Pilkington in the Heartland: January 2016

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Week #2 - Pez y Felicidad

Week #2

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Hola mis amigos!!

This week was seriously such an amazing week. People say that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days... that is some serious truth. Time is really starting to fly by, but it's only when we are working our butts off, once you start thinking about it that's when time seems to start to slow down. There are so many things that I would love to tell all of you but it's like my sister Chelsea said you can only really give the "tip of the iceberg", the other stories will just have to wait two years.

I just need to start off with what one of these Elder's in the computer lab just said. "There's been an earthquake in Anchorage!!!!!!!!!!! This is sick, so dope. SWAG!!" I couldn't help but bust up laughing, he was an interesting Elder. Anyways, our Trio is absolutely having a blast, my companions are the best missionaries, such a blessing in my life. They both are so prepared to be out here. So one of my great great great..... relatives was Joseph Smith's body guards when Joseph Smith, well turns out that Elder Sperry's great great great... relative was Joseph Smith's relative. Chances are our relatives knew each other. Also, Elder Busby and Elder Sperry are actually 4th cousins.

So I think I sugar coated last week, last week was incredibly hard. But as everyone said, make it to Sunday, well baby we made it to sunday and Sunday was the absolute best day ever at the MTC. Every Sunday and Tuesday we have devotionals from a wide amount of people, but this last sunday was from Elder Allen-Head of Missionary Work. He told us that he had planned a talk and as he walked into the MTC he felt he needed to toss his talk to the side and speak by the Spirit. That man had some extreme faith that Heavenly Father would tell him what we needed to say. Elder Allen was definitely inspired, everyone in our District after his talk was like "WOW THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO HEAR". That is a perfect example of why we need to listen to the promptings of the spirit. Elder Allen gave some advice that I had been given by my cousin Donnie Moser and my brother in Law, Hunter. There are four phases to missionary life:

1. Honeymoon- I LOVE EVERYTHING!! Food is great, companions are great, etc.

2. Hostile- I absolutely hate everything, start to question why you're here.

3. Grim and Bear it Phase(Like it)-start to like things 

4. Endure to the End(Love It)- you know you are here on the Lord's time and it's time to get to work.

He also started off by asking us where our hearts were. Were they back home, were they thinking about all the things we are going to be leaving behind? In D&C 4 it talks about how we need to "serve the Lord with all our heart". I loved this, he said it's okay to miss  family, that is natural but don't make them all that you are thinking about. It's natural to miss things back home, but you are on a mission. You are out here to serve the Lord for two years, so forget yourself and get to work!! He told us to have a focused, pure, locked, joyous, full of faith, meek heart. I loved that.

I would love to tell you details about this talk that we were able to watch after the devotional, it was Elder Bednar it's called "Characteristics of Christ". LIFE CHANGING. After this talk I was so pumped to get out and start teaching people about Christ. But most importantly I saw why I was on a mission. This mission isn't for me, it is for the people in Wichita, Kansas. During times that the we would turn inward, Jesus Christ turned outward. We need to think less about ourselves and more about serving other people and putting them first. AHH I wish I could talk more about his talk, I hope it's on lds.org... I don't think it will be because it was a devotional in the MTC.

Our investigators are progressing... FAST. We had a neat experience with Angela. When we were preparing our lesson the plan was to teach her Plan of Salvation. I felt very strongly we shouldn't teach her that but that we should teach her Gospel of Jesus Christ. I said a prayer and first thought that came to my mind is open up PMG, turned right to the first page of The gospel of Jesus Christ. WHAT?? I told my companions what had happened, so we all said a prayer together and just sat there after the prayer listening to the spirit, and we all felt very strongly we needed to change our lesson. Went in and taught her and it was EXACTLY what she needed to hear. Elder Sperry asked her if she would be baptized and she was all "well I know that its what I need to do, and its what God wants me to do but I jsut don't know it's abig decision." I told her that this is a big step, but it's a big step in the direction towards your Heavenly Father. That she needed to have faith in Jesus Christ and trust him and really pray with a real desire to know if this is what she would do. I then asked her again if she would be baptized and she said she needs to pray about it. So I then told her that we have a baptismal service on the 20th of February, will you prepare for this date? She committed to that. Our TRC investigator Hermana Cortez is hillarious. She always corrects our spanish which is awesome. Teaching her has been amazing, the spirit is absolutely raging when we teach her. 

Back: Elder chappel, Elder Despain, Elder busby, me, elder speedy

Front: Hermana Strode, Fillmore, Bullock, Schnelby(shes going calgary spanish speaking) wilson, freckleton(going to mesa VC)stephens (funniest sister EVER she always says the funniest things)

It's incredible how much our whole district has improved in spanish. I am starting to think in spanish, and Elder Sperry, Busby and I for some reason all woke up at the same time at like 4:30 today and started speaking to each other in spanish then went right back to bed. Without even thinking about it!! haha. Our teacher Hermano Norton is the man. He always gives such inspired lessons and you can tell he truly cares about us. OH!! FUNNY STORY. When we were teaching Hermana Cortez he was telling her that if she were to be baptized that she would receive"pez y felicidad". He told her her family would as well. He told her this like 4 times througohut the lesson. Well he was trying to say "paz y felicidad"(peace and happiness) but instead he said fish and happiness!! HAHAHA. So awesome, I shouldn't make fun of him because I just know that I am going to say something. Spanish is really coming along though, I can understand a lot of things now, it's not too difficult to understand our investigators. 

Temple day!!

Best time ever, never wanted to leave the Celestial room.

The temple was exactly what I needed.

I am so happy to be out here serving a mission. I know that there is no place that I need to be other than right here preparing to go and serve the people of Wichita. There are many trials ahead but even more so there are more happy times full of peace and joy ahead. I love this gospel. this church is true. I know that through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we can be forgiven of anything and that we can also feel of His love when we are struggling and going through difficult times. I testify that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith Restored Christ's church on the earth once again. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I love and miss you all!! Thank you so much for the support and love.

Con Amor, 

Elder Pilkington

P.S. Please tell Don Terry  I met an Elder Silva

P.S.S. Shout out to Carol Salmon for the gift package!

Elder Pilkington asked to attach a link of the mormon message "Need Answers? Go to the Source".  I have put it below his scripture of the week.

Scripture of the Week: 3 Nephi 14:7-11

 7 Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shallfind; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

 8 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh,findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

 9 Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread,will give him a stone?

 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts untoyour children, how much more shall your Father who is inheaven give good things to them that ask him?

3 Nefi 14:7-11 

 7 Pedid, y se os dará; buscad, y hallaréis; llamad, y se os abrirá.

 8 Porque todo el que pide, recibe; y el que busca, halla; y al que llama, se le abrirá.

 9 O, ¿qué hombre hay de vosotros, que si su hijo pide pan, le dará una piedra,

 10 o si pide un pescado, le dará una serpiente?

 11 Pues si vosotros, siendo malos, sabéis dar buenas dádivas a vuestros hijos, ¿cuánto más vuestro Padre que está en los cielos dará buenas cosas a los que le piden?

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/origin?lang=eng

ELDER ALLEN AND ELDER HOUSE!!!!!
OH man I get so happy looking at this picture, I love these two Elders

So... this is Hunters cousin.
Her name is Hermana Davidson. SOOO COOL!!

Mis companeros

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Week 1 - Hola from the Provo MTC

Provo MTC
Companions: Elder Busby and Elder Sperry
Saturday, January 23, 2016

Hola toda mis amigos y familia!,

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.

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.”

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.

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!!!!!!