#lighttheworld

Hello!

#lighttheworld.  This is the best initiative. Go to Mormon.org to see more. I would like to challenge everyone to do this. It's 25 days and 25 ways to be like Jesus. They have suggestions for each day. I challenge you to pick the hardest one for you on each day and do it. It will help you grow to love Jesus Christ and all he has done for us. It's a magical time of year :) and the best time of year to be a missionary.

This week has been slower on the teaching side of things but we had zone conference. The lower 4 zones met in Leeds. It was awesome.  Six hours on a church bench...not awesome. I learned so much. We taught 3 preach my gospel lessons this week (that's not very many). Spent tons of time knocking doors! Like everyday all day haha.  My favourite part has got to be the fact that you never know what their response will be haha. I am happy. I got so many packages and letters thank you So Much!!! I feel so loved. We also had stake conference yesterday. President Turvey and Sister Turvey attended which was nice. I sang in the choir Saturday night session. It was super good. Some interesting talks were given. The leadership speak with some serious power which is a bit different than what I'm used to.

My spiritual thought for the week comes from my notes and thoughts throughout the week:

God has prepared us for our challenges. He is there to help us so pray and use his guidance. Nothing God expects us to do is too hard. Ask and he shall receive. Study the scriptures. I can testify that as you pray and study the scriptures no temptation or struggle is too great. We have the atonement in our lives to help us so we must use it daily. It will bless us. I love this gospel and love our saviour and redeemer Jesus Christ.

It was a bit warm this last week. But supposed to be really cold tomorrow. It also hasn't rained very much :) I'm looking forward to the week, it should be good. I see at least 5 springer spaniels a day and at least 1 broken down Rover hehe. This week I've seen an orange Lambo, a Ferrari, 3 gtrs, BMW i8, a bunch of m3 and m4. And my fav car of the week ARS 6 wagon in blue 😍😍

Love,

Elder Pilling

Sent from the land of lads

Best Day Yet

Hey Everyone,

Before I start, to all those who have ever even half thought if they

want to serve a mission or not, just go for it.  It's what the Lord

wants and he will bless you with a pure joy and happiness unlike

anything else. Studying the scriptures for 2+ hours a day is the

biggest blessing. I love the Book of Mormon and its teachings. So get

off your moon and serve a mission ya pansies. Don't wait for sports or

school just let er rip.

This week was way sweet. Met some more ward members for tea

appointments and they are sweet! There's a family that grew up here in

Beverley and moved to Canada...... Alberta..... Okotoks hahaha. They

are the Fsher family.  I went to seminary with the daughter hahaha

Crazy coincidence. I think they are in Crystal Ridge? Anyways,

Tuesday my companion had mission leadership training so he traveled to

Leeds for the day so we left Beverly Monday night took a train to Hull

and we did mini exchanges. I spent the evening and most of the day

with Elder Callahan from Edmonton!! He is cousins with Potries lol

and Elder Larson from Utah.  He is a polish speaking missionary here.

It's interesting how each person does missionary work differently. Very

bold, upbeat und fun day. I learned so much and had a blast. Wednesday

we had zone training in Hull so we went back on a train early morning.

It's about 25 min train ride and 30 bus ride. Zone training was great!

Learned tons about listening to investigators and tons about how

important the Holy Ghost is in lessons. Teach as the Saviour teaches;

with charity.  D&C 42:14 invite the spirit through prayer and obedience. It 'twas a

good day. 

We had a couple different tea appointments which went good. I've

had meat pie with mash, ham and mash, sausage and mash, fish and mash.

We did have a pumpkin squash soup that was yummy. Thursday I got

soaked!  We were knocking doors and it poured for 3 hours haha. The rain

beads off my jacket right on the ankle of my pant haha.  It was a wet

day. 

Friday was THE best day yet. At 1:30 we taught Freida our newest

investigator :) We actually street contacted her the third day I was

here. Set a return appointment with her. Taught her with a member,

Brother Drane.  It went so good! I bore testimony on the Book of Mormon

and spirit was so strong. She is excited to learn more and wants to come

to church but she is out of town for two weeks. Scheduled baptism Dec

17th. We then travelled to Sue and Roger for tea.  She got baptized a

year ago and he has been investigating since. He is so great and we're excited

to teach him more. We are the first set of missionaries who he has let

teach him in awhile. After our message on the plan of salvation we

went to Steve Roberts house who has been investigating for 12 years.

Good chat, nice guy. So y'all my day was awesome! Saturday was slower.

We had a family history event which we were at for a couple hours but

then we left to go knock doors. For 4 ish hours and had a couple

people want return visits.  Yes! There is about 8-10 families who feed

the missionaries regularly so I've almost met them all haha. Here are some pictures from the week.

It was a great week! Looking forward to the next week. Not to wish the time away but 5% done the mission already.  Haha.  I'm spending pday with the zone in Hull and having Thanksgiving dinner. Should be fun!  Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Pilling

P.S.  Whenever I introduce myself I always say I got replaced by

donkeys.  They love it.

First week in the first area

Hey!

To start, my mission president is great. I didn't spend a ton of time with him.  Like only a 3 min interview and a 15 min lesson. But I can tell he is super in tune with the spirit. We have around 200 missionaries in my mission. I am about 2 hours via train and bus from the mission home. My area is called Beverley. It's small and full of old people. The ward boundaries are similar to Dewinton and it's the whole town of Beverley and 4-5 outlying villages. IT IS NOT A BIKING mission. Very few cars as well. So I average 16-20 Kms walking a day. My companion is Elder Blonquist from

Spanish Fork Utah (worked at essential oils factory before mish). He has been out 14 months I'm his second trainee. He turned 19 in June I think. He had a car in this area with his last companion so he's a lil sour.  I lead everywhere so I'm getting used to the roads. This last week we did 20+ hours of

finding. So tons of door knocking and street contacting. We have maybe talked to 6 people longer than 2 minutes. No progressing investigators atm. 2 converts in the last year tho. So we meet with them a bit. The ward members are awesome.  It's small, maybe 60-70 people. Loads of the nicest

old people. We get fed 2-3 tea meals a week (dinner).

Food. The dinners we are fed are very good. Classic Sunday meals like potatoes, meat pie and carrots with gravy. The meals we cook are ok. Noodles with beef and tomato sauce or we made some curry. My companion doesn't like to spend a lot of money on food so we eat cheap. Like 20£ a week. The milk is good. About the same as home. I had cereal every morning.  It was some healthy raisin bran type stuff. Food is so cheap here. Box of cereal is like 1£. Noodles 50 cents.

Our flat is so nice. 3 bedroom. 1 shower and 2 toilets. I sleep on a single bed and I'm super warm at night. We have a washer, but no dryer, so we hang dry.

It snowed in Leeds Tuesday night but not in Beverly. I'm freezing!! I wear a sweater, both jackets and scarf and gloves almost everyday. One day I even had to wear thermals it was so cold. I'm doing good and working hard. Everything is so small here. Small cars, small houses. 80% of vehicles here are diesel. Most BMWs I've ever seen haha. My favorite one is a BMW 140d m touring. So sweet. Tons of diesel for cars and Nissan. Loads of Vauxhall and citreon too. All stick shift too. I've seen 1 Land Cruiser and about 3 dozen Land Rover defenders hahaha. 

Transfer day is December 13th. My companion says president likes to switch trainers for the new guys so he thinks I'll get a new companion.  We'll see though.

Gotta run!

Elder Pilling

Cale's flat

Elder Pilling Selfie!

Elder Pilling has arrived!

Elder Pilling left the MTC on Tuesday, November 8th and made his way to the mission home.  We received an email from the mission president telling us he arrived safe and sound and will be serving with Elder Blonquist in the Beverley area in the Hull zone.  We're so happy to know he's there and the work has begun.  And of course we love the pictures!

Elder Pilling with the map of his mission.  His first area; Beverley in the Hull zone

President and Sister Turvey

Elder Pilling's first companion, Elder Blonquist

Learning So Much

I've been in the MTC for 2 weeks and I have learned many things, including to never get seconds at meal time even if it was the best meal yet. Always regretting that choice. I have also grown in many ways. Before coming out, Elder Webster had told me how important your attitude is as a missionary. When he told me, I was like of course sure whatever.  I can tell the difference between the people who have worked to get on the mission and the people who are just expected to go. And the attitude towards mission life is the game changer. Some will sleep in and be late for class. Some will sleep during class. But the difference is how hard you work and what attitude you have. My companion flew from Tahiti to LA, then to Paris, then to England. It took him just under 48 hours and only slept for 4 hours. wwoowow. He has never complained and when I ask how's he's doing, he always says I'm great!  I ask why and he comes back with, "Well I'm great because I'm a missionary. I'm great because I get the privilege to wear this name (pointing to Jesus Christ). Mark chapter 9:23 Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.  I love this scripture!

The mtc is still so awesome. I'm learning sooooooo much. One elder in my district will often make complicated questions to simple doctrine. It drives us crazy but it's been good as we answer with doctrine. We had 2 area 70s talk with us. Pretty good, nothing spectacular. Everyone loves the talks I brought with me, especially the lock your heart one haha. I think every single girl has read that talk in the past 24 hours lol. We have about a 25-30 min walk to get to anything half decent but it's good to walk and talk. We got the opportunity to travel to Manchester by train to do a proselyting activity. About 30 of us went to a park and talked to just about everyone who would listen. Elder Turina and I placed 2 Book of Mormons in about 45 min. We met a french Canadian from Quebec hahahahaha so he spoke french and she loved the message. Pretty neat.  We have the Temple this afternoon. 

Elder Pilling checking out the view from his desk

The food is good. I usually have yogurt and Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. The other meals are all over the place, usually pretty good tho. I have white milk every meal hahah. Elder Turina is doing good. Slowly learning more. I would love to be companions again in the field. He can do 15-20 muscle ups. and can do 20-25 handstand pushups without a wall. He is way strong.  I def am missing exercise. Even fishing is more exercise than I get now. We have time for sports every day, but we usually only have ping pong unless the field isn't wet haha. I have one more week in the MTC. Only 4 sisters and Elder Turina and I are going to Leeds. We get 14 new missionaries tomorrow which will add excitement.  I probably couldn't handle 6 weeks here just because of the food.   We have district meeting right after sacrament.  I shared many of my favorite scriptures on missionary work and blessings from obedience. The devotionals are ok I guess. Usually President Preston does one and we watch one from Salt Lake. P-days are really good because we have the temple!!!!!!  love it. 

Cale and his companion, Elder Torina

I've seen literally 20 Land Rover Defenders and 1 cruiser. So many BMW wagons. Seen a few road bikers on Cervelo bikes and 1 Trek. I would love to find bike trails here because it would be so pretty. I hope you kept the Rockport shoes Dad, cuz they are awesome. Tell me more about the cruiser!!!!!!! Donkeys look pretty useless tbh haha.

Gotta run. ttyl

Love Elder Pilling :)