Email (12.29.2008)

Hola everyone! How are you all doing? It was soooo good to talk to you all on Christmas day! Thanks so much everyone for making the effort to go home so I could talk to all of you. It was so good to hear your voices! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that you have a good New Years Eve/Day as well. I don't know if you have all already traveled home and everything, but if you haven't yet, drive safe!

Well, Christmas day for me was enjoyable. Oh, as I said, Wednesday was with the zone. All of it was very fun. A little bit about Christmas tradition here. They all get together as families and in some cases friends, and have a big dinner (usually barbecues I believe). Then at twelve o'clock on the dot people start setting off fireworks and then they open the presents. The fireworks thing was interesting. The president had given us permission to stay up until 12:30. But as of Plottier, it's not a community kind of thing - like the 4th of July at home. Just all the people set them off, but they're pretty big. Not huge, but big ones that go off high in the air. And just any person can set them off. Not sure how safe it is. . .:D but it was fun to see a bunch of fireworks going off from all direction - all different neighborhoods. And I opened presents Christmas Eve because we had time, and I wasn't so sure we'd have time the next day. I felt a little guilty because Hna. Riquelme's package still hasn't gotten here, but I think it was just fine. We ate the candy together. :D Thaks again for all of the gifts. And we're headed to Neuquen today so I should be able to buy tennis shoes. Yay!

Oh Mom, it was so good to hear you say "Yaaayyy!!!" It had been too long.

Then we just spent the day with members talking about the true meaning of Christmas. It has surprised me because some people here really and truly don't know why we celebrateChristmas, and know very little about JesusChrist. It makes me sad, but I'm glad we're here to teach them a little bit. :o)

My birthday yesterday was good. I opened up the package in the morning before we went on the bus to get the people for church. Very fun. Thank you. Hallie, the confetti on the card was very nice. Thank you.:D Hna. Riquelme had written me a card in the morning and that was nice. I was surprised that so many ward members remembered my birthday. Very impressive. And so nice! It was actually the birthday of someone else in the ward too so they wished us a happy b-day in sacrament meeting. :o) They sang me happy b-day in Relief Society, and the Martinez Family sang me happy b-day at lunch, and Elders Arana and Diaz called me last night and sang me happy b-day - in English! So it was a good day.

The best birthday presents .. . We met a family a while back when we went to eat lunch with some members. They live close by. Their names are Mari and Miguel and they have three kids - one on the way. We went and visited with them a little bit the other day (while they were killing and plucking feathers off their chickens so that was interesting) haha - and talked a little bit. Not too much since they were doing other things. Then stopped by again the other day to invite them to church and we taught part of the restoration. Anyway, they went to church yuesterday!!! Mari knows more about the church because she has gone several times because her cousin is a member. Anyway, I hope they all enjoyed it and that they'll continue learning and progressing.

Then, last night we had walked clear across town because we had three different appointments. The first one we just stopped by for a minute because her kids were there, and she was doing things with her family. Then we went to another appt. and she wasn't there. Then we went to see Clara (who has a baptismal date for the 10th) aqnd she wasn't there either! Ah! So we weren't sure what to do, but decided to go talk to someone else nearby - a friend of Julia and Clara. And he and his wife weren't there either. But then we saw that their neighbors were outside, so we introduced ourselves to them. We then realized that we had met Judith before, a quick contact. I believe we had tried to go back, but couldn't find her house because the addresses in this neighborhood are a little crazy. Anyway, she said she had wondered why we hadn't come back. They had seen us walk by several times but they were too embarrassed to say anything. :( So we asked if we could teach them right then! So we taught the restoration to Jon and Judith, and it was SO GOOD. Jon is 22 and Judith 20, and they have two little kids. They are from Bolivia and have been here for 5 years. Wow. Anyway, they had such good questions, and were so receptive and believing. They already have prayer together every morning and night! That's so uncommon! So long story short, they said they're willing to start learning and investigating so they can work to prepare themselves for a baptism February 2! They have some changes to make, such as getting married, but I really think they have A LOT of potential and desires.

Hna. Riquelme and I both felt so good as we were there. Last night was so typical for a missionary. You have several people who don't want to listen, have appointments fall through... like Heavenly Father is testing your faith. Then He leads you to someone who wants to listen. Amazing.

I bought a little Book of Mormon book for kids with pictures and everything that teaches the stories really simply. It was in hopes that I can learn to teach some of the things more simply, and even just learn all the stories better in general. Anyway, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Reading the stories in such simple terms gives me a different view point. The Gospel really is simple!

Scriptures for the day I love: 1 Ne. 17:50, Helaman 10:4-5, DyC 84:80-85, and DyC 112:10. Good ones.

Alright, time to go. I love you all very much. Thanks so much for everything. The talk, the gifts, the support... everything! Yesterday in Gospel Principles we taught that Families Can Be Forever. It's the truth!

Con Mucho Amor,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock