One Happy Hermana!

All of Peru is going to watch conference Saturday and Sunday at 10 and 2. Just like normal but 1 week later. I am very excited.

I'm doing fantastic!  This week was much better with my companion. We were reading the missionary manual and it says to use your mission language as much as possible, and we weren't doing that. So now we talk in spanish probably 90% of the time and it's really good.  I feel Heavenly Father blessing me for my efforts to learn faster and it's been awesome. We have opened up to each other a little bit more and we had a great week, for real, and I am SO HAPPY TO BE A MISSIONARY EVERYONE! I don't want to be this type of missionary that writes home and gives all sorts of advice, but everyone should serve.  I have grown so much and it has been hard in ways I can't even describe but I am STRONGER because of it.  It's amazing. 

Tuesday we had a multi zone conference and President is an amazing man.  He is so so so so so so so so so so amazing.  I love him.  We are really focusing on families and he encouraged us to memorize our favorite part of the proclamation to the family. We also searched for scriptures for every paragraph and have a lot to back us up.  It's been cool to promise families the blessings of the gospel. Its's great. And the church is true.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON THURSDAY MAMA. My area is 9 de Octubre and that's also your birthday so we are having a little party at our pensionista's that night. I'm excited. I love you mama and I love you all bros. Joe didn't write me. That's not okay. But thank you all for the love and support.  I love Peru.  I love the people.  I love spanish.  I love the gospel.  I love the prophet so much and I love being a missionary!  I can't stop smiling!

This is what Clair wrote back to her dad:  Thank you for the advice. You always know just what to say. And you didn't even know that you needed to say it. Wow I can't wait to talk spanish with people. Riley, Josh, Tyler, Uncle Mark. It's just exciting to be bilingual! I stop every once and a while and think of my progress and think of how amazing it is that my brain can hear english and reply in spanish and vice versa and everything.  It's super cool and totally a gift of the spirit. Thank you for everything daddy.  It's so great to have Peruvian friends! I forget that I'm white sometimes and I get confused when they just stare or when they point at my hair. I'm Peruvian at heart!

Love you all so much,

Hermana Pilling

Note from Toni:  I asked Clair what her favorite part of her mission is and this was her reply:

Fave has been sharing my testimony with a huge smile on my face and then they ask why are you so happy and I can say because I simply know it's true and I can not deny it!  And also the people. They are funny, some of them at least. Some of them not so funny.  I stick out like a sore thumb here. I am REALLY white, and I have some solid tan lines. 

These emails sure make us happy.  And her happy nature and constant smile is what we miss the most.  Hermana Pilling is happy, so the Pilling family back home is happy.