New Mission President

Hello family. Things are going great hear in the 520 (tucson). Getting really hot that's for sure. 
Well this week has been a sad one. Just to start it off Julian, who was supposed to get baptized on Saturday, unfortunately did not. After finding out some very disturbing details about the matter and also a recent turn of events, his baptism had to be postponed. I will keep you updated more on the subject as the weeks continue on. 
Also something that is very sad, Our Mission President, President Walker and Sister Walker, are having their last P-day as the President. They will be going home tomorrow and then we will have a NEW mission President. Its a very unfortunate thing but time goes on. We all must move on. We can not be called to serve in this sphere for forever. They have been very good to me and have only treated me with respect. I truly do love them and am thankful that I got to serve the Lord with them. I wish them all the luck in the world and hope that whatever they encounter in life the Lord will be with them. 
Our new mission presidents name is President Killpack (I dont know if thats how you spell it) and Sister Killpack (spelling still). They are from Draper Utah and they are going to be here tomorrow. Im nervous and excited at the same time. There are so many things that could change and be different by the next time I email you. OR he could keep everything the same. Who knows. 
Well I love you all so much. I get to go see President Walker one last time before he jumps ship. I love you.
Elder Pierce

June 20, 2011

Hello family. Happy Fathers Day Rick...I mean Dad!! And happy fathers day to every other dad or future dad who reads this. Merry Day of Fathers!!! 
This week has been very busy! As of right now, we have 7 people set for baptism and all of them are pretty excited. We have a baptism coming up this weekend. Julian is finally making the jump to be baptized and follow the savior. I am so proud of him and how far he has come. We are now actually teaching one if his neighbors, her name is Jackie. She saw us going over there all the time and wanted to know what we were all about. We are now teaching her and she is going to be baptized on the 9th. She is super excited and has already come to church twice. She is such a nice lady. She has 3 young kids and the father is in jail. So she wants to be involved with the church so that by the time her husband gets out of jail he can get involved and be on the right track immediately. She wants to have a good thing in her life for her and her kids. She is just a great lady. 
Things have just been going so good. The Lord has really been blessing us with success in this part of the vineyard. 
We got to witness a drug raid the other day. We were contacting in this trailer park and then out of no where these cops show up in like their cars and their vans with all their guns and dogs and stuff. We booked it out of their but stayed close enough so we could watch. It was CRAZY. haha.
Other than that, its kind of like another day at the office. We teach people a lot. We bring them closer to Christ. That's what I love about this, that no two days will EVER be the same. You will always encounter different people and different situations. All unique to the circumstance. 
Well family, I love you all. But its time for me to go whoop on some missionaries in a game of basketball. 
Love, Elder Pierce

p.s. As this wonderful day of celebrating fathers has passed. I hope we all didn't forget the one Father who deserves the most praise and appreciation. Our wonderful Father in Heaven. May you always remember him and give him thanks for the things he has done for you. 

June 13, 2011

My wonderful family. Its great to be emailing you again.

Short miracle we had this week. A week ago or so we got a phone call from a man named Christopher. He called us and explained to us his situation. How he himself was baptized over a year and a half ago. He told us how much he wanted to get involved with church again and wanted to be worthy to pass the sacrament. He then told us something that really perked my interest. His wife is not a member and wants to learn more. So we set up a lesson to go over and meet with them. We did and the lesson went wonderful. She is a very wonderful woman who is genuinely interested. We taught her and answered all her questions and also commit her to be baptized. We found out the next lesson we went over there (which was yesterday) that one of her children is 9 years old. This is truly a great family who has been prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel into their lives.

The Lord truly blesses us with all that we may need. He watches over us. Prepares us. And delivers us. He will always be there to love us and give us all that we need to get by. I love you all very much and hope all is going well.

Elder Pierce

June 7, 2011

Well hello family. 
So It begins, halfway through the year and things are looking Bright. The future of this place is looking Sunnier and sunnier every day. Seriously. Its getting super hot out here. I just want to know why. Why does it have to get so hot haha. But anyways, things really are looking good. Unfortunately Elder Schlichte got transferred. He is heading over to the Gila Valley as we speak...as I type this. He got on the transfer van and is heading to Safford, Arizona. How cool. He is serving in Elder Howard's old area with his last companion. How cool! Elder Howard is getting transferred down to Sahuarita. So I might get to see him every now and then. That's pretty exciting. 

So Things have been going great. One quick story i would like to share with you happened the other day. We were able to really get a hold of Julian and set up a lesson inside the Stake Center where we were going to give him a Church tour. So we got his ride arranged and a member to come out with us. So he gets there and dressed up and everything, it was great. We start with a prayer and show him around the church. You could tell right off the bat the spirit was strong there. It was a wonderful feeling. We then take him into the chapel and talk to him there about the Sacrament and why its so important. HE was able to tell us alot about the sacrament and repentance and all of these details about the gospel that we had planned on teaching him. Our original plan was to teach him about the sacrament and then take him into the baptismal room and commit him to baptism. But the spirit was so strong in the chapel that i didn't want to risk and i just felt so prompted that the time to commit him was at hand. So i did, and he fully accepted. It was amazing. We set it for The 25th of June but that was to long of a wait for him. He wanted to be baptized sooner haha. We tried but the 25th is what we had to stick with. But what is really important to understand here is how willing he was to be baptized. To make that commitment to follow the Lord and do what he knows is right. It was such an amazing lesson. 

Other than that things are going super. Not to much else to report on really. 

I love you all. Take care!

Elder Pierce

List of Job Potential Jobs

Something to Think About???

"Don't do anything too weird now"

Phew...the last day of May. That's weird. June is just starting and we are already hitting the 100's here in Tucson. Oh boy, its going to be a hot summer. That is something I'm not looking forward to. But what can you do? I'm really hoping that I will be getting out of Tucson before the serious summer starts. That would just be miserable. But we will see what the lord has in store for me.

So this last week has been a pretty calm week. Elder Clark and I got to go on exchanges this week. It was nice to get out of my area for a while. Ummm, Church was probably the most interesting of all the week. We had our recent converts come to church again and Josh got set apart to and had the aronic priesthood conferred upon him. That was really cool because he asked me to do that. Its the first time I've done that on my mission. Very cool experience. We were all standing there in the Bishops office and Josh sat down and bishop then asked him who he would like to do it. He thinks for a moment and looks right at me and asked me to do it. I was in quite a bit of shock but I gladly accepted. Josh and Heather are really cool people and their oldest son Jackson turns 8 next month. So he will have the opportunity to be baptized into the true church of Christ. I'm so happy for them and to see the way the gospel has changed them. How exciting!!!

Don't Do Anything Too Weird Now, Elder Pierce

Ha-Ha

Also at church. I had a good conversation with this OLDER gentleman about how I'm the first red head missionary to be in the ward. He then went on to say how weird red heads are and that we are a very odd breed. haha it was very funny. He just went on and on about the weird-ness of red heads and how crazy we are. I just nodded my head and played along with him. As he walked away, these were his exact words "Don't do anything too weird now or people might get the wrong idea about the church!" hahaha it was so funny.

God is great, Sprite is good. And people are crazy.

(I got that from a song, I changed a word though haha. you country fans might be able to pick it out)

I love you all very much. Take care!

Elder Pierce

14 Months, Holy Cow!

wow....so, 14 months. Holy cow. How does time go by this fast??? Its crazy to think that 14 months ago, I entered into the missionary training center in Provo Utah. Weird.

Things are going very well. We are just doing the missionary thing. Still working with Julienne alot and making sure he is progressing and reading the book of Mormon. We are focusing alot on church and making sure he attends. If he will just come to church and remember the spirit that he felt while he was attending in Montana, he would be baptized for sure. The spirit that one feels when they attend sacrament meeting compared to the spirit on a normal occasion just doesn't compare. It is so powerful and overwhelming that one cant help but to know they are feeling something different. So that has been our focus this past week, getting our investigators to church.

So it was really quite humorous this past week. The preachers of certain Christian beliefs "prophesied" that the rapture was going to begin and the world was going to end. It was actually very interesting to hear their beliefs and why they felt this way. First, it was predicted the world would end on Saturday. Then it was specified to Saturday at 3. Then Saturday at 6. But those 2 didn't happen so they changed their mind and predicted Monday. Well all 3 of those times have passed and the world still hasn't ended. Its actually very eye opening to see and to discern the different topics of the gospel. No body knows when the world is going to end. Only our heavenly father knows. He has told us that no one will no either. So to hear them prophesy about it is quite entertaining. That is why our Loving heavenly father has given us the prophesies of what will happen when its getting close. We have the ability of knowing that we need to be prepared. The signs will be there. The signs are already starting but we know through modern revelation that more needs to happen. A LOT more. If we continue to follow the prophet and follow the commandments the Lord has given us. We will be ready. We will be waiting.

I Love you all so much. I'M so thankful for all of you. Remember all that the lord has given you and be thankful!

Love, elder Pierce