Classic Week

Guuuys,

Transfer calls were last night! I am staying in the Beverley area!!

Super happy about that.  I feel I have tons of work to do here. The ward

members I really enjoy as well. I am getting a British companion.  He's

been out about a year and a half. Should be exciting!!! Will keep you

all posted; I meet him tomorrow.

This week was a classic week. Had a lesson, did some knocking, met some

members. Met some less actives. Just a fun time here!!! I Answered a

concern our investigator had. She has been asking how she will know

what her answer will be to her prayers. She was struggling to know how

to tell the difference between just her mind thinking it's the right

thing and her receiving an answer from God. She grew up a Christian in

Jamaica 🇯🇲 and really loved feeling the spirit when attending

church. She pointed out she hasn't felt that in a looong time. It came

to me by the Holy Ghost that this was to be her answer. I testified

that the Holy Ghost will answer her by feeling and comfort. She will

feel the same as she would feel as a young girl attending Christian

church. I testified of the most pure comfort and peace that the Holy

Ghost has brought me in my life. The spirit was so STRONG It was so

good.

We were able to meet our friend Suzy whom we bumped into on the street

last week. She was listening to Book of Mormon musical so she was

quite intrigued to hear us. When we met her she had said she and her

babysitter had googled mormons for 2 hours while reading some of the

Book of Mormon. She was confused because the wording was difficult but she

asked loads of questions about all the classic Mormon things. She was

really interested in what we do as missionaries and she expressed

sympathy and said if we ever need anything to just text her. She also

said she wished she could just mother us while we are here hahaha.

(we had mentioned we miss our moms cooking and stuff) hahaha

Met with Stuart, my all time fav member. He's almost 22 and such a rad guy, a

convert of a few years back. Met with the most interesting member

Jerry. He fed us some black pudding!!!!!! It was kinda ok haha. I

wouldn't order it in a restaurant but still I finished it all.

Sister Taylor fed us haggis for burns night haha:) actually quite

good. Tasted like stuffing.

Trying haggis for the first time

Doing a little service

Pretty awesome scenery

Spending some time on the bike

New tie from Grams!

Don't forget to pray

Hey people of the forest! 

This week was interesting. Picture a big wave that you were surfing like a pro, then it hit the reef and you almost died...but Heavenly Father saved you from death and you got back out there and surfed an even bigger wave and rocked it. 

Ya that's my week haha. 

Let's start off with facts:  Current weight is 73.8 kg. Or 162 lbs. Haven't grown a cm yet. I've had 2 haircuts. I've almost worn out 1 pair of shoes. I've eaten approx 18 donuts. Drank 22 gallons of milk. Walked like loads of miles. Biked about 6 miles. Ran about 12 miles. Purchased 22 train tickets. Made home made mac n cheese 25 times. All In the past 2 1/2 months. 

Now into the goods...

Tuesday we walked for ages to the very corner of the town. Knocked on some super posh houses and it seemed like the whole neighbourhood was, "I'm fine with what we have no thank you" haha.  It was not very encouraging.  But we did not give up! Met a nice guy who knew quite a bit about mormons. Been to Slc knew all the rumours and many of the truths. Knew the restoration pretty good. He was open to another visit. Met one of my many favourite members named Jerry or Andrew (he changes it every time we visit).  He is an accountant and takes contracts for 2-8 months at a time and travels all over England. Lives out of a hotel when on business. He made me laugh. His sense of humour is difficult to get used to but I love it haha.

Wednesday, this is where I hit the reef. I was emotionally a wreck, no idea why. After district meeting I was so lost during lunch. I read last emails and letters and studied some talks. They all pointed to one thing...... PRAYER. I was like duuuh so I knelt and prayed for ages. Longest most powerful prayer I've ever given. I poured my heart out and pleaded to get strength. Heavenly Father did not take long to answer my prayers. Thursday was great! So many people wanted to talk to us and people made me so happy. I was smiling and loving life. The slow times passed quickly. Friday the greatness continued. We knocked on some more doors, although we didn't receive much success.  I had a blast.  Elder Blonquist and I talked and joked and laughed. Some classic people and some funny stories. Friday the fun continued, kinda haha. We had some appointments early on and they went well. One of which was with my fly fishing friend. (Trying to get him to invite me to go with him). Later we knocked on a door. A lady answered and she just laughed. She said, "I'm sorry but I just got back from the Book of Mormon musical a few days ago!" She said her daughter would be so jealous. We talked for quite awhile.  She wanted a picture to send to her kids. She asked so many questions. Mostly derived from the play. She was so honoured to receive a Book of Mormon. Although she wasn't too interested in our message she said she is happy to see us again. The seed is planted! 

Literally 10 minutes down the road Elder Blonquist was prompted to street contact a lady with headphones in. Turns out she was listening to the Book of Mormon musical sound track. She also has seen it a few weeks ago! She was more interested so we shared a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment! 

The afternoon we caught a train north to Driffield. We were supposed to be going over to a members house for tea appointment but instead he said he was surprised to see us.  We watched them eat Chinese takeout for an hour until our ride came to pick us up. It was awkward wow. Our other appointments all flogged (cancelled) us that evening as well. Saturday was uneventful, not really sure what happened tbh. Sunday was a blast.  A recent convert, Stuart returned home from his trip to South Africa 🇿🇦. He is like 6'8" rugby player he's such a solid guy. We had a blast teaching him. We also visited Sister Taylor, the missionary mom. Sunday an elderly lady, Sister Boswell (she's 80 something and learned to play the organ for church just a year ago) invited us for gingerbread and custard. IT WAS SO GOOD. I died and went to heaven. It was a soft cake thingy and yummy custard. She's such a stellar member! 

I am excited for the challenges we face each week. I turn to the lord for guidance and help. I am really enjoying growing my relationship with my Heavenly Father. It has given me so much peace.

Last week till transfers which is crazy! I'll keep u all posted on what happens. On Wednesday we have the world wide missionary broadcast as well. Which is exciting. 

A cool tree

And some beautiful scenery during a bathroom break 

I made some unreal toblerone cookies for Sister Taylor's birthday 

Enjoy your week everyone. Don't forget to pray! :) 

Love elder pilling 

Sent from the land of lads

Enjoy life people!

Hey everyone,

This week felt like a party week. Monday evening I was on exchange with Elder Rex from Orem Utah. He is 1 of 10 kids haha. We had an absolute blast. He is so enthusiastic about the work. He is also newish in the mission, has been out since August I believe. We met so many cool people! We met Jason, a recently baptized Christian.  We had a long chat and scheduled a return appointment for the Thursday coming. We met a lad named Matthew who was previously taught by missionaries. He's cool and is interested. He wants to believe there's a God. We asked a guy who looked athletic where we should go running and he recommended a place called the wolds (I think).  It's supposed to be rolling grass hills and big trees and such. But we mentioned we had no car so he offered to take us some time! So that is exciting. I had more success in the 3 hours Monday evening  than I have had in a looong time. Tuesday this exchange continued. We started the day off with a 3 ish mile run.  I never would have imagined that I would have missed exercise this much. It felt so good to stretch the legs and lungs. We live on the edge of town so we run along the beck and river hull. We saw a submarine :) and enjoyed the beauty all around us.  The day was an absolute blast!  We visited a few less active members. They recommended that my colleague must see the Westwood. This is a big community pasture with incredible trees. There,

we also met a lady with 2 Dalmatian dogs and a Vizsla (like Morgan's). She wasn't too interested in the gospel but still nice person. We met an artist who was drawing the horizon of the Westwood trees. So talented. Also not interested haha. We talked with a ward member named Sister Taylor. She is the best!! She served a mission so she shared many mission experiences and shared how the gospel has blessed her. It was one of the most spiritually uplifting lessons I've ever had. We discussed how life is hard. Really hard. Biggest lesson to learn is to rely on the Lord. Once you realize that you cannot do this on your own and you pray asking god for help, the blessing are waiting. We must act and show our desire and exercise our faith. When I meet people who would truly benefit from the gospel at that moment in time I just

think, man accept the message and you CAN be so happy! Our investigator expressed how it's hard to accept the message because it is so new and different for her. She wants to change, just not sure which way to follow. 

Here's a quote of the week. "Hope is anything but wishful, it is an expectation based on experience." Faith hope and charity work together. Often we overlook hope or charity. Or even faith. But one works with another to create a perfect working mindset. As we strive to be like the Saviour, don't forget about hope.

I went on exchange with Elder Ferrell from Mountain Green, Utah.  We walked for ages. And we met some really genuine people. I was able to practice my street contacting skills and we seemed to do very well.. time went by so fast talking bout how to work harder and see the small Miracles. I love spending time with leadership. They can teach so much and share so much insight.

I met one of the YM in the ward here in Beverley and he got a new bike for Christmas. It's quite a nice bike. I loved talking about it.  So many good memories. He can wheelie for like miles...I'm being serious.

We taught our investigator Elisha. It was a very spiritual lesson.  We talked about answers to prayers. At the end we asked if we could do any service for her. Jokingly she said if only you could fix bikes. Haha. Well, her son did some damage that's for sure. A few flat tires on his bmx bike, and he absolutely demolished the derailleur on the mountain bike. So I removed the derailleur for her to take to the bike shop and we'll get it back going soon.

Another week another day. Enjoy life people.  It is magnificent!

Elder Pilling

Sent from the Land of Lads

Snow that lasted for 2 hours

Week like... I don't know what

Well this week was interesting. I have learned that people take

criticism differently.  We had a stellar start to the week which began with an

investigator lesson with Alisha. We had a member there named Bro Drane.

He's  older and so good. She asked loads of questions and the spirit

was strong. We will see how it goes this week with her. We had

interviews on Wednesday so we traveled to hull. Things have changed

around. We no longer have zone training, and we have zone conferences

and interviews every transfer. So it makes president busy. Our interview

format was also different. We started with a 1 hour cluster meeting

with our zone, the APs and President and Sister Turvey. It was good, a

little bit different but good. We talked about how to teach about the blessings

of the living the gospel. Next, as a companionship we had a 10 min interview

with with both President and Sister Turvey. We discussed our area and

the people we are teaching. Then we separated and had two 10 min

interviews. I started with Sis Turvey. She is soooo good. She hit all

the right notes. She asked a few brilliant questions. Example, "At what

point did you realize you wanted to serve a mission?" We continued to

talk and she built up my confidence and it was sooooo good. Then I

switched to President Turvey, whom didn't say much. He assured me I

was doing about all I can do with the tools I have. And he also helped

me see that my potential was yet to be achieved. He also mentioned

some things would be changing next transfer for sure. After we had an

interview with Elder Dobbs, one of the APs. He goes home this transfer.

He somehow pulled out a very personal story and helped me see how

teaching with the spirit and authenticity makes a HUGE difference.

Overall I loved it. So uplifting and spiritually reassuring. 

Sunday we had some good stuff. We went by some more former investigators. 

And we met Michael ,the neighbour of a former. He's 26 and interested. He

had some similar values as me. Similar thoughts and feelings towards

life so that was cool. And we taught him and now is a new investigator.
He works in the blood place at the hospital and commutes 2 hours so is
away 7-11pm every day except weekends. It'll be difficult to see him. 

I look forward to this week where new goals can be achieved and things can improve. I went running. Well, to be fair I dragged my companion jogging. Barely above walking haha. We have splits with the other Hull lads tonight and tomorrow then Wednesday is ZL splits. This week should be great. Hope to get out on the bikes some and meet some new people. I have high goals set for the next few days.

On a side note, when I was on splits with zl Elder Candia, I street contacted a guy named Daniel. I found out he was baptized last week!! So cool to be a part of that.

Today we spent the day playing risk with other elders and a less active returned missionary and getting a hair cut (lol) 

New Haircut

Game of Risk

Have a good week.

Elder Pilling

Sent from the lad of lads

A lot of knocking

This marks the start of my only full year in the mission! Exciting

huh? This week has been full of good old fashioned missionary work. We

spent the daylight hours knocking on doors and in the evening we have

been knocking on all of the people who have visited with missionaries

in the past. There's probably 50 or more haha. This means travelling

throughout our entire area which is quite big and has half a dozen

outer smaller villages. This week we biked to Walkington (yay!) and I had a

blast. And we took a bus 40 min to the east to a sea side village

Hornsea!!!!  

Up stream from this monster there were a dozen
more.  20" was the biggest I saw.  It makes me
wonder where I can get my hands on a rod...

This Christmas season I have studied the Atonement every single day.  I have come to love the Saviour and am so incredibly grateful for his love and perfect example.  The atonement is a gift we all under appreciate.  It holds so much happiness and peace for those willing to follow the teachings. A quote I've enjoyed this week: "What a caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."  Sometimes we get lost in the confusion of our day to day lives and get set back by trials. But something to always remember is Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us and he loves us very much.  He will never give us a trial which we cannot overcome.  We have trials to build us up. Yes, they are difficult and they are supposed to be.  We cannot learn from good times.  Fishing wouldn't be fun if you caught trophy sized fish every cast all day long.

I love you all and I love this gospel.  I challenge everyone to study the atonement because it has brought me so much happiness.  :)

Also, email me at cale.pilling@myldsmail.net

Love, 

Elder Pilling

Sent from the land of lads