Week 3: The Work is Hastening in Steamboat Springs!

July 28, 2014

WOW! This week flew by! It is so true that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days here in the mission field. BUT, the work is hastening and things in Steamboat are moving along and improving a TON!

 

Hermanas Pierce and Dotto

So on Monday we finished moving into our new apartment. It is in this barn that is owned by the Christensen's in our ward. He is a country singer and is this major cowboy. I LOVE their family. They are my favorite ward members and make me feel like i'm back in TX! So we live in their completely furnished and BEAUTIFUL apartment. Half of the barn is the apartment and the other half is their storage area and all that with a door separating each. It's pretty cool. It is the nicest missionary apartment in the whole mission according to the ZL's! It has been a nice transition :) definitely makes coming home feel alot better!

 

 

Our Apartment Barn

Nicest apartment in the mission...inside our cute apartment barn!

 

 

 

Onto this week!

Monday (P-DAY) was crazy busy with moving so we only really had time to unpack and email.

Tuesday we had an official lesson with Kayla Villa (that we teach english to and lives in the trailerpark Dream Island). She read all of the restoration pamphlet and believes in Joseph Smith! So that was exciting to hear because she has never responded like that before. Sadly, she didn't come to church yesterday, so we are still working with her.

 

Little Sarah from the Dream Island community

On Tuesday I also fasted for guidance and strength with the language and just with being here. It was super hard because it was sooo hot that day and we were helping a lot of people but we saw SO many blessings because of it! We all know how hard it is for me to go without food, so I know that because of that sacrifice we experienced many miracles...

 

Eating a loaf of bread from a church member...I love food!

 

WITH THAT BEING SAID, We had the coolest experience on Thursday. One of the many miracles from this week. But first- a side note.

That morning I finally received the feeling during personal study that I am where I belong. I have felt a little out of place and just a little unsure of how to express myself and speak in spanish and all that. So on thursday morning, I finally received the confirmation that I needed! I felt that God was aware of my feelings and that I was finally able to be happy as a missionary! So... later on that day we did service for FOUR HOURS. We painted our old trailer that we used to live in for this kind lady renae that is now living there. She is so great and LOVES the missionaries. So we painted for 2 hours there and THEN we went and helped Kayla Villa and her mom Yesena paint their new trailer in DI. WOW. TONS of painting and we were EXHAUSTED. To say the least, it was SO great to do some service for others! It is such an escape here. I loved every second of it.

 

 

Painting for our Service Activity
 

 

SO... later on that day after about 4-5 hours of hard, long service, our dinner appointment (Burke) cancelled on us! :( she said she had a dr. appt and couldn't get back in time :( SOOOO... we were without dinner and were STARVING. We couldn't go back to the house because 1) our new apartment is about 15 minutes away from the city and 2) we had little to no food at the house. only cereal lol. SO... we decided to go and meet with an investigator that we had met the day before. His name is Raymundo and he lives in DI. So.. we head over there and HE ANSWERS THE DOOR! (People always say they will be home and then never are). So we go in, do this survey with him (basically a survey all about the questions of the gospel- it's golden- gets us a return appt every time) and then we taught him a little about the Plan of Salvation. IT WAS AWESOME. I understood mostly everything being said and it was AMAZING. If that weren't enough, we set up a return appt, and are about to walk out, and some of the other ladies that live there (his wife and sister) hand us TWO HUGE CHICKEN EMPANADAS. WHAT??? Jesus loves us. Oh my gosh. My jaw dropped. We were SO hungry and because we had faith and went and tauight the lesson instead of going home and wasting time driving and everything, we were given a miracle. Might not seem like that big of a deal to most, but when you are a poor missionary and don't ever have time to go back to the apartment, dinner appointments are GOLDEN. Such a great day.

 

The MIRACLE CHICKEN EMPANADA!!!
 

Friday we had Zone Conference in Craig (1 hour away). So the night before we traveled and stayed with the sisters there. Zone Conference was AMAZING. Wow. President and His wife spoke- I just love them so much. They are AWESOME. Such powerful speakers. SO that was GREAT. We talked a lot about the BOM and how we can continue to fortify our testimony of it. President challenged all new missionaries to read it in 42 days (first transfer) so I have been going strong on my 13 pages per day during personal study. Reading the BOM is such a great escape and I am strengthening my testimony of its truthfulness so much. We would have no idea how to teach without it. SO that was an awesome conference. At the end we had a testimony meeting and I shared my testimony about the little boy from Sleepy Bear without the pants that I told you last week. It has really impacted me and I have thought a lot about how much our savior loves us. Sister Dotto and I were asked to perform a musical number at ZC also... We sang a duet of All Creatures of our God and King. Wow... what is up with people thinking I can sing all of a sudden!?! HAHA. But it went really well and I may have slightly enjoyed it :)



Meeker North Zone

 

​AFTER the ZC... we flew on back to SS for our ward country singing/dancing activity​! As I mentioned, Bro. Christensen is a country singer (reaaally good one too) and he performed live for everyone! We (missionaries) organized the whole thing and have been busting it to invite everyone all week! It turned out GREAT! It was outside and we had a stage set up and everyhting. We actually had quite a few investigators come and the ward was super involved!! (we don't get that much)... So it turned out great!!! The ward was so pleased and we gained a lot of their trust. Another miracle... It was SUPPOSED to rain all night. We kept praying and praying that it wouldn't. We got about 3 or 4 drops here and there BUT we prayed SPECIFICALLY that it wouldn't rain until 9 when it ended. We finish up--- clean up--- It starts POURING at 9:01. I kid you not. Specific prayers=specific answers. That is for sure.

 

Ward Country Activity

 

 

When we were driving that day I had a super bad headache. I prayed to make it through the party and did. However, when we got in the car I got SOOOO dizzy and when we got home I could barely walk I was so dizzy. I couldn't even keep my eyes open and I just put ice on my head and prayed a ton to be able to fall asleep. Racing heart beat, dizzy, headache, blurry vision, terrible stomach ache- you name it, I had it. I was miserable. The next morning (Saturday), no dice. Same story. It came in spurts and I was miserable again. We called the mission nurse and she said to rest for the day (even though I didn't want to- Hna. Dotto forced me lol). So I watched the work and the glory and slept for 4 hours. I was super dizzy all day and our nurse and Sister Christensen came to the conclusion that I have what is called Vertigo. It is super common in the Mountain areas and normally lasts for at least a month or so. The only way you can contain it is to take Dramamine and there is no cure- even by a doctor. So, Saturday night when we had figured out what I had, Brother Christensen gave me a blessing. He said so many things I needed to hear and blessed me that I would be able to return to my work in SS asap. It was amazing and I was able to sleep that night. The next morning I woke up with a slight stomach ache and absolutely no dizziness. I have had a little bit of a headache yesterday and today- but no where near as bad and little to no dizziness. Another miracle-through our father in heaven and the power of the priesthood. What should and normally is about a month long sickness- was 24 hours and done. Wow. Blessings blessings blessings.

Yesterday was great. Church was awesome. We had 2 investigators come- Carlos and Freddy. Carlos is actually one of the elder's investigators. But, since elder Malaga (samoan elder- I love him) is in the hospital with a kidney infection (He got care-flighted to GJ) the elders asked us to meet with him. Carlos is actually hispanic but speaks decent english. We don't know why we weren't teaching him from the beginning. BUT, we taught him after church and put him on Date for Aug 17!!! As a mission- we are trying to get 100 baptisms in the month of august- 1 bap. per companionship. So that was great! We are going to continue to teach him with the elders when they return. So that was great. We also did some tracting in an english area yesterday and taught a very baptist lady. We have a return appointment with her on Tuesday... Let's just say I was SUPER excited about that one... An english speaking lesson, with a white baptist... Hmmm... Never seen that one before? Thank you Texas!

BUT, sadly I won't be there for the lesson with her because... I am going on exchange Tuesday-Wednesday this week to Craig! I'm kinda excxited, kinda nervous, and all other feelings about it. We are going to have one exchange per week from now on because Sis D is a Sister Training Leader. Should be interesting! Will let you know how it goes next week!

 

Hairstylist Pierce....dying Hermana Dottos hair

Well... That is pretty much it! Things in Steamboat are great! I love it and am improving every day. Missionary life is tough... but so rewarding.

Just want to leave you with my testimony... In spanish! (Sorry for all you spanish speakers... I don't know how to do accents on the computer so try your best to read it... and mom... sorry but you probably can't copy and paste it into google translate ;))

Yo se que Jesucristo es mi salvador. Yo se que el sufrio en la cruz para nuestros pecados. Yo se que nuestro padre celestial nos ama y que somos hijos de dios. Yo se que estoy en Steamboat por un proposito y que puedo cambiar vidas por la influencia del espiritu santo. Tengo un testimonio muy fuerte de la expiacion de Jesucristo. Yo se que nosotros tenemos un proposito en este tierra y que podemos regresar a nuestro padre celestial despues de este vida. Me encanta mi mision y estoy adradecido por mi familia en tejas. Yo se que familias son eternas. Me encanta este evangelio con todo mi corazon. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

 

 

>>> Muchas denadas por las cartas y por sus emails! Las amo!<<<

Until next week!!! :)

--

Love,

Hermana Pierce

Week 2: WOW! What A Crazy Week!

July 21, 2014

HI!!! WOW!

SUCH A CRAZY WEEK!!! Before I fill you in on my time in the mission field... I will finish up about the MTC and what happened my last few days :)

Friday, we had in-field orientation all day so that was pretty boring haha. Then on Saturday we had our last day of classes and practiced for the... MUSICAL NUMBER that we performed on Sunday. The MTC was interesting because everyone would always want me to sing for them! As we all know, I am NOT a soloist; we leave that to Kristen haha. BUT on Sunday, Elder Cabas, Mota, y Hna Reina and I did a musical number to I Know That My Redeemer Lives... IN SPANISH! I sang a solo on the first verse and it was actually really good! Haha! I don't know where it came from lol!!

 

OKAY...SO NOW>>>> MISSION FIELD MONDAY!!

 

Monday morning Hna. Torres and I had to be at the travel office at 4:30 am. I LOVED talking to you guys on the phone! The MTC was hard and it just helped me to focus back in. When we got to CO (40 minutes later lol- SUUUUPER long flight haha) we walked through the airport and President Murdock and Sis Murdock were waiting for us. We met and shook hands and hugged and were on our merry way. Elder Cabas, Hna. Torres and this other elder and I rode with Sis Murdock to the church mission office where they had CHIPOTLE catered for us for lunch!!! I was in HEAVEN. We were able to just hang out for a while and we got to shoot a couple of baskets (in our church clothes lol!). I was shooting around and for some reason was making EVERYTHING and the elders literally thought I was Lebron or something hahaha. It was one of my finest moments thus far... mostly because we all know I am NOT a shooter. Bahaha... The spirit just willed the ball into the hoop... That's for you dad ;) (Kristen had it right in her talk when she said we were forced to play basketball growing up... haha just kidding.. it paid off :))

 

The rest of the day we did orientation.It was pretty average. Just rules and things. Pres M interviewed every person and we had a good chat. I LOVE HIM AND SIS M!!!! They are SO awesome and they remind me a lot of you and Dad :) Our interview went great... I was telling him about my family and about how Eiji just got baptized and of course my accident story was brought up... so I told him briefly about that and he was stunned. He said he knew I would be such a great missionary! So that was great. More about what he said about my future comp later :)

 

Later that night we went to the mission home and just had dinner and a little program. Next morning we left at 6:15 AM and drove back to the mission office for Transfer Meeting. It was so awesome and everyone that I met was SO cool! They announced everyone's companion and mine is HERMANA DOTTO!!! She is from Argentina and we are serving in STEAMBOAT SPRINGS on the WESTERN SLOPE. SOOO... as soon as the western slope transfers got announced, we headed onto the transfer train (a bunch of cars traveling in a long line to the western slope haha). We got all packed up and loaded luggage into the trailer and was off in our 11 man bus haha.

 

3 HOURS later we got to Rifle and I met Hna D. SHE IS AMAZING. She is 28- from Argentina and joined the church 4 years ago when she was 24. She is the only member in her family and speaks GREAT English. She is completely fluent and I like to give her pointers sometimes. We all went to Sonic; the missionaries eat free here because the owner is Mormon. Then were headed off for the 3 hour drive to Steamboat. We chatted the whole way and she was SO surprised at how good my Spanish was. We got to our apartment in SS and she told me that we would be moving to a member's home on monday so I didn't even bother to unpack. We went straight to a dinner appointment at the ward mission leaders house.. the Sandelin's. It is soooo different here than Texas. haha. First meal was pork'nbeans, sausage and rice and sauerkraut. It was actually really good :) I loved it! There is only ONE ward here and it is English. HOWEVER, it is split in half between English Elders and us, the Spanish Hermanas. SOOO... the ward is in English, but we teach pretty much ONLY in Spanish. I have yet to teach an English lesson. The only time we teach in English is when we leave a message at our dinner appointments.

 

After dinner at the Sandelin's we went to the church to meet with the bishop who JUST got called. He is... interesting. He is just super overwhelmed with the new calling. He is fine... but just definitely not a Bishop Smith. haha. It made me miss home a little bit. Afterwards, we went and taught our first two lessons. The first was with Marta (more on her later) and then the second was with these Peruvian Brothers (Abel y Fidel). Hna. Dotto is SUCH a great teacher. The lessons were in Spanish obviously and I bore my testimony about my thoughts in both of them. Hna D was SHOCKED haha. My espanol about the church is SO solid, but I have been struggling with my Spanish in just casual conversation. Which is interesting because before my mission I knew absolutely NO church words haha. More about Spanish later.

 

Wow... so Wednesday was awesome. We had a great planning session in the morning and study time. We had lunch with a lady in the ward named Sister Muhme. She is great. Afterwards we went and did service for 1 hour at the thrift store putting away clothes. We are asked to do 7 hours of service per week in our mission. It is hard because we are ALWAYS teaching, which is great. Later on we had dinner with a recent convert Gabby, who just got baptized not too long ago. She is 24 and made me think of Kristen. She took us to this really great taco place for dinner and then came to our lesson with Marta y Carlos (Marta's son who is 16) afterward. They live in a trailer park called Dream Island where pretty much all 9 of our investigators live. We taught them about the BOM and read it with them because Marta can't read. The day before we made Marta pinky promise that she would say the prayer in our next lesson, so of course we reminded her of that even though she doesn't like to pray for some reason. It took about 10 minutes, but she finally did it and it was AMAZING. It is insane how humble these people are!hey live in a 1 bedroom house about the size of our kitchen in TX. Her prayer was absolutely beautful. She started bawling and we realized the reason she doesn't like to pray out loud is because she gets so emotional. SO that was AMAZING and definitely my favorite moment in the mission so far.

 

After her prayer we taught about the BOM and read and I gave my testimony and actually taught quite a bit. The spirit is ESSENTIAL. One thing I loved that Kristen said to me in my email this week that relates exactly to how I feel and what I have been going through is "People will forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel." Wow. SO true. I was able to convey my feelings about the truth of the gospel through my SPIRIT> not just words. The lesson was great and Hna Dotto and I both felt prompted to re-commit them to be baptized in THREE weeks. The spirit was so strong and they said, although they felt it was so soon, they would! We see Marta and Carlos almost every day and I love them so much. I will try and take a picture with them this week :) They are continually progressing.

 

Our other main investigators are Abel and Fidel. They are from Peru and live in Dream Island too. We taught them after Carlos and Marta on Wednesday about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Another great lesson. They would be good progressing investigators if they would keep their commitments. They didn't show up for any of our other scheduled lessons this week.

 

Kayla and Yesena! They live in a little nicer trailer in DI.They aren't super interested in the church discussions right now but we go over and teach them English for service all week and slip a message in here and there and maybe leave a few pamphlets. ;) Next to Marta and Carlos, they are my other FAVORITE investigators. They have a HUGE family that all live at the houses surrounding theirs and they love us. Most of our investigators don't know any English at all SO when they find out that we know English (didn't take long) they always ask us how much it costs to learn. (English lessons are SUPER expensive). When we say it's free... THEY FREAK OUT. So we always have people wanting us to teach them. We mostly just teach Kayla and her mom Yesena though because they love us and don't just take advantage of it; they actually listen to our message! They are so great and are always so excited to see us. They have a little boy named Julio, whom we LOVE, and a ton of other family members. They are awesome and invited us over for pan dulce y leche this week while we taught them (sweet bread and milk- you take the bread and dip it in the milk- SOOOO good. Quite the delicacy). They are great !Yesena's other daughter, Nancy, who is mid-30's, lives next door and fed us this awesome soup. Every time we go over to anyone's house in their family they always want to feed us. It's so sweet because they give us everything they have and the best things they have to offer. So humbling. Such an example of Christlike charity- and they don't even know they are doing it.It's just the culture. Definitely a change from back home.

 

With that being said... I had the most humbling day of my life on Wednesday. We had a lesson set up with Carlos but he didn't show up so Gabby and Hna D and I just ended up talking. (Gabby was there for a member present lesson). We talked with her and she told us about all of the hard things going on in her life. It is unreal. She is struggling with so much and lives in another trailer park nearby called Sleepy Bear. We were talking with her and realized it was 5:50 and we had a dinner appt at a member's home about 15 minutes away but we didn't want to stop teaching her and providing her some relief so we kept talking. She is really struggling, especially since she has no family here, rents a room in a trailer, and is the only member. It's hard. SO we leave at about 5:50 and call at 6 to Sister Burke, who is the lady who we are having dinner with, to let them her we will be 5 minutes late. Since she is white, I can talk on the phone with her. (Hispanics are super hard to understand on the phone so I handle all the phone calls with the white ward members and Hna D handles all calls with investigators haha). So I call, introduce myself (mind you, she hasn't even met me)... and I let her know we will be 5 minutes late.As soon as I finish talking... Sis Burke starts SCREAMING at me on the phone, telling me how rude it is to show up late and that the elders were already there ready to go and that they wanted to start eating 10 minutes ago; literally screaming at me on the phone! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I turn the phone on speaker for Hna D to hear and she couldn't believe it either. She told Sis Burke that we could talk when we get there.

 

When we arrive at the Burkes, Sis Burke pulls us aside, and starts screaming again and scolding us- telling us how rude we were. Unbelievable! I start crying. My first visit with the members of the ward! There were 3 other families there and the elders- just watching us get yelled at. We explain that we were in a lesson but they don't understand. So long story short... the rest of the dinner didn't go well. We had a lesson at 7 so we left ASAP. The spirit left completely and some of the other members made inappropriate, rude comments during dinner. [[[ SIDE NOTE: The ward here is interesting because it is ALL converts and almost everyone is divorced and has been remarried to someone else IN THE WARD. Suuuuuper awkward. So they don't really understand what we as missionaries do because none of them have ever served missions- even Bishop is a convert.]]] So, we were so upset; Hna D and I just lost it in the car. It was so upsetting. We felt so hurt!

 

We took Gabby back home (SHE WAS AT THE DINNER! The only Hispanic with a ton of white people- and they don't even give her the time of day- it was so unreal.) We take her back to her place in the trailer at Sleepy Bear (super poor trailer park). When we are dropping her off... There is a little 4 year old boy standing in the road with no pants on... only his undies... trying to pull his shirt down over his legs. I thought it was kind of funny at first... "so cute... little boy forgot his pants!!" Well... Gabby talked to Hna D in Spanish about it but I couldn't catch it because she said it so fast. When she leaves, I ask Hermana D what she said... The little boy without the pants was the son of the mom who lives in the same trailer as Gabby. The mom locked her 4 year old son out of the house this morning without giving him pants. She wouldn't let any of her kids into the house and he had been out there all day without anything but a shirt. Absolutely heart-breaking! Gabby said that apparently the mom doesn't care for her kids. She is an addict and just leaves them to fend for herself. When the mom was younger, she was beaten by her parents... which, we assume, is why she doesn't care for her kids. To say the least, I lost it. Bawled for the next 30 minutes, just wishing I could do something for that little boy that stood by the dumpster by himself, trying to cover himself with a t shirt, while all of the other kids played in the street. Imagine coming from the dinner situation... to that?

 

Life just isn't fair. I don't understand how people can live like this. I always knew that it existed... but I never knew how bad it was. All I wanted to do was run up and take that little boy and love him... because he had never been loved before. The rest of the night I was so upset and confused. It was so hard to see such totally different ends of the spectrum all within an hour of each other. The hardest day by far... and I'm sure one of many more to come.

 

Saturday we had a training in Grand Junction that we had to travel there for; 4 hours each way. A really super long drive. It was good. Not much else too eventful happened during the week. Yesterday... Sunday... was hard.

 

The ward, like I said, is interesting. It has a lot of tourists who attend. We had 6 investigators lined up to come to church, and none of them came. We even woke up early, took breakfast to Marta and Carlos, they were on their way to church and their car broke down. Satan stinks! So yesterday I was pretty hurt and a little homesick. Hermana Dotto and I had a huge long talk last night when we got home and I just vented about how upset I was and how hard the week had been. She reassured me that it was the hardest week that she had ever heard of for a new missionary. haha. So that was tough!Sister Burke apologized to us for the other night at dinner. But needless to say, it was a tough, tough week. Nothing at all what I expected it would lbe like, BUT... I'm improving and I am learning every day! Spanish is coming along. I love this gospel and know this is where I am supposed to be!

 

My new address is:

 

PO Box 774170

Steamboat Springs,  80477

 

Please try and send letters! I don't have much time to email and I would love to hear from you during the week!

 

I love you all so much! Thanks to Heidi Rawe for the package... I got it and it was a hit! Even brought some snacks to zone meeting :) I am eating healthy and working out... We moved to a new apartment this week... in the barn of a member's home... IT IS BEAUTIFUL! More on that next week. I have run out of time... and don't have an adapter so if we finish organizing our things at the new apartment, we will try and come back so I can send pics! But if not... Pictures next week!!!

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

xoxo

Hermana Pierce

Week 1: The MTC is tough...really tough...but I love being a missionary!

July 8, 2014

Hola my familia y amigas!!!

Man... Have I ever been so excited for P DAY!!!! I feel like I have been waiting an eternity to write home! The MTC is great! I am in District A in Branch 112! We have 5 elders and 4 hermanas in our district. Hermana Torres is my companion. She is from Aurora, Colorado and we are both going to Denver south! We live in an apartment on West campus with the other two hermanas in my district- hermana servin and hermana reina. I love them SO much and absolutely love my district. Every person in my district is a native except for me. #whitegirlgringaprobs BUT they are all SO kind and are so sweet to me. They understand that I am obviously not fluent and are always helping me when I speak. The other hermanas and i have gotten soooo close and we feel as though our whole district has known each other forever. SOOOO... the first day we got here I got my tag and met my district. The whole drinking from a fire hose analogy is SO true. I was SO overwhlemed and understood barely anything that was being said because it was all in FAST, fluent, crazy insanely accented spanish. Our teachers names are Hermano Stevenson and Hermano Rock. They served in Arizona and Alabama.

 

Sister Torres is my MTC companion






Hermanas in my district





My district in our MTC classroom with one of our teachers

 

So a cool experience that happened that first night. We went to a class called "People and your purpose" where you sit in a room with a ton of missionaries (prob about 50) and there in an investigator at the front that you talk with and then you all respond to his questions and take part in a big group discussion. It was pretty cool. We met with three investigators. I am going to tell you about Hely. Hely was the second investigator that we talked to. She told us about her job with the elderly. She works in a lot of rehab facilities. She told us about how there was this one man in the rehab facility who had been in a car accident and was completely paralyzed from the neck down and was pretty much a vegetable. She was telling us that she didn't think it was fair that the workers at the facility just moved him without his permission and just took control of his life without any input from her. She told us that she thought it was just so unfair to him that he had to be in this situation and that she didn't understand why God would make that happen. As she was talking I felt impressed to share with her about my accident. I raised my hand and told all about my accident and about how even though I was righteous, I still had something bad happen to me. (We were talking in english so I was able to go into a lot of detail). She was so engrossed in my story but since we were in a group setting I couldn’t talk for too long. But afterwards I went up and talked to her and she is just so sweet. She was just crying and hugging me and thanking me for sharing my story. So that was a really great redeeming moment in a SUPER hard day.

 We had a welcome from the mission presidency the first night and a quote that sister Nally said that pretty much sums up my first few days and week is "Little growth occurs in a comfort zone... and there is little comfort in a growth zone!" I have felt SO inadequate here my first few days. Thursday was okay but day 1 and day 3 were definitely the hardest. I was SO discouraged about my spanish on those days because I kept comparing myself to the natives. I had to remember that I am not a native and that I am still learning. But I have been improving so much and my spanish has been great. I am learning so quickly and Elder Ruiz who is in my district and speaks very little english (I teach him english and he teaches me spanish lol) told me that my spanish is great and that I will be the best gringa sister missionary ever. haha! He is so great (he is our district leader).

 Thursday was great. nothing too eventful. Then on friday was 4th of july! Although it was my most discouraging day in spanish, it was great because the night was fun. I have definitely experienced so many highs and lows while being in the field! It is insane and the MTC is SO HARD. I am really ready to just get into the field. I have struggled quite a bit and am SO TIRED all the time. The schedule here is so rigorous... we just never stop. But anyways, after my​ short pity party about how discouraged I felt about my spanish, I decided to change my attitude and just be happy. Later that day Hna. Torres y yo taught a lesson to our "investigator-fabian" (really hno. stevenson). We have taught about 6 lessons to our "investigators” now and I have noticed that my spanish is best when I am teaching because we have the spirit. I love hna. torres. She is so great and is an awesome teacher! I am so grateful for a native companion because she leads the lesson and keeps it flowing. I get a little frustrated sometimes because I am a perfectionist and feel that I am not as effective a missionary as I could be, but I know that God is humbling me and that I will continue to learn. So anyway... Friday night we got out of class early and got to watch a devotional broadcasted from main campus and then....WE GOT TO WATCH 17 MIRACLES!!! It was great!! Then afterwards we went outside and they gave us magnum ice cream bars and we got to watch the fireworks! It was so great! So that was awesome.

 

Sister Torres is a great teacher!

Sunday was fast sunday and our district decided to do a 24 hour fast! It was suuuuper hard but I knew that if I wanted to improve my spanish, a fast was necessary. Sunday was GREAT! We had mission conference then had sacrament meeting in our branch. It was so great to be able to take the sacrament and listen to the testimonies (even tho they are all in spanish - I understand almost everything people say, except for the ones that have thick accents) So that was awesome. AND I bore my testimony! I talked for half in english and just said that I had realized how mindful my heavenly father is of me and that I know I am here, in an all-spanish/native branch for a reason. Everyone is so nice and understands that I don't know everything yet. Then I finished with my testimony in spanish and the hermanas said that it was perfect. I love the gospel and the influence of the spirit so much.

  

I love my district!

 So we are finally to yesterday- lunes- we woke up at 5:45 to go do service. IT was fun! We cleaned bathrooms lol. Then yesterday we taught our first TRC! Which is a lesson with a real investigator who may or may not be a member (not one of our teachers). Our TRC invest. name is jeremy and hna. torres y yo had planned on teaching about the restoration but once we started talking with jeremy, we were prompted to switch to the plan of salvation and changed at the last minute! It was an awesome experience. SO that was awesome BUT WAIT... It gets better!!!




Service Day

 

AFTER our TRC, we walked outside and who should be there but Hely and her husband Jose. We started talking to her and hna. torres told her about how she had a problem with her liver and how her mom had to donate... etc ( I don't know all the details... it was all in spanish haha they talk so fast). SO... we kept talking and then Hna. Servin and Hna. Reina came out and the four of us were talking. Apparently, Jose's mom had the same health problem as Hna. Torres and they have given her a 2% chance of surviving and she lives and is 94! It was a way cool story and long story short- Jose and Hely (who we are almost positive aren't members) think it is because of God but also because of the medicine. It was way cooler and such an awesome experience than I am making it sound... BUT THEN Hely told us that she wanted to talk to ME and hear all about my accident and THEY asked US to set up an appointment to talk with them and teach them! Like a real lesson, not a TRC!!! WOAHHH!!! We were freaking out!!!!! We’re so excited- so I am already getting the opportunity to share about my accident and it has already influenced people and i'm not even out of the MTC. It was so cool. We are teaching them on thursday during our companionship study time.. I am SO grateful for my accident. It really has just completely changed my life and is such a great teaching tool.

 

Wow, I am basically out of time- I wish I could tell you more... but that is the gist! The MTC is tough. Really tough. But I am enduring. This time next week I will be in the field!!! AHhh I can't wait!
 




I'm always really tired at the end of the day!

 

Food isn't bad here... not as bad as the cannon center but not my mom's food ;) (Miss you mom haha). But I LOVE the dear elders!!!! Keep em coming! Seriously it is the best thing ever! SO THANK YOU TO my mom, dad, sister, and stacey for writing me dear elders :) They are great when I am in the MTC because I have so little time to email.

 

BUT anyways... I am loving my mission, i like the mtc... love my district! I will be sad to leave them. We have another elder (Elder Cabas) in my district that is going to CDS along with me and hna. torres.


The Colorado Denver South missionaries

 

 

I love you all so much!!!

Can't wait to hear from you!!! Thanks for the prayers and love!!!

Next letter from me... WILL BE FROM COLORADO!!! EEEK!!!

I love being a missionary!

 

Love,

Hermana Pierce

 

​ps: sorry this is all over the place. I am trying to write so fast!! and sorry if some of it is in spanish lol. ​