Boy, don't you just love Christmas!

Hello family,
Hope everything is going well for you because it sure is for me. This will be the last email you get from me before the glorious day occurs...CHRISTMAS!!!!

Boy, don't you just love Christmas?!?! i think i love everything about it. The lights, the decorations, the goodies, the Christmas spirit, Christ, the goodies. Oh how wonderful.

Christmas is looking good for us. We have had several invites over to members houses and plus i get to call my wonderful family. How cool!

But on Christmas eve is where the Real Christmas spirit shines through. Abraham is getting baptized! At 10 in the morning we will be holding his baptismal service. He truly has changed so much. It has just been an honor to get to know him. It truly has helped me to see the miracle of the Atonement change someones life. The other day, we were talking to him and he got a little emotional as he expressed he feelings towards us, letting us know that we are his best friends and telling us how the knowledge of the restored gospel has changed his life. He is an amazing individual that I have grown to care deeply about. And because of his willingness to learn and understand, there has also been an added degree of wanting to share the gospel. We are now teaching his aunt and mom more about the gospel. Its a little more difficult to teach his mom because she doesn't speak much English, but we are getting by haha.

We also had our Christmas party this last Friday, that was so much fun. We ended up having 4 investigators show up. So that was really cool. They all loved it. It was kind of an odd party though when it comes down to the actually party part, but it turned out good. It was just different, that's all. I'm just glad Santa had time to show up, especially in this busy kind of season.

But honestly, that is all i really have to report on for this last week. It was a very good overall week though. Things went great.

I look forward to calling home in like 6 days! whoo hoo!!

Enjoy this Christmas season before its to late and passed, if you don't then you will have to wait a whole year to try again!

Love, Elder Pierce

Elder Howard Takes the Cake

Hello family, Its very good to have a chance to email you today. Though today is a very gloomy day where we will not get the chance to play any sports (sad face). It is raining very hard today and we were going to 1. have a horse-shoe tournament today and 2. play football. and to make things worse 3. the gym is occupied today. SO we don't get to do anything. Which is very unfortunate.

Well this week was just an amazing week. I would have to say that Saturday was among my top 3 favorite days of my mission. It was just incredible. President Killpack gave Elder Howard and I permission to drive to the Gila Valley and see Tommy and Adrianna Gates go through the temple and be Sealed for Time and all Eternity. What an amazing experience this was. I woke up on Sunday just feeling spiritually exhausted because of how great the day was. My jaw and cheek bones hurt from smiling and laughing to much. And i got to go with my favorite companion as well. (sorry other companions, elder Howard takes the cake). It was just such a blast. And being able to hug Adrianna in the temple was just overwhelming. Her and Tommy were both so appreciative to Elder Howard and I. Adrianna whispered in my ear and told me how thankful she was to "her boys" for helping her and Tommy start this great journey. It was hard trying to not get all emotional. But i am just so thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving me the chance to even meet them let alone see them in the Temple. Adrianna i know you read these and i just want to say how much i love you and your family. Thank you for being so awesome.

Elder Howard and i reminisced as we were driving home and to remember the story of how we met Adrianna and Tommy. How she didn't want anything to do with us. But Oh how the Lord knows his children. Because she did want this, but she just didn't know it at the time. And look where she is now, Following Christ with full purpose of Heart, nothing wavering. He is who is faithful to the commandments of God shall be blessed and prosper in the land.

Besides that just incredible experience, this week was very cool in general. We were able to meet with Cindy again, and have a very nice lesson with her. She is a great lady who is just going through so much in her life right now. And maybe that is the reason for her seeking out the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not sure. But what i do know is that it will help. And Cindy knows it to. As we were meeting with her, she looked at us as we were talking and she paused. Understanding what we were saying but we clearly could tell that she had something to say. She looked at us and exclaimed again how grateful she was for the church and for us, but that she was going through a lot and proceeded to say "man, i picked a rough couple of weeks to be a Mormon!" Which sometimes can be such a real problem. Everyone faces hard times in their life but especially when learning more about the gospel. The gospel is here to help people with life and the crazy commotion in which we all face. Jesus Christ is very real and with his help all things are possible.

Especially in the craziness of the season we are currently in, we can get caught up in "what should i get this person?" or "what should i wear to this party?" (all valid questions), but the purpose of this season is to remember our Savior and what he sacrificed so we even had the ability to wonder what we should wear to so and so's party. He is the reason for the season. I love you all and i hope your joy is full as we embrace some Happy Holidays.

Elder Pierce

Officially December

Wow, officially December. So far December has started off excellent. Well besides it being really cold around here. We woke up to go and play volleyball this morning and there was ice all over the car and it was just so cold. I was not liking it all. But as far as missionary work goes and having awesome miracles happen in our life, things are going wonderful.

We had stake conference on Sunday and it was so cool. Me and 2 other missionaries sang in the stake choir which was a cool experience. There was so much people in that building, I was kind of nervous but everything went great. We had 2 investigators come to the stake conference as well and they loved it. The temple president and his wife from the mesa temple spoke and so did president and sister Killpack. It was a spiritual powerhouse of a conference. I loved it. It was really cool as well because president Killpack spoke about missionary work and then he asked all of the missionaries that were present and serving in the sahuarita stake to stand up. It looked like an army stood up! it was so cool. We have the most missionaries in the sahaurita stake then any other stake in the mission. 2 zones. It was so cool to see us all stand up and unified in the same purpose. Which is to invite others to come unto Christ through faith in Him, repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of The Holy Ghost, and to endure to the end.

Nov 28, 2011

Hello family.

So just to start this email off letting you know I had to spend most of my time for emailing waiting for the dumb computer to understand what I wanted it to do. So now it finally brought up the email site. Dang computer. But anyways. I would like to take this time to share a miracle with you.

Last week on Sunday, we were attending sacrament meeting in slight frustration because another of our investigators decided to blow us off and not show up. So I was sitting there pondering when a family we knew quite well walked in with someone we didn't know. I didn't think much of it because sacrament meeting had already started. Well half way through, I noticed her again and then I started wondering who she really was. So after the meeting I had to talk to a few members concerning some business that needed to be taken care of and I didn't get to talk to her. But sure enough, she was there in gospel principles class that we suddenly got to teach! (our Ward mission leader was sick and had to leave). great opportunity and we centered the lesson on families and how important they are to us. This must have been inspired and directed by the spirit because it was just what Cindy (her name) needed. Her eyes lit up the whole time as we showed her how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ is centered around families. We talked to her a little more but relief society was getting ready to start for her so we didn't want to hold her up because she was really excited about everything. Unfortunately we didn't get to talk to her after church like we talked about so we stopped by the families house that brought her to church and they told us what a wonderful time she had at church on Sunday and is planning on coming again. She has already expressed interest of joining the church and being more involved. How sweet right? well it gets better. This last Sunday she showed up again! And she loved it, AGAIN! how amazing. We have an appointment with her and her fellow shipping family on Friday for dinner as well. The Lord truly does provide for his children. He loves all of us even though we have so many faults. His perfect love is what gets me through the struggles and frustrations we face everyday.

Also, last night, we had a family home evening with Abraham inside one of our members homes. He loved it. The spirit was truly there and he was leading that meeting we had. And afterwards, the member made pumpkin cinnamon rolls...YUM. they were delicious.

But that's been our life lately. I love you all very much!

"When the time for decisions arrives, the time for preparation is past."

Elder Pierce

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well family. I wont be emailing in time to tell you this so I will tell you now! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Another thanksgiving is coming up and I'm so thankful for everything I have. I'm very thankful I have this opportunity to email you and I'm very thankful that next thanksgiving I will be home and be able to be thankful with you all. But I'm thankful that I'm doing what I'm doing right now and i don't want it to end to soon. But i sure do miss you all and look forward to seeing you all again.

Well this last week has been a little tougher but it has been fun. We had our transfer calls last night and thankfully Elder Blake and I are staying together. Actually the whole district is staying the same which is awesome. Because I really love my District. We are all very close and good friends. Its probably one of the coolest districts I have been in my whole mission.

One thing that just made my week was something Sis. Thompson said yesterday. It was really wonderful to hear her say this. We were talking to her telling her that we were having our transfer calls that night and she said "well hopefully you two will both stay. You are the best set we have had in such a long time. You two just work so well together and we can all tell. Have a good night." That just about melted my heart! She is so sweet and its so wonderful to know that a ward likes you and that you get along with your companion. The better we get along and work in unity the more the spirit is able to flow through our companionship. And the more the ward will notice. It is just such a blessing that I'm extremely grateful for.
Sorry there is not much to report on this week but this next week should be awesome.

The Thompsons with Elder Pierce and Elder Blake

I love you all so much. Take it easy and don't eat too much turkey!

Elder Pierce

So Many Miracles

Hey family. What a great week it has been. So many miracles the Lord has blessed us with. We have had the most successful week since I have been in this area.

I will start off with telling you how amazing Abraham has progressed. We met up with him and took him down to the church to have a lesson twice this week. It was super powerful and spiritual. The first lesson we had was when we recommitted him to be baptized on Christmas eve. That was such a cool experience because he really does want to follow Christ. So what better way than to fully commit to him and be baptized in celebration of him. He was really emotional about it all. Shoot, I was too. The spirit was really strong there. Then we met with him again and taught him more about prophets and the restoration. Elder Blake and I both gave him a tie, the first 2 he has ever owned. And then we taught him how to tie it. It was such an amazing time with him. We have all really come to be good friends. He has already talked about visiting us when we are done with our missions. He is super funny.

Then there is Cindy. Holy cow. Cindy is awesome!  We had a GREAT lesson with her on Friday. She is so ready to accept the gospel. If I could say there was such thing as a perfect lesson, that would have been it. She is just so prepared. For example, we were teaching her about the Great apostasy and she was understanding it 100%. After Elder Blake taught about that principle, she asked the questions "so who did God send to bring back the church?!?!" i just looked at her in awe and said "well let me tell you!" She is getting prepared to be baptized on the 26 of November. After we were talking about baptism, she was already wondering what she was going to wear to her baptism. It was really funny but it just shows how excited and ready she is to accept the gospel. Near the end of the lesson, she was telling us how she has been waiting for this for 3 years. She and her husband are getting a divorce and she wasn't in a position to join the church. But now she is ready. She was telling us there has just always been something that was drawing her into the church and that she feels she has already gotten an answer to know it is true. Cindy is incredible and is just such an amazing person. She has 2 twin girls that just turned 7 and then a 15 month old boy. The gospel is going to help this family so much. I'm so grateful my Heavenly Father has allowed me to be here and help her along her path of joining the church.

Besides those things, everything is just going wonderful. I'm feeling good, the holiday season has arrived and the Church is TRUE! What more could you ask for?!?!

I love you all so much!

Elder Pierce

Nov. 8, 2011

Hello family.

So just to start this email off letting you know I had to spend most of my time for emailing waiting for the dumb computer to understand what I wanted it to do. So now it finally brought up the email site. Dang computer. But anyways. I would like to take this time to share a miracle with you.

Last week on Sunday, we were attending sacrament meeting in slight frustration because another of our investigators decided to blow us off and not show up. So I was sitting there pondering, when a family we knew quite well walked in with someone we didn't know. I didn't think much of it because sacrament meeting had already started. Well half way through, I noticed her again and then I started wondering who she really was. So after the meeting I had to talk to a few members concerning some business that needed to be taken care of and i didn't get to talk to her. But sure enough, she was there in gospel principles class that we suddenly got to teach! (our Ward mission leader was sick and had to leave). great opportunity and we centered the lesson on families and how important they are to us. This must have been inspired and directed by the spirit because it was just what Cindy (her name) needed. Her eyes lit up the whole time as we showed her how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ is centered around families. We talked to her a little more but relief society was getting ready to start for her so we didn't want to hold her up because she was really excited about everything. Unfortunately we didn't get to talk to her after church like we talked about so we stopped by the families house that brought her to church and they told us what a wonderful time she had at church on Sunday and is planning on coming again. She has already expressed intrest of joining the church and being more involved. How sweet right? well it gets better. This last Sunday she showed up again! And she loved it, AGAIN! how amazing. We have an appointment with her and her fellow shipping family on Friday for dinner as well. The Lord truly does provide for his children. He loves all of us even though we have so many faults. His perfect love is what gets me through the struggles and frustrations we face everyday.

Also, last night, we had a family home evening with Abraham inside one of our members homes. He loved it. The spirit was truly there and he was leading that meeting we had. And afterwards, the member made pumpkin cinnamon rolls...YUM. they were delicious.

But that's been our life lately. I love you all very much!

"When the time for decisions arrives, the time for preparation is past."

Elder Pierce