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