Osvaldo Cruz- Week Ten

Hello World,

This past week was a solid week. We had lots of success with finding, teaching, and inviting all to come unto Christ. I sadly do not have much to report other than this. The weather has been what I imagine as Virginia Beach weather: a little warm but with a breeze that makes you fell like you are standing on the beach.  

However, we did have chance this past week to help a family in the ward that was doing some painting in their house. It was a good break to do some simple service. We were told that the color ended up being really good so we were happy for that. 

My companion, Elder J, made me a traditional Guatemalan style breakfast, which consisted of eggs, ham, and deep fried field bananas. It was super good. The best part was actually the deep fried field banana. I love it so much that I bought some and deep fried some more. This week I am going to try to make Breakfast burritos American style.  

Saturday night we did a Family Home Evening with one of our investigators named M . M is super awesome and has been progressing for a while now. He is super kind and has a big heart. We taught him about our Jesus Christ and the gospel that he taught for each of us to follow and receive blessing in our lives. The lesson went super well and you could tell that M felt the spirit. 

The Stake I am in now had a Missionary fireside yesterday. It was pretty similar to the ones we had back home where recent converts tell about their experiences accepting the gospel and joining the church. My companion and I were also invite to share our testimonies about Missionary work. I was pretty nervous, but I like a shared a pretty good testimony. In the end, I was glad for the chance to bear my testimony. Looking forward to this coming fast Sunday to share my testimony again. All the missionaries in the mission were challenged by President to share our testimonies this Fast Sunday. Can´t wait for this next opportunity. I know that a testimony is something that we should share with everyone. 

Thank you all for your love and support. Again, sorry that there are not a ton of photos. 

--

Elder Pinkney

Osvaldo Cruz-Week Nine

Hello everyone,

Please forgive me but I took exactly zero photos this week so I will do my best to make up for that with words. 

For all of you that might have forgotten, I had my birthday this past week. I am six months old now. The time has really gone by fast, but it has been awesome. 

This past week, the weather was my best friend. While my companion was styling sweaters and often time, heavy jacket, I stocked with the short leaves and a umbrella. I have not been a huge friend of the killer hot days we have had recently but this past week was chilly, cold, and fresh. It felt like a normal week in February. 

We have been working lots and I honestly can not say we did much other than that. I have been having some truly faith- testing experiences. Not everything has been going exactly as according to plan. Because of this, Elder J and I have been flexible and always searching for Heavenly Father´s purpose. I learned again this week to be patient and faithful and trusting in the plan that Heavenly Father has for us. 

On another note, Elder J said that my Portuguese has been getting a lot better. Elder J has been tons of help on getting my American accent more understandable. At this point, my accent is the biggest thing that gets in the way of people being able to understand me. But thanks to Heavenly Father, I am able to do all the missionary task in Portuguese. My only fear, language wise at this point, is when I have to buy strange Brazilian fruits, buy obscure items of clothing, or talk to someone how to fix their computer... also teach music. (I tried to help one of the young men this past week with a piece of piano music he was preparing and it did not go very feel. They read music differently here in Brazil so everything I said did not make sense.)

All and all, every day is an adventure. I am so grateful that I am having these experiences in Brazil. 

-- Best wishes to everyone back home. 

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Osvaldo Cruz-Week Eight

Hello everyone, 

My apologies that it has been along time since my last message. I encountered some problems with my email account but after lots of testing and phone calls to Salt Lake, everything is fix. Thank you to the mission secretaries that helped me get it fixed.

Lots of events have happened these past couple weeks so I will try to get the highlights. 

Elder J  and I are having many miracles here in Osvaldo Cruz. Before we arrived, the work was really going super slow, but Heavenly Father has been working His purpose for the people here. We have had the blessing of finding many people now that are ready to hear and accept the gospel. I am have been truly humbled to see how Heavenly Father puts us in the right place at the right time. I have been reminded on a daily basis that to listen to the Spirit and follow the impressions we receive.

This past Sunday, I taught for the first time the Gospel Principles class. I was super stressed out and did a lot of preparation to make sure everything would go well because it was my first time teaching the class and in Portuguese in front of lots of people. (I don´t know if I mentioned but I have also already spoken in Sacrament meeting two times now during the mission.) Anyway, I spent a lot of time preparing the lesson, practicing with Elder J , and praying that the Spirit would be there to testify for our investigators. In the hour of the lesson, everything went super well. We talked about Adam and Eve and the important blessing of The Fall. I also shared the video of Elder Uchtdorf about the man who went on a cruise and spent the whole trip in his room. I shared my testimony on how we can take advantage of all the blessing that Heavenly Father has for us in the gospel. Really, the gospel is a feast of blessings and we take advantage when we actively participate in what we know we should do.  We had three investigators in the class and you could tell they felt the Sprit.  I was able to speak Portuguese and they were able to understand me. It was a huge blessing. When I asked Elder J afterwards, how did it go?, he said that it went perfectly. I felt really grateful and humble for the simple answer to my prayers and hard work.

Below are some of the photos of the past couple weeks.

Also story about the cereal is that it was a gift from a member family. They are super awesome and are always thinking about the missionaries. I had cereal several times this past week for breakfast and I can testify that it is really good. 

Love and miss you all. Forgive me as I try to catch up with every one over the next couple weeks.

Elder Pinkney

Osvaldo Cruz-Week Seven

Note from Elder Pinkney's Mom:

We haven't received any blog updates from Elder Pinkney for Week Five and Week Six.  We heard from his briefly on Week Five and nothing on Week Six.  Today, we received this from him...

I am honored that Tyler wanted to follow the trend with a gray suit. So proud of him and wish him a Happy Birthday!! I hope he got my present I left with Rachel. 

This past couple weeks were complicated for my email. Last week during our emial time, I had just started to open my email and read when it kick me out. I don´t know why but I tried to log back in and it did not work. It said my account was disabled. It was a surpirsing event. However, after several phone calls this past week with the technology assistants in Salt Lake, my account is working again. The only thing they told me was to make sure no one back home is loggining to my account. I promise my lack of email was not because I didn´t want to write. 

I will send my blog and try to include all the many things that happened this past week. 


Sadly, he never sent the blog information today.  Perhaps he is having more computer trouble.  Yikes!