EXTRA! EXTRA! NEW YORK MAN GETS POSSESSED, THEN THINKS HE'S JESUS!

 Malo soifua!!!

So this week was kind of really crazy, so that's fun. We did a bunch of stuff on the weekend and Thanksgiving already feels like it was two weeks ago already. I dunno how to explain it. It's like PEMDAS or something. [The acronym PEMDAS is the mnemonic for mathematical order of operations.]

On Wednesday we given food from two different ladies in the ward, which was really nice. This was awesome to us, but it was also really funny because they both mentioned that they know that "everyone's forgotten about the missionaries for Thanksgiving" so they gave us food. We first visited Sister Wendy, the lady who runs the food pantry here on Staten. She gave us a big bag with about 20 pounds of food, including a half gallon of apple cider, some mashed potatoes, and a WHOLE ROAST TURKEY!!! Honestly, I don't know what to do with the turkey. We've eaten it for four separate meals now, and there's still plenty left, but it's awesome so I don't have a problem with it 😂. We also visited Bishop Reyes and his family, and we talked with them for a while. We introduced them to Light the World for this year, and we got to know their kids a little better. As we were leaving, Sister Reyes gave us two dishes of Filipino food for our dinner that night. We gave her a huge thank you as well, and we went home with our bounteous spoils. 

Thanksgiving days was an absolute doozy of a day. We had a set schedule with the rest of the mission, including a couple of Zoom devotionals, some cooking videos with the senior missionary couples to make rolls and pie, and some service. The schedule we were given was already pretty full, but we decided that we wanted to make our likes as hard as possible, so we added more into our schedule. Just before noon, Elder Checketts and I drove to go help Elder Baird and Jones move into their new house on the island. They are assigned to Staten, but they've been living in Brooklyn without a car for seven weeks. Finally they got a house, and we went with the APs to help move them in. We spent a while bringing on boxes and banging together a bed (Ikea furniture), and set stuff up. We left a little early because we had an appointment with Sister Martinez, ANOTHER lady in the ward who wanted to give us food. She gave us each a small bag of food, we showered her with gratitude, and we went on our merry way. We finished up our baking, heated up our turkey,  potatoes, gravy, and vegetables, and we had a small but nice Thanksgiving dinner in our apartment. This was the first time I had Thanksgiving without family members around, so it was kind of weird, but it was still really good.

Friday was a slow day because nobody really wanted to talk to the missionaries on black Friday or right after Thanksgiving. We had a district council meeting with our new district leader Elder VanLangeveld (or just Elder Van). He's a pretty straightforward and hardworking person, but he's really cool, and I'm excited for this transfer. 

Saturday was also really busy. We went to NDS (New Direction Services) in the morning, and we helped hand our food there for a couple of hours. It was really hectic and crazy trying to keep everyone in line, and everything running smoothly, but it worked out pretty well. As we were leaving, Wendy gave us a package of cookies and a HUGE apple pie, which she insisted we take home. We gratefully accepted, and we drove off. Later in the day we had a bunch of lessons and contacts, and we met two or three new people. Some of them seem pretty solid, and a couple of them will be interesting to work with (some very unique circumstances).

The subject line from this email actually comes from one of these lessons. A man we're teaching has had some issues with temptations and the "natural man" in the past, but he didn't know how to explain it. He was telling us his story, and he talked about how he felt like another person was reading his thoughts, putting thoughts into his head, and making him do stuff. He said that at first he thought he was possessed. A little later, he thought he was actually Jesus because he was suffering so many temptations. Eventually, we were able to read with him in the Book of Mormon about the natural man being an enemy to God (Mosiah 3:19), and it made a lot of sense to him. 

Sunday was frustrating 😑. Next will be better 👍. 

Monday was pretty fun. It rained a whole ton, so a lot of our plans fell through. We ended up going to the mall here looking for "BROOKLYN" or "STATEN ISLAND" beanies, but we came up short. We decided to ride the ferry again, and the mist and fog made the trip pretty cool. 

Mafaufauga faaleagaga:

This came from a talk by Elder Uchtdorf that I read as part of my mission's Thanksgiving devotionals. The talk is called "Grateful in Any Circumstances" (April 2014), and it has some awesome insight about gratitude. The part that stuck out to me, however, was the section of Elder Uchtdorf's talk where he explained why we as humans don't like endings. He states that we as eternal beings were created to live forever. We were created to endure to the end, and enjoy for even longer. When we see things end or fade or leave, we have trouble accepting it because "we are not made for endings." How wonderful it is to know the truth of the gospel of Christ. How grateful I am to know that if I'm faithful and obedient, the important things will not ever end. I love this talk, and I highly encourage you all read it. 

God is good, the weather is cooling faster, and I'm happy. We'll, I'm always happy, but being here is a help rather than a hindrance. Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all, and a early merry Christmas! 

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou, 

Elder Hill 

Photos:

We legit got a full roasted turkey 

We got a bunch of crackers, meat and cheese from Sister Martinez

We got a whole huge Thanksgiving meal from Sister Wendy (2 pics) 

Elder Checketts and I making some dough for rolls 

We also made some mean pumpkin pie 

Pres and Sis Teuscher (his apron says "Chef Craig" 😂) 

Two pics with some of the mission via zoom (try and find me and my comp in each picture). [Click on the picture to enlarge it for viewing.]

Lunch with my soa on P-Day 

The Week 6 Grind

 Malo Soifua!!!

This was week 6, which means it was high time for the Week 6 Grind (basically we push through hard to the end of the transfer, and we end up seeing miracles and blessings). This week was actually really good, and I saw a lot of blessings and miracles. There were a lot, but I'll list just a few here.

Miracle 1: We have a guy we're teaching that was a media referral, but he only had one question he wanted answered. He told us he wasn't interested in having multiple lessons, so we were a little sad about that. Instead of letting him just slip away, however, we answered his question using a verse from Doctrine and Covenants, which led to him having other questions (he fell for our trap mwahaha). We had our second lesson with him this week (which was a miracle in and of itself), and we explained prophets (he knows the Bible, so prophets were very familiar), and the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith, and he just accepted it!! He just took it in stride and said it made sense to him. We then introduced the Book of Mormon as a companion book of scripture to the Bible, and he accepted that too! He not only agreed to get the app and start reading it, but he also agreed to schedule a THIRD lesson with us!! We were definitely blessed to make this work, and I hope and pray that we can keep teaching him.

Miracle 2: We had another lesson with our friend Goldie on Thursday, and it went incredibly well. Our first lesson was really difficult and unproductive, but our last two have been amazing. She's really opened up, and she's really accepting of the gospel and doctrine that we've taught to her. At one point in the lesson, she told me that I had answered a question that she hadn't even asked yet, and the Spirit just flooded the room. The rest of our lesson was incredible, and I'm so excited to keep teaching her.

Miracle 3: We got to have an area conference with President Eyring, Elder Soares, and two other General Authorities. It was a really awesome conference, and they talked a lot about finding the blessings from covid, and keeping our optimism as we keep going in such unusual and difficult times. The miracle here is that our friend Ibrahim (a trucker by trade who struggled with coming to church in person) met us at the church building, and we watched the conference together! Afterwards he told us that he really liked the meeting, and that he learned a bit from it.

Miracle 4: Another miracle from the area conference was that our friend Vanity, her boyfriend, and her son all watched the conference together. We asked her about 40 minutes before the meeting started if she was going to be able to join us, and she said, "Yeah. I'm watching it right now." Elder Checketts and I looked at each other in confusion, and I pulled up the link for the broadcast. Apparently, the Tabernacle Choir was being played for about an hour before the meeting. We realized that she and her family watched the choir for 40 minutes, and then proceeded to watch the hour-long area conference. We asked her what she thought of the meeting, and she said that of all the things in that meeting, she loved the choir part the most. She said that she and her son loved the beautiful music.

On Saturday, we had another exchange with the Zone Leader. I got to go to Brooklyn with Elder Holley, the ZL, for the day, and I had a wonderful time. I learned a lot from him, and I figured some things out about my mission. This week our mission is starting a 40 day mission fast, and Elder Holley and I discussed at great length what we each are going to fast for, both individually and in our companionships. It has been really interesting for me to do exchanges with other missionaries because I've found that collectively, we know a whole lot of stuff, but individually we don't know much. Exchanges are cool because we share and teach and learn and grow together, even though Elder Holley's been out for nineteen months as compared to my two.

Mafaufauga Faaleagaga:

In our area conference, one sister from the Relief Society General Presidency talked about how some of the Nephites in 3 Nephi moved north, and had to learn to combine their old ways of life to their new ways that they developed in living in a very different environment. She talked about how once covid ends, we will all have to combine the way we used to before covid with the way we learned to live during covid. That stuck out to me. I've thought a lot about how our world will "go back to normal" after the pandemic ends, and I've realized that we can never fully go back to the way that we were. Our lives have all been changed forever (and for the better, I think), and we will have to keep adapting and learning and growing as the world changes around us.

Our mission is doing a mission fast to refocus and gain the spiritual power we need to more fully preach the gospel and invite others to come unto Christ. During our discussion, Elder Holley said, "I've been out on my mission for 19 months, and these old bones can feel that this fast could unlock your potential as a missionary." I'm not gonna lie, I felt the Spirit then and there, and it gave me chills. I hadn't fully realized that this fast could drive me towards fully becoming the missionary and disciple that God not only needs me to be but knows I can become. That's a little wack, but It's also more exciting than I could ever possibly describe.

God is good, and the work moves forward. The Week 6 Grind is real, and it really does bring blessings. Also this week were transfers, but neither Elder Checketts or I are leaving, so not much to report on that (other than that Elder Palmer, our District Lord, is going home. May he rip in peace).

Alofa tele atu ia outou uma lava,

Elder Hill

Photos:

I enjoyed the nice sunset backdrop

We saw our first house with Christmas lights  

We are going to start doing some service for this nice lady named Wendy at her food pantry

Elder Checketts and I have too much fun sometimes 😂😎

"You Can't Lose if You Make Up the Rules"

 Malo soifua!!!

This week was absolutely wild. A bunch of stuff happened, and a lot of it happened all at once. Special shout to this past Friday the 13th for being the most "Friday the 13th" Friday the 13th I've ever had. You'll see why in a bit.

Tuesday was rather uneventful, so I'm skipping it.

On Wednesday we had an exchange with one of our Zone Leaders, so that was pretty fun. Elder Siu stayed in Brooklyn and Elder Rogers, our ZL, came with us back to Staten for the day. It was pretty good, and we learned some good stuff from him, so that was really awesome. Our lesson for that day fell through, so we just did some studies and discussions about church planning with Elder Rogers.

Thursday was just as uneventful as Tuesday (you might even say it was twice as equally uneventful), so I'm skipping that day as well.

So apparently, Friday the 13th is a real thing. Our Friday was absolutely wild. We were helping Elder Siu finish preparing to leave, and we were going on some last errands when we discovered that our car had a super flat tire. We switched it out for the spare (in the rain) and drove to Pep Boys (across the island) to get the tire patched. They said they would call us when it was done, so we just dropped off the tire and left. We also met with a guy who had been referred, but he wasn't looking for lessons. He just wanted one question answered and then he would be done. We said sure, but we were secretly planning on how to keep him interested. We decided to answer his question with a few verses from the Bible, and then directly answer it with a verse from Doctrine and Covenants. He had never heard of it before, and we ended up setting a return appointment to talk more about it. So yeah, we got him good.

We did some work at the church, then we had to go back home before we got the patched tire back. So we went home, had a couple lessons and contacts, and we helped Elder Siu pack everything away for his departure the next day. It wasn't until that evening that he got his negative covid test results back, which he needed to have to actually get to leave the next day.

Saturday was basically an extension of Friday. Elder Siu left in an Uber at about 5 or 5:30 in the morning, so we got up early to help with that. A little later in the day, Elder Checketts and I go back to Pep Boys to get our patched tire. We get there and the guy tells us that he had tried calling us yesterday but the call didn't go through. The tire was evidently too damaged to repair, so we ended up giving them the keys to install a new tire. That trip wrecked our planned schedule for the second day in a row, so that was fun. Later on Saturday we had a lesson with the Ekpadis (with Bishop's son Jafee as a ride along), and that was pretty good. We focused on getting their family set to watch stake conference the next day, and we gave them commitments to read the scriptures every day.

Saturday and Sunday were Stake Conference, and the meetings were really good. I'll make more mention of that in my spiritual thought.

The highlight of the week was definitely today, which was affectionately named "P-Day with the Boys." Basically, the elders in the district get together for p-day, and the sisters in the zone get together for p-day. The tradition here on Staten Island is to go to Rab's Bowling Alley and play a couple games with the elders. The six of us went, and we had a great time. We played one standard game, but the next game got a little crazy. We discovered that you can edit the scores you got previously, and the second game quickly devolved into us trying to edit our scores as high as possible. All in all, it was pretty fun, and it was a good time with the elders. It was also Elder Palmer's last p-day, so that was kind of sad. He dies (goes home) on Tuesday next week with transfers. (The subject line is a quote from Elder Palmer for whenever he decides that he should win the game haha.)

Mafaufauga Faaleagaga: My favorite part of stake conference was in the adult session on Saturday. A speaker (I don't remember who), quoted a powerful promise by President Ezra Taft Benson, and it resonated with me. The promise is, "If you go to the temple every month for a year after your mission, you will never leave the church." It so simple, but it's so powerful in its bluntness. I've seen firsthand the power and beauty of the temple, and I know that if we follow this counsel from a prophet of God and go to the temple as often as possible (that's difficult now with covid, but you get the idea), we will be strengthened beyond belief, and we will NEVER be shaken from our faith.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou,

Elder Hill

Photos:

It really do be Fall here (three pics of trees and leaves and whatnot)

Picture with the Ekpadi boys. I promise they're usually really happy people lol

Our district (Elder Palmer's phone is displaying the call with Elders Baird and Jones, who currently live in Brooklyn).

We had fun changing our tire in the drizzling rain

Last selfie with the God Squad before Elder Siu left us

P-Day with the boys at Rab's (L to R: Elder Checketts, me, Elder Stephens, Elder Jones, Elder Palmer, Elder Baird (with the phone)).

"Jesus Was An Illigal Immigrant!!!"

Malo soifua!!!

This week was rather uneventful mainly because we had a bunch of people fall through on their lessons or appointments with us. Probably at least one person a day (sometimes two or three or four) would just never answer the phone, or text and say their busy, so that's fun. We did our best to keep finding and contacting, so that's something at least. The missionary grind is real, and the struggle is real. But hey, I get blessed even when the lessons don't happen, so it ain't too bad. 

A super interesting thing happened this week. We're teaching a man named Ken as well as his five boys. His boys, those who are old enough, are already baptized, so we're just working on getting Ken to come to church. He's taken basically all of the lessons, he just needs to figure out church and work, and then he can get baptized. One complication is his wife Regina. He's not against him or her sons joining our church, but she's content with her own, and she's never joined our lessons. I've literally never seen or heard her before (there's always just a loud TV in the other room whenever we're over there).  The interesting thing is that somehow she connected with the sister missionaries on Facebook, and they've talked a little bit. She's not suddenly wanting to be baptized, but the fact that she's talking to missionaries is big (chatting, not lessons). She apparently told the sisters, who told us right after, that Regina was planning on bringing her boys to our church in two weeks!! That's super huge because they haven't gone in months. Ken usually has work, Regina doesn't want to come, and the boys can't drive themselves. But now apparently she's committed to bringing them soon. Hopefully that goes well, and hopefully we can get Ken to come too, to bring the whole family together to church. (prayers would be much appreciated). 

Today for P-day, Elder Checketts, Elder Siu and I went to the Staten Island Ferry, and we rode it to Manhattan and back. We're actually not supposed to leave Staten at all on P-days haha, but we're allowed to take the ferry as long as we come straight back. So yeah, that was a lot of fun, and I got some good pictures. 

In other news, ELDER SIU IS GOING BACK TO HONG KONG!!! He found out less than a week ago, and he's super excited (except for the two week quarantine in a hotel haha). He leaves this Saturday in the morning, so Elder Checketts and I will be by ourselves for at least a week. If we don't get another companion next transfer, we'll be a duo until the new year.

To explain the subject line: the misspelling of 'illegal' is from a warning sign we saw by our laundromat (pic below). The full quote is from a less active member we called. Elder Siu mentioned covid, and she went off on a huge rant about how drinking and bathing in really hot water kills covid, and then how it's Trump's fault that covid happened, and then how it's also his fault that illegal immigrants are being sent home (she's Liberian, and she's livid that Mexicans who "jump the fence" are just sent home and not accepted), and then about how our "Christian country" isn't Christian anymore because we don't accept immigrants because, as we all know, "Jesus was an illegal immigrant." She talked for nearly 20 minutes before we could jump back in, leave five words of spiritual thought, and then leave as fast as we could. She seemed like a nice enough lady; we just aren't ready yet to lose our hearing at such a young age lol. 

Anyways the work moves forward. Sometimes it moves slowly, but it always moves. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing, and that includes politics, covid, and good old-fashioned New-Yorker attitude. We've not made a whole ton of progress with our friends, but we've made some good progress with the members, which I think is just as important. So yeah, life here is good, and God is great.

Alofa tele lava atu outou, 

Elder Hill 

Photos:

• Spooky hallway in the church building 
• Not mission related, but election related, and it's hilarious (cast list meme) 
• It be fall here (red tree, road) 
• This light shines on this painting of Christ, and I love it
• Elder Checketts got a new hat (we do actually work here, I promise) 
• "Illigally" 
• A few pics from the ferry ride (water, ferry, Lady Liberty) 
• Someone parked behind us, and we had places to go (turned out it was the landlord, and he's pretty chill, so it's all good)
• Night pic of the city (we had to drive to Brooklyn to pic up a covid test for Elder Siu) 

Video: The Parable of the Talents

Elders Hill, Siu and Checketts created a video explaining the Parable of the Talents.

We Knock Twice

 Malo soifua!!!

This week was pretty good, and we got a lot of good stuff done. We got a couple more referrals, found some new people, dropped one or two, and had an all around missionary-like time. The subject line actually comes from the fact that we in my companionship and as missionaries always knock or call twice. We always try again, after the first time, and it has occasionally brought blessings. Sometimes we really don't want to keep calling people twice just to go to voicemail, but like we say every time, "we knock twice."

This week I led out in a bunch of the lessons and contacts, so that I could get some experience the hard way, ya know? A couple of the lessons went pretty well, and a on couple, I needed my trainers to jump in to adjust course. I've done a lot of learning, asking questions, and reviewing this week, and I've had to do a bit of self-humbling. I am good at talking to people, but I've had to really focus on teaching super simply and asking inspired questions to tie things into their life and needs. Luckily for me, I have some good trainers who help me out when I slip up and support me when I do well, so I'm not too worried about these next few weeks. Elder Siu is planning on making this "my area", meaning I lead out in every meeting, lesson, contact, etc. That'll take a little time, but I think it'll be good. 

This past Wednesday was exchanges, so Elder Siu and I were with Elder Palmer for the day. To be completely honest, I don't know much about what lessons we had during that day....mainly because Elder Palmer is a Spanish missionary, and both his lessons were in Spanish. I did my best to listen and understand, which I actually can still do relatively well. I've forgotten most of my Spanish speaking, but I'm glad that I still remember a bit about listening to Spanish. We had a great time though, and I learned a lot from Elder Palmer, not the least of which is this legendary quote:  "Repentance is for sinners, not for legends." (note: he's a great guy, he's just hilarious.)

Thursday was in-person zone conference for the Brooklyn South/Staten Island zone, so we drove for one and a half hours to Queens for a conference that involved no one who actually lives in Queens. Yeah, I don't know why either. Either way, it was actually crazy good, and I learned a ton. Pres Teuscher talked about how to improve personal study, and I took multiple lists of notes. If any of yous ever need any help with personal study, just lemme know. Sis Teuscher talked about gratitude, and we talked a lot about the importance and blessings of gratitude, which I'll talk about in a bit. After the conference, we drove back to Staten (another hour and a half). Oh, it also rained the entire day, so that made everything even better.

Today was our district P-day, and we played wiffle ball for a couple of hours. We were going to play ultimate frisbee, but there has been a gale alert the entire day, and it's been crazy windy, so frisbee didn't work. Granted, wiffle ball didn't super work either, but we did our best haha.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga:

The first thought I had was based on Sis Teuscher's words to us at zone conference. We talked about the importance of acting on our gratitude to make it worth the effort. Elder Palmer paraphrased a scripture and said, "Thanks without works is dead." I really loved that, and I know that it's true. If we really want to show gratitude, we need to act on it, and thank both others around us, but also God, for the many many things He has given us.

The other thing about gratitude is from a section of Alma 7:23, which reads, "...always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive." The word that hit me was "returning." I realized that Heavenly Father is grateful to us, and why wouldn't He be? He's the perfect example of all things, including gratitude. Also, when we obey Him, talk to Him, love His children, and bring others to know Him better, He is eternally grateful. And because He is eternally grateful, He will bless us to show His gratitude. That's something I had never considered, but now I think it's one of the most important things I've learned recently. 

The other things I've been realizing is how truly I, and anyone else who is a member of the church, have been blessed to know the truth of the Gospel of Christ. Other churches have truth, but I feel eternally blessed to know about and understand the truth of God and His plan for all of us. I've met a lot of people already (and I'll meet countless more) who simply don't know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, or that He has a plan for all of us to repent and BE RESURRECTED AND LIVE WITH GOD AGAIN. I've been astounded at how many people in the world don't yet know these truths, and how many are content to not know. It makes me sad, but also eternally grateful for this chance that I have to know the gospel, to study its beauty and simplicity, and to exercise my gratitude by teaching others about God's love. This is the work of God and the work of angels. Of this I am a witness and an eternal believer.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou, 

Elder Hill 

Photos:

A couple pics from our drive in the rain to Queens

Two selfies of our gang 

A road in fall