Let All Thy Doings Be Unto the Lord

Wow another busy and good week here in Lompoc. 

In was cold and rainy, but a week full of miracles. We were praying really hard this week for our area that we could grow out teaching pool. The Lord blessed us and we started teaching a family who just moved here from Mexico.

Their kids all went to a Christian school and they really love listening. They are praying and reading their Book of Mormon and we are working on helping them come to church. 

The branch has helped us a lot and we started teaching a friend of a member and the aunt and uncle of a recent convert. A huge miracle this past week involving this guy who always comes to sports night. His Dad is a member and we thought he was a less active member because he told us he thought he had been baptized. But then he found out he hadn't been baptized and he thought he was a member all along so we are going to teach him tonight. He and his Dad came to church and we are super excited. 

I got a call this week from the Stake Relief Society President asking me to be her interpreter for Stake Conference. I never could have imagined being able to do that a year ago! I am continuing to learn but I am happy with my progression.

There is a scripture I love that I read that says:

"Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day"

I have really had to rely on the Lord on my mission and have come to know how much the Lord provides. 

He really is softening the hearts of the people here and doing all the work and I am so grateful to be able to be an instrument in this great work.

I am excited for another week here in Lompoc!

**A Note from her Mom - Please pray for her safety as she travels by car and 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. 

Our Joy Would Be Full

Wow-week 6 was a week of miracles!

Teresa, a lady we are teaching, has been working at a hotel on Sunday for years and we have all been praying that she will be able to find a way to come to church. Tuesday we met with her and she said "Hermanas, the hotel I am working at is not having a lot of people come and business is slow so I don't really work anymore and I'm trying to find a new job." She said "I can come to church now on Sundays. I guess that's a good thing even though I don't have a lot of work right now!" We are so sorry that her work is slow (that is definitely NOT what we were praying for) but we know that she will be able to get another job and she feels that it is the Lord providing a way for her to be able to come to church. It is amazing the faith she has. She and her son came to church and knew some of the members from when they came a long time ago which was awesome! 

We also had a family home evening this past week. We are really trying to grow the branch and are hoping that having a family home evening 2 times a month is a way to grow the branch. There are usually about 20-30 people who come to church and at the family home evening we had 14 people which was a bigger turnout than we thought there would be!

 Also 2 members who haven't come to church in MANY years came and really enjoyed it! So that was such a blessing. 

Some sisters in our district made me cookies for my 15 month mark which was so nice.

We also went to a delicious Hawaiian Bar-B-Q place this week.

A very funny thing happened to me this week. We were walking back from a lesson to walk a member home and we walked passed a marijuana dispensary and I was so distracted that I missed a step and I fell in the middle of the street. 

The Member and all of us were dying of laughter. We kept knocking doors and then I noticed I got a nice cut! 

This past week was transfers and I found out that I will be staying in Lompoc with Hermana Giddings so we are both excited! I am so excited to be in Lompoc for another transfer. I love Lompoc so much and it really feels like my home here. 

We have some awesome people we are working with and the members here are awesome. 

There is a scripture that I was reading this past week that really stuck out to me. It was talking about missionaries in the Book of Mormon:

"And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some."

All the experiences I have had on my mission-the good, bad, difficult and easy-have all been worth it. I love my mission a lot and have really felt the joy that comes from helping others come closer to Christ. 

I am excited for another transfer here in Lompoc! 

**A Note from her Mom - Please pray for her safety as she travels by car and 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. 

Hard Work and a Positive Attitude

Wow this was a short week but a week of miracles. 

I got to go to Ventura this past week and go on an exchange with my old companion, Hermana Della-Piana. We had such a blast. I love her so much and I continue to be amazed by how good of a missionary she is and learn so much from her.

This month we had the goal to set 2 people on date to be baptized. We have been working with this family and we prayed about setting them on date for Febuary 8 and felt very good about that date. We had the lesson with them and extended the date and they said no. We received a text message that asked us to not come over anymore. We were really bummed. 

We had felt so good about February 8th and two people on date to be baptized. 

Sunday after church a father and daughter who we stopped teaching because they weren't ready to be baptized and wanted time to think about it, came up to us and asked us if we could come by. We set something up for Saturday. As the week went on, we had sports night on Friday and they both came. They had never come since I have been here so that was great. They enjoyed it and were very excited for us to come over the next day. Saturday we weren't really sure what to expect. It had been a while since we had last seen them, and we asked them if they had any questions. The father said he had been thinking a lot lately about what happens after we die. We explained the plan of salvation and how we can enter the celestial kingdom when we have followed Christ and have done the things he has asked like having faith, repenting, being baptized, having the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. We asked him what is holding him back from being able to enter the celestial kingdom. He said nothing. We said, Hermano if you aren't baptized by someone with the proper authority you can not enter. He said "Hermanas I know I have to be born again, I know." We asked him if he would be baptized by someone who had the priesthood authority and without hesitation he said yes. All the past times we had asked him he had said no and was very hesitant. He had had a baptismal date before so we asked him how he feels about having a date to be baptized. He said, Hermanas a month. We extended the date of Febuary 8 and without hesitation he said yes. What a miracle. 

We have been working so hard this transfer and have kept a positive attitude and it is amazing to see how the Lord works. The district leaders baked us a cake because of how hard we have been working which was so nice. 

We had a combined district council in Solvang which was fun. Solvang is this cute little town like Frankenmuth and they actually were filming for a Hallmark Christmas movie called Christmas in Solvang so I can't wait for that to come out.

There is a scripture I love in Mosiah 2:22 that talks about what God expects of us it says,

"And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you"

I am so grateful to be able to be an instrument in this work. What a miracle! 

**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. 

Reflecting on 2019

This week was a good week!

We finished Christmas by going to a member's house for tamales 

and then we went Christmas caroling as a district. 

It was a great day. 

This past week we were finding a lot of people to talk to. It is so interesting to meet so many people each day. It is amazing that every single person has their own story and their own experiences and it is really fun to be able to hear from so many people. 

We have been able to continue to teach the cousin of one of the members in the branch. She works on Sundays, but she asked her boss to have them off and he said that once her co-workers get back from their holiday vacations that he would give her some Sundays off so she could go to church! Her son has been coming to sports night the past 2 weeks and is going to start to go to mutual. We are so excited for their progression! 

This past week I have been able to think back on this past year. I have been able to be a missionary for the whole year of 2019. It has definitely been one of the hardest years, but it has been a year filled with some of the happiest and most rewarding moments in my whole life. I have grown closer to God and have learned so much. 

I had the oportunity to speak at church this past week on the Holy Ghost. I have been able to learn so much about the Holy Ghost and how I personally feel it, and the blessing of the Holy Ghost. There is a hymn I love that is called Let the Holy Spirit Guide. The last verse says:

"Let the Spirit heal our hearts 

Thru his quiet, gentle pow’r. 

May we purify our lives

To receive him hour by hour."

The Spirit heals our hearts. We truly can recieve forgiveness for all that we have done through receiving the gift of the Holy Gost that comes after we are baptized. I love the promise that we receive after we are baptized, and that is that we will have the influence of the Holy Ghost hour by hour, or all the time. I feel so blessed to be able to help guide people to have this gift and to see the changes that come to people's lives. 

I am very excited for another week here 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.