July 26th, 2010

Well hello family, how is everything going over in the 702? Everything is going great over here. I'm loving the work and things are just going so great. This week has definitely been a week of just craziness! A couple of stories for ya:


Just got home from hiking today, it was so much fun. Brother and Sister Baker took us up to a place called Catwalk, it was such a fun little hike. It felt good to get out of the heat and desert and to go up to where there are like pine trees and gentle rain and it was just great. I took a lot of pictures so I will send the camera card when I get some more pictures on it.

So it is official, you can absolutely not trust the weather around these parts. Its crazy. One minute bright blue skies, and then the next, it looks like evil is riding in on a cloud unleashing its hateful tears. With the lightning crashing and looking to hurt people. its nuts. It happened multiple times over the past couple days. One night, it rained so bad, we couldn't even get into our house. Verde Lee had been closed off due to the washes overflowing and flooding the streets. So we stayed at our mission leaders house until the rain calmed down. So we have had to call it quits multiple times throughout the week just so we can get home haha. But the lord watches over us, that's for sure.

July 19, 2010

Hello Hello Family!

I hope everyone is doing great and loving life. I don't have that much to report on this week actually. But how crazy, look how fast time flies. I have been out now for like 4 months. Well I'm one week away. Haha but seriously, i cant believe that i have been serving the lord for this long now, its actually kind of scary. When i really stop to think about it, things are just plugging right along you know. Just day by day, and things just keep on moving. The good days and the bad days, the hot days and the rainy days. The busy days and the slow days. All of them just go, one by one, day by day. WHOA, I'm freaking myself out just thinking about it.

Elder Manu & Pierce

Elder Ricks 

Being a DL, is actually alot of fun. There are a lot more responsibilities and stuff, but other than that it is fun. Being the senior companion now to, and like being in charge, its just alot different. I love my district though. In my district, there is just one other set of missionaries. Elder Ricks and Elder Manu. Both are VERY interesting characters. Elder Manu, is from Tonga and he is just a relaxed chilled out, likes to hunt things kind of guy. He actually goes home at the end of this transfer. And Elder Ricks is very eccentric and loves to talk talk talk. He is really funny though. He has been out for 20 months now. So they both have a lot of experience and stuff, and they help me out when i need it. They have a baptism coming up this Saturday, and i had to do the interview, my 1st one...and it was fun! She is an 11 year old girl and she is ready. So it was pretty easy.

So it was so funny, yesterday, me and Elder Howard were out seeing one of our investigators and we were standing on the porch with him just talking and seeing how life is going, when i looked up and asked him "so, whats your prediction on the weather?" (not a cloud in the sky) and he said "its gonna rain...hard"

Clifton, Arizona here I come!!

Clifton, Arizona

Well, hello family, So I'm sure you have heard that i have been transferred. Me and Elder Howard are opening up a new area inside the Duncan stake. We cover 1 ward and its called the Clifton ward. It is a very small area. We cover 4 different towns/communities. Clifton, Morenci, Verde Lee, and Loma Linda. There are not a lot of member in the area and there is also a very high turnover rate. Because Clifton/Morenci are a "one horse town" Over 75 percent of the entire area work at the mine that is located here. So people come and go all the time. So Me and elder Howard are doing are best to figure out who is even still here on the ward lists. And i am district leader, i wont go into details about that because i believe elder Moore mentioned all the stuff they have to do. Which is pretty crazy if you ask me. Like i cant believe I'm a DL already, even the rest of the missionaries here are like wow, 2 transfers and you a DL? so its pretty crazy.

And we are in a full car area, they gave us a brand new 2010 Chevy Malibu, which is nice but i would have rather gotten a truck, cuz we go on some pretty crazy roads that i don't think the "bu" can handle. But so far we have had a good go at it.

Well anyways, we live in the community of Verde Lee and our address is:

269 Wildlife Rd.

Clifton, AZ. 85533

"What did I just say?"

Hey family, not alot of time to write this week, We have to head up to tucson in like 10 min, president walker cleared us on playing a football game against the northwest zone, its gonna be tight!!!

That sucks to hear about what is happening with Tyler and Chase, i hope they get better and they will both be in my prayers.

Elder Pierce, Ethan and Elder Sorensen

So we had Ethans baptism two nights ago and it went really well. I gave the talk on baptism in front of everyone and it went really good. We had his friends dad (Bro. Householder)  baptize him and it went really well...or so we thought. Then Sunday roles around and Bro Householder was going to confirm him as well, but then we get a call. "hey elders, when I was baptizing Ethan I threw my back out and i cant even walk, so someone else will need to confirm him." hmmmm, so we made a quick adjustment and i confrimed him. my first one! it was kinda scary, but after we sat down, i leaned over to Elder Sorensen and asked "what did i just say?" i cant even remember it, i could feel the spirit working though me, so i guess it went good. Everyone came up and was like, that was really good and it was cool.

Well, until next week, gotta go, love ya!

Elder Pierce

June 21 & 28, 2010

Elder Pierce, Ethan & Elder Sorensen

So...sorry about the mix up last week, it wasn't my fault. I typed the long email and hit send then logged off. I didn't realize that there was an Internet problem and it decided not to send it. SO i DID hit the send button but it just didn't feel like working. So other than that how is everyone else doing? I hope everyone is doing good, Thank you all so much for the little surprise in my package, I'm working on responding, i will do it sometime this week. Well aside from that things are going great over here. Ethan, the guy who just graduated and is going into the navy, is going to be baptized this Saturday at 6 o'clock. He is going to have his best friend Eric baptize him. Eric is preparing for his mission so it should be a great experience for all of them. Then we are also working on their other friend Katie Biddle, she is not as excited but is still progressing. We are going to set her a date for this next 2 weeks, cuz she has been to church twice and is really happy when she goes, and whenever we go and teach her she never lets us leave without setting her a reading assignment. So we are working on her.

June 14, 2010

Sahuarita Zone

Self Explanitory

Hey family, this email aint gonna be to long. I was trying to figure out how to upload these pictures and i finally figured it out. So anyways. this week has been great. We definitally got a lot of work done. right now we have been teaching alot of lessons. So things are great.

I would like to share one story with you. We were having a lesson over with Ethan at the Householders. We were planning on teaching him the Plan of Salvation. it was so cool because instead of just teaching Ethan, he brought 2 of his non member friends! score. So in total, me and elder farmer (district leader-exchanges) were teaching 9 people. 5 of which were The house holders, 1 another member, and now 3 investigators...this is like a missionarys dream. To have your main solid investigator bring his friends. it was tight! anyways we were teaching the plan of salvation adn things were going great, i got to use my spongebob flow cahrt pictures and they loved it, cuz they were all 18 and it just worked perfectly. Well we teach him and it all goes great and we get to the kingdoms section and i like to do this thing when im teaching to take a vote. I was like "so by the raise of hands, who wants to live in the telestial? its a nice place"...crickets..."who wants to live in the terestial??? glory of the moon! come on its really nice"...at this time the crickets were even quite..."who wants to live in the Celestial with our heavenly father" every single one of them raised their hands. This is where i went spiritual mode. And it just happened. I told them to turn to 3rd nephi 17. And I read verse 1-3. in this section, Jesus Christ is teaching the people and he declares to them. "my time is at hand" now I asked Ethan, If Jesus Christ was sitting right here telling you everything I just told you, would you believe him.  And he said "ya of course."  Well then I explained to him, "that even when Jesus Christ was teaching his people, he told them to ask their Heaven Father."  Jesus Christ himself told them the exact thing we tell you to do. Don't take our word for it, ask your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ that this is the plan he has for you. To Live with him again." it was just so spiritual and powerful it was amazing. I had the audience in tears...along with myself. it was one of the greatest lessons I have been a part of ever. Sure enough, all of them were there at church the next day. I know that the spirit testified to each and everyone of them that the Plan of Salvation is real, it is a true plan of happiness. No other joy could ever inhabit by mind than the fact that I will be able to live with my Heavenly Father again, as long as I live worthily and return with honor. I love being a missionary. Seeing the change that Happens to people it just wonderful. I love you all so much. sorry its so short, it was the pictures fault. haha

Elder Baradoy with Anna

pictures:

1.Sahuarita zone!!!

Baptism with David & Mia

2. Self explanitory haha

3.Elder Baradoy with Anna

4. Baptism with David and Mia

June 7, 2010

HELLO everyone!!!

How is it going? it's going good over here, just doing the work you know? Things are going really good over here. The work is progressing very nicely. Things are going a little slow in 1st ward but in 3rd ward, the work is booming. We have 3 investigators we are progressing towards baptism. One of their names is Ethan. He has just graduated from high school and has joined the navy, but he went to the temple open house and had a very spiritual experience, so he talked with his friend (member) and asked if there was someone he could talk to about the church. So we have been teaching him inside a members home and things have been going great. He went to Church yesterday and said it was pretty "legit" haha. so things are looking good. we have another lesson set up with him for tomorrow and he has been reading the B.O.M! and praying about it. He is a solid guy.