This week was really awesome! A lot happened per usual.
Fist thing is a funny story. Our district was sitting around in the living room area of our residence when Elder Hudgins popped a large packing bubble which he got in the mail. I screamed of course, but there was so much force that I got a bloody nose...so that was interesting. It spewed all over my white shirt!! And made me a lot late for class:( but it's all good.
Next thing was a talk by Elder Bednar. It was very good. He gave it at the MTC a while ago. I really liked when he brought up the question, "How do I know if it's the Holy Ghost, or just me?" He simply said, "Quit worrying about, quit fussing about it, just be a good boy or a good girl and everything will be ok". He later just explained the whole thing that everything good comes from God. It was an awesome talk.
A missionary shared this thought that he learned from a returned missionary in priesthood meeting. "I don't want my mission to be the most spiritual time of my life." I love this. We have a life time to learn, grow and understand the gospel. 40% of returned missionaries go inactive, they don't know how many come back but that's a frightening statement.
Tuesday night we were spoken to buy Elder Stevenson, it was such a great talk about Christ like attributes. After his talk we came together as a district and chose one of the Christ like attributes to study. We decided to study humility to show our love towards Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We are trying to understand that it is through them that we can be able to have the experiences we are having and the success we are having. So far so good. We challenged each other to focus on an attribute personally. I chose diligence. So far it's been good and very helpful.
Sunday night we had a devotional talk by the producer of Other Side of Heaven. It was legendairy!! He said:
Have courage • "Great missionaries are never discouraged but always disappointed." This really made me think. We will never be perfect, but being discouraged will drive away the spirit so we need to stay positive but also recognize what we could improve on.
Get lost • forget who I am now and know that I am a vessel unto Christ.
• "Why go on a 2 year mission to stay the same? What's the point?"
• Walk with the Savior, let him be your companion.
I love these points. Especially why go on a mission and not change. This is a part of our life were we have a perfect opportunity to serve the Lord as missionaries. We are set apart from the rest of the world. I'm excited to see what change I experience and what experiences will cause me to change.
His whole talk was unreal but those are the thoughts that really got me thinking.
I'm teaching Andy. ANDY is one of my teachers who is impersonating someone he taught in his mission in the Ukraine. Andy's dad died of cancer 2 weeks ago and is really struggling. He believes in God but is struggling to understand why he put this challenge on him. First lesson with Andy was very tough. He was not pleased and told us he didn't want us there. The next lesson however was much better. Invited him to repent and forgive God for what he is feeling towards him. Our follow up lesson was the best. He accepted the challenge and said he felt some peace. We then read Mosiah 7:33. That clicked with him. Best lesson yet. He understood the path he was taking and how it's beneficial. Our only mistake in the lesson was we didn't invite him to baptism. Oops. Hopefully get him next time:) I don't know why I didn't ask him. It came to my mind. I think I was just scared because he used to be so mean. Idk
So this week was fantastic. It's great here. I hope I have and will learn enough to support me in the field. I leave Monday morning at 6:20 from the MTC. We fly to San Francisco and then from there we fly into Santa Barbara. Super excited. 11 of us going I think. I only know 4. So I'll miss p-day next week.
Here's some pics. Love y'all. Enjoy the weather.
Elder Pilling
Sent from Not Canada
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