We had a super fun and exciting week here in Junin. First off, we got bikes and we're the only missionaries in our entire mission that have them so we were pretty excited.
They ended up breaking the first day and we had to go to the bike shop like 3 times so we thought they were all good. The other day while riding to breakfast we passed over a little gutter and BOOM! my companions bike literally just snapped in half and he busted pretty bad... haha
The frame was so rusted out both of the bars just snapped so now the bike is in two pieces so that didn't last very long… hahaha!
We were also asked by a less active member, who is a teacher, to help him out with a competition he had in his school. We ended up being the judges of a huge contest when students would sing in English. I felt like I was on American Idol or something and all the kids looked at us like celebrities... haha An angry mom of the girl that lost came to us complaining after the competition so that was pretty funny. So, we got the full experience of being a judge! haha
We also had an awesome activity for halloween and carved pumpkins and had another contest.
We had to judge who cooked the best arroz chaufa. So we had a lot of fun doing that as well!
Franklin and Jubita have their wedding all planned and set for this Saturday so we're super excited for that! I really think they're some of my best converts in my whole mission, and their baptisms are going to be so awesome!
Jubita
Franklin
Messing with Basto
Nov. 10th, 2014
Well honestly this week was a pretty tough one... We had the wedding and baptisms for Franklin and Jubita all set up, the church bought a ton of food, and it was friday night while decorating for the reception, a problem came up and Jubita's mom started throwing a fit for no reason feeling like she didn't do anything to help out and not all of her family was there, and just caused a lot of problems and so we ended up having to postpone the wedding…
It was really sad because everybody was so excited and literally everything was planned out and ready and it all got ruined at the last minute. All we can do now is move forward and hope that they continue with their plans. Franklin and Jubita have made the decicion that they want to get married and baptized. The problem was just the parents.
Keep them in your prayers and someday it will all work out just fine!
Other than that, we were in La Merced for a couple days this week for a multizone conference and we went to another waterfall which was fun.
All is well here in Junin, and even with problems I'm happy to be here, and know theres nothing better I could possibly be doing. I love and miss you all like crazy have a good week!
Nov. 17th, 2014
This week flew by here in Junin, and this Wednesday are transfers... I'll most likely be leaving since I've been here for a while but who knows! They're going to call us tomorrow night so that should be pretty exciting! I'm going to miss Junin so much even though it's a super tough area, the people here are awesome, and we've made a lot of really good progress here in our little branch. It's sad that I might be leaving soon, but at the same time excited. Today should be a fun P Day and hopefully I'll get a lot of good pictures. Other than transfers this week, nothing too much exciting has happened. I love and miss you all tons have a good week!
Last Night in Junin
Right Before Leaving Junin City
Saying goodbye to Basto
Here are some pictures from my last P-Day
La Cruz
Christmas and Mosquito Bites
Jorge the Monkey
Exploring the Caves
My socks
Dec. 8th, 2014
We had a great week here in Ambo! The internet is slower here than in Junin so sorry I haven't been able to write as much or send as many pictures. We had a good successful week, even though there was no church yesterday because of elections. It's a law that you can't have any meetings on election day for some reason..
Something very interesting that I studied this week was Mosiah chapter 4, along with Elder Hollands talk from this past conference titled, " Are we not all beggars?" In the talk he talks about how we need to do wat we can to help the needy and the poor:
For one thing, we can, as King Benjamin taught, cease withholding our means because we see the poor as having brought their misery uponthemselves. Perhaps some have created their own difficulties, but don’t the rest of us do exactly the same thing? Isn’t that why thiscompassionate ruler asks, “Are we not all beggars? Don’t we all cry out for help and hope and answers to prayers? Don’t we all beg for forgiveness for mistakes we have made and troubles we have caused? Don’t we all implore that grace will compensate for our weaknesses, that mercy will triumph over justice at least in our case? Little wonder that King Benjamin says we obtain a remission of our sins by pleading to God, who compassionately responds, but we retain a remission of our sins by compassionately responding to the poorwho plead to us."
This talk and Mosiah 4 hit me pretty had. It's easy to think that the homeless, drunks, and beggars brought their own fate upon them, when really we do the exact same thing.
"So how might we “do what we can”?
I invite all of you to ask yourself the question, Are we not all beggars? and I know that we'll have a different perspective on a lot of things in life. It's not our job to judge the poor, but actually the help them lovingly just like Christ did. I also love how Elder Holland explains that Jesus himself was also technically homeless.
"From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus loved the impoverished and the disadvantaged in an extraordinary way. He was born into thehome of two of them and grew up among many more of them. We don’t know all the details of His temporal life, but He once said, “Foxes have holes, and … birds … have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. Apparently the Creator of heaven and earth “and all things that in them are was, at least in His adult life, homeless."
I love and miss you all tons, and hope we can all find ways to do a little better in our lives this week.
Dec. 15th, 2014
Well Christmas is coming up and I can't believe how close it is! We have our multizone conference tomorrow so we'll have a good time, but this year I'm not eating a single bite of Paneton, because that's what almost killed me last year and made me more sick than I've ever been in my whole life.
Hopefully I'll have a lot of good pictures to send home next week, but this week not too much has happened. Our ward is dropping in the church attendance big time and has a ton of problems. We're working more with less actives, and trying to bring back all the people that stopped coming to church. I love and miss you all tons have a good week!
Have a great week, miss you all!
Elder Pincock
