Area: Floridablanca
Companion: Sister Echon
STL –
only one for zone!
Monday, February 3, 2014
Good
morning friends and family, (I guess good evening for you!)
First of
all I would like to give a shoutout to Auntie Tricia Moser, Grandma and Grandpa
Stouffer, and also to Grandpa's sister for the amazing packages they have sent
me! You all are really far too kind and I appreciate it so much. THANK YOU
THANK YOU!
So it's
been exactly a year since I got my mission calll...wait what? How has time gone
by SO FAST? yeah, pretty crazy! It feels like just yesterday I was driving home
from Costco with Savvy, Mads, and Heath and we got the text that my call was
waiting for me in the mailbox. Hours later we had skype set up and all of my
closest friends there when I read the sentence that changed my life, Sister
Chelsea Kay Pilkington had been assigned to serve in the Philippines Olongapo
Mission for a period of 18 months in the Tagalog language. And now, just like
that my mission is already almost halfway over. Wow.
This week
has been AMAZING. It started off with a really good zone meeting this week. We
had zone goal setting, where our zone leaders gave us some challenges. One was
that every single companionship was to have absolutely NO LESS than 10 new
investigators each week for the rest of the month. The second was that every
day we HAD to I2L at least 10 people. An I2L stands for invite to learn, this
is where we talk to people that we see, tell them who we are, a little bit
about our beliefs, and if they are interested set up a return appointment
to come share with them and their family sometime. Sister Echon and I are both
very competitive, so we took on the challenge and boy did we achieve this week.
We were able to find 13 new investigators, and we I2L'd 105 people. I have
never been so motivated so far on my mission, and it was a BLAST. It's not just
about the numbers for me, this challenge really made me learn as a missionary
that it's not really that scary to open my mouth and talk to EVERYONE. In fact,
it makes missionary work more worthwhile and fun, this is the way to find those
that are ready to hear our message. I don't know why I had it in my head that
people are just going to come grab me by my arm and beg me to come teach them,
my job as a missionary is to FIND them.
We were
able to find an incredible family this week that have had a LOT of trials in
their life. The Yumol Family. Their mom Georgina is a single mother, their dad
walked out on the whole family a few years ago, so she is left with four kids
to take care of. Her youngest son has severe asthma to the point that he can't
even walk around the house without gasping for air. They are dirt poor and have
little to no money, they spend all that they have on medical bills for their
poor little one. We have had three amazing lessons with them this week, which
always end in tears, and big hugs. They hug us like I know my parents will hug
me after my mission for not seeing me in 18 months. The oldest daughter Danicca
is 18, she is afraid of people, so she NEVER leaves the house. The last time
she left the house she was riding in a trike and the driver took too sharp of a
turn throwing her out of the side car and took off because he was scared. She
clings to me like a little three year old, she is so adorable and I love her so
much. She has such a strong testimony already, she reads the Book of Mormon
everyday and came to church on Sunday! Which is amazing for two reasons, one
she had to face a bunch of strangers and she is seriously so scared of people,
and two, she is a brand new investigator and is already progressing more than
our other old investigators. She is going to be baptized hopefully this
February if she comes to church three more times. The mom hasn't been listening
the past two times because she has been busy watching her son. We have lots of
hope for their family, we have invited them over to a family home evening later
tonight at the Ticsay Family's home, and we are very excited to see them
progress and find this gospel as a foundation for their broken family.
I went on
exchanges with my kabahay Sister Sekitoga this week from Fiji. It was so
awesome to be able to speak english every once in a while. She is the same
batch as Sister Rowley and is really an awesome missionary. She is practically
as fluent as me and is a very bold missionary. We had an awesome time. Some of
the highlights were when we I2L'd a little old lady, she kept telling us she
was 100 years old and kept crying saying she is going to die soon. We would try
to talk to her and share a little message with her but she would keep talking,
i'm not sure if she is deaf and didn't hear us or if she's just going a little
bit crazy. Her apo (granddaughter) came out of the house to tell us she is
actually only 91, haha poor lady, she is losing it a little bit. I also got
told by one of their investigators that I am twins with his niece, sweet, have
another Filipino twin haha. We also saw a volcano erupt, it was only a little
bit, not enough to make any damage, but enough to get a ton of ash all over the
neighborhoods. That was pretty cool seeing lava fly up in the air, don't worry
it was far away. Then when we went proselyting the next morning we saw a goat
get stolen! Who does that? Haha oh the joys of the Philippines.
Yesterday
in church our Branch President practically told the branch that he has asked to
be released and is anticipating his release this coming District Conference
even though he doesn't actually know that he's being released. He then released
the one of the young women's teachers from her calling (she was inactive for a
very long time and has just become active again) and he called her to be the
new Relief Society President! The best part about it, she was sitting next to
me, and she gasped when he read her name for the new Relief Society President.
Turns out she had no idea! HAHA. Man have I said that I love the Philippines
before?
So I
would like to leave you with my favorite scripture of the week from my personal
study. I have been continuing to study the life of Christ in the Bible. It has
been overwhelming as I read just how humble and loving He seriously is. I have
always known it, but really reading and pondering His life is incredible.
Matthew
18: 12-14
v 12
"How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone
astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains,
and seeketh that which is gone astray?"
v 13
"And if it so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, He rejoiceth more
of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray"
v 14
"Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of
these little ones should perish."
Your
Savior LOVES you. No matter who you are. No matter what your circumstances.
Rich or poor. Tall or short. Black or white. He LOVES you. He loves you so much
that if you go astray, He WILL come find you. I have felt my Savior's love more
present in my life now than ever before. I know that He lives, I have seen His
hand in this work. He wants His brothers and sisters to come back to the fold
of the gospel. I know that this church is true, and that no matter how far you
are off the path, there is ALWAYS a chance for you to come back. No better time
than the present than to return to Him.
I love
you all, have a great week!
Sister
Pilkington
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