Transfers Next Week!

Kamustaaaaaaa ang mga kaibigan at pamilya ko!!! (How are the friends and family)

Namimiss kita!!! Magandang week na ito! (Good this week) Hehe okay no more Tagalog. How are you my beautifuls? I miss you all! This is our last week before transfers. Sister Hynes has been here for 7 ½ months so she may be transferred to another area – she has only been in 2 areas and she has 5 ½ months left in her mission! I'm excited but nervous! This week has been an awesome one, mainly because we FINALLY got to watch two sessions of General Conference. I am such a missionary nerd now, it's official! I was more excited for General Conference than I am for Christmas! 

As for the events of the week.

Randoms: Sister Hynes and I figured out this week that there is no number for 911 here...that's comforting! Also there has been a bit of crime in the area unfortunately..there was a rape that happened the other night by our investigators home..and two weeks ago a drunk man shot his 38 year old son and killed him..His son left 6 kids and now a widow..So sad, and the worst part is that nothing happened to the man that killed him..It is so corrupt here..Another thing, we went to the bukid (rice fields) the other day and there was a kalebow (asian water buffalo) standing in the middle of our path.  Usually kalebow's are nice so we start walking up to go around it and it starts sprinting side to side not letting us through. It stopped, so we walked forward more, and then it proceeded to do this again. Luckily the owner came out and grabbed him by the rope he was tied to and tried to pull him out of our way, I was recording it because I had a feeling he was going to run again, and boy was I right. Except this time, he ran over his owner! She was this little old lady, at least in her 60's. I got scared so bad though when this happened that I ran while recording it so you see the kalebow running at her but then I miss the part when it hits her! I was so disappointed, but don't worry, she was okay, just shocked. Poor thing, it was pretty funny though haha. 

Investigators: Our investigators are on a bit of a rollercoaster right now, things will be extremely good with all of them one week, then the next it seems like all hope has been lost, but we are hopeful and love them all nonetheless :) The Sevillaga Family has been a really big focus for us lately, we have been told to focus on the families. They have SO MUCH potential. Things have been a little bit rocky lately because Michael, (baptized two weeks ago) has a crush on Sister Hynes and he has decided he wants nothing to do with us anymore and doesn't want to go to church and has totally turned his back on us. His parents have come to the conclusion that this is because transfers are coming up next week and he is trying to protect himself from getting hurt if she leaves. But, we continue to go to their house almost daily, we send him a scripture of the day everyday, we will not give up, because we know he has a testimony and he made a covenant with Heavenly Father when he was baptized. Sister Hynes and I are not losing faith in any of our investigators no matter their struggles, there is a time for everyone. I studied in preach my gospel in personal study and loved this quote, "If you raise your expectations your effectiveness will increase, your desire will grow, and you will be able to follow the Spirit better." As missionaries we always have to have patience and love. President Hinckley said, "Do your best, your very, very best, say your prayers, work hard and leave the harvest to the Lord." This is what we will do, we know that Heavenly Father is aware of all of our investigators and as we are obedient and put our all into our work, our investigators will be blessed.

The rest of the Sevillaga's are doing great, the youngest Clarence has a baptismal date, we are just trying to work on teaching him all the lessons and getting him to church. The Sevillaga's cousins John Mark and Jay Ell both have baptismal goal dates as well, their only problem is they can't go to church on Sunday because they have to watch their grandma who has diabetes. So lots of problems but we know when there is a desire there is a way. :) We have this adorable investigator named Denmark, he is 13 and lives with his cousin and uncle. The rest of his family lives out in the Bukid of Rabanes, he doesn't live with them because they live too far from his school. Apparently Denmark has been sharing everything that we teach him with his family and then referred his family to us. When we went to visit them they were SO EXCITED to see us. He has TEN siblings, another amazing family to work with, turns out his mom is a less active as well, she was a member for TWENTY YEARS! You can imagine how excited we were. They told us that Denmark was supposed to spend the night that night but he went home because "the sisters were coming to visit him so he needed to be home." That is dedication to hearing the gospel! He barely ever sees his family but went home early because we were coming. That made me so happy, he's awesome. We are planning on giving him a baptismal goal date this week! 

General Conference: Okay as much as I have seen of this General Conference has been absolutely AMAZING. It's no surprise to me that the main themes of this conference that stood out to me was families, the Plan of Salvation, and how our decisions that we make everyday effect our eternity. I loved what Dallin H. Oaks said that we must think less about the temporal things, more about the eternal. It is so easy to get caught up in the every day things of life, but it's so important to take a step back and look at the big picture and figure out our priorities in life and what REALLY matters most. 

Exchanges: I went on exchanges with the sweet Sister Enguito this week! She is from an island in the south of the Philippines, Mindinau, yep that's the place where you see youtube videos of Americans being taken hostage and people cutting their heads off. It's forbidden for ANY foreigners to serve missions there, only Filipinos. But she is the sweetest and we had an absolute blast. We are both trainees (new missionaries in training) so it was definitely a test of our faith to go out and teach all that we knew from the past three months. It's always such a breath of fresh air to have a new companion for the day. The spirit was SO STRONG the whole day, she is such an amazing example to me and I love her! 

Foreign Language: One of our investigators, Edgar, is extremely blunt to me always and loves to criticize my Tagalog. Everytime we go to his house and ask who he wants to pray, he always says Sister Pilkington because she needs to work on her Tagalog, I just smile and laugh because it's true! Haha, BUT, this week was my break through week, ALAS! He asked me to say the prayer so I did, then we taught him the lesson of course, afterwards he goes, "Sister Pilkington, are you applying for dual citizenship here in the Philippines?" Super confused I looked at Sister Hynes like "who, me? No...why?" then he goes, "Because you are becoming SO fluent in Tagalog!" I wish I had recorded the moment, I could've just hugged him. It truly is amazing how week to week we as missionaries improve on these foreign languages, the Lord is truly blessing us when we are obedient! Ahh, finally I am figuring this language out, so happy! But I know that it is only through Him above that this is possible. Happy. Grateful. Yippeee. 

Spiritual Experiences: This week we were at the Sevillaga's and were hoping to teach John-Mark or Michael, but they weren't home. John-John (19) was the only one home and he has only listened to us teach once now, I was nervous to ask him if we could teach him but felt that I should. He smiled and agreed (we used to have to try to drag him out and he would NEVER come, but this time I didn't even have to ask he was so willing!) He made his friends come sit down and listen as well. We shared a scripture with them about prayer and the conversation led into why Sister Hynes and I decided to go on missions, we were able to bear our testimonies on our own personal conversions and how we got to where we are now. This is the strongest I have felt the Spirit on my mission thus far. As I was bearing my testimony about this gospel, I told them how big of a sacrifice it really is to serve a mission, and if I didn't know this gospel to be true I wouldn't give up 18 months of my life to be here preaching to the people. Is it really a sacrifice though? Yes, but in reality it is such an OPPORTUNITY. I told them how grateful I am to serve, and they were blown away. It felt so good to share something that I hold so near and dear to my heart with them. 

To you my sweet and dear friends and family I bear witness that this gospel is true. This life is so hard, and we need to cling to this gospel to get through our trials and hardships. This gospel is THE ONLY WAY. "Our trials and afflictions will be but a moment. If we endure it well, God will exalt us on high."-Richard J. Maynes. Always remember that we are children of God, we can never stop being children of God, and he wants more than everything for us to return to him. Always remember that the decisions you make each day will affect your life for eternity, and all future generations as well. 

I loved the poem that Thomas S. Monson used in his talk in the Sunday Session of general conference, he said:

 “Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.”

We must have a firm foundation in these latter days, the world is becoming so evil, and our children, friends, and family need us to be examples to them now more than ever. Be strong, stand tall, and be representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in ALL that you do.

I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God, it is true, I have read it, pondered it, and prayed about it. This gospel is true. I could not call you my friends if I didn't share my testimony of it's truthfulness.  If you want a change in your life, or advice, the Book of Mormon is THE book to read. I love you all - have a great week!

Sister Pilkington

<3 xoxo

This is Susan, Chelsea's mom.  I wanted to explain why the missionaries and members were not able to watch General Conference the entire weekend as planned.  The General Conference of the church is held the first weekend of October.  There are 5 sessions - 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.  Because of the time change from Utah to the Philippines, conference is recorded and played at the meetinghouses the following weekend.  The members and missionaries watch the 5 sessions the following weekend.  However, there was a typhoon that hit the Philippines last Friday.  The heavy rains and winds caused  power outages on Saturday and conference could not be watched.  Thankfully power was restored by Sunday and they were able to watch the 2 sessions on Sunday.  Hopefully all will go well and the 3 sessions from Saturday will be broadcast in Chelsea's mission this coming Saturday.

Many of you may have heard that there was an earthquake in the Philippines yesterday.  It happened on the island of Cebu.  All of the missionaries in that area are safe and accounted for.  However, I understand many other civilians lost their lives and the infrastructure in numerous cities was damaged.  This earthquake was approximately 450 miles SE of Chelsea's mission - Chelsea is safe and doing well.  I would ask you to pray for those affected by the earthquake and the Filipino people as they have suffered so much with natural disasters this fall.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

~Susan