Elder Hill's Homecoming Details

Elder Jacob Hill will return home from his mission on Wednesday, August 17th.  He will speak in church on Sunday, August 28th, at 12:00 PM.  Location:  church building at 2740 S. Lindsay Rd, Gilbert, AZ.

Expect The Miracles ('Nuff Said)

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** God is literally so good 

 ** One of the funniest things that's ever happened to me happened this week 

 ** HUGE miracles with our friend Jean!! (But she needs some serious prayers, y'all)

This week went really well. Definitely had some ups and downs, but hey, that's life folks. We did have some epic ups this week though, so here's a couple for the collection.

First, a really funny experience. We were street contacting, and I was standing near the corner of the street with two crosswalks extending out across the intersecting roads (standard street corner). A middle-aged white lady was crossing one of the crosswalks and stopped to cross the other. I did my normal thing and said hi and invited her to church, but she didn't even look at me. Just nothing. I was like "so....church? No? Alright" and turned to go. Right then she looked at me and says "you really shouldn't be harassing people like that. You really need to stop." It caught me totally off guard and I kinda was like "uhhhh, okay. Have a great day" (note, I never got closer than six or seven feet away from her, so I was super confused about where she thought the harassment was coming from).

I put it out of my mind and turned to walk away as she crossed the street. A few steps away, these two black teenagers walk up to me and go "hey man are you alright? We saw that lady harassing you. You good bro?" Not gonna lie....that absolutely made my day haha. I fist bumped them both and said thanks but I was good, and we all went on our merry ways. Funny as it was for me, I do recognize it as a tender mercy that I was pulled so quickly from that weird sad feeling that came from such negative feelings. God looks out for us.

Second, a hype miracle with our friend Jean. She's been taught basically everything before by many many different missionaries. Finally however, she's starting to fit it all together and understand it better (I give God the credit on that one). We had a lesson on Friday that lasted 90 minutes, but it was SO GOOD. We were able to really resolve concerns she had and invite her to make a change in her life. She finally accepted a baptismal invitation! Even more crazy, IT'S FOR THIS SATURDAY!!! We're already frantically putting everything together to make it work out for this week. 

In addition to agreeing to be baptized, Jean figured out two super important things without us really having to do much:

1. Her friends that just give her anti may not be the best of friends (all baptism really does is make you a better person, and if they don't want you to become better.....)

2. A lot of her personal objections or concerns are based in her not wanting to relinquish control of her life. Basically she realized that she needs to be more humble and willing to submit to God (that one was incredible to me because I had been praying to know how to help her, and this thought of pride and humility came to me, but she told us about it before I even brought it up)

So many cool things are happening with her, but she DEFINITELY needs prayers. Everyone PLEASE pray for Jean that she can keep the WoW and feel comfortable with everything before Saturday so she can be baptized. I really appreciate all y'all's help .

Third, speaking of baptisms, our mission is on track to set another mission record for baptisms in a month. As of last night we were at 112 out of our goal of 130, and the last week of the month is always packed. Each zone is still on track to hit their goals, and a couple zones (including Westchester actually) are already above their goals. Side note: the Westchester zone has gotten an even 5 baptisms every month since like December, which is good but also annoying because we want more. Well we finally beat the "famous five" and currently have had 9 baptisms, with a couple more set for this weekend! God has been pouring out blessings and mercies on us, and it's been amazing to see how much this area has grown.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Nothing comes to mind for this, so just think spiritual thoughts haha. The church is true. God loves you. Christ is real. The Book of Mormon is true. 'Nuff said.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

 - Cool really big apartment building

 - Our area book app updated to allow you to change the colors of events etc, and Elder Jensen is having waayyy too much fun with it

 - Cool artwork on an electrical box

 - Janky truck from the brand Rivian (apparently it's a newer brand that's not very big yet)

 - Shake Shack with Elder Jensen (btw Shake Shack costs entirely too much) 

 - Cheesin' for the Zoom

 - Zone & Mission goals + actuals 

No Regrets

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Our district is so close to absolutely DEMOLISHING our baptism goal for this month, but we need PRAYERS 

 ** We went to a hospital to visit a branch president from the Syracuse area

 ** The fire alarm went off AGAIN during the night

 ** We had Zone Conference on Thursday, and it was super good (except for when I have a departing testimony 😫)

 ** I have literally no regrets about serving a mission

First and foremost, I need all hands on deck and all knees in the floor these next two weeks. We currently have 6 or 7 people in our district who are preparing for baptism this week and next week, and we want to make sure they ALL get there. A couple of them, a mother and son, literally just ran into some major complications, and they're supposed to be baptized on Thursday. Please please PLEASE pray for Shay, Dallas, Liz, Analise, Cynthia, Paul, and Riz. I'll let y'all know how it goes in my next weekly.

Anyways, here's what happened last week (the exciting stuff anyway)

On Wednesday we got a call from a guy who introduced himself as the branch president of a branch upstate near Syracuse. He had been flown by helicopter to a hospital near is to get work done on his pacemaker. He asked if we could swing by for just a moment and say hi as well as drop off a BoM and something to mark it with. We went over there (coincidentally had a perfect spot in our schedule to go) and talked for a few minutes with him. He was a pretty co guy, and we had a good conversation about missions and post-mission life etc. We gave him the BoM and took a picture (see below) so he could show them to his nurse haha. We'll see if he sends us any referrals.

On one night last week, the fire alarm in our building went off at 1:30 in the morning. Well, it happened again Thursday at about 4 or 4:30 AM. It was resolved faster than the other one, but it was still annoying. The worst part was that Thursday was also our day for Zone Conference, and we were hoping to get some good sleep before then haha. Fugeddabouttit. 

Zone Conference was still really good. We had some fuego trainings on really finding the needs of the people we teach and then focusing every lesson, every commitment every everything on meeting that need so they'll feel the change and power of the gospel. Pres Holmes dropped knowledge about the Fall and how we needed an Atonement BADLY if we were to have any hope in this life. He really hit home how essential the Atonement of Jesus Christ is, and how vital it is that we help our friends access it through baptism. It was a great meeting, and I loved every bit of it.

At the end we had departing testimonies, and I (along with four or five others) got to bear my testimony and say a couple words. It was a surreal experience, but the Spirit was powerful. I'm still in absolute denial about going home haha, so that's always fun.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: We had dinner with some members last night, and it was awesome. They have a HUGE house and they made way good food. The dad is the ward mission leader, so we know him pretty well, but it was nice to meet his wife and youngest son. Because his son Jonathan is 13, Bro Clay (the dad) asked him if he had any questions for us about missionary work. He thought about it and he asked what the hardest thing was about it. He added "other than homesickness, I guess". That struck me, and that's what I mentioned first. Honestly? I never felt homesick. Maybe for a couple hours or for a day here or there, but never seriously and never for very long at all. I just got so wrapped up in this work and this place and these people that it was never really a problem for me. I admitted to Jonathan that there have been many many times where I've missed something from home, some activity or aspect or whatever, but like I said to him I'll say to whoever reads these words:

I have NO REGRETS about serving a mission. Zero. None. Nothing in this world would be a good enough reason for me to not have served, or to have given up and come home. I know it may not be the same for everyone, but for me this is so true. I'm not a perfect missionary, and I can't even say that I always have my perfect effort, but I know that I always had a perfect desire. I always wanted to be here, and nothing could have prevented me from it.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

 - Pic with Pres Jones at the hospital

 - One of Pres Holmes' slides showing positives and negatives of the Fall and how the Atonement turns it all positive 

 - Pics after ZC with my comp Elder Jensen (guy with matching tie), Elder Anderson (the blond elder with yellow tie, I honestly don't know him at all but he served in this area a year ago), and Elder Wall (we were comps a year ago in Manhattan, and we both have departing testimonies at ZC. Afterwards we just sat and reminisced about how much we'd both changed since then)

 - A screenshot of a senior missionary sending us a picture he took of us stuck in a Bible bash 🤣 (we got out of it relatively quickly though, don't worry)

 - Video:  Meeting the firefighters..... AGAIN

Sleepy Hollow

Remember the short story "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving, about the Headless Horseman? And the short animated Disney movie based on it? Well, the actual Sleepy Hollow is in Jacob's current mission district! He and the rest of the district missionaries went there today, and to nearby Tarrytown, also featured in the story. Jacob sent these pictures.  The bridge is called "Headless Horseman Bridge."  The metal sculpture is of a scene from the Disney short.  

Old Hiller, the Fossil of Westchester

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** Yeah so I'm officially the oldest missionary in the zone, and I hate it 😂 (k I don't hate it, but it's weird)

 ** My new comp is Elder Jensen from Riverton, Utah. He's reassigned from Ukraine (he can't go there yet for obvious reasons😬)

 ** Got to go on an exchange with Elder Conover, one of my ZLs, and it was absolutely amazing 

 ** Guys, Jesus Christ is so cool. The more you study the Atonement, the more you learn about it, the more it just blows you away 

So yeah, transfers happened this week. I picked up Elder Jensen, and he's a great guy and a good missionary. We've gotten along really well, and we've gotten some good work done here in Westchester. I'm no also officially the oldest missionary in the whole zone. Only one other missionary in my zone goes home this transfer, and it's a sister, so I've get her beat by six months haha.

When I met Elder Jensen and we were talking, we got to the topic of my going home soon. I said, "I hope you brought a shovel to bury me," to which he replied, "I was thinking we'd go more the Old Yeller route." Yeah, we're gonna get along great, haha.

There are also some fun statistics for y'all as well as two kinda interesting parallels:

 - Elder Jensen is my 15th companion (including MTC)

 - He's also my 7th reassigned comp [i.e., originally called to a different mission, but reassigned to NYC because of Covid or world conflict], and the 10th that I'll have for only one transfer

 - First parallel: my comp is in his 5th transfer in the field, which how long I'd been out over a year ago when I was comps with a dying missionary 

 - Second parallel: there's a sister in my district who came into the field this transfer, which is what happened during my first transfer in the field (having a DL who's going home your very first transfer)

Interesting stuff

Near the end of the week, we had an exchange with the ZLs, and I got to go into their area with Elder Conover. We had a great time with lessons and with finding, and we learned a lot together. He taught me a bit about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and it just opened my eyes. I started studying it more, and I was blown away by what I've learned (more on that later). We were working on extending baptismal dates on the street and in every lesson or contact. It worked pretty well! Our goal now is to invite as many people as we can to be baptized, and then to get them all to church so they can actually progress and prepare for that covenant with God.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Here's a beautiful quote from Preach My Gospel about the Atonement. Read it and really think about it, and it'll blow your mind:

"All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ."

That is a BOLD claim to have. Literally everything in life, including all of our sins and afflictions, but also including family trouble, mental or emotional disabilities, losing a job, losing a family member, doubt, fear, confusion, even the normal and natural decay of the human body that comes with age, ALL OF THESE WILL BE MADE RIGHT AND PERFECT. Is that faith? Yes. Is it hope? Yes. Is it true and real and worthwhile? YES. God is so good, and through His Son, our lives can become just as good, just as peaceful, and just as joyful.

Don't believe me? Get on your knees and ask God yourself. Or if you want, message me about it, and we can talk about it and probably end up asking God together.

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

 - I'd seen this stone bench thingy intact the day before, but I guess something crazy happened overnight

 - Smile a lil

 - Random metal artwork of train workers

 - Train station in Hartsdale

 - Trump missionary mug hehe

 - 4th of July fireworks & zone pday 

And So It Begins....

Malo Soifua!!!

Today on the Elder Hill Show:

 ** We absolutely CRUSHED church attendance this week with some EPIC miracles

 ** Transfer News.....(spoiler alert: I'm staying and Elder Earl is leaving)

 ** The final countdown begins for me. All of the "last time"s start hitting this week

So this week went pretty well all the way around. Finding was pretty good. Bap dates weren't, but we're gonna get better (#repentanceiscool). The big one was church. Church POPPED OFF!!! Our goal was two friends to church, and the STLs (who share our ward) also had a goal of two. We ended up getting FOUR friends to church, and the STLs got SIX (technically we got seven, but three were under the age of 8 and thus don't count). It was literally the coolest thing, and the members were freaking out about so many new faces haha. Good times to be sure.

Transfer News. Elder Earl is going to the Plainview YSA Ward out on Long Island, so that'll be fun for him. I'm receiving an Elder Jensen from Flushing Queens. He's been out about 8 months or so, so it'll be fun to have another young missionary with some fire to keep me going haha (I guess I'll be expected to teach him something or some other such nonsense as that 😁).

Guys I'm a hecka old missionary, and it's so wack. I hit 22 months out on Saturday, and two weeks from today I hit one month left 😳. This next transfer is my last, so I'll be dying in Westchester. I hope Elder Jensen brings a shovel for my funeral, haha.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: So this guy asked me the other day about how I keep going when I get rejected so many times, and the best answer I had was, "I dunno, man. I just love it." And honestly, I really really do. I heard a departing missionary say, "Man, Jesus Christ is so epic. He's so great!" -- and I agree. Jesus Christ is so cool, guys. He's freaking so cool. He's done so much for me, and He keeps doing it. I thought I could find a limit where He'd throw in the towel and let me go, but He doesn't and He won't. I promise that Christ will never leave you. Even when you walk away from Him, He follows. Even when you mess up and let Him down, He reaches out to hold you close and take care of you. I love Him, and I know He loves me. After that, what else matters?

Alofa tele lava atu ia outou uma,

Elder Hill

Ata:

 - Week 6 district pic

 - The district at Olive Garden for Elder Earl's birthday last Monday

 - Cool jeep

 - Sick Lamborghini Urus

 - Our car hit 2222 miles on Sunday (it had about 500 when we got it)

 - The loading area where we do service (loading a van with food)