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;