Happy Easter!

Wow! This week has flown by! 

Monday we met up for exchanges. Our Hermana training leader came up and we spent the day together. We had a great time! 

We knocked a door of someone who had been taught previously and she opened the door and said to come back the next day. The next day we had another exchange and I was with our Hermana Training leader's companion. We went back to the lady's house the next day and she let us right in and we were able to teach her a great lesson! 

Thursday was my companion's birthday. 

It was fun! We taught some lessons, went out to dinner, and had some cake. 

Friday we met with all the other missionaries in our district and it was a really great time. I learned a lot. I had hand therapy a little later in the evening and then we went over to some member's homes and taught some lessons. Here we are at hand therapy.

One of the members has chickens and I got to hold some.

Sunday was great. Easter was really a good day. We went to church they talked a lot about the atonement of Christ and how repentance is joyous. I love what Tad Callister said in the past general conference that "with increased understanding (of the atonement) comes an increased desire to forgive ourselves and others."  Here is a link to his talk. I have seen this on my mission with people we meet, people we teach and with myself. I am so grateful that we were able to remember Christ's sacrifice this past Sunday. 

Tomorrow we have the opportunity to go to the temple. We are going to the one in Fresno.

I haven't gone since Mexico so it's been about 5 months. I am really excited!

**Please Note - she has a new email address - listed below.
Her mailing address is:

Hermana Lily Pita

California Ventura Mission

3301 W Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA  93036

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org

This is the direct link to her blog. 

Dog's Bite and Time Flies

This week has been a good week! 

Last Monday didn't end too well. My companion and I were at a door talking to a lady and then the lady told us she was going to turn the outside light on because it was dark. She opened the door and a small dog shot out and bit my companion on the leg! 

We called the mission nurse and cleaned it out. We went to the doctor to get Hermana Raban's bite checked out. I'm glad nothing too bad happened to her; she just had to get some antibiotics. 

The next day we had interviews with our mission president and it was really nice to sit and talk with him. On Friday, we had our Zone Conference and we got to hear from a General Authority. He was from the Seventy. It was really cool to hear from him. He really stressed the importance of the atonement and repentance and how it should be a joyful process. It was great to hear from him and I learned a lot. I got to play the piano for that which was really cool. 

Something really exciting this week that happened was our friend who we are teaching told us he has felt the Spirit very strong. We asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes! It was really exciting and we are looking for May for his baptism. 

For our Preparation Day, we got together and played kickball and ultimate frisbee. I also got to play tennis with another sister missionary and I still remember how.

I hit 6 months last Tuesday which is crazy!

I have 1 year left. Sometimes, time goes by slowly but the majority of the time it flies.

We have been able to teach lots of lessons which has been great. I have seen the gift of tongues work so much here. I feel that a lot of the time the words do not come from my thoughts or ideas but the Lord sends them to my mind and I am able to speak them.

Life is good I'm excited for next week. 

**Please Note - she has a new email address - listed below.
Her mailing address is:

Hermana Lily Pita

California Ventura Mission

3301 W Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA  93036

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org

This is the direct link to her blog.

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An Answer to Prayer

This week was good! 

We did a lot of finding and have been talking to everyone we see. This is a picture of a wild peacock that we saw in one of the areas that we cover.

Wednesday, I went to a new doctor, the orthopedic hand specialist. It was a 2 hour drive. We got lunch with our Hermana training leader and her companion because they serve where my doctor is. The doctor said he doesn't feel comfortable operating right now because he thinks that it might be able to straighten out on it's own but I will see him in 2 months so we will see. Here are my companion and I at the Doctor's Office.

Friday the Elders in another ward had a baptism and the Sisters and Hermanas in the district were asked to do a musical number.

It was a beautiful baptism and it was such a pick-me-up and lifted my spirits a lot. 

Saturday we were able to watch general conference at a member's home. It was amazing to hear the apostles speak. A huge miracle I had was I went into the conference with the question of "How I can experience more joy while doing missionary service?" and Elder Uthcdorf 

gave a great talk about how we can find joy while sharing the gospel. It was amazing that God answered my prayers!

Sunday we got to watch conference again and it was amazing to hear from the prophet. 

A huge miracle this week was with the man we had run into while he was working last week. We had a lesson with him in a member's home and the Spirit was so strong. He really is interested and he wants a greater relationship with God. 

We have been working hard and we have been blessed this week. It's been a great week and I look forward to the upcoming week!

**Please Note - she has a new email address - listed below.
Her mailing address is:

Hermana Lily Pita

California Ventura Mission

3301 W Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA  93036

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org

This is the direct link to her blog.

Settling in at Morro Bay

Wow! So much has changed this week! 

Last Monday was my last day in Simi Valley. After P-day ended, we visited a few of the members and said goodbye to them. It was sad to say goodbye. We had a family home evening with our branch and I got to say goodbye to a lot of the members there.

Afterwards, a family told us to come over. We went over and took pictures and the grandma and mom had little gift bags for us. The daughter ran upstairs and brought down a little gift she got for me. It really touched my heart how much charity the members had for me in Simi Valley. It was such an amazing day and I truly love the members and people we were teaching. 

That night I packed my things and Tuesday morning I went up with some other missionaries to Morro Bay. The drive was along the coast and it was really pretty. I met up with my new companion, Hermana Raban, in Santa Barbara. 

It's been a really fun week getting to work in this area and with my companion. We serve in an English speaking ward but do Spanish work here so it's been really fun getting to know the ward and also finding people to start to teach. 

There have been many instances where we have been placed in someone's path by God. We went to dinner one night and there were a lot of people who spoke Spanish and we were able to set return appointments there. A big blessing was when we were walking back to our car and we saw someone and we went up and talked with them. He said that he really wanted to learn more about God and we were able to talk a little bit about our beliefs and he said he would love for us to come over. 

Church was really awesome and later that night we went to a different area for a family home evening all in Spanish. 

It is fun getting to know this area and the people here. 

**Please Note - she has a new email address - listed below.
Her mailing address is:

Hermana Lily Pita

California Ventura Mission

3301 W Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA  93036

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org

This is the direct link to her blog.