Oct. 18, 2011

Hey family! What a pleasure it is to email you again. Sorry it was not yesterday like it should have been. But we got together with another zone and had a big football game. Good times.

Well this last week definitely had its ups and downs.

I will start with the down. This last Thursday, we had things set! We had appointments set up, we had great plans to visit with our investigators and other people we were working with closely. Well Thursday morning started and it seemed to be a great day that started normally. We were pretty excited for the upcoming day. We made 2 visits and after that it went down hill. Every visit we tried, we got shot down hard core. Not one person wanted to talk with us and we were pretty down on our luck all day. We tried to see many different people but things just did not go our way. We stopped at this park after a few exhausting hours and just asked ourselves "what are we doing wrong?" and we did a self analyses.. We discovered we were being obedient to every rule and there was not much more we could do. We were just having a rough day. But we kept pushing on. We went and visited more people, we contacted people on the street and even while they were fishing, but we didn't have much success. Overall it was just a tough day. BUT we endured it well. I think The Lord was trying to teach me a valuable lesson that day. No matter how obedient we are to the commandments, we are still going to have challenges and obstacles we must face. But as we rely on the Lord we will be able to endure all things.

Then on Saturday was our reward. We had the opportunity to be a part of Reymundo's baptism. What a great experience that was. The spirit was so strong in that room, everyone felt it, I guarantee. A member of the ward gave a wonderful talk on both baptism and the holy ghost. Then Reymundo stepped into the waters of baptism. And I don't think I will ever forget this. After he was baptized he came out of the water and just laughed. And if you knew Reymundo like we do, it would crack you up, because it made me laugh haha. He is such a funny kid and really has had such a change of heart. It has been such a blessing to know him and help him come closer to Christ.

Well I love you all so much. Remember what a critical part Jesus Christ has in all of your lives. He is truly the savior and redeemer of the world.

Elder Pierce

Power Animal? Last 4 Transfers..

Hello family.

It is a pleasure to email you all yet again. Things have been going really well lately. This last week we have seen a lot of success. The Lord is truly blessing us in these times of diligence. A new transfer has officially begun and Elder Blake and I are staying together. I have hit my last 4 transfers. That is really weird to me. Just thinking about how long i have been out here serving the lord compared to when I first arrived in the mission field really trips me out.

I have a few good stories for you this week that I will hopefully have time to type them to you.

How great is my calling!!!

Hello family.

Today is a wonderful day to be alive.

Sorry to get this email in a little later than it should be. Yesterday we went hiking for our p-day activities expecting to back around 10 or 11 sometime. When we actually ended up getting off the mountain around 2:30 or 3 o'clock. We took some unfortunate wrong turns and ended up having to turn around multiple times. It was exhausting. But we are alive and well.
Things have been going really well as of late. Elder Blake and I have been working a lot on our finding efforts here in Sahaurita 1st ward. And we have been finding some decent success. We are making a lot of plans primarily to focus on the Part member/ in active families we have found and plan on getting into their homes and getting work done. A couple of the less active families that we have been getting to know better want to have us over for dinner and then hopefully the message of the Restoration will emerge. Work has been getting done for real around here lately. I would honestly say, that i think being put with elder Blake has been one of the best things that has happened to me on my mission.

Some of the main work we have going right now is with a young man named Reymundo. He is getting baptized on the 15th of October. His family got baptized a few weeks ago and he wanted nothing to do with it. But after their baptism, he had a complete turn around. He is fully committed to living the gospel of Jesus Christ and wants to follow his example by being baptized. The Family is already making plans to go to the temple next year sometime. And also, the mom of the family works at circle k and has already shared the gospel with her co-workers. That is a true conversion to the gospel. The strength of the testimony of any member of the church is represented by their willingness to share the gospel.

General Conference was awesome! Anyone agree? There were some incredible talks that were given. One thing that i particularly loved was one someone stated That his mission was not the best 2 year of his life. But it was the best 2 years for his life. How crucial these two years are in my life. They are setting a foundation for the rest of my life to come. The testimony I gain here will be the back bone of the testimony I have for the rest of my life. I love being a missionary. Someone yelled at us the other day "Don't you punks have anything better to be doing with your life!!!" and I though about it for a second and yelled back "NOPE!!!" This is the most important work anyone can ever do in this life. Bringing souls to Christ. Their savior. How great is my calling!!!

Family, you are awesome. Thank you for your love and support.
Love, Elder Pierce