Nov 17, 2014

I have had an enjoyable past few weeks in AZ. The weather is improving greatly which has been nice. No more heat for another 5 months or so!! It's actually been pretty cold!

 

We were able to have a baptism a few weeks ago of our investigator O. He has been investigating since early August after one of our members gave him to us as a referral. It is a really neat story actually:

We had been (and still are) pushing a lot for our members to help us by doing the finding. After several attempts with different families, one family came through with several referrals of families in their apartment complex. Concerning O and his family, the members told us that they would never accept the Gospel of Christ, but that we might find service opportunities if we knocked. The first time we knocked, O opened and allowed us to share a message with his family. I was able to baptize him 2 weeks ago.

 

Even when we don't think people are ready and willing, they might be. God has a different idea and plan than we do in many aspects of life, and we have to conform to His will in order to accomplish His plan.

 

For our monthly Mission Leadership Council, we were able to hear from Elder Larry R Lawrence yesterday. He is in the Second Quorum of the Seventy. We discussed many things that we've seen in the mission, both good and bad. We discussed several topics of concern and decided that our 'mission culture' needed to be changed. After some discussion and even dispute, this is what we sustained:

 

1. We are exactly obedient missionaries

-Perfect study schedule
-In/out of bed on time
-Avoid all forms of worldly entertainment*Music: The only artist we may listen to is Mormon Tabernacle Choir (No more 'MoTab'); We may only listen to hymns or children's songbook by them
-Never waste time

 

2. Our missions are spiritual experiences

-Live up to our baptismal covenants (Mosiah 18:8-10)
-Be lovingly bold with commitments
-Read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, marking all references of Christ

 

3. We are accountable

-Each mission leader (me) will help each companionship to be exactly obedient by:
*Going on exchanges with each missionary to help them meet their goals and live up to the mission culture
-Inform our branch/ward/stake leaders of what we are doing

 

4. We are dignified and joyful representatives of Jesus Christ

-We use dignified language

*Refer to missionaries as Elder or Sister

*Refer to members and investigators as Brother or Sister

*Refer to leaders by their appropriate title (ie; President Monson, not Tommy)

-We are light hearted with great reasons to rejoice

 

 

I can't describe the joy I have with this new standard! It may seem difficult to follow, (especially with the music), but I know how much it will help each of us and our mission as a whole too.

We were able to gather as a mission on Wednesday and discuss these things. We were also taught about certain doctrine in the scriptures for several hours by Sister Lawrence that morning. I never thought I would be so mesmerized from a lecture on scriptures, but it was incredible.

There have been changes in companionships for me this week too. My companion who I was training became really sick at the beginning of October. He had struggled with this illness for over a month until the decision was finally made to send him home. He left late Thursday night. I hope the illness will be diagnosed at home and that he will have another chance to serve.  I was moved in with Elder Call and Elder Swanson (again), and we will stay in this companionship until the next transfer, which is December 9. The chances of me staying another transfer after this one has shot up now! If I stay one more transfer, I'll complete a year in this ward. They might as well give me a calling. ;)

If you'd like to see what we do on Pdays, check my facebook for some great shots of cricket! If you've written me in the last month and I haven't gotten back to you, I'll do that soon :)

 

 Keep the Faith

 

Elder Pilkington

 

 

Nov 3, 2014

Another short report for these last two weeks...

 

The zone only had a few changes with this last transfer, and none of them were with our ward. We are all the same setup. We do live together for now (zone leaders, but each training different companions), but President is thinking about switching us up a little bit to help some other missionaries stay on task. We are the only spanish ward in the zone. There are several spanish branches in Phoenix and one in South Scottsdale. One of my buddies and I are talking to President about opening a new spanish branch in North Scottsdale. If it actually does happen, it won't for some time. 

The Spanish trainings we do are for the spanish missionaries in the valley zones. We get together and have discussions basically of what we can do to improve. 

The facebook is going well. I'm not supposed to chat, but if you have referrals for missionaries, I'd love to help :)

 

I was able to go for Halloween and I took a family name! I did the baptism, confirmation and initiatory for William Pilkington. I found out that the 'duplicate check' that I did probably wasn't the most thorough and that he has probably already had his work done. Oh well, it was cool for me either way.

 

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

 

 

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!

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

 

 

 

9/30/14

(In Thomas' email this week, he is mostly answering my questions...)

 

Still crazy stuff for sure. We have been doing our very best to keep up with lessons even though I'm busy with ZL stuff. Somehow, we are leading the zone still in all of our numbers, which is good to see. My comp is doing well. We get along super well and teach great together!! He has been a little stressed so far with the language and having to be a comp to a ZL, but overall I think he likes everything. 

There is a family coming soon! On Thursday night they'll be there and I believe that they are planning on being there until Sunday at some point. They are going to the conference, but I'm not sure at what time. Other member families are going as well, but are staying in other places around the valley.  The dad reminds me of my dad so much!!!! He's a goofy guy haha.  They don't speak any English except for a few of the kids speak a few words. 

 

 

I love AZ a lot, and even the heat this year didn't  kill me like I thought it would. (I was in a car, so that helped.) I wouldn't mind living here, but I do love my snow during Christmas time. 

 

We will probably have 2 baptisms this week!! :D 

Have a great conference weekend and do all you can to get something from it! :D 

 

Thomas

9/21/14-Elder Sorenson

We have 6 new investigators! Training is so great, but I feel bad that he has to sit through my ZL duties so often. We'll have to do several exchanges this week for different meetings that we'll be going to.

 

When does Suzie have Pday? I want to talk to her :)

 

We were able to sit with, shake hands with, and listen to Elder Nelson on Saturday! That was incredible. I absolutely know that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ and I can't wait for General Conference to listen to him again and the other amazing men and women! It really is my favorite time of year. I can now admit, that it is a more important time for me than the Super Bowl. (I wouldn't have ever said that 1 yr. ago). The importance has really hit me.

 

Speaking of General Conference, would you or Grandma and Grandpa be willing to host some members that are going out this time? I'm not sure how many are going, but one of our investigators may go as well. What are your thoughts?

 

I'm so happy to hear how your week goes

 

 

                                                          Elders Pilkington and Sorenson

Transfer Day with new missionaries

                                                           Trainers and New Missionaries