Untitled Post Because I'm Not Clever This Week

June 22, 2015

Hello One and ALL!

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

 

Sister Newell

Okay... now onto the work this week!

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

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

 

Hermana Adair returned to the mission to visit me!

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

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



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

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

oxox​

Hermana Pierce

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