Looking Forward To Conference!

I'm so glad that the race went well. I'm a bit jealous that you went to moab. I'm really starting to miss the scenery in Utah with the red rocks and beautiful scenery, but I'm still happy with the weather so I guess that will have to make up for it for now. :) How are you doing now with all the babysitting and other things that seem to always keep you two busy? I'm sure the office is done by now right dad? How's that working out? And how's Elder Pinder? Whenever we have a Spanish family come I'm so excited because they are so receptive to the gospel and then I think about Elder Pinder getting to teach people like them and it makes me so happy!

I am very excited for conference it is such a blessing to be able to listen to men who have received revelation from god on what his children need to hear. We get to go to the temple the week before so that we can be spiritually prepared and that is such a blessing too. Its amazing when you start looking at all the blessings in life. Even the trials are blessings in disguise, but its all how we look at things. That's something Ive been studying and working on. Our attitude really is what makes a day good or bad. If we choose to be upset about something then our day is going to be ruined and nothing will be gained. But if we look at the good and think about why we have been given that certain trial we can learn and grow and our day will be more happy. After all, "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy." 2N2:25. But its like I said last time true happiness doesn't come from material things. A lot of people think it does but when you look around the world who are the happiest people? They don't have television shows about poor people ( they don't have enough drama, which is saying something) they don't fight and compete with others they are more interested in caring for their family, for the most part. They care about the things that matter. On the other hand there are many entertainers and television shows about wealthy people, who aren't happy, they have so much drama in their life because they cant seem to fill their unhappiness with material things. I have met a lot of people who have many trials but what makes the difference between those who are happy and those who aren't is purpose. What is the purpose for being on the earth? Its been the same since Adam, to multiply and replenish the earth and follow god, for he is the only way back home. I really wish that I could just share my understanding with others because I know that if everyone felt and knew what I know, god wouldn't have to worry so much about his children. They would know how important it is to follow god, and how much he loves his children. Sometimes it just makes me so sad that people decide that Following Christ is too hard and isn't worth the end blessing. But man, if people would just put in the work so that they could understand, so that they could know for themselves if this church is true, I know and the lord promises they will be blessed. Alma 32:27 "but behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to and experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

Well I kind of ran away with my thoughts but it's nice to share it sometimes.

Today was kind of hard for me. We had to say good bye to two of the senior couples I have grown to love. Its a good thing they live in Salt Lake and I will be able to see them again but, it's annoying that I have to wait for a long time. :) That's one really hard thing about a mission, we develop these relationships with all these wonderful sisters and senior couples and then we have to watch them all leave! Some of them I will most likely never see again I had never thought about that before. I'm grateful I live in Utah where a lot of people come to visit, for things such as conference. :)

And Whitney thank you for your letters they are always so uplifting, keep up all the great missionary work!

Love you all!!!

Tsunami

Never a dull moment on a mission! We were coming home from a appointment the other night when one of my past members recognized us and pulled over he said " did you hear there was a huge earthquake in Japan and now there's a tsunami headed toward Hawaii." We hurried home to call Elder Eubank, my companion was pretty worried as you can imagine and we were a bit nervous because, well we're in the beach house ha ha. But after some investigation the earth quake didn't affect any of the Japanese sisters families, too much. Which was a relief for all of us. That evening we were told the Tsunami would hit about 3 am and we needed to move to higher ground. It was pretty interesting because we just moved up to the other sisters pads. Guess where everyone evacuated to? The mountain, the mountain which the temple is on, I found that very beautiful and there are so many scriptures that that can be related to. But as we were collecting all of our stuff and realizing that we could have a house full of water when we returned I was thinking what do I need what should I take with me? Everything I looked at didn't matter I didn't care if I lost my clothes or shoes or suitcases or anything really. All I wanted was my scriptures and my journals. It reminded me of the scripture in 3 Nephi 13 verses 19-20 and 33. It says to seek ye first the kingdom of god, everything else will be taken by natural things. Nothing here really matters, no material things will brings us lasting happiness. Our families and memories are what matter. This life is a time to be happy and prepare to meet god. We were prepared for that tsunami, we had emergency kits but we were also prepared as missionaries spiritually. As of right now I'm prepared for that day ,whenever it comes, to stand before god and say I followed thee father and I did my best. But I am so grateful for the time I still have to continue preparing in this life. I hope that others will see this disaster and think more about how they can be physically prepared for disasters. 72 hour kits are no joke and it is so important to be prepared for any situation. But we also need to be preparing spiritually. If you were to meet god today would you feel comfortable? If we are seeking the lord and are doing what we know is right, spending time with those that matter we have no reason to fear. Things like work wont matter in a crisis, possessions wont matter. It's the things that will last that will matter. It was a good reminder.

The night went by with sirens going off every other hour (I was out and didn't hear a thing though :)) We slept on the couches in another pad and were safe and sound. It was quite the experience, no water in our home no damage to our side of the island. Other docks however were affected but it was nothing compared to Japan. Elder Eubank did show us the devastation and it was awful to see. The people here though are amazing and are already asking how can we help these people these other relief society sisters. They have a lot of good ideas and it makes me so happy to see relief society working how it should.

Well there truly is never enough time to tell you everything but I love you all and hope that you will continue to prepare for the coming of the lord because the day is at hand. :)

Ill try just sending two pictures. The one holding the octopus is the one who helped with the huge spider. The other sister is my comp. for a couple more weeks. :)

HUGE Spider!!!!!

Things here are going better, our ward is really good it's just hard because their are only a handful of less actives and they have told us that they need a break ha ha. So our family ward is only member and a couple less actives, with a few potentials that we are feeling out. I'm glad the ward is active but its hard on those days we have a lot of time and no one has time for us. We did have a miracle the other day though. We were going to see one of the non members in the ward but she wasn't home. Another woman opened the door and was very friendly she is visiting from Taiwan so we asked if she would like to learn more about the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. She said that she is exploring religions right now and wouldn't mind learning more about ours. It was my first productive tracting experience and I was so grateful for it. We couldn't share the message there due to the fact that she couldn't let us in because is wasn't her home so we set up an appointment this week and left her with a restoration pamphlet. It will be amazing to see what happens because she lives with two other non members and hopefully will help them feel better about meeting with us too.

My companion is good I like her a lot. The language thing is still kind of difficult though but what can you do. We had a HUGE spider in our house the other day. It was literally the size of my hand, I'm pretty sure it would have made Jamie pass out. :) the four of us were scared to go down the stairs because we didn't want it to jump on us. ha ha. we finally got a garbage can and were going to trap it. We all crept down the stairs and just as we were going to put the can over it, it ran! We all screamed so loud (it was about 7 am) we finally trapped it but it scurried out again causing another scream. Our neighbor came over and asked if we were OK. She could see the spider from outside and wouldn't come in ha ha. we sprayed it and it ran into a gym bag, our brave sister Brown zipped him in and put him out side. ha-ha the woman told it it was a Cain spider, they used to live in the sugar can. Elder Eubank told us they aren't poisonous and they eat roaches. After we debated keeping one but decided roaches were better than spiders because you couldn't see them. :) any way you should look up Cain spiders and see what kind of pets we have here. :)

Thank you for all you help and support, I have to go so I'll write again next week. Love you all!

Transfer! Feb 26, 2011

Hey! . Today is a makeup pday because we missed ours because of transfers. Our new pday is Monday so I'll write again on Monday. But things are going okay, this transfer is going to be pretty tough. I changed areas and am now with sister Kamada, she's Japanese and is very soft spoken but very honest, and funny. The reason it's going to be hard is because we have about 8 nonmembers who have been taught a lot and they are pretty hard to get a hold of we also have some less actives who are also hard to get a hold of. Oh and me and sister Kamada came out at the same time. So there is still a lot that we don't know. I was pretty overwhelmed my first couple of days because I feel like even though sister Kamada has been in this area for a couple of transfers its so big that we don't really know what to do. Not to mention we are both still learning how to teach (can you imagine trying to learn a new language and how to teach and how to help someone understand how the area works, it's very challenging, for both of us) . But man I'll tell you the power of prayer is amazing. I just keep asking for help and a while later my feelings are completely different, I know the lord is just telling me that everything is going to be alright and to just keep trying our best. From one moment feeling like things are too hard and I'm a failure to feeling confident and reassured. I'm so thankful to be loved. Change is hard but it is truly what helps us grow.

We had an experience the other day, a couple came in and they asked a lot of questions and were fairly curious, I could tell their hearts were a bit hard. They believed in Christ and and the bible we shared the restoration story. I asked them about prophets and if they could believe one leads us today. They basically said no. I asked them what a prophet did in the bible. They said they prophesied of Christ but once Christ came they didn't need one anymore. I testified of the Book of Mormon and how it also testifies of Christ, I invited them to read it for themselves. They didn't want missionaries, and said that they didn't need another book to follow Christ. It made me sad that they believed in Christ but truly thought that he wouldn't lead his people today like he did in the past. I mean after all he will come again, that is why we have a prophet today to help us stay on the path. Sister Kamada said that she was reminded of Ammon when I was testifying of the book of Mormon. That made me excited because I felt like a true missionary. And I thought well yeah we are like the people in the scriptures. Not everyone we share the gospel with is going to accept it but our mission isn't to drag everyone to baptism, it's to cry repentance to the people to invite them to change their hearts and follow god. That means following his mouth piece which is the prophet. It felt good to bare my testimony about the Book of Mormon the spirit was strong, and I know that it is the key stone of our religion it proves god is the same yesterday today and forever.

Learning Feb 17, 2011

Aloha!

Well it has been another six weeks, so on Monday I will find out who my new companion is and when my new Pday will be. I have learned a lot this transfer, especially humility. It is really, really hard to accept criticism with love but I'm learning. I'm also learning how to not look for something to criticize back. It was nice to hear from some of you and to get a little update, I hope you all had a really nice Valentines day.

We taught a young woman (investigator) the other day about the gospel of Jesus Christ we asked how she was doing with her reading. She told us that she had been reading on her own and she had been going through some trials, so she turned to the book of Mormon, which is great for someone one who isn't a member yet to realize all the answers in life are found in the Book of Mormon, any way she came upon the scripture in 2 Nephi 2:11 that says "there must be opposition in all things. If not righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility." She said that it really made sense, if we don't have hard things we wont have good things either. I was really happy that she had found that on her own and was able to be comforted by the words of god. I think that message is so amazing. Yeah things do get hard sometimes but we remember how we overcame that difficult time and learned from it. We also keep those good times close because we know that it isn't always going to be easy. It's nice to know that the lord knows what he is doing and what will help us the most, and what will help us to get through those hard times.

Well that's my thought for this week, I'm not sure when I will write again but I hope you have a great week!

Love sister Pinder

Blessings Feb 10, 2011

I have been so blessed this week! I was able to see a few people refer for missionaries, and we have a couple of investigators now with baptismal dates! Both of them had heard the lessons before but weren't ready. Now the spirit has taken hold and it's a completely different story. It such a testament that it really isn't what we say or do it's when they person is ready and the spirit confirms what they have learned. We had a special visitor center training from brother Lusvardi. He is "in charge" of all the visitor centers around the world. I actually was able to hear from him while in the MTC and when he talked with us on Monday he told the story of Julia the waitress from Olive garden. It's a really good story. He asked his kids where they wanted to go eat. They told him olive garden. Now he hates olive garden because it's not authentic Italian food, but he went because that is where his family wanted to go. The waitress was Italian and was 72 years old. She brought out "beautiful salad" and made it look beautiful on the plate. She told them that she would bring out the food for them, they didn't need to look at the menu, she knew what was good. She only had three tables because she took such good care of the tables she had. She loved them and took care of them. Brother Lusvardi said they continued to go back. Not because they food was great but because Julia loved them and they loved her. They would go for celebrations and Julia would give counsel and advice. One day they went for a birthday but it wasn't for a celebration. This was the birthday of a daughter that had passed away in a car accident. Brother said that he didn't want to go but that they needed to tell Julia that their 20 year old daughter had been killed in a car accident. He said their was no talking of counsel at this meal. Julia cried with them and loved them. They still keep in contact today.

Brother Lusvardi asked what missionary work,(or jobs, and home) would be like if we all were like Julia? If we loved everyone we came in contact with and weren't preoccupied with the actual "job" with what we should/shouldn't say (for us he was referring to giving tram tours). Even though I had heard this story before, I think I needed to hear it again. The whole training was about helping people feel they are important and that this message we have to share is such a blessing! I just made me so much more excited to share this message. If Julia can love strangers this much her first time meeting someone I can do that too. I can help others recognize the peace and happiness felt in this church is a piece of gods love he is giving to us. Do people know what blessings this church can bring? Do they know how much god loves them? I have truly felt gods love for me and all the visitors who have come to the visitor center this week. I just wish everyone could feel this! Honestly, they can but everyone has their agency, they have the choice to decide if they are going to allow god to love them. They have the choice to recognize gods hand in their life or not. They have the choice to follow Christ or not. Because when it all comes down to it that's all this Church is. It's the commitment we make to follow god. I struggle with the fact that people choose not to allow god to love them. I mean after all why did Christ come to earth? Because he loved us enough to provide a way back to our father in heaven. He loved us enough to be that perfect example so that when things get hard we have someone to turn to. My testimony of my savior has grown so much since being on a mission. He Loves us SO MUCH! and it is his only desire that we follow him so that we can return and have eternal life- immortality with god! It just blow my mind that some people say you know think I'll just stick with the promise of immortality it's easier, when we could have eternal life and live with our heavenly parents forever. Our father is master of the universe, creator of all things, our brother is our savior our example. I can't imagine living my whole life and not be able to return to live with not only my earthly family but my heavenly family as well.

I hope you all know how much I love you! I know that I didn't express it a lot before, I suppose showing emotion was almost like showing weakness but not any more. I know who I am, I know who you are, I know how much you matter and I can't be deterred from sharing this message. :) Read the scriptures they are the word of god, they are the counsel from our past family and from our supreme father in heaven. I love you all and pray that you have a fantastic week.

Familiar Faces

Another week gone, crazy. This week has been extremely busy and slow at the same time. I know it's a bit weird but our schedule is completely full, but the visitor center isn't all that busy.

I was thrilled to see Grandma and Beth this past week and am truly grateful that I was there and was able to show them around. It was a beautiful experience and I will remember it for the rest of my life.

So I received two wonderful surprises yesterday! Two packages from my loving parents and grandma. They were AWESOME, the other sisters were thankful as well and have been so kind as to help me eat all the candy :).

I forgot that you were leaving and would be gone for a while. How's the trip? I hope you are enjoying it, especially the weather. I definitely can't complain it truly is perfect :).

We went tracting for the first time the other day. It was a neat experience but I must admit a bit stressful. There was a area with three houses on the hill and we went and knocked on one door and were able to talk with one woman for a while and she was really nice but then an older woman and her husband came out and were on bikes and told us we needed to leave because they were closing the gate. We walked down the drive way with them but they really didn't want to talk with us. They of course left the gate open though when they left. :) Tracting is hard because who ever we find we have to give to the elders to teach because they aren't in our area. So it's nice to do for the experience but I prefer to stay in our area.

Mom the ring is beautiful thank you so much, but... it's a half size to big. I would just deal with it but I know you paid a lot for it and I don't want to lose it. I pretty sure I'm a size 6. I was also wondering if you could send dice. We have a lesson we do with dice but they don't have any here in the store.

Thank you for all you do and I love you all. Until next week.