Dec. 27, 2010

Hello Hello family!
Hope everyone had as good of a Christmas as I did!  Mine was awesome! This might be a bad email.  I remember the email right after mothers day, I had no idea what to write about. Maybe I will just give you a little more detail about being a zone leader and what wards we cover.


So as the Zone leader, we are in charge of 14 other missionaries. Each night the district leaders (3 of them) call us and we take their reports of the areas. After we do that, we have to call the AP's (assistants to the president) 3 times a week to give them the reports of the entire zone. Then every Sunday night, we have what we call "hell week", where we have to take a report of every single ward that we cover, all of the key indicators, all the baptismal dates and all the progressing investigators, and write them all down and then report to the AP's and to the President. It takes a long time and it really stinks, hence the name we have given it.

Then in our specific area, we cover all of the single/university wards on campus and in Thatcher. So we cover 4 wards total. So its really cool, because the single wards cover the entire thatcher valley, so if the elders or sisters find anyone who qualifies to go to the single ward, we get to teach them. So they get passed off to us and we get to baptize them! its tight.

My companions name is Elder Clark, he has been out for about a year now. Me and him get along really well. We are always cracking up at each other, cracking jokes and just having fun. We love having fun but getting work done is the key. We both know how to work and that really benefits us. Being a zone leader is tight, but we will see how the transfer progresses and see what happens. Well i love you all so much, thank you for all the support you have shown to me. I miss you and i cant wait to hear from you again.

Love, Elder Pierce

Letter from Mission President

Yes, I said it. I am now a Zone Leader !!!

Well hello family, so you obviously didn't receive an email from me yesterday, so I'm emailing you today. Well i have bad news and i have other types of news. For the bad news, i got transferred. I am no longer in
Clifton. Which stinks. But I have more news. I am in Thatcher now. And i am also one of the new zone leaders...Yes I said it. I am now a Zone Leader.

Hmmm which is really odd considering i was just a trainer last time. I don't really have any thing else to say, I have to get out of here pretty soon so i will definitely have to write more next week. I'm sorry I don't really have time to email this week. Things have been super crazy here.

I love you all so much, I'm really enjoying this time to work and in this Christmas season. Things are going great. You should be expecting a call on Christmas eve from my companion (Elder Clark) to let you know when I will be calling. So I'm excited, 4 more days!!!! WHOOOO.

I love you!!!

Love Elder Pierce

Dec. 13th 2010

Family, another week down and only like 12 more days till i get to call home! Holy cow! Didn't i just call home like just a little while ago? Wow, was that 8 months ago already??? PHEW!

And didn't i just email you??? Hmm, i will be honest i don't really know what to say.

I will tell you that you should be getting a box in the mail. Don't get too excited because its just a couple of things i don't want to have out here, and some stuff that some members gave me. Mom, there should be instructions inside the box.

So this week, i have done alot of pondering about Christmas, and what it truly is about. Our Bishop gave a talk Sunday in church, and he really had a ton of powerful things to say, i will see if i can quote some of it without ruining it, he said "Now, i have been accused by my friends and family that i have been some what anti-Santa, or anti-magic. Well in the truth of the matter, I love Santa, and i love magic. But i think we need to focus less about Men in red and white suits riding around on reindeer with blinking noses carrying thousands of shiny presents, and we need to focus on the real magic behind Christmas. What could be more magical than the birth of our Savior? What could be more magical than his life and ministry on Earth? And What could be more magical then his Atoning sacrifice and his suffering on the cross for each and every single one of us? Where is the real magic? The north pole, or our Savior Jesus Christ."

When he said this, it really hit me deep. Because truly what are we focusing on? Are we hoping for what we might get rather than hoping for what we can give back? What can we give back to the Savior?

Like i said, i don't have alot to type about this week, but i cant wait to talk with you guys on Christmas, and i cant wait to more  fully serve my Savior Jesus Christ during this Christmas season. Family, i love you all so much. I hope and pray we can ALL remember what this season is all about and act on it. Be a true example of love in action. Again, i love you all.

Elder Pierce

"How many pancakes can I eat?"

Well hello family, 

how is everyone doing this week. It seems like it has been so long since i have emailed you guys, almost 2 weeks!! Holy cow. That is a long time.

Well this week has been great, today especially. We had the awesome opportunity to go to the temple today, it was just great. I love the temple, being able to go just lifts my spirit. Then what made it even better, Adriana and Tommy Gates got to go! it made it that much more special. I am so happy for them, and proud of how far they have come. They truly are inspirations to me.

Then after the temple, we went to Denny's. It was there that i was faced with a challenge. "How many pancakes can i eat?" The record for that Denny's was 12 and a bite. Set by an 11 year old girl. Psshhh that seemed easy. Just 12 pancakes. Well let me tell you what, that little 11 year old girl has an amazing talent for eating pancakes. I could only eat 11 and 2 bites. I am so full right now. Like its not even funny. I almost threw up like a ton of times. I am so full its just miserable. I don't know how she did it haha.

Well this past week was pretty good, i would like to share with you an awesome experience. Yesterday, I literally saved Elder Bischoffs life. It was incredible. We were out walking around in what is called "The Hole". The lowest part of Morenci. To understand this story, you need to understand that Morenci is built in layers. there is a layer of houses, then a short hill that works its way down to the next layer of houses, so its somewhat of an organized mess pile of houses. Anyways, to get up to the next set of streets, instead of walking all the way around, we made our own route up a hill of loose gravel. I almost fell once or twice but i made it up pretty easily, as did Bischoff. So first we were in the hole on Malachite street. After we climbed that hill it put us on Gila street. Well Gila is a pretty long street and we had to get up to Ash street which is 3 more streets up. So we took the shortcut, but this shortcut is a lot more intense. (on these hills, they pore cement down the hill to control the flow of water down the hill when the monsoons come). So there was one of these cement washes running from the top to the bottom. So i decided we should go up it. This wash is probably 50 feet long or so and at a 60-70% incline. I ran up it and because my shoes are so awesome i felt like spider man working my way up that wash, (it was sweet). Then Bischoff needed to get up. He tried and tried and could NOT get up this wash. His shoes are very slick. So after a few frustrating tries and a couple encounters with a thorny bush, he gets an idea. He starts climbing this thing backwards crab style, surprisingly, it worked. So he gets up almost all the way and then realizes at the end it gets even more steep, almost straight up, like a 90 degree angle. So i start asking him if he will need help and warning him of this angle, he said he could handle it but i was sceptical. He makes one more reach with his hand to progress himself up this hill and his feet slip! In a desperate attempt he reaches his arm up for help and i grab him, stabilize him and pull him up the rest of the way! it seriously should have been in a movie or something. It was so cool! It happened so fast and yet it was like it was in slow motion. It was cool. IF he would have fallen, or i wouldn't have caught him, he would have had some serious injuries. like Some broken  bones at least. It was sweet.

Other than that, things have been going relatively slow, not to much to report about this week. We had a zone conference this week, which was great. Our whole zone of like 18 missionaries. (smallest zone, biggest area haha) We had a bunch of trainings about Jesus Christ and learned a lot about him and his life. We watched a beautiful video of Emma Smith and her life. It was just great. Got me all teared up and stuff. so that was really great.

Well family, that's all i got for you this week. Hope all is well. I love you all so much!
Love, Elder Pierce

For behold the field is white and ready to harvest; 

Nov 29, 2010

Hello Hello family!

How is it going? How was every ones Thanksgiving? I hope it went really well for everyone. My Thanksgiving was just great. We were able to have quality bonding time with the Merrill family, which was just great, then we went over to Adriana's house for red chili turkey burros....Oh boy those were good! So my Thanksgiving away from home was just Awesome.

Well just to let you know, there was definitely not alot going on in Clifton/Morenci this week. EVERYONE was gone, like I'm serious, we had like no success. We had a very rough time trying to find anyone. The Holiday definitely killed us. Everyone was either visiting family, had family over, working, or hunting. It was pretty darn tough to even see our investigators. So this week doesn't count haha. So this is just kind of an email to tell you all how much i love you and how apprecitative i am of every single one of you....I LOVE YOU!!!

I will tell you something i thought was really cool though, something i never had the chance to experience. I was on exchanges with Elder Doying in Duncan, and for exchanges you stay the night over at the other elders' house. So that's what we did. Now the Duncan elders live pretty much on a farm. So i literally had the opportunity to be woken up by the sound of roosters "Cockadoodle-dooing" i thought it was so neat. Well not the fact that they woke me up at like 5 in the morning. But that I actually woke up to it. I only thought things like that happened in the cartoons or whatever. So that was pretty funny i thought.

Everything else seems to be going just great though. Me and elder Bischoff are getting along pretty good, no worries there. I'm hoping i stay for another transfer, aside from how slow it has been, there is definitely alot going on right now. Some seriously good potential right now. So I'm very excited for that. Not to much more to write about, next week will have some sweet miracles, I'm feeling it! I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Pierce

 

ps. my pday might be on Thursday next week, we might be going to the temple with Adriana. So if i don't email on Monday, expect it Thursday!

"Thank you for My Challenges"?

Hello family,

Not to much time this week, we kind of had a long start to the day, didn't get the chance to email right away, but no worries.

Things are going OK over here, things are still progressing quite nicely, so we are just planning on keeping up the work. I will let you know of a cool miracle we had the other day. We taught David Gomez the plan of salvation, which went really well. You could definitely tell he was feeling the spirit, he just kept repeating and saying how good he felt, and was just like, this is what i want! Well at the end of the lesson, it came down to us committing him to live the word of wisdom...I'm not sure how it happened but it did. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Well we go over there yesterday, and he was like "you guys will be so proud of me, i was cleaning out my fridge to fit all my groceries in there, and i had 4 beers left...so i dumped them!" I was just like SWEET!!! it was so awesome. You can already see the changes that he has made in his life, and how much the Lord is beginning to change him. It is just great to see and to feel.

Then we also had a sweet experience, 2 weeks ago was stake conference here by the way, i don't think i mentioned that last time. Well anyways, we had an investigator come to it who's name is Britton. He is an 18 year old kid who has a pretty rough life. Well he came and really enjoyed it, then he came to mutual that Sunday as well. After mutual, we sat down in one of the class rooms with him and we had a powerful lessons where we committed him to baptism. It was an awesome lesson. I know Britton is a good kid, if he would accept the gospel and allow it to influence his life, i know he would be able to overcome the situations that he is in. He is in my prayers for sure. I know if he would just allow the atonement of Jesus Christ to play a role in his life, it would change him.

A really cool experience i had in my personal prayers the other day, it was after a pretty rough day, where we had nothing really going on. Our plans fell through and no one wanted to talk with us. During the end of my prayer, i said, "thank you for my challenges" i finished my prayer and then i was like "wait a second, thank you for my challenges?!?! why would i want those???" Then i laid in bed and thought about just how important our challenges are to us. We need to go through all of our many challenges and trials in life so we can be stronger for the next. I know I'm not strong enough to do this work. To be a missionary for my Lord. To literally go out and share the gospel with these people. I KNOW I'm not strong enough, but i know the lord WILL make me strong enough. It is only through the Lord that these things are possible. It is only through him that we will be strong enough for the trials and tasks ahead of us. I trust him. I know i will be ready for whatever he has next for me.

Love, Elder Pierce

Where did the year go???

HELLO FAMILY!!!

WOW, first off, i cant believe its already November, holy cow! Where did the year go??? I guess i was to busy serving the Lord to even notice the calender! Crazy stuff.

Things have been going pretty good around here. Not to much has been happening though. Training a new missionary is definitely an interesting experience. Elder Bischoff seems to have already come pre-trained. There is not much i have to correct him on or anything. He is a hard worker and he wants to serve the Lord. There are a couple things here and there that i need to help him with but other than that he is very comfortable teaching and talking with people. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely things he needs to work on involving teaching and contacting people, but don't we all! haha. But learning to teach people and not lessons. We are not out here to teach set lessons with organized rote presentations. We are out here to teach the children of God the Gospel of Jesus Christ in whatever way they need it. We form and translate the gospel into ways they can understand and grasp. Ways they can relate it into their lives. So that is definitely something we are both working on. Long story short, training is fun, but interesting! haha.

Like i said things are going great around here. The work is continuing to progress and the miracles, though small, are continuing to happen. A small miracle we had this week was we were outside doing our morning studies because it was to cold in our house, and as we were sitting there, we see our neighbor from across the street start approaching us. We have talked with him before but never on a conversation level. So we talked with him for about 5-10 minutes just introducing ourselves. Then our picture of Jesus that we have on our window came up. He mentioned that he LOVES Jesus Christ. So we offered to give him a picture and he said he would really like that. So we got him a picture and delivered it to him yesterday. We then talked with him about learning more about the gospel and he invited us over for dinner next Monday and told us to visit him whenever we wanted. It was really awesome. His name is Frank Perez, he is a great man, i definitely see a lot of potential in Frank. The Lord prepares us so we can be ready for his prepared children. I love the gospel and i love being a missionary.

Well thank you all for the love and support that you have given me, i appreciate it all so much. I love every single one of you, keep up the love!

Love, Elder Pierce

Transfer news this week..

So hello there my wonderful family, 
So the biggest news this week that you are all probably expecting is the transfer news!!! drum roll please.....(dum dum dum dum!!!) I am training a new missionary in Clifton still. So Elder Howard got moved down to safford. He will be down there "momming" a missionary. That means that his companion has only been out for 1 transfer so far. Well anyways, my companions name is Elder Bischoff, he is from Lincoln, Nebraska. He is just a ball of energy ready to work. So I'm looking forward to it. 
Well anyways, a short little miracle for you this week. We had another lesson with David Gomez the other night. And we talked with him about baptism and followed up with him on all of his commitments. We spoke with him for probably about like an hour and then we were about to leave. We closed with a prayer and then i asked him if there was anything that we could help him out with before we go. He got really quiet and was staring at the floor. So i was kinda wondering what was going on. Then he looks up at us and just stares. In a very sincere and humble voice, he asked for a blessing. He has been having some health problems and he knows that a blessing from the priesthood can help him. Elder Howard anointed, and i sealed. I gave him the blessing and it was amazing. I could feel the spirit talking through me. And what the spirit promised him was amazing. The spirit promised him that when he heals and recovers from his sickness, he will know the church is true, and that it is only through the priesthood power of God that these things are possible. It was touching and a bit overwhelming. But it testifies to me more and more that this is the true church, and that as Representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we hold the authority to act as he has acted, help as he helped, serve as he served, and love as he loved. 
I bore my testimony in church, i was thinking that we get to carried away in other topics in the church and we get away from the essentials. The principles of the gospel. So i got up and bore my testimony about Jesus Christ. And What he has done for me. To know and to understand and to personalize the atonement is a life long task. But to think and understand that while Christ was on his knees in that garden, suffering, he thought of me, just for a split second and thought "Bryce, this is for you". I know that Christ lives. I know that he suffered for me personally. He sacrificed himself because he loves me, and wants me to be happy. I love my savior. 
Love, elder pierce

There are Miracles happening Everywhere!

Well hello there family!!!! 

How is my family doing this week?? I would have to agree with Elder Moore, the time is flying by so quickly, i cant believe that October is already over!!!

Well i want to begin this email off on the right note. The other week i told you about our investigator Adriana, and how awesome she was. Well this week, i am writing to tell you just how much more awesome she is!!! She is just amazing, on Tuesday, we went over there and we just had such an amazing lesson with her. we were over there for probably two hours just teaching her about the gospel. And as i shared the first vision with her, i could just see the spirit change her life right then and there. As she was explaining the way she felt, she was like "i could barely breath, it felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest". We set her a baptism date for the 6th and she was like "yes, absolutely yes". She is getting baptized this weekend and bishop cleared her husband to baptize her. It is going to be so amazing. The Lord has truly prepared her for this. I am so happy for her and i cant wait for this weekend. She is already talking about going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. Her main goal already is to get sealed in the temple to her family. There are miracles happening everywhere!

Oct. 25th

Hello my wonderful family!!!

How goes life in your part of the lords vineyard??? It is definitely doing quite well over here in our vineyard.

To begin this email,  I would like to share with you an experience that is still continuing to progress. A while back, we tracted into a part member family. His name is Tommy gates. (I believe i mentioned this part of the experience before.) He had expressed to us how he hasn't been to church in years...lots of years. When we talked to his wife, she told us she has NO interest in joining the church or even talking about it. So we went on our way not thinking anything about it or whatever. But not to long ago, we had the feeling to go and try them again and see whats up. So we did, and she was like "ya, i want to go to church this week, what time does it start???" So we were totally shocked, because when we first met her, she barely would speak to us, now she wants to come to church?!?! whats going on here!?? And she came and loved it, that was last week. She came again this week and told us that she absolutely loved it again!!! It was the primary program this week and she mentioned that she really wants her 4 year old, Abigael, to be involved with things like that.(she is such a cute kid) Then she said that her church isn't filling the hole that she has, and she feels that what we have will. We have an appointment with her this Tuesday at 1:30. So I'm hoping we will be done with the specialized training that we have in Safford tomorrow in time, because she is solid. It was just so amazing! The work continues to progress. I was studying this morning and came across this scripture and related it to me and elder Howard's work here in Clifton, Alma 28:14. "And thus we see the great call of diligence of Elder Pierce and Elder Howard to labor in the Clifton ward".

Every thing had been going good. This week was much better than the week we had last week. We met with Jack Highley again this week and he is such a great guy and really wants to progress in the gospel. We had such a powerful lesson with him on Friday, in which he completely agreed with everything we taught him and accepted all his commitments. Unfortunately, we think there might be some problems. Problems i wont mention but we are really concerned for him. We will do whatever we can for him because he is just such a great guy. I will let you know if anything changes regarding him.

As for anything else we are doing quite alright. We just go out and teach the gospel, like the lord would have us do. I have seen such a change in my mission just in these past few months of how much i have grown. I see the dramatic effect that the atonement of Jesus Christ has played in my life. He is my savior, as i follow his example and direction, it will lead me to a place of eternal bliss. I love my savior, and i KNOW he loves me.

I love you all so much. Thank you for all the love and support you have shown to me.

Elder Pierce

 

We are warriors of our Lord!

Hello family, how is everyone doing this week? i have been alright this week, things have been pretty slow as of work goes. We were not able to see our investigators really at all this week. Every attempt we made ended up getting shot down and we got biffed where ever we went. It made me pretty upset to, non of our investigators came to church this week. Not a single one. It was just one of those weeks. It made it really tough. Like everyday, i couldn't wait to just lay my head down on my pillow and just crash.

But, the good part about all of this is that we are optimistic! We have the gospel in our lives and we want to share it with everyone. So that keeps us going. We have alot of good plans to get things rolling again and start teaching some effective lessons.

A cool miracle that happened though that i will share with you, we tracted into a guy the other week, his name is Tommy gates. So, we talked with him for a while and eventually found out that he is a member of the church. As we were talking to him though we found out he hasn't been to church in like years. So we encouraged him to come out to church again and give it a try. He didn't show up last week. So we went back this week and we talked to his wife (who isn't a member) and she was like, "i want to go. So i will get him dressed and everything." They showed up! we haven't taught them enough to count her as a new investigator, but we have plans to go and teach them this week. So we are really looking forward to that. They are very nice people. That is really the only eventful thing that has happened lately though...unfortunately. But like i said, we are optimistic. We press forward feasting upon the words of Christ and invite all in our path to do the same! We are warriors for our Lord!

I love you all so much. Thank you for all of your support and love.

Elder Pierce

A Missionaries Dream

Hello family, how goes it this week?

Things are going really well here. This week has been kind of rough. We didn't get the chance to see alot of our investigators. Which stinks. It was just kind of one of those "blah" weeks. Where nothing really seems to go right or the plans fall through. It happens though. Just have to get back on the horse and ride baby ride! haha.

Anyways, i got the package you sent me mom and thank you. I appreciated it. It was funny though, the day before i was like "elder Howard, I'm gonna loose weight" and then you send me a package full of candy haha. It just seems that every time i decide to start i get bombarded by candy and other goodies ahah. Well anyways.

So this week, I'm going to share with you an experience that i didn't get the privilege of having but it happened in our area. I was on exchanges with elder labrum in Duncan while elder Howard and elder Boyd worked in Clifton. Well while they were here, they were working on the task of visiting a bunch of potential investigators. Well they were working and they visited two potentials right in a row with no success. They were working on the same street and elder Howard felt inspired to check the ward directory. But he blew it off. They made another visit and again he felt inspired to check the directory. Well he was like "OK fine, i will check it." So he checks for any members that live on the street they were working on. Well there was one...just one. (name is not important). So they go and check it out and a man answers the door when they proceed to ask "is so and so here?" and he was like "no he moved out, i have been here for a couple of months now. So are you guys here to share something with me? lets hear it!" So they began to teach him and set him a baptism date right there. His response was this "i don't know what it is, but i feel empty inside, and i know what you have will fill it" AHHHHHHH, a missionaries dream right there. He is way solid, the lord is performing his miracles as we speak. We have no idea who is ready or when, but we know how to follow the spirit, because the lord knows. And he will guide us there.

Well i love you all so much, sorry it is so short this week, next week will be longer...i hope! Well i hope everything is going A-OK there, i just love you!!! Write me!!!

Love, Elder Pierce

That right there is Why I'm a Missionary!!

Hello family!

Hope everything is doing fantastic down there in the 702, or where ever you are reading this from. Because things are going fantastic down here! Things are just going so good these past couple weeks. Well anyways. I will inform you on exactly WHY its going so well.

Specifically i will start with this weekend. Saturday specifically. This Saturday we all had the opportunity to listen to the Prophet and his apostles speak to us. Giving us wise words of wisdom as well as advise. It was a marvelous experience. An experience we only get two times a year. Well this Conference, we had the chance to hear from D. Todd Christoffersen and Elder Patrick Kearon. If you remember correctly, those same individuals visited The Arizona Tucson Mission and me and Elder Howard personally had the chance to shake their hands and talk with them. it was amazing! such a cool experience actually knowing i have met them. And then to see them on the TV and talk to millions of people, it was just a cool realization.

Elder Pierce, Evan Lackner & Elder Howard

I would have to say that my favorite talks this conference were the talks given by Elder Juan A. Oceda on putting off the natural man, and then listening to President Uchtdorf give his talk about Pride...oh boy, those hit right at home for me. They were so powerful yet extremely sincere and sensitive to the situation. Man, they were just good talks.

Whoever reads this has to write me a letter, saying what their favorite talk was and why. :)

 So continuing on with why Saturday was so amazing, in between the afternoon session and priesthood session of conference, we baptized Evan Lackner...finally! It went so well. We had a huge turnout and alot of his family showed up as well. His uncle even came down from Salt Lake to baptize him. It just went good. Me and elder Howard got to participate and be the two witnesses as well as be in the circle of his confirmation and holy ghost receiving. It was way tight. But the coolest part of all was after the baptism was all said and done, he looked at me and elder Howard and in the sincerest way possible, said "thank you...thank you guys, without you i wouldn't be here right now, so thank you." Family, that right there is why I'm a missionary. Those simple words touched my heart in unreachable places. That right there makes all of this worth it. The heartache, the frustration, the pain, the sadness, the sore feet, being tired ALL the time...is worth it. Those simple words, "thank you". makes EVERYTHING worth it. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is worth it. Finding his children that are lost, simply trying to find their way, is worth it, every single day. That day was just amazing. Evan is such a good kid and i know he will go on to be a great missionary some day. Serving the lord the way his heart desires.

Family, i love you all very much, i hope you are all having wonderful experiences sharing the Gospel and being disciples of Jesus Christ every single day. Thank you. I love you all so much.

Elder Pierce

Drum roll please

WELL HELLO!!! 

how is my family doing this week?? I hope everything is going well back at home.

I guess the biggest news that you have all been waiting for is the transfer news...(drum role please).....me and elder Howard are both staying together another transfer here in Clifton!!! exiting right?? it is very exciting. We are both looking forward to serving together for another 6 weeks. We get along with each other really well and we have been having so much success. We are just having alot of fun down here.

Elder Howard, Nikita & Elder Pierce

Well on to more important news. We had a baptism last Saturday!!! YAY!!! Nikita Yazzie got baptized!!! it was so awesome. She was so ready. Bishop day had the opportunity to baptize and confirm her and it was just great. Me and elder Howard both said the prayers during the baptism. So it was just great. I cant express enough how needed that baptism was in this area. Because we have been having success but we really needed to start dunking people. So we did. And i really feel that Nikita was a gift from the lord. Because she was already ready. We just had to teach her. She was just on fire the entire time we were teaching her.

And this week is looking awesome as well. Its just going to go great. The highlight of this week is clearly going to be this weekend. For one, we get to listen and watch General Conference!! SWEET!!! I'm excited. Well here is our schedule for this Saturday. First the 9-11 session, then the 1-3 session, then Evan Lackner's BAPTISM!!!, then 5-7 priesthood session. So our Saturday, is going to be booked for like the whole day, then Sunday of course.

What I'm looking forward to this Saturday as well though is that during the priesthood session, the Clifton ward provides an ice cream buffet!!! do you believe that? and ice cream buffet for the priesthood session. how awesome!!! what could be better than that? Being able to listen the the prophet and other general authorities while chowing down on endless ice cream...wow!

Hmmm, what else has been happening down here...i will inform you of a sweet miracle that we had here. The other day, we visited a former investigator by the name of Maria Enriquez. She is such a nice lady. In Maria's life, she has a ton of challenges from day to day. She has severe medical problems, which require her to be in a wheel chair as well as having severe arthritis in her hands and wrists. She suffers from all of these problems yet still has such a strong faith in god. Well the other day, when Elder Quevas and Elder Howard were visiting her, they offered to give her a priesthood blessing and she accepted. Well not even 2 minutes after the blessing, the phone rings. Its the hospital calling. They inform her that she has just been accepted to receive a shot she has been waiting months for that will help her walk again. It was a miracle and the hand of the lord intervened in her life. Ever since  that day, she has been studying and reading from the book of Mormon, and she has said she knows the church is true. We made emphasis on how the priesthood has been restored and there is a way for ALL of us to return to live with our father in heaven again. She has been told from the holy ghost himself that this church is true, and she knows that. It was such a miracle and i am so happy to be a missionary and see the lives of individuals change every single day!!! How amazing of a work. How great is our joy!!! I love you all so much. Thank you for being such a great support and love to me.

Love, Elder Pierce

Sept 20, 2010

Hello family!

So not to much has happened this week. But we do have some great things happening this week which I am looking forward to!

This past week, we had the opportunity to listen to Elder Paul Johnson of the 70. He was such an awesome guy. He was very spiritual, and we had a separate leadership meeting, where he personally talked with all of the district leaders and zone leaders. It really was a cool experience.

Happy "20th" Birthday Elder Pierce

hello!!! hi mommma!  I had such an amazing birthday. it was just awesome. I have a ton of pictures to that i will send home. So far i have gotten yours and shaynas and the one from the moores! they were all phenominal! i loved them so much. 

Thank you thank you thank you

September 13, 2010

HELLO!!!!

How is it going my family!?!? I hear things are going quite nicely in the wonderful 702. Which is something i enjoy hearing.

Well the work hear in Clifton/Morenci is going just superb. We have a couple baptisms lined up for the next week and we are excited!! hoot hoot.

Let me tell you, Nikita, our top investigator is just on fire. She has been reading the book of Mormon and coming to church every week. She is just amazing.

Then there is Evan. He is a stud. We have been working with him for quite sometime. But he is for sure ready now. He has a fierce desire to come to church and be baptized. He has been reading every night and has been studying from the book of Mormon. He is ready. The only problem is church attendance. He has a hard time coming to church because his family likes to go out of town, up to alpine, and he likes to go and visit his dad on the weekends. But last night we went over to his house and talked with him about coming to church and how important it is. We also expressed to him that if he wants to get baptized on the 2nd of October, he NEEDS to come to church these next two Sundays. He committed to this and i could tell it was will real intent.

We found a huge frog the other night, this thing must have weighed about 10 pounds. It was huge!!! it couldn't even function it was so fat. Like it tried to hop but then it just collapsed under its own weight. It was like the king daddy of frogs! it was fun messing with it too. We were like rolling it over and like chasing it. It was just a blast.

I also wanted to express and thank everyone for the wonderful birthday gifts. I appreciated it all so much! It was a great birthday despite the fact that i was away from home. I cant believe I'm no longer a teenager anymore. I am between that gap of a teenager yet no old enough to be an actual adult. It feels weird actually.

Not so much more to report on this week. Just know that i am doing fantastic up here and i am enjoying myself as i serve the lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength. With full diligence. As we do so the lord blesses us with success. As we share the message of his restored gospel as best as we can. He provides us with the best of blessings. I love you all so much. Thank you for the love and support you have shown me.

Love Elder Pierce

Sept 7, 2010

HELLO! family.

Well dang, sorry this is getting to you on Tuesday, but the libraries were closed due to labor day. (i think that was the holiday). It seems that holidays just mess everything up for missionary work. no one really wants to talk, or they go out of town, or they have family over. Then the businesses get closed, and it just evolves into a big mess. haha.

But its OK, we still had fun. It was P-day anyways so it was alright.

But also, i just read Elder Moore's email, and wow, that elder is just amazing. I look forward to reading his emails every week because of how spiritual they are. Just an amazing individual.

August 30, 2010

Hey family, how has the week been for you? This week has been OK over in Clifton as far a teaching lessons goes or what have you.


But we have still been having a lot of fun while we do it. Which is the important part.

So this last Friday, I got a phone call from Sister Bertoldo, telling me she was coming up to Duncan for the day, and that she wanted to meet me in Clifton to take us out for pizza. So we got to hang out with her, and David and Mia at R+R pizza. It was a lot of fun. And it was really nice to see them all again. It is so funny, because she has family that still lives here, and she gave me a bunch of names of people to go see and reactivate them/convert them. Haha so this is what I will be working on for the next little while.

So this last Sunday, me and Elder Howard had the opportunity to speak in sacrament. We talked to the ward about missionary work and how we teach investigators. I ended up speaking for over 20 minutes. Then elder Howard wrapped up. It was an awesome experience. Because before I gave the talk I got kinda nervous, and I was thinking "why am I so nervous? I get to talk about something I love!" but I couldn't shake the butterflies. So I prayed while the song was being sung, and I asked my heavenly father to help comfort me so I could speak with the spirit, and with the power and authority that he has given me. it worked. I got up to speak and I could feel the spirit overtake me as I began speaking.

Well, as far as our investigators are going, not so good, We had to drop alot of them because they weren't keeping their commitments, I was about to rebuke the lot of them. I don't know why, but no one is keeping their promises, and to get people to church is like pulling teeth out of a cow. Ever tried it? ya its tough. We stopped by one of the recent converts in the area, and literally had to force him out of bed and throw him in the shower. He made it though, and our efforts paid off.

I Love you all. I hope everything is going well.

Elder Pierce

Aug 23, 2010

Hey family. How goes it?

It has been going fantastic up here. So much work now. It makes things just seems so great. to know that we are having success. Evan Lackner came to church yesterday which is just amazing. He is such a stud. And he is keeping all of his commitments and is just progressing so well. Its refreshing to see that someone wants to be a part of this gospel and to experience the joy that we have. It just makes everything worth it. So the work is going good, but the real plus of this email is what happened on Saturday.

On Saturday, we had a mission conference, in which all of the missionaries in the mission attended. We had the privilege of listening to Elder Christofferson and Elder Rasband and other general Authorities. Now let me tell you what, Elder Christoffson is a jester. He spoke to us for about 45 minuets and we just got to listen to him crack jokes and teach us on a spiritual level. It was just amazing, and just awesome. We all had the opportunity to shake his hand and meet him for a brief minute. It was just amazing. You could just feel the spirit getting sucked out of his hand like a vacuum as we shook hands. hahaha

So i also have to speak in sacrament meeting again this week. They want me and Elder Howard to take up the entire meeting...15 minuets each. Danget. haha. Not so bad i guess. They want us to talk about missionary work and the importance of ward involvement and how crucial it really is. As well as share experiences of our own and maybe even what we teach in our first and second discussions. Which should be fun and easy to take up 15 minuets. NO FEAR. just grab the bull by the horns I guess.

Well all this typing gets to my finger and wrist, i have made countless mistakes already haha and this thing isn't even that long! I'm trying family. I'm working on it, I get my nice purple cast off on September 21, so not to much longer.

Well I love you all so much. Stay out of trouble and keep us in your prayers because you will all be in mine!

Love, Elder Pierce

 

August 17, 2010

OK, well hello family.

Sorry about no letter yesterday, but because of transfers the whole mission is having pday on Tuesday. So this will happen every 6 weeks, so be prepared. Just thought i would let you know.

Well i will not be able to write alot this week and probably for the next little while because of my hand, but i will do my best. I have a Doctors appointment tomorrow with Dr. Bryce in Safford to check my hand out. I will try to write a hand written letter letting you know the verdict. Notice the emphasis on the word try haha. My writing has gotten even worse, if that is even possible.

Well anyways. We had a good week this past week though. Alot better than our past week. We were out and about visiting part member/less active families. And as we are visiting them we both had inspiration to go and see the Mullen's. So we did. We get there and only their step son, Evan Lackner, is there. He is a really cool kid, he is 15 and a freshman. Anyways, we were talking to him and i straight up asked him "are you a member of our church?" and he said no. So I proceeded to ask "well, do you want to be???" and he said ya. So we taught him the first discussion and we set him a baptismal date for the 11th of September. That would be the best birthday present, is for him to get baptized!!!  He is so solid, he reads every single chapter we leave him and has started to read straight from the beginning, he is so excited to be baptized, it is just amazing. This is exactly what this area needed. A solid investigator. It makes me so happy to know we have people here that are willing to make the commitments and stick to them.

So the work is starting to pick up more and more each week. We are finally starting to get Member present lessons and In-home lessons which is super exciting. I love being a missionary, but boy, sometimes it is just so frustrating (example: my hand haha).

Well i love you all so much, it was a good work out typing all of this. So keep me posted on current events around the home life. I love you all.

Elder Pierce

August 9, 2010

So family. This week has definitely been a rough one. That is for sure. We have not been having any success. It has been very hard to find people lately. The rough part, is that we find a ton of potential investigators. But when it comes to us following up with them and meeting them at their house/calling them. They either blow us off or slam the door in our face. It is a huge problem with people and their work schedules at the mine. Because they are either sleeping because they have to go into work/just got off. Or they are working.

Silver City

Well Hola mi Familia. 
I will be absolutely honest, i forgot my planner at home, and it had down all of the things i wanted to talk about inside it. So... 
  
See ya later, until next week! 
  
Love Elder Pierce 
  
Dang Girl, just kidding! But i really did forget my planner so i will just be kind of winging it today. Talking about whatever you know? 
So this week we had our trainings that seemed like they lasted forever. But they were so cool and worth it. So on Tuesday. I went on exchanges with Elder Crockett up in silver city for the day. Silver city is about 2 hours away from Clifton but he is the other district leader up there and we needed to be together so we could prepare for that night. So after we spent the day in his area, we met up with the zone leaders and we Drove 3 and half hours down to Tucson...long drive. But it was still fun, in the car we talked about Most embarrassing stories and favorite Disney princesses, haha it was a lot of fun.

 
Anyways, when we finally reached Tucson, i went and stayed with Elder Kane for the night. Elder Kane is one of 4 ASL missionaries in the mission so it was really cool to see him talk in sign language and they even get to use a video phone! It was a lot of fun. He even taught me the alphabet (which i forgot) and how to count to 10. It was a blast. He tried making me trade away those brand new ties you just sent me! i was like heck no! But I'm gonna bring some of my other ties and we will take care of some business. 

July 26th, 2010

Well hello family, how is everything going over in the 702? Everything is going great over here. I'm loving the work and things are just going so great. This week has definitely been a week of just craziness! A couple of stories for ya:


Just got home from hiking today, it was so much fun. Brother and Sister Baker took us up to a place called Catwalk, it was such a fun little hike. It felt good to get out of the heat and desert and to go up to where there are like pine trees and gentle rain and it was just great. I took a lot of pictures so I will send the camera card when I get some more pictures on it.

So it is official, you can absolutely not trust the weather around these parts. Its crazy. One minute bright blue skies, and then the next, it looks like evil is riding in on a cloud unleashing its hateful tears. With the lightning crashing and looking to hurt people. its nuts. It happened multiple times over the past couple days. One night, it rained so bad, we couldn't even get into our house. Verde Lee had been closed off due to the washes overflowing and flooding the streets. So we stayed at our mission leaders house until the rain calmed down. So we have had to call it quits multiple times throughout the week just so we can get home haha. But the lord watches over us, that's for sure.

July 19, 2010

Hello Hello Family!

I hope everyone is doing great and loving life. I don't have that much to report on this week actually. But how crazy, look how fast time flies. I have been out now for like 4 months. Well I'm one week away. Haha but seriously, i cant believe that i have been serving the lord for this long now, its actually kind of scary. When i really stop to think about it, things are just plugging right along you know. Just day by day, and things just keep on moving. The good days and the bad days, the hot days and the rainy days. The busy days and the slow days. All of them just go, one by one, day by day. WHOA, I'm freaking myself out just thinking about it.

Elder Manu & Pierce

Elder Ricks 

Being a DL, is actually alot of fun. There are a lot more responsibilities and stuff, but other than that it is fun. Being the senior companion now to, and like being in charge, its just alot different. I love my district though. In my district, there is just one other set of missionaries. Elder Ricks and Elder Manu. Both are VERY interesting characters. Elder Manu, is from Tonga and he is just a relaxed chilled out, likes to hunt things kind of guy. He actually goes home at the end of this transfer. And Elder Ricks is very eccentric and loves to talk talk talk. He is really funny though. He has been out for 20 months now. So they both have a lot of experience and stuff, and they help me out when i need it. They have a baptism coming up this Saturday, and i had to do the interview, my 1st one...and it was fun! She is an 11 year old girl and she is ready. So it was pretty easy.

So it was so funny, yesterday, me and Elder Howard were out seeing one of our investigators and we were standing on the porch with him just talking and seeing how life is going, when i looked up and asked him "so, whats your prediction on the weather?" (not a cloud in the sky) and he said "its gonna rain...hard"

Clifton, Arizona here I come!!

Clifton, Arizona

Well, hello family, So I'm sure you have heard that i have been transferred. Me and Elder Howard are opening up a new area inside the Duncan stake. We cover 1 ward and its called the Clifton ward. It is a very small area. We cover 4 different towns/communities. Clifton, Morenci, Verde Lee, and Loma Linda. There are not a lot of member in the area and there is also a very high turnover rate. Because Clifton/Morenci are a "one horse town" Over 75 percent of the entire area work at the mine that is located here. So people come and go all the time. So Me and elder Howard are doing are best to figure out who is even still here on the ward lists. And i am district leader, i wont go into details about that because i believe elder Moore mentioned all the stuff they have to do. Which is pretty crazy if you ask me. Like i cant believe I'm a DL already, even the rest of the missionaries here are like wow, 2 transfers and you a DL? so its pretty crazy.

And we are in a full car area, they gave us a brand new 2010 Chevy Malibu, which is nice but i would have rather gotten a truck, cuz we go on some pretty crazy roads that i don't think the "bu" can handle. But so far we have had a good go at it.

Well anyways, we live in the community of Verde Lee and our address is:

269 Wildlife Rd.

Clifton, AZ. 85533

"What did I just say?"

Hey family, not alot of time to write this week, We have to head up to tucson in like 10 min, president walker cleared us on playing a football game against the northwest zone, its gonna be tight!!!

That sucks to hear about what is happening with Tyler and Chase, i hope they get better and they will both be in my prayers.

Elder Pierce, Ethan and Elder Sorensen

So we had Ethans baptism two nights ago and it went really well. I gave the talk on baptism in front of everyone and it went really good. We had his friends dad (Bro. Householder)  baptize him and it went really well...or so we thought. Then Sunday roles around and Bro Householder was going to confirm him as well, but then we get a call. "hey elders, when I was baptizing Ethan I threw my back out and i cant even walk, so someone else will need to confirm him." hmmmm, so we made a quick adjustment and i confrimed him. my first one! it was kinda scary, but after we sat down, i leaned over to Elder Sorensen and asked "what did i just say?" i cant even remember it, i could feel the spirit working though me, so i guess it went good. Everyone came up and was like, that was really good and it was cool.

Well, until next week, gotta go, love ya!

Elder Pierce

June 21 & 28, 2010

Elder Pierce, Ethan & Elder Sorensen

So...sorry about the mix up last week, it wasn't my fault. I typed the long email and hit send then logged off. I didn't realize that there was an Internet problem and it decided not to send it. SO i DID hit the send button but it just didn't feel like working. So other than that how is everyone else doing? I hope everyone is doing good, Thank you all so much for the little surprise in my package, I'm working on responding, i will do it sometime this week. Well aside from that things are going great over here. Ethan, the guy who just graduated and is going into the navy, is going to be baptized this Saturday at 6 o'clock. He is going to have his best friend Eric baptize him. Eric is preparing for his mission so it should be a great experience for all of them. Then we are also working on their other friend Katie Biddle, she is not as excited but is still progressing. We are going to set her a date for this next 2 weeks, cuz she has been to church twice and is really happy when she goes, and whenever we go and teach her she never lets us leave without setting her a reading assignment. So we are working on her.

June 14, 2010

Sahuarita Zone

Self Explanitory

Hey family, this email aint gonna be to long. I was trying to figure out how to upload these pictures and i finally figured it out. So anyways. this week has been great. We definitally got a lot of work done. right now we have been teaching alot of lessons. So things are great.

I would like to share one story with you. We were having a lesson over with Ethan at the Householders. We were planning on teaching him the Plan of Salvation. it was so cool because instead of just teaching Ethan, he brought 2 of his non member friends! score. So in total, me and elder farmer (district leader-exchanges) were teaching 9 people. 5 of which were The house holders, 1 another member, and now 3 investigators...this is like a missionarys dream. To have your main solid investigator bring his friends. it was tight! anyways we were teaching the plan of salvation adn things were going great, i got to use my spongebob flow cahrt pictures and they loved it, cuz they were all 18 and it just worked perfectly. Well we teach him and it all goes great and we get to the kingdoms section and i like to do this thing when im teaching to take a vote. I was like "so by the raise of hands, who wants to live in the telestial? its a nice place"...crickets..."who wants to live in the terestial??? glory of the moon! come on its really nice"...at this time the crickets were even quite..."who wants to live in the Celestial with our heavenly father" every single one of them raised their hands. This is where i went spiritual mode. And it just happened. I told them to turn to 3rd nephi 17. And I read verse 1-3. in this section, Jesus Christ is teaching the people and he declares to them. "my time is at hand" now I asked Ethan, If Jesus Christ was sitting right here telling you everything I just told you, would you believe him.  And he said "ya of course."  Well then I explained to him, "that even when Jesus Christ was teaching his people, he told them to ask their Heaven Father."  Jesus Christ himself told them the exact thing we tell you to do. Don't take our word for it, ask your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ that this is the plan he has for you. To Live with him again." it was just so spiritual and powerful it was amazing. I had the audience in tears...along with myself. it was one of the greatest lessons I have been a part of ever. Sure enough, all of them were there at church the next day. I know that the spirit testified to each and everyone of them that the Plan of Salvation is real, it is a true plan of happiness. No other joy could ever inhabit by mind than the fact that I will be able to live with my Heavenly Father again, as long as I live worthily and return with honor. I love being a missionary. Seeing the change that Happens to people it just wonderful. I love you all so much. sorry its so short, it was the pictures fault. haha

Elder Baradoy with Anna

pictures:

1.Sahuarita zone!!!

Baptism with David & Mia

2. Self explanitory haha

3.Elder Baradoy with Anna

4. Baptism with David and Mia

June 7, 2010

HELLO everyone!!!

How is it going? it's going good over here, just doing the work you know? Things are going really good over here. The work is progressing very nicely. Things are going a little slow in 1st ward but in 3rd ward, the work is booming. We have 3 investigators we are progressing towards baptism. One of their names is Ethan. He has just graduated from high school and has joined the navy, but he went to the temple open house and had a very spiritual experience, so he talked with his friend (member) and asked if there was someone he could talk to about the church. So we have been teaching him inside a members home and things have been going great. He went to Church yesterday and said it was pretty "legit" haha. so things are looking good. we have another lesson set up with him for tomorrow and he has been reading the B.O.M! and praying about it. He is a solid guy.

May 31, 2010

Hello family,

Not much to report on this week, the work is still pushing forward its just starting to slow down this week. For 1, we pretty much baptized most of our investigators and 2, the stupid holiday weekend is making people want to like celebrate and go out of town...seriously? its makes it tough, but we are still pushing along. As you may know, Elder Baradoy got transfered and now is serving in las cruzas, new mexico. he is a zone leader up there now. My new companions name is Elder Sorensen, he is a good guy. He has been on his mission for a little over a year now. He is a good teacher and is kinda cool. We get along ok, not like best friends or anything, but we are cool. Hopefully as the transfer continues we will start to become better friends. I guess cuz we have only been together like 5 days now, we still got 5 weeks together so lets hope. haha.

It was really cool the past couple of nights. We got to go on exchanges with the stake president down here. His name is president Hardy, he is a really spiritual guy, not as cool as Pres. Teshima though haha. We also got to go out with the Ward mission leader and the Elders quorum president the next couple of nights haha, so we had to make sure we had appointments to impress all of them haha. but it all went good. We had some good lessons and good drop bys with all 3 of them. Had to keep the trust of the ward growing.

Man, not much to say this week. Sorry guys. I feel bad. nothing really good happend...well, there was this one thing. Maybe the second week i was out here, me and Elder Baradoy gave a blessing to this lady named Sister Sterges. She is a snow bird and was visiting from like Michigan or something. Well they call us a couple days ago and she is like, "well we are leaving for the summer and we have all this food,  do you want it?" and of course we said yes. so we were driving over there expecting maybe like a box of food...wrong! She gave us 3 big boxes of food. There must have been 4 tbone steaks, 10 pork chops, a rack of ribs, hamburgers, new york strip steaks, I mean, all kinds of food, ice cream, pop tarts, it was seriously a blessing, it was totally awesome. after we hauled it all outside, i looked at Elder Sorensen and I was like "you know what this calls for?...a jumping high five!"  KACHOW!!!  It was tight.

Well thats all i really have for this week, i love you all so much, and thank you so much for everything you do for me. It really helps me, well I love you!

Elder Pierce