These past 2 years have changed my life

Hey everybody. One more for the books, please bare with me haha

This week Elder Pilling seeks revelation for the upcoming transfer, receives revelation from President Nakken, and eats food. Good food. 

Really though, this was a spectacular week. Tied everything together and it was marvelous. I've never felt so connected and in tune during a transfer meeting than I did this week. I feel like I finally really got the process down and then, well, I get put at the top where all the departing missionaries go:( literally the worst. We made 6 new areas because of the 12 missionary influx we are receiving which means we needed to get a bunch of apartments and cars and things. Always makes for a challenge when transfer day comes. 

After we complete the transfer, our final step is to kneel and pray for each companionship by name, area, and assignment.  This is a particularly special time to ponder and feel the presence of the spirit to ensure the work is accepted. So that was all good. 

What was also awesome about this week was having Elder Schoen with us. He's my replacement haha and we had a good time, us 3. We kept the gas on and had this super cool lesson with our new friend Andrea, she's black and so awesome! 

Since Elder Schoen just came from Moorpark, which was my first area for 6 months, we went down to get his stuff and it just so happened the Hanshaws were feeding them. Sooooooo we got to eat with some of my fav members in Moorpark all in one swoop! It was pretty hype. 

Oh my goodness I almost forgot! We got a new car!!! Her name is Mckell and she is a 2020 chevy Equinox. Terribly slow but handles like a razor kinda. Feels pretty narrow. Anyway started with 40 miles. Pretty hype to have a new car. It's blue metallic which is the only colour of its kind in the mission. Sad to see the Avalon go but apparently Salt Lake was chapped we had the mission President's car... It's like they don't trust us or something haha 

Kapono got the priesthood, my departing interview was spectacular. President Nakken is a genius. We ate food that was delicious, prayed a lot, other things, ran out of food, and that's about it. 

To wrap it up...

My mission really has meant everything to me. I've done a lot of good here, and I keep getting surprised by others reaching out to tell me the impact I've had in their lives. But above all this rings one phrase, "I've done my duty, nothing more".  The scriptures teach this concerning the service:

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day."

It doesn't say that you are only accepted if you see X number of people come into the church, or if you reach some level of status, all that is required is that you serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. That's been my goal since the beginning. No assignment or stuff for things makes up the glory.  The glory is in the service of God. 

When I was in my first transfer we received the memorial Ensign for Elder Robert D. Hales. Included was his air force team's motto he said, “Our unit motto—displayed on the side of our aircraft—was ‘Return with Honor,’...This motto was a constant reminder to us of our determination to return to our home base with honor only after having expended all of our efforts to successfully complete every aspect of our mission.”

It was pretty timely to have that come in a time of my mission where I was very moldable. Every night I'd reflect. Sometimes I'd be frustrated or disappointed but we can always repent and try again. I truly believe that that magazine was inspired. It's shaped the way I do things. So feast on that. 

My mother says people read these but I'm still not convinced haha but anyway it's been a good 2 years. It's changed my life. And I've loved it. Thanks for the support and love.

See you in a couple! 

Love,

Elder Pilling

3301 W Gonzales Rd, 
Oxnard CA  93036

Just share

Hello everybody. This was an interesting week. Most of it was really great but some of it was just straight trash. Kind of the way it goes sometimes. 

Monday was Monday, pretty much got a whole pday I think, can't even remember. Oh yessssss we went to dojo boom. That was hype. Then Tuesday we were on exchanges. This time with Elder Laine Carter, he's one of my favourite people in the mission right now. He was in my zone back in TO so we've known each other for a while now. We had a stellar day! Everything worked out so good and it was just good. We met this one man feeding ducks with his baby girl. He has just lost his job earlier that previous week and was down a bit. We walked him through God's perfect plan and he started tearing up. He was so touched that just when he needed someone to help him, we walked by. No matter what is happening in people's lives they could use the gospel. I don't care if they just bought a LC 500 or if they just won the lottery. Everyone needs this. They each have a need for it. It can be extra hard for missionaries to discern what they need at times because they slam the door too fast for us to say hello but, you know them, you know their situation, all you have to do is share. Elder Uchrdorf shared great insight in GC. What a blessed day.

Then Wednesday a bird pooped directly on my head. I kid you not I felt a thump, looked around to see where the thing that hit my head fell, couldn't see anything so I ran my fingers through my hair (big mistake) and pulled them out with brown wet poop. Straight up got pooped on. What a joke. We laughed about it but out of 103 weeks nothing even close to that has happened and then the bomb dropped. Pretty gross. We panicked and then washed it out. But it really did happen. Not sure what kind of bird but I'd imagine a seagull. 

Thursday was our last exchange of the transfer. It was with the SIMI Valley Elders. I went off with Elder Roth, it was the windiest I've ever had it in my mission. My eyes got destroyed. Whenever the Santa Ana winds come you know there will be a fire. Well next thing we new Simi Valley missionaries were evacuated and there was another fire in the TO zone. Weird. Anyway it was crazy windy but still good. We rested at dinner where we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Oh my goodness it was delicious. And our server was a guy who had been taking lessons from the YSA sisters so we reignited his flame to learn. Pretty neat. 

Friday was district council and the start of transfers. Saturday was transfers, and then Sunday. 

The part of the week that was bad was Sunday for some reason. I was just all chapped cause I'm leaving in a week. I felt like I still have so many things I want to do with the ward to keep it going but if I start I won't finish and transfer week is always messed up and on and on. It was kinda overwhelming actually. But then we just started setting up appointments and everything settled down and I realized again that it's going it be fine. We are supposed to leave the area in good shape anyways. So that was good. 

Then this morning we went and toured P & G  factory site. Bro Spiers is the facility manager so he took us. We saw your fav Charmin Ultra strong and Charmin ultra soft toilet paper made. As well as your Bounty paper towel. They make 2 tons of it every 12-15 minutes 24/7. Literally 365 days a year. Isn't that crazy???!! They got made in these massive 1 ton rolls, which are then combined with another set to make it 2 ply. Then it's all cut and rolled into logs and then cut into rolls and then packaged and delivered. Pretty neat. So that was fun. 

Pretty weak letters I know but cut me some slack. It's been a fat minute of writing every single week. 

Love yah. Enjoy your week.

3301 W Gonzales Rd, 
Oxnard CA  93036

We become like the Savior as we become converted to Him

A few exchanges and things this week. What do you wanna hear? Probably none of it. 

This week though, we got hooked with fruit. We had mangos, bananas, apples, peaches, nectarines, grapes, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries. Probably mango is my favourite. Just in case you were wondering. 

So this week went like a billion miles an hour. We had MLC on Tuesday and that was... Well touching. But we will get to that later. 

After MLC we had exchanges with Elder Goulding. Oddly enough I'd never been on an exchange with him. Then we had another  exchange with Elder Eggen and Elder Cepeda. They are the only Spanish missionaries and are serving in SLO!!! Oh I'm so jealous of them. SLO is literally the best. Literally. It was a super stellar day.

And then of course General Conference was amazing and Jonathan E watched it!!!!! This is huge!!!!!! Big step for him and now he will come to church and then be ready as he continues to repent for baptism. 

We saw a pretty cool miracle with Kapono. So his whole family is totally less active. Like completely apostate. Except his sister who is 17, she started coming a couple of weeks ago. Well after Kaponos baptism and a day had passed, his mother said, "Well now that Kapono is involved and Angel is doing more, we are all going to start coming back to church." We totally panicked in the best way possible!! They watched Conference and are further ready to be fully active. Oh my what a miracle. 

Ok now back to MLC.  Whenever we have MLC, we give those going home a few minutes to bear a departing testimony. Usually in zone Conference we do the same but since Elder Lynn G Robbins was at our zone Conference and no one got to. Which means this MLC I got to bear my departing testimony. I've had some very inspiring moments when my leaders bore there testimonies so it was something I looked up to every month but now it was me... Kinda weird. I calculated going to 18 MLCs over the course of my mission and it was just weird to think I was the oldest in the mission. Seems unfair. Anyway earlier this transfer I felt like I had been below average in the Christlike attribute side of things throughout the course of my mission. I personally didn't think it was as much of our purpose as studying the doctrine of the 42 points we teach in our lessons. So that's where I spent my time. Studying the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the Restoration of His gospel and church and the great Plan of Salvation. But when I bore my testimony it occurred that "studying doctrine changes behaviour faster than studying behaviour changes behaviour" I had become SO MUCH More like the Savior just by learning what He taught and becoming converted to Him and His gospel. It was actually an answer to prayers because I felt like I should maybe have studied more about the Christlike attributes but now I see the whole picture. I am grateful for the Savior. He lives! He loves us! And I do love Him. 

Love yah!  Please pray Jenny and Rosy that they will remember their master🙃

Elder Pilling

3301 W Gonzales Rd, 
Oxnard CA  93036

Becoming like Christ

Well it's the 23rd which means 1 month from today I fly to SLC and then to Minneapolis and then to YYC to see the donks🐎.  It's been a crazy 2 weeks. Stressful and confusing but it's OK! Everything worked out with the mission tour. For those of you who skim my emails and don't actually read them, Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the 70 toured our mission with his wife Sister Robbins. Elder Woolsey and I had the opportunity to review our semi annual mission survey with him for about 2 hours followed by a vegan meal. Pretty neat to have dinner with a general authority. He taught us about the Word of Wisdom and we are all doing it wrong. He is also a genius, I've never met anyone who knows more statistics and information on various studies. Pretty incredible. 

So first was a mission leadership council last Monday for a full day (hence why I didn't get a pday) then Tuesday was the south zones (Camarillo, TO, and Simi Valley) then Wednesday was the North (Ventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, SLO) these were both half days 9:00am-12:30. Following Wednesday's conference we had a review session for 30 minutes, did the ol' "therefore what" and then he shipped out from the Santa Barbara Airport. It was neat having them, but stressful. Conducting was my fear and it went fine. Everything went perfect though, he was incredibly impressed with the mission. He said, "You're doing everything so well I don't want to tell you to do anything or I'll mess it all up".  On our survey, our mission was above average on 95% of the topics. And by quite a bit as well. This month ending September we are on track for 37!!! HALELUJIAH. Pretty spectacular the blessings that are happening. And what's hype is Kapono is still going strong for the 29th. He's loving every piece of the church and gospel. 

So the mission tour was last week and then we had this week. Had a zoom video Conference with the whole mission and reset the standards for transfers and praised their good work. However we all know it's not over until it's over, and that won't be until the 2nd coming. Then the mission Presidency did video training with all the ward mission participants (ward mission leader, ward missionaries, EQ, YM, YW, and RS Councillors over missionary work) quite a few in attendance. That went well. All about aligning the priesthood keys. 

So with all that went on, I learned so much, but one thing I've been dwelling on, and apparently it's in this week's or last weeks come follow me, but I've been thinking about introspection. Which is to pretty much have self contemplation on where you're at as a person. Well I try to follow the example of Joseph Smith because he was rather proficient in this. He continually reflected on his life and sought to improve like the Savior. That's why he went from a weak farm boy to an unbelievable prophet. Of course the mantle fell upon him but he had a high rate of eternal progression. Always trying to be better. As a missionary I'm pretty far from anything like the Savior. He's kind, I'm not really, he's patient, I want things done, he's loving to all, I choose who I love, he's perfect I'm not, the only thing I might be on the right track to becoming is spiritual knowledge and things. Like teaching, testimony etc. But Iacking in the Christlike attributes. So I've been reflecting on that and, well, we all have a long way to work on something and I learned how to do that with help from Elder Robbins. So pretty much good things.

I would also like to announce that one of our old friends who got in some trouble with this dude recontacted us. Apparently her friend is now in jail so she's open to meet up again!!!! She's the miracle lady with the powerful lessons. 

Love you people!

3301 W Gonzales Rd, 
Oxnard CA  93036

Oh. I get it. It's not even us.

Good morning, or afternoon. Whenever you get to read this letter. 

This week... Well this week was just wonderful. Pretty amazing things in the Great California Ventura Mission right now. Tuesday we had MLC and we set our monthly baptism and Confirmation goal. Just a reminder of how this works here; the zone leaders meet with each companionship in the zone and create a vision, set a goal and make a plan to achieve the goal. By the end of the process this allows us to have an 80% attainable goal (or it should be). So let's put things in perspective. July we had 30 people baptized and confirmed. An ultimate record in the last 5 years for this mission. Before that 25 was a really good month. So we average as a mission 22-25 a month. Well in August the banana hit the fan. Things fell apart and we had 12 people baptized and confirmed. Not to worry. We saw this during the last week of July and began to fix it. We counseled in our weekly zoom meeting with the ZL's and then MLC on Tuesday blew us away. The mission has been primed. August, in my opinion, was a chance for us to test our faith. July we showed our faith and had miracles fall from Heavenly Father, and then August was to make sure we recognized God in this work. So September's Baptism goal is 43! Week ending we have seen 12 people enter into the waters. And no other people have fallen off of their dates. Only people added. We had a good experience during transfers. You see we have 20 new missionaries coming in, and we've had a huge turn over in missionaries during the summer as you could imagine. So with this, a whole lot of new missionaries are in the mission. But during transfers President Nakken looked at all the missionaries and just said, "Such wonderful missionaries, we love them all and the work goes on. When this is all done and over with I think we will look back and realize this was really just to save our own soul. God does everything else."

Well that was not as accurate as it really came out but the point is is that this is His work. All of His children will get the chance to hear the gospel whether I do it or Ricky Baker does it. God is going to get it done. But the important part really is that we do our very best, because that is how we save our own soul. I've always known this but I had a spiritual witness that day. This is a probationary state and it's our time to prepare to meet God. Our best is all he asks. 

Getting a new car for the last transfer of the mish. It's the Nakken's old car:) 2017 Avalon hybrid. It's the only car in the mission with real wheels😂 not just steel, not to mention the leather heated seats. Pretty neat but we will lose the taco:/

Love you people 

Elder P

3301 W Gonzales Rd, 
Oxnard CA  93036

Teach with Conviction

This week was mighty zone Conference week! Santa Maria, Ventura, and Newbury Park. And I know that doesn't mean much to any of you but Santa Maria is a farmers' city pretty much. Vineyards and orchards. It's about 2 hrs up the coast. Then Ventura is 10 mins across the freeway, and then Newbury Park is 25 mins down the freeway. Pretty simple. 

I don't really know what to say...i drove to Santa Maria and hit 50 000 miles on the Nakken's Avalon so that was a big step for us all. I guess I could share with you what I spoke about, or maybe just the closing remarks of my discussion. Is that OK? 

My topic "Teach with Conviction" 

Here's how it kind of went

Among others things shared let's turn to DC 100:5-8 which reads 

"5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;

   6 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.

   7 But a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things.

   8 And I give unto you this promise, that inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say."

If you skipped the scripture, read it before moving on. 

In these verses we see a commandment and a blessing. The commandment is to teach in the name of Jesus Christ. We need to ensure we always close our lessons in His name and while we teach we need to make sure we are being consistent with our calling. When we do this, the promise is that the Holy Ghost will be "shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say" 

I know that I, myself has not converted anyone. But I do know that the Holy Ghost has worked in the hearts and minds of those I've taught. I know that if we desire to teach with Conviction, we need to teach in Him who sent us. Our Saviour Jesus Christ. As we do this, the Spirit will be able testify and fulfill the Conversion of the individual we teach. There can be no distractions, no empty commitments, no off topic discussions, because this is the greatest cause, the greatest challenge and the greatest work on the earth today. God lives and His promises are real. I know they are, and I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, 

Amen. 

Love 

Elder Pilling 

P. S. I may or may not send any emails for the following 2 Mondays. The next Monday we pick up new missionaries and stuff and the following Monday after that we have MLC with Elder Lynn G. Robins!

3301 W Gonzales Rd, 
Oxnard CA  93036

Exchange Week

I had Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday exchanges. Just straight up exhausting. But good:) 

So let's just cut to the chase and run over the beaver tail here with the words of life. The words of Elder Pilling's life. 

You've all heard the phrase, "The study of the doctrine of Christ changes behaviour faster than the study of behaviour changes behaviour." Most of the time we don't even realize the power of Jesus Christ. We can't even comprehend the scripture in John 1:3 "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." Combine the 2 thoughts. 1, that the study of Christ changes behaviour faster than anything else and 2. Christ has enough power that He created everything. Well don't you ever doubt that you can't overcome, change, or alter your life for the better. Never think that addictions and iniquities are too much for Christ to help you change because He really does have more power and influence than you might think. Remember, "Look unto me with every thought, doubt not, fear not." We had a lesson Sunday night and these truths penetrated the heart of young Jakari. I know that Christ changes lives. Over the course of my mission I've learned so much and this week, with that one short lesson, I really realized how much Christ has done for me. My mission puts me in a spiritual atmosphere but ultimately it's not the mission that changes me, but the power of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

I also want to emphasize again the word Ponder. "We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to PONDER in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true." 

This promise is partially Conditional on the person to ponder the message, to ponder the doctrine, to ponder what it is that Christ truly did. Because He didn't just walk around Jerusalem. He did a lot more than that. And I say that with all seriousness. 

Anyway I know we can do all things through Christ because He gives us strength. He lives, I love Him, and I will say more next week.

Adios,

Elder P

3301 W Gonzales Rd, 
Oxnard CA  93036