9/30/14

One month! It seems like so much longer than that! Our Bishop is pretty great! He's lots of fun. I asked him if Mark (mutual friend between her Bishop and us) has told him about dad and he said that he's heard dad is delusional....because he's a Ute fan. We went to FHE last night. We can't usually go because it's on the beach but last night was at the church building. :) It was way fun! That's where the picture was taken.

 

 

 

I Love being in a YSA ward! It's only not fun at home cuz I have to be presentable. But here it doesn't matter! I'm good pals with a lot of the members already!

There are 2 recent converts who we spend a lot of time with. S, who was baptized last Saturday and I sent you a picture of her, and S. They were friends before and S introduced S to it. We spend a lot of time with them because they left behind all of their friends because they're always out partying. So we go out with them a lot. They also have big girl jobs so we go to nice places :) and R is a member in our ward and he's dating S. So he took us out to gelato with S.

 

 

Our new investigator, L, is probs the coolest person I've ever met! She's going to conference this weekend! I wanted to have you meet her but Idk if she'll have time. But I might just give her your number and you can meet up. She's in the military and she grew up Baptist. She investigated these things all on her own then found us :) It's like she's already a member. She already lives like she is. I'll also send a picture of her.

 

I think we fried Lars (the cricket living in their stove). I was cooking eggs and it smelled weird then we never heard him chirp again,...... so.... He died. We got Raid for the spiders. It was kind of gross, sprayed all over our patio, then a ton of spiders just came out of the cracks trying to survive, but we killed them. PS... if you spray a spider directly with Raid its legs will fall off and it will explode. So no more spiders :)

 

 

I'm doing really well. At first I was so tired it was crazy! Now I'm adjusting better. But I absolutely LOVE being a missionary. I have more confidence then I ever have! because I'm on the Lords time doing His work so I can't mess up cuz He's got my back.

9/21/14-La Jolla YSA Area!

It has been the CRAZIEST week! It feels like it's been months but I've only been in California for a week. 

 

 I actually met an elder last week, Elder Dahl, from Medina, OH! He knows the Kings, and the Taylors, and the Denbors. He's the sweetest.

 

My trainer is Sister Larson. She's super great. Two sister Larson's in a row. Haha. She's from Lehi. It's a party working with her all day. We are serving as the La Jolla YSA sisters and we live right behind the Temple so we meet with investigators there a lot for lessons. I could not have possibly been more blessed with a better trainer, area, or ward. We have a great time with the members. They're all pretty old for a YSA ward because they're living in La Jolla and all have big boy jobs because it is Expensive to live here!!! And they really like the social aspect of "going out to eat" so we get treated pretty nice. Everyone is like obsessed with the missionaries.  The only down side is our whole apartment complex is infested with spiders......like big fat papa spiders with massive webs and egg sacks. We have like 7 bottles of windex so we can kill them from afar. There's also a cricket living in our stove top. We can't really find him but he's super loud! We named him Lars.

 

There was a baptism already on my first Saturday in the area! She is super amazing! Her name is Sara. On Sunday another girl came up to us and told us she wanted to get baptized. Her name is Leilani. She is so amazing. She's in the Military and grew up Southern Baptist. She investigated everything herself and is dating an older member in a family ward. She's practically teaching us! So we're meeting her every day this week and hopefully we can have another baptism on Saturday! It's been so amazing!

 

 I love you!!!!

 Love Sis. Pilkington.

 

PS Sister Pilkington is hard for people to say apparently, so explain it like "milkington" but with a P and I use milking hand jestures.... like milking a cow...with udders.

 

PPS Oh...Paige, my SUU roommate....her cousin is my Zone leader! and his Companion was friends with Justin, and probs Thomas, in the MTC! Cray Cray!

 

                                          MTC District at the Mission Home-La Mesa, CA

                                                View from our apartment

                                                    Investigator at Temple

                                                                             Baptism

9/16/14-Leaving for San Diego!

                                                                      MTC District

                                                      Sister Larson & Sister Pilkington

                                                                   Sisters in District

                                                              Crazy Sisters in District

                                                         Sister Banks & Sister Pilkington

                                                                     MTC District

                                                   New San Diego Missionaries-9/16/14

                                                                      MTC District

                                                                       MTC District

Sister Pilkington-Week One-MTC

It's been a long few days but super great!!!! It's been intense but really fun! My whole district is brand new and we're all going to San Diego speaking English! I love them all!!! It's an adjustment to not say guys or dudes. The elders have decided to punch each other every time they say that word. Yesterday at church I was sitting in front of them and I turned around and called them guys so they all instinctively hit me. The president was not happy. I wasn't even phased, I just thought it was funny. We are learning some mind blowing doctrine and it's great! Sister Larson and I teach really well together. She is like a doctrine wizard and I just sit next to her and make the investigator feel loved. But we split up the work, don't worry ;). She also runs marathons so we run together! We run laps on the track and she passes me like crazy but it's still a good time! I've seen a TON of my friends here so that's been really comforting! Sorry I'm drawing a blank of everything that's happened. But being on a mission is not easy! But it is VERY rewarding! My advice to all of you is if you is if you have any sort of sorrow or burden at all, turn it over to the Lord. It seriously lightens everything and just brings a certainty that everything will be okay. I'm going to admit that I haven't prayed before like I have in the MTC. It's sometimes a hard thing to humble ourselves and ask for help but it is so necessary and peaceful. Even if there is someone reading this who isn't religious or believe in God, try doing this and see if your burdens are lightened. That's all I have time for. I love you all!!! 

Love, Sister Pilkington

 

 

Day 1-Entered the MTC

Suzie has officially started her mission today, 9/3/14.  She will be in Missionary Training Center until September 16th.  We were in San Diego as a family a few weeks ago and were able to visit the Mission Office.  They were all so excited to meet Suzie!  They gave us a tour of the office and showed us how the mission functioned.  We saw the supply room, files, etc.  They showed us her personal file which showed that she will arrive in the next transfer, 9/16.  She was also able to meet many of the sister missionaries.  They were all very nice and hoped that she would be able to stay with them when she arrived.  She is so excited to start this adventure!