Sanctify Yourselves

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Zone Conference was absolutely fire

 ** Ring doorbells are actually made by the devil

 ** We found two people in ONE DAY while knocking doors!! #doorstepmiracles

 ** We had a combined Ward Culture night (mostly Jamaican lol), and it was super fun

This week was absolutely epic. We got a lot of work done, and we saw a lot of miracles. First and foremost, we finally got to have meals with members more, and lemme tell ya, they feed us GOOD here haha. The Trumbull 15 is no joke.

So we did a bunch of knocking this week, and I learned a couple things. First, never ring the Ring doorbells. I can't say why, but they just tend to result in people not answering the door, or just saying no through the intercom. We'll knock the door, and then use the Ring if no one answers.

The second thing I learned is that some people are so anxious to tell us no, they literally don't listen to what we're saying. For example: "are you religious at all?" "No I don't live here, I'm just renting." There's some funny people out here man 🙄😜😂.

However, we did see some incredible miracles with knocking. On Saturday we picked a street and began tracting. Out of the first five doors we knocked, two didn't answer and three were pretty rude in saying no. This wasn't exactly a surprise, but it was a little discouraging. We discussed moving to a different street in the hopes of nicer people haha, but we decided that we had to finish this one out before moving on. We kept knocking, and the others who answered were generally much more friendly, albeit not interested either. At the end of the street, the very last house opened their door, and we had a great conversation and mini lesson with a woman named Josephine. She was super nice, and we were able to teach her a little bit as well as set up a time to come back on Monday!

Later that same day, we were knocking the next street over, and at the last house on THAT street, a guy named Denni opened his door, and he accepted not only a return appointment but a Book of Mormon, as well! Miracles do happen, and I now have a testimony that tracting is not an entire waste of time haha.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: ZONE CONFERENCE

I don't even know where to start. Zone Conference was just amazing this week. It's kinda funny because most of the amazingness of the conference was not in the messages themselves, although those were fire. The parts that I loved the most were in the days that followed when the Spirit explained to me some of what was said, and I gained a deeper understanding and testimony of it.

One particular topic that I'll mention was that Pres Holmes basically taught us the whole first lesson with a whiteboard and about 20 different scripture references. He taught it in such a way that it was basically impossible not to understand. In addition, he explained it so that you see super easily why the Restoration was essential and why this church is the church of Jesus Christ. It was super cool, and I'm excited to try that method in a lesson. (If you want to learn more about it specifically, dm me and I'll share the scriptures and whatnot with you.)

Quotes of the Conference:

"When Joseph Smith went into the grove of trees, what was restored? The way back home"

"Good information leads to good revelation"

"We had no way home until the Priesthood was restored"

"Doctrine understood changes behavior"

"I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I learn. I teach, I retain. Learn then share"

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Some people have NO IDEA how to name their streets smh 😂
• Pretty street
• Elder Lee's parents are trying to give us diabetes 😂🤣
• Me and my uso, Elder Hennessy
• Huge bushes in front of a random house
• Bro they got a Circle K hereeee
• Good times from last P-day (Mt Dew with the comp and dunk line with the squad)

Trumbull 15, Part 2

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Le SamFam e faavavau (I love group language calls)

 ** We finally found some people!

 ** People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care

 ** Member meals are the best, and I'm very excited haha

I finally had the time/availability to join the weekly MTC Samoan language call, and it was so much fun. I got to reconnect "in person" with Elder McKrola for the first time since the MTC, and I got to see Elders Kauer and Brown again, which is always nice. We had a good time with Sista Maka (Sis Macarilay), and we all worked on improving our Samoan. Again, I was reminded about all the progress I've made since the MTC, and I'm just super grateful for the Gift of Tongues and all of the goodness I've been shown by God and my teachers. Alofa atu ia outou uma, a'u uo pele.

Two weeks ago we didn't find anybody. Last week we only found one. This week though, this week we found three! We honestly didn't change much about how we were working; we just cared a little more and tried a little harder, and God blessed us for it. One of our new friends, Kaitlin, is a wonderful human being. She's super sweet and kind, but she's had a lot of rough things happen recently, so she's been in a tough spot. During one of our calls with her, Elder Lee and I had the impression (we didn't realize it was an impression at the time, but looking back it must have been) to just express our love for her as a daughter of God, and Heavenly Father's love for her. We explained just how much the gospel can bless her life, and how joining a ward is like joining a family. After we finished talking with her, she started crying and just thanked us over and over again. She wasn't able to come to church this past week, but she really wants to, and we've already got an awesome member who is willing to give her a ride, so I'm excited to see what happens.

Yesterday, two wonderful things happened. First, we had dinner with an awesome family in the ward, and we had a great time. We played a game, ate their delicious lasagna, and shared a fire spiritual message.

The other wonderful thing that happened was arguably even better haha. Today during Sunday school, the "Missionary Meal Calendar" was passed around for the first time since covid. We got it back at the end of church, and we almost cried in joy seeing how many names there were. I'm super excited to meet the members and try and help them a little better, and Elder Lee and I are excited to eat some good food haha.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Sacrifice. I've been thinking a lot about sacrifice. Inspired and invited by Elder Bassett, I've been pondering things that I can fully sacrifice to God to not only show my love and desire to be obedient but also to better focus on the mission. It's been an interesting few days, self-reflecting and pondering what to choose. We'll, I've made a choice, and it's going to be hard, not gonna lie. What it is exactly doesn't matter, but it'll definitely be a sacrifice. One thing I learned, though, is that often the sacrifice you're needing to make is the only thing you don't want to yet ("do that one later/never"). When I first decided on a thing or two, my first thought was "that's not going to work. Pick something else." Taking that as my cue, though, I asked God, and He confirmed that those things that I really didn't want to sacrifice (or think were worth sacrificing) were, in fact, the things I was supposed to sacrifice. I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Guys, God is so good. Not to be rude to anyone, but if you don't believe that, you're not looking at your life hard enough. He's in every aspect, and He loves you more than humanly imaginable.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• 10 dang straight facts to live by
• This member has got a neat house lol
• We do service in a remodeled church, and one guy took us up to see the "attic" where the outer shell of the cathedral is still visible

Mr. Worldwide

 Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Giving service is so much fun, 10/10 would recommend

 ** Elder Lee and I got to go back to Manhattan!! (More on that below)

 ** Elder Bassett is an amazing guy (also super hilarious when he wants to be)

 ** Member meals are the best

 ** In terms of transfer news, there is no transfer news (Elder Lee and I are both staying)

We started doing service at a food pantry here in Bridgeport. It reminds me a lot of NDS from Staten way back when on my mission, only on a much larger scale. We did a bunch of warehouse work (cleaning shelves, restocking, organizing), and it was a ton of fun. It threw me back to my Walmart days, so that was great haha. We're scheduled to go back each week, and I'm super excited to keep helping out there.

So we had a Mission Tour this week. Elder W Mark Bassett of the Seventy came and spoke to our entire mission multiple times over the course of the week. As part of the tour, our zone was scheduled to be in person at the chapel in the Manhattan Temple on Wednesday morning for the first round of meetings. Since Pres Holmes knew that it's a long trip from CT to Manhattan, he has us all come down the night before and stay with missionaries throughout the city. So with all that in mind haha, Elder Lee and I drove down into the Bronx to stay with some Elders there for the night. One neat thing about that is that I have now physically been to all five boroughs of NYC (not an impossible feat, but not super easy). Just good times all around.

Wednesday we took the metro bright and early, and we rode down into Manhattan. It had been a transfer for me since I'd been in the city, and much longer for Elder Lee, so we were both really happy to be back in our old stomping grounds in Manhattan. We got to the meeting, and we had a brief meet and greet with all the missionaries we hadn't seen in a while. After a few minutes, we all took our seats to prepare for the meeting.

I'll stop there with the linear narrative, and just talk about the meetings as a whole (I went to five meetings from Wed to Fri). In short, I love Elder Bassett. He's funny, relatable, and very human, but he also had moments were he literally glowed as he just rolled back the curtains of heaven and gave us all a glimpse. My favorite talk that he gave was about sacrifice. He broke it into three main sections: first he talked about the sacrifice the Father made, second the sacrifice the Son made, and third the sacrifice we are asked to make. It was so cool how he talked about sacrifice, and how some things are meant to be for our benefit, not God's. He compared our missions to the story of Abraham being prepared to sacrifice Isaac. God already knew that He wouldn't let Abraham do it, but Abraham himself didn't know. So why make him do it in the first place? In short, "Abraham had to learn something about Abraham." Elder Bassett explained that a mission is not a sacrifice, it is a privilege. While on a mission, we are asked to put those things that we hold dear "on the altar" like Abraham did Isaac, so that we ourselves can grow. In short, "you need to learn something about you."

I could go on and on about what he taught, but I don't wanna make this email tooo long haha. It sufficeth me to say that it was amazing. (Also, W.  Mark Bassett has one conference talk that you can go listen to on Gospel Library, and I highly recommend it).

Lastly for this, on a much different note, Church members here are realizing that Elder Lee and I are not eating with members every night, and they are immensely bothered by this haha. We had dinner with Everly and her mom on Thursday, then another dinner with a member family on Friday, and finally an amazing dinner with our Bishop and his family last night on Sunday. All of them were spectacular, and all of those members are awesome. A few members of the ward council have been talking about circulating a schedule, so that'll be all kinds of fun, haha.

P.S. another awesome thing to do in your free time is to watch the Joseph Smith Papers podcasts. They're pretty short, and they're super interesting. The third series is coming out this fall, so I've been listening to the first two to catch up. Good stuff.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: See the aforementioned meetings with Elder Bassett.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Selfie with a fresh haircut from my man Jay
• Finally found Sesame Street!
• Random globe thingy
• Busted fire hydrant (apparently a normal sight in the Bronx)
• Trump Hotel
• Elder Bassett
• Pretty greenery
• The boys
• Neat Masonic Hall we drove by
• Cool 9/11 pic my old comp got
• Dude repping his country on roller blades
• The Elderstrict
• I see you

Stairwell Singing: In Remembrance of 9/11

Today is a day dedicated to something I never experienced.

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I wasn't there to see the towers fall, to hear the sounds of tragedy and panic. I never saw this nation band together with unity or take part in the efforts to rebuild stronger than ever. I didn't experience any of that, but I know of One who did, and He experienced everything.

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Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered not just for our sins, but for everything. He felt our sicknesses, temptations, afflictions, infirmities, and even death. Become he felt all these things and overcame them, He can help you overcome them as well.

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"Aua E Te Maliu Ese" (Samoan hymn)

Don't depart, my Savior.

Accept my cry; rescue me.

Jesus! Jesus! Hear me.

Accept my cry; rescue me.

May I be healed, o Jesus

Always strengthen my hopes

Jesus! Jesus! Hear me.

Accept my cry; rescue me.

I still trust in your hands

I have no strength, now just you

Jesus! Jesus! Hear me.

Accept my cry; rescue me.

#neverforget #NYC

(Click below for song video)

"Aua E Maliu Ese"

Another Song Video by Elder Hill (original song)

From a September 1 Facebook post by Elder Hill:

Here's another song that I wrote. Hope y'all enjoy! (sorry the recording quality isn't the greatest haha)

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At first I didn't like this recording of the song and I was going to wait and try recording it again later, but then I remembered what this song is about.

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I'm afraid of a lot of things. Some of those fears are stupid or funny, and some are very serious. Whatever the case, I'm so grateful to have a God that watches over me, and helps me overcome anything.

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What are you afraid of?

Do you want to overcome your fears?

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Comment below or message me if you want to learn more about overcoming fear!!

Click here for the video

Royal Trumbull

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

• Hit my 1 year mark! (Wack...)
• Don't teach a lesson for three hours. I tried it and it doesn't work 😑
• Knocking doors is kinda fun, it just takes soooo long
• Eating at members' houses is always the way to go (especially when they have non-member friends there too)

This week was honestly a rather uneventful week. We did get a lot of rain from hurricane Ida, but we weren't hurt too bad by it. We had to drop a lot of people we had been teaching, and our area book looks a little thin, so we've been on the find grind to find more people to teach.  Also I officially passed my year mark, so that's just wack. It's weird to think that I still have so much time left, but also so little (and the list of "last"s begins...).

We had a lesson with our friend Matt, and it lasted for THREE HOURS. It was a really good discussion, and we covered a lot of ground, but honestly it wasn't very effective. It was a little frustrating because he told us that he saw us and our faith as "missing parts of the gospel of Christ." I've got nothing against his religion, and he's a super good guy; it's just really hard to teach someone about a gospel that they believe is inferior to theirs (and they don't really want to change that line of thinking). He is reading the BoM though, so that's good. Hopefully he'll understand someday that there's more offered here than just a life to come.

Because of our incredibly low amount of lessons per day and per week, we've been working super hard on finding, especially knocking. I've heard all of the missionary stories about tracting, so I had mixed feelings about it at first, but honestly it's kind of fun haha. Wandering around and just knocking dozen of doors isn't all that exciting, but waiting to see who will answer and what kind of conversation we'll have is always fun stuff. We've been able to give out a couple BoMs as well as countless pass-along cards, so hopefully we start seeing dividends/profit from our investment.

Last night we had a dinner appointment with a member of the ward. She's less active, but she LOVES the missionaries, and she and her son are looking to start coming back to church. They currently live in the same home as another family (mom & dad & four kids), and we were able to meet the whole family and talk over the dinner table as well as share a brief message with them. The whole family is super nice, and a couple of them seem genuinely interested, so we might start teaching them soon, so that's very exciting stuff.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: I studied grace this week as part of our long discussion with Matt, and I listened once again to the BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace is Sufficient". It's a super super good talk, and he explains it so well. One part that I particularly like is the fact that nothing we do in this life can repay the laws of justice, or repay Christ for satisfying the laws of justice. The reason we have commandments and covenants is to USE the grace that Christ gave us to change and become better. We are all saved by grace, but the choice is yours if you want to be changed by grace. (Kinda strange topic, but it's important). I encourage you all too listen to that talk as soon as you can. It really is amazing and I know you'll benefit from it.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Raccoon roadkill
• Good meme 😂
• Nice sign we saw by someone's house