Elder Pilling in Antigua

If you're Elder Esplin you're probably wondering why I titled this email a tribute to Elder Esplin. If you're not Elder Esplin you're probably also wondering why. If you're Elder Esplin you'll find out shortly. If you aren't, sorry.  So I'm going to start off by saying READ THE BOOK OF MORMON PLEASE. It is the best book ever. In the whole entire world. Read it.  Started off this week with divisions with Elder Lemone!!!! And this time I got to go to his area :). It was a pretty fun time.  You guys should all read the Book of Mormon tonight.  Then Saturday we had the baptisms of the twins Silvia and Brenda Ortiz!!! It was a very good baptism and they were so happy!  Right after that we went to the stake center to help finish off a mini MTC activity with the youth. We got free lunch and got to hear testimonies. We missed the actual teaching and contacting things though:/. Then we went to a ward cleaning the chapel activity!! It was super awesome and we got ...

What's uppppp!! Ok the last 4 months or so I have gotten happier and happier. And this last week, I have never felt happier!! It has taken some time but I love being a missionary in Guatemala. The food, the people, the Gospel. It's all just so good. Especially the Gospel:)  Oh and I hit five months being a missionary on Sunday! The time has gone by sooo fast. It's incredible and I have never been Ok so this week was super tough honestly. We had lots and lots of cancelations and our back up plans didn't always work out :( buttt that's all good because sometimes it's like that. But we just have to keep on working. The good thing is the twins are going to be baptized on Saturday! They are soooo excited. It's so fun to see and be apart of.  On Thursday we had divisions with the zone leaders! For the first time for divisions I left my area which was cool. I went with ElderPponce who is going home  in two weeks !!! It was so fun honestly!  Yesterday we were eating...

  Hello everyone!!!  Yes the title is true - sorta. But I'll get to that later So this week was a solid week. Started off with Elder Chavez having immigration:/ which meant we had to wake up at 3. Butttt Elder Chavez didn't wake up to the alarm and we missed our uber... so we called a bunch of people and eventually made it to the city for him to do his stuff! While I waited outside with the uber driver, we got to eat McDonald's breakfast 😋 and the best part is he paid for me. Saturday we got invited to a birthday party of a member!! So we went to that and got to hangout with all of his family and eat delicious food called Churasco. Basically Guatemalan BBQ meat with refined beans, salsa, guacamole, and of course tortillas. It's really good. Okay so the hurricane... Hurricane Julia (I think) is currenlty hitting the coast of Guatemala so  Monday at 8:30  the APs told us that we all have to stay inside ALL day... because the rain was supposed to be super super strong....

  Wow what a week!!! This week was super awesome, mostly because of General Conference... but more on that later.  So this week we taught Veronica and Fernanda again! They were awesome and they both are progressing towards baptism, the only thing is that they have a few challenges and hurdles that need to be cleared first. But, I know that through Jesus Christ they can prepare themselves for baptism!! It's very exciting to see and I love sharing the power of the Savior with people.  We met with Joseline and Victoria as well. It has been like 2 weeks since we have met with Victoria so it was nice to see how she was. She seemed eager to listen to our message and talk about the gospel. She also said that her sister, Hellen, has been thinking lots about a mission!!!  She is 17 years old so still has some time but it's so cool to see that she wants to serve a mission. We are hoping to visit her this weekend and set a baptismal date!  On Friday we visited a member fam...

Hello everybody! How are you guys!? This week was quite the roller coaster I will not lie butttttt it was overall an awesome week.  So first week with my new companion and the first 4 days or so were actually super tough. I was stressed about leading the area and working and got homesick a lot. But then I had times where I was really happy and excited for the transfer. It was really up and down. The first few days we met with members and our investigators so that my companion can get to know them. It was pretty chill honestly. About the title: There are always miracles in the work but Sunday was a little bit special. 2 sisters came to church with their kids and said that they want to meet with us! We met with one of them (Veronica) and she has lots of connections with the church. Her parents are members, her sister is a member, she went to church and the activities when she was younger but her dad didn't give permission for her to be baptized. So she ended up falling away from the ...

What's up everyone!! This week we had transfers and I am staying in this area but with a new companion! His name is Elder Chavez and he is from el Salvador. We got the flu vaccine on Friday and got to see a few other zones which was fun! We had to go to a different city zone which is also cool.  On Saturday we got to go to the temple with Victoria and her kids and Hellen! And we got to sit on the temple grounds and enjoy the peace that is felt at the temple. We even had a little picnic. We talked about why we have temples and what makes them so special. They loved it and it was a very good experience.      Afterwards we had the baptisms of Yoshwin and Ashwell! It was awesome. They were soooo excited. When Elder Martinez told them he was leaving they were a little sad :/.  This week we didn't have anything super special besides transfers yesterday. It was tough because I didn't get much sleep Monday or  Tuesday night  but it's all good I'm ready for thi...

  Hi everyone!!! This week was an awesome week!! We had lots of good things, like almost everyday. To start, for p day last week we played basketball and it was the funnest thing I've done here, it made me so happy :)) My companion had immigration  on Friday morning  so we had to go stay at another elders house  Thursday night  and then they woke up at 5 to go to the capital. I didn't have to wake up that early though :)  Friday to Saturday  we had intercambios! I got to split with our District Leader Elder Lemone- he's from Las Vegas. I love him, he is actually the best. From the first day of this transfer he can't believe that I actually live in Canada. AND when I told him I was born in Utah he's been trying to convince me that I'm not Canadian but rather American and therefore a "gringo". I haven't given in and don't want to but it's entertaining hearing everyone say that I'm actually a gringo, not Canadian.  I got to make pupusas th...