"ITS NOT HAPPINESS IF IT COMES FROM A PLANT"

September 23, 2013

My Dearest Family,

Please tell Shandy "CONGRATS" for me! Mexico?!?! That is crazy exciting!! Missions are great!!! What MTC will she be going too??

And tell Karen and Steve congrats from me too! There is a senior couple (The Kelley’s) serving a mission in the mission office here and they served in Temple Square before. They LOVED it!!!

Editor's note:  Mikayla's friend Shandy received her mission call to Xalapa Mexica and will enter the MTC on Jan. 22, 2014.  Mikayla's aunt and uncle who recently returned from serving a full time mission in San Diego, CA and have accepted a call to serve a 24 month part-time mission as hosts at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in SL.  

So update on my life.... I don't know how clear my last email was so I'll try and clarify some things. A week and a half ago, my companion, Sister Rudd, was transferred to another area. I stayed in Cudahy. Sister Young came to Cudahy and we had been together for four days. I absolutely love Sister Young, so I was a bit devastated when we received a call last P-Day saying there was going to be another emergency transfer. One sister in our mission was sick and was going home early. Instead of just switching one companionship, the mission president switched up a whole bunch of them. Sister Young left to go be a Sister Training Leader (basically because she is the bomb) and I was put into a trio with Sister Jones and Sister Atkinson. Sister J and A cover the whole stake, are like Sister Zone Leaders, and work in the Huntington Park YSA.  So now the 3 of us are covering two areas. Sister J & A are English speaking so we cover their area half of the day and my area half of the day.  When I went into the trio, I moved (don't worry I said my goodbyes to the S.) and am now in a bug-invested apartment (spiders, ants and the occasional cockroach). Oddly enough, I kind of like it; not the bugs, but the apartment and trio.  The trio should last only until next week when we have the real transfers, but who really knows. President Weidman always keeps us on our toes. Well I guess he is inspired, so the Lord keeps us on our toes, but I've learned so much this past transfer. Sister Jones and Sister Atkinson are the definition of amazing and have been a huge blessing in my life. They are a bit nuts, but I love them and we are having a great time.

Next transfer if I stay in Cudahy I'll just go back to my old apartment. So excited to see the S. and ask them how the reading is going!

So adventures in the trio:

-The YSA sisters have mastered contacting and receiving referrals. Usually when we meet someone on the street we ask them if they know anyone who would be interested in our message. On average we get a "no" or maybe one name. The YSA Sisters were zapped by God and found out that if you ask for 1 referral you get 0-1. If you ask for 15 referrals, you get 7-15, but the key is they have to have their phone out and be looking at their contacts. Referrals have sky rocketed. Our problem now is finding the time to contact them all.

So with this new method to the madness, we have been asking everyone for referrals. Saturday we got some hilarious responses. One guy we were talking too was not interested at all for himself. He tried to pull every card in the book to keep us from talking to him. Persistence is key my friend. When we asked him for referrals, his attitude did a 180. He was like "I have a ton of sinners in my phone." He then proceeded to go down the list, naming people and saying what their sin was. "He's a pothead.... He steals from his mom... He neglects his child...etc." So funny! My favorite sin was "He's overweight and depressed." The people of LA are never boring.

Our second contact of the day was a brother and sister. I'm like 99% sure the brother was high. He claimed that he wasn't, but we didn't believe him. Anyways, when we first started talking to him, he told us it was "awkward because here was three white girls and you don't usually see that around Maywood." This is very true. My area is 97% Latino. But I love it! Then we were trying to share a message, and he was all like "I don't need Jesus. I'm happy." Sister Atkinson had had it. She was like "Its not happiness if it comes from a plant." The kid was not her amigo after that. I died laughing.

Other cools things that happened... M. (a less active) came to the international fair (ward activity) we had on Saturday and then church again!!! TWO WEEKS IN A ROW!!!  She brought her boys and I was so happy! Then the YSA branch had a baptism. Ernest got baptized. He's great and was so happy afterwards. We are all stoked for him. I, also, met a guy in the YSA ward who served in Gardner, NC! He worked at the Cresh this past December. I was like "NO WAY! My mom was in charge of that!" Small world.

We are working with two other families right now. The L. family and then B. & N. People don't seem to grasp the importance of going to church every Sunday, so keep them in your prayers. N. is reading the Book of Mormon though!!! I'm so proud of her.

So this past week, I've learned a valuable lesson. I am serving the Lord's people, and need to work on His timing. I've been super concerned and stressed about Cudahy especially since we are dividing our time with the YSA branch now. But after receiving a blessing, I had to acknowledge that these are the Lord's people. And He's trusting me to take care of them, but His way. So my companions and I have been focusing a lot of 1 Nephi 13:40-41 and focusing on coming unto Christ in the way he provides. Its not necessarily the most convenient way, but even Christ had to do the inconvenient thing. And we follow the example of Christ. I know that as we step out and do those important but inconvenient things, the Lord will consecrate our efforts. We are only going to see miracles and His hand in the lives of those we love. The Atonement is a real thing. I love this Gospel.

Love you all,

Hermana Mik Pillar

Hermana Young, Sister Jones, Ernest, Sister Atkinson, Hermana Pillar