Zone Conference, WORK, Tracting Fun, WORK, Service, AND More WORK!

 

 

San Juan missionaries lead the way!

September 22, 2014

Well this week was great! Our best week in Montrose by far! Our progress is at a steady upwards slope! We had: 1 investigator at church, 5 lessons with a member present (we are leading the zone 2 weeks in a row now!), 11 other lessons, 4 progressing investigators, 1 on date, 6 Less Active/RC lessons, 5 new investigators and TEN service hours!! San Juan (elders/sisters combined) is leading the zone in new investigators found! It was a busy week but we loved it! I can't believe we are starting week FIVE of my second transfer! I am coming up quick on my 3 month mark! It is insane how fast the time has been going. Because of school starting, I lose a month of my mission  and I will be coming home on December 2, 2015! So crazy right?! I can't believe I only have just over 14 months left. It seems like such a long time to most, but I already am starting to wish I had more time! Being a missionary is the best job in the world!!! <3

SOOO Tuesday we had zone conference. What a WONDERFUL experience! We had Elder and Sister Lawrence come from the 70. What an amazing experience. Sister Lawrence talked for TWO HOURS on deeeeeeep doctrine of the gathering of Israel. What a responsibility we have. There is a whole paragraph about it in my patriarchal blessing that I never understood until now! It was amazing and I learned SOOOOO much! I took 5 pages of notes! I will have to send home my notes so you can read them. The greatest knowledge I gained was that I CHOSE before this life to come to THIS earth and be a MISSIONARY. It was my choice and ALL OF US are here because we chose to come! We had special talents before that we chose to develop in the pre-earth life, which leads to what we have now on earth. It was my duty to serve a mission that I chose before this life. Kind of hard to explain over email, but all in all, a GREAT zone conference. It was awesome to see everyone on the western slopes. Dotto is going home next transfer so I got to see her and say goodbye which was great :) On Wednesday we had interviews with President and Sister Murdock. They were great and I love them so much! Talk about inspired by the Lord!

So some funny tracting stories from the week:


 

Random dirty diapers found outside a door while tracting...

On Thursday we were tracting- We start out and the first house we knock on, a dog starts barking like crazy and we wait a second.... then, all of a sudden, a HUGE DOG (as big as me) starts sprinting towards us and BREAKS THROUGH THE DOOR AT US!!!! I quickly STIFF ARM the door and try to keep him from eating us!!! Haha! It was SOOO scary and I almost cried lol. BUT we had a good laugh after :) SO THEN... we continue tracting and we get to a house about 30 minutes later. We knock really nicely and a man SCREAMS at us "WHAT?!?" Noakes and I look to each other and immediately are freaked out. We don't respond, and the man YELLS again, "JUST COME IN!!!" We both turn to each other and feel like we need to get out of there... AND FAST. SO  we wait a second and then the man yells, "OKAY I'M COMING!!!!" I FREAK OUT and start SPRINTING as fast as I can away from the door and Noakes follows after me. We sprint about 4 trailers down and proceed to hide behind another trailer for 5 minutes. HAHA. It was hilarious and a moment I will never forget. I love Sister Noakes. We have the most bizarre things happen to us while tracting. (Oh, we also saw a man that did not have a nose while tracting this week... straight up it was a hole in his face... it was sad/scary :/)


 

Many signs like this telling others to not preach religion to them because they are Catholic

SO 2 other funny stories from this week... (Like Lance always says... Life's all about a good story, right?)



We had this investigator named Ivan. He is in his early 20's and speaks english and spanish. Sister Noakes OYMed him while I was on exchanges and we went and met him when I got back and he said he read the restoration pamphlet and LOVED it. So of course, we freak out and are so excited to teach him. HE texts US and asks when we can talk more about the gospel and we set up a church tour with him for Thursday night. Well, thursday rolls around and we text him to confirm the appointment and he says he can't make it because his family is Jehovah's Witness and since he's living in their house, they won't let him go :( We were sooo sad because he was SO SOLID. So we text him and say something like "Oh sorry about that, let us know if we can ever teach you in the future" and he responds back and says, "Yeah, for sure, we should hang out sometime ;)" HAHAHA. wait, what??? Needless to say, we dodged a bullet on that one and it was a good thing too ;) It was funny/super depressing haha.
 




Cool garden goose reppin' the sunglasses!

​

Last story:

I don't remember if I ever told ya'll about Steven the Skeleton or not, but here goes:

About 2 weeks ago, we come out of a dinner appointment and see this skeleton sitting on our car. Freaked out, we pick it up and realize it is from the San Juan Elder​s.

They got it from some investigator and it became this joke between us in taking him and stealing him back. Well, while I'm on exchange in Gunnison last week, Sister Noakes accidentally left the car unlocked while they were in an appointment and the elders broke into our car and stole Steven the Skeleton back. Soooo, I come home and STEVEN IS GONE. It was devastating so we text the elders and tell them we want him back and they reply with, "Then go find him." SOOO how amazing (and creepy lol ;)) sister noakes ​is..she knows the code to their apartment.

 

​So, we break into the elders apartment one day, and there is Steven, just sitting on the floor. So we steal him and keep him at our house for the past week, thinking of how to prank them back. Well... fast forward to this friday... we're doing some service at a thrift shop organizing baby clothes and we find a Utah Utes onesie. Elder Penuelas (our district leader) is a HUGE utes fan. So we buy the onesie and are planning on giving it to him. He is training two missionaries at the same time right now and calls them his "Mijos" ("My sons" in spanish). Therefore, naturally, sister noakes and I have nicknamed the san juan elders the "three mijos." SOOO after we get the utes onesie we are plannig on giving it to penuelas and telling him to save it for the next "mijo" he has :) well... THEN I have the idea to put the onesie ON the skeleton and hide it in the elders car. SOOO, what do we do? Just that. We dress Steven in the onesie and break into the elders car one day when they left it unlocked. It was hilarious, and of course, we had to have a photo shoot with Steven before giving him back. The elders call us when they find steven in the back seat and Penuelas says "When the HECK did you sisters steal steven back?!? I walk out to the car, see the skeleton in the back seat and freaked out!!!" It was sooo funny and we had a good time being super stealth breaking into their car :) ahhhh good, clean, mission fun. It was a good laugh :)

 

Steven photo shoot...Steven in the Utes shirt and Steven in the Elders' car

Let's see... Saturday we did service all morning by helping a less active move into her new thrift shop she is opening up for children with disabilities. It was fun. I love doing service here! It is one of my favorite parts of my mission! Other than that, Sunday we had an investigator, Leti, come to church. She is the mother in law of one of our less actives and they both came this Sunday! Long story short, Leti used to be anti but now LOVES the church but lives in Vegas. She said she is going home in 2 weeks (but she's said that 4 times now lol). Soooo we are totally going to try and see if she will be baptized before she leaves! It is great, so pray that she will say yes :) We also had a charla foganera last night for the rama. It was an amazing fireside and Brother Bugarin (who isn't even in the branch but speaks spanish) gave it. They are a WONDERFUL family with such strong testimonies.

We do service at a thrift store called Raising Hope

That's about all I have for this week! It was a super swell week and we only have 2 weeks left in this transfer!!! So insane! I love this work and this gospel! It is the greatest blessing in my life and it can change yours too! Never forget how much our Savior loves you... God's Speed! Los Quiero!

xoxo

Hermana Pierce

PS: CONFERENCE IN 2 WEEKS WOOHOOOO!!!!!! #ldsconf #comelistentoaprophetsvoice

MONTROSE MIRACLES FOR DAYS!!!

September 15, 2014

Hello familia!!! OH MAN it was SUCH a great week here in Montrose! Sister Noakes and I are working hard, and we love each other so much :)

 

 

Hermana Noakes and I

SOOOO... here's the weekly breakdown.

Monday night I got sick after we went out to dinner at Chili's so i spent the night in bed and have been feeling pretty sick to my stomach all week and having headaches. It has been a little hard but has started to die down the past few days and only comes occasionally now. SOOO... monday was uneventful.

 

I received free ice cream at Chilis

 

Then, Tuesday and Wednesday I was on exchange in Gunnison! I was with Sister McRae (Hna. Noakes last comp). It went well! It is just different because there is very little spanish there, even though she is a spanish missionary. But it is always great to see how different sisters teach :) So that was good and Gunnison is FREEZING. Haha. I love Montrose!!! <3

 

 

Just HAD to stop and take a picture with this sign!!!

THEN.... the big Kahuna... THURSAY. Man... amazing day FULL of miracles. SO BASICALLY Sister Noakes and I have been struggling with our investigators recently. We have been tracting like crazy to find new investigators and long story short.... nada. No one keeps our appointments and we've been gettin' dropped like flies. SO... Thursday we go out for our daily Hour of Power and we find.... TWO NEW INVESTIGATORS. THEN.... that night we had Hno. Barrientos scheduled to come out and teach with us for 2 hours and we had... FOUR MEMBER PRESENT LESSONS. To put that in perspective... we only had ONE the WHOLE WEEK before. And then we had 4 in one night! Everyone was home and was willing to let us in! THEN... we went over to our investigator Blanca's house. We were planning on having a straight up DTR with her because we hadn't seen her in like 3 weeks. So we go over there and do the straight gate dialogue. (Another technique only used by our mission that basically just asks them if they want to go to the celestial kingdom or not, how they can get there [must enter through the gate of baptism], etc... it's SO AWESOME.) SO we do straight gate with her, she says she wants to go to the celestial kingdom AND then I ask her to prepare to be baptized on October 11th... and she said YES! <3 We assured her she would receive blessings and it was a beautiful lesson. Hno. Barrientos bore a great testimony about his baptism and my spanish was flowing perfectly. I have had so many experiences this week where I feel like the words have just been placed in my mouth by the spirit. So hard to explain but the Gift of Tongues is real.

THEN.. after the lesson we had texted the elders to ask if they could give me a blessing at nine for my sickness. Soooo... we get the church and meet the elders there. Elder Penuelas gives me the blessing and it was literally straight from our Heavenly Father. He barely even talked about my sickness but all about my purpose for being here at this time. Some of the things that I can remember specifically that he said were:

-That I had been chosen in the preexistence to serve in THIS mission at THIS time. 

-That I had been called of God and my calling was above that of Kings

-That I am here in THIS area for a purpose and that NO ONE ELSE could have performed the work that is needed at Montrose at this time.

- That the blessing he was delivering was directly from God.

-That all of the trials I had experienced on my mission thus far had prepared me for this time.

-That we will receive revelation directly from Heavenly Father for our investigators if we are diligent and obedient.

- That my Heavenly Father loves me so much and is SMILING down at me at this time.

And finally that I WILL be healed and that my body will work effectively with my mind to perform the work of God.

WOW... I was BAWLING after. It was SO powerful and everything that Elder Penuelas said was directly from God. I KNOW. Elder Penuelas doesn't know anything of the struggles I have had in the field so far but knew EXACTLY what I needed to hear. It was that confirmation I have been longing for that I KNOW I am where God wants me at this time. It was an amazing experience. I am so grateful for the Elders for being called of God to be here and for their worthiness and obedience to be able to communicate through the Spirit directly with God. We have gotten so close to the Elders in our branch here because we work hand in hand with them in teaching and all that and they are so wonderful. What a blessing to be able to exercise the priesthood in our lives daily!

SO that was an amazing day!!!

 

 

Noakes, Me, Penuelas, Smith and Lechemenant

THEN... SATURDAY. HAHA. Funny story.

So Sister Noakes and I had to take our car into the shop to get fixed. So we take it in and they shuttle us back to our house to study while it gets the brakes checked and oil changed. We get dropped off at our house and go to the door and realize that we left the house key with the people at the shop. Toblers are out of town and the garage door is locked... AND I have to go to the bathroom... BAD. SOOO... me, being the intelligent young woman I am... decide that we should ride the bikes to the church (2 blocks away) to see if the door is open there. SOOO we get on the bikes and ride to the church (fairly comical because Hna. N was in a pencil skirt hahaha) and of course... it's locked. SOOO we decide to go to the black canyon elder's apartment and ask to borrow their church key and car to go to the bathroom and go get our house key. Soooo we bike across the street to their house and they come outside and see us, no makeup, hair ratchet, with bikes. I proceed to tell them the story and tell them that we not only need their church key BUT ALSO the key to their car. HAHA. So we get the car, leave our bikes in their apartment, go to the church, go to the bathroom, drive to Big-O Tires, get our house key, drive back to the elder's apt, drop off the car, get our bikes back, and THEN bike home and finally get in the house. It was hilarious and will be something I never forget hahaha. Good ole' sister missionary life. Gotta love it. 

 

 

Car Selfie

 

 

That night we did a church tour with one of our gators Marta. She is great and we were also able to have 2 other Member Present lessons. Members really do make ALL the difference in missionary work. So all you that are reading this... GO OUT WITH THE MISSIONARIES TO THEIR LESSONS! Get involved in missionary work! It is YOUR responsibility too! Every member of the church should be teaching the gospel DAILY. Share it. Don't be scared. It's the bomb. (LOL. Dang, I'm weird haha).

Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It was easy because I wrote it all out ahead of time but my spanish was good and I bore powerful testimony afterward. It was from Pres. Eyring's talk "Come Unto Christ" Go read it! It's great! This really is the most important work we can be doing right now! 

 

 

Last night we had a branch birthday party for one of the members here, Brother Clarke. He is great and is going through a tough divorce with his wife right now. So it was beautiful to see him so loved by the rama. I really do love our Rama here. It is sooo great and the members are wonderful. They are so loving and do everything they can to keep this work moving. We are small, but powerful. I will send even more pictures from the party next week when Penuelas gives me my USB (he put the pictures on there of all of us San Juan Missionaries). But I will send what I have for now :)

 

 

At Hermano Clark's rama fiest

So long story long... It was a great week and the work is hastening here in Montrose, Olathe and Delta aka San Juan Rama :) We have Zone Conference tomorrow with ALL of the western slope missionaries. It will be awesome to see everyone from old areas and all that! Then Wednesday we have interviews with Pres and Sis Murdock. We are excited about that since we never see them!

I love this gospel. I LOVE being a missionary. Thanks for all of your love and support. This is the best work in the world. Until next week...God speed.

​xoxo

Hermana Pierce​

Week 2 in San Juan

September 8, 2014

This week was great!!! I love Sister Noakes sooo much and we have so much fun together! This is going to be a great transfer and we are being exactly obedient and working as hard as we possibly can to receive a miracle! <3

 

 

This week we just worked... A LOT. Our zone is doing something every tuesday/thursday called the "Hour of Power" where we go out and FIND for an hour straight. We begin the hour with a conference call as a zone and open in prayer and then we go out and do it! It is amazing and so uplifting! In our mission we have something called the "survey approach." It is unique to our mission and basically it is just a start up to sharing the gospel. It asks them questions about their beliefs in family, god, etc. Well... we did 29 surveys this week and knocked over 100 doors! We are definitely working hard! Sister Noakes and I decided to step it up a notch and do an hour of power EVERY DAY this week. So we started yesterday. We are excited for the miracles we will see this week :) It is hard and it's hot during the day... but we know that through our finding efforts, we will gain even more new investigators and find more people to bring unto Christ! This really is the best work in the world!

One of the members that comes out with us all of the time is Hermano. Barrientos. He is amazing and writes down all of our appts. in his planner so he can be there and he is studying Preach My Gospel. He is so cute and we love him :) It's funny because the other night we texted him and asked him to come to a lesson with us the next day and he said "como no angelitas hermanas de cristo!" which means why not little angel sisters of christ hahah! We love him :)

Lets see... one of our investigators Maria Ramirez we taught this week. We taught her about the Book Of Mormon and she said she has been reading it and that she feels EUPHORIC when reading it... WHAT?! Okay Maria.... I see you! We were so excited to hear that from her haha! We extended the soft baptismal challenge and she accepted! So that was amazing.

That's about all I have as far as teaching goes... We are always working on our spanish. It is coming along nicely and we speak quite a bit here! The branch is wonderful and yesterday in testimony meeting I bore my testimony in spanish! It doesn't seem like that would be a big deal since I do it all the time in lessons but it is different when you get up in front of the whole congregation on the spot! So it went super well and I got a lot of compliments on my spanish afterwards :) Hno. Sandoval told me my accent is a 9!!! Woohoo! It's so good to get affirmation sometimes haha! So that was good and then Presidente Osorio came up to me afterwards and asked me to give a talk next week in sacrament meeting! Woo... that will be interesting :) but I'm excited to study and prepare for that... Faith is an essential thing here lol :)

 

So we walk out to the car after a dinner appt and this skeleton is sitting on our windshield??? HAHA! It was hilarious and turns out the elders wanted to put it in our car to freak us out but it was locked lol :) 

 

 

The skeleton the Elders tried to scare us with!

 

 

Let's see... we are getting fed by the members alot, surprisingly better than Steamboat even tho we have half the amount of people (or less). They are so generous to missionaries here and are so willing to help us! Our branch is small (yesterday we only had 29 people there... including the 10 kids that were present and 2 investigators) but they are pretty much all Return Missionaries and love us. We serve with a set of elders too (they are in a trio Elder Penuelas, Smith [who came out with me] and Lechemenant [who came out this transfer]). They are great elders. Super solid and obedient. It's interesting to have to serve in the same area... It's kind of like a battle to find the hispanics. Since we have so many missionaries here pretty much everywhere has been knocked before... so it's awesome when we find somewhere new!

Oh... funny experience from this week... So thursday we got a referral from the Zone Leaders to go tract during HOP in this apartment complex. They said it was "swarming with hispanics" SOOO we get over there and the name of the complex is in spanish so it's looking pretty promising. Well... we start knocking and LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE PERSON IS FROM THAILAND. I kid you not. They don't speak english and their houses all smell like nasty thai weird food haha. It was soooo funny. We stopped counting the number of doors we knocked... over 25. Sister N and I were DYINGGG laughing hahahaha. It was hilarious. One of the doors we knocked that we thought might be hispanic we heard thai ppl talking... YELLING after we knocked... So i started straight up running away and sister n was like "what the heck, sister pierce?!" Then they answered the door (didn't speak english of course...) so we just handed them our card and walked away. Hahaha it was a good laugh for sure.

​Last night we went over to the Sandoval's (ppl that fed us pig face) and ​taught them a member lesson. Afterwards we finished and they said they had something for us. It was covered by a cloth so the kids took it off and it was a birthday cake for me!!! It was so sweet and kind of them :) They didn't know it was my bday last week so they gave it to me today. We know they don't have a lot of money so to buy us a cake was so kind. They sang happy birthday to me and when they finished they started chanting for me to bite into the cake (mexican tradition). So I did and of course... they shoved my face into the cake! Hahah it was a good laugh and I have a video that I will have to figure out some way to send it to you :) such kind members!

 

 

Birthday cake from the Sandoval family

 

The Sandoval Family

 

Well... I'm about out of time for now but I love you all so much! Thanks again for the birthday wishes and for the love and support :) I love you all so much! Thanks for everything and for loving me. Yo se que este evangelio es un gran bendicione en nuestras vidas. Yo amo mi salvador con todo mi corazon y estoy muy agradecida a servir el senor a este tiempo!

Las quiero mucho!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Pierce

Hola familia! Gracias por todos!

September 2, 2014

Hello family!!!

I am so sorry I do not have much time to write today. Since yesterday was a holiday, we only have 1 hour to email here! I am stressed out of my mind right now haha! First... THANK YOU SO MUCH for the birthday emails! I won't have time to respond to anyone but THANK YOU SO MUCH! It was awesome to read them all! :) Thank you so much for the videos of my birthday party you had for me. I cried. I love you so much. Thanks for being the best family ever. Seriously. Bawled. Thanks for being awesome and birthing me on August 31,1994 TWENTY years ago mom! Let's celebrate you because I was a tough one ;)

 

 

Happy 20th Birthday!

SO this week was GREAT! As you know I got transferred and I am serving in Montrose in the San Juan BRANCH!!! It is awesome and my comp is Sister Noakes! She is 20 also and is from Kennewick, Washington and went to BYU before her mission. We get along great!! She got switched from english to spanish about 6 months into her mission and her spanish is AWESOME for only speaking for 8 months. I love her so much already and we have so much fun :) The branch is great and it is so nice to get to use my spanish more often- especially with the members. 

 

Beautiful Ouray Perimeter

The area is awesome. We have a few awesome investigators and had a good week teaching. I am SO PUMPED for this area and am loving being a missionary! Our zone is AMAZING and our ZL's and DL are soooo great. They are so active in what we are doing and are such great leaders!!! I don't have much time to fill you in on it but I will at least tell you about my birthday so you have a little info about that.

 

On Saturday night we started a Zone-wide fast for our investigators. So I started off my birthday Sunday morning fasting. I have gotten a lot better at fasting since being on my mission BUT we all know how I do without food. Haha so that was a rad start to the birthday. BUT alas, we went to church and the branch is GREAT! It is small but good members that are really really kind. No one knew it was my birthday, of course, so before we left for church I made myself an ice cream cake to eat that night haha. We had dinner scheduled with the Sandoval's right after church. They are an awesome family from Mexico with like 10 kids haha. it's awesome. So we get there for dinner after proselyting for like an hour and the elders were there finishing eating before us. The family had already eaten with the elders so we sit down and start and the elders leave. They had really interesting looks on their faces. So we are sitting there, waiting for our food to be served to us (mexican's do everything for you- you have no choice haha) and their son Mormon (yes his name is mormon hahaha) starts gesturing at his face and tells us to suck on a lime (you suck on a lime before your meal if you are about to eat something super crazy to settle your stomach). So Hno. Sandoval hands us two little tacos with some sort of meat, a ton of cilantro and salsa verde and salt. We find out the tacos are called... TACOS DE LA CABEZA... which is meat from the... FACE OF A PIG. Sooooo we were starving obviously because we had fasted for the past 24 hours so I started to eat. It was so disgusting I thought I was going to barf. We had two on our plate and obviously you have to finish it so you aren't disrespectful and so they will feed you in the future. Basically it tastes like you are eating fat and cartilage, and there are bones and whatever else in there. So while you are trying to chew what is mostly cartilage, you may happen to get a bone in there. Thank goodness we were fasting all day because if not, I would have thrown up. Tender mercies haha. BUT... yeah... that was my birthday dinner. The other elders that are serving in San Juan with us that are spanish also said it was disgusting for them... and one of them is even Mexican!!! So... it was definitely rough and after shoving down the two the best I could... I thought I was going to die I couldn't eat it anymore so I said I was full and that I liked it (of course you say that) and they bugged me about how I didn't and how the elders ate like 10 tacos... blah blah blah. Both of our stomachs hurt the rest of the day haha.

 

 

Tacos de la cabeza (meat from the face of a PIG!)

THEN... we leave the Sandoval's house to go visit an investiagtor before the firseside and sister noake's is driving. We turn left out of the neighborhood and she turns into the inside lane and then starts going into the outside lane and a guy comes at about 50 mph out of our blindspot and hits our car. SOOOOO for the next hour we talk with him and call the cops and we walk away with a $110 ticket (since it was her fault for going into his lane) and a scratched up front right bumber. Only about $1000 worth of damage between the two cars... BUT a ticket to say the least. We are supposed to split it (holler at me comp unity) but she said she wasn't going to make me pay since it was totally her fault... so I am hoping that still stands haha. So that was wayyyyy awesome. Haha. Definitely not the kind of way you want to spend your birthday. haha. She just wasn't thinking I guess and started going into the other lane... idk. It was all so fast. Noone was hurt- the guy just barely skidded into our car but to say the least... My luck with cars isn't much better in the mission field.

 

 

Our car after the accident

 

SOOOOO with all of that being said, we tried to go and visit investigators and no one was home. At the end of the night all I wanted to do was go home and eat the cake I made for myself. So we went home and the members we live with sang me happy birthday and I shared my cake with everyone. It was not anything I had planned and was a super tough day... BUT that's what makes a mission interesting!!! Haha! BUT, I enjoyed your birthday emails and the party you threw for me haha :) Maybe my birthday next year will be better... FINGERS CROSSED ;)

 

 

Birthday ice cream cake I made for myself

​However, yesterday was great! We went and shopped for groceries in the morning and then all afternoon the Toblers (members we live with) took us on a hike to the Ouray Perimeter hike. It was BEAUTIFUL and was about a 4.5 mile hike. I loved it and then they took us to this awesome chocolate shop after and got me an ice cream sunday for my birthday :) That was nice and we had dinner with them afterwards. So yesterday was waaay better and the hike was AMAZING. It felt so good to get outside and be active in the sun for about 3 hours. Don't worry mom... I put on your R+F sunscreen ;)

 

 

Sister Noakes and I

Not too shabby!

Well that's about all the time I have today... even tho my birthday was slightly sub par here... thanks for making it awesome back home! I seriousl​y loved the videos and pictures. I will have more time next week to write I think but thanks for everything and being the best family ever! MUAH!!!!

xoxo

Hermana Pierce

My new address is c/o Toblers, 1421 Dover, Montrose, CO 81401

TRANSFERS TOMORROW!!!

August 25, 2014

TRASLADOS!!! (Transfers!!)

Hola Familia :) Another week complete in the mission field! WOW! How is my first transfer and almost 2nd month of my mission COMPLETE??? Time is flowing by and I am loving being a missionary :) I finally have my feet underneath me a little bit and am LOVING the work. 

NOTICIA!!! (News!!) I am getting transferred! Tomorrow! I do not know where I am going yet, (we will find out tonight where I will be serving and who my comp will be), BUT this is my last day in Steamboat :( It was sad to say goodbye to all of the members yesterday. I really have grown to love this area. The members are interesting and the work is changing, but the church is true everywhere and the Lord's work is hastening. I truly love all of the people I am serving here in Colorado and know that this is where I need to be! :)

As far as this week goes... it was great! Here is the play by play:

Tuesday: 

We had sister's conference which is all of the sisters in our zone. It was taught by our Sister Training Leaders (Dotto and Smith)  and the Zone Leaders. It was AWESOME. So powerful when missionaries get together. Sister Dotto was sick during the day so I just decorated my planner and did my training. That night we had dinner with a member named Sister Bruchez. She is a widow and LOVES me because we bonded when I told her about Trevor. We visit her often and we were at here house on Saturday night when I found out I was getting transferred. We were all sad and I will miss her. She is amazing and has been kind of like my mom here! I know that one of the main reasons I was sent here was to provide her with solace and to comfort her and give her someone to relate to as she mourns the loss of her husband. (he died a year and a half ago. Not an easy pill to swallow and I have been able to help her by relating some of the same feelings I had when Trevor died. He continues to be an example and a light in my life even in my missionary work!)

Wednesday:

Exchanges! This week Sister Smith (companion of Sister White) came to Steamboat! We had a great day! Man do I love her so much! She will be replacing me in Steamboat when I am transferred! We had an AWESOME day and were able to teach an amazing lesson to Keyla about the BOM. I felt like my Spanish was soo on point and that I could communicate as well as I wanted. My Spanish is getting better every day and I love the language. My prayers are fluent and I can say everything about the gospel that I need to. I feel like I can finally express myself! It is wonderful and coming along nicely! I hope to be completely fluent in all conversation (not just gospel) after next transfer :)

 

 

Saying good-by to Flor & Keyla...2 investigators I love!

Thursday: 

District meeting in the morning and we switched back from exchanges. Sister D and I went grocery shopping in Craig then headed back to SS. An AWESOME STORY from today.

On Wednesday when Sister Smith and I were out working we OYMed a girl named Chelsea (16). We did the survey approach with her and set up an appointment at 3 the next day to teach her. Well, while I was writing down the appointment, I stopped to write down her telephone number and didn't finish my entry for the appointment. As we were talking, and leaving her with a pass along card, she asks us if she can give us something too. She hands us a Jehovah's Witness website pamphlet. Yikes. The JW's here are suuuuper intense. They invite the missionaries over to BASH. We don't even normally accept appointments with them. But, me, so naive, didn't know Kingdom Hall was a JW church and I set up the appointment before realizing. I was worried about it all day and when Sis D and I got back on Thursday, I didn't have a name written in at 3, but I had it circled in my planner anyways. I was confused of who the appt might have been with, and thought about Chelsea. I was pretty sure it was her appointment but wasn't positive, so out of fear, I dismissed it. Well, 3:30 rolls around and we are at the house eating lunch when we get a text... who shoukd it be? Chelsea, asking if we were still coming. What investigator (especially here) do you know that actually KEEPS and appointment and asks if you're coming? So, we rush over to Dream Island where she lives. The whole time in the car I was soooo nervous and had a terrible feeling. I had the vision that we were going to walk in and her family was going to be sitting there, ready to bash us. I was fearful. I was not being a disciple of Christ. Well... we get to the house and I am so nervous and have such a bad feeling I don't want to go in. So, Hna. Dotto assures me if something bad happens, we can leave. I say a prayer. A really really really heartfelt prayer of guidance and that this 16 year old girl will not tear us to shreds. Well.. we get in there. She's super kind (again) and we teach her the restoration. She has a few questions... but Is SO KIND and says she will pray to know if Jospeh Smith was a prophet and she asked US if we would continue to teach her. Talk about being prepared. Here I was, freaking out, and totally scared to share the most important and greatest blessing of my life. All in all, we have continued to teach her and she has committed to reading the BOM. I have no idea what will happen with Chelsea. She may never get baptiozed, BUT... SHE taught ME  NEVER to be scared to share the gospel. Who am I to deny ONE PERSON of the opportunity to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and have an eternal family solely out of MY PERSONAL FEAR? It was an amazing experience and just one of the many things I have learned.

Friday: 

Normal day... we had weekly planning and did all that. It was a great day and we taught Marina and Veronica. They both accepted the soft baptismal challenge. I won't go into detail, but they are AMAZING. I will be sad to miss their baptism in September :)

 

Veronica & Marina gave me a heart and sunflower to say good-bye.

Saturday:

Great day as well! We were able to serve for 3 hours at a suicide awareness convention. I served the beans in the food line and my Spring Creek BBQ days served me well. It was wonderful! Our mission is a pilot for the JustServe program the church is doing so we serve in the community 7 hours/week in addition to all of our proselyting. It is such an escape and stress relief to serve others! I love it!!!!​ That night I found out I was getting transferred and was super sad, BUT I know that God has a plan!!

Sunday: 

Yesterday was AMAZING! We had Stake Conference broadcasted to us from Meeker and ELDER OAKS spoke at it. He is amazing and spoke a lot on missionary work and also on coming unto Christ: which literally means to be a FOLLOWER and a DOER of Christ. Amazing talk. Veronica came to church and loved it:) She and her sister are so beautiful. Later on that day we went and said goodbye to Francisco and Gaby (RC) that I love and taught them. AND that night we took Gaby, Francisco, Veronica, Marina, Their brother Jesus, Rafa, and Pedro (also investigators) to the baptism of Manuel in Craig! It was amazing! We walk into the baptism with a whole family with us and the ZL's were shocked and were so proud. They gave us "mad respect" hahah! It was amazing and such a great experience. It was a wonderful end to such a great transfer in Steamboat with all of the people that I love. 

 

We told Francisco to lose the hat for the baptism we attended!

 

 All in all, things are going great. I am happy and content with my service in Steamboat and am looking forward to a new transfer and even more lives to touch! I love this gospel with all of my heart and am so happy to be a missionary! Thanks for all of the birthday wishes... hard to believe I ill be 20 years old on Sunday!!! AHHH!! :) It's great and the church is true :) LOVE YOU ALL and THANKS FOR THE PRAYERS!!! 

 

Love,

Hermana Pierce

To Craig and Denver and Back to Steamboat!

August 18, 2014

Wow! I have little to no time to update today because it is Zone P-Day and we are traveling all the way to Craig!! I also forgot my journal that has everything about my week so I will try and remember the best I can!!! :)

Tuesday we were able to have dinner with the Elliott's (Nikki's parents). They took us to the Mambo Italiano and it was AWESOME! (I had Spaghetti of course;)) It was so great to see a familiar face!

After dinner, we headed off for Craig to exchange. I was in Craig from Tuesday until Friday. It was great and I love Sister White! They have 4 people on date there so it was cool to see people that have such strong testimonies of the gospel!!! On Friday we stayed in Craig to do weekly planning and then drove back to Steamboat. We taught an awesome lesson to Yesenia and she said she would pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and her daughter Keyla said that if she received the prompting from Heavenly Father that she needed to be baptized, she would!! It was awesome!!! She has such a strong testimony of Jospeh Smith and the restoration.

 

Sister White and I on exchanges in Craig

On Saturday, President Murdock asked us to come to Denver. Sister Dotto was struggling also and so I called Sister Murdock and they wanted to see us. Sooo Saturday afternoon we headed down to Denver and spent the night in the mission home. It was fun to see them and take a little break from the stresses of Steamboat. On Sunday morning we went to Centennial Ward and it reminded me so much of home! Then we traveled back to Steamboat and had an awesome dinner with our Ward mission leader's wife, Sister Sandelin. She is awesome!!!!

We were able to drive by the temple when we visited Denver

 

That's pretty much the gist of my week! I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time to write and I don't have much to update on... BUT... next week is transfers! Based on my interview with president, I think I am getting transferred out of Steamboat. With that being said, here is some information on mailing... It's a little tricky.

I am getting transferred next week so if you are going to send something, send it to the mission office (999 E Tufts Ave, Cherry Hills Village, CO 80113) just in case. And make sure to send it through USPS. ONLY USPS. If not, I won't get it until I go to the mission office next which... could be never. lol. If you send something this week through UPS or FEDEX and it will get here BEFORE Saturday... Send it to 38625 Rolling Hills Lane Steamboat Springs CO 80477. BUT only to that address if it is through UPS or Fed EX and ONLY if it is going to get here before I get transferred on Saturday. If not, I wont get it. Sorry, it's super weird here with mail. BUT if you send something to the mission office, or to my PO Box address, it HAS TO BE THROUGH USPS. Also, don't send anything to my PO BOX address if it will get here past saturday. To be safe, just send everything through USPS to the mission office and they will forward it to me!

I know this is all over the place, but thank you so much for the kind love and support! You have no idea how much it means to me! The love and prayers I have felt this week are UNREAL! Also, thanks to Lindsay Cline and Rani Parkinson for the awesome package this week! It was so unexpected and AMAZING!! :) So thank you!!!

I love you all! The church is SO TRUE!!

Love,

Hermana Pierce

The Weeks Are Flying By...First Transfer Soon!

August 11, 2014

Well ,the weeks are continuing to fly by! I can't believe I am in the second to last week of my first transfer! WOW where has the time gone?!
 

Sister White and I on exchanges in Craig, CO

This week I don't have too much to update on because the work in Steamboat is at a little of a standstill, BUT we are working as hard as we can! Tuesday I had another exchange with Hermana White in Steamboat and it was great! It was great to feel as though I could really do this! She goes home in December and is great. She goes to BYU and I love her! We will be having 1 exchange per week because Hna. Dotto is Sister Training Leader and has to go visit other sisters. This week I will be in Craig from Tuesday night until Friday morning! CRAZY huh? But I like exchanges because it's nice to visit other sisters and get other viewpoints and learn new things from them!
 

The Sisters in the Meeker North and South districts

Thursday morning we had district meeting and Sis Dotto and I went grocery shopping in Craig because its cheaper. It is SO expensive here and they give us the same amount of money as everyone else.

On Friday we had to go the the Burke's house so Hna. Dotto could work on her BYU application and get some transcripts sorted out... long story short.... THANK YOU DAD for my allergy to CATS! They have THREE cats and I literally thought I was going to die. Haha. It was terrible! So for the last hour I had to sit outside because I didn't have any allergy medicine. So we are back at their house emailing today and I now have purchased a Zyrteck (spelling lol) and am doing better with the cats. haha.
 



Eating repollo (cabbage soup) with a corn tortilla and lime squeezed on it. YUM!

Saturday was interesting because both Sister Dotto and I weren't feeling very well so we spent a lot of time at home doing weekly planning and resting. It's been a super stressful time here and I have been struggling with my emotions. BUT I know that the work is hastening and the Lord is mindful of me at this time.

Sundays are AWESOME. I love church so much. It's such a nice escape to just sit and listen (although Hna. Dotto would say the opposite because she translates the whole time haha). BUT, we had a great sacrament meeting. None of our investigators came, but we have faith in the future! They will at some point be able to realize that this will be the greatest blessing in their life! One of the talks in Sacrament was on adversity and she said, "Adversity does NOT have to be coupled with discouragement or despair." God will SHOW unto us our weaknesses, so they can be made STRONG. We are being SHOWN our weaknesses. She emphasized that a lot and I love it. Everyone has adversity, and we are visibly able to see that a lot of the times. BUT, it is through our Savior we can overcome it. I love that :)
 

I literally cried while eating a chip with hot, hot, hot sauce on it!

Every Sunnday after church we go over to the Ward Mission Leader's house and the missionaries make waffles, eggs and bacon for the members. We never know how many we will get but it is always fun. It's a great way to interact with the ward... You should start it down in Texas, mom and dad!!! It's been SO fun! Sometimes we cook for 30 people!

Well, so sorry I don't have more exciting things to update you on... but just remember that this is the true church! I am so grateful for the love and support of my family and friends!!! Thanks for all of the emails from the gang in Texas this week! I loved it!!! Until next week!!!

xoxo

 

Love,

Hermana Pierce

P.S. Please drop me a short note at erica.pierce@myldsmail.net. It really makes a difference in my day!