Happy Australia DAY!!!

A friendly reminder it is myself Megan Green who has been updating this blog.
Here is what Elder Pinyon has said for this week's update.

"Hello dear friends and family,

First and foremost: Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi

Wow, what an amazing week that I got to experience in Freiberg and everywhere else. It was truly amazing to be on the temple square in Freiberg and to be able to feel the love of God, just to know that the Temple is truly the house of the Lord!!! I'm so very grateful that we have temples, that we can use, so that we can go in there and make further covenants with our Heavenly Father and to be able to be sealed to our Families for eternity!!!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to give a lesson with a member in Priesthood meeting. Our lesson was about self reliance. We based it around 3 Questions:
1. What does the Gospel mean to me?
2. What helps me to feel the love of God?
3. How can I share this with others?

Question number one
The first thing that we made clear is that the Gospel, should make one happy and bring joy and peace into our lives. The Gospel is everything to me, without the Gospel, I wouldn't be able to become perfect and I wouldn't be able to live with my family again in the eternities. The Gospel is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, without it, we wouldn't be able to make any progress in this life, nor live with our loving Heavenly Father again. My dear friends and family, I invite you to find more out about the Gospel and what it has to offer for you. I can promise you that it'll bring you only joy and peace in your life. It is the one thing that we need.

Question number two
What is the love of God?
There is a story of Prophet that has a vision of a Tree, this tree is called the Tree of Life. Upon this tree are white fruits, that when one would eat it, the person would receive eternal life. Before anyone could get to this tree, there was a small passage or path that one needed to travel along, before getting to the tree. Along the path there was also an iron rod, which led to the tree, which would guide the people to the tree.

The Iron rod, represents the Word of God, or the scriptures that we can search so we can come closer and closer to God. Just like holding onto the rod and taking step for step, we get closer to the tree.
The small and narrow path/passage represents the way that we need to take, but there will be trials and things that'll try and get you off the path, so that you can be dragged away from God.
The fruit on the tree represents the eternal life that we get when we accept God and act upon His words in our life.

The tree represents the LOVE OF GOD. The Love of God comes after the trial of our faith. A Book of Mormon Prophet, named Moroni, once said in Ether 12:6 "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." God LOVES you, never doubt it. He is there to help you whenever you need Him.

The Love of God is the feelings that you get when you just feel so overwhelmed or when you feel like your being loved, but you don't know who is loving you. God loves us all. I know that without any doubts!

Question number three
If we know that the Gospel brings us joy and the love of God truly is there, what is stopping us from sharing this wonderful message. What stops us from being there for our friends to invite them to come unto Christ and to accept His Gospel, so they can be saved just like we will be saved at the last day.

MY DEAR FRIENDS, God is there! He loves you! He loves you so much that He sent His only begotten Son (Jesus Christ) to suffer, so that we could become perfect and be able to live with Him again.

I only want you to know this, because of the joy and peace it brings me, but also because you are my friends. Come unto Christ and become perfected in Him. I invite you all.

I hope you have a great week and take care,

Elder Pinyon"

Stay Tuned,

If at first you don't succeed

I love chatting back and forth with Elder Pinyon.

Here's the week's update. He said, "Good morning dear friends and family,

You're all probably wondering what does my subject mean, "if at first you don't succeed." I'll get to that later :)

On Saturday we got our transfer calls. This was my most nervous one, where would I serve for my last 6 weeks. Do I get to stay in the ward I love, or do I go somewhere else? Well I am happy to say that I am staying (I'm the only one staying out of the 4 missionaries here, so the one Australian won against the 3 Americans) What sad is, is that my son is leaving me. I'm going to miss Elder Green. I love him so much and I'm excited to see his success throughout his mission. My new companion will be........ I don't know yet actually, I'm training again for the last 6 weeks!! I am super excited. I love training new missionaries.

Saturday night, we made Rouladen, so I am really happy I know how to make this yummy dinner now. So now I can do it in Australia and hopefully it turns out ok when I try it haha. It tasted good and we all lived, so we didn't die, haha. Last night, the bishop invited us over and we had Raclette with him and his wife. I really hope I can find a Raclette in Australia, I'm gunna need one. They are so yummy.

Oh it's been snowing here for the last 2 days too, so we have about 6-8cm of snow all over the place. It's so pretty. It's been my dream to see something like this and now, I can check that off the list :)
here is a pic of the church before we plowed it yesterday before church. It is just so magical and pretty."

The other photo of the snow is under "Mission Photos" section on this blog. Be sure to check it out.

Stay Tuned.

Das Gebet/The Prayer

This week's email was very powerful and it got me thinking a lot.
I hope it gets this email gets you thinking a lot too.

This is what he said,

"Hey hey,

Prayer, what a wonderful tool and commandment that God has given to us. Not just for him, but also for us. We can communicate with God through Jesus Christ and He will answer us through the Holy Ghost.

Imagine this, all you parents will have a better time, then the kids.

First case scenario:
You come home and you don't talk to your parents. Your parents will feel neglected, they will want to talk with you, but you just ignore them. You have no desire to talk with them and they miss you because all they want is the best for you.

Second case scenario:
You come home and your parents ask you a question and everyday, you give the same answer. Without error, you say "it was good, I dug a hole, I played in the playground and I made a new friend,". You say this everyday for your whole entire life.

What do these scenarios have to do with prayer, well let's analyse them.

Number 1: God has said more then enough times through His prophets, that we are to pray to Him and to give Him thanks. Sometimes, we ignore God. Why? Maybe we had a bad day or maybe we are just to lazy to get on our knees and to pray. But why do these things cause distractions from prayers with our Heavenly Father.

My brothers and sisters, the devil, good old Satan is the father of all lies and will discourage you everyday and in every moment to pray. 2 Nephi 32:8-9 "for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. 9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint;"

Number 2: God has asked us, that we tell Him our feelings, our thoughts, our worries, our joys, our happiness, our questions, our everything. How does this work, if we just say the same thing everyday
and every night? It doesn't. Don't get stuck in repetitions. We don't need that and God doesn't need that, He loves you and cares about you. He wants to know how He can help you and what your plans are to help yourself. Matthew 6:7 "but when Ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do,"

I have one tip, this tip, I have started using and it works. If you don't want to pray to God or if you are having a bad day or you are angry or any bad feelings, START praying. Pray until you can't pray
anymore. God will heal you! His Son suffered for a reason and the reason is YOU! Prayer will always help, I love you and I know that your Father in Heaven loves you.

Have a great week,

Elder Pinyon

Sent from Elder Pinyon"

Stay Tuned/

Another Week in Zwickau + Happy New Year

I received no emails from Elder Pinyon last week which means no updates for the blog last week.
I am sorry for not posting last week. However since Christmas Season is over, I changed the looks of this blog.
I hoped everyone had a wonderful New Years Eve and New Years Day. The only one photo is uploaded on Facebook under "MTC & Mission Photos" and posted on this blog under "Mission Photos" section.

This is what Elder Pinyon said for this week's email,

"So another week in paradise is gone by. I really love Zwickau, it is the best ward and the best place to be. The members love us and the bishop loves us too. I really like being loved, it's such a nice
feeling. Well I want to wish you all a happy new year! I hope you all had a good slide into the new year (that's what we say in German).

On Tuesday we went bowling with the ward and it was so much fun. Elder Green, was ripping it up. He got a 153 game and I got a 137 game. It was a lot of fun to be with the ward and to have fun.

We had a lot of fun during the New Years time. We all went to Leipzig for the New Years run. It's a 3km run, that anyone can do, so our Mission President asked us all to be a part of it. It was a lot of fun and really worth it. Got to see a lot of my mission friends. It was really weird, because I was thinking, this might be the last time that I actually get to see everyone.

I'm not to excited about leaving Germany, I really love this place, it is practically my home now, but it's ok. I'm definitely coming back! I never really thought that Germany would be a place that would grow on me, but it did, especially the people. The language is no longer a problem, communicating with everyone is not a problem.

Another year is now on the way, I'm super excited for 2016, this year is going to be awesome! I hope that y'all have a lot of good plans and goals made, so that y'all can achieve something great. Always having a vision is very important. Visions is what make goals achievable.

Thank you all for being so awesome and supporting me as a missionary. Ideally appreciate everything you do. Have a great week and a great new year and take care,

Elder Jacob Pinyon"

Stay Tuned.