First Couple Days Trying to Lead this Place...Not so great...

Well mom you asked how it is going in beautiful Hawaii...  Well I don't really know because I'm not really in beautiful Hawaii. The part I am in pretty much just looks like Idaho... haha and when you tell me I'm not missing anything and then tell me there are tons of snowstorms then it kind of makes me think I am! haha I think you forget I like snow alot!  That's crazy about Colten Robb's mission president! Everyone asks me here if I played rugby for them because I tell them I'm from Highland Utah. 

As for my new companion, his name is Elder Brown and he is from Boise Idaho. He has been out about 6 months. He was actually Elder Gardner's comp in the MTC. Weird right?  He just came from north shore Kaui! I believe that is where Jurassic Park is currently. So if you wanted to know about beautiful Hawaii you'd better talk to him.  He towers over me at 6'6"!  We look ridiculous walking next to each other, haha. 

The teaching isn't going as well as it was. We had a lot of lessons cancel but Candice and Kanani are still doing very well.  Kehau decided to get baptized!!! I was so excited! She has been taught for about a year and right when Elder Gardner leaves and she decides she is going to do it! Her baptism will be this week, I think.  Malie also is getting baptized this week but she is getting baptized outside our area so we wont be able to go.  Kind of sad about that but they are going to send pictures.  Me and Elder Brown have been kind of struggling with the work though this past couple days because he doesn't know anyone or where anything is and I just flat out don't know what I'm doing. Haha,  I am realizing the importance of detailed planning because we have had so many cancellations.  I can definitely see how the Lord is teaching me that certain skill, haha.  It is getting better though. Hopefully this week will be even better. Hopefully we can get back on track again.

I did get your package with the memory card in it. Thanks.  I think I am going to be good on apex protein for a while, I will let you know when to send some more but I will probably need more bars in like a week, I think.  I found somewhere like Costco in my area and I don't even need a membership! It's called Cost You Less. I was very happy, haha, you could send the LDS magazines if you want, that would be nice just to have something else to read.

I am getting the dear elders.  I love to hear how everyones missions are going.  I like it when you send me Jeremy's too as a dear elder just in case I don't have time to read it on here in email.  I look forward to Ryan's.  Tell Parker congrats! and Sorry I haven't been able to shoot him a letter yet. Hopefully I will have time today.  But that is soooo awesome! When does he leave again?

We went back to the lava flow this morning to show the new elders. It was pretty cool. We also hiked over to the ocean next to the lava. Sooo pretty.  I guess that part of my area is beautiful, haha. 

That's great about your scripture reading and lessons!! It helps so much!  I don't even know how I would function without it anymore, especially while I'm on my mission, of course.  I agree with the music thing for studying lessons but they don't let us do that while we study.  I love that thing about the peacemakers too! Love you, thanks for the email and thanks everyone who has kept me in their prayers.  There is no way I could do this without you.  Sorry I don't really have any super exciting experiences for you today, I'm just still trying to figure this place out. 

Elder Pincock

My Companion is being Transferred Off Island...

Elder Gardner is being transferred! He is going off island somewhere we don't know where yet.  I am going to have to take over this huge area! holy crap!  I really really hope my next companion knows what he is doing, haha, I guess we'll see on Wednesday.

Well everything is going well! This week we had 21 lessons! Woohoo! Not as much as last time but still good. 

Well our investigator I told you about in my last letter is still doing awesome, she even takes notes in our lessons! Her niece, is also doing awesome! She even came to church. We didn't think she would even be there because her mom doesn't want her to change religions.  It is so sad that Elder Gardner is leaving when we have 5 people with a baptism date and they just yank him out of here? Well at least he got to see the little 9 yr old be baptized on Valentines Day, which went really well. Me and Elder Gardner were the witnesses and we helped confirm her yesterday. That was kind of cool. It is still a little weird for me to know that I can participate in those kinds of things. It's awesome.

Oh, hey thanks mom and friends for the all the Valentines letters. They were Great!  Oh and thank you for not sending food, haha, I figured out that I'm not allowed to use the music on Insanity but it's ok I still like it.  I am just starting on the 2nd protein powder. I just opened it today. Did you send another one? Maybe I'll have to start having two a day, haha, I'm getting huge by the way, haha, mostly fat though maybe one day I'll look like Bishop Oyama, haha.

Cooperellie, huh? haha that's good.  I look forward to your pictures and whatnot.  I miss my dogs so much.  When I go on exchanges, the other elders live at a members house who has labs and they remind me of Max. Just so much personality, I miss him a lot. How is Jessie doing? Is she still chuggin around with her bad joints?

That's funny what you said about learning a lot when you have to teach something because that's exactly how I feel. You learn so much faster and so much more when you teach something. 

Sorry this email is kind of a short one but I love everyone and love to hear how you all are doing.  Yesterday in church we started singing love at home and it pretty much took all I had to not cry my eyes out because I am so thankful for the love that has always been in our home.  I'm also thankful for the friends I have who give me so much support thank you all! But now I shall depart.  I bid thee adieu.

Elder Justin Pincock

Wow! My first Transfers are next week!

INSANITY!!!!!  Haha so glad I got that. I have lost 3 lbs! I love it.  Elder Gardner did insanity with me once but hasn't done it again since.  Maybe he'll come around.  Those Apex cookie things were actually pretty good.  My favorite one was the peanut butter one.  The seasonings are awesome too. Thanks a lot and good call on the small dvd player because I figured out that we can't use our mission one for anything else but to watch mission stuff, so awesome.

Our first baptism is today!  She is 9 and a way cute little girl, really smart too.  She is related to the one who knows that person who went to Keith’s mission.  Was it Keith? I don’t remember but they are the nicest family. Pretty much every generation is here in Ka'u,  Haha.  Which reminds me, are we related to a Jen Pincock who served a mission in Ka'u? Because there are a few people who loved her and ask me if I am related and I have no idea, haha.

I have to tell you about the most spiritual lesson I have had yet!  I don't know if I told you but we are teaching an investigator and she is doing really good.  She is super motivated to change and get baptized but she is getting married. Her baptismal date is March 12. Pretty quick for a marriage, huh? But she is awesome, one of the coolest people here.  Anyway, we have been teaching her but the first day Elder Gardner and Elder Paulsen taught her (I wasn't there. We were on exchanges. Dang it!) She had a relative just sitting in the room who made it very clear that she wasn't interested but by the end of the lesson she was at the table with them and eating up every word they said.  So now we have been teaching her too.  Yesterday we taught her about Joseph Smith and the restoration and the Book of Mormon.  This is the awesome part...  You could tell that every word we said she was actually listening too, and she would even ask questions and participate!  We watched a movie about the first vision and it was super powerful.  After that we had the Bishop, Recede and the girl we were teaching bore their testimonies.  Oh i forgot to tell you that we had the Bishop and Recede come who is thinking about serving a mission.  Anyway they all bore their testimonies and then we read Moroni 10: 3-5 which talks about praying to know with real intent if the Book of Mormon is true. After we read that we didn't even have to ask her, she just said so if I want to know if this is true I have to pray and have a reason behind it.  NOBODY JUST JUMPS IN AND UNDERSTANDS THAT THE FIRST TIME.  Well at least I had never seen anyone really understand it without us having to explain the "real intent" part but she did. Her prayer was awesome!  She asked if it was true and you could tell she felt like she was talking to an actual person.  She also asked him to just help her to smile once in a while, hahaha, that is funny because she doesn't very often so me and Elder Gardner always try to get one out of her. It was awesome and with the bishop there it made it even more spiritual, then with Recede there it pretty much confirmed his decision on going on a mission and it also strengthened the girls testimony that we were teaching!  Elder Gardner also gave the relative his little sisters Book of Mormon that she sent him with her testimony in it.  They are both around the same age so he thought it would be a good gift.  He even broke down and was crying when he gave it to her! I have never seen him cry which also made the girl we are teaching cry.  It was awesome!  Well, that was my highlight of the week so I will now answer your questions.

Q) I added new site like Alan’s and will update both of them as this one has a message board that may be easier for some people to leave a note… http://www.missionsite.net/elderjustinpincock.

A) I don't really know if I'm allowed to look at my blog but I will let you know if I get further info on that.

Q)Did you get the package with the T-shirt?
A)Yeah I got it, that shirt actually fits pretty good. Thanks.

Q)Do you still have a baptism today?
A)As for the baptism, it is later today in the chapel.

Q)Favorite Scripture to share this week?

A)The scripture I would like to share is Enos 1:27.  I just hope Jesus says this to me when I get there.

Q)Things you are thankful for in Hawaii?

A)I am thankful for good weather, haha, and nice people (for the most part) and a companion who works hard even though we don't really think the same sometimes, haha.

 Thanks again for everything and everyone's support. Love you and I'll talk to you next week!  I might be getting a new companion!

 Elder Pincock

We taught 22 lessons this week! Our goal was 20!

Thanks for sending all that stuff. I haven't received it yet but hopefully it will help me shed a few lbs of fat! Haha! Elder Gardner eats ten times worse than me and still looks fine! What a jerk! Haha!

That's so awesome to hear about the new horse trailer! I miss camping so much! I hope you guys have fun. (Doubt it though, because, well let’s be honest, I’m not there!)

It's been good to hear from a couple friends too. If you're reading this, please keep sending me letters!

Now for the questions… thanks for being my brain mom, haha, very much needed.

Q) How is the teaching going for the 11 year old girl and her inactive mother?   and 13 year old girl you were talking about that is praying about baptism in your past letters?
A) The 11 year old girl is coming along great. She is still excited and still loves to read whatever we give her. She is awesome but kind of shy though.  The 13 year old girl is still just being stubborn and won't really give us a straight answer even though we know she has received her answer. It's kind of frustrating but we still have her set for March 5. We also taught her grandma who really loves the church but won't be baptized. We think there is something she is not telling us because she just keeps saying don't give up on me. Well we won't! We also have another person with a baptismal date! That makes 4 now!  She is 9 is set to be baptized on Feb 14. Valentines Day! We are having to bust our butts to try and teach her enough times to get her ready but I think we can do it.  We also taught a lesson to a lady that we tracted into who we committed to baptism but she has to quit smoking and I don't know how serious she is yet.  It is actually a funny story. We were tracting down this street and everyone was pretty much telling us no before we even talked, haha, but we came to her house and we told her who we were and asked her if she would like to hear a message about how families can be together forever and she goes, yeah sure.  Which threw Elder Gardner off, haha, he started like stumbling trying to figure out what to do next… but we finally got it together and scheduled a time for us to come back. Turns out she has six kids and wants to quit smoking and her husband wants her to quit too. Hopefully we can help her.  We have a 12 step program from the church that Elder Gardner is going to show me.

Q) Are you getting the dearelder.com letters I forward from Alan, Andrew, Isaac, and Brady?  Did you get one from Tyler G too?
A) I did get letters from Andrew, Isaac, and Tyler but not Alan’s or Brady’s. Maybe I will get them this week.  I love hearing from other people's missions. It helps a lot and is very interesting to me so keep them coming!

Q) Do you need more stamps, paper, envelopes?
A) More envelopes and stamps would be great.

Q) Are there a lot of people that attend church even though your town where you live is so small? 

A) Actually this week we probably had like 110 people there! Which is a ton usually there is probably like 80.  Our area is huge though. It takes like an hour to drive from one end to the other. So you'd think there would be a lot but everyone is just so spread out.

Q) Do you only go to 1 ward on Sundays or do you attend more?  Is it always the same ward?
A) There is only one ward in my area so I do only go to one ward. We always talk about how weird it would be to be in Salt Lake because they cover like multiple stakes, haha, and our area is probably 5 times bigger and we only have one ward.

Q) What is the place you are staying in like?  Nice? Old? Cute? Attached to members house or separate apt?

A) Our pad is awesome! We both have queen size beds, haha there were couple missionaries here before us. It is just behind the church, just a small one bedroom apartment but we have our own washer and dryer which is awesome. There are pics in the card I will be sending today.  We also have a garden, it's actually the wards garden but every Saturday we work in it.  I now understand why you guys don't have one! Haha

Q) Did you see any geckos or cockroaches?

A) We do have geckos, cockroaches and also centipedes which are apparently really painful.  Elder Gardner’s last comp got bit and couldn't even walk! So i check my shoes and bed every night! Haha

Thanks for praying for my success because it seems to be working.  We taught 22 lessons this week! Our goal was 20!  

Well I think that is all for this week.  Love you all. Again thanks for everything you do for me. Thanks for your support. I am trying to work hard and I am learning a lot :)

Elder Justin Tyler Bigbear Pincock

(weird to even write my first name now)