Blessings

My heart is full of gratitude this week. Never have I ever been so aware of the Lords' hand in my life. Sunday as Elder Woolsey and I listened to We Thank Thee Oh God for A Prophet these words stood out:

We thank thee for every blessing Bestowed by thy bounteous hand.

As a mission we read the Book of Mormon in a week. From Tuesday morning to Sunday. From 9am-4pm and then proselyted from 5-9pm. With this interesting schedule we set a goal in the mission to find 85 people, knowing that we would need to exercise our faith in the Lord if we wanted to find close to what we would with a normal 46 hr proselyting week. Week ending, we found 76 as a mission.  Elder Woolsey and I were blessed to start teaching 4 of these people.

Amy, Valorie, David, and Charlie.

3 of these children were member referrals. With little time to proselyte this week we were shocked with the number of lessons and seeing miracles. 

Valorie is the sister to Eileen Watson, who is a recent convert and whose girls are Honest and Sincere (who were baptized last month).

Amy we will talk about later.

David is the friend of Bro Ramos who has recently gotten out of prison and while he's been away his baby boy has been in a member foster home. His heart is soft and accepting. 

Charlie was a neat one. He was referred by Darlene and we knew Darlene had this friend who was interested so we stopped by to say hello and follow up and while we were there, Charlie rode by on his bike! She had him come back and we taught him right there. Pretty neat to see we were in the right place at the right time. Loved it! 

Then Amy. Here's the deal. We met her at church on Sunday, she loved it all and then we taught her the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had a lesson again the following Tuesday and it was one of the best lessons of my life. When the Lord prepares someone, it makes you recognize that He is gathering His children. He WANTS THEM BACK HOME. He cares for each of us and he really does want to see them make the decisions to come back home. He weeps when we fail, he rejoices when we succeed. Anyway so Amy is one of those children God has seen suffer and she has finally reached out to Him. We taught her the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ again and focused on more detail. She shared her testimony of the power of prayer just like Joseph Smith. She opened up how she wished she had this church and the gospel taught a year sooner because of all the many things that has happened to her. We felt very strongly that she needed a special gift in her life. The Gift of The Holy Ghost and the Remission of sins. We taught her briefly and then invited and committed her to be baptized on August 24th. Got a little emotional because of how influential the Holy Ghost has been in my life. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me. That is what it does for me. She is doing well however she's not in the clear. Pray for Amy if you'd like. 

Also as reading the Book of Mormon this week it is so clear that God is merciful unto the righteous. 

1 My son, give ear to my words; for I swear unto you, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land.

This is true. Absolutely true. God blesses the obedient. And it's the little things He is most aware of. The pride in the hearts of the Nephites, the wickedness of teaching false doctrine and so forth. 

God lives. His church is true and has been restored on the earth. The pure gospel of Jesus Christ is taught in His church. God cares for His children. 

Love yah,

Elder Pilling

3301 W Gonzales Rd, 
Oxnard CA  93036