December 26, 2011 - 1st Christmas in Peru

Elder Pinegar & Elder Castillo celebrating Christmas 2011 La Union

Hi Family,
So I talked to you guys yesterday, so I don't have a ton to say hahah! Everything is all good here in the mish and I'm sending more pics today. Christmas was hard.....but ya know we do what we can when there are reglas...haha Anyway, yeah we had our pannetone (bread) and the pres. did a nice dealio for us with chocolatada and panetone and a devotional. It was nice to see all my old buds from the CCM Lima and Provo - all new stories! Stories about how one of them bought a shower head heater thing that makes the water like lukewarm to shower in haaha and another story about one of the apartments where they live. One of them said that the cement toilet they had, cracked in half hahah tight i guess.....I'll stick to the one I have! haha.






Yeah this week was interesting -- hard, very hard, but I'm happy and glad for my family and thankful for everyone that I got to talk to! And yes, I promise my Spanish is better than it sounded. I was just emotional and it was hard to speak.* Just know one thing, I love you guys! Thanks for all the support that you gave to me! Tell everyone I say whaz up. also Feliz Navida, prospero año y felizidad!!!!! Enjoy the Christmas!!!!!!!! 

Elder Pinegar

*Elder Pinegar prayed for our family in Spanish before we said goodbye on the phone Christmas day. 

December 19, 2011 A Very Loooooong Week

The Wedding Dec 2011 La Union

 

 

 

Elders in La Union Dec 2011

Hi Family,
It's been a loooooonnnnnggg week. hahah but its all good, filled with travels, baptisms and a matrimonio to top it all off!

K- so Tuesday was a lot of work talking, conversando and what not and paperwork. Yeah, try that in Spanish...a little bit more difficult than I thought it would be! Yeah, then Wednesday, we had the matrimonio, that was fun. We decorated the church and did all sorts of stuff We even got our hand on a cake! haha yeah Herminia was reluctant to get married. she was worried about only of today and not tomorrow or the future that she has ahead of her. Anyway, she is good now. Happy! Thursday we were planning the baptism for them and we got it all planned for Friday in the tarde, but on Thursday night I got a call saying that I needed to be in Lima in the morning to finish some paperwork to be legal. So I went with 9 other people, all norte Americanos. The trip was awesome...kinda like a pday with travel haha. Yeah, we flew that was ,definitely nice!!! but the bummer part was that we had the baptism in the morning and I was supposed to baptize Herminia, Turns out that they both got baptized and everything worked out just fine. Then we had another baptism Saturday, and she is called Jasmin, a product of more that 4 months of work!!! Yeah. we are having success. We confirmed all 3 of them yesterday and that's basically the week in a nutshell. I got like 5 hours of sleep for like 2 days straight. Put that with getting up at 6:30 every morning and its hard!!!! hahah

Love you guys so much and check for the pics I'm going to send. Much love!!!  You should be getting my letters eventually. All I know is that I sent them. Oh, and also i got the 4 packages!!! Thanks a bunch!!!! but it needed one thing! pics!!!!!!!!!!!!thats allllllllllll i want!!!!!! haha please send me pics in the next package!!!!!!! love you guys to death and just know that I think of you!!! thanks for all  your support and love!




Elder Pinegar

December 12, 2011 Gearing up for a great week with a great companion

Primary Children in La Union Dec 2011

Church in La Union Dec 2011

This week has been a lot of prepping, convincing, talking, running, and just about everything else. We have the wedding date set and all the papers in place for this Wednesday!

The primaria had a get together for Christmas, and they were great. The chapel was full, and I saw a lot of the kids' dads who just came for this special occasion!  We have been working with the ward a lot and getting families that are -activos to come to church. The church is kinda disorganized here I gotta say, haha but that's alright. Christmas is right around the corner, and I'm starting to see luz de navidad! (Christmas lights) here in La Unión! Yeah, it kinda makes me miss home sometimes, but anyway, I guess it's not all that different here, considering you guys don't have snow! hahah Oh, and for Christmas, I'm hoping to know when I'll be calling or whatever I get to do. We're talking with the president. I'll be sure to bring that up with him. Tell my best friends hi for me. I miss my friends this time of year and fam, but it's all good. I hope my gand familia is doing good to! salud all of them for me please!!!!

About Elder Castillo (in english this translates to castle), he has been out 2 cambios mas de mi. He's a great person and very persistent with the people. He has a good heart and good deseas. He is puttin' on the pounds eating haha. That's one thing we lack....more exercise! yeah, I figure I'll do that my last 6 mes de la misión. He is the only member, and his family is in Peru. He's native here and is good with the people. He likes to make jokes and is thoughtful of others. He's 25 and going to be 26 in febuario. Together we have been successful. He has learned to be very patient with me especially in the primera 2 semanas. but now we are teaching good! My Spanish has evolved and even the music I can understand....well most of it, and considering that half of it is English.....haha. Y'all get the point. My Spanish has gotten better thanks to him, and my knowledge of the scriptures has gotten better thanks to him. (speaking of which, I'm reading the old testament in Spanish. It's interesting how it's translated....not as direct as English. Sometimes I wonder how much better we would understand them if we spoke Egyptian and Hebrew.....yeah I'll learn those later haha ) Anyway, he's been good! And we have 5 weeks left with each other! esperemos éxito!!

As for Christmas, we've been eyeballin' around for a tree a sacar para nuestro cuarto ( to takes for our room). One of the members has a gigantic pino that we might go cut a part off if we can't find another hahah. Don't worry, we asked! haha and our pensionista is bomb! She cooks mean meals for us! We're gonna have pavo (turkey) for navidad here, and she knows how to cook. Soo dont worry about me not eating! hahha Anyways, I'll let you know what goes down, and when I get to call in my next letter!!!!

Love you guys so much and am so grateful for my family, friends, and associates.!!!!

Love,
Elder Pinegar

**Alex now has a flickr account where he will be uploading pictures. If you want to see more pics of Elder Pinegar---Click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/elderpinegar/

December 5, 2011 Spanglish and Disfutando the work

At the bakery in La Union Dec 2011

Alright fam! so we had cambios this week, and I'm headed for tumbes......not!!! haha That place is twice as hot as Arizona! haha Yeah, so they called and it looks like I'll be right here in La Union for one cambio mas with the same compañero!!! Things are lookin' up!! We got the papers for the marriage that we are working on and have it planned for Viernes!! Looks like were going to have 2 new baptismos this week!!!! Hermina wants to be baptized in a river like Christ, so looks like were going to do it like our amoroso poderoso señor!! That's the highlight of this week!!! Sadly, no baptisms this past week, but thats alright, we've been working with the father of another pastor evagelico church. I had a date programmed for him but he had culta (church) and didn't assist the sacremental meeting. We're going to try again this weeek!! Ohhh and one more person were going to work with is Jasmin, her mom and brother's son baptisado, pero ella no quiere hacerlo. were working on that and trying to gain the confianza of her and introduce her to amigas of the church. She has already had all the discussions and is a project of about 4 or 5 meses of work. We're hoping to baptize her this week too. Her mom is wonderful!! She makes antecucho (shishkabobs) and every time we pass by, she always wants us to sit down and talk....obviously we do, seeing that she is a recent convert and somewhat new to the church.

My Spanish has gotten a ton better. I'm ready to talk to people, shout and people and play!! The work is starting to become fun.......sometimes haha. Yeah-it's starting to get hot too!! So last night, me and my companion both prayed in English. He opened and I closed. It is weird to talk in English, indescribable the feeling. I was smiling the whole time I was praying as my mind was struggling to remember the words. haha I love it! We definitely talk way more different. When I get a chance to talk to an American its different! Ha ha, the words you use and how you express yourself! 

I can't send my memory card home for the whole two years......the president said that anything with metal most likley will not make it through the mail. I can't risk it, but I'm going to try to make some cds and send those, or I'll think of something. There's a website that they said we can use, called kodak, ya know the photos....I can upload those into a cloud server and then you guys should be able to view them. As of now, I have like 170 new photos!!!!! haha Yeah, ask Shark or Jeff about that. They are smart.  You guys have to set it up for me though.. thats the deal on that!!!! so if you wanna see pics do something!! Christmas is coming quick!! Wow! I love it!  For packages i might buys some little things and send them home if I can find some time! I'll work on that in the next couple months!!! yeah I got the package of thanksgiving. Thanks so much! We put the gallo (turkey) on the wall!! Yeah I know- bonito!! Anyway, thanks padres for all you do!!!  Thanks Dad for writing the letter to my comp!! We've grown close and are having exitó in our labours, disfrutando (enjoying) the work!!! love you guys!!!  love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Pinegar