The Trumbull 15

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** EVERLY GOT BAPTIZED!!!! She's super awesome, and I'm so glad that she made that choice to come closer to God.  #spartanwarrior

 ** Pres Holmes holds the Priesthood keys as mission president, and he can read minds (more below)

 ** Met a homie named Matt on Facebook, and we've had some awesome lessons with him!

 ** The "Trumbull 15" is a real thing guys...

First off (out of order but whatever), EVERLY GOT BAPTIZED!!! She cruised to through our three week lesson plan, and she nailed her baptismal interview last week. Yesterday, with her mom and brother present, she was baptized by Elder Lee and confirmed by me. (Side note: we were low-key trying to have members do the baptism and confirmation, but Everly, who's normally very shy, said that we should do it because we're basically family friends now, so there ya go). The meeting was short and sweet, and I'm super excited for her. Not as excited as the young women are (there are only two other girls, so they are VERY happy to have her), but excited all the same. 

This past Tuesday was interviews with Pres Holmes. We drove to the New Rochelle chapel, and we actually got to have our interviews with him ahead of schedule. For the time in the history of any mission ever lol, our mission president was actually ahead of schedule on his interviews. They went super well, and I had a wonderful spiritual confirmation of the power of the priesthood, and of the reality of Pres Holmes' priesthood calling and keys as mission president. He brought up a few things to talk about that were not only what I had needed to hear, but that i had been thinking about prior to our meeting. I never mentioned them to him before he started talking, and I checked with Elder Lee afterwards that he wasn't just saying the same thing to every missionary. He truly was inspired about what I personally needed to hear, and he gave me powerful advice.

A guy named Matt messaged me back on Facebook, which doesn't happen very much, and he actually seemed interested in meeting with us, which happens even less. We met up at a park, and we had a walking discussion for about 90 minutes. He's studying and working to become a pastor, so he has a lot of scriptural knowledge, and we ended up having a great discussion about the gospel and about our church. He asked a lot of questions, and many of them were deeper and more thought out than any I've ever heard before. We talked for a long while, and we gave him a Book of Mormon and encouraged him to start reading it. 

We met up again a few days later, this time at our church building. We gave him a short tour, and we continued our discussion about our church and the gospel. He was understandably hesitant to read too much into our church and the BoM, but he seemed willing to consider it. 

We made a deal where he would read a BoM chapter of our choosing for a few days, and we would read a Bible chapter of his choosing for a few days, and we'd come back together and discuss them. We'll see how that goes, but I'm kind of excited to keep working on with him. We're not sure yet if he's open or ready to make that change, but he's a good dude, and I'm looking forward to studying with him again.

Finally, the subject line. The "Trumbull 15" is something we were told about by a member here. Apparently the legend goes that every missionary that comes to Trumbull gains 15 pounds, and not gonna lie, but I'm not too surprised haha. The members here love feeding us, and they try to do so at an outrageous level. I've already gained a pound or two, so this will be interesting if I stay here for the holidays haha (don't worry, Mom. We're still exercising and doing our best to eat healthy haha).

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Just a quick testimony on the importance and power of the Priesthood. I've sent the power of God bless the lives of so many people, myself or those around me. I've felt that power in blessing me, and I've used that power to bless others. Every time, I feel an immense peace, and an immense power, and an immense love. I know that God loves us so much that He gave us access to His actual power, so that we can use it to show our love and to bless the lives of others. I encourage all of you to do the same. It doesn't matter who you are, or where you are in life, you all have the ability to show your love and bless the lives of those around you.

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34-35)

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Everly's baptism!!! (ft. Her mom and her brother)
• Selfie of me because....why not? 😂
• My comp about to get back in the font cuz he forgot to pull the plug (I fished it out before he had to though, so he just kinda stood there lol)
• Nice street in our area (Inwood is also the name of a part of Northern Manhattan, so I thought that was kind of funny)

Song Video

Jacob sings "How Great Thou Art" in a stairwell 

Ornery Henri

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Visiting members is the best

 ** The MTC gang (kinda) came back together

 ** Exchanges are always fun

 ** Everly is a Spartan legend

 ** "Hurricane Henri" (not gonna lie, kind of a letdown)

This week Elder Lee and I started knocking members' houses and visiting briefly with them (introduce ourselves, see how they're doing, ask if we can do anything to help). It's actually been pretty awesome because members here are great AND a couple of them have told us about family or friends that would benefit from hearing about the gospel! We'll see if any of those are able to pan out of progress further.

I joined a Samoan Group Call the other day, and was overjoyed when Elder Kauer and Elder Wilson, two good friends from the MTC, joined the zoom. The three of us had a great time reminiscing and swapping stories. (Kalofae to our teacher because she wasn't ready for us haha).

I forgot to talk about Everly in previous emails, but she's a baller. She's the 12 year old daughter of a less active member in the ward. Her mom came up to Elder Steele the Sunday before transfers and told him that Everly wants to be baptized. Right when Elder Lee and I got here, we met with her and talked about it. We set a date for Aug 29th, and we've been flying through the lessons. Everly is so awesome, and she has crushed everything we've thrown at her. He passed her baptismal interview yesterday, so she is all set for her baptism this Sunday! I'm so excited for her. If you all could keep Everly in your prayers during this week, I would be very grateful!

So "Hurricane" Henri (pronounced like "awn-ry" I think?) was supposed to hit this weekend. We had been hearing more and more about it as the week progressed, but nothing concrete about what she should do. On Saturday, we got a call that we were being evacuated from Bridgeport to Stamford to live with the Elders there until Monday morning or so. We packed some things, suffered through traffic as everyone was leaving the area, and we got to the house where the Elders lived. There were already four Elders living in that apartment, so now we have a whopping total of six on one big apartment haha.

All church meetings in Connecticut were cancelled, and we weren't allowed to leave our apartment, so we didn't have much to do beyond Facebook work and the like. The weather, on the other hand, didn't do much either that would bespeak a hurricane or tropical storm. It rain a decent bit on Saturday and Sunday, but never very hard, and never with strong winds. (The "strongest" wind/rain we saw was this morning lol). We were given the all clear on Sunday night that we can return to our area, so we'll pack up and head back today. All in all not very exciting, but I'm not complaining too much about that (also chilling in a six-pack of Elders was kind of fun 😂).

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: One of my all-time favorite BYU Devotionals is "Why Do We Believe in Christ" by Brad Wilcox. I was studying it yesterday, and I just love how firm and strong he is in testifying of Christ. A previous talk I listened to talked about how we can't survive in life on someone else's testimony. We have to have our own. Y'all need to go right now to speeches.byu.edu and look up that talk by Brad Wilcox!!

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Deep clean of the apartment (lots of junk, chee hoo)
• Nasty beehive on some house's utility meter
• Elder Kauer and Wilson (friends mai le MTC)
• Mass exodus of cars out of Bridgeport and Fairfield
• Six Elders living it up for two days together haha
• Pretty accurate meme of Hurricane Henri

ARE YOU READY TO TRUMBUUULLLLLLL

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 * Zone Conference was absolutely amazing (as usual)

 * RIP Elder Steele. We dropped him off at the airport so he could fly home (#roadtrip)

 * Knocking is way more exciting when people threaten to call the cops on us haha

 * Speaking in church is always fun, especially when we're asked two days before

 * Connecticut is real pretty (see pictures below)

Tuesday was Zone Conference, and it was at the New Rochelle chapel, so we got to drive for almost an hour and a half to get there. One of the main focuses of this conference was Preach My Gospel. We as a mission haven't focused much on it or used it much recently, and Pres Holmes is here to change that. His goal is for all of us to "know if backwards and forwards, and forwards and backwards". He challenged all of us to have every scripture reference memorized before we go home from our respective missions, and I think that will be a huge help to all of us. He and Sis Holmes bore powerful testimony of PMG as a necessary tool for missionaries to use (they compared it to a playbook or game film for an NFL team). Overall a fire meeting, and I loved it.

Thursday morning, we got up a little earlier than usual so we could take Elder Steele to the airport. It was all around about four hours of driving, which was just all kinds of fun. We dropped him at the terminal and turned around to come back. Elder Lee and I got about 30 minutes at home to eat and do a few things before hitting the road again to go to district council. We ended up driving a lot today, and it was not super fun, but it is what it is sometimes.

We spend around an hour or more every night knocking doors in random neighborhoods in our area. On Saturday night we pulled up to a street and began tracting. As I knocked on one door, a lady across the street opened her door and told us not to knock there. Elder Lee and I paused and looked at each other, and I moved to just knock again (we thought she had left, but she was still staring at us from across the road). The lady yelled at us again, telling us to leave again. I don't remember her exact words, but they carried a veiled threat, and I wasn't too eager to try anything funny, so we walked down the steps and down the sidewalk to the next house. It wasn't scary having someone yelling at me, but it was kinda weird and uncomfortable just having her stare at us as we kept walking door to door. The joys of missionary work just compound.

We spent a little bit of time this week going to some pretty places to take some pictures for Facebook. We found some really cool places next to reservoirs and forests. Lots of cool places, and lots of cool pictures to show for it!

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: I studied discipline a bit this week, and learned some interesting stuff. It was weird how much discipline relates to faith, which I studied last transfer. Obedience is when we follow the rules/laws/commandments we've been given. Diligence is when we not only WANT to do it (and actually care about doing it), but we also do it consistently and ungrudgingly. Basically, diligence is obedience laced with faith. Figure that one out 😂.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• I found my son at Zone Conference
• Lots of green here in CT
• "The Process" (Elder Lee, Steele and I) (aka the David Delgado fan club)
• Elder Lee and me (RIP Elder Steele)
• Some suuuper nice houses we found, as well as a straight-up abandoned house

Getting Into All Sorts of Trumbull

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 * I got bullied by a Samoan

 * Connecticut is waaaay different than NYC lol

 * Members here are super nice

 * Knocking doors is less nice (though honestly not terrible)

 * Basketball with the Elders

 * Yo they got Walmart hereeee

So at transfers I finally got to talk with Sister Tauelia. She's originally from American Samoa, and she was called to serve here in the NYC mission. She grew up speaking Samoan, and over the past threes years she became fluent in English and Spanish (she's a Spanish-speaking missionary). She saw me from across the parking lot at the Woodside chapel and, in true Samoan fashion, yelled "ELDER HILL COME OVER HERE!!!" And so I did haha, and we had a great conversation entirely in Samoan. Hers is waaaaay better than mine, so I was struggling to keep up, but she helped me a bit (except for when she would roast me for not understanding what she had just said haha). She told me (in a nice way) that I need to get better at listening and comprehension, and I think she's right. I'll definitely start grinding that in my language studies.

I met up with Elder Lee and Elder Steele there, as well. Elder Steele actually goes home in a few days, so he's just staying with us for about a week. He had to stay in Queens to do all of the departing missionary stuff, so Elder Lee and I said our final goodbyes and we hopped in our Chevy Equinox and drove for about 90 minutes to our apartment in Connecticut. I hadn't driven in a while, so that was all kinds of fun. Also, driving got very different once we left city limits and then state limits. Connecticut definitely has some urban areas, but nothing even comes close to NYC. Our apartment, which is way nice btw, is actually in Bridgeport, which is NOT in our area. Our area covers Trumbull, Monroe, and Fairfield, so that means we get to do lots of driving haha.

The vibe here is very different. Everything feels slower, and things just don't rush like they did in Manhattan. The members are pretty nice, but they like to talk forevvveerrrrrr haha. We had dinner with a family here, and it was fantastic. The food was divine, and the conversation was great. At one point during the meal I looked at my watch and discovered that we'd already been there for an hour. By the time dessert had rolled around and we were wrapping everything up, that rounded out to about two hours. We definitely weren't planning on that, but it ended up being pretty good. We may just have to start reining in the members here haha.

Also, just a small note, completely unrelated and unimportant to probably everyone but me, but THEY HAVE WALMARTS HERE!!!!! Elder Lee and I had to make a quick run to get a few things for the week, and needless to say, I was very very happy haha. (see attached pic)

Our zone leaders live super close to us, and we meet up a few mornings a week to play basketball at the church, and it's been so fun. It's been good to get back into the swing of exercise and good old-fashioned sweat, and it's been a lot of fun to play ball with some great elders out here.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Testimony time. I don't remember if I've talked about this here before or not, but I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about testimonies. Something I realized this past transfer during my study on faith is that having a testimony does NOT mean you know something. It just means that you have the faith, and you've seen seom evidences to support it further. Now that doesn't mean that testimonies are bad or inferior or anything. It just means that you still have room to grow, and you still have room for faith, which frankly is good news to me. Remember, the first principle in the Gospel of Christ is to have faith, NOT to have knowledge. No matter how much I know to be true or have a testimony of, I'll always cherish the simple ability to believe, or even just the desire to believe. It truly is a gift from God that we can have faith, especially faith in Him and His Son Jesus Christ.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

p.s. my new address is 225 Golden Hill St, Bridgeport CT, 06604, Apt 6A

Ata:

• Selfie I got with Sis Tauelia at transfers
• Arizona who? I'm already home (lol) [Note:  Jacob worked at Walmart for a couple of years before his mission.]

Sleepover 2: Jesus and the Missionaries

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

• Power was still out for most of the week
• ConEd is lowkey the worst (sorry not sorry)
• We helped this super rich British dude named Mike move some boxes, and he gave me another guitar
• While we were there, Jesus knocked at the door, and Mike thought it absolutely hilarious (more below)
• Got to ride in a cop car, so that was fun
• As Professor Harold Hill almost said, "Oh ya got Trumbull" (more below)

In case you hadn't noticed, my above bullet points have morphed from actual summaries into clickbait haha. Guess that's just how it be sometimes.

Also, mega-long email below. You have been warned...

We were messaged a few days ago by a member who just moved into our area. She has a roommate who's a much older British dude named Mike. He's been going through some rough times with physical/medical issues etc, and this sister asked us to give him a priesthood blessing (she had already explained it to him). We said sure, and we headed over there on Wednesday. We met Mike and chatted for a bit, but before we could do anything, there came a knock at the door. Mike chuckled and said "you Elders aren't going to believe this, but that's Jesus at the door." I went over and opened it, and there stood a Hispanic guy named Jesus! He had showed up to help Mike move some boxes around in preparation for moving apartments. Mike asked if we wouldn't mind helping out, and we gladly accepted. We spent close to an hour moving boxes from a loft to the main floor (he had a HUGE apartment which apparently costs him $7000 a month), and into a storage room across the hall. While we were working, Mike would crack a joke every so often about "Jesus and the missionaries" helping him out. When we finished, Mike asked if we took any sort of donations. He offered money, one of his guitars, etc and Elder Wall mentioned that I played guitar. Long story short he gave me a nice Fender, and some good strings to restring it! I took it home and I'm going to tune it up and get it refitted real soon.

I went on exchanges with the Elders from the Upper East Side, and I was with Elder Anjeweirden in their area. During a lesson, we got a call from one of their recent converts, Luci. We called her back after the lesson, and she was panicking about something. She asked us to meet her at a specific crossroad and we agreed (our next appointment had fallen through). We meet her there, and as we're talking a nearby minivan in a parking lot turns on police lights. Two guys in bulletproof vests and gear. Turns out they were warrant officers, and were taking Luci to the station to address a trash assault charge made by Luci's old roommate (the roommate was literally insane and was breaking stuff, so Luci got her evicted, so now the roommate is pressing assault charges, woooo). Luci asked us to ride to the station with her, and the officers were cool with it, so Elder Anjeweirden and I hopped in and rode with them to the 19th precinct. (the cops were super chill, so we had a great conversation while we drove). We got there, and they took Luci back to talk with a detective. We elders stuck around for a few minutes, but ended up leaving when they told us she'd be there for a few hours. We just got some good food from a nearby Halal street vendor and back to our regularly scheduled programming haha.

So you all know how our power was supposed to be turned on on Wednesday, right? Well.....it wasn't. Elder Wall and I showed up ten minutes early to the scheduled appointment, and the guy had ALREADY COME AND LEFT. We called ConEd, the company that runs our utilities, and asked what had happened. They said the guy came at 2:18 but no one was home. I found that very hard to believe because at 2:18 I was sitting in a chair watching the hallway through the open door, and literally NOBODY came up the stairs for about 45 minutes. ConEd said they couldn't send anybody over that day because 4pm is apparently too late to work or something, so we had to reschedule for SATURDAY!! We were super frustrated, but we had no other options.

Saturday rolled around, and the guy FINALLY came. He checked the meter for literally 90 seconds before clearing it and marking it as done. We asked if he could turn the power back on, but he said that he wasn't the guy to do that. We called ConEd AGAIN and told them what happened. They said to call the Super and have them do it, but when we called the Super they said to call ConEd and have THEM do it. We went back and forth, calling literally everyone under the sun, trying to get our power back on. We finally got the account info we needed to get through to access our meter remotely, only to find out that when they turned our power off they listed it under the WRONG METER!!! That means that they'll have to come on AUGUST 19TH to investigate the meter. After enough pestering and discussing, they finally agreed to turn our meter back on until the investigation, so we FINALLY got to back to our apartment and get the lights and AC on. 

Finally, last but not least, TRANSFER CALL!!! We met with the whole mission, and Pres Holmes and the APs read off the whole transfer sheet. And guess what??? I'm getting transferred!! Where, you might ask?? To Trumbull!! And where's THAT, you might ask?? Honestly, no idea....lol just kidding. It's up in CONNECTICUT!! That's right, after about ten months, ya boi is leaving NYC and heading up north to a town of  a whopping 35,000 people. I'm honestly super excited, so we'll see how this goes. I'll be in a trio with Elder Steele and Elder Lee. I don't knowElder Steele at all, but Elder Lee not only flew into NYC from AZ with me, but he also served here in Union Square just before I got here, so that's super exciting. Good times all around.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: I was thinking a bit ago about this church and this gospel, and I realized something rather interesting. I can't and won't speak for anyone else, but at least for me, it would be so hard to leave this church. I tried making a list of things or beliefs that I would have to give up in order to leave the church, and it made me so sad because I simply couldn't do it. This gospel is kind of like a web. A lot of things are tied to a lot of other things, which are in turn tied to a lot of other things. In my perspective on life (which, frankly, is still rather young), there are too many true and good aspects of the church for it to be wrong. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is either God's true church or it is the epitome of sin, sacrilege, and blasphemy. There really isn't any middle ground. Luckily, we're taught in many places that "by their fruits [we] shall know them." If you look at how many good things the church does or believes in, there is simply no way that it could be wrong. Sure there are questions, and there are concerns, and there are problems with people or points of doctrine/history we don't understand, but ALL OF THOSE are secondary to the truth Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and living revelation. If you believe in those, or even just WANT to believe in those, that is enough.

If any of you ever has any questions or problems or concerns of any kind, please feel free to reach out and message me. I would absolutely love to help you in any way that I can.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Week 6 district pic (gonna miss these legends)
• Elder Anjeweirden and me at the 19th Precinct
• Some super good halal we got from a street vendor (he's acclaimed as the best one in town, and I support that statement)
• Made some cookies last night, including a giant one on a cookie sheet, hehe
• The "The Boys" poster in our apartment. Every Elder that lives here signs it and leaves his legacy...
• Pic of me and my homie Festus from the MSA ward (that man knows how to dress up and get down, lemme tell ya)
• Funny poster the APs shared to get us hyped for transfer calls (and boy, it was a hype transfer call)