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