HOORAH FOR ISREAL

August 4, 2014

My Dearest Family,

Hello from Cali! I really enjoyed all your pictures from NYC!! When I first got to LA, I expected it to look like NY. I was so wrong. Ha-ha, but LA has treated me well.

Just when I think life can't get any busier, it does! So just in case you didn't know, there was a recent change to missionary work. Previously, missionaries were responsible to teach lessons 1-4 from PMG to investigators before baptism, then they were asked to work with the ward to finish lesson 5 from PMG after baptism. Now, we have been asked to teach all 5 lessons before baptism and then take the lead and work closely with recent converts after baptism as well. I have to say that I do love the change. Instead of baptism being the ending goal, it’s now more of a stepping-stone to the great goal, which is the temple.

The area that I am in now has done pretty well with baptizing people this year. Which is great! It also means that we have a lot of recent convert work to do. So we are busy. We are finding, teaching, baptizing, and retaining. Which like stated before, we are busy. But I have absolutely loved teaching people about the temple and how to make it their goal to go inside some day. Hopefully this month, we are planning on taking a temple trip with all our recent converts to have them do temple baptisms while all our investigators take a tour of the visitor center. It’s still in the planning phases, but it’s going to be so good!

Sister Young and I are also making big plans for our area. We have been organizing FHE for members in our ward. In one apartment complex in the ward, people either are members, less actives, or former investigators. We have named it "Little Utah." :)

Little Utah is our first place we are trying out the FHE. What started out to be a small activity with a few families has turned into a very HUGE activity. We are expecting 50+ people tonight. And I'm so excited. Everyone we have invited is very excited to come!

Here are two miracles from the week:

Two Saturdays ago, we were walking in an apartment complex and saw this man sitting outside his apartment door. We went up and started talking to him. Come to find out, he was already a member, but less-active. Right at that moment, his wife and daughter came home. The daughter is active, but the wife is also less-active. The wife let us right in and we were able to have a small lesson with her. The wife hasn't been to church in a long time. And the last time she went, it was for a baby's blessing. She told us during the lesson that she had been having a feeling she needed to come back to church. We invited her to church.

Well, she came the following day and paid her tithing. And then we visited her the next Monday. We had a powerful lesson and invited her to read her scriptures. On Friday, her daughter called and just thanked us. Her stepfather is really sick and probably going to die soon, and the mom has been struggling with this trail. The daughter continued to say that she didn't know what we had said in the lessons but her mom had started to read the Book of Mormon once again. And she was just so grateful that we had been checking in with her mother.

For me it was a testament that the Lord puts us in the places where we need to be. It was a blessing that we just happened to talk with her husband that night, which led us to her. Talking to everyone really does bring miracles.

Second miracle happened last night, after we made our rounds in Little Utah, we were headed back to our car. There was a man outside working the in garden. Even though it was in the opposite direction of our car, I felt like we should go talk to him. So we decided to go; turns out his wife is Mormon. He started telling us about how he only believes in one God and its the same God so it doesn't matter what religion you are in. (We get this a lot actually.) Then a man on a bike rides by. He stops and is like "Sisters, can I have a Book of Mormon?" Not the usual thing we get on the streets. But then all four of us start having a conversation about religion. It was pretty cool. And now bicycle man became a new investigator! And he said he might come to tonight's FHE; Hoorah for Israel. :)

Oh guess what, my companion and I played prelude music on Sunday. I just right handed it because we didn't have time to practice and she played the cello. It was sweet!

What have we learned, talk to everyone because we all need the gospel.

Love you all!!

Sister Mik Pillar