Lil bit of Nashville

Sun sun (little rain) sun sun ☀️

So I have been aware for many moons that my emails aren't as descriptive as they used to be... well I guess it means that  England is home ❤️ and nothing feels crazy new. But my fans have spoken so I'll do my best to be detailed ;)

This week we did all sorts. Little BBQ, did some weeding, more weeding, narrowly avoided temptation and refused the  Golden Arches (McDonald's), Nashville tribute band visited, ate some Chinese, went to church, taught primary, ate more dumplings.

Anyways I'm out of time.

Love you!!!

Jk all

The real goods - 

As you may have noticed or maybe not but we are doing loads of service. This is because of a really cool initiative the church is doing called justserve.org. So basically there's a set of elders who have been doing service instead of proselyting. After a full year of this they are slowly ending the program and making them back into proselyting missionaries.  So this means all the missionaries are encouraged to do 6 hours of service in the community.  Having the service elders in York means they already found all the projects.  Super coolio. We're meeting so many people and I'm enjoying working with my hands.  I've even had some quality time with a weed Wacker.

Sam I am. I'm trying not to share too many personal details but Sam is a university student. He recently started attending a church. Anyways we invited him to Music and the Spoken Word with the Nashville Tribute band in Leeds. It was SO GOOD. About 100x better live. Some serious talent going on. Best of all it was focused on the restoration and Jesus Christ. I know I had multiple experiences with the spirit that night. Sam loved it, so all good! We did have a lesson on Sunday with  him. Not so good. Idk what was up but it just didn't seem right. He is really interested and wants to hear more about prophets though, so not a complete failure.

We had some delicious dumpling with our Chinese member friend, Hailey :).  She made this chicken that is so so so good. So good that I'm going to open up a little chicken shack and sell it.

Hailey's famous-to-be chicken!

This is Silane.  She's been a member for a good
while now.  Maybe 6 months. Jack Gore on the
right of me, comp on the left. 

Sam the man 

Ahhhh this is the last week until transfers. So crazy!! 

Love you,

Elder Pilling 

Sent from the land of the lads 

God loves us

Pretty GREAT week NGL (not gunna lie)

The most rad parts first.  Went to a born again Christian church... called G2 except it was a
special service titled "Thy Kingdom Come" most of the churches all denominations all joined together at the York minster (massive church).

We went with our new friend Sam! Defs one for the journal haha! We didn't feel the spirit much, it was fun tho. Old lady in front of us blessed us with the Holy Spirit when she prayed on us. Grateful for that :)
Some peeps got hitched! You may have heard bout it. Megan and Harry ❤️ Elder Walker and I went on exchange and watched it at a member's house. They were classic. Mid 70s and super super funny. Talking about all the relations and typical marriage chat. Meanwhile, Elder Walker and I were just dying when they would show the cast of Suits. Luis and Harvey and Mike, all classic. The camera man loved Louis. They had this black Pentecostal preacher guy going so hard! The queen was not impressed lol.

The streets of York

So yah. We kinda had a crazy week. Little too personal for yous all to hear. Just to summarize, LIFE IS HARD . Legit so difficult. And the good ones get hit he hardest it seems. But it's so good because I can see how much God loves them and I can see the testimonies being built.

We had a fabulous day today!!!! Epic pday adventures. Jack Gore (my bff) had the day off and picked us up and then snagged the sisters. We didn't have a plan. We just wanted to hike. So we drove to the torture moors. Picked the tallest one. It was an adventure getting there but that's chill. Hiked. Bushwhacked. It was very sunny ☀️ .  We made it to the not very tall top (1300feet).  After flushing like 4 grouse and a rooster we decided to throw rocks at them. Then we saw a lamb on the wrong side of the fence. So we cornered it and Jack dove and boom we caught a lamb. After some pics we tossed it over the fence. Mission success.

Love you all. I'm loving it here and just grateful for all the love!!


Elder pilling



Sent from the land of lads

The ultimate driving experience

Hi people.

Such a fantabulous week. I HAD FUN!

So ya lots happened. Where to start hmm well let's just toss it in a

blender and go random shall we.

Had interviews with President and training form the assistants. Is

anyone familiar with the BMW slogan? Well the training slogan for the

mission is "the baptismal invitation is not just about baptism; it is

not just about the invitation..... it is all about the experience."  I

dunno about you guys but it could use some more work. I prefer the BMW

line "ultimate driving experience". Anyways I've been thinking a lot

more about how much good the gospel does. For EXAMPLE, when you have a

really good job and are getting paid well, it is difficult to leave

because it is so good.

I am confident that if we work at it this is what the gospel will do

for us. It will be that really well paying job and we will enjoy the

blessings. Disclaimer: I have been in that lazy mode and the truth is,

you don't receive the blessings and it sucks. Terrible... you aren't

happy and you seem to think "the grass is greener on the other side"

but this just isn't the case. Ever.

The gospel is "the good life" experience.  Yes the truth is, it can be

a rollercoaster, but let me tell ya kiddies. As my

good friend Arnold bennet said "it is easier to go down a hill than

up, but the view is from the top". Let's get our hiking boots on and

get hiking because the gospel will enable us to climb whatever

mountain we wish to climb.

Ya enough of that so this week was fantastic. Taught some lessons, ate

some pigs feet 🐷 did some hiking; all good 😎.

Sliane, our Chinese member was on fire!! 🔥 She invited 3 then 4 then 5

friends to church!!! I liked what our ward mission leader said when I

told him we neeeded lifts to church for 9 people. He said, "That's a

good problem to have."  They all made it and they all giggled at my

horrible Chinese but we made it! Enjoyed the time. They all enjoyed it

but some didn't eat breakfast and quickly found that to be a mistake

and were quite hungry haha!

The biggest, best miracle for last -!! Andy is a mid 20 year old

guy. His girlfriend, Hannah, met the missionaries 6 months ago and was

baptised in February. He has been taught lots but never made it to

church. We popped over to visit with Hannah and Andy was pretty bold

and said, "I want to be baptised one day, 100% sure." This was a little bit of a

surprise. All good tho and we hopped on the band wagon and discussed his

desires. Long story cut short, he set a baptismal date for June 16th!! And

he came to church!!!! The other elders and member were so so excited.

They have been trying to get him there for 6 months haha! Winner

winner chicken dinner 🍴

I had a lovely Sunday. Shoutout to Jack Gore and his family for being

so awesome and hosting us for a meal and skyping the fam!! I love that

family. Just like home ❤️

Today we went to some funky looking rock things. Picture Utah

sandstone but black haha 

  

 

Elder Pilling

Sent from the land of the lads 

A Chinese miracle, an English miracle, and just some dandy sunshine

So with my emails I've been a.) slacking, b.) absent, c.) vague

D.) All of the above

Well the answer is D

Sorry yall.

But in other news I have found the jackpot of postcards. 15 pence

each!!!!!!! So hit me up asap if you want one!! It will arrive in 3

weeks because I'll probably forget one week etc etc but it'll make it

eventually.

TBH I have gotten to the point where I dunno what to tell you. I'll

just go through the days. It's all a blur.

Zone conference was good. We had a nice little testimony meeting which

I really enjoyed!

Umm we had a little service project. We woke up and it was raining

ugh. We talked with the district and agreed to go on still. Spent a

couple hours shovelling wood chips. I really enjoyed that. Then as

soon as we finished it stopped raining haha ☔️ the worst timing.

We taught some of our Chinese friends. This is the big miracle!! So

turns out 20 year olds have drama. I nearly forgot haha so all sorts

was happening. Long story short, Friday at 9 am we taught Sliane.

She's been a member 6 months now and just recently has been quite

excited about the gospel. She wants us to teach everything again and she

is treating it like school, taking notes and really focusing on it. So

that happened in the morning. Then later that night we went to a

student hangout place to teach Hailey. Well we saw Sliane again. She

was playing games with her friends. She just introduced us to 3 of her

friends then continued to invite them to church for next week.

Wow that doesn't sound very exciting. But it was I assure you. :)

Ugh I can't think of anything. I am sorry :( it's sad. I had a really

good week tho.! I had fun.

Sunday was a blast. Elder Walker and I switched comps again so they

could go to a Chinese bbq. We then cruised to the Gores (fav fam) had

a yummy BBQ, chatted and enjoyed the sunshine.  It was just wonderful. They are

great and fun and lots of jokes. I LOVED IT. I don't have any pics of

that sorry!

Left to right sorta

Elder Pitcher, me, Hailey, Sliane, Cheng Rong.

 

This picture was after a baptism for Mariama. Oh man I almost forgot about her. She is a legend. She was met like 2 years ago by a senior couple. She was taught and taught but decided now wasn't the time. She spent the last 2 years thoroughly studying the Book of Mormon. Like so deep. She knows it better than most members know it (including me). I taught her a few times.  Here's a short story. We would be teaching a principle say it's faith. She would then share a story in the Book of Mormon related to the principle. It is unreal. She was so ready. So good. So great. Absolutely awesome! So we did that on Saturday! 

Yah it was a really good week! 

We had a little boy's night out! With the zone leaders. Whipped up some pulled pork. Brownies. All good stuff. Then we proceeded to eat it on the roof of the garage at their flat. I'll attach pics, jk didn't get them yet. 

Spiritual gifts. Apply yourself to the work and Heavenly Father will bless you and strengthen you! 

Idk 

Elder Pilling :) 

Some English architecture for you