December 27, 2010

Hey family. It was so great to talk to you all yesterday. Sorry Dad and stacy it was so short. I feel soooo bad about that. It was hard to talk to everyone. We only had 30 minutes to talk to our families and i went well over that time. I feel really bad. Things are going great. I ghad a great christmas and I really love the time of service to the Lord. I love being able to see people act upon their faith and use their agency correctly, and on the other hand its sad when they use it poorly. During this Christmas season i really for the first time in my life understood the importance of it. It is about celebrating Christs birth and his miraculous life. He lived through love and service, compassion and devotion. He is everything we should strive to become. His life was one of humility and faith. Just like Kelly said to me, we have a message lke none other. A message of the true teachings of Jesus Christ. We have the fulness of the Gospel. We have the fulness of the Atonement. As we talked with members investigators and people on the street i realized that the economic troubles really can be seen in a very positive way. Those who didnt have the money for presents and the material part of christmas were able to focus morew on the real meaning. The savior and the joy and love he brings to the family. I feel that these times are for a reason. Perhaps this will help more and more desire the true happiness in life, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the experiences I am havng and the people I am meeting. I am really so grateful for this opportunity to serve the lord. I have been really trying to learn something new from everyone i meet the past couple of days and it has been such a difference in how i view people. Everybody has feelings needs and they are all truly children of God. They all have reason to live and purpose to life. They all have something to say and deserve tyo be listened to. The lord will place us in places where someone needs help always. Member or set apart missionary. We just need to be sensitive to the spirit and to our surroundings. I love the scripture in mosiah 2:17. We need to act upon that scripture and make it a part of our lives. I love you all so much!!!! Please let me know what happens with KC and college. I klove you all! Thanks for everything! Con mucho amor, Elder Craig Bills

December 13, 2010 - Craig

Hey family!! Hows everybody doing with Kevan home??! I bet it is great seeing him. I wont see him for another year! Its ok though i am serving the lord ha! Well This past week went well. We found 9 new investigators and put 1 with a date. His name is Fransisco and he is 19. A good kid who has had a hard life. His mom died and he needs the gospel so much. He has some problems but he is a good kid. We are excited to help him progress towards baptism the 8th of January. Well last night we were planning for today and we got a call from President Murri. He talked to my companion and told him to have me call him after we finished planning. Ha I was so nervous! But I called him and President Murri asked me if I would accept the responsibility to be a trainer. Ha I said of course. So I will be going down to Ventura tommorrow and picking up my new companion who is straight from the MTC! I am excited. It should be a great learning experience for me. I will be able to help him form habits top help him in his mission! I am excited. My spanish will improve aswell! I know the lord will bless me as I show faith and rely on the spirit.

This week I was studying and I was studying about faith and I learned so many amazing things! In 3 nephi 17:8 it stuck out to me how the Savior said "i see that your faith is sufficent that i should heal you". That stuck out to me a lot and that lead me to read in 2 nephi 27:23 where I learned that the Lord works according to our faith. As our faith is steadfast and immovable we will experience miracles and we will recieve the spiorit to strenghten our testimonies! And in moroni 7:37 it says for it is by faith that miracles are wrought. And it is by faith that angels appear unto men. It is true. When our faith is unshaken we can bless the lives of others and see miracles. It is important to know that faith doesnt come by miracles but thriough the actions we make that are influenced by the holy ghost. Faith is powerful. I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the faith Joseph Smith showed to pray to the Father to recieve direction. I am so grateful for the faith Jesus Christ showed in the will of his Father as he took upon him our pains and afflictions in the garden of getsemanie.

I love you all so much. I really realize everyday how blessed I have been to have been born into the gospel of JEsus Christ to a family who is steadfast and immovable! I love you all so much. The Lord truly is with us in his work. He loves us so much. I am going to call you guys on Christmas in the afternoon sometime. I am not sure the exact time but just be there ha. I love you all so much!!!!! Love Elder Craig Bills

HE'S HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happiest day EVER

December 6, 2010 - Craig

Hey family! How is everyone doing?? I cant beleive that Kevan is coming home Wed! That is excited and sad too! I felt strength at times to know he was out here doing the same thing as i am! This past week we found an investigator who we have taught 3 times and he came to church yesterday! It was exciting and we also had a lot of less actives there as well. The work is going pretty well and the lord blesses us a lot. His hand is honestly in everything we do. I was reading in Alma 5 this morning and there is a verse that says do you still have pride in your hearts? Then you are not prepared to meet god. I think its v. 28 . But that really made me think. This life is a time we need to emulate christ in every way and prepare ourselves to stand before God. It is a time of preporation and a probationary state. I was thinking how inspired the talk by President Uchdorf was. The pride talk. I know he knows the importance of this. If we are self induldent and only think about ourselves we are not preparedt to meet God. This life is a time we need to honestly think and cultivate the attributes of Christ. We need to have an eternal perspective of life so that when we do come before Him we wont be ashamed and we will rejoice and feel His countance shine through us. This gospel is true. I know without a doubt. I am so grateful for this life and test. The savior paved the way for us to retutrn with the Father. He is the author of the plan of salvation. He is the key part. Heavenly Father created this wonderful plan of love so that we could return weith him and the savior is the only way back! I love you all so much! We have found some cool investigators who show some interest! Thanks for the support and give kevan a huge hug for me! Papa gracias por su apoyo y amor. Da a Kevan un abrozo por mi!! Gracias por todo familia! Con todo mi amor Elder Bills Mom thanks for the hristmas stuff!!!!!!! And coat

Kevan

I love you familia! See you soon!
Love Elder Kevan Bills

November 29, 2010 - Craig

Hey family! Thanks for all of the emails! I love hearing fromyou guys! Thios past week was pretty good. we have this investigator named randy and he is this blackj guy. He has corn rows and tatoos ha . He has eye problems sowe said we would get him a magnifying glass to see ha so we brought one and right when we openede the door i had it in my hand and he said in a way southern accent, iz dat magnifyin glass fo me??! Ha it was so funny he was so happy and loves us. He wants to get baptized but he has to come to church first. So i have short time so i will just tell you what really impressed on me this weekend. In elders quorom we read a talk from president uchdorf -what matters most. it was interesting he said do the simple things in the gospel. Reading pondering praying everyday and going to church and fasmily home evenings. Something hyrum smith said once was to this affect- As you teach the first principles of the gospel over and over again it will amaze you what you learn. Its true as we do the simple things in the gospel like reading and praying everyday we are qualfying for the holy ghost and concentraing our thoughts on jesus christ. The promise in the sacrement prayer is very real. As we do our part by remebering him and being obedient we will have the spirit always! I love you all so much thanks for all the support!!!!!!!!! Love Elder Bills

Kevan

My area and mission are BEAUTIFUL!!!!

November 29, 2010 - Kevan

Hello Family!

Wow, what a crazy weekend! We had some incredible miracles! We baptized 4 people this last weekend. The other missionaries in our ward who serve in Santa Lucia baptized 8. So we had a huge Blanco Baptism! It was amazing and the people especially the bishop was sosososo excited! I felt the Spirit so strong there. One bad thing that happened is that we had 3 other people who were going to get baptized as well but did not show up!!!! Our area is so far away from the chapel and there few buses on saturday and so we could not get hold of her. Sadly they couldnt go because the mom was working. But she is still doing amazing and this saturday she will be getting baptized with hopefully her 2 kids. We have a few other people that we want to see if they´ll get baptized. So it will be a pretty good way to end the mission, with baptisms!!! The people who got baptized are Gustavo Bravo (25), Nancy, Nikolaus, and Florencia Pelayes. It was amazing! THese people are so happy and I love them tons! I hope the best for them. The Pelayes family was baptized by there son who was baptized 3 months ago. They are so happy to have the Gospel and it is amazing to see the unity that they have with this knowledge of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Last night we got to go to visit my converts in Retiro; Americo Gonzalez and Dolinda, Mariana and David Pelayes. It was amazing! We walked in and I gave a huge hug to Americo and he was just Crying! These people are so amazing. Now in January they are going to THE TEMPLE!!!!! YES!!!!! Also if you remember Gisela is getting sealed in January too!!! YES! I cant even explain how good i feel. I read Alma 29 this morning and many of those verses explain how i feel much better than i can. We ate some Chori Pan and pizza with them and just talked. They are great. Mariana bore her testimony to mat the end and she was just crying. Some of the things that they said make me feel like they were talking about someone else. I was thinking, What? I did that for you? I know that we can all make little or big differences in everybodies life. I think the important thing is that we can be so close to Heavenly Father and be so intune with the Spirit so we are instruments in HIS hands. He will truly put us where we need to be and use us to perform this great and special work among His Children. God understands. He knows. We just need to trust and follow Him. His plan is so perfect and so simple when we think and expirement with it.

We had a great expirence with the power of God and the Priesthood on Tuesday. I can tell you all later about it though.

I bought some stuff for you all today. I hope you like it. I have only spent about 300 pesos. President invited me to go to Acongagua this week so one of these days i will go down and buy some good stuff for everyone.

I love you all so much family! I think this might be the last letter I will write before i see everyone. It is so wierd and i feel really strange. I am grateful that we have baptisms this weekend so we will keep working hard si o si. But it is still strange to say that we´ll be seeing eachother next week! I think it will be a hard change. ha, i wanted to bad to have the gift of conversation and better conversational skills given to me on the mission. I really feel like God has blessed me with that. But... it spanish. ha, I am not sure how well i can carry on a convo. in english. It might me a little akword. Just have patience with me. ha

Have a great week family! And stay safe! I love you all tons!

See you next week!

Love Elder Kevan Bills

P.S. Our zone won the mission Cup and broke the recored for most baptisms in one month! YES!

November 22, 2010 - Craig

Hey Family! How is everything going?? I cant beleive that it is already thanksgiving week! Crazy. Next week i will be out for 10 months. Its hard to believe. I have loved every single second of it. I truly can tell you that i am so grateful for my mission. I love it so much. I love our Savior like i cant describe and I know this is the ONly true and living church in the world. I never understood the true happiness the gospel brings but now i know and I will never turn from it. This past week we had zone conference. It was great i learned so much! We have been working and praying hard to find those who are ready to recieve us and who are truly ready for baptism. We have been teaching this guy oscar and his wife.and last thursday we taught them and put them with dates for the 18th of December. The spirit was strong. We watched the Restoration and testified of it. I asked her what she felt while watching the movie and she said i know its real. I know god called him! So the spirit was there and we invited them to be baptized and they accepted. Then sunday came and they didnt come to church. I was really bummed yesterday. Its hard to see people not keep commitments. We will just have to be patient and do all we can to help them prepare for baptism. The lord has his way and his time for everything and everyone. I think that as i truly humble myself i will realize more how to deal with these peoples very needs. At any rate the work is going pretty well. I have been studying about the atonement pretty much every single day for about 3 weeks and it has been so awesome to understand more about our Savior and his selfless sacrifice for us. I am so grateful for him and what he did for us. It has been such a blessing to come closer to JesusChrist and understand how to apply the atonement in my life more. My favorite talk in conference was by elder patrick kearon. IN his talk he said we must give up our weapons of rebellion. We must cease fighting against god and instead give our whole hearts to him. Holding nothing back. THEN he can heal us. Then he can cleanse us. I love that! The lord suffered and died for us. He did the most important thing in world history all we have to do is give our whole hearts to Heavenly Father and come unto christ humble and submissive. He is always waiting with arms wide open to recieve us. I love you all so much. Thanks for all the support. Have a great thanksgiving! Love Elder Bills

Kevan

This week wwill be amazing. I think it will go by really fast beause we will be working very hard to get the interviews and the baptisms of these people. Some of these people are like the scriptures say and are hard of heart. But some are turly looking for the truth and need exactly what God does have for them. He Love them so much and i am so happy that I can be helping these people recieve these things right now in there lives.

Mom and Dad, thanks for much for helping me in everything this whole mission. I love you both so much and am so grateful. I love you and have a great week.

Me in a cave where they make champain and also in the middle of a plaza.

November 22, 2010 - Kevan

Hey family! How is everything going? It sounds like everything is great and pretty cold there in Utah. Here it was raining all night but other than that it is just soso HOT!

This week was fantastic. Church was amazing!

We changed the hours and we have church in the morning now. My comp. and i got to the house and we were the first ones there. The next people were a big suprise... the bishop of the main ward in Santa Lucia and the stake president. They were so happy and said that everyone had been talking about our area and they needed to come and see what was going on. Pressure.... ha ha. so no one else showed up for about 10 minutes. But eventually they all came! YES! We had an assistance of about 27 people! THey was no room to sit. We had 8 investigators there and the rest were inactives and 3 actives! Wow! We were so happy. The bishop and president spoke and it was perfect. I loved seeing the faces of our investigators after. THey just looked so peaceful and content. THey were excited as well. They left and were smiling and it was just perfect. We have 7 of them getting baptized this saturday. It will be an amazing day. Our goal for this month is 12 and with these people we will reach 10. So we will see what type of miracles God will give us this week. Hopefully we can reach the goal.

I love this last area. It is hard and tiring but i love it. I feel like we and the members are like true pioneers working in this place, establishing the church and letting all know about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing like it. It reminds me a little of Justo Daract. A tiny area with no distractions. A sacred place to focus a work!

Last night probably the strangest thing that has happened to me on my mission happened. I feel like it is the devil working against us now. We were waiting at the bus stop to go back home and we were contacting people that walked pàssed us. I started walking with some people and stopped and turned around becuase they would not even recognize that i was there. But before i turned around i saw a catholic priest running out of his church with his big robe on yelling a me! ha, i walked to my comp and asked if he was yelling at us and he was. So we turned around and he signaled us tocome over. We went and just wanted to be loving to him. This guy was rude though. I am glad my comp couldnt understand too much because this guy was saying some real inaapropiate things. But we testified saying that we are representatives of Jesus Christ here inviting people to come to Him. I asked him that if he was a man of God what his purpose was. And why he was so angry. But he just got more angry. So we left. It was strange. But so it was with the early pioneers and the persecution that they recieved while following Christ.

We had an amazing lesson with Nancy. I did not know what to teach. Then the Lord told us. Revelation is so real. We taught her exactly what she needed to stop smoking. Suprisingly it issomething i never would have taught for that problem, the law of chastity. but the Lord truly knows His children and know what we need. Since that day Nancy has not smoked a single cigarrete and is doing amazing! Her and her children will get baptized this saturday! Miracles are happening in 9 de Julio.

I love this Gospel. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that have so much patience with us. I love them and knbow that they live.

This is the truth. I love you all so much family! HAve a wonderful week!

And HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I forgot it was here because they do not even have it here in ARgentina. We´ll think of something to do!

I love you all and enjoy the week!

Love, Elder Kevan Bills

Kevan

November 15, 2010 - Craig

Hey dad! thanks for the email! That is so great about kellys birthday! I cannot beleive that he is 26! I love him and emily so much! I cannot beleive kevan comes home so soon! Holy cow.It is crazy. The workis going good. We are really going to focus on getting investigators to progress. They need to have an inner desire. I need to be a better missionary! I need to help them understand the importance more and be a better teacher! I need to rely on the lord!! That is funny that people didnt follow the instruction in the handbook and did those things. Man some people are rediculous! Ha. I am really grateful for this church. I really cant explain it. We had a member of the seventy spek tothe stake yesterday and he said some INCREDIBLE things. I had an experience this last week that helped my testimony strenghten sooo much. We tracted into this bapstist minister.. Yepp ha so he just starts going off bashing on the prophets and on Joseph smioth and how our church is so worng and he kept saying how learned he was. I honestly was constrained by the sprit to just take it. It was one of the first times that the spirit truly restrained me. he went on for awhile and after we were juist like ok thanks have a great day. We were way nice and said nice things about his church building and stuff ha. My testimony truly was strenghtened. A true disciple will never bring someone down and make fun or bash on someones beleifs or feelings. I know this is the true church! Jesus Christ is at the head of it. The gospel has been restored to a chosen prophet of god. I love you dad! Thanks for everything. My email time is up but i will write the fam a big letter today ilove you dad!!! Thanks for the support.
Love Elder Bills

November 15, 2010 - Kevan

Hey family!

How is everyhting? THis week was a pretty great and also stressful work! But overall, GREAT! I was really suprised to get my travel itinerary. Pretty crazy!

So yesterday we baptized 3 people. Marta, Aurelio and Oscar Guardia. It was a great baptism and i felt the Spirit really strong. It was awesome. The little unity we have here is growing so much. The stake gave us 6 more months to see what we can do. So it all depends on the elders that serve. They need to have about 20 assist and 4 payers of tithing that have the Melquisedec Priesthood. yesterday we did have 20 assistances and 4 Holders of the Melquisedec Priesthood. But we need to help them really be active and actually pay tithing. That is the biggest thing they need.

We had 24 baptism fechas going into sunday. We were way excited. WE baptized Marta and her family in the morning and went to our meeting in the evening way excited ready for the people to come. We were execting 17 to come. Sadly, only 6 went. Those people are amazing though and truly will be blessed for what they did. I was so happy for them. The others ones just lied to us. I dont know why they did not come at all. They said they would. But hopefully they will keep gaining stronger testimonies to eventually assist one day. in the escuela dominical they taught about sacrifice. That is such a great topic. I think when we can truly realize what Jesus Christ did for us in the Atonement we will realize that He truly asks for us to do little things. Going to church here in 9 de Julio for 1 hour is NOTHING!! especially compared to Christ and even to many of the saints now and in the past. But we need to help them. It could be that they are not ready, dont want to commit or many other things. We will need to follow the Holy Ghost to know erally what to do with these people.

This week went by way fast though. We tried hard to focus on the people that we had fechas with. In the first 3 weeks we found about 150 new investigators. So we slowed that down a bit and wenty aroud to those people really get a firm teaching pool. Now we have done that and know who really will progress and we will start the finding process again this week.

My trainee is doing great. He is speaking so well and is being blessed. We get a long but really do not have much in common. But we both love teaching the gospel and we love God and that is what we really need right now.

Thanks for everything family! i hope that everything goes great this week. Know that i love all of you and am so grateful for the prayers and faith that you are all giving me and my investigators.

I know that this is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for and know that President Monson is the true prophet on the earth! What an amazing blessing for us to this in this despensation. The Restoration is amazing!"

Con mucho amor,

Elder Kevan Bills

November 8, 2010 - Craig

Hey family how are things going?? This week was pretty good. We had a ton of less actives to church and we were way happy about this! My new companion is from spanish fork utah and he has been out just about 6 months. He is struggling really bad with his spanish so I have a good opportunity to helop him. We had some really cool lessons yesterday on the sabbath. One withthis guy named oscar who is about in huis 60's. He said he felt something very different after the first time we taught him and he felt calm and good. I explained to him it was the spirit and that the spirit testifies of truth by helping us feel comfort and enlightened, we then asked him as he came to know that the book of mormon is true and that jospeh smith was a prophet by the power of the holy ghost if he would be baptised and he said yes. it was a very spiritual experience. I have come to realize that when we invite others to be baptized it truly is a big deal. It should be prompted by the spirit and done with love because it is in fact their first step tio returning to live with our heavenly father and to becoming like him. I am SO grateful for the gospel. This IS the only true and living church on the earth. I feel it every day. I love you all so much and I am so gratefukl for your examples to me. Just a funny experience, we were eating last night at a members house and i saw something fall from the cieling but didnt pay attention to it. Then i looked down and there was a nasty bug crawling in my salad! HAHA i was like OH! Ha and i tried to work around it and the sister was like is there something in your food? And i was like no its great. I didnt want to make her embarrassed. So i just ate around this big bug ha. It was funny. Elder Ray was trying way hard not to laugh ha! I love you all sooo muh thanks for everythiong! My time is up but i love you all so much. Love Elder Craig T. Bills

November 8, 2010 - Kevan

Family!everything was great htis week. We ended with 24 baptism fechas and with many new investigators. We are being so blessed by the Lord here in our area. I working my comp way hard and we are jsut exausted. But it is so great. WE leave early and get back pretty late due to the buses. But we are being so blessed with many peoiple to teach. The family Guardia should get baptized this sunday. I spoke to their 9 year old kid on a bus and he told us where they lived. So that same day we went over and they were just sad and not doing well. We taught them and they came to church and also they are reading. They have changed so much and want to get baptized. It is amazing how the Lord prepares the people and makes the way for us to find them. Like making a nine year old kid sit next to me on the bus and talk to me. That never happens! ha

we only had church in Santa Lucia today. Sadly, none of our investigators came. I f elt like some of the people in the Book of Mormon when they felt paijn and sadness for the people who wouldnt listen. Yeah, it is 45 minutes away from our area. But they can all go to church. Next week we will start again the meetings in 9 de julio in the afternoon. The sacrament meeting was so great and i felt the spiri¡t really strong though. AFter the bishop brouhgt in all of us from 9 de Julio (we were 6) and pumped us uup. He talked about the pioneers a lot and helped the members realize their r esponsibility and what they are beginning now. It was us and 4 other guys. This kid named Gonzalo will for sure ser ve a mission in two years. After, the bishop gave us all a blessing to help us in the work and it was amazing. I loved the Spirit that we felt there. This week will be a great week and we just need to focus on these people that are going to now get baptized. Our goal is 12 baptisms for this month. We are finding about 30 new investigators a week. And we have tons commited to get baptized. But we just need to use the Spirit and help those who truly want to make covenants with God.

It is very nice and very hot here. I am going to freeze in Utah. Yesterday was Viento Zonda and was way over 100 d egrees.- bu it is nice to have it hot. I know that Dad would have loved it.

WEll that is sad about THS. Hopefully they´ll be back next year.- It still was a great run and feels good to be a part of when all that started-.

I am so excited to room with MArk and Mike and Aaron. That will be a blast. Thanks for doing all of that. It must have been a lot of work but thanks a lot.

I hope that everything is going great for all of you. I love you all tons. THis week will be a great week.

I know that Christ lives.

Love, Elder Kevan Bills

Kevan

November 1, 2010 - Craig

How is everyone doing?? I loved the pictures from Halloween!! The kids are so cute! Thanks for the email mom and dad! Well this morning we got calls from President Murri and they are splitting our area. I will be working in Shafter now which is about 8 miles from Wasco and i will be the senior companion to Elder Graff. Elder Ray is staying in Wasco and he is training! It is going to be a change but i am excited. We will now be a 4 man apartment so we will see how that goes ha. I loved the family history stuff mom! Its good to know how we were introduced to the church! And that I am sweedish! Thats way cool! I am excited to get more info about our ancestors. This past week was pretty good. We did some service and kept busy. This past week in my personal studies I had such an awesome experience/realization. I was studying about our heavenly father. I was reading the great scripture in Moses 1:39. His work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, in other words to help all of his children become like him. I was really pondering on this. I was also reading in the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith and he has a lot of incredible statements about Heavenly Fathers relationship with us. He said all of his laws were created so that we would have the ability to become like him. As i sat pondering about this and truly trying to understand the scriptures and quotes i had read, I really realized that that is indeedhis purpose. That our heavenly father loves us more than we can imagine and that he truly wants us to become like him, to experience the joy and blessings he has and to be exalted as he is. I felt closer to our heaveny father than ever before, and since then i have been seeing people more and more and sons and daughters of god. It was awesome! I love Heavenly Father and we are so blessed. This life is SO important and we need to always have that goal in mind. To return to live with him in his prescence. This past week we taught some new investigators and i know that this is a huge blessing to spread this gospel! We are really working on helping investigators progress. There are a ton who have potential but really need to have an inner desire to come unto christ. There is only so much we can do. They need to commmit themselves to read and pray. We just invite and help them by showing them and truly loving them! You cant fake charity!I love you guys so much! Thansks for all you do !!!!!!!!!!! I love you all so much. Love Elder Bills

November 1, 2010 - Kevan

Hola familia!

Happy birthday Dad!!!! How was everything? I was thinking about you yesterday and was hoping that you were having a great day. We were working way hard this week. So to tell you the truth i sort of forgot about halloween. Sorry! Ha, but Elder Hurst, in our apartment did buy a little pumpkin and carve it. Ha, They do not have halloween here. They dont have a lot of those holidays. But usually when the do have a holiday the people work on their homes or just have an asado and drink.

The ex pres. of Argentina dided the other day and the people are so sad. It is crazy. I will but a newspaper because it was a pretty big even this week.

How was church yesterday? It sounds like the stake conferance dad went to was great! That is so important about the inactive members. I have been thinking so much about how to help people with that my whole mission. I eventually came to the same point, teach them about the atonement of Christ and also teach them about the Restoration. The chruch here is growing and many people are just new to the church. once there ¨missionaries¨ get transfered they find them selves a little solo and some fall away. It is so hard to bring some back. But yesterday we had a boy named Gonzalo and also an ex missionary named Hugo come bakc to church after being gone for a while! I loved it. Hugo looked so happy and he is getting the spirit of his mission in him again. In just over 2 weeks his appearance has changed completly and he just looks way happy. They both brought a friend to church named Rodrigo and he is a great kid. I know that he´ll get baptized.

Yesterday was great. We went to 9 de Julio and to where we have the church (In La Villa). we were in front of the house where we have the meeting and it was us and hermano Sanchez. no one came!!! It was a little downer. but then we saw hugo and gonzalo and their friend walking up! Yes. So we started. Then after the sacrament him I was just about to kneel down to bless the sacrament when i heard a gate opening. I looked up and saw Marta and her children (Soledad 18, Oscar 9, and Vanina 7) walking in! I was so happy! They had walked a ways and got to church. So it was great!

Marta is amazing. We found her about 2 weeks ago and she was so sad. Now she looks so much happier and she has told us that he kids have changed completly as well. Truly the Gospel of Christ brings peace and joy to our souls. Those who are ready and willing to accept will find amazing blessings and be changed forever. Christ lives and truly did do the Atonement for us. I am seeing this in the life of Marta right now. Amazing.

We taught a lady named Lorena Villega the other day. She was mostly interested at first because of our accent and stuff like that. We eventually, like always, ended up talking about religion. Why do you think that people always end up talking about religion? So we taught her and it was amazing. Also we taught her family. She knelt down to say the prayer at the end and the Spirit was so strong. She was crying and stood up after and said, Gracias Hermanos. It was amazing how people humble themselves and then God wraps His loving arms around them. I know the feelings that she felt and it is true! I love this gospel.

So many great things are happening right now. The mission is doing so great. I am doing great too. We are in our area all day. I think I am losing a little bit of weight but it is alright. no problem.

I saw David Villalba the other day. It was so great to see him. I will visit him and Dolinda and Americo soon. I hear that they are doing great.

Also, You probably dont remember but i wrote a year ago about Margot, how her nephew called us in the middle of the street and we went over and taught her. She then got baptized. Well i am in her ward now and she is doing great. She stopped smoking and she and put on weight. It is amazing. Repentance is such a special thing.

About the apartment, that sounds great. It should be really fun. I would love to come home for the summer. I think i can train better too for the fall. Just do whatever is best.

I am thinking of a few things that some of you might want. But I would love if you gave me some limit of money. I hate spending and really dont want to spend a bunch. But if you want anything beside those shoes,, like jerseys, Mate, Poncho, gaucho stuff, etc., just let me know.

I love you tons family and am so grateful for all of you! Have a great week and we´ll be talking soon! This is the true church!

Love, Elder Kevan Bills

Kevan

Pictures of the asado with Segundo and Carlos.
Also pics of my area, and the type of houses that are in my area (In the barrio Las Majaritas).
An me at cerro de la gloria looking over Mendoza.

October 18, 2010 - Craig

Hey family how is it going?? Hope all is well. Happy Birthday Emily!!!!!!!!! This past week was good. We were really busy and talked to a ton of people! We found 6 news. It rained yesterday and its raining today aswell. We had some cool experiences where the lord put us in the right place at the right times. I love being in the lords hands! I was studying in the scriptures this morning on obedience and i realized that obedience is an act of faith. It is so important to know! The two thousand strippling warriors are a perfect example of this. In Alma 57 21 Heleman is talking about how they obeyed with exactness and as he remembered( i think he was pondering about the warriors) he rembered what they had told him their mothers taught them. In alma56 47 It says that their mothers taught them that if they would not doubt in the lord he would always seliver them. They had to first of all have faith in god and their mothers and then act on that faith. Because they had faith they were exactly obedient to heleman who was a man of god and for this they were so blessed. It is so important that we first have faith in the lord and his plan and way for us. That we understand that his way is the best and his commandments are for our benefit and then be obedient by acting on our faith in him. If we have faith and trust in the lord and in our heavenly father we wont have to ever question a commandment. I love the book of mormon so much. It is such a blessing! We learn so much from it! Things are good here. The ward is great. My companion is a great guy too. We got attacked by dogs three times this week! HAha a rottweiler bit elder ray in the toosh haha. I cant stand dogs. There are stray chiuauas everywhere!! I love you guys si much! Thanks for all the support! Tell Hailey i love her and to be a good girl!!! Sorry the email is so short i dont have that much time to email. I love you all so much! Thanks for the prayers and support. Tell The BRockbanks hi and that i love them! I love you all!!!!!!!!! This is truly the work of the lord and he is watching after us. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jospeh Smith truly was a prophet of god! WE ALL need to share this message of hope and truth with love! Love Elder Bills

October 18, 2010 - Kevan

Querido Familia,

Everything here is going great. As you can see my new area is pretty small. It is beautiful though. It is covered with vineyards and you cannot see the end of them. They are grapes used for wine. Then is the distance there are mountains that just surround myt area and the city of San Juan. I live in Santa Lucia. So we take a 30-40 mintue bus ride everyday. But it is alright, i am finding some great people and having some pretty good lessons on the bus.

I will be opening up a branch there in 9 de julio. There are about 10-15 people that go every week right now. This week we will search for a building to have church. Next saturday we will baptize 3 people and my goal is to baptize 2 more families and reactivate the only 2 inactive families there are here. I feel that God needs me to be here. There is a part in my patriacharl blessing that talks about me establishing the church in the different places i will live. I this is one of the places where i can do that. I have been prepared and have learned a lot and now is a good time to put that all to practice. It will be great. I am hopeing to leave this place with about 7 priesthood holders.

yesterday was mothers day here. Our church acutally got cancelled on saturday night because they didnt think anyone would go. It was so frustrating. We had committed many to come to church. But we eventually got to have chuirch and 2 investigators came. I thought more would come but it is alright. still i felt good and feel that no matter how many people go we need to constantly have the meeting. The first church meeting only had 6 people there. so it is alright if we also start with 10 people, Not including the elders who were there which would bring us to 6 people in church! A good start for me! ha

This week will also be great and a little wierd. The new elders might not arrive due to visa problems. So i dont know if i will train. We will see. Also on wednesday Elder Smith and I need to do an asado for Chimbas, Elder Frischknects zone, because they won a mission competition and the other assistants cant do it. So tommorow well look for a church and wednesday do the asado, and friday have transfers. Crazy!

It was so great with Elder Aidukaitis. He is amazing. So excited and animated. He is an amazing teacher as well. We learned about members a lot and he showed some great tactics to use in the street. Uncle Steve must have had fun serving with him.

My friend, Elder Vazquez, has his homecoming this sunday at 11:00 am. Sister Frischnect will go i think. His church is right behind the provo town center. You should all go and meet him.

Everything is going great family. I am so thankful for all of you and really am loving my time here. I know that these things are true. Thanks so much for everything! I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Kevan Bills

P.S. dont burn too much. I still lack a lot of time on the mission.

October 4, 2010 - Kevan

NACHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

The elders at general conferance. I am in the back.

i forgot to tell you that i went and got to visit the family gonzalez in palmira. My first converts. They are doing alright. Gisela is getting sealed in the temple this january!!! Gabriel is assisting church. The rest of them are not really going. It was great to visit them.

Also, Kelly Popinga is assistant coach with the outside linebackers. Is coach Lamb still there?

An

October 4, 2010 - Craig

Well conference was amazing. I cant describe the feelings and thoughts i had during it. It was truly inspired and there is no doubt the church of jesus christ is the kingdom of god on the earth today. We are led by gods prophet thomas s monson and he truly speaks for god. each and every one of the general authorities are called by revelation and prophecy. I am so grateful for this church i cant even explain it! I truly feel like ammon! Alma 26:16! I loved elder patrick kearons talk in priesthood session. It was filled with love an i know that thopse were the words he was supposed to speak ( as well as every other speaker) Elder Holland gave a profound loving talk. You could just feel his love! I oved Edler Scotts aswell. We need to all study their wirds and act on their council! Truly inspired. This past week i had a lot of uplifting spiritual testimony strengthening experiences. We found 9 new investigators after i had fasted and prayed last sunday to find new investigators. The lords grace is truly sufficent after we do all we can do! Yesterday we were led to a man who truly needs the gospel in his life. We knocked into his house last week and we came back yesterday and he was working on his car. We talked to him and we just sat down on a tire in a dusty old apt complex with him. We have no clue what happened we just started talking and he just broke down and explained his brother had just died an he felt empty. We testified to him so much. The love of the savior and that he will see his brother again. The spirit was definantly present. We talked and taught him and he told us that he felt comfort and more calm. We explained that was the spirit. It was amazing to say the least. THat truly strenghted my testimony of missionary workl. Thats why we are out here. To lift and help gods children. There are so many lost empty souls that we need to help. This is a fantastic opportunity to help people feel the love of god. We are intruments in gods hands through obedience and love. I love this gopsel the lord and heavenly father! Jesus Lives this is his work and we must representt him always! I love you guys sosososo much. Thank you for the support. Sad to hear about coach hill but president uchtdorf is ride pride kills! Congrtas kelly! I love yo uall so soso much thanks for all the support. Go BYU!!! Love Elder Bills

Pictures - Craig

September 27, 2010 - Craig

Buenas Dias mi bendito Familia!! ha. Well wasco is a great place. I love it. It is a small towna and we also cover another little town called shafter. It is great and i iknow we will have success here. My new companion is named Elder ray. He is from Highlands Ranch Colorado. Pretty cool guy ha. The ward i am in is great a bunch of farmers but such great people. We have to translate for sacrement because it is combined with spanish and english. Pretty cool. The 2nd counceler conducted and it was all in spanish to a majority whitw ward ha. However a lot of the men know spanish from work and missions which is cool. Well wierd story. When i left santa paula there was this 25 year old girl from the branch who said she was going to come to transfer meeting because she had something for me. So i was like ok cool. So she gave me a bag and i was like thanks a lot. Said bye and i was off. Well i opened the bag and there was like a way long letter and i was like hmm interesting ha. So i read it and it was just confessing her love for me. It was sososo wierd!!!!!!!!! She told me she would be waiting for me and that she would love to show me the possibiltites of the future hahaha. So weird. haha bUt she gave me chocalets from Switzerland so its all good. This past week in my personal study of the book of mormon my testiomny has really been growing. I love it. It is so true and it is truly the word of god. I am grateful for the blessing it is to my life and to missionary work. I was reading in 1 nefi 3 15 and it really jumped out how faithful and obedient and diligent he was. He understood the will of the lord and what he wanted for him and his family. He knew that the lord commanded them to get the plates for the benefit of the people. He was diligent and had trust inn the lord. It taught me the important principle of diligence. We must always finish what we start. No matter how hard it gets. Wee need to understand that when the lord commands we must do. We need to pay strict attention to the commandments and look at the big picture. We need to always be diligent and finish! I love the book of mormon. It will draw us closer to jesus christ and we will always learn something new from it. I love you all soooo much! Love Elder Bills!!!!!!!!!

Pictures - Kevan

September 27, 2010 - Kevan

Hello Family!

How is everything going back at home? It sounds like everyone is doing great (Except the football team. But it is alright for now). I loved the pictures! They are awesome! Kimmy looks so different it is crazy!

This week went great! So to let you know about my assignment a little more... I am a traveling assistant. There are actually 6 assistants in the mission. 2 who are in the offices and 4 of us who hit the streets and work. Basically we go to the areas and the zones that are stuggling a bit and animate them, bring them the Spirit and help them break the mental barriers that are in the way of them having success in there areas and in there missions. It is an amazing calling. this week we were in the zone San Martin. The same zone i started my mission in. We worked in San Martin 1 and i worked with Elder Porras from Peru. we had an amazing day together. We put about 5 fechas and found 13new investigators. Then The next day i went to Rivadavia with Elder Williams who went to Alta High school. I loved it because we put a few fechas and we found 8 new investigators in oneday. He was so excited and said he was never going to be able to do that. Then the next day, he and his companion found 5 new investigators! He came back to the pension and was so excited. I hope he can remember that with faith in the Lord and confidence that you can do all htings with him, any thing can be done. Then on friday through sunday i worked with Elder McClain from New Jersey. He has 2 weeks in the mission and is more home sick than anyone i have ever seen. He knows it and recognizes it. with him we did have success but it was a lot harder. We worked so hard. I was proud of him though and suprised that he kept up with the heat and for not having much time in the mission. So I hope he does better soon.

right now I am with Elder Frischnecht.He is here for the zone leader conferance. He says hi to everyone!

I am feeling really good though. Really tired, but really happy, full of the Spirit and really close to God. I am so grateful that I have the chance to serve God. We are so little who are holding to the iron rod. but as we just share and invite those who do not know to come unto Christ many will find what they are searching for. I am so happy to be serving Christ right now and truly do not want how i feel now to ever end. There are so many miracles suceding right now and truly the gospel of Jesus Christ is being spread through all of the world. I love it!

Family, Thanks so much for everything this week. for the prayers and support and everything. You are the greatest parents that I could ever have. i feel lilke i can say like the strippling warriors, that i never doubted, my parents always new it.

I love you all so much!

Love,Elder Kevan Bills

Kevan - On Bus, with Other Assistants, and in the Campo

Craig

September 20, 2010 - Kevan

Hola mi querido familia!

how is everybody doing! It is so great to hear from all of you! Thanks so much for the letters and prayers this week. It was truly a fantastic and very fun week!

I am always traveling. My companion is Elder Smith and we take buses to travel everywhere. i always think of Amy from K.C.s mission when i get on. I always told my self i would never travel around like that. now, that is all i do. We have 2 blow up matresses that we use to sleep on the floor and we live out of our suitcase. We are only here in Mendoza (or Godoy Cruz because that is where the offices are) on sunday night and all monday. I live about 5 blocks from the mission offices in Godoy Cruz on a street called Pizzurno. basically I dont have a home for the next few months! ha, it is great though. So me and my canadian comp are just living on the road. It is fun and interesting at the same time. This week i worked in Chimbas. We stayed with Elder Frischnect and his comp. For a few days but i worked with Elder Gomez, his comp. but igual we had a lot of time together and it was really fun. I worked with Elders huntington (Orangeville, UT) Gomez (Corrientes, ARG), Elder Cambell (Utah) And elder Rojas (Concepcion, Chile) and one night i worked with my real comp elder smith. So for this week these were my companions. I learned so much. I am so grateful for the gifts that God has given to all of us and i feel so grateful to learn more.

We are going great right now. The mission is amazing. We are preparing for many things in the month of October. In 3 weeks Elder Aidukaitis from the area presidency will come and we are also planning to reach a mission record of getting more than 125 baptisms in one month. The last month we we 3rd best in south america. (After Buenos aires north and Paraguay).

i am loving the mission so much. I feel like it is such a sacred thing and i do not want it to end. I think it is preparing me for so much. I am truly feeling that there is nothing more important than the gospel. Everything revolves around it. God is in all things and gives us strength in all things, work, school, sports, relationships, ETC......

i studied today and found a great sripture in the last two versus of Alma 3. All depends on our obedience. please read it. Also i studied in Juan 15 and found some great things about keeping the commandments, Love, and about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I know that God lives and that this is His work. Jesus Christ lives.

I cant believe that you are a teacher at timpview mom! how great! how are the kids? Thanks so much for the picture or Coach Wong and Van Orden. They are so great and such great influences in my life that have changed me. The BYU shirt and the schedule really pumped me up. Thanks!

Family I love you all! thanks so much for everything. I am so grateful for all of you and love you so much! Hold to the Iron Rod!

Love, Elder Kevan Bills

September 20, 2010 - Craig

Hey everybody! How is everybody doing?? Well we had a baptism saturday and it was really great. I was able to perform the ordinance and itr was a great opportunity. I will send my chip tommorow with pics. Yesterday when we confirmed him it was awesome and the spirit truly was present. He got up and had tears in his eyes. Great experience. This guy in my branch told me i prayed wrong and so i had to correct him. I took him to the side and talked to him and shared with him john 17 where jesus prayed and the whole time i was thinking of d&c 121. I was nervous ha. But it was ok. I dont think he thought he was wrong still ha. He said i cant use padre more than once in the prayer. Oh well (same guy who said we can bless ourselves) ha. Anyway. I feel like experiences like that will prepare me for lifelong service in the church. So like i told mom and dad i am getting transfered to a city called Wasco, CA. It is the farthest you can go in the mission. So it will be a long drive. I am nervous so please pray for me. I need to excersize my faith right now. I will be working with both the English people and the Spanish people. I will miss Elder Soza. I learned a lot from him and really enjoyed my time with him. I finished the Book of Mormom this morning. It took three months. I know without a doubt it is word of God. I prayed to know it was true and while i was reading the last 4 chapters today i juist know without a doubt it is true. I love the direction it gives me. The guidance it gives me and the love i feel when i read it. I am so grateful for all of you and your example to me. I see all you have done for me and it makes me so happy. I see Kevan and the success he is having on his mission and the man he has become and i cant help but to feel so grateful for him and all my brothers. And my parents. Its truly awesome. I feel like the more i study and try to become like the savior the harder it gets. But honestly i love searching and havning to rely on heavenly father for strength. I am nervous for the change in my mission right now but it is for a reason. Keep me in your prayers. We had some good expereinces in Santa Paula. I know i have grown a ton here! I love this place and i will miss it. But another place and more challenges. Thank you all for everything! This gospel is true. We have the priesthood of god and we have the fulness of the gospel of jesus christ on the earth with us, leading and guiding us. I love you all so much. Love Elder Bills

September 13, 2010 - Craig

Hey family! This past week was great! We had 3 investigators to sacrement we taught 23 lessons and we went to the temple. The temple was amazing! We took pacific coast highway to L.A! It was beautiful. The temple was incredible and i loved every minute. I though about you guys the whole time. The spirit is unrestrained there!! I was so happy and everything was so clear. I feel like i truly was strenghtened by going. We have a baptism on saturday and i am so excited. THis guy is so prepared and i have honestly seen changes in him because of the gospel. When we first started teaching him he was confused and kind of lost. Now he is confident and knows the direction he needs to take him and his family.He told us after his interview that his purpose is to bring his family to this happiness! So awesome! I loved all your letters today. they were alkl great! And KEvan being an assistant! Awesome!! I would love to have him as one ofmy leaders! Lately i have really honestly realized the truth of the Plan of salvation. Things are like lining up in my head ha. And it has come through study and prayer. I have really been understanding that the choices we make in this life honestly affect us after this life as well. OUr thoughts feelings wont change when we die. We will still be unbelievers if we are unbeleivers here and like it says in Alma we will be happy if we are happy. How sad will it be to stand before god with a perfect body but have a perfect concious of your guilt. But on the other hand how happy to stand before him and to know you did all you could to serve him! It is so important to serve and gaing knowledge and a stroong testimony in thislife so we can take it with us after this life and continue to serve and oreach. I love the restored gospel. I love yoiu all so much. I have to go i my time is up ha! I love you all soisososo much! Love Edler Bills. P.S SO sad about BYU but its Alright!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 13, 2010 - Kevan

Hola querido familia,

how is everybody doing? Everything here on this side of the world is going great! I am feeling great too. Today is such a beautiful day. Right now the other elders are playing soccer and so when im done well go do that and eat an asado. We had a meeting with president and a planning meeting this morning and the rest of the day is pday. I am way happy here and am really excited for my new assignment. I am with Elder Smith and he is from Raymond, Alberta Canada. K.C., do you know that place? He says that there are tons of members there. We are traveling assistants. So every week we will be traveling to a different zone to train and work with the elders. I hear it is really hard and i am so excited for that. This week are going to Chimbas in San Juan. Tommorow we head out. So i will be working with Elder Gomez who is the conmpanion of Elder Frischnect. That will be great to spend a week with Elder Frischnect. I am way happy and this will be a great expirence for me these next few months. I feel way humbled to have this calling and am excited for the challenges and things which the Lord will give me. I keep hearing that He is preparing me for the future and I believe that. Thanks so much for your support and prayers.

this ended up pretty good in Alvear (Pacifico). I think that it was one of my favorite areas. I loved saying bye to the members there. You never really know how much of an impact you have on someone until it is time to leave or when they are not there anymore. One man, Juan Romero, has always been a tough type of guy. but as i said by to him he was just crying. I hope one day he can follow the example of his children and especially of Jesus Christ and get baptized.

I spoke with Elder LeBron yesterday. It was so great. I am so incredibly happy that he was able to visit with you. I love him tons. That is great. He said he loved being with you all and really enjoyed his time. So thanks for everything Family. I know that that really helps him alot.

I was studying this morning in Mosiah 29. I really love the Book of Mormon and I know that it is true. I thought that it was really interesting that God truly will bless us and make us free if we really become humble before Him and put all of our trust in Him. When people are not humble and do not have faith in Him they get farther away from Him. Not only I think will they be alone but they will be on satans side. As we all know that he does not want the best for us. But as long as we put our trust in Christ and become humble before God we will be made truly free and be blessed greatly by our Heavenly Father. I love this perfect plan of God. The Atonement is real and Christ is truly the way that we will be able to live together for ever in the Presence of God!

Please tell connor and Keaton and uncle steve and karen congrats! That makes me so happy!

Family, Hold tight onto the rod of iron. The path is made. Christ is the way. Keep the Spirit with you all this week.

I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Kevan Bills

p.s., that stinks about BYU. It sounds like they are lacking a Bills on the field.

September 7, 2010 - Craig

hEY Family i hope all is well. We are going to the temple tommorow and i am really excited. It is such a beautiful temple and its where this all began pretty much for this little ole family ha. But it will be awesome to be in the house of the lord and feel of his love and closeness. I was so happy to here byu won!!! I was so sosososoo excited and the t birds too. Yess. This past week we found 4 news and 1 new yesterday. The lord has blessed us and put us at the doors of these people to bring them this wonderful message of happiness and hope. I am so grateful that i can serve the lord and i am loving the mission more and more. It is very very hard. Ha i never expected it to be this hard. In every aspect. Physically, mentally and spiritualy hard. Its is great though. The more i try to become like the savior the farther i feel i am from this goal. But it comes day by day, action by action, decision by decision. Juoquin the guy who we are baptizing oin the 18th invited us to his sons party on saturday and it was fun. Ha They had some goood fgood. Carbe Asada tres leches flan and napoles(cactus eww) ha But anyway it was fun and he will be a solid member. In the branch there is a lot of confusion. Most are converts and dont qwuite know. In priesthood they were talking about blessings and someone asked if you can give blessings to yourself and this guy was like oh ya! And we said no you cannot. Then he like stood and testified that he has layed his hands upon his head and given a blessing to himself. OH boy. It was interesting. Dad Kc Kelly, why cant we do that?? I think that we have the priesthood to bless others not ourselves we can recieve blessings from others and feel the blessings of using the priesthood righteously but yeah ha. We can pray for ourselves with faith and hope. Anyway. I love you all. I cant explain the love i have for you guys. I am so grateful for the gospel. It is the path we need to take. Continual repentance and faith in the lord will bring us so much happiness and closer to Jesus Christ. I love you all and i love Jesus Christ. He is my savior and is truly the light of the world! Joseph Smith restored this gospel to the earth and we are so blessed to have this truth! I love you All!!!! We have all been blessed beyond measure! Thanks for all the support Love Elder Bills What is connors adress??

Eating Lunch and Waiting for the Bus

September 6, 2010 - Kevan

Hey fam!

I hope that everything is going great! It is so excited the football season I love it. Elder Fowler and I left a lesson the other day and were walking in the street and we were just like, ah no today is college football live! But everything is going great here. That is so great about andrew cusick. I cant even believe it. So that is fun though. that makes me want to play so bad. So you are looking for apartments? Where are they and are they good?

We had a baptism on saturday of a kid named gabriel Romero. He is 9 and all of his family is member. His sister is even going to Chile for her mission in november. I dont know why he never got baptized but he just turned nine and so we took over and he is now a member. I dont know why but he loves me. We asked him who he wanted to baptize him and he said me and is always just staring at me. He is a funny kid. So that was a big blessing. Baptisms always are for us and for the people. This week we are going to try and baptize the girl named Yanira who never got baptized. I tried putting a date with her yesterday but she still wanted to think about it. It'll either be this week or the next. We have transfers next week. I am sure that i will be going. I have just been a zone leader for way too long, 9 months. I love it and could end my mission doing it but I am sure i'll get leave this area.

I found probably one of my favorite stories and examples in the Book of Mormon this week. It is in 1 Nephi 16:9/31. It is when Nephi breaks his bow. To me it is a huge lesson of how our attitudes affect us and also of how we react in the situations we are in. Nephi was in the same situation as his family. Tired hungry, afflicted. I know that is was hard for all of them. But instead of murmuring, complaining and not doing anything, he went to work. He had to have been positive and had the Spirit. So he built the bow. Something that for sure anyone in his family could have done. but he listened to the Spirit and had a good attitude that he could make a difference. So he did. And he was an amazing blessing for his family as he trusted in the Lord and was guided to obtain food for his family. I love this story. This life is hard. but really our Heavenly Father has given us the easiest plan and has provided the perfect way to do it. He is so loving to have sent Jesus Christ to eart. He truly prepared the way. We have such an amazing family. All we have to do now is keep the commandments and our covenants. We can do it and Heavenly Father will bless us. LEts just be like Nephi and have all of the faith that He really will be with us, protect us, and fulfill His promises with us.

Este evangelio es verdadero. Se que Cristo vive. Estoy tan agradecido por la expiacion. Aun que no entiendo todavia lo que Cristo hizo por nosotros, yo se que es la manera para vivir con Dios un dia. Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador. El es el Hijo do Dios.

Family, I love you all so much! Thank you so much for everything. Make sure to tell everyone hi and that i love them! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Kevan Bills

P,S. thanks for the red shirt and the BYU pants. THey are awesome. Also, I am pretty sure i have grown a little bit. My pants seem shorter and I tried measuring myself and it says i am just below 6 foot 4. So thats good!!!

August 30, 2010 - Craig

Hey family i hope all is going well back in Utah!! This past week was a pretty good week. We had two cool experiences with the lord leading us to where we needed to be. The first we had an appointment and it went a little over and when we got out we remebered the sisters said we could join them for dinner with some english members because they invited us but if we couldnt make it then it was ok. So we were about 30 mintues late and we were deciding if we should go to dinner or not and we were just like alright we will go. SSo we went and turns out the brother waas sick and really needed a blessing. So the lord guided us to go there so we could administer a blessing of health! It was awesome for me! Then we were driving on our bikes and we needed to be in ventra in 30 minutes and it takes 20 to drive to ven. from S.P, but we though that we could make it to this members house in time to just set up a time to go see them and find them all home. So we went there and the girl was leaving to college the next day and waa very nervous. And she was like i was goiing to call you guys to come give me a blessing but i forgot b/c i got way too busy. So we gave her a blessing of comfort right before she headed off to college. It was a blessing for me and a testimny builder that the lord will direct our paths if we are beinmg diligent and doing whats right. Also i taught the Book of Mormon class on thursday and the spirit carried me through the class. I taught Jacob5!! Hard in english to teach let alone spanish ha. I couldnt have done it without the spirit. Yesterday i had the opportunity to baptize this little boy in my ward. it was the first baptism i performed so i was nervous ha. there was a ton of people there becuase there was 2 kids being baptized. I really felt the spirit so strong during the service and as i baptized him. I know we have the priesthood of god! It is so powerful. After he was so cute i was like im happy fopr you buddy! And he was like oh i know elder! So am I! It was a great experience. I am so grateful for you guys and all you do. I cant beleive i have been in Santa Paula for 5 months! I feel like i have lived here forever ha. I am so grateful for the guidance that i have recieved and the comfort i have recieved for these first 7 months of my mission through the Book of Mormon. I know it is word of god. The lord will bless us, we will find never ending comfort in this gospel, if we do our part. I am so grateful for the time i have had so far and i am so excited for the time i have left. I love you all so much! I hope Everyone is well.!!! Tell Hailey and the boys i love them!! I love you all with all of my heart! Love Elder Bills. Mom I am going to send a letter to Max to you. Forward him this email please!!! Love you all!