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.