Hola! 12.15.2008 (Email)

Family,

Hola! How are you all doing? I hope that you´re all doing great. First off, yes Dad, I do have my old debit card. It´s just sitting in my apartment. From what it sounds like, I should get my new card next week, because we get our mail every Monday/Tuesday. I almost want to say that you should go ahead and activate it, but yet I don´t know if that would be very smart. Maybe next week I´ll just be able to tell you in the email. I don´t know. This whole long distance communication thing is a little complicated.

About the Christmas phone call. What time is it there compared to here? It´s a little tricky here because some parts of Argentina changed the time, but Neuquen (the province) didn´t, so our time stayed the same. But you changed in Idaho already right? So right now it´s 1:05 here. But anyway, we still don´t know when we are going to call. We need to talk to the Bishop to see if we can use the church phone, or what. We can´t use member´s phones. And if we need to find somewhere else, we need to find out when they´ll be open, etc... But Lisa, I´ll be sure to make sure it's before 6:30 before you go to work. If it´s 6:30 there is it 9:30 here? I just can´t remember. Let me know in the next email the time difference, and we´ll work to let you know what time we´ll call. In the next email! Sorry it´s getting so close to Christmas and I still don´t have many answers. But the mission president did just write to us telling us again that it can´t be longer than 40 minutes. :D

Alright, now for the regular things. How are you all doing? Things here are going well. It was a good and busy week this week. We´re still struggling a little bit trying to find time with the buses and everything to teach everyone that we need and want to. A little tricky. But ít´s okay. It´ll work out in some way or another.

Things are still going well with the Vasquez family. They´re going to have their interviews tomorrow I believe. I think they´re all good to go. I am thoroughly enjoying teaching them. Four boys. What a crack up. I´m used to a houseful of girls! Bueno, and boys too now that we´re older, but it´s a little different when my dad, brother and brothers-in-law are big boys. :D Very fun. Enzo is so excited to get the Priesthood and everything. He wants to go to the temple so bad. I believe that the ward (or stake???) are going here pretty soon, but they have to save money for quite some time to go I believe. I don´t know if he´ll be able to go. It makes me feel so guilty to think of how close temples are to all of us at home. It´s so much easier to go frequently. What a blessing! We just need to take advantage of it.

So we´re still teaching Clara, Julia, Velintin, and others of their family and friends. Clara is planning on being baptized the 27th, but I believe she´ll be the only one for now. I believe the Elders in Plottier have a baptism or two on the 27th so they can be baptized together. It should be really good.

We had another choir thing yesterday. There were different religions-choirs there this week, other than just the choirs from the stake. I think it went really well. We sang as a ward the same songs as last week. I didn´t realize I was playing the piano again until I got to the church. Surprise! It all worked out fine though. It´s amazing the extra help I get as a missionary. :o)

Also, at the very end, the six of us missionaries in our district sang Silent night. We sang the first two verses, then Elder Arana (not Araña :D) read verses about Christ´s birth while Elder Boudreaux kept playing the piano, and then everyone sang the third verse. It was pretty. I think it touched some people. Sometimes I forget that I´m really a missionary. I still see the Elders, or pictures of other missionaries, and I think ¨Oh! The missionaries! I love the missionaries!¨. Sometimes I wonder if the younger kids in the ward see Hna. Riquelme and I the way that I saw the missionaries when I was younger - and still do. Anyway, that´s what I was thinking yesterday as the six of us were up front singing in front of everyone. I hope I´m living up to the title.

I heard that Elder Wirthlin passed away. I wasn´t sure if it was a rumor or what, but our Stake President told us yesterday during lunch. He was so amazing. I loved reading his talks.
Something interesting. I was reading the talk the other day by Elder Dallin H. Oaks ¨Good, Better, Best¨. I had read it in the morning, and decided to carry it in my scriptures. Didn´t know why, but just decided to. So later that day we were teaching a lady, Lilian, who we had talked to several times. We had passed by her house, but we had never been able to go in and actually teach. So we hadn´t planned on visiting her, but as we were passing her house, we decided to drop by. We were surprised when she said ¨pasen!¨. So we were actually able to teach! It was interesting because several of the questions she had were addressed in Elder Oaks´talk about finding balance with the family and work and everything. Very interesting. We left the talk for her to read. I hope she read it and that it helped. I love when things like that happen. Just little miracles.

I was reading the other day, and I think it was in ¨Our Search for Happiness¨ by Elder M. Russell Ballard. I liked the quote, ¨Your life must be the expression of your faith¨. I thought that was so good.

So Andres isn´t progressing for now. It about breaks my heart. I don´t really know what else to do to help him gain a testimony. The Book of Mormon is so key.

Hermana Riquelme taught someone the other day that we need to do three key things to increase our faith. We need to say our prayers, read the scriptures every day, and go to church every Sunday. Three fairly simple things, but very important. I hope you´re all doing these things, because we all need faith in Jesus Christ in order to overcome the trials that we have, but we can´t have faith in Jesus Christ if we don´t know Him.

Hermana Riquelme is amazed by how much I love Christmas! I thought to myself that if she thinks I´m crazy about Christmas, it´s just because she hasn´t met Lisa! haha. I really do love the Christmas season though. It´s the best.

The church is true. I love you all so much. Thanks for your love and support here in the mission. Thank you thank you! Keep up the hard work, but don´t work too hard! Enjoy the Christmas season!

Love always,

Hermana Jana Banana Pincock