Happy New Years (Email) 01.05.2009

Hi! How are you all doing? I hope you´re all doing great. Well, things here are going well. AK, I just got my birthday package from you, Ryan, and Nyah. Thank you! Shari and Orrin, thanks for the tennis shoes! I got some Nike´s. I hope they are good. As far as spanish vocabulary with tennis shoes goes... it was a little bit of an adventure. :D Good times. I also got two short sleeve shirts so I think I´m good to go unless something out of the ordinary comes up.

Lisa, I just got a letter from you as well. Grac! :D

Aaron, I loved hearing about your invitation to church as a ward missionary haha. :D Good work! You make me giggle.

Paula Beltran, the girl in my ward who has decided to go on the mission, got her mission call on Saturday! She´s going to the Santiago West, Chile mission and leaves on April 23rd. I´m very excited for her.

I have been in Neuquen for the morning because Hna. Riquelme needed to do some paperwork. I´m now in the middle of Neuquen, and it makes me grateful for good old quiet Plottier! Speaking of different cities... who knows where I could be this next week on Preparation day. Pretty crazy.

Well, about the people. Clara had her baptismal interview on Saturday, and it went well, so she´s all ready to be baptized this Saturday. Yay! I really admire her because she goes to church by herself every week. I was trying to put myself in her shoes yesterday. She´s in a different country, with a different culture, and she goes to church by herself where she´s just learning to get to know the people. Pretty amazing. Her whole family needs the gospel so much. When I hear about her struggles it about breaks my heart for her. I hope that others will follow her example.

So we are still teaching John and Judith. We had a lesson with a ward member this last week and it went really well. They recognize that they need to get married. Their little girl Graciela is the cutest thing. She´s 4 I believe. One of my favorite things is that when we stopped by one day really quickly, she RAN out to us in the street saying ¨Hermanas!¨and threw her little arms around us.

Then one day as we were teaching she noticed that I have rings, and wanted to keep my CTR ring. I told her that I had a different ring for her. So the next day I gave her one of the HLJ rings that Lisa, Jordan, Aaron, and Hallie sent me for Christmas and she was so excited. She knows exactly what it stands for. You all were inspired when you sent the CTR rings. Thank you!

She has a hard time remembering my name or how to say it. The other day she was ¨writing¨and I asked her what she had written. She said, ¨What´s your name again?¨When I told her she said, this says ¨Pincock te quiero¨. ( Pincock I love you). She pretty much has me wrapped around her little finger. :o)

John and Judith weren´t able to go to church yesterday. They slept in. But we went over afterwards and talked about the importance of church attendance, and we just let them ask us a bunch of questions. We feel like it was a good thing that we could build a relationship of trust with them.

So on Friday we had FHE with Marí and Miguel and their family with the Valenzuela family ( the members who introduced them to us) and Andrea and Andres with their two kids. Hno. Valenzuela taught the Plan of Salvation, and it was so good! It was fun to be taught for a change. We made tacos and that was fun. It turns out that the majority of people here don´t know what tacos are or have never had them. Who would´ve thought? It turns out that we really do have food from all over the world in the US.

Anyway, I think that everyone really enjoyed the FHE. I think it was especially good for Andres, Marí and Miguel. Members are so important in missionary work!

Miguel and Marí had full intentions of going to church yesterday. Miguel had been working all night and he hurried home to help them all get ready for church. When we passed with the bus they still weren´t ready so they said they´d take their car. They never showed up. When we called last night to see what happened they said their car wouldn´t start. So sad. They really wanted to go! Marí said that they didn´t have the day yesterday that they had hoped for. :o(

In FHE on Friday Miguel talked about how since they had gone to church on Sunday that their whole week had gone so much better. They wanted to find a church that focused on the family, and everything in church focused on how to help the family. It really is amazing. Sometimes I forget how different my life is because I have the Gospel, and how much other people really need it - not just theoretically, but really! It changes everything.

Andres is doing well. Andrea wasn´t able to go to church yesterday, and Andres went by himself. That was a BIG step for him. I´m excited for him. We have noticed a lot of changes in him recently. He mentioned in the FHE that before he never would have thought that he would be in an FHE like that with people talking about Heavenly Father. But there he was! Miracles.

So I hope you´re all doing well. It sounds like you all had a good New Year celebration, and I´m very grateful that you´re all home safe. My New Years was a normal day. Kind of funny though, because there really was NO ONE in the streets. It turns out that they stay up pretty late here and pretty much stay inside the day after. The day worked out just fine though.

Well, tell everyone hi for me. Did you all set goals for this upcoming year? I´d love to hear your goals. The church is true and I love you all tons.

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Email (12.29.2008)

Hola everyone! How are you all doing? It was soooo good to talk to you all on Christmas day! Thanks so much everyone for making the effort to go home so I could talk to all of you. It was so good to hear your voices! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that you have a good New Years Eve/Day as well. I don't know if you have all already traveled home and everything, but if you haven't yet, drive safe!

Well, Christmas day for me was enjoyable. Oh, as I said, Wednesday was with the zone. All of it was very fun. A little bit about Christmas tradition here. They all get together as families and in some cases friends, and have a big dinner (usually barbecues I believe). Then at twelve o'clock on the dot people start setting off fireworks and then they open the presents. The fireworks thing was interesting. The president had given us permission to stay up until 12:30. But as of Plottier, it's not a community kind of thing - like the 4th of July at home. Just all the people set them off, but they're pretty big. Not huge, but big ones that go off high in the air. And just any person can set them off. Not sure how safe it is. . .:D but it was fun to see a bunch of fireworks going off from all direction - all different neighborhoods. And I opened presents Christmas Eve because we had time, and I wasn't so sure we'd have time the next day. I felt a little guilty because Hna. Riquelme's package still hasn't gotten here, but I think it was just fine. We ate the candy together. :D Thaks again for all of the gifts. And we're headed to Neuquen today so I should be able to buy tennis shoes. Yay!

Oh Mom, it was so good to hear you say "Yaaayyy!!!" It had been too long.

Then we just spent the day with members talking about the true meaning of Christmas. It has surprised me because some people here really and truly don't know why we celebrateChristmas, and know very little about JesusChrist. It makes me sad, but I'm glad we're here to teach them a little bit. :o)

My birthday yesterday was good. I opened up the package in the morning before we went on the bus to get the people for church. Very fun. Thank you. Hallie, the confetti on the card was very nice. Thank you.:D Hna. Riquelme had written me a card in the morning and that was nice. I was surprised that so many ward members remembered my birthday. Very impressive. And so nice! It was actually the birthday of someone else in the ward too so they wished us a happy b-day in sacrament meeting. :o) They sang me happy b-day in Relief Society, and the Martinez Family sang me happy b-day at lunch, and Elders Arana and Diaz called me last night and sang me happy b-day - in English! So it was a good day.

The best birthday presents .. . We met a family a while back when we went to eat lunch with some members. They live close by. Their names are Mari and Miguel and they have three kids - one on the way. We went and visited with them a little bit the other day (while they were killing and plucking feathers off their chickens so that was interesting) haha - and talked a little bit. Not too much since they were doing other things. Then stopped by again the other day to invite them to church and we taught part of the restoration. Anyway, they went to church yuesterday!!! Mari knows more about the church because she has gone several times because her cousin is a member. Anyway, I hope they all enjoyed it and that they'll continue learning and progressing.

Then, last night we had walked clear across town because we had three different appointments. The first one we just stopped by for a minute because her kids were there, and she was doing things with her family. Then we went to another appt. and she wasn't there. Then we went to see Clara (who has a baptismal date for the 10th) aqnd she wasn't there either! Ah! So we weren't sure what to do, but decided to go talk to someone else nearby - a friend of Julia and Clara. And he and his wife weren't there either. But then we saw that their neighbors were outside, so we introduced ourselves to them. We then realized that we had met Judith before, a quick contact. I believe we had tried to go back, but couldn't find her house because the addresses in this neighborhood are a little crazy. Anyway, she said she had wondered why we hadn't come back. They had seen us walk by several times but they were too embarrassed to say anything. :( So we asked if we could teach them right then! So we taught the restoration to Jon and Judith, and it was SO GOOD. Jon is 22 and Judith 20, and they have two little kids. They are from Bolivia and have been here for 5 years. Wow. Anyway, they had such good questions, and were so receptive and believing. They already have prayer together every morning and night! That's so uncommon! So long story short, they said they're willing to start learning and investigating so they can work to prepare themselves for a baptism February 2! They have some changes to make, such as getting married, but I really think they have A LOT of potential and desires.

Hna. Riquelme and I both felt so good as we were there. Last night was so typical for a missionary. You have several people who don't want to listen, have appointments fall through... like Heavenly Father is testing your faith. Then He leads you to someone who wants to listen. Amazing.

I bought a little Book of Mormon book for kids with pictures and everything that teaches the stories really simply. It was in hopes that I can learn to teach some of the things more simply, and even just learn all the stories better in general. Anyway, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Reading the stories in such simple terms gives me a different view point. The Gospel really is simple!

Scriptures for the day I love: 1 Ne. 17:50, Helaman 10:4-5, DyC 84:80-85, and DyC 112:10. Good ones.

Alright, time to go. I love you all very much. Thanks so much for everything. The talk, the gifts, the support... everything! Yesterday in Gospel Principles we taught that Families Can Be Forever. It's the truth!

Con Mucho Amor,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Feliz Navidad! Just in Case...

Family,

Hola! How are you all doing? Okay, first for the phone call business. We´re going to the church and we´re going to use the phone there. The number to the church is 493 4833. The number for Plottier is (0)299. (Hna. Riquelme said she does´t know whether or not you need the 0 when calling). And if understood correctly, the number for argentina is 54. So, I believe the whole number is 54-0299-493-4833. Hna. Riquelme said that the internet has information if you have questions. Also, I´ll be at the church at 1:00 Argentina time, 9:00 am Idaho time, anxiously awaiting your phone call. I hope that it works okay for everyone! Oh also, when you found out the time difference, did you take into account that not all of Argentina changed time when we had the time change? For example, Buenos Aires and the other places more north changed the time, but Neuquén chose not to. Bueno, so I´ll be at the church at 1:00 pm according to Argentina (Neuquén) time.

Alright, now for everything else! I hope that you´re all doing wonderful! Merry Christmas! I can´t believe that it´s December 22nd. It really doesn´t seem like it to me. December has gone by so fast. Yesterday we were at Rita Riquelme´s house and she asked me what I wanted for Sunday. I thought... why? What´s Sunday? It took me a minute and then it occurred to me that it´s my birthday on Sunday! Funny.

The baptism went great. Enzo was baptized by Fernando Acuña, Kevin was baptized by Julio Beltran, and Bruno was baptized by Lautaro Acuña. And there was also a member baptized. Lautaro Rojas was baptized by his dad, Hno. Rojas, who is a member of the bishopric. It all went very well. Alicia Higuera gave the opening prayer. Andrea Beroiza gave the talk on baptism, and Gabriela Jara gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. They all did so well! We had someone else planned for the talk on the Holy Ghost, but then he couldn´t give it. So we asked Gabriela in the spur of the moment (15-30 minutes before) and she hurried and prepared. We handed her a pamphlet that talks about the Holy Ghost, the index in the Book of Mormon, some paper and a pen, and she just got right on it. Three very recent converts, and they all did wonderful! They were all very nervous, but did great. We knew they could do it. :D

While they were all changing in between we sang Christmas songs. Mom, I always think of you when we sing Christmas songs at church. I really don´t feel comfortable at all playing Christmas songs because I have played them very little, especially when people are singing, but I have done my best for the cause. :D It just doesn´t seem right to not sing Christmas songs.

It turns out that today really isn´t our preparation day because all day Wednesday we are going to have a missionary activity for Christmas. We are just doing internet and buying groceries today because everything will be closed on Wednesday. Thursday (Christmas) will be a normal day with the exception of talking to you all!

Clara´s baptism has been moved back to January 10th. We don´t feel like she´s quite ready yet. She´s super shy so we weren´t sure how much she was understanding, but she´s doing wonderful now. We were teaching the 10 commandments to her yesterday, as well as others who are there now and then, and she did great. She´s talking much more now!

Something else interesting... we stopped by to see Andrea Saturday to see how she was feeling about her talk, and Andres ended up coming over to talk to us. We had kind of ended with the thought that he´s not going to be baptized because he can´t be baptized in a river now. But he came over, and he said that he wants to be baptized in the church now - even though he doesn´t agree with it - but salvation is on the line. That was a surprise! So we talked about the baptism requirements and what he really needs to do, and he decided to set a baptismal date for January 17th. He went to church yesterday, so that was a good step. He really needs to read the Book of Mormon and pray every day.

We also set a baptismal date with a lady named Cecilia the other day. She said she has been looking for the church of Jesus Christ, and we invited her to pray and to set a baptismal date. We set a date, but it will need to be changed now because she didn´t go to church yesterday. We tried to go to her house yesterday to find out why she didn´t go, but she wasn´t there. We have an appointment tonight so we can figure out what to do.

Something funny... we didn´t have water for like two days in our apartment. Good times. I was very happy to wake up and have water this morning. It makes washing my hair much much easier. :D

The missionary work is going well. It´s interesting, because I can tell that I´m changing in a couple of ways. In the beginning I was hestitant to say things, not knowing if people would be offended... but I have come a long ways in this way I think. Yesterday we were teaching someone who has decided not to go to church anymore. As Jana, I wanted to be quiet, and say that it was her decision, and that church is hard, etc... but then I told her, that as a representative of Jesus Christ, we had the responsibility to teach her the responsibility that she has as a mother to teach her children the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had to teach her the consequences that her decision may have. I am coming to learn that me being timid is not going to help anyone. They need to know the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - declared boldy and nobly- whether it´s hard to be heard or not. Ammon and Moroni declared the Gospel of Jesus Christ without hesitation. I want to do the same. I recognize that different people need to be taught in different manners. I´m working on having the courage to be bold when it is needed.

Well, I need to go. I love you all so much. Thanks so much for your examples and love. I imagine that several of you will be traveling this week. Be safe! Drive slow, especially if there´s snow. I´ll be praying for you all.Talk to you in two/three days!

Love Forever,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Hola! 12.15.2008 (Email)

Family,

Hola! How are you all doing? I hope that you´re all doing great. First off, yes Dad, I do have my old debit card. It´s just sitting in my apartment. From what it sounds like, I should get my new card next week, because we get our mail every Monday/Tuesday. I almost want to say that you should go ahead and activate it, but yet I don´t know if that would be very smart. Maybe next week I´ll just be able to tell you in the email. I don´t know. This whole long distance communication thing is a little complicated.

About the Christmas phone call. What time is it there compared to here? It´s a little tricky here because some parts of Argentina changed the time, but Neuquen (the province) didn´t, so our time stayed the same. But you changed in Idaho already right? So right now it´s 1:05 here. But anyway, we still don´t know when we are going to call. We need to talk to the Bishop to see if we can use the church phone, or what. We can´t use member´s phones. And if we need to find somewhere else, we need to find out when they´ll be open, etc... But Lisa, I´ll be sure to make sure it's before 6:30 before you go to work. If it´s 6:30 there is it 9:30 here? I just can´t remember. Let me know in the next email the time difference, and we´ll work to let you know what time we´ll call. In the next email! Sorry it´s getting so close to Christmas and I still don´t have many answers. But the mission president did just write to us telling us again that it can´t be longer than 40 minutes. :D

Alright, now for the regular things. How are you all doing? Things here are going well. It was a good and busy week this week. We´re still struggling a little bit trying to find time with the buses and everything to teach everyone that we need and want to. A little tricky. But ít´s okay. It´ll work out in some way or another.

Things are still going well with the Vasquez family. They´re going to have their interviews tomorrow I believe. I think they´re all good to go. I am thoroughly enjoying teaching them. Four boys. What a crack up. I´m used to a houseful of girls! Bueno, and boys too now that we´re older, but it´s a little different when my dad, brother and brothers-in-law are big boys. :D Very fun. Enzo is so excited to get the Priesthood and everything. He wants to go to the temple so bad. I believe that the ward (or stake???) are going here pretty soon, but they have to save money for quite some time to go I believe. I don´t know if he´ll be able to go. It makes me feel so guilty to think of how close temples are to all of us at home. It´s so much easier to go frequently. What a blessing! We just need to take advantage of it.

So we´re still teaching Clara, Julia, Velintin, and others of their family and friends. Clara is planning on being baptized the 27th, but I believe she´ll be the only one for now. I believe the Elders in Plottier have a baptism or two on the 27th so they can be baptized together. It should be really good.

We had another choir thing yesterday. There were different religions-choirs there this week, other than just the choirs from the stake. I think it went really well. We sang as a ward the same songs as last week. I didn´t realize I was playing the piano again until I got to the church. Surprise! It all worked out fine though. It´s amazing the extra help I get as a missionary. :o)

Also, at the very end, the six of us missionaries in our district sang Silent night. We sang the first two verses, then Elder Arana (not Araña :D) read verses about Christ´s birth while Elder Boudreaux kept playing the piano, and then everyone sang the third verse. It was pretty. I think it touched some people. Sometimes I forget that I´m really a missionary. I still see the Elders, or pictures of other missionaries, and I think ¨Oh! The missionaries! I love the missionaries!¨. Sometimes I wonder if the younger kids in the ward see Hna. Riquelme and I the way that I saw the missionaries when I was younger - and still do. Anyway, that´s what I was thinking yesterday as the six of us were up front singing in front of everyone. I hope I´m living up to the title.

I heard that Elder Wirthlin passed away. I wasn´t sure if it was a rumor or what, but our Stake President told us yesterday during lunch. He was so amazing. I loved reading his talks.
Something interesting. I was reading the talk the other day by Elder Dallin H. Oaks ¨Good, Better, Best¨. I had read it in the morning, and decided to carry it in my scriptures. Didn´t know why, but just decided to. So later that day we were teaching a lady, Lilian, who we had talked to several times. We had passed by her house, but we had never been able to go in and actually teach. So we hadn´t planned on visiting her, but as we were passing her house, we decided to drop by. We were surprised when she said ¨pasen!¨. So we were actually able to teach! It was interesting because several of the questions she had were addressed in Elder Oaks´talk about finding balance with the family and work and everything. Very interesting. We left the talk for her to read. I hope she read it and that it helped. I love when things like that happen. Just little miracles.

I was reading the other day, and I think it was in ¨Our Search for Happiness¨ by Elder M. Russell Ballard. I liked the quote, ¨Your life must be the expression of your faith¨. I thought that was so good.

So Andres isn´t progressing for now. It about breaks my heart. I don´t really know what else to do to help him gain a testimony. The Book of Mormon is so key.

Hermana Riquelme taught someone the other day that we need to do three key things to increase our faith. We need to say our prayers, read the scriptures every day, and go to church every Sunday. Three fairly simple things, but very important. I hope you´re all doing these things, because we all need faith in Jesus Christ in order to overcome the trials that we have, but we can´t have faith in Jesus Christ if we don´t know Him.

Hermana Riquelme is amazed by how much I love Christmas! I thought to myself that if she thinks I´m crazy about Christmas, it´s just because she hasn´t met Lisa! haha. I really do love the Christmas season though. It´s the best.

The church is true. I love you all so much. Thanks for your love and support here in the mission. Thank you thank you! Keep up the hard work, but don´t work too hard! Enjoy the Christmas season!

Love always,

Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Hola! :0) 12.08.2008 (Email)

My Amazing Family,

Hola! ¿Cómo están? ¿Todo bien? I hope that you´re all doing great. Things here are going well. Sorry I´m writing this a little later than usual. We did the other things of preparation day first this time. We just ate lunch with the elders in the district in the plaza. It was good. It´s funny because we were like the only ones in the plaza. People in Argentina (in the city anyway) really
do sleep the Siesta from what I can see. :o)

Well, it was a good week! Did some of you end up going to the Christmas devotional in Salt Lake? If so, how was it? Oh how I love Christmas music. Last night our stake had a choir concert of Christmas music. Our ward sang ¨La Primera Navidad¨I can´t remember the title in English. But it´s in the hymn book. And we sang an Argentine Folklore song. It was very fun. It was fun to listen to different Christmas music as well. However, a couple sang ¨I´m dreaming of a white Christmas¨and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It´s funny how you sometimes don´t recognize how much you love things until you go for a while without it. Christmas music in English for the month before Christmas definitely doesn´t exist here. haha Very enjoyable last night. I played the piano for ¨La Primera Navidad¨ and it went pretty well. I was nervous before hand but it worked out just fine.

Dad, in response to your question, it is interesting to think that Christmas is only a couple of weeks away when it´s so warm outside. My mind and body tells me we´re in July. Not December! It´s great though. I have been talking to Hna. Riquelme and the members about Christmas in South America and Argentina specifically, and it´s very different from what I can tell. For example, they open all the gifts on Christmas Eve - at midnight on the dot. Interesting huh? I´ll write more details later.

Mom, Hna. Riquelme did open the package and got out the Christmas tree. It´s just like the one at home! Thank you thank you! We´re enjoying adding an ornament every night. I think we´re one behind though... :D

I got the soccer pictures you sent! Thanks! I´ve showed them to a few different people and they think it´s great. They´re all surprised. And they´re all impressed with the fields.

How interesting to read the article about the LA Temple. Wow. It´s amazing how the work will go forward no matter what the world tries to do. Also, an Elder just told me that Elder Wirthlin passed away. What an amazing person.

This week in our lunch appointments, etc... we were trying to teach the people about the 5 things important for a testimony, and then inviting them to share their testimonies yesterday in testimony meeting.
1- That God is our Heavenly Father and loves us
2- Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world
3- Joseph Smith was called by God to be a Prophet and that he translated the Book of Mormon
4- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Church of Jesus Christ today. It is guided and directed by Him.
5- Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet today.

We had an amazing sacrament meeting. I really enjoyed it. The spirit was very strong. It´s amazing what happens when people really testify of these five things.

So yesterday when we were in the bus ¨cole¨getting the people before church it occurred to me that we had several countries on the bus! Hna Riquelme- Chile. Me - U.S. Several from Argentina, and several from Bolivia. I don´t remember how much I have said about Julia and Clara. That went to church that first Sunday without us even teaching them first? They always invite others they live by to go to church. And it seems like every time we go to teach there´s someone new - a neighbor, co-worker, or friend. Anyway, a couple of them went to church yesterday. Anyway, it´s amazing to me. Maybe we look different, speak different languages, have different accents and different cultures, but we´re all children of God, and we all need the exact same message. A message of hope and love. A message about Jesus Christ - that He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

So we´re still teaching Familia Vasquez. Franco (14) hasn´t gone to church yet, but Enzo (12), Kevin (9) and Bruno (8) are doing wonderful and have gone to church the last three weeks. Yay! They´re still scheduled for December 20th. We just need to get everything taught! We really want to teach her two older sons as well. There are actually seven in total but the oldest already lives in Chile. Anyway, that´s alot of Priesthood! The ward is going to have an activity tonight by the river and have a barbecue, play soccer etc... and we´re really hoping that their whole family goes. It would be great.

Dad, I think investigators need to go to church 4 times before being baptized. Preferably (sp???) in a row.

Lets see, what else is happening... we´re struggling a little bit with retention. There aren´t enough hours in the day! We want to visit everyone 1-3 times every week, but we´re finding that it´s pretty tricky. We´re trying to use our time wisely. It makes me so sad when peole are baptized but then don´t continue going to church.

So I´ve been reading about the birth of Jesus Christ this last week. And sometimes we listen to Christmas music in the morning too. Lisa, I think of you :D. Anyway, it has been really enjoyable. I love the story in the Bible and Book of Mormon, and I have been reading a little in ¨Jesus the Christ¨ as well. It´s so amazing to me. I read this morning that if in that time, the people really
had a king of the Jews (a descendant of King David) Joseph would be the crowned king. And then of course, the heir of the throne would be Jesus Christ. I don´t know if that made sense. It´s the end of the chapter that talks about the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ by the angel Gabriel. Very interesting.

Dad, about FHE. We have only had one so far in a members home, and I think there were like 15 or so people. Most young men/ young women / young single adults. But a few adults as well.
Hopefully that will continue to go well.

We had 76 people at sacrament meeting yesterday. Yay!
Raimundo Beltan left on the mission to Buenos Aires this week so we no longer have a ward mission leader. :o( Hopefully someone else will be called before too long.

Jordan, I got your email from you and Lisa. Gracias! AK, I got the letter from you, Ryan, and Nyah as well. Thanks for the pictures of Nyah! Very cute. I hope that you find a good replacement for Jamee if you haven´t already.

I hope the rest of you are all doing wonderful. Time really goes by so quickly here. I hope you´re all enjoying the Christmas season. Listen to lots of music for me and sing lots of songs. And most importantly, remember the true meaning of Christmas! I love you all very much!

Love Always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock :D

A scripture I love: John 8:12.

Seis semanas más en Plottier!‏ (Email) and foto 12.01.2008

Family,

Hola! How are you? I hope you´re all doing great. I´m afraid this is going to be a little shorter than usual because it took quite a while for the one picture to load up. Hopefully you got it okay. :D

So, how was Thanksgiving? I hope it was wonderful.

Lisa, in answer to your question, I just got your letter through dear elder today that you sent on November 16. AK, I got yours today that you sent on November 12. So there you have it!

AK, congrats on your promotion! You definitely deserve it. Nope, I´ve never read the Hobbit. Maybe one day. It is a classic! Also, I got your package! I have a confession... I wasn´t sure if it was for Christmas, and opened it, but then the first thing I picked up said ¨Feliz Navidad¨so I hurried and closed it! It´s waiting for Christmas now. :D Sorry!

Also, there is no debit card to be found. So could you send another one? I did get the soccer pictures you sent though! Gracias!

So, transfers are today, and I´m staying in Plottier for six more weeks! I´m excited that I´ll get to spend Christmas here. It will be good. I can´t believe that I´ll be in my first area for 6 months! I´m great with it though.

So, actual Thanksgiving was good! It was actually really funny because we ALWAYS have lunch with members, but we didn´t end up having lunch on Thursday so we ate in the apartment. I wasn´t really hungry so I decided to eat a banana and yogurt for lunch. I decided it was really ironic that that was what I was eating for ¨Thanksgiving¨ so I decided to take a picture. hahaha. Good times.

However, Friday we had district meeting, and since 4 of the 6 of us are from the US, we celebrated Thanksgiving! It turns out that Turkey is really expensive here so we had Chicken instead. But we had mashed potatoes and GRAVY! it was so good. It had been way to long since I had eaten gravy, and the first time that Hermana Riquelme or Elder Arana had eaten it. Very good. :o)

So, the baptism was wonderful! Alicia and Hector were both baptized on Saturday. Dad, in response to your question, the bishop has actually asked that we always have priests from the ward baptize. Julio Beltran (17 yrs old) baptized Yennifer, and this week Fernando and Lautero (17 and 16 yrs old) Acuña baptized Hector and Alicia. It was the first time that Fernando and Lautero had baptized, and I think they both had a good experience.

Our building isn´t the stake building, but that´s where the baptisms are. Nice and close. The building the investigators are used to.

Hector was an ¨investigator¨missionary, and now is a member missionary! He really let his kids know that he wanted them at his baptism! His daughter, daughter-in-law, and 3 of his granddaughters were all there. It was great.

Alicia is doing really well. She is completely involved in the ward and the activities. Her daughter is a member of the other ward in our building so she is very excited that her mom was just baptized. It was neat to see.

How great that Marcia and Eldon are going on a mission to Oregon - and that they speak his language and eat his food! That´s great.

Lisa, I laughed at your story of Hallie and church. I´m going to try to give Andrea all the advice that you all sent. I just need to figure out how to say it all in Spanish!

One thing that´s funny is that every once in a while people ask me to talk to them in English. It´s great. I remember asking Michaela Stegeby to say things in Swedish, and now I have to try to think of something to say in English! It´s funny to be on the other end of it for a while.

Oh, I don´t know Becky´s email address for sure right now. I think I have it in my apartment... It could be beck-12@hotmail.com but I´m not sure.

Scriptures I really enjoyed this week were in Alma 37, Alma 39:10. And also Proverbs 16:20.

Also, we had light and water on and off this week. I don´t really understand why.... but that´s how it was. Anyway, one night we were planning for the next day and the lights went out! So we lighted some candles, planned, and then didn´t really know what to do with ourselves for the next little while before 10:30!! Anyway, this morning I read John 8:12 and it made me think.

I´m not sure when you´ll all get Christmas because of my debit card situation. Hum... sorry!

So, I love you all. Thanks so much for your love and suppport. I´ll write again next week! Oh also, good news! I got some stamps! Hopefully in 2-3 weeks you´ll get some mail again. :)

I Love you!
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock

Well, heres one picture. It should be of the baptism this last week. It took forever to load, so Im going to just send one. I think I'll print hard copies somewhere and send those. It stresses me out to wait for them to load here! Okay. Love you all!