Dec 8, 2015

NOVEMBER 2015

We ate so much this weeeek!!!!!
I literally almost threw up on a members couch during dinner. But it
was thanksgiving so I expected nothing less. It was quite the eventful
week!!


Last year, the day before Thanksgiving was rough! I was on exchanges
in a high society part of town. Everyone yelled at us because they
were prepping food and taking to family and all that jazz. This year
we were super productive! It was awesome. We started off by doing a
service project. We cleaned out a woman's back patio. There was
just a mass pile of dirty dishes, cigarettes, piles of ash, garbage,
and complete with maggots and spiders. It's okay. We made it out okay.

Thursday we taught our investigator E. He's so awesome! I think I
told you about him at some point. He is getting baptized soon. He
found us. We meet with him like every day. He's great! Other than that
we didn't do much else but eat, I'm ashamed to say. We had 4 dinner
appointments. We also got left overs. And for some reason, the rest of
the week we got double dinners. Everyone just gave us food! I've seen
better days. But it was very kind! They're looking out for us. We also
got fed Guamanian food at one point, and learned more about that
culture. That was good times. Oh and we were teaching a family over
dinner with the elders because the mom is less active and their YSA
daughter is less active. So the dad invited us all over. We taught the
restoration...which is not an easy task with 5 people. Then we got fed
the fanciest feast I've ever had in my life. Then he whipped out To-go
boxes to fill up. Madness!


Sunday was awesome because everyone came to church!!! That always
makes a missionary's week. And! A Savior is Born video came out!!! If
you haven't watched it, watch it!!! Then discover why!


So that's basically it for this week. However, I do want to add what
I'm thankful for. I didn't get to last week.
I am so grateful for so many things this year! I'm grateful for the
Book of Mormon and a living prophet today. That is how I have my
testimony of the Gospel. So are so many minor things that people can
argue or misinterpret. However, I know that if I follow the prophet's
counsel I will never be lead astray. It hasn't so far. I can have
complete trust in Him. That proves to me that we have a loving
Heavenly Father. I am grateful for that. I'm also grateful for my
companions and the lessons I've learned from them. I'm grateful for my
area. We have wonderful members and many people to teach, which I am
so very grateful for. I'm also grateful for the chance I've had to
serve in a YSA Ward or branch throughout mission so far. It has helped
me love and appreciate the Gospel at this time in my life. I also have
a deep charity for the missionaries I've had the opportunity to serve
with. They are some of The most amazing people I've met, my dearest
friends, and I'm lucky to serve with them. Lastly I am so grateful for
my family and their support and being raised in he Gospel. I am so
blessed to have had this Gospel my whole life and now gaining my own
testimony of it.


Thank you so much for all of the support!
Love Sister Pilkington



DECEMBER 2015

Hello!
I very much look up to the Schmitts. After crazy things from last week he made us feel more loved
and valued. Not torn down.


So to sum everything up, we have so many miracles happening! This
weekend, C should be getting baptized. She was our
investigator for Grossmont but we have to pass her off to Bostonia.
However that has been an ordeal! We brought President Schimpf (the
stake president) to our lesson to explain to her why. Anyway it was a
great lesson. She took it well. She planned on baptism this Saturday
night! Then we called the Bostonia elders and that didn't work out.
It's all just messy because we're passing her off at the same time as
her baptism.

The trickiest part of everything is this weekend, Elder L. Whitney Clayton is coming for a big mission conference. It's a big deal! We're spending all day cleaning, prepping, etc. it was supposed
to be Thursday and Friday (we were going to the Friday conference). But now it's split between Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So it all depends on whether or not Catherine is getting baptized Saturday to know when we can go. But she is waiting on her son getting work off. So....it all hangs in the air.


But the good news is E and A, for YSA, are getting baptized next week!!  Also I love the Christmas spirit going on. For the past 14 months, my  entrance music has been "Sisters" from White Christmas, but especially at this point of the year. We've also been focusing on the phrase "Fear Not" that is throughout the scriptures. At this time, with the things in the world, there is much to fear. But because A Savior was born, we don't need to fear. The small things we fear are temporal and
will fade over time. The large, lasting fears are taken care of by our Savior. Don't forget Him.


Have a wonderful week!!
Love, Sister Filkington (new name again!)

Oct 27, 2015

Hello!


This week was great! We saw a lot of progression!  We started off the week with exchanges. I went to Chula Vista with Sister Cava which is always a good time. However, I was sick. There
were a few lessons where I got pretty drippy. No worries. I kept it
together.


We also drove past TJ at night and it looked like a big
carnival with no ferris wheels. So many lights all connected together!
I went on splits with Sister Carrisoza! We taught J which was fun.

There's a recently returned less active person in the home Ward. He's the
best and he always bakes for us. He's working on his temple recommend.
His wife isn't a member and every time we go over we invite her to sit
with us and she politely declines. We think it's because she's old and
frail. But we went by there to see her husband on splits and he wasn't
there. So we taught just her! That was big!  Then we went back the next
day and taught both of them!


Meanwhile my companions were teaching the S family. Please pray for them.
The wife is who we're teaching.


We had a meeting this week with Brother Hemmingway, the director of
Proselyting. It was good stuff. Always point to the gospel. The best
thing we can do for these people is point them to the gospel and help
them live it. Everything else will fall into place.


Saturday was awesome! We taught L.  She is progressing! It's
amazing to see the change in people. She said that people have been
mentioning that she's been different for the past few weeks. That's
when she started progressing! The same thing happened with J. The
gospel changes lives for the better!

Later that day we went on a 3-way split. Crazy stuff!


Then Sunday, J gave her first talk in sacrament meeting and a
less active member got his temple recommend! Also D passed the
sacrament!! (I might have already mentioned that) but good things are
happening.


Happy Halloween! Don't forget to read and play. And don't mess with
Wigi boards. (Ouija boards-LOL!)

Love!
Sister P

                                                              Halloween Costume

                                                                YSA Halloween Party

 

 

Sep 23, 2015

So, cool things happened this week. It was quite eventful!
So first I'll start off with the update on our investigator who we
thought was Anti-Mormon.  We had an awesome member who offered to drive us
up to Lakeside to pick up the investigator then we would meet at the
church building. So we picked her up and we're making our way to the
church building. None of know where we're going. Also it's dark, and
late, and raining.....and our member is wearing sunglasses while
driving.........I don't know!  Then! We end up driving in the dark
woods in the middle of nowhere. For real! We were far from
civilization, we didn't have any cell service to ask other
missionaries for directions (our member's GPS was taking us crazy
places) and it kind of looked like we were abducting our investigator.
It was awful! (You probably had to be there. My words don't give
it justice) We never did make it to the church building but we did make it
out alive!   The first thing she says when she gets our of the car
is "I'm moving Friday, can I get baptized before then?"  We
think she just had a testimony of the welfare program. But she moved
and we didn't hear from her again....Oh Well!

The other thing that happened is J! She's a YSA that the Elders passed
off to us a few weeks ago. She is friends with a recent convert in
their Ward. We met with her a lot this week. She's been praying
about when she should get baptized. There have been a lot of issues
pop up. Mostly family support. But she has decided to be baptized this
Saturday!! Her family isn't completely behind her but she is doing it
anyway!! She's so awesome! And it was a miracle because we had lesson to pass her off with the Elders and they were on exchanges. The Elder who
isn't normally in that area happened to be a convert and has a very similar story.
That really motivated her. It was a really cool experience. It's also
another thing I love about YSA because there were 5 missionaries and
J. It was pretty normal for her. But it was like we're all just
friends sitting together talking about the Gospel. It was just cool!

We also met with J who is ALSO getting baptized this weekend for
the Grossmont Ward! He is so awesome! It's been really cool to see him
gain a testimony and have this desire to learn. And another miracle.
He gave us his coffee pot!! Well we asked for it so he wasn't tempted
and he was reluctant at first but eventually he gave it to us!

And...another miracle! We are now teaching these 2 10-year old twin girls!
Their parents are members but want them to make the decision for
themselves. They don't really come to church but they love the
missionaries. Another cool moment was watching the parents teach their
children the gospel.

Okay I think that's the majority of the events this week. All good
things. Thank you again for everyone's support. Also I'm sure I've
mentioned this a bunch but I am just so grateful for the prophet. It
doesn't matter what you believe in, following the prophets council
will always bring joy. It might not be easy but he will never lead you
to anything less that joy. Ok that's my cheesy side note of the week.


Have a lovely day!!
Sister P

Battalion Museum

Battalion Museum

Battlion Museum

 Battlion Museum

Exchanges

 Exchanges

What a Discussion looks like

He gave us his coffee pot

Morning Run with Pres

 Morning Run with Pres

Morning Run with Pres

Morning Run with Pres

Sep 1, 2015 20th BIRTHDAY!!

Hello family and friends!! So life continues to be INSANE!!! Juggling
2 wards...in a trio...but life continues to be a party. We've been
going on a lot of splits with sisters which has been awesome, but also
interesting. We laugh a ton because that's how we cope....haha it's
really not bad at all. But we do laugh a lot. We've been able to teach
a lot of people this past week! One of them being C who got
baptized on Saturday!! She's 77 and she is a crack up!! She is just
exuberant about the Gospel! She just keep saying "I'm just so happy I
found the true church!" She's the best! One miracle of the week was
because we white-washed into the Grossmont Ward.  We didn't know anyone
so when we were trying to find people to teach with us we just based
it off of callings. But luckily the Lord knows his children and the
only available ones for the people we were teaching turned out to hit
it off right away with the investigator and they're best friends!!
It's awesome!


Sunday was also my first time in a Family Ward in a year. (Last Sunday
was Stake Conference so trying to meet everyone in the Ward was still
a struggle. This week was better.) but it was really fun. We broke up
our companionship so we could cover both wards at the same time. Of
the things I'm most excited about is serving with the youth. We went
and talked with the Young Women in church, then Sunday night our Bishop
fed us and afterwards he had a Fireside with the youth.   He wanted
us to have a Q and A with them about missions. It was awesome!
Oh! But between our morning meetings and Grossmont Sacrament meeting I
realized that I didn't have my name tag. We were low on miles so we
literally ran home and back. We got there 5 min. before it started and were all
soaked in sweat. Pretty good first impression if I do say so myself!
By the end of church we were all exhausted!


Okay one last thing about fun family wards is we get to work with
families!! We met with a few less active families who are pumped to
have Sisters. I'm so excited! The Lord just really knows his children.
YSA is also up and running, it was just less emphasized because we were
trying to stay afloat, whitewashing in the home Ward.


I hope you all have a lovely week! Also thanks for all the birthday
wishes and encouragement!! You make my heart happy :)


Love, Sis. Bill Clinton (when I introduced myself this week to a man
on the street he literally thought my name was Bill Clinton. I died.)

                                                   Exhausted after a really long Sunday!

Aug 25, 2015

Hola! So crazy things happened this week! First of all my brother went
home from his mission,  plus my companion went home....so I got a little trunky.
But esta bien.

So I was taking over Santee YSA, still being an STL (Sis Training Leader) and was
pretty sure that Sister Wilson was going to be my companion. I was
also pretty sure that I was going to double cover/ white wash
Grossmont Ward after Elder Fraughton (my DL) went home. (that was his last
area) and all of those things happened! No surprises there. The big surprise was that
Sister Wilson and I are training a mini missionary, Sister Carrisoza!! It was been a blast!!!

Also this is my first family Ward! But luckily I'm still in a singles ward at the same time. Yay!!
It's been kind of crazy and hectic but oh so fun! I just love these Sisters!

So many miracles are happening. This Saturday we're having a
baptism for a woman named C. She's an elderly lady who is SO
excited to get baptized!!! She tells us every time we meet with her
how happy she is to have found the true church. I'll send pictures
next week. But she's the best! We also had Stake Conference. That was
a huge spiritual boost!! President and Sister Schmitt spoke. It was
fantastic. I want to emphasize the importance of the Priesthood.
Whether you are a member or not, God's authority is on this earth!!
This is proof that He loves His children! Of course he would do
everything he can for us. If you hold this authority, don't abuse it.
If you have access to this authority, don't take it for granted.

That's my soap box for the week.
 I love you all very much! Have a lovely week.

Sis. Pilk