Garden City, Kansas
Companion: Elder Yardley
Monday,
March 7, 2016
Hola familia y amigos!
I am here in Kansas in a town of about
30,000 people, Garden City.
It's very far west in Kansas, about 3-4
hours away from mission home
in Wichita. We have had some incredible
weather and smells wonderful.
It smells like "miracles"...
Cow poop hahaha. My companion is Elder
Yardley, he is from a very small town
Beaver, Utah. He is 6'7" and has
been out about 20 months on his mission.
We have been okay, we are a
bit different from each other. He is
Spanish speaking but hasn't been
in any Spanish speaking areas until now.
Our ward is very missionary
minded and is half English half Spanish.
President Bell is so incredible. When we
met him at the airport he
gave one of the biggest hugs ever. Also
before leaving for Garden he
gave me a massive hug. He is very
passionate about mission work and is
so inspired. I guess one of the members
of the quorum of the 70 came
out and said that he's met every single
mission president in the
world, and that we have the best one out
of all the presidents he's
met. I didn't spend too much time with
him, but he is pretty awesome.
I won't lie this week has been extremely
hard. One of, if not the
hardest week of my life. Missions are no
walk in the Lilly field. I
definitely knew that the mission was
going to be hard, but I thought
that would be more from the rejection
and the people , mocking us, not
finding success. Nope. There is a lot
more to it. It's been hard to
feel at home and get comfortable,
definitely not in the MTC anymore.
I've really been missing my family a lot
this week. Which is odd
because I've never really struggled too
much with at college nor when
I was in the MTC. It's really been hard.
A big culture shock, people
here are so different than anywhere I've
ever been. There are some
nice areas but mostly very very poor
areas. We aren't speaking as much
Spanish as I was hoping we would. I'm
trying to study my butt off but
you can only study a language so much.
I'm trying to work on getting
Elder Yardley and other Spanish speaking
missionaries to speak Spanish
with me.
Anyways, Sunday was exactly what I
needed. We got 2 people on date for
baptism. We did get a family who dropped
us, the parents were not
liking us coming over anymore. That was
heartbreaking because the kids
were so ready. We did a lot of member
visits and got a lot of
referrals. Being in members homes is
such a wonderful feeling the
spirit that is there. I want all of you
to know that life WILL be
tough and we will endure really hard
things but they are all for our
experience and there are lessons for us
to learn. The way we endure is
by getting down on our knees and wrestle
with the Lord. Now sometimes
we don't always receive that instant
peace and comfort but I know that
it will eventually come, with time.
There are lessons that need to be
learned as we endure through the hard
times, D&C 122:7, "And if thou
shouldst be cast into the pit...if thou
be cast into the deep... If
fierce winds become thine enemy; if the
heavens gather blackness...and
above all, if the very jaws of hell
shall gape open the mouth wide
after thee, know thou, my son, that all
these things shall give thee
experience, and shall be for thy
good."
I testify this is true. There's a reason
for all of our struggles in
life, they are there to help us progress
towards becoming more like
our Father in Heaven. I know I'm here to
serve the Lord with
everything I have. I am here to leave my
family for a short amount of
time so others may be with their
families for eternity. This church is
true, otherwise I would not be out here
serving a mission for two
years. Please keep the missionaries I'm
your prayers, they need them.
¡Les Quiero mucho!
Con amor,
Elder Pilkington
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