Happy Thanksgiving (Email) 11.24.2008

Hola mi familia! Como estan? I hope you´re all doing great. Well, what a week again! I just realized I forgot my agenda in the apartment in the bag that I usually use, so hopefully I´ll be able to remember most of what I was going to say.

First off, Dad and AK, I hope you had great birthdays. Fun times! Unfortunately I still don´t have stamps, so your birthday letters will be VERY late. Sorry!

About the debit card, I hadn´t received it as of last week, but I still don´t know for this week if it is here. Don´t cancel it quite yet. If it still isn´t here this week I think I´ll call the office and see if they have it there. Maybe next week I´ll have you cancel it if it still hasn´t gotten here. We´ll see. Hopefully I´ll be able to ask you next week to activate it. :D

Becky, if you read this, I hope your wedding is WONDERFUL this week! Sorry you haven´t gotten a letter or anything yet. It´ll get there eventually. :D Wow, I can´t believe it´s already! Incredible! Tell your family hello for me as well. Nate too!

So things here are going well! Hector Hernandez and Alicia Higuera both had their baptismal interviews on Saturday so they´re set for this Saturday. Yay! Very exciting for them.

So we were able to go and teach Monica´s four boys this week. It was great. Franco (14) Enzo (12) Kevin (9) and Bruno (7 almost 8). Wow, what a crack up to teach four boys. It actually went really well though and we´re excited to keep teaching them. Enzo, Kevin, Bruno, and Monica all went to church the last two weeks. Yay!

We taught Julia and Clara, as well as some of their friends/neighbors on Saturday. It turns out that one of their neighbors, Magali, just moved here from Bolivia two weeks ago, and she´s a member! Clara went to church, but Julia wasn´t feeling well so she didn´t go.

We had a FHE with the ward on Friday night. We´re having one every two weeks on Friday night. Originally we were going to have them in the church, but everyone is so spread out that we didn´t have much of a turn out. So now we´re having them in members homes in different areas, and we´re really encouraging the people that live close by to go. So we had one this last Friday night in Hermana Higuera´s house. It went really well and we had a pretty good turn out!

Here´s a funny story. Earlier in the day Friday I looked at the date, and was thinking that Thanksgiving had been the day before, and couldn´t believe that I had totally forgotten! So in memory of Thanksgiving we had an FHE about gratitude and I told them a little bit about the Thanksgiving tradition. It went really well! Then we realized later that night that it´s THIS week! Funny. Oops! It´s okay, gratitude is good all the time. :0)

Paula Beltran, the girl in the ward who decided to go on a mission, sent in her papers the other day! Yay! It turns out that it usually takes six weeks or so to get your call here. At the earliest! We´re pretty spoiled back home. I only waited like 2 weeks if I do recall.

Dad, it was fun to read about the stuff with the Spanish branch. The temple dedication, the activity, etc... It´s fun to learn about other cultures and experience it a little bit.

Something interesting, is that I am always very suprising to hear how much the people here know about the United States. The people here know more about the new President in the US than I do! They´re all very involved and interested. Wow.

The other day I read in Alma 30, and I realized that it talks about many of the lies that ¨the enemy of righteousness¨tries to tell us. It was pretty eye opening. I don´t like it!

I´m trying to simplify my teaching. It turns out that a lot of things just make sense in my head, and it´s hard to find a way to explain what I know. Why is honesty important? It just is! It´s really good though because it makes me think about why things are important, and the consecuences of different actions. It´s one thing to understand principles, and it´s another thing to try to teach the principles. As you all well know. :)

Dad, gracias! Hna. Riquelme helped me translate the faith story! Now I just need to memorize it.

Mom, I´m sure your talk went great. You sound just busy, but hope you´re doing well. Thanks for all your letters, love and support.

AK, Ryan, and Nyah, how are things going? I can´t believe how much Nyah is talking. From letters it sounds like you´re all doing really well. Don´t work too hard.

Aaron, I got the letter from Lisa about your last water skiing experience for the season. What a crack up! We have the weather here in Argentina for water skiing! In my mind the month is June - not November!

Shari and Orrin, how are you doing? Shari, that´s nice that you´re not doing the interviewing anymore. One less responsibility so you can get other things done. How´s Brandy? Her kids? Do you still do a lot of things with them?

Lisa and Jordan, hola! Thanks for the update with Hallie. I loved the ¨folgers¨ / fold your arms story. I love it! I can´t believe she´s running around your house. I really can´t imagine. Jordan, good luck with finals. They´re coming up right? And Lisa, I´m glad your enjoying work more these days. I have noticed that people seem to be a little healthier here. Well, I don´t know. Maybe just different health problems. Also, I think the people in general have different ideas of the cause of health problems. Interesting.

Well, what else? Lots to do and not enough time to do it! During our weekly planning we try to think about all our investigators, where they live, and how we can meet with all of them. It´s tricky to meet with them two or three times every week when they live in ¨todos lados¨. It´s a good challenge though. It works out. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful day. Be strong. Thank you all for your testimonies, and remember that I have a testimony that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has a perfect plan, we just have to follow it. I have recently come to realize more, that this life is all about changing! We´re not perfect, but we can, and really should be, changing every day for the better. It´s all possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. However, if we don´t change, and really repent, asking for forgiveness, it´s like Jesus Christ suffered in vain. Like He never suffered for us. But He did! What an opportunity to become better. :D

Remember I love you all!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Milagros! (Email) 11.17.2008

Hola! First off, happy birthday Dad and AK this week! 32 and 56!! We´re all getting so old! I hope you both have wonderful birthdays.

Second, Yennifer was baptized on Friday! It was a great baptism, and she was confirmed/ baptized by fire :D on Sunday. It all went very well and we´re excited for her.

Where to begin? With answers to all your questions... :D I´m not sure which is faster out of DearElder or the regular mail. The regular mail seems to be more consistent, so it seems a little faster at times. For example, last week I got letters from AK from three different weeks. Funny. Really though, which ever is more convenient. I just love the letters. :) Shari, it was so good to get your letter last week! Gracias! And Lisa, I got one of your letters today where you mentioned that your letters don´t seem that organized. But I´ve never thought that! They always make me giggle. Letters from all.... gracias! I really am very grateful. Oh, and I do just get mail once a week.

Yes, the pizza here is very good. A lot of people make it all homemade - the crust. The cheese is different here too. I´m not sure how to explain it. More creamy maybe?

I´m yet to see a cucaracha, but Hermana Riquelme assures me that they´re here in Argentina. haha. However, we did see a frog the other day as we were leaving a house. I thought it was great, and Estela (Gabriela and Adrian´s mom) said there are a ton here in the summer. It turns out that Hna. Riquelme is not a fan of jumping things, and wasn´t that enthused by the frog. I think it´s funny. :D

Yes, I always need to wear nylons. It´s a little tricky with mosquito repelent, but I just spray it on on top of everything. It works great.

Mom, how did your talk go? I´m sure that you did a wonderful job. You always do.

No, there isn´t carpet in the houses. Or anywhere really. I don´t think I can remember the last time I saw carpet! Funny to think about. Hna. Riquelme said that there has been carpet in other places she has served though. I don´t know! Mostly tile I would say. Or cement.

How is it socioeconomically? It ranges quite a bit throughout my area. There are people who are pretty well off, who have a car, etc.. but I have come to realize much better how blessed we are at home. I hope I will always remember. Shari I liked your idea of giving my tennis shoes to someone else. I would like to do that. I don´t know why, but my debit card hasn´t gotten here so I still haven´t bought (???) new ones.

Dad, I laughed when you said that the Mexico City Temple dedication was in the ward and you were worried about the English translation. I can definitely relate! I hope it went well for you.

AK and Ryan, it brought tears to my eyes when you told me that Nyah shows empathy for other kids by bringing them their favorite toys. She has good teachers who have love and concern for other people. Thanks for teaching her!

And Lisa and Jordan, I just got your letter about ¨Folgers¨and Fold your arms. Wow, the Gospel really does bless our lives. I love that she knows how to fold her arms and pray.

I feel like Spanish is coming along. I still definitely need to concentrate to understand, but I´m understanding more and more all the time. In lessons, etc... I´m usually okay because I´m fairly familiar with the vocabulary. However, when people start talking about medical terms or something I´m pretty much at a loss. Study study! I´m still trying to figure out my language study - grammar, read the BOM in Spanish... which or what for how long... but it´s going well. Hna. Riquelme is working on English and I´m thoroughly enjoying it. It helps me appreciate english! She wants to learn how to pray in english, so every once in a while she asks me to pray in english. I just had to laugh the other day. I couldn´t pray without throwing in spanish words! Seriously very funny. I joked afterwards that I can´t speak english or spanish fluently! It´s good. I´m learning with the help of the Spirit.

We haven´t taught Monica Troncoso in quite a while. Her dad has been in the hospital, etc... We´re not really sure what to do. I´ll keep you all updated.

Andres - we still meet with him fairly regularly, and he had gone to church two times in a row! But he didn´t go this last week. He really needs to read the BoM but it turns out he´s not much of a reader. He´s doing well though.

There are few ¨gringo¨sisters I believe. I´m sure it has changed a little since I got here, but when I got here I think there were 5 of the 25 or so sisters from the United States. Not many!

We haven´t met with Gladys for a little while. She´s very nice, as well as her husband, but we´re not sure if they´re just curious, or if they really want to learn to change. We´ll see!

Flia. Ramos - we have taught them a time or two and invited them to church. It´s a little tricky with them because they work a lot too.

Most people here can read. I think there have been very few occasions where someone has told me that they don´t know how to read. The recent concern is that people can´t see very well. Hector needs new glasses so he can read. As well as Julia - someone I´ll talk more about in a minute!

I did see Hermana Schwab. She seems to be doing very well. :D

AK, Mice! Aahh!! Hopefully they´re all taken care of now!

Lisa, I definitely think you should try out the marathon with the person at work if you think you can make the time commitment. I definitely can´t deny that it´s a time commitment. But so great once you do it! You´ll have to let me know what you decide.

Becky, if you read this, you should definitely send my family a wedding invitation! And me too. hahaha :D

Hallie and writing tools. Sounds like good times!

Alright, now for some more miracles! We went to visit Marcela and Natalia Silveira (Natalia is 12). We met Natalia in the street one day, and her mom a day or so later, but when we went to see them they weren´t there. Anyway, we went to their neighborhood the other day, and they were there! We had a good lesson where we talked about the plan of salvation and why we have trials in our life. This was Saturday night. We invited them to church, and they went! We got there I think just at the right time on Saturday.

We talked to Monica Vasquez, a less active member that lives in 2 de abril - the name of the neighborhood. We have visited her several times. She has six sons, and she´s a convert, but she hasn´t gone to church for YEARS. So we went to visit her the other day ( she has a little store), and she said she was so glad that we were there because she had something to tell us! She wants that her kids learn about the bible and the church, and that her 4 youngest sons are baptized! Wow!!! So she and her 3 youngest sons went to church on sunday. The first time ever her sons had gone to church from what I understand. A miracle!

Saturday also we were walking in a neighborhood, and we said ¨hola¨to a lady and her daughter. They told us they have just been here in Argentina for one month. They´re from Bolivia. Julia, and her daughter Clara (12 years old). We invited them to church, and about where the bus would go in the morning.

Sunday morning they weren´t where we had said so didn´t think they were going to go. But we got to the church, and there seated were Julia, Clara, her son Selso, and her neighbor Valentin! (22 years old). Wow!! Talk about a miracle! They really didn´t know anything about the church, and yet there they were! They all said they enjoyed church. We tried to get their address, but they didn´t know their address. Just the neighborhood, which is fairly large.

We decided after church that we needed to see them yesterday because they work in the fields (with strawberries) all week. So we said a prayer and headed out to try to find them! Heavenly Father literally put them in our path. They had gone to the store so we found them in the street. Blessings! We just taught Julia and Clara because the other two weren´t there. But it was a great lesson. They´re very humble. And they accepted a baptismal date for December 20th! Amazing! The only tricky thing is that they´re always working so we can only teach on Saturday and Sunday. How blessed we are for the jobs we have!

Hector was at church as well. He and Alicia are progressing nicely and are still set for the 29th to be baptized. Yay!

As far as trials, I will try to talk about them more. I would say the hardest thing is probably trying to forget myself. Often times I feel out of MY comfort zone. If I would just forget myself, I know that I would be a better missionary. I´m working on it! Spanish is still tricky, but it´s okay. I had heard before that you have the highs of highs and the lows of lows on the mission. It´s true! I feel like that every day. But I´m learning here in Argentina, and that´s what´s important. If I´m a better person when I come home, and help other people to come to Christ in the process, I think that´s what´s important.

Well, I think I need to go. Thanks for everything. I love you all, and thanks for your love and support! Families are Forever!

Love Forever,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Hola! (Email) 11.10.2008

Hello everyone! ¿Comó están? Maybe I should take granted of being able to use accents and everything here with this keyboard. :D Well, quite the week it has been! Where to begin?

To answer questions. No, we don´t need to use mosquito nets. We pretty much escape from the mosquitos when we walk into our apartment. Everyone once in a while there will be something flying around, but that happens at home too. No big deal. :D

As far as scriptures we like to use when inviting people to church. I like Moroni 6 because it talks about why we go to church. I also like several in the New Testament (sorry I can´t remember the exact references right now) that Christ is inviting people to come to him. Christ is always inviting people to Him, to ¨Come and See¨and I think this alone is a great way to do it. People need to ¨Come and See¨what the church is like - to come unto Christ!

Also, Hermana Riquelme pointed out Luke 14 to me. It is when Jesus Christ gives the parable of the great supper when he invites all to the supper and only a few come. One doesn´t come because he has work, one doesn´t come because he has family things to do, and another doesn´t come because he needs to do something with his five oxen that he just bought (possessions). It´s interesting to think about. There are a lot of different reasons why we don´t go to church, or things that could prevent us from going, but we should still go!

Here´s an interesting story... we were eating lunch with one of the families of the ward on Saturday. She, the mom, is going to school right now. She told us that she wouldn´t be able to go to church on Sunday because she has two tests on Tuesday that she doesn´t feel prepared for. Her previous test last week didn´t go as well as she would have liked. It made me think. As I gave the thought after lunch, I shared the lessons I learned while I was in school before the mission. I always tried to put learning about the gospel before learning of the world. I read the scriptures first. I figured if I wanted Heavenly Father´s help with Speech Pathology, I should learn about His Gospel first. I also always prayed before tests for help, because the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance. However, we have to do all that is possible to prepare first. Í couldn´t just put in half my effort to study and then expect Him to bring things to my remembrance that I hadn´t studied.

It made me think also that when we partake of the sacrament, we become more worthy of the Spirit. Now especially she needs to have the Spirit for help in her schooling! It just made me think of the blessings of the Spirit. The Lord always promises to bless us with the things we stand in need of - temporal and spiritual - when we keep His commandments. It was a good reminder for me, and helped me realize ways I can improve as a missionary.

I got my Christmas package! Hermana Riquelme is pretty sure that I should open it up now, but I assured her that I would be in HUGE trouble if I opened it before Christmas. Gracias!

Also, here´s a question. I don´t know what to do for Christmas. I would like to send something from here for you all, but I would basically be buying you all Christmas with your own money. So, let me know what you think. Do you think I should send gifts back home?

Shari, I didn´t know that you had for sure started putting my letters on a blog! Gracias! I hope it´s not too much trouble.

Mom, I am writing in my journal. I have missed a day or two, but for the large majority I am writing. I finished my first one, and now I´m started on the other one. It´s good. Therapeutic I think. :D

Here´s a story. Last Monday night we were having FHE with the Beltran family. We were actually playing a game and then all of the sudden the lights went out. Someone walked outside, and to our dismay, there was a house on fire! We didn´t know who it was at first, but we soon realized that it was the house of one of our investigators, Cristina Alarcon. She´s 22 and has two little girls. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. Luckily they got out of the house quickly and are all fine. I believe her boyfriend was at work when it all happened. There is NOTHING left. Literally no evidence that there was ever a house there. It´s interesting because we are also teaching her Mom (Cristina) and Hector (step-dad?) and her siblings, that live in the neighboring neighborhood. We went to Cristina´s (the mom) house the next day and I was amazed by her. She is strong. She said Cristina is living in Neuquen now so unfortunately we won´t be able to teach her.

Yennifer had her baptismal interview yesterday and she´s going to be baptized Friday night! Yay! We´re very excited for her. It has been quite the adventure, but we think everything is going to work out just fine.

Did I tell you about Hector? I think so. That Hermana Riquelme met him on the bus? He has now gone to church two times and has a baptismal date for November 29th! He´s 76 years old. A very nice man. I have no idea, but he reminds me of Morie (Tuesdays with Morie). Funny huh?

Also, we are teaching Alicia Higuera. I don´t know if you remember her, but Hermana Celis and I taught her a couple of times before. She is doing great. She´s reading the Book of Mormon, and really understanding! I think she can explain the first part of first Nephi better than I can! She went to church yesterday. Yay! She has a baptismal date for November 29th as well.

Someone in the stake got us a spot in the Plottier Book Fair that took place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Hermana Riquelme and I were only able to go part of Saturday and all of Sunday, but it was very enjoyable. We couldn´t ¨preach¨but it was very enjoyable. We could answer questions. We just gave away pamphlets about the church - the restoration, plan of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, Word of Wisdom, Book of Mormon, FHE book, etc... Just fun free things to give away! Elder Stephenson is quite the musician, and he actually brought his charango (mini guitar) and harmonica, and played and sang while we were there. Very fun. I hope people have a little better idea of what the church is all about now.

Thanks for the pictures! Nyah was dorothy! So cute! And for the pictures of soccer as well. Very very fun.

Shari, Hermana Riquelme loves oreos. I taught her that you can put the fork in the middle and it´s easier to eat them with milk. :D I informed her that you had taught me. And, the ¨Good night, don´t let the bed bugs bite...¨saying. She likes it.

Well, I hope all is well. I love you all very much. Los quiero! Talk to you again soon!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Hola! 11.03.2008 (Email and Fotos)

Hola everyone! How are you doing? I love the picture of Hallie on Halloween. She´s so cute, and she´s so big! Wow! Very fun. I´m afraid they don´t celebrate Halloween here much... too bad. :D The kids are missing out on all the chocolate!

Oh, I have a request. Next time someone sends a letter, it´s not a big deal at all, will you send a picture or two of me playing soccer? I need evidence that I played. :D

So how are you all doing? I hope you got the pictures all right. This letter might be a little shorter than usual because it took some time to get the pictures sent. Also, I ran out of stamps a few weeks back, so when you don´t get mail from me, that´s why. Stamps are on the way though, so hopefully you´ll get the letters before too long. I´ll plan more in advance next time... :(

Shari and Orrin, I never said thanks for the money for new tennis shoes! Thank you thank you! I´ll let you know all about them when I get them.

Things here are going well! We had zone conference this last Monday and it went well. I have a new district leader - Elder Arana from Peru. He´s very nice. :D It´s fun to see a different way of doing things as well.

Mom, since you mentioned flossing, I have done much better this week! I´ll work on improving more, because I do want to keep my teeth.

The mosquitos are here! AK, I thought of you on your mission because if I recall, your apartment didn´t have windows. I´m grateful that I can walk into my apartment and escape from the mosquitos. It´s a luxury that you didn´t have! Good times. It makes me feel like a real missionary to have mosquitos around. haha.

Well, we changed Yenni´s baptismal date to the 14th, because we definitely feel like it´s more important that she has a testimony and understands everything, than that it´s done quickly. Hopefully we´ll be able to teach everything this week so that she can have her baptismal interview on Sunday and then be good to go for Friday the 14th. Usually baptisms are on Saturday, but there´s an enrichment activity in Neuquen that day.

Hermana Riquelme was talking to Yennifer about the importance of having a testimony of the Gospel before being baptized. She asked, ¨If someone walks up to you, says a thing or two about the church - for example Joseph Smith wasn´t a prophet or similar things - are you really going to be able to testify to them that the church is true? Do you have that conviction in your heart?¨ It really made me think. I hope that every convert to the church can have this conviction so that when trials come, they can withstand them.

Another story: We´re really trying to talk to people when we´re on the bus. It´s kind of hard, but we´re working on it. So the other day we were on the bus, and Hermana Riquelme started talking to an older man (70´s??) ,named Hector, whom she was sitting next to. He said he wants to be baptized in a church, and she hurried and gave him a pamphlet before he got off the bus. Later the same day we saw him again, and he said he really liked what he read, and that he wanted to know what he needed to do to be baptized! So we invited him to church. Sunday morning we got there, and he was waiting for us outside! Wow. He said he really enjoyed the meeting, and he wants us to come over and teach him so he can be baptized. Wow, quite the miracle huh? We´re excited to go and teach him and see what happens.

Remember Alicia Astente - the lady that I taught one day with Paula Beltran? We were passing be her house yesterday, and we talked to her Mom, Ursula. We haven´t been able to talk to Alicia since. But Ursula is very sincere, and she had a lot of questions about baptism. It was a neat lesson, and she said if she receives the answer from Heavenly Father that the church is true, she´ll prepare for her baptism the 29th of November.

Andres and Andrea are doing well. The biggest struggle I think for them is to go to church with Omar and Carla because they aren´t as reverent as they would like. It´s a struggle in all the church, but unfortunately they don´t see that because there aren´t a lot of kids their age in the ward. We´re working on helping them. How hard! Mom, Ak, Lisa... anyone... have any advice?

Dad, the story you always tell about faith. The man on the edge of the mountain that is holding onto a branch. Can you write that down and send it to me? I don´t remember the details and I would love to learn it in spanish to teach people. Gracias!

AK, thanks for the reasons of why you go to church. It helps.

Mom and Dad, thanks for your answers about how missionaries gain your trust. I do try to be punctual and responsible. I hope the members know we´re trying our best. The mission has helped me to realize that no one is perfect. That´s why we can´t judge.

Mom, thanks for your thought about the dinner appoinment and the missionaries talking. I´m afraid I have been very guilty of being the quiet missionary, mainly out of insecurity. However, I know a lot more spanish now, and I really don´t have an excuse. I have tried very hard to talk more during lunch this week. It hit me pretty hard what you said, and I know if I follow your advice that I will be a better missionary and instrument in the Lord´s hands. If ever you doubt whether or not you are inspired, remember that I needed what you wrote. Thank you!

Well, I need to go. I love you all very very much. The church is true, and Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. How blessed we are!

Love Forever,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Okay, the first one is when our zone (most of the zone) went to the river. And the second one is Hermana Riquelme and I at the river. I might try to send more, but it takes a while for them to load. We´ll see...