trainers that night, but all of the trains closed because of some big terrorist bomb threat. But we everything was open and we went in the morning. My collega's name is Zuster Sharp. She's way cool. She's been really sick though, so I got here to ons apartment on Saturday, and this is the third time I've been outside. She's had the griep. (flu, stomach, hardly eaten or drank anything) she feels really bad, but its totally fine. I actually got a little nap in on Saturday to help recover. Saturday nocht there was a baptism, so she went over to a members house, and I went on splits with another lady in the ward. Luckily she spoke English too. :) The baptism went really well. The bishop had me get up and bear my testimony in dutch, and then I got to say the prayer too. Then Yesterday Two girls my age came over and we each split with one, and 1 went out with me and two elders and we went finding. We found this guy who seemed pretty interested. His name is "H", but he is Muslim and we need to ask permission from the pres if we can teach him and then find out if it is safe for him. But it was super exciting!

One of my teachers was talking about how Europe has a different sort of smell. I can definitely smell it, if it was smoke he was talking about. I'll probably consume more 2nd hand smoke here on my mission than ever in my life put together..

Um, the toilets are small and round and freezing. Oh wow, it is soo cold here! Our apartment is pretty good size I think, and we only keep one bedroom and room with the Christmas tree and desks heated. I went and took a shower and that room is freezing! But, the good thing, Nice Hot water! It was like taking a hot tub shower outside in the snow... weird sensation.

Ew. It stinks in here. like smoke. I'm in an internet cafe right now.. says no smoking, but it smells like a smoking room.

The ward members here in Den Haag are way Awesome too! They've brought us bread, and fruit. We have a ton of mandarin oranges. They've brought my collega med's and tea. (everyone drinks tea here, non caffeinated. I tried some this morning, and it was gross, just tasted like warm dirty water..) And they keep coming by. She's doing better today, still has hardly eaten or drinking anything. She's lost 10 lbs int he last 4 days. how many lbs are in a kilo? well anyways I need to finish up, but hopefully I'll get the language down quickly. Oh yeah, the members, again they are awesome, and super excited about missionary work and helping us. There are us, and 2 sets of Eders in the ward. Den Haag is called the promised land of the Netherlands, and has the biggest strongest ward.

Ik houdt van u meer, hope dad continues to get better, and excited to talk at Christmas!

Met geel Liefde, Alisa :D

Letter #6

Oh halo! Guess what?!?!

So remember all those days i counted down? All those times I went out with the Sisters, all those times I dreamed about my mission?! Yeah....So, I'm Pretty much Living my dream right now!!!! chunga-jonge (oh my goodness in dutch "chunga-young-uh") I leave tomorrow! I'm gonna be around real people! I'm gonna be able to talk to and share this with Real People! Can't tell i'm excited eh? I'm only a little nervous actually. I mean the language is hard, (Le Grand Richards went to the same mission, and struggled a looong time with it. one of our teachers said it was the 5th hardest language to learn. But that must mean with our English alphabet, because I'm super glad I'm not learning Chinese or Thai or any of those. ;) )

It snowed today!!!! I was becoming very sad that I was in Utah, and it had only snowed for real for once. But Just for my last day, as a beautiful send off we got snow! We went to the 630 am session at the temple today, and it was beautiful with the flakes falling down from the sky, the temple lite in the darkness and the nativity in front. :) Oh, and we all (my whole district) got breakfast there! And it tasted so GOOOD! Now, I'm not saying MTC food is terribly, but they had fluffy waffles, with strawberries and whipped cream, and omelets with real cheese. I've actually fallen in love with eggs, since not having much of a choice here. And when I say eggs, I really don't mind the yolk either, but I dunno how true of a statement that is. Lets just say I've usually gotten eggs, and lets just say they're kinda not even real, (someone told me they are powdered eggs, but hey, its better than bagels or cereal everyday, and the waffles and pancakes aren't great.)

Tell David that I've been learning a bit more Portuguese. There are two elders from Brazil in the other dutch group who'll leave after us. I sing the Happy birthday song with them. and say hi and ask how they are and stuff. They're from somewhere really south. We connected with Monica comics, and white chocolate candy bars. There's an elder Da Cruz, and Elder Peleqium. The latter of the two is Hilarious, I love their accents, and he says the most random things. Its funny because his humor is kinda like David's. :D

I've also learned basic Tongan conversation too, I made a few Tongan friends with some elders, they're really fun. There's a really interesting story about one of them I'll have to tell you later. "Fay Fay Hake" is how you say "how are you".

Don't worry I'm learning dutch too ;)

On Sunday in church I spoke on faith, and our district gave the musical number because we're leaving, we sang a dutch hymn, that's really fun to sing and gets stuck in our heads, its called Zullen Wij elkaar ontmoeten, It's a song that talks about how we'll be together again. Then Sister Rich and I taught Sunday school as well, and I gave the closing prayer in front of a billion people in the departure devotional. Sister Rich kinda volunteered me, but I don't mind. :)

Today I've just been packing. It takes a while...haha, as we can remember the pre mtc packing...don't worry, I'm almost finished.
I sent out a few Christmas cards, and hopefully people get them. I wish I had more time.

I really love to hear from everyone. I love to get pictures as a new years gift, pics of Makena and I before I left, and Aston and I. And then Halloween and Aston and the girls pics. I send my hugs.

I'm sending a few things home. I will try and get on a little later and send the flight numbers, and yes, I will def. hear your voice tomorrow! Love You more than you know! Tell the family MERRY CHRISTMAS for me, (you should be getting a card soon.)

Tot Later,

Ik houdt Van U Zuster Alisa Hill

Letter #5

Mom! Your Awesome I love you! Its good to hear from you, anything is always good to hear from you! Feel free to write me short emails anytime because I love them!

Wow. Its December First already! I have only 19 days until i head out. I know that you've been asking about my VISA stuff, I've gone in several times and asked about it, and they always so its gonna be ok. That its the french that get stuck on their visa's.

Elder Law and Zuster Rasmussen are supposed to come into today. I'm excited. James only left Friday, right after thanksgiving. He had to stay a little late because of VISA stuff, but I'm sure it will all be fine for me. Thanksgiving Was Great. Elder Holland came for Thanksgiving. He said that today (that day) his family is our family, he brought them all. His grandchildren even sang "I know that my Heavenly Father loves me" He spoke on The Savior and the Atonement. His wife spoke. They are so darn cute! He talked about his wife, and I wanna be married someday and be just like them. They love and care for each other so much. Ya know, sometimes I think marriage is scary because it's for forever, but when I see The Love that couples have for each other, like you and dad, and Elder Holland and his wife, It truly does seem like it'd all be very much worth it! (don't worry, I'm not thinking about boys..its nice to get a break from them.., well kinda)

There are people from everywhere here going everywhere. Its so awesome! sometimes I feel like its boring when I say I'm from Oregon, but i know its not because I love all of you guys, and I'd rather be boring and know and love you, than to be from somewhere else and not know and love you!

I'm so sorry about David and Patrice. That's hard. They've been in my prayers. Tell David I appreciate his weekly letters now. :)

I've written to a few people but dunno if they got them, because I don't hear back from a lot of people. even if they just send a "hi" in dearelder that would be enough.

We also had Julie Beck last night. That was good. She talked about how we won't enter or go anywhere as a missionary where the Lord hasn't gone before.

I've learned a lot about Charity lately. I made it a goal to study it and apply it. Because sometimes its really hard with a companion. And not getting breaks. And even though its really really hard sometimes, Its so worth it! To just forget about what makes you angry or annoys you or bothers you, to just dump it all out! Because Really, even if you feel totally justified, whats the point? Through experience of applying it, It being Charity, the Pure Love of Christ, it is so amazing how much more you can feel that Pure Love of His when you truly try to have that charity and forgiveness in your life. It has helped me get so much closer to my savior and Its amazing. I challenge any who read this, to try, even though it be hard, to not only try to have charity, but to actively strive to do it! I promise that it will make us all so much more happier!

My companion and I left campus the other day, she had to go to the BYU health center for an xray on her ankle she broke in Feb. It was so weird leaving the MTC and temple grounds. They had TV's and real people who have real lives. I dunno its so crazy because The MTC is somehow in the world, but it totally seems like it isn't. It's like we're in another place of sorts.. It was just weird. I dunno how to explain it! But The MTC is def. a different kind of place with a very different feel to it. I feel like I've forgotten a bunch of real life stuff to make room for all this learning that's taking place.

We taught the 1st lesson for the 2nd time in dutch on Monday. It was kinda really amazingly awesome because we forgot some words, but The spirit was so strong. I Love the Power of the Holy Ghost and the Light of Christ. I LOVE it sooo much! Even though we didn't say much, but bore pure testimony and the spirit was so strong.

I love you guys! I'd really really like to please hear from Amy and Karen and Michael. And Mom, if you have time. Ik Houdt van mijn Familie en mijn vrienden!

Met heel Liefde Zuster Alisa Hill!!!!