So yes what a wonderful week. Got up past 43C which was just terrible. So hot it was insane. The good thing was that everyone felt bad for us so they got us waters which was an added opportunity to talk with them. But I don't think I had ever been in such high temperatures in my life!! Crazy stuff.
Anyway, we had Mission Leadership Council this week down in Oxnard. Oxnard is super sketchy, shootings allllll the time, but that's where the office is so we all gathered around and discussed the mission. First time at an MLC and I really enjoyed it. This month we had all the zone leaders plus ➕ all the district leaders. Some wonderful things were taught and some great reminders. We also set the goals for the mission. In June we had 12 baptisms:/ and our goal for July is 20. All very interesting- the goals we set and the actuals. Anyway at the end of the meeting President Nakken stood up and asked that everyone share something that impressed them. Some good things about goal setting, about charity, balance of time usage, and I pulled my favourite quote from President Nakken, and father Brad I'm sure has said this numerous times as well. He said, "Take the things that work and keep pluggin away" I love that, we are going through a pretty significant change in the mission right now, zones combining, areas closing, different initiative about goals and member work and some missionaries are forgetting to just do what works and keep doing it. And this applies to everything. School, sports, missionary work, regular work. It's good to look for better, new ideas but don't be fooled. A chicken egg will hatch when it's ready to hatch, you can't force it to hatch the first day and inventing something new won't change that fact. So take the things that work and keep focused on what you know and have power over. It was a very good meeting and afterward we robbed a store.
Also I love meeting British people here. Haven't met very many, I think 4 total but when I do I pull the "I'm Canadian" card and the "my brother lives in York" card and then we chat. Like yesterday this lady was all salty, "It's hot, I have Jesus, go away" and I was like "oh I love your accent where are you from?" Boom, 10 mins later we helped her learn a little about about the plan of salvation. She really was closed off but we tried. Anyway, always makes me think of the other Elder Pilling.
On top of British people, I like meeting Chinese people. Since Elder Pilling the elder works with them, I love it as well. Saturday night we followed up with a guy named Sebastian who is Chinese and gave him a simplified Chinese Book of Mormon. Wonderful visit. He said "I am curious, I don't know why but I am". The Holy Ghost was with him and he's more than willing to read the Book of Mormon. It was really great.
Oh yah so back to the store we robbed. So Elder Morgan served in Camarillo many moons ago and one of the ward members owns a drug store in Oxnard, so we went to his store and he said "take what you want" uhhhhh OK. So they gave us bags and we just grabbed stuff. Coolest thing I've ever done. And don't worry we were very grateful.
OK, this will be good. I hope. Presidnt Nakken in MLC said, "I worry that we spend too much time doing non-missionary things" he went on and said that missionaries will set a goal to be more humble. Although that is a goal, it is not or should not be an ultimate goal. It should be to help achieve a greater goal, which is teaching repentance and baptizing converts. Or whatever.
So we had a district council about goal setting lead by 🤵🏼. It was good because the basic of goal setting is to set a goal with the end in mind. If all you're doing is stopping at humility then you have accomplished little. But if your end goal is to be a more effective missionary and your plan is to be more humble then go ahead. Of course with all goal setting, do it with the Saviour. He knows you, knows what you could do to be better. I wish I had my notes because this is pretty surface stuff but oh well you get the gist.
Well last pday we went to dojo boom for zone activity, it's a trampoline park. And I can do 6 backlogs in a row before I either get very disoriented or literally flop and fall out of the air mid flip. Today we are going again and I hope to do like a billion. Should be fun.
So I changed my view on missionary work. Again. Being more balanced. This transfer here in T. O. We have worked a lot with members, its been great and successful BUT not as effective as it could be. Presidnt Nakken (my good friend or so I believe) shared that it should be 70% missionary efforts, 25%member work, and 5% social media. I feel like in the past it's been 55% missionary, and 45% members. Hopefully that ads up to 100% and I feel like I've missed some important time. So we have changed that and have adjusted as needed. I am super hungry right now like wow.
Oh and July 4th was good. Canada is better/best though.
Love you all, I want to share more but I bet half o f you have skipped through 85% of that so I'll just stop.
Elder Pilling or Pillage.
133 W. Avenida De Los Arboles
#212
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
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