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