Reese's Puffs! :D

Hola! How are you all doing? First off, I´m glad you made it back from the hiking adventure. It sounds like it was a good time. And Shari and Orrin, it sounds like you´re all into your house great. How fun to have a new house! And, AK, Ryan, and Nyah, thanks for the fun package! I´m thoroughly enjoying the candy, and Reese´s Puffs (you know the way to my heart!) and I´ll try not to eat it all by myself so I can run Ragnar 2010. jaja.

Ryan, Happy Birthday! One year old and wiser! Pumpkin squares? Jami, if you read this, Happy Birthday this next week as well. :o)

First off, some business... I bought some souveenirs (sp?) last week. Like $50 worth I believe. The lady said that she ran my card as debit, so I hope. But today, I was talking to a store worker, and he said that if I´m a foreigner, everything will be run as credit. So you might want to check that out. It´s weird because the ATM´s here don´t want to accept my debit card. I don´t know why. But anyway, so if I use my card, it seems as though I may have to do it as credit. Let me know what you all think, and if my last week´s spending was really debit or credit.

Also, I just sent the recorder that Lisa and Jordan sent back home. I was going to send it to Lisa and Jordan, but then realized that I don´t know your new address! Therefore, I sent it home. I just sent the recorder and a couple of my favorite treats with it. :D

Things here are going well. We changed Ester´s baptismal date to September 26th. She´s doing really well with about everything ( the commitments) except for the sabbath day - going to church. So we told her yesterday that she has to go to church for the next three weeks or she won´t be able to get baptized the 26th. So hopefully she´ll be able to go to church.

Alright, so now Nelida, Belen, and Ester all have baptismal dates for September 26th. I so hope that they all make it to their baptismal dates. It´s going to require a lot of faith and some changes for them, but they can do it. Ester told us yesterday that she has been complying 100% with the Word of Wisdom since we taught her last week. :D Yay!

The Talent Show went well on Saturday. I felt like we spent a good amount of time trying to get everything prepared and ready to go, but I think it was worth the effort. Hna. Porter and I were first. I played the duet of ¨Amazing Grace, As Now We Take the Sacrament, and How Great Thou Art¨as she sang. She did very well, and I just had a few minor errors. :o)

Then we just had a couple other little things. A family here in our ward has a little band so they played. A girl and her friend sang a song. All in english so that was a little crazy. The Bishop´s little brother has a band so they played as well. Two little girls ( 2 and 3 yrs old) danced so that was cute. It went well.

And we had a good turn out! Members did very well inviting people who aren´t members. Several people came and I think everyone really enjoyed it. And it was the first ward activity in a LONG time. And we had investigators come as well: Pablo, Mónica and their family (Flia. Barientos), Ashelen, and Angélica and her daughters. Pretty good. :D

Mariana is still doing well. We weren´t able to teach her as much this week as we would have liked, and she didn´t go to church, so we don´t know for sure what is happening. But we´re going to do everything possible to help her be baptized on September 12th still. It´ll all work out like it´s supposed to.

The work continues to progress. I can´t believe we´re already half-way done with this transfer. The time is just flying by.

I´m reading in Acts and I´m thoroughly enjoying it. It has been quite a while since I read Acts and I´m loving it! The Apostles were absolutely amazing. They were such powerful teachers. I love hearing about what they did to preach the Gospel. Miracles. And they were so in tune with the Spirit. I want to be more like them.

I was readying about Paul this morning in Acts and it made me think a lot about Joseph Smith. He and his companion, Bernabé I think but I don´t remember how it is in english, (Barnabus?) were teaching and the people were pretty upset. So the magistrates ordered the people to beat them, so they beat them with stripes. Afterwards, they put them in prison. So I tried to put myself in this situation, and wondered how I would be feelings at this moment. So that night in prison, they started praying and singing praises, and the other prisoners heard them. Amazing... praying and singing praises in that situation! So then the prison walls started to shake and basically fell down. The prison guard was worried that his prisoners had escaped, so he was about to take his own life. But Paul stopped him, and said not to worry, they were still there. And so they preached to him, his whole household, and they were all baptized in the church of Jesus Christ.

I thought that was such an amazing story! It made me want to be more like them. They took advantage of every opportunity to preach, and did it without fear. I love it.

Well, I need to go. I love you all very much and appreciate your love and support. Choose the Right!

Love always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Hola! :D 08.24.2009 (Email)

Hola mi familia! ¿Cómo están? Espero que estén bien. Yo estoy bien acá. :D I don´t know when you´ll actually be able to read this, but here goes anyway. Shari and Orrin, good luck moving into your new house! And I hope everyone is enjoying the back packing adventure. Be careful, and enjoy.

Things here are going well. Where to start? Eduardo and Maríahelen are doing well. We have had some important lessons the last little while. The word of wisdom and the law of chastity. Some changes need to be made, but they´re starting to understand everything a little bit better.

Nelida and Mario (Nelida and Eduardo, from above, are brother and sister) are doing well. Nelida is really progressing well. She has such strong desires to keep learning. She wants to be baptized, but she also has some changes to make first. We want to put a baptismal date with her our next appointment. But she either needs to get separated from Mario, or married. We´ll see... big decisions to make.

Ester has basically disappeared into thin air. We´re a little worried about her. She moved into her other brother´s house. We were able to talk to her a little the other day on her cell phone, but we have no idea when, or if, she´ll be moving back. We´re going to pray for her. We would like to set another baptismal date with her because she´s not going to make it for September 12th.

Belen is doing better. She did go with us to a baptism on Saturday night. I´ll write more about that later. However, we also need to change her baptismal date. They have good desires, but need to act/change a couple of things. But it´s okay! It´s part of the repentance process. We all need to change things. They just need to do it before baptism.

Good news! We have another baptismal date! Mariana Medina, the 16- yr-old. She had told us our appt. last week that she would talk to her mom, and ask if she can be baptized. Neither parents are members of the church, but her dad´s side of the family has several family members who are members. Anyway, we had an appt. on Thursday and she had talked to her mom, and her mom said yes, she can be baptized! So she chose her own baptism date - September 12th. :D We talked to her yesterday a little bit about what she needs to learn and do before being baptized and she´s excited. It´s neat too, because she and the others are working towards going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead still. And now she´ll be able to do the baptisms!

Lets see... Pablo is still doing well. Pablo and Monica. Monica is a little more hesitant to make commitments, but little by little. We need to help them get to church. It´s a very necessary step.

Oh, here´s a good story. We were walking one night this last week and it was like 8:45 so we had a little more time to work. So we were trying to find people in the street. Hna. Porter started a contact with a lady, and she informed us that she had been baptized like 15 yrs ago. She told us she had two kids - one was baptized with her before, but the other was too young before, and has since gone to another church. So anyway, we set an appt for a couple days later.

We went to the appt. and she wasn´t there! We thought it was kind of strange, but what can you do. So Saturday night we decided to stop by and see if she was there to put another appt. We talked to her son, Thomas, who is 19, and said we´d pass by Sunday (yesterday). We went yesterday, and it went really well. She said that as she had been walking that first night, she was upset, and wondering why she had stopped going to church and everything, if she had been baptized in the LDS church before. And then, all of a sudden, we stopped her! She said yesterday that we were like her ¨little angels¨ that night. It made me so happy! I know we didn´t do anything. The Spirit just put us in her path. So Thomas totally listened yesterday as well, and had a lot of interest. We have another appt. this week and I´ll keep you updated with what happens with them.

Saturday the Elders in another area had a baptism, so we were inviting people all week. We thought we could walk there. But Saturday, it was VERY rainy and snowy. So we decided we´d atleast go part of the way in a bus. So we invited several, and a couple came: Andrea and Brian (a less-active member that we recently found and her son), and Jovita and Nico with their baby Nicole (Jovita is Andrea´s sister), and Maríahelen and Belen. It was quite the experience trying to round everyone up. Luckily, they all live very close to each other. The baptism started at six, and we ended up boarding the bus at 6. Yikes! But after trecking together through the snow and slush, we made it! Luckily, they started late, and we missed very little. :D I think it was a good experience for all of them, and it was another good experience trying to get them all back home afterwards. Good times.

So this next Saturday is the talent show. It should be good. We´re trying to get everything organized. I think it´ll turn out well. We have to just invite, invite and invite. And the members need to invite!

Last night the two sisters from El Bolson came and had a sleep over because we have a zone activity today. I don´t really know what we´re doing but it should be good. I´ll have to let you know next week what we did.

Shari and Orrin, you should send me pictures of your new house. And Lisa and Jordan, the pictures you sent before I couldn´t open up. And I want to see pictures of the hiking adventure!

I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I´m so grateful for the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Yesterday in a class we talked about all the truths we have, thanks to the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It´s so true. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live, and that they are very invovled in our individual lives. They love you, and I do too!

I love you!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...:D

Hola! ¿Cómo andan? Ando bien aquí. Things are going well here. Thanks for all the emails again this week. Very fun. Mom, I´m sure that you did wonderful on your talk like you always do. And I´m sure that the people appreciated all the preparation that you put into it.

This has been a very wet week. Lots of rain, and even snow. Pretty funny that it´s snowing in August if you ask me. Hna. Porter and I are basically in Christmas mode, and we sing Christmas songs on a regular basis. :D Good times. I think I´ll just have a very long Christmas season this year. jaja

Saturday as we were eating lunch with the Bishop and his family we said we would like to do a musical number in Sacrament meeting if he would let us. He said yes, the next day! So we did ¨Yo sé que vive mi Señor¨ (I know that my Redeemer lives) and it went very well. I of course played the piano while she sang and the people loved it. She has a beautiful voice - like Jami.

Eduardo, Maríahelen, Nelida and Mariana (the 16 yr old) went to church yesterday. Hna. Porter and I actually taught Gospel Principles as well, and it went just great. The lesson was on the Priesthood. I´m so grateful for the Priesthood.

So Ester and Belen didn´t go to church again yesterday. :0( We don´t know why Belen didn´t go, but Ester is at her brother´s house, who lives in another part of Bariloche. So hopefully we´ll have a good chance to talk with them this week.

Nelida told us this week that she wants to get baptized. :D Now we just need to put a baptismal date. She´s doing well and learning a lot. Eduardo and Maríahelen still need to decide to get married or get separated.

We were finally able to teach them the Word of Wisdom this last weekend. They have some good changes to make but I know that they can do it if they have true desires and want to follow the example of our older brother, Jesus Christ.

Mariana is doing very well. We were able to teach her yesterday right after church with Mariana, the YW president. It went well. We talked to her about her desires, goals, fears, etc... We talked about how to receive answers to prayers. She talked about how she´s nervous to talk to her mom and grandma about being baptized because they´re pretty firm in another faith. So we´re praying for her that she´ll have the courage to talk to her mom, and that her mom will understand and support her in her decision to be baptized. Her dad is willing to support her in whatever she decides.

So I wrote last week about Pablo right? Who had received a Priesthood blessing and started getting better? So we were able to teach him two times this week. The second lesson his ¨wife¨, Monica, wasn´t able to listen to all of it, but it´s going really well. Two of their kids are members, and two are 8 or older. I´m really impressed with them. Pablo already has a good start on the Book of Mormon and is really listening and thinking about what we´re teaching. He´s getting much better physically, so he should be able to go to church next Sunday. :D

Oh, remember the less-active Hna. that we had visited a while back? The one that was having doubts about the church? Her name is Hna. Ñancufil. Anyway, this week we went again to visit her and it went well. We also met one of her daughters, Lorena. Anyway, we had a good lesson, and Hna. Ñancufil went to church yesterday! Yay!

Something else fun. The other day we decided we wanted to visit an olderly lady in our ward because we hadn´t ever really talked to her. So we found her apt. and we could hear someone in there. But we knocked on the door, rang the door bell...several times... and nothing. So finally we knocked one more time, and she heard and came to the door! Her name is Guacolda, and it was SO good to talk to her. She reminds me of Irene in Allen. She has been a member for forty years, so she´s one of the pioneers here. Well, she was actually baptized in Roca, close to Allen. Anyway, she talked about how she said no to the Elders several times, and said she didn´t want to talk to them. She said she was so tired of hearing about all the different religions. So tired. But they kept passing by, and one day she finally let them in. Not too long afterwards she realized that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. Wow. She just cried as she shared with us her testimony and testified. Amazing. And that we cried together as we sang ¨I Know that my Redeemer lives¨. I am so glad we went there, and we informed her that we would like to carry her to every one of our lessons. :D

I got a letter from the mission office today informing me when I´ll be ending the mission. December 15, 2009. So now I need to send my information to them saying what airport I want to go to and everything. Pocatello right? So it´s pretty crazy to me. I´m not sure if it´s consequence of just being in 3 areas so far, but I feel like I´m just getting started and getting the hang of everything! But I still have lots of time left. You can do a lot in 4 months! Lots of testimonies to share, and faith to strengthen. So anyway, I thought you´d all like to know. But no getting trunky! :D

I finished reading the Book of Mormon this week. I love the Book of Mormon. I know it´s true.

Well, I think that´s it for today. I love you all very much. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ.

I love you!

Love always,
Hermana Jana Pincock

Hola! 08.10.2009 (Email)

My Family,

Hola! How are you all doing? I hope that you´re doing really well. First off, Shari, I hope everthing went great with your ten year reunion. I´m sure that it did. Ten years already. How crazy is that! When are you going to be moving into your new house?

It sends like things at home are going well. When does the big hike take place? And where are you going? I don´t remember if someone already told me, but I don´t remember if you did. How long is the hike going to be? It makes me think of the time that we snow-shoed into the yurt a while back. Good times, but a lot of work! I´m sure that you will all do great with it. It should definitely be an adventure though. :D

Well, things here are going well. Hna. Porter and I will be here for atleast another transfer! We have hopes that it´ll be two more transfers, but we really have no idea. Time will tell.

Yesterday at church, we had five investigators. Yay! Eduardo, Mariahelem, Nelida, Mario and Mariana. Ester and Belen didn´t go. :o( We actually don´t know what happened.

Yesterday in the morning we walked about everywhere to the people´s houses. Okay, not everywhere, but like five houses. We hoped that more would be able to go, but five is pretty good. Eduardo, Mariahelem, Nelida, Mario, Ester and Belen all live together. They are like two houses that are connected. Ester and Belen live on the other side. So Sunday morning we went, talked to Mariahelem and she said that they were all awake and everything, so Hna. Porter and I ran to catch the bus. But then they didn´t come. And they had all left somewhere when we went over after church. So we´ll have to see what happened.

However, they continue to be reading and praying so that´s great. I´m starting to recognize more how big of a change living the Gospel is for them. We really are a ¨peculiar¨people as members of the church. But they can do it.

Some funny things from this week... Hna. Porter was walking last week, and she had not put socks on underneath her boots. She soon discovered that it was very painful, so we stopped to see what we could do. The only conclusion that she could find, was to walk with her boot half way on, and half way off until we could get to our apt. Pretty funny.

Also, do you all remember Sebastian and Cecilia? We had started teaching them a while back. We ran into Cecilia in town the other day, and we said we had passed by, but they weren´t there or something. She explained that her doorbell was broken, so probably hadn´t heard us. So we set an appt. and told her to listen for us. (She lives like behind another house) so we were just clapping. So anyway, we got to her house and the dog doesn´t bark at us anymore because it recognizes us. We clapped, and clapped, and clapped, and nothing. Nobody came. What to do? Hna. Porter decided to try to get the dog to bark, so started barking at the dog! Pretty funny. It made me giggle. But to no avail. The dog didn´t do anything. So we just left a note... :D

Also, we normally stop people to do contacts. But we started talking to this lady, and she said she could talk if we could walk fast... she had to get to the bank before it closed. So it was interesting. We were walking very quickly, all the while explaining the restoration and that we have prophets again today. We walked several blocks, amid lots of people, and lots of cars, but we were actually pretty happy with the contact. It was good. Good times.

Lets see, what else... oh, we finally had ward council again this week. All July the meetings had been canceled as a result of the pig flu. But we´re back, and it was really good. The Bishop told us in ward council that he had received a phone call from a member in another ward, named Eduardo. His uncle had been really sick in the hospital. The uncle, had previously wanted nothing to do with the church. But when Eduardo offered to give him a health blessing, his uncle consented. He immediately started to get better, and so he called Eduardo and said that he believes that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and that he wants to read and learn more. So it turns out, that he lives in our area! We called him, he´s now out of the hospital, and we´ll be visiting him this week. We´re being very blessed with miracles here.

Nelida said that she wants to continue to learn, but she´s not sure about baptism yet. We assured her that she needs to keep learning, and she´ll come to realize that she needs a baptism in the church of Jesus Christ. I really like teaching her, because she seems to FEEL. She may not understand every detail of what we´re teaching yet, but that´ll come with time. She´s great.

Oh, last Monday we went to a chocolate factore called ¨Mamushka¨and it´s pretty delicious. But pretty expensive as well. Also, I was talking to Hna. Porter, and I think we´re going to go ¨souvenir¨shopping this next week. But it sounds like you already put money in my account so I should be just fine. I guess it depends on if I should be buying souvenirs for everyone, or just a couple, or what you all think. Let me know.

Well, I think that about sums it up for me and what´s happening here. I know that the church is true. I love going to church, and learning more about my Heavenly Father, and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that They live. I know that They guide this church through their prophet, Thomas Monson. How blessed we are.

I love you!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Pincock

Hola! 08.03.2009 (Email)

Hola mi familia! How are you all doing? I hope that you´re all doing wonderful. First off, Shari and Orrin, congrats on buying a house! I forgot to write that last week, but I´m very excited for you. You´ll have to send pictures. :D And Lisa, congrats on getting a job in the NICU! Small world that Elder Shelman´s mom is the one who hired you. Fun.

Well, good news! We have two baptismal dates! Yay! Ester and Belen. They are Eduardo´s sisters. We actually met Belen first and she has gone to church one time. We just started teaching Ester like a week and a half ago, but she´s progressing really well. She is already in like 1 Nephi 19, and she´s totally understanding everything that she reads. It makes me very happy.

Also, last Sunday, we had a lesson with Ester and Mariahelem. We talked about the importance of praying to know if the things we are true. Specifically to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if this is the true church of Jesus Christ. So the next lesson, we asked what happened. They both said that they felt at peace, and that they should continue learning. :D Those are the best moments of the mission.

Last night we talked about Belen too, to ask if she had prayed. She also said she felt good about it, and Ester shared more about her experience. She said that after praying that night, she woke up more excited to work and do what she needed to do. She just felt really good! I´m so happy for them and that they´re praying to know for themselves if everything is true. We set baptismal dates for September 12th, and we´re going to talk tonight about what they need to know and do to prepare themselves, and to be 100% sure that they´re ready to make the commitment. Yay!

I talked a little bit about Mariana last week I believe. She turned 16 yesterday. Anyway, she lived with her aunt, Hna. Medina, about six or seven months ago, and started going to church. She is very invovled with the youth, in all of their activities. Even though she doesn´t live with her aunt anymore, she continues going to church. Oh, her uncle who lives in another ward, is the stake president here. Anyway, we had our first lesson with her this last week. We had it with the young women´s president in the church, Mariana, and Mariana´s little brother, Thomas. It went super well. We talked about the Restoration, and she basically already new all the answers. Oh, have I mentioned she doesn´t live in our area? So this is the tricky part. But anyway, yesterday in church, during fast and testimony meeting, she got up and bore her testimony that she knows that this is the true church, and that she knews that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Amazing. Then her aunt got up and bore her testimony after her, and said that she hopes the next time Mariana shares her testimony, that it´s after her baptism. Yay! So now it´s talking to her, making sure she´s positive, and setting a baptismal date.

We had already gotten permission from the Bishop, but last night we called Presidente Peterson to make sure it´s okay that we teach Mariana. He said it´s okay, so now we just need to make sure it´s okay with her parents, her aunt, etc... But anyway, yesterday was a good day in church. She brought her little brother to church as well. :D

So here´s an interesting story... a while back we did a contact with a lady, and she informed us that she´s a member of the church. But she has been in-active for a long time. Hna. Porter and I hadn´t gone, but the other night as we were planning, she came to the mind. So we decided to go visit her the next morning.

We got to her house, and she immediately invited us in, and informed us that Heavenly Father had sent us to her house, because she had been very upset that morning. They were having family problems. It was amazing, because that morning Hna. Porter and I had studied about marriage and family relationships because we were planning for Eduardo and Mariahelem, so we could share just what she needed to hear.

Only two of her kids are still at home, but they haven´t really learned about the church. We´re eager to go back and teach some more. That experience has strengthened my testimony of the importance of planning with the Spirit. I think the Spirit helped us in planning before the family problems had even begun. But Heavenly Father knew that she would need help the next morning. Amazing.

Another good story. The other day we were walking, and our appt. failed I believe. And a less-active memer came to mind. I couldn´t even remember her name, or exactly where she lives, but we decided to find the house. So we found the house basically without problems, and she immediately invited us in. She expressed to us how she was having doubts, about the church, Joseph Smith, etc... And we got there when she needed some help.

This experience as well just made me realize how Heavenly Father is really watching over us as His children, and He knows our needs. He often uses other people to help us. I so want to live worthy to be ¨an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

So I told you all about Marcos last week. We went to teach him this last week, with another ward member, because he lives alone. It was quite the experience. We tried to talk, but we didn´t do much talking! He has A LOT to say. He is very smart, and has a lot of good things to say, but he has a hard time believing in things that he can´t scientifically prove. We asked him if he believes in God. We asked if God knows everything. We asked if he, as a person knows everything. No! It made me think of the scripture, that to be learned is good, if we hearken unto the counsels of God. We need to be really careful not to trust in man´s wisdom or knowledge. We need to trust in God´s wisdom and knowledge.

We feel like Marcos has a lot of potential, but he needs to learn to FEEL. That´s where the conversion comes from. We need to teach him to feel, and he´ll be able to progress. We´ll see. :D

We had another interesting appointment with a man named Pepe. We also went with a lady from the ward, because he lives alone. He is also full of information, and reads a lot, but doesn´t really read the Bible as the word of God. More just like a book of information. I came about to the same conclusion as I did with Marcos. They need to read the scriptures, and trust in God´s wisdom and knowledge. Not man´s knowledge.

Well, I think I need to be going. I´m so grateful to be a missionary. Hna. Porter and I had a wonderful week. We had a week of miracles, and we have faith that we´ll continue seeing miracles. The church is true. Jesus is the Christ. Heavenly Father loves you. I love you!

Love always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Fotos! 08.03.2009

Alright, three of the pictures are of Cerro Campanario, and one is of zone conference. I hope you´ll be able to see the one of zone conference. It ended up pretty dark. But anyway, I hope you like them!


Love,
Hermana Jana Pincock

Hermanas Pincock and Porter