Area: Mandama
Companion: Sister Rossberg
Sister
Training Leader
Monday, June 2, 2014
Hello
hello. \
Where to
start..Monday evening we got a call that one of the other sisters recent
converts' son was in the hospital. His name is Ferdinand Pinoy, he is 24 and
suffers from downsyndrome. He was in the hospital because he had broncitis. We
went to go visit him with our bishop in the hospital that evening. He was high
in spirits, but would cry a lot from the pain. We did all we could to make him
smile, gave him lots of high fives, told jokes, and before we left, bishop gave
him a blessing of comfort and strength through his sickness. Unfortunately, we
got a call the following day saying that he had passed away. His heart swoll up
over night causing him to have a heart attack. Life is too precious, we cannot
take one second for granted. Last night there was a beautiful funeral service
for him. It began in tears, but ended with smiles. I am so grateful that I know
of the truthfulness of the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was strong as we were
all reassured that he is in a better place now, far from pain and sickness. My
faith and hope of the Plan of Salvation continues to grow each day, how blessed
we are for the knowledge that we have that families indeed can be together
forever.
Although
this area of Mandama is the smallest area I have ever served in, Sister Rossberg
and I still sought to it to go hard in the paint this week. We achieved all of
the goals that we set, and it has been fun to see my weaknesses turn into
strengths as I have been learning more than ever this transfer. We made
some plans for our companionship this week--we are trying to be as hardworking
as possible being that our time is flying by faster than we would like here in
the mission. One of them was to talk to at least 10 people every day and invite
their family to listen to our message. We would make them reject us twice. We
would ask if we could share with them right now, if they said no, we would ask
if we could come back another day. If they said yes we would set an
appointment, if they said no we would move on to the next house. We made lots
of great contacts, some we were able to teach on the spot, others we have set
up appointments to return to their families. One evening this week, we were
doing our nightly planning and were counting how many people we had invited to
learn that day. It was 9:20 pm and we realized we had only talked to 9 people.
We immediately got up, ran out the door and went to the first family we saw
outside and invited them to learn and asked if we could come back to teach them
sometime. We made it back to the house at 9:29. Something I realized in that
moment is the importance of not just setting our goals, but doing all we can to
achieve them. We have found lots of success this week just from simply opening
our mouth and inviting all to learn.
The Llego
Family is still on fire. They came to the baptism that the other sisters had
this Wednesday. The next day we went to visit them and they said they are so
excited for the day when they will all be baptized as well. We then taught them
about eternal marriage and being sealed in the temple. Brother told us that our
gift to them has been bringing them the knowledge of this gospel into their
lives and bringing their family closer together. He said his gift to us will be
them being baptized, and later sealed in the temple. We were beaming when he
told us that. We are soo excited for them and it is so rewarding to see them
continue to progress. Thank you for those of you that have been praying
for them, and please continue, this family needs our prayers!
We also
found a new family yesterday, the Manalac family. They happen to be the cousins
of some of the members in my old area that I love! So it was fun to make that
connection with them. They have some friends and family that are members and
they are super open to hearing about our message. We will be going back to them
this week and hopefully they will come to church this Sunday!
Sister
Rowley, you would like to know that it's not just on the facebook page that we
get called twins. We visited one of our less actives the other day that said he
saw some missionaries the other day. We were trying to figure out who they were
so he started explaining them. He said she was tall, had brown hair, then looks
and me and goes, "SHE LOOKS LIKE YOU! IS THAT YOUR TWIN SISTER?" I
pulled out a picture of me and Sister Rowley and he just nods smiling,
"yepp that's her!" He was disappointed to find out we are not
related.
Other
than that, we are doing well here in Mandama. My days are all running together
now, I can't even keep track of the months now. I still keep saying it's March.
I love this work. I know it's the most important work that we as members can
ever be involved in. I love you all and am so grateful for your love and
constant support!
Love
always,
Sister
Pilkington
P.s. Sister
Rossberg got slow motion bit by a dog the other day, she just turns around and
yells, "Ow! That was rude" to the dog, wipes some alcohol on it, and
walks away. She's a champ haha love her.
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