Marius was Baptised! Tattoos and Piercings

Elder Pinyon emailed me and this is what he said.

"Marius wurde getauft!!! Marius was baptised!!! Our little 8 year old friend got baptised by his daddy on Sunday after church! We got to teach him all the lessons and the family brought about 6 of their non member friends to his baptism. It was lots of fun :)

Also today, I was studying in the Book of Mormon and I came across an interesting scripture and I just wanted to share it with you all. It is found in Alma 3:4. It says: "4 And the Amlicites were distinguished from the Nephites, for they had marked themselves with red in their foreheads after the manner of the Lamanites; nevertheless they had not shorn their heads like unto the Lamanites."

As I studied about this, something came to mind, I wonder how this relates to the latter days. Or how can I apply this to today? I then went into the student institute manual and found something. Now this
is quote from President Gordon B. Hinkley (1910-2008), one of our dearly beloved prophets. He said:
“Now comes the craze of tattooing one’s body. I cannot understand why any young man--or young woman, for that matter--would wish to undergo the painful process of disfiguring the skin with various multicolored representations of people, animals, and various symbols. With tattoos, the process is permanent unless there is another painful and costly undertaking to remove it. Fathers, caution your sons against having their bodies tattooed. They may resist your talk now, but the time
will come when they will thank you. A tattoo is graffiti on the temple of the body.

“Likewise the piercing of the body for multiple rings in the ears, in the nose, even in the tongue. Can they possibly think that is beautiful? … The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve have
declared that we discourage tattoos and also ‘the piercing of the body for other than medical purposes.’ We do not, however, take any position ‘on the minimal piercing of the ears by women for one pair of earrings’--one pair”

My dear friends, families and guests, I stand with this Prophet, President Gordon B. Hinkley, tattoos and to many piercings are not for the body. I love you all!!!

Sent from Elder Pinyon"

Stay Tuned.

Weekly miracles/stories

This is what Elder Pinyon said through emails for this week. A friendly reminder that I am Megan Green who is a friend of Elder Pinyon's, has been updating this Blog and Elder Pinyon's Facebook account during his mission.

"Hey hey everyone!!!

So on Thursday we teach English class and one of the students is a less active member (not by choice, she needs dialysis) and she brought her friend along that isn't a member yet. So we taught English and we invited her to come to district conference this weekend and also an eating appointment. She came!!! At the eating appointment I sat with her and I got to know her (H2BT) and her father died about 7 months ago. So we asked her if she would be interested in finding out where
her father went and how she can be reunited with him. She said yes!!! So we are now meeting with her on Thursday before English class and she will be taken part of the relief society activity on Saturday.It's really good finding through the members. I'm super excited for Thursday to teach the Plan of Salvation.

Another cool story, is that we did service for a family on Friday and their oldest daughter is inactive. She has a boyfriend that is Muslim and they don't really attend church. During our service project we
invited the other children to invite the boyfriend to conference so he could experience something nice. They were super scared, but I promised them, if they invited them, they would come. The only fear they had was the older sister getting angry about inviting her boyfriend to church because he isn't Christian. On Sunday while waiting outside the auditorium, we see the whole family including the
inactive sister and her boyfriend coming to conference!!! I was so proud of those kids that they invited them to come to church. We are doing service again on Friday and hopefully they will be there so we can teach them!!!

Missionary work through children and youth is the way to do it. It is really the best way and the most effective way. Because they are not afraid of sharing the Gospel!!!!! I love the youth and primary in our branch. One of the little boys we have been teaching is getting baptised by his dad on Sunday, so we are super excited :) just love missionary work, especially when members are involved!!!!

Have a good one :)

Elder Pinyon

Sent from Elder Pinyon"

Stay Tuned.

Fasting and Word of Wisdom

Elder Pinyon emailed me with 2 emails. Here's the second email that he said,

"Hello my dear friends and family,

I am really so pleased for you all that read my blog and follow my mission. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I do. As Christmas approaches under 4 months away, I'd love to turn back to an example
that our Lord and Saviour gave us. This was as He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. What a great example He is for us.

I really love this part of His ministry, because it is actually right before it starts. Why does He fast for this cause? The Saviour wanted to be the most effective that He could as He could be, so by doing
this, He gave up something earthly, such as food and water. As He did this, He received the spiritual strength. But fasting is not just giving up food and water.

Here are 5 tips on how to have an effective fast next time you decide to fast.

5 Fasting Facts
Who: Anyone old enough and healthy enough to go without food and water (ask your parents)
What: Skip eating and drinking for two meals
When: The first Sunday of each month
How: Pray before, during, and after fasting; go to church; give a fast offering
Why: To strengthen your faith and help people who need help If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, please try it. If you are not, please also try it. I can promise you that fasting can really change your life, it did for me and I know it will for you.

The next point I'd love to discuss today is something which we call the Word of Wisdom. Now what could this Word of Wisdom be about? Is it about wisdom? Is it about how to use words? Well, actually, it's a health code that we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Some of you may never of heard it, but it's always been around. It was there in the time of Adam and Eve and as we know, God never changes, it is also here today. In the time of Adam and Eve, they were commanded by God, not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In the time of Daniel, him and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Aben-nego would not bow to other Gods and would not indulge of food. This was also a health code that God had given unto them. Instead of indulging in food, they ate grains and foods that God had revealed unto them that they could eat. Just like in the time of Daniel, how he received this marvellous revelation, we also as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have received this revelation through a prophet named Joseph Smith Jr.

On February 27 1833, President Joseph Smith Jr. received a health code called the Word of Wisdom. This health code included revelation about smoking tobacco, drinking any type of alcohol and hot drinks (such as black/green tea and coffee). Later revelation from another Prophet was received that illegal drugs are also included. These things are not for the belly nor the body.

As my friends and family, I invite you to try and live this health code. Whether you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or not. If you have an addiction, give it up. You are stronger than this addiction. I really love you all and I want you all to know that.

Stay tuned for next weeks edition.

Elder (Jacob) Pinyon

Sent from Elder Pinyon."

Stay Tuned.

What a Wonderful Week!

Elder Pinyon emailed me with 2 emails. Here's the first email that he said,

"Hello my dear friends and family,

Wow, what a week. I'm going to share a miracle with you, one that just happened straight in front of me. On Thursday evening, we had an appointment with one of our friends and his brother and his wife. We decided to teach them the restoration of the Gospel again, because we felt like there was something missing last time we taught them it. So we taught the points of the lesson. In one of the points, we mentioned that God, our eternal and Heavenly Father, that He has a body of Flesh and Bones and is perfect.

What interesting is, is that the brother (Mario) believed us when we told him, but our friend (Renè) was not believing it. He couldn't believe it, because of the things that the world has told him thus
far. We tried to teach every principle possible. We even used Doctrine and Covenant 130, but still he didn't want to believe. Now this was a very big tangent, we had already taught everything up until the
principle of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

We were running out of time, so we gave our testimonies of prayer and we promised Renè and Mario that if they prayed about it, God would tell them. They showed real intent wanting to find this out. So what we invited them to do, was to pray about it. It came to getting ready to go, but before we left, we asked Renè to pray for us and asked him to ask God if everything we had taught tonight is true. He was a little confused on why we would want him to ask it right now, but he did it.

I don't know what he said, because he prayed in his own language (Dutch). But at the end of his prayer I thought he said Amen, but he wasn't even at the end of his prayer and he said OH MAN! We asked him what he felt and he said, my heart just started racing and I have this warm feeling inside. His brother Mario said, I have the same feeling come to me too when he asked that question. God had answered not only our prayers, but their prayers and now they KNOW that God has a body and that the restored Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth!!!

I also now understand the principle of we don't teach, but the spirit teaches men. We tried to convince them over and over again, but it didn't work, once they prayed, the Holy Ghost entered their hearts and gave them the answer they needed and he taught them. I am so very grateful for prayer, it is really something that is super amazing!!! You all should try it.

Sent from Elder Pinyon."

Stay tuned.