Merry Christmas!!

Hello Everyone,  I can't believe there is still no snow over there... that's a bummer.  Well, I would think it was if it were me living there, haha.  There is still no snow here either.  I'm still hoping Heavenly Father will humor me and give us a white Christmas but it's not looking good haha.  Oh and Ty I totally feel for ya, I hated working mules in the winter.  0 degrees though?! That's crazy! 

I haven't got the packages you sent yet.  I might get them today.  We haven't checked mail.  I'm glad you guys enjoyed my package and the coconut, haha.  I will be sending a Christmas package too today.  Hopefully it gets there in time.

That's crazy about Isaac being home.  I don't know how I would handle coming home...  I can't even imagine that right now.  That's cool that he talked at Jareds farewell.  I hope I talk that confident when I get back, and sounds like he will probably giving his homecoming talk about the same time as me now, haha.

This week has been alright.  It's been kind of crazy with transfers and such.  Elder Maybon is gone and Elder Tripp is now here, he is so happy all the time and probably has the most energy I have ever seen!  He's cool.  He started in Ka'u like me so we had a lot to talk about.  It seems like everything is going pretty good. 

Elder Davis is doing good as the District leader.  He was kind of nervous about taking on the job. He is awesome though so he will do great.  We have been trying to find some new investigators lately.  Our teaching pool seems to be slowing down.   Our investigator that was going to be baptized on Christmas Eve didnt come to church again.  Man, I don't know what is going on, he was feeling so good before when he was coming and being active.  We are just trying to help him understand that again. 

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday.  It was awesome.  They had dinner (of course) and then a talent show.  There are a lot of talented people here.  Most of them were kids too.  They have this thing here called "school of rock" which is pretty much the same as the movie.  One of the members teaches a bunch of kids how to play the all the instruments and they played at the talent show.  It was pretty cool.

Yesterday we had a ward fireside.  We watch 17 miracles.  I have seen it twice now and both times I had to stop my eyes from draining and to swallow the lump in my throat a million times, haha.  That movie is hard to get through.  It's amazing what people went through because they knew that this was the only true church.  They would die for it.  I know people say that all the time but that movie just helped it click in my mind.  I'm so grateful for those people and there example of selfless service and diligence in the gospel.

Well I love you guys and look forward to talking to you on Sunday!  

WHOOOOOAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I will be calling about 3 or 4 utah time, I think.

Elder Justin Pincock 

Transfers! I am Staying on Molokai!!

Hey everyone!  I get at least one more transfer in Molokai!  I get to stay and I'm stoked!  Elder Maybon is the only one who is going, which is a bummer because he is the coolest and best district leader ever!  So now guess who is going to be the district leader… Elder Davis!  He doesn't know it yet but Elder Maybon told me, and he will be so good at it.

 

I'm going to be at one year officially this week!  That's still crazy to me.  I am half way already?  Although I found out something that I was kind of bummed about.  I won’t be able to be home for next Christmas because my last transfer won't end until December 27...  Lame right!  I will be out for 3 Christmas!  That's ok, I will have plenty more.  Hey sorry I haven't sent my memory card of pictures.  Every time I would go to send it something would distract me and I wouldn't be able to.  Now I let it go too long because now I am out of memory on both of them... whoops.  I will send them today (along with some b-day gifts for mom and Bronson) but please hurry and send one back ASAP.  I'm so bummed I missed out on the festivities for your birthdays, sounded pretty good though.  That Christmas party with the Mule friends sounded pretty wild! haha Man I miss Mel and Dona.  Tell them I said hello and thanks again for their huge contribution to my LIFE! That was a funny picture of Dona on the saddle!

That's good that you are still reading Jesus the Christ, mom.  Keep it up.  I did get that poem that Lisa sent.  It is really good, I hope I have a good dash.

 

As for our investigator with the Christmas Eve baptism date…he had a little bump in his life.  He didn't smoke or anything he is totally done with that.  But I guess he went and talked to the priest at another church to tell him he was going to get baptized (I don't know why people think that the priest is there dad or something)  but I guess the priest scared him a little bit and made him realize how big the decision was that he was making.  So he started questioning everything.  Well Sunday came and we hadn't seen him all week because we were at zone conference (a whole other story) but he didn't come to church which was weird because he hadn't missed a Sunday in months.  So both me and Elder Davis felt that we needed to go find him so we left church and went to his house.  He invited us in and told us this story and you could tell that he just didn't have the same spirit about him anymore.  He didn't have the glow, he wasn't smiling as much and it was because he was starting to second guess everything.  Well, me and Elder Davis started just talking.  We ended up teaching him about the Book of Mormon and helping him understand the importance of it and how it is the evidence of the truthfulness of this whole gospel.  He said he would read it and ponder and pray about it after we left.  We also reminded him of the cottage meeting we were having that night.  He said he would come.  He ended up being the only nonmember out of like the 10 that we invited to come.  It seemed that this meeting was for him only.  We started the meeting (by having dinner, of course) and then a lesson.  We went around and bore our testimonies and there were a few people who use to be his other religion so that helped a lot.  His baptism is sort of hanging on a limb right now, but we are still thinking he will be okay.

Now about zone conference…we were supposed to go on Wednesday but then our plane broke so we waited forever for them to fix it and then they couldn't even do it so they had to put us on a flight on Thursday night to Oahu to see a different zone conference there instead of Maui (our own zone)  It was kind of weird but it was fun to see other elders.

I'm out of time now, so… I love you guys.  Man it is always good to hear from you guys.  I love this Gospel and the way it can change people's lives and only for the better and all you have to do is try it out.

Elder Pincock

Wow! 10 More Days = 1 Year!

Hello family/friends who might read this...

Oh and Happy birthday Bronson! I am going to get you and Mom a present hopefully today so you have my permission to be excited!  Man, the Holidays here are super weird because it is not cold...  I don't really like that... haha, but people still have all there decorations up or are now putting them up and there is Christmas music playing.  It’s not very busy though with Christmas shopping because there's not much to shop for here on Molokai.  Most people take the ferry to Maui or shop online I think.  I loved those pictures of the tree festival.  I can't believe dad went, haha.  Good job dad!  I loved all of those packages.  I haven't watched all of the DVD’s yet but I watched a few of the Dad ones.  Those will probably kill me when I watch them all haha, so emotional.  The cd's are amazing.  Kenny G is my boy!  haha  I flipped out when I saw that.  The only thing though is that it reminds me of home a lot and then when I look outside and it's not blustery or snowy and I get kind of sad.  The other two cd’s are super awesome too.  I Got D-Archy's (David Archeletta) signature! haha I haven't watched that movie yet but I'm excited to. 

I was really stoked for this hike we were about to do because it is to the backside of Molokai to somebody’s house but there is no trail and there are cliffs and stuff and we went on google earth with our bishop so he could show us the way.  It felt like when we would find our trails for mule riding haha. We ended up not having enough time on pday to do it though but it would have been really cool.

Skye and Ty might move again?  That would be pretty cool if they had a place with some land of their own.  Good luck with that.  I might miss that little house though. 

Molokai is doing awesome.  One of our investigators is still super committed to being baptized.  We talked to him about it the other day and we asked him to get rid of anything that reminds him of smoking so he gathered up all his ash trays and things and he goes "You guys wanna go out and smash these with me?"  I instantly said yes, haha and we went out and he bashed them with some pliers.  Right now is crunch time for him because if he smokes from now until Christmas eve he has to start all over.  I think he can do it though.  He bore his testimony on Sunday!  He is awesome.  It was great, he was super nervous and when he went to thank me and Elder Davis he said our wrong names.  Man, I love that guy.  He also wasn't really sure how to end it so you could tell when he was done he was kind of wondering what to say because we never told him that you say in the name of Jesus Christ Amen and so he just goes... okay now.. bye bye... haha.  It's awesome that he even decide to go up!  Then I decided to bear my testimony after he did to make him feel a little better.  I hadn't done it in a really long time anyway and it was the last chance of the year.  It felt good. 

We also had the Christmas Devotional but there were some technical difficulties so we had to watch last years.  It was still really good and still made me really trunky, haha.  I miss the times when we would go to temple square on mom's birthday.  Are you guys gonna do that this year?  You definitely should.

Well that is all I can think of right now.  I love you guys and this gospel.  I love to see it change others lives as well as mine every day.  Every day on my mission I seem to get a little stronger and a little more knowledgeable about some part of the gospel and there are still endless things to learn.  Sometimes I just want to know everything.

That is all for this week.

Elder Pincock