Elder Caleb Pincock's Mission Blog: Huancayo, Peru Mission: Update for Sept 8th, 15th and 22nd.

Sept. 8th, 2014

We had another awesome week here in Junin. Everyday just keeps going by faster and faster which is just crazy to me..

We went on a hike today just my companion and I for P-day, and had a blast!

We had a good successfull week, and our little branch here in Junin is growing little by little. We're still working with Franklin y Jubita to get all their paperwork done for their wedding so hopefully that all goes through this month.

This week I had a good spiritual experience while testing Moroni's promise at the end of The Book of Mormon for myself to try and strengthen my testimony even more, and be able to testify with more power while teaching. I found my answer in Alma 5:26-29 where it talks about the humility and he asks us a question that if we were to die in this moment would we be prepared to meet God.

I just received a renovation of my testimony while reading that passage, and I just know The Book of Mormon really is the word of God. What I read made me think a lot, and I'm trying to prepare myself more to meet God, to be more humble in all things, and depend even more on God in my life all the way down to the littlest of things.

I invite all of you to ask yourselves the same thing. If we were to die in this moment, would we be prepared to meet God? Have we been humble enough? and if not, What can we change to fix that? I hope all is well this week. I love and miss all of you, and pray for you individually more than you all know.

Love Elder Pincock

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Sept 15th, 2014

We had such a spiritually filled amazing week. Elder Uceda from the first quorum of the seventy came to our mission to talk to all the missionaries and the members. Friday we went to Tarma and heard him speak that night to all the members, and Saturday morning we went back to La Merced to have our own special conference with Elder Uceda. We were there from 12:30 until like 8:00 so we got to hear him a lot and we all learned so much.

There's just no doubt he's a man of God, and speaks with so much power but love at the same time. He talked a lot about our purpose, or objective, as missionaries. It's not just baptizing which a lot of people think. We "Invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored Gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end."

We started from the bottom up, because there's a big problem with people getting baptized, and then not coming to church as much and not enduring to the end. He talked about a missionary that focuses on numbers of baptisms is an old missionary, but we need to be new missionaries and focus on converts.

Baptizing is super important and critical for salvation, but it's not a game or something you just do for an experience. We as missionaries are supposed to just be the guides to their conversion process, and really help them to come unto Christ. We have to make sure they really have a testimony, and want to make the steps towards salvation in their lives.

Every member of the church has that responsibility to lift up others, and rescue those members that have lost their way and help bring them back unto Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is perfect, but it's run by imperfect people.

The church is like a hospital. We're all spiritually sick and need some treatment, and even though none of us are perfect, that's exactly why we go to church to try and be better people. Little by little, day by day. That is God's plan for us, and I invite all of you to try and live more fully in accordance with his plan, and do a self evaluation. What am I doing to follow Christ in my life? Am I just going throught the motions, or do I really want to be a better person?

I love and miss all of you, and hope this week is a good one!

Love Elder Pincock,

More Pics of my hike last week..

A Teepee in the middle of nowhere

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Sept. 22nd, 2014

Another good, but cold and rainy, week here in Junin! We're in Tarma right now for a zone conference, so I won't be able to send recent pictures until next week.

It looks like Franklin and Jubita our investigators will be getting married and baptized the 3rd of August which is a Friday so we're pretty pumped and excited about that!

Something cool I studied this week was a talk from last conference called Your Four Minutes by the Presiding Bishop Gary Stevenson. He used the example of the olympics how the athletes train for years, and all of their preparation and hard work comes down to only 4 minutes in the specific event he was talking about.

He then compared how we all prepared for an eternity before we were even born, and our liftetime is our "4 minutes" and our time to perform. I really liked the way he put everything into perspective for me, and I thought how if our life is our 4 minutes, how hard should I try and perform just as an athlete gives it their all just for a short time, and has an eternity to look back on it.

I also thought about how if life is our 4 minutes, serving a mission is only about 15 seconds of the 4 minutes. 2 years is so short, and after reading that talk I wanted to try and give even more of myself to the mission. I can't believe this week is already 1 year, it doesn't even feel like it to me.