Obedience + Hardwork = Happiness & Success

Wow-week 4 in Lompoc flew by! 

Tuesday was Hermana Della-Piana's 9 month mark! She is halfway done with her mission! 

She is an AMAZING missionary. I am so greatful for all the things I've learned from her and for her example to me. 

Wednesday we had exchanges. 

I got to be with Sister Fowers. We had a blast. I am so grateful to have gone on so many exchanges on my mission and have been able to get to know so many other missionaries and learn from them. 

We have been working with this family who we found in our area book and decided to call them. They had never met with missionaries ever. The past Hermanas said hi to them once and invited them to sports night and they came one time but since then they had never gotten contact. We invited them to church and they have come to church for the past 3 weeks. It has been amazing. When we walk into their house, we just feel the light of Christ. 

They are so prepared to hear this message that we feel like we aren't even doing that much. God has prepared them and I have seen so much this week how the Lord prepares the hearts of people to be open to this message. 

Church on Sunday was amazing. The Branch is growing so much. We had a lot of people we are teaching come to church and a lot of less active people came as well. We are working really hard so that one day we will be able to meet in the chapel. This past week the Relief Society room where we meet was full and they had to bring in extra chairs and some people who could understand English went to the English congregation so that other people could have a seat. 
We are so grateful that the Lord has been preparing the people in Lompoc and that people are coming to church. I absolutely love the Branch so much. 

This past week in District Council our District Leader shared with us a little equation for missionary work. He said:

obedience + hardwork = happiness & success

Hermana Della-Piana and I have just been trying our best to do our best work and to be obedient. I know that the Lord sees our efforts even at times when it might not feel like it. But I have seen that as we have worked hard, the Lord gives us work to do. 

Tomorrow we are going to the Los Angles temple and I am so stoked. 

I know the temple is a place where we can really feel the love of God and I look forward to it. 

I absolutely love Lompoc. 

The people here are amazing and so is the Branch here. I am so excited for week 5! 

**A Note from her Mom - Please pray for her safety as she travels by bike!
She loves getting emails. This is her address:

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org (Don't reply to this blog - it is a public site)

Her mailing address is:

Hermana Lily Pita

California Ventura Mission

3301 W Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA  93036

This is the direct link to her blog. 

Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

Wow-this week was a crazy week! 

Tuesday, Hermana Della-Piana went to MLC (Mission Leadership Council) and I got to spend the day back in Santa Barbara with Hermana Garcia. It was a really fun day and I learned a ton! Wednesday we had interviews with President Nakken. They went really well; it is always great to be able to recieve council and advice from him and Sister Nakken. Thursday we went on exchanges. I got to be with Sister Brown who is serving here in Lompoc in the English ward. I learned so much from her. I love exchanges because it is a great way to see how other missionaries do the work and see ways that I can improve and to have new perspectives for how we can help our people. Here are some pictures from my week:

Friday was combined District Council. It was with the Santa Barbara district as well, so I got to see a lot of missionaries I had just served with, which was awesome! 

It was a jampacked week, but our people are doing really well. 

Another miracle this week was church attendance. We set the goal for 4 people again, hoping the people who are on date to be baptized would all be able to make it. Sunday morning we got texts and calls from everyone with a baptismal date that they were not going to be able to make it. Then the man and son who came to church last week unexpectedly came again! Also, Ana, our friend we are working with, came to church so we had 3 out of 4 people to church which was a miracle! But then in Relief Society, the teacher introduced her friend who came. We got to know her and she lives in our area and said she would love for us to visit her and teach her. It was such a miracle that the Lord provided a way for us to hit our goal of 4 people to church. 

This week I have felt so lucky and blessed to be able to be a missionary. In Matthew 6:32-34 it says,

"For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." 

This stuck out to me this week because it reminds me to focus on the true and simple things. When we seek the kingdom of God, we will be blessed with the things that our Heavenly Father knows we need; whether that be help with trials, answers to our questions, or guidance, the Lord will always provide as long as we seek first the kingdom of God. 

I was blessed this week with the confirmation of the truthfulness of the gospel and that it is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am so grateful to know that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet and that we have a prophet on the Earth today so we can know exactly how to seek the Kingdom of God. 

I am excited for another week in Lompoc! 

**A Note from her Mom - Please pray for her safety as she travels by bike!
She loves getting emails. This is her address:

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org (Don't reply to this blog - it is a public site)

Her mailing address is:

Hermana Lily Pita

California Ventura Mission

3301 W Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA  93036

This is the direct link to her blog. 

ReplyForward

Más Paciencia Dame, Más Resignación

This week was a crazy and busy week. 

We started teaching English to a girl named Rocio. She is in high school and she and her dad just moved here from Guatemala. 

It has been really fun to go over almost every day just to meet with her and get to know her better. We teach her English and she helps us with our Spanish so it has been really fun. 

Here is my companion and our bicycles. We have been putting a LOT of miles on them.

We are focusing on teaching 4 people right now who all have a baptismal date and are continuing to progress. We are so grateful for how much work there is in this area. We make goals at the begining of each week and this past week we had the goal of having 4 people we are teaching attend church. 

We were planning for Florencio, Ana, Rocio and Surgio to come. Sunday morning Florencio was in Santa Maria and couldn't come and Rocio and Surgio were going to L.A. and couldn't come so we thought we would only have 1 person come to church. Saturday night we were looking through our Area Book and saw a name of a man who had never been taught but came to sports night once. We called him and he said he would come to church. Sunday morning about 15 minutes before church started, no one we were teaching was there, but the man we called and his son who we had met once but didn't know they were related walked into the church! It was such a miracle. Then, about 5 minutes into church, Sergio came! He said something popped up and he couldn't go to L.A. Then about 20 minutes into church, Ana came. The Lord really blessed us because there was no way we thought we would hit our goal, but the Lord blessed us so much.

We had a meeting together as a District this week and here are some pictures. We did a serious one and then a normal one.

On Halloween, we had to be in our apartments early so we decorated and ate some Halloween cookies.

On our Preparation Day, we all went to an Ostrich Farm. We were going to all chip in together and get an Ostrich Egg Omlete but come to find out they were not in season. I didn't realize there was a season for Ostrich Eggs!! We did feed the Emu's and one bit me!! Hahahaha

On Sunday we had a lesson, probably one of the best Sunday school lessons I have had on the mission, about holiness. The teacher had us read the first verse of the hymn "More Holiness Give Me". 

The words in Spanish are different than the words in English; the line that the teacher really emphasized was,

"más paciencia dame, más resignación"

This line explains the importance of patience and of resignation. A big part of holiness is resignation of our will and having patience and acceptance of the Lord's will. That has been one of the hardest and most important things I am continuing to learn everyday, but I have seen how important patience really is and how much more joy there is in resignation to the Lords will. 

This next week is a very busy week. I am looking forward to it and I know it will be another great one! 

**A Note from her Mom - Please pray for her safety as she travels by bike!
She loves getting emails. This is her address:

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org (Don't reply to this blog - it is a public site)

Her mailing address is:

Hermana Lily Pita

California Ventura Mission

3301 W Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA  93036

This is the direct link to her blog. 

Strength from Following Christ

***A Note from her parents - Thanks to all of you who have asked about her safety with the California wildfires. She is safe and sound. They have had to evacuate some missionaries in her mission but she is not in a wildfire area for now. Your prayers are much appreciated!

Wow-what a week!

Last Monday I got to say goodbye to the people we are teaching and some of the members in Santa Barbara. Tuesday, I met my new companion, Hermana Della-Piana and we headed to Lompoc.

We "whitewashed" so that means both Hermanas who were serving there left, and two new ones (me and Herman Della-Piana) came in so we did not know the area at all! 

We are on bikes but now we also have a car that we can use once it is dark outside. 

It was a really fun week to get ourselves organized, ride bikes, get to know the people that are being taught, and get to know the Branch. 

Thursday was the day of miracles! We had a lesson at the church with Sergio and Rocio. They recently moved here and Sergio, the dad, called the missionaries to ask where the church was and he and his daughter, Rocio, have been coming for weeks. During the lesson we talked about baptism and it just felt right to ask them if they would be baptized. They said yes and accepted the date of November 30! Right after that lesson we had a lesson with Florencio. He also has come to church before and where he is from, he and his friends used to go to church as well. During that lesson it also felt right to ask Florencio if he would like to be baptized and he also accepted for the date of November 23. 

We got to meet with the Branch President and mission leader. They are both awesome! We knocked into this house and invited these 2 ladies to the ward Halloween party on Saturday and they both came and loved it! 

Sunday Florencio came to church as well as Ana who is preparing to be baptized on the 23rd. We ended the week with a family home evening run by the missionaries. It went really well and our goal is that it will strengthen the Branch and help it grow.

There was a scripture this week that I came across that I really loved. It talks about the blessings that come from the promise we make at baptism. (Mosiah 5:7-9)

"And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.And it shall come to pass that whosoever doeth this shall be found at the right hand of God, for he shall know the name by which he is called; for he shall be called by the name of Christ."

Following Christ like the scripture says, makes us free. It gives us strength and by promising God that we will always remember him, take His name upon us and follow His commandments at baptism the promise is that we will be found at the right hand of God. This week I really learned that I just need to put everything to God and rely on him. I was pretty nervous coming here to Lompoc, not really knowing anything, 

but the Lord has guided me and given me strength this past week. 

I am excited for the next week! 

**A Note from her Mom - Please pray for her safety as she travels by bike!
She loves getting emails. This is her address:

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org (Don't reply to this blog - it is a public site)

Her mailing address is:

Hermana Lily Pita

California Ventura Mission

3301 W Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA  93036

This is the direct link to her blog.