"If It Doesn't Work, I'll Just Quit My Job"

 Malo soifua!!!

This was another great week, and a lot of fun stuff happened. Also Christmas is in like two weeks, so that's absolutely wack. Once again if any of you out there want to contribute in any way to the "Support Your Friendly Neighborhood NYC Missionaries Named Elder Hill" foundation, my address is in my last email. (you totally don't have to haha, I'd just love getting letters  😂.) [Address:  385 Montreal Ave, Staten Island, NY 10306 -- and he's referring to letters, not money]

This Tuesday was exchanges, and we got to have Elder Van in our area. Normally, we would switch elders, but this was a little different because Elder Van is currently in a trio with Elder Baird and Elder Stephens. He joined our area for the day, and we had a great time. Apparently he does historical fencing (different than modern fencing), magic tricks, and he's a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson and the Cosmere. Whenever we had a side conversation on a drive or in between appointments, we would dive off into some random conversation about any number of strange and epic topics that we had in common. We did lots of great work that day, and we had a ton of fun doing it, so it was a win/win.

We met with Ken to try and figure out how to get him to church the upcoming Sunday. To show his faith and dedication, he called his coworker there and asked to switch shifts with him for Sunday (we didn't even ask him to. He just did it himself). Then, later on in the conversation, Ken said, "If I can't come to church this Sunday, I'll just quit my weekend job and get another one. It'll be easy for me to find another one." We were shocked, but we got super excited for him to come. 

AND HE CAME TO CHURCH!!! After working with him for months (longer than I've even been here), we finally got Ken to come to church with his boys. I'm so happy for him, and I'm so excited that he's making progress again. 

Speaking of church, we tried virtually broadcasting the meeting over Zoom, so that was interesting. We had the full church meeting (song, prayer, talks, song, talk, song, prayer), and THEN had the Sacrament after the broadcast ended. It took some figuring out get it to work properly, but this should be a good alternative to in-person church for those who still can't come.

Our friend Goldie finally got a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she's super interested in reading it! At one point she found the Joseph Smith movie and started watching it. Later she asked us, "how could they persecute him for telling the truth?" We had a spiritual conversation about it, but we were also silently fist-pumping that she was so solid in her faith in the prophet. Hopefully we can keep meeting with her and growing that faith. 

Today was district P-Day, and Elder Van got us approved to go to the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn. We had a lot of fun there, and took a bunch of awesome pictures. It was kind of really rainy, but we had a lot of fun in the aquarium and on the beach right next to it. 

Mafaufauga faaleagaga:

I was thinking a bit about prayer, and how we don't often do it in public. One thing that's struck me out here is that we need to be proud of our faith (not overbearing, but confident and assured). There have been a few times when I've prayed with other elders in a mall or on a sidewalk of a busy street. At first it feels a little awkward to stand in a small circle and pray aloud in public. As I've done it more and more, however, I've loved the idea more and more. We have the resorted gospel of Jesus Christ. We know who we are as children of God. We know He hears our prayers. So why not do it in public? Why not just give no thought to what the world thinks? Prayer is about talking to God, and we should never stop talking to Him just because we're in a restaurant or on a street corner. Prayer is a form a praise, and I will praise Him all day and all night, wherever I may be.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou, ma Manuia le Kerisimasi!! I love all of you, and Merry Christmas!!

Elder Hill 

Photos:

We dropped off a Book of Mormon at a friend's house in the snow, so that was fun

Also it snowed for all of half of a day this week, so that was fun

Also also, our mission got Light The World beanies and hats (Pres Teuscher is modeling for us), so that was really fun

Also also also, Elder Checketts got a Christmas present in the form of a model Colosseum that we put together this week, so that was way fun

Also also also also, we went to the New York Aquarium by Coney Island in Brooklyn, so that was SUPER FUN (see some of the many pictures that I took there)