Well family. 

Looks like its the last week of 2011. Last week for me to email you for the rest of the YEAR!!! WHOA!!! That it pretty crazy. But its part of life. And don't forget to make some good New Years Resolutions!

Elder Pierce, Abraham and Elder Blake

I don't have to much to report on for this last week. I know it was Christmas and everything. But things just went so good its almost to difficult to put it all into words. I will give you a rough summary of how my Christmas went. Saturday was Abraham's baptism. It was just an amazing experience. HE was so ready to accept the gospel and have it be a part of his life. And President Killpack and his family was there. Then on Saturday evening, we spent the night with our Bishop and his family. We were there for Dinner, which was steak and fondue (spelling?) it was delicious. Then we decorated cookies and then delivered them to families in the ward as we were caroling to them. It was such a great experience.

The next morning was Christmas breakfast time. We ended up waking up at 515 or so to open up presents, then sped on over to The Kriser house for breakfast and opening presents at 630. It was a lot of fun and we actually even ended up taking a nap over there which was unintentional but much needed. From there we went home and i got to call my wonderful family and so did Elder Blake. That was just great. Then 330 rolled around and it was time for church. In which Elder Blake and I were a part of the Christmas program.

After church we hitch-hiked for a ride into Sahaurita for dinner at the Ross house. Tons of fun as well. We had a sweet turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and got to spend the Christmas evening with them. Very nice people. They have a young son that has red hair just like mine was and i told him that he better get ready for the compliments the rest of his life ha ha. Because it happens. Trust me. Then Monday, we had a mission wide conference. Where every missionary got together for a Christmas brunch and socializing  with a spiritual meeting afterwards. There was also a tie exchange (the tie I got was super ugly).

IT was a very good way to spend my 2nd Christmas on my mission and the last till I come home. I'm super excited to see you all very soon. But hopefully not to soon.

Brother & Sister Kriser with Elder Pierce..
A special Thank you to this family for being so Wonderful

My new years resolution is to Finish my mission strong, All I have is 3 months, I better make them count. Whats your New Years Resolution???

Thug Love,

Elder Pierce

Merry Christmas From Elder Pierce

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

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

Officially, 18 Months....

Hello family.

So quite an eventful week we have had.

This last Saturday was a big one. The Jones family, primarily Dylan, Gracie, and Sage Jones were baptized. It was such a cool experience. The Jones family really helped me in my mission and it truly was such an awesome experience just to be able to teach them and get to know them.

Well also, I have officially been out for 18 months. Wow that is weird to even think about. I'm 3/4ths of the way there. And let me all tell you, I plan on this last 6 months to be the best ones yet. I am not going to quit, give up, or make dumb mistakes. I love being a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I intend on making him more proud than I have ever done before.

As of right now, I'm serving in Sahuarita 1st ward. If any of you remember, this is where I started my mission. 18 months ago when i was trained by Elder Baradoy. It is super weird being back in this town again. Seeing all the people I taught and baptized and to hear about the people I found that progressed, or stopped investigating. Its so cool. I have another chance to find those that I missed the first time around. I'm so thankful for the Lord for him to give me this chance.

Well, i love all of you, i look forward to emailing you on Monday this time. Take care everyone and remember who loves ya!

Elder Pierce

Sept. 18, 2011

Hello family. Its good to email you yet again. This week has been a relatively slow week unfortunately.

For 3 days of the week we got stuck inside for most of the day. We had a lot of apartment renovations that needed to be done. We had to have our carpets cleaned. We had to have the tiles all along our shower get replaced after they caved inside themselves. And then our air conditioning broke. And to top it all off. We have had some of the most intense monsoons and storms i have had on my mission. I'm talking about things like hail, flooding, not being able to drive. The whole 9 yards. It was really cool to watch but not so good to do missionary work in.

So we had a cool miracle happen to us though. We were just out and about working, doing our missionary work thing. When we get a call from a member we didnt recognize and I talked to them for a moment. Found out they were a Recent convert from Sierra Vista. We talked for a while and found out that she wanted us to go and see her mom who is now intrested in learning more about the gospel. The reason this was such a cool referral, particually for Elder Barner, is because this woman who lives in Sierra Vista, Elder Barner served in her ward and was over at her house quite frequently trying to teach and baptize her husband. So he has had a major influence in this womans life already and the life of her family. So now he will get to teach her mother as well. It was just ironic and cool how the Lord takes care of his children. And his servants. He knows what is best for all of us. He loves and cares for us.

I love you all very much.
Elder Pierce.

ps. it was super weird not being spritually uplifted by my good ol' buddy Elder Moore this week. Love ya bud. Proud of you!

Happy "21st" Birthday Elder Pierce

Hello my wonderful family. Boy it is great to be alive. It is great to be serving the Lord too. Life is just great right about now. How wonderful.

Well this week was wonderful. I had a AMAZING birthday and amazing pre-birthday (Saturday). But overall this last week was really cool.

A quick story i would like to share with you. We got a referral from an online source from Mormon.org. and we decided one night to go follow up on it. Well It turned out to be a little to late for them so we were told to go back the next day in the afternoon. So that is what we did. At first we didn't know how solid it was going to be but we had hope. And another plus is that they had BIG dogs. About 3 or 4 of them. So we prayed we wouldn't get eaten when we went back. Well we went back the next day and it turns out this family is just awesome. The mom is a member and they have tons of family friends that are members. They actually know someone who just got back from a mission as well. So we went over there and we taught a young man named Cameron, he is 17 and he was super interested. He kept saying how he just felt that something was missing in his life. That he needed a more fulfilling aspect to his life. Well that's just what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for! haha.

So he loved everything we were telling him. He accepted every commitment we left him and we are meeting with him again on Thursday. He is really cool. Elder Barner and I bonded with him really well. Everything i didn't know much about (cards, magic, things like that) Elder Barner knew about. Then things like football, sports, video games i could connect with. It was just really cool to see how much the Lord truly does know his children. His missionaries and those trying to find him. He knows us all equally and individually.

I love you so much family.

Love Elder Pierce

Bad News

Hello family. Bad News. I was working on my email to send to you guys, but I accidentally hit discard instead of send. So, this will now serve as the email I was going to send to you.

I will briefly sum up the past week in a few sentences.

The past week has served Elder Barner and I with much success. We have been able to find and teach many new people and invite them to enter the waters of Baptism.
Our Best progressing investigator attended church with us on Sunday and she has, because of attending church, become that much more excited about being baptized. She has fears of being the "outcast" when it came to church, or being the new person that no-one knew. She is doing great!

Then during that same day at church. A man and a woman approached me and informed me that they were new and needed to be taught missionary lessons. THAT was really cool. They both wanted to be baptized. It was sweet.
Well my hour is up. Talk to you next week!

Love, Elder Pierce

Aug. 30, 2011

Well hello my wonderful family.

I wanted to email you this week to let you know that things are going very well down here in the Valencia ward. Or the south Tucson area. Im excited to be with Elder Barner for another transfer, He and I have been getting along pretty well. Our opposite personalities work pretty well together I guess. There are things we are still working on together but we are getting there.

This week we had a pretty cool experience. We have been working with this one less active family pretty recently. We had the father go out on exchanges with us twice now and we have had dinner over there once. They have come to church 3 times now. Well this last time on exchanges we were finishing up with the night and he begins to tell us how he has met with the Bishop and was talking about them going to church again. Then he told us how his son is now  9 years old and he wants us to start meeting with his 3 kids to teach them the lessons. His younger two are twins that are going to now get baptized at the same time as their older brother. Now I know finding a 9 year old kid to baptize is not a huge miracle. The real miracle is that now this family will have the opportunity to work their way towards the temple. To be a family forever. That is the true miracle of the gospel. Why the plan of salvation was crafted through the loving hands of our father in heaven. Why we can all have this opportunity to find our way back home. To the home that is waiting for us.

I love you all very much. I hope you have had an amazing week. Talk to you soon!

Elder Pierce

Semi-Eventful week

So family. This week has been a semi-eventful week. 
Im just going to start with the best news and then that is probably all I will share. 
On Friday, we went over to visit with Hans. And we talked with him for a good amount of time about his baptism. We were talking and we were setting up everything. We were setting up what everyone would do...for example, people to say the prayer, songs, and talks. Well I asked him who he wanted to baptize him and he looked at me and said "well you were the first one to bring me into the gospel so I want you to do it.". It was such a cool feeling to have such an impact on someones life. He truly has made such a change. 
Well Saturday rolled around and we were preparing and setting up the chairs and getting ready and Hans came and he showed up with 2 of his best friends. They were not very interested at first, but once everything started happening they seemed like nothing could distract them. It was really cool. We are going to contact Hans and try to meet up with them again. 
Also, Julian was able to show up to the baptism and he had a great expierence. Im not sure if I mentioned the struggles he was going through but he really didnt want to even talk about church. Well he showed up to the baptism and I talked to him afterwards and he said "you know, I think I'm ready, I want to be baptized." So we set up a time for him to be baptized. It was just such an awesome experience. 
Well I have to go. Time is short.
I love you all very much. 
Elder Pierce

G-Ma, This One if For You...I Love you!

In Loving Memory
Mary Wharram
Dec. 10, 1942 - Aug. 11, 2011

Hey family. 
Gma-tron. This one is for you. I know you have left us from this earthy time. Your passing will be remembered and we will remorse. But oh what great joy we can receive from knowing where you are going.  What love our Heavenly Father has for us. So you may be gone from us here on earth but we know you are in a better place. A place where you can learn and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. The love our Savior Jesus Christ has for us overcomes all that we endure in life and in the life after this. Gma. I love you so much. I love who you are and all the times we had together. I love all the crazy stories you would always tell of me and my sisters growing up. I love being your favorite grandson. I love you. You will always be remembered. 
The rest of my family. Always remember what Jesus Christ has done for us. For every single one of us, he suffered and died so we can return back to our Heavenly home. Through his atonement and sacrifice we can be happy. We can be with the ones we love. The ones we care about. These blessings and this happiness is only available because of our savior. Always remember that. 

Well this week has been quite a fun one. We have been through a rough patch in finding some new investigators. We are taking a new approach in finding. The investigators we had are no bueno. So we are starting fresh (besides Hans, he is doing great). But We are going to be picking up a brand new batch of people to teach and bring to church and eventually baptize. Its just what we do haha. Its what i would call my specialty. 
Like i said, Hans is doing really well. We are meeting with him this next Tuesday to set up and get his baptism set up. He has made a great change in his life. To willingly follow the Savior and to keep his commandments. Its great to see. 
I hope all is going well back on the home front. Remember i love you all very much. 
Gma. Again, I love you.
Elder Pierce

Aug 10, 2011

Hello Family.

Sorry I missed emailing you this last Monday but I just wanted to send this email out really quickly giving you an update of my week. Things have been going very well recently. Its been an exciting yet dull week. It has been raining here a lot. We get pretty wet from time to time if we get caught out in the rain and we are not by our car. It keeps things exciting though. I love the weather that we have been having here lately. Besides it being really hot. That's just never fun. We played football this last Monday and that was a blast. WE lost unfortunately but we kept our heads up and played a tough game. I scored half our teams points so I'm not too terribly upset about losing haha. Anyways. Our investigators are doing well. The closest one we have that is approaching baptism is Hans, he is a stud. He came to church this last Sunday and loved it. So the work will continue to press forward.

Well I have to run. We got people to teach. I Love you all.

Elder Pierce

Less than 8 months to go...

My wonderful Family. 
Its so great to be emailing you again. Another week has passed and July is coming to a close. August is just around the river bend. 
To start off this email. I wanted to share with you a realization I had when I was walking around with Elder Barner. I have discovered that it is incredibly difficult to look tough while carrying around Toilet paper. You should try it sometime. Its hard. 
Well this week has been good. Its had its ups and downs. But every week does. 
The Baptism of Dylan and Sabrina Pearson went great. They are such awesome kids. We barely had to do anything to set up the baptism. Our ward mission leader and the kids parents pretty much did everything. They got the programs ready, they filled the font, they invited everyone, and they even brought cookies. So we pretty much just had to show up haha. It was wonderful. 
Some other recent developments with some of our other investigators, Julian is back. We have been teaching him and helping him get back onto the strait and narrow. So that is going good. He has been really trying to get back to where he needs to be. HE really is a great guy, he has just been struggling a little bit. Then with another one of our investigators. She is really just ruffling my feathers. We have set up numerous rides for her to go to church, even stopped by her house to make sure she was awake and ready. And she has just been blowing of our rides. Which is really causing some member trust issues and Just all around frustration. She has accepted the commitment to be baptized she just wont follow through and keep those commitments of coming to church and reading from the book of Mormon. Man its just grinding my gears haha. But aside from that. We are having alot of success here in our part of the vineyard. 
The Lord is truly blessing us these past few days. I have been doing a lot of studying through the Book of Mormon and The D&C. I have been learning a lot from the Scriptures. If there has been one thing I have learned already from Elder Barner its how to study the scriptures effectively. He has a serious study habit and reads like all the time. Its actually pretty remarkable how long he can sit there and study. After like an hour I feel like I need to get up and run around or something. But truly being able to sit there and just study and ponder has helped me a lot and has helped my testimony grow more and more. 
Well family, I love you all very much. Less than 8 months to go...that's crazy. 
Love, Elder Pierce

July 19, 2011

Hello family!
So to begin, I must start off by apologizing about not sending an email last week because in reality, I did send you an email. But this wonderful account decided to one, not send it. And 2, delete it. So awesome. But no worries, all is well. I will just have to make this email good I guess. 
These past 2 weeks have been certainly eventful. The biggest news to start off with Dylan and Sabrina. Those kids are just amazing! They are so ready and excited about getting baptized. It is unfortunate that elder Thatcher got transferred before their baptisms but it happens to the best of us. So they will be getting baptized this Saturday. Their dad will be baptizing them. I am really looking forward to it. It seems like its been awhile since I had a baptism so I needed to feel that spirit again. It helps alot. When you feel someone grow closer to their savior, they have a new "way" about them. They realized what is truly important in this life and they thrive from it. They grow and enhance their lives from the Saviors Atonement and grace. Through the true and everlasting gospel, their lives are changed! When you help someone make that change in their lives you too are changed. You feel the love of our Savior more abundantly in your life. That feeling just makes all of this worth it. All of this work and sweat, and sore feet and exhaustion is all worth it. 
We also have another investigator named Hans. He is legit. Such a cool guy. He is in his 40's an he is livin the life haha. He is a stud. Super interested in the gospel. We also found out out he is a stand-up comedian. He is hilarious. He was crackin all these jokes as we were trying to teach him haha. Super improv. He reminds me of Joey from "Friends" haha. 
Well here, I am, sitting here, brainstorming with Elder Page and Elder Hill wondering what else to say in this email. 
AHH, I know. This last Sunday, One of our investigators, Armando, showed up to church. That was just dandy. 
Well I love you all so much.
Elder Pierce

July 18, 2011

hey mom, just on real quick to let you know im not getting transfered, but Elder Thatcher is. My new companion is named Elder Barner... I will be on tomorrow and sorry about last week, the email decided not to send but to delete. I cant find it anywhere!!! sorry! I will send a rough summary of what happened 2 weeks ago tomorrow. mUch love

Elder Pierce

I'm becoming a Celebrity

By the way, one of the first things I talked about with Sister Killpack was...my blog haha. she said that when you type in "Arizona Tucson Mission" my name pops up with my blog haha. How cool! So some of the first things they learned about the mission, was about me!  I thought that was hilarious. I'm becoming a celebrity. 

July 5, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!!!!

Well we have our new mission president here now. President killpack. He seems nice. We should get to meet him tomorrow. We have a baptismal interview set up for an investigator so should be good. We might have a baptism on Saturday, maybe. She is waiting to see what happens with her boyfriend that is in jail. He wants to be baptized as well. So that is exciting. But they live together and have 3 kids but are not married. So that will be a fun obstacle to overcome.

It's been raining here. monsoon season is beginning, I'm super excited about that. We had our "independence bowl" yesterday. 1 big game of football between our zone and the west zone. I don't think I even have to say who won...but we did haha. On my mission I have only lost 1 game of football out of like 7. I think that's pretty good odds. haha. 6-1. pro status. All I do is win-win-win hahaha. But don't worry I'm still humble. Me and Elder Thatcher are getting along very well here. He is weird, I am weird. SO it all works out. haha.

We had a fun encounter with another drunk man the other day. We were out walking in the heat and we were by some apartments and we heard this guy just yelling and cussing and screaming profanities so we though we were going to witness a fight or something. But when we got closer it was just a guy sitting on his porch, eyes closed cussing and yelling haha. it was very funny. We tried walking by undetected but he noticed us and tried talking to us but we were in a hurry so we kept walking, As we were walking away, he was like "HEY! i love you guys" ahaha we expressed our love back to him and kept walking. It was pretty funny haha.

I Love you all.
ELder Pierce

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

"Finally you guys are here. Get in here!"

Hello family!!! how are you doing??? I miss you all very much. Man, what to write about this week. we had some good stuff happen.

One short miracle we saw  was when we were walking around on "Nevada St" and we were trying to see a referral that the Spanish missionaries gave us. She has a baptismal date for the 4th of June. She is a very nice lady.

But anyways, we were walking around and we were reminiscing on the things the Spanish Elders gave us and they informed us that they had contacted a guy that lived across the street that was somewhat interested and they were trying to get a hold of him to give him a Book of Mormon. So we figured "what the heck, lets give him a try" so we did. He opened the door and in his own words he said "Finally you guys are here. Get in here!" ummmm OK! haha So we went inside he offered us something to drink and we sat down and he was like "alright, lets hear it!" So we started teaching him right there. 5 minutes into the lesson, his girlfriend walks in the door and she was a little shocked at first but she sat right down and started asking a bunch of questions. They were really cool people. We are going back this Tuesday to teach them again and follow up on their reading. It was super awesome.

Hmmm, other than that, things have been pretty quiet lately. We are just doing our thing over here in the southern Tucson! I am starting to get more comfortable with the ward here and the people here. I'm learning a bit more Spanish as well! so that's pretty cool I guess.

Well family, I hope all is well with you and with life. I love you all very much and cant wait to hear from you all!

Elder Pierce

 

"The Aaronic Priesthood turns boys into men. The Melchizedek Priesthood turns men into Disciples of Christ."