Mission Office- Week 15

Hello world,

This past week truly flew by and we had a lot of things going on. Because now that I am trio, I have a little less flexibility in my daily routine because when any one of us need to go somewhere, everyone has to go. For example, everyone has to go to the bank, everyone has to go to some meeting, everyone has to go to the Reality to resolve houses for the missionaries, and everyone has to do a bunch of stuff. It is good and bad at the same time. This past week, I went to like four different banks and we drove one hour away from Curitiba to go see one of the houses that the mission recently left, so we had to meet with the contractor and owner to close the contract. It was a busy week. 

This coming week is the last of the transfer, which is one of the busy times of the transfer (it is always the first and last week of each transfer). This week, I will have to make sure everything is ready for the new missionaries that will come next Tuesday and makes sure everything is ready for the missionaries that will go home. 

Anyway, I am learning a lot. I played basketball this week for the first time in a while and I almost sprained my wrist.......

PS. Iol so hard this photo of the pizza

Love and miss you all lots,

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Mission Office- Week 14

Hello World!!!

This past week was a little slow in the office, which is rare. This week, we did not have any type of meetings or conferences, so the traffic in the office was at a low. That gave us a lot of time to work in the field, which was a refresher. 

This week I can truly testify that Heavenly Father gives us revelation in the moments that we need it most. Ever since I got in the office, I have been fighting with a problem about the visas of the missionaries. I will not go into a lot of details, but it was the kind of problem that is really big and it couldn´t be fixed all at once, so it got thrown on the back burner. However, it was a big problem and I wanted to find a way to handle it without costing hundreds of dollars and lots of time of the missionaries´work in the field. This week, I can without a doubt say that Heavenly Father answered my prayer. I was on the phone with a representative from the Missionary Department of the church (we were actually talking about another problem) when something that the representative said got my attention. I hangup and immediately the solution to that big problem came to my mind. It was quiet and clear. I knew what I needed to do. The solution will take place over the next couple of weeks but I know that it was Heavenly Father that gave me this solution.

This week, we started teaching a women that is living with a man that got baptized a couple of months ago. They have three small kids and are not legally married. However, she has an incredibly strong desire to be baptized and in just three visits, we can see how she has changed a lot. She came to church last week and when she went to read the BOM, she told us that she read that part we left for her to read six times. She said a prayer to asked God if it was true and received her answer that yes it is true. It was truly a miracle of Heavenly Father. 

Anyway, I ran out of time. Love and miss you all lots. Look for the small miracles from Heavenly Father every day and everyday will be that much better.

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

P.S. We had a special P-day with the assistants in our department. BBQ Brazilian style

Mission Office- Week Thirteen

Hello world,

This past week was super hot and it rained a ton. There were a couple days that I got completely soaked, but that´s all part of being a missionary. 

I really do not have a lot to report on. We are working to keep it simple. This past week, I took care of a lot of things in the office in terms of mission materials and flights for the missionaries going home. 

I don´t feel like I talk a lot about my district, so here is a photo of my district. We have a pretty rock solid district. It is the four of us secretaries with one more companionship of Elders and one of Sisters. They are all super spiritual and really funny also. I think the majority of the district is musically so we have a lot of funny singing the opening and closing hymns. 

Pizza Night again!

All in all, it was an amazing week. I am loving the mission. I love and miss you all lots.

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Mission Office- Week Twelve

2019!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful world

Hello world, 

First off HAPPY NEW YEARS To EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On New Years night, we were allowed to stay up until midnight to be awake for the new years. The whole mission had to return to theirs house at 9:00 for safety reasons. We decided to try our luck at doing BBQ at our apartment. It was pretty cool. 

The rest of the week was pretty slow because a lot of business and banks were closed. It slowed our work down a lot. A lot of the work we do depends on these things being open, so we did the best we could in the office and then left to work in the field. We have built a pretty ok teaching group in these past three weeks. It was sad. This week a really really good family cut us. It was a family of father, mother, and four daughters all below the age of six. The first time we taught them, they were super excited to read the Book of Mormon and pray. We left and then the next time we pasted by the said that they didn´t want to receive our visits anymore because of was not going to work out and they weren´t serious about changing. We did our best in the moment to explain and encourage them to continue but it didn´t work out. I felt particularly sad in the moment, but we keep going. However, during the rest of the week, Heavenly Father keep supporting us and opening doors literally for us. 

I read a talk this week called "Put Off the Natural Man, and Come Off Conqueror"  by Elder Maxwell in the October 1990 general conference. It was a very powerful talk that related a lot of our sins being the cause of the natural man. It really open my eyes more to how I need to improve personally. There was a powerful example that he used of a mattress that falls in the middle of the highway. Instead of moving the mattress, the drivers just drove around it in a rush and nobody took the time to stop and move the mattress. It would have been quick for someone to just move the mattress but instead each driver was just worried about the own schedules and where they needed to be in that moment. A lot of times in life, we act like the driver going around the mattress  more worried about where I need to be and what I need to do. Really, when we apply to teaching of Christ, we start to stop think about I and start thinking about the other people around us, which is to be less selfish. 

Stop and think about the mattresses in our lives that would could move to help the other people around us but we leave because I am more important. 

I hope you all have a good Christmas break and holidays. 

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney