Hola toda mis amigos y familia!,
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| Elders Busby, Pilkington and Sperry |
Wow. That´s all I have to say about these past few days.The MTC (CCM en español) has been very difficult but also such a blessing. I am in a trio meaning I have two companions. Elder Sperry and Elder Busby. Elder Sperry is from Heber City, Utah and is an excellent elder. He has a great understanding for the love of god and loves to focus on the love that he has for us. Elder Busby is from Chandler and is our District Leader! He loves the gospel and studied at BYU for 3 semesters. It´s really cool because we somewhat knew each other before through one of the soccer players for BYU. We were super excited when we found out we were compañeros. I also have two teachers Hermana Richards y Hermano Norton. They are seriously the best, Hermana Richards is very understanding and knows that we are going to struggle with the language, she has a lot of patience with us. Hermano Norton is soooooo funny he will always crack jokes in spanish and it makes everything so much better. It makes hearing spanish 24-7 bearable.
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| The District! |
Our first day was So hectic. Right as you walk in they keep sending you from one place to another. When they put my name tag on and said ¨welcome Elder Pîlkington¨I couldn´t help but get emotional. I was overcome by the spirit confirming to me that this is where I needed to be and that these next two years were going to be the best two years of my life. We had the sweetest welcome to the MTC because there was a broadcast for missionaries from 3 general authorities. All 3 of us thought that it was what every missionary got when they entered the MTC and then we realized this was a training meeting for every single missionary across the world. Elder Andersen spoke first and told us that we always need to testify of Christ and invite others to be baptized. That is our purpose of our mission to provide salvation for others and to save families. Elder Bednar was with a group of missionaries in Utah and he just absolutely went to work. He talked about the Holy Ghost and how we aren´t the teachers, the spirit is. We are absolutely NOTHING when it comes to the teaching other than the fact that we need to be worthy and obedient so that the spirit can work through us. We are the Lord´s conduit. Elder Oaks was the man. He Slammed us with what our purpose is as missionaries. "You are not called to preach what is politically correct or personally comfortable,” he said. “You are not called to invite people to join a social club whose rules are made by its members. You are called to testify of Jesus Christ and to invite people to do what He has required to come unto Him and walk the path He has defined by His doctrine to reach exaltation in the celestial kingdom.”
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| Sister Nelson and Elder Pilkington |
All of our classes are in spanish. Everything that we learn, is in spanish. We are in the intermediate class so everything is much faster paced and we are expected to learn very quickly. The gift of tongues is so real. I have been able to understand everything that the teachers are saying and to be able to speak really well. Obviously I don´t know a lot of words and it´s a lot of spanglish but it´s so cool to see the spirit helping me with the language. I was able to see Sister Nelson which was awesome, seriously the happiest moment when you see familiar faces. We joked around that we are seeing each other too much now that it´s getting annoying haha. I also saw Elder House (roommate at BYU), Elder Allen (lived next to me at BYU) and Elder Soper (in my ward at BYU). Seeing them made my day on Thursday I can´t explain how awesome it was to see them. Elder Allen would only speak in Spanish to me!! My companions and I have made a deal to only speak in Spanish wherever we are. All because of Elder Allen´s ejemplo. Gracias, Elder Allen. Our branch president is incredible, se llama President Swenson, he served in Spain and was mish prez in Chile. He reminds me of dad, is strict with some things but also understands that it´s good to have fun and not be super super strict. He is very loving as well, incredible I knew him for two hours and felt like he loved me and had known me my whole life. He told us that we have the most potential of any companionship he has ever seen come through his 4 years of being at the MTC. He expects big things from us and wants us to lift our district. Our district is awesome as well, he said this is the best district he has seen as well. He expects us to come out of the MTC and rock it. BUT he told us we could totally screw it up if we let that get to our heads and don´t put in the work. We have potential, but we haven´t fulfilled our potential. I am not taking this with any pride whatsoever, but instead I am taking it as motivation to work as hard as I can to exceed his expectations.
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| President and Sister Burgess with Elders Pilkington, Sperry and Busby |
We taught our first investigator se llama Angela. She is 16 years old, and man I absolutely butchered my part of the lesson, at least I feel like I did.... haha. It was all in spanish and Angela had an Argentine accent so everything sounded so different and she talked very quietly. (Angela is actually our teacher.. but Angela was a real person at some point in time, she was an investigator for our teacher when she served so we need to teach her as if she is a real investigator.) Elder Busby and Elder Sperry absolutely destroyed the lesson. I know I am being hard on myself and I need to be more patient with myself and the Lord. It was only the third day when we taught so it obviously was not going to be as good as I want it to be. It is a daily reminder that I am not even close to perfect and that I can´t do this on my own. I know that I am where I need to be and the Lord is giving me so many blessings. I feel his love daily. It is so awesome to see how whenever I feel upset or sad, the spirit instantly comes in and comforts me. I love the MTC, I love the work that I am involved in, and I love that I am here on my mission. Jesus is the Christ, he is our Savior, turn to him and he will bless you. I love you all. LES AMO UDS!!!!!!
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| Elders in the District |
Con Amor,
Elder Pilkington
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