I love General Conference!

Hola everyone!

This week was a much better week! We have an investigator, and for the lack of time I won't explain much.  Her name is Sharon, she is 18 and she is just as interested as my 1st investigator. She has kept every single commitment we have left her. It's cool! 

We have taught so many lessons on prophets and general conference! I am so so so excited! It's fun to teach it everyday because I literally feel my testimony growing every time. I know that Thomas S. Monson has been called of God and that he receieves revelation and that we are going to hear exactly what we need to hear to survive the spiritual storms that are going on in the world. I can promise each of you that you will receive answers to questions and doubts if you pray and spiritually prepare to hear the words of The Lord´s servants. 

I cried when they told us about Elder Scott. 

The Women's Broadcast was so so so so good. I love being a member of the Church. I love listening and learning about the Gospel. I invite EVERYONE to watch all 4 sessions of general conference this weekend. You WILL be blessed. 

3 nephi 6:14:  "And thus there became a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church began to be broken up; yea, insomuch that in the thirtieth year the church was broken up in all the land save it were among a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord."  

What do you think it means when it says ¨for they were converted to the ¨true faith"?  What is the true faith?

We were asked to think about spiritual experiences we have had with general conference and I pondered a lot. I thought of the family memories, yum yums, laughter, blankets. I thought of the times we have been to the Conference Center. I thought of the spirit I always feel so strongly with the music. I thought of how I feel the moment the prophet walks into the room. I am so grateful that watching conference has been a habit of mine all my life, and it will always be that way.

¨He will bless you if you put your trust in Him¨ 

I love you all,

Hermana Pilling

Clair's Sunday lunch of steak and noodles.  Yum...??

Peruvian Pancakes and Scripture Stories

Hi Everyone,

Last monday we made ¨Peruvian pancakes¨ which are really just crepes and they are delicious. I learned how to flip a crepe just with the pan. You know what I mean right? Then we went to the Peruvian version of the Calgary Stampede hahaha.  It was lame though. We can't go on the rides either so that was just torture for me since you know how much I love rides!

Ever since our multi-zone meeting when President said we need to be anxiously engaged and involved in our meetings, our district meetings have been so much more meaningful for me! I don't care what other missionaries, like the zone leaders, will think about my silly questions or my grammar mistakes and I just try my best to get the most out of every meeting we have. This week we talked about using the scriptures and it was really fun. I have learned so much about the scripture stories and where certain scriptures are and the doctrine and meaning behind scriptures. I love the scriptures so much and I am learning how to study and get the most out of their powerful and inspired words.

I'm sure you have heard about the earthquake in Chile. Don't worry, my companion´s family is okay. She is from the south and the earthquake was in the north but it is still sad. It was a pretty strong one. I will have you know that the earthquake in Chile in 2010 was in her city. Hermana Avila lived through it and from the little stories she shares with me it sounds like it was awful. She is my hero and I love her.

In our talent show this is what we did. As you can see in the pic my head is there and from behind I am moving the hands and my companion is moving my feet and we danced to some music with the elders and our mission leader. It was SO FUN. I love seeing members laugh and enjoy themselves. 

We did service this week! After the talent show, Hermana said we were her little angles and that we helped her so much. I love looking for service. It is something that my companion has really taught me. She is always aware and has so much love and is willing to help EVERYONE.

I am re-reading my journal right? And I am reading in March and I was thinking a lot about that time in my mission when I was still in 9 de Octubre. Over the course of these 15 months I have noticed that daily scripture study, not just reading, and sincere personal prayers help us become more Christlike. It is through these simple things that we learn about Christ, our perfect example, and learn about our own personal weaknesses to be able to grow more like Him. I am constantly thinking of Him and more aware of His example. I often find myself thinking, ¨What would Jesus do?¨

Well, I love you all and I am so grateful for the atonement and for my Saviour. It is only through His sacrifice and His grace that I am able to overcome my weaknesses and start fresh every week. What would I do without my Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ?

Love,

Hermana Pilling

Jaen Week

This week... what happened this week... Well, firstly I realized I didn't explain why it was a week of blessings, but we had so many lessons and so many new investigators and so many contacts and so much fun. It was great!

This week was a really great week too! The 10th til the 27th of September is ¨Jaén week¨ even though it is more than a week. People come from the little mountain towns and they just come to party. Why do they do so? To celebrate 2 saints.... there are so many catholics! We like to spend time in the plaza De Armas to contact and get to know people, but we haven't been doing that just because we don't want some crazy guy to try to beat us up or something. I don't know. So ya, that is going on right now. 

This week we had an FHE with a part member family. The daughter, Marite, is 27 and is leaving for her mission in Bolivia in 2 months and the mom, Olga, is less active and not married to Fernando, who is not a member. So we watched ¨To This End Was I Born¨, a video about Christ and his life and talked about his influence in our lives and then Fernando prayed. It was his first time ever. You are probably thinking that I am going to say it was some magical spiritual experience. It was just straight up funny. We all ended laughing. I'll explain.  Monday was Marite´s 1 year mark since she got baptized so in her Dad´s prayer he said ¨we are so grateful to be here to celebrate Marite´s 1 year in her.... career as a mormon¨.  Oh it was so funny. Maybe it was more funny in spanish. But it was funny. It made me think that our ¨career¨ as members of the church is not easy.  To have accomplished 1 year as being a faithful member of the church in this crazy world really is a huge accomplishment! 

We also visited Mily and Robert again, well twice. We challenged them to get married the 26th of September and they said they would think about it. Then we went back and Robert had done some talking with some friends and family friends who he admired and everyone said no. You need to be with a girl 10 years before you know if you really want to be married to her. WHAT? What is happening to the world? They have a son. They have a house. They have been together 6 years. I'm pretty sure they know if they want to be together or not. So we used the scriptures and the help of our awesome member who was with us and we helped them remember WHY marriage is important. We will see what happens this week. Diego, their 5 year old, says the prayers and they are adorable. 

My companion and I came up with a game. I give my companion a word, a noun, and she has to use that word in the contact, then she gives me a word and we keep going like that. It is so fun! And it is actually helping us have better contacts because we have to get to know them a little bit before we randomly say the word birthday or shoe or pineapple. I absolutely love my companion and my ward and my leaders and my investigators and my family. Thank you for everything!!!

Love,

Hermana Pilling

Week of Blessings

First of all, happy September! 1 week down and I cannot believe it. There are no such things as seasons here and it kills me and makes the time go by so much faster.

Secondly, we had our district meeting and we talked about what we learned from Elder Bednar and how we can apply it. Then we had intercambios and I had the amazing opportunity to teach with the one and only Hermana Waite again. I LOVED being by her side and talking about our families. She is going to be home in 1 month so we talked about how she feels about that and just everything. It was fun teaching together and it felt just like the good old days. She has been a huge help and example for me to just love the mission no matter what and to be diligent 100 percent of the time. (Saturday I only have 100 days left). We were together here in my area and we found so many new investigators! It was just a great 24 hours. It would be cool to teach again with each of my companions. Hermana Waite made comments about how I have changed- better spanish, more confidence, stronger spiritually, etc. Its funny because I feel like I haven't changed at all. It's the little things we don't even notice that make us better every day. 

We had a lesson with Mily and Robert this week that was pretty cool. Every word that came out of my mouth was directed by the spirit, I swear. They were telling us about their doubts with the Book of Mormon. It drives me crazy when people say they don't believe it because it's something new... WELL OF COURSE IT'S NEW AND ITS FOREIGN. So I was inspired with an example. I asked them what faith means. They answered and we talked about that. Then I asked why they believe everything I say about Canada. They said well we trust you and we talked about how that is faith. They have never met a Canadian before. Anyways, then we moved into the Book of Mormon and how it can simply be true, even though the Book of Mormon is new to them and that it is the word of God, just that they have never ¨met¨ the Book of Mormon. They were thinking really hard and we continued talking about it and left them with 3 Nephi 11 to read, one of my favorite. At the end of the lesson Robert prayed. They had a tough day because of some news they received concerning his work and they were both very worried. He prayed and it was so sincere and so powerful and just asked God not to abandon him and to lead him and help him find the right path. He paused often and I felt God´s love SO strongly. I have prayed ever since then that they feel the same love and spirit and that they are doing better. It was such an amazing experience. He said amen and his wife, my comp and I just all looked at each other smiling. It was so so cool. 

Random thoughts...

My companion eats really fast. 

We made lunch together with our pensionista on Sunday it was DELICIOUS. We made homemade ice-cream- guanabana flavour. 

I love inviting people to be baptized. 

I love the spirit. I love prayer. I love the church. I love testifying. I love you all and I love the sun. I am trying to enjoy it because I know it won't exist when I am home. 

Love you all,

Hermana Pilling