Set a Goal

July 23, 2012

So Isaac is coming home!  That's pretty cool.  Tell him I said congratulations.  Well I am doing great.  I love this area and my companion is awesome.  He has only taught me a few words in tongan.  Him and Elder Mafi (remember him? he was in Molokai with me) just talk in Tongan all the time and I feel so confused and out of the loop haha.  It's alright though.  We have a baptism this weekend for one of our investigators.  She is a 9 year old that they found while teaching her friend who also got baptized.  i'm pretty stoked.  I need to figure out if Trina from Mililani got baptized.  I didn't hear anything yet.  I hope she did. There is a lot of potential here.  I have set a personal goal that i will have 2 baptisms every month.  The challenge may be getting the Makaha elder's excited about the work.  They haven’t seemed as motivated to do the work.  Hopefully I will be able to help them to catch the vision if you will haha.  There is a lot of potential in both wards though.  The other day we were trying to find someone and we stopped at this house and knocked on the door and a lady came out.  We talked to her for a little bit and she ended up being the wrong person haha but we asked her if we could come back and she seemed pretty interested and actually is really good friends with the bishop's wife.  So later we talked to Sis Velosco (bishops wife) and they said that they have been someone they have been thinking about.  I guess they have been having some hard times and so she is going to invite them to dinner or something.  So we will see how that goes but she seemed pretty solid. 
 
That’s pretty cool about Teltom’s EFY song.  I want to hear it.  Tell Ian i said what’s up and that I’m hanging on to these last 5 months like my life depends on it.  Which it does a little bit haha. 

I feel like your closings are a lot like my baptisms haha maybe if I get 2 a month you guys will be successful as well haha.  I'm not sure what I want for my birthday but I will think about it. 

Well that is all I can think of for now.  I love you guys.  Talk to you later.

Elder Pincock

Elder Mavae from Tonga, My New Companion

July 17, 2012

Hey everyone.  Sorry i didn't email yesterday.  We had a long day.  We had to take Elder Mavae (my new comp) to the dentist for a root canal (i guess you were doing the same thing haha) and we ended up having to go to 3 dentists office.  The first was the wrong one so then we went next door and that was the right place but then they ended up not being able to help us so then they sent us to Kaneohe which is on the other side of the island so we were gone all day.

Well Waianae is way cool.  There are a lot of awesome people as well as a lot of crazy ones.  Like this one lady we ran into on the street.  Her name was Lota and she was from germany.  She was super old and we started talking to her and she saw our name tags.  For some reason seeing "Jesus Christ" on our tags reminded her of this song that she decided to sing to us...  "In heaven there is no beer.  That's why we have to drink it here.  Because if we don't drink it here, Then everyone else will drink our beer!" haha  That made my day, haha. 
I'm pretty excited to work here though.  There seems to be alot of potential.
Elder Mavae is my new comp and he is from Tonga.  He's awesome.  Elder Davis actually trained him and i just took his spot here so that was kind of cool.  Our pad is super junky and hot haha.  There is no A/C and it is burning in Waianae.  Our bathroom sink has been ripped out of the wall somehow.  i will send pics soon.  And I got out of the shower the other day and put my towel up to my face and i got swarmed with all these red ants.  They were like biting my face and then i realized that they weren't just on my face... So that wasn't my favorite day haha but the good thing is i am still in a car so i have AC in there.  This also means that i will have been in a car area my whole mission.  Except when i go on exchanges with my district.  That's going to be super hot.  i might die. This is a more sketchy part of town but it's not really that bad.  the beach is right on the main road and it is killing me.  but it's alright.  i can hold off for a few more months.
     
So skye finds out the gender next month!  This is going way too fast haha.  Well i love you guys.  Thanks , Elder Pincock

I am being transferred to Waianae

July 9, 2012

Hey family. I can't believe i'm emailing already haha. That was one of the fastest weeks ever. Well i found out that i'm being transferred. Elder Earl is the new district leader. His new companion is someone that came out with me. Elder earl is freaking out a little bit. I'm going to Waianae i think which is kind of more country side so i'm pretty stoked. I am still the District Leader over there too.

Tell Lindsey and Mitch and Jace and Jade i said congratulations on the little guys. haha That's exciting.

This week I was able to go to a sweet training from Elder Allen who is a 70 over missionary work or something. He talked a lot about The Doctrine of Christ. Mostly about how to help our members understand it because if they understand it then that will help them see the importance of missionary work. The Doctrine of Christ is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. It was cool because he told us whenever we are prompted to write something down that we are going to change or revelations that we receive we had to raise our hands. It was cool to see everyone's hands flying up throughout the meeting. It was also helpful because if I missed something people would raise their hands and it would help me to pick it up. He was really good. And super funny too. All the Assistants, Zone Leaders, and District leaders were there. It was like zone conference for just the leaders. I had 4 pages of notes from this training.

We also had a mini missionary this week. We didn't know we were going to get one until like Wednesday and we got him on Thursday. He ended up being pretty cool and he said he learned a lot. His name was Elder Kamimoto. He was with us until Sunday. It was cool because Elder Earl and him knocked on his cousin's door while i was at the training on Friday and she is a Less active and her husband isn't a member. They taught her and I think they are going to go back again next week. That was pretty cool.

Well that was my week. It has been an awesome time, although hard, serving in Mililani. Our zone was awesome. I'm excited to go to Waianae. It is pretty sketchy over there I hear though. I think I will actually be taking Elder Davis' place.

I love you guys. Talk to you later.

Elder Pincock

Our Investigator helped us teach

July 2, 2012

How's it going? The house is starting to look good. I'm stoked to see it. man it seems like a couple weeks ago dad was sad because he couldn't do much work because it was too cold outside. Now it is forest fire season. That's kind of a bummer. So skye's not doing so good this week. I hope she feels better soon. She's always in my prayers. Lynette is getting married. That's awesome. Well sort of... i thought i might be able to be there for it haha guess not. That's ok. Tell her i said congratulations.

This week was good. it was just a normal week though. We did teach a new investigator and had a weird experience. We ended up teaching her at a park and we were just sitting on the wall teaching about the plan of salvation and then all of the sudden this Jehovah's witness comes up. He was like 70 and just wanted to jump in and teach us his way of thinking. I admired him for his boldness haha We let him do his thing and then he left and what he said actually kind of helped us teach our investigator the right things. So we start teaching again and then his wife comes back and interrupts again and gives elder earl an invitation to one of their big meetings or something. She leaves and we start teaching again. The guy comes back again... and starts talking to us about adam and eve and how it is their fault that we are here and if it weren't for them Jesus wouldn't have had to die for us. We did our best to fend him off pretty much but he was very persistent. What was really funny was our investigator actually started helping us a little bit haha. She was asking him questions that was making him think. She is so solid! He finally said enough and left. That was a first for me. I had never had them come interrupt my lesson before haha.

Transfers are next week. I am pretty sure i am leaving. And i also heard they are giving waipiolani ward their own set of missionaries. That should be good.

Well it was good to hear from you. I will talk to you later. I love you guys.

Elder Pincock

7 new investigators in 1 week!

June 18, 2012

Hey everyone. Dad’s a high priest now! WHOOOAAA! He looks really fit in that picture with g-pa in it. Tell Dad and grandpa i said happy fathers day!  It sounds like a good week at girls camp mom.  thank you for the package and i don't think i need vitamins because we found a 24 hour in our area that has them so no worries there.  now that you mention it though i do need some sunglasses haha  And if you are wondering why i have been using by debit card so much it is because my jp morgan card isn't working for some reason so i just need to figure that out.  Please hide those shirts that i send home haha i want to have them when i get home.  Transfers are in 2 weeks already!  Whoa!  4 transfers left...  I've noticed that when you get to about 18 months people ask you more often how much longer you have left haha i don't know why. 

So you are going to meet Elder Gardner that's pretty cool.  I can't believe he is going home so soon.  He's probably loving Kaua'i though.

Well this week has been crazy!  We found 7 new investigators!  That's the most that i have ever found in one week.  And we also have one of them a baptism date.  She is 10 and her dad isn't a member either so hopefully he will listen to the lessons as well.  I was so stoked!  This week has been super good.  Mililani Ward counsel is catching on to the 15 names list thing.  Hopefully they will get that moving in these upcoming weeks.  Waipiolani ward still isn't really moving forward so we still be working on that.  To top off the week we went to the temple today.  That's always refreshing.  I love The Lai'e Temple.  I can't wait for you guys to come with me.  Well  It's short again but that about sums up my week haha.  I love you guys.  I love this work.  I will talk to you guys later
 
Elder Pincock

I am working on Faith

June 11, 2012

Howzit! Glad you enjoyed the package and the camera card haha. Man i have some more funny ones that you will have to wait for on the next card. the other 2 elders in those videos were Elder Copier (manning the slingshot) and Elder Brough. My shoes are size 8. They have seen better days haha. THey have lasted pretty long for only 10 dollar shoes. I'm not sure if i will stay on Oahu for a while or not. I'm hoping I'll go off island one more time. Kauai is the last island and then i have gone to pretty much all of them. That cabin is pretty sweet. And Max looks like an old man now. He's not a puppy anymore. and yes that was pearl harbor.

Well this week was kind of slow. We are trying to get the members to get excited about missionary work because we haven't really had any referrals. We have had some success from tracting but those people don't usually go anywhere. We are thinking of ways that we can get all of the families do a little bit a missionary work every week. We are giving them this paper that has 131 ways to do missionary work and we are asking them to make a day of the week "missionary day" where they do something from the list and then report on it in family home evening. Hopefully it works. We are also trying to get the 15 names list going still. We are trying to follow up more often about it with the members of the ward council. Mililani 1st ward is getting excited but Waipiolani is a different story so we are going to have to work with them.

That is pretty much our week. haha I been trying to figure out why my whole mission i haven't been one of those missionaries who baptizes a ton. I do get baptisms when i have a good companion or just a good area but i don't feel like i have been that missionary that everyone looks at and says he's a baptizing missionary. So i have been trying to figure out why and it is because i have not involved the members enough. I read a talk today by M. Russel Ballard. He was talking about how there are no bad areas just bad missionaries pretty much. sometime people will say i'm having a slow time because it is a hard area and that sometimes you just have slow times. This is wrong for the most part. Usually it is because i'm not doing something that I could be doing. I haven't had a baptism since i have been in mililani yet which bugs me. And even though everyone says it's a "slow area" there is a lot a potential. I just think there is a lack of faith which i am working on and now we just have to get the members to realize that.

Well everything is going well here. Love you guys.

Elder Pincock

I am a child of God who is here to do great things

June 2, 2012

Sorry, I accidentally sent that last email too early. Wow thanks for that message mom. That was really helpful. That goes along with what I have been thinking about for this passed week. I have been thinking of how I have changed on my mission and hoping i am where i am supposed to be as far as improvements haha and I was thinking of the limits i used to put on myself before. I would forget my potential and just say "oh i can't do that" or "i have never done it that way." or "I don't like you because you do things different." I would forget the fact that i am a child of God who is here to do great things. People say all the time that they don't want to join the church or be active in the church because of the limitations that come with it. That is totally wrong. God doesn't limit anyone. We only put up imaginary walls that Satan makes us think are unbreakable. But we forget that through the power of God we can not only break walls but flatten mountains. It doesn't matter what lies ahead of you because God already made the plan for you to get through it. It's not usually easy but if it was then there would be no point in doing it. It's just about finding the strength that our Heavenly Father has already given you regardless if you know it or not. So that's my little spiritual thought for the day.

Thank you for the package. I loved it. especially that bookmark haha. coolest thing ever. I also recently figured out that my companion is deathly afraid of dinosaurs and so i periodically charge him screeching like a raptor and he freaks out and runs. That's when i start laughing really hard, haha. He is so funny. I do need some apex vitamins though. I found the protein (out of our zone so i can't go back) but they didn't have the vitamins. those would be nice.  dont' worry i sent one. Hey I'm sending your mothers day package today. sorry it took so long. oh and also i sent that last package you received when i left molokai haha that took a really long time

It's still not real to me that skye is going to have a baby right after i get home. Weird. Is she growing yet? let me know when that happens haha. Man i can't wait to see they're new place too. sounds like a pretty cool place.

Well the work here is going good. Nothing really new this week. This transfer is going to be awesome though. We have a really good zone. I'm not really sure if i want to go to school right off the bat or not. right now i'm thinking no but we will see. Man sounds like everyone is doing good. Thats always good to hear. Well once again a short email. Love you guys.

Elder pincock

P.S. 6 months... kind of scary

Oahu is Way Different

May 28, 2012

Man Ian Parkinson is back already?... Wow!  It sounds like you had a good lesson with your young women, mom.

Well this week has been pretty good.  So the lady that we found last
week when we were trying to find a member (it was the wrong address
for the member in our area book but we talked to the lady that lived
there and she agreed to take lessons) now has a baptism date for July
14.  She is a little skeptical but she is will be alright I think.

She is really nice and would be an awesome member.  She just doesn't
like that she can't drink coffee if she becomes a member.  We just
need to help her realize the blessings that come from keeping the word
of wisdom.
We also found another kid who is 18 last week and we taught him and he
got a baptism date and everything but we had to hand him over to the
zone leaders because they cover the singles ward.  It's alright though as long as he gets baptized.

Transfers were yesterday.  Nothing really happened.  Our zone is going
to be almost the same except for the missionaries who are going home.
(Elder Lodder, Elder Lapena)  Elder Gardner goes home in 12 weeks (2
transfers).

We are getting to know the members a little better.  I have the worst
memory so it takes me a while but I am a lot better now.  Oahu is way
different.  I'm still not quite use to it.  It's alright though.  The
wards are good.

I'm not sure yet if there is any celebration or not for Memorial day.
There has got to be something.  Things are going good here though.  The work is starting to move.  We are way busier than when I got here so that is way nice.  Thank you for everything.  Always good to hear from you.
 
Elder Pincock
 
PS.  There are no guitars at Costco here until Christmas time, so I probably won’t get one.