York

Legit week peeps!

This week Elder Pilling teaching Chinese students to say "cult",

receives a Chinese name and eats 🍩 donuts

It has been radical people. Seriously great. I'll just attach some

pictures and what not so yall can see what's cooking up in YORK!!

Our week started with a little exchange with the zone leaders. It's

tricky and confusing because Elder Lyman (Elder Walker's companion and

ZL) he was Elder Pitcher's companion before I came here. They both

speak Chinese. So we did some extra splits on Tuesday so they could

take language study together and teach some Chinese people! So I spent

the morning time with Elder Walker. Then the afternoon with Elder

Lyman all good fun. Wednesday I did a little split with the elders in

the district. They are assigned as just serve elders so all they do is

service all day every day. So Wednesday we went and did bingo for a

bunch of oldies! So classic.

Anyways we went back to their flat to find this lovely lovely piece of

Canadian meat

Elder Walker. Poor guy had a gnarly migraine

 so I chilled and supervised him for awhile :) 

 

 I DID MY FIRST BENCH PRESS ya never doing that again. I think it's silly. + my arms hurt lol 

We taught some Chinese people and what not this week, met some neat people. Had a blast. Weather was less than stellar but that's OK. 

We spent some time with Hailey Tang! Another convert. She's a legend. So so very converted to the gospel. She will do great things in the gospel. We had a few lessons with her and also we were able to go with her and be there when she received her patriarchal blessing. SUPER SPECIAL I won't make many comments but seriously a highlight for sure.  

This is Sliane.  She's a recent convert. Reading some
scriptures with her. And donuts cuz it was 9 am :)   

Finally had a chance to go to church. It was good! The ward is a pretty decent size. Lots of families. Lots of YSA as well. I really enjoy going to FHE and institute.  It's good stuff. 

So because of the universities most of the people around are uni students so it's very different talking to them because many are open minded. New creative ways to contact are needed! 

Love you all!

Elder Pilling 

Sent from the land of the lads

This is the view outside our apartment. The famous 

York city walls! 

Transferred to York!

Some of you may watch the weather forecast for over here... Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday and Friday, all beautiful days. I busted the short sleeves out.  I'm working on getting my tan back because my arms haven't seen the sun since September haha

Also random note. Our flat is around the corner from a bike shop :) It's a trek dealer!! Had some beauties in there :) York is a very, very popular place. I've met more Americans this past week than the rest of my mission combined... LEAH AND BRIAN, I met a cool couple (rednecks) who live just outside Price Utah. They do all their shopping in Price and are even on YSA assignment in Price!! I can't remember their names, but still. Tender mercies :)

York is a wealthy city and very nice place to live. There's plenty of shopping and lots of places to go out for food :). This shipping container will be an outdoor/indoor food market with little hipster shops. Should be really cool when done! It's multi level all built from containers. 

Cool graffiti art. Stay tuned for pics when finished

Anyways, I'll share about my new companion, my new area, my week.  All the goods. 

May companion is Elder Alexander Pitcher from....Utah! Syracuse to be more specific. He has been out 3 months less than me.... he's special because he spent 9 weeks at the the Provo MTC learning Mandarin Chinese. 

My area is officially called York 2. There are 3 Mandarin elders. Haha it's a gooder. The area is the west side of York and goes all the way to the border of Beverley (my first area!) idk what the ward is like because we had stake conference on Sunday. The stake itself reminds me of Utah, lots of younger families :) I'm excited. We share the area with the zone leaders (Elder Walker and Elder Lyman).  Unfortunately we don't live with them... in our area we have not 1 but 2 universities! SO MANY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. So this is where my experience runs a little dry. I have never been in a uni area so it's all so new for me!! Finding people to teach requires different approaches and new plans.  It's so exciting!! We get the city center in our area which is always pretty busy. Lots of people!! 

My week was very different.  Elder Pitcher has only been here 4 weeks. He was doing 100% Mandarin work which means he doesn't know anything about the ward or area... all of the Chinese people he was teaching have moved to the zone leaders. This all means we are pretty much whitewashing! Or area booking. It's a challenge but fun! 

Tuesday I just got settled and then we went out trying to find people. Weren't too successful. Wednesday was super roasting! We had district council, which went ok. Then we did some service in a nearby park. It was good to change things up. We did some more finding and then institute with a recent convert in the evening. It was good! There are about a dozen YSA so that was a good time! Thursday was a long day. We had a crazy meal appointment with the other elders at a member's house. There was so much going on and so much banter haha Saturday was the longest day of my life! Nice and warm but spent the entire day finding. We did 19.1 kilometres of walking 29,000 steps. We met 2 really cool people. A lass who was so very nice to us.  She grew up going to church but life got busy so she stopped going. We promised her that she will be able to recognize answers to her prayers as she meets with us. Looking forward to it. Then later that night, in the final stretch of the day we met Xander. He was like are you lds?? Next thing we were sitting in his house with his roommates running around drinking some water explaining what we do and why. Super good. We are going out for a meal with him when his Mormon friend from down south is visiting! 

 

Yous already heard about church this week. We saw President and Sister Turvey. We spent some time at a YSA activity after with some Chinese friends. Some of you may know that President Spackman has a son who lived in York for a while. So I met a lad who was bffs with them.  He went to Calgary to visit and spent ages there and even went to Waterton! Holla. He said it's his fav place in the world 🌎 

Anyways fam it's been a radical week! 

Big things are coming :) Miracles are real peeps. 

Saturday I was really worried cuz we had the entire day to find. It's tough in the mind sometimes. Well God knows us personally because I saw and met my first fly fisherman in England. He was (just practicing) but we still watched him and chatted about all sorts. He actually used to live in Keighley area. He told of some good fly shops to go to. I'm excited! 

Love,

Elder Pilling 

Sent from the land of lads 

Big transfer coming up

Clair and Willis congrats :) luv the pics and such!

Thursday we had district council and a special broadcast from

President Nelson and Elder Holland! Legendary! It was just for

missionaries at 2pm and then for members at 7. Sister Nelson's talk was really

good. Also cool grandma Garry is friends with her :) such a strong

spirit in a more relaxed setting! Now I know President Nelson is a

prophet!!

3 transfers ago I came to wonderful Bishop Auckland. It's in the middle of nowhere

with lots of buses but I have loved it! The ward has been fantastic

and I've met some amazing people!

It's really sad because they are closing the Bishop Auckland Elder's

area so there will only be sisters here now :( So there are many people and

stuff that I'll miss.

I am being moved to York 2nd Ward! One of the most well known cities

in the mission! I don't know my companion very well. But I do know

many other elders including Elder Walker from the Foothills stake!!!

He's actually in the same ward as me!! I AM BEYOND EXCITED.

I really don't have much to say at all. I'm just so excited for the

upcoming week.

Overwhelmed with excitement for Clur and Willis!! 

I'm excited but sad to leave. It's just an epic time for me. 6 months left all out!!

Here's some pics. We got matching district sunglasses. (We kept the

tags on for like 4 hours today.  Everyone we saw was like excuse me your

tags on lol) Poundland beauties

 

From right to left: Sister Thatcher, Sister Gamil, Sister Cajacson,

Sister Mortensen, Elder Graaabek, Elder Mills, Elder Selk. Front and

center is yours truly :)

Love you fam :) stay tuned for radical email next week!! 

Elder pilling :-) 

Sent from the land of the lads

A Week of Miracles

Fam Jam and others, 

Guys it's spring (nearly).  It's a tad cold and was really wet on Wednesday.. we got soaked :) all good fun

A very quick update. 

We had a little exchange on Wednesday with the Darlington elders. I spent some time with Elder Graabek good lad :) It was very very wet. We got soaked to the bone and didn't have an umbrella oops. I gambled on the weather, took a peek outside and thought, oh it's dry out no rain coat. 2 hours later. Worst rain storm they've had in years haha 

Saturday we had district council. President and Sister Turvey joined us :) We spent the time learning about faith. Specifically 1 Nephi 17. Nephi is commanded to build a ship. He goes and does. No questions. I love the scripture where he says "Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord." 

Arise and he did so without a doubt. Putting all his faith and trust. Love it :) 

We had a week of miracles in the entire zone. There had been this ceiling where we haven't been able to achieve more than it. Specifically 42 baptisms in a month as a mission. And stuck at about 100 new friends as a zone. So this week we shattered that ceiling as a district. Busted out long days working hard. Found 20 total! Normal is about 5 maybe 6 on a really good week. So we really have been seeing the hastening of the work. I love it! 

Saturday I was with Elder Scheffner (Corner Canyon alumni :) ) yay we found this family!! Johnny and Charlie and their three kids.  They are so legit!! I'll snap a pic when we see them on Friday! Classic fam and we love them! So excited to help them learn. Legit miracles !!! Also ate a chicken Parmesan (native to north east England) 

Let me tell y/all God is real. God is good. I love this gospel and the way it challenges us to be better. My new favourite quote. President Ballard said this "Life can be filled with faith, joy, happiness, hope, and love when we exercise the smallest amount of real faith in Christ." 

This is so pure and so true. Faith can move mountains :)  Life is SO good! 

Also shoutout to sister Clair, love yous :) Enjoy the wedding! I'll be here in England inviting people to come unto Christ so don't you worry about me !!! 

Ok so I learned something. At the beginning of one's mission, like the other Elder Pilling, everything is new to you.  You have many new experiences so you really are motivated to share them. Then after about a year... things slow down and your mission is the only thing you can remember. It feels like home and it just feels so normal. So if you want to learn something I'll reply to your personal email within 2 weeks :)  

I am loving spring here. We are about to shed the jackets :) this was a while back but still pretty.

Love you all :) 

Elder Pilling

Sent from the land of lads 

  

Conference

Lots is going on!!

This past week we had zone conference. It is always good to meet as

half the mission with President and Sister Turvey. This one was different

and really quite good. I'll explain.  

I saw Elder Walker :) he's finally in the North again!!

Every 6 months the church sends out an anonymous survey we take so they can gather information about us and our well being. President Turvey recently received these results and we went over many of them. We were above average when compared to the other missions in Europe in almost all areas. We struggled with studying Preach My Gospel daily. He focused on our results from the question, "Do you feel pressure or stress when speaking to your leaders about indicator numbers?" This was significantly higher than he would like it to be. So we spent a loooong time talking about love and what we as a mission can do to feel love and unity. This has already had a really positive impact, I have been noticing more love from my leaders, there's more friendship and more trust.  So far a great success! 

We had a few beautiful days absolutely stunning !! 

Conference, let's see. Pretty incredible!! Lots of changes as you all know :) I feel very good and comfortable with the changes. I have a new found love for ministering ! I'm excited to apply myself to the work when I get home :) unfortunately for the first 15 min of the Saturday morning session it was in german and the tech people where rushing to fix it so we completely missed the solemn assembly :( sad and a bummer. My favorite talk is probably Elder Ballard or Elder Uchtdorfs, both were very excellent. Full of good doctrine. Also enjoyed Elder Holland's jokes haha cracked us up!  

As a district we finished off the last session today in the kitchen with homemade pizza. 

This upcoming week is going to be special! We are set with high faith and high expectations to find 10 new friends to teach! ( the average is 2) we are all doing it in the district so it's a go go go week. PLUS President and Sister Turvey are coming to our district council on Wednesday to see what more they can do to help us! 

I really really appreciate all your prayers and support. It helps ,I can feel them! If I don't reply to an email you send don't think he forgot about me. I read every one of them and love them! I just run out of time as we try to make memories out here rather than email all day!

Love you all 

Elder Pilling :) 

Sent from the land of lads