Hiya

Things are going really well. I love my new companion! She is awesome, she's from Salt Lake City (by the avenues) her parents asked where I was from and said you should have dinner together. :) She knows the Clairs and went to Africa with Ally Clair. Her work ethic is similar to mine which makes things really nice and she loves to make missionary work fun. I was really surprised that they called her to be my companion because this is only her second transfer, and that is pretty odd to be online that soon. But I'm really excited that we have two transfers together (a first for me :) ).

Mckell ... Ballard I can't remember her married name, came to the visitor center yesterday. When she saw me she called out my first name, and it confused me for a minute. We had a really good talk and I found out that she lives over here! She showed me some pictures of the little ones which was very nice. She talked about how the two of them were feeding the missionaries and helping some of their friends make some necessary changes in their lives. Cort even baptized one of his friends recently. It was neat to talk with them and to hear that they are involved in missionary work.

Online is going pretty well we actually have a couple of people that we are working with, which is super nice. One of them really wants to be baptized but he wants to wait for a month till he goes back to Utah and his girlfriend can be there. We are really trying to encourage those we talk with to have phone conferences so we can have a little more control over when we get to talk with them and we can also cover more information that way too.

I came across a scripture that I really love. The longer I'm a missionary the more intensely I desire this: Jacob 1:8 " Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to not rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world; wherefore, I, sister Pinder, take it upon me to fulfill the commandment of the prophets." There are so many who say they love God but like it says in the scriptures their lips speak of me but their hearts are far from me. I see why God had such a struggle with the hypocrites, they think they are doing okay and then they sit and pick and pick at others when they aren't following God at all. I truly wish they could see themselves from God's perspective. and like it says in Jacob 2:15 O that he would show you that he can pierce you, and with one glance of his eye... It reminds me of a child who does something bad and looks to the parent. The parent doesn't even have to say anything they just have that look and they know they are in trouble. I couldn't ever handle a look like that from God. But I do know that God does love us as his children and hopes that we will all make that choice to follow him.

Well I have an appointment so I have to get going, but I love you all so very much. Send me some more pictures okay?

Why Are You Here?

Aloha!

This week went by quick. I feel like we had no time to be online which was a bit sad. We did however find someone who wants to be baptized but can't meet with missionaries in person for a month. So we get to have phone conferences with him and hopefully set a date for him to work towards. That way when he gets back to Utah the only thing his missionaries will need to do is the actual baptism. :)

I have lately been reading sister Anderson's emails and noticing how we really are having very similar experiences and we always seem to have the same theme. Its fun to read other missionaries experiences and realize that we all have ups and downs. Speaking of other missionaries could you please send me Elder Pinders address? I have some good resources I want to send him.

We had a mission tour this week and it was really good Elder Pearson of the seventy came and spoke to us. I felt a little chastised afterwards honestly. But it was really amazing there were certain times I knew he was discerning our thoughts. He talked a lot about how missionaries aren't willing to tap into their true potential. He said that he has talked with a lot of missionaries in his life time and when he asks a few of them why they are there and they give answers like "because its the only way I'm going to find someone to marry me." Or "my dad promised me a car." He said Elder your stupid. Your planning to meet a girl with very low expectations, do you think she wont know what kind of missionary she is looking for? And Elder your an Idiot do you realize that you could have had enough money to buy any car you wanted if you stayed home? WHY ARE YOU HERE? We are here to be disciples and we are not here to change for a few years. If we are planning to be different for only a time this time is a waste. You are not being given a rigorous schedule just for fun. You are being trained for the rest of your life. He talked about how he has meet a lot of RM's who are not happy, and they don't know why. He asks them if they are living what they taught their investigators. Are you building your faith, meaning are you praying, reading, studying-probably not? Are you repenting-probably not? Are you remembering the covenants you made at baptism and properly renewing them?- most likely not. Are you involving the Holy Ghost in your life? Are you asking for it and living by it?-Definitely not. And are you Enduring to follow Christ, not simply surviving but enduring with hope?-I don't think so. So what do you do? You need more faith. How do you get it? Start with the beginning you have to be obedient that leads to building faith. This is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation, the plan of HAPPINESS, the way to eternal life. You want more faith you need to be obedient and earn it through living the principles.

He really drove home the fact that we are not trying hard enough and we are not teaching others well enough. Especially because we don't fully understand what we are teaching. He said that we are skipping the most important lesson that God is our Loving Heavenly father and we do it because we are anxious to get to the restoration where we think it is the most spiritual. But that is so wrong we need to help them establish that connection with God from the very beginning. We are children of the ultimate God. We look like him because he made us in his image, he has a body of flesh and bone- although perfected. He desires to have a relationship with us, he LOVES us so much. But we don't understand that relationship. We pray but is it really to our Father? He made us truly examine our prayers, how are you praying, is your mind wandering when you are praying, what do you say? How often are you praying sincerely? THIS is not a conversation with our father, he is not there to take our orders! That was something that really hit me hard. He told us that if we don't understand and value this relationship how can we ever teach others about it? How are they ever going to understand the significance of the Restoration and the fact that God has once again revealed himself to us?

He talked about the Whats, whys and Hows. What are we supposed/want to do, why do we do it and how? We often get stuck on the whats we don't really know why or how to do it. For example we are supposed to wake up on time, follow the commandments, love others, keep word of wisdom, law of chastity .......But why? What are the doctrines behind all of it? How can we keep these things? If we don't understand why we won't do them. If we don' t do them how can we teach about them?

He talked about getting up on time he related back to the story of the RM who was unhappy. He said I bet you are going to bed late and waking up late hun. This leaves you no time for personal study because you end up being late. Then you have no time at night because you are tired and not worthy to study. These guidelines are not in place just because they are life changing guidelines. If you are going to revert back to the person you were what is the point!!!

Finally he told us that we are here because we desire to be disciples of Christ this isn't something that we can discontinue doing. We have all ready made sacred covenants and we will be held accountable for that. We can't act like missionaries. We either are or we aren't. We are to be exactly obedient because we are HIS DISCIPLES we represent Him and we always will. We have made that covenant. So he said If you are a Disciple of Christ what are you willing to give up to follow him more closely? The mission will set us up for success the rest of our lives, and we need to remember what we teach and keep it ourselves, the Doctrine of Christ is not a one time thing. How well are you following it?

In the end he gave us a lot of things to improve on. And quite honestly in my heart I said I will try but I already feel like I'm trying to be/do good. He is expecting a lot. Soon after he looked at us and said some of you think that we have to high expectations our expectations are not the problem the problem is your attitude. Stop "trying" and do it. I repented for my thoughts and am going to work so much harder to be the missionary my savior wants me to be not who I think I can be.

It was really powerful, he talked to us for 5 hours!

While it was focused on how we could be better missionaries I think it is very crucial to many. How much are we willing to follow the savior? What are we willing to do/give up to completely follow him? I thought back on how many times I stayed up late watching TV and then was to tired to read or effectively pray. What a waste of knowledge I could have gained.

So What are you doing when you are following Christ? Why do you follow Christ and what are you willing to give up to follow him more closely? Please ask yourselves these questions and truly do something about it. And not only for a couple of weeks.

Love you all and hope things are spectacular!

Oops!

Lots of interesting things have happened this week. Ha ha, I have felt like dad a little bit this transfer: Hey did you turn out the lights when you left the room? You probably shouldn't put that down the disposal it will clog, did you lock the doors when you came in?

Had fun fixing our disposal after it was clogged with potato peels, and last week we had some things taken from our apartment because the sliding back door was left open(like open, open). We think it might have been a homeless couple who live on the beach. They took some essentials like blankets, towels, my Gatorade and Oreos. ha ha and of course my companions electronic face scrubber, that was random. They didn't take our computers, DVD player, jewelry or anything of value (not that we had much) The only thing that was really sad was they took her temple packet. So we might go see if we can see it on the beach (Elder Eubank suggested it.) She was really upset- and I felt bad for her I had her watch this video called come what may and love it. She didn't think it was as funny as I did. :) But it was a good transfer.

I found out yesterday that I am going to be online with Sister Sandstrom she's from SLC. We are going to have so much fun together! This will be her second transfer, and we have been called spoiled on several occasions because neither of us have had to lived in the small apartments yet. I'm really excited to work with her. This will be my first companion that I will get to stay with for 2 transfers.

It was sad to say good bye to the Crouches they are my last grandparents who were here when I got here. But I'm happy that they live in Payson. :) All of the senior couples live in Utah which makes me happy that I can find them when I get home. Elder Crouch (Keith) is on face book dad so I'm sure you could look him up if you wanted to.

I'm glad that you were able to get away for a while how was St. George? Hopefully the weather was nice. It has just started to be nice here. No dogs on the bike trails I hope. :)

Well family remember What ever comes in life it is for our good. And it is so much fun to share later. ha ha. I have loved writing down funny moments in my journal it makes those hard days so much better. We had someone suggest writing down lessons we learned on a note book every fast Sunday. I think I'm going to try it, it's going to be one full notebook.

Here's your challenge, when ever you write me send me a funny moment or blessing you have received that week for the next month. You will start to see how blessed and fun life is. :)

Here's my funny story. So today we had deep cleaning. I was vacuuming and then

Me: Oh MAN!

Sister Alexeenko: What, what happened???

Me: ....I just vacuumed up a gecko

Me: hm that's something Ive never said before

Beach Clean Up

Hi! It"s been a good week. We had a crazy night last night lots of thunder and lightening which I guess is pretty unusual here. I must say I'm glad for that. The thunder is SOO loud we had a really hard time sleeping even though we were exhausted. Good thing it's our P-day and we get to go take a nap later. :)

The best thing that happened this week was the fact that we got to go on the beach! We had helping hands so we got to go help the wards clean up the beaches. I have wanted to walk in the sand since I have gotten here. I don't really care about the water but I just wanted to walk in the sand. So it was soo nice to be able to do that probably for the first and last time while I'm here. :)

Sorry this letter is pretty short but not a lot has happened. It's pretty slow here, I think with all the natural disasters there aren't as many visitors. But the great thing is even though our numbers are down our referrals are up, so the Lord is definitely blessing us.

A new Mormon Message came out this week it's called The Civility Experiment and it is so good! It's something that as human beings we struggle with every day. Loving others seems to be really hard, not judging those we love and those we don't know. It's something Ive really been trying to work on this transfer in particular, but with out help I feel it is impossible to not judge people. I don't even understand why it happens only that it is not good and that we should try harder to understand others before we make snap judgments. I know that if everyone did this people wouldn't be so self conscious all the time. Wouldn't that be great? So here's the challenge for the week. Talk with someone you have previously judged and see how you can help them. Or even say something nice to someone you have thought something rude about. It will be hard but I know that not only will you make a difference in someone else s life it will make a huge difference in your life as well.

Matt it was so nice to hear from you!! Glad that all is going well.

Thanks for your love and support,

Cant wait to talk with you Sunday. Don't know when Ill be calling yet but Elder Eubank said we could email when we figure out the schedule.