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