Joseph and Nettie Linton in the West Indies Mission

Letters from home

Families are forever

Sarah on the left with cousin Grace, sister Jane and Grace's little sister

Our dancing missionary Sarah in green

From our granddaughter Sarah serving in Argentina

12/2 Hermana Pinnock

Exciting, exciting news! Hermana Hansen (my old companion from Yuma, Arizona) just emailed me and four of our investigators were baptized! Holy so pumped for them!!! I love them so much! Also Javier is on date for the 21st which is so exciting!!! It´s nice to know that some of my work there came to a great end! Hermana Hansen is an amazing missionary! Miss them all.

Ok so this week in Argentina was a winner! We have some really solid investigators! Santiago is one of them and he is amazing! He has so much faith.... more than I´ve ever seen in any investigator.

When we were walking up the street he came to us and said he wanted the discussions and that he believed our church to be true.... it´s been smooth sailing from then on. He loves talking about his baptism and says that his son is going to serve a mission! He is super stoked on the priesthood and loves church! Everytime we teach him I realize how unworthy I am to be a teacher.... I am so unqualified but he is soooo amazing!

We also have a family that we are teaching. It´s a set of grandparents, Carmen and Artilio and their son Orlando. They are so funny especially Carmen.... she´s not all the way there. Last time we visited them Carmen had bleached her hair blonde and insisted that I help her put in earrings. One of the earrings went in really well but the hole in her second ear grew in but she told me to just sick it through her ear..... I might or might not have pierced her ear.... By I might have I mean I most definitely did.... hahahahahah so funny! Don´t worry I told her to clean her ear every day! Haha after that all she did for the rest of the lesson was look in her hand mirror and say "que lindo".

It was the end of transfers this week and Hermana Rozsa transferred which was sad because she is one of my favorite humans! When we get home I will probably be with her a lot! We just laugh all the time!!! I love her.

One of the best parts of the mission is you get to meet the most solid people!!! All of these sisters work so hard and have such a great spirit! I love them so much!

I´m learning a lot everyday! Heavenly Father is truly at the head of this work! There is no way it would work without him!

xoxo Hermana Pinnock

Favorite quote of the week:

"Happiness leaves no bad taste, it is followed by no depressing reaction, it calls for no repentance, brings no regret, entails no remorse. Pleasure too often makes necessary repentance, contrition, and suffering. And if indulged to the extreme, it brings degradation and destruction. True happiness is lived over and over again in memory, always with a renewal of the original good. A moment of unholy pleasure may leave a barbed sting, which, like a thorn in the flesh, is an ever present source of anguish. Happiness is not akin with levity, nor is it one with light minded mirth. It springs from the foundation of the soul, and is not infrequently accompanied by tears. Have you never been so happy that you have had to weep? I have." Jesus the Christ (3rd best book)

Joshua on left front with sister Jane

Cousins Elsa & Emma on top

Joshua on right embarking on a covenant of service

12/4 Anziano Pinnock

Well about the boy who backed away from baptism last week - the problem is that he had to seriously go out of his way just for
lessons and then for church he had to buy a train ticket because he
lives about 40 kilometers away from Verona and buses don’t run on
Sunday. We want him to come with us to a lesson so that he can feel important. He has a great testimony but because of health problems he has a really hard time making it to church in the morning. So we want him to feel like he was to come to church for another reason other than us.

Then this last week I got my new companion. He is a ginger
from Utah and his name is Anziano Johnson. He is really ambitious and loves to laugh. He is a huge change from my last companion.

They do the work in a completely different way so now I can learn how to adjust to other ways of doing things. The thing I like the most about him is that he laughs a lot and he loves riddles. The riddles are super hard and drive me insane but they keep my mind thinking so its going to be a sad day when he runs out of them. Hopefully they will last at least this transfer.

Here is one that I had a lot of trouble with, "when it’s forward it’s very heavy, when it’s backwards it’s not. What am I?" Good luck.

We are going to people’s houses a lot more (casa). It’s funny I don’t like doing casa contacting but he doesn’t like doing strada (street contacting) so we both just suck it up and do both.

We have gotten more investigators and they are all Africans which means that two of the three don’t have a job. They are super open and religious and open to learn more but are slow to keep commitments.

They are so nice and are just happy to speak english with someone because most of them never learn Italian. Our third one is a 21 year old soccer player and he just had an injury which means he can’t play anymore so he coaches. It is a miracle because if he didn’t get injured he couldn’t come to church but now that he can’t play he has a chance to come to church and proceed. Plus he is smart, has a home, and speaks Italian so we call him a legitfrican because he is legit african/italian.

We are hoping that all three of them will become progressing investigators and be willing to change their lives.

Found out that Verona is one of Italy's best cities when it comes to
Christmas so that will be the best.

I have been reading in the Book of Mormon everyday in English and Italian and right now in english I just finished reading about Abinidi. Holy cow he is the best prophet ever. He wasn’t afraid to die but knew what he is doing was super important. I don’t think that the painting of him is accurate. I think he is a twenty-thirty year old not an old man. Just think about that and how much cooler it would be. Also he didn’t baptize a single person and he didn’t know if he changed any lives but because of him a ton of people were later baptized and came unto Christ. Abinidi rocks.

This is about all for this week. I’m glad thanksgiving was good with the fam. Ours was good too.

Thanks for everything and have a good week.

Anziano Joshua Pinnock