How great is our Calling!

Companion:  Sister Lim

Area:  Mandama

Sister Training Leader

                                                               Monday, September 8, 2014

Hello Friends and Fam, 

Another good week here in Mandama. Full of Adventure. Bearing of Testimony. Blessings. Happiness. Beautiful Nature Walks. Inviting Others to Learn. And of Course, WORKING.

beautiful treeee

natureeee.

Ocampo family came to church again for their second time. Two more weeks and their dad Arnold will be considered a less active returned. Leslie and her two sons Owen and Oliver are still praying, reading, and coming to church, trying to search for themselves and gain a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. We are hoping to get them baptized this September if things continue to go this well. 

Gemma and Sister Lim!  We like taking short cuts through the bukid :)

We were blessed with some new families this week. There are two couples that I am extremely excited about. One is the David Family, Alan and Irene, they are Methodist. Irene is an elementary school teacher and her husband Alan is called head teacher--he basically has the same role of a principal but he's just over a smaller school so it has a different name. We taught them Saturday afternoon, even though they were very busy they let us into their home. Irene was a little bit shy when it came to the topic of the gospel, she doesn't know a whole lot about the Bible and such so she was a little embarrassed to answer questions. However, Alan is super outgoing and had lots of really good questions. We were able to teach the whole Restoration to them in our first visit and we got a return appointment with them where we are going to discuss the role of the Book of Mormon. They are very excited for us to return and we are looking forward to working with this cute family. They even treated us to some bread and drinks after, they're very sweet. They have 3 daughters, one has down syndrome and is 13, then the other two are 11 and 3. 

Angie Sanchez - she's the cutest.
Nancy's daughter

The other couple we are working with is Nora and Max Balmas. They too are new investigators that Sister Lim found on splits last Sunday. Nora is FULL of questions, and they aren't probing questions where she is just trying to find a fault in the church, but real, genuine questions. Five years ago she converted from Catholicism to Born Again. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel as well, and both Sister Lim and I bore testimony that we know Joseph Smith is a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that this is the only true church on the face of the earth. While Sister Gemma was testifying the same thing, Nora broke through with some awesome questions. She said that she noticed all three of us bearing testimony of the same things and that we know without a doubt they are true. She starts asking how we know without a doubt it's true? How if we have never met Joseph Smith we know he is a true prophet? How she can come to know the same things? This is any missionaries dream investigator, she WANTS to know the truth, and sincerely at that. We of course encouraged her to read the Book of Mormon, come to church, and to PRAY. Prayer is KEY. Through prayer we are able to find the answer for ourselves through the help of our Heavenly Father and the Spirit. Prayer is essential to conversion. We were able to share with her how we came to know the church to be true. Even though I was raised in the church, I still had to go through my own conversion process, as do each of us.

District Meeting time

We LOVE that we are working with more families, especially because our faith is so based on helping to strengthen the family unit and bring families to understand what ordinances they must complete in order to attain eternal life. 

Beautiful, love our new area.

We spent our weekend exploring more of our "new area" that we were given by the other sisters here in Mandama and there are a billion houses, so we are super excited to keep tracting and finding the elect. I know the church is true without a doubt in my mind. I'm so grateful for my calling, I know that even though I may not be a full time missionary forever, that all members are forever missionaries. Take the opportunity to bare testimony to your friends, neighbors, even the grocer at the check out line. You  never know who the Lord has prepared, open your mouths and invite them to come join us. 

How great is our Calling.

Have a great week everyone.

Mahal,

Sister Pilkington