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)