First Cold/White Winter

Elder Pinyon didn't mentioned much for the update, but it was definitely great to see photos that he attached to the email. A friendly reminder the photos will be uploaded to "MTC & Mission Photos" on Facebook and Section "Mission Photos" for the Blog.

He said "Christmas was really amazing, the German people are really amazing and I love them so much. They are so loving and so giving at this time of year, not a single moment did I feel home sick, it was really nice to feel that love and know that there was someone watching out for me :D So I didnt have a snowy white christmas, but this morning as I woke up, there was 6 inches of snow outside, it was so beautiful and white and just so amazing. It was perfect too, being preparation day, I could enjoy my first cold/white winter :D"

Stay Tuned.

BAPTISM of This Last Week

Wonderful experiences during the week. Elder Pinyon sent me 2 emails. I will share with you what his 2nd email said.

He said "Teodolina Selenita Quishpe Bunay or better known as Selena was baptised on the 20th December 2014. About four years ago, Selena started meeting with missionaries in Spain with her best friend, she made the decision to be baptised and got married to her husband so she could be baptised with her friend, unfortunately the baptism didn't work out at the time and she stayed away from the church for along time until she felt the desire to have contact again with the missionaries. Before she moved to Germany two years ago, the same friend which got baptised gave her a bible from the church with her testimony in it.

About 4 weeks ago, Selena referred herself to the church, asking for a missionary visit. We set up an appointment and met with her the following Saturday. As we were in the first appointment, we came to the knowledge that she could not speak any German, could not speak any English either, the only way of communication was through the little Spanish that we knew at the time. We should her a picture of Jesus Christ being baptised by John the Baptist, as she saw that, she pointed to it and said "ich will".

As we taught her an came to know Selena, her testimony of repentance was already so amazing and only grew to become stronger. She would tell us, through a Joint Teach (Bruder Tafur) her feelings of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon. She knows that it is the only true Gospel and that she wants to be apart of it. In the short two weeks that we taught her, she learnt and grew and her testimony grew with her, she was then baptised on the 20th December 2014 by Bruder Tafur. She was then confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by Bruder Tafur the follow day. She was so happy and smiled the whole day. She loves the Gospel.

What is Christmas about??  There have been many great and wonderful people, even religious teachers who have taught men how to live, but there has been but ONE Messiah, ONE Christ, the ONE Annointed, even Jesus Christ.

I testify of Him, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is the Saviour, the Messiah. He made the Atonement for our sins and opened the resurrection.

Thank you for your prayers always. This week was really amazing, we had a baptism, and it was just perfect. Everything was fine and now I can say that I fulfilled my purpose. And now after seeing Selena's baptism, I just want another one, so on Sunday night I just invited an investigator to be baptised next month and he said yes :D I am so excited for all the work that is happening here. Also being district leader is great. My district is on fire, I have been focusing on baptism and all the topics that can around baptism for the last 2 weeks in district meeting and this week, my district set 5 baptismal dates. I dont know if that is really big for your mission or where you live, but for Germany it is unheard of.

We are preparing ourselves, spiritually and physically. The work is true and is great. I love this work. I havent got your letter yet tho. Also this morning we went finding and we found a family of chinese people and they are really awesome and want to learn more about the gospel. I pray that you have a really amazing Christmas this year, I am sorry that I can't be there, but it is ok, because I am helping people to understand Christmas just like we do :D

I would suggest that you read the Christmas story in the Second chapter of Luke atleast once this week. It will take a minute and a half to read it. It might take a minute more to ponder on it - but FIND YOURSELF IN THE STORY as Angels who proclaim, as Shepherds who take care, as Wise Men who seek after the true meaning of happiness, as Sheep who follow the Master, as ... FIND YOURSELF.

Merry Christmas"

Stay Tuned.

Come Closer to CHRIST

A reminder, the spelling errors isn't my fault. It is so hard when you have limited time of what to say.

Elder Pinyon said "Had a really great week, but I just want to focus on the covenant on baptism. I want everyone to know that they need to be the Key for someone. People that aren't members of the chruch are waiting at that gate which than starts the path to eternal life, it doesn't start before, but after. We as members hold that key to open it, please use it and do your missionary work. Anyone that isn't a missionary isn't a member. I challenge you all to do your missionary work and be the Key. In German we say "seien Sie den Schlüssel".

we have a baptism this weekend and I am so excited for her, I have had a broken foot I think all week, but I have done everything I can to help her come to baptism, tomorrow I will be going to doctors, so I havent gone crazy, I am still a little normal, but we really need to help people come closer to CHRIST.

Elder Pinyon"

 Stay Tuned.

New Companion, Elder Stringham

Just a reminder, that I don't copy and paste the whole email. I share what has needed to updated.

Elder Pinyon said "This week was a great week, I loved it. So as I said last week I think, I got a new companion this week, his name is Elder Stringham and also we have new Elders that opened a new program up here in my area, so we have 4 Elders in one apartment, it is a lot of fun and I am learning a lot of German and a lot of everything. All 3 of them are older than me so it is really nice :D So also from the lady from last week that we met with and said ICH WILL to baptism. We met with her on Saturday evening and we had a really great lesson and at the end of the lesson we asked her to be baptised and she said "I know that it is time the I need to be baptised. I know the gospel is true and I will never leave, I want to be baptised now" So we have set a baptismal date with her for the 20th December, so she will be baptised in 2 weeks, I am so excited for her. Her daughter said that she will pray about it to know whether she should be baptised. Her daughter is only 11, but so mature, it is amazing.

Also this week I had a little "accident" I have 2 carpet burns on my face now, but its all good, they dont hurt to much, just looks really ugly on my face haha. We have had a lot of success this last week and I know that we will have more as we move closer to christmas and also the new year :D The weather is a little warmer than I expected this last week, see the week before it was in the negatives, but this week we only had lows of 0, so no snow yet, but that is alright it will come in the right time.

That was pretty much my week :D but all is good."

 Stay Tuned.

Most Wonderful Experience!!

Prepare to cry throughout this week's experiences!! I cried so much!

He said "This week has been a really good one, I have seen so much progress from investigators. It truly is amazing to see the work of salvation just at your finger tips, the Lord truly does love us. So this week was FREEZING!!! I finally lived my first day of a high of -1 and a low of -3. It would be snowing right now if there was moisture in the air, but unfortunately it doesn't want to rain/snow. It is probably good because it would be a massive distraction for me, just hope that it does snow for christmas.

So we got a referral from the office from this lady. She is a self referral and her preferred language is Spanish. Now of course, I dont speak spanish, just english and german. So I was praying that she could speak a bit of german and spanish, but unfortunately not as I found out when I called her up. She answered as started speaking spanish to me, I didnt know what was going on, I just knew she was speaking something. Then I hear a little girl answer the phone and she spoke english, so we set up an appointment with her and her daughter. So we went by and her little daughter had to translate for us, which was good, but unfortunately her little daughter had only been learning german for 1 year, so she couldnt translate everything.

We asked, how did you meet the church?? She said to us "My friend is a member and invited me to find out more about the church". PLEASE SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH YOUR FRIENDS THEY REALLY DO NEED IT, I DONT KNOW WHEN THEY WILL ACCEPT IT, BUT I KNOW ONE DAY THEY WILL. Little did we know she was going to a spanish speaking ward in Berlin, no one knew that she was an investigator, her bible was a bible from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We looked on the front page of the bible and it said written in spanish. For my friend x from your friend y. (Sorry dont want to put names in). It was dated back from 2012, she had a German Book of Mormon somehow, so we brought along a spanish Book of Mormon and gave it to her and she almost cried.

As the lesson went on we spoke a little about the church and how much a blessing was. In the middle of a conversation, something told me, Elder Pinyon show her a picture. It was a bit weird, I didnt know which picture, but I showed her the first picture I opened up to and it was the one of John the baptist baptising Christ. She saw and and she was happy. She then with so much humility pointed to it and said ICH WILL. In English that means I WANT and I WILL DO IT. We were so happy, but we spoke a little about baptism and that she will need to come to church, to prepare to be baptised.

After discussing that and just before we left, we asked the daughter, Glaubst du an Gott?? (Do you believe in God?). She paused and the spirit was there and we were waiting for her answer. Meanwhile in the background, her mum had understood the question and her mum had the face of "please believe in God, that is all I want for you". After a long 1 minute silence the little 11 year old girl said "ja, glaube ich an Gott" (yes, I believe in God). Her mother almost cried when she said that, her mother was so proud and so pleased that her daughters desire was the same. They both want to be baptised before the end of the year. We left and told them we would meet them on Sunday and travel together to church.

So Sunday came along, it was -2 Degress Celcius and I was freezing, I was really praying that they were coming to church. We went to the house and pressed the button to klingel the family. They never answered, so I tried again, still no answer, I was thinking, oh no, they arent coming. I pulled out my phone about to call them and down came the mum and being so excited that she could come to church with us. We couldnt speak with her, but somehow, we could communicate with her, she said that her husband was coming too and he came with us to church. Now comes the good part....we are at church and we get someone to try to interpret for them, but they can only do it during one of the classes, so I sat next to them during sacrament meeting and tried to communicate through google translate (please only use google translate in emergencies like this).

After Sacrament meeting was over, I asked them what they thought of the Sacrament meeting and they said they understood a lot of it. I dont know if they really did, but I could tell that the spirit had made an impression upon their hearts, that will most likely change their lives forever. After Sacrament meeting I showed them the baptismal font and tried to tell them, this is where you will be baptised and they were so excited when they saw it, they really just want to be baptised. Next time we meet with them we will be inviting them to be baptised as a family and I am so excited for this family, it is amazing to see their commitment to the Gospel already.

Also my trainee is getting transfered and I am staying in freezing cold berlin :( oh well, it happens.

Elder Pinyon"

Stay Tuned.