The heat...

(So Clair put this as the subject line of her email, "the heat..." And then she never talked about the heat.  I guess it's hot there.)

Okay. So I work hard, obviously. And I'm so tired at night that I have some PRETTY interesting journal entries! I can't wait to share them with you all. 

So I have been writing down my dreams, the ones that I can remember, and I have some crazy dreams.. one night this week I had a dream that I got shot in the leg. I woke up and my leg actually hurt... I had a cramp or whatever and my leg hurt so bad. It was my calf. I actually started crying I think. And then when I woke up with the alarm it still hurt and todo el dia I had pain in my calf... so random. 

Also.... I locked our keys in our room.... hahahahaha. It's not funny but it's a little bit funny. I was able to laugh about it and we made it work to get back in... oh the adventures.

Saturday and Sundays are party days here.  But the parties are in the streets. And they are literally 24 hours at least. So we don't get much sleep on the weekends and we can't find very many people to teach on the weekends because everyone is drinking. It makes the weekends really really hard.! 

So we are teaching this... senorita. She is amazing. Her name is Lola and she is 81 years old. I don't know if I have told you about her yet, but she is so amazing. We were teaching them this week and her grandchildren literally asked us when they could be baptized and we have a new rule that we can't baptize if they are under the age of 18 unless they have a parent that is a member too... so we had to say no... it's complicated. Anyways, we were teaching them and talking about the holy ghost and how it feels and Lola said, "I feel really calm and peaceful, or I guess I feel the spirit more when you guys are with us"... I cried! That is the first time that anyone has said they've felt the spirit with me! yay! I just love these people!

On Thursday we had a Conference with ELDER WADDELL from the first Quorum of the 70.  It was all day and it was totally fantastic! He talked about the What, Why and How of missionary work. Sister Williams talked about how we need to use the atonement in our lives. and President Williams talked about recognizing the spirit. It was a great day! Elder Waddell was pretty blunt and straight forward and it would've been easy to be discouraged but it only motivated me! It was so awesome and I just love the mission so so sos os so so sos sosososososo sos os so so so sos much! 

There is a chance that I will have changes next week.  If I do... I am going to cry. But it will also be okay because I have had my prayer with Heavenly Father and I trust that He knows what I can handle and what I need and He also knows that I will do whatever He asks of me. I am anxious though!!!

President always reads our letters to him and he replies and he usually copies and pastes a part of my letter and then says, so true, or you're great. This week he said, 

"I am finding that my "joy is full" as a missionary because the church is true and I am doing great things to bring this truth and happiness to those in my area and I am so happy to be able to help my investigators understand the gospel" Wow... that is so true! What a great statement! 

Hahaha.  

I love president so much. 

I love the mission so much. 

I love you so much!

Until next week

Hermana Pilling

It's a Great Life Out Here in Peru

I am close to the mission home now but I don't know if I'll be transferred the 4th of November or not. If I'm not, then I'll be here for Christmas, which would be a huge blessing and a dream come true.  If I do transfer the 4th for some reason, dang. I'll be sad. 

Yes that is true, the missionaries are in the populated areas to make stronger wards and stakes before opening new areas. Also if I come back to visit/if you guys come to pick me up you are staying at the hotel "Casa Andina Select" because that's where our pensionista's daughter works, who is amazing. We went today to check it out and it's nice and that's where the general authorities and the area 70's stay. So ya, Google it. 

My shoes are doing awesome. It's crazy how much of a difference these comfortable shoes make. They're the best ever! I never want to wear crappers ever again. Also, I am lacking skirts majorly. The navy with polkadots from the reversible skirts, lds sister missionary, is the best. I wear it probably 5 times a week. hahahaha 

We are working with all sorts of people. Variety is the spice of life! We are almost done reteaching the lessons to a less active family. They are so great. We are going to be friends for life. And we are teaching a young couple with 2 kids that are BLONDE because of their grandparents. They are Liz who is 27 and Piero who is 24 and they aren't married. There are couples that have been together for over 30 years and aren't married in any way. It causes problems when we get to the law of chastity lesson hahaha. But these 2, we shared the proclamation to the family and without us saying anything they said so we need to get married huh, and they are going to pray about that.  They have family prayers together and they showed up to church without even telling us they could or would come.  I cried when they walked in. They are so great and have the desire and everything. If they can get married soon I will be so so happy! They also will be my friends for life! My one convert, Hermana Elizabeth, is in the hospital. She has tumors in her liver? I think that's what they're saying. I don't really know. So today we went to visit her and I was so saddened by the conditions of the hospital. Holy cow!  Elizabeth can't afford the drugs and so she has been in a lot of pain. I think the church is going to help her out now. She also needs surgery to remove part of her liver maybe. There have been complications so ya.  We went to the hospital and she starting reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning the day she got baptized, August 17, and she is in DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS! section 11. She is amazing. She has so much faith.  She is my grandma out here. Well, one of my 3. I have lots of grandma's in Peru. :)

We were visiting the aunt of Piero and she is less active. Her son is the young men's president, 24 years old.  We were talking about temples and I said, "It's a great goal. I want to be sealed in the temple and have an eternal family." Then she said I need to come back here to be sealed in Lima TO HER SON STEVEN. It was a tad embarrassing. It's the second time a mother has done that. I don't think it will be the last time either. 

We had interviews with president this week: he is SO FANTASTIC and I love him so much. And he loves me too. It's going to be sad to leave in 14 months. He is so inspiring and motivating. ahhhhh he is the best. 

I ATE COW STOMACH. 

Well. I love you guys so much and I think about you guys every once and a while. It's a great life out here in Peru. I love every second of it! Kind of! :) 

Hermana Pilling

Wowzers Time Flies

Happy birthday again Mama. It was the birthday of this neighborhood that I am in and you turned FOURTY-TWO too. How crazy is that? The same age. I thought of you a lot and I have some cute pictures but you probably won't get them til Christmas.  Sorry. 

Okay, so Tuesday an elder from our mission passed away. We haven't heard anything from our leaders only from the members and it was in the newspapers. He had 10 months in the mission and is 19 from Argentina. We have heard it was an aneurism. It's super sad and I haven't stopped thinking of Uncle Dean and well so many things. So sad. He will be a forever missionary.

 

We have a date for a baptism but it isn't super for sure. She is a little flakey. We will see how it goes. 

On October 9th we had exchanges and it was my first one. I was really nervous. I was with Sister Larsen from Highland Utah. She is a very soft spoken sweetheart. It was very interesting to see how every missionary is different. Even though we are in the same mission and have the same rules, she was still very different from my other 3 companions. I am learning a lot and focusing on the type of missionary I want to be. 

We were able to watch Saturday's conference in English! Yay! And Sunday's in spanish and I understood! Yay! My top 1 from every session: Lynn G. Robbins,  Jorge Kelhingat, the Prophet, and Carlos A. Godoy. hahaha. It was all so absolutely amazing and I felt the spirit and I thought of my investigators and it was amazing. As always. Oh and we had 2 of our best investigators with us Sunday afternoon when Elder Bednar spoke to investigators! How cool?! 

I love the mission and I love the Lord. 

My gratitude list|: 

My companions. Clean water to drink. Hot water for our shower.  My family.  President and Sister Williams (I miss them.  I hardly see them now). Rice.  Skirts. My plaque.  My calling.  Peruvians.  Laughter. My hair.  A bed.   Jesus Christ.  The Prophet.  Turtles. Cockroaches.  Friends.  Spanish.  You.  Email. 

I love you all and I'm out!

Hermana Pilling

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.

Companion Number 2

Wow I don't have any time at all but I have mucho to tell you. Ugh. 

Okay, so saying goodbye to Hermana Norton was killer hard and way harder than I expected. I spent Monday with a Latina from Honduras, our sister leader.  And she is so nice and it was a huge confidence builder. We talked the whole day and she understood me and I understood her and we laughed and I love her a lot a lot. Then we had changes Tuesday morning.  I have a north american again, which is a little bummy. Her name is Sister Brito. She only has 2 changes left, 3 months and will be home for Christmas. She has had 10 companions, I'm her 7th white one, so her spanish is very gringo. She is nice and all but has had a hard time with President Williams and all of his changes.  I'm trying to be positive and remind her that it's the Lord's work and we don't need to do crazy zone activities every week and things like that. We are getting along just fine but nothing like a lasting friendship, yet. 

Jacob 4:12. ya!!!!!!!! Why not? Just learn more about the gospel, do research, learn, feast upon the words. 

We eat sooooooo much rice.

There are country wide elections this weekend so no one is allowed to have services or anything so we can't watch general conference :( I am so so so so bummed. I won't be able to understand most of it anyways but it's still a bummer. 

I miss you all and we're just heading into spring here and it's HOT and I'm always wet and it's gross. 

I have zero time left. I love you all and I appreciate your prayers!

Hermana Pilling

Finally some photos

Clair's email this week made us smile.  We could just picture her telling us in person these things.  It was a short one, but she sent photos!!  Finally!  We're so happy.  Thoughts from Clair:

- I like pineapple! It's one food that I have to eat and I like it now (apparently she didn't like it before).

- Please get a good food storage ready. The Liahona for September had some really important messages in it. 

- My area is Nueve de Octubre which is 9th of October and I just realized that that is October 9th, which is your birthday Mama. This is a cool coincidence!!!!

- Crocs are doing so well here. Mind you, I don't think they are name brand.  But they are doing so stinking great! hahaha (I guess she bought some when she got there or something.  She didn't leave here with a pair).

- Also, I think I like coconut too! (she definitely didn't like coconut before she left)

- I was super scared for Sister Norton to leave but right now, after writing President Williams, I feel pretty calm and I know everything will be okay. 

- I want the talk by Elder Holland April 2013, "Help Thou My Unbelief." 

- We went with Sis Williams to get her haircut so Sis Norton could explain what she wanted and it's a short little bob thing and I LOVE IT. I was so tempted to say me too please. Oh it's so cute. 

- What does Cale's hair look like? 

-  I went to Lima! We were able to go to the temple real quick and it was awesome!  Also I was worried about whether I would be able to stay in this mission because I told Sister Norton and Elder Harper that my setting apart blessing said that my influence would extend beyond the borders of my mission.  They both thought that I'd have visa problems and go to another mission. BUT, that won't happen because I got my official card and everything!

I need to finish sending pictures.  Sorry for this lame email.  It was a crazy fast week and tomorrow I find out who my new companion is! This could be a slow week, I don't know though. 

I do know that I love you so so so so much and I sent letters with Sister Norton to send to you guys from the States. I love you!

Hermana Pilling

Clair and Sister Norton in the Andes

Clair's trip to Cajamarca

Sister Norton on their trip to Cajamarca

Clair's first p'day

Sister Norton and Sister Pilling

Meal time!  (She didn't give details)

First Baptism

Tuesday we had our district meeting. Sister Norton and I taught the class and talked about how we have the choice as to what kind of missionary to be and it's all up to us. Then we had lessons, lessons and lessons. 

Wednesday we had a bunch of lessons too and it was a very busy day!

Thursday was a pensionista training with President and Hermana Williams. We drove like 45 minutes and after about 30, the GPS told us to go on this road that was gated.  It went through some sugar cane fields. The man at the gate said "I can let you in but I don't know what the guy at the other side will say. If not you'll have to come back and go back into Chiclayo then out a different road."  So President asked us what we should do and I said, "We're praying! We're going for it!" That is a quote. He thought it was so funny. And the whole time in the fields kept saying "if this doesn't work out, Sister Pilling is going to live with this for the rest of her mission"... and teasing and such. It was funny. Then we got to the other gate and there was an old grandpa dude just sitting in his chair and saw us pull up and stood up and.... waved us on with this big cheesy toothless smile! It was soooo funny.  The suspense was crazy and President laughed too. What a great moment. Maybe you had to be there.... Then that afternoon we went to the office with one of our investigators, Elizabeth, because she had her baptismal interview with President. It was also one of the assistant's birthdays so we had cake! I love the atmosphere of the mission.  Everyone is filled with the spirit, some more than others, and is serving the Lord. How great is that??  That night we had a lesson with a lady, a friend of ours, and her husband, both non-members.  Her husband goes to some MMM church (in spanish) and they do some crazy stuff. It was an interesting lesson. Especially when he was bashing Joseph Smith and started yelling in his prayer. Oh the people of Peru...

Friday morning we had weekly planning which means we had companionship inventory which is when I cried. I explained it in the letter I am sending. I am just frustrated with the language.  I can't see any progress and I'm getting impatient.  I know that I need to rely on the Lord and that my next companion will probably be Latina and it'll be hard but it'll come faster too.  Friday afternoon was so busy and we had so much to do for the baptism! It was a crazy afternoon to be honest!

Saturday was the baptism. My companion and I sang a song, "I'm a Child of God, part spanish, part english. hahaha.  Elizabeth, the convert, is so so so so faithful. Wow, she is incredible.  I love her! She's an oldie but she's fantastic all the same. 

Sunday I spoke in church and it went really well. It's comforting when the members come up to me and tell me that they understand me and that it's more fluid and smooth than my first Sunday.  The members are fantastic. It rained a lot saturday night so we had 45 members at church. With the dirt roads and no roofs on the houses it caused lots of problems. But our house is good and we just walked in the mud, missionaries do it all! It's made me think of the zoo and my rain boots. 

Then today - Sister Norton is packing because she leaves Monday morning to spend the day with President before heading home. Pretty crazy!  She packed and I unpacked and reorganized hahaha. Now that I know I'll be here for like 4 months or more, I decided to make myself at home. 

I found out I'm going to Lima this week! We leave at 10 pm from here Wednesday night and get back the same time Thursday night hahaha. I have to take my temple recommend so that means I get to go to the temple! yay! It's a bummer I lose a day with my companion but I need to get some visa stuff figured out. I hope I can stay in this mission, I really really do. 

So I can't send pictures from these computers and I feel really bad. I'm taking some cool pics.

I'll figure something out. 

Oh, so it's getting cold at about 6pm and I am so glad I have my nice jacket. It's saving me. Apparently in the "spring" the weather is just a little more bipolar and summer is KILLER HOT. So that will be zero fun. 

My companion laughs at me. Because I'm funny. hahaha

This is our last week and she keeps talking about going home, which is okay. It just reminds me how little time I have left. The mission is going to fly and it makes me mad that I don't know the language. I feel like I'm wasting time and I'm not as efficient because of the language. It's dumb, but I'm being patient (or trying to) and relying on the Lord and being obedient.  I try and have the faith needed to receive blessings. What a great church this is. I love it! 

I love you all so so so so much and I'm sending a letter with a day in the life of me much more detailed. I love you. 

Hermana Pee Jing as they call me here.