"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)).