PERSIAN PARTIES, BUS CONTACTS AND TRANSFERS

March 24, 2014

My Dearest Family,

So we had transfers. And I have to say that I am one of the most blessed people ever. Last transfer was great and I loved being with Sister Bobelenyi. I was worried that since God had given me such a great transfer last time that this one would be harder. But so far it’s been amazing. My new companion is Sister Rackleff. She has been out for a little bit longer than a year and is amazing! We really just clicked. She's a great teacher and hard worker, and I'm learning lots from her.

With the new transfers, they removed the elders from our ward. In the past the arrangement was Elders teach the boys and Sisters teach the girls. Since the Elders are now gone, we teach everyone. It was super exciting because we inherited all their investigators. The not so exciting part... I am so awkward around men! It’s embarrassing. We were calling a bunch of them to see if we could meet up with them and everything. Talk about awkward. But we did get a dinner appointment out of it so that was happy!

Lauren our recent convert came to a lesson with us this past week. She testified and really brought the Spirit. It was so cool to have seen her grown!

This past week was Persian New Year. Because the Persian Elders cover some of the same area we do, we heard about their ward activity to celebrate it. Obviously I wanted to go. We invited all the Persians we could find. I don't think any of them were able to attend.  We ended up going anyways, because there are a few Persians that are YSA aged. We met one of them and she might be teaching a Persian class for FHE in the near future. :)

Oh I totally forgot to tell you... we had a lesson with a new investigator this week. It’s a friend of a member. I had never met the member or the investigator. We show up at her place and she has people over and...THEY WERE ALL MODELS! I was like HOLY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!!! Like seriously! The member is a model too!!! Only in LA! And some of them came to church on Sunday.

Oh and I got to see the Burrows last night.  I was soooo happy!!!  The Visitors Center has special firesides, which are called, "Why I believe Firesides." Last nights speaker was a space scientist. I really wanted to go, but none of our investigators could and we aren't allowed unless we have someone to take. So we went street contacting instead around the temple. When we were walking back to our car, we ran into the Burrows. 

Instead of going to the fireside we tried street contacting at bus stops. We got a new investigator!!! So stoked! And one pretty interested potential. 

As always, I have so much more to say but hardly any time. But just know that I'm doing great. The Lord lives and is blessing us. The work is hastening. Keep reading the Book of Mormon and being the light to everyone. The missionaries need the members. They make the biggest difference. 

I actually talked to President about when I will go home this week. He said he can only extended my time by 30 days. So I could stay another transfer but I would go home in the middle of it. (That's what some of the missionaries have been doing here. Its weird.) But he also said that he's thinking about shortening the November transfer and sending the missionaries home a week before Thanksgiving. It’s my choice. I said told him I’d pray about it and get back to him. But I'll for sure be home before December. 

Love you lots!!

Sister Mik Pillar 

Sister Burrows (a guardian angel to Sister Missionaries) & Sister Pillar

HE RESTORETH MY SOUL

March 17, 2014

My Dearest Family,

O my goodness, Maddie!!!! I'm so sorry about the concussion! Believe me…no bueno. But it sounds like you are a beast. Proud of your for that! I'll be praying that you make a fast recovery. And Lottie as well! 

Editor's Note:  Mikayla's sister Madeline has a concussion.  She was hit 3 times in the head and neck while playing in a varsity lacrosse game. 

So this week is transfers and the verdict is…Sister Bob got her Visa and my call has been changed and we are on our way to Brazil…joking, but that would be cool!!!  The excitement started on Friday when we received a call that Sister Bobelenyi had received her VISA. She left this morning for Brazil where she is going to rock the world! I'm so proud of her. She's going to do amazing things. I then found out what was happening with me on Sunday. I will be staying yet another transfer in the LA YSA ward. My new companion will be Sister Rackleff. She's been out longer than I have and everyone I talk to basically just raves about her. So I'm stoked to be her companion. Plus, they just took the Elders out of our ward. In past transfers, only Sisters had covered the area. When they put Elders into the ward, the teaching pool was divided like this: Sisters teach girls, Elders teach boys. Now that they took the Elders out again, we will be covering both the Relief Society and the Elders Quorum. Our teaching pool just doubled and we may have inherited a baptismal date.  My feelings.... a bit overwhelmed, but excited. Good things are going to happen this transfer. 

Since Sister Bobs left today, I have a temporary companion. Sister Foster. She's great!! We trio-ed it last night and now its just the two of us for today.  Sister Foster is the one I asked you to send a CD to.  Oh and the packages didn’t get here in time for our district meeting on Friday so I told the office and they gave Sister Bob her package before she left.  They also gave me my package so thank you and Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Last night we went to the Departing Missionary Fireside with our investigator Isis. This is the fireside where all the missionaries who are going home bear their testimonies. It’s was super powerful, and I was stoked that Isis was there. It was crazy to think that some of the missionaries who are leaving tomorrow had barely hit their year mark when I first got here. Time is flying. Isis really loved the fireside though, which was awesome! And then afterwards, I saw a ton of people from Bell Gardens!! It felt like a family reunion. I was so happy!!!

This week past week we also had a Sister Training day. President was the only male invited. :) It was inspiring and then afterwards, we had one of the most sacred testimony meetings I have ever been too. We had been asked to read Psalm 23 (which I encourage all of you to read) and tons of Sisters bore their testimonies on the chapter. I loved how it says that "He restoreth my soul." It is so true. Christ heals us. He gives us the pick-me up at the end of a hard, long day. He makes me feel filled every Sunday as I partake of the Sacrament. I am so blessed that He suffered for me and loves me enough to walk through the hard times with me. I am so incredibly blessed. I love this Gospel. It is true. And the truth sets us free. 

Love you so much family!! 

Yours,

Sister Mik Pillar 

"Sister Olsen's nephew likes to cook and he made us dinner; simple delicious. "

Sister Tree: Sister Wells trained Sister Perry, who trained Sister Pillar who trained Sister Bob!                                            At the Sister Training Meeting 

Sister Bob's last Sunday before leaving for Brazil. 

Sister Pillar, Isis, Sister Bob outside the Visitor's Center

THE MIRACLES JUST POURED DOWN

March 10, 2014

My Dearest Family!

Hello from the great city of LA!! Thanks in advance for sending Sister Foster and Sister Bob packages. I’m not going to tell them they are in the mail; I’ll let it be a surprise. Sister Foster cut my hair today. It's been almost three months since the last time I had it cut and last time it wasn’t thinned out, so.... my hair was HEAVY!!!  It feels so much better.

Also, transfers are next week... and I have a feeling that I will leave the area.  It’s just this feeling I have. Its kind of how I felt right before I left Cudahy. I could be totally wrong, but I just feel like I'm done, and going back to Spanish. But, we shall see. I will know for sure on Sunday,

I'm sorry I don't have a ton of time today because we had a zone BBQ earlier, and played group games. I found out later that some of the elders when to play ball afterwards. No one ever invites us to anything....sigh. 

This week was amazing!! The miracles just poured down on our lives and I wish I had all the time in the world to tell you about them. Last fast Sunday our whole zone fasted that we would have success in our areas. Our district has been struggling a little bit and needed some extra blessings. It was amazing! We had success in finding less actives at home (finally) - to finding a new investigator - to picking back up an old investigator and then even having one investigator come to church!

Here's the best story from the week. So I think I've told you about our investigator, Isis. She's the greatest, but we have been trying to get her to come to church. Things kept coming up and she was never able to make it.  We basically decided this would be the week she would come. So we needed some prayers and a lot of them. We drafted a text message and sent it to almost everyone in our phone's contact list; members, less actives, recent converts, and other missionaries. We asked everyone to pray that Isis would make it to church. And the response was incredible. Our members were so excited to contribute. Everyone was saying things like "Of course!" "Absolutely!" "Yes! Thanks for letting me know!!" I was so touched.

And the coolest thing I saw from the whole experience was how excited our members were on Sunday. Everyone was coming up to us asking if Isis was here or if she was coming. It was thrilling. And you know what... Isis came!!! Thanks to the LA marathon she was a bit late (next time we will be a bit more specific in the prayers. But she came and she liked it and she wants to come back! I couldn't have been happier!! 

Prayer really works. It’s amazing what can happen when we humble ourselves and ask in faith. God is on our side!!

Another cool Miracle from this week... long story short.... we had a referral from the Pharisee Elders (some of my favorite elders in the mission) and taught this one girl named Deshaina. The lesson went super well. We set up a return appointment and life happened and she could never meet and then stopped responding to our text messages. So we were like fine, and stopped texting. Well during weekly planning last week, I was looking at our board and all the names we had, and just had this thought "you need to call Deshaina." And I was like okay fine, I'll do it later. The thought again was like "No, now is a good time." And I really couldn't argue that, so we called. And we set up another appointment. She apologized for being busy. And has been reading the Book of Mormon! I was like... what?!? Crazy. So we are going on a tour with her tonight at the visitor center. I really hope she shows up. So pray that Deshaina comes tonight!!! She is super cute!! 

Oh and another story...we did this Little Armenia service project on Saturday. I was on exchanges and in a Spanish area, which made me super happy. (And no I didn’t spend the night at the Sister Training Leaders apartment; they have bed bugs at their place. So we didn't do the sleeping over part. I didn’t complain.) Apparently, there are Armenian speaking elders in the Arcadia mission and they cover parts of our mission as well, so they were at this service project. We were talking to them and they were showing us their I-pads. (The elders might have had a little bit of an ego with the I-pads, but if I had an I-pad I might be the same way as well.) Anyways, I was like, "do you know an Elder Gardner??" And I actually met one of Riley's former companions. Cool, huh?  

Can you do me a favor... so we have mission planners, right? And I like to decorate mine. Could you by any chance send me some neat pictures of Christ? Like some interesting ones. Ha-ha that sounds terrible, but I know some sisters had their parents send them cool ones of Christ and children or another images. We see the standard ones all the time and well... something new is always good.

Love this gospel!!!! Keep the prayers and keep the faith!!! 

Sister Mik Pillar 

Janet, Sister Blair & Sister Pillar
"Ok, so the outfit is terrible!  I was on exchanges, didn't have a change of clothes for the
service project and just threw the T-shirt on over what I had on." 

I ACTUALLY HAD TO USE MY UMBRELLA!

March 3, 2014

My Dearest Family,

So for the first time on my mission I actually had to use my umbrella!  It poured this past week. Like poured. But in a weird way, it was wonderful; kind of refreshing. We even had lightening and which made me miss the North Carolina storms. Thankfully we are loved greatly by the Lord and have a car. I felt so bad for the missionaries on bikes all weekend. 

And since I wasn't there to say it in person... HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!! It’s weird to think he's in the teen years. Time really does fly. 

So every night my companion and I review our day before we say our comp night prayers. We state three things: 1) The Tender Mercy of the Day (which usually turns into like five) 2) our hot missionary moment 3) our companion's hot missionary moment. Its been super nice to just take a moment and reflect on each and every day. So I'm going to apply it to the week....

1) The Tender Mercy (this is only one out of like a bagillion): 

Wednesday night we had all these plans to visit people in a certain section of our area. Now remember our area is HUGE; like GIANT. So if we take the time to drive one section, we usually stay there all day or at least all evening. Wednesday we had all theses plans and they literally all cancelled within ten minutes. I was stunned and we took it as a hint that we weren't supposed to go to that part of the area. So we prayed, and felt like we needed to change our plans and headed into Hollywood to try some less actives. Well here's a life lesson that I have learned, Hollywood has terrible traffic all the time. We literally took half an hour to go about 3 blocks. It was awful. Plus, it was raining. Not fun. (Side note: My legs were cramping because of the constant stop and go.) And you know what... every less active we tried, we couldn't find parking near their apartment. Like nothing! So we drove and drove. I was stressed and kept feeling like why on earth did we come to Hollywood. Why did we think it was a good idea?? Finally, Sister Bob looked at a list and asked if we should try a different less active. So we drove on. And a miracle happened. We found the tiniest parking spot that our car could barely fit in, but we managed to make it work. Then we walked into the apartment complex. As we walked in a girl walked out, but we didn't have a chance to say anything to her. So we are walking around (probably looking like fools because we can't find the apartment) when this girl walks back and is like... are you looking for me? I was stunned, and was like... well it depends on who you are? Turns out it was the less active we were looking for!! We were able to have a lesson with her. :) Help her with her concerns and re-invite her to church. And it was just a cool realization that we ended up exactly where we were supposed to be. 

2) Hot Missionary Moment:

At church yesterday, a less active showed up who hasn't been to church in months. I've actually never met her. Just seen pictures and heard about her. (We've tried stopping by but never been able to catch her home.) Well she was in Sacrament and I wanted to introduce myself to her. After the meeting I saw her head for the doors. She was already down the hallway and about to leave the building by the time I got out of the chapel. I thought about it for a sec. Do I follow her or do we try and stop by later??? Next thing I know I was sprinting down the hallway in the church. Not sure how Christ-like that must have looked, but we were able to catch her. :) Turns out she was just getting a drink of water. Awkward.... But we now have official met!

3) Sister Bob's hot Missionary Moment:

We started talking to this security guard on Saturday as we tried to avoid the rain. He was almost trying to argue with us. Like bringing politics into religion and saying how could God let things happen? Sister Bob opened up about past experiences and just TESTIFIED! I was so impressed. The guy's heart totally softened and we were able to get his contact info so we could send more missionaries to his house. 

Overall, we always have stuff to be grateful for. God's hand is in our lives, we just have to take the time to look for it. Have a wonderful week and look for the tender mercies. You will be blown away!!

Love you all!!!

Sister Mik Pillar 

"Kindred Spirits" Sister Bob and Sister Pillar