Busy Week

This is week 5 of this transfer which is pretty crazy!  We have one week left of this 6 week period and then we'll find out if either of us are moving to a different area.

This week we had Zone Conference which was really fun; I got to see some other missionaries and learn a lot about how to involve members more in the work. 

We had a Bible study class with some members and a person who the Elders are teaching who is getting baptized this week. Wednesday we stopped by the home of a lady we had met the week before. We weren't sure would be able to progress because of her age but we went over and she had read the pamphlet and remembered it so that was good! 

Thursday was Hermana Raban's year mark so we celebrated! 

We saw some cute socks at a surf shop so we bought them.

We helped the missionaries down in San Louis Obispo (SLO) on Friday and went on splits with the sister missionaries down there. We got to talk to lots of people. Every Friday we get donuts at a delicious donut store called SLODOCO DONUTS. They are delicious.

Our Ward Mission Leader is having a party on the beach and we went to almost everyone in our area book to leave them an invite and everyone who we saw walking on the streets. 

Saturday one of the kids in the ward was getting baptized and he wanted us Hermanas to lead the music so it was fun to be able to go to a baptism. Sunday church was great. A member had us over for dinner. They are very musical and Hermana Raban and I decided to do a song for the spiritual thought. 

I played the piano and Hermana Raban is really good at singing so she sang. It was really fun! Afterwards, we had a family home evening down in SLO. 

This week was a busy but good week. I went to the doctor for my finger this past week and the doctor said that the bone was so badly cracked and cracked in too crooked of a pattern for him to be able to rebreak it and he would have to reopen up the joint. The only time he would have been able to do it was within the first 2 weeks of breaking it. He said the pain will hopefully go down with time. This was very frustrating news for me. I wish I'd seen this doctor right after it happened but I'll get it rechecked when I get home in April.

This upcoming week we are excited though because the Elders have a baptism and we also have the party for the ward on Saturday which should be a good way to get those we are teaching to become more familiar with the ward. 
I think I'm in the most beautful area in California! 

That's all for this week. I'm looking forward to a great week ahead.

**A note from her parents:
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. 

No Effort Wasted

This week was a good week. 

I can't believe it has already been 4 weeks into this transfer. This week we taught our friend Juan. He has been taught for over a year and he said he will be baptized! His baptismal date is June 15 so we are super excited for him! 

Tuesday we taught our friend Amelia. We taught her the gospel and the Word of Wisdom. We told her how our bodies are temples and we need to not be acted upon by things that could be addictive like drugs, alcohol, tea, coffee and tobacco. She said she really likes coffee. We said "Okay-well we can make a plan and help you". She goes, "Oh no! If it is for God I will just quit coffee right now". It was such a miracle and we are excited to work with her. We are really trying to help her get to church. 

We had exchanges Friday and Saturday. I went to Santa Barbara. It was really fun. We got let into a lot of people's homes and saw so many miracles. I am so grateful for this area I am serving in. I am grateful to be serving here because I have really learned to be thankful for the small things. We were out tracting one day and we felt prompted to knock a door. 

We knocked and a lady opened it right away. She was Hispanic and we were able to talk to her for a while.

The Lord will direct us and by small and simple things big things will come to pass. I love the scripture in 1 Nephi 16:29 that says, "And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things." 

One of my companions previously had told me that no effort is ever wasted. 

I know that God is aware of everything we are going through and every sacrifice we make whether it be big or small.

Thank you to everyone for all your love, support and prayers!

**A note from her parents:
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. 

Letting the Lord Work His Miracles

This week was a busy week. 

We had exchanges Tuesday and Wednesday. I went with our Hermana Training Leader, Hermana Mejia. It was really fun. I got to go to Santa Barbara. 

She had us exchange so that I would be able to go to their sports night and district sports the next day. I asked her if it was a coincidence that we played sports so much. She said, "No, I knew you loved sports!" It really meant a lot. That has been one thing that I have missed a lot from my last area; playing basketball or sports every morning, so it really was a great treat. 

Tuesday night after sports night, my companion called us. She told us that Amelia, a person we are teaching, said yes to baptism on July 6! We were so excited. When she told us, I had not felt that excited in a while. I realized that hearing that news, I was happier than I was when at sports night. That night I was thinking, "Wow! That brought me more joy than sports!"

Thursday we did service with our ward for a food kitchen. There were so many people from the community there. We were able to gain a lot of member trust from that service activity. 

Another miracle is Sunday we passed around a member visit calendar. We have been struggling to get into member homes from 8-9 pm. 

This past week we had members sign up every day which was a huge miracle. We feel like we are gaining a lot more member trust. 

Last Sunday we had a zone-wide fast. A lot of our investigators were struggling, zone-wide. The energy was a little down and we needed a boost. 

As a zone, we all fasted and within 24 hours 5 people within the zone had committed to be baptised. Then at the end of the week, there were a total of 10 people set with a baptism date. It was such a miraculous week. Everytime there was a miracle or someone got set on date, we sent in a miracle report. 

The energy was so high this past week. It really built my testimony to keep up the faith and let the Lord work His miracles. 

**A note from her parents:
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. 

Learning of Hope

This week was a good week! 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Nakken. They went really well. President told me that he has seen such a change in me which was really great to hear. He said my Spanish is really coming along and that I am showing great confidence.

A huge miracle that happened this week had to do with us trying to find new people to teach. We have been trying very hard but with limited success. We looked through our area book and saw that there was someone who missionaries tried to contact in 2015. She was progressing a lot but moved and missionaries could not get ahold of her and she wouldn't respond to texts or calls. We decided to send a text to her and she responded almost immediately and gave us her address. We met her Monday and taught her the Restoration. The next day we went back and she read the whole pamphlet and prayed about it. She said it brought her peace and happiness when she prayed. We are seeing her tomorrow so we are really excited to see her again. 

We went on splits with the YSA sisters to try to find people who speak Spanish. It was really fun. We ended the week down in San Luis Obispo with our family night with those that speak Spanish. We are really trying to grow the group here in Morro. 

This transfer, we made a goal to develop a Christlike attribute and I thought I would try to develop hope. 

This week I read a general conference talk that talked about the saints who made the trek to the West. It said that it was very hard and that many people died and suffered on the journey over. There are many journal entries of the saints and suprisingly so many of the entries were positive. In the talk called Rock of our Reedemer by Elder Wilford Andersen, he says "They had learned that hope, with its attendant blessings of peace and joy, does not depend upon circumstance. They had discovered that the true source of hope is faith." Our success is not based on our outcomes. I love the examples of the saints and how they continued to press forward and endure to the end. 

A lot of the time enduring to the end sounds like a long and tiring process but I love the promise that we have when we have hope. We are able to go through good times and bad times and still have peace and joy in our lives. That is something I have seen for members and people we have taught that they are able to find joy and hope when their circumstances aren't the greatest. 

Here are a couple of pictures from the last few weeks.

I am excited to start another week here in Morro Bay! 

P.S.
My Mom edits and publishes my Blog for me. To email me, my address is: lily.pita@missionary.org

Confidence and Courage

This has been a good and busy week.

On Thursday, my companion and I went to downtown Morro Bay and had lunch. It is a beautiful town with beautiful views. This is a picture I took of Morro Rock which is in the harbor of the bay.

On Wednesday, we went out to lunch with our Bishop's daughter. We went to the Morro Bay Embarcadero. She brought 3 of her friends who are not members of the church. She has been a huge help to the work here. We are teaching one of her friends and her friend's mom. We had our first lesson with them and they really enjoyed it! We are really excited to see them progress. This is what the Embarcadero looks like.

We are helping a family get ready to go to the temple for the first time. They are super excited and so are we! 

We had our walk day this past week. We got to talk to a lot of people! They opened a biking area for Hermanas/Sisters in the mission so who knows, maybe I'll be in a biking area next-Haha.

This week the Preisdent of our mission wrote to the missionaries in his email about how important it is to put off fear. For me it definately is intimidating to talk to everyone wherever we are. In the letter, President wrote, "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage." That really stuck out to me this week because you just have to act. That goes hand in hand with faith. Faith is action. Although we have made many mistakes we can't let those mistakes stop us. 

I have learned this week to keep going and keep having the faith to do hard things. 

**A note from her parents:
She loves getting emails. This is her address:

Email: lily.pita@missionary.org

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. 

Even the Tiniest of Things

This week was a good week. This was the last week of the transfer. I found out that I will be staying in Morro Bay with my same companion for another 6 weeks! This is a beautiful area.

Tuesday we helped a lady move and it was really nice! She has a lot of member friends but she had never seen missionaries before. 

Wednesday we got to go to a family in the ward who is preparing to go to the temple. 

Friday we really wanted to try some new ways to find people who speak Spanish. We decided to go into a taco shop that just opened. 

We had previously met the owner's son when we were out walking and we went to the taco store and met lots of people who speak Spanish. We got some addresses and phone numbers. We even got a return appointment with the owners son and he gave us some free soup which was really nice!  

This week I really realized that God helped us and is over us in everything and cares even about the tiniest of things. Every day I eat toast for breakfast and I was like, "Man, I wish I had some paper towels to put my bread on".

It was such a small thing but then an interesting thing happened. We were at a member's home and we were leaving. She was so kind and gave us 2 big bags full of groceries; granola bars, string cheese, fruit, veggies, canned chicken, hamburger buns and other groceries. 

We thanked her and we were almost out the door and said, "Wait! You don't have any paper towels do you?" and she goes and gives us paper towels. It was such a small thing but I knew the Lord was aware of every need that I have even if it is something as small as paper towels. 

I'm looking forward to another 6 weeks in Morro Bay! 

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. 

Temple, Tunes, and Teaching

Wow this week seemed to fly by! 

This week, my companion and I won the cleanest apartment award! We got a certificate and a gift card to a supermarket named Ralph's.

Tuesday we got to go to the temple. The temple is in Fresno about 2 and a half hours away. It was a nice drive. It was mostly in the country which was very beautiful. The temple is the exact same size and layout as the Detroit temple; it really made me feel like I was back home which was really nice. 

 

Detroit                                               Fresno

After the temple, the Bishop, who had gone with us, took us to a nice place for lunch. It was really good food. Here are pictures of us at the temple:

Wednesday our mission had a walk day which means we walk everywhere and don't use our cars until 4 PM. It was a fun day and we were able to talk to lots of people. 

The very last person we talked to on walk day was someone who was heading to a taco restaurant to work with his dad. It was a little miracle because his dad speaks Spanish and so does he so it was great to be able to run into someone who speaks Spanish. 

Thursday we went over to a member's home and taught her mother who isn't able to come to church on Sundays because she doesn't really get out anymore due to her age and health. We studied the New Testament (Come Follow Me program) with her and then the son-in-law said he'd heard I could play the piano and asked me to play. He had a new Yamaha Baby Grand piano. It is a really beautiful piano and I was so excited. He had these books of fancy hymn arrangements and he asked if I could play one. I said, "Sure! I'll try." I was sight reading it so I had never played it before and it was pretty fancy but I played it so well. After they all clapped and he goes "Wow you were playing that cold turkey, right? Like you have never seen these books". I told him yes, that I was sight reading. I am so grateful for my talents. I got to play some beautiful hymn arrangements. He gave me the piano book which was super nice! 

Friday I had hand therapy which was only okay. They don't do a whole lot and I don't feel like is been very helpful. I talked to the mission nurse and we'll see where to go from here.

Saturday, the Bitters, who we live with, took us out to dinner to a Mexican restaurant. It is connected to a gas station but it is so popular and the food is SO GOOD. After dinner, we went to visit a member of the ward who have never met. We knocked and an old lady came to the door. She wasn't going to let us in but then she did let us come in. We talked for a little bit and she told us she has been an active member her whole life but she is very old and is going blind so she doesn't go to church anymore. It was sad. Her son came with his friend and we all sat down and talked for over an hour. It was so great getting to know them. They asked if we could come over every week so that was a huge miracle.

Sundays are always great! Church was really good. They talked about how we can make our Sundays a day of rest and how we can make them more dedicated to God. 

This is the last week of the transfer so I will find out Sunday if I will stay or leave. This has been one of the quickest transfers! 

**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.