:D 10.26.2009 (Email)

Mi Familia,

Hola! ¿Cómo andan? Espero que todos estén bien. Estoy bien acá. :o) Thanks for your letters always. It´s good to hear about what´s happening there at home.

Well, where to start out with this week. Last Monday we went to see some waterfalls here in Bariloche. I brought my camara and everything to send pictures, but it turns out I can´t here. Maybe next week. Sorry!Anyway, it was very pretty and it was a very nice day.

Oh, this was a bummer... Hna. Porter realized last Monday that she didn´t know where her ¨wallet¨was with her credit cards (from home and from the mission). Nowhere to be found. She only had 150 pesos left in cash, that she had taken out before. She stuck her money in her pocket as we went to the waterfalls. When we got back from the waterfalls, her money that was once in her pocket was nowhere to be found either. :o( Poor girl. But I still have a little bit of money, so we should be able to get by for the week. :D

Yesterday as we walked into church, I was very surprised to walk in and see several blondes sitting there on the church benches! It turns out that this family lived here like 37 years ago. He came here for work, and ended up being branch president. One of the sons was born here, so he wanted to come and see what it´s like. So anyway, it was pretty fun to talk to them a little bit. They want to eat lunch with us today, so hopefully we´ll be able to contact eachother. They asked us for our phone number yesterday, and we kind of just laughed. We never give our number to people. We ask for theirs, and call them. Therefore, we didn´t know our number! We gave them what we think is our number, as well as our neighbors phone number, but we haven´t heard a thing from them. So we´ll see what happens.

But it was pretty fun. The parents live in Meridian, and their kids are all spread out. It was kind of funny, because I couldn´t decide how I should greet the ladies. The mom gave me her hand to shake, and that just seemed really weird. But we don´t give ¨besos¨to everyone there in the U.S., or hugs, so I didn´t know what to do with myself! A funny situation that made me giggle, and a little nervous about coming home. :D So if someone wants to write me, and remind me what´s normal to do at home, it would be great. jaja

Well, we were able to find 7 new investigators this week, so that´s nice. In our district meeting this last week, a brother from the stake, Hno. Tapia, who is actually one of the mission counselors, came. He talked to us about his mission, and during his short mission of 2 years, he baptized 562 people. 562!!! Can you really imagine. Anyway, we talked about a couple of things that we can do, to help people enter into the waters of baptism. He talked about the importance of finding and teaching married men. Very interesting. So this week we were able to find a couple of married men that we should be able to start teaching soon. :D

We had a great lesson with Ester this week. We took her to Hna. Guacolda´s house. I don´t know if you all remember her. She is like 80, and is so great. Her testimony is SO STRONG. She reminds me of Irene from Allen. :D Anyway, we took Ester to her house, and Hna. Guacolda shared with her her conversion story, and the importance of kneeling down to pray, to ask if the Book of Mormon is true. Only through receiving an answer, through the Holy Ghost, can we really know. I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson, and the Spirit was definitely there. It´s hard, because I really feel like Ester has a testimony. I feel like we need to give her a little space, and let her make her own decisions. I don´t want her to do anything because Hna. Porter and I want her to do it - whether it be go to church, read the Book of Mormon, or even be baptized - but because SHE FEELS the desire deep down in her heart. I don´t want to convince or obligate anyone into doing anything. It doesn´t work that way. So we´ll see what happens.

Angélica and her daughter Pamela went to church yesterday! Yay! It was a good step for them. We taught Angélica Saturday the parable of the sower, and the difference between the four seeds. She decided that she would like to be like the fourth seed, that grows up, has strong roots, and gives forth good fruit. She understood well, and started giving more ¨fruit¨yesterday when she went to church.

We have transfers in a week. :o( I can´t believe this transfer has passed by so quickly. We´ll see what happens. I´m guessing I´ll be able to write like normal, but if not, you´ll know why...

Oh, a normal zone conference. We have interviews with the president first thing in the morning. at 8:30 we start. For like 45 minutes we have a little activity, or time to practice, with the assistants to the president. Afterwards we all go into the chapel. First one of the assistants speaks, and then two missionaries have the opportunity to go up and speak for like 5 minutes, about an assigned talk. This is always a surprise. You find out when they say your name. Then Hna. Peterson talks for a little. She´s giving her talks in spanish, even though it´s super hard for her, and I really admire her for it. Then Pres. Peterson talks for a good while, until lunch. We all eat together. After lunch the zone leaders are in charge of teaching something, which we then practice. Then the assistants teach something else, which we then have to practice as well. Then we head back to the chapel. Oh, we usually have a musical number in the morning as well. Anyway, back in the chapel, we have a short testimony meeting. Then Pres. Peterson talks again for a litle bit, and we end with that. So it goes from like 8:30 in the morning, to 5 or 5:30. They´re always very good conferences.

Well, I think this will have to be it for today. Oh, Happy Halloween everybody! I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I love the Book of Mormon, as well as the Bible. I also love the book ¨Jesus the Christ¨. I have been reading it a lot lately, and I feel like I can learn so much about Jesus, and how I can become more like Him, through reading and studying this book. I am enjoying my time as a missionary, and I´ll try to improve even more as a representative of Jesus Christ. I love you!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Caballos, gatos, y viento. :D 10.19.2009 (Email)

Hola! How are you all doing? As Hna. Porter and I were talking about our week, and some of the things that have happened, we decided that a great title to our emails would be ¨horses, cats, and wind¨. To explain... I keep meaning to forget, that we randomly see horses walking around in neighborhoods about everyday. They normally have a rope tied around their necks, so I suppose it means they should be tied up somewhere. :D However, they just walk around and eat the grass. Funny if you ask me.

Another crazy thing... the other day as we were in our apt. we heard a sound that sounded like a baby crying to me. We quickly realized that it wasn´t a child, but a cat! There are these two cats that suddenly live right outside our apt. that make some interesting sounds. It´s pretty entertaining... but a little odd. Maybe they´re just hungry?

And, we have a LOT of wind here in Bariloche! The people told us to expect wind in the spring, and it´s here. It´s pretty nice though. Now days I just wear a blazer, and usually a scarf instead of wearing a coat. It´s pretty nice and I like not wearing a big bulky jacket.

Running a half marathon in March huh? It sounds kind of fun. :D Hna. Porter and I have gone running a couple of times. We have been slacking recently though for various reasons... lots of wind, Hna. Porter´s back bothering her, etc... but we should be running again in no time. And it´s getting light about 6:30 too, so that´s nice. We had a member yesterday ask us if we always run. How in the world did a member see us at 6:30 in the morning you ask? jaja Sounds fun to get in ¨running shape¨again.

So, missionary work continues to go well. Something interesting about this week... we talked to Nico and Jovita again, about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have spent a lot of time on this lesson, reminding them that there´s just one true, valid baptism in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. Anyway, we talked to Nico, who has been baptized in another religion, if he believes that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. He said that he thinks so. So he wants to prepare himself to be baptized. :D He is going to need to make a lot of changes, and we haven´t taught like any of the commandments, but we´re excited for him.

Yesterday we went to the house of Nelida, etc... and Nelida told us that they were going to move! So Friday night we called to talk to Eduardo, and he said they were moving the next day! So Saturday we stopped by, and they were packing up everything into a truck. So now Eduardo, Maríahelem, Nelida and Mario live in another area. They don´t really understand why we can´t go there to teach them, but such is life. It´s sad though. Maybe they need to be taught by other missionaries to help them progress.

Ester and Belen still live in our area though, so that´s nice. Saturday we decided that we wanted to do something to really help them feel the Spirit. So we picked four songs, and a couple of scriptures that we could read and explain in-between, and we sang. Three were from primary, and the other was ¨I stand all amazed¨. We told them to really try to feel the Spirit, and I think they did. Ester and Belen know it´s all true, but they´re really having a hard time acting. Hard.

Pablo continues to do well. This last week we had FHE with his whole family, and it went really well. We taught them the Plan of Salvation with little drawings we have and it was so good. When the kids had questions, Pablo was answering their questions. :D It made me very happy. He has progressed A LOT in his knowledge of the doctrine. Afterwards we taught them the ¨cup game¨and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Good times. Afterwards we ate pizza and empanadas with juice - a typical argetine meal. Delicious!

Pablo went to church yesterday. The lesson was on baptism, and Hna. Azocar, the teacher, asked him when he wants to be baptized. We had talked to him the other day about it as well. Anyway, he´s set on December - about the middle. We told him he needs to talk to Heavenly Father about it, and then pick a date. He´s doing great, and I have faith that Mónica will be able to be converted as well - in her time, and in Heavenly Father´s time.

Nope, we haven´t been able to teach Andrea, Catalina, and Mirta again. They weren´t there for the appt. Another day.

Oh, something interesting... a while back we were knocking doors, and found a lady. We were in the area the other day and decided to go and see if she was there. So we went, and another lady answered the door. We asked if Carmen was there, and she responded, ¨no es aquí¨ instead of ¨no ESTÁ aquí¨so we suddenly realized that this lady is not a native spanish speaker. It turns out that she´s from Ireland, and so we started talking to her in english. Number one, I realized once again that it´s very hard to switch from one language to another in a second, and that it´s hard to preach the Gospel in english! Third, it´s different to preach in my own language. She really had no interest in listening, and I remembered that rejection hurts more when I hear it in my own native language. So it was a good learning experience. Sad for her.

I read Chapter 21 in ¨Jesus the Christ¨today and thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend it.

Dad, typical travel time from one area to another? A LONG TIME! We just went to one neighborhood, Dina Haupi, once, and it was like 30 minutes in bus I believe. But not including that, I would say like one and a half hours. atleast. Maybe 2 hours. Around there. The church is like 15-20 minutes from our apt. Also, Pres. Peterson usually talks in english in interviews I believe, but in meetings and everything, always in spanish. Depends.

Mom, I´ll write about a zone conference next week. Once every transfer. Usually begin at 8:30 or 9, and end at like 5:30. But I´ll write more details next week. They´re fun.

Well, the church is true. I love learning, and I love being a missionary. Oh, several ward members left to the temple in Buenos Aires yesterday. I love temples, and know that they are really houses of the Lord. We should do everything possible in order to enter the temple, and we should go often. I am SO excited to go here in a couple of months. I love the temples. Thanks for everything. I love you!

Love always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Hna. Porter cut my hair last Monday. I love having short hair! Back to my hair like it was before. :D

Hola! 10.12.2009 (Email)

Mi Familia,

Hola! ¿Cómo andan? Espero que estén bien. Todo está bien acá.

Well, this week passed by really fast. I´m not sure why, but it just flew right by. Lets see, where to start...

We went bowling last Monday for preparation day. That was kind of fun. Bowling wasn´t available in Plottier or Allen, but that was actually the second time that I´ve been here in Bariloche. Good times.

Last Monday we had tried to go to a contacts house, but wasn´t there. As we passed by a house, that we had previously knocked at but not entered, we decided to clap and see if she was there. She came right out and invited us in. So we taught Andrea, her friend Marta, and her daughter Catalina. We had a good lesson. They were headed out of town, so we haven´t been able to teach them again yet, but it went well. I love teaching the Restoration.

Eduardo, Maríahelem, Nelida, and Mario are doing well. They hadn´t gone to church for THREE weeks, so Saturday we really chatted with them about their concerns, what was happening, etc... and it turned out not to be anything so serious. It was just that they are tired in the mornings, and it´s hard to get them all out of the door on time. So we then explained that they need to make a plan the night before - what time they´ll wake up, how they´ll get the little girls ready, etc... - and that they all need to help. So we made a plan together. Sunday morning when we got to church the Bishop informed us that they had already gotten there. :D Yay!

One dilemma I have had in the mission, is trying to decide whether or not investigators should take the sacrament before being baptized. It turns out that everyone has different opinions. So we´re working on it....

Pablo continues to do well. We are going to have FHE with the whole family tomorrow night. Oh, something interesting. There´s a member named Viviana here that has been very active in missionary work. It turns out that a while back she helped the sister missionaries when they were teaching Pablo´s kids. I told you two of his kids are members right? Anyway, we didn´t know that Viviana had helped with them. Anyway, we were visiting Viviana the other day and we mentioned Pablo and his amazing story. When she realized who it was, she was about in tears. When they had gone before, she said Pablo wanted nothing to do with the church. He really has had a change of heart. It´s true. Some missionaries plant the seed, and others harvest. I know that´s how it is, but sometimes it´s nice to harvest. :o)

Nico and Jovita are doing well. We´ve been teaching ¨The Gospel of Jesus Christ¨for a long time now. They always have lots of questions. For example, we spent an entire lesson the other day explaining that there is one true church, and that this one true church has God´s Priesthood Authority to act in His name and perform ordinances. The world does NOT teach that there is one true church of Jesus Christ. Good lesson though. A necessary lesson.

We had zone conference on Friday and it was so great. Hna. Hedquist and Hna. Kenney came to our apt. Thursday night and had a sleepover. It was very fun to see Hna. Hedquist again. She has progressed a lot in the last two and a half transfers. I´m proud of her.

Hna. Porter, Hna. Kenney and I sang ¨We´ll Bring the World His Truth¨while Hna. Hedquist played the piano in zone conference. It went well. I wasn´t so sure I wanted to sing in front of everyone, but Hna. Porter was pretty sure I should :D so I did it. It went just fine.

Funny things... I´m very much looking forward to a lavaropa (washer???) to wash my clothes after the mission. I was thinking about it in the morning. I usually just wash my garments by hand, but we have a semi-automatic washer in our apt. So they swish around, but then I have to take my clothes out, rinse them, and hang them up to dry. Then I drain the water out of the washer. Not so complicated really, but more complicated than the process back home!

The joke with Hna. Porter and I now days is that we don´t speak spanish or english really fluently. jaja I had my interview with Pres. Peterson the other day in english and I felt kind of funny. It´s great.

Oh, I keep meaning to say. The garbage man here. Our garbage cans are just little baskets out in the street. But they´re on top of a little pole so the dogs can´t get in the trash. So anyway, everyway the garbage man comes. But there is a garbage truck, and there are two men/boys that ride on back. They have to run to all the little baskets, grab the garbage sacks, and throw them in. At every house! So it´s quite the process, and I´m pretty sure I wouldn´t like to be a garbage man here. They are running the entire time they are at work!

Today in Argentina is ¨el día de la raza¨. I´m not so sure really what it means or what we´re celebrating, but a lot of people don´t have to work.

Well, I think that´s about it for today. I read in PMG this morning in Chapter 3 - lesson 1 ( The Restoration) specifically about the Restoration.Then I read a good part of Joseph Smith - History. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith, and what he did. He truly is one of my heroes. I know that he was a true prophet of God, called and chosen to bring back the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all. I love Heavenly Father, and I love my older brother, Jesus Christ.

Con Amor,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Hola! 10.05.2009 (Email)

Mi Familia,

Hola! ¿cómo están? Espero que estén bien. Todo bien acá. First off, thanks as always for the letters. A couple of responses...

I thought Hna. Porter and I might be together for three transfers because sometimes they do that when you ¨white wash¨ an area. And sure enough! We did count the stairs when we first got here. We were trying to remember the other day, and I think it´s like 230 or so. It doesn´t sound like much, but it sometimes feels like a lot as we´re going up them! We´re actually getting pretty used to the stairs now days. That´s nice. :D

Also, our picture of our apartment. Everything you can see in the picture is our apt. The tricky thing is, is that the back half is actually another apt. Does that make sense? I hope so. It´s a good little apt., and actually bigger than both my other ones.

Hallie, thanks for your little note. Very sweet.

So, I absolutely LOVED general conference! I told Hna. Porter that I think I was more excited for conference than I generally am for Christmas. So that means I was pretty excited! :D I really feel like I am ¨feasting¨on the word of God as I listen to conference. I have always loved conference, and being in the conference center, but I think I have even enjoyed it more than ever here in the mission.

I think I could write for a very long time about what I liked from conference, but just a few thoughts. It seemed to me that lots of people talked about love. They talked about love for Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and love for one another. I loved Elder Bednar´s talk that talked about how we should tell one another we love each other, and then show it! It´s especially important in family relationships. I loved Elder Uchtdorf´s talk about our love for our Heavenly Father, and how that love can grow. How we can strengthen it. Love should be the reason that we do everything. Our mission them is, ¨The Spirit is the key, Christ is the reason, Faith is the power, Obedience is the price, and LOVE is the motive.¨I like it.

I have really tried to focus on love in the mission, and especially during my time with Hna. Porter. She always talks about charity - the pure love of Christ. And she has a lot of love. I´m looking forward to having, and showing more love towards those that are around me. :o)

Lets see, what´s happening here in Bariloche Centro? We had a pretty good turn out in conference so that was great. Nico, Jovita, Andrea and Brian went. Angélica and two of her daughters - Pamela and Yamila - went as well. María Teresa and Thomás went. And Rosa. :D

Rosa´s story is a miracle. We found Rosa this week. We contacted her in the street like 2 months ago, and set an appt. When we went, she wasn´t there. We saw her later, set another appt, and she wasn´t there. So we thought, hum.... odd. Then the other day we went to the house of another contact, and the contact wasn´t there. But as we started walking, we saw Rosa walking towards us. We were super close to her house. We stopped to talk to her, and asked her to go to her house right then. And she said yes!

So we started to talk to her. She has really been struggling lately. She and her husband/parter (I don´t know if they were married) of 30 years have just recently separated. So she and her kids are really struggling. We taught part of The Plan of Salvation to her, and mostly just let her talk. We put another appt.

A couple of days later we had another appt. with her. A member, Melisa, went with us. She´s 21, and is our neighbor. It was her first experience going out with the missionaries, so she was a little nervous, but was great. Anyway, we had another appt. with her Sunday morning before conference (because it started at 1:00 here). Anyway, we invited her to conference, and she said she could go to the afternoon session. So long story short, Melisa was able to walk with her to conference, and back again to her house after. Yay! The importance of members.

I was sad that Pablo, and all their family didn´t go. Nelida, and all their family didn´t go either. :o( We´re worried about them.

Mom, you said that sometimes you feel like you don´t know how to be a missionary. I like what you or Dad said... ¨missionary work is about opening your mouth¨. We have had a lot of help from the members here, and it has made all the difference. We got a reference yesterday from a man who works at a gas station. He saw that a lady had a picture from our church in her car, so he asked her about it. He mentioned that the picture comes from our church, and offered to get her more. He did so, and mentioned the movie ¨The Living Christ¨and said that some friends of his (us) could go over to her house to watch it with her. Pretty simple, and now she has an idea of what we´re doing.

Pablo´s contact with the church all started with his family. As he was super sick, his relative gave him a priesthood blessing. Simple, but amazing.

Another ward member was getting her hair cut, and mentioned that she´s a member of the church. The lady cutting her hair said that she is also a member, but has been in-active for a long time. Her son isn´t a member. We have an appt. with her tonight.

It´s just simple things. Being willing to live the Gospel, and share our simple, but true beliefs. As we pray for opportunities, with a willingness to act as we receive promptings, we are guided to people who are ¨honestly seeking the truth¨ as someome said in conference.

Alright, now for random interesting things... I usually don´t read as we´re riding in buses, but I decided to the other day. I actually didn´t start as we were in the neighborhoods because it´s super bumpy. As we got on the main streets I started. But in a short amount of time, I was definitely ¨bus¨sick! I´m hoping this new found problem is just a problem with Argentine buses, and not with riding in normal cars. :D Luckily my bus sickness left quickly, and this was when we were ending the day. jaja

We went to another neighborhood in our area for the first time the other day. That was kind of fun. And funny. We were going to lunch, and really had no idea how we would find the house. We asked a nice lady in the street and she pointed us in the right direction. Mission adventures. You´ve got to love it.

Well, I think this is all for today. I love you all very much. Take care of yourselves, and read the scriptures and pray always. These are the things that keep our ¨spirtual hearts¨good and strong. I love you!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock