I'm Running Out of Ideas for Subject Lines

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Got to stay the night in Inwood (Manhattan) on Tues, so that was fun

 ** The Mission Tour with Elder Douglas was absolutely AMAZING. He's so cool

 ** New transfer means new district and new zone, which is always hype (except that our district got smaller by one)

 ** Records on records, both in our area and in the mission (#126)

We had the in-person Mission Tour with Elder Sean A Douglas and his wife this past week. To make sure nobody was late to the meeting, Pres Holmes had us missionaries who live farther from the city spend the night before in Manhattan with another set of missionaries. Elder Earl and I stayed with Elder White (he was my ZL in Queens) and his new trainee Elder Moser. We got some food in Inwood and did some contacting before settling in for the night.

The tour itself was absolutely amazing! Elder and Sister Douglas have such strong spirits, and they taught with so much power it felt like the room shook. They currently live in Texas, and Elder Douglas definitely had that high energy, Texas fire to him. They spoke a lot about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it applies to us and to our friends. He dropped a lot of knowledge and gospel fire, and I took a loottttttt of notes haha.

One thing I loved was show much he focused on desire. He listed a bunch of reasons, both good and bad, that we might have chosen to serve a mission. Afterwards he said "I really don't care why you chose to come out because you're here. I care about why you choose to serve NOW". Or as I've often said it, "it doesn't matter why you came. It matters why you stay". Elder Douglas hit home just how vital it is to have our number one desire be Jesus Christ. To serve Him, to love Him, and to follow Him. As we give EVERYTHING else up to do that, as we sacrifice EVERY other desire we have, the blessings will flow.

Another part that kinda stuck with me was when he talked about being a lifelong convert to the church. Our goal is not to help our friends get to "Baptism White". Our goal is to help them get to "Temple White". That's the goal, to help them become lifelong converts of both this church and Jesus Christ who leads it. As he spoke, he contrasted it with how we as missionaries have a goal to make ourselves become lifelong converts of this church. Ours is also the responsibility to make sure WE never leave the church, not just our friends. That really hit home for me, having less than two transfers left. Later when we were asked what we had learned from the tour, a few of the older missionaries (including myself) stood and shared our thoughts on what we'd learned and how we want to apply to our lives for the close of our missions as well as the rest of our lives. It was sobering to think about how little time I have left, but it was also very encouraging to hear and feel the Spirit teach about becoming and staying a convert to Jesus Christ.

Finally, we broke some epic records, one in our companionship and one in the mission. This area, the Westchester Elders area, has never gotten very many people to church. Yesterday however, we broke the record by getting three of our friends to come! To some of you, that may seem insignificant (I know basically every missionary everywhere knows how hard it is to help your friends come to church haha), but to us that was huge. It was a big miracle, and we felt very blessed. Elder Earl looked at me with big eyes and said "Elder, we broke the record!" I just grinned ear to ear and replied, " Elder, we're just getting started." Big things do be comin to the Chester that's West.

Speaking of big things, out mission broke our record of baptisms in a month AGAIN, this time with a total of 126 baptisms in the month of May! We saw so many miracles across the mission, and I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing us so much. With excitement, faith, and hopes high, we're setting our sights on June, and yessir we are hyped for June. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Since I've already shared some spiritual stuff, I'll just attach my two favorite quotes from Elder Douglas during the mission tour:

"If (when) you fail, just repent tonight, and do better tomorrow"

"Every day is the first day of the rest of your life"

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

 - Cool shot of part of White Plains from an apartment window

 - District pic from last transfer (finally got it)

 - Elder Earl and me in an elevator

 - A meme of sorts that I made to roast my district for not being on time to District Council

 - Burned out car in Inwood

 - "Church"

I Love My Savior. I Love This Church.

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Started our mission tour with Elder Douglas, and he's awesome

 ** The Devil wasn't pulling any punches this week, and we really had to slog it out to the end

 ** I encountered the most antagonism I've ever seen as a missionary, so that was fun (interesting encounters four-ish days in a row)

 ** I forgot how much fun it is to just walk around in the rain haha (It's even better when you're street contacting)

 ** tRanSfEr NEwS

Sorry, this is gonna be a long one.

So this was tough, probably in top three hardest weeks of my mission. And considering that most other "hard weeks" usually have one or two bad days that taint the good ones, this one is probably the toughest because it was a battle each and every day. It seemed like so many possible negatives happened (imagine Murphy's Law but but like it actually happens every single time). 

Good stuff did happen though, like it always does. Even small lights shine in the dark. You have to just make sure your eyes are open to see them. The work was tough, but that just means that next week will be even better.

This week we had the first meeting (over zoom) of a mission tour with Elder Sean A.  Douglas, a General Authority Seventy. He's a super cool guy, and he's actually really funny as well haha. After talking for a bit and sharing really cool stuff, he paused and asked Pres Holmes, "Your missionaries were smiling earlier; are they still smiling? They still happy? No one's fallen asleep or gone apostate yet?" Everyone just laughed and the meeting continued. He taught a lot of cool stuff about being empowered by the things we're bound to. For example, I as a missionary am bound to follow the rules and standards of a missionary. When I follow those binding rules, I become empowered to truly represent Christ and speak with His authority. Really cool stuff.

It rained a lot on Friday, and we ended up going street contacting in the rain. It stopped and started a bit, so we thought it'd be chill, and there were lots of people out and about. Of course right as we got outside the rain picked up and we got soaked. We found a little success, which was nice considering we're literally talking to people in the rain. By the end of our time outside, the rain had mostly ended, but I was properly drenched. It was honestly just kinda fun to walk around in the rain and enjoy the decent weather, sharing the gospel to anyone that was interested. Good times.

So we had our transfer call on Saturday, and Elder Earl and I are staying together next transfer as well, so that'll be fun. He's the first comp I'll have had for a second transfer since I served with Elder Lee in Connecticut for two, and that was like 8 or 9 months ago. I'm actually pretty excited to stay here. My work here is not finished by any means.

Also yeah this week was pretty tough. I was told that I'm part of a cult on Tuesday (that was kinda funny), told that Joseph Smith was a false prophet on Wednesday, told that I had no business being here and should go back to Arizona on Thursday, and told that I should evolve and stop believing in "fairy tales" on Friday. Kinda rough, but also kinda funny because by the end of it I was just done responding, so I'd just wait until they took a breath and just go "Oh okay. If you ever want to come to church, you're always welcome. Have a great day!" and walk away. Probably drove 'em crazy, haha. Saturday didn't have any angry people, just some funny and strange rejections (people gave the excuses "you don't want me at your church", "I worship Satan", and "no, we're sinners". Kinda wish I could have actually talked with each of them, but they all just walked away).

I also got shot with an airsoft gun on Tuesday, so that was fun. We were street contacting, and I hear the electric whine and slap of an automatic airsoft gun when four or five pellets hit me in the back, arm, and head. I turned, more surprised than actually hurt (it stung for all of five seconds haha), but I had no idea where it came from. I couldn't tell if it was from a car nearby or from the parking garage across the street. This was independent of the previously mentioned encounter with anti-cult lady, so I wasn't expecting it at all. After a few moments of confusion and a little fear, I took a breath and did the only thing I knew to do with confidence in that moment: I said a silent prayer, and I kept right on street contacting. I just started walking again and kept inviting people to church. Nothing else came out of it, but it was truly a unique experience for me.

Also our two most progressing people, Danielle and Pat, are no longer preparing for baptism. Danielle has not responded to a text or call since last Monday. We have no idea what happened, but I'm worried something's wrong. I don't think she's scared or stressed about us or anything, so I don't know what happened. As for Pat, she surprised us on Wednesday with news that she's out of town for "summer vacations". When we asked her when she's coming back, she just said "I'll let you know". Tbh I don't think she knows. So yeah, that also happened this week.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga:

I thought of two scriptures that really struck home with me this week. Both of them bring a lot of hope for better days, and both bring a lot of perspective and clarity during the rough ones.

 »» The first is Acts 5:40-42:

"40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ."

 »» The Second is D&C 121:7-8 and 122:7

"7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

7 If thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good"

After all that is said and done, if the things that I have experienced this week were all done in the name of Christ, then happy am I, happy am I. If this is my lot to live, then I can think of no greater gift, and no honor more grand. I love my Savior. I love this church. I frankly don't care if anyone knows it or disagrees. 

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• Snuck a screenshot of our zoom meeting with Elder Douglas
• Super pretty greenery (one of my favorite pictures tbh)
• My shoes are about ready to give up the ghost and hie to Kolob 😂
• This doormat.....doesn't make sense

Big 50

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** I set a new personal mission record for finding new people in a week, so that's kinda cool lol

 ** Went on an exchange with Elder Kasch in New Rochelle and it was so much fun and I learned a lot

 ** Saturday and Sunday were absolutely PACKED full of miracles

Shout out to my older bro Ben for being the og "Big 50" and inspiring my subject line 😂.

This week was crazy busy and we saw a ton of miracles. The first one is the most quantifiably obvious one, and that is that Elder Earl and I found 51 new people this week (some were referred to other areas, so we don't have to figure out how to teach them all haha), and that was wild. Perhaps the most amazing part was that on a couple of different days we didn't find as many as I we could have, so that just we gotta keep climbing. But yeah, I've never found more than 50 in a week, so that was a cool milestone to hit (and in Westchester no less). Good times.

In other news about miracles, we took a big hit on our progressing people, but then God stepped in and things started working out. I'll go person by person.

Danielle - Our most progressing person right now. She was feeling unprepared and rushed for her baptism, but we weren't sure yet when she wanted to be pushed back to (we wanted to keep it within May, but we didn't know). On Sunday she came early to the church, and we had a short lesson in the foyer with a recent convert and the bishop, who just happened to be passing by. We gave her a baptismal calendar that outlines everything we have to teach her and every last step to help her be ready by May 28th. We also taught her about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity, and our bishop bore a powerful testimony of the LoC. She agreed to live them both, and now she's excited to be baptized in the 28th!! 

Peter - More of a sad note, he was super willing to learn more and come to church, but his psychologist said he can't for the time being (not entirely sure why), so he can't get baptized anytime soon.

Ellen - We found her a week ago and she was down to get baptized! During the week, however, we had some weird back and forth contacting problems, and she got really mad at us for "calling sporadically" (tbh she put in the wrong time in her schedule and got mad at us for calling at the right time). We had actually marked her as stopped being taught, but we felt like sending her one last "hey how are you" kinda text on Sunday morning. She replied and said she was wanting to talk with us and discuss something she read in the BoM!! We immediately accepted and scheduled a call with her tonight. Hopefully we can get back on better terms and stay that way.

Pat - last but DEFINITELY not least, Pat is the sweetest little old lady who rides a bike that you've ever seen. Elder Earl found her originally a week or two ago, and he passed her info to the Spanish Elders because she speaks Spanish. They passed her back to us earlier this past week and said that she wants to learn and come to church in English! She has a BoM in both languages, and she absolutely LOVES reading it. She gushes about it every time we talk with her, talking at great length about how happy she is whenever she reads it. She has a testimony that it's true and that the church that espouses it is true! She's planning on being baptized the same day as Danielle, and she's SO excited. I love her so much and I'm so excited.

But yeah, crazy week with a lot of big miracles that happened. God is so good, guys. He really is.

In other news, I went in an exchange with Elder Kasch on Thursday, and it was a ton of fun. He's a doctrinal wizard and a spiritual giant, and I learned a lot just by being around him. He's the epitome of "there's a scripture for that" or a talk or a quote or a section of Preach My Gospel. He's a good teacher, and I was happy to learn. He was one of the Elders who landed in the mission the same day I did, so that was kind of fun reminiscing and talking (after hours) about where all of the missionaries who came out with us are now. He put a big emphasis for me on being an "agent" not an "object". He talked a lot about how there's a lot that God does for us, but there's still a lot that we can do to grow our faith and free will, while still waiting on the Lord (basically not being slothful servants). I took some notes, and made the promise to "walk away changed" from that exchange.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Captain Moroni. If any of you truly know me, you know that I flipping love Captain Moroni. He's always been one of my heroes, and I thought I'd share a few favorite verses out of the BoM to show you why.

Alma 43:23-25

Alma 48:7-18

Alma 60:28, 36

Here's the catch though, I'm not gonna tell y'all WHY those verses make me love Moroni. You'll have to go and read them yourself. Maybe send me a message or email and tell me what you found 👀🤓

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

JLHill@missionary.org

Ata:

 - Found a government-issue vehicle in a parking lot

 - I found a puzzle in the mission office that had signatures from previous missionaries (pics of front and back)

 - Thought this hoodie homie was a real person haha

 - Found this coloring page of Pres & Sis Teuscher on the fridge of my ZLs apartment (brought a flood of memories back)

 - This is what my comp does while I conduct baptismal interviews

 - Man, I love sunsets 

Alma 7:23 (I Hate Nostalgia Sometimes)

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Taught some really cool people this week, a few of whom want to be baptized!

 ** The weather was the absolute worst for doing Missy work this weekend

 ** Another friend of mine that I taught in Queens got baptized yesterday, which was so amazing!

 ** Google Photos reminded me that I opened my mission call two years ago last Thursday, so yeah that's how I'm doing 😭😂

We had a really good week this week. We saw a lot of miracles, and had some great successes. We also had our fair share of disappointments and failings, so it was pretty balanced haha. We had a couple cool miracles, one of which I'll share:

We were street contacting yesterday, and it was not super effective. The vibe wasn't there, and we only found one person in 60-90 minutes. We went back to our apartment to refresh and reassess, and we prayed about what to do. Despite the lack of success we had just had, we felt like we needed to go back out on the streets again. We did so, and one of the first ladies we talk to stops and is super interested in what we have to say! Ellen, this lady, tells us that she had met missionaries 13 years ago in another town, and she had loved being with them! Unfortunately, somewhere along the line she lost contact with them, and couldn't figure out how to get back in contact. She said she works on Sunday but she'll call her boss today and get time off because she's coming to church! 🔥 She's so cool. We gave her a BoM and I read 3 Nephi 27:15-16 with her and talk about being clean and guiltless through baptism, and she loved it. We invited her to be baptized, and she said she would love to be! Ellen is so cool, and she even commented that our meeting her was no coincidence. I agree. It was a miracle, and it was an answer to prayer.

In less exciting news, the past few days have been kinda cold and stormy, which made contacting in public really hard. It was a bit of challenge to find people who were willing to stop and talk while there's rain or wind around us. We found some, but not many. The beginning of our week was amazing, so the contrast with the weekend was even more frustrating. We made it through though, and we survived. This upcoming week should have some good weather, so I'm excited to get out there and grind it out.

My friend Earl, who I taught when I was in Queens, got baptized yesterday! I got to Zoom in and watch the service, and it was really good. I'm so proud of Earl for making such a good decision, and I can't wait to see him again and congratulate him. 

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Alma 7:23

So last Thursday we were doing daily planning, as one does, and my phone buzzed with a notification from Google Photos. I like the little memories and reminders it gives, so I was curious to see what picture would be pulled up. What I was not expecting, however, was to see a reminder that I had opened my mission call two years ago on May 5th, 2020. I suddenly felt really old haha. I sat there for the next while, reflecting on the past two years, and I was flooded with gratitude. Alma 7:23 is a great verse about Christlike attributes, including gratitude. I'm so grateful for all of you that helped me get to where I am and who I am now, and I'm so grateful for my Friend and Savior, who made everything possible. I don't know where I'd be without Him, but I definitely wouldn't be here. Faafetai i le Atua mo mea uma i loʻu olaga

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• A screenshot of the Google Photos reminder about my mission call opening
• My new life motto (from a car's back window)
• Beautiful park near our apartment
• Cool little gate and alley next to an apartment we saw
• After-hours game of pool
• Earl, my friend from Queens, got baptized yesterday! (I promise he was happy about it 😂)

Mafia with the Gang

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Missed our baptism goal as a mission, but we still hit some crazy goals and I'm so excited for May

 ** We have some super cool people teaching, and I would absolutely love if y'all could keep them in your prayers (Darryl & Danielle)

 ** Played Mafia and ate pizza as a district, and it was a lot of fun

Our final total for baptisms as a mission in the month of April was 106. Our goal was 140, so for all you math whizzes out there, we...... didn't hit our goal. It was a tough month as far as baptisms have gone, but we still saw a lot of miracles. Our finding has been around 3400 a week and church attendance has been about 500+ a week. We've been seeing so many miracles, and it's been incredible to experience all the blessings God has given us in this area.

We have two friends that are progressing towards baptism right now. Our friend Darryl has been taught a lot, and he's working on keeping some of the big commandments. He's made progress, and he wants to have the blessings of baptism for him and his family. Please pray for him that he can come to church and keep the commandments he needs to in order to have the Holy Ghost. 

Our other friend is Danielle. She's super sweet, and she's preparing for baptism on May 21st. She came to church last week and absolutely loved it. She met some members and is excited to come again. We haven't taught her much, so that's the biggest thing we have to cover. Please pray for her that she can keep coming to church and will keep all the commitments we give her.

Today for pday we had a zone pday with basketball, soccer, Mafia, and pizza. We all got tired and sweaty haha, but we had a ton of fun. It was kinda rainy outside, so we just stayed in the gym at our church.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: I don't really have anything specific that comes to mind haha. How about instead of me sharing something, all of you who read this reply to this email and share something you love from the scriptures (make sure not to hit reply all lol)

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

Lots of pretty pictures of flowers, trees, and buildings in White Plains