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"