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!!! :)

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Love,

Hermana Pierce