Be a Priesthood Man

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Transfers happened! I'm still in Rego Park and I'm training Elder Rasmusson from Iowa!

 ** Less than 17% of our scheduled lessons happened this week (ask any missionary, that's a ridiculously low number)

 ** We also found six people this week, but four of them don't count 😭

 ** BUT God is still good, and miracles still happen. 

So flashback to last Monday after I sent out my weekly. We were all together as a district walking to go get dinner when Elder Kim decided  it'd be smart and fun to climb over the church's gate. Let's just say he wasn't meant to be a paratrooper 😂. He sprained his ankle pretty bad, so we took him to the hospital (a senior couple lives right next to the church, and one if them is a physician, so he helped out immensely). We were there for about five hours until they discharged Elder Kim with a wrap and some crutches. A boot was ordered, so he'll be alright. We were just up until about 2 am packing his stuff for transfers tomorrow.

Speaking of transfers, it was pretty great. I got to see a few missionaries I haven't seen in a while, and I got to bid farewell to some amazing missionaries who went home this past week. I also picked up my new trainee. His name is Elder Rasmusson, and he's from a tiny town of 3500 people in Iowa. He's actually assigned to the Leeds England Mission, but he's just waiting for his visa. (It is actually waiting at the mission office for him, so he could be leaving for his assignment at the next transfer if not sooner). He's a good guy and a good missionary. We're still figuring some things out, but I'm excited for the things we'll do this transfer. 

Also, plot twist, y'all remember Elder Fanning, my very first trainee? He's in my district now! He transferred into the same ward that I cover, so this'll be all kinds of fun.

So I'm gonna be perfectly honest, this was a pretty rough week as far as the work goes. I crunched a few numbers, and found out that of the 34 lessons we had scheduled this week, only 6 happened. That's about a 17% success rate, which is shockingly low. I've never had that many people fall through on lessons before. Even those who would reschedule for a better time would then miss or cancel the follow up. We've been doing a deep cleaning of our pool of all the people that aren't progressing, aren't keeping commitments, or aren't keeping good contact with us. Hopefully we can turn things around this next week.

We also only found six people this week, but really only two. Three were awesome people I taught on the train, but they live in different areas so we had to refer them out. One was a lady we taught who has a profile in the Area Book of both sets of missionaries in our ward. For some reason, when we found her after our lesson, she came up as a green dot and a recorded find for the other Elders. Kind of really frustrating.

But hey, the mission overall is still improving and outdoing itself each week. We set a new record this last week of about 1560 new people found! That's an average of 15 per companionship!! That's literally so insane to think about, and apparently the Mission Headquarters has called Pres Holmes a time or two and has asked how on earth we're doing so well haha. The blessings are so real.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Be a Priesthood Man

I had another District Leader training meeting this week, and Pres Holmes dropped some fire doctrine. He hit home on just how important the Melchizedek priesthood is, and how vital the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood is. After getting all of us super fired up with the Spirit and with a passion for the work, he simply said, "The Melchizedek priesthood is way to walk back into the presence of the Father, and the way to help others do the same. So be a Priesthood Man!" Literally the Spirit felt like an electric chair, just vibrating in my body. It was the coolest thing of the week, and one of the most powerful experiences I've had on my mission.

Guys,  God is good. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way. Sometimes we see through a glass but darkly, but God is always there. If you put your trust in Him, EVERYTHING will fall into place. Easier said than done, I know, but it is definitely worth it.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

 - A few pics from our ER adventure last Monday (shout-out to Elder & Sister Anderson for helping us out, driving us to the hospital, AND for bringing us Taco Bell for dinner)

 - Me and my new homie Vanessa (she lives in Jamaica Queens, so the missionaries there better treat her right or we gonna have words)