Hola Mi Familia! 05.18.2009 (Email)

Hola! ¿Cómo están? I hope that you´re all doing very well. Things here are going well. Transfers are today, but Hermana Hedquist and I are going to stick together here in Allen. Que bueno! Elder Argueta is headed to Comodoro in the south, and Elder Jensen is going to train again. So that should be good. So enough about that.

We had a good week this week. Where to start? First off, we found ten new investigators! Yay! After the week before we really wanted to find new investigators, so we were blessed in that way. The down side is that we weren´t able to meet with our other investigators much. It´s so hard to find them in their houses! What to do. Dad I read a little bit in your email that you want to focus on how many lessons the missionaries teach there. Help of the members will make a BIG difference. Have I mentioned that member missionary work is so important? :D

We weren´t able to meet with Sergio and Patricia this week because they had visitors. :o( Maybe we´ll be able to stop by during the week. I hope so.

We were finally able to talk to Fernando the other day. It turns out that Fernanda is still pretty sick, and is pretty much always in bed. The good news is... that the reason she´s sick is because she´s pregnant! ¿Que tal no? Anyway, I thought that was interesting. We´re hoping to be able to go to their house this coming week as well. I really feel like they´re ready for the Gospel. They just don´t recognize it yet. :D

Last night we had a good lesson with Sylvana, a member, and a new investigator. His name is Adriano. Since he lives alone we had planned on going to this lesson with a different member. We were going to meet in Sylvana´s house because she lives close to the investigator´s house. Unfortunately, the other member couldn´t go at a moments notice,so Sylvana was kind enough to go with us. It went well. He was very excited that we went to his house, and is eager to learn more. I´ll keep you updated with him.

We found various other new investigators that I feel really good about. We met a lady named Graciela a little while ago. We went to her house Wednesday morning I believe, and she wasn´t there at first, but her daughter, Mariana, was. She´s 21 or 22. I can´t remember. We ended up teaching to both of them and it went well. I really am finding that people are hesitant to listen here because there are so many missionaries from different religions. Poco a poco... I decided they just need to read the Book of Mormon with an open heart.

We also met Emeli. She´s 23. She is studying Radiology. We were only about to teach part of ¨The Restoration¨but it went well. I think she has a desire to learn as well. She mentioned that she doesn´t agree with a lot of the things that they teach in her church right now... so I think she´s open to learning new things. It´ll be good. :o)

We also met Marcela. She had been studying with missionaries from another religion for like a year, but decided to stop a while back. She said that that was the first time she had talked with ¨Mormones¨. I feel like it went well as well.

Oh, we also met with Monica Carrasco. It was a good lesson, but a little sad. We talked again about lesson one, because we didn´t feel like she was really understanding the importance and the doctrine of lesson one. For example, she likes reading the Book of Mormon, but I didn´t feel like she really gives it the importance it deserves. It´s much more that just a good book that teaches lessons.

It finally came out that she doesn´t believe that Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. So we started again from the beginning, read Joseph Smith´s history, and talked about how she needs to study and pray in order to know if he really was a prophet called of God. We talked about how there are a lot of things that she needs to learn, and can learn, but if she doesn´t accept Joseph Smith as a prophet, she´s not going to be able to progress and accept the other things. This is the church of Jesus Christ, that is lead by prophets and apostles, just like before. So we´re hoping she´s reading and praying.

So I think this was a good week. We still need to find new investigators, and we can always improve with the way we teach. It turns out that you always have to keep learning as a missionary.

We had an interesting experience last night. About two weeks ago we were talking to a couple in the street. They invited us to their church. They said that we´re always inviting people to our church, but won´t go to their churches. I said we´d think about it, and try to go to their church. Then the next Sunday was Mother´s day, with lots of rain, so we didn´t go that night. We ran into them this last week in the street, and they brought it to our attention that we hadn´t gone to their church. So we said we´d go this week. So we went last night. I do believe that it was the first time that I ever attended another church. The couple was happy we went. We weren´t able to stay for much when the preacher was actually talking because we had to go back to the apt. to end the night. But I think I learned from the experience, and I think it surprised some people that we were there. For the better I hope. So anyway, I´ll write more on that in a letter I think.

Mom, I got your letter in the mail last week. Thanks! Had you put a $2 bill in that card? It didn´t make it if you did... I was trying to remember. But the stamps got here just fine. I got a letter from AK like 2 weeks ago as well, but I believe all the letters you had sent before getting the email news have gotten here already. We haven´t gotten the mail from this week yet.

I´m so grateful for my family, and I´m so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What a blessing it is. I know that we have the doctrine of Christ available at our finger tips. We need to read and feast upon what we have! I love you all very much. Thanks for your continued love and support. I love you!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock