Beach Boys

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

• This week was stake conference, so that was super awesome
• None of our friends came to church this week, so that was much less awesome
• The Gift of Tongues is a real thing, guys

This week was pretty busy, and we had a lot of lessons. Not much of note happened, however, so this email will be shorter than most. We had some really good lessons with some of our progressing people, including a couple super awesome lesson with our friend Renee. She's progressing really well, and I'm excited to keep meeting with her.

This past Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference for the Brooklyn New York Stake. We watched the Saturday evening session at home via Zoom. For the Sunday session, we actually came to the church building so that the Sisters could bring their friend Cary, who's getting ready to be baptized, and she could both watch the conference but also partake of the sacrament. It was a pretty cool experience, and I felt honored to be able to help Cary draw even closer to Christ.

The downside of Stake Conference was that none of our friends were able to come to church. We did a bunch of contacting and calling, but all of our most progressing people were unavailable in one degree or another. Hopefully we can get some of them to come to church this upcoming Sunday.

Today was "P-Day with the Boys." We went to a soccer field right next to the beach here, and we spent a couple of hours playing soccer and ultimate Frisbee. We also walked down to the beach and walked along the shore, collecting cool shells and taking cool pictures. It was an overall just good time, and we had a lot of fun together.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: My thoughts today are mainly on the gifts of the Spirit, specifically the Gift of Tongues. I've been seriously reflecting on my past time as a missionary studying the Samoan language, and I've been working hard not to fall into the trap of comparing myself to other missionaries. Instead, I've been following the counsel I found in a BYU devotional I listened to recently. In it, the speaker (I can't remember his name) spoke about comparing ourselves to our past selves, not to anything else. We, and the Lord, only look upon what we are versus what we were, and nothing else. With that in mind, I've looked back at my progress in speaking and understanding the Samoan language, and I've seen just how wonderful and incredible my progress has been. Sure I'm not as good as any of my teachers or the missionaries who served in Samoa for months at a time, but I've made incredible progress in my own growth and understanding, and I'm beyond grateful for that.

Long story short, don't compare yourself to others. Only look at how you have grown, and keep trying. Our race is against sin, not against each other.

Alofa tele lave atu ia outou,

Elder Mauga

Photos:

• Cool pic of the Verrazzano Bridge I got off of Facebook haha
• Some pics from pday with the boys today