I'm finally am setting apart some time to fill people in on my life. These things are going to be super out of order probably, but I'll at least give you some decent detail.
First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZIE!!! :D:D:D I love you.
OK, let's move on.
A few weeks ago, one of the elders that was living with us got a call from our president, explaining to him that his step father had passed away. His mom can't take care of herself too well, so he finished early and went home to be with her. That left his companion to be with us. It has been a great few weeks with him, other than not being able to get to his area a lot. Our area has been so busy lately!! (More on that in a few minutes). Anyway, the elder that has been with us got a call on Friday, and was switched to another area, leaving me and my companion with the whole ward by ourselves. We've gone from 6 missionaries to 2 in a matter of 3 months. That has really piled on the work!!
Other than our own area, we have been doing A LOT of zone activities. Temple trip, zone conference, exchanges with other missionaries, Mission Leadership Councils, Zone Training Meetings, etc. Not to mention the countless doctor appointments, chiropractic appointments, and LDS family service appointments that we give rides to. It seems like we barely have time in our area some days.
Let me give some more detail on some of these activities:
Temple Trip- We are able to go to the temple once every other transfer, or every 3 months. We had the chance to go a few weeks ago with our zone. I can't even begin to describe the answers and the feelings that I received from the Spirit while we were there. If you are member and haven't been to the temple for a while, I highly encourage you to take the opportunity and GO!! IF you aren't a member, find the closest temple with a visitor's center, and learn more!
Zone Conference- We have the privilege to meet with our president once every 3 months to have a small conference. This one was incredible! We talked about several different ideas or principles, but one of the most powerful was the discussion about Peter. In the Bible, we learn that Peter has ups and downs during the period of time before the Resurrection. He shows his faith by getting out his boat, but then quickly loses that faith and begins to sink. We see this same concept when he promises to the Savior that he would NEVER deny him. Shortly thereafter, we learn that he denies Jesus three times. We talked about how this often happens to us as members and missionaries as well. We often tell ourselves what we believe and make promises to ourselves to become better. We set goals to do so, but sadly, we often forget our own knowledge and understanding. We continued to study about Peter after the Resurrection of Christ. He becomes a completely different man. He goes through the 'Refiner's Fire' so to say. We are now focusing on making ourselves better through his example.
Dang, that was a long one...
MLC- We usually have one MLC at the beginning of each month, but this month we were lucky to have two! The first one was great. We had a few trainings given, and had some discussion of different matters in the mission. That one was good, but the one with Elder Lawerence E. Corbridge was a little better. ;) He is a member of the seventy that came and spoke to the 30 ZLs and STLs in our mission. (Zone Leader and Sister Training Leader). It was such a spiritual, enlightening meeting. I always love hearing from General Authorities, whether in person or not.
SO much more to talk about!!! I'll keep it short..ish.
A couple weeks ago, one of the elders in our zone got hit by a car and got some gross looking road rash to the face. He's doing OK now, don't worry. The funny part, is that after he got hit, his companion wasn't paying attention and smashed into the side of the car. Karma I guess.
We have 2 baptismal dates for the 13th! One of them is an 18 yr old girl and the other is 40ish yr old guy. They were both referrals from one member family, and now they both have dates. I'll keep you updated on them.
We have been implementing several new finding ideas in our ward. One of them is a sports night, (which I bought a new bball for), and another is an English class, which nobody comes to.
We've had some cool services recently that have involved mowing lawns, cleaning up wood piles full of lizards and scorpions, and cleaning churches. Gotta love the service!
We have pizza a lot at the church. We call it capizza. (capilla+pizza=capizza) Capilla means church in spanish. So like church pizza, churizza, but it flows better in spanish.
I got a jar of syrup for my birthday from the Stake President and his wife! :) It's good stuff!!
Yeah, that's pretty much it. I hit my year mark on Thursday, and that's pretty cool too.
I'll probably get better at blog emails. This one was scattered. Apologies.
I love you all, thanks for the support. You make a bigger difference than you realize, just from your prayers and thoughts.
Elder Pilkington
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