Hermana Pilling in Peru: Blessings Just Keep Coming

Hi everyone,

After the storm comes the rainbow right? This week was also really hard. hahaha but, Sunday made it all worth it! Les cuento.

We had lots of lessons with less actives this week, a lot! 3 of them always say ya I will go to church, I will go to church but then they don't. This week all 3 of them, different families, PROMISED that they would come and it was a big deal to hear them say those words. Each of them has been inactive for about 15 years. When we got to church, there were literally 25 people there total. Not good. I don't know what happened but no one was there. I was bummed. We had the sacrament and everything and then they opened the doors and all 3 of those less actives came, 2 other less actives, and 2 investigators! My companion and I were smiling from ear to ear!

So the less actives, one of them is named Lucho. He's about 75 years old and just loves working on his little car. He came to the chapel and EVERYONE was shocked to see him. He came in a suit, white shirt and tie too! AND his Book of Mormon and Bible in hand. He kind of reminds me of grandpa Jack with a cute laugh and fluffy white hair :) He sat down right next to us too. Oh he is so fantastic! His wife said she is going to come this week, so we will see!

This week we also had a multi-zone conference. We talked about the usual obedience and teaching with the spirit, both were really really good. Then we did jeopardy Preach My Gospel and that was super fun too. We finished by breaking down some scriptures. Matthew 16:24, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples" - all of us are His disciples, each and everyone one of us and especially us missionaries. "|f any man will come after me" - meaning that we have the agency to choose to follow him. If we have the desires then we will make the decision to do it. "Let him deny himself" - meaning do the will of God and deny or ignore the natural man in each of us. THIS IS HARD. We are all human. And "take up his cross" - This was my favorite. Our "cross" could be a burden, a heavy load we are carrying, a weakness, an addiction. If we take up this burden and put it behind and focus on the Lord and all that good stuff, we will be blessed. Taking up the cross is probably going to be a sacrifice, and it's very very hard to just do it, but we have to remember that it is NOTHING compared to the cross that Christ had to carry. He carried it so willingly because he loves each of us. "And follow me" - we talked about how we are representing Jesus Christ and we need to follow Him in everything and learn to be more like him. Then in Luke 9:23, it says the same thing, but it says take up his cross DAILY. This is the part that really made me think. When I got on that plane to come to Peru more than 7 months ago I left behind a lot, I sacrificed a lot. There are moments where I think, well isn't that enough? But like the scripture in Luke says, we need to take up the cross EVERY SINGLE DAY and that is where I need to improve. I need to be willing to sacrifice every day on the mission because in reality, 18 months is nothing. It's just a blink in time. Which I believe, this 7 months has FLOWN by. But I know that I could be better. Thanks to the Atonement, I have the opportunity to be better and to develop Christlike attributes every day and to repent and be forgiven. I am so so so so grateful for my Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

Hermana Pilling