Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Oct 21, 2014

The last few weeks have been great!
 
We finally were able to baptize our investigator Oscar last night. It ended up being his birthday as well, so a great day! He has had to push it off the last two weeks because of his new job, which is great, but we were concerned that he wouldn't go through with the baptism. We finally sat him down early last week and discussed it with him. He has two younger kids who are taking lessons too, but are a little behind him in their progression. We invited him to 'prepare himself to be able to baptize his kids, by first being baptized and receiving the Priesthood.' I think that is what finally got him to commit 100%. Now that he has been baptized, we will put the majority of our focus on them to help them get ready for this amazing step of baptism.
 
There has been a pretty big struggle in Spanish work recently in our mission, and our Mission President has instructed us to hold 'Spanish Training Meetings' regularly. We went to the first one a few weeks ago. We have another one tomorrow. Hopefully with these new tools, we will find ways to help our areas improve. For now, Elder Sorensen and I have 4 people on date, all for 11/01. Please pray that these dates will go through!!
 
We've been given a little time each day to get on facebook and invite others to meet with missionaries! We even have permission to have skype lessons for the first 3, too. If you aren't a member and would be interested in learning more, or if you know anyone who would, please send me a message on facebook! Thanks :)
 
Not too much else to report on. We have transfers this weekend, so we won't be back on emails until Wednesday the 29th. My compa just got an email from the pres saying that we will be together for another transfer at least! Wahoo!!! That's like 10 months in this area almost :D I love it.
 
TTFN  (for those who aren't familiar with Winnie the Pooh, this means "Ta-Ta For Now")
 
Elder Pilkington
 
 

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Oct 13, 2014

Our baptism didn't happen this last weekend, but this weekend FOR SURE! We announced in church and everything. He still hasn't decided who he wants to baptize him, but I'll send home pictures eventually.

I'm feeling a lot better! I was fine all day on Friday, but after I finished the taco, it was lights out.  I was doing better through Saturday night, Sunday and Monday morning, but again got a huge dizzy spell and decided to stay in Monday night. We talked to the mission nurse and she thought it would be best to have me go into Instacare.  They did tests on me there, and told me I was just dehydrated from vomiting so much on Friday night. She gave me some medicine, and it has helped.  There was one other elder that was throwing up on Friday too, but we didn't find out until Sunday about that. After, several other missionaries got really sick too. They think mine was just because of Taco Bell... I think there was a really bad stomach virus. Pres and Sister Sweeny helped me while I was at their house, and checked up on me every few hours when I wasn't. Sorry for freaking you out, Mom!

The week has been good. We have 8 baptismal dates now! One this week, and the rest in November.

Nothing much new, Elder Sorensen is doing well.  It's tough at times for me to balance the ZL responsibilities and trainer responsibilities, but I'm juggling them well.
 
Just a short update this week.  More to report next week!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Oct 6, 2014 (Happy 42nd Birthday, Uncle Dave)

What a weekend! Conference is always a great time of year.
We had plans to go to the Stake Center to watch all of the sessions, but those plans changed a little bit on Friday night.
We went home a little bit early to finish planning, and while doing so, a lady came to our door. We had only talked to her once, and she had expressed to us that although she was not a member, she had close family who were members of our church. When we opened the door, she explained to us that her aunt asked her to buy food for the missionaries she had talked to. She was just leaving to run some errands and offered to buy us food. We denied the offer, but she wouldn't accept no for an answer. We gave her our Taco Bell order, (always a mistake), and she left. A little while later, she returned with our bag of Taco Bell. I'm pretty sure I only had a few bites when I started feeling a little bit different, but that didn't stop me. The last bite of the taco just about killed me. The room started spinning in circles around me and I saw four different Elder Sorensens surrounding me. I barely mumbled out to him that I felt a little sick, (a big understatement), before I just about blacked out. He caught me and dragged me to the bathroom, where I threw up everything in my system. It was awful. I'm pretty sure the lady spiked my food.
Anyway, we ended up going to the mission home and watching conference there with President and Sister Sweeney for the Saturday sessions.
We were able to get home and go to the Priesthood session that night, and Sunday we went to the Stake Center as well.
My conference highlights were:
Lynn G Robbins- Apostasy= lowering the Lord's standards to the level of inappropriate, worldly behavior. There are a lot more 'apostate' things going on than most of us think.
Chi Hong (Sam) Wong-  Every calling is important.
Dallin H Oaks- Even though we are in the world, we must not be OF the world.
Neil L Anderson- Despite what comes, this great cause will go forward.
Tad R Callister- I just want to thank my mom and dad for providing Suzie and me with our spiritual breastplate, shield and sword as we grew up.
Lots more, but not much more time. Sorry.
Elder Pilkington

                                                       Elders Pilkington and Sorensen


                                                               Breakfast of Champions