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