I AM NOW SISTER PILLAR

November 25, 2013

My Dearest Family,

So update on my life - Sister Sorto has been ill for awhile and she and the Mission President decided she should go home and get well.  She is originally from Honduras, but left from Georgia when she came on her mission.  So on Saturday she returned to Georgia and hopefully will get better soon. She was an amazing example of trusting in the Lord. I honestly feel like Heavenly Father said, "Sister Pillar, I'm going to give you my best example of trusting in the Lord and I'm going to ask that you learn from her." And boy does Sister Sorto trust in Him. It was a huge blessing and privilege to be her companion.

Because Sister Sorto left I had an emergency transfer and now I am an English-speaking missionary in the LA Young Single Adult ward, and am super excited about it!! I know I said I never wanted to serve English-speaking, but I've wanted to serve in a YSA area.  This area covers a whole stake, which includes parts of Hollywood, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and a bunch of cities which names I can’t remember right now. I live in the Patron apartments, which are on the temple grounds!! I live right next to the temple! Crazy huh?? It is the tiniest apartment I've been in, but it is super convenient. There's a place to do laundry for super cheap and its right next to the mission office. There's a senior couple here on a mission, the Kelleys. I love them so much and they work in the mission office. They are now our neighbors! We have a free place to wash our car and the church building is basically right behind the apartments so we can walk to church. 

My new companion is Sister Harrison and she's great!!! She is from Kentucky and I love her lots already! Sister Harrison arrived in LA one transfer before me. Last transfer she was assigned to a trio and they were covering two YSA wards. Now, the other companionship has one of the YSA wards and we have the other. 

Because of our large area we still have a car, which I'm grateful for, but I hate driving in LA. People are very aggressive here. 

I attended church in English for the first time in six months and it was a culture shock. I was asked to read a quote and couldn’t remember how to pronounce a work in English, but the gospel is still true no matter what language! The ward has a super great bishopric and I'm excited to work with them. 

OH and get this!! Remember the violinist from America's Got Talent!? The one who danced and played and was Mormon?!?! Well she has her own video on Mormon.org. Her name is Lindsey Striling. Look it up! It’s so good. I tell everyone to look it up. Well anyways... she is in our ward!!! I MET LINDSEY STIRLING! She's a ward missionary and came to a lesson with us on Saturday. And she's feeding us Wednesday! Ahh my life is so cool!!  

The challenge is going to be able to find young single adults around the holiday seasons. But challenge accepted. We'll do what the Lord wants us to do here. 

This past week we had zone conference and it was AMAZING! I had the blessed opportunity to go twice because of the Emergency Transfer. It was just as good the second time around. The focus was having deeper faith and higher expectations. We have been asked to pray more. I know that when we have specific goals and faith enough to achieve them, the Lord will make those goals a reality. He blesses our righteous desires. So I've been trying really hard to trust in Him and pray for specific things. The LA YSA has a goal to have three baptisms before February 1st. Will you help us out and pray that we will find, teach, and baptize three people in the LA YSA before February 1st? We need to call down the windows of heaven, and we need all the help we can get. Thanks for already for keeping us in your prayers, but now its hastening time. We need to ask specifically for what we want. 

We have been reading the Book of Mormon as a mission and the other day I read about the stripling warriors. It’s just a great story all the way around, but I love how even though their fathers had covenanted not to fight they still helped in anyway they could. They sent provisions to their sons out in the field. I wrote in my scriptures next to this verse. Mom + Dad :) ha-ha thanks for helping the soldiers. I hope you know how extremely grateful I am for the packages and help. 

Oh and guess what! The Bannon's sent me a package! That was the sweetest thing ever!

As for Thanksgiving, no worries, we are going to a member’s home. She was super sweet and called and asked if we had any Thanksgiving traditions that they could do to make us feel more at home. :) So there will be candy corn. We are excited!!

Thanks for everything! Seriously ya'll are doing great! I hope you see the blessings from your work with the missionaries. 

Love you so much!!!

Hermana (now Sister) Mik Pillar  

P.S. Check out the scarf I have been knitting! And here's a picture of Sister Sorto and me. 

Hermana Pillar & Hermana Sorto 

Mik's knitting project 

ORANGES & COCONUT

November 18, 2013

Dear Family,

Okay so I read that article about the Sisters waiting out the typhoon on the roof of a building in the Philippines. O my gosh!!! I can't even imagine. That is truly amazing and inspiring.

And to answer your question, my new apartment is nice. Nothing fancy. It’s completely gated in, and has a heater but we haven't been able to figure out how that works yet. So I've just been working the sweaters during studies in the morning.  

I'm so proud of all ya's hard work especially with the missionary work!!! Ya'll are going to be the laborers of miracles. I can promise you that.

And yes! I did get your package!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I loved the skirts!!!! They are a total life savior since the zipper on 1 of my skirts broke and another ripped.

As for my life, I’m still getting adjusted to the South Gate Branch. From the few members I've met already, I have to say that I'm going to like it as everyone is super nice. I still have a car for now, but I'll definitely keep in mind about the bike safety.

Oh and fun fact about my zone, Sister Sorto and I are the only Sisters in the entire zone. It was a bit of an adjustment for me, because my first area was mostly all sisters.

Cool story from this week, Tuesday before transfers I was still with Sister Walker. We stopped at CVS to pick up some medication and while we were in one of the aisles this woman started talking to Sister Walker She acted like she had met Sister Walker before. I was super confused.

Turns out that this woman had in fact met Sister Walker before (approximately 8 months before.) They had set up a time for the sisters to visit her but something happened and the appointment fell through. Well fast-forward 8 months to a random CVS that we usually don't shop at and that she doesn't usually shop at. We spoke with her a little bit and she invited us over again. We stopped by later that night and she fed us oranges and coconut (its amazing try it!) and gave us a copy of her children's book The People Zoo. It was a super pleasant visit and just a huge testimony builder that Heavenly Father does in fact put people in our path. I left the area so I'm not sure what happened since then, but it was a cool experience.

So I read in Alma today. There is some seriously good stuff in there. I read about Helaman's Stripling Warriors. I loved in Alma 53: 20 how it says "they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted." It just goes to show that true integrity and true virtue are characteristics in all things and in all places.

Keep reading the Book of Mormon!!

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Hna Mik Pillar

I LOVE THIS PLACE

November 11, 2013

My Dearest Family,

Ahh so much to tell you and I just can't seem to type fast enough. The biggest news is this week is transfers and I'm so sad to say my time in Cudahy has come to an end. We received the calls last night and I'm leaving. I'll be honest, I cried last night. I'm devastated to leave Cudahy. I love the ward and the people here, but it is not my place to stay any longer. So I'm off.  I'll still be in the same stake (Huntington Park Stake,) but in a different zone and I'll now be in a branch. I have totally mixed feelings. I hate to leave, but I am excited for the new adventure and what is lying ahead of me.

 My new companion is Sister Sorto. She is a native from Honduras. We know each other a little bit because we arrived in LA the same day. English is her second language, but she's already amazing at it. I'm excited for all the help I'll be receiving with my Spanish. We'll be making the transfer this coming Wednesday.

Another crazy thing is that the LA mission will now be teaching the gospel is the Farsi. There are only 8 Farsi speaking missionaries in the world and four of them are in the LA mission. Rumor has it that the Book of Mormon won't even be printed in Farsi until April. The Elders just got their calls switched to the new language. I know one of them. He was called Spanish speaking and now will be learning a new language. Another crazy thing is they may be covering more than one mission. So I guess we will find out. The whole mission is stoked though for the new language. I believe the LA mission now has 8 languages. (English, Spanish, ASL, Tongan, Samoan, Korean, Chinese, and Farsi.) I have to say that I love this place.

Okay so update on the week.... 

Monday we probably had the most epic ward FHE in the history of ward FHEs! On the first Monday of every month the ward is having a ward FHE. November was the first one and the missionaries were in charge. We did a reenactment of the Iron Rod. The first fifteen minutes were a spiritual message and a brief description of 1 Nephi 8. We had done a lot of preparation before hand and built our own version of Lehi's dream in the gym. It took about five trips to Home Depot and a couple hundred feet of PVC pipe. We then filled the pipes with Christmas tree lights. When the lights were off, the PVC pipe glowed. WE HAD A GLOWING IRON ROD!!! It was soo cool. Then with the aid of three fog machines, we filled the room full of fog. On the stage in the gym we found a stage prop that looked like a great a spacious building, so obviously we used that. We asked the English Elders to help us out and they were up on the stage the whole time mocking and pointing at the people to hold to the rod. We then asked some of the people in the ward to be temptations. As people walked through the fog filled room, they had members tempting them and asking them to let go and come with them. Everyone was given a ticket. If they let go of the rod, they were had to give up the ticket. Pretty cool huh? Then at the end was the Tree of Life. We just used a fake Christmas tree and hung powdered donuts on it. Probably not the same thing Lehi ate in his dream, but close enough right?? Everything went great minus the fact that fog started spilling into the chapel during the spiritual message and no one had any idea what was going on. But overall it was a success! Plus, so many members told us it was great and they learned something!!! I was proud that we had done our job. 

Another miracle from the week was we had 8 less actives at church and 1 investigator. We have been visiting this one family for a few weeks and their one son, B., has had no desire to go to church. We'll Saturday night he promised us that he would go to church on Sunday. So we stopped by Sunday morning to give him a wake-up call and bring him breakfast, but he was already up and basically ready! I was so proud of him. He came to church with his mom. And he liked it! Seriously one of the best Sundays in my mission. 

Then last night was the departing missionary fireside. (It’s basically a testimony meeting for all the missionaries who are returning home and always super good.) I've wanting to go all transfer. Heavenly Father answers prayers because after hardly having any investigators all transfer, we had one that was willing to go last night. Everything came together. The investigator's family went, and even B. came!!! Ahh Iwas so happy! I was stoked. Yesterday was just amazing. I love being a missionary!!! LOVE IT!!! 

I hope all is well. Know that I pray for you all every day. I love you!!! I encourage all of you to read 1 Nephi 8 and think about where we you are at on the iron rod. I found a quote in the Ensign that says "Holding fast to the iron rod entails, in large measure, the prayerful, consistent, and earnest use of the holy scriptures as a reliable guide for the journey to the tree of life - even to the Lord Jesus Christ." MAKE SURE YOU ARE READING THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERY DAY!!!!!!! You can't hold on to the rod if you aren't reading every day. I promise you the Book of Mormon makes all the difference. So keep reading. 

Love you!!!

Hna Mik Pillar 

Missionaries saving souls in the "mist of  darkness"

KNITTING, FREE T-SHIRT AND A GLOWING ROD

November 4, 2013

My Dearest Family!!

Happy Be-lated Halloween!!! I hope it was fun for yall! The Trick or Treat sounds like it was fun. Halloween day, we had to be in our apartment by 6pm for safety reasons. Sadly, we didn't have any trick-or-treaters so there really wasn't much of a celebration. We did buy Halloween socks though and apple Carmel suckers (Sister Walker introduced them to me and they have changed my life.)

This past Friday we went to Abuelo (Grandpa) C.'s home. His wife hasn't been to church in a really long time, but they were feeding us dinner. We had tamales, which were sooo good!! Afterwards, Hermano C.'s daughter taught us how to knit! I actually know how to knit now. Who knew that would have been one of the life lessons I would learn on the mission??? And for one of the first times in my mission, someone gave me homework to do. We were assigned to finish our scarves. So mine's about an 1 1/2 but I am sooo proud of it. Its all Sister Walker and I do during our lunch break, its pretty exciting. I'll send you pictures of it soon.

Also, our ward is doing Ward FHE's now. It’s only the first Monday of each month and tonight is the first one ever. The Bishopric talked about how the first one had to be incredible and a huge deal and then... they put the missionaries in charge of it. No pressure, right? Well I hope we will deliver. We are doing a reenactment of 1 Nephi 8 about Lehi's vision with the iron rod. So far we have three fog machines and a glowing rod!! It’s only taken about 4 trips to Home Depot to get all the PVC Pipe, but it’s going to be legit. I am so stoked.

Plus, when we were picking up one of the fog machines from a member, he had a bunch of old t-shirts in his garage. So he gave one to Sister Walker and one to me. I am now the proud owner of the boxing t-shirt from when Martes fought Moreno in 2012. Sister Walker was lucky enough to get an Alicia Keys shirt. We both felt pretty special.

This weekend has been full of miracles. Its just been another testimony builder that our Heavenly Father does love us and does help us out in our times of need. In my Book of Mormon reading, we read about Ammon and his amazing example to King Lamoni and how through him and his brethren they were able to convert many souls unto Christ. But the whole thing started with Ammon's service to the King. It just proves Mosiah 2:27 when we are in the service of our fellow man, we are in the service of our God. I invite you all to look for those opportunities to serve your fellow men this week. This past weekend I really tried to just loose myself in the work, and it was amazing to see the miracles that happened as a response. One cool story was at a part member family's home. We stopped by randomly to invite them to ward FHE tonight and hopefully meet the husband who is not a member (yet!) We have tried meeting him before, but haven't been successful. And finally Saturday, we found him home. At the beginning, he said he would not go to the FHE and had no interest. We talked to him for a little bit, and Sister Walker was very bold with him. (I was so proud of her.) By the end he had a change of heart and said he would go and he would wear a bright color shirt so we would be able to find him in the crowd. :) 

We have these things called OYM (Open your mouths.) Basically its just talking to a stranger and leaving them a mormon.org card or a popular favorite is a picture of Jesus with a free Jesus the Christ DVD on the back. So usually the goal is to get 10 OYM a day. Doesn't usually happen and my companion and I have been terrible at doing them recently. So our whole district made a goal to get 280 is one week. Which means our companionship HAS to get 10 every day. So we weren't in our area yesterday because of church and then Sister Walker had a baptism in her old area so we drove all the way to that. But we decided to make it a goal today even though its super hard to do so on P-Days because you are just out and about and not in the area. But so far we have 9 for today!! I took a bunch of pass along cards in my pocket on our morning jog, which usually turns into a walk after a while and we passed them out like candy while people were walking to school. Heavenly Father really provides a way to get the job done. So cool!!!

We were supposed to get a mini-missionary this weekend; they do them a lot in this mission.  We even went all the way to pick her up and then she didn't show up. And from what we heard that is so out of character for her, that we hope all is okay. I talked to the APs and was like, “ can we be number one to get a mini missionary next time”.  They were like,  “okay”!

OH, and we went to EL POLLO LOCO!! Haha

Love you all. Keep up the great work! I am so proud of ya’ll and hearing the ways you are sharing the gospel and working with the missionaries.  Keep the faith!

Hna Mik Pillar

Hermana Pillar's mom loves El Pollo Loco

Hermana Walker's new t-shirt 

Mikayla loves collecting t-shirts.

SIDEWALK CHALK & THE PLAN OF SALVATION

October 28, 2013

Alrighty Family!

Are you ready for another update from good old Cudahy?? Either way, here it comes.... First lets just take a minute and realize that Sister Pillar will hit her six-month mark in two weeks. That's crazy. I'm not sure where the time has gone. But there it is. Crazy, huh?

Okay so lets rewind back to two weeks ago. I forgot something important! So about two weeks ago, Sister Walker and I tried our new finding strategy. We have a few high schools in our area, so we are trying to use this to our advantage. We decided to do something fun and creative and something I've wanted to do for months. I told my idea to Sister Walker who conveniently had the materials and we went to work. We took her box of sidewalk chalk and drew the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalk about a block down the street. As kids were walking home from class, I shouted at them my very sly and very cunning technique, "DO YOU HAVE INTERNET?" (Okay probably not the most cunning technique, but it made the people stop) and then I gave them a mormon.org card. For anyone who has not been on the website, check it out! It’s amazing. My personal favorite is Lindsey, but all of them are super good. Well anyways it was super fun and we talked to a ton of people. So it was definitely worth it. I took pictures and those will be coming to you shortly!

Now this week... we have been working a lot with the less active. Love them! And guess what... R. came to church again!!! Happiest moment ever. She's a sweet heart. And you can tell just loves her kids. We also went and met with the C. family. Hermano C. comes to church every Sunday, but his wife hasn't been in years. So we stopped by and discovered that Hermana C. is an extremely talented seamstress. So is her daughter. We had a really powerful lesson about the Restoration and invited them to read the Book of Mormon every day and come to church. Hna C. didn't come to church, but the perfect thing is we have it again next week so we'll just invite her again :) Hna C.s daughter, who is also less active, is going to teach us how to knit when we go over for dinner on Friday. I'm excited, but not quite sure how this will go over. Knitting has never been a forte of mine, but maybe with the blessings of being a missionary, I'll be able to master it this time.

We had Mormon Helping Hands on Saturday and spent a good portion of the day deep cleaning the chapel. It was tons of fun. Afterwards, the missionaries planned a ward FHE that we are in charge of. It’s going to be epic!!!! We are doing a real-life iron rod scenario. I'll definitely take pictures.

Other than that, life is going great.  You asked me a question about being in after dark. Unfortunately its not a rule that we have to been in by dark. I hate it. I absolutely hate the dark and it gets so dark here so fast. After date light savings its going to be dark at like 5:30/6pm. I've made a big effort to always make sure we have set appointments we have to go too after dark, but that's not always possible. So keep praying for me and my safety. We are protected but extra prayers never hurt. And I'm a bit nervous that they'll take away our car next transfer. There's a rumor that President wants the whole mission to be a "no car" mission, so only bikes and public transportation. I'm working on humbling myself and thinking this is a good idea.

Here's a quote from C.S. Lewis (who paraphrased a metaphor by George McDonald) that I've really taken to heart lately, "Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of-- throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace."

I hope that impacts you like it did me. Sometimes life hurts, but its makes us into that celestial being we are destined to be. The Church is true. Christ lives and loves each and every one of us.

Love you all!! Keep the faith!!!

Hermana Mik Pillar

IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MEMBERS

October 21, 2013 

My Dearest Family!

Another week has come and gone and we are almost done with October. Where is the time going??!

So update on this week...

Last P-Day I learned a very valuable life lesson. My companion told me that its super important to wash your pillow every other transfer. I told her that she was crazy and that would ruin my pillow if I put it in the wash. Well, she finally convinced me by saying that it would make it super fluffy. I gave in. Rookie mistake. I now sleep with a morphed pillow. (My companion says that on the plus side it is now dust free.)

Also, I don't know if I ever updated you... I'm designated driver now. Super cool yeah! However, we got reared ended on Tuesday. Don't freak... it was super minor. And we were parked at a stop light in traffic, so totally not my fault and nothing I could have done to prevent it.  It was so minor that you can barely see the imprint of the license plate on our back bumper. However, we still had to fill out an accident sheet, take our car to the auto shop twice and drive up to Santa Monica so they could look at it in the Mission Office. I don't think I'll have to pay anything, but I'll keep you updated.

This past week I was also sick-ish. We got flu shots on Tuesday, so I'm not sure what I had. It was like stomach aches and aches in the joints, but Priesthood power is a real thing. I asked the Elders in my ward on Sunday for a blessing. All four of them were able to give me a blessing of health, and I have felt way better since then. It was a super cool experience and I am so grateful for the; our Elders rock. Especially the ones in the ward.

Our ward had a Primary Activity for Halloween. It was the classic Trunk-or-Treat. So Sister Walker and I obviously made flyers for it and handed it out to everyone we knew. We challenged some members to invite friends and they did it! The Relief Society's daughter invited people from school (I tell her all the time that's she’s a rock star. It’s a true fact.) And the R.'s daughters invited people. V.  invited her friend, who invited her parents, who are related to Mormons, searching for a Church, and now are our new investigators!!! I am so proud of V.!!!!!! Seriously. It’s the members that make the missionary work happen. We've met with the Mom once, but hopefully will be able to go up to the Visitor's Center this week with the family. I'm stoked.

 One last thing, a sister missionary who served in this area last year came back to visit! It was way fun talking to her because her name is all over our area book. Anyways, later that week we went to go visit R. She's less active, but I love her family so much! She is the sweetest. She told us the former missionary came to visit her! I was like yeah I'll for sure come and visit you after my mission. She got very serious and was like "You promise?" I promised and promised I would bring my family. So just a heads up we are coming back to LA sometime in 2015. I know its forever away, but I'm stoked for you to meet people. :)

So our whole mission is reading the Book of Mormon together. We have certain chapters we have to read each day. And let me just say its been amazing. We are in Mosiah right now, and I'm loving it. Today I read about Alma and how after he and those that converted and were baptized fled from King Noah, they were still captured by the Lamanites. The Lord allowed for them to go through tribulation, but he was always with them making their burdens light when they cried unto him. And then he delivered them. I loved this. It’s not necessarily always the easiest or fun thing to do, but I am so appreciative that our Heavenly Father allows us to grow. Then He extends His merciful hand and delivers. He always delivers. I invite you all to continue reading the Book of Mormon each day. Heck, make your own plan and read the same chapters every day on your own time and then discuss them as family at dinner. Miracles and blessings will follow. They always do; it’s God's law.

I hope everything is going well in the great state of NC. I met a man yesterday who said the best people come from NC. I had to agree.

Love you all!!!!

From Cali!!

Hermana Mik Pillar

Hermana Pillar & Rodney 

Elder Puertas, Elder Cloward & Hermana  Pillar 

Elder Taylor, Elder Erickson, Elder Dunn & Elder Condor 

I HAVE THE BEST JOB EVER

October 14, 2013

My Dearest Family,

I am so sorry, but I literally have minutes to write. Something with the whole it being Columbus Day and all the public libraries closed... struggles. But this week has been great!!!

So let me brag for one second and just tell you how amazing my ward is!!! We have the coolest bishopric like ever! They came out with a new ward mission plan. Its inspired! That's all I have to say. We will be starting (hopefully) a ward FHE once a month with a bunch of other goals like having the members take a training course on how to preach the gospel. Also, Sister Walker and I have been going around the area and meeting all the members. It’s been so great for us and I think they really like it. Our meal calendar is always full now with a list of people to call if we have cancellations. So it appears that they enjoy meeting and visiting with us as well.

Some of the tender mercies of the week... we found an inactive member that just moved here from El Salvador by knocking on doors and one of the less actives came to all three hours of church this week!!! So great!

Also, today I visited the oldest operating McDonalds in the world today and ate my first Big Mac. I can officially check that off the Bucket List.

Loving the mission; it’s seriously one cool experience after another. I have the best job ever. Hands down.

One of my new favorite scriptures is 3 Nephi 27: 16. Go to church and renew your covenants and be filled!!! Such a great promise.

Love you all,

Hna Mik Pillar

I MAKE SOMETHING UP AND KEEP TALKING

October 7, 2013

My Dear Family!

To answer a few of your questions:

Yeah, every month the mission gives us a copy of the Ensign. But thanks for thinking of me.

And I'm good on the frames. I have the two frames sitting on my desk, but I don't have room for anymore! The photobook sits on my desk as well, so I look through that occasionally. :)

Our cars have CD players and a USB cord to hook up iPods. My shuffle doesn't work on the usb drive, (I think its because its a shuffle. Because other nanos work in the cars...?) So I can only listen to it in the apartment. So CD would be great.

Congrats to Sister Burrows!! I'm so proud of her!! Will you tell her I say Happy Birthday and that I miss her family a ton?! I love them so much.

Maddie is a boss. I'm stoked that she wants to serve a mission. And her date sounds like it was so much fun. I'm a lucky girl to call her my sister.

James sounds like he was living the adventure this week too. I swear I feel like every other letter from home says that he went on a camp out. Ha-ha He will have to tell me how to survive in the wilderness when I get home.

This week was a good one. We recently dropped all of our investigators. It wasn't super fun, because I really love some of the families. But they hadn't progressed. Our mission president, President Weidman, said that if people are not reading the Book of Mormon every day, then to drop them. So we turned them back to Heavenly Father for a while, and some day in the future they'll be ready for the Gospel.

Well since we don't have any investigators now, the adventure of finding has started yet again. It’s amazing to see who is popping up in our lives now. We are meeting more and more part member families and people on the street who are willing to talk to us. Heavenly Father is consecrating our efforts. Something I realized the other day too, I don't stress about talking to people on the street in Spanish anymore. I'm far from perfect in Spanish, but it’s not a stress anymore. For the most part I understand what people say, even if they have a really difficult accent. And if I don't, well I make something up and keep talking like I do. Ha-ha. So far it’s working.

My new companion Sister Walker hails from Utah. She's great. She is so willing to work and work hard. Plus, she is fearless. The Spanish is fine, but at times approaching people is still terrifying. Not for Sister Walker. She has been a great example for me; she just charges right into a conversation with people on the street. We literally have something that every soul needs. We should not be afraid to share that with people. It’s a lesson I'm still working on.

Also, GENERAL CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND WAS AMAZING!! I cannot even describe at how amazed I was with the talks. I completely agree with President Thomas S. Monson that it was truly one of the most inspired conferences. I was so sad yesterday after the last session. It was the first time I think in my life that wished there were more sessions of General Conference. For anyone who did not have a chance to watch it, I definitely invite you to go back through and do so. God spoke to His people this past weekend. I know it.

Family!!! Can I just say I am so proud to call you all my family!? Yeah you want to meet the investigators in your ward and help the missionaries out in your area! Seriously, that warms my heart. I loved all the talks and was super excited about the ones promoting missionary and member work. The members are were its at. I'm telling you. You will be blessed. I promise you all. You will help aid the miracles and see you fruits if you help the missionaries. Think about it. There are over 15 million members on the planet. Ergo, there are over 15 million missionaries. God's army is growing. I'm excited.

I love you all so much. I hope you know that. Also, my companion and I counted the other day. There are less than 80 days until Christmas!! Have we started listening to Christmas music in the car... you bet we have! T'is the season.... well almost.

LOVE YOU ALL. Keep the faith. Why, because it’s true.

Hermana Mik Pillar