All Out, All Heart, One More

Area:  Floridablanca

Companion:  Sister Echon

Sister Training Leader

                                                               Monday, March 24, 2014

HELLO AGAIN. 

So being that I have officially hit my halfway mark I had a sort of mid-mission crisis so to say. But it was a good crisis to have, I realized just as fast as my  mission started it is going to end. It reminded me of my Rage Soccer team motto, "All Out, All Heart, One More." I have decided to apply that to my mission and leave it all out on the field so to say. I am so motivated to do everything that I can to leave my mission better than I found it. I came across a quote by Elder Holland, "God doesn't care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and with His help, where you are willing to go." I am willing to do anything and everything for the Lord, hence why I am out here. I LOVE MY MISSION. Anyone preparing to go, get it in the mind set to literally leave everything about home behind, focus, and serve with all you have. You only get this chance once. Do it right. 

As for some updates, we have some baptismal goal dates coming up. Brother Uy and his son Seth were supposed to be getting baptized this Saturday, but are still trying to overcome their addiciton to coffee so that date will need to be pushed back. Then there is sister Danikka Joie and Kristine Cunanan that will be getting baptized on April 5. 

Danikka Joie is the sister I was telling you about last week how we just KNOW she has been prepared by the Lord for this gospel. We have only taught her three lessons and she has already read from the Introduction of the Book of Mormon, the testimonies of the witnesses and Joseph Smith, and to 1 Nephi 4 in one day. Amazing. She has been to church twice now and just LOVES it. Her parents both said she can get baptized if she wants to, it's her choice, so it's awesome to have parental support. She also has talked to her classmates already about our church and wants to come with us to go teach them! She is golden I tell you. Love her. 

We also taught the Baol family this week, new investigators, two of them are cousins and they are going to school to become pastors. It makes the lessons extremely fun because they are super super intelligent, especially when it comes to the Bible. It is fun to watch them respond to our message, and they keep asking us to come back because they have such a desire to know more. The one thing that really got them was when we asked how old they were, then asked if the whole 30 years they have been going to their church, if their pastor has ever asked them to pray to know if their church was true? Well that about knocked them off their chairs, these two men are extremely talkative, but that question had them QUIET. We then explained to them that we have that freedom to ask our Heavenly Father if our church that we go to is true. People will lie, people will say their own church is true even if it's not, but God will not lie to us. They accepted our invitation to pray about if their church is true, we also challenged them to pray about our church as well, we are going to go follow up with them this week. 

Sister Echon celebrated her 21 birthday this week. She got a little bit homesick because she missed the traditions of birthdays at her home. Apparently every birthday even if her mom doesn't have money she will buy sister Echon lots of chocolate and decorate her bed. Well I was unaware of this tradition but made her a card and decorated her bed with chocolate at lunch time. Sister Echon went up to the room and saw it, then screamed out SALAMAT SISTER, AY SALAMAT! (which means thank you) She then ran down the stairs and hugged me and started sobbing. She looked at me and told me how touched she was and how she never would have expected that from anyone. She said it made her day complete, even though her family wasn't here, she got her family tradition on her birthday. It was such a special moment, something so simple that meant so much. Bonding moment for sure. Love her!

Not sure if you remember maybe a month ago me telling about the American guy from Arizona that lives here in our ward. He introduced his girlfriend Kathryn to us at church my first Sunday here and we have been teaching her ever since. Well Kathryn has gained such a strong testimony and wants to get baptized now so bad that she is sending Kevin home so that she can live the law of chastity and be baptized. Now that is some faith! Not sure when Kevin will be going home but we are very excited for the two of them for their righteous decision.

We had an interesting experience this week. We saw two Jehovah's Witness missionaries walking in front of our apartment heading in the direction we were going. We showed up to our first appointment and there they were too! Four missions from two different churches on the door step of our investigator. That was awkward but kind of funny too. Our investigator was so embarrassed she told us all to leave haha! 

One of our less actives is 13 and we showed up to visit him this week and the whole lesson he was hiding behind his Book of Mormon, finally we figured out why. The other day he was watching basketball and when his friends team scored he meant to pump his fist in the air but accidentally punched himself and knocked his tooth out! Hahah. 

We also ended up one of our lessons at 9 last Tuesday, the family REFUSED to let me and Sister Echon ride our bikes home because they said it was too late and there were too many drunk people out. So instead they tied our bikes to their little tricycle with blankets. I think we would've been more safe just riding our bikes home, haha I swore those bikes were going to fly off any second. I held onto them for my life the whole ride home. At least I'm protected, you can thank them when you come here mom :) 

Last thing I want to share was about District Conference this week. President Querido gets up to talk and asks the congregation if we are happy. If you knew President Querido, when he talks, even if he's mad, he is ALWAYS SMILING. And it's not just any smile, it is this huge happy smile, even if you're in the worst mood you can't not smile, he's just so sweet. So of course when he said that everyone giggles and cracks a smile. He then looks at us and says, you should be. We should be the happiest people on the earth. We know the true gospel. He challenged us as members to spread this gospel that we have, we know the happiness that it brings to us, why not share it with others? I challenge each of you as well to spread this gospel. And for those of you who don't know it yet, find it and receive it. I promise it will end the search you didn't even know you were on. 3 Nephie 12:14-16 

 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the light of this people. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." 

"Behold, do men light a candle and put it under a bushel? Nay, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to all that are in the house;"

"Therefore, let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven." 

The gospel is true. If you have it, spread it. If you don't, go find it.

Love you all, Have a great week!

Mahal Kita.

Sister Pilkington