Celebrations For Days!

July 6, 2015

HELLO HELLO!

So many miracles this week!
 

On Saturday, we went and taught Luis and went over all the baptismal questions! He is so ready to get baptized! Well, on Sunday, they came to church and Luis told me that he no longer felt prepared to be baptized and have his interview that day because he thought he might not be able to come to church EVERY Sunday. I assured him that it was our job to be STRIVING to come every Sunday and that the lord understands that things happen sometimes. He was hesitant, so I asked him if he would still have his interview anyways and then he would see that he really is prepared. Well, I talked to Elder Morales and set everything up. They had the interview after sacrament meeting and Luis passed with flying colors! E. Morales said he has SUCH a strong testimony and is so prepared. Luis expressed his concerns about being baptized this Saturday, the 11th and E. Morales told me to just be sensitive as we taught him this week and maybe just push the date back two weeks or so so he can come to church more. We will be teaching Luis tomorrow and will talk about the day he will be baptized. But, nonetheless, he still is SO ready to be baptized and has such a strong desire! We are still fasting and praying for a miracle so he can be baptized this Saturday! I really think he will be :) Then, unfortunately, Blanca couldn't come to church this Sunday because her boss wouldn't give it to her off. But, when we were leaving the church at 2 after the branch break the fast, Blanca called us. she doesn't normally get off work until 4 so i was confused. She said she had left work early because she thought that church started at 2. It touched my heart so much. She wanted to be there SO badly. We had her come to the church anyways and we had an amazing lesson on the law of chastity with a member from the branch.It was the PERFECT lesson and Blanca is so prepared to be baptized. She has such a strong testimony and we were able to talk a lot about the eternal perspective as we taught her about temples. The member that joined us had a similar life experience to Blanca that we didn't even know about. It was such an amazing miracle and although Blanca still needs to come to church twice, she said her boss gave her every other Sunday off from here on out. wow. such an answer to my prayers. I love her so much and can't wait for her to receive the blessings of baptism. She has been WAITING for this. July 19th will be one of the best days of my life <3

 

This is Jazi- She likes to balance random stuffed animals on her head--- so I did too ;)
HAHA. It just added to the greatness/weirdness of the 4th as a missionary! ​

July 4th was somewhat uneventful! Sister Newell and I just make rice krispies all morning and then delivered them to our investigators/less actives! We then went and taught an English class to Blanca. sSe is so wonderful and we love her so much :) For dinner, we went to this new less active member's house and had a great meal with them! Afterwards, we watched part of 18 Lives (an awesome musical about the Book Of Mormon that was made by the youth in the 5 surrounding stakes- love it- i've seen it about a million times and I'm sending a copy home!) :) It was a good night!! My year mark was also good! I had doctors appointments in the morning but that night our WML made me a steak dinner with baked potatoes and corn and homemade cookies :) It was amazing and made me think of BBQ's in Texas :) Thanks to my amazing family for an AWESOME package and cute cards to finish off a big day!

 

We visted with the Buchanans on the 4th of July!

 

I love serving as a missionary and have found so much solace in the atonement of Jesus Christ recently. I love this gospel more than anything. it is truly the most important thing to me!! Have a great week! thank you so much for all of your love, prayers and support! It means the WORLD to me!

xoxo

Love,

Hermana Pierce

ONE.

June 29, 2015

That's right folks... this week i hit my one year mark of being a missionary! Wow. so so so crazy. I can't believe i'm on the downward slope... I love serving and time just keeps getting faster.
 

One Year Today!

 

I don't have a ton of time to email today because we headed up to hike Hanging Lake today (so beautiful, as always!), but here is a quick review on the week!

This week, we got to see blanca several times and she is progressing SO well! We had a couple of awesome lessons with her and are starting the commandments this coming week. She is still on track to be baptized July 19th because... SHE CAME TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY!!! :) It was amazing to have her sitting next to us. We had a branch activity after as a belated fathers day luncheon. We got to have a lesson with her about prophets in between the end of sacrament meeting and the beginning of the activity and she just kept saying how much sense it made to have a living prophet on the earth! Sister newell and I adore Blanca and know that this will bless her life so much. She is so prepared to hear the gospel. People at the branch on Sunday were asking her how she met the missionaries and she just said, "Well... I was walking home from work and these two random ladies just ran up to me and started talking to me! I told them i would only talk to them for a few seconds... and the rest is history!" Haha! I have never been so grateful to have opened my mouth with everyone we see. This will change her life forever. Please pray for Blanca that she can continue to get work off to come to church the next two weeks and make her baptismal date! It was SUCH a huge miracle that she got work off to come this week (she asked her boss twice and he said no twice- and then she got her schedule and she was scheduled to work the night shift instead of the morning! an exact answer to our prayer and fast--- such an amazing experience. I was jumping up and down when she told us!). Blanca was smiling ear to ear when she let the church to go to work yesterday :) .... and so were we!!! (we celebrated with a HUGE mid air high five! haha such losers.)

 

Hermana Newell and I with Jazi on the hike!
 

We also got to teach  Luis on Saturday (finally!) and he is so amazing. We had a great lesson about prophets and the word of wisdom and he is seriously the cutest! He said he still hasn't gotten an answer about being baptized on the 11th but we told him we are so proud of him for taking this so seriously! He totally will be baptized in two weeks- he told us he already knows its all true!! :)

 

That's all I have time for today! Sorry I didn't have time to write about some of our other miracles and funny stories! but I love serving, I love my companion, and I love this gospel!

 

Peace out from me and Hermana Newell!

 

Until next week!

Hermana Pierce :)

This is me- post waterfall! I went and ran thru it...
and then got rebuked by the park ranger-
but hey, it was worth it!!!
Ask for forgiveness, not permission, right? :) One love!

 

 

Untitled Post Because I'm Not Clever This Week

June 22, 2015

Hello One and ALL!

Well, this week on Tuesday I got my new baby, Hermana NEWELL! She is from Mapleton, Utah! She is 21 and is also a BYU cougar! (phew! --- #bleedblue) We get along GREAT and she is seriously a ROCKSTAR. It was an instant connection. We actually found a super cool connection that she was roommates with Kenzie Forsgren at BYU before the mish, so we bonded a lot over mutual friends and stories. I absolutely just adore her already. We have to stop ourselves from staying up late talking (haha!) AND, the best part is, she studied Spanish for 6 YEARS before her mission! Although, she was called to Brazil (same mission as Sister Tycksen) and was learning Portuguese in the MTC, I haven't had to teach her hardly anything, other than what it's like to serve in Colorado! She reminds me a lot of myself when I came out. She's a super confident person, but is so hard on herself, mostly about about her Spanish! I always tell her... TRUST your brain! You know the words, now you just need to practice speaking and you'll be set! She is so awesome and we are already teaching really well together! :) Please don't let her get her visa so we can stay together for a long time! haha. I love her so much!

 

Sister Newell

Okay... now onto the work this week!

Well, this week was tough. Satan took a hold of our investigators a LOT. Hardly any of them are progressing, but we did have an AMAZING lesson with a brand new investigator, John.

We OYM'ed him about 2-3 Weeks ago, Sister Tyksen set him on date and unfortunately we didn't get to see him after that. Well, we kept in contact with him and were pleasantly persistent. FINALLY, we were able to set up a time to meet with him and to give him a church tour and talk about the Book Of Mormon. We set it all up and had two members accompanying us for the lesson. The members picked him up for the church tour, we all met at the church, did the tour and the Book Of Mormon dialogue! It was AWESOME! John was SO receptive and SO excited to hear about the Book Of Mormon! He was eating it all up. We saw so many blessings from having the lesson in the church building after we did the tour. The Spirit was so strong and the members that joined for the lesson were really uplifted as well. It was a great night. Then, 2 days later, John attended the baptismal service of the Elders' investigator, Laurie, who got baptized. He loved it and is so excited to keep working towards his baptismal date in July. The Lord has been truly merciful to us as we've begun to teach John and to really fellowship him with the ward. They love him already and he is becoming more and more comfortable every time he comes to the church. Unfortunately, he didn't make it to church yesterday for some reason, but we KNOW he will be baptized! So exciting!

 

Hermana Adair returned to the mission to visit me!

We have also seen a lot of success and progress with our investigator Blanca this week. We were able to teach her twice in the church building. She loves meeting with us and is praying specifically for answers. She is so eager to accept change in her life and come to know of the truth for herself. Our lessons always take place in the chapel and she has mentioned to us several times that she loves learning there because she feels the spirit so strongly. We have seen so many miracles/blessings from having our lessons in the church building. There is something so powerful about teaching in the Lord's house. The lessons just go smoother and the investigators are more focused. We have really been trying to get better at having members attend our lessons and we had a little bit of improvement there this week!

On Friday morning we had train the trainers meeting in Grand Junction. It's essentially just a meeting for the new missionaries and their trainers put on by the Assistants to the President's. I've been to about 6 of them now so it gets a little old for me, but Sister Newell really enjoyed it, so that was good :) Afterwards, we went to eat at Cafe Rio in Junction! I was so dreading having to pay for the meal beforehand because my MSF money from the mission was super low. Well, needless to say, we were standing in line and a man and his daughter started talking with us. They were members of the church. We talked more and they bought us lunch! Haha. It was such a tender mercy and all I could think about was Steven on his mission "Dining in Faith." I had a good laugh to myself afterwards as I thanked Heavenly Father. Well, as the day went on, we got dropped by a couple investigators and were dying of heat and thirst. We both were out of water and had no choice but to go to the gas station and buy some. Well, of course, not wanting to pay again, we were standing in line behind a family. One of the guys was joking with us and saying he "really wished he knew the meaning of life." He asked if he could borrow my water bottle to ring it up, I hesitantly handed it to him, confused. I didn't realize until a couple minutes later that he payed for Sister Newell and I's water! He was also a member passing through GWS and we chatted for a moment as well. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but to me it was SUCH a huge tender mercy. Sister Newell and I thanked Heavenly Father for the awesome blessings we received in the midst of our afflictions that day.
 



Sister Killpack went home on the last transfer.
I served with her in my very first transfer.

Unfortunately, almost all of our investigators tried to drop us this week or just refused contact BUT, I know that the Lord is preparing something great for us! There truly is opposition in all things. I am really trying to focus on becoming more like Christ this transfer and become what HE needs of me. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve others and turn outwards. It was INSANELY HOT yesterday, (101 Degrees of DRY heat- definitely NOT what I'm used to coming from TEXAS lol) so that was slightly miserable. The Summer is definitely here and we are really trying to focus on finding this week so we can be inside teaching by the time July comes! haha. Although it was a little bit of a rough start to the transfer, I know the Lord will bless us this week. This gospel is the greatest blessing of my whole life! I loved getting all of the videos from the Pierce family reunion this week! Just know that although I was missing seeing all of my family this week, there is no where else I would rather be. I love being a missionary, even in the hard moments! Make it a great week. One love!

oxox​

Hermana Pierce

​

 

It's Not Just a Book...It's Other People's Testimonies!

June 15, 2015

Well... I wanted to start off by bearing my testimony about something that has been weighing on my heart so heavily this week...

 

THE BOOK OF MORMON!

 

I love this book. Period. Today, I finished reading it from front to back for the 6th time on my mission and I can't express the deep love I have for this book of scripture. The title of my email is a quote from one of the members here in Glenwood Springs. I love what she said... because it is true!!! The Book of Mormon is NOT just a book... It is real life experiences and testimonies about Jesus Christ. Before my mission I knew that the BOM was the word of God but I didn't have a lasting personal testimony of it. I can now say that I KNOW without a doubt that this book is TRUE. I have literally SEEN as I have read it day in and day out the difference in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I can't imagine going a day without these teachings and this fullness of the Gospel. I am so very grateful for the infinite testimony I have gained about this gospel because I can physically see the difference it has made in my life and the lives of my family. I could never imagine having not served a mission. It is the happiest I have ever been in my whole life for one reason- I am LIVING what I believe. Every day. In every moment. I love the Book of Mormon because I learn what I lack every time I read it. I am able to read of the steps I need to take in order to become more like Christ. I am no where near perfect, but I KNOW I can be perfect at repenting. I know I can become perfect through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This knowledge did not come by passively asking the Lord for an answer or reading for 10 minutes a day with lukewarm questions. It wasn't until I TRULY decided to read the Book Of Mormon (and not just once, I might add), and when I YEARNED for an answer, that I gained a knowledge of its truthfulness. It is no longer a belief. It is a knowledge. I invite every person that reads this to REGAIN a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Put in the effort; plead to the Lord to know of its divinity. I promise that you will receive an answer, and in turn, this will become the greatest blessing of your life and eternity.
 

 

Alright... well, now on with the week! Here is a quick recap!

 

Miracle

We had an AMAZING lesson with our investigators Ismael and Laura. We did some service for them by helping them make dinner and then had the most SPIRITUAL lesson EVER! We talked and we able to decipher a lot of their concerns. They love the missionaries and are starting to FEEL of the spirit we bring into their home. Ismael is super closed off to religion but you can see the eye slightly opening and feel of the love that he is developing for the messages we share. We are reverting back to the basics with them, since we discovered they don't have a super huge testimony in God or Jesus Christ BUT, the time we shared with them this week was such a miracle and the spirit was SO strong. We bore such powerful testimony and Laura cried! I love them more than anything. They will be the most beautiful eternal family one day.

 

Our missionary district

 

 

Progressing Investigator

Luis Perez! He came to church this Sunday with his whole family! His mom is a member and his dad is not and they all came. We taught him twice this week and are beginning the commandments this coming week. He WILL make his date of July 11th! :) We are hoping to start teaching Andres (dad) this week so they can inherit the blessings of being a family sealed for all eternity!

 

 

Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to my beautiful daughter, Sister Tycksen yesterday! She is flying to Brazil today! I felt so privileged to train her this transfer and know that she will be the most amazing missionary EVER! I absolutely adore the person she is and cannot wait to hear of the success she will have in South America. It was a tough break up, but I know that the people of Brazil need her more than I do!
 

 

Good-bye, Hermana Tycksen!

 As far as transfer news go, I will be training... AGAIN! Haha. This will be my 3rd baby and I am excited! She is another visa waiter for Brazil and I will be teaching her Spanish. I am especially excited to get to stay in Glenwood Springs for another transfer and will most likely get to stay another transfer after that! Woohoo! I love serving the people in GWS and the ward/branch is amazing. I only have 4 transfers left of my mission and I am absolutely CRYING! Ahh. Mssionary time just needs to SLOW DOWN!

 

CHALLENGE of the WEEK!

Who is the first person that pops into your head that you want to share the gospel with? What is the name that comes to your mind? That is a prompting from the Holy Ghost. NOW GO DO IT. Pray, ask, then act. The Lord will always give you the opportunity to share your testimony of the blessings that come from living the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. And you would be SO surprised at which of your friends is just waiting to hear it.

​To finish up, here's something a tad bit funny... (since we all know I'm not.)

 

On Thursday evening, Sister Tycksen and I arrived at our dinner appointment about 10 minutes early. Naturally, we decided to take a quick 10 minute cat nap. No big deal, right? I woke up about 2 minutes into the nap (still exhausted) and realized I still had 8 more minutes to sleep. Well, I rolled over into the fetal position in the drivers seat and that was the end of that. About 35 minutes later, 5:25 PM, Sister Tycksen and I were awakened by the spirit to come to the knowledge that we had slept through our dinner appointment and were 25 minutes late!!! We roll over, look at each other, look at the clock and yell, RUN!!! Haha, we sprinted into to the dinner appointment and had a good laugh with the members about it. PHEW! Thank goodness they were pretty forgiving!! I am so grateful for the constant exhaustion I have on my mission. To me, it means that I (normally) am doing something right :)
 

 

I love this gospel with all of my heart. I am SO grateful to serve the Lord. It is the greatest blessing of my life! I will go, I will do!

 

Love,

Hermana Erica Pierce

 

 

"Ask and Ye Shall Receive..."

June 8, 2015

 

Wow. What a great week of miracles! The Lord blessed us immensely with the little time we had to proselyte and we were still able to hit the standards of excellence! :) i'm still struggling to get through some health stuff but the Lord has been literally placing people in our path to hear the gospel. I don't have much time to explain ALL of the miracles we saw this week (it was INSANE!!!), but here is one of my favorites :)

Glenwood Springs sister missionaries

 

On Thursday, the zone leaders challenged us to go out and find a new super solid investigator and set them on date for baptism. We accepted the challenge willingly and prayed to ask the Lord to deliver us to that person. Well, after studies we went out and decided to go and tract at a new complex we had never been to before. We oym'ed (where we just see people in the street and go up and talk to them- it means "open your mouth") these to ladies sitting on the apartment steps and asked them to help us with the survey. They did and one of the ladies, Mara, told us that she had a young child pass away just a year ago. We transitioned into the plan of salvation and she became a new investigator. The spirit was so strong as we were talking with her and it was so apparent that she had been waiting for the knowledge of where her child is. So that was a miracle in itself.

 

 

Diana...who is preparing to serve on a mission in a few years.

 

Well, after we finished the lesson, we kept walking and just knocked on a random door. A young 12 year old boy answered and we asked him if his parents were home. He said his mom was and she came to the door. She was talking on the phone and just said, "pasale!!" (which means come in) without asking us anything of what we were doing there. She finished up her phone call and then started smiling so big at us and said "HI!!! AHHH! I'm a member of your church! You found me!" We were so shocked and found out that her name was Alma and she had just moved here from Mexico about 6 months prior. Apparently, she had been trying to get in contact with the church since she moved and hadn't been able to find it. She had been praying for the missionaries to come by and find her since they moved. We talked more with her and she is SUCH an amazing lady. She has had 2 open heart surgeries and is here in CO on precautionary terms in case her heart acts up again. She has an amazing conversion story and is the only member in her family. She had been praying for us to find them and said that she knew that we were led there.

 

Well, back to the 12 year old boy... Luis. Alma (mom) has been wanting missionaries to visit him and teach him so he can decide if he wants to be baptized! Well, needless to say, we jumped on that opportunity and taught them the first lesson. We invited Luis to be baptized on july 11th and he accepted. We also invited him to pray about Joseph smith. He agreed. We invited him to come to church this Sunday. He also included that he's been to church several times while he was in Mexico. (which is a requisite for baptism already completed.) It was such a miracle. Luis and Alma had literally been WAITING for missionaries to find them. On Saturday we went back to teach him about the BOM and Luis said he had already received an answer that the BOM is true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Wow, I think a baptism will be coming even faster than July 11th. Needless to say, the Lord completed that challenge for us. <3

 

Hermana T and I love Alma so much already!

I don't have much more time, but that was the greatest miracle of the week! On Tuesday we had sister's conference and Sister T and I prepared an awesome activity for all of the sisters about having the faith to become what the Lord wants to get through our trials. It went great! I also went on exchanges with Sister Moody until Wednesday here in Glenwood. It was so fun and I loved teaching with her! We had so much unity and taught some seriously POWERFUL lessons (one of which was to Reina- she is progressing so well and had already read the intro, testimonies and to chapter 3 in the BOM). The Lord is blessing us so much here in Glenwood. On Wednesday, we had specialized training's by sister and president murdock and we also got these cool little boxes installed in our cars that monitors reckless driving. THAT was awesome! I am so happy we got them... there are some pretty crazy missionary drivers out there! Haha.

 

 

Sister Training Meeting (Meeker North and South Zones)

We were also able to set 5 more people on date for baptism this week. Unfortunately, 2 others fell off because they didn't make it to church, so we have a net of 9 people on date for baptism now! We are being seriously so blessed for our diligence! This is week 6 of the transfer and my last with Sister Tycksen before I lose her to Brasil :( I will miss her so much but am so grateful for the transfer we have had together! :)

Have a great week... oh, and happy summer! :)

Love,

Hermana Pierce

​

"Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven "

June 1, 2015

 

WOW! Tomorrow I hit my 11 month mark of being a missionary! I can't believe how fast the time has flown and wish it would just slow down!!!

This was SUCH an amazing week! We had a pretty rough go last week with our investigators, but we were so blessed for our diligence this week!

A HUGE miracle that we saw this week was Thursday. We had planned to basically tract all day so that we could find new investigators. We parked our car and just set off walking, oyming (which stands for "open your mouth"), and doing everything we could to put ourselves in the situation to have the Lord lead us to the elect. We oymed a ton of people and ended up teaching 8 lessons in one day! 2 of the 4 new investigators that we found that day we set on date for baptism for July 4th. They are really amazing and want to know so badly if this church is true. We had our follow up Book Of Mormon lesson with them last night and they are progressing so well! It was such a miracle to be able to teach literally all day and to find those that are prepared to receive the gospel. Afterwards, we oymed a lady named Blanca that was just walking through the trailer park we were in. We asked her to do the survey, and although she was hesitant, she did it. We got to talking more with her and she just broke down and told us everything. She said she was so lost in life and was looking for direction. When we shared a little bit about the plan of salvation with her and explained our purpose here on earth, she told us that she could start to feel a little bit of peace for the first time. She has 2 sons (4 months and 9 years) and she is struggling to escape from the grasp of her ex boyfriend who is now in jail. It was such a crazy experience to see that she had directly prayed us there. We have a return appointment with her on Wednesday at the church to teach a lesson. She is so excited to be able to escape for even just a moment in order to meet us this Wednesday and learn more.

Progressing investigators:

 

About 2 weeks ago we oymed two ladies in a parking lot- Veronica and Reina. They were on a walk and we did the survey and taught the first half of lesson 1. Reina ended up giving us her contact information and was interesting in hearing more. We set up a return appointment, but she ended up cancelling the day of. We tried for the next two weeks to get into contact with her but just couldn't see her. Well, on Friday night, we finally decided to go by her house one more time. We knocked and she was home! She let us in and we chatted and caught up for a while. She is so sweet and really loves to get to know us and hear about how we are doing as well. We transitioned into the first lesson and taught the Restoration. We reaaally stressed the importance of the restoration of priesthood authority. We asked Reina if she thought it would be important to have the priesthood authority of God here on the earth today and she responded by saying, "Well... I know that all of the other churches I've attended in the past do not have the true authority. There was a period in my life where I was truly searching for the truth, but never found it." WOW. Needless to say we JUMPED on that opportunity. I testified so powerfully that I KNOW that today we have the authority of God on the earth and that the TRUE church that Christ established is here as well. We transitioned into the baptismal invite and invited Reina to be baptized on July 4th. She said yes! We continued throughout the rest of the lesson and she had so many wonderful questions about the Book Of Mormon and couldn't wait to receive her own copy. She was so anxious to get one that we explained it a little more and then gave her one and committed her to read in the introduction and the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. We repeatedly just testified to her of the truthfulness of our message and guaranteed that it was exactly what she had been searching for in her life. We promised her that as she prayed and read in the BOM every day, visited with us, and came to church, that she WILL receive an answer that THIS is the true church. It was such an amazing experience to see someone truly "searching for the truth but not knowing where to find it."

Last week we had 1 person on date and now have 6 set for June and July. We also received a referral from the elders of two more that are on date that we hope to contact this week to add to our investigator pool. :)

 

Bonfire with the Larsen family

I have been focusing the past couple of days on truly striving to view others through the eyes of Christ. I know that as I have focused on aligning my will with God's this week, we have seen COUNTLESS miracles. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary at this time while the Lord's work is hastening so quickly! It is the greatest blessing in my life! I am so very grateful for all of your support and prayers. It makes all the difference to know I have an ARMY of support behind me. I love receiving emails and letters with your testimonies. It only strengthens mine even more. Thank you times a million! Make it a great week!

Love, Hermana Pierce

 

 

 

 

 

 

PIC: So since the end of March our mission has been doing a sacrifice of only drinking water and fasting through lunch every Saturday. Well... The sacrifice ended yesterday (the last day of May) so naturally, the first thing Sister Tycksen and I did this morning when we woke up was EAT CEREAL. It was the most amazing moment of my life and needless to say, I had forgotten what milk tasted like :)

"SACRIFICE BRINGS FORTH THE BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN!"

 

 

"Have the Faith to BECOME"

May 26, 2015

 

Hello one and all!

This was a really hard week for me specifically, but we are constantly seeing the hand of the Lord in our every day work :)

Let's start it off with a miracle! I'm going to take advantage of emailing on Tuesday and share a miracle that we saw last night! We had had the hardest week last week- it seemed like every single one of our investigators was dropping us and we just couldn't have any success finding new ones. Well, last night when we finished dinner, we were going to go and try to contact an investigator we hadn't seen in a while when I made a wrong turn. We just ended up following the road we were on and found a hidden apartment complex!! It was amazing and, of course, we thought the Lord had to have taken us there for a reason so we decided to tract it. We knocked on the first few doors and no one was answering. Then, finally a lady named Teresa answered and we were able to go inside and do the survey. We taught her the 1st lesson and invited her to be baptized. She accepted the baptismal invitation, but not the date. However, we had a great lesson with her and set up a return appointment for Wednesday! It was amazing and she seems like she is completely searching for the truth, but just does not know where to find it. THEN, we had a return appointment with a man we met earlier last week. He was one of the 2 new investigators we found last week and we had set up an appointment for Monday at 7:30 with him and his family. We had only taught him the 1st half of lesson 1 so we were excited to go back and teach more. We ended up having an AMAZING lesson with them! Although he had some REALLY tough questions, I KNOW the spirit was guiding us to be able to answer them. It was one of the first lessons Sister Tycksen and I were able to really teach in unison (since it was in English) and it was so powerful! I am so grateful to have such wonderful companions and truly understand why the Lord has commanded us to teach "two by two." His wife became a new investigator and we now have 2 more families to teach. Just when we were starting to get discouraged that we have no investigators that want to progress, the Lord gives us yet another tender mercy.

 

Sister Harper's birthday celebration

As far as progressing investigators go, this week Annie and Ivan fell off of the radar. After church last Sunday, we went over to have our lesson with Annie and Ivan, but Ivan's foot was really hurting so he didn't join us for the lesson. We taught Annie anyways. Tuesday afternoon we went over to try and visit with both of them together, but Ivan wasn't there. We taught Annie again and she was completely prepared for her baptismal interview. When we had finished the lesson, Ivan walked in and he was super disrespectful to us. He wouldn't even greet us or really speak to us. He told us that he was late for his doctor's appointment and that he would text us later when he got home so we could come over and talk. Unfortunately, he never texted us that night. We texted him anyways and let him know that we loved him and Annie and hoped they had a good rest of their day. Well, the following day, Annie was leaving on a trip for her school class for 3 days and Ivan refused to allow us to come and teach him. It was hard, but we continued to make daily contact so he could know that we loved them. We fasted through our lunch 4 times this week for him to soften his heart and to at least allow Annie to be baptized. When Annie returned on Friday, we went over to see them Saturday morning and asked if they were coming to church and Annie said she didn't think so. Ivan wouldn't come out of his room and we didn't get to see him before they left to go to the movies. We told Annie she had to come to church tomorrow in order to be baptized on Saturday. She told us she really wanted to still, but that it was up to her dad. Well, on Sunday morning, we were planning to take pancakes to them before church, but we felt the spirit tell us to just text them instead. We told Ivan that we hoped they would join us at church at 9 and that we would be at the doors waiting to greet them, like always. He texted us back a little bit before sacrament meeting started and told us that they were attending a different church that day and to not wait for them. It was super heartbreaking because they had to come to church on Sunday in order to be baptized in May. I was pretty upset, but I am working on completely submitting my will to the Lord's. I know that He is proud of us because we have literally done everything we possibly could for them since we first met them 2 weeks ago. So much has happened and it has all gone so fast, but we know that the Lord will deliver their hearts out of bondage on HIS time. My whole mission I have struggled with TRULY accepting the Lord's timing, BUT I KNOW that He will never forsake us. Even after that incredibly hard week where we felt like nothing we were doing was going anywhere, He still provides us with miracles every day. It was a faith building week, but I am so excited to move past this rough point and continue to help GWS blossom! :)

One more story from this week happened on Thursday evening. It was raining (like always recently) so we started tracting some indoor apartments. Needless to say, we were having no luck, no one was home or answering. There was this one door and it smelled like drugs and there was some rap music playing and ping pong going on and it seemed like a pretty sketchy party. We knocked on the door next to it and no one answered. So, we started to leave because we weren't going to knock on the partying door... then I felt the Spirit tell me that we NEEDED to knock. Those teenage boys need the gospel just like everyone else! So we put our fear aside and knocked on the door. (Sister Tycksen thought I was a psycho hahaha). Some older teenage/early twenties guys answered, kinda creepy, but we asked them if we could do a survey with them and one of the guys said, "Our friend Nico would love to!!" and they shoved him out. So, he was standing in the hallway outside of the door with us and the party continued inside. We did the survey and he was responding so well and asking great questions. We felt inspired to move onto the first lesson (restoration) and he was asking questions the whole time. Sister Tycksen recited the first vision the spirit was so strong, even while rap music was playing in the background. We were out there with him for awhile. His friends kept yelling some inappropriate comments to him, which was super uncomfortable, and we could tell he was embarrassed but was definitely different from his friends. We finished the lesson as his friends started coming out. He was planning to leave with them so we were too rushed to get his number or set up an appointment but we gave him the pamphlet, committed him to pray about it and then text us about the answer he received. Unfortunately, we didn't get to set up a return address or get his address, but it was one of Sister Tycken and I's favorite experiences of the week because we followed the prompting of the spirit and now one more person knows that the Priesthood authority of God is here on the earth again!

Thank you all so much for your great support and faith in me! Although it is often difficult, I KNOW that I am here for a purpose. There isn't a day that goes by where I don't thank the Lord for this wonderful eternal truth that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Make it a great week!

Love,

Hermana Pierce

 

PIC: This week we also had interviews with President Murdock and I got to run into this awesome Elder, Elder Cabas! We were in the same MTC district and he saved my life back when I couldn't understand anything in Spanish! It was so great catching up with him again! :)