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​