Who's Side

Hi everyone!

Well Im still here, things are actually going really well. Training is really interesting. Sister Rodreguez can get really board sometimes when we have planning meetings and things like that. I feel bad because I remember the first few weeks and how lost you can feel. But unfortunately it's just something that comes with time. You can't really plan for peoples needs until you know them. But she's a great teacher and Im excited to see where she'll be in a few transfers. The new program, dad is for All missionaries they gave us a pamphlet to follow for 12 weeks. It goes through what's called the 8 fundamentals which are: The Doctrine of Christ, Role of the Holy Ghost,Revelation through Prayer, Revelation through the Book of Mormon, Revelation through Church Attendance, Teaching people not lessons, Inviting committing and following up and then How to begin teaching. We focus on these things and also on learning the lessons as well. The extra hour is really helpful because in a addition to helping sister Rodreguez learn about how to teach I get to train her on how to work in the Visitor Center. I didn't ever really think about how much I have really learned about the Visitor Center and how to work here. It's not till you have someone come who isn't familiar with it that it becomes apparent. I love the visitor Center and the opportunity I have to meet people from all over the world and help them take a piece of the gospel home with them.

I can't believe it's conference time already! Tomorrow we will be watching it at the visitor Center at 6 am and then at 10 am. Sunday however, I think me and my companion will go to the rebroadcast at 10 and 2. Having conference at two different times makes things a little tricky, because when we are trying to visit people we don't want to be out visiting when they are watching and we don't want to waste time after we have watched the sessions earlier.

I can't believe it's already October. Things are starting to slow down quite a bit, but this is the time the PCC has the Haunted Lagoon. So at the PCC we have a canoe ride that takes you past all of the villages. The haunted lagoon is a canoe ride at night in the dark and have people jumping out from the bank and even in the water! This might affect or tram tours because people will want to do that and we have to move our line to a different location. It also means for the next month we will be hearing music and lots of screaming. To bad we wont get to see it.

Im glad that you will be able to go to the ground breaking ceremony for the Payson Temple. We get to go to the Temple next week with our district because of Conference. whahoo. :)

Well Im out of time this week, But here's my thought for the day. There are a lot of things in life that can pull us away from our savior. Contention, being too busy, depression, feeling of inadequacy, laziness, judging our selves and our fellow brothers and sisters. All these things are from the adversary. He is fighting very hard in these last days to get us on his side. Who's side are you on? It's very easy to say "well I obviously want to be on the winning side, God side." But just reflect for a moment, do your actions match your desires? Are you doing the things that prove you are on Gods side? "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself. " 2 Nephi 2:27

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 34Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof." 3 Nephi 13:33. So please don't let the adversary win! We have all be taught the things we should do, reading, praying, church, basically following Jesus Christ example. If you truly are on his side you will do the things he has asked. Don't worry about the things of the world they will pass, hard things occur in our lives but when we rely on Christ they can be made easy and soon they won't matter anymore. If you are feeling the pull or emotions from the the adversary, read, pray and serve your fellow beings you will realize how blessed you really are.

I love you all! Thanks for your letters you have no idea how much they mean to me!

Love Sister Pinder

Aloha

Howzit?

How is everyone doing? Things here a pretty much the same, we are staying really busy. We're trying really hard to find new people to teach. We may have found a couple of people who want to know more so that should be exciting. It's weird that we are already three weeks into the transfer! Only a few more weeks and we will be switched around again. Things are going well between the three of us we are always trying to keep things balanced.

We had a wonderful tram tour the other day. It was a man and his wife who were originally from Italy, they now live in Las Vegas.. They were so funny! The man- Dominic said that his daughter had only let him take pictures of the temple the last time he was here. He was so excited to go into the visitor center. After we show the 5 minute video he came out and gave me his business card and said here, this has my phone number, my address and my full name. I was confused I said so you want missionaries to come? I was a little shocked, we hadn't even asked them yet if they would like to learn more. He said yes yes. Ive never had that happen before. It was great! He told us that he worked or was some how involved with submarines. He has been around the world 3 times! When we asked how long it takes he said about 6 months depending on how fast they go. It's so fun to hear about peoples lives and meet people from all around the world.

Speaking of which I saw the Gibbs family, im sure they told you, it was great to see them. Sister Gibbs said that she has Izzy in her class and she's doing well. And there will probably be another person calling you to tell you that they saw me. haha. I know it's kind of random to get phone calls from strangers. It's weird for me when they ask for my number, haha it's nice of them though. I don't think I have ever thought about people contacting missionaries parents before.

New Changes

Aloha!

I'm glad you got my last email I was worried you wouldn't with all the pictures I attached. So I bet you are all wondering what happened this past week huh? Well first off my pdays are now on Fridays. To answer dads question our pdays have to switch because we have shifts at the cultural center and the visitor center, if all the sisters had pday on one day like most missions then there would be no missionaries at the visitor center and PCC. So we take different days. Its been really nice because Elder Eubank was able to figure out a way so that no one has to have pdays on Monday or Wednesdays when we have meetings that last a few hours. Time on pdays is precious so it's supper nice to be able to have all of our time.

Okay so what happened to Sister Pinder? Did she get sent to another island and by chance miss her first flight? Did she get called to be Sister Trainer- the sister who is in charge of Visitor Center trainings and exchanges? Or did she get called to train a new Sister in a new program that the Church is starting?

Any guesses?

I'll let you think about it for a little bit. :)

Me and my past companion sent off sister Largent and she was very ready to be home. It's nice to just be in a regular companionship again. It was supper nice to hear from Elder Pinder I'm so grateful that you are able to enjoy your mission and work hard. Did you get my letters? Ill try to write you again soon, I just seem to always run out of time.

Mom, I plan to write grandma but I'm not sure when, I feel bad because I just haven't had the chance yet to write her and thank her for the package and for the emails. Will you just say something to her for me till I can get something sent out? Also how is Carisa doing? She getting really close isn't she. :)

I loved your emails this week! I can just picture and imagine everything that happened. I feel bad that Mattie's favorite rides were closed that stinks. Did all the adults have a good time?

Alright Ill stop making you think, but maybe you got a small taste of what's it's like to have to wait for transfer news. So on Saturday night I received a call from President. I was kind of hoping to be Sister Trainer because that would mean I would get to stay in Laie for Christmas- I love Christmas here.:) But I wasn't called to do that, then I thought well it would be nice to go out now because again I would be back for Christmas- haha. Nope, President and the Lord have called me to train a new Sister! So in the mission they are starting a new program. New missionaries will be with their trainers for two transfers. While they are in the MTC they focus on 8 fundamental principles, basically how to teach. They don't really know what to teach though. So now we will have 2 hours for companionship study plus our personal study time. It's a great program because the goal is that new missionaries will be prepared enough that if they were asked to train after their second transfer they could. It's a bit challenging here though because that's three hours of studying plus our six hours on shift. It doesn't leave a ton of time to find people to teach. So we will be praying very hard that the Lord will guide someone to us, just like he has done for me in the past.

My new companion is Sister Rodreguez, she's from Guatemala! So she can teach me a little Spanish. She speaks English very well and I can tell that she is going to be a great missionary. There's a lot to learn here in the first few days but she doesn't seem to be stressed so that's good. I know the Lord is helping me because I honestly am just trying to pretend like I know how this new program works haha. I have learned a lot since I have been here but I know the new missionaries are going to be so much more prepared than Elder Pinder and I.

So on Wednesday I was in charge of taking two sisters to the airport. It was very stressful because we didn't know where we were going and traffic here is a nightmare! It's also been about 10 months since I have been able to drive over 40 haha. Well because of traffic and a weird lay out at the airport one of the sisters missed her first flight. I felt so bad! I picked up two sister who had been out full pros. and we went to the transfer meeting. It was really good. We got a chance to walk around the area and hand out Books of Mormons. It was a very different experience my second time around. :)

Oh and Sister Sandstrom was called as Sister Trainer, and we have pdays together! That makes me really happy, I'm really grateful to her.

Well Sorry I don't' have time to write about some of the neat things I'm learning we are about to go to the PCC. But just know that I love you and hope you all are having a fantastic week. Please be sure to write down a few of the blessings you have received this week.

Ill try to send pictures next week. Love ya!

To Much Fun!

Aloha family!

So we switched p-days this week so that we could go hiking. That was Sister Largent's "last P-day" request. The Hike is called Laie falls, its nothing compared to the falls on Timp but it's still a pretty hike. Ive done it once before but this time was different because it rained almost the whole time! The trail became very muddy and slippery. We looked like odd creatures by the time we were finished. It was about a four hour hike, very exhausting.

On Monday we got to go to the Sea Life Park. It was so much fun! We didn't have a ton of time there but we got to see seals being fed, sea lion show and a dolphin show. So much fun! We talked about how creative God is and how blessed we are to be here and see so many different creations. God truly is a wonderful artist. What's a beautiful creations have you recognized this week?

Glad to hear that Disneyland has been a good experience. I look forward to seeing pictures next week. What was everyone's favorite part?

We find out transfer news on Monday so Ill let you know when my new pday will be. I'm not sure what my pday will be next week, Ill let you know.

Sorry it's short it took me a while to get the pictures, but things are going well. Love ya talk to you next week.

Aloha

Aloha!

Things here are going alright, same old. It's interesting being in a Visitor Center I love the variety we get. Transfers are coming up on the 21st, crazy that it's almost already been 6 weeks. I used to wonder why they would switch us around so often, but I think I figured it out this week. We have had a few cliques and it can cause problems when sister become to attached to certain sisters. Sometimes they would rather be with their previous companion than with their new one. It's hard to see some of the sisters struggle with how to work with their companion.

One of my comps is fairly trunky, but that's really something we deal with everyday. I get asked how long Ive been out almost every tour we give so we are constantly aware of our time :). It's been really helpful to think about what I want to accomplish every day. Of course I miss people at home but I really don't miss a lot of the stuff we have to deal with in the "real world." I'm not too sad you are going on a trip I think that will be great! Of course Ill miss you but you can't stop having fun just because we are gone, life goes on and there will be other opportunities. Besides we are going on a field trip ourselves on Monday! So in the Visitor Center we have a goal of 300 referrals a month. Last month we got 320 so we had a pizza party with President :) We raised our goal to 325 (weak new goal huh) But then we blew it out of the water receiving more than 460! It was so cool! So since there's not a lot to do in Laie we get to have an out of zone field trip! We are probably going to the sea life park.

One thing that's new here is they came and redid our God's Plan exhibit. I had never seen God's plan until my mission and I really liked it. That was the exhibit that I took Grandma through and it was really special. Well they have redone it and now it is is so much more powerful! It's a recipe for instant homesickness haha. I wish you could see it so you could know what I'm talking about! We love giving the tour but we have a hard time because at the end when we bear testimony we are all crying and trying to compose our selves haha. But it really does a great job explaining who we are, where we came from, how gospel can bless our families why temples are so important and how they can bless both the living and those who have passed on. It also just makes everyone who sees it really want to reconnect with their family. Including the missionaries :) Homesickness is just a part of missionary work, it comes and goes but I can never fully explain the blessings that come from serving a mission!

Well I have to scoot, love you all and enjoy Disney Land! I'm expecting some good emails or dear elders in the next few weeks, and some pictures!

Doin Great

Things are going well here. I don't have a lot of time to write, we had Zone Conference today and to so we had half pday yesterday and half today. It was really good, we talked more about how to focus on teaching and how to improve our skills. Sister Dalton asked for advice from her boys who served missions and they told her about how their mission has impacted their lives now. One said that he sent a letter home to his dad saying the mission wasn't for him. His dad said you aren't the type to quit, stick it out. So he did and when he got home he started his own business and went from door to door trying to get his business started. He said that he was use to being rejected to when he faced rejection he just moved on. Another son talked about how his mission help in the family. To be able to communicate with his wife and be able to adapt teaching styles for their children. Another son said that on his mission he was tired of doing the same things every day and excited to get home and break things up, but he learned that that's just life. But because of the mission he knew how to better handle the future. It was really neat to hear about their experiences. I know the mission will benefit my life in the future but I suppose I hadn't thought about how many ways it will influence me.

While we were sharing a message with some of the students at BYU I shared this scripture in Helaman 10:5. I have really loved it and know that it applies to many areas. It says "And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will." Sometime we feel that the things we are asked to do are monotonous and repetitive. Especially when it comes to the gospel. Pray, read, go to church visit/home teach. But we are promised that if we do these things we will be blessed forever! That's a promise I'm willing to make. I hope that you will be able to recognize the love and blessings God has for you this week. I know that he cares and is looking out for each of us.