Translation of subject line:  Everybody has (had) a very happy birthday!

Hola to you all!

Our backyard!

Hola, hola! Great to hear from you- sounds like the gang is doing great! So weird that everybody´s getting married… I feel so old… Send them my felicidades!

Happy New Year´s Eve!  Man, I´m sorry everybody´s been so sick… No fun! But I´m glad to hear that most everybody is doing better.

Hola a todos!
I´m warning you now that I´m not gonna write much today…. But next week we´ll just talk instead. 🙂 Good news! We found a cyber that´ll be open on Christmas, so we´ll be there about 3 o´clock, 10 in the morning your time.Google plus is just fine with me. Number one, because I wanna see Adam and Darcy too, and meet little Emma Lou. Number two, because I completely forgot my username and password for Skype. So Google plus it is! We´ll run by to double check with the cyber and let you know for sure for sure on Monday. But I´d plan on about that time.
Well, that´s all I´ve got for today. Lots of awesome stuff happened this week, as well as lots of tough stuff, but I´ve been able to feel the love of our Heavenly Father, so it´s all good. 🙂 Be sure to remind me to tell you about the Christmas service activity that we did. It was awesome. Well, I love you lots! I hope you have a wonderful week! Go bless a life today!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Pingel

Hola a todos!

Hola mi querida familia! ¡Qué tal están? Buenas noticias- ¡vino el paquete de la navidad! Jaja Dios contesta las oraciones. 🙂 Muchísimas gracias por todo. I´m gonna have to ration out all the treats so I don´t eat them all in one week! Thanks a million! Y que pasa con Logan? Su mano es el mismo tamaño como la mia….
Sounds like things are going well up there. Do you have snow yet? I find it hard to imagine that you all have cold right now. Because it is ridiculously hot down here. Oh man… But with all the sweating and all the water, it´s a pretty good weight loss program!
It´s been a pretty good week. There have been lots of ups and lots of downs as well. But I really feel at the end of this week that my testimony of our Heavenly Father as a kind, loving, aware Being is much stronger. 2 examples: This last week I was having some eye issues again. And it´s a little frustrating when that happens. With any other problem, headache, stomach-ache, whatever-ache, I´d be able to still look people in the eye and talk to them. But when my eyes act up, I can´t. But there´s really nothing that helps, so we´ve just gotta keep chugging along. Well the other day, I got ready to have my personal scripture study and said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to teach me what He wanted me to learn in my study that day. And I opened up in the Book of Mormon to continue with my reading in Ether. I read chapter 5 and when I read verses 5-8, I knew that I had found what He wanted me to know. In that chapter, it talks about the Jaredites´ journey to the Americas in their barges. They didn´t have sails, so they really relied wholly on the direction and the force of the waves to carry them. So the Lord send a furious wind to send them on their way. Because of the wind, they were tossed to and fro, they were buried in the depths of the sea, they were often enclosed without fresh air, and basically it just wasn´t a super comfortable trip, I´m sure. But with every wave, with every dive, they came a little closer to the Promised Land. And they recognized that, so they sang praises to the Lord every day for almost a year in their little barges. And isn´t that how it is with us? God doesn´t allow us to pass through trials because He´s forgotten about us. He doesn´t let us suffer a little because He doesn´t love us. Rather, He allows us to suffer a little because He sees the big picture. He sees were we´re going and how we´re going to get there. We don´t often see the goal or how to get there. But God does. And we just have to trust Him. Anyway, He gave me just what I needed to learn in the moment I needed it. Example #2: Yesterday, we didn´t have any investigators in church. And I was a little sad. I sat there in Sacrament Meeting and was very much distracted. Little kids in front of me and behind me were running around and screaming, and I couldn´t hear the members as they bore their testimonies. I thought about our investigators and wondered what we could do to help them. I thought about our weekly activities that we´re having and how nobody showed up last week. (we recently starting them so we expected a really low attendance for the first few, but it was still a little disheartening) Anyway, I was in the middle of thinking about all the stuff that was going on and stuff that wasn´t going on when an hermano tapped my shoulder. He handed me his opened copy of the Book of Mormon and pointed to a few scriptures. ¨This is a beautiful passage¨, he said, and he signaled that I should read it. I read in Alma 26:27-30.
27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.

29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.

30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.
And I realized again that God is truly aware of us. There is no way that the hermano could have known what I was thinking. Sure, he may have noticed that none of our investigators came, but he couldn´t have known that I was thinking that I had no idea what I was going to do to help these people. He had no idea that I was wondering how things were going to work out with the activities and such. But the Lord did. And how grateful I am for people that are in tune with the Spirit enough to be able to comfort the heart of another. To comfort my heart. Those scriptures were exactly what I needed in that moment. And so I say it again: God is truly our Heavenly Father. He knows us. He loves us. He wants us to feel of that love. And it is often through other people that He chooses to show us that love. I´m trying to be more obedient, more diligent, and more faithful so I can be able to do that for someone else. So I can be an instrument in the Lord´s hands. For me, there´s nothing more important.
Well, I must be off. I pray that all´s well up there and that you can all see tender mercies in every day. They´re always there. We just have to have the eyes to see them and the hearts to recognize them for what they are. I look forward to hearing about the Lord´s hand in your lives this week. 🙂 Have a good one! Go bless a life today!
Con mucho amor,
Hermanita Pingel 🙂

Hello all! Happy Monday!

 

Hello from my end of the world!
It´s been a pretty good week. We´re seeing miracles every day, and I´m learning more and more about just how involved God is in our lives. Really it´s something incredible. He answers prayers. He knows our needs. And He´s always there. What a blessing!
On Friday, our little investigator, Brayam got baptized. I was gonna send in pictures, but I ended up with a computer that doesn´t have anywhere to plug in my camara… Maybe next week! But it was great. Lots of miracles in making that happen.
Yesterday was the Primary Program and it was too fantastic. Haha little sunbeams dancing and doing the wave in front, another boy doing karate moves while singing… It made my day. 🙂 Actually, what made my day was that one of our new investigators showed up to church yesterday and LOVED it. His name is Daniel and he´s seriously golden. We contacted him outside of his house while he was smoking. He is trying to change his life and wants to know which church is true. He even had a Liahona that one of his friends gave him a long time ago that he loves to read. Anyway, he came to church yesterday to find that he had lots of friends and neighbors that are members. He said he realized in that moment why they seemed so happy and why they had seemed to change so much for the better. And the thought crosses my mind- ¨How many people watch us and wonder? How many people that surround us are really prepared to receive the gospel but are just waiting for the invitation?¨ I think about all the opportunities I missed before to share the gospel with those around me, and I´m filled with the desire to make it up by sharing what I have with everybody for the rest of my life. Anywho, we´re super excited for him. He´s making big changes and we can see the Gospel start to work in him. That´s my favorite part. 🙂
We went to an elderly home yesterday for a ward service project and sang hymns. And I must say… I have never in my life been standing in the sun sweating while singing Christmas carols. Haha I´m excited for the next few months… 🙂
Bueno, I don´t really have much of any time right now… Sorry! But I hope you all know that I love you lots. Thanks for all you do and all you are. Have a great week and a great trip next weekend! Go bless a life today!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Pingel

P.s. thanks a million for the song lyrics!
P.s. Katie- you had the genius idea in my dream the other night to walk around on Halloween with your head tilted back, mouth wide open and full of milk and cereal to dress up as a bowl of cereal. We both thought it was simply brilliant. Just so you know. Love you! 🙂