Mik in the CLAM: "SISTER PILLAR

April 7, 2014

My Dearest Family,

What a week! Sounds like ya'll had a blast in DC. A little sad I wasn't there, but its okay. We can do it again sometime.

Thanks for sending the new shoes! I’m wearing them now actually; they are my favorite. :)

This week... was so much fun.

Wednesday we had a bunch of time to fill with productive missionary activities and had absolutely no idea what to do. One of the struggles is where to find YSA people when you cover the whole stake but none of the college campuses. So I had an idea... we called the Sisters that work on UCLA campus and got them in on the plan. And you know what we did...? Sidewalk chalk of course! We went to UCLA campus and decided to draw the plan of salvation out on the sidewalk where the students would walk by on their way home after class. And got yelled at by an apartment manager. So we went in front of the institute building and tried there.

The miracle that came from it was when this UCLA girl walked by and was enthralled by everything. She thought it was soo pretty and said she would come back when we were finished. Well, she actually came back! And took some pictures. Come to find out that she is from Japan and here at UCLA to learn English. She said she did some sort of program in Japan though where she went and lived with a Mormon host family for sometime. So she has even been to church before. Super cool!

Thursday, we went and did service for an older lady that I had met on the street. She's hilarious, and I'm kind of obsessed with her. When we met her a few weeks back, she told us that she didn't believe anything that Mormons said. We still invited ourselves to go over and do service. So Thursday we helped her in the yard with weeding. Okay this wasn't your average weeding. She has turned her whole yard into a garden. She has stuff growing everywhere! We went to town on that place and I still felt like we didn't really do that much damage. There was so much! So much!! But I have to say that I really liked doing the yard work. Dare I say it...I kind of miss it. Because she is an older lady, we obviously won't be teaching her. I feel so exclusive sometimes but we are looking for the young'ins. So we invited the Elders that work in her area. They invited a recent convert and helped make these compost things. Not sure exactly what they are for, but Pat (the lady) was so super excited about them. Coolest miracle about the whole thing... was by the time we left, she was very willing to accept a copy of the Book of Mormon. She said that she had wanted to read it. So hopefully we will see if anything comes out of this :) Not going to lie... I felt like Ammon.

Friday Sister Rackleff's sister got married! HAPPY WEDDING ANNIE! So obviously we wore her wedding colors. It was kind of hilarious because all day people were like... you all match!!!

This weekend Sister Rackleff got sick, some sore throat thing. So we didn't even get to watch all of conference. Conference is like Christmas on the mission, so we were a bit sad. But one of our investigators wasn't able to make it. Now we have wonderful opportunity to catch up with her! God works in mysterious ways.

Also, we had a crazy miracle during the Sunday sessions of conference. We received yet another blessed phone call. It was from our Ward Mission Leader who has been dating a non-member for a while now. Basically, the girl friend has been coming to church for months, but didn't want to meet with the missionaries. She wanted to investigate it on her own and figure it out by herself. Well, she finally wants to be baptized! So we aren't entirely sure how this works, but she knows everything. She's been reading PMG on her own. So maybe we will give her one quick lesson and then she's getting baptized next week, hopefully. We are excited for her.

I hope all of you had the opportunity to listen to conference this past weekend. It’s amazing to hear the words of the prophets. Why..? Because they are the words of God! This time threw conference I really tried to focus on my investigators. It was super cool how many talks really pertained to their lives and how even my own questions were answered. The Lord speaks through His prophets. My favorite parts are always when they bear their testimonies. You can feel the Holy Ghost testifying of their special witness. I can't remember who said it now, but in one of the talks they mentioned how it would be great if family members wrote their missionaries the things they have been learning in family scripture study and in their studies of PMG. And I was sitting there thinking, "Most definitely! I want to hear that stuff." So family will you start sending me your insights on the Book of Mormon and PMG? I'm looking forward to hearing everything!

Also I have been praying about whether I should come home in October or extend. It was one of my questions for conference. I just kept thinking October. I realized I wanted to stay until November, but at least right now I don't feel good about that. So plan on seeing me in October.

Oh here's a great story... this morning I was kind of down. I accidentally broke the dish that goes in the microwave and spins around in Sister Olson's house. (By the way, do you know where I can get a new one of those)? I think Sister Olson felt bad that I was feeling down, so she took this ribbon (the kind that goes around an athlete's neck for a medal) and put a note on it that says "Sister Pillar The Champ!" Kind of made my day. Ha-ha!

Love you all so so so much!!!

Keep the Faith and know that I am praying for you!!!

From the West Coast,

Sister Mik Pillar