21

August 31, 2015

 

YES, It's true! Today is my birthday and I turned 21! Ahh! How did I get so old!? Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! I love you all so much and will be seeing you so soon! :) We are going to celebrate by getting our nails done and going to my favorite Chinese place here in Denver for dinner tonight! I am so blessed! :)

 

 

 

 

On my birthday!

Now onto the week!

 

This week was good! We didn't see crazy out of the water miracles like last week, but a great week nonetheless!

Sooo... one investigator I want to talk about it Horalia! She was a member referral from our genealogist specialist. She has been coming to the gospel principles class here in the ward forever but hasn't really been taught seriously by missionaries or ever been to sacrament. Well, this week we had a great member present lesson about the Book Of Mormon with her and her less active husband (it's a part member family) and the member that is her best friend that referred us to her. Well, it was a great lesson and afterwards we asked her to come to sacrament meeting with us this week instead of only coming for the 2nd hour. She said no at first and I then told her it was my ONLY birthday wish for her to come to sacrament meeting... well... SHE CAME!!! It was so awesome to have Horalia there and she wore a dress and heels and everything! She's not on date for baptism yet because she takes this all REALLY seriously, but we are hoping to set her on date this week! :)

 

 

We went to a Mexican seafood place that had a mariachi band!

 

A cool miracle from this week happened on Monday evening. We decided to try a referral from the elders. Turns out, they gave us the wrong address, BUT we found a new investigator named Alma. She is mid 30's and SO AWESOME. We did the survey, taught the first lesson, and she accepted a baptismal date of October 4th. We asked her how she felt after we recited the 1st vision and she was literally SPEECHLESS! It was such a miracle and she is SO prepared by the Lord! :)

This week I am working on being diligent! On Saturday night, Satan took over and basically all of our investigators tried to drop us and a lot of them are undergoing a lot of trials right now. Sister Chandler and I were so upset because we feel like we are working so hard and it sometimes just isn't panning out. Well, we decided that we will continue forward and just TRUST in the Lord! This area and His work will move at HIS time, all we need do is be obedient and ready and willing to be His instrument!

 

I love my mission! This week marks 3 months exactly until I come home... AHHH! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by, but I had such a sappy moment this week as we were beginning our fast that I just LOVE being a missionary! I don't want it to end, but I know the Lord has a plan for me as well! I love this gospel more than anything!! I finished the Book of Mormon again this week and am starting on my 9th time reading it on my mission. I LOVE THAT BOOK! Please, go get a copy and start reading it TODAY!!!

 

 

I love being a missionary!

Have a great week! :)

​Love,

La Viejita, Hermana Pierce ;)​

This One Goes Out To My MOM...:)

August 3, 2015

Well folks... It's been a CRAZY intense week here in the Denver Spanish 1st WARD :)

 

Monday I was in the mission home all day with Sister Newell! We got to hang out there, get Chipotle, etc. It was actually quite relaxing. We got to meet all of the new missionaries that came in. One of them was Sister Harshaw from SOUTHLAKE! It was so fun to welcome her and to see a familiar face :)

 

They sell paletas in Denver by the box at the Mexican stores!
They are my favorite Mexican treat and are like an
ice cream popsicle with real fruit in them!

Then, Tuesday morning at 6:15 we left for transfer meeting. It's fun being on Metro side because I get to see all of the departing missionaries and hear their testimonies! It was SO sad to say goodbye to my dearest Sister Newell! She headed to Brazil and I assume is doing great over there! It was SUCH a tough breakup though, let me tell you.

 

 

Met up with one of my former companions, Hermana Gogue again
at the transfer meeting. 

 

I served with Sister Killpack in the district during my first transfer.
I saw her at this week's transfer meeting where she was headed home.

 

I love Sister Lara!

 

The rest of the day, while I waited for my new companion to come over from the Western Slope, I took one of the new missionaries that is now serving in Denver 1st as well and we went and checked out our apartments. Because all of Denver 1st ward is getting whitewashed for the sisters, our apartment (I'm serving on the North side :)) hadn't been lived in for over 5 weeks! It was DISGUSTING. We didn't have air conditioning (it was 90 degrees - literally - when we walked in) and basically abandoned. So, literally the next 5 hours I spent cleaning our apartment. It was SO dusty and just atrocious. I'm not even exaggerating. I am SO GRATEFUL for my mom for teaching me how to clean! I never thought I would ever be cleaning baseboards and blinds and cleaning marks off of the doors, but alas, that was the rest of our week! I picked up my new companion that night at 9 pm back in Cherry Hills. Her name is HERMANA KOKIA CHANDLER and I LOVE HER SO MUCH. She came out a couple of transfers after me and I just adore her. I've known her basically my whole mission and am so happy we get to serve as companions! She has been out 11 months, is also a former Cougar and is from Kane'ohe, HAWAII :) It was an instant connection.

 

My new companion, Hermana Chandler

 

Hermana Chandler and I had not had Panda Express since
we have been on our missions... had to get some!

 

Sooo, we got home that night, unpacked our bags (I had managed to get our room clean enough while I was waiting for her to get there - it took 3 hours just for one room) and went to bed about 12. The next morning we woke up at 6 and got RIGHT back to work cleaning. We literally spent the next 2 days DETAILING and cleaning EVERYTHING. The 2 remaining sisters in the Denver 1st ward out of the 4 last transfer had been living in the south apartment so ours was just hideous. So, after 2 days STRAIGHT of cleaning, our apartment is now beautiful and spotless :)

 



Olaf, sitting in the reading chair in our apartment.

 

On Friday, we started prepping the area. Basically, no one has been in the north area for about 5 weeks now, so we're basically opening it from scratch. We have about 3 investigators that are actually pretty solid, but its a HUGE drop off from there. So, we started organizing all 6 area books... (YES... SIX). There were records in there from 2004! So that took another full day or 2. So, after 2 days of cleaning the house so we don't die of diseases, and 2 days of organizing old information and meeting with our WML and 2 investigators, by Sunday we were finally able to go out and proselyte! We decided to begin by trying some of the people we hadn't seen yet and some old less actives that hadn't been seen in years.

 

Ate at an awesome seafood place where they serve it by the pound!

 

We had a wonderful day at church yesterday. The ward has about 150 people that come to sacrament meeting each week and FULL classes every other hour. It was AMAZING! The members are SO loving. Bishop Hernandez had all of the new missionaries go up and bear their testimonies yesterday (there are 6 of us out of the 8 that are new in this ward) and introduce ourselves. The spirit is SO strong in that ward! I can't even believe it. Although we are basically starting from scratch, I am super excited to serve here! It will most likely be my last area of my mission, so Sister Chandler and I are ready to give everything we have to make it great! I have never been so tired or exhausted in my mission as I have been this week. Every waking moment and every thought has been dedicated to this area and these people. But that is how it should be :) The members are wonderful. We get fed wonderful Mexican food every night and I'm loving it :) We only get to teach in Spanish in this area so i'm super excited to really be immersed in the culture. We cover the more ghetto parts of Denver so it's been quite a scare a few times... but don't worry,Mom... We're being careful! All of the stores and things are in Spanish and our area has amazing graffiti street art everywhere!!!

 

 Lakewood, CO at sunset!

 

Our new address is:

Hermana Erica Pierce

7160 West Cedar Avenue

Apt #1

Denver, CO

80226

 

That's about all I can think to update on this week! I love you all so much! Many prayers needed for our area, but we're so excited to get to work!! :)

Love,

Hermana Pierce

 

 

Pic: Accidentally rubbed my hand against the blinds quickly... this is what happened... Point proven? HAHA.

HOLA from the 303

July 27, 2015

Well hello to all of the new additions from GLENWOOD SPRINGS to my weekly email list :) This one's been CRAZY!! Get ready!

Beautiful Glenwood Springs Canyon

 

 

So this past week, Sister Newell and I were completely anticipating that she would be staying in Glenwood Springs and I would probably be getting transferred (because of health reasons). As of last Tuesday at Zone Conference, we hadn't heard anything about her visa so she was expecting another transfer here. Well, this Tuesday came around and we got a call from the mission office that Sister Newell had received her VISA! It was a COMPLETE shock and we didn't expect it AT ALL! So, we were on the phone with president that night when we found out she had to be in Denver by Monday. President told us that GWS would be getting white washed and that I would be coming to DENVER to serve in the Denver 1st Spanish WARD! (there are 8 missionaries that serve in this ward - 4 elders 4 sisters - EIGHT! It covers all of Denver and it's like little Mexico! (Haha! Talk about immersion--- no more english!). I was a little shocked because I am also going to be white-washing Denver (all 4 of the sisters serving in this ward either went home for medical, got their visa, or are finishing their mission). So that was definitely some big news! I figured I might be going to Denver since President and I had talked about it before, but I was not expecting to have to white-wash Denver OR to have our area in Glenwood Springs get white-washed! SO, we immediately started making the preparations to leave our area.



Good-bye to my Glenwood Springs District!

Good-bye to Hermana Newell

 

We spent all of Thursday-Saturday getting the area ready, talking with investigators and members, prepping our area book, packing, and cleaning! It was a lot of work! I had to do the same thing when Sister Gogue and I left Montrose but we had about 3 weeks to prepare! Two days was a little tougher. So that's what we spent the week doing. But, we were actually able to teach a decent number of lessons this week. We FINALLY got in contact with Blanca on Saturday. She was SO sad when we told her we were leaving. I gave her the Mark Mabry print of Christ and we told her how much we loved her and how much God loved her. She kind of lost it and began to cry. I felt so badly because it breaks my heart to leave her, but I just have to trust that the Lord will take care of her.

Blanca & Leandro

 

On Saturday night, we said a few goodbyes, but the goodbyes this time around were a little rushed since we had to leave Sunday afternoon to drive to Denver. I was sad I didn't get to say goodbye to more of the wonderful people I love in Glenwood, but it was actually a little easier that way. I am so so sad to have to leave Glenwood, but I know the Lord has a purpose for me being in Denver. I am excited to experience the Metro side of our mission, but it will most definitely be a change! I have served on the western slope for my whole mission and now this will most likely be my last area! It's been a little weird, and it still doesn't feel real. But, I suppose when Sister Newell leaves for Brazil tomorrow and I get my new companion and my area assignment (Denver North or South), that will change.

Goodbyes! to Emily Page

 

Making Pozole with Presidente Vigil

 

Andres, Alma & Luis

 

Ismael & Laura

 

The Greathouses...my mission grandparents!

 

 

 

We got into Denver late last night (Sunday) so we are staying in the mission home until Tuesday morning. Today has been such a relaxing preparation day just hanging out in the mission home since we already prepped everything before we left GWS. AND... the best part of being in Denver so far is... CHIPOTLE.

 

[I hope you enjoy the attached picture of my reunitation (new word i just invented because who speaks real english??) with the greatest restaurant of all time after a full YEAR away from it. I was crying tears of joy.]
 

Well, that's about all I have to update on this week! It was such a bummer leaving GWS so quickly, but I am excited to see what else the Lord has in store! Only time will tell! I will meet my new companion and receive my area tomorrow at transfer meeting! (Noticia! I'm not training this transfer! wohoo hahaha a small break :)) Thank you to all of my wonderful Glenwood Springs members that made my time in the Valley one to remember. I am so grateful for your constant outpouring of love. XOXO!!!

 

 

My favorite photo from my whole mission...Glenwood Springs!

Have a great week, ya'll!!!

Love,

Hermana Pierce