LETTERS FROM HOME

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Three birds identified on a recent guided tour of the Tobago rain forest

Collard Trogon

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Sister Sarah Pinnock in Argentina

Hey family how the liver are you guys?  How is life?  I love you all so much.  This week was a great one.. lots of preaching, lots of spirit bringing, lots of.  Today I thought I would tell you a little bit about the culture of Argentina.  I feel like coming here has opened my eyes to a lot of things.  As missionaries we ask lots and lots of questions.... "Do you believe in God?" or "What is important for you in your life?"  or "What do you feel is your purpose?" or "What are you plans?"...  and I have been shocked at answers that I have received.  Usually the adults work and have some sort of plan but 99% of the youth have no idea and don´t care.  Typical conversation:

“What do you believe in?”

“I don´t know.... haha.” 

“What do you want to do when you are older?”

“Who knows?” or “I don’t know” or “Nothing.”

"What is important to you?"

"I don´t know..... friends, family"

"Why do you think you are here?"

"No idea"

"What are you going to do tonight?"

Shoulders shrug but they are thinking "Buy a beer and get drunk."

"Do you believe in God?"

"Ya I guess."

Oh my heavens I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them until they understand.  It legit makes me want to cry holy tears sometimes.  When you see so many people suffering it is shocking to see so many youth that don´t care about their lives or their future.... and I don´t blame them for a lot of it... they´ve seen what I’ve seen... they are living it.  Argentina is a dead-end street for most people. But still it frustrates me.  In the US the good are still rewarded for their hard work.  If you work you get paid.  If you go to school you get a good job.  If you are good the world treats you good.  Here it is not like that.  I see so many people confused and sad and I can see how the gospel legit would help everything.  I have learned what it means to keep a perspective.  People here only look past their toes.... it´s sad.  When we forget our Heavenly Father things fall apart.  We need to have an eternal vision.  The other night we passed a member family´s home and it got me thinking.  We could see them in the window...  they are a big family, they are poor even though they all work harder than 90% of the humans here, they go to church every Sunday and they read and pray every night, they will probably never get rewarded in this life for their hard work but as I looked in I saw a family laughing and united, a family with a vision bigger than this world, a family that doesn’t care what the world thinks, a family that knows exactly where they came from, what they are doing and where they are going.... and in that brief moment I understood.  I am so grateful that I know who I am and where I am going... and I´m grateful that my Father in Heaven knows exactly where I plan to direct my agency for the rest of my life.  

Investigators... Nestor and Julieta are doing really well!!!  They went to church on Sunday and are getting super excited for their baptism.  They talked to the bishop and we call them like crazy to make sure we have a lot of contact with them... como se dice killing them with love. Hahaha!  But they are our firmest investigators right now.  Florencia and Sonia are doing great!!!!!   The grandma who didn´t get baptized made me a hat.... I love it!  I really love these people so much!  I´m a little nervous for translados because who knows what´s going to happen but the truth is I think that I’m staying here in Terrada.... we will see but for this week we are going to work real hard.  I´m loving it out here!  Have the best week!  I love you guys sooooo much!!!!

Hermana Sarah PInnock

White-tailed sabrewing hummingbird

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Elder Joshua Pinnock in Italy

Ok so this is what happened this week with transfers. Anziano Shepard is staying here in Livorno and a Anziano Erikson is coming in to

replace me. I am coming home...in a year...tee hee. Tomorrow I am going to be transferred to a city called Lecco and I am going to be District Leader. So that also means that I am going to need a lot of

help so feel free to pray for me all you want. So ya I’m so ready to go. I've said goodbye to all my 'favorites' here (everyone) and it was good but really hard. I made great friends with so many of the members and our investigators. Saying goodbye to them was really hard. It was hard in Verona as well but it is different here because the entire time that I’ve been here I’ve been able to speak Italian have gotten to know people so it was really hard to say goodbye to everyone. So my new companion is a Anziano Robinson if any of you

happen to know him. He’s a complete mystery to me. Last night we ate dinner with the Kennedy family

who are an American/Italian family. They are one of my favorite families here. Then on Sunday we met with Saverio for the first time in three months and it was amazing. After waiting for thirteen years

he finally received his house so we met him in his new house and had an amazing time. It was hard to say goodbye to him. He was in tears and I just didn’t know what to say. But I have one thing to tell y'all now. He is one of the greatest friends of the missionaries in Livorno and he wants me to come back to Livoro with all of you so that he can

feed the lovely family of Anziano Pinnock in his house. So get ready for when we come back to Italy because he will feed us and he will feed you with the best Italian food you will ever eat. He is an

amazing cook and he knows it. He cannot wait to feed the Jon and Laura Pinnock family so get ready, just a fair warning. So it was amazing to see him one last time and say goodbye to him but the best

part of the week was meeting with the referrals. I told you that there is a woman named Viviana Garcia in our ward who introduced her parents to us. So this last week we met with them twice and both times were amazing. They are so ready right now to hear the gospel and I am so sad that I won’t be able to stay here to teach them. They even had us over for lunch Sunday to feed us some Peruvian food and it was amazing. I want to go to Peru so bad now. Just get ready we might need to go there as well just to eat. So meeting with them was amazing. I loved getting to know them. Guess what? We even invited them to be baptized during our lesson on Sunday and they could totally feel the spirit but after a little bit he just said that he'll see

when his answer comes. So it’s still good. It was great and I can’t wait to hear from Anziano Shepard on what happens with them. So ya I have loved this week. Also last night we had a little party with some of our investigators. We bought a cake and ate it in the church. It was really fun. They are all great and I got pictures of all them. So tomorrow I leave Livorno for Lecco.

Anziano Josh Pinnock

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Blue-backed manakin