Hola! 04.27.2009 (Email)

Hola! ¿Cómo están? Todo bien? Buenísimo! Things here are going well. It´s Hna. Hedquist´s b-day as you all know, and I think we´re going to eat brownies and ice cream to celebrate. She doesn´t want to do a whole lot more, so I think we´re just going to relax a little bit. :D

Aaron, Happy Birthday on the 30th! How exciting! I hope you do something very fun to celebrate. I wrote you a letter but I don´t think it will get there for another week or so. Sorry it´s late!

I do believe that it´s Mallory Sudweeks Weber´s b-day today as well. Feliz Cumple!

So, Lisa and Jordan, you´re buying a house! Yay! Wow, I can´t believe it´s the house of Bishop Remington and his family. That´s great. Dad mentioned in the last email that you had big news, but then no email from Lisa... I was pretty much feeling left up in the air! It was good to get the news this week.

Well, to answer a couple of questions: Mothers day? I was just talking with Hna. Hedquist, and we´re thinking that you should write several times that you could talk to us, when you´re not in church or anything, and we´ll write next week what time works for all of us. Does it work?

The good number of people here have TVs and DVD players. There are exceptions, but for the most part there isn´t a problem with that.

The ward FHE´s are going well. This last Saturday the elders had a baptism, so we had that instead of FHE. Well, I think it´s about the best FHE you can have. :D We would really like to have more investigators there, so we´re working on that.

English? We need to spread the word better about English classes. It´s a little tricky because we need an adult there, but there aren´t many adults available Saturday during the day. So we end up teaching outside a lot of days. We´ll see what happens.

How many new missionaries? 16 or 17 we think. Three new sisters (Hna. Schwab is training as well).

The best thing about Hna. Hedquist so far? Her testimony, knowledge of the scriptures, and desire to learn spanish. She is a lot like me. I think I already mentioned that. It´s interesting though. I see her struggles, and see myself. I try to be understanding, while pushing her at the same time. I know when I got here there were a lot of things I wasn´t really excited about doing in Spanish, but I learned from doing it. I know it´ll be the same with her. She´s great.

Alright, more with how the work is going here.
I would say the investigators that are progressing the most, are Fernando and Fernanda Sanhueza. Fernanda told us she thinks that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We talked to her about baptism, and she´s praying about whether or not she needs to be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. :D

We talked to Fer, her husband, as well. He is really believing as well. The problem being, Fernanda´s health! Saturday we passed by for our appointment and to see how they were doing, and Fernanda had got to get a shot. Fernando mentioned that every time they want to do something good, like go to church, the enemy of all good things, sticks his tail into things. I agreed, and said that at least he recognizes what is happening! So they didn´t go to church. :o(We went to their house yesterday, and Fernando said that Fernanda probably has to have surgery tomorrow. It turns out she´s in a lot of pain. I feel bad, and I really don´t know how to help them. We´ll see.

We had a good lesson with Patricia yesterday. Sergio had to leave so he wasn´t there. But we talked about the Plan of Salvation, and we used the BoM the whole time. She was really interested in the Fall, and so we thoroughly enjoyed it. She has a desire to learn, and so that´s wonderful. I love it.

We stopped by Carla Barria´s house last night, and her husband was there. Yay!!! We finally met him! They really didn´t have time last night, so we just sang ¨Families Can Be Together Forever¨ shared our testimonies about families, prayed, and headed on our way. But I am so grateful that we finally met her husband, and he´s a very good person. He´s a policeman, and we talked about people, and how we can help. We talked about prayer a little bit. I think it´s a good step. Slowly but surely the people are progressing.

We had a really good lesson with Ruben and Vanesa. Ruben is understanding things better right now, but Vanesa is going to progress as well. They should be reading the B of M as well. :D

I´m worried about Cecilia and Antonela. I´m not sure how to help them, or to help them recognize the importance of this message. The investigators have a lot of personal responsibility. I was reading in Alma 5: 44-45 I believe, this morning, and Alma is talking about how he came to have a testimony. It says he fasted and prayed for many days to know. A testimony doesn´t come easy. It takes effort. It also made me think how the things that are harder to earn, we value more. I think Heavenly Father wants to see us putting forth effort so we value what He gives us. So they, and all of us, need to read and pray with real intent.

Hna. Panero assures us that she is progressing with her husband. Carla Ruiz didn´t go to church again yesterday because she slept in. :o(

So this is where we´re at! We really need to find some more new investigators. Oh, the Ormeño family is progressing as well. We got there Saturday, and they still hadn´t found their scriptures. We were just with Monica, the Mom. So we told her that we weren´t going to continue without her scriptures. We were going to find them - packed away! So we went upstairs, and found them. It was wonderful. Then we read together from the Book of Mormon, and we know that she felt the Spirit. We talked to her mom, Ester, yesterday as well. She wants to go back to church as well.

Thanks so much for everything. Thanks for your support, love, and prayers. I know I am definitely receiving strength from your prayers. I have a testimony that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know the way to return to our Heavenly Father. We just need to stay in the path, and go forward with strength. I love you!

Love always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Mom, I loved your story about your temple clothes. It really was a miracle.
AK, I´m glad things are going well with Matt at work.
Shari and Orrin, I hope you find a house soon!