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!