Seek This Jesus

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Exchanges are epic. They're even better when they're catered haha

 ** Sleepover with the boys (RIP Elder Rasmusson)

 ** Church this week was insane

 ** Miracles as a mission are a real thing (we broke some serious records here)

 ** Transfer news....(I'm staying here, don't worry)

First things first, my birthday is coming up in less than two weeks! If you wanna be one of my absolutely favorite people and send me something haha, here's my address:

37-47 98th St #2F, Corona, NY 11368

I had an exchange with Elder Kitchen this week, and it was a ton of fun. We're both the older missionary in each of our respective companionships, so we enjoyed being able to just hit the grind and not worry about anything in particular. We ended up finding six people that day, which was way cool. Four were for their area and I snagged two for my own. That day was also Elder Kitchen's one year mark of being in NYC, so we naturally had to celebrate. We got food at KFC, and after some very funny and strange circumstances that I'll omit here, Sister Holmes ordered us ice cream for dessert later that night. Good times all around.

Earlier this week, Elder Rasmusson and I figured out how to mass text everyone in our area book, so we sent our church invites to probably around 800 people. His phone EXPLODED with replies of all kinds, and it took us a few days to respond to them all. It worked a little too well haha. It was super funny, but it also worked out because a bunch of people would just randomly text back "sure I'll come". On Saturday we called through everyone who said they might be able to come, and we ended up teaching and finding three or four of them! (I can't quite remember how many lol). We ended up finding five that day, which was a huge miracle because our goal was three and we needed some Divine help to make it happen (also finding those five meant we hit our weekly finding goal a day early, which is always amazing).

Now as far as church actually went today, it was NUTS!! Only one of the friends who confirmed, a lady by the name of Grace, actually came to church (she brought her ESA dog though, so that was pretty cool haha). HOWEVER, two other friends, Nikolai and Elliot, both randomly walked into the church building. They both had gotten our text invite but had never really responded. They both showed up though, so that was way cool. Hopefully we can keep them all coming next week and the weeks after that.

Our mission has set a goal of 69 baptisms this month, which was one more than our previous record. We ended up being blessed with 109 baptisms this month!!! So many miracles and tender mercies were poured out on us in the New York City Mission, and it was absolutely incredible. Almost every zone beat their goal, some by large amounts haha. Life is good here, the work is better, and God is always the best.

Today (Monday) has been a crazy day to be sure. Elder Rasmusson did some final packing and prep, and we headed over to Junction Blvd (two streets over from our apartment) to meet up with the district to hang out and have some fun. After that, we went back to our apartment for last minute stuff before an Uber came to take Elder Rasmusson to the airport. We said our goodbyes and he climbed and headed off to the Shadow Realm (that's a Jimmy Neutron reference for all you fans out there). Elders Fanning & Kitchen, the other English elders, also came to our apartment, and I'm staying with them for the rest of the night into tomorrow for transfers.

Speaking of which, transfer news. As is obvious, Elder Rasmusson is gone and off to Leeds, England. I found out that I will be staying here and will be receiving Elder Blackham, a Mandarin Chinese-speaking missionary. I've heard good things about him, so I'm excited to see what happens.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Hermana Braithwaite gave a really good spiritual thought in district council based on the phrase in Ether 12 titled "Seek this Jesus". It was really cool to think about "this Jesus" or specifically "my Jesus". A lot of people think about Him differently and believe different things about Him. There is a real and pure side to Him, a character untouched by human bias or tradition. Seek THIS Jesus, the One that really came and sided for all of us. Seek THIS Jesus, the One who gave up everything so that all of us sinners could have a chance to repent. Seek Him, and don't ever stop. Do it for the rest of your life, and it'll be so so worth it.

If you ever want help seeking this Jesus of whom the prophets spoke, let me know! I'd love to help in any way I can.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

- Elders Kitchen & Fanning have some multi-color LEDs in their apartment, and it leads to some funny stuff 

- Elder Kitchen and I at the mall eating KFC and at our apartment eating ice cream (thanks Sis Holmes)

- Found a random mirror in the stairwell while knocking, so naturally we had to pose

- Cool pictures of the city/subway

- Week 6 district pics

- Cute doggo on the train

- Nice sidewalk graffiti

- More cool sunset pics with Manhattan in the distance

bLAsPhEmY & Baptism By Fire

Malo Soifua!!!

I actually took the time and made sure the email worked this week, so that was good (still mad about last week).

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** INDIRA & PATRICK GOT BAPTIZED!!!! Literally one of the best days of my life

 ** I saw a ton of blessings & miracles while street/train contacting today

 ** I legit almost got into a legit fistfight on a train station. We ended up finding the guy and giving him a BoM, so it worked out haha

 ** Got to watch a super cool train performance on another day, so that was dope (the video's too long to attach here, but let me know if you wanna see it)

 ** Talking to people when they're drunk is really a unique experience (kinda sad but also kinda funny)

INDIRA AND PATRICK GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! The service was so good, and almost the whole was there it felt like. They were so happy and so excited. Indira's mom and two sons (all three are members of the church) came from Florida for the baptism, and it was super cool to have them there. At their request, I baptized Patrick and Elder Rasmusson baptized Indira. It was so powerful and and the Spirit was so strong. We also got to join Bishop Lariego in confirming them and giving the gift of the Holy Ghost. There was so much love, joy and peace in the room, and it was so good. I'm so excited for Indira and Patrick, and I can't wait to see them continue to grow and progress in the gospel (and in a year get endowed and sealed together in the Temple).

Train contacting really never gets old. This week we had a few exciting experiences all crammed into a couple days.

1. I approached this guy on a subway platform, and he EXPLODED in my face. He was swearing, yelling, daring me to hit him and fight him, and threatening to beat me up. I was a little bigger than him, so I frankly wasn't worried about getting hurt too bad, but I was concerned that I might actually have to fight someone to defend myself (I had slipped into a fighting stance and kept my hands up, so I was ready for anything). Luckily, blessedly, Elder Rasmusson caught a phrase the guy was saying (he evidently thought we were undercover cops), and he corrected him, pointed at our name tags and assuring him we were missionaries. He calmed down pretty quickly at that, and we reassured him a couple more times. We asked who we were and what we were doing, so we talked about it for a bit. We ended up explaining the Book of Mormon and he accepted a copy! He said he'd read it, and we got his FB Messenger account to keep in touch. Not super confident that he'll actually progress, but hey it was dope.

2. These four dudes with a big speaker got into the train we were on (a different day) and they proceeded to put on an epic show for us. Again, it's too big to attach here, but message me if you wanna see it! [Video attached below]

3. Miracles in contacting. There are too many to name, but I found and taught a lot of people on the trains this week, and it was way cool. I'm building my faith and testimony of train contacting and opening my mouth to find, and it's been paying off like crazy. My highlight was a day where I found three new people to teach in about 45 minutes (that's kind of insane if you don't know).

4. This didn't happen on the trains, but it's kinda funny anyway. We called our friend Alanzo on Saturday night, and he was DEFINITELY on something. He was barely coherent, but he still agreed to come to church haha. He handed the phone to his "scheduler", some lady named Kay, and she said they'll BOTH be there on Sunday!  So Sunday morning rolls around, and we called to confirm Alanzo for church. HE actually called US in the morning to confirm himself, but he had no idea who Kay was from the night before (he also had no memory of our call the night before, so there's that too). He still confirmed though. We called him about five minutes into the sacrament meeting, and he said he was on his way......but he didn't show up. Really weird all around.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: I found a lot of peace and strength this past week in focusing on faith and patience. Life isn't perfect, and the mission is definitely not always easy, but God has been aware of me and has watched over me. Some days I'm in a rut, but I push through and He's there with arms outstretched and a miracle in his hands. Sometimes I get frustrated with my companion, with myself, or with the people we're teaching, but God helps me find peace and comfort and a refocus on what's really important. I love my God and I love my Savior, and I KNOW that they are so real. They will watch over you in all that you do. Just let them into your life and it will be so worth it. That's my faith, and that's my testimony.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• A video of an area in Queens which we hadn't been to before.  The streets were so wide, and everything was so spread out compared to other areas of NYC, that it really was weird.
• The video of the performers on the train.  4 guys perform; be sure to watch the last one!
• Pics from the Baptism
• Elders Fanning & Kitchen and their shenanigans
• Our apartment (it's really small)
• Absolutely beautiful sunset pic
• We made fry bread
• Dude just vibing with his bike on the train
• Crooked subway car (my phone was straight vertical)
• Our new role-playing pal Phil T Phont (please tell me someone gets that)
• Me trying talk to the guy on the help intercom about the BoM (didn't actually but I was soooo tempted)

On the Train

K this is gonna be short because I wrote a nice full email but Google just up and deleted it. I don't want to retype the whole thing, so here's the rundown.

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Train contacting is a ton of fun, and I'm getting a lot better at it. It's just annoying when literally everyone says no 😑😭🤣

 ** Elder Rasmusson got his flight plan, so he'll be going to England on March 1st

 ** It snowed Sunday morning, and it was really pretty, but it also meant that basically no one wanted to come to church, so that was a big bummer

 ** The New York New York City Mission is ON THE TRAIN. We found over 2000 this week, got well over 300 to church, and have dozens of baptisms lined up. I don't glory in our ability, but I glory in God's power and His grace (think Alma 26:11-12). God is good, and He is in the work here.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Snow in Queens
• Exchanges with the ZLs
• My favorite cartoon character, the Pink Panther
• Scared pigeon
• Cool pic of the Book of Mormon
• Baptism symbol in the concrete (represents going down into the water)

God is Good

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Interviews with Pres Holmes are always epic

 ** I'm getting better and more comfortable with train contacting, and it's actually kinda fun

 ** Had an exchange with Elder Fanning, and it was a walk down memory lane

 ** Our friends Indira and Patrick are literally the greatest

We had interviews with Pres Holmes on Wednesday, and they're always the highlight of my week. Since I've been made a district leader, our interviews together have been a lot more focused on the people I have stewardship over and just other missionaries in general. Pres showed me the numbers of a few missionaries that have been doing phenomenal with church attendance (getting 11-15 people to church a week), and he suggested that I reach out to them and give them each a quick phone call to talk shop about what they do to get their people to church. I did so, and I learned a lot, which I'm excited to start implementing.

Train contacting is one of the go-tos in this area for finding, and we've been grinding it as a companionship. Our zone is focusing on conquering fear in the month of February, and one of our personal goals is to get really good and talking to people in the buses and trains. It's kind of rough sometimes, and some days I don't feel very good at it, but I'm getting better, and Elder Rasmusson is getting a lot better. One of my favorite things now is when someone on the train is interested in a message and I can just open the BoM (it's always in my hand lol) and start teaching from it. We have seen a lot of miracles from it, and I'm excited to see what we can do and where we can go with it.

On Thursday we had exchanges with the other English Elders, and it was super awesome. Elder Fanning came into my area, so we became comps again for the first time in ten or eleven months. The entire time we were together, memories came flooding back of all of our jokes, conversations, and experiences together. We got some good work done, but we also had a great time reminiscing back to our time together back when we were both very young and very different missionaries. Time flies, I guess.

Indira and Patrick, our two most progressing people, are literally the best. They're the cutest couple and they love the church. Patrick has been the focus of our efforts because his testimony isn't as strong as Indira's (for now anyway). He's an honest seeker, and he has a testimony of the BoM and the truthfulness of the Gospel. They've come to church a bunch, and they're reading the BoM, and everything is great.

We taught them the "Big 3" commandments (Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, Law of Tithing), and they accepted them all! They're already living them, and they agreed to keep doing so. Regarding tithing, Patrick said,  "Of course I will, if it helps other people like me find the Gospel." They're literally so fire. Their baptism is scheduled for Feb 20th, so please keep them in your prayers that nothing unexpected happens. We have backup plans in place already, but any extra help would be much appreciated.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Guys, God is so good. I gained a strong testimony this week that God truly is ready and waiting to answer our prayers and bless our lives. All we have to do is ask. I know that He is anxious waiting for us to ask for His help so that He can "open the windows of Heaven" and pour out blessings upon us. To quote Elder Holland:

"God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe."

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Elder Kim on a Zone zoom meeting (not my comp anymore, but still pretty funny)
• I gave this guy Manny a BoM when we talked on the train and I had to sneak this pic of him READING IT (he speaks Spanish but he's so cool)
• Elder Rasmusson taking a quick nap after grinding. I've been working him hard, don't worry 😂
• Couple pics with Elder Fanning and me (for old times sake)
• Fuego breakfast (look Mom, we eat healthy)
• Cool pic of the BoM on a train platform
• Our goals vs actuals as a mission (the numbers literally keep climbing and it's insane)
• Elder Rasmusson and me waiting for our laundry