Mission Office- Week Eleven

Joy to the World

Hello World,

I am so grateful that I am able to be a representative of Jesus Christ during this time of the year. Besides from knocking on doors and leaving the message of Christmas this past week, I was particularly excited about Christmas because we had a special opportunity to sing in a mini mall. We put together a group of thirty missionaries to go and sing Christmas hymns in this mini mall. The choir sang while two or three Elders gave out Liahonas and other teaching material from Christmas. I was designed to director the choir, which was super cool. It was cool to see people walking by, clapping, and sometimes stop and sing a couple of hymns with us. For me, this was one of the best ways I could have passed this Christmas. 

On Christmas Eve and on Christmas, we were out knocking on doors and to tell the truth we did not meet anyone particularly interested in our message, but while we were out, I found myself thinking a lot about the Savior, His life, and everything He means everything to me. It was not a white Christmas or a Christmas that I got a lot of gifts, but I felt close to my Savior. My President focused a lot on that during this Christmas. It was for us to get to know our Savior better by doing what He would do and serving the people in our areas. I am grateful for the opportunity to be on the mission to get to give all my time and talents to help others and get to know my Savior a little better.

All in all the week was super good. We are getting to know our new area and all the members. I am really excited because the people in this area are a lot more open than in my old area. I pray that we will be able to find some really good people.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Years. 2019 will be a blessed year ;)

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Mission Office- Week Ten

Hello world,

I know that I write every week saying how crazy the week was, but i think this week really was the craziest week of my mission. We had transfers this week followed by the arrive of 18 new missionaries followed by three straight days of the missions Christmas Conference. During this week, every single missionary in the mission passed in the office (some came by more than once) and there are about 160 of them at the moment. Being in the office, we had to handle the logistics and preparation for everything. It was truly a miracle that everything work out. I have been sleeping very little. On Tuesday night, we had 16 Elders sleeping in our three bed room apartment. It got to the point were there was little room on the floor to sleep and the pillows and blankets ran out long before we reach 16.

Wednesday morning we took Juliano to the airport. Juliano is a young men going on a mission to São Paulo West. He is wrong one of the branches in the mission, which means President Cuvelier is the Priesthood leader in charge. Because we are President´s secretaries, we got the job of making sure he got to his flight and everything. This branch is five hours by bus from Curitiba. Juliano got in at midnight from his city and we took him to the airport at five in the morning. We slept very little. We got to the airport to discovered that his flight had been cancelled and had to be rebooked. Long story sort, we did not get back until 10:00 in the morning. However, it was a blessing that Juliano got on his flight and got the CTM.

I have to run already! I promise to write more next week. Love you all lots!!!!

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Mission Office- Week Nine

I DID GET THE PACKAGE. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I went ahead and opened it because, well, I want to start using them. It got here super fast! That was cool because usually it takes a long time for everything to get here. We have been getting a lot of mail here in the office. Makes sense because everyone is sending things for Christmas. The mailman came here five times on Friday. We set up a little Christmas tree in the office and we started putting all the packages under the tree for the missionaries to come get. President liked it a ton!

         Q/A Time:

1. How are the people in your teaching pool?  Our mission has made a transition from calling them “investigators” to “friends” or “people being taught”.  Our new mission president has made a bunch of changes and this is one of them.

Yeah, we have made that change too. That is one of the new things that came with the new Preach My Gospel. There are a lot of good changes in the new version. I liked this change personally because it makes us think of the people we are teaching more has sons and daughter of God. What the missionaries really need today is that we need to focus on the people. 

2. Another policy change we had recently is that we can’t send around a missionary meal calendar for the members to sign up to feed the missionaries.  Members have to come to the missionaries, ward mission leader, or ward missionaries and ask to feed the missionaries.  They have to be fed from 5-6 pm, unless a non-member will be present for dinner.  Then, the dinner can be anytime.  How are your meals coordinated?

It is suppose to be more like how you said here, but it never really ends up going like that. Brazil is funny like that. All the wards I have passed have a meal calendar that the members pass. However, it is for lunch, which I would think is a lot better. It leaves the whole afternoon to work. Because we get up at 7:30, things are different here. We usually use the whole morning studying and then we go to lunch around noon. We stay there for an hour and then from 1:00 - 10:00 we work in the field. We rarely stop to eat dinner because there is usually no time. There are lots of people to teach.

3.Tell me some of the things you have been doing to Light the World?  I imagine you are doing service all the time.  Is there something special you have done to serve differently this Christmas Season? 

We are planning to go to the shopping mail near the office here with a group of missionaries and we will sing some Christmas hymns. We have been talking with lots of people about Light the World in the streets and with all the members. It has been really cool. It really is an inspired program to help all the participates feel the true Christmas Spirit. I personally have made a goal to be a light to others during this Christmas season. I am trying to be more thoughtful of others and extend a hand to others that are needing help. 

I am not going to be able to write a group email this week. Here are some photos. Something cool this week that happened, we played Basketball and soccer with President and his son today. It was super hot and we almost died. Other than that it was a pretty calm week. 

Love and miss you all lots,

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

  

Mission Office- Week Eight

Seja a Luz do Mundo

Hello world!

This past week, the mission was in full force with the Light the World program that the church is doing again this year for Christmas. The mission received a lot of materials to use during the month of December. I have been running around getting everything together so that the companionships can start using the materials right away. It is hard to believe that it is already the 8th. Christmas will be over before we know it. We decorated the office also. We put up our Christmas tree and there are tons of presents already arriving for the missionaries (packages in the mail that is). 

This past week, we had the "after five weeks in the field" meeting with the new missionaries. I had to run to the Policia Federal with several missionaries to do the documentation. I was super grateful that everything went well. 

We are visiting still our recent convert from Venezuela, Mireya. She is doing super well. She is going to have more family from Venezuela come live with her in Brazil. We are excited to get to meet her family. She has really let the gospel change her life. In the Venezuela, she was a school teacher. When she was younger, she drank and smoked. She was less relaxed in life. However, now, she has completely embraced the gospel and I can tell that she seems happier in her life. I know that the gospel makes me happy. It does not mean that I am happy all the time, but over time, I can see how I am more happy. 

Thank you all for the love and support. Miss you all lots. 

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Mission Office- Week Seven

It´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Hello world,

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we are in December, I am really starting to feel the Christmas excitement. It is crazy to think about how fast this year flew by. President has already got the whole mission sharing the Be the light of the world videos with investigator and encouraging  everyone to take part in the program. I greatly enjoyed the videos for this year. They really brought the spirit and help me feel the true Christmas Spirit. 

This past week, I went on my first real road trip in the mission. We took the bus from Curitiba to Parangua, which is the city that sits by the ocean. It was a two-hour bus ride. We had to resolve some documentation with visas there and so we did a fast one day trip there. It was really cool to get to know another city. I had never really left Curitiba before, so at least I can say that I left. 

Also this week, we finished up all the zone conferences for this transfer. Now the big thing on our plates is transfers. We have a super big group of new missionaries coming in December, so there are lots of things to get together for them when they get here. It is exciting because this will give an significant increase to the mission. We will have almost 10 more missionaries than we had before. Cool to see the mission grow. 

We starting teaching a new couple that I think I mentioned last week. The are reading the Book of Mormon and trying to receive an answer still, but I know that they will get answer. They are super prepared for the gospel and they are really open to what we believe. They do not exactly believe in all the same things that we do, but they have been really nice and humble to learning new things. They also really spoil us every time we go over (See below in photos). 

All in all this week was super great. I am looking forward to the adventures for next week. I have to take a lot of missionaries to do their identification. I never now what happens with that because the Brazil government likes to pull fast ones on us sometimes. Nothing to worry about because God is on our side. 

Mission Office- Week Six

My Last Thanksgiving in Brazil

Hello World!

This past week, the mission had all the zone conferences, which means the secretaries get a lot of work. I spent most of the week buying and giving out materials for all the areas. I worked a lot of renewing visas, which lucky is giving more success than it had in other weeks. I am going to travel to the beach city of Paranaguá on Monday to resolve some documentation there for a Sister. All and all it is very busy in the office. 

This week, we found a couple really really cool. We were going to visit a investigator whose family are members when we found them. This investigator is the owner of a tire replacement place and we were waiting there for him to finish working when a couple on a motorcycle came in with a flat tire. The guy we had came to visit started fixing the tire and the couple was just waiting so we started talking to them. Turns out that they have friends who are members of the church and knew a little about the church. We talked and marked a day later that week to go and teach. We went to their apartment and taught a lesson really good. The bought us pizza to eat afterwards (that does not happen a lot so it was cool). 

The other big big highlight of the week was Thanksgiving Dinner at President´s house. President invited the office staff (the four secretaries and the Assistants) to eat Thanksgiving dinner with his wife and two sons. Can I just that Sister Cuvelier really came in on the clutch with this. She started cooking a whole day before to get everything ready. Literally the best lunch I have eaten in Brazil and brought back the good memories from home. The thing more funny was seeing President without church closes. It is technically our P-Day some President was rocking the jeans and button down. We all gave a little laugh when we say him. I am super grateful for President Cuvelier and his family. They are really special people and I look up to them a lot.  

Pictures included some of my old companions that came into for Zone Conference, myself with Elder Cappi, pumpkin pie from thanksgiving with President.

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Elder Pinkney