Malo Soifua!!!
Quick note: With Christmas coming up, I
think it's only fitting that I leave my address here so that you all
can send me appropriate homage or festive cards for Christmas (You don't
have to, lol, I'm just lonely 😂). So yeah, if you want to feel more of
the joy of giving this Christmas season, my address is 385 Montreal Ave,
Staten Island, NY 10306.
Anyways, this week
was pretty good, and lots of stuff happened I'm sure, but I'll just
focus on this past weekend because it was just wack.
We
had two lessons with friends that were interested in our church, but
both ended up going south this time around. One of the guys we're
teaching said that he doesn't want to join our church because we worship
"another Jesus" (I didn't know there was more than one, so I was as
confused as he was at that point). We are still on friendly terms with
him personally, we're just trying to get him interested again in meeting
with us to discuss the Bible or the Gospel. Our other friend, another
guy we found pretty recently, stumbled upon some anti-Mormon websites in
the past week. He was fine about a week ago, but this weekend he began
asking questions that people don't even know to ask unless they've found
anti-Mormon materials ("was God a man?" "Is Satan Christ's brother?"
"Do Mormons reject the trinity?"). We did our best to answer his
questions, but he is no longer interested in the Book of Mormon, which
is rather unfortunate. He still wants to meet for Bible studies, so
we're not letting him get away from us just yet haha.
After
these two lessons, I got kind of frustrated with the lack of
understanding people, myself included, have about the Bible. I began
making a document that supports some of our church's more unique claims
with "nothing but the KJV Bible, and some logical reasoning." It's been
interesting to read about Biblical prophets who taught some of the
things that people judge us for believing. My only concern is that most
people I meet here who want to dispute the Bible are not interested in
logical reasoning or discussion. Many people I meet in lessons or on
Facebook have set beliefs based on specific verses, and nothing but
their conviction that their one specific verse is all they need to
believe to get to Heaven. I do my best to be civil and teach with the
Spirit, so hopefully I'll see some better results on that front someday.
(Note: this week's subject line comes from a video call I had with Ben
today and we were talking about how blind obedience in faith is like putting
a cap on salvation or exaltation. Fun times.)
We
had a fast on Saturday for our friends Ken and Ibrahim. Both of them
want to come to church, but they can't because of work conflicts. We
scheduled a fast with them from Saturday morning until Sunday morning
right before church. Elder Checketts and I fasted, and we went about
doing our work on Saturday and Sunday, and we saw blessings for
ourselves, but our hope was in vain for our friends. Ken wasn't able to
come (for reasons we're not quite sure of yet), but we should be closer
to coming to church. Ibrahim expressed concern about the fast, and he
VERY reluctantly agreed, but we haven't heard from him since Friday
evening, and his phone has been off recently, so I'm a little worried.
We keep pressing forward, however, and I hope that they will both one
day be able to come to church and receive the blessings of the sacrament
with their families.
Finally, yesterday was
the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, or "Christmas Conference" in
my family. It was a wonderful devotional, and I loved each one of the
talks. I highly recommend each of you go and watch it if you haven't
already. The spirit was there in force, and I gained a new love for the
Savior and for the Christmas season.
Mafaufauga Faaleagaga:
With
my fast on Saturday, and our recent lessons about Sacrament with Ken
and his boys, I've learned a lot about the importance of the Sacrament,
and I've grown to love the opportunity I have to take it each week. It's
such an important reminder of Christ's sacrifice for each of us. It's
been sad for me trying to help so many of our friends here come to
church and learn of the Atonement, only to see them not be able to come,
but I still feel the love and the blessings that come from every time
that I get to take part in the Sacrament here.
God is good, and He loves all of us. Hopefully we can all show some of that love to each other this Christmas season.
Alofa tele lava atu ia outou,
Elder Hill
Photos:
- Elder Checketts posing 😎😂
- I love me some apple pie with ice cream and caramel syrup
- Saturday Service, Santa-hat Style
- Our Christmas Devotional setup
- We finally saw some ice today!! It wasn't a whole lot, but hopefully more will come soon (I say that now, but I'll be begging for summer pretty soon 😂)
- The most not-NYC part of NYC you'll ever see (it kinda reminds me of home)
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