Mission Office-Week 24

Hello world,

This week was really crazy. We had our Easter conference this week and I got to go to the temple. It was really good. President gave us all a copy of Saints (the new history book of the church). I am almost done now!

I have a bunch of photos this week, so I hope you all like them.

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Mission Office- Week 23

Hello world,

I want everyone to know that I am super excited for general conference this year!! It will be my last  general conference in the mission and I am so excited to hear again the words of our prophets and apostles. I am also super excited to see how the Lord´s church will continued to be restored in our days.

This week was really busy because we had transfers. We had a lot of people sleeping at the Hotel Brazil Curitiba South (which is our apartment). We had three straight nights with 10+ Elders sleeping in our house. It was a lot of fun and crazy at the same time.

On Thursday, we had a Family Home Evening (which is a family meeting where we all get together to have good time) at the house of a member in our ward and there was a non-member family there. It is a family really good. It is mom, dad, and two sons (ages 14 and 10). We taught the restoration and we show the video of the First Vision of Joseph Smith. They were quite during the lesson but it ended up being a really great lesson. They, at the end, participated and made a lot of really good commentaries. At the ended, we got them really interested. They accepted to read the Book of Mormon and invited them to pray to know it is true. Also, they accepted to come and visit the church on Sunday. We are praying that they will come and visit tomorrow. 

All in all, it was a really great week. We also won the blessing that President bought three huge pizzas for us on Transfer Day. It was awesome and there were 13 missionaries. 

Hope you all have a great week and I also want to give out a shout out to my favorite and best sister who is turn 16 on Monday. Love you Rachel and I hope you have a great birthday.

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Mission Office- Week 22

13 Down, 3 to Go

Hello World,

I do not mean to bring in any form of trunkeza, but this coming Monday is transfers and I will start my third to last transfer. I can not believe how fast the time has gone by and the thought of going home already makes me emotional. I know there is so much that I still need to do before I go home. 

This past week, I ran all over the city. On Monday morning, I got up with Elder Cappi at 4:00 in the morning to go wait at the Recieta Federal, which is where we take care of one of the parts of our documentation for the foreigner missionaries. Why did we go so early?!? Because if you don´t get in the line early (a line that already has people at five o'clock in the morning), there is no way to get the documentation done on that day. We had to go in there early and get it done. 

On Tuesday and Friday, I was at the Policia Federal from 9:00 to 3:00 during documentation for foreign missionaries (that is including the one hour bus ride each way). 

Also this last week, I went on splits with my good friend Elder DuPaix who was in the CTM with me. He is a great missionary and I had a great time with him. See photo below. 

Other than that, we have been working a lot in the field in our area and I can see the hand of the Lord during each day. I have been reading "Saints" a ton during this week and I have learned a lot about church history and the faith of the early members of the church. I have not even reach in the part of church history were the saints build the city of Nauvoo. I have already read incredible stories of people with unwavering faith in the Lord, families that left everything they had to unite with the church, and men that left on missions in incredibly difficult circumstances. I have grown a much wider understanding of the timeline of events (as a lot of the stories and events I had already knew). It has strengthen my testimony that this is the true church of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ and that He directs this church. There are many lessons that the early church members learned that we need to learn today if we are to perfect the saints and establish God´s kingdom on the earth. 

I also, this week, have been following the dedication and events happening of the Rome Italy Temple. What an incredible temple with numerous meaning. I can not help but be moved after seeing the statue of the Savior and each one of His apostles behind Him. What an beautiful sight and testimony of the reality of God´s kingdom on the earth and the organization of His true church. (If you didn´t get to see, I encourage you to take a look https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/group-photo-first-presidency-quorum-twelve-apostles-rome). 

Also, I want to formally say good-bye to my good friend, Elder Haight , who will be going home this coming Monday. He is my best friend Assistant here in the office. See photos of his funeral as he will be "dying" come Monday.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. I miss and love you all lots. 

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney  

Mission Office- Week 21

Hello world, for those of you that are just getting my email now, sorry that it took me so long to figure out the group email thing. 

This past week was Carnaval. A lot of the streets were empty and a lot of the shops were closed. It made it hard to get around to talk all of our investigator, but we had a fruitful week. 

We worked a lot in the office. It was a little bit slower. But this next week, we'll get everything rolling again. Highlights of the week. We got to go to a all you can eat pizza place. It was super cool. a big thing here is chocolate pizza. It is basically just liquid chocolate on bread. It is heavenly!!!

This week, something cool was I got to see really how Heavenly Father is always guiding us to find someone to teach. One day, we were knocking on doors and a lady answered. We asked her if we could leave a message with her and she said yes but to come back another day. As we were leaving the street, we stopped a young women that was walking and asked her if we could go to her house to leave a message with her and she said yes. We marked down where she lives and we were on our way. Two days after, we decided to head back to the house with the lady that had said yes. We hit the door bell and we were surprised to find the young lady that we had talked to that same other day on the street. It had turned out that in separate occasions we had talked with the Mom and her daughter (the girl we stopped on the street). It was a funny moment and they let us teach, on the doorstep, the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they accepted the invitation to be baptized. It was an incredible example of how Heavenly Father puts us in the right place at the right time. He has a master plan or everything and I am grateful to be a part of it.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. Thank you for all the support and sorry for the endless amount of photos of food. Eating is one of the principle responsibilities of an Elder so.... 

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney

Mission Office- Week 20

Hello World!!!

This last week was really really busy. I had a lot to do in the office and we worked a lot in the field also. We are in the middle of transfers so everything is a little calmer. 

On Wednesday night, we had six other Elders staying in our house. It was fun, but our house got super dirty. We spent all morning today cleaning the house. lol...

Other than that, the week was pretty normal. Looking forward to this next week. 

Love and miss you all lots.

Com amor,

Elder Pinkney