Happy Easter!

Alright, first off, the mother's day call!  I'm not sure when we are going to call yet but I will let you know.  We have free weekend minutes so I can just call you from my phone.  If I will be calling from a different number I will let you know. 

Thanks for sending the package. I haven't received it yet but don't worry about the protein thing.  I bought balance bars and muscle milk, so I am good for a couple weeks.  No worries. 

You did actually tell me about Jakes baby but that's still kinda weird to me, haha.  Sounds like a fun dinner at Gina's though. 

Sounds like you are all doing pretty good.  I'm always praying for your real estate stuff to work out.  I will continue to do that :)

As for me, things are going alright.  Still no new investigators but we are still burning through the less active/part member list to try to find some people to teach.  A couple families have agreed to let us come teach them this week so we will see how it goes. 

We had a pretty awesome Easter.  On Saturday we had two parties to go to.  The first one was in the morning at 10.  So me and Elder Brown thought we'd be fashionably late and show up at like 10:30.  Well, we were wrong, haha, we were still like 2 hours early.  We are still trying to get use to Hawaiian time.  It was crazy though!  It was Malie Kaapuni's mom’s party (remember the 11 year old girl we baptized a while ago).  She had over 500 Easter eggs for like 15-20 kids!  Then she didn't just have little cheap candies in the eggs.  There were little slips of paper inside that said like Skittles or Hershey's or whatever and then you go over to her and redeem the egg and she gave them full size candies!  She had so much candy and sooooo much food.  I think she could have fed twice as many people than was there (there were like 40 people there).  I, of course, gained weight this week, but will be good again this next week.  The next party was the Hoe Down.  It was way fun, although, we didn't get to dance because we are missionaries.  The pig was so good, it took like 7 hours to make.  Jerome is such a good cook.  I took a ton of pictures at that party so you should be excited for those. Haha There were a good amount of people, probably like 30 and 1 couple who were non-members! We weren't able to get there number but their names are Mike and Heather, haha weird right? Our goal, Vision 100, isn't really working for us yet, but it will come.  

Pakalana's family did an great job in sacrament meeting.  They are an awesome family.  Brother Phillips apparently used to be a musician and has an awesome voice.  All of their talks were very good.  

I did get your letter about Elder Donaldson, it was fun and pretty unexpected, but yeah I know who he is but I have only talked to him like once for like a couple seconds.  Our area is way out here, haha.

Well, I think that is all for today.  I still really love this place and I am afraid I might have to leave in a couple of weeks.  I love everyone here.  They are all so nice.  I'll be back though for sure!  I love you all so much and I pray for you all the time. 

Elder Pincock

Pigeon word of the week:  “Ono” as in, “Choke ono grinds”.  Translation:  “lots of really good food”, haha, “ono” means “really good”.

It's P-Day?! Again?!

How's everyone?

Thanks for the email mom and you know how I told you I was going to focus on the positive not the negative? Well, Heavenly Father has been testing me to see if I really would. Haha. It has been a hard couple of weeks, but it's all good I guess.  I have learned a lot and I am very thankful for that, I really am.  I'm pretty sure I will be leaving next transfer, although that is not for another 4 weeks. 

Lucky Turner family! I wanna go to Oceanside, even though I kinda am,  I hope they had fun.  How was Hailey's talk, did she give it yet?

 

That's funny about dad and Mike finding their way into that canyon, but let’s be honest, it's not too surprising, haha.  I miss mule riding without an actual trail.  How we find some of those places still blows my mind.  How are the mules doing?  How's cooper? haha

Life in Ka'u is still good. The people are still awesome and I get closer to them every day which makes me sad because I most likely will be leaving this next transfer.  We still haven't found any new investigators for a while.  Our mission president says he wants us to meet our goal for vision 100 in May.  That is the goal the whole mission has to baptize 1 person a month.  He gave us three things to make sure that it happens.  The first one is to be exactly obedient, which of course, I have to been trying to do.  The second thing was to find two new investigators a week.  Holy Crap!  If we could do that it would be awesome!  The third thing was to visit more  of the less active/part member families and ask them if they want to take the lessons.  I'm trying hard to stick to these 3 things so we can be able to meet our goals. 

Candice is still doing good but is not getting baptized yet.  Kanani stopped coming to church but hopefully we can help her back on track.  Candice's daughter Sierra is still awesome and still loves church.  That is it as far as the work.  We are having a hoe down this Saturday! Haha Hopefully people bring some non-members to that.  Jerome Tayamen, the guy that feeds us every Monday, is going to Hulihuli a pig.  That’s where they put the pig on the fire and rotate it.  I'm stoked about that! Haha. 

Guess what I did this week.  Remember when we would go camping and we would make ice cream with chocolate milk and you put it in a baggie with ice? Me and Elder Brown did that and it was awesome!  We also did a second attempt today at Diet Coke and Mentos, haha, it went way higher! I will have to send you the video.  Elder Brown thinks he can still get it higher though.  Stand by for round 3 of Diet Coke and Mentos.

Mom you asked how often we have zone conference… Well we have only had it once since I've been here.  I’m not sure how much they usually have it. We had it in Waimea. 

Well that is it I think for this week.  Thanks for everything.  The church is definitely true.  I'm so grateful for my brother Jesus Christ and the complete unconditional love he has for me personally, as well as everyone else.  When I think of his atoning sacrifice it just amazes me that he would voluntarily go through everyone’s pains and hardships just for the chance that they might make it back to our Heavenly Father.  I can't imagine being Heavenly Father and letting my kids come down here knowing that I might not see them again.  That is one motivating reason why I am out here,  it’s to try to get to those who might not have made it back to Heavenly Father's arms otherwise.  I love him and I love my earthly family so much.  Thanks for everything.

Elder Justin Pincock  (it's getting weirder and weirder writing my first name)

Subject=Mission in Ka'u

Hello Everyone! Another week is gone, holy cow!  I hit my 5 month mark this transfer! That's crazy to me! I can't believe Jeremy Adams has already been out a year, that's way cool too.  It sounds like everything is going pretty good at home, good to hear. 

Oh, mom you asked if I had been to the Kona temple, I totally forgot to tell you last week but yeah I did get to go! It was awesome! It's really small and simple, it's just in a circle at the end of the street and there is a house right next door.  They're not even members, how is that even possible! haha  It was a very awesome experience though.  The temple always reminds me of you guys.  That scripture you mentioned D&C 121:7-8 about enduring well is awesome, I love it.  

This week was pretty quiet although we did confirm Sierra a member and so that was cool.  Hopefully we will get to do others soon.  I just can't tell you how much I love these people in Ka'u!  There are so many good people and they are so friendly.  Well most of them, haha, we do meet some people while out tracting that are not too big of fans of us, haha.  Oh, I think I got a record for how many times offered a beer on one street, it was 3!  I don't know why but I guess it was party Sunday yesterday.  I don't think thats a very good Sabbath day activity, but what do you do?...You teach them the gospel, that's what you do!  Although maybe later when they can tell what is going on, haha. 

  

This week we have really been focusing on the part member and less active member families.  We were thinking maybe if we can get them activated then they will lead us to others who are also ready for the gospel.  We were able to pick up our numbers a little bit too this week.  I feel like Elder Brown and I are doing better and able to work a little harder together too.  I decided to start thinking more positive and it has helped a lot. 

I'm not really sure what to write about this week.  Oh, my new district leader is stuck in Oahu because he lost his ID so we have been without a district leader for a while.  Elder Davis, the other Elder in our District hasn't had a companion for a while either, haha, he has been in Hilo with some other Elders in our zone.  Elder Davis is awesome.  I love going on exchanges with him.  He is such a humble person plus he's hilarious! I hope I can serve with him sometime. 

Mother's Day calls are coming up! Woohoo! That's going to be way weird, haha.  I'm not sure how it works.  I will get back to you on that next week.  You should probably remind me though again next week.

I had a pretty cool scripture study the other day.  I read about the stripling warriors, which is always a good story but later that day I got Brady Berry's letter that talked about how he had read the same thing. It was how he had been feeling kind of down but after he read it he saw that he should look at the glass half full.  That was really what I needed at that time because I was really bugged about a few things and that's when I decided to stop feeling so negative and to just buck up and get over the little things and be positive.

Well I'm sorry it's such a short letter this time, just same stuff this week not much else.  I love everyone.  Thanks for everything you have done for me. I miss you guys.  Alohas!

Elder Justin Pincock

PS. We will go with the pigeon word, “Shoots”. It’s what you say after someone says something you agree with. Like if we were talking and I said “alright, have a nice day” and you would say “shoots”. It’s like what you say when you are about to leave a conversation.

Well that’s all for now. Shoots, den (“den” means “then” but they say it like “den”). Mahalo!

I'm Staying in Ka'u!

Hey everyone! It's awesome to hear how everyone is doing.  I'm not going to lie it is way weird to hear about people getting married! hahaha Was it a result of this conference?  Pretty much they all told us we should go get married.  Since I am here I can just see my candidates dwindling as we speak, hahaha!  It is also way cool to hear where all my friends are going on there missions.  TELL THEM TO WRITE ME. I want to know how all the missions calls came in and when they are going to which MTCs… Details people!! Hahaha

 

It was a pretty good week. I love conference!  It is just amazing to me that we can receive direction straight from God.  It really amazes me also to think of how much the speakers go through just to guide and direct us and to help us to grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  I decided to take notes on all the sessions and it turned out to be the best general conference ever!  I'm so grateful for the Priesthood that I have and I just hope I'm living up to the privileges that I have because of it.  I'm so glad that Bronson dad and Ty were able to go to Priesthood together.  I wish I could have come with the boys but I'm just stuck in here in HAWAII! hahaha Just kidding I love it here. But it was really weird to think we were all watching the same thing at the same time.  It was also weird to pretty much see home on TV!  Have to admit, I was pretty jealous of the snow.

Guess what happened this week!  Candice’s daughter Sierra was baptized!  It was awesome she was so excited and guess who performed it?!  Me!  Oh and remember how everyone was pretty much warning me about the names here in case I had to baptize someone… well they were right! Hahaha I had to practice her full name a ton before I could do it.  It is Sierra Yukie Maluhialaniokaimalino Kaawa! haha It was the best.  Her dad even came! I'm pretty sure he felt the spirit.  Her family is doing pretty good.  Candice had kind of a setback though and had been kind of falling from the gospel a little but is now reading her scriptures again and hopefully her faith will build back up.  Kanani is also kind of sad because she won't be able to be baptized until she is 18.  We talked to her last night and hopefully she will keep going with things too.

  

Well that's what has been going on here.  I just found out last night that I will get to stay for another transfer (6 weeks) Woohoo!  Elder Brown is also staying.  Hopefully we can keep figuring out how to work together better and get more done.

Oh I wanted to tell you about something I read.  It was a talk that President Eyring gave about teaching your kids how to pray.  He was talking about how hard it must have been for Heavenly Father to give us up and let us come down to this life without him.  He shared a story about how he was with his father in New York.  His Father was there for work and he was there on the way to somewhere else and they met up for a while.  He said it finally came time when they had to part ways on a busy intersection with everyone passing by and he hugged his father and said his goodbyes, knowing he wouldn't see him for a while.  The lights all turned red and it was time for him to go. He started to walk across the street and got about half way and looked back to see his father watching him with kind of a sad look on his face.  He wanted to run back to his dad but the light was about to turn so he had to hurry to the other side.  He later talked to his dad about that day and his dad said he had read his facial expressions wrong.  His dad said the look on his face was not a sad look but a look of concern.  He was wondering, has he taught him well?  Will he be ok? And that he knew that this was the time when he couldn't help his son but just had to let him go.  When I read this story I couldn't even hold it in.  I was just sitting there by myself (elder brown had already gone to sleep) pretty much crying because I am so thankful to have had such an awesome dad.  One who was always concerned of whether I was doing the right things and it made me think of the day you guys dropped me off at the MTC.  How great a day that was but also how sad I was to leave.  I'm so grateful to be sealed to my family forever.  and I'm not only grateful for Dad but for all of you for watching out for the baby of the family haha you guys are the best and I love every one of you sooooo much.  I just wanted to say thank you. 

Elder Justin Pincock