Letters from Gene : Blessed

Well it's time to write this thing. First off, shout out to father Brad. Not that he's catholic he's just Brad, my father. Anyway yes shutout because it was Father's Day yesterday. What a wonderful father he is. Some great support and very helpful advice from him throughout my life, especially here on the mish.

Okay so this week Elder Pilling does lots of things, like goes to the temple (visitor center), goes on an exchange in Oxnard with the assistants, a new missionary exchange in Moorpark, and hits the driving range.

So I'm currently at the driving range. I'm terrible at golf. Absolutely horrific. I'm an embarrassment to the human race. But it' s been a good P-day.

So let's see. Tuesday we went to the temple. It was wonderful! We got to go because our investigator Emma went with the youth. We had a wonderful lesson in the visitor centre. She is so sweet! She really embraces and understands the gospel. Her parents are not letting her get baptised until she's 18...she's currently 15, but we are working on that. Really cool experience because the visitor centre missionaries taught her exactly what she needed.

Then our exchange Wednesday was interesting. I got to go back to Moorpark!! Had dinner with a wonderful couple I like and did a finding activity with Bishop Hodges and his family. With everything else included, it was a great time.

Thursday we will skip. Lameeeeeee actually it was good but who cares.

Friday we were down in the nard (Oxnard) for exchanges with the assistants. We had a great time. It was short tho because they had to do it on a Friday so we went to district meeting. It was crazy but we started at 3 and ended at 7. So very quick. I learned a lot about exchanges and how it all works. Had a good chat about the zone leader responsibilities and the zone and then it was all over. Ending with a Krispy Kreme donut visit. I got a hot and ready pin. And then my goodness we had Saturday and Sunday. Both great days. One of our investigators who was on date for baptism dropped us... That was sad but we had a wonderful lesson with Marryann our other friend on baptism date. So that was good. She gets very distracted tho. She's so sweet.

Anyway now you know a few of our peoples we are working with. We are blessed here with 13 investigators, 1 on date, and a few families so it's really wonderful. And most of our friends were found or introduced to us via members. It just goes to show that if we want new people in the church, more of God's children to come to the fold and receive the blessings of the gospel then you, as members, need to seek God's help and act on your promptings to bring people into the gospel. I've noticed and come to understand that we as missionaries play ▶ an interesting role. It's to Find and teach, while members are to find and fellowship. I used to think the missionaries were to find, teach, fellowship, pretty much do everything. However it is so different. Our role is very specific while the role of the members is sooo much more critical. We say the members are the full time missionaries in the area because they never leave, while the elders are the full time set- apart missionaries. Just food for thought. I'm sure if you learned more about the work of the Lord you will come to understand your important role more clearly.