Scooby Dooby Doo, Where Are You?

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** YRIS GOT BAPTIZED!!!

 ** Finding was absolutely trash this week (by NYC mission standards, anyway)

 ** A guy randomly ordered us food at his own restaurant (and tried doing it a second time lol)

 ** Sometimes hitting rock bottom is the best place to be (more on that at the bottom)

Btw there's literally no significance to the subject line. I just wanted something to put in there haha

YRIS GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was a small baptismal service, but the service was strong, and she absolutely loved it. Our ward mission leader baptized her, and Elder Earl and I stood as witnesses. It was a great time. The next day, yesterday, she was confirmed in sacrament meeting. Again the Spirit was strong, and everyone felt it when we laid our hands on her head. Yris was saying over and over how amazing it felt and how grateful she was. It was truly a miracle for us as well. It was kinda cool for Elder Earl specifically, I think, because this is his fourth (and probably last) transfer here in Westchester, and it was the first baptism he had here in almost six months. It's also the first baptism this teaching area has had in well over a year. Good times all around.

Now for a different type of miracle haha. We walk around a lot in White Plains, and many many people know us by sight (some like us and some don't, it's just how it is lol). One guy we've said hi to once or twice beckoned us over as we were walking home on Saturday. He said "I've seen you guys walking miles every day. Do you do this everyday? What do you guys do?" We told him that we're missionaries for our church, and we talked a little about that. He wasn't super interested in church, but he was very impressed with our work ethic I guess because he invited us to sit down and get a bite to eat. He gestured to a very fancy Italian restaurant nearby called Via Garibaldi's. We were hesitant, but he said "it's okay. I own it". We finally agreed haha, and he sat us down in the outdoor seating. He went and made us a pizza with sausage and fried chicken. It was SO GOOD, and everything there was super cool. We thanked him profusely and took the leftover slices for a lunch the next day.

That next day he saw us again and actually offered again lol. I laughed and said thanks but maybe some other time. I love being tight with tons of local people.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: I had this thought in sacrament meeting yesterday. I'll type it exactly how I wrote it:

"Christ is called the Rock of our salvation (2 Nephi 4:30), is he not? He's the rock upon which to build our foundation (Helaman 5:12). Maybe we are led in life to 'hit rock bottom' because we have to see that the absolute lowest we can go, the absolute furthest we can fall, places us squarely on the shoulders of the Rock of our salvation. Maybe rock bottom is where God wants us to be because you really only can build up from there. Building your foundation above and off of the Rock sounds a little 'great and spacious' (1 Nephi 11:35-36) to me. Maybe we're led to hit rock bottom to make us see where we really have to start. Starting anywhere else just leads to a long and hard fall when the rain falls down and the floods come up (children's song #281). Maybe God pulls the rug out from under our feet so show us the firm stone underneath that we need to build our lives on instead"

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

 - Yours truly putting on a spare tire after the original one got slashed on a piece of glass

 - Elder Earl taking a picture of me taking a picture of him 😂

 - YRIS' BAPTISM

 - "Keep calm and eat falafel" (words to live by)

 - Surprise dinner at Via Garibaldi's 

Two Dinosaurs

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** A girl tried hitting on me, so that was fun (a strange experience as a missionary, to be sure)

 ** Another girl asked to me convince her to go to church, so I just bore one of the most powerful testimonies that I ever have, and she agreed to come to church!

 ** It's like the old joke you've never heard, "two dinosaurs went on an exchange....." (Elder Parks & me)

 ** Our friend Yris is way cool, but she needs some prayers y'all 🙏🏼

 ** Alma 32:26-28 is kinda too strong, as my trainer would say

First and foremost, our friend Yris ("Iris") is planning on being baptized this Saturday! She's super cool, and she's so excited! She's been feeling a little under the weather, so please pray for her that she'll be able to make it to the baptism and make that covenant with Heavenly Father. It'll be so good for her, and I'm so excited for it.

So yeah, I had some strange experiences with girls this week. Not what you'd expect a missionary to say, haha. Elder Earl and I were street contacting and I noticed these two girls out of the corner of my eye but paid them very little attention (they were across the way and not dressed modestly). A few minutes later they happened to be beside us waiting to cross a street. I was turned to talk with my comp when one of them turns to me and says "hi!" I had three thoughts within milliseconds of hearing her greet me (I could tell why she wanted to).

First, "wait seriously? This is happening?"

Second, "I do NOT want to be dealing with this right now"

Third, "I'm not even gonna play around. Just straight to the point"

I turned and said hi back and immediately invited them to church! They both instantly agreed, which set off more alarm bells (almost nobody agrees that fast and actually means it). They were a little flirty as we talked about church, so I simply gave them directions and an open invitation, said goodbye, and walked away as fast as I could. Weird stuff.

The other experience with girls came a day or two later, while I was in my exchange with Elder Parks (more on that later). We were walking together and he invited these two YSA aged girls to church. They stopped and one of them said in an almost coy tone, "convince me". I immediately had some flashbacks to the aforementioned encounter, and so I just said with a small laugh, "you should want to go to church!" She asked why, and we discussed it. She said she didn't believe in God and Christ, and she saw no reason to. I offered a counterclaim that there's no reason not to, which she conceded. I then bore a simple yet powerful testimony of the reality of Christ, of His Atonement, and of what it means to me. I testified that it had changed my life, and I loved going to church because I get to remember and still feel that change in me. After I finished, the girl smiled and said "well, you've convinced me". I gave her a card with the info for the church, and she said she'll check it out. Fun times all around.

Back to the exchange with Elder Parks. Nothing really crazy happened except that we talked about being really old missionaries, and we both felt like really old missionaries haha. We both go home at the end of next transfer, and so we did a little reminiscing and reflecting, as well as some reluctant thoughts of the future. Wack stuff, that.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: I had a cool experience where I read something on Friday morning during my studies and it became exactly what I needed to use in teaching a friend later that same day. The principle is more important than the circumstances. In Alma 32, verses 26-28, Alma teaches about the seed and about gaining a witness of our faith. In verse 28, he gives four different ways we can assess how good or true the seed is:

1. "Swell within [my breast]" - Feeling the Spirit. This could be a burning in the bosom, chills, feelings of peace or of clarity, happiness and calm.

2. "Enlarge my soul" - it has made you a better person. Ask "are you a better person now because of what you have learned and what you have read?"

3. "Enlighten my understanding" - it has given you more knowledge and understanding. Ask "have you learned anything from the BoM?" (Personal, general, spiritual, etc)

4. "Be delicious to me" - It just sounds right when you hear it. Gospel truths often just sound so good or nice, which is an indication that they're true

Many people think they haven't received a witness of the Spirit because they're not looking in the right place. Look again at those four things and use them to see if you've gotten a witness about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, this church, or anything else you want to receive a divine witness about. Trust me, it really works, and you will realize that God ALWAYS answers our prayers, just perhaps not in the way we think or are expecting.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

• I found a store that actually has good values
• Beautiful sunset pics
• Found a entrance to a dungeon (gamers know what I'm talking about haha)
• Found a hidden world beside a house we knocked
• My firstborn son, Elder Fanning, flew to Japan this week to finish his mission (Alofa atu, loʻu atalii)
• The Ronald
• Meme I copied

Man of the People

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

Sorry I totally forgot to write this earlier, and I don't have as much time as I'd like, so here's the rundown....

 ** I'm becoming friends with a bunch of the people on the streets around here (workers, homeless people, you name it), and it's the best haha

 ** Our district hit all of our KI goals again. It's really nice when that happens haha

 ** You ever get chewed out by the Spirit? It's the best..... (But like for real though)

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: I'll actually share that story of being chewed out by the Spirit (don't worry, he was nice about it). Basically we found this lady named Yris, and she was down to come to church a week or so ago. She actually came, and better yet she loved it! She even came again yesterday! Best of all, she accepted a baptismal date and is super excited for it! Here's the reason why I bring this up. To be completely candid.....we didn't really want to teach her. Her way of speaking is a little different (Spanish is her first language), and we have a very hard time understanding her in every conversation. That led to us not really making an honest effort to contact her and get to her church. Despite our lack of effort, however, she came anyway. I was thinking through this yesterday, and the though came to my mind as clear as day: "The last few people you've helped prepare for baptism, people you've been so excited about, all fell off and didn't make it. Now, finally, here's someone who's showing more initiative and desire than anyone else, and you're not even going to help her? She came to church all by herself! You've been given a gift in this woman, don't waste it."

I felt properly rebuked. I shared these thoughts with my companion, and we discussed what we can do to help her be baptized. It'll be kind of tough to teach her everything, but I think she's exactly the kind of person we need right now. I'm glad she came along and gave me a chance to humble myself (or get compelled to be humble).

I'm grateful that God knows us so well that He gives us circumstances that make us become better. I know I need every single one of 'em haha. Ironically, my subject line is "man of the people" as a joke about all the people I'm becoming friends with, and my one stark memory of this week was the one person I had to learn to love more than all the rest because I didn't want to at first. Luckily, God is good, and He was willing to give me another shot. I'm taking this one.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

Couple pretty pictures of flowers 

Pretty sunset

Someone did NOT plan out this door and porch very well

Creepy decoration in someone's porch

Memorial garden for the Holocaust

Ceiling design for our chapel (it's a really pretty room with big clear windows to let the sunlight in)

I Got "MyPlan" Today.....

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Interviews with Pres were amazing as always (they're getting more and more nostalgic)

 ** Finding has still been pretty tough ngl

 ** Two more of our most progressing people dropped off 

 ** Pretty cool miracle happened to us with looking up party member families in Yonkers 

 ** The work moves forward, "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing"

I got an email from the mission headquarters about MyPlan today, so that was fun. For anyone who's unfamiliar, MyPlan is this thing you get right before you go home, and it's all about helping you prepare and make plans etc to get back into school, work, dating, all that good stuff. It's super helpful, it's just a reminder that I wasn't looking forward to haha.

Also on the topic of me being a crusty old missionary, I had my interview with Pres Holmes this week, and it was super good. As my time runs low, our interviews get more and more reflective and nostalgic, and it's great but also awful haha. I am excited to go home and do so many other awesome things, but I'm brokenhearted about leaving this behind. (I'm sure every missionary ever can relate lol).

I'll go out of order and put the miracle here so that people will read it before they get too bored haha. On Friday we were having a tough go of it (more in that later), and we decided to drive 30 minutes to Yonkers to look up two less-active member families that had unbaptized children. The first family lived in an apartment building, but when we got there nobody answered the door. I began second-guessing if we were supposed to come out there, but I felt to just try the other family. We drove over there, and they lived in a house in another part of Yonkers, but they weren't home either (it's possible that both families might have moved without us knowing). We felt kinda discouraged and again I wondered if we really were supposed to be there. 

As we stood on the doorstep of the second house, a lady two doors down opens her door and yells "Mormónes!?" We both looked over in confusion, and her son walked over and asked did we were Mormons. I replied "....sure. what's up?" He led us over to the lady, and we talked with her and her kids. 

She told us that her and her husband are members of our church in the Spanish ward there in Yonkers, but they hadn't been to church in a number of years. She told us that she had been thinking about church, and she had been wanting to come back to church this Sunday, when she looked out the window and saw us standing a few doors over. She also told us that she has two kids that were baptized and three that weren't, but she wants them to be! We talked for a little (and they gave us ice cream haha), and we got their number so the Yonkers Hermanas could reach out. We also gave her 9yr old son a blessing if healing for some cuts and scars he got from a big mean dog that attacked him. A sad situation, but a powerful spirit was there.

On Sunday that family came to church for the first time in years, and the Hermanas are working with them to help the kids be baptized! Truly the Lord moves in mysterious ways, and the Spirit guides us to exactly where we need to be to see the hand of the Lord.

Now to the less cool stuff haha (more or less).

This week was pretty good, but it definitely had some challenges. Finding was still slower than expected, and it's been kind of frustrating for our whole district. We're doing everything we can, it's just not panning out how we were hoping.

I'm pretty sure our two most progressing friends, Michael and Aisha, each found or were given anti material of some sort. Michael was literally so cool, but he up and blocked our number out of nowhere. Aisha accepted a baptismal date only to text us the next day and say she doesn't agree with our church and she can't talk with us anymore. Boom, both gone. Not gonna lie, that was pretty frustrating. They both had such potential, but now they're gone. It's been really discouraging thinking about how the last four or five people we've taught who were on track to be baptized all blocked us or ghosted us or rejected us. It's made it hard to keep grinding and finding more people who actually will progress when that nagging thought from the adversary keeps tugging "they'll probably fall off too, it won't be worth it." 

BUT IT IS WORTH IT. I know that, and I know that God knows that. It doesn't matter what happens or who walks out on us, this is God's work. I'm just an instrument in His hands. As the prophet Joseph Smith said:

"The standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

I'm reminded as well of a quote by Elder Holland that I can't remember, but I'll paraphrase: "This is a gospel of happy endings. If it's not happy, it's not the end."

Whatever the actual quote is, it's amazing and I love it.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: that ↑↑↑

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

 - Nice pic of the chapel in Scarsdale (funny story: I uploaded it to Google maps because why not, and then the very next day I was talking to a lady on the street and she googled the church, and the picture came up haha)

 - couple pics from zone hike last Monday

 - Member bought us Five Guys, so that was hype

 - A super nice guy we know from where we give service was working a cotton candy booth at a local art fair, and he gave us free cotton candy 

 - Cool doormat (I wonder if it's worth $100....)

 - Me & Earl in our apartment building

 - "Hey look, it's a sleeping squirrel" - Elder Earl