This week Elder Pilling enjoys Zone Conference, gets a pic with P. Nakken because we have the same suit, and idk what else. Jk we had some cool miracles!!
Well I'm hungry again but not having breakfast because I'm out of food lol. Need to shop. All good though because we are getting haircuts from Elder Anitoni and then taking him and his companion Elder Hutchison out for lunch. Getting them tri-tip sandwiches from Firestone, $10.76 (yah we go there often, it's so good).
Anyway where to start, let's start on Wednesday because we had a great lesson that day. So back up to last Tuesday, I was on an exchange and we knocked this pink door, they said to come back in the AM. Elder Clegg and I went back 2 days later and we set up a specific time for the following Wednesday at 11 (which was this week). So we get there and she has lunch made for us! Lots of food, and then we had an amazing discussion about the restoration. Brothers and sisters, the great apostasy was real, the priesthood authority was taken from the earth and no one could authoritatively say "thus saith the Lord". Now I do have some questions about John the beloved but as far as the world is concerned there was an apostasy. A very bad apostasy which lead to many wars and battles. The catholics were trying to figure out what God was and made up some "answers" with their so called "authority" which they so happened to get from the bible... False... It comes from the laying on of hands (Acts 6:6, 1 Tim 4:14, 2 Tim 1:6) and you have to be called of God (Hebrews 4:4) so since the Nicene creed (the council that made up the trinity) had no authority, they created a false teaching which strayed about 95% of the Christians away from the pure doctrine. But it is OK, Jesus did not let us suffer forever without the promised blessings of the fullness of the gospel (Eph. 1:10) because he restored it through Joseph Smith. I know without a doubt that there was an apostasy, it was real and it was dark. It's of great importance in history but the light has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. That in itself is one of the most important pieces of doctrine people need to understand if they are to follow through with anything else we ask them to do.
This is how history went:⛪ 🔥 💩 ☀ 👦 ⛪
That's pretty cool huh? I think so too. So I explained all this because I have a sure testimony of the apostasy but also because that was the main point in our discussion on Wednesday. Brooks and Joyce really got it! They were skeptical to believe what we were sharing but they understood what we taught, they are now looking at the tangible evidence (it's a blue book) and are praying about it. It was really cool!!
So here's a quick note, our teaching pool is made up of church goers, and church goers are hard to convert because you have to pull them out of their comfort zone. You have to help them through the social obstacles, and you have to convince them through the spirit that they are overall wrong and we are right. Which isn't all that easy because I've learned Christians are pretty prideful people, they think they have it all (and yes since we are Christians that includes some of us). So Brooks and Joyce attend Calvary Church, been going there 7 yrs. Nathan and Tim go to Grace Church, going there for a really long time, so it's hard to make things all work out! But "by the power of the Holy Ghost you may know the truth of all things" so not too worried.
Okay moving on to Chad! He's a cool guy who works from home. Elder Clegg met him on an exchange and we also taught him the Restoration, he really really understood the apostasy. He really liked it! He also is very active in another church and was a missionary for 7 yrs in another country and was a full time pastor for 4 yrs and is currently the lead of a ministering group who leads out missionary work. So he is very involved where he is at, but he also just wants to follow Jesus so I'm excited for him.
Man a lot of lessons this week. I'll share one and some other useless but awesome info.
Junior!!! Remember he's the brother to Will who just got baptized!!!! Yes we had a great lesson. I love him, he's one of my favourite people ever. His hair reminds me of Elder Jackson Steed's hair when he grew it out. Just a big head of hair. Anyway we taught the restoration to him as well hahaha and it was super spiritual! He is so humble and ready to learn and accept. He prayed a few times, which he's never done in his life and he really really really loved it. We related the priesthood authority to police men and ice cream men and it clicked with him so well. After explaining this authority to him, we asked him if he wants to get baptized with this authority and he said... No:( no I'm just kidding he said YES! So good! He's praying about when to be baptized now.
We also had zone Conf. Elder Clegg and I won Cleanest car award!!!! Which is a straight up miracle because our truck is the oldest vehicle in the mission and there are a lot of pop stains from other missionaries. But we won!!!!! So that's good.
OK last thing I promise, just so you all understand the process behind baptism goals. So we have a sheet made for us as a mission, it's the paper with the yellow page so you get 2 copies. And we (zone leaders) meet with each companionship in the zone two on two and review everyone they are working with. We hear about their testimonies and struggles and then we make monthly goals for people to be set with a baptismal date and people baptized. It's a really cool experience for everyone involved but it allows us to get revelation on mission goals. "Revelation is based upon accurate information" so this way we get specific goals for each companionship and then we work with them all month following up and teaching them how they can achieve the goals. It's really cool. So for the end of September we had 3 people baptized and confirmed, and 10 people with a baptismal date. Our goals for September were 4 people baptized and confirmed, and 13 people with a date. So not bad, not perfect but good.
For the month of October the baptism goal is 7, and the baptismal date goal is 14. Super exciting!! This next month is going to be wild, with transfers coming up next week. Pray I stay haha.
Also want to talk about Tina but I won't waste your time.
I will attach pics of our baptismal goal sheets, and our month ending key indicators.
Love you all, know that this is the true church restored.
Elder P
2375 Johnson Ave
San Luis Obispo CA
93401
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