Hola! 09.14.2009 (Email)

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I think I should say who I get emails from so you know if they´re getting here or not. So, thanks Dad, Mom, AK, Shari, and Lisa. Very fun to hear from all of you.

Shari, I´m glad to hear that you made it out of surgery okay. Very good to hear, and I know it was an answer to all of our prayers. I love hearing about the daily life at home. Lots to do with work and other daily responsibilities. I was reading today about the Sabbath Day in Jesus the Christ, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It talks about how the Sabbath Day isn´t a blessing that afflicts or harms us in anyway. On the contrary! Heavenly Father commands us to rest, and to learn more about Him. What better thing can we ask for than a commandment to rest? As I thought about it, maybe the Sabbath day is one of my favorite commandments. :D

Anyway, the work here is going well. A couple of you mentioned transfers. Transfers are actually in a week. Hna. Porter and I hope that we´ll be together for another transfer, so we´ll see. If not, it´s because one of us needs to be in another place. But we´re going to really enjoy this week together just in case one of us leaves next week. :o)

Yesterday was another good day at church. Saturday at lunch the Bishop asked us to prepare talks ¨just in case¨. So we prepared in about 30 or 40 minutes Sunday morning. Anyway, we both ended up speaking. I spoke on enduring to the end, and Hna. Porter on the Word of Wisdom. It was her first long talk in church in Spanish so she was a little nervous, but she did great.

We had several investigators in church again this week! Yay! Mariana, Eduardo, Maríahelen, Nelida, Mario, Ester, Belen, and Nico. Very fun. I love Gospel Principles when we have lots of people in the class! And it was perfect because the lesson was on the Ancient Church of Jesus Christ, and the things that identify the true church of Jesus Christ. I´m so excited for the investigators and the progress they are making.

Mariana continues to do well. She is scheduled to be baptized on Sunday, right after church. We have always had baptisms on Saturday, but the Bishop wants to do it this way. So we´re going to try it out and see what happens. A while back Mariana asked her mom if she could be baptized, but as of yesterday, she still hadn´t told her mom she is going to be baptized, and when. She´s so nervous to talk to her mom! But she´s determined to do it this Sunday, so we´re just praying that her mom understands. Everything is a little more complicated because she doesn´t live in our area, but we have faith that everything is going to work out like it´s supposed to. It´ll all work out.

Ester and Belen are still scheduled for September 27th. Ester is good to go, but Belen is getting a little nervous. They´re nervous about the ¨enduring to the end¨part of the baptismal covenant. And they really want to be sure that they learn and understand what they´re doing. This is great, but I have decided that this is one of the hard things about being a missionary. Trying to find a balance between having prepared investigators, and waiting too long. I want them to be prepared, but they can´t understand everything. We have a whole eternity to keep learning! If they have testimonies that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, they just need to have faith and be baptized. Then the Holy Ghost will help them be strong with temptations, and they´ll be able to endure to the end.

Pablo is still doing well. He didn´t go to church yesterday and we don´t know why. We tried to call him last night but his phone was turned off. But they assured us that they´ll pick a wedding date this week. :D His ¨wife¨is doing well, but she´s VERY hesitant to accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God. We´re working on that. As for Pablo, he has a testimony.

Pablo made a comment the other day that I really liked. We were teaching the Word of Wisdom, and they accepted it without problem. Especially after all the health problems he has recently had. Anyway, he commented that he wonders, if we as missionaries who have grown up in the church, really recognize all the changes that investigators need to make. I agreed that I probably really don´t understand. But I can promise the blessings for obeying the commandments, because I have lived them throughout my life. It was good to think about.

Have I talked much about Nico? He is evangelist ??? (Evangélico) but hasn´t gone for a good while. Anyway, we have taught him and his girlfriend for a while now. Oh, they are the ones that went to the baptism with us a while back. He went to church yesterday and I think he enjoyed it. He told us the other day that he was worried about going to church because he´s afraid that the doctrine will be different. We assured him that there is different doctrine, but that he doesn´t need to be worried. If he has a question, he can ask Heavenly Father if it´s true. But he needs to read, study it out, and then pray. If he´s willing to do his part, Heavenly Father will do His. We´ll keep helping him.

We went to another neighborhood the other day for the first time. We were hesistant to go because it´s a ways away. But as we prayed, several times, we really felt like we needed to go. There´s a much longer story, but too long to recount right now. Another day. Shortly put, we had a good experience, found some good people, and we´ll see what happens with this neighborhood ( Dina Huapi) in the future. Maybe we´ll never know why we needed to go the other day.

It´s very weird to me that I still don´t feel like I know my area super well. I had Allen memorized in six weeks. Now after being here for 3 months I still have never even BEEN to several neighborhoods. There´s plenty of work to do here.

Oh, Dad, you asked if there are Elders in our ward as well. Nope, we´re the only ones.

Alright, I think that´s it. I´m so loving being in Bariloche. I love the ward, and the people. We are seeing so many miracles and blessings here. I´m so grateful for Jesus Christ, and I know that He is guiding the church, and the missionary work in the whole world. He is our Older Brother. He lived the perfect life.

And now, an invitation! Something we are doing with the members... I want to invite each and every one of you, to read again ¨The Living Christ¨. After reading it, make a photocopy of it. Then, write on the back your testimony of Jesus Christ, and give it to someone you know, who isn´t a member.

I really feel like this is important. The world needs to know that our religion is centered in Jesus Christ. They need to understand who He is. And your personal testimony of Jesus Christ, can make a different in the life of someone else.

So will you do it? I know it´ll be a blessing for you, and the person who receives your testimony. And I´ll do it too. :D I love you all. Choose the right!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock