Jan 27 update

Jan 27, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Well this past week has rained everyday and has been pretty cold.. but everything is going great here! I got a little sick again for about 3 days but now I'm fine so don't worry! Some lady gave us a roll with cheese and I think that's what did it.  

Elder Lopez and I have gotten even closer and I'm so glad he's my companion! He's such an awesome example but he's also really funny. 

Here is a picture of our apartment. My bed is on the left.

This week we were teaching in Villasol and ended up teaching 9 kids at the same time! I wish I had a picture because it was such a cool experience. We taught them on a little hill and we sat on top and they were all circled around us at the bottom of the hill. It was a sight to see. They were kinda crazy at times and actually ended up breaking the brand new umbrella of Elder Lopez. It was so funny!   

Notice what's missing? Yeap, for some reason a lot of toilets in Peru do not have a toilet seat! 

The English class I taught this past week was awesome and more and more people show up every week! 

I'm a little nervous because this week is transfers and I don't really want to leave my area nor my companion. I'm happy how things are right now. I guess we'll find out about the transfers either tonight or tomorrow night and hopefull they don't send me to ¨Cerro de Pasco which has the highest stake center in the world and snows everyday and its freezing!! But wherever I go I know that's where I'm supposed to be and that's what really matters. 

Here is the famous shower.  They fixed it, but now it only does warm water.  Oh well, at least its better than freezing cold.

A scripture I wanted to share with everybody is in 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it."

I love this verse because even when it seems impossible to overcome trials, temptation, or challenges, we have The Lord's promise that he won't try us more than we can bear. 

I love and miss all of you and hope to hear back soon!

Love, Elder Pincock

My new video collection! I got them all for $20

Jan 13 and Jan 20th Update: Huagapo!

January 13, 2014

Hola Amigos,

This week has been very interesting and I have learned so much because so much has happened! First off, we had emergency transfers and Elder Zapata left to Huanuco Central and my new companion is Elder Lopez from Honduras, He's awesome! He has 7 months in the mission and 52 baptisms which is more than Elder Zapata who has 16 months in the mission field. 

Elder Lopez has been in the same area in Huanuco his whole mission because his bishop called president Henderson and told him he didn't want him to leave because he's so great. The normal transfers aren't for another two weeks and since we had emergency transfers there's a few options that could happend for me. 

One, is that I might leave Marcavalle so Elder Lopez can train a new missionary. Two, is that we could get two new missionaries here in Marcavalle and I could go open a new area and also train a new missionary which would be the most responsability and definitely the hardest, but I'm willing to take on the challenge. Third, is that we'll get Sister missionaries in Marcavalle and I'll stay with Elder Lopez and maybe also open a new area. So, here pretty soon will be pretty interesting. 

Right now I'm in Tarma for our P-Day with our Zone and we're going to Huagapo. We didn't end up going last week.  

President Henderson came to our Sacrament Meeting yesterday because he had some special interviews with people and also to set apart one of the members named Ricky who leaves for his mission to Bolivia La Paz tomorrow.

I was a little nervous that President Henderson came to our church because my companion and I had to give talks... I actually feel like I did a good job and we were lucky to have a super filled chapel yesterday. 

We also helped President Henderson with a blessing for a lady who is really sick and he chose me to do the anointing and I was a little nervous but luckily didn't mess up. 

I also gave my first blessing of comfort and counsel in Spanish yesterday because there was a farewell for Ricky. I baptized his girlfriend, Jennifer, a little over a month ago. She was super upset and crying so I gave her a blessing and then afterwards she was fine! 

Also, I gave a blessing to another member named Laury who is 11 and has such an awesome testimony. She is the cousin of Kenyi who we baptized last week. We're baptizing Kenyi's mom this week on Friday and her name is Irma Enrique and she told me that she wants me to do her baptism so I'm excited about that. 

I've learned and progressed so much this week because Elder Lopez doesn't know the area or the members so he's been letting me make all the calls and give the "informas"  over the phone to the leaders. I'm really making most of the decisions and leading a lot more that I had been which was helped me so much. He's very patient and very calm and takes time to help me understand and explain everything which is awesome. 

I got a couple letters today 2 from Grandma, 1 from Emily Westerman, and one from Peggy McCarty who caters for David. Pass on the love and appreciation to all of them for me. Also, I challenge you guys to read Ephesians chapters 4 and 5.

Love, Elder Pincock

Jan 20th, 2014

Hello everyone,

This week has been awesome spiritually and a little challenging physically... The worst thing that happened is that our shower heater broke and without heating its not like cold water in the States, its like freezing cold ice water. Showering like that was the coldest I had ever been and I got a brain freeze just from the shower... When I got out of the shower my breath was visible and the condensation was insane.. So I couldn't bring myself to shower in cold water again. Needless to say, I havent showered in 4 days. Awesome right??? haha!! We used  my District leader's shower today, which was nice, but I still hope we get our shower fixed soon… 

Also my umbrella broke which kinda sucked.. Its still usable but the handle is broken. Also when we traveled to Tarma for our Zone P Day in Huagapo we somehow fit 9 in a taxi that seats 5 which is a new personal record for me... It was the most uncomfortable ride of my life! But nobody died so its all good… 

After Huagapo we got to watch a movie! Presidente Henderson approved some Disney and Pixar movies that we can watch as a zone and we watched Brave or Valiente in Spanish. It was kinda weird watching it in Spanish but still really awesome to watch a movie. 

We had our interviews with President Henderson this week in Tarma and it went great. He's such an awesome mission president and I'm glad he's here in Peru with us. 

We had the baptism for Irma this week and it went great! She's super happy and her family is awesome. We baptized her son Kenyi two weeks ago and he has plans to serve a mission and comes to a lot of appointments with us which is awesome. 

A scripture I was studying this week is Mosiah 3:19.  It talks about how the natural man is an enemy to God and I thought that was really interesting becasue a lot of people justify their actions by saying its normal or natural, which is true, but not a sufficient excuse because we should try to be a little bit better than that and put away the natural tendencies to do something wrong. 

I love all of you and miss you all like crazy!

Elder Pincock

Here are some animal pics I took at Huagapo!

Jan 6th, 2014: Feliz Año Nuevo!

Jan 6th, 2014

Hola amigos, Feliz Año Nuevo!

I can't believe it's already 2014 even though we didn't do anything different except talk with a few drunks on the street.

We're in Junin right now for P-day and after this we're going to a place that is really pretty called Huagapo. They say it looks like it's from Lord of the Rings so I'm pretty excited about that. 

Random Picture from the Internet of Huagapo Entrance

I started teaching English classes this week and it's so much fun! Every Friday night at 7 we have our class and people here love trying to learn English so it's so much fun teaching them. I taught them how to share their testimony in English at the end.  It was pretty entertaining to listen to all of them!   

Something interesting that happened this week:   
We started teaching this lady and in the second visit she told us that she had a crazy dream that her and her husband were in jail for 3 years and two young men visted her and told her she wouldn't suffer anymore and they rescued her.  So she took that to be an answer from God that we were there to help her…ha ha!

We had two baptisms this week Marjorie Zavala and Kenyi Chavez who are both 21. I baptized Marjorie, and confirmed Kenyi. The baptismal candidate always chooses who they want to do their baptism in the interview and Marjorie was really the first one who actually chose me which was pretty cool. 

She said during the baptismal service she felt like the force of a wave and like all her sins were literally being washed away. It's always really awesome to hear the testimonies and thoughts after people are baptized and they always have a new light among them. 

Kenyi was baptized exactly 2 weeks after we met him and he was just more than ready to live the gospel principles. He wants to serve a mission in a year which is awesome! 

A scripture I wanted to share is Ether 12:27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weaknessthat they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Love Elder Pincock

Pics of the week: My first Cuy (A guinea pig, a popular source of meat here!)

Dec 30th update: Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone,
  
First off, it was so good to see everybody on Skype on Christmas Eve and I wish we had more time! Thanks to everybody that was able to come it means a lot to me. 

This past week was fun, but also a little rough... Christmas was great even though it wasn't any different from the other days and so mamy people gave us paneton and hot chocolate.  I only ate a little paneton because I'm sick of it.. but I did drink a lot of hot chocolate. 

Paneton is a sweet bread loaf that usually has candied orange, raisins, citron and lemon zest.

I got super sick the day after Christmas and threw up three times in the middle of the night and had diarrhea at the same time. I had never been that sick in my life and I felt horrible. I had no energy. I ate crackers for 3 days and I'm still taking medicine but I feel fine now. 

Yesterday for lunch we ate with a family and they gave us Chicha Morada to drink which I don't really like and it's hard on the stomach anyways, so we asked for water and she gave us this boiling hot cup of water and I didn't want to drink that either! but I also didn't want to offend her and not drink it, so I poured the hot water in the vase of Chicha Morada when she went to the bathroom. My companion was laughing so hard right before we left. She was probably suspicious as to why the chicha was steaming while we left.. Haha! It was rough, but now it's all good!  

Chicha Morada is a drink made from purple corn, spices and chunks of pineapples

I was given a pair of gloves for Christmas and also a chullo which I've been wanting (a knitted hat that covers your ears). I'm glad I was able to open a couple packages for Christmas! 

We ended up not having a baptism this past weekend because Maryuri has so many family problems, so we set a new date for the 18th, but then she came to us yesterday and said she wants to get baptized tomorrow! So hopefully that goes through tomorrow. We also will be holding a baptism for Kenyi who is 21 and learns so fast and has great desires to follow Christ. A while back the missionaries visited his mom because she was very sick and gave her a blessing and she got better and that's what sparked his faith and interest in everything. We'll be baptizing his mom next week which is awesome! 

My friend Elder Larson 

One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon I want to share is Alma 26:12, "I know that I am nothing as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself , but I will boast of my God for in his strength I can do all things" I've decided I want to name my second son Ammon because he's just awesome.

Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, Elder Pincock

Pics: Playing Soccer in the rain for 4 hours… fun!