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
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