Hola! (Email)

Hi Family! How are you all doing? I´m doing well. Well, I´m writing this later today beause I went to Villa La Angostura. It´s about an hour away from here. Last night the leaders there invitied us over to see all the pretty views so we decided to go. Very pretty. But you know... I´m always stressed out about the time and getting everything done! So sorry if this letter is a little shorter than normal. :o( I´ll just have to type fast. :D

First off, Hna. Porter cut my hair last Monday. That´s fun. It´s a little longer than shoulder length still, but I have bangs. Kind of fun.

Tuesday we had zone conference and we met President and Hna. Peterson! They´re very good people. He´s especially very loving. Had a short little interview with him and it was good to talk to him. I think they´ll be wonderful ¨mission parents¨.

During the conference Hna. Porter and an Elder sang a song, and I played the piano. They sang ¨I Know that My Redeemer Lives¨. They did very well. Pretty pretty voices. Anyway, after conference Hna. Varela, who I had been in El Bolson with, stayed with us for the night. Her companion was transfered to Puerto Madryn to be companions with Hna. Schwab, and Hna. Varela will be companions with a ¨mini-missionary¨. She was a little nervous about being senior companion since she has been in the mission for a transfer and a half, but I have no doubt that she´ll be just fine. She´s already a great missionary.

So anyway, Hna. Varela stayed with us the night and then we took her to the bus terminal early Wednesday morning. Good times.

Lets see, good things that happened this week... one night we were walking in a neighborhood and we heard, ¨Where are you from?¨ I must admit, I usually just ignore english when I hear it, but we decided to turn around and see who had said it. Marcos (or Mark as he introduced himself :D ) actually speaks very good english. We talked for a long time in the street (perhaps too long...) but it was really good. He is a scientist, and has some interesting ideas, but we can tell he has a really good heart. A good person. Anyway, we have his information and everything, so we´re going to teach him, and hopefully his two kids.

Also, there is a family here, named the Anfuso family. We were eating lunch with them on Thursday, and Hno. Anfuso was talking Argetina politics, etc... But anyway, the idea occurred to me that we should teach Marcos with Hno. Anfuso because they´re both very educated, and I think it´d be good for Marcos to hear a grown man´s testimony. We mentioned it to Hno. Anfuso and he´s up for it. So I´ll keep you updated. :D

We had a good lesson with Eduardo and Mariahelem. We taught ¨The Gospel of Jesus Christ¨ and talked to them about baptism. And what´s impeding them from being baptized. They know they need to get married. But they´re super hesitant. So their assignment is to make a list of pros and cons, after praying and reading the scriptures together, and then they need to make a decision. They have been putting it off for a long time from what I hear. So it should be good.

Sunday we had another lesson wtih Mariahelem. Eduardo was sleeping. But we also taught two of Eduardo´s sisters, Nelida and Ester. It went well. We taught The Restoration again because it was the first time that Ester had learned about it. It went well. They said they´ll read and pray. Mariahelem said she has never prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. I was surprised. I told Hna. Porter, ¨No wonder she doesn´t want to commit to be married. She still hasn´t obtained a testimony of the first part of our message¨. So that should be good.

So on Sunday we had Eduardo, Mariahelem, and a girl named Mariana in church. Mariana is the niece of the stake president. The stake president´s sister, Mariana´s other aunt, lives in our ward. So it turns out she started going to our ward a while back, but she actually lives in other ward boundaries. From what I understand, it´s okay with everyone if she keeps going to this ward, and if we teach her. She´s 15. We have our first appt. with her this week and we´re going to teach with the young women´s president. Lucia is the young women´s president. She´s only 21, but she´s great.

The youth in the ward are trying to earn money to go to the temple in October. Therefore, Hna. Porter and I have bought noodles, treats, etc... that they´re selling to save money.

Oh, have I mentioned that Hna. Porter really shouldn´t eat flour or sugar? She can, but really doesn´t feel well. So we talked with the members, and they´re trying to feed us food without flour. How? You might ask... but it turns out that there is a lot of food without flour. It´ll probably be good for me to eat a little less flour as well.

Well, I think that´s about everything. I hope that you are all doing well, and that you´re all happy. The church is true. I´m so grateful that I was born where I was. I am SO grateful for temples. Do you all have goals set about how many times you would like to go to the temple throughout the year? If not, I invite you to set goals. :D The temple, and worshiping there, protects us from danger. Bothiritual and physical. I have been surprised to realize how many talks in the last conference talked about temple worship. One talk talked about the temple in Logan. Good memories. :D

I love you all. Choose the right and do what Jesus would do.

Love always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock