June 16, 2014 (Elder Clements)

What a week!

 

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the amount of lessons that we had been getting in the past, but we had a lot of service, and great lesson with less actives. We have now helped 2 families get back to church, and are working hard with others.

We have been meeting a lot as missionaries of the branch, and had a meeting to review the 3 areas in the branch. After fasting and praying and meeting with our Mission President, we have decided to shut an area down. That means two of the missionaries here right now will leave. The boundaries of the branch will be re-adjusted into just 2 areas. What we have been told so far, is that most likely, I will stay and train somebody, and they will bring in two different missionaries to white wash the Sisters area and the area that's being shut down. We'll see what happens with that.

 

Bigger news! We had been told all week that there were big things going on at church, but we all kind of thought the Branch Presidency was getting switched. To our surprise, President and Sister Sweeney were there, the Stake Presidency was there, and Elder Wright, Area Seventy was there as well. They announced that after having talked to the First Presidency of the Church and reviewing everything, the Mesa Grande Branch is now qualified to be a ward!!! We now have 2 Spanish wards in the Mission!! It was great to hear the story of how the Branch was started not too long ago. What progress!! Along with that, the Sisters had a baptism on Saturday and the new member was confirmed yesterday. We just continue to build up the Lord's Kindgdom wherever we go! The life of being a missionary is stressful at times, but what blessings and miracles come from it!

 

Short email this week, but great changes are being made. I'm excited to see how we continue progressing!!

 

DC 26:1

 

Elder Pilkington

June 2, 2014 (Elder Clements)

This week has been awesome! So many lessons and so much progression!

 

Before this area, I wasn't used to getting high numbers. My past companions and I would have a mentality where we wouldn't be agents. In other words, we wouldn't act or make things happen. We would wait for others to come to us, wait for people to prepare themselves, etc. We would average maybe 8 lessons a week total, where we should be getting 20+. We definitely were not doing the best we could now that I think about it. Once I got switched to this new area, with a new companion, I decided to change it up. My companion had a similar experience in the past. He has only been out for 3 transfers, (4 months), and always just followed along without being part of anything. We both decided to take a leadership role in the companionship and work together more. It has definitely proved to be the right decision. We are now accountable for our goals! It has really changed the way we work.

 

Now, we are hitting almost all of our daily and weekly goals. We have been teaching more than 20 lessons a week and have 2 baptismal dates later this month.

 

My point with all of this, is that we need to be agents. We have to wake up knowing that our goals will be met, and we will have success.

 

This mentality has helped me so much as a missionary, and I have seen so much success between me and my companion. 

 

One of the 'fruits of our labors' was uncovered yesterday at church. We have been teaching a less active woman and her daughter for a couple of weeks now. They went through a rough time when the dad took off one day, and never came back. They were confused and upset and turned to the church, which was great of them to do. The only thing, is that they saw 'complete' families at church. They felt left out and unwelcome. We decided to really focus on teaching them about families, the Plan of Salvation, and Temples. I know the Spirit has helped them the last few weeks, because I have seen them change. Right before church started yesterday, they both walked in, still seeming a little uneasy, but they were there. Immediately, almost every single member gave them both huge hugs and told them how much they had missed them. With the guidance of the Lord, we had helped this family come back. It was incredible.

 

The Lord lives and this work is real.

 

Elder Pilkington 

Memorial Day 2014

This transfer has been great so far!

The work has increased tremendously with 5 new investigators over a two week period. We cover the Pima Indian Reservation for Spanish people, and have a good amount of work out there. In fact, most of our work is on the res. We were able to find a Spanish family early this week, who have talked to missionaries in the past, but didn't make much progress with them. I admit, it is hard to find them home, but that's true with any Spanish family here. They are always working. The lessons we have had with them have been great! With more and more contact and lessons, they will really notices good changes in their lives, especially if they're reading and praying consistently.

Another family we found has been incredible. We were walking to contact a referral one night and this guy was walking down the street with his son. Of course we stopped and talked for a few minutes outside, and he quickly invited us to his house on the spot. We spent the last few minutes of that night talking to him, answering questions, and teaching about the Restoration of the gospel. You to see the Spirit working hard on him. He seemed to obtain a glow as we taught him, which was amazing to see. Over the last week, we have taught him various times about the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With every single lesson, he has changed. After some of his life long questions were answered with the Plan of Salvation, he expressed to us a feeling that he had. He went on to describe what we know as the Holy Ghost. We testified to him of the Spirit and invited him to be baptized. He accepted June 21 as his date.

We have gone all over the area trying to get in contact with every single one of our less actives and former investigators and seen great blessings from it. We have seen people change in a matter of days, and I know through help of the Lord, they will find their way to His Gospel and He will give them blessings along the way.

I know that nothing in life is easy, but everything we do in the church is done for a reason. It will all be worth it in the end. The Lord gives us His promise, that as we conquer evil and do our best to stay clean, we will be given eternal life.

Keep this in mind as you get through this week. Have a good one!

Elder Pilkington

May 12, 2014-DISTRICT LEADER (Elder Clements)

The last little bit has been full of ups and downs, but that's how the mission goes.

We didn't email on Monday because we just had transfers, so our P-day switched to Wednesday instead. I got a call early on Saturday from our Mission President, President Sweeney. He told me I had a new assignment. I was thinking I was going to move to a completely different area with new people and new environment, but I was wrong. He continued, saying that I would be switching from the west side of our branch to the north side. It was pretty shocking to me, but I was super excited. All I did, was switch rooms in the same apartment. I am now working with another companion, Elder Clements, who I have gotten to know really well over the past few months. We are working on the Indian Reservation together. There is a surprisingly large amount of Spanish that live on the res, so we have good work to do. During my conversation with President Sweeney, he also called me to become the new District Leader of our district. I'm very excited to serve in this calling, but a little nervous at the same time. I know that I will learn a ton from my new calling as I follow the guidance the Lord and church leaders have set.

Saturday night, we were out visiting English member families to help them with service and to ask if they knew anybody in their neighborhood that was Spanish. With one of the families, we got a good conversation going, and stepped inside to talk for a while. When we finally left, we walked outside to find that Elder Pope's bike was gone. Somebody had come in the few minutes that we were inside, and taken his bike. Luckily and surprisingly to me, my bike was left standing in the driveway. It was a bittersweet feeling to see it. The members we were with offered Elder Pope another bike that they were going to throw away. It isn't in the greatest condition, but fixable. They also gave us a ride home that night.

On Sunday, we enjoyed a peaceful, spiritual time at church with one of our slowly progressing investigators, Ricardo. He has come twice now, and is doing everything he needs to be, just a little slower than normal. I know that he will be baptized. I have seen his reactions to the feelings of the Spirit in his life. I have watched him give up alcohol and the positive affect that it's made in his life.

Even though I don't cover his area anymore, it will be great to watch his progress even more as he comes to church and branch activities.

On Sunday night, we were able to Skype with our families! It was great to see my Mom and Dad and be able to talk to them for a while. Unfortunately, my sister is traveling London for school, so I didn't see her, but I loved being able to talk with my parents and hear about everything at home.

I'm super excited to what what this transfer brings us. I already know it will be an awesome 6 weeks and that we will get a lot of work done.

Elder Pilkington

 

Thomas' new companion, Elder Clements (from Mississippi) is 2nd from the end.  He is standing next to Thomas' former companion, Elder Pope, from Walla Walla, WA

 

                                              Elder Pilkington and Elder Pope with Gracie

4/28/14-(Elder Pope)

This has definitely been a better week.

We had interviews and inspections this week which went really well. It was well needed. I was able to spend some time talking with my Mission President about the work, both the successes and struggles, and ways to become better in the work and as a person. He is full of knowledge and the light of Christ. Great example to me. We also talked to Sister Sweeney about church invitations while we were there. She gave us a great training on how to successfully invite people to come to church.

We were also able to teach a boy named Jose that same day. He is 17 and seems very prepared. He has had some struggles in his life. He has looked towards God for a long time. He believes that we are the answer to his prayers. We taught him several more times this week and even set a baptismal date with him for May 10. Unfortunately, we decided last night that he would do better in an English ward rather than Spanish. We will switch him to the English elders tomorrow.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we had companion exchanges. I stayed in my area both days. Those were two of the most successful days so far. We had a lot of great lessons and other amazing successes during that time. We even found a new investigator during that time.

During weekly planning, we decided we needed to make a change in our area. We had such a large group of investigators with very little success. We went from about 15 investigators to 7 or 8. It was tough to make that call, but it is so important to trust in the Lord and have the faith to do his will. I know it will be better in the long run. We even got a new investigator shortly after that. The Lord is already putting new people in our path.

We were walking around our area one night talking to everyone we saw, and we came across a guy fixing his car. We started a conversation with him and tried to help him out. His name is Joe. He told us about everything that has happened to him recently and how he isn't in the mood for God. He unfortunately 'walked in' on his wife of 13 years. They have 3 kids together. He ended up listening to us for a while as we bore testimony to him and asked 'heaven sent' questions to get him thinking. You could definitely tell the Spirit was working on him. A few minutes later, some guys pulled up to their house and I called them over. They ended up being returned missionaries themselves and one of them served in Chicago where Joe used to live. They had a good conversation about that, and Joe started changing his upset attitude. He decided he was just going to walk home rather than try to fix the car, but one of the RM's offered a ride. Joe was shocked, because he doesn't live close at all and doesn't even know the guy. He pulled Elder Pope and I aside and asked us why the RM offered him a ride. You could tell his whole night got turned around, just by starting a conversation. We asked him if he'd like missionaries to stop his house and promised him that they would be able to help him. He said that he wouldn't like that unless it was the two of us. We explained how we have our own area to cover and also that we are the Spanish missionaries. He told us that he would move down here and learn Spanish if it meant being able to talk to us more. I didn't know I could make such a big difference in people's lives. As we began to leave, he told us that he was actually baptized a member of our church years ago when he was in the Marines. He said it was because of people like us that he got baptized in the first place. Amazing experience!

I know that God works in mysterious ways. The more we trust in Him and do EVERYTHING he has asked us to do, the more miracles and blessings we will see. I know He lives and loves all of us.

Elder Pilkington

Easter-4/21/14 (Elder Pope)

Happy Easter! Such a great time of the year.

This has been a really stressful week. We have had very few success with investigators. The only interaction we have had with them has been the Easter Pageant. We try to be bold with them without being overbearing, but it seems like no matter what we do, they just kind of blow us off. It is almost impossible to get SET appointments in our area.

One of our investigators has started to drink again, and told us that he will never change. He said that God loves him for who he is even if he is an alcoholic. He doesn't want us to come by as often. It's really hard, because his son and granddaughters were just baptized within the last 3 months, and I'm sure it's affecting them to watch him drink so much. Unfortunately, I don't think any of our investigators, except for one, are taking us seriously at all. I almost want to drop everybody and start over again as if we just got to the area. Luckily, the one investigator that IS progressing, is doing well!

Elder Pope and I have gotten in a lot of arguments as well this week. We're working through that little by little though.

Overall, it hasn't been a great week, which is sad, because it should be the best week! This is one of the greatest times of the year to be a missionary. I know it is Satan trying to work against us. He knows what he is doing and sometimes it's hard not to let him get involved in what we do.

On the bright side of everything, we were able to show the Easter video to almost every single contact we had this week, plus every dinner appointment and other lesson we had. It was amazing to see how touched every single person was. Especially one guy we talked to. We talked to him for quite a bit about family, life and religion. He mentioned to us several times, very strongly, that he did not believe in Jesus Christ or God as people, but just a higher power. We invited him to watch the video, and eventually he agreed. During it, you could see his demeanor completely change. After, he sat in silence for a minute and told us that he felt something that made him get goosebumps and made his hairs stand up. I know without a doubt that he felt the Spirit. Just talking about it makes me feel the same way; full of peace and joy. That video I KNOW has changed the lives of many this week!

Elder Pilkington